UK-based tabletop games maker Steamforged Games has partnered up with Humble Bundle for a new bundle deal, packed with Warmachine tie-in novels and short story anthologies. There’s 41 books in total, ranging from the backstories for iconic Warcaster characters like Lieutenant Caine and Captain Phinneus Shae, to major moments in the metaplot like the second Cygnaran civil war and the return of the Dragonfather Toruk to the main continent of Immoren.
If you got into Warmachine for the first time after Steamforged Games acquired it in 2024, you might only be aware of the lore inside the Warmachine app. But from the release of the very first edition in 2003, the game had a moving metaplot that was expanded with supplement books, short stories in No Quarter magazine, and eventually a range of novels under the Skull Island Expeditions imprint.
I read a bunch of those books back in the day – they were always good pulpy fun, even if they weren’t all high art. Dan Wells’ ‘The Butcher of Khardov’ stands out in my memory as being really good, giving a believable and tragic backstory to Orsus Zoktavir; a real feat of storytelling, given that any other time he appears in a story, he’s a barely coherent homicidal maniac.
Obviously, this bundle will appeal most to people who are already familiar with the Iron Kingdoms setting, but if you enjoy action-packed fantasy stories I recommend you look into the setting a little before passing it over. The Iron Kingdoms might appear to be just another Eberron-adjacent ‘magic plus technology’ setting, but while that’s definitely part of the story, it also puts some really interesting spins on classic tropes.
The setting has deep metaphysics, and the relationship between magic, the gods, the creation of the world, and what happens to souls before life and after death is all really interesting. That leads into interesting some very deep, slow-burn plotlines; there are long term threads involving a cult of science-magicians who worship a constellation and are trying to re-align the planetary leylines in sympathy with it, and an entire empire of pirates and necromancers ruled by a dragon, just to pick out a few highlights.
Getting the 41 eBooks and digital anthologies in this bundle will cost you $30 (£22.23). It’s available on Humble Bundle until Wednesday September 9.
You can also go double or quits and pay £60 (£44.46) to get not one, but two entire TTRPGs. The two versions of the Iron Kingdoms RPG are completely different, one using an adapted version of the Warmachine miniature wargame rules (a genuinely great system, but definitely better if you use miniatures and battlemaps), the other based on DnD 5th edition. Pledging at this level unlocks 65 items split between the two games, from core rules and major supplements through to maps and adventures.
Has a range of tie-in novels ever left an impression on you, or greatly exceeded your estimations for licensed fiction? I will go to bat for the Horus Heresy books, despite the low points the series sometimes slumps to, because the best stories are genuinely peerless. If you know of a range of tie-in books that’s way better than it has any right to be, the Wargamer Discord community would love to hear your recommendations.
Source: Wargamer
