Theme Forces Revisited: A Primer

By

on

Oh, hello. I didn’t see you there.

Well, come on in. Welcome to my store, Bump-in-the-Night Emporium. Using that framing device, I’m going to explain how the theme force changes coming in WARMACHINE: Oblivion work. So, take a seat and prepare for some dope metaphors.

Oblivion prereleases at Gen Con, and the public release will arrive in September. We have a rollout plan for the theme force changes to hit your War Room, but I won’t be discussing those here. Suffice to say, you should have access to them around the time of the Gen Con release.

Instead, I’m going to explain how the new theme force system will work (and slip in a spoiler).

Let’s get back to my shop, Bump-in-the-Night Emporium. One of the cool things about my store is that when you shop here, even though I have a limited selection of items for sale, you get to pull some free goodies from my Freebie Bucket. However, to take something out of my Freebie Bucket, you have to spend your money on specific items.

That is how theme forces traditionally worked. You would select a theme, it would limit your model selection, and as you spent points on specifically listed model types, you would gain access to a selection of free options.

So, let’s head back to my store. I’ve made some changes to my Customer Appreciation program. Now when you shop at Bump-in-the-Night Emporium, I don’t require you to spend money in specific ways to get goodies from my Freebie Bucket. The only thing that matters is how much money you spend. If you spend enough money, you get something from my free offerings.

And that is what the system is changing to. Even though your theme force still limits your overall model selection, you are no longer required to spend your points on specific model types to access free models. Now you can build the list however you like, mixing ’jacks and infantry in any amount you want without fear of not hitting a specific points-spent threshold.

So how many freebies do you get? Easy. Each theme force has a Requisition list—this is a list of models you can get for free. In general, they are essentially the same as your existing theme forces with maybe a new addition here-or-there. When you and a friend sit down to play a game of WARMACHINE & HORDES, you’re going to pick a game size. It could be 25 points, maybe 75 points, or maybe you plan to play a monstrous 100-point game, for example. For each 25 points of game size, you get 1 Requisition point. That means in a 75-point game, you get three Requisition points.

All right. Enough of my yammering. Let’s get to the juicy spoiler. Here is the new-and-improved Bump in the Night theme force and an army I came up with to take advantage of the new system. You may notice that the theme benefits of granting one unit of Murder Crows the Ambush special rule is gone, that’s because Murder Crows will be gaining Ambush naturally!

So, here is my army, blending a selection of beasts and infantry and still getting three free options!

Grymkin Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Bump in the Night

The King of Nothing [+28]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Clockatrice [13]
– Crabbits (2) [7]
– Baron Tonguelick, Lord of Warts [4]
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist [5]
Trapperkin [3]
Neigh Slayers (max)[12]
– Neigh Slayer Warhorse[4]
Neigh Slayers (max) [12]
– Neigh Slayer War Horse [4]
Lord Longfellow [FREE]
Malady Man [FREE]
Malady Man [FREE]

So, thank you for shopping at Bump-in-the-Night Emporium and being a faithful customer. We hope you enjoy our new Customer Appreciation program. I even heard some of the other Theme Force stores will be showing you their new wares very soon…

HORDES, Insider, News, WARMACHINE
Previous Post
Lock & Load GameFest 2019 Recap
Next Post
Theme Forces Revisited: Thornfall Alliance

Related News

Menu