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Going cryx and skorne.

Keen on melee heavy cryx but holding back until i see how i like casting in warmachine

 Trapthem wrote:
Going cryx and skorne.

Keen on melee heavy cryx but holding back until i see how i like casting in warmachine

Not sure what you mean by "How you like casting in warmachine".

Each warcaster has a focus stat, typically 5-6, though some have less (4) and some have more (10). Focus is the arcane energy you use to fuel your sorcery/innate magic ability. In the game, focus has 7 effects: 1). It overpowers your warcaster's Force Field by +1 ARM for each point of focus on your warcaster during combat. 2). It can also be used to replenish or "heal" your warcaster by 1 point for each point of focus spent. 3). The focus stat when doubled becomes your control area (say you have a Focus of 5, then your control area is 10"). The control area has a lot of implications and meanings, and I won't get too much into it here. Suffice to say, it's the limit of your warcaster's ability to allocate focus to warjacks and measure to models. 4). It can be used to "shake off" continuous effects such as being knocked down or stationary, but only warcasters and warjacks can do this. 5). It can boost a dice roll ONCE. For example, let's say you need a 9 on 2d6. You can spend one point of focus (and only one per die roll) to add +1d6 to that die for and total the result. You can do this anytime you make an attack roll or damage roll. Note: You can only use a focus points that's been allocated to a warjack to shake an effect or boost an attack/damage roll. 6). Focus allocation: During the control phase, your warcaster may allocate up to 3 focus to each warjack in his/her/its battlegroup. A battle group consists of the warcaster, warcaster atachments, and warjacks directly assigned to that warcaster. Other models like solos and warrior units are NOT in a warcaster's battlegroup. An army could have several battlegroups. Warjacks can use that focus to run, to make a power attack (such as a two handed throw, or head butt), charge (combine movement with a melee attack), boost an attack or damage roll, or buy another attack. Some warjacks have abilities that are only triggered when that warjack spends a focus point. Those are noted on individual warjack cards. 7). You use focus to cast spells, though not all magic abilities require focus to cast a spell.

There are always exceptions to the above rules, and just remember, the cards always trump the rule book, and don't try to "read into" the cards. They are very literal and mean exactly what they say. PP does a fantastic job making sure of that.

I feel like I'm missing something in the above list, but oh well. Those are the main points.

You will be using focus EVERY TURN OF THE GAME. Depending on your warcaster, you'll be spending focus to cast spells to benefit or "buff" your own units, or to do some kind of harmful effect to the enemy. You will be allocating it to warjacks to make them more effective. Or you could go all "Super-Sayian" with your warcaster, over boosting your power field (for extra armor) and then wading into combat spending that focus for boosts and extra attacks. It all depends on the warcaster.

That is the beauty of Warmachine. Swap out the warcaster, and the character and dynamics of your entire army changes based on the spells and focus that warcaster has.

I didn't chat too much about fury. Fury, though similar to focus in it's effects on the game, has some very significant differences, especially when it comes to warbeast interactions. Learn either Focus or Fury first, get a good handle on it, then learn the other one.

 Trapthem wrote:
Going cryx and skorne.

Keen on melee heavy cryx but holding back until i see how i like casting in warmachine

I hope you like it because you will do a lot of it. By their very name warCASTERS cast spells. And each has a feat which will probably be pretty integral to your armies plan. Warlocks are just the same. If you ignore the spell list and feat you will probably lose a lot. I'm sure there are a couple warnouns that can win by never casting a spell or feating, but I can't think of any.

Mechanics-wise, using spells is like using any other attack or ability for the most part. Warcasters have special rules, but when they go to cast a spell it really isn't much difference than an attack with a sword or gun. Roll 2 dice, add your stat and try to match the opponents DEF.

Now there are casters who like to hang back and some who like to be up in the action a bit more. But it really is a tactical thing, not a spell casting thing.

So unless your like/dislike of casting is of the concept of playing a finger waggler, mechanics-wise you will be fine to choose anything. It's not like 40K where adding a psyker brings an entirely new dimension to the game. WM/H has much better rules and casting spells fits into this very cleanly. Just learning the game you will know how spells work.

PS just by virtue of playing Cryx you will be melee heavy. There are only a couple builds for a ranged army and they can be pretty niche. And the Cryx warcasters are considered some of the best spell slingers around.

Indeed.

Warcasters and Warlocks are sort of analogous to both the King and Queen in chess.

sweet run through, thanks for that, working my way through the rules now since im off sick today, down side of that is I keep falling asleep while reading

worth buying a hordes rulebook as well? trying to not buy a cygnar all in one box right now either, thematically i dig both the idea of the cryx poison clouds and a bunch of arc nodes etc and cygnar wise i really like the idea of dealing with ranged combat a lot

No need to get the hordes book if you're playing WM. The core is the same but the Focus / Fury mechanic shifts.

If you are playing hordes as well you will likely need it.

 Trapthem wrote:
sweet run through, thanks for that, working my way through the rules now since im off sick today, down side of that is I keep falling asleep while reading

worth buying a hordes rulebook as well? trying to not buy a cygnar all in one box right now either, thematically i dig both the idea of the cryx poison clouds and a bunch of arc nodes etc and cygnar wise i really like the idea of dealing with ranged combat a lot

That is definitely a thing for Cryx. Asphyxious specifically I believe.

A warning about ranged combat in WM, and Cygnar specifically. The game is designed to be up close and personal. While shooting can be very advantageous, you definitely want a combined arms approach to list building. Cygnar shooting works best when it is combined with units that can jam up the enemy and hold/contest objectives. I'm also a fan of mobile shooting like gunmages. Static gun lines won't tend to get you a lot of wins.

A side note about shooting:

Remember you can attack your own models (there are several situations where you might want to) and you can happily shoot into melee combat all day long. I wouldn't recommend it, but you can.

Hahaha sounds like a good time.

I grabbed a skorne starter so might grab a second hand hordes book as well.

Managed to find a private seller getting out of hobby and copped a poorly primed cryx starter, mkii primal for wm and a bonus blast template for 60. See what i can do for skorne.

 Tamwulf wrote:
A side note about shooting:

Remember you can attack your own models (there are several situations where you might want to) and you can happily shoot into melee combat all day long. I wouldn't recommend it, but you can.

There are lots of time shooting your own models is advantageous. Cygnar does it a lot with lightning guns/spells and lightning immune models.

It's also legit with some AOEs in order to place them exactly where you want to. Cryx has a few things like this to place AOEs. Kill a cheap mechanithrall to knockdown the caster.

I'm not super knowledgeable about Menoth, but I think they have some large AOES that can be placed more accurately by doing tricks like that.

I'm lumping all ranged attacks together here not just "shooting" as there is normally little difference mechanically.

Nah, PoM doesn't really shoot its own models very often. At least not to get AOEs where we want them. We just have high pow blast damage and continuous fire instead. Who needs direct hits?

I killed a Warpwolf with blast damage once, it was funny.

 Shas'O Dorian wrote:


Buy something because you actually want it, not because it's on sale

This is a stroke of genius. Too bad it's so hard to follow

Im taking things out of my online shopping cart for skorne...

Not sure what I should prioritise...

Im going to buy xerxes. I like the cut of his slow grinding infantry jib. I have a starter box but a simpler warlock seemed more appealing.

Anyone able to help me prioritise my purchase?

Beast handler unit
Bronzeback
Agoniser
Incindiarii
Paingiver task master
Gatormen or farrow spear dudes
Reptile hounds

For skorne, drop the reptile hounds & get a basilisk Krea. Ignore farrow buy gatormen posse, but for Xerxis I'd say forget Gators AND the taskmaster & get cataphract Cetratii. Xerxis does Cataphracts very well.

Xerxis isn't about slow infantry grind, Xerxis is about heavy infantry smackdown. Zaal is a more grindy caster. Feed infantry into the grinder then ancestral rage them into tokens for boosted attacks & dmg from everything.

 bocatt wrote:

 Shas'O Dorian wrote:


Buy something because you actually want it, not because it's on sale

This is a stroke of genius. Too bad it's so hard to follow

I once read somewhere that the only thing better than buying a Machete because it's on sale is not buying a machete.

But this is plastic crack we're talking about.

Buy all the things!

 welshhoppo wrote:

 bocatt wrote:

 Shas'O Dorian wrote:


Buy something because you actually want it, not because it's on sale

This is a stroke of genius. Too bad it's so hard to follow

I once read somewhere that the only thing better than buying a Machete because it's on sale is not buying a machete.

But this is plastic crack we're talking about.

Buy all the things!

That was obviously said by someone who had never bought a machete.

How do the battle group sets do? Are they a good starter set? Specifically I'm considering the Cryx battlegroup


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 the_kraken wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:

 bocatt wrote:

 Shas'O Dorian wrote:


Buy something because you actually want it, not because it's on sale

This is a stroke of genius. Too bad it's so hard to follow

I once read somewhere that the only thing better than buying a Machete because it's on sale is not buying a machete.

But this is plastic crack we're talking about.

Buy all the things!

That was obviously said by someone who had never bought a machete.

Seriously. Talk about a great cheap tool

 jreilly89 wrote:
How do the battle group sets do? Are they a good starter set? Specifically I'm considering the Cryx battlegroup

I recently started Warmahordes myself and picked up a few Battlegroups so I could try out a couple different factions and get some friends into it with me. If you look on eBay, the Battlegroups are a decent starter for the price.

They are definitely a good start, especially the cryx set.

Just be aware that the Cryx set starts with more points than any other set. So, if you want a fair fight with someone you should start at 15 points with the box set mandatory.