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Title says it all, any tips for starting a good army, so I'm not wasting money on worthless units that'll never see play and collect dust. The two armies i'll be running will be Menoth and Cryxx.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As a side note: are the battleboxes a good investment, or do they follow the same pattern as battleforces in 40k? Meanign are they actually designed to be a good starter or are they one good unit and the rest of the box is trash?

While it can be...rather subjective as to the contents of the battleboxes, I think they are a solid start. They give you a few jacks and a warcaster which is everything you need to play a small scale game. That makes them better than 40k boxes which usually do not have a required hq or can be short troops (1 hq and 2 troop choices are defined as the legal type of army in the 40k rulebook if anyone was wondering). As to what to get, well for Menoth, again it can be subjective, always grab a choir!

For Menoth the 2 player set is better than the battlebox. Revengers are rarely used and pKreoss certaintly doesn't use it. iKreoss does though.

is there someplace I can go to read up on good tactics to know in advance or what you typically the better units, or at least the most versatile? Haven't got the rulebook or army book/codex equivalent; so as of yet I'm flying blind. And I can't wait to get the books first as I Live over an hour from the FLGS I frequent and it won't be worth the gas to only buy books and then figures in another week or more. So I'll need a general idea of what to buy in advance and the store doesn't carry a comprehensive warmachine selection, so I might have to email the FLGS to order in advance.

Join the PP forums. They have an excellent community there.

There is also http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/ which is basically a wiki for all the warmachine stuff that can give you a general idea of what all the different units do. There are errors in the site and the interfaction tactics are lacking, but it is good for a general idea of how stuff works(double checked with the actual rules of course)


The PP Forums are also where you can find the Infernal rulings(basically a living FAQ and Errata)

overlordweasel wrote:
Title says it all, any tips for starting a good army, so I'm not wasting money on worthless units that'll never see play and collect dust. The two armies i'll be running will be Menoth and Cryxx.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As a side note: are the battleboxes a good investment, or do they follow the same pattern as battleforces in 40k? Meanign are they actually designed to be a good starter or are they one good unit and the rest of the box is trash?

Menoth Starter Battle Box:

pKreoss (the caster): Excellent top-tier menoth caster. Versatile, Powerful Feat, he has everything a new player could want. He is a solid include that you can play for months and still be learning things about.
Crusader - It's a no frills beater. He won't see play in every list, as there are just better 'Jacks for filling your primary roles. Generally to used to round out lists that either just want a Cheap heavy, or need some second wave Armor. You'll get mileage out of it.
Repenter - Awesome little 'Jack. It's not must have but will always pull it's weight. It'll only gather dust if your play style favors 'Jacks (as mine does) but it is by no means an inherently bad choice.
Revenger - Meh. It's a corner-case 'Jack, and you won't get much use. It has it's applications but most casters either don't want an arc node, will pay the premium for the guardian, or are Severius and thus want the Blessing of Vengeance.

In general the game has very few huge turds where things are just trash. Here is the rundown of the worst things in menoth

Casters:
Amon ad Raza: Too fragile, too gimicky
pFeora (Priestess of the Flame, the one with 2 weapons and no bond): Everything she does, someone else does better.
Testament of Menoth: He just doesn't do much, he is fun though.

Units:
Deliverers: They're expensive and fragile for what they do. pKreoss and pSeverius can kind of "Polish the turd" pretty well. They'll work, but generally a redeemer is better.

Warjacks:
Castigator: Strictly worse at everything it can do than some other 8pt 'Jack. It brings nothing really unique to the table, except maybe 2h throws but they aren't worth it.

Solos:
None, really.

UAs:
Flameguard Cleanser UA. All his special options make the unit worse, so he's really just a body and a CMD boost. Not worth 2pts.


Idrians and Flameguard cleansers could be considered runners up in the "Bad" department but really it's just more that they're narrow.

I would rate everything else in the faction somewhere between "Solid when used correctly" and "Excellent". Menoth has blessed the protectorate with very few truly bad models.