The Return.

After nearly a year away from Warhammer 40,000 I have begun playing again. So...why now? Watching a tournament my local store held a few weeks ago and getting speak with an old friend about the game got my brain thinking about 40k again. So I started doing my research into how 6th edition has changed the armies that I used to play, Space Wolves and Dark Eldar.

My main Space Wolves list was a Loganwing so they wouldn't change much, if at all. However, my Wych Cult Dark Eldar list was drastically reduced in its effectiveness. This was the main reason I stopped playing 40k, my favorite army needed to be drastically re-tooled in order to make it work in 6th edition and I just wasn't willing to spend the money on the overhaul it would need at the time. So I decided to focus my wargamer brain on learning Warmachine/Hordes. Which I did.

GODZILLAAAAAAAAAA!

OK, not quite as awesome as Godzilla but it's still pretty cool. I know we've had the rules for this behemoth for quite some time but that's a far cry from actually having the model. Finally, the Archangel has arrived.

Like so many other Hordes players, I had been struggling with the prospect of actually purchasing my factions Gargantuan. Seeing as only one of them (Mammoth) actually stacks up against the Colossals that the Warmachine factions received so many months ago. It's a bit disappointing to see these amazing models have rules that make you not want to take them in a lot of your lists. I understand that the Fury mechanic is a lot more powerful than Focus, so expecting the base stats and abilities of the Gargantuans to be on par with Colossals was a bit too much to ask. Fine. However, when you take into account how each Hordes faction pushes their beasts it's easy to see the errors Privateer Press made.

Something Wicked This Way Comes...

As some of you know I have recently begun playing Cryx. This being my first Warmachine faction I was pretty excited to start learning how the other half lives. Thus far my experience with Warmachine and Cryx has been quite enjoyable. My win/loss record is very good and I am having fun learning the many differences that exist between Warmachine and Hordes.

As my experience level with Cryx increases so does my collection of horrible murder machines. A plastic helljack kit and Deathjack were my first purchases and they were finished some time ago. Maybe three weeks ago I was able to make a few more purchases for my tiny Cryx army; epic Skarre, a Satyxis Raider Captain, and a pair of Pistol Wraiths.

It's spooky in here.

As a follow up to my last post about starting a Cryx army I have a bit of a progress report on my foray into the Nightmare Empire. I've been able to get in a number of games with my new faction and I have to say I am really enjoying Cryx.

Since I decided to start Cryx I've been playing them as much as I can. I believe I've played around 6-8 games with Cryx in the past three weeks or so and it's been a fun challenge learning how to play Warmachine. I'm pretty much locked in on building the following 35pt list.

Greasy Death Machines

So I've finally decided to start playing a Warmachine faction. Seeing my local group have more Hordes factions has inspired me to take my first steps to the Warmachine side of the game.

So far I still prefer Hordes over Warmachine but I've only played four games with some concept lists that I drew up. So I don't have enough information or experience with Warmachine to make a firm judgement just yet.

But which faction did I choose and what did I base this decision on? And the answer is....

WM/H > WH40k

Now that we're an entire month into 2013 I thought I'd share a few things. Firstly, I still really enjoy playing Warmachine/Hordes and I don't see myself playing Warhammer 40k for a long time. Thus, my flag will be in the Privateer Press camp for the foreseeable future. Why? Because 6th edition 40k is ridiculous. Just about everyone in my gaming group plays 40k so I get a lot of opportunity to watch the game being played. As I watch these games and a new 6th edition rule comes into effect I ask what's happening. From what I can tell from watching these games as well as conversations with 40k players I have concluded that everything added to the game in 6th edition is dumb.

2013 looks promising.

After a long 2012 of trying to get more people in my gaming group to play Warmachine/Hordes I'm finally beginning to see progress. I have four people playing regularly now and another two who own starter armies and are excited to learn how to play over the next few weeks. With only six players our meta isn't very diverse yet but we'll get there eventually. Currently we have all four Hordes factions represented but only Khador and Cryx on the Warmachine side of things. I'd like that to even out a bit in the coming year but I'm not in control of that. Besides, monsters are way cooler than robots. I nearly had a pretty big SNAFU recently though.