The Glory of Asphyxious!

Painting a Warmachine Lich Lord

by Randy
@coffeeswiller

Hello there!

I wanted to show off my latest project. If you have played either Warmachine or the Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game, you have heard of Cryx. For those who haven't, Cryx is an island nation of nightmares, where the dead walk and do the bidding of the world's largest dragon. The dragon, Toruk, has appointed twelve Lich Lords to carry out his bidding as governors and generals to conquer the world for him. The mini I painted is one of those Lich Lords, Asphyxious. Asphyxious just recently acquired his title by slaying his predecessor, Daemortus, whom he has made into a spear.

Pretty fearsome, eh? The model itself is pretty impressive. Not counting the plastic base, it has 12 pieces. I'm not covering assembly here, though you'll probably get a little of that incidentally. With a model like this, it makes the most sense to paint it in pieces. I painted the model with Formula P3 paints, the paint range by Privateer Press, makers of Warmachine.

This pic shows me getting the model ready for priming. I have already washed the pieces, cleared mold lines and I have put together the upper and lower body, and the base and the stand piece for the base.Then I mount the remaining pieces to be primed with a spray primer. I used my hand drill to make small holes which double as places for pins when the model finally gets assembled.

Here it is after it has been primed in black and painting is underway. 

Here's the body. For his robes, I used Rucksack Tan mixed with Armor Wash. The green in the head socket, between the ribs and underneath the body is Necrotite Green. I went over the black metal with a little thinned Cryx Bane Base, then drybrushed Cold Steel. The soul cages hanging on the belt were done with Blighted Gold, highlighted with Rhulic Gold. 

Here's the base. I had already painted the base insert, not I have added the swirling souls and have painted them. Also, if you look closely, you can see a little metal pin in the top of the central swirly pillar. This corresponds to a drilled hole in the bottom of the lower body. This was done with Necrotite Green and Morrow White. 

Here's the 'backpack': the array of exhaust pipes coming from the back. Cryxians burn necrotite instead of coal,. and that burn with a green flame. The metals are the same as the body above, with most done with black drybrushed with Cold Steel, and the flares at the end of the pipes Blighted Gold highlighted with Rhulic Gold.

Here is the right hand & spear. Metals as above, with the blade being Cold Steel washed with Armor Wash. The eye was done in Morrow White, with the pupil Coal Black, and the edges done with thinned Murderous Magenta. 

And here he is... Lich Lord Asphyxious, in all his terrible glory! His skull was basecoated with Rucksack Tan, washed with Armor Wash and then highlighted with Morrow White. 

So... that's him! I finally got him together and painted, after having the model hiding in my unpainted pile for a couple years waiting for me to become a better painter. I'm very happy with the outcome, and maybe one day I'll field him in a battle, or plague the players in my upcoming Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game campaign with him. Any miniatures that you're particularly proud of? Let me know below! And also consider visiting my Instagram profile. You'll find quite a few miniatures on there!

All 'Jacked Up!

Magnetizing The Cygnar Avenger - Centurion - Hammersmith Warjack Kit!

By Randy
@coffeeswiller

Hiya, folks! I some more miniature hobby stuff to talk about concerning one of my favorite games, Warmachine by Privateer Press. In a recent post I did on playing Warmachine on a budget, one thing that came up after a helpful comment by a reader was that using magnets to be able to quickly convert  one warjack or warbeast to another was one way to save money. I had been itching to try this for months! I finally got a warjack kit, and wanted to share my first attempt at building a model this way. So here's the model:

And here it is all laid out to show the parts:

This kit allows you to build three different warjacks: the Centurion (with spear & shield), the Hammersmith (with 2 matching hammers) and the Avenger (with a sword & a seimic cannon arm). So planning ahead, we primarily need to have the ability to swap out the arms. Each warjack also has a different head, and while this isn't necessary, we'll magnetize those, too. Finally, there are two sets of shoulder pads. It is perhaps completely frivolous, but I'll magnetize those, too.

Here are my tools:

There shouldn't be anything surprising there. From left to right, we have magnets, brass rod, a file for removing mold lines, liquid green stuff, superglue, a pin vise/drill, an X-acto knife and tweezers. Not pictured is epoxy putty (I prefer ProCreate putty) and a Sharpie. Here are the magnets (3mm x 1mm neodymium):

The first step after planning is to drill holes for the magnets. Many model builders will already be doing a bit of this to add pins or brass rods to support heavier parts of models. What I am going to do here is make holes large enough to set in a magnet.

I used epoxy putty and superglue to set them in.

That one is the right arm. That one I pinned to the shoulder, since all the right arm does is hold a weapon in all the possible configurations. Here's one of the weapons (the sword for the Avenger). Each of the right arm weapons has the hand molded to them, and here is what an inset magnet looks like on one of them.

The left arm was a little more tricky. First of all, there are two separate arms: one is a cannon, and the other an arm like the right that has two different weapon combos (a hammer and a shield). The arm and shield combination is fairly heavy, and one magnet (at least of the size I have) will not suffice to hold the whole assembly. So here's what I did

:
I drilled a hole for a brass rod, and I set in one of the magnets slightly farther back. I tested positions for where to place them and this seemed the best.  Here are the two arms:

And here is wrist of the left forearm:

The red dot notes where the magnet is (it is covered by putty, which matches the grey of the plastic) and there is also a hole for a brass peg. And here are the shield and the hammer hands:

Each has an inset magnet on the top and a brass peg below. The hammer hand didn't really need it, but I figured it wouldn't hurt. And here is the finished kit, laid out in all its separate pieces:

And here are each of the warjacks it makes:

The Avenger!

The Centurion!

The Hammersmith!

Update! I made a brief YouTube video showing how this works together. The video isn't the greatest but it should give you an idea of how it works:


This was a fun kit to build! It will, of course, be painted and set on a finished base. But right now, my painting queue is pretty large. One observation I will share that you should note for your magnetized projects is that magnets have positive and negative sides, and your pieces will need to match up. I recommend using a Sharpie to place a dot on a magnet, and be sure to test before gluing. That's it!

Do you have any model projects that you are particularly proud of? Tell us below!

Warmachine On A Budget!

Part I: Building An Army

By Randy
@coffeeswiller

If you've ever played any tabletop wargame at all, you know that they're expensive. Very expensive. You need rulebooks, paints, brushes... and models. Lots of models. It seems like you can never have enough models to do everything you want. I'm personally more of a roleplayer, and am more interested in having a wide variety of models to represent the players in the Iron Kingdoms RPG, and the variety of creatures and characters they will encounter. Yes... expensive. What I'm hoping to do here is to give a brief guide to playing Warmachine, Hordes or the Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game on a budget.

This is what will interest most Warmachine/Hordes players will be most interested in. How do you build a faction army cheap? The simple answer is that you can't. Sorry. This isn't a magic bullet. The more complex answer is that with certain factions, you may be able to stretch your money a little further. Here's how!

Starter Boxes

Every faction has a starter box. This is a fully playable battlegroup, complete with a Warcaster or Warlock and some Warjacks or Warbeasts. These MSRP for $50, and are a great deal if you price the pieces out individually. In most cases, you'll want to start here. The downside is that you might not want that particular caster, but having a variety to choose from will be worthwhile in the future.

Two Player Battle Boxes

Both Warmachine and Hordes have a Two Player Battle Box. For an MSRP of $99, you get two starter kits, plus an additional sizable unit for each faction. This is an insanely good deal... especially if you can pick it up at a discount (a search while I was writing this turned up deals from $61-$75). This will limit you to one or the other faction (Khador & Protectorate of Menoth for Warmachine, Circle Orboros o& Legion of Everblight for Hordes). The upside for this is that if you and a friend want to jump in and try it out and are willing to use those factions, this is perhaps on of the best deals around. I personally picked up the Warmachine box, and I was glad to fill out my Protectorate & Khador factions. So many models! As a bonus, they also come with quickstart rules.

Grind

Privateer Press released a nifty boardgame a few years back called Grind. It was based on a Warmachine game that was printed in No Quarter magazine. I would love to say that I played this game; I really would. But I didn't. What I really liked about this game was the value. What I found is that the contents of this box, plus one Cygnar Heavy Warjack kit (the Ironclad/Cyclone/Defender one) and one Khador Heavy Warjack kit (the Destroyer/Juggernaut/Marauder/Decimator one) and you can put together six heavy warjacks: 3 Cygnar, 3 Khador. That's value. And that's not even taking the light models into account (just for Cygnar; Khador doesn't do light warjacks). The Cygnaran 'jacks are spot-on with only the tiniest bit of conversion necessary. The Khadoran ones have ever-so-slightly smaller smokestacks, but that's barely noticeable. Totally worth the price. I'll bet the game is probably good, too.

Side by side, warjacks from the kit (left, Defender) and from The Grind (right, Cyclone).

Proxies

Inevitably, you're going to want to try out a model that you don't have. You're considering adding one to an army list, and you think it's synergize with others, but you want to make sure. Use another model as a stand-in! This is called proxying, and it is perfectly fine for friendly (read: non-tournament) games, as long as you're up front with your opponent. If you're a roleplayer, you probably already do this. It makes far more sense to say the Defender (a Cygnaran heavy 'jack) is a stand-in for an Avenger (a spiffy new Cygnar heavy) that you want to check out. Just make sure that when you proxy a model, you use another with the same size base, and preferably one similar so you and your opponent can easily track the board state. It's worth noting that you won't be able to do this in tournaments or at events, where you'll need the actual model and the stat card to field a particular model.

The foamboard sticks in the foreground are proxied Wracks.

Other Deals

As was commented below, Privateer Press through their online store offer Christmas specials. These consist of prebuilt faction packs with 25-30 point armies. Not to mention other deals you may find at other retailers! online retailers will likely offer discounts, but local game stores may also have customer loyalty programs, as well. (Thanks to greibach for pointing this out!)

Magnets!

One way to get more mileage out of one of the plastic heavy warjack kits is with magnets. The kits have all the parts you need to build three or four different jacks out of the same kit, and you can use rare earth magnets glued in to swap out heads, arms and weapons. So that kit will still only be one warjack, but you can swap out which type it is. Nifty, huh? (Thanks again to greibach for this!) Update! I just showed how I magnetized a Cygnar Avenger-Centurion-Hammersmith kit!

Best Warmachine/Hordes Factions by Budget:

1. Khador: With the Two Player Battle Box and Grind, Khador is probably the cheapest to build up an army. Going by MSRP, the Battle Box is roughly equivalent to the MSRP of the Khador models and gives you an extra faction, either for you or a friend. You can angle in a bit cheaper with the Start Box plus the Man-O-War unit, but extra models are always nice and may be worth having to trade.

2.  Cygnar: No Battle Box support for Cygnar, but you can fill out your heavy 'jacks with extras from Grind. As I said above, one Heavy Warjack kit plus the two extras from that game will give you three Cygnaran heavies (one each Defender, Ironclad and Cyclone). I recall a slight modification to an upper arm joint, and clipping the hand off one forearm and replacing with one oriented for the correct arm, but that is very minimal. I have not yet tried to do anything with the light 'jacks other than proxies. When I have any amount of disposable income, I may do an order from the Privateer Press Parts Store and get some pieces to convert them into other Cygnaran light 'jacks.

3.Protectorate of Menoth: Again, the Two Player Battle Box is a great starting point for Protectorate players. Two heavy warjacks, one light one, Kreoss and a unit of Exemplar Cinerators. The Starter Box for the Protectorate has Kreoss, two light 'jacks and a heavy.

4. Circle Orboros & Legion of Everblight: These factions are in the Hordes Battle Box, and their lists look like a comparable deal to the Protectorate, above.

5. Other factions (Cryx, Retribution of Scyrah, Skorne, Trollbloods, Mercenaries, Minions, Convergence of Cyriss): Other than the starter boxes, no great deals like above. It's a shame, since these factions all have some impressive models. I think I could field a pretty high point cost Cryx force; they make excellent RPG baddies!

Note: This list above is not necessarily factoring in competitive play, but mostly looking at getting the most models on the table. There is a discussion on Reddit about this that goes more into what factions are the cheapest in terms of fielding a competitive army. My list above should be considered in terms of getting faction models on the table for Iron Kingdoms roleplaying.

--

I hope that helps you if you're looking into building an army on the cheap. It's true that wargames are a big drain on the wallet, but some planning can certainly help things along. The next installment will focus on painting. Do you have any moneysaving tips for Warmachine, Horders or the IKRPG? Post them below!

I've Got 99 Problems But A Lack Of Bits Ain't One:

Miniature Modeling for Advanced Beginners

by Randy
@coffeeswiller

Hello, all! I think it would be an understatement to say that the Growing Up Gamers crew was on a big Privateer Press kick lately. The Warmachine Tactics Kickstarter really got us going, and speaking to Matt Wilson also really got us excited. This is not a new thing, however. I have personally been a fan of the Iron Kingdoms from very early on, and had a years-long roleplaying campaign based there. This article, however, focuses on the miniatures.

Elf warcaster Kaelyssa, on a custom Cygnar ruins base. 

I have been painting minis on and off for about twelve years, not counting a handful that I mangled in high school. Rather than a veteran, I would classify myself as an "advanced beginner". What does that mean? I can paint models, and they usually look pretty good. I can make pretty nice bases, do fun conversions... but when it all comes down to it, I don't have a lot of time to invest in it. So I try to get a lot of mileage out of the techniques I do know.

Scenic base, probably for a warjack.

One thing I love is what is called converting miniatures. Basically, this is taking a miniature and altering it. It can be as simple as a repose or a swap of a weapon or head from another mini. Or it can be a more drastic thing where you take a bunch of parts from different minis and/or made from epoxy putty and making something altogether different. It helps to have a well-stocked bits box.

Work  in progress: Mage Hunter Eiryss on fallen tree base.

What's a "bits box", you might ask? Well let me tell you. A bits box is a box where you keep any stray mini parts that aren't going on a mini. You have a kit with three different weapon choices? Put the other two in the box. You sawed the head off a mini to put on another mini? Put the rest in the box. Made an order from the Privateer Press Parts Store? Put 'em in the box! Here's my bits box:

Here's a few choice bits:

Weapons & accessories!

Heads!

Flag!

...and here's what you can do when you have a stocked bits box:

Master Necrotech Mortenebra, iron lich and crafter of Cryx's legions of Helljacks!

For the record, this is an alternate version of the Cryx warcaster Mortenebra that I started quite a while back, before she was released as a mini. Since then, she has gotten her own mini, and I picked up the upper torso from the stock mini to use. The parts are from eight different models from Wyrd Miniatures and Privateer Press, with some parts built from sheet styrene, putty epoxy, paperclips, some old guitar strings and a brass rod. I'll put up more pics when I paint her up.

So... anyone else into miniatures? What are some of your favorite? Any miniature modeling topics you'd like to see here? Let me know!

Kickstarters Not To Miss: July 2013

by Randy
@coffeeswiller

Hello there! You guys know how we love Kickstarter, right? Well, we've have the opportunity to try out a couple games on Kickstarter right now. Ready for some recommendations? Let's kick it off!

Fire and Flora

The Growing Up Gamers crew love games that teach something. 'Educational Games' have been around for a while, in one form or another. In my experience, though, most that fall into this category only educate or entertain, but not both. Tim Handley's Fire and Flora did both for us: it delivered interesting play, and we learned a bit about fire ecology. Nifty, huh?

Overall, the game is pretty simple: you try to acquire lands and plant native species, and earn victory points for doing so. Land is purchased with coins, and often has a plant species on it. Native species give you victory points, and invasive species fill your lands, invade and drive out native species. You can grow, propogate or kill species with the four resources: Fire, Water, Time and Labor. Each species has a personality that defines how they react to each resource. You may also play resources on your opponents' plants. There are also event cards, and most of these are wildfires.

The brilliance of the game is that it shows the effects of fires and invasive species on the environment. The designer is a [wildlife biologist?], though, and notes that some species actually propogate due to fire. This, coupled with beatiful pictures of plants make this a great teaching tool for discussing plant invasion and wildfire, as well as an interactive building game that is fun and combines simple strategy with risk management.

IncrediBrawl

Much like the title implies, IncrediBrawl is a fighting game. The designers sent us a copy to try out, and we enjoyed it. Our daughter in particular liked it. Each player has a deck of characters, and each character has an attack type (Physical, Energy or Primal) and a level. Each player secretly chooses a character, and then reveals simultaneously. Attack types overcome in a rock-paper-scissors fashion (Energy beats Physical,  Physical beats Primal, Primal beats Energy), and if the attack type is the same, there is a level and the highest wins. That's the basic resolution system, and that is enhanced by powerup cards, and the characters themselves each have a special ability.

Multiplayer games have the players do two-person matches, with winners facing off. The winner is the first person to get 10 glory, which are the victory points of the game. We noticed that glory tokens exchanged hands a lot, based on character powers. Overall, a fun and light game.

Warmachine: Tactics

Warmachine: Tactics is a game we have anticipated for a while. Since Privateer Press announced teaming up with WhiteMoon Dreams a while back, I've been frothing at the mouth for this. Warmachine: Tactics is a PC/Mac version of the Warmachine tabletop miniatures game that supports both single player campaign modes and multiplayer online matches. Since the project launched on July 10th, it steamrolled through its initial goal and has been unlocking stretch goals like mad. We interviewed Matt Wilson of Privateer Press shortly before the project launched (you can read that here).

If you like turn-based strategy, take a look. This should be amazing. Also note that there are some great-looking miniatures playable in the tabletop game as backer rewards. We have high hopes for this game, and we are watching the project closely.

Daft Dice

After getting a comment below, I had to check this campaign out. I don't normally add things after-the-fact, but I just loved the Daft Dice campaign. The custom dice are really nice: laser-cut wooden dice with great designs. But what are really amazing are all the accessories. Take a look at the beautiful dice towers!

I can't even tell you how much I want a set of these business cards. Wow. Well played, Daft Concepts. Well played.

Did we miss any?

Any projects you feel should have been included, or comments about the ones featured? Let us know in the comments!

Privateer Press's Matt Wilson talks Warmachine: Tactics!

by Randy, Angie & Julian
@coffeeswiller
@growingupgamers


Hi, readers! We have an exciting treat for you today. Matt Wilson of Privateer Press agreed to give us an interview about Warmachine: Tactics, the computer version of their amazing tabletop miniatures game. The Growing Up Gamers crew have been big fans of Western Immoren, the setting for Warmachine, its sister game Hordes and the Iron Kingdoms roleplaying for about a decade. This is a world at war, a world of steampunk-inspired fantasy where nations go to battle with great machines of war called warjacks. Controlled and directed by powerful armored spellslingers called warcasters, these steam- and magic-powered robots are the game's namesake.

Matt Wilson, creative genius behind this world and founder of Privateer Press, is quite a guy. In addition to to being the game designer who brought us Warmachine, Matt is an accomplished artist whose work can be found both in Privateer Press products as well as in Magic: The Gathering; I highly recommend checking out his art site. Matt's company Privateer Press now makes tabletop miniature games (Warmachine, Hordes, and Monsterpocalypse), board games (Level 7, Grind, and the Bodgers line of games), hobby accessories (the Formula P3 line of paints, brushes, and hobby tools), and now is about to go electronic with Warmachine: Tactics.

A Warmachine computer game has been anticipated for a couple years, since the announcement of a partnership with Privateer Press and WhiteMoon Dreams. Two weeks ago, it was announced that Privateer Press would be going to Kickstarter to fund development of their game. We feel that this is a great move, as it allows fans to really get behind the game and have a more direct connections with the people producing it. The project launches July 10th, and we had the opportunity to ask Matt a few questions. Check out what he had to say!

Metal on Metal, by Matt Wilson

Growing Up Gamers:  I am so excited to play Warmachine on my computer! What can I as a player expect from this? Can I build my own warcaster? 

Matt Wilson: WARMACHINE: Tactics has both a multiplayer mode and a single player campaign mode. The multiplayer mode has a lot of similarity to the tabletop version, but as this is a different medium, we're taking advantage of what it can do to enhance the experience, while at the same time, eschewing that which works better on the tabletop. In the single player campaign, while you're not building your own warcaster, you are in control of the character's progression from level to level. Each campaign focuses on a single central character, the first of which we'll be revealing in our Kickstarter video.

GUG:  Different characters and campaigns? Awesome! How close will this adhere to the rules for the tabletop game? Have there been any challenges in translating those rules to a computer game? And is there anything your team is bringing to the digital game that couldn't be done on the tabletop?

Matt: The experience will feel familiar, but it's not the same game. Conceptually, it's the same world and environment and we're adhering the the same basic mechanics on a fundamental level. But the math behind the scenes works differently. There aren't any cannon fodder soldiers that go down when they take one point of damage as sustainability is much more crucial in a game of this scale, lest balance be tipped too quickly in a match. And definitely, the medium gives us the opportunity to do things like interactive terrain, that is less viable on the tabletop. Of course, the very exciting part of this game is getting to experience it all happening in front of your eyes. We've taken a very cinematic approach to the action. Seeing Warjack power attacks happening as real-time events in the middle of a combat round is just awesome!

GUG: Are there plans to port to any consoles if the Kickstarter is successful?

Matt: Our focus is entirely on PC and Mac, but we are developing with other platforms in mind should the opportunity arise. The team at WhiteMoon Dreams has designed a UI that can work on virtually any platform with any control set. In other words, it works just as well with a touch screen as it does with keyboard and mouse, as it does with a standard console controller. So, if opportunities do come up in the future, we won't have to reinvent the game from scratch.

GUG: The GUG crew is no stranger to Kickstarter; we (as Escapade Games) used that platform to fund our upcoming game, Storm Hollow: A Storyboard Game. Crowdfunding allows a connection between game creators and fans that traditional publishing just did not do, and we love the way it has allowed game designers to bring their products to market. The press release made it pretty clear why you chose to crowdfund Warmachine: Tactics. I would follow up and ask, why now?

Matt: It took a long time for me to believe that Kickstarter was the right route for us to take in order to make this game. While Kickstarter has quickly proven to be a powerful platform for fundraising, it's still a new platform, and one that is little understood. We needed time to study it, to determine if the risks inherent in crowd sourcing are worth accepting given what we are trying to achieve, and to understand the actual business necessary to manage a successful Kickstarter project. The majority of Kickstarters fail. Of those that fund, many individuals and businesses alike find that they have not properly planned how to manage the capital that they've raised. In conducting a Kickstarter, you're making a huge promise to the people who back your project, and more than anything, we wanted to be confident that we could deliver on that promise. So, before our project will even launch, we have put a great deal of time, effort and money  into developing enough of WARMACHINE: Tactics so that our potential backers can have the same confidence we do.

The myth about Kickstarter is that it's a place to fund ideas. We're not Kickstarting an idea, we're Kickstarting a project that is in motion, that has proof-of-concept and a business plan, and that is being executed by an experienced team with overhead and expenses that must be maintained during this startup period prior to even launching the project on Kickstarter. Getting to this point, responsibly, took time, and I wouldn't have wanted to launch it a moment sooner.

GUG: Why does Privateer Press need Kickstarter? There has been a lot of talk among fans of crowdfunding as to who belongs there, whether or not bigger players should be there, even suggesting that they might be edging out independent studios. What can you say about that and the kind of commitment it takes to delve into making a video game, and whether it would have been possible to do otherwise?

Matt: For Privateer and WhiteMoon Dreams, the two practical routes to getting a WARMACHINE video game made are the traditional publisher/financier method, which entails lengthy review processes and a great deal of expense on the part of the developer in an effort to try and align the product they are trying to make with the right financing entity — which in the current video game industry environment I would liken to trying to force a planetary alignment with your own bare hands — or, crowd sourcing. For a company the size of Privateer Press, creating a brand new video game isn't analogous to creating new board game product, it's literally launching an all new business. In order to make this happen on a timeline that is within the foreseeable future and not have to nut away funds for the next ten or fifteen years, saving up enough to launch such a venture, crowd sourcing has become a viable and attractive opportunity.

Kickstarter itself has released its own stand on what's appropriate for Kickstarter. The idea that 'bigger players' have a negative impact on other projects is a theory with no scientific support. Instead, Kickstarter has proven the positive impact 'big players' (or let's say popular companies and personalities) have had on the community as a whole because all the data they have shows how many first-time backers those big projects brought in, and how many of those backers went on to back other projects on Kickstarter. Whether or not Privateer is a 'big player' is somewhat in the eye of beholder. The fact is, we're totally independent, as is WhiteMoon Dreams. But Privateer does have its own community of players and I believe that many of them are going to be first-time backers on Kickstarter with this project, which means we'll also be helping the Kickstarter community grow by conducting our project there and exposing new people to the platform and all the projects going on there.

The best thing about Kickstarter is that its patrons are the ones that ultimately decide what belongs there or not. Anyone arguing that a particular project shouldn't have been on Kickstarter because of its owner's pre-established popularity, is arguing against the very spirit of Kickstarter, which is that the 'crowd' has been given the power to decide. Beyond the terms of use that Kickstarter has defined, it's not for any individual to say what should or shouldn't be put on Kickstarter — the community of Kickstarter users will decide that as a whole, and currently, the community as a whole does not appear to agree with the negative sentiment.

GUG: We are big fans of Magic: The Gathering, a game you are certainly familiar with, given your illustrations can be found on a number of cards for that game. A few years back, Wizards of the Coast released Duels of the Planeswalkers, a great videogame version of Magic available for consoles. Aside from being fun, that game serves as an excellent tutorial for learning to play Magic and has been phenomenal for bringing new players to that game. Do you anticipate Warmachine: Tactics having a similar role?

Matt: WARMACHINE: Tactics will be a great way to introduce people to the ideas of the game and the setting, and we certainly hope it will introduce more people to the hobby of tabletop gaming, but it doesn't function as a tutorial. In the Magic example, you're actually playing the same cards with the same rules in the video game that you are in the physical game. But WARMACHINE: Tactics is somewhat different in scope, and the mechanics that must be understood on the tabletop are largely invisible in the video game experience, so you're not likely to come away from WARMACHINE: Tactics fluent in all of the rules necessary to know in order to play the tabletop game But you will understand the fundamental strategies and the nuance of how different elements in your squad interact and support each other. I do think being good in one would give you some advantage in the other.

GUG: Since tabletop Warmachine is not a solo game, we were wondering about the depth of the campaign mode versus multiplayer mode. Do you expect most players to spend more time playing in multiplayer mode, with the campaign  being sort of a tutorial? Additionally, will there be an AI for solo play outside of campaign mode?

Matt: The single player game is not a tutorial, but it will be a great way to learn the depth and strategy of the game because it does structure your learning experience through the course of the campaign. But the single player campaign is where we get to tell our story, and that's something that both Privateer and WhiteMoon Dreams share — a love of great stories. So making sure we had an amazing campaign experience has always been a requirement of the project. Whether or not more people will play mulitplayer than the campaign, or vice versa, I can't predict. But the multiplayer environment is going to be something that is constantly expanding, so I suspect that always-fresh experience will keep people engaged in multi-player quite a bit. We're not just doing one campaign, though — it's a big world with a lot of characters, so the single player experience will also be something that is constantly fresh. And we are building an arena where you can test your squad builds against an AI, for sure.

GUG: Sounds great! Will we see our favorite Warmachine warcasters in campaign mode? 

Matt: There are dozens of warcasters in the setting, so whether or not you see your favorite featured immediately remains to be seen! But the ultimate goal is to realize as much of the setting as possible in this game. And the better we do with our Kickstarter campaign, the more we'll be able to get in there.

GUG:  Many of the fans of Warmachine are miniature hobbyists (myself included!) and would say that some of the fun of the game is painting models to bring to the table. Will there be a nod to the creative types, perhaps the option to "paint" warjacks and units with customized colors, or choose alternate color schemes?

Matt: All I can say right now is that we're hobbyists, too, so this isn't something we have overlooked. Okay, I'll also say, "Stretch Goal".

GUG: Thanks for that tidbit! Where in the Warmachine timeline does this take place, or is it outside that timeline? Prime starts in 604 A.R., and Colossals takes us to 608 A.R. 

Matt: The campaign is going to feature characters that are new to WARMACHINE, some of them introduced in next year's expansion book, Vengeance. As such, the timeline is concurrent with the timeline in the story found in the game books.

GUG: In terms of the collaboration and division of labor between WhiteMoon Dreams and Privateer Press, how involved has Privateer been in the development, and what level of freedom has been afforded to WhiteMoon Dreams to make their mark on Warmachine: Tactics? What has been done to ensure the game feels like Western Immoren, the world of Warmachine?

Matt: The level of collaboration between Privateer and WhiteMoon Dreams is huge and will have a huge effect on the outcome of the game. I'm personally part of the core gameplay design team. I'm also storyboarding character animations and cinematics and I'm leading the writing on the campaign story. In doing all of that, I'm also drawing on the resources at Privateer, like Jason Soles and DC in development, and Doug Seacat, our lead writer, who can assist with making sure the story and game are as faithful to the tabletop game as possible. But there's no real give-and-take here, like one might expect, because WhiteMoon Dreams is 100% invested in making a game that looks and feels as true to WARMACHINE as it can. We're so totally aligned in our goals, and I spend so much time with both companies now, it often feels to me like one giant organization. Even moreso as we've been developing these new characters for both the tabletop game and video game. We've got rules being developed at Privateer that are getting interpreted into the video game at WhiteMoon Dreams, and we've got artwork being created at WhiteMoon Dreams that will appear in our books and that our sculptors are using to create miniatures for the tabletop. It's an incredible level of synergy to see happening between two distinct companies and the end result is that we're going to bring WARMACHINE to life in video game form. It's one of the most exciting things I've ever been a part of.

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I hope that you are all as excited about Warmachine: Tactics as we are! We will link to the Kickstarter once it goes live. In addition, Matt has agreed to do a follow-up interview at that time. I'm sure we'll have loads more questions once we see what the backer tiers and stretch goals are! Do you guys have any questions for Matt? Leave them below! Here's the teaser trailer:





Images courtesy of Privateer Press