A newbie starting out

[Kutvii]

Hello friends,

I have recently started taking interest in both Warmachine and Hordes. And after I heard that a friend of mine had picked up the Khadoran starter box I'm thinking of starting up playing the game myself.

Now I currently have a Khadoran starter box I bought roughly eight years ago but seeing that my friend wishes to play them I'd rather start up something different. So I turn to the people here for help in picking up/creating a fun starting packet.

Having taken a few days to do some research about the models, factions and backstory of the game these are the things that interest me the most:

Lord Carver and his plan to conquer the human lands and starting up his own empire. However I worry about getting new releases that'd fit into this as the pool of models is already relatively small.

Cygnaran group with heavy Mercenary influence. I very much like the Major Victoria Haley models and the looks of Vanguard, Nomad and Mule (especially the classic versions of them). This idea lacks a proper theme though.

Pure Mercenary group with Drake MacBain or Ashlyn d'Elyse. The MacBain idea is pure mercenary greed with heavy punch. D'Elyse would be more mobile, on the run type of freedom fighters.

Now I don't know a whole lot about either game systems or what kind of tactics really work in the game itself so thoughts and advice on the ideas presented would be greatly appreciated. There'll probably also be questions about things later on when the first step of deciding what models to buy is settled :)

[Luke Licens]

Mercenary forces are a difficult path to walk in Warmahordes. If you're bringing them in to another faction's force, they're going to miss out on quite a bit. A lot of good feats and spells specify 'Friendly Faction models/units' only, so they leave your mercs out in the cold.

Mercenary Charter armies (pure merc lists) run into a problem of variety, especially if you're trying to maintain a theme. You noticed the issue with Lord Carver BMMD Esquire III (who's Farrow are actually one of the best developed sub-groups) but it's endemic to all of the highly themed Merc groups. For example, the only current Merc/Minion cavalry unit is Steelhead Cavalry. If they don't float your boat, no horsemen for you.

Best thing I can recommend is for you to go lurk on the official Privateer Press forums, particularly in the Mercs/Minions areas (http://privateerpressforums.com/forumdisplay.php?73-Minions-Community http://privateerpressforums.com/forumdisplay.php?27-Mercenary-Community), to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. If you're looking for an overview of a particular model, I'd suggest heading over to the Battle College (http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/)

[whitestar333]

I love Mercenaries but I agree that they can be quite tricky. Even still, they have a lot going for them because you get a much wider variety of models to play around with (unless you're talking about Minion pacts). My advice is to start with some battlegroup sized games and work your way outwards from there. The Mercenary battlegroup box isn't really out in plastic unfortunately but if there are some players in your area you should ask if they could give you a battlegroup demo of the game so you can get the mechanics down. The trouble with mercenaries is that each caster has a very different feel and playstyle and you don't want to get stuck buying some models that you'll later find you won't use as often.

In any case, try to get some games down, play around, and don't take it too seriously or get down on yourself if you lose your first couple of games. The rules have a lot of subtlety to them that can turn people off easily if they don't start winning after their first or second game. It can take some time to get a good feel for what works and what doesn't in the game. Patience and an easy-going attitude will take you far.

[Kutvii]

Thanks for the replies guys :)

I have actually placed an order on a Vanguard model to start it all off. I believe I will end up running with a Cygnar/Mercenary combination. What I have in mind for the next pick ups are Major Victoria Haley, a close combat heavy warjack (probably Centurion) and then a light warjack or two with decent long range attacks.

I am going to do some research on the light 'jacks (quite possibly on that Battle College page you linked) but considering I am going up against Khador for the most part, does Cygnar have something that I can use to soften them up or take them down over several turns?

Sadly the situation here is that I am unable to get models quickly due to lack of suppliers in my country. The local game store can't get all the things I'd like so it takes a couple of weeks for orders to arrive in general. However, I have managed to find a couple more people who have Warmachine models so I just might get to do some training games with their models while waiting for models to arrive.

[Tyrendian]

well... as for a Cygnar light that can shoot up Khador, you can't go wrong with a Hunter... Arm 10 is much much less scary than Arm 20 i'm told (a Hunter's gun halves its target's effective armour if the target is on a medium or large base, and also it can operate far away from your caster, which might give the generally slow Khador Jacks trouble reaching it) :-)

[OrksOrksOrks]

If you're new you want help getting motivated to paint your models, want to join in with a painting community of nice, friendly enthusiastic people and want the chance to win some really cool prizes just for painting, then why not join my Painting Oaths group on Facebook?

http://www.facebook.com/groups/541074439270281/

[Panzar]

To be honest you really can't go wrong with choosing models/a theme you like and building up from there. WM/H is a game where balance isn't too much of an issue so as long as you continue to learn and evolve with your meta any army can be competitive.

As it so happens cygnar is very powerful at the moment and benefits greatly from a lot of merc units/solos so you're on the right track.

[Kutvii]

So I've moved on with the whole warmachine thing. I bought myself the Cygnar starter box to do some small scale games. While it suits the purposes of testing the game and getting some experience under my belt, I must admit I was somewhat disappointed with the quality of the models. My old reliable plastic glue didn't work on the models at all and the pieces don't quite fit together.

Now I am curious if this is the case only with the starter kits and the later unit boxes/warjacks in plastic have better quality than this? Or will I always need to bring a knife to the models to cut bits off so they actually fit together?

Having said that, I didn't put a serious effort into modelling and getting everything fixed. I picked up my superglue and just glued the ill-fitting pieces together so I could play with the models. I doubt I'll paint these ones as they are not the warjacks I intend to use a lot in the future (other than to continue playing practice games until I put together a proper battlegroup).

Next up is a couple of things about scenarios you play in the game. So far my experience is that all you need to do is zerg the opposing warcaster down faster than your opponent. In all the games I've played, only once has a warjack been wrecked before a warcaster dies. And in that game I decided to lose to get a single warjack kill instead of going after the warcaster. So not having access to the full rulebook (and I don't really feel like downloading one) I'd like to know if there are any fun scenarios where you just don't need to aim for the warcaster to win? Or does that require having much bigger battlegroup?

Next up I am considering on getting a Trencher Infantry box and see how units work in the game. And maybe eventually I'll find a reliable online store where that actually has decent delivery times to Europe.

[Dyrnwyn]

Yeah, PP's 'plastic' is actually a resin-plastic mix and not standard polystyrene plastic, so plastic cement/glue won't work on it.

I can't comment much on the starter boxes - I have not bought one of the plastic ones yet, and currently my only plastic model from PP is a single light warjack which didn't have any issue coming together but had one gap I needed to fill. You may have just gotten a bad box, or it could be an issue with the Cygnar box in particular. PP models are something of a mixed bag.

[Infinite Freedom]

In my experience, at low level games the caster kill is how most win. When you get to playing objective games at higher points level, you start to focus more on taking the objectives than the caster kill. That said, I'm not above taking the assassination route if I have the vector.

As for Cygnar. I have played them for awhile, and can generally say that when it comes to Mercs you can't really go wrong with some Rhulic Forgeguard or some Steelhead Halberdiers. Both bring some great melee ability to a faction that in my experience should spend more time shooting. Plus who doesn't love Weapon Master with Reach?

[Kutvii]

We are slowly moving towards slightly bigger games. Next one in line (after a lengthy break) will be a 21 point game. Again it's Khador and Cygnar battling it out. I'll be heading into that with the following:

Major Victoria Haley accompanied by Vanguard, Charger and Ironclad with a 10 man strong unit of Trencher Infantry.

The plan will be to have the Trenchers form a line through which Khador's heavy 'jacks can't march through and then use Charger, Ironclad and Haley to take the apart (hopefully) while Vanguard makes sure Haley is safe. Will have to see how it plays out.

There is also been some alternative rule considerations if we get some more units and all that. One idea is to fight it out with units and models with 'jack marshal rules, leaving warcasters at home. Or simply keep on fighting after a warcaster goes down.

For future plans I am thinking of picking up the book for Cygnar, a Hunter, a Journeyman Warcaster and either an unit of Gun Mages or an unit of Sword Knights. However, I'll have to get my Chaos warband ready for a local Crusade of Fire campaign before I can move onto new purchases. But I admit that I am somewhat excited about the forces I'm gathering up and playing some bigger games. Still need to talk with my friends about buying the actual rulebook as I am sure having it is better than the quickstart guides we have now.

Will probably write here how the battles went when I get home on thursday.

[Kutvii]

So, things went not as planned.

Played three games and lost each one. It was good fun and we didn't really try to do crazy assassinations but only one game can be called close one.

My friend was running Khador with Kommander Sorscha accompanied by two Kodiaks, a Juggernaut and a Destroyer. We played three games with small alterations, starting up at 21 points and moving to play two 27 point games after that.

First game I screwed up movement and ended up having Kodiaks steam a lot of Trenchers to death. Also my shooting and warjacks rolled so poorly that the game was lost very fast.

Second game was very close. I had clear control of the game, until my friend was losing really badly, he then managed to maneuver perfectly to let Sorscha beat poor Haley into submission.

Third game was ridicilously one sided. I used my 10 man trencher unit to do huge combined attack twice, only to roll snake eyes on damage. This meant that I ended up being crushed by the four heavy 'jacks who kept rolling godlike damage.

What I learned from these games is that I need to keep Haley away from Sorscha who killed Haley with two swings of her weapon after popping her feat. Also I really need to get a Hunter to lay some more reliable damage to the Khadoran warjacks, probably switching it to replace the Charger. And most of all, I probably should shoot the trenchers in groups of five instead of a single big shot when taking on Khador. More likely to deal better damage as the hit is almost guaranteed. Major Haley has a nasty set of spells that can work the battlefield in your advantage but she needs something to guard her. Also, I really need to work a Lancer into the battlegroup, trying to get in range for the spells feels highly unsafe. Maybe I'll consider getting Thorn to go with her.

All in all I had fun playing the game, even if it was just slightly demoralizing seeing the Khadoran tide of red just roll over my poor battlegroup.