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So I finally decided that after 5 years of WHFB/40k its time to start up another game, Warmachine. I haven't read though the entire rulebook yet but I have decided on a faction mostly based on there appearance, that faction being mercenaries. My question is how viable is an army consisting mostly of solos? Who would be a good warcaster to use for this?

You will need at least one jack. Depending on the caster you may or may not want more.

And you will need units. First, when it comes to buffs it is much more effective to buff 10+ guys than 1. Also, most solos tend to be support models. So at some point you are going to need units that can do the heavy lifting. While some solos may be good at killing, generally they are not a good investment in that manner.

That said, from what I have heard merc pirates in particular tend to use a lot of solos. But I have never played with or against them.

Warmachine is really designed to be a combined arms approach. Trying to deviate too far from this creates a skew list which is usually a bad idea. 40K rewards it, but WM tends to punish it. Also Synergy is really important. You can't just throw stuff together and have it work well. Much like Magic, you need to plan what goes in and how it will work with other stuff.

I don't know how far you would get with a mostly solo list but mercs do have some of the strongest solos. You will probably use 4-6 solos in a typical list under any contract except searforge.

If you want an emphasis on solos try Drake McBaine as your warcaster. His feat will ensure your solos live at least one more turn.
The pirate package with boarding crew, press gangers, and several supporting solos is a good way to get several solos that matter. You can always go for the common power solos as well: Gorman, Eiryss 2, Rhupert, Dougal, and Sylys.

All solos is going to be a bad idea for several reasons.

1) Most of the merc solos are characters. This has a slew of advantages and disadvantages mostly related to list creation(mercs have a lot of restrictions based on contract)

2) Most of the merc solos are support orientated, meaning they support your army. Meaning they are nothing without units to buff.


Mercenaries are all about average to good units buffed by amazing solos.

Pirates in particular follow this. Their solos are great, but because they buff their units up to 11 while also being decent themselves. Its all about the synergy.

Typical Shae theme force(Pirates) will have 1 unit of Sea Dogs, 1 unit of Press Gangers, and all the Pirate solos. Toss in additional jacks, Commodore cannon, and maybe another unit of Sea Dogs as points allow.

Lord Rockbottom gives the Sea Dogs Tough, Doc Killingsworth improves their tough roll, First Mate Hawk buffs their melee ability(and uses them as meat shields), Grogspar keeps them standing after they pass their tough rolls, and the Press Gangers turn your opponents infantry into more Sea Dogs! And Master Gunner Dougal buffs all your shooting(especially the Galleon)

I do intend on using at least one mule because I've heard they are really useful but I really don't care for how warjacks look overall so I'm avoiding them to a degree. Also I haven't decided on a contract yet so I'm just brainstorming right now but the reason I bring up solos is because I like the idea of having a lot of independent and unique characters running around.

Based on how I play WHFB/40k I'm also a pretty big fan of hording although I was already warned by someone I know who plays that hording in Warmachine can be extremely risky based on what I'm facing even more so than it would be in WHFB/40k.

Most Warmahordes armies can run at least 1 list with loads of bodies but most will be a mix of unit types.

What they were more likely warning you of is not spamming units. Multiples of the same unit is very rarely a good choice in Warmahordes. The only lists I've seen that regularly use 2+ of the same unit are Minion armies and some Mercenary armies simply from lack of choices. The "main" factions really only use spam in some of the Tier lists witch are optional.

Most Warmachine lists focus around one caster, one warjack and then the rest units and solos.

There are exceptions of course.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by options at the moment.

 ArchVile wrote:
I'm a bit overwhelmed by options at the moment.

Start with a caster. Pick one that you like, whether it is looks, certain abilities, the fact that they have the same birthday as you, whatever.

Once you choose a caster you can research what goes well with him or her and it will narrow down your options tremendously.

Other option is to pick the battlebox and start there. I know there is a merc "battlebox" in name only. But not sure of what is in it.

if you really are looking at mercs i have a couple of thoughts on it:

1st, if you like solo's, or the concept of them, then the tallion charter is for you. ill explain why and give you a sample list with points values to get you a concept.

the only real thought i would give is that mercs can be a very hot or cold faction. while they tons of great units and options, they also loose a lot of the synergies that other factions get by using models in their factions. the overall difficult for playing mercs is probably higher than most of the regular factions, regardless of which charter you go with, but they are also crazy fun to play, specifically the talion charter. that charter has a tier list with phinneaus shea as the war caster thats called a pirates life, and tier 4 is pretty entertaining on the battlefield.

here goes, as a reference point
Phinneaus shae - warcaster +6WJ points
+freebooter 6 points - great melee heavy jack
+vanguard 5 points- probably one of the best light jacks in the game period.
+vanguard 5 points
bosun grogspar - solo - buffs your guys so they can't get knocked down and has a gigantic spear. fun model
dirty meg - great repair and good anti-jack tech. but she is free in the tier list, so why not
doc killingsworth - he gives super tough, which is tough but on 4,5,or 6. this is important, because....
lord rockbottom - a solo that can give tough to friendly units.
first mate hawk - super melee solo that also has inspiration to her troops so they don't run away, and acrobatics. she also is strength 9 weapon master with 2 attacks and speed 7. she gets where she is going, and normally cuts it up into pieces. oh, and she has sucker!
press gangers - your basic infantry unit - only have a hand weapon, but they can seduce other enemy models to join your side for a turn, and you can shanghai people to kill on of theirs and put one of your dead dudes back.
seadog boarding crew with Mr. Walls, the quartermaster - not great stats, but they get to shoot and then use their melee attack. not bad and they get buffs from your crazy list of solos
the UA gives them another buff, and advance deployment to get them further on the table
commodore cannon and crew - probably the only good placed gun in the game, this thing murders stuff ridiculously.

thats a 35 point tier list with shae. if you are looking at mercs and like solos, i think you need to think about that.

 Mordekiem wrote:

 ArchVile wrote:
I'm a bit overwhelmed by options at the moment.

Start with a caster. Pick one that you like, whether it is looks, certain abilities, the fact that they have the same birthday as you, whatever.

Once you choose a caster you can research what goes well with him or her and it will narrow down your options tremendously.

Other option is to pick the battlebox and start there. I know there is a merc "battlebox" in name only. But not sure of what is in it.

I think it might the the pMagnus one you are talking about, which is him, a Talon, Renegade and a Mangler.