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| The original, Primal Lylyth |
With the recent release of Warmachine: Colossals and the expected spring release of Hordes: Gargantuans, gaming in the Iron Kingdoms is definitely getting bigger.
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| pLylyth alternative sculpt |
One of my favourite things about Warmachine/Hordes is the Warcaster/Warlock dynamic. They really are the leader of your army, pulling all the strings, and the game is over if they die. In addition there are different versions of warcasters as their character develops in the background story. These alternative versions aren't necessarily more powerful, just different.
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| Epic Lylyth – a simply glorious sculpt |
When it comes to my Legion of Everblight, I love Lylyth. She may not be the best Warlock for the faction in-game, but I love the character, the background and the models. Such is her draw that I own all three sculpts – original (primal) pLylyth, alt pLylyth and (epic) eLylyth.
With the recent info coming out of the Privateer Press Lock & Load convention I have the possibility of a new model to add to my collection. As part of the Gargantuans release it seems we are now getting Lylyth 3 who, instead of being on a standard 30mm base, will be on a 120mm base and considered a Battle Engine!
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| Lylyth3… soon to be a Battle Engine! |
Yes, we will shortly have a version of Lylyth on a sleigh – ho, ho, ho! I like the idea for this (although I would have preferred a Raptor mounted version of Lylyth first I think) but the practicalities seem odd to me.
First of all in-game. As I mentioned, if your 'caster gets killed the game is over, but here we have a caster on a 120mm base rather than a 30mm base – not so easy to hide and, improved defences aside, does beg the question of how easy it will be to keep her alive.
There's also rumours of a Khador warcaster actually being a Colossal – at what point do we reach "too big" for commander models?… when they're physically the biggest model on the table?
Then there is the financial cost. The current Battle Engines retail for something in the region of £50-60 and the Colossals closer to £100. Would you pay that for a warcaster model that by definition will not be used in every game and, if her stats make her too vulnerable, hardly used at all?
Of course you could always look upon it as simply purchasing a lovely model to paint, but it's going to have to be pretty stunning to justify a price tag of £50+.
I wonder about the size escalation of WM/H. The appeal to me was always at the small skirmish level, contrasted to whfb being nearly pointless to play with low points. Lunch hour battles are the primary venue. The Lylyth model on the sleigh looks lovely, and hopefully won't cost as much as a battle engine (having considerably less mass I would think.) I can't imagine it having typical Legion caster DEF, but the idea of sniper tank is interesting.
ReplyDeleteColossal warcaster.... please, please no. There really is a point where bigger just doesn't look better. (cough*dreadknight*cough) I know PP has the Voltron license, but I hope they can resist the urge to make a bunch of jacks that form up into a super colossal.
Agreed. The skirmish level of WM/H was always the appeal when I was first introduced, in fact I lost interest when they first introduced units.
DeleteIt has escalated and when I saw Battle Engine and Colossals I did wonder. The points cost of the bigger 'jacks does restrict them to larger games, but things are definitely getting bigger.
The idea of a Colossal warcaster does sound ridiculous and a game system killing move.
I got the figures you sent me in the mail and I wanted to let you know I'm going to put a Thank You in my post tomorrow.
ReplyDeletePP where recently advertising jobs for resin mould makers and casters Mike, so I would be expecting them to be ramping up the poly casting to forgeworld levels. These big beasties might not hit the table every day but they will create a massive buzz and re-enforce their core american market for both gamers and collectors, and will provide a good return on material outlay.
ReplyDelete