Warmachine Wrath

New Warcasters

So, as resident nerd here in the blagosphere of the internet, I have to take time out of my busy existence to attack a perceived wrong! In my last posts, dear interwebz, I have been lamenting the existence of video games, of comedy performances and of Graffiti outside of the acceptable artistic realm. Well, here's another thing that by all modes of consideration, is incredibly artistic, and yet, never seems to get its due.

Warmachine is a tabletop wargame, it’s basically as far on the nerdy spectrum as you can travel without hitting things like LARPing and DnD. For those of you who this reference will help, Warmachine is the baby brother of Warhammer, Privateer Press created the Iron Kingdoms (Warmachine) and their game is now direct competition to the 'industry leader' Games Workshop's Warhammer and Warhammer 40k.

Now, the problem I have with Warmachine being considered non-artistic, is the manner by which it has gained this reputation. If something is nerdy, it seems that we immediately relegate it to the realm of 'not even remotely artistic.' This may be one of the problems stopping video games from being accepted as art. Video games are still a very nerdy subject as well. Well, I'm going to lay down a basic description of Warmachine and the process that goes into building an army, and you tell me whether it’s artistic.

An example of incredibly elaborate terrain.

Warmachine is played on any tabletop, most often 4'x4', and terrain is modelled to lend realism, and for the models to interact with within the game. After the board is created, or if you get impatient, after some books and soup cans are hastily slapped onto a board, Warmachine requires that you assemble the models used to play the games. This can, in some cases, be very simple, requiring a little bit of time and some super glue. In other cases it can require pliers, a pin-drill, some epoxy putty and a boat-load of patience. On top of this, many modellers pride themselves on converting models.

Warjack Before Conversion.

Same Warjack, heavily converted.

A Cygnar Warjack during assembly, and before being painted.

In game, the models above would function identically, but the amount of work put into aesthetics on the converted model is amazing. Beyond this, each gamer paints his/her (though admittedly more often his) army. Certain colour schemes are more common and represent the factions 'true' colours, as with the Khador 'Jack on the left. It is also completely acceptable to develop one's own colour scheme, as seen on the converted example above. And just so you get an understanding of the work that goes into these models, I must point out that the details on the base of each model have been added, along with the texture of rust and decay for the one on the right, and that all models come unpainted like the example above.

Now, I'm not going to bore you going over the lore for each of the five factions, or by going over the rules for Warmachine and its sister product Hordes, but I would encourage you to check them out on your own. No, my real reason for posting this is to take a look at Wrath, a new book released which provides a minor update to the rules of Warmachine, releases a few new models and cards for playing the game, but most importantly, increases the 'fluff' of the game.

Now, I consider the term Fluff almost derogatory, but as a wargamer and a video-gamer, I use the word liberally. Fluff is the story-line of the game, the canon literature which the dynamics of the game must be held to, and in my opinion is strong pulp fiction, if not quite art-fiction yet. The problem I have is that within Wrath there are a number of editorial errors, grammatical errors within the fluff and small spelling mistakes in the era of spell check. What I want to complain about today is the lack of editing which went into Wrath because of, I feel, a lack of appreciation for the writing within. A company as large as Privateer Press should be able to afford an editor, and since their original works were role-playing games, and even novels, you would think they could afford to grab an editor they have worked with before, and re-task him to making sure Wrath doesn't fall flat on its face.

While I am very impressed with the way Privateer Press is currently developing their characters, I find the minor errors in their work distracting from the plot of the book (and there IS a plot) which is a shame because some of the developments are incredibly interesting. Backstory is developed for Goreshade and of course the Denny/Hailey combo, but more importantly, new things are happening. 

*Spoilers Ahead* 

The true king of Cygnar is back, there is a Nyss relic floating about and the Iosians are on the move. Meanwhile Karchev, poor bastard that he is, has been ripped out of his Warjack body and has been taken by Cryx.

*Spoilers Done*

The point is, unlike Warhammer's stagnant fluff which has awesome battles, heros and chaos gods mucking things up, it completley lacks direction, and direction is what I have seen from Wrath. This book is changing the world in which the game is played, and its refreshing that a game like this is being given a storyline compelling enough to read without even touching the game.

Anyways, that's my rant for the day, this one even more dis-jointed than some have been previously, but hopefuly you will forgive me. For those who understand and care about these things, I've made a list of Wargaming stuff which I own:

Khador: 3 Warjacks, Sorcha, Harkevich (Magnus, Eiryss), Widowmakers

Tyranids: 3000+ points

Eldar: 3000+ points

Necrons: 2000ish points

Imperial Guard: 750 points (unassembled) and an out of date codex.