Anyone Play Warmachine?

[Vidiot]

Playing Space Marine got my interested in W40K again, which after some research led me to Warmachine.  The fewer models to paint, smaller investment, and less repeated models seemed easier to get into that Warhammer.  Has anyone tried it out?  Is it fun to play?  It will be a hard sell trying to convince any friends to commit, but with the new 2-player box coming out I figured I might have a chance.

[Doopri]

i... dont.  but i know in my area it has a decent community which was a surprise to me as i always thought mini games fell under the category of "warhammer or bust."  so while i cant offer any tips or advice about the game, check your local gamestore scene - you might be as surprised as i was and if youre really interested in getting in on it you might be able to slowly suck your friends in with a few "impromptu" trips on game night!

[msteelers]

My step-brother convinced me to give this a try, and I really liked it. I have never played any game like it, but it didn't take long for me to get hooked. We used to play once a week, but haven't played since football season started.

[Turtle]

I play it extensively. Did you have any particular questions? Did you want a run down of the game?

Warmachine, and Hordes, are skirmish games that are easy to get into. If you like collecting, you'll probably end up with the same cost as other games if you get the entire line for you army, but you'll be playing all along the way. All you really need to start is a Warcaster and 2 Warjacks, but that's just a basic starter. The 2 player box set is actually a really good deal since it gets you much closer to the normal sized game of 35 points.

I've played almost every faction, and fought every one. My current armies are Retribution and Cygnar, although I used to play Trollbloods from Hordes.

The core mechanic of warmachine is the interplay of the Warcaster, basically the army's leader akin to a King piece in chess and his magical ability in the form of Focus, which is then used to cast spells or power up his Warjacks, big steam powered robots with magi-tech brains (called cortexes) that are psychically bonded to the Warcaster. Every Warcaster has usually 5-6 focus points, and much of the decision making is choosing where to spend it since each spell costs focus, but focus can also make Warjacks incredibly deadly.

Then you add on other unit types like infantry, artillery weapons, solos and special characters, each of which have their own special ability, and the interactions become quite fun.

Most games the objective is to kill the enemy Warcaster, so you'll have to get used to the idea of sacrificing things to line up the chance to get the kill in, which isn't easy.

Hordes is a companion game to Warmachine, it uses mostly the same rules, but instead of steam powered robots, you have fantasy beasts that are magically enraged to generate fury energy that their Warlocks tap into. So if you like big living monsters instead of steam robots, that's another option.

Warmachine factions breakdown:
Cygnar - "Good Guys." The most highest tech faction in the game. Also recently attacked by every single other faction, and on the verge of a civil war/coup. But overall, they're. They're themes are supreme ranged firepower, lightning/electricity weapons, and a solid core of all around warjacks.

Khador - Basically Soviet Russia trying to conquer the Iron Kingdoms. Lower tech, but in a sort of outlandishly low tech deadly. They can't make many cortexes, so they only put them in some of the most heavily armored and hardest hitting, but slowest, warjacks. Their infantry makes up for this with a great deal of mobility interesting tactics.

Menoth - Catholic inquisition with steampunk inquisition, and an obession with fire. Their warjacks are slightly slower than cygnar, and not as hard hitting or armored as Khador, but they make up for it with divine buffs they can put on them. The whole army is built around units buffing each other or other kinds of interplay between abilities. You've got a mix of cheap zealots, to holy knights, and a lot of denial style specials.

Cryx - Undead meets evil mutation causing dragons meets steampunk. This isn't your traditional army of undead with shambling zombies and skeletons. This army tends to have fast warjacks that are a little harder to hit, but lower armor. They are the only ones with lesser warjacks, the bonejacks, and a plethora of arc nodes that effectively extends the range of the warcaster's spells without risking them. Most of the army is actually built around speed, or nasty unit-wide abilities.

[msteelers]

I have a khador army. They have some of the hardest hitting warjacks in the game, but are typically slow. I settled on them after playing with a couple of different factions and realized that I wanted to get up close and personal and smash things.

My step-brother has a cygnar and menoth army. Cygnar has some cool units, and looks like a great way to start. Menoth relies a lot on synergy and the right combination of units, but when it works it works. I can usually mop the floor with menoth in smaller point games, but once you get up to 35 point games and higher they can be really tough.

Also, warcasters significantly affect the game. Khador has some hard hitting warjacks, but some of their casters work best with more infantry, and only 1 or 2 jacks.

Has anyone played a game on vassal? We don't have much time to play, and the idea of playing a game online and being able to walk away from it is very appealing.

[Vidiot]

I went ahead and ordered the 2-player box online (my FLGS failed me by only getting one box, which was already pre-ordered).  Looked over the quick start rules and reading though some of the full rules now.  Khador and Menoth are both interesting, but even if I decide to go another way I figure having a small army around for friends is useful.  I also figured my best bet for convincing someone else to buy in is to get them playing.  Unlike Warhammer almost every army sound interesting in some way.

About how long does a 35 point game take?  I think the box set is a bit less in points.

I was reading about Vassal.  I might try to get it setup and see if there are people willing to play around with a new player.

[msteelers]

Game length depends on how many units you have, but my step-brother and I found that 25 and 35 point games took 2-4 hours. Part of that is because we were constantly checking up on rules and we also took way too much time thinking things through. Especially with the menoth armies, where the order of activation is incredibly important.

Smaller games go by much quicker, especially if you are familiar with your models and have a good idea of what they are capable of. The more you play the quicker the games get.

[Vidiot]

I have the Khador jacks put together so far.  I hate trimming off flash.  You can get some interesting poses with these guys using the ball joints.  I figured I would get everything built before I started painting anything.  That way we can start playing some games.

[kronovan]

I'm bit late to the thread, but I'll add that one thing I've noted abou the WM + Hordes minis is that they seem to be more easily adapted into PnP RPG settings than the Warhammer figs. I run an Interface Zero (2088 cyberpunk) RPG campaign and a few of the players have brought their Horde figs and they've worked out well. We've even used a few of the figs in our Savage Worlds Super Powers RPG campaign. As well, with WM + Hordes you're supporting Privateer Press and not the "cease & desist", fan-hating Gamers Workshop. I don't have the time and $ right now to dive into another CMG, but if I did this would be it.