Gencon Indy 2006, from August 10th to 13th, will see the release of the fourth installment of the WARMACHINE rules. Expected highlights include character solos for each faction, new epic warcasters (including Orsus, Feora, Skarre, Caine, and Magnus), special weapon attachments, a great many mercenaries, every WARMACHINE model from previous issues of No Quarter magazine, and cavalry.

Plot-wise, Superiority should be an interesting bird. Much of the forward movement of the Iron Kingdoms metaplot is presented through the miniatures game releases, which seems appropriate as there’s a war raging between five nations. Some indication of what happened at the Umbral Cairn at the climax of Apotheosis will hopefully come to light, though I’m not sure how this will be possible without killing off Vladimir Tzepesci, Lich Lord Asphyxious, and/or the Harbinger of Menoth. The folks at Privateer Press have pledged never to completely kill off a Warcaster in the official plotline, but ended the last WARMACHINE release with a do-or-die confrontation between three iconic Warcasters. One ever-present issue with a miniatures game like this is that you can’t really move the story forward too much without adversely affecting the perceived value of some of the models. Can Cygnar actually defeat the Protectorate of Menoth? Of course not, that would eliminate a faction from the story. Can Haley kill Denegrah? Not permanently, or one of the iconic characters has been removed from the story.

Some, including myself, speculate that the introduction of the HORDES game will provide a much-needed distraction for the Khadoran military, affording Cygnar a realistic opportunity to avoid being completely crushed in a three-front war against highly-motivated and resourceful foes. I just cannot see Khador ignoring the destruction of multiple fringe villages in their northern territories, and maintaining a southward push into Cygnar while redirecting troops to the Scarsfell just doesn’t strike me as reasonable. In the south, the Menite priestess Feora, leader of the Temple Flameguard, is slated to “go epic,” implying that the siege and invasion of Sul will have quite an impact on her. With any luck, we should see some more confrontations between her and Privateer Press’s fair-haired-boy Coleman Stryker.