Warmachine has quite a particular way that armies are formed, more so than other wargames on the market, and this is in part due to the critical nature of the Warcaster/Warlock and the interplay between them and their Warjacks/Warbeasts.
The Battlegroup
The first thing you will select when building your army for a particular faction is the Warcaster/Warlock. In the previous article, we noted that Warcasters/Warlocks can differ in their combat prowess, magical abilities, and synergies with Warjacks/Warbeasts or units of troops.
Generally, you only have a single Warcaster/Warlock leading your army. They don't cost points either. With that option selected,d you can now select the Warjacks/Warbeasts to assign to the Warcaster/Warlock battlegroup - these are the Cohort models. As you pick the Warjacks/Warbeasts, you will have some options, such as their head/weapons/etc, which cost different points. Some Warjacks/Warbeasts lack options because these are character Warjacks/Warbeasts and are thus unique, and only one of each named Warjack/Warbeast can be included in your army. Otherwise, each type of Warjack/Warbeast can be included 4 times in the army.
For games limited to 30pts, you can play these games with a Warcaster/Warlock and a selection of Warjacks/Warbeasts. That is a perfectly fun game that can be played in an hour, captures the core parts of the Warmachine experience, and is suitable for smaller boards, even just 2-foot square tables. Of course, some Warcasters/Warlocks are ill-suited for these sizes of games.
Units, Solos, Battle Engines and Colossals
How many Warjacks/Warbeasts you have in your army really comes down to how easily you think your leader can manage them. That is a tactical choice. The rest of the army, again following restrictions, is made up of units, solos, war engines, and colossals.
Colossals are just Warjacks/Warbeasts and so are selected just as you do other models for the cohort. The difference is you can't take as many, they are bigger, and have many more hit boxes. They of course benefit from being much more powerful and having many more weapons to attack with.
Solos are singular fighters who move and act like Warcaster/Warlocks. While most lack Focus/Fury and can't control a cohort, some may be able to perform magic following their own rules for Special actions and Magical Attacks. Some solos, however, are Warcasters/Warlocks, such as Magnus and Carver, and these fighters come with a preset list of spells, no feat, and a preset cohort. Again, some are named characters and can only be taken once in an army.
Units consist of multiple models. Some are unique character units, while others are not, and some multiples of the same unit can be included in an army. Units consist of several individual fighters that must remain coherency with each other. When deploying a unit, or moving a unit, you select one model to place on the board, and the others are placed within 2 inches of that first model. When a unit activates, you move one model, place the rest in the coherency of the first (even if charging), and then perform each model's action.
Battle Engines are units comparable in size to colossal units, but they lack the advantages they have and gain others. This means they have many hit points and further abilities representing their size.
Ultimately, the core of the army is the battlegroup, and the selections you make to form that will impact the other choices you make forming the army.
Command Cards
The final part of army building is command cards. These are single-use actions in the game. Some cost points to add to the army, and each can only be taken once. Some are particular to certain factions, and others are more generic.
Let's look at an example army list.
Along with 5 command cards, this is a complete army that consists of Caine as the Warcaster, two Coursers, a Stryker and Deuce. That is the Battlegroup. Then there are a few solos - the mercenary, Alexia Ciannor, the character Captain Bastian Falk, and finally, a Sharpshooter. Then there are units - Arcane Meckaniks, Storm Lance Legionnaires, Stormblade Legionnaires, Tempest Thunderers, and finally, the character unit The Black 13th.
Now we have briefly covered most of the basics, we can begin to dive into some of the rules and powers that make each army more unique.
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