The Gentleman's League

So for the last 5 weeks my local game club has been running a Warmachine/Hordes League that has been escalating.  While it took some ideas from the Privateer Press Journeyman League, it had very different and separate rules for it.  It was really simple: you received 3 points for a victory, 1 point for a loss, and -1 if you didn't get a game in for that one week, and each person could only submit 2 game results per week (max).  This week is the last week of the league and when I was in there on Friday I felt some real malaise about the end of the League since the player at the top had such a huge lead over everyone else (he had 10 points more than I did) and with only 2 games allowed, there's almost no incentive for anyone to play anymore.  This got me thinking about the goals behind these escalation leagues and the goals behind them.  With those goals in mind, might there be, perhaps, a better way of doing it?  And thus, I propose: The Gentleman's League!  But first, some background.

How useful are the Battlegroup boxes?

With all of the anxiety surrounding 40k right now (both due to the upcoming edition change and price hikes) I anticipate that there will be many in the future looking to expand their gaming options to other games.  Naturally, there can sometimes be some tension as one side will assert that their game is "better" than the other, but the fact remains that some might be looking to expand their horizons, and that's okay!  For those who might be interested in starting Warmachine/Hordes - or just to add another faction - the battlegroup boxes are naturally a great place to start.  These are all the same cost ($49.99) and offer a warcaster/warlock and some warjacks/warbeasts from which you can build a larger force in the future.

Now that all of the battlegroups are plastic, I think it's time to look at each and I will rate them based on two criteria: 1) Value - compared to the cost of purchasing the models separately, and 2) Longevity - how useful will the models be for building lists and expanding on the faction in the future.  I like to give weighted values to these, so while I might seem a bit harsh on particular scales, I do rate them relative to each other.  For the record, I think that all of the battlegroups are worth buying because they are at least 25% cheaper than buying the models separately and they all give a great feel for what the game is like.

Learning Center: Focus in Warmachine

In our second installment of learning how to play Warmachine/Hordes, we will discuss the main tool of your warcaster in games of Warmachine: Focus.  While Hordes has rules which are playable against Warmachine, today we will be focusing (pun intended) on some of the rules that apply specifically to Warmachine.  Last time we discussed the core mechanics, specifically how we use dice to represent the results of our desired actions, specifically looking at attacking with melee or ranged weapons.  Let us look again at the cards of the two warcasters we were comparing: Coleman Stryker and High Exemplar Kreoss.

List Building: The Journeyman League!

While there was no power in Connecticut, I decided that I would trek up to Boston to spend time with my girlfriend.  I had a mini-vacation, sure, but she still had to work, go to class, and write papers and such.  What was a guy to do?  You guessed right: GAME ON!

I spent 3 of my 4 days off hanging out at The Whiz, my "L"GS (I say "L" because it's only local when I'm in the Boston area).  I had some fun crafting and playing a new style of Magic: The Gathering deck I like to call the "Mad Scientist" deck, but I wanted to take advantage of the time to play some Warmachine/Hordes.  That was when I heard from one of the Press Gangers that the store was starting a Journeyman League.  If you click that link you'll find out what the Journeyman League is, but I will summarize it by saying that it's a 6 week event that is designed to encourage new players to get into the game by starting small with the standard faction battle box of models.  The League tallies points for games played and the number and type of models you paint and you can earn prizes (and neat patches!) depending on how many points you earn.  Even though I'm not a new player, I decided that I would join up so that I could motivate myself to get some of my Circle painted in time for Templecon in February.

Learning Center: Warmachine/Hordes Core Mechanics

So its been a busy week but I hope that my articles have inspired you to at least be curious about Warmachine/Hordes if you have not played before!  If you have played before, I hope that I might have inspired you to start playing again.  I will be writing two more articles that will follow in the next couple of weeks, explaining the differences between fury and focus, and some of the more common special rules in the game.  If you want to learn the basics, this is an article for you! 

Warmachine and Hordes are two different sides of the same coin - a miniatures game where big steam-powered machines called warjacks are thrown into combat against giant beasts of flesh and bone!  Do you dream of giant robot combat?  Do you get excited by the idea of giant 6-limbed elephants slamming giant werewolves into the ground?  This is definitely a game of brutal combat, hardcore, aggressive and tons of fun!