New to Warmachine - couple of questions ...

[HappyDad]

Hi. I am an ex-WFB player thinking about giving Warmachine a go. Firstly, am I right in thinking that I can play a Warmachine army vs a Hordes army ? Do many people do this ?

Secondly, can I ask peoples opinions on what might be 2 good example forces to get started with, because they usually make for a good game against each other ?

Many thanks.

[Tokunator]

The rules for Warmachine and Hordes are completely compatible, in fact most events make no difference between the two systems.

The only difference is that Warmachine casters give their warjacks Focus to do special attacks and Hordes Warlocks take Fury from their warbeasts after they did special things. This means that warbeasts can be more explosive, generally being able to use 3 Fury for light ones and 4 for heavy ones during each beast's activation, but if an army generates more Fury than its caster's Fury stat per turn, some beasts might go berserk. Warjacks are less spectacular as they need ti be given Focus at the beginning of turn, and can generally only get 3 per turn, but they never go crazy. In addition, a warcaster always generates Focus equal to his Focus stat per turn, whereas a Warlock cannot get more than his warbeasts have, so once most of the beasts are dead, a Warlock needs to cut himself to gain Fury.

If you are interested in playing with 20-50 infantry and a 1-3 robots, Warmachine is your game, if you want 2-5 big beasts and some support, Hordes is your game, though there are exceptions, Convergence is a Warmachine army that runs multiple warjacks well and Skorne is a Hordes army that can run infantry well. You can find a good summary of all faction on battlecollege.wikispaces.com (there should be a link here).

The two player starter sets are good value, but the Warmachine one does not contain models people typically use later on. There are some good deals to be had right now with the all-in-one boxes Privateer is selling right now (most webshops have them and your FLGS can order them). Each all-in-one box is a 35 points army (the usual game size is 35-50 points) with a good selection of units, a pocket-size full rulebook, tactical tips and even suggestions on how to expand the army. They are $129 retail, but with stuff worth $200 or more. So you could grab two that you like the look of with a friend and dive right in.

[HappyDad]

Great. Thanks very much.