Telsiph wrote:I've recently had a group of friends begin playing Warmachine. I am slowly researching the game (I'm familiar with Warhammer and
40k), but I've always found that with games like this that you learn best while playing. To play a game like this however, I need to have an army planned out first. In my situation, however, money is a very serious issue. Due to this, I am curious if anyone could theorize the most cost effective list of models to purchase, that would also still be able to hold their own to some degree. Obviously I am not looking for an amazingly competitive lists as these normally (at least I would assume) require at least a moderate high cost investment.
I am looking for 25-35 points, and I'm hoping there may be a recommended list that I can afford and begin playing!
The first thing you need to realise here is this is not
40k. the "rules" for getting together a
40k army do not apply. Being "familiar" with
40k literally means jack. this is an entirely different experience.
Right, so what am i getting at?
Say you want a new
40k army. Lets say... Space Wolves. So you come on Dakka, and you put down a post titled "what do i need to have a good Space Wolf army"? you will be showered with responses, but of all those responses, they'll essentially be telling you to buy this build with x,y, and z, or the other build with a,b and c. With Warmachine, if you ask for advice as to "what do i need to have a good Khador army?", most khador players will laugh good naturedly, and with a serious face tell you "a good khador army is filled with red things. unless you paint them a different colour. and unless you take mercenaries along with the red things". there is no "the khador build", like there is a "Space Wolf build".
the reason for that is the nature of the game. Skill and experience trumps army lists. bar severely scewed matchup issues (and 2-list formats exist to deal with that!). Its not about what you take. List building exists, but its a different concept entirely, and almost alien from what you're familiar with in the mechanics of
40k. Essentially, its not what you take. its what you take alongside it that counts.
Synnergy is the key. So take 2 casters for example. Irusk and Karchev. Karchev is whats known as a jack caster. he buffs jacks seriously well, but brings absolutely nothing to the table for infantry. Irusk is the opposite. Irusk runs one jack extremely well, but his feat and spells are almost entirely devoted towards making khadors already excellent infantry even more excellent. So, with this in mind, an Irusk list spamming jacks is a terrible idea, and a Karchev list spamming infantry is likewise an extremely poor synnergy. So, leading on from that, is infantry unit X good? Is Jack X good?
Well, it depends, and that is the honest answer. I cant just say "jacks are terrible" as it depends on who is running them, and what they're running against. I cant just say "take this, this and this? because it all depends on your synnergies alongside it, and also against the synnergies they'll be going against. I field (for fun!) an epic Butcher theme army. at 50points, its 8 squads of howling mad doom reavers (psychopathic suicide troops that hit like freight trains). Against some lists, i'll steamroll them. against anything that is severely heavily ranged, has nasty control elements (
eHaley or
eDenny) or has access to things like
inhospitable ground, im screwed. So is the list good? Well, it depends. i'll use it against some, and i'll use my back up list against others. Essentially though, i need to ram home the point that everything in warmachine can be build into an effective, winning list. this is not
40k where there are a handful of viable builds in a handful of codices.
So again, to answer your original question - no. i cant/wont give you a list. and i hope i've explained why.
What i will do is give you advice on starting. Start small. Dont jump right into 35pts. that is a huge mistake. battle box games. cut your teeth with the battlebox. there are no shortagr of
WM players who will be happy to face off againsy you at that level. accept the fact also that you will be steamrolled. the learning curve is steep. at the start, you will lose a lot. everyone does. its the nature of the game. but believe in Page 5, take it to heart, take your beatings and learn from them. When you've cut your teeth at that level, and you know the basics of focus/fury/spells/feats/power attacks etc, then think about expanding slowly. to 25pts. what to take? what do you like the look of. its that simple.
