All new war

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With the development of these new editions of the game, we took great pains to address these differences in hopes of providing a more satisfying play experience with whichever system you prefer.

With the addition of Power Up, every warjack with a functional cortex in its warcaster’s control range (yes, it is control range now) gains a focus point at the start of the Control Phase. The warcaster can then allocate up to two additional focus points to each warjack in its battlegroup. We have found that this one change to the rules has vastly improved the effectiveness of warjacks, making larger battlegroups not only viable but a nightmare for the opposition. No more trying to decide whether you want your warcaster to cast another Arcane Bolt or you want your Charger to run. Now you play with the pedal to the metal at all times!

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Not to see it left in the dust, we also took a good long look at the fury mechanics and eventually settled on the addition of Spirit Bond, a rule stating that in addition to the fury a warlock leeches each turn, that warlock also can gain up to one additional fury point for each of his light, heavy, and gargantuan warbeasts that have been destroyed or removed from play during the game. It seems warbeasts now continue to serve their masters from the grave, at least for a little while. Spirit Bond offsets a lot of the late-game weaknesses in the fury mechanic, keeping your warlock in the game until the bitter end.

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In HORDES, the rules for Frenzying were significantly simplified and yet, at the same time, brought back in line with the original intent of this risk/reward system. In the new edition, the Frenzy rules simply state that a frenzying warbeast shakes all effects that can be shaken, then charges the closest model and makes a single attack against that charge target, using its highest P+S attack. That’s it. No more long if/then chart to check against. Just shake, charge, and attack.

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One significant pruning was the removal of model psychology from the games. While we had made significant changes to how psychology functioned and its overall impact on the game experience from Mk I to Mk II, we soon realized during the development of the new editions that model psychology really didn’t fit the vision we had for the tabletop experience and for the world of the Iron Kingdoms. By removing psychology entirely, we were able to significantly reduce the total volume of rules and create a more fun, rewarding play experience.

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Perhaps one of the most noticeable cuts that added a huge amount to the games was the removal of skill checks from both games. The removal of this random element created a huge shift in some very underutilized models, as they were now guaranteed to be able to do what they were meant to do without having to worry about a random die roll to determine success. Of course, this cut did not come without some serious retooling and testing of former skill check abilities to account for the now guaranteed success.

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Between the changes to theme forces and the immense rebalancing, we realized we no longer needed to limit the FA of unit attachments like the Trencher Infantry Officer and Sniper or the Praetorian Swordsmen Officer and Standard, which in the new editions are now identified as Command Attachments.

Instead, we were able to balance them from the ground up to have an FA equal to the unit to which they could attach. No longer did a unit of Stormblades need to go to battle without an officer, nor did a unit of Druids of Orboros lack the stern oversight of their Druid Overseer.

Another extremely exciting result from our look at unit attachments was the decision we came to about how weapon attachments would interact with units. Specifically, units can now take a maximum of three weapon attachments from any valid weapon attachment options they have. So, in the future, units with multiple weapon attachment options will be able to mix and match between their various options, so long as they do not contain more than three total weapon attachments.

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Deathripper

Warwitch Deneghra