The Hordes Warpacks are designed to include everything one needs to start playing Hordes, even down to a fold-up sheet printed on one side with quick start rules and on the other side with a full-colour illustration and pictures of the four available Warpacks. Naturally, this horde only includes one warlock, so one other horde will be necessary to fight against.
This particular horde includes the warlock Kaya Wildborne, one Warpwolf heavy warbeast and two non-identical Argus light warbeasts. There’s a stat card for each of these models, and a fifth one contains Kaya’s spells, feat and a paragraph of flavour text.
Kara is a 59-point model with the Wild Mastery feat. This places up to three fury points on each friendly warbeast within her control area, after which she can leach up to her current FURY stat. Her special abilities are Calm, Pack Hunters and Pathfinder, and her weapon, Splinter, causes a knockdown on critical hits. This model is beautifully sculpted and wonderfully detailed, down to her determined facial expressions and the hood on her cape. Her pose is very dynamic, with her back curved slightly backwards and her staff held in front of her. Kara consists of three parts and a base. Both of her arms need to be glued on to her body. It is a little tough to find the correct alignment of her weapon arm, though. She wears heavy armour on that limb, making it a little difficult to get it right. However, as soon as the slot is found, mounting the arm still is easy enough.
Warpwolves were once human, but have been warped into their frightening shape by an insane cult seeking a closer connection to the Beast of All Shapes. These creatures are very strong (STR 10). Their Throat Ripper chain attack is devastating to warjacks and warbeasts and they continue to warp during every activation, as their controller is able to choose any of three effects at that time (+2 STR, +2” movement, or +2 ARM) and they are even able to regenerate damage. The Warpwolf model included in this boxed set is pretty imposing and consists of multiple parts: its lower body, the upper body, the arms, a tail, back spikes and a base. Clicking everything together is easy, but modellers will want to use some kind of putty to disguise the lines separating the different parts. The face is appropriately bestial, with the ears thrown back between the fur covering its head and back. Beneath its muscular torso, the Warpwolf has two goat-like clawed legs. These look small compared to the huge upper body, but that may be due to its bent knees.
The two Argus light warbeasts have circular vision. Their bark does no damage, but can cause paralysis, while both heads can bite simultaneously. Both beasts look like Cerberus (the hound that guards Hades in Greek mythology), but with one less head. One of them is standing on its rear legs, ready to strike, while the other one has adopted a guard position. Each model consists of two halves, a tail, and two heads. The body halves fit almost perfectly, but some of the heads may need some adjustments. Putty is almost necessary to make everything look like it flows together. Both warbeasts are less detailed than either the Warpwolf or Kara.
These models are a dynamic lot. They look great and veteran wargamers will find them easy to assemble. Some skill in filling in hairline gaps will be necessary, but most parts lock together pretty well. This is a nice boxed set.
For more information, see www.privateerpress.com.
Dirk Vandereyken
