Warmachine?

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CMSheats ( 548 )
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Warmachine?

Post by CMSheats »

Can somebody please explain to me what Warmachine is? It look amazing and I might like trying it out, but I don't know much about it. So whoever has played, researched, or owns the rules please explain the baisics to me? Like is it a RPG? Or is it more like Warhammer type style game?
Thanks
"We should have a trading contest! We see who can complete the most trades in a designated amount of-- oops, Porkuslime won before I finished the sentence." - extropymine
warlordgarou ( 248 )
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Re: Warmachine?

Post by warlordgarou »

Warmachine (and it's close cousin, Hordes) is a 30mm skirmish-level miniatures game. (There used to be an RPG as well, but it's OOP. Privateeer has announced that there is a new RPG in the works, due out sometime next year, I believe.)

Quick note - there are two games, Warmachine and Hordes. About 95% of the rules in one are mirrored in the other; so if you understand one, you could play the other. And, a Hordes army can be played against a Warmachine army. People complain that Hordes has an edge in power, but Warmachine armies still dominate the tourney scene, IIRC.

Anyway - the main forcus in your Warmachine army is your warcaster. A warcaster is kind of like a king and a queen in chess - phenomenally powerful, capable of wiping out most of a unit in a turn (unassisted), but - they can be taken out by a unit, and, if they drop, the game is typically over. All warcasters have a stat called Focus, spells and a feat. Focus is used to boost warjacks (more on that below), cast spells, buy extra attacks, boost attack and damage rolls (boosted means you get to roll an extra die to hit, or damage), or boost their armor stat. Warcasters regain their full focus at the beginning of every turn (and, aside from certain exceptions, cannot have more focus than their focus stat during their turn). A feat is a once-per-game ability, and they tend to be pretty darned powerful.

An army also has a number of warjacks. A warjack is a semi-autonomous stompy robot. The warcaster controls the 'jacks, and when the warcaster is removed from play, they go inert. A warjack can be allocated focus at the beginning of the turn, although unspent focus is not saved, and is removed before focus is reallocated. (In other words, you cannot put 1 focus point on a jack on the first turn and have it remain to be spent on the third.) A warjack uses focus to charge, boost attacks or damage, buy extra attacks, or make power attacks (like slam, throw, push or trample). There are light and heavy warjacks, and in general, heavy warjacks are serious beatsticks, and light warjacks are more of a harassment role.

You also have units, generally either 3 (or 5) models for elite or special units, and 6 or 10 models on the more rank and file. Units may be harassment, or serious contenders who can easily threaten a warcaster. An army may also have solos - single heroes who are not bound to a unit, and, while powerful in their own right, not as powerful as a full unit.

Play is a "my army goes, your army goes." You choose a unit, move them, and then make any attacks. The entire unit must have the same movement order - if anyone in the unit charges, the unit (as a whole) is considered to have charged, although they do not have to charge the same target, and you may run some of them if you wish.

To-hit is basically 2d6, plus your RAT (ranged attack) or MAT (melee attack), versus the targets DEF (defense). Tie it, and you hit them. Damage is 2d6 plus the POW (power of the weapon) for a ranged attack, or 2d6 + P+S (Power + Strength) for a melee weapon, minus the ARM (armor) of the target. Any difference is the amount of damage taken by the target. Most infantry can only take 1 point, but warcasters, warjacks, solos, and certain units can all take multiple points of damage.

There is no pre-measuring, although you can measure what is called the Control Area (2x Focus) of your warcaster at any time. Many people learn to position their warcaster in a place where measuring the control area will give a good idea of the relative positions of key units on the board.


Hordes, BTW, is fairly close to Warmachine. The leader model is called a warlock, and they have a Fury stat, instead of Focus. Fury does not automatically replenish every turn - a warlock must leach fury from the warbeasts, but it also does not go away at the beginning of the turn. Instead of 'jacks, warlocks control warbeasts, who are basically living 'jacks that can be healed. Warbeasts do not use focus, but they can be pushed, which generates fury, to do everything that a jack can do. Jacks are limited to 3 focus, most beasts can be forced for up to 3 fury, and many can be forced to 4 fury. This means that a Hordes army, with 3-4 beasts, could use 12-14 points of fury in a turn, compared to 6 or 7 focus. But, next turn, the warlock can only pulled 6 or 7 fury from the beasts, and any beast with fury on it would have to make a frenzy check. When a beast frenzies, it tears into the nearest target, which could well be a friendly one.

The demo rules for both are available :

http://privateerpress.com/files/Warmach ... 0Front.pdf

http://privateerpress.com/files/Warmach ... 20Back.pdf

http://privateerpress.com/files/Hordes% ... es-WEB.pdf
CMSheats ( 548 )
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Re: Warmachine?

Post by CMSheats »

Thanks for taking the time to wright all that for me. That sounds amazing! I might have to get into that. Can you choose different races?
"We should have a trading contest! We see who can complete the most trades in a designated amount of-- oops, Porkuslime won before I finished the sentence." - extropymine
warlordgarou ( 248 )
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Re: Warmachine?

Post by warlordgarou »

CMSheats wrote:Thanks for taking the time to wright all that for me. That sounds amazing! I might have to get into that. Can you choose different races?
Sort of. Here is a breakdown of the factions in Warmachine and Hordes

Cygnar - humans. Pretty much a shooty army, although they can do melee as well. They have some of the best ranged attacks in the game, on average.

Khador - humans too. Basically, think Soviet Union, and you are not far off. Big, heavy, slow - and they hit like a ton of bricks. They do have some movement tricks to speed them up, however.

Protectorate of Menoth - human, and religious zealots. Their main strength lies in synergy, buffs and debuffs. Fire is a pretty big component of the army.

Cryx - undead (but still mainly human, albeit dead ones) servants of a dragon. Pretty much evil (the ones above are morally ambiguous; Cryx is evil through and through). Fast, hard to hit, and almost no armor. Lots and lots and lots and lots of nasty tricks.

Retribution of Scyrah - Elves. Nasty, psychotic elves who want to kill every human magician because they believe that human magic is killing the elven gods. Good melee, good ranged - not tops at either, but no slouches. Still a new faction, so they are playing more catch-up with the ones above, but certainly playable.

Mercenaries - this is a mixed bag. You can build a dwarven army (dwarven = Rhulic) - stereotypically slow, heavily armored, and plenty of guns. There is a pirate mercenary force, and one which represents the losing side (more or less) of the Cygnar civil war.


Hordes has more racial variety, and all hordes armies use warbeasts instead of robots.

Circle - some humans, maybe all, since I don't recall if the Tharn are humans or humanoids. Anyway, the Circle is a druidic army, who see civilization as pretty much a Bad Thing.

Trollbloods - Trollkin are smarter, smaller, and more civilized trolls. Again, a synergy based army, working mainly on buffs. Almost all troll units have Tough - basically, when they die, you roll a d6. On a 5 or 6, they aren't dead, merely knocked down. Can be very annoying.

Skorne - humanoid, but not human. Great beasts, but an evil army - one of their solos is basically a tortured baby elephantine creature, pushed around the battlefield and tormented to power skorne warbeasts. Theoretically, they rely on synergy, but among Skorne players, it is mocked as skornergy - kind of a square peg, round hole sort of synergy.

Legion of Everblight - also evil, and not human. Corrupted elves and eyeless beasts that are spawn on a dragon intent on destroying everything. Kind of a glass cannon in a lot of ways - but if they hit first, they do a lot of damage.

Minions - hordes equivalent to mercenaries. They come in two flavors - the farrow (pig men, led by Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq III), or Gators (alligator men). The pigs are more of a shooty army, the gators have pretty much no ranged attacks, but go through infantry like a hot knife through butter.

Anyway, the Iron Kingdoms (where Warmachine takes place) is pretty human-centric, but there are non-human armies out there.
CMSheats ( 548 )
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Re: Warmachine?

Post by CMSheats »

Ok, thanks a ton man.
"We should have a trading contest! We see who can complete the most trades in a designated amount of-- oops, Porkuslime won before I finished the sentence." - extropymine
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