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Hi, I've recently started looking at Warmachine and as a player base has finally showed up around here I've decided to do it on the side with Malifaux.

Anyway I managed to narrow my decision down to either Cygnar or Khador, but can't decide which of the two to go with. I'm not really fond of many of the normal infantry from most of the factions, but I do like the majority of the heavy/armoured infantry and jacks with the exclusion of Cryx. So I've decided I'd like to go with a full jack force or a mostly jack force backed up by some heavy infantry. Looking over the rules I've managed to throw together a 35 point list for both.

Cygnar

Darius
Hunter
Sentinel
Centurion
Defender
Defender
Field Mechaniks (chief and 5)
Field Mechaniks (chief and 5)


Khador

Karchev
Destroyer
Devastator
Devastator
Battle Mechaniks (leader and 5)
Man-0-War Shocktroopers (leader and 4) or two groups of Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 5)

I haven't figured one out yet for Mercenaries, but I'm interesting in some of the rules I've heard about Gorten Grundback and I'm interesting in a few of the Rhulic jacks I've seen like the Driller and the Avalancher. Though I haven't looked at the rules of any of the factions besides Cygnar and Khador. Anyway I was wondering if someone could help me decide on a faction. Thanks in advance.

Coming from the Cygnaran side, you may not want to go Cygnar if you want to run Warjack heavy. Cygnar plays its best with a 'combined arms' approach, favoring a good mix of units, warjacks and solos. Darius may not be able to handle all those warjacks if they're all on him.

Thanks for the reply.

I might just go with Khador then as it sounds like it can fit what I'm after a little more than Cygnar.

Though I'm wondering if it would be better to take the Iron Fang Pikemen or the Shocktroopers.

I second infinite_array, Cygnar has a problem to come up with viable jack heavy list. Most of our casters are good at buffing the other parts of the list and don't have focus to boost jacks.

Also cygnar lacks battle group wide buffs, which are needed to run jack heavy. And third problem is that cygnar's jack buddy is a character so you cannot have 2 sirens running around power boosting jacks or vassals giving enliven etc.

I would go look into Menoth as it seems to have the most options to running jack heavy or then go with Khador, if you want to pick from them and cygnar.

If you want to tun Jack heavy and Khador, you could go for either Karchev, or pVlad.

I've seen 35 pt lists for pVlad that contains Vlad himself, Drago, and 6 Berserkers. Vlad's feat - free run/charge for every warjack in his battlegroup and his spell, Signs and Portents, allows you to 'mess them up'.

Here's a list I was toying with before I decided to go with Cygnar:

pVlad
-Berserker
-Berserker
-Drago
Koldun Lord
-Destroyer
Man-o-War Kovnik
-Berserker

The Koldun Lord and Kovnik both have abilities to boost both of their respective jacks attack and damage rolls. The Koldun Lord can hide behind the Destroyer (which can actually be a great beatstick in hand to hand). The Kovnik just advances with his Berserker. Vlad does the same, but he has a better time taking cover behind his jacks.

What's the general opinion on the Devastator?
I like the model and the armour 25 seems quite nice. I guess I'd want to include at least one, but I'm not sure if two would be considered overkill.

Also for the tier system is it cumulative or can I just skip straight to tier 4 for the number of jacks if I used Karchev?

Sorry for all the questions.

n0t_u wrote:What's the general opinion on the Devastator?
I like the model and the armour 25 seems quite nice. I guess I'd want to include at least one, but I'm not sure if two would be considered overkill.

It is nice unmovable rock with the high ARM and the bulldoze is great ability, but where it is lacking is the ability to hurt high ARM targets. Spamming is not usually good choise in making lists for Warmachine. You can usually get better functioning lists by taking different jacks/ units/ solos than by adding several of one. I would complement the Devastator with more offensive minded jack like Spriggan, Beast etc.

n0t_u wrote:Also for the tier system is it cumulative or can I just skip straight to tier 4 for the number of jacks if I used Karchev?

Tier system is cumulative and you have to fulfill all of the requirements from tiers 1 to 4 to have the benefit from tier 4.

Good thing I like the Spriggan as well then.
I'm not sure how much of an annoyance Stealth and Camo are but I'd guess it would be nice to have something to counter that as well.

As a way to add some more bodies to the force would the Iron Fang Pikemen or some Man-O-War units be better?

I know at least one unit of Battle Mechaniks is a given due to the high amount of armour that would be walking around.