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Like everyone else in the Warmachine universe, I was tuned into release of the new Warmachine MKII rules first thing after work (yeah, I’m guessing many of you dug in at work… you know who you are.) Before we get too far, let me say I have not read them cover-to-cover by any means yet, but I have managed to give it a good cursory read, and kudos to Privateer Press for giving us such a polished and professional document for a field test. (BTW - do yourself a favor and go to Kinko’s an have it printed and spiral bound for $11. Money well spent!) Now, on to the first impressions.

First off, I was happy and relieved that it still looked like Warmachine. I opened up the stat cards first, and found that they were immediately understandable (with the exception of new damage type/immunity system, which, oddly enough, reminded me of the old D&D miniatures skirmish game.) The idea of the immunity system seems nice– at least now my Stormguard can bounce lighting around without accidentally hurting the Stormblades. It was reassuring to see that from a stat-block and layout standpoint, not much had changed. It appeared that Privateer Press kept their promise - Warmachine is still Warmachine.

As I dug into rules, the first thing to catch me off guard was the new point system. Almost everyone I had talked to expected the point system to expand into a wider range, offering more granularity between point values. I was very surprised to see it go in the other direction, with points values contracting massively. A 100-point game is now equal to the old 1,000-point level. I can see the appeal in the simplicity of it, but I also think it will put a lot of pressure on the designers to have a model’s abilities tightly tuned. It would seem that it makes the game a little bit more fragile, but to be honest, I can’t really wrap my mind around that one until I get some play time in.

I was also surprised how the “Warjack points” work. Warcasters are now free (again, meaning they will need to be finely balanced and roughly equivalent) and each one comes with a set number of points that can only be used to take warjacks. It seems like kind of a ham-fisted way to get warjacks into play (Hordes integration of Warbeasts with the Fury mechanic is still far more elegant) but to be honest, I don’t care –big stompy robots are what attracted me to this game, and anything that gives me more full-metal mayhem is okay by me.

I was very interested to see how formations were handled, and was somewhat surprised to see them handled much like a warcaster’s control area. Under the new system, any model in CMD range of the unit commander is considered “in formation.” Logic says this will make for much tighter clumps of troopers to keep them in formation, but at the same time the “out-of-formation” penalty is lessened, so maybe we won’t feel as compelled to be in formation. Once again, it’s hard to gauge what the actual impact of this change will be until I get some play time in. I do know that under the old rules, trenchers with a UA and could be spread out across 36 inches of table and still be in formation. Under the new rules, they would all need to be inside an 18-inch diameter circle! One possible outcome of these rules could be people fielding less full units, trading out instead for multiple small units… Dunno.

As I looked through models, I was surprised to see Sorcha’s and Kreoss’ feats unchanged. I was certain they would have seen some tweaking – that is until I saw that both Warcasters and Warjacks have now picked up the ability “Shake Effect." Basically, for one focus point they can stand up or cause stationary to expire during their control phase (after allocating focus). So, while those feats still have their intended effect on the player’s turn, at least as an opponent I don’t have to lose my entire next turn being neutered by their feat.

Of course, I also took a quick look at the four main warcasters I’ve been playing as of late. Here is a quick summary of what I saw (at least in terms of spell lists and feats):

Commander Coleman Stryker: seems to be the least changed of the four warcasters I’ve been playing. The one obvious change is that Snipe has been reduced to a fixed +4 range. This seems to be a theme, as the Long Shot ability on the GMCA has also been toned down to +4. I will miss putting +7 snipe on Stormblades.

Captain Victoria Hailey: The biggest change is the toned-down Temporal Barrier, which no longer halves movement, but still delivers the -2 DEF and prevents charges and slams. Temporal Barrier is also back to being an aura rather than a pulse, meaning models moving into the control area are now affected.

Siege Brisbane: The new Siege seems seriously toned down from the old incarnation. Ground pounder now has a 3 inch AOE rather than the old 5”, and Higher Ground is gone – No more Tower of Power! Illumination is replaced my Mage Sight, which seems a little more straightforward.

Commander Adapt Nemo: Nemo has long been one of my favorites from a fluff and “cool” perspective, and now he is much more of a badass. Moving ball lightning from the spell list to a ranged attack is a welcome addition. Blinding Flash has been replaced by Deflection, and Disruption Field got a +1 STR boost. Most importantly, Nemo’s Electrical Storm feat now effects warbeasts, meaning it now works against hordes equally as well as Warmachine!

Anyway, that’s just a start, but so far so good. Given what I’ve seen, I’m still excited. To be honest, I am struggling with the point costs more than I am the changes to model abilities, and I really need to see it in action before it will click. At first review, it’s still very much Warmachine, and I don’t see anything that ruins it for me - In fact, I see a lot that I like. It is amazing how this new incarnation is both very much the same and very different. Looking forward to play-testing the hell out of it.