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So, a while ago my gaming group got into warmachine, I didn't. The steampunk feel attracted me but it seemed like just another confrontation and would die out. Time went by and more and more people were into it so I finally caved in. I bought a pure privateer force. A mariner, two bucaneers, Nomad, a bunch of pirate characters, and a lot of sea dogs. I had alot of fun and my force was pretty good at stomping other jacks and monsters from hordes. More time went by and through certain circumstances warmachine died out. Now a game shop opend up catering to CCG's and non-GW minis. Apparently they play warmachine too. I also heard they came out with a new edition of Warmachine.

My question is how different are the new rules, can I still use my force, would they be competitive, do I need new cards? Also, My main wargame hobby (40k) changes rules enough, is privateer press doing the same thing now?

Thank You

Merc_for_Hire wrote:So, a while ago my gaming group got into warmachine, I didn't. The steampunk feel attracted me but it seemed like just another confrontation and would die out. Time went by and more and more people were into it so I finally caved in. I bought a pure privateer force. A mariner, two bucaneers, Nomad, a bunch of pirate characters, and a lot of sea dogs. I had alot of fun and my force was pretty good at stomping other jacks and monsters from hordes. More time went by and through certain circumstances warmachine died out. Now a game shop opend up catering to CCG's and non-GW minis. Apparently they play warmachine too. I also heard they came out with a new edition of Warmachine.

My question is how different are the new rules, can I still use my force, would they be competitive, do I need new cards? Also, My main wargame hobby (40k) changes rules enough, is privateer press doing the same thing now?

Thank You

You do need new cards, but Privateer Press was good enough to release "Faction Decks" with all the new cards in them, and they'll be releasing codex style force books for every faction over the course of 2010.

The major rules changes are that Jacks are now more resilient (they don't die until completely boxed out instead of being wrecked when three systems are destroyed), True Line of Sight is gone and replaced with set volume, unit formations are simplified (instead of measuring between models, you simply nominate one model as "squad leader," and they have a command range just like a warcaster), army building was simplified (points were recalculated, so that a typical force is now around 35 to 50 points instead of several hundred), there is no longer a minimum point cost to field epic models, MAT and RAT scores were rebalanced all around, some spells and feats were nerfed and/or buffed, a lot of abilities were made into icons.

I don't play as Pirates, so I can't say if your force is competitive, so probably the best way to find out is to pick up the faction deck and try it out at your game store.

mercs as a whole got a big buff from the new rules. i cannot comment on your particular setup or the talion charter since i dont play them but i know if you expanded into four star or highborn contracts you should be very happy in general.
i have heard shae himself is a great caster even if the talion charter is still a bit restrictive.
all you need to update is the prime 2 rulebook and a 2010 merc faction deck.

You might need more than just a Nomad to deal with heavies. The thing that made
Sea Dogs really mighty was Hawk buffing them with a passive damage buff, but now
that buff only works against living models.

What 'caster or models?

Sea dog's will no longer wreck jacks the way they used to, but they are still good at killing living models as Malfred said. Otherwise I really like the changes to mk2 and I suggest you try them out.

Awsome, thanks for the help guys

malfred wrote:You might need more than just a Nomad to deal with heavies. The thing that made
Sea Dogs really mighty was Hawk buffing them with a passive damage buff, but now
that buff only works against living models.

What 'caster or models?

Shae, Hawk, Grogspear, Bloody Branagan, Doc Killingsworth, 25 seadogs, 1 mariner, 2 buceneers, 1 nomad. I was thinking of getting some pressgangers and another caster as well.

25 is an odd number of sea dogs. You can field 3 min units for 24, 2 full units and a min unit for 26, but no way
to get to 25. Perhaps they come with deck guns or something?

25 is an odd number of sea dogs. You can field 3 min units for 24, 2 full units and a min unit for 26, but no way
to get to 25. Perhaps they come with deck guns or something?

Right, that was a total of all avaliable models in my colection. I bought a box set which had 6 (I think), and several blisters. My friend gave me a handfull of extras he had and it all equeled out to 25. Odd yes but I never kick a gift horse in the mouth

Ah! I see!

Well, if the Press Gangers ever Shanghai anybody...

Yeah, talion is a bit restrictive to me. The Mercs are solid, but the best luck I have been having is when going "assassination" rather than trying to go toe-to-toe.

Highborn and 4-star both seem the strongest to me with the main difference in my play style being, I get Ash in Highborn and Croe's and the "kell/eryiss" team in 4-star.

Mercs seem to have a plethera of knockdown effects that they can use to nice effect in going for an assassination. It still doesn't help in chewing through heavies, but it does help in getting them out of the way.

And having extra sea dogs is never a bad thing with press gangers around. Other night I was running two full PGs, a Sd unit and Alexis. Between Hawk's boost and affliction on them via Fiona, Shanghai'd a unit of Temple Guard. Then ran the big unit bogging down a unit of Knights errant and a Paladin. That original TG unit ended up as 10 extra Risen before it was all said an done.

Having access to Ashlynn doesn't help if you want to run Shae or Bart, though.

Shae no, but Bart shouldn't be a problem to run with Ash.