Warmachine - First Impressions...

This article could alternatively be called - "sometimes those first impressions are wrong though ;-)"

So after my demo a couple of weeks ago I finally got around to assembling some more Warmachine bits and pieces in anticipation of an evening of gaming yesterday with my friends Mike and Dave (they don't have fancy internet names, lol).

In all honesty I wasn't really approaching the system with any real thoughts of getting into it seriously. The few games (well quite a few actually) that I'd watched seemed to involve two armies charging towards each other, meeting in the middle, followed by whoever hit first killing things before they got a chance to hit back then some random guy (or girl) hiding at the back who I hadn't noticed got killed and then the game ended. The demo game I had didn't change this impression either.

Still as my friends seem to think it's the best thing ever I thought I best give it a proper chance before I moved on...I had the models after all....

I was using a Warwitch called Deneghra as apparently the Witch Coven are a bit complicated to use as a starting Master...I mean Warcaster (best start getting the terminology right)...

She's a fantasy female sorceress so is therefore wearing stockings and impractical armour...

The basic mechanics were fairly intuitive and as a Malifaux player the idea of having cards with all the models stats on it was a familiar concept and one I'm a big fan of.  After a quick course in basic tactics which seemed primarily to consist of "make sure your caster doesn't die" we got started. It was fairly early on in the game that I learned that many of my impressions from watching other games were incorrect and that it was actually a far more tactical experience than I was expecting.....here's where my first impressions proved to be less than accurate...

Firstly, the idea of winning/losing by 'Caster Kill' actually created tactical situations.

The casting of spells and the enhancing of Warjacks (Helljacks in the case of Cryx) uses up a finite resource namely Focus which can only be allocated within your casters control area (which is double your Focus) and most Spells (mine at least) were quite short range. This required a balancing act between being close enough to enhance my 'Jacks' and far enough away to stay out of danger though this is somewhat mitigated by the ability to cast spells through certain of my armies models (some models have something called an 'Arc Node' and can be used as the point of origin for certain spells). Overall this created quite an immersive experience as I attempted to influence the battle without getting myself killed and the balancing of these two necessary game aspects was an interesting change from my usual game experiences (both 40K and Malifaux are still quite winnable with the sacrifice of your leader...).

Secondly, the rush to meet in the middle wasn't as simple as it first appeared.

Working out threat ranges of enemies and the fact that you can cripple an enemy before it can hit you back encourages an aggressive style of play that was very enjoyable. Edging around one another hoping that your enemy will enter your threat range before you enter his leaves you open to attack from fast flanking units and to be fair isn't really what the game is about. What I perceived as a mad rush to the centre was more often than not an attempt to get units into combat while still being supported enough to not just have these be suicide runs. Units supporting one another is very important...which brings me nicely onto the third thing I was mistaken about...

Thirdly, there's a lot more unit synergy than is obvious to the casual observer.

Activation order and the use of buffs, de-buffs and feats makes a tremendous difference to unit effectiveness. I went from a situation where I'd effectively written off any chances of surviving the turn to actually winning due to the correct use of a number of abilities in the right order*. Though in any game system certain choices are optimal it seemed to me that there were very few useless models in the game as long as they were supported by the correct units. It was nice to play a game where the importance of optimal units came second to knowing how to use the units you had. It seemed to me that my under-performing units would have been fine with a different Caster or in an alternate army list.

*Mike was rather helpful in the area of tactical advice and as it was my first game, Dave didn't seem to mind, lol. I doubt he'll be so generous next time though...

In conclusion I am forced to admit that most of my early impressions or Warmachine were at best uninformed and at worst completely inaccurate, lol. I'm looking forward to tweaking my army list and seeing what horrible combinations I can come up with ;-)

All will fall before the servants of the Dragon Lord Toruk...after a bit of practice that is.....

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.