Warmachine Tactics (i.e. Privateer Press Made My Week!)

Today is the day that challenges my ability to use a minimal amount of exclamation points.*



My buddy Josh told me to check the Privateer Press blog today, and I was treated to this article, followed by this video (followed by a fit of giggling, followed by excitedly jumping up and down):




You don't get much from this video, but if you've played X-COM you'll have a very good idea of what to expect. [And if you haven't played it, be sure to enter my giveaway to win a copy!] I imagine the game will be grid based, and will hopefully make more use of terrain than your standard Warmachine game. I can't imagine this will actually be a recreation of Warmachine, but so much of the game is ripe for being played like a tactics game. When I first played X-COM, my first thought was about how perfectly Warmachine could translate to a grid-based tactics "shooter."

Of course there may need to be some modifications to make the game flow properly.

• Most tactics games have you controlling a squad of individual characters, with the number capping at around 10 friendly units at a time. In the video we see a unit of Cygnar troops, making me dread the idea of clicking and moving every single squad member. I'm not even sure what they could to do speed this up. Perhaps they can let you control the squad leader who will give orders to the unit (stay in cover; go as far as you can; spread out; etc).
• In tactics games, even when the grid is hidden, you can usually gauge how for far away you are from another model. Terrain is usually a good guide since a wall takes up 1 square, a large tree might take up a 2x2 grid, etc. Part of the anticipation in Warmachine is knowing whether you're in range of models or not. Can the game be directly translated to a grid without any tweaking? I'm not sure, but if so it will certainly favor ranged units since you can always stay at maximum threat range.
• As I said, the game will need more terrain to be visually pleasing. Cover, concealment, buildings, etc are all things that are usually kept to a minimum in Warmachine, but will look pretty lame in a video game. Again, that will affect ranged units because they will either suffer from everyone being in cover, or they can hunker behind any number of walls and get an easy defense bonus against melee models.
• Army sizes will need to be done right. If they want me to do a 50 point battle, it needs to be something that won't take me ages to complete a single turn. In X-COM, it can take me several minutes to complete the actions of 6 squad members. In things like Final Fantasy Tactics, I could spend 10 minutes making sure I maximized my turn in light of terrain features, other models' abilities, etc. If I'm fielding 30+ Khador models, the process needs to be quick. They label it as a squad-based tactics game, but that could have a host of meanings.
• The battlefield may need to be shortened a bit. A 48x48 grid may be a bit too much to trudge across if they're going to litter it with terrain, something that you usually don't encounter until the middle area of the board. It would be absolutely fine as-is, especially if they don't use Fog of War to limit your view to what your characters see (a fun mechanic, but too different from Warmachine).

All of that stuff can be handled easily, and I trust PP to learn from their previous experiences of dealing with an outside developer. I'm nothing but excited for this game to release, and I will absolutely be backing the Kickstarter when they launch it, and I hope you Warmachine fans will as well!


See you tomorrow!

Remember to follow me on Facebook. I'm doing a blog post every single day for 2013, and Facebook is a great way to stay up-to-date as well as take part in my monthly giveaways! This month's giveaway is for an iOS copy of X-COM Enemy Unknown, so enter here to win!









* Here they are:     !!!!!!!!!!!!!!