Hordes is the game of massive creatures marching to war under the control of a Warlock. This is but one of two games from Privateer Press that can be played against each other.
Hordes is more than just “another” tabletop war game, it has an expansive world that incorporates multiple small skirmish titles, roleplaying games and its counterpart Warmachine. Both Warmachine and Hordes take place in the same world, while Hordes focuses on controlling huge creatures, Warmachine centers around robotic machines. With both games you have a defensive component that most tabletop games lack- if your Warlock (or Warcaster in Warmachine) is defeated you are defeated. Depending on the mission you select there may or may not be other end conditions to meet but regardless of the mission if you lose your Warlock you lose the game.
The awesome folks at Privateer Press sent us the Circle of Orboros Battlegroup Box alongside a box from their other game Warmachine so that we could test both games in one shot!
Immediately upon opening both boxes I began to assemble the models. What would take an hour or two from other game publishers took maybe thirty minutes. Every piece was a near perfect cast righ out of the box and required almost no cleanup before gluing them together! Freshly assembled I jumped straight into the manuals to learn the game. Alternatively you could also watch this video that Privateer Press released about a year ago. The rules themselves are very straight forward and use common sense when it came to things like settling disputes over rules or the rules themselves. They simply made sense.
After reading the manual AND watching the video only one thing was left unclear, tracking damage. Each creature tracks damage on a spiral like grid, but the problem is, how to notate the damage without it being a permanent solution. I enquired with a local game shop for suggestions and the community there immediately came back with a simple yet brilliant solution, put the character and automaton cards in plastic sleeves and mark on the sleeves with a dry erase marker.
Now armed with the knowledge we needed we were able to play our first games. In practice the game is user friendly and easy to pick up, coupled with the high quality models and the fact that not many are needed for a typical game this is not only enjoyable to play and look at but also friendly to your wallet.
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