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I've pretty much committed to Khador, since I love the models and the Russian "feel" of the army. I know my semi-local meta, but what are the least played armies in Warmachine/Hordes in the larger scheme? If I were to go to a big tournament like Adepticon or something like that, what would I be very likely and very unlikely to see? Any opinions on why would be welcome as well.

Minions are certainly top here.
As to why, they have less options making them generaly likelier to get a bad matchup.

In my current meta, Cryx and Legion are not played very much at all.

Seriously.

There is no "Least Played Faction"- or at least, such things are not tracked on a national or world wide basis. It's different for every meta of gamers. For the poster that said Minions are the least played- we have at least 5 (I think 6?) dedicated Minion players out of about 20 in my meta. The least played would be Cygnar and Mercs. Think about that for a second! Our most played faction is Minions!

I've actually met few players who only stick with one faction. They are usually the newer players. Others have a "Primary" faction, and a couple other factions for "fun". Unless you are insane about WH/H and can field at least 35 points of every faction in the game. It's called faction ADD, and I have it in spades.

The big tournaments are usually heavily biased towards the latest release preceding the tournament. Especially if that release has a "must have" for a faction. If a highly anticipated model finally gets released a week or two before a tournament, expect that model's faction to be included.

For example, when the Convergence Battle Engine is finally released, I expect to see an uptick in Convergence of Cyriss lists. When the Meat Thresher Battle Engine for Minions releases, I expect to see more Minion lists. When Zuriel, the Legion Nephilim heavy warbeast is released, I expect to see more Legion lists for a while. When the Trollkin solo Braylen Wanderheart comes out, I expect to see more Trollblood lists for a while.

When Privateer Press releases a new book, there are "winners" and "losers"- or more accurately, "desirable" and "less desirable" stuff, in each book. If it's a desirable unit for a faction, it will see immediate use and more people will play that faction. Less desirable gets pushed off until some point in the future. I haven't seen a unit yet that didn't eventually become desirable later due to a theme force, or some UA/Warcaster/Warlock that suddenly makes that unit desirable.

I based it on the lists submitted for the WTC.

Minions & Mercs are probably the lowest two with Convergence and Ret after that. All of the other factions seem to be played consistently. It's all based on number of options. Those factions have less so they are taken less. Mercs have plenty of options but have a higher barrier of entry than some factions so it's seen less often.

Obviously this is overall from what I've seen, read, and heard and is not going to reflect all metas.

I'd have to agree with Mercs and Minions, I don't see much of them. Especially Mercs, I don't think I've ever seen a pure Merc warband.

I've seen way more Mercs than Minions players. In my old meta there were actually twice as many Mercs as Legion players. Especially after the Earthbreaker and Galleon released. Come to think of it my current Meta has more Merc players than Ret and minions players combined.

Whilst Minions are the least played faction I wouldn't suggest buying into them just based on that. If you're interested in Gators go with Skorne, maybe Circle if you're wanting to play the Battleengine when it comes out in a couple of months, and if you're interested in Farrow... don't.... just don't.


....


Seriously....

...

Don't.

Everyone on in my meta plays with warmachines, I am the only hordes player in our area. (about 15 people)

Yeah this varies wildly in different areas. I have seen tournaments with huge numbers of Merc players (rarely) or huge numbers of Cryx and Legion (much more common), but usually this just comes down to the number of options the faction has (which is often a factor of age as well).

Minions are the clear leaders here though, they have an incredibly small number of options, aren't massively competitive and only have 2 charters. Convergence and Mercs are probably the next couple in the list. I think Convergence are slowly coming down from the post release boom and are probably going to end up underneath Mercs because they have limited options (even if those options are great) and are expected to have limited support moving forward. Ret sit above them and then the original 4 for both systems above that.

It depends entirely on your local Meta and what people actually play.

Overall, Minions and Mercs will have the fewest players due to how their factions are built.

My local meta, however, has 5 players who have Mercs or Minions as their primary factions. 2 of them are almost exclusively Thornfall players. So YMMV.

 HoverBoy wrote:
Minions are certainly top here.
As to why, they have less options making them generaly likelier to get a bad matchup.

And less variety.
Oly so many times you can paint the two same warbeasts.

Gators are at least ok in terms of Warbeast variety.

Pigs are in deep trouble. You know its a problem when a theme force increases your options by 25%(and increases useful animi by 100% )

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Mh_6tFJX0yDqMy2Gv7PbvrDVylpv8xPmOCF1IxG1m4w/viewanalytics?usp=form_confirm

Chute: Fantastic. When/where was that poll taken? I love. I
especially love how there's a pie chart with even slices all
around for factions that you play. I love this game.

I asked the same question on the PP forum and someone posted those results. I think the poll was taken from people on the PP site.

Seems certain factions are more popular as secondary factions.

 Chute82 wrote:
I asked the same question on the PP forum and someone posted those results. I think the poll was taken from people on the PP site.

I think it was actually a poll done after a major tournament. I remember it being sent out, but I can't remember which one.

 Chute82 wrote:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Mh_6tFJX0yDqMy2Gv7PbvrDVylpv8xPmOCF1IxG1m4w/viewanalytics?usp=form_confirm

With only 469 responses, its not a large enough sample size to really base any conclusions on. Maybe some broad generalizations, like more people play Warmachine than Hordes, and that 3/4 of all players have a secondary faction... but nothing more really.

What would be a good sample size? I'd say 5,000 responses. There are almost 75,000 registered users on the PP Forums. If only 7% of the users on the PP Forums responded, that would be a large enough sample size.

From a more metagame standpoint, if a player has dreams of taking a "least played" faction and trying to sweep some national tournament, qualify for Iron Gauntlet, and win Warmachine Worlds with that faction... I wish them luck. The best players in the world play hundreds of games a month with their chosen army list against as many different players and armies as they can find. Hundreds might be a slight exaggeration, but ask the greats how many games they play and you will be surprised. I know for a fact that Will Pagani plays on average 1-3 games EVERY DAY. Let me caveat that with this was when he was ramping up for Iron Gauntlet and Worlds last year.

Oh, and Adepticon- Is the smallest of the "Big Tournaments" in Warmachine.

Around here the least played would be Convergence just because everybody already had pretty good size armies before it came out followed a close second by Menoth.

 Tamwulf wrote:

 Chute82 wrote:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Mh_6tFJX0yDqMy2Gv7PbvrDVylpv8xPmOCF1IxG1m4w/viewanalytics?usp=form_confirm

With only 469 responses, its not a large enough sample size to really base any conclusions on. Maybe some broad generalizations, like more people play Warmachine than Hordes, and that 3/4 of all players have a secondary faction... but nothing more really.

Not true. 469 is plenty big of a sample size.

The problem is that the data was only taken from people who want to respond. Although given the nature of the poll I can't see how that would skew the results away from the true values.

The 4 original factions in Warmachine and 4 Hordes factions are played so much that to compare which is played the least is pointless. Retribution and mercs have been out for several years (I mean Mercs as competetive, not the Magnus lists when he was first released) so there are a ton of players that play those factions. Really the least played would probably be Convergence and Minions simply because they are the newest.

Personally, if I was just getting into the game, the 'Least played faction" really only matters in your local meta. The tourney circuit is going to have a good mix of every faction.

Warmachine isn't Warhammer or 40K where you can go for long periods where there are factions that no one plays because of power creep.

Azeroth wrote:
The 4 original factions in Warmachine and 4 Hordes factions are played so much that to compare which is played the least is pointless. Retribution and mercs have been out for several years (I mean Mercs as competetive, not the Magnus lists when he was first released) so there are a ton of players that play those factions. Really the least played would probably be Convergence and Minions simply because they are the newest.

Personally, if I was just getting into the game, the 'Least played faction" really only matters in your local meta. The tourney circuit is going to have a good mix of every faction.

Warmachine isn't Warhammer or 40K where you can go for long periods where there are factions that no one plays because of power creep.

Very true. My local meta has two Convergence players and no Cygnar players.