Warmachine Vengeance Tabletop Review

Across the war-torn world of the Iron Kingdoms, various nations battle with weapons, both mundane and magical. Powerful Warcasters lead their armies, bolstering their warjacks, steam-powered machines of impossible destruction, to ensure their dominance in a battle for king and country (or gold, in the case of mercenaries). The nightmare empire of Cryx raises all those who fall to add to their seemingly innumerous ranks of the undead and adds more layers to their scheme to destroy the land of the living. But the living should have no fear, for a time of vengeance is at hand.

What is Warmachine Vengeance?

Warmachine Vengeance is the latest anthology book for Privateer Press’ award-winning miniatures game, Warmachine. Vengeance is the third book to be released in the Mark Two (MK2) cycle, not including the faction books released at the start of MK2. In this book, players of all factions are given multiple new entries into their respective armies. Unlike the previous entry, Colossals, every faction is treated to five new releases, with the exception of Mercenaries, who only receive four entries in Vengeance.

Each of the factions released are pretty similar to one another. Everyone (except Mercenaries) got a Warcaster, for example. Of these Warcasters, four of them are simply a new Epic version except for the Retribution of Scyrah, who got Issyria, a completely new character of her own. All of the new journeyman characters are here as well, and we should see a release of their models (as well as the Kickstarter exclusives) sometime in spring.

Warmachine Vengeance - Story

The story of Vengeance continues where Colossals left off in the last book. The Cygnar and Khador treaty holds despite the beatdown that Cryx managed to lay upon them in the climax of Colossals. The Butcher returns to Irusk with his captive, Siege, only to be reprimanded. There’s also his long waited showdown with Sorscha. We join Goreshade as his plot to reenter Ios continues, and his plans involving the Iosan gods start to be revealed fully.

The story of Vengeance is a very well-done continuation of MK2’s plot. Sadly, a few of the plot points are not revealed or touched upon, but enough of the overall narrative is further fleshed out to keep any Iron Kingdoms historians happy, as well as a few other surprises I won’t spoil here.

Warmachine Vengeance - Models

Many of the models were actually released months in advance, so their impact on the metagame is already known. Mercenaries have known about all four of their releases in Vengeance for some time. Of the other factions, each received one surprise model, and even they were leaked before release. This truly touches on my one complaint with Vengeance; we basically knew everything going into this book, with the exception of five models.

I don’t want to complain about previews, but a classy date keeps you waiting, and Vengeance had the goods upfront before even giving you its number. While this generates a lot of hype for the models, the over-previewing ultimately hurts book sales. To touch on the art briefly, it’s gorgeous. Privateer Press has continued to use some of the best artists out there; they really bring the characters to life on the page, and the action scenes are straight out of one’s imagination.

Should I Buy Warmachine Vengeance? 

The battle is set for the control of the Iron Kingdoms, as many players will grab their dice and rally forces to best one another on the field of battle. The art and story are reason enough for me to recommend the purchase of Vengeance for any player of Warmachine. Warmachine Vengeance is easily the best of the MK2 Warmachine books we have seen, with its multiple entries and exciting new options for every faction, and it is highly recommended you pick up a copy yourself if you're already a fan of the series. 

The copy of Warmachine Vengeance used in this review was purchased by the reviewer. This review was originally published on 05-07-2014. While care has been taken to update the piece to reflect our modern style guidelines, some of the information may be out of date. We've left pieces like this as they were to reflect the original authors' opinions and for historical context.