General WM question

[Primarch]

Is a force made up of only jacks (and a caster) a good idea?

[The Other Dave]

For most casters, no. You only have a limited amount of your "make 'jacks do anything interesting" resources per turn, so if you have too many 'jacks you're just going to end up with a few of them unable to really do anything each turn.

How many "too many" is depends on your 'caster's Focus stat, whether you have any support units that can help you out (I don't know if Khador has any at all) and so on.

[Primarch]

Ok, so there are rules which prevent you from doing so. I just thought I would check that.

So what is a good balance? 50:50 jacks and non jacks?

[me_in_japan]

conversely, is a force with only one heavy jack and one weeny jack going to end up being under-jacked?

[ennui]

There are no rules against it; in fact, there is a playtype where each player brings ONLY a warcaster and 'jacks.

That said, too many jacks spreads your resources too thin, like it was mentioned before. As for 1 heavy and 1 light, it really depends on your caster. For a 15 or 25 point game, that's probably a good balance if your caster has a low focus stat, but if you have more than 5 focus to spread around every round, you can probably throw another in the mix. More if you can get jack marshals in your list, too. I take 2 heavies and a light because my caster has a pretty good focus stat (6) and one of my heavies (Hydra) can sit on its focus and carry unused focus into the next turn (no other jack can do that) so that it's very focus efficient.

In MKI, most lists started to see less and less 'jacks until most competitive lists had no 'jacks whatsoever. They rebalanced a lot of stuff out so that it's viable again to take at least 1 or 2 jacks.

[me_in_japan]

so are infantry a viable unit, then? I mean, could a unit of infantry take out a heavy warjack?

[ennui]

It depends on the unit, but yes, there are certainly units capable of taking out 'jacks. Especially units with combined arms attacks, weapon master, or any of the anti-jack skills and whatnot. A unit like the anti-infantry Widowmakers might not do a lot more than chip away at a highly armored 'jack, but throw even a minimum Man-O-War unit at something and watch it crumble.

[Sir Motor]

Only jacks?
That would work for some caster. Some caster can do give bonus or free run/charge for entire his jacks at once.

But there is problem,problem is against "mass units". You cannot sweep units at once with jacks. Need more arms. Jack only having 2 arms.(some can do headbutt tho)

So,againt units,unit or solo would work well. Sniper type units are for kill units. And artillery,it would kill units too.

I love melee units. It kill units and light jacks. With proper tactics,it kill heavy jacks too.

Maybe just me,I run "ONLY JACK and MOSTLY JACK" list. No range weaponary. But I can win.
In this game,enemy cannot run forever. Get close,swing axe and hammer,WIN!(if denied to get close,it would be hard time...but yeah my jack and caster is really harrrrddd)

[me_in_japan]

I'm looking forward to getting into this game It sounds fun

[Danguinius]

As others have said, it`s good to keep a balance of jacks and units. But the most important thing to think about when making WM lists (and therefore to think about before you buy any models) is synergy. You need to plan a caster-jack-unit combo that works well. You can start this by looking at your caster`s feat. What does it do? Does it allow extra shots for jacks only? Then grab some shooty jacks. Does the feat buff all melee attacks in your army? Then lost of melee units and a jack or two that can pound stuff is better.

The second thing to think about is how will you win your games? Attrition (like 40K or WFB) is one way, but maybe the least reliable. WarMachine is more like chess (or MTG) than any other wargame; kill your enemy`s caster and you win regardless of all other factors. It`s kind of like attacking your opponents king in chess without having to say "check". Many good lists focus on just setting up a combo that lets the player get right on top of the enemy caster and pound him/her with something big and bashy(or shoot the hell out of her).

The third thing to consider is how you will use your focus. If you caster has a low focus stat (or few spells that buff warjacks), then you should run more units. If your caster has a high focus stat, they can handle more jacks. You also need to consider other ways to allocate focus or control jacks, such as units/solos with the jack marshal ability...or some units that might have a special ability to allocate focus to warjacks.

From there, you`ll get a good idea about what you need to buy/get. To get started, all you need is a caster and 2-3 synergistic jacks and maybe a solo.

Danguinius