Warmachine/Tactics/Gameplay Basics

The Turn

Each game is made up of rounds, which are broken down into turns (one for each player). A turn is made up of three phases; the Maintenance Phase, the Control Phase, and the Activation Phase.

Maintenance Phase (aka the "Am I on fire?" phase)

This is the part of the turn where you resolve continuous effects ("Am I on fire? Am I being corroded by powerful acids?") and generally clean up after the previous turn; remove AOEs that expire and clean up your spells that weren't upkeeps.

Control Phase (the 'Hmm' phase)

Usually you plan your turn during the other guy's turn, but this is where it starts; refresh and allocate Focus, pay for upkeep spells and generally get ready for shit hitting the fan. For Hordes players, this is the earliest stage in which things can go wrong, as it is the Phase where 'beasts Frenzy and eat their own warlocks.

Activation Phase (Shit Gets Done)

Each element of an army activates individually in their own mini-turns; a model (or group of models) that have activated can move, perform an action, then ends its activation. Alternatively, they can run (double their SPD) to get somewhere quick, and then end their activations immediately after, or fuck moving and get a bonus to hitting things with their shooting.

Actions generally involve one of the following; melee attack, ranged attack, perform a special action/attack.

Melee attacks are simple; use your MAT + 2d6 + bonuses (be it a flat bonus or an extra d6) and see if the result is equal to or greater than the enemy's DEF + modifiers. Then use the POW of your weapon + the STR of your model (often conveniently added up for you on the weapon entry in the rules) + 2d6 + modifiers and compare to their modified ARM stat; each point over the ARM stat is one damage to the model. Ranged attacks are pretty much the same: RAT + 2d6 + bonuses vs DEF, then if you've hit it's your weapon's POW vs the ARM of your target.

Special actions are magic spells, abilities or other things that aren't part of your usual soldier's skillset and aren't usually offensive in nature; it's things like repairing a warjack or digging a trench. Some require a skill check (roll 2d6 and pray for lows) while most are just 'okay, break out the shovels'.

Special attacks are... well, special attacks. They hurt people, so they tend to require a check of some kind, but this isn't always the case (the Thunderhead's 'Energy Pulse' Special Attack just zaps everything within 6" regardless of any checks). The most common check you make would be a Magic Ability check, in which case the ability rating (the x in Magic Ability [x]) becomes the RAT equivalent.

Warcasters can sling spells at any time during their activation when they're not doing something else (like, say, in the middle of a run; this prevents drive-bys), burning through Focus to cast spells, enhance attacks and generally being awesome when not rolling snake eyes.