NagoyaHammer.com

I read this over on the PP forum and thought it would be good for us to discuss this. I personally see pros and cons for both of these.

For me, while there is a faction I identify with the most, it is the various warcaster/locks that I identify with. Since they are spread out, building up small caster based lists seem to work for me while I give red paint a break on my main faction

Whilst I am fond of my bald, axe-wielding, screaming psychopath, I would have to say faction. I have absolutely zero interest in any faction in Warmachine aside from Khador.
Big, Red and Stompy! It's the only way to play for me.

I`m a faction guy as well. I bleed blue for Cygnarian Swans (all casters except Nemo[s] and Connie).
Sometimes they are criticized as the "good guys", generalists, vanilla, do-everything-well-but-nothing-great, Ultramarines faction, but I still like them. I love the model and story for Jeremiah Kraye the most.

From next month I`ll bleed Whelps for my new faction, Trollbloods (all warlocks...PERIOD!). Drunken, half-Scottish, half-Native American, bar-brawling Trolls with forearms larger than their whole legs? Sign me up! I love the Hoarlock Doomshaper story where he meets Mulg for the first time, but I can`t choose my favorite caster yet (as I haven`t played them all). I love the eMadrak model; it just looks like he is going to cut a Warjack in half (he`s taking such a huge swing with that giant axe)!

That being said, some other casters/locks from other factions have nice models (Harbinger, [plastic] Kaelyssa, pKruger, Kromac, etc.)...nice rules (Harkevich, Rahn, Saeryn, etc.)....and/or nice stories (Goreshade, Magnus, Lord Carver, etc.). It`s tempting, but I`ll probably stick to my main Warmachine faction and my main Hordes faction.

Danguinius

Faction, for sure. Cryx have everything - evil witches (lots of skin and black to paint), evil zombies (lots of rot and guts to paint), evil pirates (ghostly blues, and hey, what's not to like about zombie pirates?) and evil great big robots (armour and green glowy effects.)

I dunno, maybe I just like evil stuff *shrug*

The cryx casters are decent models, but I couldn't give a toss about their backstory. Immoren as a whole is a great setting, and the factions are all pretty unique and well developed, but the individual casters have about as much personality as a paper bag. If I could make up my own caster I would, but I appreciate that that's not what the game's about.

while I like focusing on one faction, there are just so many fun different things throughout the game that taking only one or two factions is just too hard. Heck, only Skorne doesn't have anything that interests me. I think the smaller sizes in the game makes this possible and I like the variety of armies. but to get a larger army, I'll focus on one or two

me_in_japan wrote:Faction, for sure. Cryx have everything - evil witches (lots of skin and black to paint), evil zombies (lots of rot and guts to paint), evil pirates (ghostly blues, and hey, what's not to like about zombie pirates?) and evil great big robots (armour and green glowy effects.)

I dunno, maybe I just like evil stuff *shrug* .

Sounds as though you are a "Faction" with a big dollop of "fun to paint" kind of guy. I am also enjoying the painting side of things.

Back on topic though. That is a really hard question. I still don't know that much about the ins and outs of each faction and the Warcasters, but I have grown to like the variety and game play of Cygnar more than the back ground. I do, however, like to be able to field chicks, an old man or a dude on horse back, but still be a competitive list. I am a bit sick of "Look, my guy has the biggest [add object here]" definition of what a hero should be like".

The characters themselves certainly add flavor, but I guess in the end I would say faction due to play style. I am also quite happy being the "Good Guys" for a change.

For Warmachine it was really the caster - I thought the Skarre play style would be easy for a beginner and I liked her pirate theme.

For Hordes, though I don't play, I think faction would influence me more. Probably as I prefer fantasy over steam punk. I could see myself going for Circle or Legion.

Faction for me. I've always liked paladins and similar characters so it only took me about 5 minutes to decide on Menoth and I haven't looked back since.

I do have favourite Warcasters too, my current being EKreoss, although Severius is starting to grow on me now that I've played a couple of games and realized he isn't as wimpy as I thought.

I too am a faction guy. Cygnar is my faction of choice, and will be for a very long time. I almost always play the "good guys". I did so in Maifaux (Guild), 40K (Ultramarines), and nearly every other game I've played.

Although I do get a bit of leeway due to being a press ganger, and owning nearly every other starter battlegroup boxed set. The only ones I'm currently missing is Gators and Trollbloods. That will be remedied in 2013. Should I feel the need to change it up a bit, I can pull out a random caster and play with their battle box and have a nice little break from Cygnar.

2013 will be the year of Nemo for me. I'm going all in with some Electrical madness! Theme lists are my favorite, and Nemo's are pretty damn strong. Storm Knights/Guard/Tower/Callers/Smith/Wall/Walker/ will be my go to models.

So for 2013, I guess I'll be a caster player!