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Warmachine Articles
Sedge has found a couple of interesting warmachine articles that you might want to read. Due to their size
they appear as a document. Please click on link below.
Thanks Sedge!
Warmachine Articles
My Introduction to Warmachine:
Kiwidave’s
thoughts on a new games system
I
first heard about Warmachine after I had arrived back from a business trip to Japan, when various club members were enthusing
about it. The folks who had gone to Bovington for our annual games and beer weekend had ‘discovered’ it, and a
couple of Prime:Remix rulebooks were duly purchased.
On first inspection, it seemed interesting, but I wondered
if it would be another flash in the pan like Warmaster Ancients. The models were quite cool, the background to the game interesting,
and a fairly simple game mechanism made for a potential hit. One thing that helped pique my interest was that the basic rules
(called QuickStart Rules) are downloadable from Privateer Press’ website. (What are the chances of Games-Workshop ever
doing that with Warhammer Fantasy or 40,000?) Another potential selling point was that, in theory at least, any faction can
beat any other faction. Excellent!
However, I was still undecided – it did mean yet
another game system, and more models to lie unpainted in a box or on my painting desk for months. I did go looking for models
though, and found some on eBay which looked interesting. Here was my first mistake – just because a model looks cool,
doesn’t mean it will be good, or suit your playing style! I chose Cygnar, as there where already a few Khador players,
and Cryx and Menoth didn’t appeal - I can never bring myself to do ’evil’ armies, and religious nutters
aren’t my thing either! And I like the Cygnar blue. And guns. (Why the heck do I have an Orc WFB army then?)
I ended up getting Major Victoria Haley, Captain Maxwell
Finn and a Hammersmith. Here was second mistake – read the army selection rules first, and find out what models do what!
As Major Haley is an Epic character (known as eHaley to players in the know), I
couldn’t field her unless I was using 750+ points of stuff. Which is a lot of toy soldiers, considering the most expensive
Cygnarian warjack is 125 points or so. As an aside, another of the selling points of Warmachine is that you can by a Battlebox,
which consists of a warcaster and (usually) 3 warjacks, and start playing. No need to spend a stupid amount of money to get
going – Battleboxes are about 20 quid, depending on where you get them from.
Anyway, back to my purchases. I got Haley because it looked
like a nice model, which overall it is (some crueller folk call her Poledance Haley…) although I personally think her
right arm could have been done better. I got Finn for the same reason – how cool is a cigar-chewing machine-gun toting
hard man? And a big stream-powered robot with two chuffing big hammers – got to be good! Hmmmm…..
So I now have 3 models that are pretty much useless (at
the moment). I then acquired an Ironclad and Charger, Captain Alistair Caine, and 9 Sword Knights. Turns out that Captain Caine is an Epic as well! Duh! (Once again bought because he looks cool) Time to do some research I think!
I found two very useful websites: Privateer Press’ forum (www.privateerpressforums.com), which is a gold mine of tactics, army lists, and beginner guides,
and The Battle College, (www.battlecollege.com) which has some good summaries of each faction, and some articles,
including and excellent one on wargaming in general.
One of the things that came out of my research was that
Warmachine might have fairly straight-forward game mechanics, but it takes a lot of practice to master! There are a myriad
of ‘combos’, army lists and combinations of units to do any manner of carnage on your opponent. A lot of them
pivot around the warcaster, which makes sense, as you have to have at least one to do anything! There are shooty lists, combat
lists, kill-the-warcaster lists (some in one turn!) etc, etc. Most are tried and tested, and one thing that impressed me about
this particular forum was the wealth of knowledge and experience of the main posters, combined with a respectful attitude
(I hate forum members that are rude, smug, or treat newbies (aka noobs!) like idiots). However, I have only read the Cygnar
sub-forum, so I can’t vouch for the others!
The other thing to come out of my research was that you
can never have everything you’d like in 500 point list! For me leaning towards a gun list, then Long gunners, Trenchers,
Gun Mage Captain Adepts (GMCA), Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (ATGM – how cool is that acronym?) etc are very useful. Also,
almost considered must-haves are Lancers, due to have Arc Nodes, and Journeyman Warcasters, as they can aid in keeping import
units or your warcaster alive. And if they’re lucky shoot something.
So, my head full to bursting with my new-found knowledge,
I spent some coin of the realm and purchased more stuff. I now have: Captain Haley, Commander Coleman Striker, Major Haley,
Captain Caine, a Journeyman Warcaster, Captain Maxwell Finn, a Gun Mage Captain Adept, 2 Lancers, 2 Ironclads, 1 Charger,
1 Hammersmith, 1 Defender, 9 Sword Knights and 6 Long Gunners. I suspect that 2 Lancers and 2 Ironclads are a bit of overkill,
but we’ll see. I can at least try out different colour scheme on them! I will probably get at some point: a Sentinel
(jack with a Gatling gun – nice), a Hunter, 4 more Long Gunners, 10 Trenchers, unit attachments for LGs and Trenchers
(no idea what they do but they sound useful), 1 Sword knight, Field Mekanic and Bodgers ……
I have only played 3 games, and lost all three. However,
based on the advice of play at least 10 games with just the Battlebox set before you get other stuff, it’s not all bad.
I have learnt a few things like don’t send our Lancer off into combat – you lose the ability to channel spells;
just because something has good stats or cool abilities doesn’t mean it will win the game for you; having a gun-line
is useful, but you will probably have to bash something at some point.
I am still in two minds about Warmachine. It is an easy
game to learn, but hard to get right (practise helps obviously!). Some of the models are very good, and are almost worth buying
just to collect and paint. You don’t need many to get started, which is brilliant for cost and storage. Why I am unsure
about it is that I’m rubbish at remembering combos, and processes, and I’m not keen on games whereby if you do
A then B then C you will win – takes some of the edge off, if you know it’s in the bag before you start. Granted,
there are counters to A, B and C, but that’s just more stuff to remember! I think another reason is that you have to
be aggressive to do well (according to page 5 of the book at least!), and aggression is something I’m not so good at
– time will tell!
So there you have it: my meanderings and diatribes about
my introduction into the Warmachine universe. Congrats for getting this far! See you on the other side of the gaming table!
By Kiwi Dave
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Khardor's Russian Cousin has Arrived!
Warmachine has exploded with massive interest within the club since coming back from Bovy. Members have been
buying armies left right and centre with Khardor being the most popular choice. I also liked the look of the Khador models
and their style 'spoke to me'. That said I did not want to produce yet another set of red painted models with the Khador icon.
So I decided to rethink the Khordor 'look' and make more of obvious connections with the Russian/Soviet colours and iconology.
I decided to choose a look that encapulated the Soviet era - when I think of Soviet hardware I think - poorly
maintained, rusty, oily, large, strong and a look that suggests its seen action. Above all, with all these failings I wanted
a look that suggested it would never break down or get into difficulties in the harshesed of environments - where did I
get my inspiration? My first car - a Lada Riva estate!!!
Colour scheme I chose to use was Soviet green (as seen on T34s) but with odd panels of red which keep in with
traditional Khador and Communist schemes. Metails I chose Boltgun (with mithril highlights) and lots of Dwarf Bronze.
I decided I did not want the Khador icons on the models (look to much like Skaven for my liking!!), so I grinded
those off and sanded this down with my trusty Bremmel hand tool. To replace the icons I chose to use i-94 soviet decal range
which includes numbers, soviet stars and slogans such as 'For the Motherland'.
As I said before, I wanted my guys to look poorly maintained, rusty, oily and battle-weary. So I went to town
with the Tamia Weathering soot powder around exhausts and vents. Used scortched brown, vermin brown and orange lightly dabbed
on one after the other to simulate rust and then applied mithril silver to show bare metal scratches. Lastly, I mixed brown
45%, chestnut brown 45% and black (10%) undiluted and applied around the inner core of the machine, working joints in copious
amounts so it would run in to cravases and down panels. Once dried, the effect gave a wonderful oily looking machine.
Lastly the base... I wanted the army to be based on a winter base but wanted to try something different. So
I glued and gravelled the base, painted black and then dry brushed electric blue, ice blue and then successive blends of white
and ice blue to pure white. Once dry I then applied 5 thick coats of GW 'ard coat gloss varnish and left to dry. The result
looks like they are walking through icy slush, which I think looks different to anything I've seen
Im really pleased with the outcome of the models and how the whole look has come together. Not conventional
I know, and the purists I am sure are pulling their hair out, but I think it looks fun, original and very different (in a
good way I hope!?)
By Andy
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| Khador Juggenaught |
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| Khador Mechanics |
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| Icy Base |
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| Khador Devestator |
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| Butcher of Khardov |
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