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Hello everybody. My gaming group might be starting warmahordes soon. There is a lot of talk and interest in it. I've been reading about it for about a week and I can't wait to get started. My question though, is about the representation of each of the factions. Is it pretty evenly split? or are there a few factions that have a lot more players than the others? Thanks!

From what I have seen is that mercenaries and minion factions are the least represented and the main 8 factions always have a few players around . Although my data is based on one playground with around 60 people , so I could be wrong.

The big 4 in Warmachine are Cygnar, Khador, Menoth, and Cryx.

The big 4 in Hordes are Trolls, Skorne, Circle, and Legion.

Thse are the ones you will see most often. Ret/Scyrah, Mercs, and Minions will have the fewest players usually.

Every poll I've seen has shown Skorne to be played the least of the big 8, slightly more than retribution.

It is also worth mentioning there is no breakout frontrunner faction that everyone plays like space marines in 40k. The factions are fairly well spread out, though differences will arise in local playgroups.

 UsdiThunder wrote:
The big 4 in Warmachine are Cygnar, Khador, Menoth, and Cryx.

The big 4 in Hordes are Trolls, Skorne, Circle, and Legion.

Thse are the ones you will see most often. Ret/Scyrah, Mercs, and Minions will have the fewest players usually.

depends.

where i play there are a lot of retribution players.

its hard to talk about which faction is played the most, or least. the very nature of the game means most folks will have multiple factions (i've got two, and most of my mates have four or more decent armies). plus, what gets played, and how often depends hugely on meta. Not only that but you cant talk about "cygnar", or "circle" in the same way as you can about "dark angels" or "tau". A Cygnaran Caine list will play radically differently to a Nemo list. Swap out a handful of units and they're completely different armies. Someone says "i play (faction)" - it wont really mean anything. casters are what define how you play.

Deadnight wrote:

 UsdiThunder wrote:
The big 4 in Warmachine are Cygnar, Khador, Menoth, and Cryx.

The big 4 in Hordes are Trolls, Skorne, Circle, and Legion.

Thse are the ones you will see most often. Ret/Scyrah, Mercs, and Minions will have the fewest players usually.

depends.

where i play there are a lot of retribution players.

its hard to talk about which faction is played the most, or least. the very nature of the game means most folks will have multiple factions (i've got two, and most of my mates have four or more decent armies). plus, what gets played, and how often depends hugely on meta. Not only that but you cant talk about "cygnar", or "circle" in the same way as you can about "dark angels" or "tau". A Cygnaran Caine list will play radically differently to a Nemo list. Swap out a handful of units and they're completely different armies. Someone says "i play (faction)" - it wont really mean anything. casters are what define how you play.

This.

Don't let "black dress syndrome" dictate what faction you want to play.

I believe i was the last to poll this at
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/493953.page

More players play Warmachine than Hordes

Out of the Hordes faction, Legion is probably the most popular

I think Trolls is the least played, not counting Merc and Mins

You guys are all wrong. The least played faction is the Convergence of Cyriss.



Seriously though I have to agree with those that say all the factions seem to have a good representation. And that it can vary from meta to meta as well.

Also most people I know that play WM/H have at least two factions. Myself, I have two main factions (Cryx & Cygnar), two factions that I can put up a solid 35 point list for (menoth and Circle) and one that is little more than the battlebox plus a couple extras (legion two player set + plastic beast).

Eventually I will get around to making the legion playable, but I am working on filling out the circle right now and painting them.

I had the khador half of the two player box at one time, but my friend started playing them so I traded him my khador for other gaming stuff.

At some point I would like to have a solid 35 point army put together and painted for each faction. But half the game for me is the hobby part. I love to play, but I also love to assemble, convert and paint.

Judging by how many posts there are for each faction on the PP forums

It goes
Khador > Cygnar > Cryx > Menoth > Legion > Trolls > Circle > Mercenary > Scyrah > Skorne > Minions

Scyrah is pretty new so it makes sense they have less posts, Tho Skorne is pretty old school

Could be tho that Skorne players are less social than others

 Talamare wrote:
Judging by how many posts there are for each faction on the PP forums

It goes
Khador > Cygnar > Cryx > Menoth > Legion > Trolls > Circle > Mercenary > Scyrah > Skorne > Minions

Scyrah is pretty new so it makes sense they have less posts, Tho Skorne is pretty old school

Could be tho that Skorne players are less social than others

Or that the army is ugly, lol.

But yeah, I was going to suggest just going by post count on the PP forums. It's not super accurate by any means, but it's about the best you can do.

 Necroshea wrote:

 Talamare wrote:
Judging by how many posts there are for each faction on the PP forums

It goes
Khador > Cygnar > Cryx > Menoth > Legion > Trolls > Circle > Mercenary > Scyrah > Skorne > Minions

Scyrah is pretty new so it makes sense they have less posts, Tho Skorne is pretty old school

Could be tho that Skorne players are less social than others

Or that the army is ugly, lol.

I should throw you at the mercy of the paingivers where they will punish your body in the ideals of the hoksune code before they make you into Animantarax chow

Skorne has a glorious beauty to them

I'd say
Khador> Cryx> Cygnar> legion>Protectorate > Circle > Retribution> Skorne> Trollbloods> Merc & Minions

What is the point of this?

Popularity in warmachine is not an indicator of power or competitiveness. Its going to be player preference of playstyle or aesthetic.

You may have more Menoth, Khador, Circle, and Legion players than the other factions because those are the factions in the 2 player starter sets.


People should play the faction they like.

I know when I asked a similar question it wasn't because I wanted the stronger army it was because I was stuck between factions that I really liked and wanted to go with the least played faction. Because honestly mirror matches don't grab your attention even if the strategies are radically different.

In which case you should see what is the least common in your local meta. That is something only you can determine really.

Mercs are supposedly one of the least common factions, yet the meta I play in has 2 merc players. Both using Shae no less.

So to avoid mirror matches you should sample the local meta.

In the OP's case his group is just starting out so it make's sense to want to see what factions he may run into outside his play group. In my case when I asked I had no local meta as i hadn't started playing yet I just had legion models I had gotten from a friend who moved and some Troll models I picked up to use against him. I didn't really have a choice on factions seeing as those were the last two starter packs.

I looked at all the PP models and chose the models that I liked best. There is something really cool going on with the trolls and I like it. They are so neat looking. If I picked a second faction than maybe cygnar, but I don't know....I love my whelps