Being totally new to a money sink/miniatures game meant having to start at the beginning and think small at first. My problem is that I like a few options. I don't mind playing the same VTES deck two or three games in a row, but if it's my only deck for a weekend I'll go a little crazy.
The easiest way to start playing WarMachine (barring demoing the game with friends) is with one of the faction Battleboxes. Which one to choose can be difficult. Since I had the basic rulebook in hand when making the choice there were stats for each WarMachine faction's basic units, 'jacks' and warcasters.
I wanted to be happy with my choice because of the investment. There are five main factions in WarMachine, and also several smaller "mercenary" factions. Mercs aren't a faction except when they are, but I'll cover them at a later time.
Mercs don't have a Battlebox (they had two older versions but it's difficult to find them). One of the newer factions, the Retribution of Scyrah (angry angry steampunk elves) also has no Battlebox. So those two were right out.
This left four factions:
Cygnar: Cygnar is a nation with a US/UK feel to it. They're sort of like the generic white people faction. They are also the default "protagonist" faction for most of the fluffy bits in the rule books. Cygnar has a few main themes, some of which are high technology weapons, lightning-based attacks, and lots of guns.
Khador: Khador is the soviet counterpart to Cygnar's western civilization banality. Climate-wise Khador is a frozen tundra at the outer reaches. Society is lower tech than Cygnar but has a militaristic bend that makes them formidable. Khador's themes are big bad melee power, huge mortarlike guns, and icy kholdunic sorcery. Bonus points for a Baba Yaga-analogue warcaster called the Old Witch.
Protectorate of Menoth: The Protectorate are the result of a group of religious zealots who revolted against Cygnar to become their own geographical force. Menoth is a creator deity who grants his followers power but commands them to carry out crusades against non-believers. Their main themes are "cleansing" fire attacks, powerful magic, and spell-denial anti-magic nonsense. They're the "no" faction.
Cryx: Cryx is a looming presence off the coast of the mainland setting of the game. Cryx is a largely undead force which serves an ancient God-dragon. It's more God-dragon than Dragon-God because it occasionally flies around to completely wreck shit in the back stories for the game. Cryx's themes are evil undead necromancy, fast and sneaky units, and corrosive acid attacks.
My pals have a pretty good selection of most of the
Factions because they've been playing for years. Their most sparse selections were with the Protectorate and Cygnar. So my real choice, I felt, was between those two. A friend was pushing for the Protectorate. Over a year ago a student asked me after class if I played WarMachine. When I said "no" he said he'd figured me for a Protectorate player.
So I bought the Cygnar box.
I think my friend was trying to push me in a more competitive direction, while my student probably didn't understand my appreciation for the "good guys" in a given story. Yes, there's something boring about the generic protagonist, and Cygnar isn't the easiest to win with, but we love to root for the underdog in America, and sometimes I can't help myself.
I will play the hell out of a Lawful Good character, incidentally.
The differences between the two Battleboxes, to me, were thus:
The Cygnar one has a 'jack with a cannon, as well as a 'caster with a pistol.
The Protectorate one has a 'jack with a flamethrower, but no other ranged goodies.
Cygnar's Battlebox just seemed more. . . versatile. Now that I've played the game a bit I know that it's actually skewed against ranged combat, and that heavy-hitting melee armies are strong. Gunlines don't do as well. That's all good though. I still quite enjoy the Cygnar playstyle and I've gotten a few wins under my belt (not many due to inexperience, but some).
The Cygnar Battlebox was ridiculously cheap at my FLGS. $35 for a 'caster and three 'jacks is awesome. The 'caster is Commander Coleman Stryker, which is about as lame and cheesy as a name gets. He's an occasionally lame and cheesy warcaster as well. He has a lot of unit-boosting buff spells and a special Earthquake spell that just knocks enemies down. His feat gives his whole army a big armor boost for a turn. He's got a boring gun and a boring sword which are average on the power scale. Overall he's a boring dude, but he can get the job done. Sometimes it's nice to learn with basic game trappings.
The Battlebox 'jacks are pretty basic. There's a heavy and two light 'jacks. The Ironclad heavy warjack is a big robot with a big hammer. The Charger light 'jack is a less-big robot with a smaller hammer and a double-barrel cannon. The Lancer light 'jack is a shield- and spear-toting robot which isn't so good on offense, but it's got a special ability called Arc Node. The node allows Stryker (or whichever warcaster controls it) to cast spells through the Lancer, which greatly extends the range of his Earthquakes.
Earthquake isn't fancy, but opponents that are knocked down are easy to hit. Stryker's win strategy is often "Earthquake through Lancer and then strike with focus-loaded Ironclad or Charger".
Did I mention that when a warcaster dies, that player's game is over? Much of the strategy of WarMachine involves finding ways to assassinate the other warcaster while leaving yours in relative safety. Many a game ends during either an "assassination run" or just after an overextending failed run by the other player, which can make the game sort of cat-and-mouse.
It's like tapping out to lunge in VTES, and you either get an oust or your prey happens to have three untaps (because he's Neil) to block all the bleeds and survives.
I'll go over some of my warcasters in more detail later. I should really learn how to play better before trying to explain them.
-Merlin out
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Caspia, Iron Kingdoms
i untap and block
ReplyDeleteYes you do. All the time. It's maddening.
ReplyDelete