by Erik Reiersen
Twilight had fallen upon the Iron Kingdoms. New horrors, ones beyond the realities of endless war, ravaged an already imperiled Immoren. The Claiming—the debt in souls to appease the infernal masters—proved a terrible cost for humanity’s “gift” of magic. With borders and cities shifting and fading, civilization itself was pushed to the precipice. Despair had all but swallowed hope when great avatars of the gods themselves manifested to bring humanity back from the brink of the glaring void. Across the ravaged continent, a new dawn greeted the weakened survivors. Their lands saved from oblivion, the weary forces were again greeted with their old enmities. With threats both old and new poised for conflict, armies of the world once again march to war. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the beleaguered nations, a new threat sails to capitalize on the enfeeblement of those forces. The continent’s oldest foes had not been idle since their defeat. With new weapons of war, they are bound to their course of cold-served vengeance. The ancient enemy, whose name had nearly slipped into myth, has arrived. The ORGOTH have returned!
The Orgoth are an oppressive and mighty force, and capturing their intensity on the tabletop is a task not approached lightly. As the Product Development Manager at Privateer Press, I’d like to take this opportunity to cast light on some of the shadows, including myself, the Orgoth, and our often equally shrouded development process as we prepare our next exciting Faction for WARMACHINE. I can’t give it all away just yet, but I can at least offer a taste of what’s to come.
I’ve worked with Privateer for almost 10 years now, fulfilling myriad roles. While here, I’ve been involved in a wide breadth of positions within the company. While managing different departments and wearing several hats, I’d often also be in the trenches, helping out on fulfillment of special projects like Kickstarters to reduce their impact on our daily operations. Previously, my community interaction has been mostly limited to poorly written notes on mystery boxes and store orders. I currently try to lend a more holistic perspective that’s informed on the entire process of creating miniatures to the development crew. In my time at Privateer, I’ve cultivated a team with a culture of camaraderie and commitment to making great games—by gamers for gamers. Over the past decade, I’ve worked with many incarnations of our development team as we’ve evolved and learned from many diverse and thoughtful perspectives how best to tackle a new Faction with its own distinct identity. Our philosophy encompasses not only making a tight and balanced Faction but also making it exciting and rewarding to play, all while being true to its core concept.
The Orgoth have been absent for hundreds of years. In that time, Immoren has grown and changed immensely…but so have the Orgoth. They have attempted to imitate the might of the warjack through their own lenses of understanding and crafting techniques. Where the forces of Immoren designed cortexes to interface and bond with, the Orgoth know only enslavement and dominance. To achieve their goals, they bound the souls of tamed monsters to brutal mechanical frames. These tools of warfare bear the durability of an armored hulk, the power of masterfully crafted weapons, and the savagery of the caged beast within. The vanguard of the Orgoth forces is comprised of marauding bands of ferocious reavers. They bear the aesthetic of dark, gothic Vikings, and with them they bring a menagerie of creatures selected for their affinity to deliver carnage. Orgoth warcasters, both rare and precious, are carefully insulated and guarded within the armored hulls of their largest ships while they use their finest warriors in battle like puppets. The mightiest combatants compete for the honor of being the vessel for the will of their revered leaders. Once selected, the warcaster binds part of their soul with the chosen soldier, exerting their powerful will over the body, seizing complete control. If this body were to fall in battle, the caster’s soul remains safely anchored to the preserved body, secured at sea.
Conceptually, it’s an exciting army that mixes aspects of Cryxian warwitches (which are an offshoot of old Orgoth warwitches), the savagery of the tharn, and aspects of the brutal slaver culture of the skorne. When adapting it to the tabletop, we need to ensure that despite these threads of similarity with previous forces, the Orgoth feel like a completely unique play experience. To kick off the process after mapping out desired quantities of units, ’jacks, ’casters, and solos, we loosely define desired roles for each model/unit. We flesh out the characters leading these forces, crafting a favored playstyle tailored to each personality, and then build the rest of the army in stages. In this case, we have a hulking brute and a warwitch paragon. We then diversify options and make sure every model has a role that isn’t trivialized by more optimal choices. Next, we spread abilities that grant utility and opportunities to personalize the force. To represent the raw oppressiveness of the army, each model by design, regardless of its role, wants to be moving toward the enemy force. No matter the scenario, an Orgoth player should feel like the aggressor. Spells like Fog of War and Windstorm help deliver the army while Carnage and Redline ensure they kill what they reach. Abilities like Prey and Gang, assisted by weapons like harpoons and tusks, help establish the predatory feel we’re striving for. The Orgoth are intimidating in both size and physique, putting them at home on 40mm bases.
After settling on the overall idea of the army, we let the rubber meet the road and rigorously playtest them, trying to incorporate each model in games that showcase their value to a list. If we find that we’re not taking certain pieces or other models aren’t achieving their intended goal, we adjust them until they feel exciting. Tweaks like exchanging +1 RAT for the Hunter ability are ways to theme a model without heavily impacting performance. We can also find that previously underpowered pieces get a little too exciting and rein them back in. At times, this can take the form of over-optimization; at other times, we realize that the playstyle of the model no longer matches our intended vision. We occasionally run into situations in which we find the army is missing elements that allow it to function against different strategies. In these cases, we reevaluate existing abilities and find opportunities to layer needed tech within the models that have the least defined roles. In the end, our goal is that if ten different people were given the same options, we’d see ten different forces selected on the basis of playstyle preferences of those players, not ten similar forces based on objectively optimal selections.
Hopefully, the veil has been lifted enough to give you a sense of what’s on the horizon. I look forward to more opportunities to present you additional insight into our internal workings and the exciting things to come (and more opportunities to make you suffer through my writing; at least it isn’t in my handwriting ><). The Orgoth certainly have us jazzed in-house, but there’s a slew of additional inspiring content destined for WARMACHINE & HORDES that I’ll illuminate in future Insiders.
Until next time; always remember your feat!