joining the fight!

whats up guys,

I'm looking to start my first Warmachines army and was hoping to pick some brains before i invest in this game. I've already settled on a Cygnar army but was hoping to get some opinions on the strengths and weakness of their play style. I wanted to know if Jeremiah Kraye(an amazing looking model) was worth taking as a new player, or should i pick up another caster thats "easier" to work with. Also, is the box set a good buy, or should i just build an army piece meal. Anyway thanks guys for any advice for a interested player.

Cygnar typically speaking is going to be the "middle of the road" army, but heavily leans towards shooting. This is not to say they lack hard hitting melee units, infact they have one of the most powerful melee jacks in the stormsmith. Their medium jacks have great armour and terribly useful abilities, and their infantry pack an amazing punch.

Im not sure who Kraye is to be honest, but the box set is a great buy for cygnar to develop what you think will be your play style when you begin to play. It helps you solidify which units you like to use as it comes iwth a little bit of everything, and then you can purchase models from there slowly replacing old jacks, and adding troops.

There is a new edition of warmachine coming out soon which will maintain the majority of the old gameplay rules, but will have a different points system and new unit rules. So it is ok to buy an army now, as the game will work the same, its just your specific unit rules might change in play quality or game points cost.

Kraye is a very good caster and his model is great. His main thing is that he is cav and turns all jacks under his control into cav, heavies become normal cav and lights become light cav. He is all about getting from point A to point B with his jacks and in a faster manner then almost every caster in the game. As for gernal play style for Cygnar they can go a good number of different ways, but they execel when it comes to shooting. Only problem is that their shooting untis cost more point wise then their melee units, but they do have some of the best range in the game when it comes down to it. Their melee troops are pretty nasty and some even come with weapons that can shoot as well as hit hard. Their other really big thing is that they have the most models that can cause disruption, aka make jacks unable to be given focus or channel spells. All and all, it comes down to what you want to do with them, but it seems the norm for most players to go heavy on the shooty. At one point I was thinking about making a melee based Cygnar army and with what all I was going to throw into even my Khador melee armies would have some trouble with it. As for the new MKII edtion, that wont hit until early 2010 and from what I have looked at from the field test its going to be a good deal better. More or less they are getting all the rules from the different books all into one book and changing how the points work. But before then all their models might be moved to plastic, so you will be getting much much more for your buck. Not to mention that their first unit that they have previewed from the new set that is in plastic are just amazing how they look.

Cygnar is a flavorful army with lots of options (and the Kraye model cannot be beat as far as look, but I am not at all familiar with his abilities). Given what Mkii looks like and it will be the law of the land in less than a year, it might make sense to do two things (if you want to play sooner than the new rules release--which looks like it will only have a few changes in the rules, but quite a few changes to models and units). First, the basic Cygnar battle box is and will remain a good buy (it will be even better in Mkii for Cygnar since all the jacks -- especially the charger --get buffed and you'll like playing them before and after the change). Second, I highly recommend the following wiki which lots of information including great army lists from beginners lists to tourney winners. They even have a general "how do I start" for each faction in Warmahordes. http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/

I also like Cygnar - they have lots of souls (I have been playing Cryx lately)

I just looked at the Mkii stats for Kraye and Wow! Is he a jack-caster or what? He is a good to go caster, but you'd find starting with Stryker from the box set to be no slouch either.

Thanks for the advice and ideas guys. I'll be picking up the box set now that tax returns are coming in, god bless the EIC, muwahahahaha. I think some Trenchers, Long Gunners and Strom Blades are gonna make my list. I'll look over the cavalry thats available and add them to complement Kraye when i pick him up.

One further bit of advice. If you are looking at the present Prime rules (as well as advice from Battle College) these three infantry units are or nearly are auto-includes for Cygnar. They are wicked, but things change a bit with Mkii coming. The main change will be a shift to increasing the attractiveness of jacks and generally nerfing or increasing the cost of infantry units. Although your three are generally not getting nerfed in Mkii, they make you pay. In the new point system, they are pretty expensive. For instance, a minimum unit of Trenchers will cost (points wise in the new system) as much as a light jack, and a full unit as much as a heavy jack. In addition, under the new rules you can only take either minimum or maximum numbers in your units. There are no in-betweens.

On another note, ou also definitely want to look at getting a journeyman caster (more focus for ya) and a hunter (although it looks like the Hunter will lose "advanced deployment" in Mkii, it will still have an extended control range and its armor piercing rounds halve the armor of medium and large based models. So its a jack killer!).

awesome, i'll have to look over the MKII rules and buy accordingly for the upcoming change over

I don't know whether anyone mentioned it above, but you can get a field test copy of the Mkii rules through Privateer Press. I think you need to join the PP forums first, then you can sign up for the test rules through the main web site. They will send you a pin and then you can down load and send them comments if you wish. Mitch

so i have the box set, a box of trenchers and a Gun Mage Captain Adept. So...if i may be so bold as to reflect the spirit of pg.5 of Prime Remix...Bring It!!

(now all i gotta do is learn to play the game )

Big game tomorrow be sure to come down and watch 12:30, but if there's time after or I die early, I'd be happy to throw down a quick skirmish with my Cryx. If we can, be weary, be very weary - the Cryx are tricky. No really, I'd love to run you through the basics. And there should be others around as well, if you want other games or a different opponent. Mitch

I field tested Cygnar pretty extensively during the past month. If you want to buy for the future, as well as, have some fun now here are the "new auto includes".

Squire-Extra Focus and extended CTRL area can't be bad, and you can re-roll a failed magic attack.
Arlan Strangeways-One free Focus for a Jack, free strike free Tramples, Repair 10, & a nice SP gun.
Stormclad-Ranged Attack, Two Melee Attacks, Electro Leap, Free Focus, SPD 5, MAT 7, ARM 19 amazing...
Stormblades (10) & UA-Melee monsters, Stormclad synergy, Ranged attack to boot
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages & UA-Magical weapons & True Sight...

Darius is a little weak in MKII, but I have some confirmation on some tweaks for him. Other than that the other casters are good to go with the exception of regular Nemo. He is good, but still relatively easy to kill. It will take a lot of experience and some resources to keep him alive. He is just better in two caster games.

okay here's stryker painted

He's looking ready! Good job.

Very good job, much better then some of the ones I have done. I still have a good deal to try out and learn, but I also have to be in the mood to paint. I will try to get a pic of my Irusk and put that up and he is the last piece that I have finished painting and the only one that I have really worked on in months.

My digital camera seems to hate me

Current work in progress




Still have a mess of detail work to do

Lookin good. Most digi cameras need tender loving care to get good shots of minis. It can be remedied pretty easily however. A good thread on taking digi photos of minis (Roy turned me onto this) can be found on the PP forum at: http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=5813

I'll have to check that out and it might not help that digi I have on hand to use is at least three years old now.

my big boy is done...i give you the Ironclad

Looks great!