Before hand I simply played with the contents of the starter box and a couple of Manhunters to fill up the points. Now I want to pick up some models to play a force more of my creation than what was in the first box I picked up.
So before building a force I figure I wll do a quick review of how the armies are built.
Normally when building an army (say in 40k or Warhammer) you get a limited number of points to spend on your forces. Warmachine is very similar with one significant difference.
In Warmachine the points values have all been drastically reduced, your introductory Skirmish game is just 15 points per side. This is generally 3-4 units or models. Certain units have a force allowance, this tells you how many of that type of unit or model you are allowed to field. Sounds easy so far?
Well the significant difference is that your Warcaster is free. They cost you aboslutely no points. In fact what they give you is an extra amount of points to spend. The catch... those points can only be spent on Warjacks. I think the developers of the game have done this to ensure that everyone is using Warjacks of some form in their games, as in the previous edition units had become very powerful to the point where tournaments rarely saw Warjacks on the table top.
Anyways, onto what I want to do.
From what I see my main opponents are likely to be Protectorate of Menoth (they like to burn things), Mercenaries and other Khador forces. Now I am sure I can build a force to deal with any specific army I could face, but I would much rather build a force around being useful in general rather than specifically aimed at one army.
So... where to start? Well I figure that my Warcaster is a good starting point. I currently have three Warcasters in my possession.
I have Commander Sorscha, Orsus Zoktavir (The Butcher of Khardov) & Vladimir Tzepesci (The Dark Prince).
Commander Sorscha
She is the first Warcaster I owned, and the first I used in any of my Games. She has a nifty Immunity: Cold meaning that Cold attacks have no effect on her.
She has a good array of spells (totaling 6). With a nice mix of offensive and defensive magic. She has some nice spells that boost her defences. and some very nice ones for offence. Freezing Grip is short range, but makes its Target become stationary for one round. Tempest is an AOE spell that Knocks people down and does damage... although the knocking down is far more effective than the damage.
Her Feat is very nice, basically making all enemy models in her control area Stationary for 1 round. This means you hit them automatically in melee.
Orsus Zoktavir
While I picked this guy up I haven't managed a game with him. He is a much less subtle Warcaster. In combat he is a monster, mainly because he is a weapon master and this means he rolls 3D6 for damage rolls. This in addition to his POW and STR make for a very nice combination. You can also spend a focus point on him to make this 4D6!
His spell list is more limited with only 4 spells. One of which is purely defensive, while the other three are aimed at offense and hurting things. The best of which is his Spell called: Full Throttle it costs 3 focus to cast, and basically means your Warjacks will only have to spend focus to boost damage rolls, and get extra attacks. They get to charge without spending focus, and get an boosted melee attack rolls. Meaning 3D6 + MAT for 1 turn.
His feat is just as impressive, as basically in the turn he uses it you get an extra D6 to roll for Damage. Whiche means 3D6 for damage as standard for 1 turn. You can also spend a focus to boost this to 4D6. This is actually very scary as Khador Warjacks already tend to have a good POW + STR in Melee.
Vladimir Tzepesci
I picked up Vladimir around the same time as I got the battlebox. I actually bought the Epic version of him (which is a slightly tooled up version with a different model) mainly because I liked the model, at the time I knew nothing about him or the rules for him.
He like the other two has nice stats for getting into combat with anything except for Warjack. He has more Focus per turn than Sorscha or Orsus which is always nice.
His spell list is not too shabby either, with 5 spells. 4 Buff spells & 1 Attacking spell. His best spell (imo) is Signs & Portents while it costs 4 focus a turn, it gives all models in his Control area get to roll 3D6 for attack and damage rolls and discard the lowest dice. Not something to complain about.
His Feat is also interesting. It basically doubles the movment of his Warjacks for one turn, and allows them to run or charge without Spending any Focus.
My Decision
So who will I pick? Well I like all three of them, and think if I start using my Warcasters for buffing my 'jacks rather than just assigning them focus things will work out better.
That said I think my list will be based around Orsus Zoktavir... The Butcher. I really like his model in comparison to the others and his rules scare me... so hopefully they will scare my opponent.
In Part 2 I will go through the rest of my Army Selection.
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