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Might be starting Cygnar and had a few Q's

1) After I get the starter box, what else do I need in an army (troops and so on, and how many)?

2) Whats the most common game size, in points and models (like X warcasters. Y jacks Z units)?

3) After I get the starter box, is it necessary for me to get the army book thing for casual games with friends cause I heard about some sort of cards?

4) After I get the starter box, is it necessary for me to get the rule book for casual games with friends as there is a quick start book, but do you need the actual one to play properly?

Thanks in advance

1. Depends on what kind of army you want. I would recommend getting the Card deck or Forces of Warmachine book for the faction you want. That way you'll know what else you might want.

2. Games are 1 warcaster until you get up to 100 points. Common game sizes are 35-50

3. Not necessary, but it will help you understand where you want to go. All models come with a stat card you can use.

4. Yes. Although with the release of the 2-player starter, there are some miniature rulebooks floating around like the 40k ones.

Also keep in mind the BRB is only $29.99 compared to 40k at $75.00

I was thinking about getting Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 'cause they look cool

If I get the starter box and a box of Arcane Tempest Gun Mages about how many points will I have

 DukeBadham wrote:
I was thinking about getting Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 'cause they look cool

If I get the starter box and a box of Arcane Tempest Gun Mages about how many points will I have

18 I believe

Whats a good unit/model for filling up the rest points cheaply. How about Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team

 DukeBadham wrote:
Might be starting Cygnar and had a few Q's

1) After I get the starter box, what else do I need in an army (troops and so on, and how many)?

2) Whats the most common game size, in points and models (like X warcasters. Y jacks Z units)?

3) After I get the starter box, is it necessary for me to get the army book thing for casual games with friends cause I heard about some sort of cards?

4) After I get the starter box, is it necessary for me to get the rule book for casual games with friends as there is a quick start book, but do you need the actual one to play properly?

5) I was thinking about getting Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 'cause they look cool. If I get the starter box and a box of Arcane Tempest Gun Mages about how many points will I have?

Thanks in advance

1: the battlebox is ready to play against other boxes for a particularly small game of 11/12 points on average.

2: 15,25,35,50 points. It is hard to pin down a common number of models per game size but think of a full unit or a heavy as 10ish points, a small unit or light as 6ish points, and individual solos as 2ish points. Warcasters give you an extra 5 or 6 points on average and generally run 2 or 3 jacks.

3: The army book is completely optional. all stats for models you buy are on cards packaged with the models.

4: the quickstart rules will get you playing with the battlebox contents, but leave out infantry and terrain rules to name a few. You will want the rulebook.

5: the cygnar battlebox is 11 points, gun mages are 6 points, and the gun mage officer attachment is an additional 2 points. I HIGHLY recommend the officer with gun mages, he makes them a premier unit.

As Dais said, Gun Mages and their Unit Attachment are absolutely excellent. If you want to further focus your army on ranged attacks while picking up a good toolbox unit, the Black 13th are a good way to further build up your points. They are 4 points (unless I'm mistaken), which should bring you up to around 23 points.

If you're looking to get to 25 points, you might want to think about adding a solo unit (they usually cost around 2 points).

What solos go well with Gun Mages and their Unit Attachment, the Black 13th and the starter box

EDIT: thinking of a Journeyman Warcaster, any good? Or is a Gun Mage Captain Adept better choice?

Journeyman Warcaster if you want to run one more jack than usual (after all, you can only run so much) and have an arcane shield/another arcane shield. Captain Adept is good against those who like to hide to block LoS (i.e. forests for those with eyeless sight).

Its really up to you what you need in the army.

I'll be fielding 3 jacks, so is that too many

EDIT: I'll get Cygnar Journeyman, like the model. Also, any advice for facing Menoth and Cryx

 DukeBadham wrote:
I'll be fielding 3 jacks, so is that too many

EDIT: I'll get Cygnar Journeyman, like the model. Also, any advice for facing Menoth and Cryx

For protectorate get half of the 2player box, a vassal of menoth, and a choir of menoth. The choir is the best unit in the game and very cheap.

For cryx you'll want to start with the battlebox for the value, but you will also probably want to find a more fierce heavy jack than the humble slayer and start adding units and solos.

3 jacks probably isn't going to be too many if you're running the journeyman. Assuming that you're running the battlebox and the rest of the units you've mentioned, it'll probably work best if you attach 2 jacks to Stryker and one to the Journeyman. As to the specifics of which jacks to place where, I'd say it's probably best if you experiment a bit to find out what kind of distribution works best for your play-style.

I don't have a lot of experience facing Cryx (the only person in my local meta who plays Cryx is a twelve-year-old who still doesn't fully grasp the army), but I have faced Menoth a few times. In my experience, one of the better ways to approach them is to take out support units first (i.e. Choirs, Vassals, etc.), as Menoth relies heavily on support. Given the ranged set-up you seem to be building, one approach would be to use your ATGMs supported by your 'caster and jacks as an offensive block while using the Black 13th as an assassin unit to pick off support units (which can be done fairly reliably using Ryan's special attack backed up by Lynch and Watts).

Keep in mind that all of my advice is based on the somewhat limited local meta in which I play, so YMMV.

 Dais wrote:

 DukeBadham wrote:
I'll be fielding 3 jacks, so is that too many

EDIT: I'll get Cygnar Journeyman, like the model. Also, any advice for facing Menoth and Cryx

For protectorate get half of the 2player box, a vassal of menoth, and a choir of menoth. The choir is the best unit in the game and very cheap.

For cryx you'll want to start with the battlebox for the value, but you will also probably want to find a more fierce heavy jack than the humble slayer and start adding units and solos.

No, how do I beat them


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 grayshadow87 wrote:
3 jacks probably isn't going to be too many if you're running the journeyman. Assuming that you're running the battlebox and the rest of the units you've mentioned, it'll probably work best if you attach 2 jacks to Stryker and one to the Journeyman. As to the specifics of which jacks to place where, I'd say it's probably best if you experiment a bit to find out what kind of distribution works best for your play-style.

I don't have a lot of experience facing Cryx (the only person in my local meta who plays Cryx is a twelve-year-old who still doesn't fully grasp the army), but I have faced Menoth a few times. In my experience, one of the better ways to approach them is to take out support units first (i.e. Choirs, Vassals, etc.), as Menoth relies heavily on support. Given the ranged set-up you seem to be building, one approach would be to use your ATGMs supported by your 'caster and jacks as an offensive block while using the Black 13th as an assassin unit to pick off support units (which can be done fairly reliably using Ryan's special attack backed up by Lynch and Watts).

Keep in mind that all of my advice is based on the somewhat limited local meta in which I play, so YMMV.

Thanks tho.

 DukeBadham wrote:
I'll be fielding 3 jacks, so is that too many

EDIT: I'll get Cygnar Journeyman, like the model. Also, any advice for facing Menoth and Cryx

Most cygnar casters only really want 1 or 2 jacks. so 3 is fine if you use the Jr Warcaster and/or jack marshalls. Gunmages are great to marshall a defender or hunter to. JR can run a hunter or charger. Not sure I would give them a defender because that is alot of useless points if Jr dies. Arlan strangeways can also jack marshall a ranged jack while giving it focus and repairing it.

For facing cryx you really want to read their cards and know what they do. Having some defense against stealth is pretty much mandatory. Gunmages are a good option w/ UA. Cryx can come at you so many ways it is hard to catch them all, but killing arcnodes is always a good idea.

Against menoth...Kill the choir. I don't really have much there as I don't play them or against them very often.

As a suggestion, I'd start at battlebox or 15 pt games without infantry and such to start. It'll get you used to some fiddly bits of the rules.

From there, for Cygnar:

-ATGM + UA
-Avenger/Centurion/Hammersmith plastic kit -magnetize
-Black 13th
-Eiryss2
-Aiyana and Holt (based on your opponents)

I'd recommend filling in units with mercs actually, so:

-Nyss
-Boomhowlers
-Jonas Murdoch

 Mordekiem wrote:

Most cygnar casters only really want 1 or 2 jacks. so 3 is fine if you use the Jr Warcaster and/or jack marshalls. Gunmages are great to marshall a defender or hunter to. JR can run a hunter or charger. Not sure I would give them a defender because that is alot of useless points if Jr dies. Arlan strangeways can also jack marshall a ranged jack while giving it focus and repairing it.

 Chongara wrote:

 Mordekiem wrote:

Most cygnar casters only really want 1 or 2 jacks. so 3 is fine if you use the Jr Warcaster and/or jack marshalls. Gunmages are great to marshall a defender or hunter to. JR can run a hunter or charger. Not sure I would give them a defender because that is alot of useless points if Jr dies. Arlan strangeways can also jack marshall a ranged jack while giving it focus and repairing it.

I don't find I get too much of a bead on Jr. when opponents run a defender under him. What matters for a piece like him, is really just keeping him away from threats as anything can kill him. A defender does a pretty good job of this. 16" gun and a 6" control area means jr can sit 20-22" away from the action and still contribute. That keeps him out of the sights of most threats and you really don't want to commit the ones that could get him.. if you have them.

Could just be my experience. But it is hard to keep the enemy 20+ inches away and there are plenty of things that can kill JR quickly. I would happily trade a solo or even a small unit to shut down 12 points of enemy models.

I have heard of people who make it work, but have heard of more who shy away from it. Your mileage may vary.

Just to piggyback off this thread, how essential is it to have the Wrath or Collossals book? What are the downsides of not owning those books?

Waynebo wrote:
Just to piggyback off this thread, how essential is it to have the Wrath or Collossals book? What are the downsides of not owning those books?

Not really essential if you have War Room updated to include all cards.

Also not essential if you know what you want and expect to run the game off
the cards that come with the models.

Downside: You don't get fluff in War Room.

Why do people get the books?

I get the books for the story, the artwork, and an overview of all the new
stuff to come in the near future. The new books also have any new rules
all in one place. For example, Colossals has all the rules for using colossals
in it. However, if you paid to update War Room, you can pull up some
contextual rules by tapping on keywords on a card.

Whats a good melee offensive heavy 'jack

 DukeBadham wrote:
Whats a good melee offensive heavy 'jack

For Cygnar? Stormclad and Ol' Rowdy are two of the more popular ones I think. Stormclad has reach and gets focus from friendly Stormblades. Rowdy can run and charge for free.

cheers.
Another Q? How good are the Defender and Sentinel.

Defender is one of our best jacks, particularly if you have a caster who has shooty buffs. They even find their way into alot of melee lists just for the fire support. There are few guns in the game that outrange and out POW the defender. And the hammer isn't exactly a terrible melee weapon either. Also works well jack marshalled, partidularly by gun mages.

Have you checked out the PP forums? I would seriously recommend you read their bootcamp thread. Some of the guides listed in there are very extensive.
http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?7043-Boot-Camp-Mark-II

Check out the PP forums and army list forum and you can see what people tend to like and dislike.

Battlecollege also has some good rundowns of the units, but I tend to find the write ups seem like they are often thru rose-colored glasses.
http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/home

 Mordekiem wrote:
Defender is one of our best jacks, particularly if you have a caster who has shooty buffs. They even find their way into alot of melee lists just for the fire support. There are few guns in the game that outrange and out POW the defender. And the hammer isn't exactly a terrible melee weapon either. Also works well jack marshalled, partidularly by gun mages.

Have you checked out the PP forums? I would seriously recommend you read their bootcamp thread. Some of the guides listed in there are very extensive.
http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?7043-Boot-Camp-Mark-II

Check out the PP forums and army list forum and you can see what people tend to like and dislike.

Battlecollege also has some good rundowns of the units, but I tend to find the write ups seem like they are often thru rose-colored glasses.
http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/home

cheers for the link

Update: I have Captain Maxwell Finn and a charger. (but wont be using it till doing games 35-50 points)

Still planning on getting:
Cygnar battle box,
Arcane tempest gun mages.
- ATGM UA.
Now; Can you fit a trench master gunner, or a journeyman in 25 points?
And if yes, are these better choices then the squire, which is better, and which is the worst of the three

ALSO: how good are Field mechaniks and how many points would 6 cost?

forwardkommander.com will help you figure out point totals rather easily. I would highly recommend it.

 DukeBadham wrote:
Update: I have Captain Maxwell Finn and a charger. (but wont be using it till doing games 35-50 points)

Still planning on getting:
Cygnar battle box,
Arcane tempest gun mages.
- ATGM UA.
Now; Can you fit a trench master gunner, or a journeyman in 25 points?
And if yes, are these better choices then the squire, which is better, and which is the worst of the three

ALSO: how good are Field mechaniks and how many points would 6 cost?

Have you chosen a caster yet? I am assuming you are going to use pStryker from the battlebox.

So for the mechanics...I would just suggest getting Arlen Strangeways. Better mechanic and has some other cool abilities. For 2 points he is a steal if you want the ability to repair.

Squire is gold. In fact, I would repaint mine to be solid gold if I hadn't already painted him. I am trying to think of a cygnar caster who doesn't like to have a squire and cannot right now. I know for some he is a must and others benefit less. But extra control range is awesome. extra focus and a reroll to hit on a spell are also really nice to have. I think he would do well with pStryker because of his Control area based feat and offensive spells. And extra focus is essentially a free upkeep, +1 ARM, a free focus for a jack or an extra spell or boost. What's not to like?

If you're gunning for a casty caster then the squire is pretty much mandatory, if you can squeeze in Jr. Then they're seriously worth considering (my brother has his journeyman on his defender, works surprisingly well).

The only caster I can think of where a squire wouldn't turn up is Nemo3 because he already has an attachement. Kraye might not want one because having it keep up as Kraye is cavalry might be an issue depending on how you use him but that's largely it.

UPDATE: I now have a charger, maxwell finn, a Jr, the rulebook and the forces of cygnar book