Warmachine: Back to the Darkside

Have you heard about the new miniature craze all the youngsters are playing called Warmachine?

Let me start by saying I love Privateer Press, and I could write an entire article just talking about how I love them as a company, but I'm sure I would come off as some raving fan-boy in the end, despite the fact I have not played their game in years. That being said, time to have a flashback to my first encounter with the game...

I remember way back in the dark times of 2003 when the company first came to light- and I remember how I laughed at the name Warmachine, calling it a Warhammer clone that would die off soon enough... As I said, they were dark times, people just weren't as smart back then as they are now, myself non-withstanding.

I remember picking up the rulebook and giving it the twice-over, seeing if the rules backed up the cool looking miniatures that taunted me every time I walked past, and much to my surprise the rules-set seemed really solid. Given that I picked up the Cryx starter, promptly lost the tiny Deneghra head on the floor only to have a random child find it after some fifteen minutes of looking, and complained about how flimsy the joint holding the Deathripper's leg was. All those concerns faded though after my initial games and as more and more waves of cool miniatures began to be released over the coming months- and yes, I still hated the flimsy joints on the bonejacks.

Point being, in the end I had close to every Cryx miniature released up until Superiority, when the game unfortunately took a downward slope, soon after I stopped playing, the legions of the Nightmare Isle being assigned closet guarding duties. Now here we are in 2010, MKII Warmachine and Hordes have been released, all the faction books (for Warmachine) are now out, and we even have new-fangled plastic warjacks.

 

Plastics! Introducing you to the World of Tomorrow! Today!

Now, just to note, I've kept up with all the Warmachine action since the beta of MKII was announced, so I'm not just stumbling back into this blind. As I said, I love Privateer Press, if we where in high-school I'd be putting little I-Heart-U notes in it's locker everyday until it got boarder-line creepy. I've watched the evolution of the company and it's games over the last few months and have been super excited. So why haven't I, you know, actually played the game in all that time? Well, you see being a writer for Bell of Lost Souls, and by extension a puppet to the maleficent entity known as Bigred, I'm required to (The secret must not be revealed!- Bigred). So now that you know not only why I've been neglecting such a great game, but also the horrible secret of BoLS, we can move onto actually looking at some starter lists and basic tactics, at least those of you who's heart did not suddenly stop at the sheer scale of the terror I have revealed to you.

For those of you who don't know, I have what is clinically referred to as Skarreomania, which would be an unhealthy-obsessions with Skarre, the buxom pirate-queen of the Satyxis Raiders and one of the High Commands of the Cryxian navy. That being said, initially I was going to crawl right back to her and hope she wasn't to mad at me for keeping her locked in the miniatures box for this time. After some thinking though, while she is a fantastic Warcaster, her curve is a bit higher than what I'd want to use just starting out- not that she's overly complicated or anything, just there are simpler options to look at for someone who hasn't even played a dozen games of MKII... It totally has nothing to do with the fact I think she feeds off of spite and anger and would be impossible to control should I release her...

Anger and spite never looked so appealing...

Anyway, for the purposes here we'll be looking at another lovely lady of the Nightmare Isle: Warwitch Deneghra,  who hopefully doesn't hold too much of a personal grudge against me. Looking at her from an MKI to MKII angle not much has really changed, she is still the powerhouse hexer she used to be, capable of crippling the opponent's forces just like old times. Back in the day you ran her with five+ Bonejacks, basically swarming the enemy with them until you found that chink in the armor and finished them off and really since then not much has changed, she still embodies that tactic as well as ever.

So first thing first I researched the caster as mentioned above, got a feel for her play-style before moving on, taking careful note of her spells and which ones I thought would be the most utilized of the lot. Now, all her spells are great, they really are, she is what I would think of when I think of "sorceress", but of the available ones Withering and Parasite will probably see more play- again with the hexing and weakening theme.

Next I took a look at her Tier Lists, a new-fangled contraption in MKII which utilizes a restriction/reward system in list building. Taking a look at her templates I immediately notice her Tier 3 list, which gives her a free Bonejack... Hell, free bonejack, that's another five points, or another 8% to my army! Legal cheating is so much better than plain cheating!

Alright, so I've decided that I wish to go with the Tier 3 Deneghra list, as the Tier four simply didn't seem feasible in 35 pts, not did the rewards for utilizing it seem worth it. That being said, the first thing I'll look at is Warjack options:

Bonejacks: Deathripper, Nightwretch, Ripjaw, Defiler, Stalker, Helldiver

Helljacks: Slayer, Reaper, Nightmare, Corruptor, Leviathan, Harrower 

Ok, well of the lot of Bonejacks I like Deathripper due to cost, Ripjaw due to melee power, and Defiler due to acid template... I feel slightly bad all my Defilers in MKI were used as Scrap Tokens...Oh well, an excuse to buy the new starter!

So, looking at the list I need at least four Bonejacks to net myself a freebie. Since there isn't a point restriction on the free one best to save the slot for an expensive one vs. spending the points on my actual list (I would like to think most people thought of that already...). Well, I have a starter, so let's work with what we have in there:

-Deathripper x2, Defiler x1

Right there we have already spent 13 pts of our available 40 (35+5 warjack), yet we still need to add at least one more warjack to attain our free one. Coincidentally Ripjaws come in packs of two and I just happen to love Armor Piercing and Deneghra loves Arc Nodes, so we'll add in one and claim the other as our freebie Bonejack. I will note here that other options are fine as well, I personally love the Stalker bonejack and believe it has great synergizes with Deneghra's abilities, but in the end I believe more Arc Nodes and the AP of the Ripjaw are a better addition to the army... And being a fancy new plastic model has nothing to do with it, at all.

-Deathripper x2, Ripjaw x2, Defiler x1- 18 pts. (Including one free Ripjaw!)

In those 'jacks we've set up a nice start with something that can hurt infantry (Defiler), deal with solos and other mild annoyances (Deathrippers) and something to deal with heavy ARM models (Ripjaws). All in all a nice well-rounded base to build from. Next we look at the Tier 2 qualifications, as we need them to make this list legal! I know some prefer working up from the starting Tier, but I find it's easier for me to start at the Tier I want then work downwards, filling in any requirements as I go. Again, personal choice, but that's what this entire thing is!

Ok, so now we need four solos to fulfill our Tier 2 requirements, easy though as Cryx has access to some great ones! The first is a no-brainer, Deneghra needs a Skarlock Thrall. Some 80% of the Cryx casters are instantly made 76% better with the addition of a Skarlock Thrall, and the frustration of the opponent will rise 24% should you make good use of it, thus granting you a 41.3% higher chance of winning the game. (Those "statistics" seem really made up.Where are your sources? See me. -Editor)

Taking a look at the other Solos available I'm a big fan of Pistol Wraiths and the new Warwitch Sirens, but I also notice that the Necrotech grands me 1/2 of the Tier condition all by itself, as in paying the points for it actually grands me a Scape Thrall solo as well. So if I were to take two Warwitch Sirens and one Necrotech I'd actually fulfill the condition needed. I can't resist that so we'll go with that set-up for now.

-Deathripper x2, Ripjaw x2, Defiler x1- 18 pts.

-Warwitch Siren x1, Necrotech w/ Scrape, Skarlock Thrall- 5 pts.

23/40 used.

The Warwitche will be a nice addition as it gives me two vital things: more focus to throw around on the jacks, thus giving Deneghra more to cast her spells with, and more anti-infantry power in the way of Venom. It's win-win. The Necrotech, while originally included as a cost saving method, does have his uses as we're running a lot of 'jacks here, and being able to repair/Scrape Thrall them means even should the bonejacks be slain they are still of use, and it's hard to turn down that kind of utility.

So we have our basics down and still some 17 points left to manage. Whatever shall we do with them?!

Well, for starters we're a tiny army, we need some bulk! Looking at our available units, Bile Thralls and Mechanithralls, we see both offer some great utility to the overall army, Biles being great anti-troop and Mechanithralls offering a large bang-for-the-buck. Taking into account the rest of our list though we have a decent amount of anti-troop in the Defiler, Warwitch Sirens, and Deneghra herself, and point-for-point the Bile Thralls are expensive compared to the super-cheap Mechanithralls. Adding into the equation Deneghra's ability to lower opponent's DEF/ARM and the Mechanithralls duel-purpose P+S 12 or 15 attacks and the choice is rather clear for me. Also, since I may or may not have cheated a bit and though a head, I'm going to add a second small unit of Mechanithralls... Small unit for future points purposes... Yes, I can see into the future, or perhaps I'm merely planning a head.

-Deathripper x2, Ripjaw x2, Defiler x1- 18 pts.

-Warwitch Siren x1, Necrotech w/ Scrape, Skarlock Thrall- 5 pts.

-Mechanithrall Unit (Max), Mechanithrall Unit (Min)- 8 pts.

 31/40

Now we're getting down to crunch time, only nine points left and still a lot of options available. For me, I believe I want a Helljack in the army. There are a few reasons for this, one being that they're just plain cool, two being they add a bit of a hard-hitting punch to the army, and three because it puts me a step closer to the Tier 4 list should I want to expand to 50 pts. in the future.

Looking at our options the Slayer would be a natural choice as he comes in the starter... But for a mere point more we get the Reaper, and frankly the Reaper is a 'jack I've wanted to use since MKI, where he unfortunately was... well, let's face it, not worth the points. But now that he can reel in the big 'uns I can't wait to play this guy! The only issue in putting in another 'jack is we're spreading Deneghra a bit thin now- she only has so much Focus to go around and most of it she want's to keep to herself. Sure, you can just run the Bonejacks around plain, only dumping Focus on them when needed, but even then she will still be at less-than-optimal levels! How can we best fix this? Well another Warwitch Siren wouldn't hurt! We'll add her for the same reasons we added the initial one, another focus to spend as well as some more anti-troop power! With those two additions we bring the final list to the following:

Warwitch Deneghra

-Deathripper x2, Ripjaw x2, Defiler x1, Reaper x1- 25 pts.

-Warwitch Siren x2, Necrotech w/ Scrape, Skarlock Thrall- 7 pts.

-Mechanithrall Unit (Max), Mechanithrall Unit (Min)- 8 pts.

40/40

Here we are, a full track of my list-building thoughts beginning to end, even if they are a bit scrambled! We have created a list that has a huge amount of Arc Node threats coming at you from every angle, some sneaky Warwitches roaming around to decimate your ranks, and the legions of Mechanithralls moving forth to smash whatever lies in front of them. To top the whole thing off we still have the dirty tricks and tactics that make Cryx so much fun to play and such a pain to play against! Again this is just a simple list, nothing flashy, nothing overly ornate, just Deneghra and her cronies doing what they do best!

~I can already feel the Cryxian mindset settling back into me! Few things get the gears turning and the blood flowing like some strategic list building, so what do you say next we look into the mindset of playing Cryx? Let's take a look into the mindset of what makes Cryx the dirtiest, sneakiest faction around, and just how fun that can all be... Heh heh, see you next week! -Mr. Black

Have you heard about the new miniature craze all the youngsters are playing called Warmachine?

Let me start by saying I love Privateer Press, and I could write an entire article just talking about how I love them as a company, but I'm sure I would come off as some raving fan-boy in the end, despite the fact I have not played their game in years. That being said, time to have a flashback to my first encounter with the game...

I remember way back in the dark times of 2003 when the company first came to light- and I remember how I laughed at the name Warmachine, calling it a Warhammer clone that would die off soon enough... As I said, they were dark times, people just weren't as smart back then as they are now, myself non-withstanding.

I remember picking up the rulebook and giving it the twice-over, seeing if the rules backed up the cool looking miniatures that taunted me every time I walked past, and much to my surprise the rules-set seemed really solid. Given that I picked up the Cryx starter, promptly lost the tiny Deneghra head on the floor only to have a random child find it after some fifteen minutes of looking, and complained about how flimsy the joint holding the Deathripper's leg was. All those concerns faded though after my initial games and as more and more waves of cool miniatures began to be released over the coming months- and yes, I still hated the flimsy joints on the bonejacks.

Point being, in the end I had close to every Cryx miniature released up until Superiority, when the game unfortunately took a downward slope, soon after I stopped playing, the legions of the Nightmare Isle being assigned closet guarding duties. Now here we are in 2010, MKII Warmachine and Hordes have been released, all the faction books (for Warmachine) are now out, and we even have new-fangled plastic warjacks.

 

Plastics! Introducing you to the World of Tomorrow! Today!

Now, just to note, I've kept up with all the Warmachine action since the beta of MKII was announced, so I'm not just stumbling back into this blind. As I said, I love Privateer Press, if we where in high-school I'd be putting little I-Heart-U notes in it's locker everyday until it got boarder-line creepy. I've watched the evolution of the company and it's games over the last few months and have been super excited. So why haven't I, you know, actually played the game in all that time? Well, you see being a writer for Bell of Lost Souls, and by extension a puppet to the maleficent entity known as Bigred, I'm required to (The secret must not be revealed!- Bigred). So now that you know not only why I've been neglecting such a great game, but also the horrible secret of BoLS, we can move onto actually looking at some starter lists and basic tactics, at least those of you who's heart did not suddenly stop at the sheer scale of the terror I have revealed to you.

For those of you who don't know, I have what is clinically referred to as Skarreomania, which would be an unhealthy-obsessions with Skarre, the buxom pirate-queen of the Satyxis Raiders and one of the High Commands of the Cryxian navy. That being said, initially I was going to crawl right back to her and hope she wasn't to mad at me for keeping her locked in the miniatures box for this time. After some thinking though, while she is a fantastic Warcaster, her curve is a bit higher than what I'd want to use just starting out- not that she's overly complicated or anything, just there are simpler options to look at for someone who hasn't even played a dozen games of MKII... It totally has nothing to do with the fact I think she feeds off of spite and anger and would be impossible to control should I release her...

Anger and spite never looked so appealing...

Anyway, for the purposes here we'll be looking at another lovely lady of the Nightmare Isle: Warwitch Deneghra,  who hopefully doesn't hold too much of a personal grudge against me. Looking at her from an MKI to MKII angle not much has really changed, she is still the powerhouse hexer she used to be, capable of crippling the opponent's forces just like old times. Back in the day you ran her with five+ Bonejacks, basically swarming the enemy with them until you found that chink in the armor and finished them off and really since then not much has changed, she still embodies that tactic as well as ever.

So first thing first I researched the caster as mentioned above, got a feel for her play-style before moving on, taking careful note of her spells and which ones I thought would be the most utilized of the lot. Now, all her spells are great, they really are, she is what I would think of when I think of "sorceress", but of the available ones Withering and Parasite will probably see more play- again with the hexing and weakening theme.

Next I took a look at her Tier Lists, a new-fangled contraption in MKII which utilizes a restriction/reward system in list building. Taking a look at her templates I immediately notice her Tier 3 list, which gives her a free Bonejack... Hell, free bonejack, that's another five points, or another 8% to my army! Legal cheating is so much better than plain cheating!

Alright, so I've decided that I wish to go with the Tier 3 Deneghra list, as the Tier four simply didn't seem feasible in 35 pts, not did the rewards for utilizing it seem worth it. That being said, the first thing I'll look at is Warjack options:

Bonejacks: Deathripper, Nightwretch, Ripjaw, Defiler, Stalker, Helldiver

Helljacks: Slayer, Reaper, Nightmare, Corruptor, Leviathan, Harrower 

Ok, well of the lot of Bonejacks I like Deathripper due to cost, Ripjaw due to melee power, and Defiler due to acid template... I feel slightly bad all my Defilers in MKI were used as Scrap Tokens...Oh well, an excuse to buy the new starter!

So, looking at the list I need at least four Bonejacks to net myself a freebie. Since there isn't a point restriction on the free one best to save the slot for an expensive one vs. spending the points on my actual list (I would like to think most people thought of that already...). Well, I have a starter, so let's work with what we have in there:

-Deathripper x2, Defiler x1

Right there we have already spent 13 pts of our available 40 (35+5 warjack), yet we still need to add at least one more warjack to attain our free one. Coincidentally Ripjaws come in packs of two and I just happen to love Armor Piercing and Deneghra loves Arc Nodes, so we'll add in one and claim the other as our freebie Bonejack. I will note here that other options are fine as well, I personally love the Stalker bonejack and believe it has great synergizes with Deneghra's abilities, but in the end I believe more Arc Nodes and the AP of the Ripjaw are a better addition to the army... And being a fancy new plastic model has nothing to do with it, at all.

-Deathripper x2, Ripjaw x2, Defiler x1- 18 pts. (Including one free Ripjaw!)

In those 'jacks we've set up a nice start with something that can hurt infantry (Defiler), deal with solos and other mild annoyances (Deathrippers) and something to deal with heavy ARM models (Ripjaws). All in all a nice well-rounded base to build from. Next we look at the Tier 2 qualifications, as we need them to make this list legal! I know some prefer working up from the starting Tier, but I find it's easier for me to start at the Tier I want then work downwards, filling in any requirements as I go. Again, personal choice, but that's what this entire thing is!

Ok, so now we need four solos to fulfill our Tier 2 requirements, easy though as Cryx has access to some great ones! The first is a no-brainer, Deneghra needs a Skarlock Thrall. Some 80% of the Cryx casters are instantly made 76% better with the addition of a Skarlock Thrall, and the frustration of the opponent will rise 24% should you make good use of it, thus granting you a 41.3% higher chance of winning the game. (Those "statistics" seem really made up.Where are your sources? See me. -Editor)

Taking a look at the other Solos available I'm a big fan of Pistol Wraiths and the new Warwitch Sirens, but I also notice that the Necrotech grands me 1/2 of the Tier condition all by itself, as in paying the points for it actually grands me a Scape Thrall solo as well. So if I were to take two Warwitch Sirens and one Necrotech I'd actually fulfill the condition needed. I can't resist that so we'll go with that set-up for now.

-Deathripper x2, Ripjaw x2, Defiler x1- 18 pts.

-Warwitch Siren x1, Necrotech w/ Scrape, Skarlock Thrall- 5 pts.

23/40 used.

The Warwitche will be a nice addition as it gives me two vital things: more focus to throw around on the jacks, thus giving Deneghra more to cast her spells with, and more anti-infantry power in the way of Venom. It's win-win. The Necrotech, while originally included as a cost saving method, does have his uses as we're running a lot of 'jacks here, and being able to repair/Scrape Thrall them means even should the bonejacks be slain they are still of use, and it's hard to turn down that kind of utility.

So we have our basics down and still some 17 points left to manage. Whatever shall we do with them?!

Well, for starters we're a tiny army, we need some bulk! Looking at our available units, Bile Thralls and Mechanithralls, we see both offer some great utility to the overall army, Biles being great anti-troop and Mechanithralls offering a large bang-for-the-buck. Taking into account the rest of our list though we have a decent amount of anti-troop in the Defiler, Warwitch Sirens, and Deneghra herself, and point-for-point the Bile Thralls are expensive compared to the super-cheap Mechanithralls. Adding into the equation Deneghra's ability to lower opponent's DEF/ARM and the Mechanithralls duel-purpose P+S 12 or 15 attacks and the choice is rather clear for me. Also, since I may or may not have cheated a bit and though a head, I'm going to add a second small unit of Mechanithralls... Small unit for future points purposes... Yes, I can see into the future, or perhaps I'm merely planning a head.

-Deathripper x2, Ripjaw x2, Defiler x1- 18 pts.

-Warwitch Siren x1, Necrotech w/ Scrape, Skarlock Thrall- 5 pts.

-Mechanithrall Unit (Max), Mechanithrall Unit (Min)- 8 pts.

 31/40

Now we're getting down to crunch time, only nine points left and still a lot of options available. For me, I believe I want a Helljack in the army. There are a few reasons for this, one being that they're just plain cool, two being they add a bit of a hard-hitting punch to the army, and three because it puts me a step closer to the Tier 4 list should I want to expand to 50 pts. in the future.

Looking at our options the Slayer would be a natural choice as he comes in the starter... But for a mere point more we get the Reaper, and frankly the Reaper is a 'jack I've wanted to use since MKI, where he unfortunately was... well, let's face it, not worth the points. But now that he can reel in the big 'uns I can't wait to play this guy! The only issue in putting in another 'jack is we're spreading Deneghra a bit thin now- she only has so much Focus to go around and most of it she want's to keep to herself. Sure, you can just run the Bonejacks around plain, only dumping Focus on them when needed, but even then she will still be at less-than-optimal levels! How can we best fix this? Well another Warwitch Siren wouldn't hurt! We'll add her for the same reasons we added the initial one, another focus to spend as well as some more anti-troop power! With those two additions we bring the final list to the following:

Warwitch Deneghra

-Deathripper x2, Ripjaw x2, Defiler x1, Reaper x1- 25 pts.

-Warwitch Siren x2, Necrotech w/ Scrape, Skarlock Thrall- 7 pts.

-Mechanithrall Unit (Max), Mechanithrall Unit (Min)- 8 pts.

40/40

Here we are, a full track of my list-building thoughts beginning to end, even if they are a bit scrambled! We have created a list that has a huge amount of Arc Node threats coming at you from every angle, some sneaky Warwitches roaming around to decimate your ranks, and the legions of Mechanithralls moving forth to smash whatever lies in front of them. To top the whole thing off we still have the dirty tricks and tactics that make Cryx so much fun to play and such a pain to play against! Again this is just a simple list, nothing flashy, nothing overly ornate, just Deneghra and her cronies doing what they do best!

~I can already feel the Cryxian mindset settling back into me! Few things get the gears turning and the blood flowing like some strategic list building, so what do you say next we look into the mindset of playing Cryx? Let's take a look into the mindset of what makes Cryx the dirtiest, sneakiest faction around, and just how fun that can all be... Heh heh, see you next week! -Mr. Black