I recently talked about an old friend named Owen, and even posted about the time years ago me, him, and another guy got together and did a Warmahordes campaign called Scourge Bringer, created by Owen. You can read that post here.
Well in talking about Owen me and him reconnected, and almost instantly started discussing the differences between Warmachine/Hordes and Warhammer. It all started cause I asked if he was still playing Warmahordes, and it turns out he didn’t anymore. His exact words were: “Nah – it got too competitive for me and I burned out on it. I still have my armies, but they’re packed away. I’m hopeful there will be a Mk4 at some stage.”
That made me think to my own experience with Warmahordes, and it made me realize something. Warmachine and Hordes were clearly designed to be games first, and a hobby second. But when I think about Warhammer, its clearly designed to be an overall hobby and not just a game. And I wanted to bring up this distinction to maybe help you, dear reader, understand what to look for in a game, depending on what you want to do.
To really explain what I mean, I need to describe how building a force in Warmachine works, for those who are unfamiliar with the game.
In Warmachine your force is centered around a Warcaster, a general who controls your Warjacks, these big steampunk mechs. You will then fill out your force on the table with some units, support characters, and sometimes mercenaries.
In every case, these units, the Warcaster, the Warjack, all of it…is set in stone. You, as the player, have no customization nor decisions to make. If you field a warjack called a Lancer, its always gonna be the same as any other player who fields that Lancer. It will function the same, its stats will be the same, its weapon loadout will be the same.
Further, your Warcaster is always a named defined character. You don’t field a “Warcaster” you field Command Stryker. You field Lich Lord Asphyxious. These are characters with history, with a defined personality, and again you cannot customize them. Stryker will always have the same abilities, feats, powers, and stats no matter what Cygnar player puts him on the field.
Now, this does create a well balanced game! You always know what your opponent is capable of if you are familiar with their faction. You never have to remember if they are packing melta guns or grenades or las cannons. That unit of Widowmakers will work just like every unit of Widowmakers anyone fields. There are no “oh thats what that does?!” moments.
In this manner, building a list or army in Warmachine is very much like a deck building game. You take your choices, you combine to create combos or just solid lists, and you go.
But, with the same token, if you are interested in making an army yours? Creating your own mark on the world of the Iron Kingdoms? You…can’t. The game, and it is a GAME, of Warmachine and Hordes are not built for that. And as I thought about all this I realized that part of why I never really felt connected to or cared about the hobby side of Warmahordes is that the game didn’t encourage me to do so. Khador was always going to be the same. They were not my Khador. Irusk was Irusk. The Butcher was the Butcher. Sure I could write what amounted to fanfiction using those characters but they weren’t my creations. Sure I could paint the minis any way I pleased but they were still the same faction every other person used.
In this way, Warmachine and Hordes are very much a game first. There is a hobby side, sure, but its limited to basically just painting. Maybe a dash of conversion work but you still can’t do too much because your opponents need to be able to know at a glance what they are facing.
But Warhammer? Thats a HOBBY. Its more then just a game.
Now, lets get this out of the way: Warhammer is not balanced. Neither Age of Sigmar nor 40k are well balanced games. Codex creep is a known thing, and armies change power levels between releases and editions constantly. If you want a balanced competative game you can play you might wanna go with Warmachine / Hordes. Cause unless you wanna constantly buy new armies for Warhammer, its gonna be a mess. Like right now, as I write this, everyone is talking about Drukhari and Dark Angels being the top armies. But Dark Angels for a long time used to be trash, as did Dark Elder.
But despite all of that…Warhammer is one of the most open, customizable games, I have ever encountered. And its supported in the rules of the game.
For instance! Sure, you can field a named character like Mortarian if you are playing Death Guard. You have all the rules for him, he is a figure in the lore, and has a history. Or you can just say “Nah, I want my OWN Leader” and create your own general, with their own name, history, gear, and traits. The rules support this. Do you want to field a squad of space marines armed with Bolt Guns and Chainswords instead of regular bolters? Do it. The game allows it. Do you want to field a Lander Raider with las cannons instead of heavy bolters? Hell yea you go sir! Do you want an army thats mostly just tanks? Yea do it, roll the heavy artillary out baby!
Do you want to create you own ENTIRE SPACE MARINE CHAPTER WITH ITS OWN SPECIAL RULES AND ABILITIES? HELL YEA YOU DO IT! PAINT THEM UP! CREATE THEIR HISTORY! EMBRACE IT!
And the HOBBY supports all of it. For a guy like me who wants to make my army MINE, with my own personal touches, this is a gold mine. I can basically pick a section of the universe in 40k, say “This is where my Space Marine chapter is from, they are called X, and this is their history” and have the rules of the actual game support and allow me this freedom.
Then you can do conversions. Want an Imperial Guard army that is actually made up of Goblins? Yea, someone did that. Here it is, point of fact
And no one is going to scream at you because the game ALLOWS for all this. You can basically enjoy Warhammer from all sorts of angles. Wanna read the books only and enjoy the lore? Go for it. Wanna focus on just painting and converting? Please, we have awards for that! Wanna get ultra competitive and face off against the meta in tournaments? Oh yea we got that. Wanna create your own stories and lore within our framework? Please, be our guest!
And that is the major difference between these two. And looking at this, I think thats why I am more interesting in Warhammer then I ever was in Warmachine. I am excited to paint MY Space Marines. I am excited to read up on Successor chapters, to create a Kill Team, to actually BUILD my own narrative and fiction.
Its more then just a game, its a full on supported Hobby. It fits me way better as I have not been nor have I ever been a player focused on competition. I am more interested in silly fun stuff. Hell, I already know if I ever go to a 40k Tourney, my lists will be pure silly fun over meta.
So when you are looking to get into the world of Wargaming I suggest you think hard about what you want to achieve. If you want a game first, something balanced well, look for that. If you want something with more freedom of creativity and expression, look for that.
For me, its Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar. Both allow the freedom of expression and creativity that I crave.
Terminally Nerdy 