Last week, I picked up the much-awaited first issue of No Quarter Prime, Privateer Press‘ reboot of their long-running No Quarter magazine. For about $10 CAD, you get 112 pages of ad-free content and artwork, as well as a free bonus miniature.

Packed full of content, the table of contents shows long sections on Company of Iron, Trenchers, an IKRPG module, and the story of first battles in the liberation of East Khador (or, as the despicable swans and ungrateful eastern bandits call it, the “occupation” of Llael)

The section on the opening stages of war is a great read. Privateer Press has decided, since Warmachine has massively increased in popularity and experienced a lot of churn since it was first launched, to retell the story of how the Iron Kingdoms got to be in the situation they are in Mk.III. I think this is a great idea; it gives newer players an accessible way to get caught up on the fluff behind the game.

Much of the story is written from the perspective of the Khadoran warcasters who led the invasion, and as a Khador player, I think they did a good job of offering a balanced portrayal of the motherland, rather than falling on tropes of Cygnar as the good guys and Khador as the evil Russkies. And the fact that they had a teamup of my two favourite characters in the Iron Kingdoms (Harkevich and Sorscha) was a particular highlight for me.

Another long section is on Company of Iron, which is their new skirmish-level version of Warmachine. It comes with a couple pages of fluff about Agata & Lt. Gwen Keller, some inspiration for alternate colour schemes, three scenarios, and a writeup on strategies to use with the models in the Company of Iron box. With CoI releasing in three weeks, I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but the scenarios do look like the sort of interesting, narratively-based scenarios that I think Warmachine could use more of, rather than “stand in this big circle to get points to win.”

There is a brief section on the Tower Judgement, a massive Protectorate fortification, temple, and torture chamber, which features prominently in a custom four-player scenario that includes custom terrain features and guides on how to make them. A long section on an IKRPG module I mostly skipped over, just because when it comes to RPGs, I’m not a huge fan of the ’90s style D&D 3.5e inspired tomes with tons of tables to roll on and hyper-detailed rules governing things as simple as climbing up a rope. Give me the freeform nature of the Savage Worlds system any day…

But back to the magazine, there are guides on how to paint warjacks and warbeasts from every faction using simple five-step processes, which means that while it may not be a top quality paint job, new players can easily get something that kind of resembles the box art.

A large portion of the issue is devoted to trenchers, both a review of the CID process and a long section on Trencher lore, equipment, etc. The lore section is packed with detail about these tough bastards, and as a fan of steampunk guns, the artwork included there really jumps out at me. Details on alternate colour schemes are also included, as well as three scenarios. My only criticism here is that they included a couple pages with pictures of all the new cards, which was nice, but I think it would have been better if they had the new cards all on a couple pages at the back and formatted in such a way that you could cut them out, sleeve them, and use them in play.

Overall, NQP has some great content. Aside from the tiny issue with the cards, the only other thing I would have liked to have seen is perhaps a little hobby content on how to make some trenchworks or other terrain pieces relating to the trencher theme. But with all the content crammed into only 112 pages, I can see why it might not have fit. I think my favourite part, aside from all the Khador parts, was the alternate colour scheme ideas.

And did I mention the free miniature? You get Eilish Garrity, who comes on a resin sprue with the base. There is some flash and mold lines to clean up, but apart from that, there is plenty of nice, crisp detail that is going to be good for painting. Eilish is a mercenary who will work for any faction, and he provides upkeep removal, which given how much Denny1 is stomping the meta right now, means that you will see him hit the table just to get rid of Crippling Grasp. Puppet Master is also great, and I can definitely see him getting a lot of play in Khador because for five points, he gives us two things which are not easily available in-faction, and inability to remove enemy upkeeps from our models (aside from beating it off with Ruin’s mace) is one of our weaknesses in a Denny1 world. I suspect that people could buy NQP just to get the miniature, tosss out the magazine, and still not be disappointed.

In conclusion, NQP #1 is a must-buy for anyone interested in Privateer Press products. With a boatload of content and a free miniature, how could you go wrong?