We wish you a Happy Nerfbat!

The whole family has been blighted by that good ol' Yule plague, no time for Warmachine but lots of time for sneezing and coughing. It seems as if the Swan has been naughty, and we're getting Cygnar nerfs for Christmas!

Errata January 2017

From PP to Cygnar, XOXO

First, the non faction specific stuff. As I predicted, PP has been very conservative with the nerfs and buffs. There is a lot of complaining about balance, but I think people have a tendency to underestimate just how well balanced the game is. What they have done is they fixed some broken rules, took down the strongest casters a peg, and gave some buffs to the factions that have been lagging behind. While there are clearly more things that could be done, I think it is a good strategy to be a bit careful.

It's important to avoid getting to the situation where things are over-corrected, so people have to buy / rebuild their armies completely, and then when the pendulum swings back again everything is invalidated again. It's a sure way to piss everyone off all of the time. It's better to piss just some people off some of the time!

Throws

Throws got nerfed, hard. Since you can no longer power attack your own models it suddenly got a whole lot more difficult to knockdown the opposing caster. I am very happy about this change. I thought the laser guided throws were the silliest part of Mk3, and now that you can no longer throw friendly models it becomes way harder to set these up. This is an indirect buff to all the casters that want to be up the board but just die to knockdowns, and it stops some really silly shenanigans with throwing your own caster.

Cygnar

Caine2 probably got hit the worst. Paying for Trick Shots, Grievous Wounds and Black Penny gives many casters much more counterplay against Caine. Trick Shot assassinations are probably impossible now. On the other hand, just gunning something away with the feat still works fine, and with throws nerfed he can play even more aggressively. He can probably skip using 2 Focus for Gate Crasher in many situations. He is clearly weaker now, but he was bonkers before, and I won't give up on my favorite gunslinger yet!

Haley2 lost Deflection, and Time Bomb got nerfed a bit. This makes it a harder to field a DEF skew army with her, and also makes it harder to control bricks. These were the two spells I used the least, and I think she is still a top tier caster even with these nerfs. Gaining knockdown immunity is cute and probably makes her stronger in matchups against casters like Rahn that rely on knocking down the enemy caster to land the assassination.

I don't play much Haley1 since almost all she does is Temporal Barrier all the time. She seemed weak and predictable before, even weaker now. I doubt her getting nerfed really changes anything.

Other Factions

Many of our strongest enemies got nerfed. Una2 and High Reclaimer are still as they were, but Wurmwood, Ossyan, Karchev, Khador infantry spam, Sentry Stones and Hellmouth got less powerful.

Cryx and Convergence got buffed a bit, which I think they needed, and of course Skorne is waiting for a complete faction rebuild!

Overall I think this is looking good. I am pretty sure I will still field Haley2, since while she lost some options she lost none of her core tools. With Caine2 I just have to see how much the nerfs matter. If I decide to swap out Caine2, maybe it will be Haley3 that picks up the slack. She was really strong and now that other top tier options are weaker, this might put her over the top. We'll see!

New Lists

I think I will keep Caine2 as he is, since it does not seem that any of his interactions with his own army changed much.

Haley2 will need a replacement for Lanyssa, since she gained a point. Probably I will swap in 4 Mechanics in that slot, or maybe I will buy Anastasia!