Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, I'm a 40k player thinking of getting into Warmachine. I was all set to do it, too... and then I got a great deal on some Blood Angels and now I have a whole new army to paint. However, I still hear the siren call of Warmachine, and it would be nice to play more than one game (and get to play with more people on more game nights at local gaming stores!).

Here's the problem: I was all ready to play Khador, a nice change of pace from my original 40k faction (Tau). However, now that I've got a choppy army (Blood Angels) I'm not sure I'm interested in buying basically the same army in a different game. So, what kind of Warmachine army will give me a cool change of pace from both Tau and Blood Angels?

Other factors to consider:
* I really like painting warjacks and would like to field a force that is, if not largely warjacks, includes as many awesome warjacks as possible.
* I'm a roleplayer by origin and like playing good guys, even if they are complicated good guys. So Khador, Cygnar, and Menoth are all possibilities - Cryx not as much.
* I'm interested in hearing more about Mercenaries.

So, what Warmachine factions would you recommend and why? Thanks in advance.

By Tau and Blood Angels style armies, I assume you mean shooty and blatant beat face armies.

Try out Cryx. They have some beat face options, but they're fragile and really excel at winning through trickery.

PLAY KHADOR! KHADOR IS A MANS ARMY!

Since you want to play a jack heavy, good guy army, you might consider Cygnar, with Kraye as your caster. Jacks in Kraye's battlegroup are considered either Light Cavalry (if they are a light jack), or heavy cavalry (if they are a heavy jack).

Darius also plays very well with Cygnar jacks.

I suggest Protectorate of Menoth to anyone who is unsure of what faction they want to try as they provide a distinct feel you can only get in warmachine with their reliance on synergy. You should check out the PP model galleries for all factions of both warmachine and hordes though, see if any particular faction or models grab you.
You can get a fairly jack heavy force with the protectorate easily since they have access to the choir and vassals making low focus allocations much more efficient. The Avatar of Menoth is an amazing jack that provides his own focus as well. It is true that any faction can play jack heavy though. What your looking for is focus efficiency since you have to fuel all your jacks and cast spells on the same limited focus each turn.
From a roleplay perspective you should be pleased with the whole game. It was developed from a D&D compatible rpg game and has a very fleshed out world. All of the factions have heroic and villainous characters, though they aren't all balanced at 50/50. You might have a hard time getting a good guy feel from a few of the protectorate casters like Severious, Feora, or High Reclaimer, but you can at least get the feel of them following their god with humble obedience (okay, Feora is not so humble). Menoth himself is a lawful neutral god in the rpg setting. The faction that passes most as good guys is Cygnar however.

Mercenaries are pretty interesting. They hire themselves out to various factions or can band together as a proper army themselves. There are some restrictions on what mercenaries will work together, but you can field almost anything together in the four star syndicate. Mercenary armies are actually a lot more competitive than you might think, but they don't have the big themes of the main factions and have to get things done with a heterogeneous force.

you want a change of pace eh? I woudl told you to play Khador because well Khador is Khador, but since you want a change of pace, how about an eldar like army? where the entire army is devastating when working in Unison, Retribution? However since you want ALOT OF JACKS, Khador do this, ALOT
pVlad can function as a jack caster, his tier list is reduced cost for berserker
pButcher can function as a jack caster, his spell and feats do well with jacks
Karchev is THE jack caster, he is even in a warjack shell, all of his feat and spell supports his jack very very nicely
Harkevich is the SHOOTING jack caster
so yes Khador seems to suit you alot

Protectorate have a playstyle that doesn't translate directly to 40K, that is, denial and board control.
I think (if you like the protectorate miniatures) you could get some decent mileage out of them. However, Protectorate do like their support pieces for their 'jacks (little units of dudes that give them bonuses) so I don't know whether that would be offputting to you or not.
I recommend picking up the Warmachine Prime rulebook and reading it. It'll give you a much better idea of the four factions.
Mercs are fun, but they tend to be somewhat more limited when fielded as an army on their own.

Three other factors to consider:

1) Blood Angels and Tau have taught me that I really enjoy mobility. Blood Angels are fast, Tau are mobile. I enjoy models that can zip around the board either quickly or in interesting ways.
2) D&D has taught me that I enjoy forced movement. There's something very satisfying about shoving my opponents around the battlefield.
3) Experience has taught me that I am in this for painting as much as for playing. Want to post your favorite faction's best warjacks and models and see if that helps sway me?

If you watn a bunch of jacks that means you're going to need a bunch of Jackmarshals. I'd recommend if you're going to try this, cygnar. They are also the complicated good guys. They screwed Trollbloods and Menoth so now they're back to get some.

Unless you're dead set on warmachine specifically you may want to look into the Circle faction of Hordes (the sister game to warmachine). They are fast, they have a lot of units that can redirect your opponents and, they can hit pretty hard. They're like Tau (AFAIK) in that they can manuever around the battlefield pretty easily but you have to choose your target for each unit carefully. Circle isn't quite as fragile as Cryx but it is close. I should also warn you that they do have a sharp learning curve and that it is challenging to start with them but it is fun to master a faction.

Surtur wrote:If you watn a bunch of jacks that means you're going to need a bunch of Jackmarshals.

Or it means you're playing Mortenbra.

Based on your desire for 'good guys' with lots of heavies, I think the options are pretty easily narrowed down to one of two:

Menoth
Trollbloods

Menoth is the only Warmachine faction that can easily run 3+ heavy warjacks with multiple casters (and, you know, not be terrible). Menoth does so through brutal synergy stacking to create a relentless, impenetrable wall. Very much an Unstoppable Force sort of playstyle.

Trollbloods are the fluff underdogs; their history is rife with getting betrayed, backstabbed, or simply beaten by... pretty much everybody.

Trolls can create horrific beast-heavy and beast-centric lists, however. Like Menoth, they stack buffs so that you have an entire army of hulking, nigh-unkillable warbeasts stomping forwards and eating (yes, the rules actually allow you to eat enemy models) all before them.

Master necro-tech Mortenebra can run a force that is literally all jacks and a solo or two, and whats more do it damned effectively. What's more all the cryx jacks she'd use have all kinds of weird funky rules and weapons that will make the force more fun to play.

She is really evil though....so yeah you might not enjoy it as much as i do lol.

ElectricPaladin wrote:Three other factors to consider:
1) Blood Angels and Tau have taught me that I really enjoy mobility. Blood Angels are fast, Tau are mobile. I enjoy models that can zip around the board either quickly or in interesting ways.

Cryx and circle are probably the most mobile factions, of those circle are good-ish and cryx are pretty evil. Cygnar, retribution, and everblight can be pretty speedy too. Khador is also deceptively fast, most of the time they are very slow but get spells giving them a burst of speed.

ElectricPaladin wrote:2) D&D has taught me that I enjoy forced movement. There's something very satisfying about shoving my opponents around the battlefield.

Circle, everblight,, cryx, and retribution all have a fair amount of movement shenanigans, either moving in ways they normally shouldn't be able to, or moving models out of their activation. Circle and retribution come out on top here, but there are certain spells available to almost all factions like telekinesis, admonition, warpath, and energizer you would just LOVE. Menoth has two notable and amazing abilities from enliven (after one hit, your jack gets a move, even if they aren't done attacking) and the gaze of menoth (enemies cannot end farther away from the avatar than they began), but the rest of the army is pretty lacking in movement control -thank morrow.

ElectricPaladin wrote:3) Experience has taught me that I am in this for painting as much as for playing. Want to post your favorite faction's best warjacks and models and see if that helps sway me?

I could show you pictures of stormclads, beast-09, warpwolf stalkers and such here, but the better question is; Which jacks and beasts do YOU like best? I can only really think of one jack that is so bad it doesn't get played (the khador marauder). I can't guarantee you can just throw all your favorites into a cohesive list, but one or two should be doable so just play the models you love.

But I field my Marauder all the time...

CorvidMP wrote:Master necro-tech Mortenebra can run a force that is literally all jacks and a solo or two, and whats more do it damned effectively. What's more all the cryx jacks she'd use have all kinds of weird funky rules and weapons that will make the force more fun to play.

Morty can run warjacks, but she's the only warcaster in the faction that is really comfortable doing so.

In Menoth, Harby, pKreoss, and Raza are all right at home in the midst of a wall of warjacks. Sevvy can also go jack heavy.

Don't forget Reznik!

Dais wrote:I can only really think of one jack that is so bad it doesn't get played (the khador marauder).

Laughing Man wrote:But I field my Marauder all the time...

This is the best thing about warmachine: I've heard this exact exchange about probably a dozen units or models since I started playing.

"Dude! Nobody takes X, it's terrible!" "Well, actually, I found if I take X with caster Y and solo Z, he's actually the focal point of my army and tends to beat skull wherever he goes..."

So, for whatever it's worth, after perusing Battle College I'm finding myself seriously leaning towards Cygnar and a General Adept Nemo themed force. I like the lightening effects and the idea of shooting my own lightening-immune dudes in order to get a range boost on my powers. Also, the tesla coil models are neat.

ElectricPaladin wrote:So, for whatever it's worth, after perusing Battle College I'm finding myself seriously leaning towards Cygnar and a General Adept Nemo themed force. I like the lightening effects and the idea of shooting my own lightening-immune dudes in order to get a range boost on my powers. Also, the tesla coil models are neat.

Both versions of Nemo are great. That being said their tiers are not. I find I can stick with a theme better most times out of a tier than trying to stay within one.

ElectricPaladin wrote:So, for whatever it's worth, after perusing Battle College I'm finding myself seriously leaning towards Cygnar and a General Adept Nemo themed force. I like the lightening effects and the idea of shooting my own lightening-immune dudes in order to get a range boost on my powers. Also, the tesla coil models are neat.

From what you have been saying you are interested in I think you made a good choice. And cygnar in general tend to be a versatile faction so expanding into something a bit different isn't very hard. Stormblades, gunmages, stuff like that is useful in almost every list.

Casper wrote:

ElectricPaladin wrote:So, for whatever it's worth, after perusing Battle College I'm finding myself seriously leaning towards Cygnar and a General Adept Nemo themed force. I like the lightening effects and the idea of shooting my own lightening-immune dudes in order to get a range boost on my powers. Also, the tesla coil models are neat.

Both versions of Nemo are great. That being said their tiers are not. I find I can stick with a theme better most times out of a tier than trying to stay within one.

Actually, I'd make the argument that eNemo's tier can get pretty nasty. You've got a massive amount of lightning to fry infantry, as well as your Stormguard, and it also encourages you to take multiple heavies, which can really do some damage with eNemo's feat turn.