Wild West Exodus Iron Horses Preview

It's high-noon, and Jessie James and his outlaws have set their sights on your peaceful little town. The bell chimes its final chime, and all is quiet on the dusty streets. You can hear the click and whirr of the gears in Jessie's bionic arms, and an artificial bark echoes from his robotic attack dogs. You saddle up on your steed, a hovering heavily armored bike with twin-gatling guns mounted to the front. You're a patrolman for the Union, and you're ready to take out this Outlaw scum. Just like in the movies, right? Maybe not, but it's the type of action we're diving into with our review of the recently released Wild West Exodus Iron Horses set of miniatures.

What Is Wild West Exodus?

Wild West Exodus is a miniature skirmish war game by Warcradle Studios that takes the legends of the wild west and gives them a seriously sci-fi upgrade. Set in a world where mysterious forces have silently been pulling the strings for millennia, players control a posse of powerful individuals - be they legendary gunslingers, supernatural combatants, or powerful machines - and fight to destroy the enemy forces on the table.

For a more in-depth look at Wild West Exodus as a whole, check out our starter set preview and our guide to building your own forces.

What Is Included In The Wild West Exodus Iron Horses Box?

The Wild West Exodus Iron Horses kit includes everything you need to build two Iron Horse units, with multiple options to upgrade and adapt these units as needed for your faction. All in all, there are parts here to build two Iron Horse units, the sturdy and durable Iron Eagle units, or the Trailblazer units. These units can be further customized with different riders from a few of the factions in the game, all on the sprue. Included are modeling pieces for Enlightened, Union, Lawmen, Hex, and Outlaw riders for these powerful vehicles.

These Wild West Exodus Iron Horses models come unassembled and unpainted on sprues, so modeling snippers and model glue are needed to assemble. Instructions for how to assemble these models are not included in the box, but a QR code on the side of the box immediately links to helpful instructions. That being said, we found the assembly of these models to be an absolute breeze, with everything fitting together and gluing quite nicely.

How Do The Wild West Exodus Iron Horses Play?

The Iron Horse, and the various other configurations that can be built with this kit, are fast-moving and hard-hitting. Though there are small variations between which faction you choose to mount on the Iron Horse, the main stats are similar. Let's take a look at the Iron Horse and its various configurations with a Union soldier on it, as a baseline reference.

The Iron Horse is tied for fastest Union unit in the game with a Quickness characteristic of 7 (meaning it can move up to 7 inches during its "Run" action). It also has the "Sure Footing" special rule, meaning it ignores penalties for uneven ground (which makes sense, seeing as it hovers above the ground). Its Gatling Gun has an incredible range of 15 inches, and hammers out four attack rolls at once and has the "Brutal" characteristic, meaning it deals an additional successful Wound for each Wound it inflicts on an enemy unit (a single Wound instantly destroys and removes a figure in this "one hit point" game). If you're stuck in close (which you should avoid if possible), or want to fire off an extra attack action, this model's Sidearm can help you squeeze out an extra wound.

Building these models as the bulky armored Iron Eagle makes it slower by one inch, but its "Grit" or defensive value is one better. The Iron Eagle also attacks with its Heavy Electrocarbines, which lose the "Brutal" characteristic of the Gatling Gun but gain the "Linked" characteristic, meaning you can re-roll failed attacks. Finally, the Trailblazer or Union Blazer build of from this kit brings back the "Brutal" keyword, and dishes out "Hazard" tokens when its destroyed, which reduce the types of actions a figure can take.

All in all, no matter which configuration you build these Wild West Exodus Iron Horses, these units zip around the battlefield and deal out impressive damage. They'll work well as a supplemental force in your faction, punching hard while your more specialized units run around scoring objectives and getting into old-timey shootouts.

Interested in learning more about Wild West Exodus and these Iron Horses? Head over to the Wild West Exodus site to learn more about the game, dive deeper into the lore, and download a pdf of the rules for free.

The copy of Wild West Exodus Iron Horses used in this review was provided by Warcradle Studios.