January Tribe preview – Go hog wild! New army squeals into Warmachine 3D
Want to get your locals into Warmachine? With a porcine new army to print (alongside Dark Operations) and the January update on the horizon, now’s an excellent time to tempt them in
Hooves stomping, snorts, and grunts… the Thornfall Alliance are almost here!
The best part? Subscribe to the Tribe and you can start playing these pigs with the free Welcome Pack as soon as the January update drops! Who doesn’t love the smell of bacon on a crisp January morning?
On January 6, 2026*, we’ll add the entire Thornfall Alliance Command Starter into the free Warmachine 3D Tribe Welcome Pack.
That means new and existing subscribers will get both the Thornfall Alliance Command Starter and the Dark Operations Hive Mind Cadre, terrain, defences, base toppers and objectives.
That’s over 140 STLs for free, and two different ways to start new Warmachine armies!
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Already subscribed? Because the existing Welcome Pack will be updated to include Thornfall Alliance, you’ll be able to download and start printing right away.
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No printer? No problem. You’ll still be able to pick up physical models from the Steamforged store in March.
*Due to the holidays, January 6, 2026 is also when the January monthly drop will release
Big pigs, bigger brawls
Tribes of farrow have lived on the barren fringes of Western Immoren for centuries, often overlooked by humanity (except when leading raids on remote townships or ambushes on trade caravans). They’re a rugged people, accustomed to doing what they must to survive. While their technologies are crude by human standards, they’ve proven both ingenious and remarkably adaptable.
They’re also no strangers to conflict. In recent decades, the farrow have offered services for hire in the escalating battles and wars among the settled powers around them. Mercenary life has provided not just opportunities for scavenging and plundering, but a wealth of battlefield experience.
Midas
Now, no longer content to fight solely at the behest of others, they have begun to shape their own destiny. Thanks, in no small part, to the successes of their increasingly capable leaders — and one leader in particular.
For most of their existence, the scattered and isolated farrow tribes existed in a state of perpetual infighting. This changed only with the rise of a giant among them; a farrow of such ambition, drive, and thirst for conquest that he’d change the very nature of his species.
That farrow would become known as Emperor Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction, Esq.III.
Emerging from the dry hills northeast of the Black River near the Marchfells, Carver gained prominence by crushing every rival who stood in his way, shaming chief after chief with displays of power. In his hand, his cleaver became a blood-drenched symbol of might.
Dr. Arkadius
Loathe as he is to admit it, it was the arrival of a human named Dr. Arkadius that enabled Carver’s dreams of more widespread conquest to become reality. Ordinarily, Carver might have dismissed the eccentric arcanist out of hand, but Arkadius had planned for the meeting with a demonstration of his unique genius. Before Carver could even demand Arkadius explain himself, the doctor revealed his war hogs: tremendous hybrids of boar flesh and steam-powered weaponry picked from the battlefields of western Immoren.
War Hog
Carver was quick to recognise the possibilities of having such weapons at his disposal, and soon the doctor was brought into the warlord’s inner circle as chief advisor. Relations between these two leaders may be tense, but they formed the core of a new farrow alliance, built of both the raw sinew and cunning needed to unite the tribes.
Carver’s army summoned the scattered chieftains to meet him in the Thornwood Forest, at the site of an old battleground called Thornfall. The beleaguered farrow of the Thornwood had suffered considerably at the hands of Tharn, Cryx, Cygnar, and Khador, all of whom had been battling across their territories.
Carver marched among the chieftains and seized control. Those few who resisted were set upon by their own ambitious subordinates, each of whom subsequently bent the knee to their new Lord. This became the Thornfall Alliance — a force Carver hopes one day to use to stand as an equal against the human kingdoms… and then to conquer and subjugate them.
Road Hog
On the battlefield, Thornfall’s playstyle is tightly bound to its identity as a loose confederation of farrow mercenaries: brutal, pragmatic, and driven by survival rather than ideals. On the table, this translates into an army that fights dirty, hits hard, and expects losses along the way.
Thornfall forces don’t seek elegant victories; they win by overwhelming the enemy at the moment it matters most, even if it means sacrificing pieces to do so. Their powerful warbeasts, especially the iconic porcine heavies, embody the farrow mindset: charge forward, break the enemy, and worry about consequences later.
This grit is reflected in their reliance on layered synergies and battlefield cunning. Like mercenary warbands held together by necessity, individuals depend on each other to function at full strength. Proper coordination and timing are essential, mirroring how farrow survive through cooperation and opportunism rather than discipline or superior technology. Thornfall also leans into underhanded tactics — ambushes, debuffs, and sudden threat extensions — that feel appropriate for an army used to fighting stronger powers on unfavorable terms.
Defensively, Thornfall survives by choosing its battles, not by enduring prolonged punishment. Mistakes are costly, but well-executed aggression feels brutally decisive. Overall, the Thornfall Alliance fights like its history: desperate, violent, and surprisingly clever beneath the grime.
Building on this, the Thornfall Alliance will be part of Warmachine’s big update on January 21. If you’re thinking of getting into Warmachine, January’s an excellent time to do it. The annual meta shake-up is coming to level the battlefield. From then, it’s anyone’s game. Will Thornfall take the bacon?
New Welcome Pack preview — Fire ‘em up!
Get ready to print and play a 30-point Command Starter force featuring some of the most brutal warriors the Thornfall Alliance has to offer. Pair it with the rules in the Warmachine app, and you can start playing Warmachine for free.
Now, let’s meet the hogs who’ll be first to the table…
Ferocity and cunning are virtues esteemed by farrow, and Midas has both. A potent bone grinder, he’s empowered by lives stolen and feasted upon, consuming his enemies to grasp their vigor and knowledge.
The energies released in death are weapons and tools for Midas; at his command, the bones of fallen beasts become animate and dead flesh knits to fight again.
Lytiersis exists in brutal harmony with its master. Touched by bone grinder magic, on the battlefield it eagerly hurls itself into the fray. Once sated, it harvests the remnants of its prey to conjure primitive magics, before returning them to Midas for his own purposes.
Targ lurches into battle with knives and surgical tools in hand. Incoming shells explode near him and bullets zip past his ears, but he pays them no mind, calmly injecting Arkadius’ unique blend of painkilling stimulants into enraged war hogs or applying needle and thread to sew up gaping wounds in the midst of the fight.
Necromancers and mortitheurges have proven that the power inherent in flesh and bone lingers even after death. Bone grinders, well-versed in skinning and deboning creatures of all kinds, gather body parts to tap into the energies latent in their grisly trophies.
Many mistake their industry as common butchery, but these are craftsmen, carefully selecting cuts of flesh, extracted organs, and marrow-filled bones for the mystical power within.
For as long as the tribes of the farrow have gone to war, they have been accompanied by vicious razor boars. Far larger than the wolves used by human nations for similar purposes, razor boars are primitive and deadly creatures that require little incentive or training to join the farrow in battle.
Also part of the Welcome Pack, make your boars feel right at home with themed terrain, defenses, objectives, and base toppers.
January monthly drop – Hogs like no other
Also making their debut are War Hog and Road Hog heavy warbeasts, both designed for 50mm bases, and yes, they’re as nasty as they sound. One built to smash the enemy head-on, the other built to hit fast and hit first. Subscribers will get both of these brutal pigs in the regular monthly subscription drop.
The enormous and deadly war hogs were among the first creations concocted by Doctor Arkadius after he joined the Thornfall Alliance and, through their continued modification, remain some of the most lethal. Each is a unique and fearsome expression of the doctor’s twisted genius…and of the parts available to him at the time of their modification.
Their augmented bodies burst with muscles further enhanced by clockwork and steam-powered pistons, a brilliant melding of beast and machine that makes them beyond formidable. Though each war hog is a different combination of flesh and machinery, all share a common purpose: utter destruction of all who dare oppose the Thornfall Alliance.
Understanding a chief limitation of the war hog to be a lack of speed, Emperor Carver instructed Arkadius to turn his mind to the creation of a new warbeast.
Where the war hog lurches at a steady gait alongside Carver’s advancing armies, this creature needed to be different: a beast capable of scouting and destroying enemy foxholes and gun emplacements ahead of the rest of the army.
The result was the road hog — a beast capable of hurling itself at enemies with supercharged fury, unleashing gouts of flame and mechanically-enhanced brutality.
Okay, I’m in. How do I subscribe?
Subscribe now to get your Dark Operations Welcome Pack, ready to be added to your print queue before the Thornfall Alliance joins them on January 6, 2026.
For just $10 a month, you’ll get the free Welcome Pack — including Thornfall Alliance when it drops — as well as terrain, base toppers, defenses and objectives for both armies.
And that’s not all: you’ll also get new STLs every month to print at home, a new loyalty reward every 3 months, and a whopping 50% off everything available in the Warmachine 3D Tribe store.
Subscribe now and join the Tribe. Get ready to go hog wild!
