Cost of Entry?

[Seneschal]

So, thinking of getting into playing Warmachine.

Could some kind soul enlighten me as to:

How big is a "typical" game?
How many models will I need to buy?
How much will this cost?


Thank ye kindly.

[Primarch]

For starters, get a copy of the rules, one of the starter boxes and maybe a couple of packs of whichever troops take your fancy. Once you get a couple of games in then you can start to expand.

[The Other Dave]

For a bit more detail: a "typical" game is usually between 25 and 50 points, but one of the nice things about WM is that it scales down nicely - you can have very exciting, interesting, balanced games at 15 points or so, which just happens to be the points level of the starter boxes.

So if you don't mind cribbing a rulebook off somebody, you can buy a starter box and get playing right away! to expand up to 25 points, you'd typically be adding a unit or two of troops and maybe a solo, depending on the eliteness of the army you've chosen. And you can have lots and lots of gaming at 25 points before getting tired of it - some folks (me included!) never do. Just swapping out a warcaster with the same 25-point force will give you something that plays completely differently.

Naturally, this being a wargame, you're going to want to expand your force eventually, and you can end up spending a lot on warmachine, but to get started, all you really need is a starter box. I haven't checked the local online retailers to see what they're charging, but I'm going to guess something in the 5000-6000 yen range?

[me_in_japan]

As a newbie myself, I went for a somewhat different approach to the ones suggested by Stu and ToD. I looked at the PP website and decided what army i wanted based purely on aesthetics. Within each army there is a lot of choice, and the first choice you have to make is : What warcaster will I use? Thereafter youre going to want a big mech (or 2), a small mech (or 2 or 3), and some infantry. You can get the starter box if you want, but in my case I play cryx, and the models that appealed to me were the deathjack, the arachnid warjacks, and the witches. My most-interesting warcaster was the witch coven of gharlghast. Now, not a single one of these models appear in the army box. So, i bought my stuff as individuals.

essentially there are many, many ways to approach entry-level Warmachine, and you basically need to think "why do i want to play this game?" and go from there.

Whichever method you choose, its still a far, far cheaper game to play than 40k.

[Seneschal]

Cheers for all the info.
Glad to hear how cheap it is relative to a new 40K force...

I'll find a store, grab a few models and see if I can ever get time to paint them.

[Primarch]

Cheers for all the info.
Glad to hear how cheap it is relative to a new 40K force...

I'll find a store, grab a few models and see if I can ever get time to paint them.

On a model by model basis, Warmahordes is more expensive than GW since it is nearly all metal, so dont go buying 4000 points worth.
On a "I want to play this game" basis, its cheap though.

[me_in_japan]

to be fair, in warmahordes terms, 4000pts is about PP's yearly production quota...

[Primarch]

to be fair, in warmahordes terms, 4000pts is about PP's yearly production quota...

I know. I wish they would speed things up, I dont like to be kept waiting.

[Seneschal]

One thing that's puzzling me a bit is the points costs of things as referred to on various sites.

Am I right in thinking that at some point recently there was an edition or rules change, and everything had its cost divided by ten (roughly)?

[me_in_japan]

ah, yes. The newer edition of the rules (as of january this year) has everything pointed at between 1 and 12 points, with 1pt being a wee plebby solo model, and 12 points being the Cryxian Deathjack. A unit of 6 infantry will set you back about 5 points, depending on skills n whatnot.

I never played Mk I, but Im given to understand that the rules changes were pretty comprehensive. When you buy models you will sometimes get old stock, and that means that the stat card in the box will be from Mk I, and therefore useless. Thats why PP now sell packs of cards for each faction. When they brought out the Mk II rules, they also released new faction books for all the factions (thats 7 books in about 6 months. They then followed it up by doing the same thing for Hordes. Quite why GW have to take freakin aeons between codex updates is beyond me...)

So, aye. While some tactical info websites might still have valid info on them, anything that list points as "128" or similar is going to have mostly invalid rules, and certainly invalid points costs.

That PM I sent you should help with getting up to date info on points n whatnot.