playgamecafe

My family and were talking about our fun night last Thursday and the topic came up that we don't know who plays which Factions, and what they thought the strengths and weaknesses of each were.

I thought it would be a good idea for the regular/semi-regular players to list which factions (both Warmachine and Hordes) they play and what drew them to them.

I play Protecterate of Menoth and I chose the faction because I like the religous fanatic theme and they look like cool models to paint and collect.

Robert has Cygnar, and he like it because he likes the ranged combat aspect of the army.

Karen plays Cryx and she things the models look cool and she has always had sort of fascination with the Undead.

I'm looking forward to reading more about who my potential friendly opponents are and why they play who they do.

Tons upon tons of Cygnar. Cygnar is above average at everything. They have an answer for everything. Not always the best answer, but it is there. If they had any distinct advantages, it's how widely available ranged attacks are. Unfortunately the majority of them are pow 10.

Plentiful amount of mercenaries, mostly pirates. Mercs have numerous weaknesses, but a few, incredible strengths. Pirates have sheer numbers to their advantage, and key powerful solos.

Just started up on Khador. Khador is slow and purposeful. Walking towers of armor and terrain advantage.

I have about 400 points of Legion. Bought it for a slick 350 Ryhas assassination army to use at Warmachine Weekend (down in Springfield) but ended up not having anybody to go with. Legion has the most perfect troops. Powerful, dodgy, miles upon miles of special abilities. The lack of any decent armor is their one folly.

Khador of course. Because Khador truly has an answer for everything, and that answer is a giant axe delivered to your enemy's head. Khador has the hardest troops to outright kill, without any special protectorate tricks. We have the toughest jacks, with more armor on my squishiest jack than most of your entire line. And it is a safe bet that my POW is probably 2 points higher than yours in any category.

The only crippling weakness khador has is the lack of real arcnodes, but it is only because the caster's are so ridiculous. We also lack any real massed fire troops, but Widowmakers and Mortars make up for most of that.

I picked up Khador at first because they had the coolest looking 'jacks, the Russian theme interested me, and Widowmakers and Doomreavers.


I chose Legion, honestly because of the models, everything else was secondary. The warcasters are almost all sexy ladies and the beasts are all mutated dragons. Whats not to like?

As most know, most legion beasts ignore most of the rules of the game, be it line of sight or terrain. The army tends to be really fast one way or another and hits like a falling house. Unlike my Reds tho, they're kind of sissy and will go down if you breathe on them too hard.

Khador tends to go with extremes. Super armored killdudes who can barely move and are points heavy, or WINTERGUARD! The guys with middle to low stats, no staying power, and low LOW cost.

Also there is almost no downside to the mortar. Range 20 makes it one of the few artillery pieces you can take on the attack.

Winterguard are secretly not part of my faction, its a dirty trick by cygnar selling their cut-rate trenchers to the motherland.... til maybe after 2.0

Cygnar stormblades like to pretend that all six of them will make it to melee.

So right now I am hearing:


Khador (2 Players)
Cygnar (2 Players)
Menoth (1 - Me)
Cryx (1 Player)
Legion (1 Player)

I think that I saw another Menoth player last Thur. That would make 2. If I'm not mistaken the owner plays Crx which would also make 2. Am I missing any of the regulars?

I am making a wish list of Hordes faction/armies to play and right now the Circle appeals to me. Karen is intersted in Skorne, and Robert likes Legion. Right now this is definitively in the "If I had unlimited resources" category of wishful thinking, but its fun to speculate and dream a little sometimes.

The other Jason and Tom the store owner both play cryx. I know Jay just picked up the Skorne Battle box. Tim plays Menoth though he apparently doesnt pay much attention to the boards. There's another guy who's name escapes me who mostly plays trolls and mercs. And Chris crossley plays Khador as well, we might see more of him after tax season.

YES CRYX, WE CAN SEE YOU.

Tom, the shop owner plays Cryx. His sons play Legion and Cygnar, though they tend to be pretty busy.

I'm Chris Crossley, for those that don't know me.

I don't get to play often, but when I do:


Cygnar
I got into the game with Cygnar. I'm a roleplayer and a theme player. I liked the Cygnar backstory better. I really enjoyed Stryker's story...then they turned him dark...but he got redeemed!

Despite any shortcomings, I went whole hog into the "lightning" aspect of the faction...Stormblades, Stormguard, Storm Lances, Stormclad and Thunderhead! I've got plenty of all of these. I think I can do a 2000+ army of Stryker's Stormblade special forces.

Cryx
Not one to have ANY self restraint in a game, I bought two Cryx armies from players getting out of the game. I needed something for my Cygnar to fight against friends that didn't have any pieces. They have yet to be played. I absolutely love the undead/scavenger aspect as well as the Haley/Deneghra backstory.

Khador
I really liked the inclussion of unique Jacks like Cygnar's Thunderhead...and then I saw the Behemoth. So I bought in. My initial plan was to ONLY get Jacks and Casters. Then I got into the Iron Fang Pikemen...and then the Doomreavers caught my eye. I still don't have as much Khador as Cygnar or Cryx, but it's a NICE wall of metal! These pieces hold another special place in my heart because to date, the seven Khador pieces that I've painted are the ONLY pieces that I've painted.

Mercenaries
I'm still not sure why I started picking up mercs other than the Pirate genre caught my eye at the time. I've got a decent sized Pirate force. However, it's the Llael nation pieces that I'm most tied to. I bought an Ashlynn and Nomad painted together and bought two more Nomads to complete my Three Musketeer Battle Group. I enjoyed playing that team in a 3-person free-for-all. I want to get a Vangard and Talon at some point as well.

Trollbloods
I had some friends getting into Hordes and decided to try that as well. The Trollbloods and Circle were the only ones that I was interested in at the time and a friend was already playing Circle. So Trollbloods it was. I'm mainly just interested in the Warbeasts and Casters for this game (like when I started Khador). I played them once and it was fun.

Skorne
A friend was looking to get rid of his Skorne army and I had the spare cash at the time so there you go. I think the titans are cool, but other than that, I haven't delved further into this faction and I've yet to play them.


I'm obviously not the player to ask "what are the best killer combos" and such. I CAN play uber tactically and I can see combo options. However, I play this game with the pieces that fit the "themes" that I'm looking for and not what the most powerful pieces are. I try to lead my forces to victory no matter what troops are at my command or what my opponent brings against me. (I've had mixed results as you will in battle.)

I picked Cryx because I like playing things that are "unbelievable". Yes, even big walking robots and people dressed in heavy armor with weapons are conceivable in our world, but "dead" things that battle and can be painted spooky and/or gross was what intrigued me.

What I like about them is several things. Their big jacks are fast, they have arc node chickens that are fast, they have some good ranged guys, and there troops are intimidating.

Cryx don't like to get hit first! Troops of another force can easily tear apart a 100+ point Cryx warjack, so I avoid charging my jacks into troops. It takes strategy to play Cryx because they do have a glass jaw, but I really like them because no matter how many units of yours that get slaughtered, you still have a chance to do something tricky and kill their warcaster!

Game Cafe


Tom

welll,
1 I have a lot of trollbloods, mainly I only play dire trolls with Hoarluk though

2 have about 3000 pts of pirates

3 have about 2000 pts of Seaforge commission (dwarves)

4 have about 2000 pts of Circle (mainly tharn, ok, all tharn and beasts)

5 have about 1000 pts of other mercs (magnus, trollbloods, etc)

6 have about 500 pts of Cygnar

7 have about 500 pts of skorne

8 have about 600 pts of minions for hordes

well, as you can tell, I'm kind of an addict and to be honest I don't get to play as much as I would like, I go outta town a lot, I like to travel.

My favorites are the circle right now, but I like my pirates and dwarves a lot.

I play Cygnar becuase I like to shoot at things and when it comes to shooting there's nearly nothing better then Cygnar.

I've also played Legion in the past. I'm horrible at hordes but I was a big fan of Legion. Unfortunately in order to win with them I had to cheat a lot.

Also: Tax season is nearly over. I'll be back soon and there will be blood.

I. Drink. Your. MILKSHAKE!