Convergence of Cyriss - Warmachine

New Warmachine faction on the horizon - the Convergence of Cyriss.  Art-Deco, Clockwork robots, lots of metal to paint and some new mechanics thrown in.  No mention of how and where the fit into the Warmachine universe, but I'm sure find out more soon.

Initial thoughts? Mostly positive, like the look of the new warjacks, but not entirely sold on the paintjob (but that may be because I hate using metallic paint.)  Also, gamers are going to shorten the faction name to CoC.  Hmmm.

It's good to see PP not resting on their laurels and continuing to expand their game base, but, obviously, I'd have preferred a fifth Hordes faction before a sixth Warmachine.

Iron Kingdoms RPG Preview

Privateer Press have ratcheting up the previews of the new edition of their Iron Kingdoms RPG.  Or, to give it the full title, Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy Roleplaying Game.

After last weeks preview of the table of contents (seriously, not a preview of the contents, a preview of the table of contents!?!) they have released an edited summary of character creation.

After a quick read through, I'm quite looking forward to the actual release.  Not having played the original edition, I don't know how much PP have changed for the new edition, but the new stat arrangement looks straightforward enough, especially to anyone who plays Warmachine or Hordes.

Given the choice, I'd have preferred to see a selection of sample characters, but I can understand that PP are still drip feeding info out at this point.  Looks like yet another purchase down the line.

Still alive and kicking...

Wow, just where did the last two weeks go?  As usual, the real world has no consideration of my toy soldiers!

The only thing I've painted recently is a test base for a new Fallschirmjager army.  I'm quite happy with how the camouflage has turned out, but I think it needs to be a bit simpler with slightly bolder colours.  Taking photographs is still proving troublesome in the house.  Not enough direct daylight and some yellow lamp bulbs mean you get pictures like the two above and below.

Unusually for Aberdeen, I was able to pick up some nerd-related products while shopping with the Mrs.  A local shop (not one I particularly like though) had the new Hordes book, Dominion and the latest No Quarter magazine.

I've had no more than a brief look through each, but Dominion looks to be quite a good buy.  Skorne and Everblight are my Hordes armies of choice and both have some great new goodies.

Lastly, I'm still looking for a new project to get my teeth into.  There's enough sci-fi kicking around this blog, so I really fancy something historical for a change.  Despite looking through a lot of rulebooks and a heap of websites, I still can't settle on anything, not even what scale or time period to use!

Warlord, Hordes and Spartan news

The biggest nerd news of the last couple weeks is Warlord Games announcement of a new set of WWII rules.

Not the biggest shock in the world, especially with Warlords vast Bolt Action range of miniatures.  Perhaps the most surprising thing about the release is their decision to join with another company to produce the rules.  After the success's of Black Powder and Hail Caesar, Warlord must have been tempted to try this alone.


However, the joint venture with Osprey really makes these rules a great prospect.  Now I'm assuming that as Osprey will be publishing, the books will follow their Field of Glory/Renaissance/Force on Force template of a hardback rulebook and smaller, softback supplements.  This format is something Osprey have become very proficient in; each release since the original FoG rulebook has improved on the previous one.


The books will presumably have access to the vast library of images and artwork from Osprey's back catalogue which can only be a good thing.  Lastly, in my opinion, Osprey have never been a company to take the piss with the amount and frequency of supplements they print.  So hopefully we won't see an endless stream of unnecessary supplement books simply to generate £$£ (I'm looking at you Flames of War!)


Meanwhile, Privateer Press are busy preparing us for the next Hordes book, Domination, with two new Epic Warlocks, Vayl and Hexeris:

Vayl, Consul of Everblight

Lord Arbiter Hexeris 

Massive improvements on the original, Primal sculpts.  Considering all the movement phase shenanigans she gets upto, Vayl always looked surprisingly static.  Here there's much more fluidity and dynamism to her.  Hexeris looks suitably malevolent, but I think he could have been given a little more variety compared to the original. 


Now what we really need to see are the Hordes Battle Engines (the Circle Celestial Fulcrum looks a bit meh to me.)


Spartan Games have posted up some images of their upcoming Capital Class flyers for Dystopian Wars:

Kingdom of Britannia Eagle Class War Rotor

Initially, I thought this looked a bit of a mess; the hull looked too bulky and the propellers seem pathetically tiny.  However, after looking at it for a little longer, the Eagle does grow on you.  It has a certain "plucky British gumption overpowers the laws of physics" feel to it; bloated, ungainly. . . armed to the teeth!

Empire of the Blazing Sun Tsukuyomi War Gyro

This guy looks the place though, kind of an amalgam of the Nakatsu Cruiser and the Inari Scout Gyro.  It also has plenty of character with all those gyros and turrets.  Certainly looking forward to seeing this in the flesh (resin.)


And also from Spartan are the first of their new sculpts for Uncharted Seas: 

Human Condor Flagship

Great looking new design there, very "Age of Sail" - I'd love to see how this would look with some rigging and webbing.  I've never been that interested in Uncharted Seas, but with all the resculpts being released, I might have a closer look.  Considering it's one of the cheapest games out there to get into, that shouldn't be too hard.


So there we go, some news from the last couple weeks and a few comments.  Love to know what everyone else thinks. . .

Catching up on the news. . . Warmachine

With the decorating nearing completion, breathing room in the house is still at a minimum. At least I've been able to actually get back on the computer and catch up with what's been happening in the gaming world.


The biggest announcement I've seen in a while is Privateer press seeing fit to release a starter set for Warmachine.  This "Two-player Battle Box" has a lot in common with the starter sets of another certain miniatures company in that a) it includes a mini-rulebook, b) it has pretty much everything needed to start playing, and c) it looks an absolute fracking bargain!


What really surprises me about the set is the apparent RRP in pounds sterling.  It's $100 and normally that equates to a £79.99 in the UK (Ref: the large Fantasy Flight box games,) with the usual 10% online discount taking it to £71.99.  


Maelstrom are the only company I can see accepting pre-orders for the set, but their RRP is £69.99!  With the 10% off discount, they're charging £62.95 - with free postage!!!  Whatever way you look at it, that is a bargain.


Besides the rulebooks, you're getting basically two faction battle boxes (Menoth getting a different 'jack though) with an additional unit each - plastic Man'o'War and Cinerators (Khador players will be happier here!)  I think the Protectorate of Menoth force is 21 points while Khador comes in at 20 points. Throw in another unit or a couple solos and you have a standard 25 point army.


I am slightly surprised that both forces have medium based, multi wound units.  Providing one force with a small based unit and a solo choice would have put every unit type (baring cavalry) in the starter box.  Also, I noticed the product description doesn't make it clear if there are templates in the box, or just a ruler - two jacks and both casters use AOEs and the Repenter uses the spray template.  Still if that's the worst thing about the box set, PP are onto a winner here surely.


It's good to see that two large companies are able to learn from (White Dwarf finally including rules/profile previews like No Quarter) and improving upon each other (Island of Blood; great box set, absolutely useless as a starter set.)

Speaking of GW, rumours of the 40K 6th edition box set have started to surface - two boxes, each with one complete army Dark Angels or Chaos,) terrain and rulebook.  This sounds plausible, and is an obvious step for GW to counter the amount of components that appear on eBay following each release.


I'll be interested to see how the Warmachine box sells and if it affects the overall number of players.  Both Island of Blood and Assault on Black Reach sold by the bucket load, but GW still has a falling player base.  


Regardless, this is definitely a day one purchase for me!