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Hi all i've been playng hordes for about a year now with circle and trolls and i've been thinking about starting legion. But i want to try and get into warmachine i like the look of cygnar,retrebution and rhulic was wondering if anybody had any ideas on which was better to start with . Btw my playstyle depends on the army because my circle was druid based and trolls i jus run in and hit things

Start with Retribution unless you like most mercenary models.

Rhulic is a subfaction of a subfaction. It doesn't get
as many updates as mercenaries as a whole.

The big question is what are you looking for? All 3 can be very competitive in / out of steam rollers. Rhulic is the most restrictive list with the least amount of casters so if your a collector they would be the easiest to collect and play. Cygnar has access to LOTS of merc's to compliment their army. They have the most models, and the more versatile iter lists. Retribution is the newer faction with middle amount of models. They were one of the first books to have tiers, so the tiers are seen as somewhat lackluster. However, when you start reading the cards / models you realize they are very specialized and function the best out of the 3 outside of their tier lists. They build specific armies which can magic, shooty, weaponmaster / melee, hit - run, or denial. However, you tend to need to build a whole new army with a new caster, but prepared for that.

Financially:
Rhulic: cheapest, least models, straight forward play style
Cygnar: middle cost, most available models, lots of cross overs with casters / models
Retribution: newest models, less cross over for competitive play, more intricate play style.

Here's a brief run down...

Rhulic:
Casters: Gorten is one of the best casters in the game once you get used to him. Durgen is the tricks of the trade caster, but again, read up on him to see the combinations. Ossrum speeds up the army incredibly.
Overall army: Generally speed 4 and very heavy hitting. Arm is higher then average for most infantry models. Forge Guard are some of the most useful infantry in the game if you get use to them between their better then average MAT, weapon master, and critical slam ability. High Shields are also durable and shooty with shieldwall / CMA. Herne and Jonne pump out more AOE's by themselves then most armies. Jacks are low defense, high arm. Focus resourceful when combined with abilities like powerful attack, Thor, and certain spells / feats.

Cygnar
Casters: Haley is all about denial and fighting on Cygnar terms. eStryker and eCaine are your assassination casters. Darius, eNemo, Kraye are excellent jack casters. Siege is brutal when complimented by his army. Regular Nemo is fantastic with Thunderhead. Sloan makes you shoot A LOT with jacks.
Overall army: if you play 40k they are the space marines of Warmachine. They do everything decently but excel in select roles, mainly shooting and additional combat abilities like Electro Leap. Most casters are Focus 6-7, minus Nemo / eHaley can go more. Squire pushes your available focus and is almost an auto include to everyone. Solid infantry with mostly speed 5-6. Excellent, solid force.

Retribution:
Casters: Rhan / Oz are for mage / shooting. Everyone else really caters to a specific role. They are all very detailed. Every caster pretty much has an assassination run minus the magic / shooty casters.
Overall Army: many specialized units that function well by themselves. Lots of ways to ignore LOS, Terrain, Forests, Clouds, Concealment. Lots of ways to assassinate casters OR solo's in 1 turn. Fast force. Interesting unique force fields which can be re-charged. A significant amount of Arc Nodes on durable models which are well priced. They do not look like they have heavy hitting jacks, but with Arcanists your jacks are always either getting free focus or +2 damage, so they army hits hard. Often they are about holding your opponent at bay, while opening up the assassination run.

Play Retribution unless you want to play mercs in general. Rhulic
isn't really its own thing and you might be disappointed with the
pace of updates for your army if you decide to go Rhulic.

Thanks guys i think i'll do retrebution and a taliors seige list on the side you were a great help

No Cygnar love at all malfred? You did not even mention why they should or should not go that route.

 Mordekiem wrote:
No Cygnar love at all malfred? You did not even mention why they should or should not go that route.

Cygnar...I like Cygnar's look and feel. If stealth pisses you off as a Ret player
then Cygnar will help you handle that with True Sight Gun Mages, Black
13, Mage Sight on a couple casters, etc.

Sorry, just overlooked it.