My Low Focus Stat

In my never ending quest to stop failing at Warmachine, I've decided to get smart and focus my efforts. Not on one faction, mind you, because that would be utter madness. Instead I'm going to figure out two good casters that I enjoy from Khador, Circle, and Skorne, build lists for them, and play the heck out of those lists.

I was going to do this with a 3 list format, but I found myself spreading myself too thin and not really focusing on learning the strengths and weaknesses of the lists. When I forced myself to pick between two, things got much easier. I started with one caster I really liked and made their list, then I'd try to figure out what matchups they'd struggle with and picked from the small pool of casters that would help them.

I finally decided on this idea when my list-building-buddy Fritz told me to check out a Khador list made by Muse on Minis. They went through the process of looking at a list they already had (Butcher 3, who I really want to play), and tried to figure out his weaknesses. They decided a caster that could handle a swarm of troops was needed and they decided on The Old Witch, who is probably the coolest character in the entire Warmachine fiction. I'd always wanted to play her but I kept getting distracted with other casters. Well no more!

They went through a very long and in-depth process for building her, and it gave me a lot of insight on how I should look at models. I sat there with my iPad and built the list alongside them, and when we were done I knew I wanted to play the list. Because it was built with Butcher 3 in mind, I decided to just copy/paste their idea and run those lists as well.

That got me excited about my other factions. Skorne has been a tough faction for me to figure out because I basically have collected a large force from trading, yet have never fielded a single model. I didn't really get their playstyle, and trying to sit and build lists for the casters I own left me frustrated and in possession of many unfinished 50 point lists. After listening to the Muse guys build for Khador, I decided to take that same principle and figure out how I wanted to play Skorne.

One warlock I know I want to play is Dominar Rasheth. He is super tricksy and I could finally run a themed list that wasn't completely awful. I still wasn't entirely sure what he did since it seemed like he could take down large models or thin down troops, so I hit the wonderful Skorne forums to seek advice. Apparently he's not a fan of a lot of bodies on the table, so just like with Butcher 3 I needed something to clear out a field full of low-ARM models. I gave them a list of warlocks I was interested in running alongside Rasheth in the hopes that one would fit the bill (mostly because I don't want to run Makeda and her legion of troops). Lucky me, my two top choices fit the bill! I had wanted to try Zaal ever since I got a skeleton of his preferred list in a trade, so now I have 2 lists for Khador and Skorne!

Two down, three to go. I knew Circle would be my hardest choice because I like a bit of everything with every warlock. Baldur makes terrain and plays for attrition, Kromac is insanely aggressive and violent, both Kruegers like to play Zeus sans toga, eMorvahna is stupid-broken (though not my cup of tea), and Cassius has to be one of the most fun-looking warlocks out there. I decided to go with Baldur because I like his beefiness and ability to spawn forests everywhere, leaving me way too many casters to choose for my 2nd choice. To the forums!

While trying to figure out my final caster I was also talking to Fritz. How sad is it when a friend is genuinely impressed that you've managed to focus down two of your three factions? Fortunately I'm still completely unfocused about picking a single faction... but hey, baby steps.

After a little looking around (and podcast-listening while cleaning and painting) I landed on Cassius and pKrueger. But oh the difficulty I had in choosing between them! Cassius has a lot of depth, cool ways to build his lists, and can spawn a freaking 10" forest. On the other hand, I could sing Greased Lightning while playing Krueger and cooking my opponent's models without even trying.

My decision?





Why it could be chained lightning!

I'm pretty sure there's potential for a fan video in here somewhere.

I'll try to report back with how well this goes. This idea really lives and dies by me actually playing games, but my back seems to be on the mend so I should be chucking dice soon enough.


See you tomorrow!