Purchasing advice

[animus]

I have $300 and want to buy figures. I'm sick of counters. I figure with well painted miniatures and COMPETATIVE fleets, I can interest my friends in the game.

I figure I can get 2 starter boxes and 2 reinforcements boxes OR 3 starter boxes for variety.

What should I purchase?

What races should they be?

 

[prelude_to_war]

I say 3 starters for variety in races. Then, when you've figured out what you like, play style, etc., you can supplement with individual models. My $0.02.

 

[Wulf Corbett]

I figure I can get 2 starter boxes and 2 reinforcements boxes OR 3 starter boxes for variety.

What should I purchase?

What races should they be?

I figure, if you haven't already decided that, stick with the counters until you have.

Wulf

 

[animus]

I figure I can get 2 starter boxes and 2 reinforcements boxes OR 3 starter boxes for variety.

What should I purchase?

What races should they be?

I figure, if you haven't already decided that, stick with the counters until you have.

I haven't had time to playtest everything and it's hard to interest these guys without figures - so gaming time is short. I figured that people on this board are familiar enough with the game, races and box sets that I could get an indication of which way to proceed.

In WARMACHINE each starter set is balanced againt each other. As near as I can figure, I can make a competaive fleet of decent level with a starter and a reinforcements.

 

[Wulf Corbett]

I haven't had time to playtest everything and it's hard to interest these guys without figures - so gaming time is short. I figured that people on this board are familiar enough with the game, races and box sets that I could get an indication of which way to proceed.

Trouble is, it's not about what's BEST (if you want that, buy 10 Saggitarius for each player), it's about what you LIKE. Ask any group of players here and they'll probably tell you to buy Early EA, Third Age EA, Crusade Era EA, Centauri, Narn, Minbari and Dilgar. With small whispers of Drakh, Drazi and Brakiri.

Wulf

 

[Reborn]

OK, you got $300, that's enough for 2 fleet boxes and $100 to spend on extra ships/paints. I would go with EA for easy-to-make-look-good painting, Dawn of 3rd Age preferably, Crusade second choice and Minbari, because they match off well or Narn and Centauri for the same reason. The fleet boxes contain some solid units in. Advice on broken ships -

Sagittarius - take ten of these and you have a recipe for losing all your gaming buddies

Dag'kar - take any of these and you have a recipe for losing all your games (over-priced PL)

Prefect - apparently has 1 AD too many on its forward BL, but it's only a variant, so no worries.

Hope this helps a bit

 

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

As far as what to buy, I went all out. I have bought the following so far:
Centauri Fleet Box
EA Fleet Box & reinforcements
ISA Fleet Box
Narn Fleet Box
Minbari Fleet Box & reinforcements
Vorlon Fleet Box
and a few single ships, but I am basically buying for my whole group right now, because I am trying to get them all to play ACTA. Of course I will get first choice on what fleet I want to play 'cause their mine.

I would go with 3 fleet boxes and maybe some reinforcements for each and see how it goes from there. My 2 cents.

 

[Chernobyl]

I would gladly pay you Tuesday, for a box set, today..... :lol:

Chern

 

[Twin-Linked Aldades]

I would gladly pay you Tuesday, for a box set, today..... :lol:

Chern

Noooooooo, not another Toby McNabb :lol: but i will shine your gunbarrel for a copper though

 

[Silvereye]

I figure I can get 2 starter boxes and 2 reinforcements boxes OR 3 starter boxes for variety.

What should I purchase?

What races should they be?

I would go for the variety of three starter boxes. It should give you a lot of ships to play with, and the most bait to get your friends.

Of the three, and with what you are trying to do, I would choose three from EA (3rd age), Brakiri, Centauri or Narn.

 

[chaos0xomega]

Just chiming in, but personally I would focus all that in on one flet. But then again, my philosophy is go big or don't go at all.

Narn Starter x2
Reinforcements x3
remaining cash to buying the odd ship that you don't get in those sets.

 

[Tredrick]

This is a job for . . .

my fleetbox analysis!

 

[animus]

Outstanding analysis. I didn't know you added the Drakh. Very nice.

Okay, I see which ones are the most economical.

I'm still looking for which fleets compete well with each other and are good for beginners.I'm looking mostly at the major races because of their iconic position in the series. I think I'll take Minbari off the list because of the controversial stealth rules.

So: EA (era?), Centauri, Narn, Shadows, Vorlons and ISA.

How would the EA starter w/reinforcements stand up against Centauri with the same sets?

 

[H]

depends on eras, the Centauri are an excelent fleet choice as they have good strong ships, with few obvious weakneses, the 6AD battle laser on the primus makes it a ship to respect and fear. I wouldn't hold out much hope for an early era EA fleet against the centauri, they are older and more advanced (until recently when they have become the Mongoose equivalent of space marines)
the 3rd age fleet would be a decent matchup, more so if you consider using the Warlock as a war ship, and using its SFOS stats, both fleets have interceptors, some good guns, and of course some of the best dogfighters out their. Against a Crusade era EA fleet, I think the Centauri might struggle, but they are still a decent match for most fleets.
decent matchups would probably be
EA third age - Narn
EA third age/crusade era - Centauri
Narn - Centauri if your Narn players is a bit more experianced
Brakiri - 3rd Age EA
Narn - Drazi (seriously, death by a thousand boresights)
Dilgar - Third age EA (i reckon early ea would get their bottom spanked here)
Abbai - Dilgar. soooo many dice.

Thats just a few suggestions. The Drakh box is excelent value, apart from a probably broken mothership, but the fleet requires some finnesse as hull 4 is very frustrating. However, if you fancy something different, the Minbari versus the drakh is a surprisingly good matchup, especially with how cheap drakh scouts are.

 

[MustEatBrains]

I think I'll take Minbari off the list because of the controversial stealth rules.

Well, they´re not so controversial with their Armageddon-fix, are they? The trouble with them is, that they are geared towards large games; anything below battle level will make it hard for them to compete... then again, they´re fun to play; maybe you should think about putting them back onto your list... :wink:

 

[Burger]

The problem most people had with stealth is that it was all or nothing, on 1 dice roll. That problem is not fixed; it is still all or nothing, but now it's more "all" and less "nothing".

 

[animus]

You guys are in the know having seen the Armageddon book. For those of us out of the loop and across the pond, tell what's changed with Stealth. How does it work now?

 

[katadder]

+1 to beat at range 8" or less, normal at rnage over 8" - 20" and -1 to beat at over 20".

 

[Burger]

Instead of more than 10", +1:

Less than 8", -1.
More than 20", +1.
Fighters ignore stealth if they are within 1".

 

[Triggy]

OK, assuming the most up to date fleet lists the most varied and interesting fleets to start off with would in my opinion be:

EA
Minbari
Centauri
Narn
ISA
Drakh

and of these if I had to choose a mix of three it'd be:

One of ISA/Drakh for highly manoevrable, hard-hitting goodness
One of EA/Narn for solid, all round ships
One of Centauri/Minbari for sitting back and pummelling your opponent

Taking one from each of these would provide you a good mix of ships and styles and all are "competative" fleets with good, solid boxed sets. With the changes to stealth I wouldn't worry about any complaints about it any more and so long as you don't load up on all Prefects then the Centauri won't be moaned about either.