On Friday, Steamforged Games revealed the next wave of releases and new rules for Warmachine at its dedicated Lock and Load Europe convention – and confirmed the much hoped-for return of the classic Cryx pirate fleet via Warmachine 3D.
And there were a few extra titbits of information in the Q&A session afterwards – here’s all the most important news.
Cryx Black Fleet
Heavily hinted at during Adepticon this March, Steamforged confirmed that the Cryx Black Fleet would be the next major army release via a Frontier crowdfunding campaign on MyMiniFactory in December, followed by releases as part of the Warmachine 3D subscription in the new year.
There was early art for some new and updated versions of classic out of production models. Rengrave, Captain of the Atramentous is being upgraded to a Warcaster; the Revenant Crew and Satyxis Storm Witch are getting completely overhauled, as is the classic Warcaster Pirate Queen Skarre; and there was a brand new heavy warjack, Anghrim.
Though this was originally scheduled for September, the timeline for the release has been pushed back to December. The reason? The designers just love pork, and the Thornfall Alliance are getting even more new designs.
Fane of Nyrro
The Fane of Nyrro are the survivors of an ancient elven sect, vampiric Eldritch who have hidden from the surface world for centuries and have only emerged now that the entire nation of Ios has been rendered soulless or undead. THEY command a variety of huge warbeasts, which are – to somewhat simplify them – gigantic bat monsters.
We got the first look at Fane miniatures at Adepticon, and Steamforged followed up with more reveals and details on their rules. The distinctive mechanic for the Fane is Hunger. Each Fane Warlock starts with three points, and it simply builds up until its spent – each Warlock builds it up uniquely, and has unique abilities to spend it on.
All Fane Warlocks can ‘Bloodshift’ defensively, and spend three points of Hunger to make a 4″ teleport adjacent to one of your other models, popping it.
Warbeasts are less significant as damage dealers than as Hunger generators – the modular Vordak heavies pass two Hunger to their Warlock when they eat an enemy model – and as animus vessels. They’re cheap, and heavy warbeasts have Fury five, but there’s no way to soak that Fury up within the faction. They’re supposed to frenzy, and even have bonus, special abilities that fire off when they frenzy.
All of the Fane warlocks are complete brutes, but Hysene the Executioner – who will come in the Command Starter – is apparently capable of destroying “half an army”. According to product owner Jamie Perkins she can take out a heavy and a super-heavy warbeast from full health to dead in one activation, thanks in no small part to her ability to spend Hunger to grant herself or other models in her army Decapitate.
One unexpected extra piece of news was that The Final Hunt – the Nyss elves that came in The Frozen and the Forgotten who fall under the Dusk banner – are not going to be part of the Fane of Nyrro, at least for now. Narratively they just don’t fit. However, rules are in development and will be available once the narrative has been brought in line.
Protectorate of Menoth
Menoth will start to release in October, and Steamforged had photographs of minis painted by Cult of Paint to show off. Fans got to see Flameguard Defenders, the new version of the Temple Flameguard; and very traditional looking Light and Heavy Warjack.
While other nations have had time to rebuild following the Infernal wars, the Protectorate was all but annihilated in that conflict, and it’s really just picking up the pieces now, and the classic aesthetic is present and correct.
Answering questions during the Q&A, lore master Sherwin Matthews said that the Protectorate territories are being taken into hand by someone very traditional and very fiery… so… Kreoss? Though as we already saw Thyra’s character warjack, Blood of Martyrs, at Adepticon, she’s probably involved.
Southern Kriels and Super Heavies
There were some expected updates on the progress of the Southern Kriels Kithguard miniatures – but this section started with the unexpected reveal of some Kithguard variants of the croak Fire Spitters. Studio sculptor Russ Charles originally created these purely for his own army, but they’re now going to be available as a show exclusive set.
Then there was the fully painted Fortress King colossal – which according to COO Mat Hart can grant a better vantage point to allied minis – and the massive tank-riding warlock General Gunnbjorn.
Answering questions during the Q&A, Jamie Smith implied that Gunnbjorn’s classic character warbeast Dozer (and his Pyg jockey Smigg) are coming back as a super heavy. Then the classic Khadoran Warjack, Drago, is coming back as a super heavy in Old Umbrey – and something very strange has happened to it, because it now uses Fury.
Similarly, we had color pictures of Ol’ Scuttlebutt and the Shadow Seraph to see, and the news that their rules are dropping along with online pre-orders.
Last Q&A answers
- Rich Loxam confirmed that there are plans for more physical book releases.
- Mat Hart said that a planned two player starter set release has been pushed back to Adepticon 2027 as the original plan involved overseas manufacturing that had become risky due to Donald Trump’s erratic tariph regime.
Excited? We’re excited. Come and hang out with us in the Wargamer Discord community to chat about the news!
Source: Wargamer
