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I'm thinking of playing warmachine and don't know which army to get.
can anyone help?

Cygnar - Combined arms. Good mix of ranged and melee options but you pay for it point wise. The shoot lightning and act like a modern military force that has giant steam powered robots and magic instead of tanks and planes and crap.

Pros: Awesome units. Probably the best in the game. Also have a few tricks up their sleeves to make enemy 'jacks much less dangerous for a turn or two.

Cons: You wanna be the boss? You better be prepared to pay the cost. Our units are baller, but usually cost a point or few more than everyone else's. With being able to field so little you really have to be wise about your unit selection to get most out of your forces.

Menoth - Individual units tend to be a bit weak, but synergize well with each other. Scary well. They set everything on fire and have access to cheap units that become scary when buffed. Fluff wise they're about as understanding as the Catholic Inquisition and as cuddly as Al-Queda.

Pros: Fire. Synergies. Best light 'jacks in the game. Synergies that set their light 'jacks on fire and then hurl them directly into the heart of their enemy.

Cons: You need a fair bit of support units to make the rest of your army as nasty as possible. Lose them and your combat units become much less dangerous. Lose your combat units and your support units become dead weight.

Khador - About as subtle and graceful as a wrecking ball. Units are somewhat self-sufficient, and can stroll through a hail of gun fire to hack into you with their giant commie axes. They freeze stuff and act like steam punk soviets.

Pros: Lots and lots of ARMor. Their 'jacks have the highest ARM values in the game and will take a pounding before going down. Freezing stuff is nasty as any unit that gets frozen is pretty much dead as soon as something looks at it.

Cons: Slow. They have the ARM to get there but it's not going to be for a while. Their infantry is solid, but seems to rely on numbers rather than talent. No light 'jacks or Arc Nodes either.

Cryx - Undead pirates. If you let a 12 year old come up with an army concept it would be these guys. About as sturdy as your mom's china (not that china, you know the good china you aren't allowed to touch). They move fast, melt stuff with acid, bring their dead back to unlife, and can send magic flying all over the damn map. Also, full balls out evil.

Pros: Arc Nodes a plenty! Some very scary 'jacks. Infantry is cheep and you have ways of making more of it. Undead don't flee so CoManD checks don't bother you. Acid? Awesome! When a unit gets hit with corrosive effects, even the survivors are probably going to melt before they get a chance to do anything.

Cons: Low ARM scores across the board. If something in your army gets hit it's going to get hit hard. Your cheap infantry get mown down in droves by AOEs. Things that can't be hurt by magic make your Arc Nodes sort of useless, and if someone has a unit that specializes in killing the undead? Well... they got your number.

Retribution - Not quite a full force yet. Seems like you can pick between out shooting the other guy or out brawling him. But not both, it doesn't seem like a balanced combined arms approach works very well for them. No real elemental affinity with them as far as I can remember, but they hate magic and can do bad things to enemy warcasters. Fluff wise they're North Korea run by Tolkien elves.

Pros: Neat 'jacks that have force fields! That grow back! Some down right nasty solos (Narn and Nayl come to mind). Ways of crippling magic users, including enemy 'casters and 'locks.

Cons: Hard to tell yet since their faction is a few books behind. You have more choices than a Merc faction, but you don't have as broad or as deep a unit selection as the big four. Also, strangely enough, Mercs don't like working for genocidal and xenophobic elves. Go figure. Mercenary support is almost non-existent.

Can someone whip up one for Hordes armies? I don't have enough experience to really talk about them that much, but I would kind of like to get a general FAQ thread going.

Minor Notes:

Menoth: has a whole lot more focus on proper unit activation with their numerous buffing/synergy.

Khador: don't let the face value slowness deter you, they have caster options to make thier jacks look like they are flying across the board.

Cryx: Cryx are generally about tricks and they work at making them happen more often than most.

Retribution: Con: stealth... it's generally about what you can do against it, and if you can, you are in good order.
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Circle- like wood elves, hard to hit and fragile, they are closest to Cryx, they use blood tokens instead of souls and focus on movement shinanninananigans to get you down.

Legion- they don't need a rulebook to play... cause they just ignore most of the rules ...well except free strikes most of the time. Legion is primarily a Beast heavy faction that are fast, generally not hindered by terrain, concealment, and stealth.
They also have a hit hard and fast, but not very durable theme. Most of the faction focuses on ranged combat, but are still brutal in combat.

Trolls- TOUGH!!! GRINDFEST!!!, what's that rumbling under our fee--- OH SHI-- BURROWERS!!!
Trolls are similar to Menoth in the form of layering synergies. They focus on winning the attrition battle.

Skorne-Khorne, torturing baby elephants...etc. They are compared to Khador for having 'slow' lumbering beasts, though they have a pretty heavy synergy Menoth like side to them.

Minions: Bacon or Handbags! The Farrow are a combined arms army while Handbags are a in your face bunch.

Not to thread jack, but you guys rule for posting the pros and cons of both Warmachine and Hordes. I'm starting to get bitten by the Privateer Press bug too and this was incredibly useful.

Top notch guys! This is very helpful stuff.

Now, are there learning curves with any of the armies or are they all pretty newbie friendly?

Schnitzel wrote:
Now, are there learning curves with any of the armies or are they all pretty newbie friendly?

The game itself is pretty newbie friendly. I think Cryx is a bit tricky since you have lots of things that die the moment anything pays them any attention.

PoM and the Talion Charter have lots of synergies you need to figure out to get the most of your troops.

Circle is awesome but takes a bit to get your head around. They specialize in board control, so to really make the most of them you need learn all the movement tricks they have available. Once you get them down... well imagine the heaviest hitters in the game charging you from seemingly impossible distances and then getting magically whisked back so they're safe from retaliation. Yeah, trickiest army to learn, possibly the hardest to deal with when it gets rolling.

I think Cryx' learning curve is high if your opponent is experienced.

I learned to use Cryx vs a guy who had played them all through MkI, and was then playing Cygnar.

I didn't win a game until he switched to Mercs and left Bart too alone.

It was around 4 months and about a dozen games if I remember right.

Are any of the Hordes armies considered infantry heavy? My main beef with Hordes is that I can't run lots of infantry, which I typically do in Warmachine.

I'm kinda of interested in the pigs...

I've seen Trolls running infantry heave.

Circle has good troops.

Skorne has some fantastic options.

Legion has infantry but they also have lesser warbeasts so... you know... spam the little buggers.

Noisy_Marine wrote:Are any of the Hordes armies considered infantry heavy? My main beef with Hordes is that I can't run lots of infantry, which I typically do in Warmachine.

I'm kinda of interested in the pigs...

Trolls are pretty solidly infantry heavy, and some casters can easily get by with just one heavy beast or a pair of lights. Look into Grissel & Borka for starters -- a Slag Troll and an Impaler could get you by beast wise and last you most of the game while running with a very solid infantry core.

eMadrak can run infantry spam very well. With his blood lust spell (or whatever it's called for the additional die of damage), everything can hit very hard.

I should mention I *did* have a Skorne army - I even won a Tooth and Nail tourney with it. But I decided I didn't like the skorne models as much as I originally thought and sold it. Basically, I liked the infantry, but the cyclops and elephants didn't interest me.

As for the main 4 Horde factions, I like Circle and Legion. I think Circle has the nicest models, but Legion has awesome stuff in it like incubi - plus I got Epic Thagrosh cheap from a friend. I could definitely see myself buying circle infantry like druids or wolves of oboros. Guess I should mention at this point that I think nyss models are ugly - I don't like the faces.

Minion wise I like *both* gators and pigs. I ended up buying Lord Carver because someone else at my LGS is playing gators big time.

There hasnt been alot of mention for Mercs.

So, mercs dont have alot of super strong specialist type units or jacks like the big 5 factions. But thats also reflected in their price.

Theirs a large amount of variety in terms of models- Rhulic Dwarves, Pirates, Magnus and his angst, etc etc.

I went with mercs because of that variety and the flexibility that can go with it. If I get sick of Magnus, I can shuffle around some jacks and use most of the same figs with Ashlynn or Drake. That same variety helps keep the painting fun- as you're not painting the same color over & over.

Thats not even mentioning the wild card aspect of the solos available or getting into tiered lists(some of which are quite useful).

Retribution isn't an either/or deal with ranged and melee.

Our biggest strength is actually both, but that's also our weakness.

All retribution heavy jacks have a useful ranged and melee attack. The only problem is they don't really excel at either. MAT 6 means we have to boost to hit usually, same for RAT 5. Our armor, damage boxes, and force field means that while myrmidons weather the first hit very well, any big hits afterwards quickly start taking out systems.

As for the infantry, they tend to be as specialized as any other army's infantry. Right now the beakdown is between very cheap to field Houseguard, which are solid units, and the Dawnguard, costly and highly potent armored units.

Retribution, jacks often work best in concert with other things. Usually, about the time other armies would charging in, you'll want to hold back your jacks for another round of shooting from their guns just to soften things up. Thankfully, all Ret heavies get speed 6, making them pretty fast for a heavy.

Fine! We'll get some merc up in there! Geez...

Mercs: There are actually a few different flavors of mercenary. They work in what are called Charters. They won't work for everyone, usually you'll only find a Merc that will work for one or two nations.

Searforge Charter: Dorfs! Dwarfs in the Iron Kingdom aren't gold obsessed miners who hate orcs. They're an advanced race who produces some of the most powerful mechanika in the world. They have a relativity closed society, but aren't trying to exterminate anyone so they're pretty decent by Wester Immoran standards.

Pros: High ARM. Stupid high. Their light 'jacks, the beloved "gun bunnies", have ARM values on par with most other factions heavies. Their 'jacks also tend to be pretty focus efficient, able to cause a lot of mayhem for one or two focus. Their infantry is solid, not spectacular but they get the job done.

Cons: Slow. Like... Khador slow with little access to speed buffs. Combine this with their limited model selection and your army is going to be slow and have very few tricks when they get there.

Talion Charter: Avast! Pirates! That aren't horrifying zombies. Cutthroats and cannons for all. They have water proof 'jacks, cheap infantry, and all sorts of special crew members that do special stuff.

Pros: Buffs and synergies. When it comes to synergies these guys make PoM look like slackers. Press gangers and sea dogs are terrible infantry by themselves. Once you get the rest of the crew around them, they become terrifying. They get tough, gang up attacks, can get extra bonuses. It gets bonkers. Just, straight bananas when they get all their buffs. Also they can make more press gangers by killing your guys.

Cons: Same as the PoM. You lose your support and you infantry sucks hard core. Also, because they require everyone to be within a few inches of each other you are in perfect AoE formation.

Highborn Covenant: Viva le Resistance! Rebels and renegades. Khador took their homelands and they are just all pissed off about it.

Pros: Gun mages. They have some good 'jacks, and with access to ATGMs they can get the Dude, who is the man. Give him a mule and watch the shenanigans he can pull with it.

Cons: No real focus on any one area. While they can do a bit of everything, they can't do it as well their opponent.

Magnus' Agenda: Enter the villain. Magnus is a bad, bad boy who has built some bad, bad toys. This one time Cygnaran officer threw in with the now deposed king and has been fighting his version of the good fight for years. And he's brought some friends.

Pros: Has access to a nasty 'jack that only he may use. It has a nuke. Because Magnus doesn't screw around. He also gets to bring along either unit of Trenchers (solid tool box that can 'jack Marshal with the UA) or Long Gunners who are just a baller gun line unit. Oh, and he'll work for Skorne. So yeah, Molik Karn with some 'jacks backing him up.

Cons: Again, lack of a real focus for his forces. Because you have so much you can pick from it's harder to find good synergies to make an all comers list.

Four Star Syndicate: They kill for money. A kind of meta faction for mercaniers which includes most of them.

Pros: Flexibilty

Cons: once again, no real focus as this is a catch-all charter.

Nice merc synopsis Gr3y

Sanctjud wrote:Minor Notes:

Menoth: has a whole lot more focus on proper unit activation with their numerous buffing/synergy.

Khador: don't let the face value slowness deter you, they have caster options to make thier jacks look like they are flying across the board.

Cryx: Cryx are generally about tricks and they work at making them happen more often than most.

Retribution: Con: stealth... it's generally about what you can do against it, and if you can, you are in good order.
_______________________________

Circle- like wood elves, hard to hit and fragile, they are closest to Cryx, they use blood tokens instead of souls and focus on movement shinanninananigans to get you down.

Legion- they don't need a rulebook to play... cause they just ignore most of the rules ...well except free strikes most of the time. Legion is primarily a Beast heavy faction that are fast, generally not hindered by terrain, concealment, and stealth.
They also have a hit hard and fast, but not very durable theme. Most of the faction focuses on ranged combat, but are still brutal in combat.

Trolls- TOUGH!!! GRINDFEST!!!, what's that rumbling under our fee--- OH SHI-- BURROWERS!!!
Trolls are similar to Menoth in the form of layering synergies. They focus on winning the attrition battle.

Skorne-Khorne, torturing baby elephants...etc. They are compared to Khador for having 'slow' lumbering beasts, though they have a pretty heavy synergy Menoth like side to them.

Minions: Bacon or Handbags! The Farrow are a combined arms army while Handbags are a in your face bunch.

Playing Khador is like needing only approximately one hit against the caster with one of your warjack
hence there are caster who did this best

"UNLEASH THE BEAST"/Heaven Piercing Spear/Flying Dreadnought/Karchev Whip and so on
Yes some Khador caster focus on "Delivering"