No matter how much time you work on something, no matter how much playtest feedback you receive, and no matter how confident you are in the underlying design, it’s still very difficult to know exactly how players will respond to a new game. Admittedly, in the case of High Command, we had some pretty good hints. For example, some folks around the office have been playing High Command during lunch and after work for months. We’ve also had employees eager to borrow a proof copy to take home for some games with their spouses.

None of that, however, could fully prepare me for the reaction on Thursday at Gen Con 2013. The implacable Ed Bourelle made twenty-three trips back to accessible storage on Thursday to transport product to the booth, and this included a great many cases of WARMACHINE High Command and HORDES High Command. One could say our Creative Director looked downright placable by the end of his Herculean task. And not only were people playing games of High Command throughout the event hall, but Will Shick counted six separate games of High Command going on at the Westin Hotel in the middle of the night!

It was exciting to see such a positive reaction and to hear some of your thoughts on the game. For those of you who weren’t at Gen Con 2013, you can find WARMACHINE High Command available in game stores everywhere starting today. Additionally, we now have a High Command forum on the website for some game-related discussions.

Though I was downright thrilled with how quickly and smoothly new players were able to dive into High Command, there were still a few questions that came up fairly often here and there. Some were a matter of clarifying exactly how certain abilities interacted with other abilities or the core game rules while others were far more situational and involved.

Beyond answering these questions, I also stated that our WARMACHINE High Command FAQ document would release about the time of the official game release. Well, that time is now. All those questions (and others) are answered in the attached FAQ document, which is also available for download on PPDigital along with the WARMACHINE High Command rulebook. There are a handful of actual errata for rules or abilities, but most of the document is focused on clearing up some of the detailed interactions like those mentioned above. If you have any further questions, feel free to post to the forums link above.

I hope you all get the chance to try out High Command in the near future and that the excitement from Gen Con infuses game stores the whole world ’round.

Frequently Asked Questions,
—DC