Warjack

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Warjacks (usually shortened to just 'jacks, even in-universe) are the eponymous "warmachines" of Warmachine and the Iron Kingdoms setting. They are, essentially, multi-ton, steam-powered robots powered by magical brains called cortexes. They are the direct descendants of the Colossals (Titan-sized steam-powered robots) the peoples of the Iron Kingdoms used to fight back against the Orgoth invaders and then abandoned for being too impratical.

Technically speaking, however, they are only a small subset of the multi-ton, steam-powered robots, which are usually called steamjacks. Warjacks are specialized steamjacks built specifically for war, although some factions, notably the Protectorate of Menoth and some of the Mercenaries, have more than a few industrial robots (laborjacks) pressed into service with some minor modifications and one or more weapons of some kind bolted on, making them basically steampunk technicals.

Warjacks are not particularly bright, unfortunately, so they need to be lead into battle by specialized battle mages called Warcasters or, lacking one, a "jack marshal" who has learned to direct a single warjack with signs and simple voice commands. Over time, the 'jack and the warcaster will bond, molding the 'jack to the warcaster's personality and making it easier to control (or not, in the case of a warcaster like the Karchev). During this time a warjack with become smarter and developed personally quarks, ranging form being more aggressive to being friendly to children. Quite a few warcaster have their own personal warmachine with a name and some unique toys (and in-game bonuses when used together).

As it's often the case with military hardware, manufacturers prefer having several variants of a single chassis rather than dozens of different models of giant fighty robots. Game-wise, this means many warjacks of the same faction are aesthetically almost identical and share the same base stats, but have different armament and special rules according to their role.

Cygnaran light 'jacks are all based on either the irritatingly average Grenadier or the stronger but less agile Charger, while all their heavies, with only three exceptions, share the same base. Almost all of them have both a gun and a melee weapon, but most are more focused on ranged combat. Notable are the Cyclone with its dual Gatling guns, the hunter with its armour-piercing sniper cannon and the aforemontioned Grenadier, which was basically designed as a field mortat that can move after the soldiers with its own legs, dig its own trench and fuck your shit up with a giant pickaxe if you get too close. Cygnarans also fancy themselves as the inventors of the steamjack, and field some of the most advanced models like the lightning-gun toting Firefly and Stormclad.

Khadorans have no use for sissy light warjacks or useless aesthetics: all they have is big, blocky hulks with three-fingered hands, short stumpy legs, inhuman helmet-like visages and a hunch that would make Quasimodo look like a healty fellow. They're pretty clumsy at landing or avoiding attacks, but can take more than any other heavies and hit like a mac truck. Among them we find the Marauder, that is so dedicated to smacking people around it has pneumatic ramming prows instead of hands, the Spriggan with its long charging lance and dual grenade/flare launchers, the Decimator with its awesome autocannon/giant circular sawblade combo and the Berserker, that is exactly what you're picturing with its dual axes, EPIC RAGE and tendency to short circuit if you give it to much juice.

The ImperiumProtectorate of Menoth faced a difficult problem with psykerswarjacks: technically they are against the Emperor Menoth's Law since they are powered by vile warpcraft magic, but without them they would be completely buttfucked. So they just rationalize it as a necessary evil, force penitent mages to produce the cortexes and use them anyway. You will immediately recognize a menithe army by the particular blend of mechanical parts and gothic style that wouldn't look out of place in the 41st millennium. Taken alone they are dissappointing, mainly due to the use of older models and converted laborjacks, but just add the combo and synergies the protectorate is famous for and you've really got something. Their light 'jacks tend to be either skirmishers (Dervish), spell repeaters (Revenger) or mobile platform for flamethrowers (Repenter) or crude rocket batteries (Redeemer), while heavies are more suited to direct battles. Of particular interest are the Castigator, who just walks up to the enemy and SHORYUKENs him in the face and the Sanctifier, a Chaplain Dreadnought who exorcises ghosts and evil spirits on the battlefield (by bludgeoning the HOLY shit out of them with a giant crucifix). Ironically Menoth uses a Warjack he himself designed as his Avatar.

The Elves of Ios call their warjacks Myrmidons. And are easily the most alien in design (to a point were the art for Myrmidon are 3D models rather than illustrations). Unlike other 'jack Myrmidons are more or less solar powered and come with a powerful forcefeild that wend active allows a Myrmidon to do a number of futures, for firing an laser to running far faster than any other jack.