Insider 06-01-2016


The new editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES are only weeks away from releasing! There’s no stopping the hype train now—we’re full steam ahead. Oh, hey, that’s a nice segue. I’m proud of me.

This June, once we release all of the new Organized Play rules, you’ll see new versions of your favorite formats, such as Steamroller, Journeyman, and Masters. You’ll also see the release of a few new formats, such as our special new editions launch event, Full Steam.

If you ever played in one of the book release events during Mk II, you’ll have some idea of what to expect from Full Steam, but there are some significant changes to the overall structure that you’ll want to pay attention to.

Full Steam is a single-day casual event, aimed at getting all of your friends (old and new) together for those first few games in the new editions. Unlike previous release events, Full Steam isn’t a free-for-all where players are trying to get as many games in as possible. Instead, the event organizer (EO) determines round pairings and pairs players together. Full Steam is played at the 75 army point level, and we recommend that it runs four rounds.

While each round has an overall length of two hours, this is still a casual event, so players aren’t using individual timed turns. The EO will need to watch for any nefarious ne’er-do-wells intentionally trying to stall out their games to win on tiebreakers—and honestly, if you’re trying to stall out a win in a casual event … you probably should go play another game.

There are three award medals available as prizes during Full Steam: Best Player, Best Painted, and Best Sport. We’ve talked about Best Painted and Best Sport in previous Insiders as well as on Primecast, so you can expect the method by which a player can win these prizes to be the same as in other formats.

The Best Player award is for whoever earns the most Command Points throughout the event. Command Points aren’t earned just for winning games each round but for meeting special achievements, such as “Destroy five or more enemy models with collateral damage in a single turn” or “Play with a fully painted army” or “Win a game in 20 minutes or less.” You’ll have to be a bit creative with your tactics if you’re after the Best Player award in this format.

!insert>

As for the scenarios in Full Steam… Well, that’s fairly simple. This event uses the same scenarios found in the new editions of Prime and Primal. We know that most players move on from the core book scenarios fairly soon after they begin collecting and playing their Faction, so Full Steam is our chance to celebrate these newly designed core book scenarios and let everyone have a full day of action using them. You’ll find that core book scenarios strike a nice balance between the story-driven scenarios found in narrative leagues and the razor-balanced competitive scenarios found in Steamroller. We think you’ll have fun taking them for a spin!

Check with your local retailer or game club to see if they’ll be running a Full Steam event this summer when the new editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES burst onto the scene!

No