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So after playing a pair of test games and such i really want to start warmachin after 8 years of 40k. I cant decide between Retribution of Scyrah and cygnar. I like retribution because it seems to have a bunch of tricks up their sleves and resembles my favorite theme from any games, elves that cheat. Hense my 8 year love afair with eldar. That being said I like the raw firepower of Cygnar. So what I am asking for is the pros and cons of each army. I am also interested in running an army that is challenging as EZ is boring to me.

Our group just started--I play Cygnar, friend plays Ret. Here are thoughts from a relatively new player;


Cygnar seems to have a lot of play styles. One week I can play a 'punch in the mouth' EStryker list--next week I can have Nemo take the Jacks for a walk---next week I can play ECaine and superhero around the board. I have more ideas on army lists than I have time to play--and that's always a positive for any army codex (be it 40k or WM).

Ret. seems very fragile to me--and more alpha strike or nothing. If they get caught in a grind, so far--they look pretty out of place--I would call them a glass cannon. Some vet players can probably chime in and tell me I'm wrong--but that's my gut instinct after reading the book and see them play.


If you like Eldar, my gut would say Ret. would be for you. Cygnar strike me more as a marine army--can do a lot of things well (Which also lends itself to playing different styles when you feel like it).


Again though, we're just starting too!

by your description Ret is devently my army.. any others out there with insight?

I play both cygnar and retribution, with a longer history in cygnar. The two armies have a fair bit of overlap, but take those aspects in different ways. They both bring a good mix of ranged and melee, both have good well rounded models, and both run very well in combined arms forces.
Cygnar has the highest accuracy out of all the factions in general. They are without many super characters at mat/rat 8, but have an abundance of mat/rat 7s around. They have a high volume of fire since most of their troops are either dedicated ranged or hybrid ranged/melee, but those troops are more expensive for their flexibility. Cygnar aren't that good at attrition since they tend to be slightly outnumbered from having more expensive options, but if you can wear the opponent down with ranged then go in for melee when they close in- a task more easily said than done- you'll more than even the odds. Cygnar's greatest weakness seems to be an inability to push the power of their attacks much higher than they already are -there are very few damage buffs and they are usually for warjack melee attacks.
Retribution tends to have rather strong infantry that are more dedicated to a purpose, but do have some superb generalists as well. The army is less reliant on warcaster support spells than cygnar, but there are far fewer support spells to be given as well. Ret jacks tend to have rather low powered weapons, compared to other factions their strength is usually 1 less(still the best pow in the army). The jacks do almost all have ranged as well as melee though, and every one has some kind of special effect, they feel more like swiss army knives than the battle axes most factions make their jacks into. Ret can do ok in early game attrition, since many of their buffs are arm or def vs. ranged attacks, but their base starts are usually about medium so they are not that great at weathering the storm in melee (other than just hitting back of course). Retribution's greatest weakness seems to be a lack of direct buff effects - the tools your unit has listed on the card are all it's going to have in 4 of 5 games unless your playing the caster that just happens to have the effect they need and they are the best unit to make use of it.
Overall cygnar has adaptability from their versatile troops and support spells, but have to use that adaptability or the games can feel like an uphill battle. And retribution has slightly more powerful units and slightly less powerful jacks that tend to work in more obvious ways for effective results and have an almost forced independence.

The only other considerations to think about are that cygnar gets the greatest access to mercenaries of all factions if you are interested in them, and that the newest retribution jacks from wrath won't be released until december at the earliest (this is fully half of the retribution's heavy jacks).

Dias summed it up rather well. I also both play Retribution and Cynar. I find I really enjoy my "stupidly broken elves" as my opponents occasionally call them; simply because nobody at my store knows what they do.

That being said Cygnar also is great faction because of their flexibility in list building - I seem to build all my Retribution lists around a core of good units/jacks so they all look very similar.

Well. Retribution simply has fewer units to choose from.

The other major weakness of Ret is dealing with Stealth.

Cygnar are a bit more jack-of-all-trades, but you pay more for it. If you like Eldar because of their speed and versatility then Cygnar are very similar. If you like Eldar because they are elves then Ret is also elves.

It's not on your list, but you may also want to seriously consider Legion of Everblight if you are an Eldar player who likes tricks.


But one of the great things about Warmachine is a 35 point list is much cheaper than even a 1500 point 40k list. So it is quite possible to get 2 or 3 or even more factions to play with. Most people I know have two factions.

I only ever liked Orboros minis.