Ashlynn the Pirate (sorry Ed)

So I may have had a stroke of genius this morning while slacking off and pretending to work. I was thinking about Ashlynn and the same dilemma she always poses - how to get her to deal with heavies without brining forge-guard as they are one of the few things that still die protected by her feat. My brain did the warmachine equivalent of a wikipedia freefall and then landed somewhere I think is interesting. A warning for all those out-there in internet land the following is dojo and thus far untested:

Mercenaries
Highborn Covenant
PCs: 50 / 50
36 models

[00] Ashlynn D'elyse (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[09]  >> Rocinante
[09]  >> Gallant
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Bosun Grogspar
[02] Doc Killingsworth
[02] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
[02] Harlan Versh, Illuminated One
[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster
[03]  >> Sea Dog Crew Rifleman (3 Riflemen)
[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

So theory behind this list is I can deal with ARM because I have Gallant and Rocinante, two P+S 17 heavies and two ARM fixers in Eiryss and Aiyana and Holt. I also have both guard dog and a shield guard for Ashlynn to help her get forward safely and Wyshnalyr to increase the range of her spells and give her some extra focus. Versh helps focus efficiency too giving an additional focus to the Gallant which is why I'm not too worried about her running two heavies. When I charge in, particularly on feat turn Rocinante only needs one to boost damage on his gun and Gallant only needs two because of his accumulator. 3 focus is the same as running only one heavy.

Now the bit I really like, the pirates. Both pirate units get advance deployment as do all the solos. If you go first you quicken the press gangers and then run. You deploy 10" your opponent deploys 7" (17") you advance deploy 6" (23") and run 16" (39"). So you are 9" from their deployment line and 3" from their AD line. With a 4+ tough unit with no knock down, DEF 15 from shooting. It's going to be very hard for much of your opponent to get past this unit. Next turn the Sea Dogs hit boosted by the feat and protected by the feat, still 4+ tough, though you've probably lost no knock down (since Grogspar is on a medium base). At the end of this round you can score, Ashlynn gets into the scoring zone to dominate, if you dominate on your opponents turn the game is pretty much over. Your opponent is still stuck in their advance deployment zone. They can trample over stuff with jacks/beasts but then they cop the sea dogs + the ARM fixers or the Gallant and they are going to leave their caster and whatever else doesn't trample facing units that can boost their attack rolls.

So while this list is especially brutal when you go first I still like it when you go second. Your Sea Dogs are going to shoot your opponent turn 1, their threat range shooting is 1" out of your opponents advance deployment line. They can also charge 13" (with 0.5" reach) so if your opponent advance deployed and ran or moved more than 12" you can safely declare a charge turn1. It still gets way up into the middle of the table. Ashlynn can get forward with the protection from her jacks (and admonition if you are feeling threatened). She can often dominate the closer objective without difficulty, throw out distractions and feed both her jacks. Pirates are DEF 13, 15 against range with Quicken and their super tough works combined with the feat makes it so hard to slog through them.

UPDATE:
There has been a very small amount of playtesting and some points crunching and unfortunately the list I went out and designed specifically to not have forge guard now has forge guard. Le sigh. They are just the best option she has available for killing heavies other than bringing in a Galleon. The current list:


Mercenaries
Highborn Covenant
PCs: 50 / 50
53 models

[00] Ashlynn D'elyse (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[09]  >> Rocinante
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Bosun Grogspar
[02] Doc Killingsworth
[02] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[08] Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 grunts)
[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster
[03]  >> Sea Dog Crew Rifleman (3 Riflemen)
[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

Still doesn't infringe on the characters in my Bart Galleon list which is important. The only thing that may change is that Alexia or three riflemen and Gorman may be switched out for a Vanguard. The list still plays the same. Quickened press gang jam my opponent and try to set the battle line so that all the scoring zones are behind my pirates. Sea Dogs in behing the press gang and Forge Guard mop up anything that has managed to get past the pirates. 

James Moorehouse Cancon

Cancon was last weekend, James Moorehouse took out Masters with his circle. I love looking at tournament winning lists and in particular James' lists. Anyway it was a US style event, you qualified for masters by winning one of the earlier events at the Con. James won The Usual to qualify, came second in last call (losing to the epic butcher doom reaver spam list) and won masters itself here are the lists:

The Usual (Plus Kromac for Masters)

Cassius
-Wurmwood
-Gorax
-Feral Warpwolf
-Warpwolf Stalker
Gallows Grove
Blackclad
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones + UA
Max Tharn Ravagers + UA
Max Bloodtrackers + UA
Max Farrow Bone Grinders
Swamp Gobbers

Reinforcements:
-Pureblood Warpwolf
Gallows Grove

--------------------------

eKreuger
-Gorax
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Ghetorix
-Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones +UA
Druids + UA
Woldstalkers
Woldstalkers

Reinforcements:
Lord of the Feast
Min Wolf Riders

--------------------------

Kromac
-Gorax
-Pureblood Warpwolf
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Warpwolf Stalker
Blackclad
Gallows Grove
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones +UA
Woldstalkers
Woldstalkers
Swamp Gobbers

Reinforcements:
Min Tharn Ravagers + UA
Blackclad

---------------------------

Last Call

eBaldur
-Woldwrath
-Megalith
Celestial Fulcrum

Reinforcements:
Lord of the feast
Blackclad wayfarer
Gallows Grove

------------

Morvahna
-Gorax
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Ghetorix
Gallows Grove
Max Bloodtrackers +UA
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones +UA

Reinforcements:
Blackclad Wayfarer
Woldstalkers

My Comments on the lists:

Cassius - close to the Cassius list I want to play (been saying that I want to play Cassius for a while now). The only difference is I had a Wilder instead of a blackclad and a Woldwarden instead of a Feral. I think I like the Feral better now that you may have to deal with colossals.

Kruegar2 - With sprint on the Stalker and Ghettorix and telekinesis and druids and the feat you can hit and run really successfully here. Stormwall + that much shooting + beasts retreating looks painful. There are also so many assassination angles and other shenanigans you can pull with this list. 

Kromac - Another caster I really want to play. So many shenanigans, lots of anti-colossal tools too (though none of the lists will auto lose to a colossal they are pretty well balanced). I'd have Ghettorix in this list, I assume character restrictions keep him out.

Baldur2 - now we get to the funky stuff. Megalith is needed to heal Baldur. Baldur can heal constructs and his feat ARM buffs the Woldwrath. His defensive schtick helps him get forward and Baldur can close out the game himself. 

Morvhana - Once the UA comes out for the warpborn skinwalkers I would want them in her list at least at 50 points. At 35 recycling Bloodtrackers are going to be a massive pain, especially when they shoot and back up. Restoration on Ghettorix makes him tank very hard. Morvhana loses to anyone with purification so she is an excellent partner for Baldur2 who doesn't care at all about purification. 

Big Announcement

I mentioned that there was a big announcement coming on Feb 1 US time, Feb 2 Australian time which possibly relates to the new runes on the back of the last NQ and is quite possibly a new faction. PP are live screening this announcement on the web! (Huzzah!) at 2am Saturday AEDT (BOOO!!!). Anyway here is the site:
http://privateerpress.com/watch-the-2013-keynote-here-live

2am? Why do you hate Australians PP? Why?

So wild speculation so far is:

Cult of Cyriss (gears and mathematics, could be an awesom jack faction, or a hordes faction, people turned into machines, psyched about both of these ideas)
Infernals (Would be a hordes faction, they already have big daemon looking infernals in the monsternomicon)
Cephalyx Merc Contract

I'll add my own crazy speculation all of which I consider highly unlikely:
Gobber faction
Gaints
Orgoth

And less unlikely (but less exciting for me personally):
New game featuring Cult of Cyriss
Monsterpocalypse stuff (copped some flack about that lately)

Crazy Rumours

Last year at about this time they printed on the back of No Quarter two damage grids super-imposed on each other as a teaser for the announcement of colossals at Templecon (Feb 1 this year). The current NQ (which I still do not have my copy of and which war room still has not updated to contain the model spoilers released in it) has a message in a new alphabet on the back. All the PP alphabets are just cyphers, the message in this one reads - "Iterative successes converge toward our inevitable victory". PP have released a NQ with a new alphabet in it before, right before they released the Retribution of Scyrah so it's possible that it could be a new race. There are some rumours of what it could be on the PP forums. The Cult of Cyriss is being tossed around a fair bit as are Infernals. The Cyriss is the god of machines and mathematics. Infernals are a race of otherwordly daemons or alien like creatures who occasionally deal with or manipulate humans (The fluff indicates that Thamar may have made a deal with them to give humans magic). There is already a thamarite language so it's not them (BOOO!). There is a little bit of noise being made too for a cephalyx contract as though they are technically ally models you can't take them in any Merc armies as of yet.

Anyway PP have indicated that there is going to be a big announcement on Feb 1 so we'll all just have to wait until then (Feb 2 Australia time). My guess is that it's going to be a new Merc contract for the Cult of Cyriss. At least that's what I want. Especially if there is crossover with the jacks (i.e. like the pirate jacks not like the rhulic jacks).

Merc Lists

With the impending release of the Galleon I have gone Mercs in the league so I've gone through and organised my Merc lists for 35 points. They are below the jump because otherwise they'll take up too much space.

Allied Models Week 2/I'm an idiot

So after carefully looking through all the War Torn Alliance rules to figure out how they worked out of faction warjacks/warbeasts I realised that when I randomly picked a set of league models that somehow I managed to pick the one NQ I had from Shattered Grounds that I had accidentally included with all the NQ from War Torn Alliances (the ones with allies). They were careful not to include warbeasts/warjacks in the War Torn Alliance league models. So two options, the one I'm going with here is that I'm going to include a second option for the factions with warjacks/warbeasts and only the allied player can take those (and can't take the warjack/warbeast) the other option (the dodgy one) is to make warbeasts warjacks with the spiral rules and warjacks warbeasts with FURY 4 threshold 9 for heavies and 3/8 for lights. I'm going to go for the first option unless I hear that people prefer the second option.

Without further ado the league models (the pictures are fairly big if you zoom in, you should have no trouble reading them).

and the models for those allied with Skorne or Khador:

Steamroller 2013

It's up!
http://privateerpress.com/files/Steamroller_2013_Rules_3.pdf

Changes:

• Objectives - need to be within 2" now (was 4" last year)
• Warcasters cannot contest, warcasters who control "dominate" the objective/zone/flag
• less than 1 point solos can control flags/zones now, as can solos bought as a group without having to comply with unit rules as well.
• Killbox is 14" now but only the edge of your base has to be more than 14" away for you to be safe. You also don't die but instead give your opponent 2 control points
• All zones are 12" by 6" or 12" diameter circles. 
• 12 scenarios, down from 18
• no more flank scenarios, no more radials, no more reinforcements (flanks and reinforcements are optional rules).

The specialists option is particularly interesting. If I do run a proper tournament at some stage it will be with specialists. What that option does (it's not a base rule, not present in all tournaments) is it allows you to write a 35 point list with 10 points of substitutions that you can exchange for points in your main list. For example here is my Shae list:

Mercenaries

A Pirate's Life (Phinneus Shae)

(Tier 4) 

PCs: 35 / 35

34 models

[00] Captain Phinneus Shae (0 / 6 WJ remaining)

[04]  >> The Commodore Cannon & Crew

[06]  >> Nomad

[06]  >> Nomad

[03]  >> Buccaneer

[01] Bosun Grogspar

[01] First Mate Hawk

[01] Doc Killingsworth

[01] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier

[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster

[02]  >> Sea Dog Crew Rifleman (2 Riflemen)

[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

I can't have a 3rd rifleman in my specialists, they have to be separate selections (you also can't go from min to max or vice versa when subbing out units). I have 10 points so my specialists are

[00] Captain Phinneus Shae

[06]  >> Nomad

[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

You need to indicate any model relationships in your specialists (attached, marshalled etc.). The problem with Shae is that he struggles against high ARM so if I pick Shae and my opponent throws down a high ARM list I can substitute in some ARM cracking power. That's the theory behind specialists and I like it. A lot of times I'll include Aiyana and Holt in a list just for the Menoth match up, this allows me to make them substitutions and main list something more general. 

New Errata

League models will be up soon, working through a rules query before I put them up. In the mean time though - NEW ERRATA! (I don't know why that's exciting).

Changes are:

1. Some clarifications - trample still is just an attack roll, not an attack so gets around targeting restrictions (Skarre2's feat for example). 
2. You can check LOS from your models at any time. 
3. Witch Hound. (Reznik, Kaelyssa) If a model in the battlegroup is hit by a magical attack a model in the battlegroup can move and attack. The clarification is that each magical attack only generates one witch hound move and attack no matter how many models it hits.
4. Critical Amputation - (Destroyer, Drago) On a crit you cripple any Head and Arm systems you damage. Used to be arm and weapon systems (there are of course no weapon systems)
5. Jump Start - (Harkevich, Mortenebra) sentence order swapped so you stand up and remove stationary before you turn to face any direction (so it's clear that stationary and knocked down models can do it too). Still does not affect models knocked down this turn (that's the third sentence in the spell).
6. Iron Wall (Koldun Lord, Captain Sam & Devil Dogs) - allows you to shunt ranged and magic attacks to B2B warjacks, now has a restriction added so you cannnot pass off attacks to incorporeal jacks. 
7. Kraken - clarification - maximum of 3 corpse tokens allowed even if an attack generates multiple corpse tokens
8. Hyperion - clarification - Hyperion is a Myrmidon. There are a few rules that apply to Myrmidon jacks like Technological Interference on Eiryss, Angel of the Retribution. 
9. Warpborn Alpha - has reach 
10. Spell Martyrs - This is the greatest change ever. Spell Martyrs go from FA1 and you can buy up to 3 (for 1 point each) to FA3 and one point each. So much better for controlling/contesting objectives. You can include them in reinforcements/specialists. It's awesome

Biggest deal is what is not in the errata. Thagrosh1's feat has not been errata'ed. We were told it would be to stop him from bringing the archangel back to life. Infernals have already confirmed that this is intentional... Spiny Growth + Death Shroud means that the thing is ARM 22 in melee (20 from ranged/magical attacks) and comes back on full health if you do not remove it from play... It's such a beautiful model too... That said the thing is so easy to kill (compared to the other colossals) that I don't think this breaks the game, you also can't do anything the turn you come back. If you could bring Bart's Galleon back to life then yeah, that's broken but the Archangel is not Bart's Galleon. There are a lot of RFP effects in the game too, Caine2's feat, Snacking (on all the dire trolls, the Wrastler, the Shredder, holy crap I want to kill an archangel with a shredder swarm now that I've written that), Take Down (Scythean animus), Carnivore, lots of warcaster weapons, Shatter Storm, Hellmouth, Annihilation, Soul Fire, Blood Burst, Mutageneses, Razor Worm... A lot of those are going to be particularly hard to pull off but Caine2 is my anti colossal list as is for Cygnar and Dire Trolls and Scytheans are pretty common for me (as is the Wrastler). I'm not sure the Archangel is an auto-pick for Thagrosh1 but I think it is a good option. It might even be good enough to convince me to get one. It's very pretty.

Scoreboard

Graham (Skorne) and Daryl (Khador) - 12 points (each player gets another upgrade)
Anthony (Mercs - me) and David (Cygnar) - 10 points
Uli (Circle) and Theo (Menoth) - 8 points
Ed (Mercs) and Damien (Menoth) - 8 points

Graham and Daryl are pulling ahead in the league. Still very close though. Everyone has an upgrade to pick but me.

Upgrades taken:

Graham - Titan Gladiator - Overeater
Daryl - ?
Me - Ghordson Driller - Sericsteel Drill
David  - ?

Upgrades are up the top and here: upgrade

Dominar Rasheth Theme Force

If they ever update warroom with the new releases like they are supposed to I'll be able to double check this and correct any mistakes.

You can take
Skorne warbeasts with ranged weapons. Light Artillery units, Paingiver beast handlers, Praetorian units, Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer, Agonizers, Tyrant Rhadeim, Siege Animantarax.

Tier1 - Reduce the points cost of huge based models by 1

Tier2
Army includes one or more Tyrant model/units and one or more light artillery model/units
Light Artillery units gain advance move

Tier 3
Army includes one or more Siege Animantaraxs
Siege Animanatarx begin the game with 3 rage tokens (that's max)

Tier4
Army includes one or more Mammoths
roll two dice pick your highest for the starting roll

The witch coven theme force they released last no quarter managed to take a lot of the less good models for Cryx and with points reductions and other bonuses make them quite good. This list does not do that. That said it's not terrible. A siege animantarax at 8 points with +3 strength and the ability to boost the tail is playable. The mammoth is amazing although you can't take a gladiator to increase its speed, and the points increase is mitigated by the fact that you have to take a light artillery piece. It's a struggle to fit in two mammoths at 50 points as well, even if you take a minimum cost Tyrant and Artillery crew you end up with only 4 points for support which is a problem when you really want a Krea, paingiver beast handlers, a cyclops raider and an agonizer. You could probably get by on paingivers and an agonizer though. It's a shiny turd but I think it's still a turd.

I feel like the whole purpose of this list is to troll Jake Van Meter and Will Pagani who have said that will buy a Siege Animantarax to anyone that beats them with one. They threw down this challenge on the 2nd of January and this is coming out suspiciously close to that.

January Spoilers

So the new models should be up on War Room by now but they aren't. Slightly annoyed especially since I decided to wait until I had them before writing up my thoughts (Tinkerhouse Games the company PP got to do War Room have really not impressed me, looks like they aren't the ones doing PP's new digital book app either). I'll talk about what the forums have been talking about and edit this post when they finally are up.

Razor Boars
Defensive stats are good for a lesser warbeast (13/14). P+S 10, average for a lesser, MAT 5 again not a big surprise. SPD 6, so it's threat is 9.5". Brutal charge so P+S 12 on charge attacks (+ boost). Bacon (heals living warbeasts when it dies base to base). 2 points. The big question was always going to be the animus, lessers are always kind of meh, a good animus though would make this a must have. The animus is not spectacular, it's decent and you'll probably cast it but not as good as Tenacity. It gives hyper aggressive to a model within 6" and costs 2 fury.

Razor Boars look decent. Since they are only two points there is nothing wrong with jamming one or two into your Carver list to give all your heavies Hyper Aggressive. The caster I think they'll see the most play with though is Arkadius. Psycho-Surgery, his feat and even Aggravator work well with them.

Afflictor
4 points. P+S 12 reach, attacks spawn incubus from living enemies once per turn (immediately and it can activate the turn it spawns), SDP 6, MAT 6 13/15. Animus (RNG self) gives sacrifical pawn - soulless warrior model.

If we get a good soulless unit then this model is freaking amazing. Sac Pawn for all our warlocks who like to get forward, Thagrosh2, Vayl1, Kallus, Rhyas even (she has some awesome synergies with the incubus this thing makes as well). Thagrosh2 in particular will really be able to menace the table (especially considering he has flight and can be given parry). Without that unit it's very meh. You can pull some shenanigans with the incubus but you can pull shenanigans with regular incubus and you get 5 for 5 points.

Warspear UA
MAT 8, RAT 6, 8 Damage, 2 points. Gives Huntsman (Granted: Prey) and Tactics: Relentless Charge. For those unaware prey is +2 to attack and damage against a specific model/unit and +2 movement when you start within 10" of it. You only get that while the UA is alive. Alive or dead you get relentless charge which is pathfinder on the charge.

It makes warspears better, good enough that people will actually play them? Not sure. I'm in no rush to put them on the table even in proxy form. May try them with Kallus. It fixes their damage output but that was never their problem, it doesn't improve their range (range not threat range, I want to be able to shoot and not be charged) nor does it improve their survivability. Damage output was never a huge problem.

Willbreaker and the Mammoth
Amazing. In particular I had another look at puppet strings, you can put that on an enemy unit and make them reroll only the high dice when they hit or damage you but the thing that really breaks the ability is you can force your opponent to reroll only the low dice of a passed command check. 2 points that thing costs. The Kovaas and Void Spirits both have abomination. Burrowers are only command 7, Kriel Warriors 8, so are steelheads, bog trogs, choir, daughters... (can't be bothered looking up more units). That could be a real problem.

Greylord Cav!

http://privateerpress.com/warmachine/gallery/khador/units/greylord-outriders

I like the models too.

Wild speculation time - Greylords and Gun Mages have 3 different types of attack. I expect the Cav to share a maximum of one of those. Probably blizzard for the greylord (although how awesome would light Cav be with a spray?). They will not get ice cage, every unit with ice cage has 3 members and ice cage causes stationary if you get hit 3 times. I can't see them giving it to a 5 man unit. Without even knowing anything about the unit I can predict that they will be awesome with Strakhov. Occultation on ranged light Cav is amazing. They shoot and then they move back 5", with their SPD they are very difficult to get to and can get into fantastic positions.

Mammoth Update

Previous Mammoth rumours look like they were garbage. New rumours (again currently rumours but I should be able to get the actual rules up on War Room on the 16th). New rumours:

Skorne Mammoth

Spd 4, Str 15, Mat 6, Rat 3, Def 8, Arm 20, Cmd 6
Fury 5
Roughly 50-52 Box area
FA: 2
PC: 20

Tusks
Pow 3, PS 18 Hard Head
2x Fists
Pow 4, PS 19 Crit: Pitch
Gun
Rng 10, Pow 15, AoE 4, Rof 3

Rules
Bulldoze
Assault

Animus: Counterblast
When an enemy model advances and ends its movement in this models command range it can make a ranged or melee attack against it. If it makes the attack counterblast expires, if not it stays until you make the attack. (it's range self).

The gun is the same - that's been officially spoiled so that wasn't going to change. Looks like it is Fury 5 and the tusks have an extra POW making it even better than previously spoiled in melee. RAT 3 could be a problem though (again if correct). The animus is interesting, it could make the Mammoth a difficult target to take down, POW 19 may be enough to take out an aspect. With the AOE 4 too you could take out an number of single wound weaponmasters.

New Stuff

The warlock units are up on the PP site. Also the final draft for SR2013 has been submitted. Expecting the release at some point next week.

http://privateerpress.com/hordes/gallery/trollbloods/warlocks/hunters-grim
http://privateerpress.com/hordes/gallery/skorne/warlocks/makeda-the-exalted-court

Neither here nor there on Makeda3 but Hunters Grim look awesome. Love the pigs, particularly Krump's bowler hat. Nice to see some of the fun back into the troll sculpts.

As for SR2013 expect scoring to be a lot easier but more points required to win. If you want to win on scenario a lot will pretty much require you to "dominate" scoring or score with your warlock/warcaster. It'll be interesting to see how the new scenarios change the game, looking forward to giving them a run.

Willbreaker Rumours

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about it's the nipple man

According to rumours that have blown up the skorne forums he has -
Ancillary Attack - RNG 5. Target Warbeast. Makes another attack out of activation can be ranged or melee and won't count to ROF as it is out of activation.
Puppet Master - RNG 10 Target model/unit. You can reroll one or more dice once for a command check, attack or damage roll.
Influence - The crap spell you should glare at people for using.
Beast Master - You can force beasts in his command range. Not as good as herding, you can't reeve or leach that fury but situationally quite useful.

2 points. Should be out on war room at the end of this month so I'll know for sure then.

If this is all true (possibly a big if) this guy is awesome. He's going to be pretty much automatic with the Mammoth, ancilliary attack on its big gun is amazing. It's awesome with everything else too. That's two sprays with the Drake, how often does a Gladiator or Sentry just fall short of killing something? That extra attack gives you a little security policy. You still get the +2 strength from enrage too as it lasts for the whole turn. Second shot from the Cannoneer is pretty good as well especially as far strike also lasts for a turn (so two RNG 16 shots - no boosts but fantastic to drift onto low ARM models like Winterguard or Kayazy). Puppet master has the advantage of going before the beast moves (or whatever you are puppet mastering), it's got a lot of depth, really helps you when you need to do something important and you have a limited number of attacks. Great for assassinations or clearing a scoring zone.

Reinventing the Wheel - Building a Harbinger list

I thought I'd take a break from the general list building posts that I've been doing (I'm still a little iffy about how well they apply, they feel too general to me) and do a specific caster. In this case its the Harbinger of Menoth. I will admit that I am at least partially writing this to put off assembling the model as it looks really tricky.

What does she do?
Her feat hits anything moving towards her with a POW 14 fire damage roll which will kill pretty much all single wound infantry in the game and quite a few multiple wound infantry as well. It will also put the hurt on beasts and jacks, a lot of people write it off against those models but an already damaged beast/jack is likely to lose a spiral and a little bit of damage can be the difference between a fully functional beast and one in the dirt.

Next she has crusaders call increasing the distance you can charge, guided hand which is an additional dice on melee attack rolls (attack not damage rolls). Purification (on a 20" control area), Awe - living models are -2 on attack rolls when within 10" of her) and Martyrdom - she can take some damage to stop a model (freindly faction, warrior, non warcaster) from dying again within 10" of her. She also has Cataclysm which is a nuke spell that automatically hits and the POW is determined by the distance from Harbinger. In a pinch she can assassinate.

What do I want the list to do?
So I can see a few different ways to build a list for her. You can alpha strike, use the feat to stop your opponent coming towards you, get some extra SPD with Crusaders Call and use Guided Hand to hit (and purification to remove any defensive upkeeps). You can build a skew list, abuse awe and martyrdom (and the feat), heal Harbinger with her focus (and a Heirophant) and pick models that are already difficult to kill. I want to start her out as a counter-punch combined arms gunline. Use the feat to gain an extra turn of shooting and then charge in and kill everything with her melee buffs.

Along those lines what are models that are great at both melee and shooting:
Errants
Reckoners
Vessel of Judgement

I can also throw in some Martyrdom abuse, I already have that with the errants. Standard gunline stuff applies (stealth and magical weapons mainly since this is a combined arms gunline).

First Draft List


Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
28 models

[00] The Harbinger of Menoth (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Hierophant
[08]  >> Reckoner
[06]  >> Redeemer
[02] The Covenant of Menoth
[02] Exemplar Errant Seneschal
[03] Knights Exemplar Seneschal
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[01] The Wrack (3)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Errants (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Alright so lets start off with Rhupert and the Covenant with errants in a harbinger list. I can tough the errants and give them no knock down. If you kill an errant I tough roll, if I fail that I can martyrdom or self sacrifice. It's two extra layers of bullshit on a unit that was already annoying. Reckoner is pretty standard, it shoots and it fights really well. I'd really like to have two but didn't have the points (it's 10 points because then I need a second Vassal). The redeemer is in there for it's dual role, it can just drop down 3-4 AOEs on stealth or high DEF units or if I battle I can have the Reckoner shoot a heavy first and then have the Redeemer plough 2 boosted damage rolls into the heavy, when you combine the choir bonus, aiming and the Reckoner bonus you're back up to effective RAT 7 even though it's innacurate (-4 to hit) and RAT 5. Boosted POW 14s are good against heavies especially when you purify away all their defensive shenanigans. Wracks and the Hierophant give me even more focus, and some healing. She'll need it if she wants to feed both jacks, cast spells and heal Martyrdom damage. That leaves me with exactly 3 points left and a little wary of cracking high ARM. The Knight Exemplar Seneschal is a great high POW 3 point beatstick and he's super hard to kill so in he goes and the list is done. 

Finding Someone Willing to Play Against the Harbinger

:) I'll be nice, I promise.