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Hi,
I am excited to be getting started with Warmachine! I had my introduction to the game this past weekend at TempleCon in RI. My nephew and I played some demo battles courtesy of the awesome PP Press Gang, and later went shopping for Battle Boxes and Prime MKII books.
I'm trying to teach my nephew the lesson that when you collect hobby items, you need the essentials first before any frills and I successfully talked him out of prematurely buying card decks and "focus" tokens.
My question is regarding the game mechanic of checking off the boxes on the card itself. This strikes me as gimmicky and annoying, especially since an extra investment in card sleeves and dry-erase markers is involved. I'm trying to determine the best old-fashioned alternative to this... What do you do instead, and how does it work for you?

http://www.forwardkommander.com/

When you print out your army list, you have the option of adding damage grids.

I don't think there's a cheaper equivalent in the long term. One dry erase marker and a set of 10 card pages (as opposed to sleeves) can only be about 5 bucks, right?

Printing out each time takes paper and ink. It's wasteful too.

i would consider the cards almost as essential as the models.
you can find rules by thumbing through books and mark damage on paper but honestly most players find its the faction books that are unnecessary and the cards which are more important. the cards are a good quick reference for rules and an easy way to mark damage.
that said, the models are packaged with cards so if you can be sure you get models which your lgs has updated you wont need to buy decks.

I haven't gotten a Dry Erase Marker yet (thanks for reminding me) but I picked up a pack of hard plastic Toploader sleeves for only a couple bucks. The cost to buy sleeves and a marker is so minuscule compared to the costs of buying even a single fig, that you really shouldn't worry about it.

Most stores sell 9 pocket card pages for about $.25. These can be reused, and the cards added and removed as your army changes.

A dry erase marker or overhead projector marker is fairly inexpensive as well.

Cool, I ain't gonna stress on it. I have some sleeves left over from the 40K card game, and I will pick up a pack of dry-erase markers from an office supplies joint.

Can someone clue me in on the deal with the faction decks? I notice that I have cards in the Battle Box for each model already. It looks like there are like a hundred cards in the deck; are there really that many units for each faction?

i guess the first thing to check is if you got the old cards or if your store was cool and added new cards for you. look at the points on your cards, if they are each below 10 points its the new cards, if they are each over 40, its the old.

The 2010 decks have 2 cards for each warcaster(one is spells), 3-4 copies of each jack in case you like to field lots of one, one card for eah unit without health, up to the field allowance of each unit, solo, or unit attachment with health.
the decks cover all the models released until January.

If you're just starting, you won't need the faction decks as the cards come with the models. Just make sure you're getting the new card when you buy. The decks are there for older players who want the new cards for their armies in mkII.

I just got a Cankerworm, it was ordered and came in this week, yet still had the old card in it. Unless you're buying direct from PP or a place that has really high turn over on the figs, you'll probably need to get the deck.

For $1 you can buy a bunch of those flower-pot glass tokens. I'd use these to track damage. Of course, depends on who you play with as to whether or not they will accept this alternative. Another idea would be using a spare die and counting down the numbers as you play.

Then, there's good old scratch paper and pencil.

IMO, dry erase markers get really messy really fast and the dust gets on EVERYTHING. To me, this would be more of a concern than the cost.

For the cards, I heard that you can order from PP directly individual cards. Great for the occasional blister with an old card, not so good after a couple old blisters and you realize it would've been cheaper to get the deck from the start.

I had heard the new cards were supposed to be dry-erasable already?

(not that I didn't just sleeve 'em when I got the new decks anyway...)

No, they are not. At least not the ones in the decks or the boxes I've seen.

And Deminyn, make sure the cards you're ordering are in fact mkii 2010. PP sold the old cards individually, and I'm betting they'll sell the new ones in the near future. But always check first.

The new deck has 2010 printed underneath the faction name so you are sure to get the most updated deck.

I know many people who just go to Kinkos and get their cards laminated, I don't think it costs them too much money. I don't know about the new cards being dry-erasable, that'd be pretty awesome

They are dry erasable, but I think there's always a risk of it getting stained.