Iron Kingdoms World Guide: A history lesson you'll be happy to pay attention in!

Great cover for the World Guide.

The Iron Kingdoms is a setting with immense history, culture and warfare that extend well past the 'faction books' and 'module books' that WARMACHINE and HORDES have to offer. But how do you access this 'goldmine' of information? Well look no further then the Iron kingdom role play guides! No longer in print I was lucky enough to aquire both the world guide and character guide from a friend for some 'light' reading, what I didnt realise was how obsessive the details in these books were.
Opening the pages of these hardback tomes I am greeted with an extremly large contents page (I consider this a good thing) and flicking through I am met with a black-and-White image of a colossal (A giant warjack used to repel the Orgoth)and instantly I can tell things are going to get deep.
The machine itself.

The book, a supplement for the Iron Kingdoms Role playing game uses the 3.5 rule set from Dungeons and Dragons and by simply adopting this system it allowed the creators to make a truely unique world that the games we love are based on today.
So, what really makes this book appealing to a WARMACHINE player? well sadly you wont find any comtempary 'Fluff', no stories of warcasters trashing 'jacks instead what you will find is how a Warcaster's power armour works, how much you can barter a pig for with the khardic people (personally I love this, the thought makes me chuckle whenever I see a Khador player).You will find out everything from religion, mining, races, Human history, even the universe! This book will keep me engaged for as long as I can put off my friend wanting it back.
Exhaustive information page after page.

Sadly because these books are out of print some people see fit to charge ridiculous prices for these guides and some are reaching over 100 pounds in value. But fear not for they have just been released in PDF format, yet though they have been made avaiable for all I feel sad that these books will never again see print and are forver to be lost in the Fringes of RPG's.
As a Troll player I love this picture.

I requested these books because I could not get enough of the world history, I wanted to know WHY these things happen, WHY the kingdoms of Caen use warjacks and what happened to shape the Iron Kingdoms as they are today.
So beg your friends to borrow their copies, download the PDF or fork out the cash for that near mint copy! Because if you're like me you'll feel this book is worth its weight in GOLD.

A product review, WARMACHINE PRIME MKII and templates. All the gear...superb idea!

With the much anticipated release of Warmachine MkII I was finally able to get my book a couple of weeks ago (about feburary 13)and I must say it was worth the wait, 256 colour pages of pure warmachine madness!
The rulebook comprises of rules from the four main factions; Cygnar, Khador, Cryx and the Protectorate of Menoth though not the complete rules for the entire faction they instead provide a re-working of the models from Prime remix along with the addition of a new heavy warjack for each faction.
The legendary page 5

The price tag is a hefty £35 for the hardback edition (why would you buy anything else?)but for what it is it's a great price, at least £5 cheaper then another game comnpanies rulebook and in full colour with easy to understand rules and a great ready-to-go 'feel' to the book.
The softcover is much cheaper but contains an elusive 'phantom' page depicting some cryx 'jacks but really the Hardcover is where its at in terms of quality and durability.
PP cover girl Haley.

To top off the MkII mode that I think were all in at the moment I purchased the HORDES template set (I am a HORDES player at heart) and Privateer Press are just rolling out the quality of their products.
The set contains their new 10' spray template with the fantastic new line of sight height markings along with a clip to stick your melee gauge into. A blast template with the 3',4',5' radius and the fantastic melee gauge with measurements of 0.5', 2' (for the models with reach) and a 1' cover measurement. I bet the question your asking is why would i even bother with that gauge? well even been in the situation where you cant fit your tape measure inbetween those two models? well consider your problems solved!
The models are of a high quality laser-etched plastic. The colour is a translucent green but clear enough to see through it with ease and the material is very solid and feels me with confidence of the product.
A picture of the new HORDES template set.

All in all if PP carry on their product line like this, we will see a stream of new players flocking for a product that their money deserves!

Thoughts and Failures of My warmachine games

Needless to say we should learn more from defeat then victory but sometimes we have to make use of all the experience that we gain.
these are not battle reports but rather reflections
WARMACHINE: 25 point game between Me: Cygnar, Pete: Cygnar

Played well using the teir two system for the Adeptis Rahn comprising of two units of Battlemages, one magister, one phoenix, one manticore and one free arcanist (from the tier twon benefit)
I won first turn and Rahn giving the phoenix one focus while using the arcanist to give the manticore the one point of focus though i find that placing the Arcanist behind the 'jack its working with, is a bad idea as after the 'initial run' the Arcanist could no longer keep up and it is a wasted point
The cygnar army consisting of a unit of stormblades with UA, an ironclad, a Stromclad, and a lancer all led by epic Stryker did the same thing by running and getting into position.
Having played against this army before, i used Rahns feat to pull the 'jacks close to mine, though i may have been one turn to early. Used the phoenix to wreck the ironclad and the manticore doing minimal damage to the lancer (also lost cortex due to the lancers ability). I had hoped to use the 'denied flank' tactic with minimal success.
The game ended with Rahn using telekenisis to move out of combat, move, use force hammer on eStryker knocking him into wall and boosting damage enough to finish th ejob.
Points to take away
*keep the Arcanist close to his 'jack, deploy them side-by-side
*make sure Rahn has easy access to LoS after the phoenix has lost its arc node
*try not to use feat so early on