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I'm considering picking this game up and starting with a Protectorate of Menoth army.
I know jack squat about this game... literally absolutely nothing other than the fact that the models look cool.
I know I'm getting the Battlebox for sure... so the questions I have are...

1. Will I like this army? It looks amazingly gorgeous but I don't want to pick it up and then find out it's a terrible turd sandwich of an army or something.

2. What other supplies do I need for this game? I know I'll need to grab templates, etc. But what else is there? Is there an army book or something that doesn't come
with the Battlebox like with Warhammer?

3. What other units should I pick up to start other than what comes in the Battlebox? I welcome both mandatory and recommended things here (Like I said,
I know jack-squat about anything in Warmachine)

I want to buy a Paladin of the Order of the Wall and a Harbinger of Menoth for looks alone... are they worth getting for game purposes?

Thanks all
Please help the noob.

1) all armies in warmachine have some very strong points. exploit those and you are good to go.

2) a copy of the prime MK2 rulebook and some dice and templates are all you need to start gaming.

3) Adding a palladin to the list will make it just shy of 15 points I believe, but they are worth it IMHO. Harby is a caster and replaces the battleboxcaster. she is good to have, but also prefers a more combined arms list. I have also heard she is a bit more tricky to play right...

After these I recommend a unit of choir and temple flameguard. Choir boosts the jacks or helps protect them and temple flameguard are cheap fodder with very descent arm and CMA, making them good against a vartiety of targets. 2 paladins will make good solo-hunters and are therefore also recommended.

Other then that I do not want to give any tips right now as it starts to really depend on playstyle...

I really appreciate the help you've given. Thanks a ton

The Harbinger is almost universally considered to be Menoth's most powerful caster. She's definitely worth playing.

The Paladins are trickier to give you an answer for. With most casters, they're not all that great. The Harbinger is an exception and they can run well with her. High Paladin Vilmon is strongly recommended if you're going to be using Paladins.

The very first thing that you, and all Menoth players should pick up, is the Choir of Menoth. You'll find very few lists without them in it.

I would recommend Exemplar Errants with their Unit Attachment over the Temple Flameguard. TFG excel as a defensive unit. Their purpose is to advance up the field quickly and tie up enemies, giving the rest of your army time to position itself. Errants are more well rounded. Not as fast and can't tie things up as well, but hit much harder, posses a ranged attack, and a slew of special abilities which let you deny your opponent of some very important and common abilities.

A choir followed by a Vassal provides a very solid support to your Warjacks. He's quite cheap and allows you to get a lot more out of your warjacks.

Errants also have assault with the UA. This drastically increases their threat range.

Thanks a ton everyone .
I really appreciate all the feedback.

12thRonin wrote:Errants also have assault with the UA. This drastically increases their threat range.

The UA gives them Quick Work, not Assault.

Honestly thought, I rarely get that much use out of Quick Work. Either the Errants are still engaged by other models and can't make the shot at all, there's no LOS to the target, the targets I want to hit are engaged by other Errants, making them unlikely to hit, or they shrug off the POW 10 bolt. The only real exception is under pKreoss's feat where everything but the ARM problem is solved.

Very true. I was "misinformed" by my last opponent then since the Errant solo also has assault. My wardog should still be alive. /cry

the last Steam roller i did my last match was VS a PoM army with harbringer, he had the choir, about 4 jacks a group of Templars i believe, they have a Grenade Attack and a dude carrying a cross. then he had the Paladins and a unit of Wracks.
Eiryss Told him "No" on his 10 Focus >.>
however his feat killed Eiryss, didnt do much to my Demos, and Sorscha told him that cold is win. i tried to use Destroyer to my advantage. by freezing everything and then dropping focus onto the Destroyer to launch over the obstacle Harbringer was hiding behind. even boosted, i missed, snake eyes + low = miss. so because i had to move sorscha into the frey, i lost on his turn. Harbringer has low HP but the huge amount of Focus is amazing. once Eiryss kille dthe Focus i was able to bypass the high ARM from the Focus, i could boost to do massive damage to the average Def of Harbringer. unfortunatly i was off by like 1 away from hitting... it made me sad face. and it deviated to no where.

Harbinger
Menoth premium warcaster, high focus?check, High Arm? check, high effect spell ? check

Premium, I once saw a match between a Menoth and aTroll player, The menoth proceed to pull crapload of shenanigans.... and win

I'm assuming she wasn't frozen? Because if you snaked on three dice... ouch.

Retrias wrote:Harbinger
Menoth premium warcaster, high focus?check, High Arm? check, high effect spell ? check

Premium, I once saw a match between a Menoth and aTroll player, The menoth proceed to pull crapload of shenanigans.... and win

Isn't this the norm for PoM?

it's , but remember a Troll player can also pull alot shenanigans.... Menoth somehow have more.....

I am now worried of my "I walk forward and smoosh face" army

This thread has gone to rambles.

After the BB:

Get the Choir of Menoth. First thing, you will never be sorry for it.

Then make a choice: do you want to play the Harbinger? She is amazing, but you need to play at least 35pts for her to start shining. You also need a good chunk of infantry. If you want to go this way, there are several good choices but you need to be aware of her limitations. Her main things involve making her army charge far, making them better at hitting in melee, keeping them alive at the expense of her own health and messing with your enemy's attempts to stop you from getting the best of her abilities. What she really has trouble with is that she is easy to get LOS to: her large base means that you have to use Large-based models to screen her (Gorman di Wulfe's smoke template doesn't quite to the trick) and/or something that takes incoming shots - even if she is camping all her Focus she can be vulnerable to certain things - be deathly afraid of Mage Hunters, for example. She also needs her little Allegiant buddy to heal her up. Good choices with Harby involve nearly everything the Protectorate can provide that are good at melee, and she makes Paladins very good; they now have long threat ranges for their high-P+S attacks.

If you want to build around Kreoss instead, he likes things that throw or shoot - especially AOE's - and have trouble hitting normally. Zealots with UA and Redeemer warjack are typical candidates.

Thanks, this is exactly what I needed

Harbinger is a very solid warcaster with a lot of great abilities however, on turns where she has actually had to use focus she opens her self up to ranged assassination seeing as she is a large based model she is obscenely hard to screen. She has a ridiculous control range which helps to keep her safer from ranged assassinations but well played shooty lists can lay her low on an average feat turn or eCain can do it all by his lonesome.

I have found for new players pKreoss is a great place to start since he has a great list of spells and lot of flexibility. He works well with either a infantry centric or jack centric list.

If you are thinking of running Harbinger I highly recommend taking bastions the shenanigans you call pull with damage switching from Sanguinary bond and martyrdom gives you an elite unit that hits like a ton of bricks and can wade through enemy fire like an unstoppable tide. The sheer damage your opponent will have to allocate to them in order to lay them low will be enormous and in doing so will allow your heavies to get in place or better yet they ignore the bastions and attempt to take out the heavies and you catapult 5 reach, weapon master, titans into their warcaster.

Vassals are a fantastic unit take them, use them, love them.

Same goes for choir they are a nearly indispensable unit and work well with any list that takes jacks.

Wracks are also a killer unit although a bit redundant with the Harbinger.

Crusaders are top not heavy jacks simply because they are amazing damage sink beat sticks for the low low price of just 6 points.

Yet another giant help thank you!

What's the word? Piggy-back?

I really like the paladin models...what would be good casters to back them up, and do you think one can build a force around them?

I'm thinking Harbie lets them let loose, while anyone with a speed boost is welcomed.