Not Just Tactics
Not Just Tactics is a Warmachine podcast featuring fresh perspectives on the game and its community. This will be done through product review, game play mechanics, tactics, lore, and various other content.
Not Just Tactics
Family, Community, And The Frozen Lore Of Warmachine
The wind turns cold, and that’s your only warning. We pull back the curtain on the Nyss—winter elves who traded the hunt for food into a hunt for purpose—and why their legend as “winter devils” still shakes supply lines and command tents across the Iron Kingdoms. From the Shard Spires to black ice shores, we trace the breakpoints: Everblight’s corruption, refugee years, the deal with sorrow after the lossof Nyssor, and the choice to fight with precision instead of numbers.
Lanyssa anchors the story. Scarred but unbroken, she shapes grief into strategy and raises Sasha and Benkei—ferocious ice lions born of brutal cold—to strike at exactly the right second. We walk through how that lore becomes gameplay: ambush over attrition, angles over armor, timing windows over raw volume of attacks.
We also spotlight the cadre around her: Aelyth's unwavering guard, and the last Ryssovass warriors whose great swords carve intent into battlefields. Their stories expand the Dusk canvas without drowning you in rules text, since journeyman profiles will evolve.
If this journey through frost and resolve hits home, queue up the full episode, share it with a friend who loves sharp tactics and sharper stories, and drop a review so more players find our table. Subscribe for the upcoming Cryx and Orgoth deep dives, and tell us which faction you want covered next.
Music made by Y. Will
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579772015913
Email us at: NotJustTactics@gmail.com
Hey listeners, NJT here, bringing you fresh perspectives on all things war machine and building the community we surround ourselves with. We're going to be doing things a little bit differently today. Joe had to miss this episode for some health reasons, and I'm not exactly feeling great either. As you can probably tell by my voice, I'm a little uh under the weather and uh dealing with some allergy and sinus issues. But I did bring back John today. Say hi, John. Hello. And I also have my other son, Eli. Say hi, Eli. Hello, listeners. All right. I've got my two older boys with me, both of which have been playing War Machine. If you listened to this previous episode, you heard John talk about the community, how he's been playing Legacy Cricks, and we've been doing a lot of other fun, nifty things, and he's been uh looking forward to his next few games. I've also got a couple shout-outs that I need to put out there from Spotify. We have PD 821 FYE9L F J S Y U P E R 661 E R B R. This is going back to the Dusk Dive. Says great deep dive into Dusk and IOS, you are right. You cannot really understand the Empire of Dusk today without talking about the history of the elves as a whole. As a longtime retribution player and lore lover, I appreciate your efforts. They also said a Crick's lore dive would be cool. Well, PB 821, we are actively working on that, and that should be our next episode. Also, we have a few more comments from AABB. I love listening to your lore episodes with my kids. We got the Shadow and Scum box and have been getting into painting and hearing your discussion has been great. I'm a returning Mark II player that recently got my first Mark IV games by jumping into a steamroller. It was a blast. All the people I met were awesome. Keep up you rock. Well, thanks, AABB. We appreciate it. Also, another one is from Mario Reseruda says, Hi folks, hopefully I pronounced your name correctly. Hi folks, new listener here. Thanks for doing this show. Love hearing different perspectives on War Machine. Just a heads up, when looking at lists online, because rack spells are chosen before the game, often players will submit lists with rack spells that are not necessarily the ones they will use in game. So for example, rough seas will often be chosen at the table after matchups are decided. I look forward to more. As someone who hasn't exactly looked into the exact rules, I kind of figured that that was a thing. But even still, I would have I personally would have put that down. But I definitely always appreciate community feedback, you know, guys that actually do play in these, and shouting it to us so that way we can kind of look into it a little bit more. We like hearing from you guys because then it actually shows kind of that you guys are listening. That really helps us out. I'd like to give my own shout out to Steven because he sent me two boxes for my Crick's army, which I'm very thankful for. There you go. Sounds nice. And definitely thank you, Steven. Steven has been a follower and a listener pretty close since the beginning. We share community groups and engage fairly regularly. Again, thank you, Steven. Greatly appreciated. Alright, Eli. Tell me what kind of army you play.
SPEAKER_00:So the army that I've played in the games that I have is uh the Hellslingers group from the Cygnar Quick Start. You have your main caster, Major Alistair Kane. Uh you have Deuce, who's your big tank who's in there taking all the damage while you guys are shooting from the back lines and casting spells. So you've got Deuce, so that's your heavy war jack.
SPEAKER_01:Deuce is a problem. When he starts lighting up other undead, like John's Cricks or other constructs like the Slayer Jack. That's also a problem for John.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that is true. Most of the time I don't end up going against Cricks and other undead creatures. So these last couple games that I've played specifically with you and some of your other friends, I don't have all these good matchups, and you'll come around and ambush me and flank me, and then my entire squad gets wiped out because I'll lose my Black 13th, which is just my little trio that wanders off and gives my uh main like Deuce and Major Alistair Kane all these good buffs, such as evasiveness.
SPEAKER_01:Well, they they don't necessarily share them to everyone, but they do share to each other, which makes it a much larger problem for everyone else.
SPEAKER_00:And while that is true, as they slowly start to crumble one by one, they lose all those powers, so they slowly become weaker and weaker.
SPEAKER_01:As soon as that, you know, that starts going, as soon as one falls, then the next starts to fall, and then the other starts to fall, and it it's kind of a domino effect. I actually played a game against our wonderful creator of our music. I brought him out, and he actually got to play his first game, which eventually I will bring him on as well. Good friend of mine. We went to the to Coliseum Games, and that was on a Monday. We went ahead and we went and we played. He he played my Brine Bloods, and I played his Cygnar, and I was kind of coaching him the whole way through, and he swung through, and he had me dead to rights. I had Alistair Kane left, and it was probably like turn four, and I was like, Oh, I'm gonna go for broke, and I moved up and I attacked Commodore Foulblood, emptied all the shots into him, and I boxed him by just going about one or two boxes over, and I won by assassination, but had I not successfully pulled that off, Chum was gonna come in, Foulblood was coming in, and Mr. Boggs was already lining up his shot to wrap things up. Definitely a great game. He's very receptive on how to play, and he definitely has played games with me in the past. It was just his first time playing War Machine, and we had a good time with that. So maybe I'll have to get you and our music friend to come out and play a little bit, and maybe we'll get the four of us playing.
SPEAKER_00:That sounds like a plan. I'd be down for that.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I definitely need some more practice that way I can learn more so how to play and the lore behind all of us, all these new characters coming out and the old ones. That way I can be more in tune with everything going on that we have here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And that that's also one of the major uh benefits to this podcast that, you know, that Joe and I have started and, you know, I'm bringing you guys into and our listeners are also a part of, is that this podcast is kind of geared towards new people and people coming back into it when I have been in and out of war machine for so long that it's almost like I'm new, but I've played it before, so I know some of the things, and it's just kind of playing catch up and just getting back into it and relearning, re-establishing, getting into the new armies, which are so fun. And then, you know, you guys have seen, my boys have seen me go through and play all these different types of war games and experienced all the fun of old world, and guys have seen me play Legion. I mean, f oh gosh, as I'm sitting here looking at my boxes on the walls, we've got Star Wars Legion, Star Wars Armada, Star Wars X-Wing. Those are just the uh hero clicks. You guys have played hero clicks too. Very fun. Yeah. I'm very much about sharing my nerdum and my culture with my children, and from what I've seen so far, a lot of people have been very much involved in that as well. And that makes me very excited and very happy because that's how you continue to push these games along. It's not just, oh, dad's gonna go out and go play with his little figurines. No, this is I surround my family with it, I surround my friends with it, hence Joe is involved in it. One of the other things that I do really like, like Eli mentioned, is the lore aspect. I love a living lore where it's this character keeps progressing, almost like you're reading a book and you're always waiting to see what happens. And that's why I really enjoy seeing how these things go and progress and where they go to. And the fact that they keep releasing more and more lore, it just makes me so excited. And if you are part of our Facebook group or follow us on the Facebook page, you've seen every time that all of a sudden it's War Machine Wednesday, out comes this new update and it's got lore. I'm like, oh my god, lore, this is gonna be so great. This is another awesome update. Then you'll get a War Machine Wednesday where it's like, oh, we we changed a couple words. And speaking about lore, I'm actually going to cover the NIS side of the Frozen and Forgotten box. I'm not going to really dive into their rules, because when you see they're the journeyman rules, I don't want to dive too far into them because they might be stunted. I'd rather wait till the full rules and the faction for the dusk fully come out, and then I will see about covering those at a later date. But with that, you guys ready for some lore? Hundred percent. Let's get right on into it. Alright. So do you guys know who the NIS are? Not the slightest clue.
SPEAKER_00:I have no idea as well.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, so you guys haven't listened to Dusk Part 1 or Part 2.
SPEAKER_00:You would be correct.
SPEAKER_01:Sadly, I have not. Okay, so that sounds like you guys need to do a little bit of homework before we get into that. But that is something for a later time. So if you guys have questions, go ahead and ask, and I will try my best to answer that. Okay. Alright. Nis, the frozen side of Frozen and Forgotten. The NIS, or the Winter Elves, once thought they were safe in the frozen mountains, but they weren't. The Dragon Everblight from Legions of Everblight. Everblight corrupted the vast majority of the NIS with its blight, turning them into a twisted legion devoted to the dragon and his ambitions. Those that escaped became refugees for many years. NISHunters were silent killers of the Shard Spires. The NISHunters were masters of hunting in such frozen and harsh blizzard terrain. Hunting was not just a survival tactic, but a major essence of the life and lifestyle of the NIS. So when you think about that, they were really good archeries, they were really good stalkers, they were really good at hiding. So that kind of plays into this. Make sense so far?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, basically.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Okay. Isolationists and nomads are thriving on the fruits of their hunts. That also means that if they didn't succeed on their hunting, so hunting animals, hunting, you know, game, failure meant hunger and hardship. So imagine you go out to hunt a deer, and you didn't get the deer, what are you gonna eat?
SPEAKER_00:Have to go hungry for a while.
SPEAKER_01:You'd have to figure it out. Thus the discipline in their craft honed them to be resourceful and resilient. The Niss learned their god, Nessor, was alive and detained by the Caador Grave Lord Arcanists. When Retribution found out about that, they took back Nessor to Eos. So again, a lot of this stuff we covered in Dusk Part 1. But kind of important for the Nis side of these things. Because the Nis were refugees, they had heard that Nesor, their god, had returned to Eos. Many of them took a pilgrimage to IO to become closer to their god because the elves of IO, so the Nis, are very in tune with their religion and their gods because their gods physically walked with them. Many Nis arrived in EOS thinking that again, being in IOS, that their home was safe. And they were wrong again. Few years after the arrival, the scorn invasion happens. And then the war rages on and pushes deep into IOS. Then the infernals invade. That's when they strike the truce with the scorn. Do you have a question, John? Yes, so do you know like what type of infernals? The infernals in this kind of lore are a type of like demonic army. Okay, because I know like some infernals used to be like wind. No, that that's not that's that's something completely different.
SPEAKER_00:Thinking about like elementals, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say elementals, not infernals.
SPEAKER_00:Infernals kind of implies that they're fiery.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. These are kind of like demons that come from a different realm. Gersheld brings the fight to the infernals, pushes them out, and then attacks a scorn. He completely loses his mind and has to be executed. Once completed, the scorn completely pushed out, the sundering happens. If you want to learn more about that, listen to Dusk Part one. In the aftermath of the sundering, Linisa Rysel becomes a lodestone for the Niss that survived the sundering, leading a small band of legendary warriors, hunting down any Everblight or Chimera, all of the tainted by the dragon and its blight and knowledge. She wants to eliminate all things Everblight, or anything that Everblight has touched.
SPEAKER_00:That way her people are restored to how they are and not corrupted by this dragon and its blight. Correct.
SPEAKER_01:Like the ghosts of IOS, the Niss treat the Empire of Eternal Dusk as allies, lending talents to Dusk, returned with supplies and support hunting down Everblight. With the new Orgoth invaders, Linissa has called a halt on Everblight to repel the invaders. If any Everblight shows, they will gladly take on any targets that they find while they are actively dealing with the Orgoth. Unlike her predecessors, Linissa and her companions hunt for persecution, not sustenance. Each hunt is more than skill but symbolizes the final chapter of the Ness Hunter legacy. Together they take on the final hunt of the NIS, striving to avenge their fallen brothers and sisters as Twilight falls on the Nys people and its traditions. The NIS act as a precision strike tool to slip into enemy territory and attack supply lines, high value targets, and enemy reinforcements. Orgoth raiders refer to the Nessians as winter devils. In the north, Orgoth knows when the wind becomes cold and starts blowing, Linsa and her company will strike soon.
SPEAKER_00:So Linissa and her party basically act as what I'd describe as assassins, snaking through as quiet as they can and then ambushing and attacking all at a moment's notice.
SPEAKER_01:They they mark their targets and they come out and they do it. They're more like I would say guerrilla warfighters than I would say assassins. She is attacking what they would deem as bad or evil people, and they do it in a way that they stalk their prey, wait for the cover of winter or the cold to show, and up in the north, it's almost all the time, they come out, and that's when they ambush and they strike them down.
SPEAKER_00:So not more so as an assassin, but just stalking until the perfect moment shows. Correct.
SPEAKER_01:So she is hunting for the essentially for the sport, not for the sustenance.
SPEAKER_00:So she's hunting for the joy of hunting rather than the gain.
SPEAKER_01:For the elimination of the target. She's culling, which is killing for a reason. Now let's talk about Linissa a little bit. Linissa is full of sorrow and loss, and all of those are constant. She not only has watched her homes burn the destruction of the way of life, Everblight, corruption and twisting former Niss Linisa swore to erase Everblight and to free her people. Linissa has fought many battles and under many different banners. Many blighted have fallen to her, but that has not been enough to lessen her sorrow. While away from Ios, she felt the death of Nessor, which only made her pit of sorrow worse. After years of fighting, Linisa returned north to the shard spires for answers. She travelled to the Fane of Nero, and the High Priest welcomed her. The High Priest was Vairil the wise. He was there preparing the temple for his sire's eventual rebirth, if it would actually happen. Veyril understood Linisa's pain and shared in it. Together they refined their sorrows to a keen edge. Linissa had mastered her emotions and was instructed to go north to the burning frost plains. Her sorrow would guide her to the beings who felt her grief equally. In the blinding fields she found two muling kits attempting to feed off a dead mother. You guys know what muling kits are? I do not. No ideas, well babies.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I interpreted that, but it's muling.
SPEAKER_01:Mew, mew.
SPEAKER_00:But like what kind of animal does that?
SPEAKER_01:Usually feline. Kits. Kits are usually lines up with like foxes and things like that. I was taking like a giant white tiger. Uh if you see the models. Are they a giant white tiger? Kinda. Ooh, I'm interested now. Actually, I will go ahead. I'm going to take a quick break. I'm gonna have them take a look at the pictures and we'll come right back. And we're back. I showed them the pictures and they've gone into the app and they've taken a look at the pictures of Sasha and Benke. What do you guys think?
SPEAKER_00:So after taking a look, I have to be honest, Sasha and Banke just looks such like they're such good models. You can like see all the details with their horns and the fangs. I personally think that they're cooler than most of the other figures that I've seen. But that might just be the cat lovers and me talking.
SPEAKER_01:I do have to admit, they aren't exactly what I thought they were gonna look like, but they still look pretty cool, I can't lie. I'll definitely say this. We don't have cats. I do enjoy the models that we do have here. I think Sasha and Becky are probably the cooler of the models. The Orgoth is coming. We will be doing Orgoth lore as well. Both sides. Uh I haven't had a chance to read over the uh Forgotten side of Frozen and Forgotten yet. And the lore did just come out not too long ago, but it is on my agenda to get that one chalked up here. We do have Cricks next. But anyways, carrying on with the lore. She collected the pair and returned to nurse them to health with uh Varyl's aid. They bonded and became powerful war beasts that Linisa now employ. Now Sasha and Banky. Two of the most dangerous predators to emerge from the burning frost plains. The ice lions regularly compete with frostrakes and massive aquatic mammals that live in the sea of black ice. They stalk for miles in between breathing holes to lie in wait for a creature to surface to be dragged out and onto the ice to become a bloody feast. Sasha and Banky are a bonded pair lean of body with protective barbs, and you guys got to see that in the models. Which they have a bunch of nifty little rules that do apply to that. You attack, they end up taking damage, it's pretty interesting. They enjoy nothing more than the elimination of their prey. Salina Rafel for years sold their skills throughout the Iron Kingdoms, acting as scouts and ambushers. In between missions, they would pursue leads on Everblight's minions and offer them a swift death as that was the only cure for their disease. Over the years, her cadre's numbers diminished and after the infernal war, she was the only remaining hunter. Afterwards, she returned to the Shard Spires where she encountered Linisa and her pair of war beasts, and her purpose was renewed once more. Together they would remove the last facets of Everblight's corruption. Now Ailith Vere Unwavering committed to the safeguarding of the Shard Spires from the external threat, respected by his peers for his quick thinking and exceptional combat skills, and fear from his adversaries, he demonstrates remarkable bravery and personal resilience. His dedication goes beyond duty and reflects profound love for his homeland and its inhabitants. All of his actions are rooted in the ancient traditions and values of the Rice of Voss, so they can be preserved for future generations.
SPEAKER_00:Just hearing some of these description and factors on these characters, they sound like they're going to be really interesting to play, and with all these new rules that you said they're they're going to be coming up with. Sounds like they'd be really fun to take out for a spin and play against in some of our upcoming battles.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I definitely am saying that I am getting a starter box for myself. And this might be a time they'll pick up a second box, depending on because there's an undead side, which I don't think John necessarily would want. Maybe he would, because they kind of look like mummies. I mean Aren't Cricks undead? Yes. I love my Crix though. Okay, so maybe that's where I'll get the other box from is maybe I'll go ahead and I'll split that up with you. Alright. That was Aileth Vir. Now the Ryovas Warriors. The Ryovas Warriors' duty is to defend the Nissian people from attack. They failed against Everblight, protected the refugees, and escape and assisted Dios in the Scorn invasion, and to force them out of Western Imorin. After the Suttering, the few remaining Risovas were again without a home and begun to wander the Iron Kingdoms. When rumors of Linisa reached them, they returned north. Aleth, Blade of Nesor, commands Riva and Mordith, two of the last Risovas warriors left in existence. They are battle hardened veterans pledging their greatswords to Linisa and clad in heavy plate, they move with surprising grace and relentless and skill with their blades. They will cut down all who face them with grim determination.
SPEAKER_00:So after hearing all these descriptions of these characters, it sounds like they're quite different from how I usually play with my group, with the Hellslingers, where it's more so they set they stand back for the most part and shoot from a distance. These characters sound like they more so get up in personal with these other figures and will do a lot more melee and up close damage. So that also be something that I'd have to learn how that all works, because I'm more so used to that um shooting aspect where you're not close up and taking all the damage. So I wonder how that's gonna work.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that definitely does play into a different style of play. As a Brian Bloods player, you've seen how my boys like to run up and get up in your face, and they like to jump down and kind of bring the pain. I'm very interested to see how they're gonna come through. I'm sure there's gonna be some sort of obscuring that's gonna happen. You're gonna see different little things. And right now, with them being journeyman warcasters, because they are in House uh Callus, I don't think it's going to be you're gonna see Linissa be changed. Her 20-point version with Sasha and Banke, you're gonna see a change in all of those models when the next sub-faction comes out for Dusk. That's the reason why I'm not gonna spend much time on that. You know, I I made the comment about how they have these nice little rules. I'm sure that those are gonna stay. They might even get boosted up. Cause she's gonna be playing a big role in this next coming faction. It definitely is gonna be playing different than how Signar plays, especially the uh Hellslinger group. They definitely ranged focused. This there is a lot of melee based, and it's gonna be a lot of hit and run tactics. I'm kind of interested to see how they play as well, that's why I'm gonna get a starter box for myself.
SPEAKER_00:Help out that inner kid inside you?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, of course. You know, building and painting and playing and doing all the fun things. And this is always my excuse. I like to bring my kids into my hobbies, because then I've got people to play with always. What was that?
SPEAKER_00:Just your little minions to play with.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, well, then you see John's over here nodding. John's like, yes, get to go and play. Yep. The store that we play up in Racine, I did hear back. We play at the Sanctum. It's out in Racine, I believe it's off of Washington. I can't remember the exact street. But if you look up the Sanctum in Racine, you'll be able to see where it's at. We've played at oh geez, now I've been playing at three different game stores. So between the Sanctum, Coliseum Games, and Gift of Games, two of which are in Wisconsin, one of which is in Illinois. I'm starting to build up my uh locations to play. If you guys uh ever want to, or if you guys are fairly local, go ahead, send me a message, send us an email, let me know. Always looking to see about trying to set up more games and again building that community that we're very involved in. And to be honest, my voice is getting pretty taxed at this point. So I think I'm gonna wrap up this episode here, and uh that'll give me a little bit of time to kind of recover and hope we'll see how things go in the future. Guys, have fun? Always.
SPEAKER_00:I did have fun, and I know that I might not have been as clear as you who's had more experience, but I just wanted to say thank you for bringing me on here and letting me have this chance to be a part of this.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. I'm always about bringing my children in on all of my hobbies and endeavors, and this is definitely one of the newer ones that I am doing. And after having John on the last one, the overwhelming support of the community and the overall, I don't want to say praise, but the love that I saw and the positive reactions really made me really start thinking about, you know what, maybe I should bring them on more often and have them be a more of a part of this because this allows them to learn good speaking skills and kind of like a public speaking voice. And also it allows them to kind of voice and give our listeners a good perspective on a younger mindset. I have uh a current open comment. Uh somebody was asking me about, or asking us, about uh doing a youth event out at Nova. I was blown away. And I do want to think on that a little bit more. I'm shaping my brain around it, and we'll definitely be approaching that here in the next couple days. But I do intend on trying to get out to Adepticon, I do attend on hopefully maybe going out to Nova, maybe to Vegas, not quite sure yet, depending on what my vacation schedule looks like and what mom dictates for us to do. Um maybe I'll have you guys come out with me. I'd be down for that. Vegas sounds like fun. Uh, I don't know. We'll see. All right, guys. We're gonna be signing off here.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01:All right, guys, have a wonderful day.
