Though WARMACHINE MKIV focuses on self-contained armies, armies within the same Faction and edition designation (Legacy or MKIV) are also intended to share some models and units. These shared models and units are called Cadres, and each Cadre can be included in two or more armies belonging to the same Faction and edition designation. For Factions that exist as both Legacy and MKIV, their Cadres are restricted to their edition designation. For instance, a new Cadre released for Cygnar during MKIV can only be included with Storm Legion and other new armies released for Cygnar during MKIV. Legacy Cadres can only be included in Legacy Cygnar armies. Cadres will include battle engines, colossals, and gargantuans, as well as a small menu of other models. We will be introducing the first MKIV Cadres in late 2023.

Legacy Factions in the MKIV Prime Arena will also include Cadres of models that can be shared between their armies. Each Legacy Faction will include roughly five Cadre offerings that will be shared between their two Prime Arena armies consisting mostly of the Faction’s battle engines, colossals, gargantuans, and primary support models.

As an example, the Legacy Legion of Everblight Faction will include the Spawning Vessel, Blighted Nyss Shepherd, and the Succubus as Cadre models that can be shared between the Faction’s two armies. Once we introduce battle engines and gargantuans, the Throne of Everblight and the Archangel will be added to their Cadre offerings.

Cadres do not possess any requirements for inclusion in a force other than belonging to the same Faction as the army they are being included in.

Mercenaries, on the other hand, are models that can be included in multiple MKIV armies. Each army that a Mercenary can work for will be included in the Mercenary model’s profile. However, just because a Mercenary can be included in a particular army doesn’t mean that Mercenary can be included in every army belonging to a specific Faction.

For example, Alexia, Queen of the Damned, can be included in forces with the Cygnar Storm Legion or Khador Winter Korps armies. However, this does not mean that Alexia can be included in the Khador Lords of Umbrey army. Mercenaries are army-specific, not Faction-specific. The armies that Mercenaries can be included with may update over time as new armies are introduced.

Mercenaries will not be a Faction unto themselves in MKIV; instead, they will be specific models or units. However, this does not preclude us from introducing a new army that might be described as “mercenaries” in their background fiction.

Legacy Mercenaries and Minions have been regrouped into cohesive and contained armies for the Prime Arena and cannot be included in other Prime Arena Legacy armies. Minions have also been streamlined under the Mercenary banner and are no longer referenced as a separate Faction.

We took this approach to simplify army construction and development going forward. With a focus on smaller armies, rather than building out Factions as a whole, tailoring Mercenaries to specific armies reinforces the design goals for MKIV.

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