Dear Matt,

I have been playing your games now since October of 2008. I pretty much fell in love with the over the top nature of the game. The tactical depth. The quality of the miniatures. The balance yet imbalance between factions…then I played against a Hordes player…

and it only got better…

Hordes, the 180 deg opposite of Warmachine from a mechanics standpoint…yet 100% compatible. How crazy cool is that? It takes an entirely different approach to fighting a Hordes army than one of the Warmachine factions. I haven’t taken the plunge yet and started a Hordes faction, but I know that some day in the future it’s inevitable.

Now here comes MkII. I am not one of the folks who will sit on the PP forums and take a doom and gloom sort of an approach. I am a glass half full kind of guy. These games are your children, and you would never knowingly hurt your kids.

That being said…I do have one worry about streamlining. I have not played Monsterpocolypse, but I have also heard of that as streamlined. I have also heard it has a fair amount of tactical depth. Please don’t take away the mental exercise that is WM / H. I feel spent at the end of a game…in a GREAT way. I know that I have used every ounce of my mental faculties to take my army and beat him over the head with my little white metal figurines. I would die 1000 deaths if it became any less of an exercise of who is the better tactician.

On the other hand…I know that I forget a bunch of rules and abilities every game. I would bet that if I ever played my army to its full rules allowed capability I would have a better record than 7 – 21! Should there be All Terrain and Pathfinder? Nah…call it the same. I will miss some of the flavor that having the different name gives to the faction in question…but I am not going to quit the game over it!

Here are some things I really really think are important to nail, and those I will be deeply disappointed if they don’t happen.

  • Don’t nerf things just to re-balance power. Its always been the tradition of WM / H to be a grossly overpowered game. Boost the power of the jacks. Boost the power of some of the less used models, but don’t knock down those that are powerful already. Let the power boost do the re-balancing.
  • Get the faction card decks out for all the factions on the same day that the core book hits the stands. Don’t make me wait to play. The first day MkII hits the streets I want to play my ass off…and I won’t be able to do it the way I want to without my cards.
  • Release all 5 army books on the same day. It doesn’t matter as much if they release them slightly after the core book, but damn I am going to be upset if I am facing the next run of wonderfully broken models and Cryx has them but I have to wait. Menoth would not be amused…at all.
  • And to that note…how bout getting the GDFA Bastions out already. I proxy them all the time and they are made of pure win. Please oh Please get them into my FLGA before much longer.
  • Faster, more accurate, and more initial attacks. The jacks are robots…they are fast, precise, and strong. Make the rules treat them that way.
  • Please may I have the Avatar in my battle groups. Reznik wants to play.
  • Please fix the rules for the Fire of Salvation so he doesn’t kill friendly upkeep spells. Reznik wants to play.
  • Four words…Epic Reznik Seven Focus

Thanks for listening Matt. I am new to this but I can’t be less offended your are coming out with MkII. When the beta test starts, I will be playing and playing hard. I want MkII to be a big success, and if my perspective as a n00b can bee of help, I will be there.

Sincerely,
CerealJohn
Protector of the Pewter