WARMACHINE

Warmachine is a fantasy-slash-steampunk wargame produced by Privateer Press. It is based in the Iron Kingdoms, which was originally a setting for 3rd edition D&D, and has now been republished with an original RPG system based on the Warmachine rules. Meta.

Hordes is another wargame with the same combat system, set in the Iron Kingdoms, which has fundamentally similar rules, except that Hordes has a lot less steampunk and a lot more giant roaring monsters. Since Warmachine armies can do battle with Hordes armies with very few ill effects (at worst, you'll have a couple of spells or abilities that won't affect the enemy army), and the vast majority of tournaments allow either Warmachine or Hordes armies, the titles of two games are often portmanteau'd into "Warmahordes".

Warmachine follows a better update schedule than the Warhammers, and every army gets about five models per year. This also leads to Warmachine being very well-balanced game, although there are certainly quite a few over/underpowered models to be found if you shop around for them.

Also commonly known as Skubmachine.

Gameplay

Warmachine uses 2d6 rolls as its core mechanic, which produces a rough approximation of a bell curve. Many effects allow you to add an additional die to a roll, or allow you to roll an extra die and drop the highest/lowest. A few effects also force you to roll one less die.

The game has a pretty heavy melee focus, with most ranged attacks having piss-poor range; if you shoot someone and they don't die, they're fairly likely to turn around and charge you next turn. This is not to say that ranged attacks are always bad, because some ranged models hit like a truck; it's just that an army made up almost entirely of ranged models is going to have a bad time.

What's what on the battlefield

Armies in Warmachine center around a warcaster, a battle-wizard that controls the armies steam-powered magic robots called warjacks, in addition to using spells that aid your army or screw over the enemy. At the start of each turn, a warcaster automatically generates between 5-10 focus, which it uses for spells, or can allocate to warjacks (as a general rule, close-combat monsters get 5-6 focus, while spell-slinging squishies get 8-10). Focus can be used to generate additional attacks or add an additional D6 to attack or damage rolls. If your warcaster dies, you lose regardless of the current situation, so most games revolve around killing your opponent's warcaster.

Warjacks, the machines controlled by warcasters, are usually the most powerful models in the army. They tend to be easy to hit, but their stats mean that it takes very high powered attacks to do anything to them. In combat, they generally also have the highest-power weapons, and can make power attacks like throws, bodyslams, and tramples, all of which are automatically hilarious.

Colossals are like Warjacks with more FUCKHUEG, because Privateer Press wanted to charge $100 per model for something, and the only way to do that was to make it really big. Roughly equivalent to Titans in 40K, but can be fielded at any point level. Colossals are surprisingly well-balanced, since they have about the same defensive stats as a heavy warjack but loads more health and tons of dakka. That said, if you're up against a Colossal and your army is mostly anti-infantry, you're screwed.

After warjacks and warcasters, the main models you use are units. They represent the main infantry of your army. They aren't as powerful individually as warjacks, but they are far more numerous. Units play any number of roles, from being aimed at killing other units, to using magic to support your army, repairing warjacks, or killing your enemy's warjacks.

Also, there are things called Solos, which are like units, but there's only one of them.

Factions

Warmachine has five factions, and Mercenaries who pretend to be a faction.

Khador

Cries of "For the Motherland", red banners, gold stars, frigid bitches, and beardy berserkers personify Khador. They're a northern Imperial Russia/Soviet Union style nation bent on imperialist conquest. Khadoran army tends to be smaller than other armies and usually slower, but their infantry and jacks tend to be much tougher and deal, more damage, which is kinda ironic since in real life Russia's tactics were the opposite. Their small armies and simple play style make them the best choice for beginners.

Cygnar

Cygnar is the most advanced nation, containing weapons that resemble WWI era tech and a ton of electricity firing toys, and the inventors of the warjacks. They're made to be a fairly nice place to live if not for the fact that Khador has it's eyes on their territory, the Protectorate of Menoth wanting to overthrow their government, and Cryx aiming to exterminate them and everything else on the mainland, or put simply, they'd be a nice place to live if the continent they were on wasn't a horrible place live. Their advanced technology is reflected in that they have the best ranged weapons in the game and play less aggressively than most other factions. Most of their units have the ability to shoot as well as fight, giving them something a combined arms feel. Like Khador, they're a good choice for beginners.

As a side note, Captain Maxwell Finn is a fucking beast.

Cryx

An island nation of pirates that was taken over by a Godzilla sized dragon named Toruk, the father of all dragons (dragons in the Iron Kingdoms are basically gods, and Toruk is the oldest and most powerful). Toruk wants to rule the world, and aims to use the army he created in Cryx to aid in removing the other dragons, about the only thing that can kill him. Cryx is an interesting evil army, composed of pirates, undead pirates, ghost warriors, heavily armored liches, and demonic mutant witches. Their army is the fastest, cheapest, and largest on the table, and is for more advanced players. Cryx excels at assassinating enemy casters, debuffing the enemy, and utilizing "dirty" tactics, but is never quite as good in a stand-up fight. Many of their models also have abilities that kick in when they kill enemy models, and as per the tradition of an army with undead units, this includes adding models to their ranks.

Protectorate of Menoth

A bunch of religious fanatics that worship Menoth, the god of civilization. They were set in Cygnar, but the church of Menoth had some falling out with Cygnar since a more benign god named Morrow began gaining favor in Cygnar on account of Menoth being a bit of asshole. The Menoth church thus seceded from Cygnar and created its army, the Protectorate of Menoth, to forcibly convert Cygnar (and anyone else who got in their way). Protectorate army is about setting up devastating combos, army synergy, and generally setting things on fire ("We put napalm on everything" can be their motto). Due to their issues with technology coming from Morrow, their army is far more low-tech and has a ton of Gothic design to it. Many of their units include medieval knights and their warjacks' have similar designs to many machines in the Imperium of Man.

Retribution of Scyrah

A bunch of jerkass elves who think that their gods are dying because human magic is draining their life force (whether they're right or not isn't stated), so they want to kill all human mages. Their units are designed very differently to any other army and have more of a sleek anime-esque look. They've got some interesting mechanics, like 'jacks with force fields that lose special abilities when they're crippled, dedicated mage hunting units, and ranged weapons with special effects. Most of their army is either jack-of-all-trades units or units heavily specialized in a certain role. However, they're certainly one of the harder and more expensive factions to play, limiting their player base.

Mercenaries

Once upon a time Mercenaries were meant only as additions to the real factions, so that two armies of the same faction wouldn't be composed of exactly the same troops. Since then, whinyfag mercenary fans forced PP to make a number of mercenary "contracts" to allow them to play weaker armies filled with dirty hobos. As of MKII Mercs possess some of the most awesome warcasters, including Magnus the Traitor/Warlord who has the most awesome backstory for a character in the game and some of the most annoying abilities ever. Mercs are awesome because they get paid to get shit done and literally have access to a character for every rule breaking exploit, except for Protectorate Choir of Menoth, no one gets anything that broken.

There are four mercenary contracts in the game (there used to be five, but one of them got demoted thanks to new rules in MkII):

• Four Star Syndicate; pick up every mercenary you own and put it on the table. Done.
• Highborn Covenant; they're French.
• Searforge Commission; they're Dwarves and thus the only viable Mercenary contract. Note, however, that the Dwarves in this universe are not Scottish, because the Trolls are already Scottish. It is generally agreed that the Dwarves in Warmachine have a New Zealand accent.
• Talion Charter; a bunch of pirates. Lots of pirates. How many pirates can you imagine? There are more than that. Also, a peg-legged Napoleon dwarf. Also, a fuckhuge cannon that is easily the best damn artillery piece in the entire game, if you manage to get anything in its line of sight.

Getting into Warmachine

Go to: http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/ for more information and advice on how to start an army, as well as the official site: http://www.privateerpress.com/WARMACHINE/default.php.

It must be said that it takes far, far fewer dollars worth of Warmachine stuff to enjoy yourself than other games. You'll be paying about the same price per model as you would for Games Workshop stuff, but you will be fielding a lot less models per army, and the game is actually fun (but not hugely balanced) at low points levels.