New Faction Advice

[Madcore]

Hi all,

I am new to the forum, being a W40K player, i have never played Hordes or Warmachine. That being said, i am very interested in doing so. I have read a each factions and the ones the interest me are mostly Cygnar or Skorne....

The only thing that worries me about Cygnar, is that they seem to be mostly a shooting army....I am looking for an army that can do both shooting and melee. Being an Imperial guard player, i am very used to shooting only....I just want to make sure that they are not only good at shooting but that they can also hold their grounds in melee....

I am leaning toward these army simply because i think they look cool....just want to make sure they can hold their ground while being versatile...

Anyway...glad to be here and looking forward to buy my first models...

Regards

[Joseph_B]

They really shine in shooting however you will most likely always get into melee with most of your units. The strength of cyngar melee is the fact that they shot the crap out of the unit charging them or who they charged.

[Lachlan the Mad]

Welcome Madcore! Your choice in faction does not matter to me, because all non-Everblight factions are equally delicious!

Cygnar are not a shooty-shooty-bang-bang army in the same sense as the Imperial Guard, because that isn't the way Warmachine works. The rules don't really allow it. Cygnar has some of the longest-range guns in the game... meaning they have a range of more than 12". Cygnar are about as "shooty" as your average Ultramarines force; they use bullets to wear the enemy down and hopefully kill stuff before the inevitable massive pile-up of tangled metal in the middle of the battlefield.

So if you want "shooting and melee", Cygnar are probably the easiest choice. Other factions can do it with certain army list builds (Khador, Retribution, and Legion come to mind), but Cygnar armies are almost always shooty, unlike the others which require a specific build.

[Stuh42l]

To tell you a bit about Skorne, is to tell you a tale of grand melee. Skorne can shoot, and has some units a beasts made for it, but you will often find your lists has no guns in it unless you make an effort to add them.

Try to think of the Gladiator Titan as a giant angry bullet that you fire at the enemy.

[Feren]

Skorne especially with Makeda either version of her, strapping rockets to on those dam Titans sending them at your enemy at Mach 3.

[PG_Mrrrf]

Welcome! As a couple members suggested you can build lists to specialize in whatever you like in most factions. Cygnar is looked at as shooty because almost all of their units have some sort of ranged attack of some sort. An example is the elite Stormblades, primarily melee (and good at it) but they have a short range lighting attack as well. With their attachments they get very versatile.

Good Luck!

[RayofPaintStudios]

Between those 2 armies, it depends on which you want to do better. If you want to primarily shoot and use melee to sweep up the remaining forces, go Cygnar. If you want the option of range, but want to focus on melee, go Skorne. You can build each army how you'd like, but you don't want to drop $300 only to discover the army isn't performing how you'd like.

[Panzeh]

Cygnar has a couple of solid ranged units(gun mages and long gunners with certain casters) and several good shooting warjacks. Their main strength is having A+ warcasters and having access to a lot of good mercs, as well as a good ranking officer that can make certain ones even better. Between the pirate brick(a mob of pirates with a bunch of support solos that make them great), boomhowlers (a tough-to-kill group of trolls), nyss hunters(a combo ranged unit and hard hitting weaponmaster), or even steelheads(a dirt cheap infantry unit that makes its related cavalry the best cavalry in the game), you should be able to find a melee option that works for you.

Skorne has a lot of synergy between units, casters, and beasts and plenty of options. It has some great infantry synergy, and can run herds of elephants to just wreck things. They have great fury management and can go hard with their beasts. They can also take heavy infantry and get high armor values with it, bricking up and walking down the field. Their shooting is lackluster, they have a unit for it, but it isn't a strength for the faction.

One thing I will say is, play what appeals to you on one level or another. Most stuff in this game will work okay, and can win games for you. The big dynamic of warmachine is that just about everything can kill everything, so don't worry so much about losing stuff, or fielding the most efficient units point-wise.

[Mastervalrik]

Cygnar would be more blanced then Skorne (I dont have Skorne) but what Ive read.