Assassination

List Building
Every assassination list has a core of models that are required to get the assassination off. A good example is Siege. You rush up rangers for +2 to hit, move up, drop foxhole to get line of sight to the caster, feat, shoot twice (second shot coming from Reinholdt), eiryss shoots off any focus on your caster and then you plough all your other boostable guns into the caster as well, generally a Stormwall, a Defender marshalled or controlled by jr. The most important thing in most assassination lists is a DEF debuff or hit buff, knocking down the opposing caster is best but failing that you want something else that will make the caster easier to hit as that is generally the biggest obstacle in killing a caster. The other thing you need is threat range. You are't going to be able to walk over a beast/jack and headbut your opponents caster until you have fought through their entire army. They are going to be keeping their caster somewhere far away behind their models where they think their caster is safe. You need something that can reach out and touch a caster from a massive distance, the longer the better. Anything that allows you to move your opponents caster is tremendously valuable, particularly if you can move that caster without rolling (like for example Hellmouth). You can pull casters out of terrain, away from cover, out of auras (or move the defensive Aura) and it can make a very big difference.

Here is a circle assassination list from Warmachine Weekend (Craig Conroy).

Krueger the Stormlord

• Woldguardian
• Woldguardian
• Woldwarden
• Woldwarden

Druid Stoneward and Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward and Woldstalkers
Shifting Stones

• Stone Keeper

Shifting Stones
Gallows Grove
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

The important thing here is that Kruegar has telekinesis. Both Woldwardens can use geomancy to cast that spell for one fury and then Krugar can channel it through the gallows grove 3 times (or twice boosted), this lets you move things out of the way so you can get to the caster and move the caster up and turn the caster around so you gain +2 to hit. You also have Eiryss there to shoot off any focus or defensive buffs on the caster. The other thing this list has that is important is two units of shifting stones. One of which will be on the edge of advance deployment and the other around the Woldguardians. The Woldguardian can then be teleported to have the back edge of his base just within the stones and then teleported again by the advance deploy unit for 20" of teleportation shenanigans + 10" of telekinesis shenanigans. The woldguardian is a great assassin because as soon as it hits your caster is knocked down and the rest of the attacks hit automatically. You can also see that if this attempt fails you've given your opponent a free heavy beast and you don't have your other beasts in position to strike or go for scenario since they moved in order to cast telekinesis. There are two Woldgaurdians in the list but only one can participate in the assassination so if you are waiting till turn 2 or 3 to assassinate (which doesn't always happen) you can use the heavy as bait.

Playing an Assassination list
Know your threat ranges. That has to be the biggest key, know how close your opponent needs to be before you can kill him. As above you need a massive threat range and this normally puts the turn 1 assassination on the table. Ask your opponent haw far they are moving their caster. Know exactly how far they need to move to allow you to assassinate. Know the odds of the assassination, against what DEF or what ARM will your assassination start to become less likely? If you can't use one of your key pieces for some reason how does that change your odds. If you are playing the Siege assassination list and your opponent has blocked off your rangers this turn but is within the 19" you need to get the assassination off you need to know whether you can still make that assassination without the rangers or whether you need to throw away some models to allow you to reposition for the assassination next turn.

It's a different way of thinking about resources too, when you are playing assassination the only resources of your opponents that count are those that can stop you from successfully assassinating and the only resources of yours that count are those that you need to assassinate. The fact that you are thinking about the game this way can allow you to make very good trades that also look advantageous to your opponent. Generally you want their caster to spend resources, be on less focus or fury, you may also need to bait out key pieces like Mulg or a Bronzeback (protective fit and counter charge respectively). You can use things you don't need for the assassination to bait those models out or tempt your opponent in to spending focus or fury.

Charge/slam your own models. It's pretty basic positioning advice but if you don't know it you won't get assassinations to work.


Playing Against an Assassination List
Keep your caster back. Nothing protects quite as well as distance. Be aware of non-standard moves that extend threat range. I have seen a caster stay just outside of 19 inches away from siege only to have a heavy push him an inch and bring him into assassination range. Know the threat range of the assassination attempt and try to stop your opponent from being able to access key pieces. Be aware of how the assassination is going to come at you, there are tricks you can use to stop it. Caine2 will struggle to kill you if you are in cover and he can't use his rangers. If you opponent is relying on pushes to get the job done you can armlock with your beasts/jacks that have open fists (neither model in an armlock can be pushed). If you are playing Magnus2 you can have a Vanguard headbut him every turn (still love that idea). There are always ways to take the assassination out of the game, most assassination lists rely on you not seeing the assassination coming or underestimating the threat range of it. Camp focus or fury. As much as possible. Most importantly kill the threats to your caster as quickly as you can so you can get your caster back into the game. Most casters don't like being in your deployment zone for the entire battle.

I'll finish off with a list of assassination casters (almost certainly not exhaustive) and how they accomplish their assassination so you can be aware. I've included threat ranges, these are standard threat ranges (measured from the caster unless otherwise noted), you can increase them with things like push or slipstream. I've also listed the key pieces to make the assassination work so you know what you need to kill or otherwise take out of the picture to be safe. I'm also not counting casters who have a very good assassination run (Caine1, Lylyth2) but who's lists are generally attrition lists until the assassination opens up. These are casters you often see in builds that do nothing but gun for your caster right from the get go.

Kreoss1 - He'll knockdown your army and your caster and then shoot you to death (your army no longer blocks LOS).
Threat Range: 22"
Key pieces: Redeemers, choir, vassals,

Krueger2 - Telekinesis + stone double jump. In tier (as above) it will be a teleported WoldGuardian (but you gain Eiryss), out of tier it will be a primaled Ghetorix or Stalker (which is better but no eiryss).
Threat Range: 20" Teleport + Telekinesis.
Key pieces: 2xShifting Stones, Heavy beast with auto knockdown or reach (not colossal), Eiryss or Gorax.

Cassius - Combination of Hellmouth, often double hellmouth, curse of the shadows and the stone double teleport (Stalker with Primal). Don't feel safe just because the tree has no souls, he can kill his own guys to load up as he pulls off the souls during his activation not he control phase.
Threat Range: 19" (to hellmouth target within 3" of warcaster) 20" double teleport.
Key peices: 2xShifting Stones, Heavy beast with reach, Gorax, bone grinders.

Lylyth1 - Feat gives an additional dice on attack rolls, she can boost on top, shoot you, auto hit with parasite and then shoot again. Then Typhon can gunfighter charge and spray through to your caster from insane distance. She does need LOS to your caster but with SPD 7 and slipstream she can usually get it. Typhon does not require LOS.
Threat Range: 19" (21" Slipstream which she normally has).
Key pieces: Typhon, Seraph

Rhyas - Feat lets you place B2B with the first thing you hit, Rapport makes your scythean hit very accurately (MAT 8) and you can massacre it for another attack or wraithbane it to avoid defensive spells.
Threat Range: 4" from anything with 11" of a scythean (up to 20" with a colossal or battle engine).
Key pieces: Proteus or shepherds, Scythean, Nephlim Soldier or Naga Nightlurker

Seige - Rangers run into position to give a RAT boost, Siege drops foxhole to clear LOS, feats  to increase damage output and shoots with a lot of boostable guns.
Threat Range: 19"
Key pieces: Rangers (only need 1), Defenders or Stormwall, Siege, Reinholdt, squire, Eiryss2

Caine2 - Rangers run into position to give a RAT boost and caine shoots your caster to death himself using his feat (he can kill a lot of casters without the feat too). In his assassination lists (he's also a great attrition caster) you'll also see gun mages and an Avenger to knock stuff down or push them out of the way.
Threat Range: 19"
Key peices: Squire, rangers, reinholdt, Avenger, gun mages, trencher master gunner, Eiryss2.

Makeda2 - Molik Khan. Leash, Road to War and Rush or Train wreck. he can move around stuff in the way and still make it to your caster with 5 fury (initials required for side step) and all boosted attack rolls from the feat as a POW 15 weaponmaster.
Threat Range: 22" (from MK)
Key Pieces: Molik Khan, Beast Handlers, Gladiator or Bronzeback.

Asphixious2 - It's the feat. You can still curse with your temporarily returned to life Tartarus. Again it needs LOS (but from 3" from asphixious after he has charged) and a charge lane but you are bringing 10 guys back to life, they can't all make it to the caster anyway so you can easily clear out a lane.
Threat Range: 24"
Key pieces: Tartarus, Bane Knights, Bane Thralls. Special note here, killing them does not prevent him from using them to assassinate you, you need to remove them from play. Especially Tartarus. Even this doesn't work as if you start doing this an assassination minded player will just kill his own stuff so he can feat it on you and that still works. Really you need something that prevents charges or takes you caster to very high DEF.

Vlad2 - Feats on Kayazy Eliminators and regular kayazy who killstroke. They charge straight through your army ignoring models and hit your caster at MAT 12 POW 14, 2 attacks, they can boost using your caster's focus or combo strike for POW 18 and two of them gain an additional dice on attack and damage discard lowest. The regular Kayazy have only 1 attack at MAT 12 but POW 15 and can all do the extra dice discard lowest spell. Oh and they are DEF 20 after they finish attacking.
Threat Range: 13.5" with 2 attacks on the caster or 15.5" with one attack, measured from the eliminators
Key pieces: Kayazy Eliminators

Magnus2 - It's a bad seeds list (though I believe this can be done outside of his theme forces and even with Magnus1). Renegades are the key. With rangers and the trencher master gunner you are RAT 10 and if the first shot hits the caster is knocked down (you may then be able to arc Calamity on to them as Renegades are also an arc node, if not Calamity then Obliteration). Renegades have arcing fire so ignore intervening models not within 1" and will happily shoot those models anyway to knockdown most casters. You then hit them with the other Renegade boosting damage (pow 16) and a boosted damage defender shot.
Threat Range: 19" (from renegades)
Key pieces: Rangers, Renegades, Defender, Trencher Master Gunner.

Ravyn - Known as "snipe feat go". Ravyn will feat to giver her mage hunter strike force boosted attacks and put snipe on them for extra range. They advance deploy, move 6" and shoot 16" meaning that if your caster moves 3" or more from the edge of your deployment they will pretty much auto die. They are only POW 10 attacks but they ignore anything that adds to defence or ARM and there are 11 of them boosted to hit. They also ignore LOS so you can't hide. You have to run.
Threat Range: 22" from MHSF
Key Pieces: Mage Hunter Strike Force

A lot of the best assassination casters also make very good (I would argue better) attrition casters but that's a topic for another post. Also there are finally pictures of Kreoss3 available, Alzer on the PP forums bought the model and assembled it.

Attrition, Assassination and Scenario

I'll start by talking about Kreoss3 (Threeos?). The model releases today but literally the only picture of it is this one from Matt Wilsons's twitter.

Weird. 

EDIT: As of 4:15pm still no pictures of the model anywhere on the internet. The Menoth forums are pretty funny at the moment, quite a few people have the model but no one has posted a photo of it together yet. 

There are really only two ways to win a game of warmachine: assassination and scenario but there is a third way to approach the game and that is attrition. This post is going to be part of a series of posts, I'm going to go into detail about the three styles of play, I want to organise my thoughts on the subject as much as I want to share them. This first post I want to give a broad definition of the three different types of playstyle so you can understand why they are different.

Assassination

An assassination playstyle is focussed solely on killing the opponents caster. Generally in order to get an assassination to work you need to sacrifice models the turn before (you often have to bait out other models or make a caster spend their resources) and then if you fail an assassination the models you used for that will generally die too. You can generally build an assassination with a high chance of success but if you fail you have lost the game. At the very least your games are quicker. Distances are very important for assassination players. If I ask you to tell me how far your caster moves turn 1 (something I am allowed to do) there is a minimum number I'm looking for, anything more than that and the assassination is on. There are quite a few casters who will assassinate on the first turn if they have gone second. This is really not my playstyle but it is a lot of fun. Probably not so much fun for the other guy.

Scenario

There are some similarities in playing for scenario to playing for assassination. The biggest is that you are willing to throw away your own models without killing things. In an assassination game you do that to increase the odds of assassinating, in a scenario game you do that in order to score a point. Invariably if you are playing for a scenario win you will lose the attrition war. You almost always sacrifice the alpha strike in order to control the zone and often you're using significant resources just to hold a point when they could be killing enemy models. Attrition players will often let you score a point in order to kill more of your army rather than wasting models contesting. Control casters are particularly good at scenario, anything that allows an opponent to slow down your models, or stop them from moving to or to allow you to move your opponents models is huge for scenario. While I can play assassination and do really enjoy it my attempts to play scenario style lists have thus far quickly degenerated into attrition. When I have won by scenario it's been because my attrition list is also good at scenario play (this may be why I have problems with Grim Angus).

Attrition

This is the way I generally play. To play attrition you need to keep in mind that you need to win via assassination or scenario so you need to keep those options on the table, you list must be able to do as least one of those. Generally though what you are doing is looking each turn to concentrate your force, remove important models and stop your opponent from doing as much damage as possible on their counter attack.

Witch Coven Theme Force

There is a new Witch Coven theme force in the latest no quarter. It's interesting and it uses the Iron Lich Overseer (a sentence I never thought I would utter).


Witch Coven

Models: Non-character jacks, Malice, Bile Thralls, Mechanithralls and necrosurgeons, Bloat Thralls, Machine Wraiths, Necrotechs, Scrap Thralls, Warwitch Sirens, Iron Lich Overseer, Skarlock Thrall

Tier 1

increase the FA of ILO by one, additionally they can jack marshall 3 jacks

Tier 2

2 or more ILOs
-2 points for jack marshalled helljacks (heavies), -1 point for jack marshalled bonejacks (lights).

Tier 3

2 machine wraiths
Machine wraith gain ambush

Tier 4
2 or more warjacks are controlled by ILOs
Models with soul take start the game with one additional soul token (ILOs start with 1, Malice starts with 2 souls)

So that makes Seethers 7 points with a free focus (you can allocate focus to jack marshalled jacks, you can't allocate to autonomous warjacks) so with a warwitch siren you can run the Seether with 3 "focus" every turn without using souls from the ILO (and it can still stealth) - (can't give the Seether the additional focus because it gets allocated one in the control phase not when it activates). You can also take 4 point Slayers which I think is just silly and 2 point helldivers, also silly. Really like this list, there is a little bit of skornergy in that infernal machine is battlegroup only so you can't throw it on the marshalled jacks but you need to put something on your coven anyway. I doubt it will see much competitive play just due to issues with getting the models, no other list is going to use the ILO let alone two of them and outside of battlebox games and I don't think I've ever seen a Slayer on the table (every Cryx player though has a few Seethers for the withershadow combine) so in a competitive game where you can't proxy I don't see it getting a lot of traction. Still it looks very different from what you normally see from cryx and you can get a significant points discount from the tier bonus. Slayers are probably pretty cheap on ebay though considering they are in all the battleboxes and no one likes them.

The Grim Angus Diaries

(this is a post I started writing ages ago, mainly to help me organise my thoughts on Grim Angus, figured I may as well put it up).

This guy is supposed to be great and while I can see lots of great pieces when I look at him I can't see how they all come together to make a great list. I'm going to jot down my process here in figuring him out.

1. Have a look at his rules. His gun can give a warbeast +2 SPD on a charge or knockdown whatever it wants to kill if it is close enough not to need the speed boost (Melee beast). His feat drops SPD and DEF which will stop my opponent from being able to charge me if I hang back a little which suggests I want some ranged threat. He can give a model/unit pathfinder and hunter (good for everything that doesn't have those abilities), has a spell that drops DEF, gets rid of stealth and allows targeting regardless of LOS but is dangerously short ranged which suggests more ranged stuff. Lastly he has return fire which will let a model shoot back if it gets shot at (ranged beast).

Trollbloods are the most infantry heavy faction in hordes but they still have great beasts so generally you are looking for a mix of beasts and infantry in your list. If you take a troll melee beast though you will need a damage buff (which means Mauler, Pyre Troll or Slag Troll). So from looking at his abilities I'm thinking:

Good Stuff
Bomber - Trolls best ranged beast
Impaler - really needed for the bomber and will help Grim out as well
Mauler, Mulg, Earthborn - A melee threat
Pyre Troll - Might need a damage buff and it shoots as well.

Champions - Grims feat will stop them from being charged so they will be very very hard to kill.
Long riders - Love cross country and will love the feat.
Runshapers - shooting
Scattergunners - A unit with sprays, ignores all your own models and Grim fixes the problem of their lowish RAT (5). They look great with Grim.
Burrowers - fixes their low MAT problem and they are otherwise awesome.
War Wagon - it will have no problem hitting directly under the feat, it has great ranged firepower and it can fight too.

When building a list you generally want to avoid the models that are overcosted and do not benefit significantly more than more appropriately costed models from your warcasters abilities. In this case that's Sluggers, Skinners and Bushwackers. I'd probably also avoid Blitzers, Bouncers and the thumper crew.


2. What is the prevailing wisdom? Whenever I'm putting together a list for a new caster I'll have a look at what other people are doing to see if there are any tricks other people have thought of that I have not. Here I ran into a road-block. You can often find good advice if you have a look at lists that have done well at tournaments. At least you can find a starting point or some synergies you have not thought of. There's nothing on Grim though, which is a bit weird as he is generally considered one of the top troll warcasters. There is a summary of Troll tactica on the forum and the one for Grim is old and bad (from before the release of the troll army book). Even Chain Attack played Grim in their first episode and didn't have any special ideas I had not picked up on.

3. What do I want the list to do? Good lists should do something, they shouldn't just be a collection of random models there should be an idea behind it, a plan of sorts. For example my Constance list is all about jamming with infantry, my doomshaper2 list is a high ARM beast brick. It should also be balanced, it's not just about taking the best synergies. A lot of my everblight lists have legionnaires in them just to die but to die in preference to my more important beasts. You may need a cheap unit of infantry just to get in your opponents way, you may need a model with a ranged attack just to get rid of those annoying blocking models your opponent has put on the table.

So what I want the list to do is to feat and slow my opponent down while my beasts shoot stuff to pieces. I'm going to need a heavy hitter to take down high ARM stuff and I'm going to need a fast unit to get in the way of stuff (always important when you have shooting). So I want:

Melee beast that can kill a heavy
Bomber/Impaler
Fast unit that does not require warcaster support.


Trollbloods
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
32 models

[00] Grim Angus (0 / 6 WB)
[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer
[10]  >> Earthborn Dire Troll
[10]  >> Dire Troll Bomber
[09]  >> Dire Troll Mauler
[05]  >> Troll Impaler
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[03] Fell Caller Hero
[02] Troll Whelps
[04] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (5 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder
[06] Pyg Burrowers (9 grunts)
[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

The Burrowers can rush the zone while I advance up my beast brick. 

Next Step: First game. Ok so Grim's feat was devastating and I tabled my opponent on his feat turn (he had left a unit of bloodweavers way out on the flank, wolf lord Morraig badly wounded and his caster and that was it, he had killed a single whelp). I already see a problem though. The beast brick is slow. I can run it first turn to get it into the zone but I feel like I want more speed. I don't  think an Axer will solve the problem either as I want to run Grim first turn to get him up to catch my opponent in his feat. 

Maybe I'm just to used to playing Legion. For now the list remains unchanged.

Cassius

This is Crump's list which he used to qualify for masters at GENCON. He also played Cassius in the masters where he came fourth but GENCON masters was 75 points.


Circle Orboros
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
38 models

[00] Cassius the Oathkeeper (0 / 6 WB)
[00]  >> Wurmwood, Tree of Fate (Companion)
[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker
[09]  >> Woldwarden
[04]  >> Gorax
[02] Shifting Stones
[01]  >> Stone Keeper
[02] Shifting Stones
[09] Tharn Ravagers (5 grunts)
[02]  >> Tharn Ravager Chieftain
[02] Saxon Orrik
[02] Farrow Bone Grinders (3 grunts)
[06] Farrow Slaughterhousers
[06] Farrow Slaughterhousers
[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

The bellows crew is important as you can use it to give the tree or the Stalker stealth. The woldwarden animus can do the same thing (generally you'll have the Woldwarden forward with the Stalker and the Bellows Crew back with Wurmwood). The Woldwarden does a similar job to the Gallows Groves, allowing you to get your spells out when you don't want to teleport otherwise the bone grinders give you extra spell range and you can move forward to cast your spells and teleport back. Tharn Ravagers are DEF 15 in a forest and ignore the terrain penalties to LOS and movement and can move through other models in the forest (both the one made by Cassius feat and the Woldwarden). The chieftain makes them POW 15 on the charge and gives them advance deployment. The other trick you can do in this list is that you can kill your own models for more souls on Wurmwood. In particular you can kill the bonegrinders. 

I also think if you don't like slaughterhousers (or don't have them) you can take Nyss Hunters or Blood Trackers without losing a great deal as those are both spectacular units, they also give you another two points for another solo, you can actually drop Saxon Orrik as well as he's mainly there to give the slaughterhousers pathfinder and you have 4 points for two solos or a lord of the feast. The reason slaughterhousers are in there is because they are so toolboxy (to continue my trend of making up words). Take Down gets rid of soul collecting or corpse collecting shenanigans and stops tough, powerful charge makes them MAT 8 on a charge and if you put some damage on a beast/jack they become weaponmasters, they also have reach which again is very useful in some circumstances. That and they can hang back and give Cassius some much needed protection and they have tough so they can be a pain to get through.

Here's the 75 point list because what the hey:

Circle Orboros

Standard Army

PCs: 75 / 75

56 models

[00] Cassius the Oathkeeper (0 / 6 WB)

[00]  >> Wurmwood, Tree of Fate (Companion)

[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker

[10]  >> Warpwolf Stalker

[09]  >> Woldwarden

[04]  >> Gorax

[01] Gallows Grove

[01] Gallows Grove

[03] Tharn Ravager White Mane

[03] Sentry Stone & Mannikins

[02] Shifting Stones

[01]  >> Stone Keeper

[02] Shifting Stones

[08] Tharn Bloodtrackers (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Nuala the Huntress

[09] Tharn Ravagers (5 grunts)

[02]  >> Tharn Ravager Chieftain

[03] Farrow Bone Grinders (5 grunts)

[10] Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (9 grunts)

[01] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Troll Warlocks

Haven't cracked out my trolls that much recently and they are a lot of fun to play (even if they lack the depth of Everblight). Wanted to go through the warlocks, what they do, what you see with them and what I think about them.

Grim Angus

Has a great control feat and is really the only control style caster in trolls. You have to be careful when playing against him if he goes first as he will run forward and catch you in his feat to stop you from being able to get into scoring zones. It's particularly dangerous in centre scoring scenarios. Other than his feat he's a sniper himself and wants to be shooting. His offensive spells don't get much of a run he really just uses cross country and puts out animus.

His lists generally contain a Bomber and an Impaler. I've seen him with double bombers and I don't think that's bad. Troll infantry can take down heavies without too much trouble.

No rating for me, I don't have a lot of experience with him. He is generally regarded by the community as one of the trollbloods best.

Grissel1

Another trollblood warlock who doesn't cast her spells, instead of just using one spell like grim though she just uses her fell calls which are spectacular. It makes her lightning fast, able to hit and run or deal out a lot of attacks and she can stop your opponent from charging. Cacophony is model/unit so she only needs one model in her command range and the entire unit cannot charge (or cast spells). It's important to note that she is a lot faster than other troll warlocks because she can use her fell calls and still run.

Troops. She will have a crapload of troops and only a few beasts. She does nothing for beasts except throw out animi with her spare focus.

She gets a mixed rating, some people love her, others hate her. Again I lack the experience to say much about her.

Grissel2

She has dash and inhospitable ground (makes her control rough terrain) which are situationally great. Her feat is meh, especially compared with the ball bustingness of the feat of her prime version. Her main strength is her ranged attacks. If you come against her without pathfinder she'll slow you to a crawl and shoot you to pieces.

She takes long riders, impaler and bomber, sometimes champs instead of long riders. She wants a tough grinding list.

I think she's great. She's not a top tier caster, really she's on the lower end of the scale of troll warlocks but she has great defensive stats, especially with the krielstone and can grind out an opponent pretty well. She's not as fun as trolls other attrition casters though.

Doomshaper1

Purification is awesome (really, really awesome) add in rampager and his feat and Doomshaper is devastating against hordes. We're finally onto a warlock that uses his spells but you still will spend a lot of games using most of your focus on animi. Banishing ward and fortune are actually really good spells, often under-appreciated (particularly by people who don't play doomshaper).

He will be in his theme force. His theme force is fantastic. That means a shitload of runeshapers, Mulg, the krielstone and Janissa (and assorted other beasts)

I love him, first caster on the list I really love playing. He has a grinding style but it really works well. I think he's a bucket of fun but I probably wouldn't think the same if I was on the receiving end. With his tier list he becomes top tier without it he's middle of the range.

Doomshaper2

Doomshaper will put a lot of heavies into your face from a very long distance away and will make you face a very high ARM beast brick. The massive threat (from his feat), accuracy (wild aggression , ability to crack ARM (beasts) and the toughness of this list make it a fantastic list although lacking in tricks. The feat distance adds both to the charge distance and the refuge move so you can yo-yo one of your beasts quite significantly.

Dire trolls. Expect a Mauler, Earthborn and Mulg, a krielstone, Janissa again and at 50 points a unit (fennblades usually).

No longer my favourite caster in the game (that's Vayl1 now) but still my favourite troll caster (though Madrak2 is creeping up on him). He is so much fun to play. He's not top tier because he dies really easily but he's still quite good.

Gunnbjorn

Guided fire makes his beasts very accurate (particularly the sprays) can put down rock wall and can snipe (which is like far strike but it can go on the terrible troll ranged units). His feat is terrible, truly abysmal, quite possibly the worst in the game (competing with Morghoul2), he does have a great gun though it relies on critical hits.

Ranged stuff. You might even see sluggers with him (with snipe they almost work). Generally though ranged beasts as the troll ranged units are not very good.

Gunnbjorn's problem is that he makes the worst stuff in trolls better, the only way to really get around that is to take troll ranged beasts, Trolls at least have some OK ranged beasts though that he can get some mileage from (the bomber though is much better than OK). In my opinion he's the worst caster in trolls but not the worst in the game. I'll post Flanzer's 50 point Gunnbjorn list which he has had very good success with as he actually plays Gunnbjorn whereas I have no desire to. I do put most of that success to Flanzer being a great player rather than Gunnbjorn.


[00] Captain Gunnbjorn (0 / 5 WB)
[02]  >> Trollkin Runebearer
[09]  >> Dire Troll Blitzer
[09]  >> Dire Troll Blitzer
[10]  >> Dire Troll Bomber
[06]  >> Slag Troll
[05]  >> Winter Troll
[05]  >> Troll Impaler
[03] Janissa Stonetide
[02] Troll Whelps
[03] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (3 grunts)
[01]  >> Stone Scribe Elder

Madrak1

The quintessential brick caster. Madrak has carnage that makes everything hit more accurately, his feat gives everything more attacks and he has sure foot to make him (or a selected heavy) very difficult to kill (especially when you add in his defensive abilities). 

You generally see him in a brick, champions, beasts, krielstone... Everything high ARM, everything hitting like a truck.

The lack of threat range when playing him feels limiting but the way the list just shrugs off anything that tries to kill it is fantastic. Madrak himself is a beatstick as well and that can be a lot of fun, especially when he upkeeps surefoot on himself. He's a solid middle of the range caster who can be very difficult for anyone who doesn't have a way to crack ARM.

Madrak2

My second favourite caster in trolls. Madrak2 is all about aggression. The exact opposite of him primal form. He will rush up into your face, feat and destroy your entire army in a single turn. Blood fury makes everything especially deadly and his feat lets you run and still kill everything. Thanks to grim salvation you need to kill pretty much his entire army before you can put a scratch on him. He is quite possibly the least assassinatable model in the game (the closest to him being probably Borka).

Burrowers with blood fury kill everything. Fennblades with blood fury kill everything with their vengeance move, kill it again with their activation and then get a reach thresher with weaponmaster (and the bonus from the fell caller so they hit) from the feat which wipes out whole armies. Sometimes you also see long riders with him, both the mount and the rider benefit from bloodfury and the riders have reach for the feat. I still prefer fennblades though because 11 reach weaponmasters with thresher are better than 5. 

He is a ton of fun to play and absolutely top tier. Quite possibly the best warlock in Hordes. 

Borka

Iron flesh and moshpit combine with a feat that increases threat range, helps slams and power attacks and a near invincible caster. Stumbling drunk is both hilarious and awesome, his high ARM with the krielstone with unyielding and iron flesh if you want that as well makes him pretty much invincible. 

Long riders, Nyss hunters, Burrowers, Fennblades, Champions, it's usually a solid build of troll melee units and some of the melee dire trolls. Borka has a really good theme force as well especially at 75 points. He can really take anything and make it better, or at least you can take all the good things in trolls and make them better. 

I love Borka. He's hilarious, particularly when your opponent attempts to assassinate him and he just stumbles away. He is not in any way toolboxy which brings him down from the top tier but he's definitely great.

Calandra

I don't own Calandra but I do know that star-crossed is ludicrously good. That and fate blessed are what she spends her focus on. Her feat makes everything really good for a turn. 

She takes anything with even slightly high DEF. Burrowers at DEF 13 qualify, Nyss are pretty hot as well though of course they can't take advantage of fate blessed. Fennblades often show up because of set defence. 

Calandra is another one with mixed reviews. Trolls can't really do high DEF enough for star crossed to be game breaking but it is still pretty bad even with the stuff she has. She's also a bit one dimensional which holds her back out of the top tier. 

Jarl Skuld

He's the tricksiest of the troll casters which you think I would like but I'm very meh about him (might need to play him more). He doesn't quite bring all the abilities he has together, feels like he's missing something to make him awesome. He does however do quite well as a supersolo able to kill key solos and UAs quite easily using magic bullet. 

The Nyss tend to make another showing in his lists but really he adds threat range which trolls like and supersolos so you see a lot of different builds with him. You can speed up the slow stuff so it's fast and hits hard or you can speed up the fast stuff and blitz across the table. 

Another one in the bottom half of the troll casters. Magic bullet is definetely nice as is the speed and the tricks from tactical supremacy and wealed secrets. His feat is something the high reclaimer does every single turn. Stupid Menoth.

UPDATE: Gave Grissel1 and Grim Angus a run today. I really like Grissel1, I was able to see just how well her abilities work on the table. I'm ready to say that she's good and I like her, though it will take seeing how she performs in a bad match up before I can say she's top tier. As for Grim his feat seems really good but I'll need more play with him before I decide if I like him. 

Rask

Spoilers are also out on a new minion warlock. He looks really really good.

He's RAT 7 and has a really good gun, RNG 10 with 3 different ammo types enabling him to remove upkeeps and focus or steal focus/fury or drop whatever it hits to DEF 7.

He has 6 fury, his feat is similar to the witch covens except you don't need the enemy models in your control area (just your own models). You can't be charged or targeted by attacks from more than 5" away.

His spells are admonition (great spell), boundless charge (Gators really needed that SPD boost), fury (and they really really needed a damage buff) and inhospitable ground which I find is either never cast or game breaking. He also has call to sacrifice for Bog Trogs which lets him sacrifice a bog trog within 5" to heal a point.

His theme force was spoiled on Bell of Lost Souls.

It's really good too.

This is fantastic for minions and particularly for Gators which at the moment have Barnabas as really their only fully competitive warlock. Fury will bring the Gator Posse up to POW 16 which is silly and will bring the Wrastler to POW 20 making it actually good and you can combine it with Boundless charge as that is not an upkeep spell. Admonition will allow you to protect key beasts or Rask himself. I expect him also to have decent synergy with the bog trog zombies that will be coming out in the new book as well.

Definetely going to be adding this one to my gator force.

Draft 35 point tier 4 list (assuming 6 warbeast points, which I think is a pretty safe bet):


[00] Rask (0 / 6 WB)
[09]  >> Blackhide Wrastler
[09]  >> Blackhide Wrastler
[03]  >> Bull Snapper
[03] Totem Hunter
[02] Croak Hunter
[08] Bog Trog Ambushers (9 grunts)
[09] Gatorman Posse (4 grunts)

SR 2013 BETA rumours

SR2013 Beta is out but only Pressgangers have a copy (BOOO!) and they've been instructed not to post them online this year (BOOO!) which is probably a bit painful for those running a tournament with the rules pack as they are supposed to do but last year there were issues with people people confusing the beta rules for the final rules and a lot of stupid questions on the Q&A forum. That said the pressgangers have made the gist of the changes known:

4 out of 12 scenarios have killbox and killbox has changed again. Now you die if you are completely within 14" of a table edge at the end of your turn. You can measure the closest table edge once per turn to check for example during your caster's movement. This is no doubt because of Lylyth3, as she is on a huge base it's pretty unfair the way it is (where the closest point on her base could not be within 10" of an edge) meaning she had to be almost 4" closer to her opponents than a small based caster.

There are more ways to score and the points required to win a scenario have gone up. You can now score by "dominating" the closest flagjective to you with your caster. Generally you score one point for doing that, 2 points for controlling the zone closest to your opponent and 3 points for dominating that flagjective.  However you need 4-5 points to win.

Radials scenarios are gone. Reinforcements are now optional rules (along with flank deployment) so there are no longer scenarios with reinforcements but you can still play tournaments and casual games with reinforcements. The rules are still there.

Casters can no longer contest zones. So you can no longer just park Terminus/Venethrax/Vindictus/Butcher in the zone on full focus camp and completely stop your opponent from scoring.

That's all I know so far so until I can con/bribe a copy of the beta rules from a pressganger I don't have much more to add.

What does this mean for the game?

Not much. Killbox is creeping forwards and is in more scenarios with disadvangtages to the squishier higher focus casters, they also won't like going forward to dominate zones. Harbinger, Severius1 and Haley2 in particular like to spend most of the game in their own deployment zones so this may hurt them a bit. In the end though I still see them dominating. It's not enough to make them bad but it will mean playing those casters requires more skill, their control shenanigans may even be more effective with more ways to score points. It also hurts the midline casters, at least the beefy ones that like to get forward as they can no longer contest and force their opponents into dodgy assassination runs. That said they are still going to be tanks and now they can sit on their own objective and score while their army does its job. If there is a winner it's the assassination casters. Caine2, Siege, Kreoss1, Stryker2, Vlad2, Asphyxious2... they are going to be able to force the opponent to choose between risking assassination or giving up scoring on the closest objective. Fast armies are going to be at a premium too, if you can get forward into your opponents flagjective early and pin them back you may be able to win the game that way. That means theme forces may see an upswing. In particular Absyonlias, Kroess2, Constance Blaize, Grissel1 (there are a lot more but those off the top of my head) can get a substantial chunk of their army on the other side of the table before their opponent has even moved. Again though it's not a huge difference, with the extra points required you are still going to have to take the far objective if you want to win a game so I'm not sure how big a difference it will make.

The other thing to note is this is still the beta. There are going to be a bunch of tournaments run on this package all over the world and it's going to be pretty thoroughly tested and will no doubt be changed before it gets finalised.

Warmachine Weekend - Menoth (2nd Place lists)

So these were very nearly the winning lists. In the final (Severius1 v Caine2) the menoth player went for a slightly dodgy assassination against Caine. At one stage he was shooting at Caine with a Redeemer needing 14 to hit decided not to boost and rolled a double 6 hitting automatically. He then needed to roll a 14 on the damage roll to kill Caine, boosted and rolled exactly 14. However it was then that the other player noticed that the choir bonus had been used on 3 jacks and there were only 2 choir members left alive. The game was being filmed so they checked the tape and found that the choir had not been activated. Caine was restored 4 health (he had been hit twice by menoth jacks) and the game continued with Cygnar winning.

I wanted to put up these lists because they are almost exactly what I would play if I played Menoth.

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
Reinforcements: 10 / 10
36 models

[00] The Harbinger of Menoth (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[08]  >> Reckoner
[08]  >> Reckoner
[06]  >> Redeemer
[02] The Covenant of Menoth
[01] Vassal Mechanik
[01] Vassal Mechanik
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Errants (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard
[09] Vessel of Judgement
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

[03] (R) High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
[02] (R) Paladin of the Order of the Wall

[05] (R) Daughters of the Flame

Protectorate of Menoth

Standard Army

PCs: 50 / 50

Reinforcements: 10 / 10

37 models

[00] Grand Scrutator Severius (0 / 6 WJ remaining)

[08]  >> Reckoner

[06]  >> Redeemer

[06]  >> Redeemer

[01] Vassal Mechanik

[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)

[08] Exemplar Errants (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard

[09] Vessel of Judgement

[09] Vessel of Judgement

[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

[05] (R) Daughters of the Flame

[05] (R) Daughters of the Flame

The fourth place player (Jason Watt) was also playing Menoth but though I have seen what purports to be his lists they don't add up to enough points so I won't post them. I will say that what I have seen is the same two casters with marginally different lists. It's Sev1 in theme force and Harbinger has slightly more of a melee focus. Both lists contain reckoners, both lists contain the choir, both lists contain vassals.

The idea behind these style of Menoth lists is to shoot the living crap out of your opponent and then smash whatever is left over in melee. One point I do want to make first is that both lists are very similar, though that might be intentional. I believe this tournament was divide and conquer format which requires you to take each list twice, that means you may be forced into using the list that would normally be your second choice for a key match up or the final so you want to make sure that both of your lists can take anything. Both of these lists are very generalised, they can take jacks and infantry and have very few bad match ups. I'll note that both Cygnar lists had the ability to deal with a variety of lists as well. 

I wanted to go into a bit more detail on a couple of things.

Reckoners - Easily the best jack in the game for its points. It always has Ashen Veil (concealment and -2 to hit for living models within 2" - basically 12 DEF). It has assault. It has a Range 12 gun with high POW (with choir anyway) that also lowers you DEF when hit and has critical fire. It has reach, and it has a melee weapon with good P+S. It's faster than most menoth jacks at SPD 5 and somehow is only worth 8 points. When you add in things like Vassals enabling you to move away from attacks and Menoth spells like Eye of Menoth or Defenders Ward then you can really get it to sing.

Rhupert Carvolo - he does two things. He takes your menoth units which are already loaded with special rules to make them more painful to kill and gives them tough. Also he has pathfinder which is an issue for Menoth. He can also give +1 DEF to your unit with holy/defenders ward so they get +3 DEF total.

Aiyana and Holt - so with shooting becoming more important in the game with the advent of Colossals Aiyana and Holt are also becoming more prevalent. They do two things; they can give you a damage bonus against a single enemy or they can give something magical weapons. This is quite important in a ranged heavy list as there are a lot of things that shut down non-magical shooting. The choir for example. Also things like wind wall, impervious wall and incorporeal also require magical shooting.

Severius - I want to play this caster for a few reasons. Firstly I want to see what it's like to play a caster that does not have a feat. Alright technically there is a feat on his card but it's much more of a trap than a useful tool. It seems like it has the ability to stop your opponent from replenishing focus but in order to do that you need to have Severius within 16" of your opponents caster and that is way too close. He has almost no defensive tricks and some of the worst stats in the game. While this sounds like it would be bad he has a very very strong spell list. Eye of Menoth (how is that an upkeep?) Defenders ward, Vision, Ashes to Ashes (at POW 12 if you take his personal character jack) and he has 8 focus.

Harbinger - Purification breaks the game a little bit and Harbinger has 20" of it. From your deployment zone she can purify across the other half of the table (and really that's where she should be). She can also allocate to jacks 20" away and you need to be using most of those 20". Her army is fast and she can martyr important models and allocate a lot of focus to her jacks. 

Khador Warmachine Weekend (3rd Jamie Perkins)

Menoth came second but that's going to be a longer post so I'll leave it for now. Just wanted to highlight the Khador lists of the player who came third.

Khador
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
Reinforcements: 10 / 10
42 models

[00] Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador (0 / 3 WJ remaining)
[00]  >> Scrapjack (Companion)
[13]  >> Behemoth
[10]  >> Spriggan
[08] Kayazy Assassins (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Kayazy Assassin Underboss
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
[10] Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (9 grunts)
[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

[08] (R) Iron Fang Pikemen (9 grunts)
[02] (R)  >> Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard


Khador
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
Reinforcements: 10 / 10
53 models

[00] Kommandant Irusk (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[19]  >> Conquest
[02] Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
[02] Battle Mechaniks (3 grunts)
[05] Great Bears of Gallowswood
[08] Kayazy Assassins (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Kayazy Assassin Underboss
[04] Widowmakers
[06] Winter Guard Infantry (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard
[02]  >> Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer (2 Rocketeers)
[02] Saxon Orrik


[08] (R) Iron Fang Pikemen (9 grunts)
[02] (R)  >> Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard

Two casters with iron flesh, each caster has Kayazy and a high DEF character unit (technically Winterguard aren't a character unit but I'm counting Kovnik Joe who is required to make winterguard good). So there are two high DEF infantry units in each list. Both are infantry focussed casters with Iron Flesh and the Conquest with Superiority is pretty awesome. 

Archangel Spoilers

http://www.beastsofwar.com/groups/hordes-general-discussion/forum/topic/no-quarter-spoilers/

so the spoilers are out and while I won't say that my worst fears have been realised it's still not good news. It has less health and less ARM than the mountain king which was previously the most easily killed of the colossals and unlike the mountain king it doesn't have the benefit of the krielstone for an ARM buff or the trolls other defensive schtick. That said it is MAT 6 but RAT 5, the range on its gun is only 10 and most everblight movement shenanigans involve out of activation movement. Its animus is that any model that ends its activation within 2" is set on fire, that's OK but it doesn't protect the model, even from infantry. It's only fury 4 (expected).

So what to do about it? I'll admit I'm still trying to absorb what has happened (and that possibly the two best looking models in the game both work for factions I play and are both ... not good) but I'm not ready to give up on it yet and unlike the mountain king I can see some positives. The thing has strafe on a gun with good POW and an AOE, three melee attacks at good P+S, reach and good SPD (6) and ride by attacks so you can move forward, shoot and then move back.

The thing has high DEF for a colossal/gargantuan at DEF 11, I know that's still bad DEF but it can be boosted. If you put Forced Evolution on it and Tenacity then it gets to DEF 14 which is actually quite good (though reliant on upkeeps and animus so Eiryss or purification or any other type of upkeep removal drops it back down). Absylonia has that spell and has a feat that fully heals all your warbeasts. That also brings the Archangels P+S up to 19 for the claws and 21 for the bite (forced evo is +2 Strength, +2 DEF). So at 14/19 with a good damage output it actually looks like it could carry it's points with Abby. The problem is ofcourse that you are dropping forced evo of an Angelius to put it on the archangel and the angelius is DEF 17 under forced evo and tenacity and it also cannot be knocked down. It also doesn't solve the MAT problem of the beast. MAT 5 will miss most things most of the time, MAT 7 will hit most things most of the time, MAT 6 is in between, not good and not bad, a MATT buff would have been nice and much more useful than the strength buff.

What about other warlocks - The Thagroshs can play ARM stacking games with it, using death shroud and spiny growth or draconic blood and spiny growth. They can both get it to ARM 22. That's all Thags1 does though as his feat will be errated to not work on the archangel (PP have already confirmed that this is coming) Thags2 on the other hand also gives this thing Manifest Destiny which will make it hit very reliably and increase its damage output and scourge can allow both easier hits and the ability to shoot through enemy models (though the range then becomes a limiting factor).

I really think that's it. All the other warlocks have reasons to avoid it except maybe Lylyth1 who just does nothing with it and it nothing for her. It'll be interesting to see what the community makes of it. I'm not sure its worth taking with any caster at the moment but Abby and Thagrosh2 I think are strong possibilities. This is one that will require playtesting. At the very least I think it's playable in 75 point games with both those casters.

Warmachine Weekend

Keith Christianson won Warmachine Weekend with Cygnar. It's pretty rare to see Cygnar do so well so I wanted to have a look at his lists. I had been predicting that Cygnar would be a lot more competitive now that they have the Stormwall but until now that had not materialised.


Cygnar
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
47 models

[00] Captain Allister Caine (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Squire
[09]  >> Ol' Rowdy
[03] Journeyman Warcaster
[05] Rangers
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Ragman
[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
[09] Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (9 grunts)
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[08] Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 grunts)
[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt


[01] (R) Stormsmith Stormcaller
[01] (R) Stormsmith Stormcaller
[06] (R) Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> (R) Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer



I love this list, I'm going to have to try it at some point. It's designed to crack high ARM and in particular shoot down a colossal without using Caine's feat. There are 3 armour debuffs here the idea being that even if you do your best to protect these key models you can always expect your opponent to be able to kill one, with 3 debuffs you still can apply two ARM debuffs as well as having Eiryss shoot off any buffs your opponent has put on the model. It also works equally well on Trolls and Skorne who can put down a lot of high ARM beasts and Menoth who can put down a jack wall. It has a massive wave of tough infantry, you can put arcane shield on Boomhowlers, heightened reflexes on the forge guard (with tough from Carvolo) and Blur on the rangers and pretty much everything becomes a massive pain to kill. While your opponent is dealing with that you have time to move Caine in position to assassinate or you can use his feat to destroy key pieces and attrition your opponent out of the game with your infantry horde. It's got a great mix of ranged and melee, it's fantastic at dealing with the menoth gun lines that have become very popular (and which it faced in the final).


Cygnar
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
25 models

[00] Major Victoria Haley (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Squire
[19]  >> Stormwall
[02] Captain Arlan Strangewayes
[03] Journeyman Warcaster
[01] Stormsmith Stormcaller
[01] Stormsmith Stormcaller
[06] Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
[06]  >> Hunter
[04]  >> Sentinel
[04] Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
[05] Rangers


[02] (R) Anastasia Di Bray
[08] (R) Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 grunts)

This is a pretty standard epic Haley list, only with the tarpit infantry unit she usually brings (Steelheads or Stormguard) replaced by more shooting. The Stormwall bonded to epic Haley is ludicrously good. +2 SPD on a colossal is huge as is the ability to give it 4 focus. This list is designed to shoot the crap out of everything and use Haleys feat to get an extra turn of shooting the crap out of everything. You have everything you need to make the colossal sing, stormcallers, Journeyman Warcaster and a Sentinel which has shield guard to dive in front of the colossal and save it from any shooting that's going to hold it up. The Sentinel marshalled to the gun mages is really great too as you get the rune shot ability on every shot (it has a d6 shots). Not enough to justify it's points cost by itself but now that the shield guard rule has been fixed it's become a good useful jack again. Haley's arc-node has also been replaced with more shooting but she does also have a Sentinel to shield guard her for some protection. 

I have not taken Cygnar to a lot of tournaments (just 1 normal two list tournament if you don't count highlander events) but when I did I took Haley2 and Caine2. I think they are a great match, Haley is the scenario caster and Caine the assassination caster. Haley is a far back support caster and Caine is an aggressive super-solo who wants to be shooting at his opponents every turn. With this configuration Haley shreds infantry while Caine cracks ARM. It gives you fantastic balance between your two lists. Also the tools you need to kill an infantry horde are very different to the tools you need to take down an arcane shielded colossal so it makes life difficult for you opponent. If both your lists are infantry hordes then your opponent can safely pick whichever list of his is best at taking down infantry. This way you make your opponent make a more difficult choice. 

Galleon Model Is Up

http://privateerpress.com/warmachine/gallery/mercenaries/colossals/galleon

It looks a little off to me. I think it's the harpoon. I like the gun ports, and the claw looks what you'd attach to a giant robot to load cargo. Might also be the thing on top of its head.