Category: Warmachine

Khador Art Book, Hardcover Review

1/4/2012

    After purchasing the 2 player Battle Box for Warmachine a couple days back (the review can be found here), I've taken quite a liking to Khador specifically. It's definitely something about Khador's badass Russian army theme and hulking masses of heavy warjacks that really just look so damn cool! Apparently, Khador is so badass, they don't even bother with 'light warjacks', no.. they go big or go home with only monstrous heavy warjacks which appropriately warrants their motto:


                                                    "CRUSH ALL BENEATH YOUR IRON MIGHT!"

So, being enamored with Khador at the moment, I bought the hardcover art book for the Khadoran army. Now, this book definitely wasn't cheap which retails at almost $50, but you can find it on Amazon for like $30-40; The soft cover version will run you a little less. I could've bought another unit box with that kind of money, but I've always had a weak spot for a game's lore, artwork, and extra goodies. This art book had exactly that, and I was not disappointed.

The book itself is well-made and has a good heft to it. The cover art has some amazing detail and gives a strong sense of the Khador army's prowess. The hardcover also has a smooth glossy sheen to it; very eye catching. I'm definitely into the whole industrial, metal border look for it. This hardcover has the kind of book shelf presence that would be great to display when people walk into your room to compliment your collection.

The moment you get to the content inside, your greeted with pages and pages of Khadoran history, lore, and story dialogue. There are almost 40 pages worth of just general lore and story progression into Khador as a nation in the Iron Kingdoms. This book has everything you want to know about Khador: the government hierarchy, army units, warcasters, enemies, battle history etc.

But ofcourse, this isn't called an art book for nothing; it has TONS of vibrant and detailed full-color images of every Khador unit, along with diagrams and insignias of Khador society. There are also some awesome images of battles between other factions and some alternative artist renditions for a few units.

Aside from the copious amounts of artwork, Privateer Press gives multiple pages and picture guides on how to paint your minis in the red Khador paint scheme, from the basecoat step all the way to the highlights and touch-ups.

Aside from the full page artwork, this last section of the book is my favorite; detailed images of each mini painted in all their Khador red glory, and mock battle shots with appropriate terrain scenery. I just really enjoy seeing the sense of depth Warmachine has as a rewarding and aesthetically pleasing hobby and the photo shots this book has really puts the whole experience into some perspective.

Conclusion

The Khador artbook is simply amazing. It had everything I wanted to see in a book that contained so much information and artwork on my new favorite faction. Over the course of a night, I read through all the Khador lore and descriptions of each warcaster and unit; there was an impressive amount of information and a very enjoyable read.

Ofcourse, this book isn't for everyone. To players who just like to play the game, this book will just be a waste of money, considering you could buy another unit box for the amount of cash you'd be forking up. But for anyone who's a fan of lore and artwork regarding the games they play, I definitely recommend this artbook for them.

"Crush all beneath your iron might?" Yes, please.

0 Comments

Warmachine Battle Box Review

1/2/2012

0 Comments

REVIEW

    Over the past few months, I've pretty much been an anti-social geek, mainly playing Starcraft 2 and rewatching anime I've been having an urge to relive again. So, to broaden my horizons and to replace Risk 2210 A.D. for a little while (from the lack of a play group at the moment), I decided to get into Warmachine. I really enjoyed looking at how miniature war games were played out and the interaction of players smack talking across a table top, so I finally decided to dive in and put up the cash to get this starter box.

    This starter box retails for $99, you can easily get it at fair market value around $70-$75 on Amazon. But even at the retail price of $99, this starter is definitely a steal!

    This starter essentially comes with 2 BATTLEGROUPS, one for the Khador army and Protectorate of Menoth army, which both already retail for $50 each. PLUS, each army gets another 5-man unit, each retailing for $45 each. So you're already getting almost $200 worth of goodies at a steal, not to mention and whole load of extra goodies I'll also show you further below.

    Here's an overview of the complete unboxing. Just by looking at all this, you can immediately tell there is A LOT of content and EVERYTHING 2 players need to get started right away and not get bogged by buried rules and cumbersome game manuals.

    You can see that the minis are neatly packaged in separate bags so they can all easily be distinguished and organized. Note that they are not in plastic grids like with Games Workshop minis so you don't need to worry about snapping pieces off or deal with TOO many mold lines compared to GW minis, as far as I've seen in GW box sets my friends have. This is definitely a plus for new gamers to just get right into the game without needing too much prep and assemble time.

    Before I purchased the battle box, I did some research on the contents and from the forums I've visited, THIS digest sized rule book was the most sought after item from this whole box. Now that I see it in person, I can definitely see why many Warmachine players would want this: it's compact, full color, easy to read and navigate, and has all the rules for MKII.

    For whatever reason, Privateer Press is not planning to sell this digest sized rule book individually, so the only way to obtain this is through the battle box. I know this will most certainly come in handy as I'm learning the game more in depth on the fly and is really easy on the eyes with the full color pages, and the abundance of diagrams and pictures to visualize the game rules.

This is where I truly love this battle box set as a starter for 2 players to get: the quick-start guide. Once I opened it, this guide laid out EVERYTHING you need to just get the game started and has a really steady pace progression to what kind of questions you would have during the game as play would become more intense. Just going over the quick-start guide, it was easy enough to start laying down the bases and start visualizing how the game would be played out.

I honestly think that many table top games falter in their starter sets mainly due to the fact there is not a dedicated start guide for players to just jump right into the game. Players in most starter sets would have to look through an intimidating rulebook or manual to find what they need to just set the game up, bogged down with text and lack luster image guides. Privateer Press, my hat goes off to you for this one; you really made this starter set shine so far.

    The quality of this starter just keeps going on and on. I LOVE this introduction guide with a passion. Not only does this set come with a detailed quick start, but it puts the icing on top with a full color pamphlet giving the back-drop history of these two warring factions AND some nice extras to compliment owning some new swank minis.

    This guide also gives you an overview and lore of every other faction in the Warmachine universe, plus a few brief summaries of the factions in Hordes, the counterpart to Warmachine and can be played together.

    What I really liked about this guide is the picture detail and step by step walk through of how to paint each faction's warjacks beginning from the basecoat, all the way to the highlighting steps to get you started on how to paint your minis pretty well. I know you can easily find painting tips online now, but this extra bit of info Privateer Press added in really impressed me.

    And finally, there are also some templates for certain weapon attacks and terrain templates that can be photocopied right off the page to get you started from the get go. Why force anyone to pay extra for a template set for players who just want to see if they even like the game first? A nice addition and foresight, imo.

                                                                   (Some extra images of the intro guide below)

    Here are the stat cards that come with all the info for each miniature; health, attack power, defense, special abilities etc. The cards look pretty detailed and have a matte feel to them. They look to have a bit of a gloss to them so they seem to be pretty nice quality. They're your standard sized trading cards like Magic: The Gathering so they'll easily fit into any card sleeves you have lying around or 9-grid card sleeves. Longevity for these cards won't be an issue with a set of sleeves.

    Ohh, this is pretty neat. The starter actually comes with a nifty magazine with some Warmachine community information. I was flipping through this and it had this well documented battle between two players, step by step, turn by turn. It was a really good read and gave me a few ideas of what Warmachine strategy is like and how a game would end. Not a necessity for a starter, but a really nice extra that had some good tidbits of info about the game. I'm pretty tempted to order some other issues of No Quarter online now..

    Not to mention that front cover art looks pretty damn sick too :)

    Ok, I know I've been raving about this starter for the entire post, but this is where I was left a sour taste in my mouth; the included ruler. You look at this ruler and you think to yourself, "Oh, it's the standard 1' ruler. That's pretty cool; gotta have a ruler to play a miniature game, right?" I thought the same thing too, until I look at the army stats and abilities for a Khador warjack. APPARENTLY, the Khador warjack called the Destroyer, has a pretty powerful attack that has a range of 14"! But yet, this ruler only goes up to only 12". Now, I'm well aware pretty much everyone has a retractable tape measure and will be using that instead of this, but come on Privateer Press, you have your game name and company name stamped right on this ruler, signifying it's pretty much made for Warmachine. I'm just saying, wouldn't it be nice to just include the extra 2" just to match up with the full range attack on the mini that are INCLUDED in the starter?

    This ruler lacking the 2" isn't really a big deal, but it's just that this starter box had so many good things going for it and I love so many things about it, but it just didn't sit right with me seeing as there is this one minor short-coming. I just wasn't feeling it, if there was a slim chance that either player didn't have a retractable ruler and used the Destroyer's attack range to the full 14" effect, that they wouldn't be able to really get the completeness of having everything needed to play the game properly; especially when this whole starter box had everything AND THEN SOME. But none the less, I still love this starter box and I thought it would be appropriate to point out this one really minor issue considering I've been absolutely raving about the pure awesomeness of this box set.

Conclusion

    All in all, I f**cking LOVE this box set! Not only is it a great deal with an awesome price, it also comes with so many extra goodies that I can't help but to just fall in love with this new miniature war game. I've hardly had the chance to play it, but I'm already looking up forums and online stores for more ideas on how to expand my army and what strategies I can employ. I honestly haven't been so excited for a game in a LONG time; this one is definitely a winner!

    As I progress through Warmachine, I hope I'll be able to continually blog about this game! The game is really well-made and will definitely satiate my appetite for hours and hours of Saturday night geekery.

    Sorry, Risk 2210 - you were indeed my first love.. and you still are! Buuut, I really think it's best for us to see other people right now. No hard feelings, right?

0 Comments

Khador Art Book, Hardcover Review

Conclusion

Warmachine Battle Box Review

Conclusion

Author

Archives

Categories