So Warmachine then...

[BobbieTheDamned]

Seems like quite a few people in the Bath/Trowbridge area are thinking about starting playing warmachine, what factions are people thinking about doing? I've not made my mind up yet and thought I'd find out which factions people are thinking about as it'll obviously make for more interesting gaming if we can get a broad selection of warbands.

[Apocalypsedreamer]

I'm decided on Cygnar ( lurvely big guns lol)
Advice: Cryx- Units=meatshields, characters=Awesome)

Dreamer.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Predictably for me, I'm going for Cryx

I already has a Cryx Seether Helljack and an Iron Lich ... and Tracey got me the Cryx box set for my birthday (thank you again if your reading this Tracey). However they are going be fielded heavily converted as I'm planning to use some of them in Quest as foul creations of Clan Skryre ... the Helljacks will be heavily modified Ratogres (called Rat-Golems) and Bonejacks will become Rat-Engines (monstrous mechanical rats the size of Dire Wolves).
... and the Iron Lich will be getting a head-swap with a Necron so I can use it as a Necron Lord

With a little modification I will also be able to field a few of the Warjacks from my copy of GRIND as Khador and Cygnar Warjacks but this will require me to buy a Warcaster for each faction

Also in the works I have an 'Iron Golem' I'm converting from a MKM Blade Golem for use in an upcoming Quest game, which could possibly be fielded as a Mercenary Light Warjack (after all it's another large steam and magic powered robot type thing)

PS I only recently learned that Warmachine is heavily character orientated  which rather put me off the ideas I had for scratch building my own Warcasters  

[BobbieTheDamned]

I was going to do some conversions too, can't see why we couldn't just do some 'counts as' for games though.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

'counts as' should fine for machines and some troop types, but I can see the fact that every Warcaster is a special character causing problems.

for some nice cheaper alternatives to PP's miniatures check out Ral Partha Europe's MageKnight Metal range

In particular:

 ^502 Brass Golem


 ^529 Black Powder Boomer


 ^531 Steam Golem


 ^549 Storm Golem


 ^539 Half Troll Tracker


 ^591 Tribal Brute

[Madame M]

Hmm...I'm quite liking Menoth at the moment, though having left my Prime MkII book at Mortis', I can't really get into it til I get back to Trowbridge. Ra!!!

[BobbieTheDamned]

I don't think Mortis minded you leaving it behind or the fact you're coming to get it

Looks like we may have nearly one of each faction That's worked out rather better than expected. I'm planning to either play Khador or Mercs or a mix of the two. Just wondering if I can use a Merc warcaster to lead a mixed army, doesn't seem to say one way or the other in the main rulebook. or maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

RobertTheDamned wrote

Looks like we may have nearly one of each faction That's worked out rather better than expected.

yea? for a while I was under the impression almost everyone apart from me wanted to play Khador

RobertTheDamned wrote

 Just wondering if I can use a Merc warcaster to lead a mixed army, doesn't seem to say one way or the other in the main rulebook. or maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

Rules wise I don't think it would be a problem, but background wise I don't think you'd hire a Mercenary Warcaster to command your own faction's 'jacks. You'd expect a Mercenary Warcaster to bring their own Warjacks, surely?

I'll have a look at the book again and see what I find
(and I'll probably find nothing ... but then Madam M will take a look and find it strait away like she did with the Grind rules)

RobertTheDamned wrote

I don't think Mortis minded you leaving it behind or the fact you're coming to get it

ah, she's got other reasons to come back too ...

[Madame M]

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

PS I only recently learned that Warmachine is heavily character orientated  which rather put me off the ideas I had for scratch building my own Warcasters  

On an earlier point mentioned by Mortis, I have been thinking.

I can see that for people who have been gaming for a long time the idea of having to play with pre-determined characters and such might be annoying and that you just want to be able to create your own. However, for people who are just starting, like me for instance who has just been enticed to dip my toe in the murky waters of gaming, it’s rather comforting to know that I only have to learn the rules of how to play the game.

It also means that I am not going to be worried when playing other people that they have created characters that may not, for one reason or another, be feasible, or that the person knows the rules so much better than myself and therefore has loaded their characters up with so many bonuses that I don’t stand a chance. I like to think it evens the playing field, at least to begin with.

And from what I can tell, Warmachine is a fairly young game compared to 40k and others, so maybe Privateer Press are just trying to get a game that works solidly before introducing ways of creating characters? Getting a solid foundation on which to add things in later rather than rushing everything too fast and having everyone complain that it wasn’t thought out well enough in the first place.

Just a thought.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

You have a good point there about people making their own super powerful beardy characters and unbalancing the game or going against the background. And it's for that reason that most modern Wargames don't have character creation rules. As apposed to an RPG where character creation is often a big part of the game and there is less risk of unbalancing the game (as long as you have a good GM to keep the balance in check). Note that a lot of D&D modules do come with pre-generated characters though.  

It's not the lack of character creation rules that bothered me though, it's the lack of generic leader/hero types for the Battle Groups. eg: there is no standard Lich Lord profile to which you can apply your own name, you have to field a named one, which is what I meant by the term Character (Lich Lord Venethrax, Lich Lord Asphyxious, Lich Lord Terminus). For example I can't make my Battle Group more personal by puting down a generic Lich Lord miniature (or a converted one) that uses a standard Lich Lord card for it's stats and call it 'Lich Lord Mortis'. But in 40k you could put down a converted female Inquisitor miniature on the table and have a Witch Hunter force lead by 'Madame Inquisitor M' using the standard Inquisitor stats (yes I know naming your characters after yourself is lame, I'm only using them as examples ).

Much in the same vane, the other thing I feel Warmachine lacks is equipment options and upgrades which would give you more flexible options for when you put your forces together. In games like 40k or WFB you can pay extra points to give particular troops/units/squads additional equipment (eg +20 points to give your Spacemarines Hallucinogen Grenades or +1 point per model to give your Orcs shields). Games like Mordheim and Necromunda give you further flexibility by allowing you to purchase your troops and then equip them with weapons purchased from an equipment list (I'm talking game rules wise here, not miniatures). Warmachine doesn't have this kind of flexibility,  your Khador Winter Guard don't have the option to carry extra weapons, give their rifles more accurate sights or swap them out for 2 handed axes for instance.

Then again coming back to your point, this does make Warmachine a lot easier to play strait off once you've got the minis together (I've refrained from using the term 'out of the box' as that conjures up images of a pre-painted miniatures game like MageKnight ) you just put down the cards with the stats for your miniatures and away you go, no need to write up an Army List or Warband Roster

[Madame M]

Again, I feel you make a fair point about the lack of flexibility of the game when it comes to making your own forces and personalising them – though please NEVER call your mini’s after yourself, but it does mean it’s a game requiring very little initial input into the forces. You can pretty much buy the minis for your characters, set up the terrain, and begin playing. None of this ‘character-sheets-with-all-the-stats-that-you-can’t-remember’ gubbins.

And maybe Privateer Press will eventually release generic cards for basic players and upgrades and so on, but they’re waiting to see what the feedback from play is like. If I was a company with a relatively new game on the market I wouldn’t want to invest in lots of upgrades and generics rules and more books with back plot etc. until I knew that people enjoyed the game enough to play it more than once. Public feedback I imagine would be a huge thing when it comes to designing and releasing more advanced extras for a game.

Haven’t managed to get through the rule book as of yet (and yes, I admit, I like to read the rulebook all the way through before beginning – I tend to find that queries during play of any game are more quickly answered this way), so I can’t comment too much on the game play or how easy I feel it is to understand from a beginners point of view.

Though I do enjoy the short narratives at the beginning, to give a flavour for the game and how it’s supposed to be played. I have already, for example, picked up on the fact that Warmachine requires players to charge in there and have some balls (rather awkward when you’re female, but you get my point), instead of staying back and theorising too much. This may also make game play a little quicker as players throw themselves into battle instead of sitting on the sidelines.

[Caledortallarn]

Ive also decided on Cygnar, got the battlebox plus a few additional miniatures so far.....

[Apocalypsedreamer]

I've scraped Cygnar (I'm halfway through a mercenary force)


A.Dreamer