Warmachine Plastic Battleboxes

So after a lot of waiting the Warmachine plastic Battleboxes have finally arrived. BoLS was fortunate enough to be given some copies by the good folks down at Privateer, so here are some pics of what you get.

The contents vary by faction but there are a few things they all have in common. They are all compatible to play against one another, they all contain at least 11 points of minis in the form of a warcaster and some warjacks, at $49.99 they’ll all save you a bit of cash over buying the pieces separately, and maybe most importantly they all contain some high quality plastic miniatures.
For budding Cygnar players, the box will start you off with Warcaster Commander Coleman Stryker, an Ironclad heavy warjack, a Lancer light warjack, and a Charger light warjack. After deducting Stryker’s 6 warjack points this box will give you 11 points to start out with. Assuming the Lancer and Charger will carry the same MSRP individually as the already released Firefly this box will net you a savings of $31. For the Motherland, Khador players will get Warcaster Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff and 2 heavies: a Juggernaut and a Destroyer. 11 points and $28 bucks saved over buying them separately. Future devotees of Menoth will get Warcaster High Exemplar Kreoss, a Crusader heavy warjack, and the Revenger and Repenter light warjacks. Again; 11 points to play with and $31 dollars in your pocket. Finally the Nightmare Empire of Cryx gets Warwitch Deneghra a Slayer Helljack, a Defiler Bonejack, and two Deathripper bonejacks. At 14 pts, this is the most army you’ll get from one of these kits, but the least monetary savings at $25 dollars. Of course there’s no reason veteran players can’t buy one or two of these to supplement what they already own or replace some of the older metal sculpts. With an extra piece I had from some of the plastic heavies I’d already bought, I’m going to use the Slayer from my Cryx box to make Malice, whose kit I picked up at Gencon. Same goes for the Protectorate box Crusader, who will become Scourge of Heresy.

Now lets look at some pictures of the pieces. Since I already showed pics of the heavies in this old thread, we’ll just focus on the lights and the warcasters.

Protectorate: Revenger Light Warjack

Lancer: Cygnar Light Warjack

Cryx: Defiler Bonejack

First off, as much as I love most of the minis in the Warmachine line, the older battlebox lights for Cygnar and the Protectorate probably had my vote for some of the least impressive pieces in the range. The “Prime” Warjacks for Protectorate and Cygnar were some of the first pieces by a then novice sculptor: Mike McVey believe it or not (not sure if he did the Cryx and Khador). Still his inexperience at the time shows and I honestly can’t think of a piece I’d have liked to see re-sculpted more than the old Revenger. So I’m particularly thrilled with how well it and the other Protectorate lights turned out. In addition to being bigger and more detailed, I think the concept in the original design really shows through and they look like the Baroque engines of death they are meant to. The Charger and Lancer’s resculpts also benefit from an increased level of size and detail. The larger scale may be the most noticeable on the Cryx bonejacks however, simply because of how small their metal counterparts were. And while the original bonejacks were some of my favorites from that era of Warmachine, these new ones are still clear improvements looking more crisp and professional overall.

As for the Warcasters, while I think their sculpts are improvements over the originals as well, I was also excited just to see Privateer’s first human sized plastics. The faces are very clean, and the sculpts have all sorts of cool details like rivets, steam vents, tubing, you name it. Having gotten a close look at these I can honestly say I wouldn’t mind seeing whole units of small based infantry in plastic. But of course you guys can make up your own minds.

High Exemplar Kreoss: Protectorate Warcaster

Commander Coleman Stryker: Cygnar Warcaster

Kommander Sorscha: Khador Warcaster

Warwitch Deneghra: Cryx Warcaster

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Before I finish, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t at least acknowledge some of the issues people say they’ve had with Privateer’s plastics. One thing I hear a lot is that they have excessive mold lines. While this is true of some of the kits I’ve worked with, I haven’t found it to be anymore of a problem than with any other plastic kits I’ve worked with in the past. While you will occasionally find a line running down a detailed area I’ve yet to see anything I couldn’t clean up with a sharp hobby knife. The same applies for some of the plugs that get left behind when these pieces are clipped off their sprues. While of course I would be happier if these issues were nonexistent I think that’s a pretty unrealistic request. Cleaning your pieces before you assemble them is just part of this hobby; one I had to learn to accept when I decided to make these games a part of my life oh so many years ago.

~Having worked with many of the Privateer plastic kits already, I’ve gotta say, I think they are a great success and I’m hoping to continue to see more down the line. Plastic Hordes Warpacks are supposed to be on the way so maybe before too long I’ll get to do a run down on those. Check back in soon and hopefully I’ll have some pics of these guys painted up.

Author: Ben Williams

Ben Willimans is a Professional Painter and Columnist at Bell of Lost Souls. He has been involved in the hobby and art side of miniatures and the tabletop gaming industry for over 20 years. He has won multiple national painting awards.