Warmachine; A Beginner's Guide

[Etched Oracle]

This post is here for those of you who are interested in discovering this gem of a game with some useful links and a few general words from the resident players.

The company behind the Warmachine & Hordes games is Privateer Press, an American company very similar to our beloved Games Workshop sans the specialised stores, trading primarily through independents.

In a nutshell, their main games take place in the Iron Kingdoms, a world set somewhere between Epic Fantasy and Steampunk. There are humans, elves, dwarves, trollkins, dragons and everything in between!


Useful Links:
Privateer Press Homepage - All the latest news, model releases and Privateer Insider posts.

BattleCollege - A tactics and strategy wiki for all the armies with overviews on each model and tips & tricks for them.

Wargames Workshop - Our groups favourite site for buying Warmachine & Hordes models from.


If there is anything you'd like to know about the world of Caen, the tabletop games or even something simple as "Which model did you have half built on the table last night?", feel free to ask!

And always remember, Play like you've got a pair!

I'll update and amend this post when I have more time and cohesive thoughts

[Stuart]

Great stuff - I've just started assembling a LotR army (to compliment the WFB and W40K forces that I've started - I'm nothing if not consistent) and then I'm sure I won't have too much trouble convincing Luke that we should take a look at starting on Warmachine

[stygmatyr]

Just a quick summary of the different factions available in Warmachine and their particular strengths and weaknesses, and their particular playstyles that play to their strengths. This is mostly based on our own experience of the game and our own tactics we use

KHADOR
First faction up is my very own, Hailing from the northern region of the iron kingdoms the armies of Khador are distinguished by their 'Might is right' attitude, they have some of the best melee units in the game and are well known for their 'Axe to face' playstyle

They have some of the biggest 'jacks, which can take a real beating, but the downside being their lack of agility making them fairly slow and easy to hit.

To back it up Khador has access to some solid heavy units like the Iron fangs and Man o war shocktroopers and devastating shocktroops like doomreavers along with some awesome support units and solos like the widowmaker sniper unit and assassin like manhunter

Khador warcasters all tend to be very aggressive up close fighters, and can easily hold their own if caught in a tight spot, plus they have one in a warjack body

Khador armies play well at being very aggressive and getting into the enemy as soon as posssible, their jacks being able to soak massive amounts of damage, before getting in close and repaying in kind. Going against Khador in a war of attrition is like trying to take down a wall with a toothpick

CYGNAR
Cygnar is probably the biggest nation of the iron kingdoms but is beset by enemies on all fronts, Land hungry Khador from the north, Fanatical menites from the east, and deadly Cryx from the south west

Cygnar has some of the best ranged units in the game with long gunners and arcane tempest gunmages along with some very capable melee units, such as swordknights and stormguard. Cygnar armies have a wide range of tactics available to them due to having capable models of all types, and a good range of solos to fit any battlefield environment making them a very flexible army capable of taking whatever the battlefield can throw at them.

Cygnar jacks are good at keeping enemies at bay with their powerful guns like the light jack Charger and heavy warjack Defender and taking the fight to the enemy with the heavy Ironclad or playing a defensive role with the light Lancer and Heavy centurion

Cygnar warcasters are natural leaders, able to boost their units and jacks to exceptional levels at the right moments to turn the tide of battle in their favour

Cygnar armies can be very good at playing the long range game, picking off troublesome units with their long ranged units, and mopping up the rest of the enemy with their combat units once they've been thinned out

More to follow

[Stuart]

Tell ya what, after I'm done with my LotR Elves, WFB Dwarves and W40K Space Marines I'm gonna be all over some of those Cygnar models. So sometime in the next 5 years...

[stygmatyr]

Right, sorry for the delay, but i finally have some time to write it down, so on to the next two of the major factions of WARMACHINE

PROTECTORATE OF MENOTH
The protectorate of menoth or protectorate, menoth, menites or just PoM for short is a nation zealously devoted to the worship of the creator of man, Menoth. Such is their zeal, they aggresively spread the word of their faith to all corners of the iron kingdoms, burning all heretics who would denounce the name of Menoth in worship of their false gods.

Reflecting this a lot of abilities in the PoM army bolster other units through the power of faith like the choir of menoth or the covenant of menoth, giving the army a synergy that few other forces can match.

Menoth jacks are in the middle ground of being nearly as tough as khador jacks and almost as versatile as cygnar jacks. Quite a few of PoMs 'jacks are excellent in defensive roles, with the devout being an excellent warcaster bodyguard, along with the vigilant (a jack with TWO shields). Keeping with the defensive theme, a lot of PoM jacks have reach weapons (2" melee range) helping to keep their enemies at bay

PoM warcasters are fervent believers in Menoth, and their faith gives them immense power in battle, using prayers to call down fiery death on their enemies, bring back the souls of their destroyed brothers, or invigorate the faithful to new heights of battle lust

CRYX
The undead nation of the pirate infested shard isles, cryx is a dread nation constantly raiding the western coast of the iron kingdoms, being a major threat to both cygnar and khador, and even moving inland to the thornwood forest to be a threat to the other nations.

Cryx's main strength is its speed. A highly manuverable force able to pull off devastating lightning attacks and obliterate enemies with their powerful magics.

Being mostly undead, cryx units have the advantage of being fearless, as well as numerous and deadly. cheap units like the Bile thralls and mechanithralls are weak defensively but hit hard enough to be treated as a threat. Harder units like the Banethralls and bloodgorgers, though expensive are excellent shocktroops able to take out enemy units, jacks or even unfortunate warcasters who get in their way.

Cryx warjacks are classified differently from other nations, their light jacks are known as Bonejacks, their Heavys known as Helljacks. Most of their Bonejacks have arcnodes (warcasters can use arcnodes to cast spells through as if they were that model) and are very agile making them fast and hard to hit, though a downside being they can't take as much punishment as other factions jacks. Helljacks have a variety of horrifying weapons which to terrify their foes and are literally killing machines, being harder to hit than other factions jacks but again not being able to take as much punishment.

Cryx warcasters are masters of necromancy, able to slaughter enemies easily with just a quick spell, raise more troops from the freshly killed enemies, or terrify foes with a whisper. Some are capable in combat though mostly they prefer to stay out of range of the enemy using their arcnodes to soften them up with devastating spells ready for the final blow.


That briefly covers the main four factions, however this is just a brief overview and is mostly taken from my experience playing with or against each faction. If you want to learn more about a faction just ask us at any of the meetings and we'll be happy to tlak your ears off about our factions
Craig - Cygnar
Mike - Protectorate of menoth
Simon - Khador
Kat - Cryx
Me (justin) Khador

[Luke the Squig]

I'm definately going for PoM, I reckon. Some of the models look awsome and so does the whole 'cloak in the wind' thing they've got going on.

[Gareth]

Nobody been tempted by Retribution of Scyrah, or any of the Hordes forces yet?

[stygmatyr]

Simon has a small retribution force, but we haven't played it much so I'm still unfamiliar with them . As for hordes I do have a skorne force i'm looking to expand and Craig has a circle battle box although apart from my skorne i don't have experience with how the other forces play just yet

[Stuart]

I hadn't really noticed the Retribution forces before - I'm a bit torn between those and Cygnar now.

[stygmatyr]

Simon is looking to get some more and will probably use them at the next meeting, so we can get a look at how they play