Hey Guys,

Myself and Chris have been feeling a little 40K'd out after the throne of skulls tournament and whilst looking at different makers of paints for Chris's Dark Eldar we found ourselves on the Privateer Press website. They're an American company which are best known for producing the Warmachine and Hordes games. Having seen some of the miniatures while trawling the internet I suggested we take a look at some of them on the galleries....they are awesome! so much detail and character they really remind me of the stuff GW was producing back in the mid nineties when they were more about making models and games than making money!!
Anyway after spending at least an hour looking through the website we came across the clincher.... I don't know about you but starting a new army is daunting let alone starting a whole new system. Taking 40K as an example you need the rule book £35.00, a codex of your choice £17.50, and if you want to play at a decent level 1500 points which is around £150-£300 depending on the army, now this is a worse case scenario but its exactly what put me off doing a fantasy army.
Now the Privateer press games are a little different,for a start they are classed as skirmish games so in a standard sized battle you are looking at having between 10 & 30 models on the table maximum,. for each faction they do a starter box set for £30.00 which gives you 15 points worth of units (the average points cost for a battle is 50 points, doesn't sound a lot for those of us used to 1500 point games) to start playing against each other and learning the rules with...because a basic rule set is supplied in the box sets too!! So for a grand total of £30.00 your off & running!! The game is also played on a 4' X 4' board with minimal scenery, much more suited to playing in my flat.

Me, Chris and Jon are heading off to Darksphere in a couple of weekends time to have a chat with one of the guys from Privateer Press and to pick up our starter boxes, I'm going with the Trollbloods from the Hordes range,
Chris is either looking at the Cryx or the Protectorate of Menoth from Warmachine and Jon is also thinking about a Warmachine faction, Khador (we're not looking to move on from 40K but instead to play something a little different, so don't worry you guys can still kick my arse on a weekly basis ).

If anyone's ever played either of these games before let us know what you think or if what I've written sounds interesting to you check out the links below. I'm going to updating this topic as we go and hopefully some of you guys from the club will be inspired to join us?

http://privateerpress.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warmachine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hordes_%28war_game%29

Next post I'll be looking at the rules and game mechanic which is pretty different to 40K

I have a small Khador force, although I've yet to play the game. Privateer Press do fully support people playing using VASSAL though, which is nice.

I was convinced by Khador after seeing two particular models - the Extreme Juggernaut and Karchev the Terrible.

(Wow, just totalled up everything I have. Once I get all of my Jacks built, I will have around 70 points!)

I've converted the extreme juggernaut a little so I can count him as Beast 09.

Both Hordes and warmachine are awesome games. We've played a fair bit of the previous system and are just getting into the new ruleset. The concept of resource control is integral to the game and the different model options lead to so many different strategies and tactical set ups that the game is always kept interesting. Model quality is fantastic and their replacement system for any faulty and mis cast pieces is second to none. I collect the trollbloods myself and love the paints - they're high quality pigments with a good base and last longer than citadel paints too. Here's a couple of links to my painting threads on Khador for Warmachine and Trollbloods for Hordes:
Hernes Warmachine thread
Hernes Trollbloods thread

I'm really interested in the paints top, the brightness of the colours looks fantastic & I'm intrigued by the slower drying times which allow blending on the model. Also the fact they sell a pack for each of the factions giving you all the basic colours you need means all be picking up some for my trollbloods!!

I'm really excited about the synergy aspect of the game, how different units & powers combine to produce interesting strategies.

Really looking forward to starting this....

Let me know when your off to Dark Sphere as I've wanted for quite a while to give the game a go and Ill join you if I can. The only thing that has put me off tho is the models, not a big fan of them for the reason Andy said; they look like stuff from the mid 90's. Having said that after looking at the PP website I wouldn't mind painting up a warjack from the Cryx range as they look quite cool.

was gonna say pretty much the same as herne.. I've had to contact them about missing parts etc and the way they dealt with it was amazing. The paints are really good im not sure if the drying time is much longer but pp do do a drying retarder iirc.. I tend to only use pp or vgc these days both are better than citadel imo..
I'd probably say start with warmachine starter boxes and go from there as focus is a bit easier to deal with than rage when starting out and mixing the 2 systems when learning can be confusing..
The sculpts are pretty good, i wouldnt say they are as good as gw but they are gettin there..
The only bad things i have to say are i really really hate the plastic they use they'd have been so much better using same stuff as gw and the other thing is sometimes you only have 3 differant poses in 10 man infantry units i know gw do it too but it still annoys me

hi all, just wondering how your getting on with warmachine? I've stumbled across it via this post and am keen to play something other than warhammer so am looking at warmachine / hordes - anyway just after your thoughts from getting those initial starter packs? so hows it gone.

sam

the starter packs are a great way to start and have some great replay value. the warmachine ones are resin and hordes metal, if you go hordes you'll need to pin and greenstuff everything.. warmachine isnt too bad since they switched to resin plastic (I didnt realise it was resin till after I'd filed my mini's which I was a bit annoyed by as im sure it said plastic on the box)
Hordes ones can be tricky to get hold of I'd recommend ebay as unless specified listings have to be from stock.. Maelstrom dont stock them and I've had bad experiences with wayland and dark sphere, especially dark spheres customer service which is appalling.
unlike 40k you dont need to buy the 'codex' as you get each mini's rules with the mini the only advantage of the army book is you get to see the rules before buying the mini... not too big an issue imo when your starting out..
not sure what else to say..
oh dont buy both hordes and warmachines rule books as they are virtually identical.

Hiall, thought I;'d bump this back up. After seeing the release videos for Warmachine COLOSSALS I've got renewed interest in some warmachine gaming. anyone interested in playing some games down the club? Sam

I am happy to give it a go - although I only have a Khador starter (11 points)

Sounds good. Give me a week or 2 to get the models I want together and gain a rough understanding of the rules and we can sort a game out. Thinking of starting with cygnar because of the cyclon, 2 guns for the win.

Fancy arranging that warmachine game for the 5th? Sam