We've been flailing about Western Immoren for a few months now, so I thought I'd take the time to go over what I think about the hardcover rulebook for Warmachine - Prime, Mk II. I didn't know much about Warmachine when I got the gamebook, just that we saw the miniatures online and knew they were gaining in popularity. Honestly the extent I'd heard about it in our gaming community was a member of the Ada Gaming Club telling me he'd thought really hard about getting into it. Turns out another community member of that club had a bunch of brand new stuff for the game sitting around - he'd gotten it but no one expressed interest in it. Well, until the Wargate happened along.
Warmachine was one of the miniatures games we proposed to the the club last year, and it's since the fateful decision to include support for several more games was made by the club we've gotten several players building full scale armies and immersing themselves in the world that is the Iron Kingdoms. So for those of you who don't have a rulebook, let me tell you about it.
The book is a nice hardcover, though I've heard softcover versions are available. Not sure why we'd want that - the price break isn't ever worth the hardcover! On the inside, the pages are full color and glossy. Beautiful art lines the tome, bringing the Iron Kingdoms to life in very vivid detail. The rule diagrams in particular are quite nice, being well thought out and illustrating the various minutiae of play well enough to transmit the idea without fully reading the rules. This is essential when training new players how to control their forces.
The game rules are well organized, though in places I find myself looking for terms that don't exist. If you're used to several other miniature games, some of the verbage that Warmachine uses seems to be vague, but actually isn't. A different style of aesthetics in rule design, the wording of the rules is actually quite concise and seems to address every situation quite well. It lends itself to a game experience that is quite like many other styles of game, such as CCG and RPG, but it's implemented in a way that feels different from other games and is quite fun to play.
Think Battletech. Think Dungeons & Dragons. Think about that Will Smith movie, The Wild Wild West.
Beyond the rules, the game includes a great color section that has a selection of units from the various Forces of Warmachine books - all the models found in the starter sets have stats in the hardcover rulebook. As well as the stats, there's nice writeups on the various factions in the back and a good amount of world information spread throughout the book. The color plates of the units are fantastic, huge and splashy with color. There is also a showcase of painted models in the back that is quite useful when painting the miniatures, as it shows many different takes on various models. Did I mention the book is just plain good looking?
All in all, it's everything a main rulebook should have. Concise rules, great diagrams, world and faction information and even some unit details to get you rolling. The game plays fast, has fantastic support and plenty of cool new toys to play with. It's also dry-erase ready - check out the token sets for the various factions! Our club also has card sleeves for the unit cards (which you get with the models), and every game we pull out the dry erase markers to check damage off the 'jacks.
I totally recommend Warmachine to anyone who has an interest in both wizards and giant robots!
