MK III Musings

Ok. So Privateer Press have announced their new system for Warmachine/Hordes called MK III. What do we know? Well, We know that the core rules will be released for free on June 12th with the books being released on June 29th. We know that they have "rebalanced" all of the units and jacks in the game. There are going to be new battleboxes for each faction except Minions, Mercenaries, and Convergence (insert sad face here). New faction decks also for every faction, since you'll need a shiny new set of cards to go with the shiny new rule set. We also have a couple of the updated rules for the new system.

First up, what they are calling "Power Up" basically all 'Jacks in the game with a functioning cortex (so no convergence or cephalax monstrosities, more on that later) will get a free focus for being in their casters control area. This is kinda big. Now you don't have to choose between running your 'jacks first turn or casting those upkeeps on first turn. Warcasters have much more flexibility than before. This was done in an attempt to balance the game against Hordes since Hordes has a pretty large advantage in the early stages of the game when compared to Warmachine.

Now, I mentioned that Convergence and Cephalax do not benefit from Power Up. That's because they get their own rules. Convergence has always had induction. Power Up + induction would have been broken as hell. Instead, they removed the restriction on induction so you can now induct up to three focus from one 'jack to another. This is amazing.........as it stands right now. We don't know what (if anything) they've done to re-balance the 'jacks and units in the army. So yeah, right now the Corollary is able to hand out 6 focus a turn, but we have no idea if that's going to be true in the new edition. Until that new card is in my hand, I won't know.  Cephalax on the other hand, now power their Monstrosities through damage. They get one focus (up to the usual three) when they take damage. This focus stays on them until they use it. It doesn't go away at the end of the turn. I haven't played against these guys and only know one player locally who plays them, but this sounds like it could work really well for them.

The second major rule is something called "Spirit Bond" This is a Hordes specific rule that was put in to balance out them in the late game where Warmachine has the advantage. This rule lets you gain one additional fury from each of your dead, destroyed, or removed from play Warbeasts. Like I said, this is meant to shore up the Hordes late game since once they start losing beasts, it gets harder and harder to get work done as your Warlock has less to pull fury from. I don't think it'll alleviate all the fury you need late in game, but it will help.

The third major rule is the one I dislike the most. Premeasuring has come to Warmahordes. Yes, you may now pre-measure anything on the table. I think it takes a major skill out of the game. The ability to judge distances is key and without it, you either play more conservative or you end up failing charges or that shot you lined up misses by just a hair. It's a skill I lack completely. So why am I complaining about something that's going to make my life easier? I think it makes the whole game much easier and I'm not sure I'm happy with that. Like everything else though, it remains to be seen. There is the limiting factor of the timed turns that will make it hard to pre-measure a lot of things and still be able to move and attack. We'll just have to wait and see how it will fully impact the game and I may change my opinion on it over time.

That's about all we know for sure. Like usual though, the internet is exploding with pointless speculation and rumor mongering. There's no point in it. I've watched it happen with 40k countless times and it's beyond pointless.

So where does this all leave me? Well, I'm going to continue to play MK II until the new rule set comes out. I'm not, however, going to be buying any new models until MK III releases and we see how things are going to shake out. There's no use purchasing something only to have it not be that good in the new system.