What's the most powerful ability in Warmachine? Is it Weaponmaster? No! Sacred Ward? No! Pathfinder, Stealth, Berserk, Tough? No, no, no, no!
It's Reach. Reach is a model-defining ability in many ways. It extends your threat range by an inch and a half, but there's so much more to it.
A Reach model can tie up many more enemies in close combat. Since that shuts down ranged infantry and forces anyone trying to leave to take freestrikes, Reach models are many times as effective as non-reach models at tarpitting, especially since a Reach model can tie up the back row of a unit without leaving the front row's melee range (and risking free strikes).
Units with Reach can double (or more) the number of attacks they can throw against a single target, either by attacking over each other or by clever placement that leaves gaps between models.
Models with Reach have greatly expanded charge angles. I will demonstrate with a diagram. Note: not to scale.
The small base is the charger. The large base is the target. The cone indicates legal charges: the charging model can end up anywhere between those two lines. Those are all the possible successful charges if the attacker does not have reach. Now let's look at what happens if he does.
See? Much wider. Many more options. You can avoid terrain or intervening models, position yourself to be within (or out of) a cloud or other effect, or even barely succeed on a charge you would have otherwise failed. You have options, and you can't put a price on having more options than the other guy.
Reach models can engage enemies without being engaged by them-- if you can then knock them down and they have no way to get back up out of activation, you bought yourself a reprieve.
Reach models can attack over intervening models in some cases (cavalry, target has a larger base etc.) to hit the stuff that your opponent is trying to screen.
Overall, Reach is an ability that grants unparalleled tactical flexibility. For that reason it is the most powerful ability in Warmachine.
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