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Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Gig Harbor, WA

I played my first game of warmachine the other day and quite enjoyed it. A friend let me use one of his armies, and we went through (I think) a 20 point game.

I told him I really enjoyed the warjack aspect and would like to play an army that focuses on that, he suggested Cygnar. I checked them out and I like the look of their miniatures. My friend doesn't play them though, but said he thought they were pretty ranged attack heavy. That seems all right to me. I'll pick up the starter box off amazon and see how it goes.

No one is going to hassle me if I don't paint them blue, though, right? I want to do them up in olive drab like my flames of war americans and then get some USA star decals.
   
Made in us
Combat Jumping Ragik






Cygnar can do Jack heavy but the thing you need to understand is that jack heavy means like 2 heavies & 2 lights. You will want to pick up a "Journeyman warcaster" to run more jacks or Lieutenant Allison Jakes (Character JW). Or Jack Marshalls. I'm primarilly a hordes players but I believe Jack Marshalls can do a command (Ld) check to marshall a jack and give it a pseudo focus. It's not really a focus but it lets them do something they'd normally need focus for.

The thing is jacks like focus but your caster has a finite amount. In order to run more jacks, you need more focus. To get more focus you need journeymen or units with "Jack Marshall"

If you want a more dedicated jack faction look at convergence of cyriss. They have a mechanic where instead of losing the first focus spent they can "induct", read transfer, it to a nearby jack. Thus multiplying out the number of focus they have.

Also understand that WM/H is NOT all about the jacks and beasts. They are like tanks. heavy hitters, line breakers, position holders, fire platforms... but they can and will get bogged down & swarmed over by infantry without support.

If you're reasonably sure you want to get into the game I recommend picking up the cygnar all-in-one box. It's the best deal for the money. it has a fully playable and arguably decently competitive list that comes to around 50-60% off if you were to buy separately. Also if you know how to magnetize the jack kits are full kits and can be made into 1 of 3 different configs (each) so you can hot-swap out to try new ones. If you don't know how to magnetize now is a great time to learn


As for colour scheme some people may give you crap but who cares. I mean my retribution are painted as the 7th Panzer division.


This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/21 06:17:02


Trade rules: lower rep trades ships 1st. - I ship within 2 business days, if it will be longer I will contact you & explain. - I will NOT lie on customs forms, it's a felony, do not ask me to mark sales as "gifts". Free shipping applies to contiguous US states. 
   
Made in us
Satyxis Raider






Seattle, WA

Cygnar have a couple casters who can handle multiple jacks. Though in general most Warmchine casters prefer 1-2 jacks tops.

Cygnar also has some of the best non-warcaster options to run jacks as well in Jack Marshalls and Journeymen.

Also, color ain't no thang. My Cygnar are purple.
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut




Spoilers please...

And protectorate make for a great jack heavy faction too - probsbly better than cygnar if it's jacks you're after...

greatest band in the universe: machine supremacy

"Punch your fist in the air and hold your Gameboy aloft like the warrior you are" 
   
Made in us
Combat Jumping Ragik






Menoth can do it too yes, they have some great jacks & choir works wonders.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/21 08:29:44


Trade rules: lower rep trades ships 1st. - I ship within 2 business days, if it will be longer I will contact you & explain. - I will NOT lie on customs forms, it's a felony, do not ask me to mark sales as "gifts". Free shipping applies to contiguous US states. 
   
Made in us
The Conquerer






Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios

Jack heavy for Cygnar isn't truly Jack heavy however. 2 heavies and maybe a light is about the max they can do and not suffer in other areas. Even if you take Jack marshals and Juniors to make the jacks work, you are still going to lack in infantry and that will hurt you.

Cygnar is about middle of the road in terms of jack numbers. They'll do 3ish.

Khador is the low end with 1, maybe 2.

High end is Protectorate and Convergence of Cyriss. They have the focus to actually make their jacks operate to the fullest instead of relatively weak jack marshals.


Anyway, Cygnar is a stereotypical combined arms faction, in a game that is all about combined arms.

Shooting is not something you can wholly rely on. Especially with Cygnar. You have more shooting than others, but shooting attacks are generally on the low end of pow. meaning that if you focus too much on shooting you'll get stomped by high armor lists, and any high armor elements in an enemy list will cause major problems.

Generally, you soften the enemy up with shooting and finish the job in melee. This is why you'll always need a heavy melee jack. other factions can get away with melee infantry, but Cygnar's melee infantry, while they hit hard, are expensive and fragile. They have what is commonly referred to as victim stats and they'll usually just get shot off the table before they get to melee. This is why Cygnar also tends to rely heavily on Mercenaries. Because having a speed bump/bubble wrap type unit is very important in WMH Cygnar usually goes for mercenaries to do it. Boomhowlers are usually the unit of choice.


If you really want jacks explicitly, I would go with Convergence of Cyriss or Protectorate of Menoth as they do massed jacks better than Cygnar. Convergence however is a more difficult faction to learn as they have some unique special rules regarding how focus works with their jacks, and its much easier to make a mistake. The army basically plays like a clockwork device that if one cog gets messed up the whole thing collapses.

Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines

Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.

MURICA!!! IN SPESS!!! 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Gig Harbor, WA

 Shas'O Dorian wrote:
Cygnar can do Jack heavy but the thing you need to understand is that jack heavy means like 2 heavies & 2 lights. You will want to pick up a "Journeyman warcaster" to run more jacks or Lieutenant Allison Jakes (Character JW). Or Jack Marshalls. I'm primarilly a hordes players but I believe Jack Marshalls can do a command (Ld) check to marshall a jack and give it a pseudo focus. It's not really a focus but it lets them do something they'd normally need focus for.

The thing is jacks like focus but your caster has a finite amount. In order to run more jacks, you need more focus. To get more focus you need journeymen or units with "Jack Marshall"

If you want a more dedicated jack faction look at convergence of cyriss. They have a mechanic where instead of losing the first focus spent they can "induct", read transfer, it to a nearby jack. Thus multiplying out the number of focus they have.

Also understand that WM/H is NOT all about the jacks and beasts. They are like tanks. heavy hitters, line breakers, position holders, fire platforms... but they can and will get bogged down & swarmed over by infantry without support.

If you're reasonably sure you want to get into the game I recommend picking up the cygnar all-in-one box. It's the best deal for the money. it has a fully playable and arguably decently competitive list that comes to around 50-60% off if you were to buy separately. Also if you know how to magnetize the jack kits are full kits and can be made into 1 of 3 different configs (each) so you can hot-swap out to try new ones. If you don't know how to magnetize now is a great time to learn


As for colour scheme some people may give you crap but who cares. I mean my retribution are painted as the 7th Panzer division.


That looks great Shas! I wanted to start with the smaller box in case I change my mind about factions. I've already got quite the plastic mountain of shame in my hobby room already.

I see several others suggested convergence too, and now that I've looked them over they have a nice style as well. But it doesn't look like Cyriss has a big battlebox though (at least not on amazon or warstore), they just have the one with the three warcasters. My friend gave me one of his spare rulebooks (since he'd bought several different battleboxes), so I'm good on that. Any suggestion for a good second starter unit to go along with the battlebox?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/21 22:10:41


 
   
Made in ca
Bane Lord Tartar Sauce




Typically the 'next steps' from the Cygnar battlebox are:

Gun Mages + UA OR The Black 13th
Journeyman Warcaster
Squire

Gun mages are one of Cygnars better units, being fairly versatile and packing a decent punch. The UA also is a jack marshal and can give the special rune shots that the Gun Mages have to the warjack's gun. The Black 13th is an alternative. Its a character unit, is smaller, and has move versatile abilities, but lacks the ability to bring the UA to jack marshal.

The Journeyman is a great support solo. It can typically run a single jack on its own, or can be used to hand out Arcane Shield (a powerful defensive buff) and take boosted shots at units.

The squire is another great warcaster support piece. It is cheap and effectively gives your warcaster an extra focus (on the 3 turns that you need it), a free reroll to the first missed spell, and an extra 2" to their control area allowing your warjacks to spread out farther.

   
Made in us
Hurr! Ogryn Bone 'Ead!





Fake Englandland

I can't recommend some Gun Mages enough honestly, they're awesome. Otherwise, I would say to get a few games under your belt with your caster to get used to them, so basically pick one and stick to them for a bit so you can learn how they play, it's just helpful to remember that. Not sure about what is a great Cygnar caster, Seige seems popular and Caine seem interesting, but I would recommend asking someone else about that

Shadowrun is the best game ever. It's the only thing I have ever played in which I have jumped out of a shot out van with a chainsaw to cut a flying drone in half before leveling a building with ANFO assisted by a troll, a dwarf, an elf, and a wizard. 
   
Made in us
Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba




The Great State of New Jersey

Convergence Box:

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/pip36990.html

Note that convergence jacks are called "Vectors" (similar to Cephalyx "Monstrosities" and Retribution "Myrmidons").

If you're really all about the big stompy stuff, I would recommend Convergence or Protectorate as others have stated, or perhaps look at Hordes (in particular, Legion). While every faction can run jack/beast heavy, some factions simply do a much much better job of it than others, and in general Hordes factions tend to run more beast heavy than warmachine factions are jack heavy.

CoALabaer wrote:
Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Gig Harbor, WA

Well, after a lot of hemming and hawing, I ended up picking up a convergence battlebox (just the three vector one), aurora, and the softback book. The war store was having a sale and it tipped the scales for me. I meant to grab a corollary as well, but I forgot.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/23 01:09:16


 
   
Made in us
Combat Jumping Ragik






The CoC all in one box is coming out soon

Err it's out now

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/pip36990.html

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/23 01:25:41


Trade rules: lower rep trades ships 1st. - I ship within 2 business days, if it will be longer I will contact you & explain. - I will NOT lie on customs forms, it's a felony, do not ask me to mark sales as "gifts". Free shipping applies to contiguous US states. 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Gig Harbor, WA

Miniature market charges a fortune to ship to FPO AP sadly. I bought my copy of armada from them and it was like 25 bucks shipping.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/07/23 01:27:08


 
   
Made in us
Combat Jumping Ragik






FPO? AP? Is that like an overseas military base? (Sorry I'm unfamiliar with it)

They do free domestic shipping on orders over $100
so they may be able to give a discount on such if you call/email and ask.

Trade rules: lower rep trades ships 1st. - I ship within 2 business days, if it will be longer I will contact you & explain. - I will NOT lie on customs forms, it's a felony, do not ask me to mark sales as "gifts". Free shipping applies to contiguous US states. 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut





Gig Harbor, WA

Yeah, I work for the DoD, so I use a military post office box to buy stuff from the states. MM doesn't count that as domestic, but they do ship to it. I mostly buy from Amazon(Prime) and The War Store (6.95 flat shipping!). War store doesn't always have everything though.
   
Made in us
Cosmic Joe





 argonak wrote:
Well, after a lot of hemming and hawing, I ended up picking up a convergence battlebox (just the three vector one), aurora, and the softback book. The war store was having a sale and it tipped the scales for me. I meant to grab a corollary as well, but I forgot.


Wise choice my friend. The Maiden of Gears rewards her servants... um...I mean, it's a fun faction with a unique flavor. You definitely want that Corollary, some angels for Aurora, some infantry and a hover vector at the least. Have fun!



Also, check out my history blog: Minimum Wage Historian, a fun place to check out history that often falls between the couch cushions. 
   
Made in us
Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba




The Great State of New Jersey

Have you purchased recently? They started using a new postal carrier (possibly fedex) which reduced their shipping rates rather dramatically.

CoALabaer wrote:
Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
 
   
 
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