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About half a year ago i started up warmachine going with cygnar. Not getting into the details of it, i ended up selling off my Cygnar stuff for afew reasons, among them simply not really enjoying the game while i was using them. Im thinking i may give the game another go, but im not quite sure where to peg as a starting point, so i was hoping that you guys would be able to give me afew pointers and help me find a good direction to go with.

When i stop to think what it was with cygnar i didn't enjoy, im not quite sure i can peg it down to any one thing in particular. I used pStriker as my caster, had a light and a heavy jack, Gunmages, and Strom Blades.

Well you weren't using an optimal Cygnar list, thats for sure.

Cygnar's melee infantry are generally not used all that much because they are too fragile. They die before reaching melee where they can use their very decent melee attacks.

And using any of Cygnar's defensive tech is wasted on them generally as well. Arcane Shield is better on an Ironclad instead of Storm Knights.


I'd check out some battle reports by Chain-attack, or check out the PP Cygnar Forums for some more info if you want to stick with your heathen dirty swans...

Sorry, inner Menite got out there.

I don't play Cygnar, but as far as I can tell they pretty much have the most options of every faction in the game. not only do they get everything in their own faction, they get 75% of the mercenary stuff too. The problem with that (if you can call it a problem...first world Cygnar problems) is that a lot of their stuff is pretty good but overshadowed because they can take something better.

I've also heard it said that pStryker is a pretty boring caster in general. More palatable options include Siege if you enjoy shooting everything forever (he's almost enough to actually make me want to play Cygnar...almost), Darius for maximum ridiculousness with the Stormwall, and there's always the Haleys, but for the sake of your opponent please think hard before you go down that path.

Go to your LGS, find the Press Ganger, talk to him and the other players.

Try out a few things. Proxy & borrow stuff. Which models are the pretty ones and which fluff appeals the most?

Well, the game does have a steep learning curve. The result is that you often lose a lot early on. Nobody really enjoys losing so that does make it tough to get into the game.

Have you played other table top games before? Which one and what did you like/dislike about your army? If you never played a TT game before the learning curve will be even steeper.

A little bit more background info as to what you like may be helpful. Otherwise, the best advice I can give is to choose a faction that sounds and/or looks cool to you.

Sites like battlecollege can give you some overview of the factions and models. Just take what you read with a grain of salt as some of it is a little outdated.

Little more background then.

I've played warhammer 40k/fantasy since 2004, so thats the systems i am most familiar with.

I've always seemed to focus around ranged combat more so then melee, but the several games that i'd gotten i can't really pin down where it was that i simply wasn't enjoying the play. I know this system has a steep learning curve, ive had fun getting my guys blown up in my face before, a fun game is fun no matter how it played out for your side, Cygnar from what i've played just didn't seem to do it for me.

I've spent alot of time on Battlecollege to look over the different factions, Retribution and some of the Khador stuff looks good. I'm also wondering what the Hoards side of the game looks like.

The problem with playing shooty gunlines in Warmachine is that you miss out on a lot of what makes the game fun. Especially if you stand as far back as possible and don't engage.

If play a more melee orientated army you need to think positiing, alpha strikes, caster positioning and spells, feat timing and a bunch of other stuff.

If you weren't playing aggressivly you weren't really getting the most out of the game.

IMO, there are no pure gunlines in WM that work well. They are basically a skew list. There is plenty of tech out there to counter your guns. And they rely on pretty much no scenarios and open boards. Also, WM is designed to be an aggressive, offensive game.

Cygnar and other "shooty" factions are really designed to be combined arms. Your melee and guns support each other. A very broad rule of thumb for Cygnar is to get one defensive/melee unit for every shooty one. For example, you have gun mages, great. Now get a unit like Boomhowlers to protect them.

Units like Boomhowlers (or precursors, silverline, etc) can take hits, advance up the board and engage other units in melee to keep your more offensive units (shooters and melee) free to inflict mass casualties. They can also hold or contest objectives.

So a good Cygnar list will have a variety of units, jacks and solos that have different roles.

Other armies tend to have other specialties, but you usually want a variety of roles. Though some, like Cryx, tend to be very melee infantry heavy. But even then the different units have different roles.

Hordes is fun, too, but from my experience they tend to focus around having more beasts and less troops. And the focus vs fury mechanic is quite different. But you will need to learn both.

All in all I find that (comparatively) it is fairly cheap to get a 25-35 point list, especially if you start with the battlebox and plastic kits. So starting or switching to multiple factions is very doable. I started with Cygnar, but found Cryx to fit my style the best. However, I do still have and play Cygnar. Most people I know have at least 2 factions. Oftentimes more. So if you want to try another faction out don't be afraid to grab some models. If nothing else you learn a little more about that faction and have a great second army to teach and get others into the game.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Well you weren't using an optimal Cygnar list, thats for sure.

Cygnar's melee infantry are generally not used all that much because they are too fragile.

Cygnar's infantry is not too fragile, it just needs tricks to be delivered, or some softening from range first.

This is a very unfortunate aspect of the WM crowd. You mist only always build for tournaments.