Warmachine Mk IV rule changes

In my last article I touched upon some of the changes to the Warmachine business model and miniature production. A wargame is more than just getting your models to the table though. The rules are, obviously, a critical part of the game experience. So lets look at some of the changes that have been made to the Warmachine rules and talk about how they will impact the game.

But first…

One issue that has followed Warmachine through its various iterations is that it is a complicated game. The core rules of Warmachine are no more complex than Warhammer 40K or Age of Sigmar. Perhaps even less so given the number of different phases that those games have. Movement and combat are quite simple but managing Warjacks and Warbeasts is slightly more complicated. Nothing quite as bad as Infinity though.

Where Warmachine does require a bit more processing power on the part of the gamer is in the interaction between things such as abilities, spells and feats. This was especially an issue in MK II when the number of additional rules on some units could fill the entirety of the unit cards. The MK III rules cut down on this significantly and, as we’ll see, MK IV continues to do this.

The game can still become complex due to these interactions but, to a large extent, this is part of the fun of the game. The core game rules quickly become second nature which lets you focus on exploring the game space provided by those abilities and spells.

Rule Streamlining

Quite a few of the rule changes have either modified or removed rules for the purpose of streamlining the game. Privateer Press (see the link above) and Steamforged Games have talked about “simplification” but I think ‘streamlining’ is a better term. The changes they have made are primarily to remove the parts of the games that generated exceptions or edge-cases that needed to be addressed with additional rules or elements that just slowed the game down. None of these issues are, on their own, complex or complicated but they did slow gameplay down.

Facing

Prior to Mk IV most players had lines on their bases to mark the front and back arcs of the models. Attacks to the rear of a model were easier to hit with and did additional damage. Most experienced players quickly learned how to avoid exposing their units which left newer players breaking out their protractors to make sure they didn’t inadvertently leave a Warjack or Warcaster open to a rear attack. It slowed the game down until you learned how to not make it an issue. There was also a problem with gamer experience of Warmachine. Nothing makes you think a game sucks like having your Warjack reduced to spare parts because you left a tiny sliver of your rear arc showing.

Free Strikes

Moving out of the melee range of a unit would allow you to get Free Strike against that unit. This attack got a bonus to hit and to damage and could be quite devastating. This slowed down the game as players sought to avoid the melee ranges of various units on the board and also generated many, many edge cases as the game provided you with any number of ways to make a friendly or enemy model move. Some players would also bog down Warjacks and Warbeasts with units of infantry threatening a ‘death of 100 cuts’ from multiple Free Strikes.

Now, don’t get me wrong. As a Cryx player I loved moving a Heavy Warjack next to an enemy Warjack and then harpooning it with my Reaper and causing it to take damage from a Free Strike before I reeled it in and smashed it again. As fun as that was, the additional rules verbiage wasn’t worth it. You also felt pretty bad if you did that sort of thing to a new player who wasn’t expecting it. As the abilities in the game expanded it also introduced a lot of additional verbiage that made for some difficult reading.

Unit rules

In Warmachine MK II, infantry units could easily be up to thirteen models. Each of these models would then have to be moved and attack individually. Given that some of them could have different attack types as well as special abilities and it is easy to see how they could take a significant amount of time to move. They also could, with the Free Strike rule, be turning into giant tar-pits that tied down enemy models. Movement with units is now simpler and they are not only smaller but, so far, have fewer options to add additional models to the unit. Nothing could slow a game down like a player using multiple infantry units with a full set of weapon and command attachments. Especially if the weapon attachments could fire at different targets than the rest of the unit.

AOEs and Spray Attacks

Now it doesn’t seem as if using templates would cause a game to slow down but Warmachine allowed you to pick your targets to maximise the number of models hit by a template as well as which specific models were targetted. Firing an AOE attack using a template on a large unit of infantry with attachments could take some time for a player to resolve. Templates are now a thing of the past. The AOE value determines how many models can be hit and how far away from they target they can be. Spray templates are gone entirely and are replaced with a simple straight line.

Models can only attack Enemy models

Warmachine allowed you to target your own troops with attacks. This was frequently used as a way to get around enemy units being unable to be targeted by your attacks. Intangible units? Shoot a spray template at one of your own models. Can’t see the concealed units? Shoot one of your infantry models with an AOE or chain lighting spell and hit them anyway.

Combined with the AOE and spray templates this was perhaps one of the cheesiest tings in Warmachine and I am glad it is gone. Being able to fire at your own models generated so many edge-cases in the rules that it should have been removed ages ago. I am glad to see this gone as well. There are still some exceptions to this, such as berserk units or Warbeasts that frenzy but no more cheese.

Power Attacks

One area of the rules that was always the first thing that new players stumbled on were Power Attacks. Warjacks could slam into enemy models and knock them flying or just pick them up and throw them. The game provided quite a few possible options with Power Attacks as well as multiple ways that a model could effect another model if it was throw or slammed into it. These have all been simplified and are easier for players to remember and use. And this is an important change because many new players would not use power attacks because of the numerous rule interactions.

Model rules and abilities

One of the biggest issues with Warmachine has been, especially in Mk II, the amount of information on the units cards. Units could do so many things that it quickly turned the game into an experience where you would lose because you didn’t know about a rules interaction with an ability on a unit card. Some of this has been mitigated by the decision to make the game playable through the Warmachine app. You can also access cards and even do so before a game since you don’t need the requisite book or unit cards.

Reducing the informational load that a player needs to access the game is far more important. So far, after examining the various factions in the Warmachine app, it appears that most units have fewer abilities and many of the abilities are reused across different units to provide a theme for the force. The current crop of units in the Warmachine app have a much smaller number of abilities than previous versions of the game.

These different abilities are one of the cores of the game but that doesn’t mean that you need an encyclopedia’s worth of them to make it interesting. This was always the Achille’s Heel of the game. Power creep not in character stats or weapons but in new, and unique, abilities that made the game slow down and be very difficult to play casually. Players who invested a lot of time into the game perhaps didn’t see it as an issue but for casual gamers it could be quite a problem.

Privateer Press has been dealing with this issue since the MK III version of the game and it is good to see that this process has continued. It makes the game more fun for casual players and it also reduced the amount of time you need to spend not only looking an ability up on a card but pondering how it interacts with some other ability or spell.

Is that all?

Looking at the document that Privateer Press posted regarding the MK IV rules there are quite a few additional changes that they made to the rules. Those are, I think, different than the streamlining that was done with the rules that we just looked at and probably bear looking at on their own.

While it seems as if it is a small list, these rule changes combine to limit rule and ability interactions as well as areas of the game where the additional on table fussing didn’t actually make the game more fun but just slower. And as someone who has played a Khador army with multiple Winter Guard units that had weapon and unit attachments in them I can say that this is all really for the best. There have been some things removed from the game that I did enjoy (generating Free Strikes with a harpoon gun for instance) but I think that the game will be better without them. Not only does the game look as if it will play quicker but it also seems as if there won’t be as much of a learning curve for new players who want to experience the game.