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Hello everybody, I am curious about something. This could certainly be a symptom of my unique situation (I don't get to play much warmachine so I watch stuff on youtube or listen to podcasts about it) but it seems like Warmachine is almost universally played at 50 points with one of the Steamroller Scenarios. There's nothing wrong with this format, but having the same kind of game all the time seems like it might get boring after a while.

I was wondering if anybody had experience with other ways to play the game. I know multi-warcaster formats can be a thing but I have never seen anybody actually do that. Also has anybody ever done some kind of narrative campaign? It seems like the system should support it but it is not a kind of play I have ever seen done because of the focus on tournament style play.

They use to have campaign rules in MkI but haven't introduced them back in any form yet.

There are Seasonal Leagues, which are a form of organized play that does neat things like alternate versions of models, unique scenarios and let you have warbeast/warjack bonds. Those also vary in size and such. They tend to be a tad more casual but still using the standard point costs.

Multi-caster formats are apparently common in Atlanta specifically and at event sliek Warmachine Weekend they have two-caster 75pt events. There is also team events where two players bring X number of points in legal lists for their own Faction and play against other pairs of players. It gets silly but can be fun. There is also full on team events which are SR style sets of one-on-one games but the team scores a total out of 3 each round.

There's Hardcore, which is Steamroller Hard Mode. You use much faster times on timed turns, one scenario, and all painted armies required. It's kind of the top level weirdness there. Another altenrate format is Iron Gauntlet, which is PP's official organized play championship thing where big evetnts have IG games and this year your lists could be from separate Factions.

Exotic formats get into things like Who's the Boss (where you build an army without a warlock/warcaster, and then get one assigned randomly from any Faction in the game each round), Highlander (one warlock, one solo/battle engine, one unit, warjacks/warbeasts for the rest), Spell Draft (full rules at L&L), and Commander's Crucible.

And if you really hate life, if you do 3+ warcaster/warlock games, you enter Unbound rules (found in Colossalrs or Gargantuans).

There are a lot of different ways to play things really. Steamroller gets the most coverage in part since it's the most coverable for being hte most used and agreed upon format, though.

And stuff.

I find the game dynamic and diverse enough that 50pts/Steamroller doesn't really get stale, particularly with my own rather slow play schedule. There are fan systems out there for narrative campaigns, you just have to Google around and pick your favorite. I was putting together my own at some point, but group interest waned. There are also "Whose the boss?" events where everyone gets a random Warcaster/Warlock after buidling their list. There is a thread going around the PP forums right now on doing a Spell Draft format.

You could also just do whatever whacky thing your head cooks up, assuming other players like the sound of it.

50pt and Steam roller scenarios is quite a bit of variety, especially if you are changing your list up now and then and your opponents.

Also, Steam roller gets an update every year. Not usually major changes, but they do change the game a little each time.

Also, since Steamroller is common and free to get the rules for most people are familiar with them.

I've heard of people doing multi player and have played in some multiplayer, but they usually are more political/lucky than much actual skill.

That said, my brother and I are looking forward to doing a 75 or 100 point game at some point just for giggles.

Have you considered Commander's Crucible? It is a new format this year that I've heard very little about.

I like all these suggestions here. Especially the "who's the boss" idea. Trying to build a list where you have no clue what warcaster you will receive sounds just terrifying enough to be hilarious.

By the way if it's not clear I have absolutely 0 interest in actually demonstrating masterful generalship. I just like lining up all my little miniatures and having fun with my friends.

There's also a new format that'll be coming up soon called Spell Draft.

Warcasters/Warlocks lose their spells and beasts lose their Animi. All those spells and animi get put in a deck and you do a draft.

 Grey Templar wrote:
There's also a new format that'll be coming up soon called Spell Draft.

Warcasters/Warlocks lose their spells and beasts lose their Animi. All those spells and animi get put in a deck and you do a draft.

I heard spell draft would only be at Lock&Load but we can hope that it is popular enough to end up as a pdf some point after.

 Grey Templar wrote:
There's also a new format that'll be coming up soon called Spell Draft.

Warcasters/Warlocks lose their spells and beasts lose their Animi. All those spells and animi get put in a deck and you do a draft.

Sounds...silly. Some warcasters you only take for their spells. If you can take a warcaster with poor spells but a nice feat or other abilities and then add good spells to them it sounds a bit too much.

Spell Draft is awesome and broken and awesome. We are in the second round of it, and it has been a blast. There are some stupid combos, but eight people single elimination, doesn't take too long. Then it's time to draft again. People even get in side games, to max out on fun. One great side effect is that it really gets you to learn the spells.

Here's a link to round by round draft picks and lists.

http://www.speedyshare.com/TUEbR/Spell-draft.xls

 dementedwombat wrote:
I like all these suggestions here. Especially the "who's the boss" idea. Trying to build a list where you have no clue what warcaster you will receive sounds just terrifying enough to be hilarious.

By the way if it's not clear I have absolutely 0 interest in actually demonstrating masterful generalship. I just like lining up all my little miniatures and having fun with my friends.

Have a read, since you're new to Who's the Boss, you might have overlooked this brilliant site: http://handcannononline.com/blog/2014/03/28/bonus-experience-adaptability/

 Mordekiem wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
There's also a new format that'll be coming up soon called Spell Draft.

Warcasters/Warlocks lose their spells and beasts lose their Animi. All those spells and animi get put in a deck and you do a draft.

Sounds...silly. Some warcasters you only take for their spells. If you can take a warcaster with poor spells but a nice feat or other abilities and then add good spells to them it sounds a bit too much.

That's kinda the point. Its a silly format, with the intention of creating broken OP combos.

Its kinda like the Alternate History League they did a long time ago. The special characters for each faction were outright broken.

Vinter was a Cygnar solo who gave Focus to jacks just by standing near them, had 5 tokens each turn he could spend like Focus, had 8 boxes, very good armor, regenerated D6 health a turn, etc...

Vlad was a Protectorate Warcaster. he had SnP, Blood of Kings, Defenders Ward, and otherwise the same basic stats.

Haley and Denny basically were reversed.

Old Witch was a Circle warlock.

Magnus was a Cygnar Warcaster and Striker was a Merc.


They were all hideously broken.

The idea of Haley in Cryx warms the cockles of my heart. "Look at all these banes walking towards you...there's absolutely nothing you can do about it".

Very possible in Who's the Boss.

I got pVlad and pKruger once. Both were hilarious. Crusaders with Reach and Electro-leap. Vlad casting both Blood of Kings and Signs and Portants in the same turn.

So it's even random across factions huh... wow. I was thinking about that alternate history event you mentioned. I would love to see what would happen if some of the Convergence tech actually got a big-boy warcaster behind it. Could you imagine a prime axiom with 5 focus on it?

The way it works is you get a random warcaster who is NOT from your faction.

There is also a chance of you getting to pick a warcaster instead.

Its also possible for you and your opponent to switch casters at the beginning of the game. This is the only way you can get one of your faction's warcasters.

 dementedwombat wrote:
Hello everybody, I am curious about something. This could certainly be a symptom of my unique situation (I don't get to play much warmachine so I watch stuff on youtube or listen to podcasts about it) but it seems like Warmachine is almost universally played at 50 points with one of the Steamroller Scenarios. There's nothing wrong with this format, but having the same kind of game all the time seems like it might get boring after a while.

I was wondering if anybody had experience with other ways to play the game. I know multi-warcaster formats can be a thing but I have never seen anybody actually do that. Also has anybody ever done some kind of narrative campaign? It seems like the system should support it but it is not a kind of play I have ever seen done because of the focus on tournament style play.

I'm planning a reenactment battle of Thags emergence from Pyromalfics vault...basically, playing out a battle in the fluff...


Setup: 12x4 table...N/S are the long edges, E/W are the short...vault door is the east end, forest line is the south side, rocky ledge is the north side with a pass centered, a 2'x2' refugee village centered on the west side, 1' from the edge...
All armies need not be included, but if they are, no matter which army comes hey will always be deployed as follows:
Legion may set up in the center 2' the entire length of the table and deploy first, pThagrosh must begin play at the vault door, Rhyas begins play off the board
Circle sets up next anywhere within the forest
Skorne may set up next anywhere within 12" of the southern ledge, but all models must be at least 12" from any circle model
Rhulic deploys next, but only in the northern pass 1'x2'
Cryx deploys next, on the western edge beyond the village
Cygnar deploys next in the northwest corner beyond the pass
Khador deploys in the northeast corner
Menoth deploys in the village
Trollbloods do not deploy, but may 'walk on' the eastern edge over the vault door on round
Minions may take the place of circle, skorne or trollbloods if they are not present
Other mercs may take the place of cygnar or cryx if they are not present
Retribution may take the place of Khador or Rhulic

Objectives (all hidden from each other):
All: slay a caster: 1 pt
Legion: slay pyromalfic 2 pts, pThagrosh consumes the athanc/metamorphosis 2 pts, eThagrosh leaves the table 2 pts (or dies), game ends everyone totals their scores
Circle: slay Lylyth 3 pts, get a circle model in base contact with Vayl 2 pts, end the game with no other factions in the southern forest 1 pt
Skorne: get a heavy warbeast through the northern pass 3 pts, get a warlock through the northern pass 2 pts, get any other model through the northern pass 1 pt
Rhulic: get a warjack into the southern forest 3 pts, get a warcaster into the forest 2 pts, get any other model into the forest 1 pt
Cryx: holds the athanc with any model 3 pts (one time score), gets a cryx model in base contact with Thagrosh 2 pts, at the end of any round where a cryx warcaster is in the village 1 pt
Cygnar: at the end of any round where entire battle force is in village 2 pts
Khador: slay any cryx or circle caster for 2 pts each
Retribution: slay any cryx warcaster or nyss unit 2 pts
Mercs: outnumber any other faction in the village at the end of the round 2 pts
Menoth: slay any warcaster or warlock in the village 2 pts

Course of events:
Thagrosh and his battle group have weakened Pyromalfic to desperation. The game begins with Thagrosh exiting the dungeon and the dragon bursting from the mountain.
On the dragon's neck is Rhyas, she only appears in play when the dragon is dead. To kill it, Legion must render 50 boxes of damage to ARM 19. Only Rhyas, Lylyth, Saeryn and Vayl may forgo their attacks to wound the dragon. Rhyas hits automatically, the others must hit DEF 11.
At the end of each round the dragon is alive, every army must place a 5" template over one of their units using facing from Thagrosh, each template will scatter 2d6. Damage is POW 14.
If the dragon is slain, place a 5" template centered on the entire game board. Using facing from Thagrosh, it will scatter 2d6. If it hits anything, they will suffer a POW 16 hit. Place Rhyas centered where the template landed knocked down.
The athanc will then scatter away from Rhyas. Determine the direction and roll 2d6 for distance.
The athanc may only be picked up by cryx models and Thagrosh. If Thagrosh gains the athanc, he will consume it and transform to eThags, at full life.
Special rules:
Thagrosh may 'cut' to add 1 point of SPD for each damage received.

Armies may be any size, but legion must have 100 pts of models.

Who's the Boss is tons of fun.

You could also try random list building, I've seen some people do it to challenge themselves.

I for one would pay good money for some narrative campaign rules, if only for a chance to break out those bonding rules.

the organized play rules - where you get alternate models - is very symptomatic of the regimented and not-fluffy way PP handles their game. Whic his too bad.

I'd like to play something like this... same with the Alt-History league.

 dementedwombat wrote:
Also has anybody ever done some kind of narrative campaign?

Waaaaaay back in Mk I, PP put together a really long narrative campaign that centered on Khador's invasion of Llael. You can find it in Escalation, the second WM book. There was a ton of good fluff, side quests that sort of leveled up your warcasters (Example: IIRC, if The High Reclaimer was successful at his, he would roll double the normal dice for his feat for the rest of the campaign), and there were multiple multiplayer scenarios.

You will run into some issues stemming from when it was released. Only the 4 original factions are featured, and only 4 warcasters per faction get mentioned/have side quests. No epics. No Hordes. No Mercs as a faction, no Ret, no Convergence. The scenarios were designed with only the models from Prime and Escalation in mind, so there would be work balancing everything with the new releases/new rules those models might have from the switch to Mk II. The points levels for each scenario would require adjusting to Mk II norms.

Anyway, this sounds like the kind of thing you're looking for, but it's limited due to its age. If you want to give updating it try, pick up a copy of Escalation.

That sounds quite interesting. Not knowing much about MKI could be a barrier to entry I suppose, but it would at least give me some kind of a framework to see how I could do it.

I wonder why PP hasn't done any campaign things for MKII. Do they not think there's a market for it I wonder?

 dementedwombat wrote:
That sounds quite interesting. Not knowing much about MKI could be a barrier to entry I suppose, but it would at least give me some kind of a framework to see how I could do it.

I wonder why PP hasn't done any campaign things for MKII. Do they not think there's a market for it I wonder?

To be fair, they also have campaign, and mini campaign ideas scattered thoughout no quarter - especially the early ones. Get the pp reader app and start downloading - you can get all the old books and mags for a song.

As to the current situation - I think they're more focused on steamroller and leagues these days, but don't think they've given up on narrative campaigns yet either. The leagues do a lot of that as well.