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I play 40k mainly (orks, good god i have a lot of orks lol) but with the current trend of Gamesworkshop that i am sure everyone is aware of i am debating quitting and picking up Warmachine since i have been hearing so much about it.

However i dont want to do what i did with 40k and grab 400 or so dollars worth of models before i even had a rulebook lol. I know next to nothing about the game. Is there a general rulebook to go by or does each race have their own? i was thinking Hordes since i prefer the fantasy-feel of it vs steampunk of Warmachine, but i literally cannot find a general rulebook.

Is there anything i can find/purchase to help me learn a bit of the game/each race before i buy any models, or i am i stuck buying each book to know anything at all (even the basics of the game)?

Is what I did is buy the 2 player box since it has wolf men fighting dragon soldiers. You get a pocket sized rule book and some fun models.

This is the main rule book. it has all the rules for playing the game plus an overview and starter fluff for the factions. Really handy for picking a force plus you have the full rules for Hordes. Also just in case you did not know Warmachine and Hordes have nearly the same rules and can be played together. Hordes has Fury and Warmachine has Focus. This mainly governs how spells and special attacks are made but everything is quite balanced despite what others might say.

http://www.amazon.com/Hordes-Primal-Mk-II/dp/1933362669/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369587190&sr=1-3&keywords=Hordes%3A+Primal+Mk+II

The two player battlebox is the most bang for the buck. It has the full rulebook in mini form but without the faction fluff. I recommend picking up the full Primal Mk-II book. Giving it a good read then going with the faction you like the best. You can easy field a 35 point game for about 125-150$

Hope this helps!

Well I would say the first step is to find a place that has a gaming community for that in your area. (Because is will be a shame if you wasted money on something you want to play, but there is no one to play it )

The good thing is that generally the Battlebox for each faction come included with around 2-3 Warjacks or Warbeast and a Warcaster/Warlock that is usually good for beginners to start up, with the stat cards and Quick-Start rules so you can get into the game rather quickly and relative ease (also PP has a online PDF that you can download for both games you can look at with a look at the factions as well). Another thing is the main rulebook for Warmachine is Prime (MK II is the current edition you need to get for more of the general rules, as the Quickstart only covers the Warcaster and Warjacks) and Primal MKII for Hordes. Also, the other good thing is that both Warmachine and Hordes can be played against each other, as a good amount of the rules are generally the same, with how the Magic for each of them works. Also, take a look at this link to take a general overlook to see which faction seems to catch your interest.

As for the price, it is much cheaper (can be argued model wise, but to get to 15 pts it is not that bad of a price) to start up than the Game Workshop games, with the Battlebox sets being 50$ USD or cheaper if you look around online like the Warstore and that.

Also the ruleset is better written, tighter, and much easier to learn the basic rules. Factions have their own books, but you do not really need it that much if you have the faction deck as that gives you all the cards in the army with all their special rule and so on.

Hope my answer was a bit of help to you! ^_^

There are 2 rulebooks, one for each system, but the only difference is one has Fury and the other has the Focus rules. Aside from that they are practically identical.

Each faction also has a faction book(codex equivalent) but this is not necessary to play the game.


Each model/unit comes with its card when you buy it, which is all the rules you need to play it.

The main rulebook for your chosen system and the faction battlebox are all you need to start playing. And you can download the quick-start rules from the PP website for free so the book isn't even mandatory.



My recommendation is to pick the race you like the look of.

Here's a link the the PP website's rundown of the different Horde's factions. http://privateerpress.com/hordes/monstrous-miniatures-combat


As for the tactics of each faction, here's a basic rundown.


Trollbloods: A good mix of ranged and melee beasts, they hit hard and are tough to kill. Troll beasts can also regenerate. Trollblood infantry all have the Tough special rule which makes them pretty durable.

Circle: A mostly melee faction of glass hammers. Circle use a lot of movement shenanigans relying on hit and run tactics. Living Beasts are hard hitting but generally fragile, Construct beasts are slow, easy to hit, and have slightly above average armor but hit like a ton of bricks. Infantry are mostly melee or short ranged shooting.

Skorne: This faction has a lot of internal synergy going on. Heavy beasts are the slow hard hitting Titans, but with buffs they can increase their speed dramatically, and their hitting power up to obscene levels. Some good ranged shooting is available but the faction focuses mostly on melee as a whole.

Legion of Everblight: "Where we're going, we don't need rules!" All Legion beasts have the Eyeless Sight special rule, which basically allows them to ignore most line of sight rules and shooting penalties. Lots of their heavy beasts also have Pathfinder, which allows them to ignore difficult terrain and obstacles. This makes their beasts quite good, and they have a good variety of both ranged and shooting beasts to take full advantage of these benefits.

Minions: There are 2 Minion sub-factions. While they can be played as an independent army, many of the units can also be run as part of one of the main faction's forces as hired thugs.

Blindwater Congregation: An army of Gatormen/Bog Trogs that practice necromancy. A limited selection of beasts(only 5 total) and infantry. Not much variety but you can make a good force out of it.

Thornfall Alliance: An army of pigs. Fast, hard hitting, and tough beasts. And the infantry are more of the same. Even fewer beast and infantry options than Blindwater, but all are solid.

Thanks for the help, i got some reading to do!

And im not "too" worried about finding out i cant find anyone to play locally. Yea, it would suck, but i love the building/painting part of these games (my gallery being proof).
Literally the only thing i have seen so far that kinda sucks to me is the number of models on the average table. Remember i play orks lol im used to fielding 100-150 models a game. But i can get over that if its a much better game anyway.

You can always do infantry spam lists that can reach about 40~60 models

Bear in mind, they likely won't be very good lists.

The only real Infantry Spam list I know of that can work is eKreoss's tier list. And that's still only 40ish models.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Bear in mind, they likely won't be very good lists.

The only real Infantry Spam list I know of that can work is eKreoss's tier list. And that's still only 40ish models.

What do you think of Xerxis with a whole bunch of Skorne's medium based infantry? It seems pretty hard.

Right, forgot about that one.

Still not very many models as its mostly medium bases.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Right, forgot about that one.

Still not very many models as its mostly medium bases.

Well it's a lot for medium based models, but I guess not too much overall

Don't forget Butcher2's horde of Doom Reavers. I typically field about 36 Doomies at the 50 point level, and that's not counting Fenris, the dog, and Warjacks.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Bear in mind, they likely won't be very good lists.

The only real Infantry Spam list I know of that can work is eKreoss's tier list. And that's still only 40ish models.

I won't lie and say - ALL INFANTRY SPAM LIST WORK

But a fair amount of them, if done properly can perform very well

Another from Menoth - pSeverius and his Zealots, those little guys sure hit hard with those pow 15 bombs!
Cryx - ... Really, just Cryx
Coming in from Khador - We have Irusk and the Butcher
On the opposite end, Legion trying to copy Cryx with cheap Weapon Master infantry and solid Archery (Archers and Striders)
Skorne showing they are no slouches either with Xerxis and Zaal! With Makeda trying her best to keep up!

etc etc

But yea, even an infantry "spam" list won't feature more than 40~60 models
and infantry "heavy" lists, often only featuring 20~40

In Cygnar Caine1, Caine2, and Constance can runa lot of troops. In Khador Irusk1 generally can as well, at least the Winterguard bloc, whcih is about 15 models on its own. Trollbloods, some Mercenary-heavy and Cryx do it regularly too. It is really dependent on warcaster or warlock most of the time.

And stuff.