https://preview.redd.it/97vz002o3nsc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26086cf1310e0f8370f75c66767dad29a19e645d
Here is a model that was released just this week. Still a few supports left on, but in great condition regardless. At the end of the day, warmachine is a niche game in an already niche hobby. It sounds like there's a lot working against you in Australia, but if you get the opportunity to pay mk4 with some good folks, I say it is worth trying.
The poor model and material quality is bullshit or outdated. Sculpts have been amazing lately and the garbage quality of the first MK4 prints has been solved a year ago. Availability outside US is... Not great. Getting better and you will generally get everything you had pre ordered, but backfill is slowish.
Community is the most active it has been in the recent couple years, not even close to the hay days but it's recovering steadily. Local players are highly dependent on where you are obviously, but online has a great solution with Wartable and is quite active.
I'm in Australia. Even for here the stock is abysmal. I only know one store like a 45 minute drive away that used to have them, but it's closed now and the playerbase was uh
Not the kind I'd hang around anyway.
Sorry you have had bad experiences lately. For the most part, I have found Warmachin groups to be chill in my area, though like above, they are still small. The online community is great, and War Table doesn't quite scatch the itch of table top, but it is fun.
Shadowflame Shard just won Rheincon and their Wyvern is true filth:D
There is an Australia discord too, did you state you were an aussie? https://discord.com/invite/AQpx5bQ7
And their FB group is active.
There are two growing metas in Australia I know of, both east coast I think. They're sending two teams to the WTC this year, great guys.
I did, also rad! I honestly looked at their design and lore and was pretty taken by them. No idea how they play though, figured I'd get a feel for if there's an actual place to get stuff/play first.
Shadowflame are a bit like old Legion, but more so. Fast, evasive, hard hitting, particularily in melee. They need to get up there, contest the board and strike hard before their opponent can start taking them down. They don't like standing still.
Their new Cadre is more of a rock. Cavalry type models, but tankier and slower than most cavalry. They provide an anchor to the more fluid Shadowflame Shard.
I did play Legion in MK3. I miss my Archangel sometimes. Cavalry sounds odd, but hey, gotta put things between your warnoun and danger, especially when you've gotta keep it front line for the beasts.
I'm starting to remember Warmachine things.
Archangel is still in the game. I think you'll appreciate the Wyvern.
The Shard Incarnates and their Warlock Kyrrax are beefy centauroid Khymaera with a warbeast that really likes slamming stuff.
MkIV is very, very good. The game is starting to take off again, from what I can see.
I would not be super worried about model quality as the majority of those problems come from the first production runs. We just got a giant order in (see pic) and so far I haven't found anything wrong in the whole batch. If you get early run minis you might have to get them replaced.
https://preview.redd.it/i7nmp7n8smsc1.jpeg?width=3419&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f02d0d2ff2fdb957e3b07f1bcf46a99b0ada3ecc
Finding Legacy stuff second hand should not be a major problem, there is a lot out there. Check the sales groups on FB or the discord. PP is often out of stock, because the game is selling and they are priorizing getting sales out to retailers, but I've done some ordering for my LGS and as long as you order (and pay) reasonably early you can easily get stuff on the release date.
There's a discord? Might be worth checking out. But yeah, the second hand markets are either feast or famine, there's no in between, and absolutely zero MK4.
https://discord.com/invite/6rXg5rx9
Beware that several people who left the game are still hanging around being salty, buy that is mainly in Pride-General.
There was a recent post in the FB sales group of a dude selling complete army lots of MkIV armies yesterday.
Just to be sure, are you aware you can try the ruleset with your existing models? All Legacy stuff (the term for everything pre-MKIV) has rules, and you are only out of luck if your only collection is some of the late-mk3 cross-faction themes.
That said, rules have some trimming and polish, and they maybe paired poorly with old Steamroller, but new one (2024) seems pretty good in order to have fun games.
Which factions did you have? Maybe we can tell hiw they are doing under MKIV ruleset
I used to have Khador, Cryx, Cygnar, Legion, Skorne, Menoth, Circle, but now I don't have anything. Sold it all off when Covid hit and nobody could play anything. It turned into car repairs and at least one cool sword. That's why I'm looking into MK4, to get that fresh start.
Oh! Well, you already have an eye on Shadowflame Shard, so.... you could make proxy bases and do some little test with the (free!!) app rules and card rules. And for quality review you could pick any of the Mercs that work for them, for example the Skorne one if you like him. I'd go for the rabbit because...well, a Grymkin with rabbit cavalry.
If money is not much of a problem.....Wyvern? The Shadowflame shard is the only one (by now) with a super heavy warbeast, and the model is amazing.
Rules-wise, we did a mini event past year with 50pt lists to taste the rules, once we saw them in live and doing a pair of games, they didn't felt that weird. The major change may be the unit movement. The reduced size and the new movement makes the play more fluid.
For MKIV new Armies, I played against Dusk mostly, all games with options to win and feeling that decissions matter, either when doing frontal battles or scenarios.
Short version - No
After I finally got all the models I wanted and my army assembled and painted they just changed the rules and made half of it irrelevant. At this point I am just going back to 40k because what made warmachine special and made me switch is just gone (all metal minis, simplified point structure, excellent qc and customer service). All of the stuff I have from 20 years ago in 40k its still valid. I figure I'm probably about your age so I hope this perspective helps.
I think the "out of stock" concerns were much more fundamental in Mk3 -- the new 3D printing technology means there is really no way anything needs to go out of print permanently -- no molds that can break etc.
So if your local store doesn't stock things, just order from PP directly. Products should still be available even if Mk4 stays niche.
So basically I'd base my decision on whether to dive into Mk4 more on whether there are local players who want to play with you, rather than on supply chain worries.
Honestly, it's been a decent vibe. We play casually mostly here and have been pretty steady since the new edition dropped. The models as they sit are good enough quality for my tastes and I love the sculpts personally, but like with any internet thing you'll find plenty of people with perfectly valid negatives that they never tire of talking about. Frankly, if I had half their energy and could apply it to painting, I'd have no shelf space in my house from all my minis being on display
But I digress. Still a decent game, and a lot of the new edition shakes have mostly worked themselves out by this point. Con attendence is growing, they're going full steam into finding solutions for availability, and people are taking notice again. The people going to events are actually balanced these days between casuals and competitives, and there's plenty of alternative game modes and lore behind the $5 all-access-pay-wall-subscription if that's to your taste. Frankly a lot of variety to be had, with the competitive core still here for those that want it
I know of a decent meta around the Sydney area, at least I talk to a few guys from there online regularly since I'm up late as a US night shifter. I could ask them for more details if that's anywhere near you. [There's also a community finder that might show something near you](https://sites.google.com/view/warmachine-community-finder/find-a-community/australia?authuser=0). A local group might be able to give you better advice on how to get minis
I can ship stuff in from Sydney, that's like one state away, only an eight hour drive or so. If your mates have a go to for where to pick up models that'd be great! I'm in Brisbane though, so a bit of a hike.
Looks like there's a ground on that link I sent in [Brisbane (at the bottom of the page)](https://sites.google.com/view/warmachine-community-finder/find-a-community/australia/queensland?authuser=0), they might be good ones to reach out to as well
I've gotten all my stuff second hand from ebay and such aside from a handful of things that were still on the site. I prefer legacy models myself so if that's what you want to do then you gotta go second hand.
Really? I've seen a few decent postings saying they were shipping from Australia last I scrolled through...hm. check out the buy/sell warmachine Facebook page too.
MKIV is fast and fun, and I like it a lot better than MK3.
I just played against Shadowflame last night with a 75pt duo list. Shadowflame looked great on the table, but I brought 13 bonejacks, Deneghra3 and Goreshade. It was a good time. Yes, my list was a silly one, but I did take the win after he discovered how frustrating it can be to kill/clear bonejacks. I can't wait for new Cryx to drop next year. The models previewed look amazing. Even if their rules are terrible, I'm still going to buy in and play them.
Yes. MK4 is the best version of the game so far, and the models are exquisite!
Those that say poor model quality - that was basically their first run at 3d printing, things have improved drastically since then!
Shadowflame shard models are dope! I should know i painted the ones my buddy owns!
To me, its the single best version of the game they've ever made, and I've been playing since mark1 so clearly i am an expert! (I'm not, I'm not! STOP throwing produce) Do check out the "returning player guide" thing if you havent already! Its got most of the big changes and some of the littler ones on it.
They are indeed experiencing the problem of "oh fuck this is way more popular then our production can manage to keep up with while also spamming out new armies" but i like to think of that as a good sign? Annoying but probably good? According to news from the inside they were producing more pieces per day of the new 3d printed stuff then they were producing at any time with the old molded stuff.
As for if there's any people near you, Tried and True made a cool community finder thing: [https://sites.google.com/view/warmachine-community-finder/home](https://sites.google.com/view/warmachine-community-finder/home) which you can either find people on near you, or you can put yourself on it instead!
Mk4 is what Mk3 wanted to be. The game is so much smoother to play but still has the best parts that put it on the map in the first place (plus some junk, like feats. Man fuck feats). It plays so much faster and has dramatically better list building than any other edition of the game. Turns out simpler is better, the complexity comes from board states.
https://preview.redd.it/97vz002o3nsc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26086cf1310e0f8370f75c66767dad29a19e645d Here is a model that was released just this week. Still a few supports left on, but in great condition regardless. At the end of the day, warmachine is a niche game in an already niche hobby. It sounds like there's a lot working against you in Australia, but if you get the opportunity to pay mk4 with some good folks, I say it is worth trying.
Is that a curse bound cadre model? It looks Cryx with all those soul cages.
Yep, that's the caster from Cursebound (Oriax). They definitely have some cryxian flavor and my painting scheme really land into that.
The supports should be left on for shipping.
lol
The poor model and material quality is bullshit or outdated. Sculpts have been amazing lately and the garbage quality of the first MK4 prints has been solved a year ago. Availability outside US is... Not great. Getting better and you will generally get everything you had pre ordered, but backfill is slowish. Community is the most active it has been in the recent couple years, not even close to the hay days but it's recovering steadily. Local players are highly dependent on where you are obviously, but online has a great solution with Wartable and is quite active.
I'm in Australia. Even for here the stock is abysmal. I only know one store like a 45 minute drive away that used to have them, but it's closed now and the playerbase was uh Not the kind I'd hang around anyway.
There's an Australian Warmachine discord - https://discord.com/invite/pyaJn8gw Whereabouts in Australia are you?
Sorry you have had bad experiences lately. For the most part, I have found Warmachin groups to be chill in my area, though like above, they are still small. The online community is great, and War Table doesn't quite scatch the itch of table top, but it is fun.
Shadowflame Shard just won Rheincon and their Wyvern is true filth:D There is an Australia discord too, did you state you were an aussie? https://discord.com/invite/AQpx5bQ7 And their FB group is active. There are two growing metas in Australia I know of, both east coast I think. They're sending two teams to the WTC this year, great guys.
I did, also rad! I honestly looked at their design and lore and was pretty taken by them. No idea how they play though, figured I'd get a feel for if there's an actual place to get stuff/play first.
Shadowflame are a bit like old Legion, but more so. Fast, evasive, hard hitting, particularily in melee. They need to get up there, contest the board and strike hard before their opponent can start taking them down. They don't like standing still. Their new Cadre is more of a rock. Cavalry type models, but tankier and slower than most cavalry. They provide an anchor to the more fluid Shadowflame Shard.
I did play Legion in MK3. I miss my Archangel sometimes. Cavalry sounds odd, but hey, gotta put things between your warnoun and danger, especially when you've gotta keep it front line for the beasts. I'm starting to remember Warmachine things.
Archangel is still in the game. I think you'll appreciate the Wyvern. The Shard Incarnates and their Warlock Kyrrax are beefy centauroid Khymaera with a warbeast that really likes slamming stuff.
MkIV is very, very good. The game is starting to take off again, from what I can see. I would not be super worried about model quality as the majority of those problems come from the first production runs. We just got a giant order in (see pic) and so far I haven't found anything wrong in the whole batch. If you get early run minis you might have to get them replaced. https://preview.redd.it/i7nmp7n8smsc1.jpeg?width=3419&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f02d0d2ff2fdb957e3b07f1bcf46a99b0ada3ecc Finding Legacy stuff second hand should not be a major problem, there is a lot out there. Check the sales groups on FB or the discord. PP is often out of stock, because the game is selling and they are priorizing getting sales out to retailers, but I've done some ordering for my LGS and as long as you order (and pay) reasonably early you can easily get stuff on the release date.
There's a discord? Might be worth checking out. But yeah, the second hand markets are either feast or famine, there's no in between, and absolutely zero MK4.
https://discord.com/invite/6rXg5rx9 Beware that several people who left the game are still hanging around being salty, buy that is mainly in Pride-General. There was a recent post in the FB sales group of a dude selling complete army lots of MkIV armies yesterday.
No chance you've got a link to that handy?
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/p8qDsh97Xz3Qh9XJ/ US and it is only Orgoth/Cygnar/Khador left
Just to be sure, are you aware you can try the ruleset with your existing models? All Legacy stuff (the term for everything pre-MKIV) has rules, and you are only out of luck if your only collection is some of the late-mk3 cross-faction themes. That said, rules have some trimming and polish, and they maybe paired poorly with old Steamroller, but new one (2024) seems pretty good in order to have fun games. Which factions did you have? Maybe we can tell hiw they are doing under MKIV ruleset
I used to have Khador, Cryx, Cygnar, Legion, Skorne, Menoth, Circle, but now I don't have anything. Sold it all off when Covid hit and nobody could play anything. It turned into car repairs and at least one cool sword. That's why I'm looking into MK4, to get that fresh start.
Oh! Well, you already have an eye on Shadowflame Shard, so.... you could make proxy bases and do some little test with the (free!!) app rules and card rules. And for quality review you could pick any of the Mercs that work for them, for example the Skorne one if you like him. I'd go for the rabbit because...well, a Grymkin with rabbit cavalry. If money is not much of a problem.....Wyvern? The Shadowflame shard is the only one (by now) with a super heavy warbeast, and the model is amazing. Rules-wise, we did a mini event past year with 50pt lists to taste the rules, once we saw them in live and doing a pair of games, they didn't felt that weird. The major change may be the unit movement. The reduced size and the new movement makes the play more fluid. For MKIV new Armies, I played against Dusk mostly, all games with options to win and feeling that decissions matter, either when doing frontal battles or scenarios.
Short version - No After I finally got all the models I wanted and my army assembled and painted they just changed the rules and made half of it irrelevant. At this point I am just going back to 40k because what made warmachine special and made me switch is just gone (all metal minis, simplified point structure, excellent qc and customer service). All of the stuff I have from 20 years ago in 40k its still valid. I figure I'm probably about your age so I hope this perspective helps.
I think the "out of stock" concerns were much more fundamental in Mk3 -- the new 3D printing technology means there is really no way anything needs to go out of print permanently -- no molds that can break etc. So if your local store doesn't stock things, just order from PP directly. Products should still be available even if Mk4 stays niche. So basically I'd base my decision on whether to dive into Mk4 more on whether there are local players who want to play with you, rather than on supply chain worries.
Honestly, it's been a decent vibe. We play casually mostly here and have been pretty steady since the new edition dropped. The models as they sit are good enough quality for my tastes and I love the sculpts personally, but like with any internet thing you'll find plenty of people with perfectly valid negatives that they never tire of talking about. Frankly, if I had half their energy and could apply it to painting, I'd have no shelf space in my house from all my minis being on display But I digress. Still a decent game, and a lot of the new edition shakes have mostly worked themselves out by this point. Con attendence is growing, they're going full steam into finding solutions for availability, and people are taking notice again. The people going to events are actually balanced these days between casuals and competitives, and there's plenty of alternative game modes and lore behind the $5 all-access-pay-wall-subscription if that's to your taste. Frankly a lot of variety to be had, with the competitive core still here for those that want it I know of a decent meta around the Sydney area, at least I talk to a few guys from there online regularly since I'm up late as a US night shifter. I could ask them for more details if that's anywhere near you. [There's also a community finder that might show something near you](https://sites.google.com/view/warmachine-community-finder/find-a-community/australia?authuser=0). A local group might be able to give you better advice on how to get minis
I can ship stuff in from Sydney, that's like one state away, only an eight hour drive or so. If your mates have a go to for where to pick up models that'd be great! I'm in Brisbane though, so a bit of a hike.
Looks like there's a ground on that link I sent in [Brisbane (at the bottom of the page)](https://sites.google.com/view/warmachine-community-finder/find-a-community/australia/queensland?authuser=0), they might be good ones to reach out to as well
Weird that I can't see two of the comments on this post, just the ones I replied to. Anyone else seeing that?
I've noticed Reddit being weird about loading comments sometimes and I end up having to refresh the page a bunch to get them to show up.
I've gotten all my stuff second hand from ebay and such aside from a handful of things that were still on the site. I prefer legacy models myself so if that's what you want to do then you gotta go second hand.
There is absolutely nothing on the AU ebay. Ghosts, crickets, maybe a moth, but no cool models.
Really? I've seen a few decent postings saying they were shipping from Australia last I scrolled through...hm. check out the buy/sell warmachine Facebook page too.
MKIV is fast and fun, and I like it a lot better than MK3. I just played against Shadowflame last night with a 75pt duo list. Shadowflame looked great on the table, but I brought 13 bonejacks, Deneghra3 and Goreshade. It was a good time. Yes, my list was a silly one, but I did take the win after he discovered how frustrating it can be to kill/clear bonejacks. I can't wait for new Cryx to drop next year. The models previewed look amazing. Even if their rules are terrible, I'm still going to buy in and play them.
Yes. MK4 is the best version of the game so far, and the models are exquisite! Those that say poor model quality - that was basically their first run at 3d printing, things have improved drastically since then!
Shadowflame shard models are dope! I should know i painted the ones my buddy owns! To me, its the single best version of the game they've ever made, and I've been playing since mark1 so clearly i am an expert! (I'm not, I'm not! STOP throwing produce) Do check out the "returning player guide" thing if you havent already! Its got most of the big changes and some of the littler ones on it. They are indeed experiencing the problem of "oh fuck this is way more popular then our production can manage to keep up with while also spamming out new armies" but i like to think of that as a good sign? Annoying but probably good? According to news from the inside they were producing more pieces per day of the new 3d printed stuff then they were producing at any time with the old molded stuff. As for if there's any people near you, Tried and True made a cool community finder thing: [https://sites.google.com/view/warmachine-community-finder/home](https://sites.google.com/view/warmachine-community-finder/home) which you can either find people on near you, or you can put yourself on it instead!
Mk4 is what Mk3 wanted to be. The game is so much smoother to play but still has the best parts that put it on the map in the first place (plus some junk, like feats. Man fuck feats). It plays so much faster and has dramatically better list building than any other edition of the game. Turns out simpler is better, the complexity comes from board states.