[Wargaming] Thoughts on the Privateer Press keynote at Templecon 2014

It's early February, which can mean only one thing for Wargamers in the USA - it's Templecon time! Sadly, being in the UK, (now) busy with a full time job, and with lots of my holiday allocation for the year already taken, I find myself once more unable to attend. (One year I'd love to go to an American gaming convention, but that's a discussion for another day.)

As is becoming traditional, Privateer Press chose Templecon for the start of year, state of the union keynote presentation. In it they detail all (or certainly a great number) of the projects coming out in the upcoming year, and tease ahead for projects that they're working on. Last year they announced the new Convergence of Cyriss faction being released as part of Warmachine's 10 year anniversary. What was going to be the big highlight on 2014?

Luckily for those of us not actually at Templecon, there were plenty of people live-tweeting the keynote. Not only that, but Privateer Press live-streamed the whole thing on Twitch TV. If that wasn't enough, they also put up the videos that they showed on their Youtube channel. Which was lucky for me, as it meant that I could catch up after the event.

First up I want to talk about another new Warmachine faction - the Cephalyx! Ok, so they're not a full faction like the Retribution of Scyrah, or even a limited release faction like the Convergence, but a Mercenary contract. A bit like the Pirates of the Broken Coast, or the Rhulic army I suppose. But whatever you class them as, they're interesting. We've had a couple of Cephalyx units in the Cryx faction for some time, but they don't get played much. Now that there's a whole army of them though, that may well change. We were given only the barest hints at the mechanics, but the idea of a 'Machiavellian' playstyle involving lots of movement shenanigans has me excited. The heavy warjack equivalents are also very interesting - cheap, not very hard to hit or damage, but with completely full damage grids, and no cortex. I'm very interested indeed in seeing what happens with the Cephalyx.

Some of the new Cephalyx models look really good too. Perhaps a bit similar to my Cryxians for me to collect,

but I'll definitely want to try them out. (Credit: Privateer Press keynote video)

I suppose that the notion of a new, very specific Mercenaries contract makes sense. It's a great idea for letting Privateer Press expand Warmachine in small, highly thematic ways without worrying about the baggage that fully fledged factions bring with them in terms of expected release schedules etc. I suspect that we'll be seeing more releases in the future along these lines.

Then there was the next expansion book, as expected for Hordes. It's going to be called 'Exigence' (which is a stupid name), and has some intriguing ideas in it. There are the Minions battle engines, one for the Gatormen and one for the Farrow. Both are crazy, but the Farrow one in particular is completely bonkers. Those two sub-factions also seem to be getting new female warlocks, although we know nothing about them other than their artwork and names so far. Not to be outdone, the main four factions of Hordes are getting new epic warlocks - Xerxis2 for Skorne, mounted on a rhinoceros, and what appeared to be Absylonia2 for the Legion of Everblight. They're also getting new, character lesser warlocks. I find this very interesting indeed, as there are already the four faction-neutral Minions/Mercenaries lesser warlocks, not to mention the Beastmistress for the Legion. This new ones seem to be strongly themed towards particular warbeasts, so it will be interesting to see how they leverage that design space in a new way. 

Oh year, and there was this guy too. Can you say character Satyr heavy warbeast for Circle Orboros? I can. (Credit: Privateer Press keynote video)

But possibly the most exciting announcement for 'Hordes: Exigence' (still a stupid name) was Warbeast Units! This is a novel idea, if a natural one for further differentiating Hordes from Warmachine, as it's something that only really works in the context of the former given the technological setting of the games. It's a brilliant idea, and will be fun to try out on the tabletop.

In terms of Privateer Press' other games, there was the announcement of 'Iron Kingdoms: Unleashed.' This almost seems to be the RPG Hordes to the Warmachine equivalent that is 'Full Metal Fantasy', focusing as it does on the wilderness areas of the Iron Kingdoms setting. Not having played the RPG in either of its guises I can't comment too much on this, but it does seem like Privateer Press are taking a leaf out of Fantasy Flight Games' book here. Consider the Warhammer 40,000 RPG, which now has five separate games in the same setting, with separate core rulebooks, different power levels, and subtly different rules. Or, indeed, the World of Darkness games put out by White Wolf, which are arguably an earlier, if more compartmentalised, version of the same concept. It's an interesting concept, and certainly allows you to tailor a game a little more to what you want to do, but it's also marginally concerning from a consumer point of view as far as milking a concept goes.

The idea of parallel games in the same setting, with similar rules, isn't new. In fact Hordes & Warmachine highlights that

Privateer Press has experience with it themselves. It'll be interesting to see how the two RPG versions differentiate themselves

from each other. (Credit: Privateer Press keynote video)

Finally, there was '[Level 7]: Invasion'. Not much to say here, as it was only a teaser trailer, but it's good to see another game in that line. Again, I've not played either of the previous '[Level 7]' games, but they're clearly distinct from one another, and this seems set to continue that trend.

Lots of food for though from the keynote this year, and lots to be excited about as a fan of Privateer Press' games. I can't wait to see some of the projects actually come to fruition and hit the shelves.