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Hello all I literally just bought a battle box for two for me and the wife as I'm looking to take a break from 40k. I have never played nor do I know anything about any of the factions and was wondering if you all could point me in a direction to go for info or if any of you feel like giving me any back round info I would love to hear it. And what factions are jack heavy and how do you make a list with a lot of jacks? Thanks everyone

Menoth, with thr help of their support solos can run quite a few jacks well, as can certain casters within each of the other factions, and marshal heavy factions like Cygnar can do alright, but require more points sunk into support to do this than, say, Menoth. The Convergence of Cyriss apparently can as well, although I haven't seen them in play yet.

Hi Angel and welcome to Warmahordes


What battle box did you get (the 2 person box--Khador and Menoth?). Some general background;


Scenarios are much more important in Warmachine. Unlike 40k, you will start scoring points on the bottom of the 2nd players 2nd turn. That means, if you go first--and get in the right place with threat distances on your second turn--you can put the 2nd player in a tough situation. And yes, you score on both player's turns. So, given that--take the time to download the SR 2013 rules--they are free, universal across stores and just damn good scenarios. And you need to play with scenarios--the earlier the better. Warmahordes without scenarios just isn't fun when you play against a gunline.

Of course, give the rules a read--twice. Unlike 40k, the rules are very exact in Warmahordes--and words mean something! "Within" and "Completely within" for example--spell out exactly what each means.

Do not assume the battlebox games are how the game plays. They are like 500 pt 40k games--whereas it becomes rock, paper, scissors. It's good to get Focus mechanics down--but it is not indicative of how the game is played. 35 pts is where it gets 'real' and I personally cannot stand playing lower than 50.

You will lose when you start--a lot. Until you get threat ranges down, you will make mistakes and you will get your caster killed. Don't worry about it--just setup and go again--it's a complex game--and therein it's also an unforgiving game at times. Losing in Warmarhodes doesn't mean much at all when you start.

Study a 2d6 probability curve--and learn when to boost and when not to. This is the number one mistake I feel when you start playing--and get the mechanics down. "Should I boost?". Well, there's an app for that! And remember, don't buy into the "When I need a 7, average rolls should hit". Nope--when you need a 7--you miss almost half the time. If you roll 8 attacks, then yeah 'average' rolls means you hit 4ish--but when you are rolling one attack--and you need it--boost!


On the factions;


Menoth: Shockingly--probably runs Jacks the best. Choir + cheap Menoth heavies = very efficient jacks.
Khador: Shockingly--does not run multiple jacks that well. Their jacks are slow, hard to hurt. You can easily lose board control with heavy jacks. They have very good infantry.
Cygnar: Weak inner faction infantry, pretty good Jacks. Usually top builds run Merc units + jacks. Can shoot people off the board with the right list.
Cryx: Melee/magic slinging army that will take a ton of casualties as it approaches. It's jacks are pretty bad--except their arc nodes.




That's a VERY broad stroke--so take it for what it's worth. If you know what you are running, I can probably help a bit more.

Yeah I got the menoth khador battle box. But thank you Age I am getting excited to try the game it looks like a lot of fun and looks like a good break from 40k

The only factions that will often run more than 1-2 Jacks are Menoth, Cryx, and the just released Convergence. And Cryx only for dirt cheap Arc Nodes.

Khador is the least jack heavy, often only running a single warjack in most lists.

Menoth has tons of jack support which can make even a focus-less jack hit like a ton of bricks. Choir can protect from either shooting or spells, or give an offensive attack and damage buff. Vassal can give an out of activation attack or the ability to move when the enemy hurts you. Wracks give your caster more Focus. Reclaimers(and the Sanctifier warjack) can collect the souls of your fallen soldiers and turn them into focus. They also have two of the three warjacks in the game that generate their own focus. The Avatar generates his own Focus(he can't be given it by the warcaster) and the Colossal, the Judicator, always gets a free focus on top of what you give him normally.

Convergence is still new, but they have one mechanic where a warjack that uses a Focus can hand it off to another warjack. Effectively getting twice as much out of that focus. Its still early to say whats good and bad about them but they look like they will also be a jack heavy faction.

SKORNE!

Well can you play warmachine against hordes ?

Yes. Warmachine and Hordes are compatible systems.

Yup.

Its even possible, at high enough point levels, to have a Warcaster and a Warlock in the same army. Yay for using both Focus and Fury at the same time!

 Grey Templar wrote:
Yup.

Its even possible, at high enough point levels, to have a Warcaster and a Warlock in the same army. Yay for using both Focus and Fury at the same time!

Never even thought about that one...that's a brain bender. I guess it could lead to some nice combinations and synergies, but dang that would be so weird to play.

Of course thats only if you count actual warcasters/warlocks. There are lesser warlocks you can run in single caster games.

angelofdeath8950 wrote:
Well can you play warmachine against hordes ?

Yes . SKORNE!
Everyone always pushes people towards legion when people say they want *beast heavy and I have no idea why.
* note i say beast heavy as in warmahordes beast heavy/jack heavy is pretty much an interchangeable term

Although you usually will run more beasts than jacks in the same size list just due to the mechanic.

While Warcasters can get by fine with only 1 or 2 warjacks, Warlocks really need more than that to be fully fueled(as with Fury its the beasts that make it, not the other way around)

So a typical Hordes list will have 3-4 warbeasts while a typical warmachine list will only have 1-3 warjacks usually.


And yes, Skorne is the best faction to run beast heavy. Although Legion is a close second.

 dementedwombat wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Yup.

Its even possible, at high enough point levels, to have a Warcaster and a Warlock in the same army. Yay for using both Focus and Fury at the same time!

Never even thought about that one...that's a brain bender. I guess it could lead to some nice combinations and synergies, but dang that would be so weird to play.

Also, technically, only Skorne is currently capable of doing it in non-team games. It's only weird until you realize that you'd only really bring eMags with them to get access to Renegades and perhaps Galleons.