Newbie need advices with Old Witch

[Hicks]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about taking the plunge and starting out Warmachine, as I hear it's a very good game compared to what GW has been offering these last couple of years. I had a hard time choosing a faction, but in the end I think Khador is the best choice. It's the only faction where I like pretty much all the models and I'm really into absurdly though robots.

I chose the Old Witch as my first caster, but I'm also interested in the Butchers and Sorcha. That said, I'd like it if more experiences players could guide me with my purchases. Of course, I'll be getting the Khadoran part of the 2 player starter to start my collection.

Thanks!

P.S. Aiming for 35pts games.

[Darwin_green]

15-25 point games are good since they'll be more forgiving on your turn activations.

Sorcha and the butcher are usually the best casters to get into the game with. That could be said about any of the warcasters in the Main rule book.

here's the Battle College article on her.
http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/mkiiOldWitch

[paddyalexander]

The Old Witch can be tricky to use, she is very good at board manipulation with being able to teleport herself or the scrap jack around the table or throwing out gallows to pull enemy models out of possition. Her feat also prevents enemies from rushing in to sieze objectives or will make the think twice before charging. Also be prepared to die a lot because she is very squishy.

I would really recommend starting with a more straight forward caster untill you have a firm grip on the rules. Sorcha1, Vlad1 and the Butcher are all great to start off with. They are straight forward to use but they have some great tricks and abilities that can be exploited as you become more experienced.

[Hicks]

Ok, well I'm dead set on using the Witch eventually, but I will probably start out with Sorcha as she is included in the core game. So any suggestions, or Khador staples I should get first?

[paddyalexander]

The battle box or the two player starter set is a good start. In either case Sorcha, a Juggernaut & a Destroyer are all solid choices with the Man O' War Shocktroopers being very resiliant unit that can hit hard in melee.

When going from the starter box to 15 points the Widowmaker Unit is often recommended. Personaly I'm not a big fan of them myself (but that is more my own playstyle than anything). I like to run a Manhunter and a Kovnik Lord solos at that points level instead. The Manhunter is an excellent melee piece whilst the Kovnik Lord can take the Destroyer and run it like it is getting two focus a turn, while also providing a magic spray for dealing with incorporeal models.

Both Winter Guard units, the Infantry & the Riflemen are excellent when run with the solo Kovnik Joe. The infantry are a toolbox unit when kitted out with their unit & weapon attachments. The Riflemen provide board control in the form of suppressive fire (placing an AoE on the table that enemy models take damage from if they enter it) and long range low damage shooting. Kovnik Joe can make himself and a Winter Guard unit either very accurate, very resiliant or better in melee for a turn.

If you are planning on running multiple warjacks then Battle Mechanics are excellent, being able to repair damaged Warjacks.

My favourate Warjack of the game is the Devastator. Arm 25 (drops to 17 if the model takes an action), bulldoze (pushes models 2" away from itself when it moves) and rain of death (auto hitting pow 18 blast damage to models in base contact & pow 9 blast damage to models within 3") makes this a near perfect balance of offencive and defensive capabilities with the only let down being the faction standard speed of 4.

Iron Fang Pikemen are out of fashion at the moment but I really like them. Again a solid mix of offensive capabilities (reach, P&S 13, critical knockdown & combined melee attack) and defensive abilities (shield wall & defencive formation from the unit attachment).

[Hicks]

Thanks for the tips! I am leaning toward getting the full Winter Guard deathstar setup right now, but widowmakers and some solos are high on my list too.