@warzan As timmoth mentioned above, one way to ‘game in the gap’ with Warmachine/Hordes would be to take an existing named character (warlock, warcaster, solo, etc.) and change their name and/or gender, description, and background to suit your own idea. Use a different miniature on the proper size WH/H base and you are off and running with your own take on the named character.

You could go even further by making minor modifications to the character by swapping out one or more spells, weapons, special abilities, etc. to further customize your version of the character and ‘make it your own’. Compare it to the other available options to make sure it’s roughly in line power level-wise with the other options in your faction. Ideally your character idea would then be sufficiently different from the existing options, but not any more powerful.

If you wanted to put even more effort into it, you could totally build a custom warlock/warcaster or junior warlock/warcaster from scratch by browsing the options and picking and choosing what fits your character idea, but balancing the character with existing options is even more involved.

Alternately, you could take a non-named figure and give them a name, etc, along with alternate (or just additional) abilities as long as you try to balance the cost of any changes. For example, a typical solo is 2pts. You could take a solo character, give them a name and add another ability or two depending on how powerful the addition and then up the cost of the model to 3pts.

You could come up with your own Trollkin clan, with their unique tartans and background, or your own platoon or section of a military group, or your own mercury band based on existing models but with name changes, paint schemes, and minor alternations of their abilities.

Of course you could come up with a multitude of scenarios, including asymmetrical scenarios, that are narratively driven.

If your playing-partner is a casual/narrative gamer too, then they should be accepting of such ‘unofficial’ additions for your games and you two should be able to work out all kinds of interesting story games.

*****

An example, my good friend and I are casual WM/H players. We don’t have much interest in going to tournaments. Both of us are quiet happy to make up stuff for our WM/H games when we play the game together.

We both made a narrative scenario involving Protectorate [of Menoth] crossing the Khador border and attempting to convert a village over to the Menoth faith. The village was defended with a Khador garrison. Neither side had a warcaster, but both sides had a pair of warjacks controlled by a jack marshal (a non-warcaster who that can verbally control warjacks).

The garrison included a Winter Guard officer (my friend’s character) and the Protectorate were supported by a Choir of Menoth (priests that recite holy hymns to enhance/protect their warjacks) lead by a warpriest (my character). The two forces clashed, resulting on both sides losing their jack marshals.

As each side lost their jack marshal, that person’s original character suddenly found themselves able to connect to their side’s warjacks as their own warcaster abilities woke up in the stress of battle. They each gained a Focus of 4 and could control their warjacks. The Protectorate pushed the garrison out of the village, taking it over, with my friend’s character escaping.

We then went on to make own characters into Junior Warcasters, showing their growth and presumed training, giving them each two spells, a unique ability, and making some other minor changes in preparation for the next battle when Khador brings its reinforcements to take back their village. Naturally the Protectorate will have brought their own reinforcements to shore up the village against counter attack.

As for the future, we plan on playing out the Khadoran counter-attack with our new Junior Warcasters. Eventually, we’ll grow our characters into full-fledged Warcasters.