LARGE-SCALE BATTLES IN THE IRON KINGDOMS

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In this issue of No Quarter, I have the pleasure of introducing you all to Unbound, a new way of playing WARMACHINE and HORDES that

puts you in command of vast armies and amps up the scope of conflict to truly calamitous, world-shaping battles. More than just an escalation in size, Unbound is a retooling of the WARMACHINE and HORDES systems that provides a truly unique play experience. Throughout Unbound games, you and your opponent take turns activating portions of your armies, giving you the chance to react to your opponent’s moves and keeping you both engrossed and focused on the game with little downtime. We wanted to bring massive battles to the tabletop without massive waiting between player turns.

Unbound is for players looking for the opportunity to play truly large-scale games of WARMACHINE and HORDES with lots of models. Like you, we yearn to play with our entire collections and field vast armies in epic battles. Unbound is an opportunity to pack in one more Pistol Wraith, Gun Carriage, or battlegroup—the chance to field all your favorite models on the same battlefield.

Unbound is not focused on the competitive aspects of WARMACHINE and HORDES. It is for those of us who want to savor the rising and falling action of war. This is not about a sprint across the finish line but rather, orchestral and systematic destruction wrought by two matched armies on a field of honor. This is total war!

– Jason Soles

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GAME SIZEUnbound is a system for playing games of WARMACHINE and HORDES in which each player fields 150-point or larger armies with three or more warcasters or warlocks on each side. An additional warcaster/warlock is added to each army for every additional 50 points of models fielded by each player.

In addition to two-player games, Unbound has been designed with multiplayer and team play in mind. See below for rules covering multiplayer and team play.

TABLE SIZEBecause of the scope of Unbound games, it is recommend that players use a 4´x6´ table instead of the standard 4´x4´. Truly massive games may require even larger tables to accommodate play.

DEPLOYMENT ZONESUnless otherwise noted, players deploy into standard 10˝ deployment zones along the long edge of the table, giving each player a 10˝ x 72˝ deployment zone.

SEIZING THE INITIATIVEAt the start of the game, players roll to determine which player sets up first and takes the first turn as in a normal WARMACHINE or HORDES game.

The following rules are intended to augment the experience of playing large-scale WARMACHINE and HORDES games. These rules are optional and

feature a new alternating sequence of play that keeps both players involved constantly throughout the game. Instead of replacing the rules of WARMACHINE and HORDES, these rules instead modify the structure of play while leaving the core mechanics untouched.

While the standard play rules can accommodate large-scale play, these rules present a new way to play WARMACHINE and HORDES that keeps the action fast and furious by removing downtime between players’ turns that can sometimes bog down big battles. Instead of each player taking turns moving all of his models each round and then waiting while his opponent takes a turn and moves all his models, when playing Unbound, rounds are divided into several turns in which players alternate activating portions of their armies. In this way, Unbound simulates the ebb and flow of actual battle, giving players ample opportunity to act and react to the fortunes of war.

As a result of this new alternating sequence of play, some existing model rules have been modified to integrate better into Unbound games. Unbound games do require a handful of tweaks to existing rules and abilities, and those changes can be found at the end of this article.

Stay tuned to future issues of No Quarter for additional Unbound content, including new scenarios intended for this larger game size as well as Unbound battle reports.

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