Tactics of Warmachine : Part 1

In order to concrete ideas in my head, I have started a new thread of posts on the tactics of Warmachine. To start off, I will begin where it all begins - List building.

Most games of Warmachine are at 4 point limits; 350, 500, 750 and 1000. Important things to note here are 750 allows you to bring an Epic Warcaster, and 1000 allows you to bring 2 Warcasters, one of which can be Epic. The other point limits only allow one Warcaster.

When choosing a point limit, it is important that when building an army, you can go under the point limit as much as you want but you cannot go over it. Due to the rather inflexible point denominations of Warmachine units / characters, it is often tricky to hit the point limit exactly. So dont stress too much, anywhere up to 5 points under is relatively common.

With Warmachine specifically, there are two major types of armies that you can build, Warjack heavy and Infantry heavy (also known as Infantrymachine). There has been a recent trend with expansions favouring Infantry over Warjacks, but with the release of Legends Warjacks are now back up to par, with some excellent choices available, specifically for Khador Drago and the fearsome Beast 09.

Warjack heavy has its advantages - depending on which types of 'Jacks you go for, you can have a solid mix of anti-infantry, anti-jack and anti-caster options. Your overall theme for the army should be a solid wall of metal backed up by support casters and supporting ranged or melee troopers. When focusing on Warjacks, your army is slower, stronger and tougher than if you went Infantry heavy. Most Warjacks are ideal for killing enemy Warjacks, and are so tough that Infantry have a difficult time killing them. Example: Khador Juggernaut, PS=19 Ice Axe minces Jacks, and ARM 20 means only a few infantry (exceptions being Weaponmasters and specialist anti-Jack infantry) can even put one point of damage on it.

Infantry heavy also has its advantages, with many more options available you can create a much more diverse force. You will almost always have numerical superiority, and can have a lot of varied units to perform different tasks. Unlike Warjacks who can have multiple roles, infantry tend to do one specific task much better than any other, like anti-infantry infantry, who cannot kill a Jack even if they tried. When focusing on Infantry, you generally have a quick, mobile and flexible army. Infantry can kill any enemy, as long as the specific unit is tailored for that role. Example: Widowmakers, excellent at killing single-wound models, but have a tough time killing anything else without buffs or feats.

I will go into more detail into synergy between your units, and the unholy mix of Jacks + Infantry in the next exciting episode!!