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Thinking of getting back into Warmachine. Had a few questions. I haven't played since Prime.

1. What book(s) are current?
2. What is the current state of the game like? Is anything generally considered over or under powered?
3. Hardcore players, what is the outlook of the game for the future? Do you think is headed in a good or bad place?
4. Is this a good time to get back into the game? Is there an anticipated edition change soon or something else I need to know before I buy in?

Thanks for reading and thanks for your help!

1. Prime MKII, Primal MK II, Wrath, Domination, Colossals, Gargantuans, Vengeance, most faction books (excluding pirates of the broken coast and Retribution of Scyrah MK I)
2. Pretty balanced. Like all things, the game comes in waves. Some folks get stronger, others plateau. Everyone is competitive.
3. Game seems to be steaming along just fine. As soon as plastics production is sorted out (they have some issues currently), I see little holding the game back.
4. No edition change anytime soon (at least 3+ release books is a safe bet). So you've got a solid 18-24 months before even considering there being an edition change, more like 3-5 years (IMO).

People's opinions will differ (obviously). In any case, welcome back!

 gunslingerpro wrote:
1. Prime MKII, Primal MK II, Wrath, Domination, Colossals, Gargantuans, Vengeance, most faction books (excluding pirates of the broken coast and Retribution of Scyrah MK I)
2. Pretty balanced. Like all things, the game comes in waves. Some folks get stronger, others plateau. Everyone is competitive.
3. Game seems to be steaming along just fine. As soon as plastics production is sorted out (they have some issues currently), I see little holding the game back.
4. No edition change anytime soon (at least 3+ release books is a safe bet). So you've got a solid 18-24 months before even considering there being an edition change, more like 3-5 years (IMO).

People's opinions will differ (obviously). In any case, welcome back!

Thanks for the info.

What book would I turn to for the most recent pirate (mercs) rules?

You mentioned plastics production... what's the problem they're having, do you know?

I appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. Thanks again.

insidius wrote:
What book would I turn to for the most recent pirate (mercs) rules?

You mentioned plastics production... what's the problem they're having, do you know?

I appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. Thanks again.

I'll step in here. First off you will really want the Prime MKII book for the core game rules. That's your first book purchase in my opinion.

Now, as for where the rules are, it's kind of awkward how they do stuff but really simple at the same time. All the rules you need to play models are on the unit card, and the unit cards come with the models. So once you know the game rules you can just go on battlecollege, find the models you think look good based on their descriptions (they give all the abilities that the model can do without giving any actual numbers for stats, as well as some tactical advise), then buy them and get their rules as you go.

Alternatively if you want fluff and to have the rules in a book like I do you will want the Mercenary faction book. That's the place where a lot of models are. The problem is that pretty much every faction gets something in each expansion book (they are broken up by warmachine/hordes but that's about all). Plus they advance the storyline in each expansion. So you will pretty much end up buying each expansion as it comes out. I think they have digital versions available for not much money, so that is definitely a route you can take.

Hope that cleared things up some.

EDT: forgot the plastics (actually it's resin, not Games Workshop style plastic). Apparently back in the mists of time all their minis were metal. Metal has gotten expensive...so they're starting to re-release everything in plastic and they haven't quite figured out the process for producing plastic models yet. As far as I can tell they have some really nasty mold lines, often directly over faces or other pieces of fine detail, and casting quality can be kinda spotty from batch to batch. They do have excellent customer service for mispacks or defects though.

 dementedwombat wrote:

(actually it's resin, not Games Workshop style plastic)

Only thing I'll have to state that DementedWombat is wrong on. The models are plastic. They can be glued with PVC glue. The community has used the term 'restic', b they are not resin in any traditional sense.

There are resin parts to some models for PP (collossal and gargantuan parts, corollary, some titans), but the rest is plastic or white metal.

 gunslingerpro wrote:

 dementedwombat wrote:

(actually it's resin, not Games Workshop style plastic)

Only thing I'll have to state that DementedWombat is wrong on. The models are plastic. They can be glued with PVC glue. The community has used the term 'restic', b they are not resin in any traditional sense.

There are resin parts to some models for PP (collossal and gargantuan parts, corollary, some titans), but the rest is plastic or white metal.

This is correct. It is a different type of plastic than GW uses. It has a bit more resin "feel" to it, but it is plastic.

As for the earlier question about plastic "problems" it isn't as big a deal as most people make it out to be. Models always need to be cleaned and prepped before they are painted, plastic or metal. I have not found them any worse than any GW stuff. Admittedly I haven't bought any GW stuff in the last few years. But my understanding is that the quality has been going down over the last few years, not up. Anyways, there are a lot of benefits to plastic and metal. It is really a personal preference, not a quality preference. Myself, I would prefer all my models to be plastic over metal.

Thank you all for your input.

So to play my pirate force, all I need is the main rules and the unit cards?

What about the tier lists I seem to remember something about? Are those still valid?

If you feel like answering, what are your thoughts (or the general consensus of the community, if there is one) about the Colossals (is that what they're called?)?

I feel so out of the loop.

insidius wrote:

Thanks for the info.

What book would I turn to for the most recent pirate (mercs) rules?

You mentioned plastics production... what's the problem they're having, do you know?

I appreciate the time you took to answer my questions. Thanks again.

For rules: Prime MKII for game rules and Mercenaries faction book for most of the theme lists, model specific rules and Contracts. Wrath, Colossals, Vengeance aren't vital but do contain the units the Merc book is missing and have rules for new unit types they introduced.

Edit:

The plastics are fine, just treat it more like a metal model than a GW plastic and you'll be fine.

insidius wrote:
Thank you all for your input.

So to play my pirate force, all I need is the main rules and the unit cards?

What about the tier lists I seem to remember something about? Are those still valid?

If you feel like answering, what are your thoughts (or the general consensus of the community, if there is one) about the Colossals (is that what they're called?)?

I feel so out of the loop.

In order:
Yes. You can buy the new cards on the PP website or buy a faction deck (all of the updated cards for folks transitioning over from MK I).

Tier lists still exist, but may have changed since MK I. You can find those in your 'Forces of Warmachine: Mercenaries' book, or on the War Room app by Privateer Press. This app also has the cards if you won't to go full digital and skip the faction deck.

Colossals and Gargantuans are definitely cool, and in some cases game changing, but you don't really need one to continue playing the game. The Mercenary colossals are pretty fantastic overall, but I would start with what you have and get reacquainted with the game slowly.

Most everything has been covered. Just one inaccuracy.

gunslingerpro wrote:1. Prime MKII, Primal MK II, Wrath, Domination, Colossals, Gargantuans, Vengeance, most faction books (excluding pirates of the broken coast and Retribution of Scyrah MK I)

There is no Retribution of Scyrah MK I book. They were the first "Forces of" book released for MK II

Knight

insidius wrote:
Thinking of getting back into Warmachine. Had a few questions. I haven't played since Prime.

1. What book(s) are current?
2. What is the current state of the game like? Is anything generally considered over or under powered?
3. Hardcore players, what is the outlook of the game for the future? Do you think is headed in a good or bad place?
4. Is this a good time to get back into the game? Is there an anticipated edition change soon or something else I need to know before I buy in?

Thanks for reading and thanks for your help!

(1) prime mk2, primal mk2, wrath, domination, colossals, gargantuans, vengeance, and next is hordes: exigence.
(2) extremely good. Some things are seen to be a bit op (Haley 2, gaspy2) but whether they are actually op is up for debate. I've never found Haley 2 to be op. Annoying and obnoxious - sure. Broken? No. Similarly, all faction players have some units that they moan about - khador and men o war/kossites, cygnar and trenchers, cryx and drudges etc. that said, recent big masters events had seen players cone first with these 'terrible' units in the lists, so I don't hold much credence to it. It's less of a case of being 'bad' and a lot more 'situational, but fine with the right support'.
(3) excellent, and growing. It's a stable face, growing community and it's generating a llot of excitement. Pp have a great game with an enthusiastic player base. Where is it headed? Yeah, a good place.
(4) yes. Join the fray. There is no talk about any edition changes soon- maybe in two or three years you might see a "prime remix" but that's just me guessing.

It is highly unlikely there will be any sort of major rule change in the future. At worst we'd see the previously mentioned remix, but it wouldn't likely change the cards just minor tweak to the main rules in obscure areas.

With the yearly release of a new Steamroller packet(the official tournament scenario and rules PDF) you can kinda see the game as shifting around on a yearly basis. They change the scenarios each year, sometimes with Meta shifting consequences.


But you don't need any of the books in particular except for Prime/Primal Mk2. The cards for the models contain all the rules you need, except for the rules for Warcaster units, Colossals, or Battle Engines. Which are in Vengeance, Colossals, and Wrath respectively. The book for Convergence of Cyriss also has the rules for Warcaster units as well as the special rules for Vectors. The Retribution of Scyrah book also has the rules for Myrmidon force fields.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

insidius wrote:
Thank you all for your input.

So to play my pirate force, all I need is the main rules and the unit cards?

What about the tier lists I seem to remember something about? Are those still valid?

If you feel like answering, what are your thoughts (or the general consensus of the community, if there is one) about the Colossals (is that what they're called?)?

I feel so out of the loop.

The Tier lists will have been replaced with Mk2 versions. You'll need the Mercenary book for those as they aren't contained in the cards.

But, an alternative I would recommend is the official game App. its called Warroom and you can download it for free, but the faction decks are around $8 apiece. Or you can buy all the decks for a discount.

Warroom is both a card reference, rule reference, list builder, and damage tracking app. You can build lists and then fight with them, you can track damage and all the stuff you'd do with regular cards. The app did have some major problems, but the massive overhaul a few weeks ago fixed that. It even has Tier lists as well as validation.

Warroom also gets updated with each new model release and Errata. You buy a deck and you've bought all cards for that faction in the future, at least as long as Mk2 is around.

Its a great app for looking at the rules of models you don't have yet, or even the rules for models of other factions.

Beautiful. Thanks for all of your guys' input

I'm dragging my Pirates and Khador back out. Can't wait to shake off the rust and get on the field.