In the spirit of the holidays, I thought it might be nice to put together a little Christmas list for Butcher Klaus regarding what I would like to see from Privateer Press in 2019. While not all of these are necessarily within the realm of reason, neither are half the things people ask for in their next CID. And, of course, I’m far from an influential figure in the Warmachine community and I’m pretty sure Matt Wilson doesn’t read my blog, but I figured I might as well commit these to writing anyways.

1. Dropper Bottles

Yeah, I know, it’s not easy to change up your entire paint production line and everything that supports it. Especially if you contract out your paint production like so many companies do. But seriously, you have a good paint handicapped by the fact that it comes in a delivery system that is competing with GW for the title of worst in the industry. And, this is my wishlist so I can be as unrealistic as I want.

Dropper bottles are so much better than paint pots. It’s easier to put a drop on your pallet, or especially in your airbrush. Further, since they are generally taller but with a smaller footprint, they are more efficient in terms of storage on your paint rack. Any paint buildup around the nozzle can be easily taken care of with a safety pin or a paper clip, unlike paint pots where you can get dried paint all around the lip. Dried paint which can make it hard to open and close the lid, or cause it to crack. Or paint that gets on your finger when you’re trying to open the pot, and then gets transferred to the model.

Droppers are better than paint pots. It would be really nice if PP could get with the times on this one. And while they’re at it, throw in a nice heavy agitator that doesn’t corrode as well.

2. Better QC on resin models

Privateer Press has really great customer service. Unfortunately, the reason I know this is because I’ve had to interact with them on a number of occasions regarding miscast resin pieces.

I get it, nobody’s perfect, and there will always be bad product that slips out the door. I’ve also seen some serious improvement on that front over the past year or two, so credit where credit is due. And I understand that taking care of mold lines is part of this hobby. But I used to work in aerospace manufacturing, and while airplane parts are generally a little more mission critical than wardollies, one of the big lessons there is that the best way to improve your productivity is to do things the right way the first time. Having to ship individual replacement parts out to people can’t be good for the bottom line.

Especially on things like mini-crates and busts — these are limited edition collector pieces that are often going to be painted up for display. You can’t get away with the sort of imperfections on these models that you might be able to get away with on random grunt #7 who is likely to never be touched by a brush.

3. Better international distribution on BAHI

When Black Anchor Heavy Industries was first announced, I was one of the few that thought it made a lot of sense. SKU bloat is a problem for retailers, and I’ve seen some retailers take on stock only to have it sit on the shelf because that model is seen as non-competitive. And having to sell a huge based model at a loss after it has sat on a store shelf collecting dust for four years really stings.

So, for PP to take on selling some huge based models directly and make things easier on distributors and retailers makes sense. Unfortunately, where it starts to become an issue is when it comes to international distribution. Between shipping, taxes, and customs, models can start to get prohibitively expensive, especially in Europe. It’s been getting controversial as of late, and a lot of European players are frustrated and looking for alternatives. While I don’t condone using proxies in official tournaments or going to (scum of the earth) recasters, the price tag on something like a Hooch Hauler is starting to get a little eye-watering for our friends across the pond.

4. A smaller format

I actually liked the Rumble format, but judging by the commentary on the internet, I was the only one. Rumble, for those of you who don’t know, was a format in the back of the steamroller packet for 35 point games played on a 30×30″ board.

While I only got a few games in, I thought it was a great idea. A small battle of Warmachine that could be over and done with in an hour or hour and a half is a great idea, as is a 30″x30″ board because that’s how wide a standard table is. Simpler scenarios made it a great option, particularly for newer players who aren’t quite ready for a 35 point brawl yet. Even as a somewhat experienced player who hasn’t memorized all the opposing models from all the factions, reducing the model count makes figuring out an opponent’s list less overwhelming.

Unfortunately, given some of the combos available, it was a little to easy to break the game. If you have an assassination run with a 31″ threat, it’s gets real tricky to avoid that on a 30″ board. However, if you put in the right amount of restrictions — perhaps restrict it to battlebox casters and a few others in each faction that aren’t able to bully an entire 30×30, and keep huge bases out of it — you could fix a lot of the problems and make the learning curve a bit less of a brick wall. This might even be a good place for a no-theme format as well, as some theme benefits may be a touch problematic.

5. Bring back painting requirements

2018 saw some changes to the Steamroller, Masters, and Champions packet. One of these changes was that the painting requirement was not only dropped from Champions, but it was worded in such a way that a painting requirement isn’t even an option at an officially sanctioned Masters or Champions event.

While I get that a limited format and a painting requirement aren’t necessarily the best combination, almost completely eliminating painting requirements is a strong signal from the top that reinforces the sadly all too common idea that the hobby aspect of the game is an afterthought which does not and should not matter. Painting does matter; aesthetics are an important part of wargaming for a lot of people, and are why we play with models rather than playing with pogs or chits.

I’m not saying every event should have a painting requirement. But for me, I’ve been going to the Southern Ontario Open for the past two years, and one of the highlights of my year in Warmachine was getting to play in a tournament where I can play five or six games in a row with and against fully painted armies. That basically never happens out in the wild, and now that painting requirements have gone the way of the dodo, the only way I would be able to have that experience again is to qualify for something like the WTC or the Iron Gauntlet, neither of which is ever going to happen. Being able to go to one or two events a year and get a lot of fully painted games in would be nice.

Perhaps Masters would be a good place for a painting requirement? With no model restrictions, hobbyists can put together whatever cool army they want, and you don’t need to worry about the format limiting you to only the models you haven’t painted yet like with Champions.

6. Ease up on conversion rules

Just about every time I see someone post an amazing conversion on facebook, I see the same response: “that’s cool, but is it tournament legal?”

For the most part, I think PP’s conversion rules are reasonable. No proxies, nothing too confusing, and mostly PP parts. Yeah, I get it, you need to keep things somewhat identifiable and PP needs to sell models so the Wills can get paid. However, there are a couple areas where I feel a little more flexibility could go a long way.

First, cavalry models are in a bit of a tricky place because if you want to do a mount swap, unless you can find another PP model that represents what you want, you’re pretty much immediately running afoul of the 50% rule because the mount is generally more than 50% of the volume of the model by itself. So, no Owlbear cavalry for you, even though a Man-O-War Drakhun riding an Owlbear into battle would literally be the coolest thing ever. Perhaps either exempting cavalry models from the 50% rule completely, or saying that cavalry only have to be 25% PP parts could unleash some creative freedom?

Second, what if we allowed an exception for a small portion of a player’s army? Say that at least 90% of your army must follow the conversion rules, but if you have a sufficiently badass idea for a cool centerpiece model, go nuts.

While clearly, as evidenced by the BAHI Europe brouhaha, TOs have some latitude to say that a cool-ass conversion that is only 49% Privateer Press parts is kosher at their tournament, the fact that the initial reaction to any cool conversion is “but is it tournament legal?” creates a bit of a stifling atmosphere for those of us who like to take out a jeweler’s saw and ruin multiple perfectly good models in a quixotic attempt to make one cool looking model.

7. No Quarter Online?

With the demise of No Quarter Prime after only six issues, there is a void that is going to need to be filled. NQP was supposed to be a one stop shop for fluff, hobby content, new IKRPG rules, etc. Now that it’s gone, that stuff has to go somewhere.

Losing the physical magazine kind of sucks. However, this is also an opportunity. The internet allows for things to be categorized and tagged a differently than a dead tree format. You could have all the hobby articles in one place, or all the scenarios that have a more interesting narrative element to them than standing in random circles to win, or create a database of canonical alternative paint schemes for inspiration.

And, while we’re at it, maybe run a few contests to engage the hobby community? The Company of Iron contest was fun; something like that in the online replacement for NQP once in a while might be nice?

8. Riot Quest!

At the last Lock & Load keynote, we were treated to a video for an upcoming product called “Riot Quest.” Said video was kind of cheesy and went over like a wet fart, which means it’s probably the worst thing to happen at an L&L keynote since, well, 2016.

However, cheesy video aside, we did spot some pretty cool art near the end, like what looked like Boomhowler with a gatling gun and some interesting characters. Unfortunately, the video left us with more questions than answers. Questions like “what is Riot Quest,” and “so, what’s the difference between this and Necromunda?”

I think for the longevity of both Warmachine and Privateer Press, it would be great if PP had some more diversified revenue streams. Kaiju isn’t my jam so I’m not really interested in MonPoc, but I really hope it is successful, if only because I want PP to be around for a while and I want them to have products that appeal to people other than the hardcore Warmachine tournament crowd. Same goes for Riot Quest — I find it intriguing, and even if it ends up not being my thing, I really hope it is successful.

Also, Riot Quest.