Mini Thoughts - Faction Apathy

Hi guys, no bat rep this week. Instead I want to talk about my factions. I got into warmachine towards the end of 2013 after becoming increasingly disenfranchised with Warhammer and 40k, which had, until that point, been my biggest wargaming outlet. My main gaming parter at the time, Jayke (who is behind the Hall of Legends Blog) and I decided it was time for a change of pace. He'd been recommended to Warmachine multiple times and previously we'd stuck to what we knew but decided this might be the time to shift to Warmachine and get away from GW for a while (haven't looked back since). Moving into anything like this I am always a big sucker for a good story. I care about narrative most of all in most things, wargaming included. So when we were deciding what to play it was the ascetics and fanaticism of Menoth that caught my attention. I considered Cygnar but felt their look was cool but they seemed bland. Khador was too blunt and Jayke was leaning towards Cryx. The model that cemented the decision for me, though, was the fairly newly released Bastion Seneschal. Without doubt that model is one of my favourites in the Protectorate range. As with most things once I get involved in it I tend to over-commit and so I let Warmachine consume me. I kept finding things I loved about it and it's continued to hold my interest for longer than almost anything (my obsession with Assassin's Creed notwithstanding). 

I bought the battlebox, a choir and a Vassal and painted them in a frenzy and didn't much slow down. I didn't play many games at first but once I got into it I loved the mechanics of the game. I loved my faction and some of the cool things they could do. I liked the stories about the Menites in the fiction, Kreoss especially. But the more I played the less I felt like I enjoyed the play style. It's been almost a year and a half now that I've been playing Menoth despite deciding a while ago that I wanted to switch factions; I've persevered. I got better and better with Menoth and I have no doubt that they are my favourite Warmachine faction. Recently, though, I've been feeling really burnt out with the faction. This is by far the longest I've ever consistently played a single faction and I'm getting sick of playing them. I really don't want that to happen. I love Menoth and I want to keep loving them. For now the best way to do that is to walk away. 

Obviously I have no intention of stopping playing altogether and I'm definitely not going back to Warhammer (the grass is sooo much greener over here that I'm pretty sure they've paved over the grass back there). So the best thing to do is switch faction so I can keep playing without completely destroying my will to continue with the game. 

Luckily there's more to this game than Warmachine. For anyone who's been keeping up to date on the Facebook page or has read my Sword<Pen<Brush articles it's clear where I'm heading next: Legion. I've wanted to go to Hordes after Menoth since day one. The first decision, again, was which faction. Looking over the Big Boy Factions, I don't like the ideology or appearance of Circle, and Skorne's background entices me but the models don't inspire me (though I could see myself ending up there). Trolls and Legion were the only real choices in my eyes. Trolls look awesome and the background is solid but they only feel like a '7' to me and I was looking for something to really dig my teeth into. Legion on the other hand? Dragon-powered super-soldiers with an engrossing backstory and cool development? Sold. The ascetics of Legion appealed to me, a kind of combination of grace and savagery that I enjoyed. The stories though? Oh! By far Legion has the coolest fluff! I bought and read through Evolution and Mutagenesis (I highly recommend it - they're available on the PPDigital app for a pittance) and fell in love with the characters. Lylyth particularly seemed like a cool, fierce, independent character. Thagrosh is a badass, a despotic leader and obedient servant all at once. Saeryn is a mystery and her twin is a Ninja. Absylonia is an amnesiac horror but is actually motivated by a profound sense of family. All of which are bound together by the will of a pretty awesome draconic character in Everblight himself. 

I'm gushing a little. 

Ahem. 

On top of that I felt that their play-style felt more comfortable for the way I like to play and so they were ticking all my boxes. I planned to shift my focus away from Menoth to Legion months ago. In fact I even wrote a post in September last year saying I was finished with Menoth. But then I got a few more models and so on. I wanted to start playing Legion at the start of this year and I failed spectacularly. 

I bought and painted up the battlebox and had a go with it, but by that point my meta was coming to the end of a journeyman league and it wasn't easy to get a 15 point game. So I got a hodge-podge of other models and was able to cobble together a 35 point list. But this was thrown together and I decided I didn't want to play until I could come up with a proper 50 point list. This meant I wanted a decent array of different models to give me a bit of variety on the board before I started playing. Obviously this set me back quite a bit. I bought a trio of heavy beast kits and magnetised them then wrote up a couple of lists with them in it. But these still felt like I was missing key components. 

Now, though, my latest order had a Raek, Naga, two Angelii and a pair of Seraph/Neraphs along with Typhon. Now all I'm missing is infantry and a few of the less common solos and light beasts. I've got a couple of lists I'm happy to play with written and ready to go. I'm honestly excited to play them. It's got me enthusiastic to play again after losing substantial momentum and getting tired of Menoth. I still like Menoth and I am coming back to them. In fact I'm going to have one more Menoth game before I start playing Legion in June (honestly this time I swear). 

I've been putting this off for quite a while, wanting more and more stuff before I felt comfortable playing but I'm finally there and I can put the Menoth to one side for a while. I'll be back, and I feel like I've found my comfort zone with Menoth and I'm eager to try something new!

I'll have my final Menoth bat rep (for a while) up next week, and following that I'll be on a well deserved holiday with my wife for a while so I won't be posting anything. Following that I'll put up a CitTM about the lists I've written and then I'll start out with my learning Legion bat reps!

For updates and a history of my Legion painting as well as other photos and updates check out the Mitsuharu on Minis Facebook page!

-M