Warmachine — First impressions of the 2 player box

Warmachine has a rich history in the wargaming community. Originally produced by Privateer Press starting in 2003, the steampunk themed wargame features skirmish based combat between armies that use magic and technology, notably the use of Warjacks, which are massive robots magically controlled by Warcasters.

The game is engineered towards fast paced combat with aggressive tactics, but it still provides enough for the player who wants to utilize cover and be sneakier.

The game received plenty of awards, multiple editions, and expanded into another game called Hordes, which featured “savage” factions.  To date, 4 editions of the game came out up until 2024, when Steamforged Games (Elden Ring, Epic Encounters, Guild Ball) acquired the license to the Iron Kingdoms library, which includes Warmachine and a host of other brands, including the P3 Paint line.

As a result, more Warmachine in more places, which is how I ended up getting the 2 player starter set, which is widely available at LGS and online.  As there are a lot of models to build and paint, a whole new ruleset to understand, I think the best way to approach this is in phases.

Welcome to part 1 of our Warmachine coverage, where we’ll focus on the initial experience of unboxing and assembling the 12 models that come with the box! Over the next few weeks, we’ll go over painting both factions, learning the game, and playing a few together!

First off, this box set comes with 12 models, enough to build two forces, one for the Cygar faction and the Khador faction. It also includes some scatter terrain, so it’s entirely possible to play the game with this set, which is a pretty solid deal for MSRP $99. And that’s it. There’s no book, just a piece of paper with 2 QR codes which leads the user to both the full rule set of Warmachine and model building instructions. I would have expected some tokens, maybe a 10 page book, but no…this is kind of a let down for me. Especially at that cost, although the models are excellent.

The models are printed in highly detailed HIPS (high impact polystyrene), and I am not exaggerating when I say these are some of the best engineered sprues I’ve ever used. Each piece somehow seamlessly fits into each other, tightly too, which meant not a lot of fiddling with glue. In fact, the only problems I ever had was when I was working too fast and accidentally put a leg in wrong (please use Tamiya extra thin, it’ll make your day so much easier).

The sculpts are wild, with even the most basic characters rendered with exciting poses, amazing looking weapons, armor, and details. For example, the Khador units have a more technological feel, with full body armor, massive guns and riot shields. Whereas the Storm Legion feels less technical, with characters brandishing pistols and pirate hats. For most of the models minus one of the Warjacks, I opted to build them all out vs. sub-assembly painting…we’ll find out in a few weeks if this was a mistake or not.

I once again have to applaud the sculptors on really knocking it out of the park with these models. Assembling them was a breeze, it will take you a few nights if you stay focused.

The only real criticism I have of this box so far is the lack of documentation.  While it’s more cost effective to not print a book, making players who are new to Warmachine or maybe even wargaming in general download an app and access PDFs on their phone isn’t the most user friendly thing.

My initial take on the app is that it’s highly complicated, and being an app means I have to read off of my phone, which doesn’t help considering the small typefaces. Luckily, there’s a Quick Start guide available in PDF form on the Steamforged website, with very explicit instructions. We’ll dive into that in a later article.

Next time: we’ll dive into painting some of the models, including a Warjack! I’ll show you how to utilize zenithal highlighting (using a base tone of black and a lighter tone to establish highlights) and thinned paints to help paint these up quickly.