Warmachine & Hordes

I am a long time 40k and Fantasy gamer and have played countless games and tournaments with the Games Workshop products. Several years ago, I tried to get my gaming group into a new game called Warmachine. None of them wanted anything to do with it.

My gaming group was quite large at the time, we had about 12 members, with a solid 8 or 9 showing up on a regular basis (we met every other Saturday), so I did what any good gaming group leader would do in a situation like that, I tried my hardest to get everything into the game. :)  I contacted Privateer Press and arranged for a Press Ganger to come to my next gaming group session to demo the game.

Now, keep in mind that at this point in time, our gaming group was about 80% Warhammer/40k and 20% Board Games (like Axis and Allies or Risk), so Warmachine wasn't something they were too keen on, but I had high hopes for the game and the demo went quite well.

Several members showed some interest, and a few even bought starter sets, but things just didn't take off and we only briefly tried the game out before going back to 40k and Fantasy full speed.

As the months went on, I noticed the miniature games started to slack off a big and the board games pick back up. We eventually became more of a 80% board game group and 20% miniatures group. The main reason for this was people were starting to get a bad taste in their mouth with Games Workshop. Prices were raised two times that year, the local gaming store closed (making the trek to pickup new minis and meet new players over an hour away), and by the end of that year, the die hard Games Workshop members stopped showing up, and the gaming group turned into a full time board game group.

But those are all different stories that I will add to this blog as time goes on, back to my main point - Warmachine & Hordes.

This brings us up to the beginning of 2008, right after I first started this blog, and right around the time I was moving. My best gaming buddy Wil told me that some of the group members were starting to get into Warmachine. In fact, a new gaming store just opened in town (at this point it was nearly 2 years our local area had gone without a gaming store). I was happy to hear this news, but at the same time quite a bit disappointed that I was moving. (Well, not disappointed I was moving, more in that I would miss out on the Warmachine gaming).

I tried to visit the new gaming store three times before moving, just to stop by and check it out and see where my old group would be playing. Those bastards screwed me three times!!! Remember, gas was going for about $3.60 a gallon about now, and this store was a good 20 mile drive one way, so my wife was getting pissed. The first time I went and they were closed. Ok, my bad, I didn't know... so I wrote down the hours. The second time I went they had closed early (I later found out it was a slow day and they all took off), not my fault... now the third time I went, it was quite hot out (Florida summer) and I had even called ahead to confirm they'd be open and guess what? CLOSED! A sign on the door read "AC is broke, too hot inside!".

Anyhow, enough venting on this... long story short, I never got to see the inside of the dang gaming store (Wil, when you read this, please send me some pics!)...  Well, once again I got side tracked, so back to Warmachine! :)

I had two sample armies from Privateer Press. One was Cygnar and the other was the Protectorate. The were both professionally painted armies that Privateer Press had provided me for my demos (they were not 'armies' so much as the starter sets, assembled and painted). The night before we moved across country Wil stopped by and I gave him the prepainted minis, as well as my Warmachine book (the original Prime)... we played a game that night, along with my oldest son Brandon (he was 13 at the time). It had been 2 years or more since I had played Warmachine, but it was nice to get in a game with Wil and Warmachine was a blast. Brandon and I both had fun. I can't recall who won, but I do remember we were sitting on the floor, playing on a large packing box I draped a blanket over (yeah, we are die hard gamers). 

So then we moved, and I've had an itching to play Warmachine for a solid year now... Wil would sometimes email and update me on the leagues he plays at the gaming store I never saw, and how much fun he was having. Sometimes winning a lot, other times on a losing streak, but all in all it was a nice set of reports.

To top this off, my monthly trips into town have also got me itching to play. Just some background, I live a good hour away from Bozeman, and I am in the middle of nowhere. a Search on Board Game Geek revealed 1 gamer who was 58 miles away from me... So when I go to Bozeman (usually a once per month trip for food) I have been stopping into the local gaming store (Rooks), I usually don't have a lot of time, but I have caught some Warmachine/Hordes players in there having a blast... and their calendar does feature regular Warmachines games. 

Just last week I was in there on a Friday and noticed they had a big Warmachine/Hordes tournament that night, had I known I would have gone later than I did to check it out a bit.

So all of this had got me thinking... why can't you play Warmachine over the phone or internet? We could use the 1" battlegrids and just round up the measurements for movement and keep it more on the simple side...  So I talked to Wil and he sure was up for trying.

So that brings me to where I am now... thinking of what to do and what to get to start up on Warmachine. I can play it with my oldest son, so I only have 1 physical player, but I could get a game or two in once in awhile when I travel to the gaming store in Bozeman (over an hour one way). Plus my second oldest son is doing well with HeroScape and other similar games, so I think a simplification of the rules would probably allow him to join in a bit as well.

Warmachine is on!

This is the stock image from Privateer Press of the Protectorate army, the minis I had were very similar to this, with maybe slightly lesse detail. These are the figures I gave to Wil. Same with the Cygnar army below (from the starter set), the demo minis were almost as nice as these. My friend Wil not battles with them on a regular basis. :)