The WARMACHINE & HORDES Journeyman League is Privateer Press’ official slow-grow league, designed to encourage new players to learn the game beginning with their chosen faction’s Battlegroup box. The Journeyman League rewards both a player’s in-game exploits and his or her skill with a paintbrush.

For someone new to the hobby, the goal will simply be to learn the rules. The Journeyman League breaks the overall concepts of WARMACHINE and HORDES down into small, manageable pieces. So, here are a few recommendations for getting the most out of the league.

First, play at least ten games with just your battle box; this is not a race to be the first person to paint 800 points of miniatures. Get used to the mechanics of focus and fury, as they are crucial to an enjoyable play experience, and make a cheat sheet of important rules. For example, when playing a Protectorate army, once you have added the Choir of Menoth order of activation becomes very important. Remembering that focus drops off before you roll for continuous effects can make the difference between your warcaster living or dying. Lastly, when learning about a new model type (such as unit or solo), consider taking one of the more robust options. The Two-Player Battle Boxes are perfect for this. Both come with medium-based infantry, which prevent trampling and have multiple hit boxes for a greater chance of survival. And with only five models to keep track of, ensuring they stay in command range of the unit leader won’t be too challenging. Just remember, as a new player you succeed by learning the rules, not by winning games.

Now let’s get to the crux of this series of Insiders: my own Journeyman army! I recently signed up to paint an Archangel and a unit of Strider Rangers for Project Orange Crush, and this experience got me really excited about painting Legion of Everblight models. Overcome by the desire to paint even more dragonspawn, I knew Legion would be my army. I just needed to figure out which battlegroup I wanted to use.

The standard Legion of Everblight Battlegroup is utterly amazing. Lylyth, Herald of Everblight is an incredibly enjoyable warlock to play, and the Carnivean has one of my favorite abilities, Assault, which allows it to charge and breathe fire at the same time. But the best part of the battlegroup is its herd of Shredders. These little guys are some of my favorite models in the game, and their ability to heal damage by eating other models always provides a great deal of entertainment. I knew I would have a blast playing this battlegroup, but I also understood this view would probably be shared by any number of new players, so I didn’t want to saturate the league with identical armies.

Option number two is the alternate battlegroup made up of Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight, a Ravagore, a Nephilim Soldier, and a Harrier. Thagrosh is a brutal warlock, capable of destroying a warjack on his own, and his ability to return a warbeast to life via his feat is very scary. The Ravagore is one of the most feared warbeasts in the faction, and it should be—who wants to face down a fire=breathing dragonspawn? The Nephilim Soldier has the ability to apply pressure to your opponent in unexpected ways due to Flight and Reach. It goes where it wants, and there’s very little an opponent can do to stop it! Harriers have an astounding animus, allowing a melee attack to automatically hit. Cast it on Thagrosh, and even the most nimble opponents won’t be able to evade his wrath.

This battlegroup almost got me, but there aren’t quite enough giant stompy beasts for my taste. For me, WARMACHINE and HORDES are all about giant monsters and machines clashing on the battlefield and beating each other up. So, I really want to play with as many heavy warbeasts as I can fit into a single army.

This leaves option number three, the newest addition to the Journeyman packet: Vayl, Disciple of Everblight with a Scythean and a Neraph. This army really tickles my fancy. Vayl is a great toolbox warlock, and her ability to channel spells through models hit by the Oraculus, combined with her ability to transfer damage to an opponent’s warbeasts, makes for some entertaining play. Chiller offers help against high DEF enemy models; no opponent will be safe when this is coupled with Incite. Leash is great for extra movement shenanigans to increase your battlegroup’s threat range, but Rampage is probably my favorite spell available on Vayl’s list. At first glance it seems pretty simple: you take control of an opponent’s warbeast to make an advance and an attack with it. But the ability to make an advance with the target means warlocks who prefer to hide behind their beasts will be in a tough spot, usually hiding on the edge of their control area. This can result in you moving the target warbeast out of its warlock’s control area, thus denying that warlock the ability to leech fury and transfer damage—potentially game-ending moves. Additionally, it can be used to advance the warbeast toward your lines to offer the back strike advantage to your activating army, or even to simply move the warbeast out of the way of a potential assassination run.

Let’s go ahead and call out the elephant in the room: the Scythean doesn’t breathe fire. This was hard for me to accept, but don’t overlook this amazing warbeast! With an above-average SPD and Reach on its melee weapons, it has an impressive threat range. The high P+S of its Scythes combined with its FURY stat of 4 means it should wreck any opponent it comes across, provided it can hit them—which Vayl’s spell list helps him accomplish. The Scythean is as capable of slaughtering swaths of infantry as it is destroying heavily armored targets. Chain Attack: Bloodbath allows you to make a melee attack against every model in range. It’s important to remember to take your initial attacks against something you won’t immediately kill, such as a heavy warbeast, because if your target dies from the first attack, you won’t trigger Bloodbath.

The Neraph is one of the newest warbeasts in the Legion of Everblight arsenal, and it brings some neat tricks. While it is a heavy warbeast, its role is very different from other heavies. It’s best suited to taking out light warbeasts, enemy solos, and even warcasters. Flight allows it to apply pressure to your opponent’s movements, as they will want to make sure support solos don’t end their movements within the dragonspawn’s impressive threat range. It also has a wonderful animus that allows it to pull opponents toward it. This has innumerable applications, from opening assassination lanes for the Scythean to dragging warcasters and second-line support solos into melee.

By my next article, I will have this alternate battlegroup painted, and I’ll offer my thoughts on expanding the army to meet the Week 2 requirement of 15 points. Take care!