Warmachine updated their "tribes" (Patreon) just now. The big thing here? They're going to give away STLs for MKI/II/III model kits that are no longer available at retail but do have legends rules. A nice way to avoid pissing off the FLGSes of the world. They explicitly state they will not be giving out retail product STLs.
Starting from May, monthly drops for Army Tier subscribers will now include playable Cephalyx models in addition to everything else we’ve already revealed.
With these (and upcoming) models, the Hive Mind cadre, and the free rules in the Warmachine app, you’ll soon be able to field a Dark Operations Army of Legend!
What’s an Army of Legend?
An Army of Legend is a playable force from Warmachine’s history
They’re fully compatible with the current edition of Warmachine — you’ll find their rules in the free Warmachine app
They’re Prime legal, which means you could use them in a tournament or event
They’re no longer sold at retail
Monstrosity May
In May’s Army Tier drop, you’ll get the three monstrosities for Dark Operations: the Subduer, Warden, and Wrecker.
We’ll also be adding the Hive Mind cadre from the Welcome Pack to the Dark Operations army in the Warmachine app over the coming months. It’ll still be playable as part of Cryx Necrofactorium, as well as being fully playable in its own right in 30 point games — giving you three ways to use the cadre.
This means you can easily play 50pt games of Warmachine just with the Hive Mind cadre and monstrosities. With a Field Allowance of 4 for each monstrosity, you can go to even higher point games.
In the following months, we’ll be adding more STLs for Dark Operations models, including warcasters, solos, and units, letting you grow your Dark Operations army and increase your options.
And for those of you who don’t have access to a 3D printer, these Dark Operations models will follow the Hive Mind cadre onto our website to buy as physical models around a month or so after the end of their monthly drop.
This bit at the end is also interesting. They're going to give away access to all this stuff to FLGS stores that stock Warmachine, and allow FLGS to order website exclusive models to sell.
At its core, the Warmachine Digital subscription is here to grow the scene by giving players more ways to do cool hobby stuff. With the terrain, base toppers, and additional model parts, you can customise to your heart’s content, and create awesome-looking tables in your local stores for casual play and events.
The monthly drops are also specifically designed to support retailers by complementing the most recent retail army release. For example, the next few months of STLs will focus on Cygnar Gravedigger terrain and customisable bits. We won’t release retail products as digital STLs.
To take this support to the next level, we’re also now offering a free Warmachine Digital subscription for all of our Warstores (i.e. stores that are signed up to the Warmachine Stockist Programme). With a free subscription, Warstores will be able to print thematic terrain for tables and models for running demos.
As we roll out the programme, Warstores will also be able to get hold of models currently only sold direct on our website. If you don’t own a 3D printer, that means you’ll be able to buy Dark Operations models from your local Warstore as well as our website.
Warmachine updated their "tribes" (Patreon) just now. The big thing here? They're going to give away STLs for MKI/II/III model kits that are no longer available at retail but do have legends rules. A nice way to avoid pissing off the FLGSes of the world. They explicitly state they will not be giving out retail product STLs.
That army of legend thing is actually going to go a very long way in terms of good will toward players(depending on if they're actually balanced worth a shit) who hadn't thrown out their armies yet. Basically undoing what Privateer Press did with mk4. Interesting.
To take this support to the next level, we’re also now offering a free Warmachine Digital subscription for all of our Warstores (i.e. stores that are signed up to the Warmachine Stockist Programme). With a free subscription, Warstores will be able to print thematic terrain for tables and models for running demos.
I know the necron detachment you're talking about because I used it quite a bit, It basically rendered sword and board lychguard indestructible. Throw in a Overlord with a resurrection orb and you had a unit that was never going to leave the table.
The models they have released so far have iffy supports, but, growing pains. I'm not a huge fan of Cryx but I understand they're the Warmahordes version of Space Marines, so not surprising they're the ones being covered right now. Figure in a few months there will be a full army(?)... force...? whatever of Cryx and they'll switch to a different faction, so you will be able to have two forces for intro games using this system.
That army of legend thing is actually going to go a very long way in terms of good will toward players(depending on if they're actually balanced worth a shit) who hadn't thrown out their armies yet. Basically undoing what Privateer Press did with mk4. Interesting.
I think Legend was from the start of MK4, wasn't it? This is just them deciding "we don't SELL these anymore so we might as well sell the STLs."
The only faction that really jumped out at me when I thumbed through the game back in the day was the Clockwork Transhumanists but they were squatted so they could be used in a scifi game that didn't happen. I guess the dragon faction merged with them in MK4, but I'm not loving the look. It doesn't help that they only show one painted mini and the rest are raw resin.
Uhh... yeah, good luck with that guys. 4 hours for a skirmish game is definitely idiotic. Honestly even 2 hours is kind of excessive but if that's for a more casual game it's probably fine but I'd expect the longer end of a skirmish game these days to be closer to 90 minutes.
Malifaux's card mechanic adds so much time to the game. Being able to make a choice over cards in hand slows the game to crawl if you're not an experienced player. Multiple layers of complexity and having to build your list at the table makes for a very slow game.
That army of legend thing is actually going to go a very long way in terms of good will toward players(depending on if they're actually balanced worth a shit) who hadn't thrown out their armies yet. Basically undoing what Privateer Press did with mk4. Interesting.
Are they being nice to players or realize their player base is so small they have to bring back legacy armies? I wonder what the ratio of new to old will be in a years time. I might find a group buy if my local scene expands.
Are they being nice to players or realize their player base is so small they have to bring back legacy armies? I wonder what the ratio of new to old will be in a years time. I might find a group buy if my local scene expands.
The first time I heard about Warmachine Digital was a FLGS that runs a youtube channel bitching about the idea as it screws them out of income, or something. They also were talking about how the MK2->MK3->MK4 thing left a looooot of FLGS with unsellable stuff.
I imagine it's nothing compared to dealing with GW, but you kinda have to deal with GW. You don't HAVE to deal with Privateer Press or the new guys.
So I imagine a lot of "how do we not make the FLGS ban our product from their tables" went into the planning of this.
The models they have released so far have iffy supports, but, growing pains. I'm not a huge fan of Cryx but I understand they're the Warmahordes version of Space Marines, so not surprising they're the ones being covered right now. Figure in a few months there will be a full army(?)... force...? whatever of Cryx and they'll switch to a different faction, so you will be able to have two forces for intro games using this system.
I think Legend was from the start of MK4, wasn't it? This is just them deciding "we don't SELL these anymore so we might as well sell the STLs."
The only faction that really jumped out at me when I thumbed through the game back in the day was the Clockwork Transhumanists but they were squatted so they could be used in a scifi game that didn't happen. I guess the dragon faction merged with them in MK4, but I'm not loving the look. It doesn't help that they only show one painted mini and the rest are raw resin.
Legends in mk4 was a big "fuck you, your army isn't going to be supported and won't be legal at events" like GW does with legends in 40k except literally the entire product range in one go. Having the old armies actually be playable in events outside of "here's your little legends tournament that on our timeline we're going to stop supporting once the new stuff is out" is a massive improvement. That should mean that the mk3 armies(including convergence that I believe you might be referring to) should be playable but we'll have to see. The scifi game did eventually happen, it was their "warcaster neomechanica" thing they Kickstarted and was practically dead on arrival. Other than everyone simply calling it warmachine 30k or whatever it has next to no retail presence due to everything else PP has previously done with distribution and retail.
The first time I heard about Warmachine Digital was a FLGS that runs a youtube channel bitching about the idea as it screws them out of income, or something. They also were talking about how the MK2->MK3->MK4 thing left a looooot of FLGS with unsellable stuff.
I imagine it's nothing compared to dealing with GW, but you kinda have to deal with GW. You don't HAVE to deal with Privateer Press or the new guys.
So I imagine a lot of "how do we not make the FLGS ban our product from their tables" went into the planning of this.
I've never heard of a store banning games at the table because of a company. Most FLGS are struggling to compete with online sales and are transitioning to a games cafe model.
That sounds really gay. You can 3D print your lol cow minis. The youtubers shilling the lolcow card game always seem so pathetic when they try and hype it up. It makes them look worse than if they did Raid.
I've never heard of a store banning games at the table because of a company. Most FLGS are struggling to compete with online sales and are transitioning to a games cafe model.
Me neither. However most FLGS would rather support shit they actually sell and promote play and events for those product lines. That's the biggest issue OPR has had, and trench crusade is having. If the store actually gets regular traffic it's pretty easy to push games out by simply not having space for them to be played when the place is busy, and of course not informing customers about them and possible player base if people ask.
As far as stores trying to switch to being a game cafe and offering more than basic pre packaged snacks and bottled drinks, good fucking luck. Prepared food and drink will involve additional permits, equipment, staff training, and the margins usually aren't going to be amazing. Game bars can work due to markup on booze and an older audience.
Me neither. However most FLGS would rather support shit they actually sell and promote play and events for those product lines. That's the biggest issue OPR has had, and trench crusade is having. If the store actually gets regular traffic it's pretty easy to push games out by simply not having space for them to be played when the place is busy, and of course not informing customers about them and possible player base if people ask.
As far as stores trying to switch to being a game cafe and offering more than basic pre packaged snacks and bottled drinks, good fucking luck. Prepared food and drink will involve additional permits, equipment, staff training, and the margins usually aren't going to be amazing. Game bars can work due to markup on booze and an older audience.
Most people playing OPR are using 40k models. If you can't find a way to sell warhammer to an OPR player then I don't know how you're still in business.
Most people playing OPR are using 40k models. If you can't find a way to sell warhammer to an OPR player then I don't know how you're still in business.
Obviously you can, same as any other mini agnostic game but that's not the entire point. Promoting a local player base for something that actually exists for sale on the shelves is generally going to be better than anything else. It's the same reason you don't see shops promoting a lot of historicals and smaller scale as well unless there's enough of a local community they're willing to stock product for them. Same goes for ttrpgs and ccgs.
Obviously you can, same as any other mini agnostic game but that's not the entire point. Promoting a local player base for something that actually exists for sale on the shelves is generally going to be better than anything else. It's the same reason you don't see shops promoting a lot of historicals and smaller scale as well unless there's enough of a local community they're willing to stock product for them. Same goes for ttrpgs and ccgs.
Maybe your area is different to mine but most stores don't care as long as you buy stuff while there. If you buy paints to paint your 3D prints you're as welcome as the guy buying up new GW releases.
Maybe your area is different to mine but most stores don't care as long as you buy stuff while there. If you buy paints to paint your 3D prints you're as welcome as the guy buying up new GW releases.
Yea. They have a lot of table space and they are happy to use it for out of town events or local game events of any kind. As long as you bring people into the play space they welcome you. They stock a wide range of products so you can always find something to fit your game or stock up on paints.
Yea. They have a lot of table space and they are happy to use it for out of town events or local game events of any kind. As long as you bring people into the play space they welcome you. They stock a wide range of products so you can always find something to fit your game or stock up on paints.
It didn't. It got a date of some time mid 2026 with only an initial release of a couple kits with some promo packs of the card game for 2025 but no rules.
I don't see why it'd be too autistic for the thread. It's a thread about companies, games, and their communities. Sperg away. I personally don't know much about it other than being some blind box bullshit at one point, and repeated failures of it in the market.
MonPoc is legit one of my favorite games of all time. I played the original weekly and we had a good community going on in the area during its heyday. In fact one of the regulars at our store won a world championship and I played against him several times, even saw him invent the winning army and strategy he took to worlds.
I won't say that I have a lot of insider information, but I can at least give a player's perspective of what we saw and heard.
So yes, in the beginning Monsterpocalypse (MonPoc) was a kind of tradeable miniatures game. There were 2 kinds of boosters to a set - Monster boosters (you would have 1 random monster in it - 2 figures as each monster had 2 forms) and unit boosters (4-5 randomized units, and usually a building). HOWEVER the distribution was actually very sane which is why nobody minded.
Let me use set 1 as an example. The original game had 6 agendas in it. First set had 2 monsters for each agenda. So if you ordered a "box" of boosters, you got 12 boosters to in it. The 12 boosters were guaranteed to have all the monsters - both for each agenda. The units were bit more randomized, but order a "box" of 12 of those and you would get a sane distribution, needing to buy very few additional figures to have all you wanted to play any faction. Thus for set 1 buying one "box" of monster boosters and one "box" of unit boosters, and you were 99% done.
Everything after that were exclusive and promo figures.
So MonPoc doesn't have points in the game, it has straight up costs. You field 1 monster (unless doing a double header game) and 5-15 units. Without sperging out on the tactics, there were costs for your monster shifting forms, and costs on spawning units. You could bring all the most powerful figures you want, but if they cost too much, putting them onto the field could be half your turn's options. So over the game's lifespan, they had promo units which were much more poweful - and expensive, as well as promo units which were cheaper - at the cost of being permanently out of the game if they ever blew up.
Promo monsters were alternate "power up" forms of the monsters. See all monsters had 2 forms. The "basic" form which it always started the game with and you always played, then it had a "hyper" form which you could select to bring as every monster released for the game has at LEAST 2 hyper forms - some having 3.
On average the game was pretty darn good about keeping things balanced - but there were some figures in the early set which had a wide range of power scale. Some monsters promo hyper forms were strictly worse than their base, standard-booster hyper form. Some promo forms were strictly better. On average though they were often just different. So you could pick which one you wanted for playstyle or tactics.
And yes, as far as things went in the game, there were also stronger and weaker figures. That is a WHOLE other discussion.
So the sets of the game function a lot like magic blocks. You have the first 3 sets of block 1. Set 1 introduces the game. Set 2 is "new york" and introduces new units, new monsters, and recognizable buildings for the game from the big city (Statue of Liberty, Chrysler tower, Empire State Building). Then set 3 introduces "morphers" (monster start out as small individual figures then "combine" into a big fig - think Voltron, and yes they did a Voltron starter set in fact) as well as faction specific buildings. They also regularly came out with map packs which give you several new maps to fight on as well as come with an exclusive, unique building (so you never need to buy more than one of the pack) as well as several other perks and tie-ins.
Oh yeah, and all of this is prepainted and pretty darn gorgeous looking. It's not super cheap at the time, but you feel like you're getting your money's worth and it isn't near the money sink that something like MTG is. (at the time I'd sometimes split a box with a friend)
Yes, privateer press did put their own "building" into the game too. It's not OP but it is really good.
Then block 2 began. Set 4 (2.1) introduces new factions to the agendas. So like in the first block the protector agenda had giant mechs that were fighting (think Pacific Rim), in the second block the protectors were now monks wielding the power of the elements (earth, wind, fire and water). But there's no penalty for mixing faction units if they all belong to the same agenda. So now you can just have fire elementals fighting alongside your tanks and airplanes.
Set 5 releases and it's title is, "Big in Japan." Like set 2, it has Japanese landmarks for your city in them. But unfortunately they screwed up the distribution. In that set they released unique units. 1 for each agenda.
The basic unit, it's elite version, the promo version, then then super-special unique version.
These unique units were only 3 to a "box." Meaning you'd have to buy at LEAST 2 boxes worth now just to have a complete collection of set 5 - assuming you were lucky. If you pulled badly, you could be buying more.
BUT WAIT, that's not all what they screwed up.
Let's look back just a moment. So in set 1, the unit boosters all came with 1 building in them. So you'd get about 12 packs to a box, 10 different buildings in the set - you'd have a good selection for your city. You might get 1 more unit box just to really round out your army and city selection but after that you would probably just trade for the rest of the buildings you wanted. The game had a max of 5 of buildings and units so you did have a cap on how much you could stash..
Now the game did have "unique" rules in it (called "limited" as the ability). Things marked as unique were limited to 1 per army. Now let's look back to set 2, the New York set. That set released with 4 buildings. 3 of them unique (like the statue of liberty, obviously) and the other a generally useful building, the "insurance company." Unlike set 1, in this set the buildings came in the monster packs. So you would buy a monster booster and get either a monster in it, or a pair of buildings - one of the 3 New York uniques + the insurance company. IIRC, the monster 'box' was a bit larger to accommodate it, but if you bought it, you should have gotten every monster in the set, plus all the buildings (and 3 insurance companies). Then the unit boosters were a bit cheaper this run since they don't have the buildings.
Set 5, Japan did not do this. This set put buildings back in the unit booster. AND the Japan set had unique buildings just like set 2. This in addition to the unique units. So not only were you now needing to buy multiple unit boxes to try and complete the set (remember before you could make do with 1 or 2), BUT you were then also pulling in multiples of the unique Japan buildings - which you couldn't use! Needless to say a bunch of us were pissed. (the set at least had 8 buildings in it - 3 of them unique - so you weren't totally bloating your collection)
This was in 2010 around the time Kaiju movies were building in hollywood. Godzilla (2014) was on the horizon, people knew Del Toro had a project (Pacific Rim, 2013), and the word is that Monsterpocalypse got picked up by Tim Burton to be another movie made. (A comic mini series had released - you could get a promo figure if you got all 3 issues - we figured the movie would be the comic's story.)
We players were angry, but we were anxious too. Set 6 should be on its way soon, we were looking forward to morphers for the new factions. The ability sheet rules had hinted at the new faction buildings that were coming, and the thought of the game being on the big screen sounded neat and we hoped it would bring in even more players.
So we waited.
And waited.
. . .and . . .waited.
From what we heard, the movie rights to the property got so tangled up it froze and locked the game. While the movie was in development, PP couldn't make anything monpoc related which sounds like just the worst possibly intellectual property rights of all time. (And believable that Hollywood would make a contract that dumb.)
And the movie seemed stuck in development hell.
The game started to die. Privateer Press could apparently rerelease material and they seemed to do that for a year or two. There was a 2 player battle box which had 2 armies and a cityscape from the first set, but which 2 armies you would get was totally random. Later on, they apparently started rereleasing NON-randomized packs of the first set factions. (i.e. "Shadow Sun Syndicate" army which had the monsters and units of that faction in it.) Some of us were actually excited for this as a possible relaunch for the game which we didn't mind as some of us could pick up armies they missed the first time while bringing in new players - but it never went past a reprint of set 1. It was barely seen anywhere. (I've still never seen any of this product in person, only pictures online.) What had been on life support, was now dead.
THEN Monsterpocalypse 2.0 was announced! And... they changed everything.
The rules - which were largely elegant and pretty streamlined to begin with - were now truly gimped down to retard levels.
This is a very good representation of what the base looked like in 1.0.
That in a square base, with the figure you see there in the middle in all of it's 3d painted glory.
Now here are the 2 sides of that same monster's 2.0 card.
Dice and their economy was also a key part of the game. You had 10 "action" dice that determined everything you could do. For an example, to spawn a unit might be 1 dice (more if it's really powerful), moving it cost 1 dice, then attacking with it costs at LEAST 1 dice. So that's 3 dice used there and you only have 7 left for your turn.
A big part of the game was budgeting out your dice turn to turn. Well not as much any more. In 2.0 for example movement is now "free" - never cost you any dice. Another game action was "powering up." You rolled 1-3 action dice to see if you could gain any "power dice" which you would use to fuel some really powerful game actions. A single normal action dice gives you about a 50/50 chance of it succeeding. You could try rolling 3 dice to make it all but guaranteed - but again, that's less dice for you to do things then in your turn. There were also buildings you could field to give you bonus dice to roll, further increasing your chances.
In 2.0? Now it's just automatic. Your turn begins, you automatically get your power up.
True it was no longer randomized, but the figures were much larger now. They no longer had bases filled in with all their stats and info, but instead had clear bases with cards on the side that you would consult.
version 1.0 on left, version 2.0 on right for all 3 (building, monster, and unit). The right ones have all been painted by someone, they did NOT come like that. The left monster has also been repainted by the owner.
Here's another side by side with the original paint job on 1.0 and I'm guessing the "suggested" pain job for 2.0 from the company.
The new figures were unpainted now. Monsters, units, and buildings, all unpainted. While the packs were no longer randomized, they were more expensive. At least - they were if you wanted to buy everything. If you focused on just one army/faction and got just the stuff for it, you might come out cheaper than when the game originally launched. But if you wanted to collect everything, it was SIGNIFICANTLY more (even accounting for inflation).
For a comparison. Here is the page for their building packs.
Originally in set 1, a unit booster was $9.99. Which means if you wanted 4 buildings, you would have to pay $40 MSRP, and those buildings would be randomized, BUT you would also get 4 random units per booster too. So for $5 more, in 1.0 you got 16 units in addition to the 4 buildings. For comparison, checking a site shows a 5 unit pack in 2.0 costs just under $25 MSRP. Again in 2.0, for $60 you could get 4 buildings and 5 units, whereas in 1.0, $40 got you 4 bulidings and 16 units.
I am not sure how well the 2.0 game did. (It broke my heart worse than any fem-bot.) But apparently there was a "soft" relaunch of attempting to turn MonPoc into more of a board game, sort of like version 1.0. This was apparently farmed out to Mythic Games and...
I've never looked up actual numbers, but I just had a sense that when it launched, MonPoc was doing pretty good going by how much store presence it had around town and how many places were running tournaments. When it came back I knew of.... 1 single, solitary store that was carrying it.
The pain is real, man. One of the greatest games ever made and they killed it man. They killed it dead. It gives me some comfort to hear about PP's corporate issues that didn't seem to help matters, but part of me will always blame hollywood for killing the game too.
