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.

When trying to kill something, attack rolls are made with by rolling 2D6 plus attacking model's melee attack stat (MAT) or ranged attack stat (RAT) if they're using a ranged attack, against the target's DEF stat. If the attacking model rolls over the target's DEF, then they roll 2D6 plus the POW of their weapon, and if it's higher than the the target's armor, a damage box in the target is filled. Depending on the model, it will only have one box, or numerous ones. In general, models with higher armor have lower DEF and speed.

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, with 6-7 as an average). Focus can be used to generate additional attacks or add an additional D6 to attack or damage rolls for either a warcaster or a warjack (though warjacks can only have three focus allocated to them a turn), and warcasters can use focus to boost their DEF if they're in danger (though if you're in a situation like that then something is wrong because warcasters should always be spending their focus on other stuff). Any focus a warcaster doesn't spend doesn't carry over to the next turn, so it's important to try and find some use for it and never to leave it on warjacks without them using it. 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. Some units can have extra points spent to add an unit attachment to enhance their performance, or a weapon attachment to aid in killing

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

Also note that most every type of model has a very that's character type model with an individual name, except for warcasters who already characters. This means that only of it can fielded per army. These tend to be better than non-character models (character warjacks are typically powered versions of a normal warjack), but they cost more.

Outside of these, there's type of model with its own deployment rules called a battle engine. These are basically big, durable models that are easy to hit that are aimed a certain task, like support or shooitng. They're expensive, and only Menoth's gets a lot use.

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 (though they have low MAT and RAT and often need boosts to hit anything that's not a heavy model), which is kinda ironic since in real life Russia's tactics were the opposite please ignore the proceeding--it's quite possible (and even favorable) to make a mostly-infantry army composed of conscripts. 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 out 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, though they do still have some powerful melee models. Compared to other factions, their warjacks also have better MAT and RAT so while they might sometimes be less durable, they're better at actually hitting stuff. 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. Also note that they have the widest range of mercenaries that will work with them, but more on that bellow.

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. Cryx's jacks are the fastest and hardest to hit, but also the least durable.

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 an 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). For example, their 'jacks, fielded on their own, combine the worst aspects of Khadoran and Cygnaran technology into one mediocre package, but bringing along the Choir of Menoth will ensure that mediocre package is either bulletproof or getting the sorts of buffs that make mediocrity great all game long. 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, mercenary fans forced PP to make a number of mercenary "contracts" to allow them to play weaker armies . 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, see above if you play Cygnar, since Cygnar can use any of their stuff.
• Searforge Commission; they're Dwarves and thus the only viable Mercenary contract not including a fellow named Magnus. 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. Also, no beards (the elves stoled them).
• 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. This group is all about synergy with their units, which on their own are the worst in the game. But start adding in their solos and unit attachments, suddenly you've got yourself a unit that can do some damage to anything, is annoyingly hard to kill, and can add models to it after killing them

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.