Looking for Warmachine Resources

[Hammerdrake]

Hello. I've put 40k on the shelf for now and decided to focus on this Warmachine business.

I last played 40k regularly in college in 2nd ed. Between 3rd ed, a job, a family, I gave up on wargamming. Now that life's stabilized a bit and my kids are older (8 & 10) I tried to get back into 40k. I restarted with Tau in the dusk of 4th ed and moved on to Space Marines with 5th. I have enormous armies for both, but haven't played in probably a year. And have never gotten to more than one game every few months. I've found myself overwhelmed with the painting task (I don't like to play unpainted - and both my armies are about 1/3 painted to this day) and generally lacking in the time required to get up to speed with regularly gaming. I had hoped with the kids getting older, I could get them involved and move things on. My daugther likes the Eldar, my son the Orks. However, we're running into the same troubles of collecting armies (nothing but bargain bin for the kids stuff), painting armies and getting games in. The games take too long and its hard to build up decent balanced lists for the kids with the limited models available - and I don't want to overwhelm them with too many models. Finally, between the table size needed and lengths of games, its just not working.

I was about to give up (for now - again) when I started hearing more about Warmachine and looking into it. Especially the recent World's End radio podcast. Seems like it may be a perfect fit. Much smaller model count, quicker games, and smaller boards. I think my daughter will like the Retribution and my son the Cryx stuff. And I can actually get a force completely painted and drop in the FLGS for a couple of quick games now and then.

So, to make a long story short ("TOO LATE!"), I'm looking for some input and resources. BoLS has some good Warmachine stuff, but is definately 40k first. Can anyone suggest a couple good sites/communities and podcasts for Warmachine?

I'm having a hard time picking between Khador and Menoth. I like the models and fluff from both. I like what I've read about the Khador gameplay, but haven't been able to get a good sense of how Menoth generally plays. Any thoughts for me?

I plan to pick up as many books as I can (currently trying to offload all my 40k books :( ) to read up on all the fluff, and hopefully help direct my faction choice. If I pickup models from the bargain bin, without cards, what's the best way to fill out the rules for these guys?

Finally, I like making up my own color schemes. Is there more of an expectation in Warmachine that the models fit the "official" colors? I make a gray Khador force, or blue Menoth, would that be a problem?

Thanks!

[wittdooley]

battlecollege.wikispaces.com is an excellent resource.

TBH, though, the best resources is Privateer's forums. Fantastic forums with lots of great bootcamps and tactical information. That's where I'd start.

[Hammerdrake]

battlecollege.wikispaces.com is an excellent resource.

TBH, though, the best resources is Privateer's forums. Fantastic forums with lots of great bootcamps and tactical information. That's where I'd start.

Great, thanks. World's End had pointed me to the Battle College, but I didn't realize PP had thier own forums - great!

Anyway, while I'm here, I've got another question:
- Which faction in general and which specific warcasters have the most focus?

Thanks again!

[Silver Drakes Legion]

Protectorate has the highest caster in the Harbringer of Menoth with 10 focus whom I love. A choir is an auto include making the jacks not require as much boosting.

Though Cyngar probably has the most casters with 7 or 8 and the ability of other models to generate focus for jacks or the caster with the little walking teapot (squire)

[tonyzahn]

Which faction in general and which specific warcasters have the most focus?


As a faction, the Protectorate has the most, with a bunch of 7 and 8 focus casters as well as the Harbinger and her 10.

As far as casters, it's:
Harbinger (Protectorate of Menoth): 10
Witch Coven (Cryx): 9
Epic Haley/Severius: 8

Now, just because someone has a lot of focus, that doesn't necessarily mean their better at running warjacks. That's more dependent on their abilities and spell list. What it does mean is that they have a wider control area, can effect more stuff with their feat, and are more likely to hit when attacking with spells.

[FastEd]

There is also a few Hordes (which not only is the same fictional world, but same game system) casters floating around with higher focus/fury stats as well, but on average they tend to be a point or so lower.

As for not having cards, you can actually pick up faction decks that contain the cards for everything that was released before the MK2 rule set. Those should get you started. They look like these (https://store.privateerpress.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=316) (because they are. Make sure you pick up these ones and not older faction decks. At one point there was a revised set of faction decks that was released as MK2 faction deck or some such, and I've seen a few pick them up before we could clear them off the shelf when the second edition of Warmachine came out.