wazdakka
New member
<p>Few days ago I received my copy of quite new Warmachine expansion - Wrath. I'm great fan of Warmachine/Hordes game, I was tracking all Wrath previews in NQ and now it lays just before me.</p>
<p>From the book publication point of view this expansion keeps PP high standards. Cover art, illustrations, overall design and layout looks outstanding for me. But, to be honest, can we expect less from such company? I'm wargame player at first so I don't judge included fiction, You can love it or hate it.</p>
<p>Let's go to the point most interesting for players - new rules. We have two new unit types - battle engines and ranking officers. None of them has significant impact on a game play, IMHO. Battle engines are huge artillery support (excluding Cryx Wraith engine and partially Protectorate war altar), more useful when combined with faction specific unit (eg. Khador battle mechaniks) or warcaster spell/feat (e.g. Irusk "Fire for effect"). Similar with ranking officers, we got some new options with mercenary units cause main advantage is to treat mercenaries as faction models (so some feats/spells/special skills will be effective with mercenaries units).</p>
<p>Apart from rules/units mentioned above there is nothing innovative in the game. All faction gains new warcaster, jacks, unit attachments, solos. And all factions have now some new startegic options for game play (e.g. Khador battle mechaniks can heal Man'O.War units ...). Before Wrath Khador faction has about 11 different jacks (now it is about 14) and in all of my games (up to 50 points) I've never played with more than 4 at once. The same is with casters and units so in my opinion adding new units/casters/jacks doesn't improve the game. I'll be glad to see new faction, or new expansion concentrated fully on some new aspect of game (e.g. "Warmachine Siege" with trenches, bunkers and razowires).</p>
<p>PP mentioned a new Sci-Fi game in next year, maybe development team is working on completly new rules and have no time for real upgrade on Warmachine?? We will see ...</p>
<p>From the book publication point of view this expansion keeps PP high standards. Cover art, illustrations, overall design and layout looks outstanding for me. But, to be honest, can we expect less from such company? I'm wargame player at first so I don't judge included fiction, You can love it or hate it.</p>
<p>Let's go to the point most interesting for players - new rules. We have two new unit types - battle engines and ranking officers. None of them has significant impact on a game play, IMHO. Battle engines are huge artillery support (excluding Cryx Wraith engine and partially Protectorate war altar), more useful when combined with faction specific unit (eg. Khador battle mechaniks) or warcaster spell/feat (e.g. Irusk "Fire for effect"). Similar with ranking officers, we got some new options with mercenary units cause main advantage is to treat mercenaries as faction models (so some feats/spells/special skills will be effective with mercenaries units).</p>
<p>Apart from rules/units mentioned above there is nothing innovative in the game. All faction gains new warcaster, jacks, unit attachments, solos. And all factions have now some new startegic options for game play (e.g. Khador battle mechaniks can heal Man'O.War units ...). Before Wrath Khador faction has about 11 different jacks (now it is about 14) and in all of my games (up to 50 points) I've never played with more than 4 at once. The same is with casters and units so in my opinion adding new units/casters/jacks doesn't improve the game. I'll be glad to see new faction, or new expansion concentrated fully on some new aspect of game (e.g. "Warmachine Siege" with trenches, bunkers and razowires).</p>
<p>PP mentioned a new Sci-Fi game in next year, maybe development team is working on completly new rules and have no time for real upgrade on Warmachine?? We will see ...</p>
