Editing Warmachine/Tactics/Differences between Warmachine and 40k (section)

===Overarching Differences===

In terms of metagame differences, Warmahordes games tend to be much shorter and less time-consuming than Warhammer. It's also much cheaper* to build an army for, and therefore makes you less of a tool for trying to get your friends into it. 
*Depending on point goal and army composition, and whether you're buying used or new

As for the game itself, Warmahordes is generally more comparable to Warhammer Fantasy than 40k. The biggest comparison that could be drawn between them is that Warmahordes loves melee. Gunlines exist (see Cygnar), but shooting is generally a ''supplemental'' option rather than the bulk of your army. Ranged units exist to soften targets up for the melee heavy hitters, rather than to wipe entire squads from the board. Warmahordes armies also love to charge the enemy, and the game will often swing on one side or the other finding a better time to run screaming into the enemy's face. Aggression is key, to the point that the game's former official tagline was ''PLAY LIKE YOU GOT A PAIR!''

Warmahordes also places a greater emphasis on your command units than Warhammer. In most scenarios, losing your warcaster or warlock means instant defeat, as if your opponent had taken your king in a game of chess. Even in games where it doesn't mean instant loss, it usually means ''definite'' loss, because your warjacks will shut down and your warbeasts go crazy if the warnoun controlling them suddenly evaporates. Warmahordes armies have to strike a balance of aggression and defense in order to inflict crippling damage while preventing an embarrassing defeat from an unexpected bombing run on that squishy wizard in the back.

Warcasters and warlocks influence the game even more hugely than that, though. A given army's playstyle is in large part defined by which warnoun is commanding it, since the spell list in play is so vital to which strategies you can expect to execute well. Each warnoun also comes with a "feat" ability, which is a once-per-game super-awesome magical nuke effect unique to them. These range from freezing enemy models in place to setting everything on fire to outright denying your opponent their allotment of focus next turn, and are some of the most devastatingly powerful abilities in play. Warmahordes players must know their warnoun inside and out to make proper use of them, and they'd damn well better know the opponent's, too.

Warmahordes battles also tend to be smaller in scale and more tactically focused than Warhammer ones. There are fewer models in play, and they all have greater freedom of movement than their Warhammer counterparts. Carefully positioning individual members of a unit to block vital charge lanes is a skill that all Warmahordes players must learn pretty damn quick, and it isn't uncommon for different members of a single unit to be attacking multiple different targets.