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Afternoon everyone,

So I'm starting to get really fed up with GW and am looking at other options. Thing is, I don't really know anything about warmahordes but am eager to learn. I've looked at the website and watched some batreps, but they only convey so much. I'd like to get a player's perspective on what all the factions are like and general gameplay; something to help me understand it before I take the plunge.

Generally, the gameplay is pretty easy to get the hang of: Everything boils down to "Roll 2d6, add your stat. If it's higher than your target's stat, you win." For instance, when attacking someone, you roll 2d6 and add either your MAT or your RAT (melee attack or ranged attack, respectively). If it's higher than their defense, you hit. Then rolling for damage is another 2d6 roll plus the power + strength of your weapon. You deal damage equal to the amount you exceed their armor by. And by knowing that, you know 80% of how to play the game already.

As for the feel of the gameplay? In general, it's highly focused on the aggressor: Everything can be killed, and while there's still a decent amount of defensive play that can be done, it typically focuses more on making your opponent spend more resources to kill said model/unit than wise, along with proper positioning to screen your units from being reached or to jam enemy models with hard to hit units.

Due to the high focus on positional awareness, it's also rather extremely skill based: Playing against people who know what they're doing, expect to lose your first dozen or two games. If you have a journeyman league locally, I'd highly recommend jumping in on it. If not, at least check to see if there's local Press Gangers, as they'll happily give you a demo that will explain the key concepts of the game nicely.

More on the factions in a bit, but before I leave: They're all balanced, and nearly all can do virtually any playstyle that you might be thinking of coming from 40K. Yes, this is counterintuitive, and yes, they still feel remarkably different none the less.

Every faction has a battle box set. Which contains a Warcaster or Warlock and 2-3 Jacks or Beasts. Some have more, Cryx has a total of 4 Jacks and Legion has 5 Beasts.

Theyre are good way to start a faction and learn the rules, but they are not designed for balanced play. They do contain sub-optimal combinations of models so you should quickly move on to more normal games. Some of the boxes are also definitely better than others. The Troll box for example has no Heavy beast and the Warlock doesn't particularly care for the beasts in the box. And although all the models are very good, you'll almost never want 2 Impalers.

This game also actively discourages duplicating most things. You will almost never run 2 of this and 3 of that. Some exceptions are support solos or particularly useful jacks/beasts. As well as Tier lists.


Some general overview of factions.

Warmachine factions

Cygnar: A combined-arms style faction with a trend towards shooting. This is relative however as Warmachine in general is focused on combined arms. They a lot of Lightning based spells and attacks. Many having the ability to leap to nearby models and do extra hits on other models. Useful at clearing low armor infantry, won't threaten jacks or beasts though. Most of their good infantry focuses on shooting over melee, melee infantry tend to have good damage output but low survivability to actually survive to get into melee.

Khador: They have the biggest baddest Jacks in the game, but they are not a Jack faction. They are an infantry faction. Usually they run the mandatory 1 Warjack and thats it. Casters are selfish with their Focus casting support spells for their infantry so they don't have the resources to run multiple Jacks. The only have Heavy warjacks, which also have the highest base strength, armor, and hitboxes of all jacks in the game. They're also the slowest jacks in the game, but Khador has many ways to increase speed. Infantry are all around solid, with a mix of ranged and melee along with good armor.

Retribution: Warjacks(called Myrmidons) have decent armor and speed but very low hit boxes. This is made up by most of their jacks having Force Fields, which can be regenerated, that give them some extra damage boxes. Nearly all their jacks have both melee and ranged weapons, their guns are also all magical, while being decent at both. Infantry are solid at both melee and shooting. The faction has many powerful spell casters and units with magic ability. They also have a lot of spell-hate

Protectorate of Menoth: 2nd best jack faction in the game. heavily based around denial, "Menoth says 'NO!'" Lists often run 2-4 warjacks. For stats, jacks are a mixed bag with having slow to average speed, above average armor, above average hit boxes, and solid melee and shooting. The Choir of Menoth unit is solely based on buffing jacks. They can make them untargetable by spells or non-magical shooting, or they can give them a bonus to attack and damage rolls. They also have the Vassal solo which supports jacks in different ways. Casters are primarily based around supporting the army and jacks equally, higher than average Focus too. Highest Focus warcaster in the game(10) Infantry are all around solid, and become downright terrifying with the various support spells. There is a saying about Menoth. Write down all the special things your faction can do, then cross off half of them while playing against Menoth. "No you can't cast spells" "No you can't shoot me" "Damage me and I'll just walk away" "No you can't kill this guy" "Killing this guy only makes me stronger" etc...

Cryx: The debuff faction. Jacks are fast and hard to hit but have low armor and hit boxes. Lots of offensive spell casting and cheap Arc Nodes(a system on some jacks that lets you cast a spell through the jack while its within your casters control area) Some of the best infantry in the game. They either have durable, hard hitting, elite infantry. Or dirt cheap fragile infantry that usually has 1 scary trick. They can easily get 80-100 models on the table if they want. Lots of Soul collection and reanimation(turning opponent models into new friendly models) Casters are largely focused on debuffing and casting offensive spells, with a few support spells.

Convergence of Cyriss: Recently released. Best jack faction in the game. Tons of jack support and focus efficiency. Very clockwork and synergy orientated. You must activate things in the right order for stuff to work together. Infantry are all non-living constructs but still have souls. Heavy Jacks are slow, have good armor and hit boxes, but are also expensive. Light jacks are cheap, fragile, and generally support the heavies.

Mercenaries: They can either be run with the other main factions or on their own. Generally a hodge podge of specialized models generally meant to support a full faction but can be run decently as their own faction. There are also 4(soon to be 5) distinct flavors of Mercenaries. 5 Star(generic mercs), Highborn Covenant(Llalease freedom fighters against Khadoran oppression), Talion Charter(Pirates), Searforge Commission(Dwarves), and soon to be Cephalyx(subterranean mind control/Frankenstein nightmare faction)



Hordes Factions.

Trollbloods: Tough infantry and even tougher warbeasts. Beasts can take and dish out damage. All infantry are very tough(they literally have the Tough rule) and hard hitting. Lots of healing and damage reduction in the faction. Buff orientated. They're also scottish, native american, trolls. Whats not to love?

Skorne: Angry masochistic sadistic animal abusing desert elves. Beasts are powerful and durable. While their bast speed tends to be low, it is deceptive. They have many ways of making their stuff much faster. There is a theme of damaging themselves to buff their models. One caster has a spell that is literally called Abuse(damage beast to gain a bonus). They have the best ability to run tons of beasts thanks to Paingiver Beast Handlers, which are similar to the Choir of Menoth. They can make a beast stronger and charge for free, heal beasts, or take Fury off a beast. Infantry are quite solid all around.

Circle: Hit and run glass cannon faction. Beasts are generally powerful on the attack and fast, but have little durability. An exception are the Wold beasts, which are slower and more durable, but not as powerful. lots of movement trickery. Infantry are generally fast and hard hitting but fragile.

Legion of Everblight: Another beast heavy faction. Beasts are strong because they generally ignore many general rules that factions have to deal with thanks to Eyeless Sight and Pathfnder. Which means that to them 95% of Terrain might as well not exist. Beasts are similar to Circle. Fast and hard hitting. But they're a little more durable than Circle beasts as well. They make up by being more expensive. Like Skorne they also have some good Fury management options. Infantry are average in power.

Minions: The Mercenary faction of Hordes. There are 2 sub-factions. Pigs and Gators. Very limited model selection. Pigs are the weaker of the two. Generally they have solid infantry and very very good Warlocks(Lord Carver, Bringer of Most Massive Destruction, esq III) but beasts are lacking in variety. Gators are a little better off, having more infantry options and better beasts.


Warmachine is a game that is very easy to learn but hard to master. Its got a lot of tactical depth.

 rabid1903 wrote:
Afternoon everyone,

So I'm starting to get really fed up with GW and am looking at other options. Thing is, I don't really know anything about warmahordes but am eager to learn. I've looked at the website and watched some batreps, but they only convey so much. I'd like to get a player's perspective on what all the factions are like and general gameplay; something to help me understand it before I take the plunge.

The game is much more about tactics and knowledge instead of buckets of dice and the Army of the week. While listbuilding is still incredibly important, there is no one list to rule them all.

I think the biggest difference for me switching from 40K to WM/H was the tight rules set and the balance. The WM/H rules are very tightly written. They do exactly what they say they do. And in the few instances the rules are unclear PP has an official rules forum and they FAQ and errata the rules as needed. Also the game is extraordinarily well balanced. It isn't perfect. But compared to GW's "balance" it is night and day. All the factions are competitive. There are a few instances were models could be adjusted slightly, but nothing really screams "OMG that's TERRIBLE!". And despite people saying models like eGaspy and eHaley are OP they really aren't. They don't win tourney after tourney after tourney, despite being played often.

Last but not least, be prepared for a steep learning curve. I lost my first dozen or so games before finally beating someone (who was also a relatively new player). I still go 50/50 against most of my common opponents. My brother lost a bunch at first and almost gave up completely.

Anyways, if these type of things appeal to you then you will probably love WM/H.

For WarmaHordes there is also a nice bunch of missions which are often played in tournaments:
http://privateerpress.com/files/Steamroller_2013_Rules_3.pdf

Thank you all for the feedback, it gives me a really good idea of what all it's like.

I may give it a shot sometime once I get officially fed up with GW and am willing to part with my Tyranids. It seems like a great game, but I just don't have enough time to play two different tabletop games right now.