Why Warmachine?

Originally from Stephane.info.

You are probably a Games Workshop Hobbyist. You know Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40K or even (good heavens!) Lord of The Rings. You find their prices ridiculously high and their rules ridiculously dumb, yet there's little you can do to change anything - you already have thousands of points in half a dozen armies. You know you can't escape. You heard of a game called Warmachine but you doubt (or even fear) it has any potential. Well, you are just like me some time ago. Please read on, it will become interesting.

Stuff of Legends

Years ago, while browsing one of my favorite forums for Games Workshop rumors, I found a strange topic in the flow: Mike Mc Vey, the legendary miniature painter, had left Games Workshop for a new company called Privateer Press, where he would work for as a sculptor. I knew he was a bit fed up of painting, but I could not have imagined it was to the point of leaving the Mother Of The Hobby for a small structure which had not released anything! Later, he made one of the first miniatures for a new wargame: a steam-powered golem called a "Warjack". Some kind of steam-punk robot. The miniature was not without merits, but I didn't like it (things have gone a lot better since.) I soon forgot all of this as I was happy playing Epic, Man o'War, Warhammer and many enjoyable Games Workshop games.

Time passed and the Hobby worsened gradually. Games Workshop started killing entire product lines and watered down rules in each new edition. Year after year, there was less and less Fantasy in Warhammer, while its futuristic counterpart had long ago turned into a dice rolling contest. Along with continual price "adjustments", the discontent of the gaming community was rising too - but unfortunately for dissatisfied players, there was no real alternative. Challengers either failed financially or provided games of no better quality. During this dark age, I never thought of giving up wargames, but I gradually came to realize that most of the distraction I still enjoyed from this hobby came from painting, not playing. I still had fun with a couple game like Necromunda or Epic, but those games being long out of print, it was difficult to attract new players. The trend looked bleak. Was it so hard to find a fun and enjoyable game?

Then came Warmachine.

First contact

Once in a wargames convention, I saw a demo game of Warmachine: two small armies (20 or less miniatures each side) battling each other in a green landscape. The flow was smooth, without blocks of rank and files troops like in Warhammer. Privateer Press' game featured powerful fighter/wizards called Warcasters, which were able to control those Warjacks - steam-powered golem-like constructs with an elementary magical brain - along with more regular troops: pikemen, marksmen and so on. The key to winning a battle was to find the best usage of a warcaster's limited Focus allowance, his arcane power, among spells, Warjack activation and special attacks.

I was very surprised by the miniatures - not only one could really feel the weight of metal, but they looked a lot better in real life than in the rare pictures I remembered of. I asked stupid, really stupid questions ("if a player keeps active Warjacks while his opponent has only troops left, isn't the game basically over?") but remember that I was mostly a Fantasy Battle player at that time - you know, a game where a single big monster can wipe out half an army just with Terror rolls.

Later, I found a long thread in the (dead and missed) Portent forums where people were arguing over respective merits of Warmachine over Warhammer 40K. Defenders of both games had a fierce struggle online. The most interesting point was that when GW-fans were describing the drawbacks of Warmachine, they listed plenty of characteristics that made this game... More appealing to me! Chief complaints were that:

• Warcasters were incredibly powerful over mundane troops, each one having a feat he/she could use once per battle;
• The game relied on Combos of spells, abilities and units to win;
• A defensive attitude did not work.

Wow! Exactly what I was searching for! Fearing to choose the wrong army because of game balance issues - a common problem plaguing Games Workshop publications - I carefully checked the thread about this very topic. As one Warmachine player put it:

Soul storm is too powerful, as Skarre bomb, Temporal Barrier, Wind Rush/Icy Gaze combination, there's an example from this very thread... for each army. How can it be "too powerful", if your enemy has access to something equally "too powerful"?

Could it be possible? I went on different forums, checked polls about the distribution of players: despite local variations, there was nothing close to Space Marine hegemony over Warhammer 40'000 universe. Everyone seemed to agree that the game was balanced across factions - the Warhammer equivalent of "races".

I was hooked.

I frantically searched among game critics, fan sites maintaining translations (this one for french), found an excellent painting site, registered on Privateer Press forums - at every new step I was amazed by what I had found. A game where each faction received a regular bunch of release without pushing existing ones into obsolescence. A line of role-playing game products giving depth to the world and opportunities of play outside the miniature game. A system where FAQ and rule clarifications were actually maintained, sometimes by fans themselves! Can you believe it? An editor allowing all characteristics and abilities of a given miniature to be written in forums! A publisher giving all characteristics of a miniature along with the blister containing it! And even rules in the starter set or as a download, without the need to purchase anything!

Just like common sense finally came back in the world of miniature wargames...

Deep dive

It was time to jump in, but which faction would I play?

Choosing one was easy - I knew that I could do something with any of them. It's not like trying to play Saim-Hann in another company... Therefore, it boiled down to a matter of aesthetic taste. At that time, there were only five factions available (Khador, Cygnar, Menoth, Cryx and the Mercenaries) but Hordes game adds four more. Moreover, just changing your warcaster totally alters the way a similar army is played, and there are dozens of different ones. So, after checking miniatures for the nicest looking ones in my humble opinion, I opted for Khador - a harsh people known for his mastery of ice magic and his brutal efficiency.

Once I received my miniatures, I was very pleased by their casting quality. Nearly no flash nor mold lines and an excellent look and feel. I guess that's because Privateer Press use an alloy with more lead than Games Workshop's calamitous "white metal". Same impression from the rulebook - it's great to discover consistent and crystal-clear rules after all those years of watered down publications full of unclear "count as" references, or explaining seriously that the best dice-rolling player will win any rule argument. And there is the mighty Page 5, worth alone the price of the book. A claim to what wargames miniatures should be in my opinion. I won't reveal more not to spoil the fun - read it yourself!

Since then, I've painted my army and played several games, and boy, this game is wonderful! I've never had so much entertainment even in Battlegroup format where I played with 3 (you read it right, three) miniatures - a Warcaster and his two Warjacks. A battle is fast-paced. You have to jump on every opportunity to outsmart your opponent. I've been severely beaten but, asking for more, I also crushed opposing armies more than once. I've never felt totally betrayed by a single dice roll, a bad deployment or a weak selection - you can always fight with honor and even if lucky rolls may help, they won't win battle alone.

Is Warmachine the perfect game? Should I try it? Sure! No! Maybe. Sorry, was I writing about the first question or the second?

Seriously, if Warmachine is not the perfect game, it's damn close to. As I stated in the beginning of this article, you are probably a Games Workshop customer, dissatisfied but unsure to want to try another game - for the fear of being hooked, which would in turn make meaningless all the time and money you already spent on your existing collection. For the fear of not finding players in your area. For the fear of being disappointed. I know all there feelings, I overcame them. Their very existence is really a tribute to Game Workshop's indoctrination.

I feel truly sad for Warhammer and Warhammer 40K players who don't even want to try Warmachine - the same people who complain again and again over the state of the Hobby and the way Games Workshop handles it. And the very same group who will occasionally fall for another Games Workshop game with reckless abandon.

A Warmachine battle group - the minimum sized army for a game - costs around 30-40 dollars. And contrary to another publisher's games, you can really have fun with what's in the box. Battlegroup armies are not a bland selection of units just made to have people asking for more. You know what? You don't even need to buy anything: a couple Dreadnoughts and a Sergeant and voilà, instant proxy battle group! You can find stat cards and rules for free on the publisher's website. Privateer Press has really an open-minded attitude towards its own game, and now I understand why: they have nothing to fear.

Sorry for aiming so much this article to fellow Games Workshop players - but they are simply impossible to ignore. If you are fond of fantasy wargames or just in search of plain fun, you will like Warmachine. It's full of neat combinations, armies are balanced, rules are sound and easy to remember. Stat cards are a handful summary and a convenient tool for designing a fighting force in minutes. Rolls are made with at least two dices, avoiding the 1-nothing-happens-6-everything-explodes syndrome happening when everything depends on a single die. Now that I discovered this wonderful game, I just feel sorry for all the years I could have enjoyed playing it but didn't. Knowing that your faction of choice will receive updates even if it's not made of super-genetically engineered ultimate warriors helps, too. There's not a "codex" for each army; every book (three of them published at that date) covers all factions at once, so you don't only have characteristics of your troops, but also those of every other faction. With all three books, you know everything you can encounter on a battlefield. No cheaters making up abilities for their army in the middle of a battle, relying on an obscure list you barely know. There are different campaign systems and plenty of refreshing and challenging scenarios.

The key point in my humble opinion is to realize that trying a game of Warmachine, or even buying an army, won't deprive your existing collection of anything. Playing this game won't get you banned from Games Workshop stores or Warhammer Grand Tournaments. Yet I have to admit plain truth: the more I play Warmachine, the less I am tempted by a Warhammer 40'000 evening. And I don't feel guilty about it.

WARMACHINE, a game that rocks so much it has to be written in uppercase!

published on 16 Feb 2006

+++ In case you were wondering what's on Page 5, check out this link.