The Hordes Primal Preview Pops Up From Privateer Press
April 27, 2016 by brennon
A preview of Hordes: Primal has popped up explaining what's going to be inside the pages of this new tome from Privateer Press. Take a look at the impressive cover too...
"Beyond the industrialized world, formidable factions harness the power of magic, nature, and the unnatural to vie for domination of their realms. Battle in this wilderness is waged by potent warlocks, arcane warriors who wield the savage power of their warbeasts.
Their consciousness magically linked, a warlock and a horde of warbeasts possess the power of a small army. When leading an army, they are more than a match for the mightiest forces of the Iron Kingdoms."
Inside you get...
- Complete core rules for the game, packed with examples to illustrate key concepts.
- In-depth histories of the wild tribes and organizations of the Iron Kingdoms and the conflicts that have shaped them, from the stalwart Trollblood kriels and the enigmatic druids of the Circle Orboros to the dragon worshipers of the Legion of Everblight.
- A selection of detailed army profiles and game stats for the powerful characters, warbeasts, and soldiers to help you muster a customized army for combat.
- An instructional painting and hobby guide that will show you how to bring both your miniatures and your tabletop battlefield to life.
- A summary of the rules for WARMACHINE, the fully compatible companion game that shows the steam-powered side of the Iron Kingdoms.
Not bad right? I can see people really enjoying this change in the rules with plenty of new options for beginners.
What do you think?
"I can see people really enjoying this change in the rules with plenty of new options for beginners..."
I have mixed feelings about this Mk.3 release- I love the setting for Warmahordes, the minis and the factions; and the rules are very interesting- it’s just that for some reason it brings out the worst kind of competitiveness in a couple of the guys from my gaming group (they are brothers, to be fair…) so we had to stop playing to preserve the peace, which is a real shame! 🙁
I’ve always wanted a Gatorman force- I’m still thinking of getting some and using them in Dragon Rampant…
There’s a guy like that at my flgs. The key is to not play them. If they ask literally just say, “nah, I’m waiting to play X” or “I’m not quite ready to get in a game”.
The best players in the group can still play them for the challenge involved, but nobody should feel obliged to play That Guy. Eventually they’ll either leave, or finally get it into their heads that acting like a douche isn’t a good thing.
It has felt for a while that the rules were starting to get a bit bloated and there was an element of power creep, although some of that is due to some units / casters / jacks just being the best in slot (for want of a better term) and attempts being made to shift that. I’m not sure it was ever great design where you’d have a faction that had a trait that allowed you to ignore a bunch of rules, for example Eyeless Sight. Thematically it might make sense, but I don’t see how you can balance things… Read more »
We had a guy like that here. Bad news is, he was the local Press Ganger. He used to give his wife tactical advice during games, up to the point of walking his wife through kicking my a$$ during a tournament. I should have filed a complaint with Privateer Press, but I just quit the hobby in disgust.
Fun part is, he’s now banned from the stores here and there’s a new Press Ganger around who’s somebody I know and respect. So I’m looking at getting back into Warmahordes.
@jonhay, you are not the only person that has witnessed what you describe. For some reason the exclusivity made by having a boat load of rules for every model has fed into the worst type of elitist competitiveness you can find in a game. I kid you not, I have seen adults fight in an establishment over the rules! Thank God they were banned as it did remind some to be polite once again.
I am so excited about this.
I’m looking forward to it. I believe Warmachine/Hordes Mk3 will be an overall improved game–though that doesn’t mean there won’t be some changes I’m somewhat unhappy with–such as the nerf to the Choir of Menoth. We havn’t seen the whole picture yet–just little peeks. I’m conservatively optimistic though =)
I have an archangel, purely to paint because its such an amazing model, never played the game.
I think the new starters look like much better value than the old ones, so I may get the everblight one and something else and give this ago with friends.
Looking forward to Mk3 as I’ve 150pts Khador, 50pts Orboros and 35pts Troll bloods, all fully painted that I’ve never really used, this new beginning may be a good entry point for me.
My main concern is that the Rulebooks are over double the price of the MK2 ones, I’m hoping this is due to a significant amount more content (though the mk2 books were pretty big so this may be unlikely) and not due simply to an arbitrary price increase
It’s ok, actual rules are going to free downloads from 12th June I believe. If you already have mk2 books and don’t need the fluff just download them and buy new unit cards/war-room cards.
A few nice things here that I didn’t notice before. First, that the Warmachine rules are included in the Hordes book, and vice versa. When they say Summary, I’m hoping it’s at least enough of a summary that I don’t need to buy both books. Warmachine and Hordes should really be the same game by now, in my opinion. I get that they have different books because the armies and units are different, but all of the core rules should be available in the same place. There’s really only a handful of changes between the two, and having to buy… Read more »
Are you sure that the cards go out of print? I figured I’d up date my forces one at a time.
As for the book- I expect the WM “Quick Start” rules to be included. And the Quick Start rules cover everything that warcasters and warjacks do (including all the power attacks).
So, you won’t need both books (even though they’ll be free PDFs).
I’m definitely not sure. I really hope they stay in print, but I understand that logistically, it ceases making much sense for the company to print the card decks because they figure everyone who wants to upgrade has already done so, and new players would be getting only new cards in their boxes.
I’m going off my experience with Malifaux and Mk. 2 Warmachine, where I picked up some older, Mk. 1 models in out of the way gaming stores, and was unable to get updated cards for them, either as singles or in a faction deck.
When I’ve played Warmachine it’s always felt an exercise in accounting as if I’m really just playing a spreadsheet. When people talk about ‘balance’ that’s what they mean: gaming for advantage, playing every rule to exploit it. The more restrictive the rules, the easier that becomes and the harder it is to immerse yourself in the fiction of the models and the conflict. However, that’s Warmachine’s niche – the ultra competitive games market. This is why people don’t like Age of Sigmar – it’s straightforward and such players dislike the difficulty inherent in accounting gaming. For 3rd edition, it would… Read more »
As someone who’s played Warmachine since Mk. 1, and has been playing a ton of Malifaux recently, I’m genuinely curious to know how you feel like Malifaux is more narrative and less accounting than Warmachine. I agree that the player base of Warmachine tends to ignore the narrative in preference for the gameplay, but Warmachine has just as much fluff and story as Malifaux; in terms of words on the page. However, I’m finding that while Malifaux models have more “fluffy” rules, this leads to the condition where almost every unit has completely unique attacks, abilities, and skills. Which is… Read more »
I have to agree. As someone that plays Warmachine and Hordes, and also runs the Iron Kingdoms RPG, the setting has tons of setting material, and where the RPG offers a very different view of the setting compared to the titanic battles of the wargames. As for rules, I would not say that the game is just a spread sheet. It could never be so since there is the element of chance. Of course some units are better counters to others, and there are bad matchups, but that is the same of any game. If anything PP is doing the… Read more »
Yeah, Malifaux is an exception-based game. Every time I play against a crew I haven’t met before, and am not fully conversant in their special abilities, I tend to lose badly. 😛
I am looking forward to this as I have several starters but never got a chance to dive in deep. I am hoping this will restore some interest.
Warmachine/hordes has been my main miniature game since getting a menoth starter and a vanquisher from the pp website on the weekend of gencon 2002. Before they had the first rulebook printed and while I play other games nothing in that time has come close to how much I play and enjoy warmachine. Really excited by this release and all the little titbits of information that the pp staff have spoiled look really good. New format called rumbles that use a smaller board with interesting deployment akin to dropzone commander. I have even decided to run a lauch event to… Read more »