Jordan Nach's Merc Lists From Adepticon

Jordan Nach (of crippled system fame) recently won both major events at Adepticon. In particular he won Masters with Mercs, which has generally been considered quite difficult due to character restrictions. His lists were:

Durgen
*Earthbreaker
Thor
Dougal
Reinholdt
Max press gangers
Max nyss hunters
Herne and jonne
Aiyana and holt
Tac
pEiryss
Anastasia

Damiano
*Nomad
*Sylys
Gunmages+ua
*Vanguard
Max boomhowlers
Max forgeguard
Alexia and the risen
Tac
eEiryss
victor pendrake
Madeline corbeau
Ragman

Macbain
*Galleon
Max sea dogs with walls and 2 rilfes
Max press gangers
Gunmages+ua
Doc
Bosun
Hawk
Rockbottom
Rhupert
Gorman

I highly recommend looking through his thread on the tournament:
http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?196827-Mercs-at-the-Adepticon-Masters

It was interesting the read his report on the Durgan list where he ambushed Anastasia but the Press Gang failed command so he couldn't use the espionage attacks. My Durgan list is very similar but no Anastasia, I take Hawk instead so they don't fail command. Unfortunately character restrictions force some hard choices.

Thoughts on Adepticon Spoilers

In the order they appear on the release notes (these are available in War Room, talking to Ed here, update your war room):

Una the Falconer

So pretty. The rules... I think she is playable. I don't think she is good. There are two decent Griffons now (we'll get to that later) and she gives them a point discount. Birds eye lets her use terrain to stay alive, requires that there be terrain in the middle of the table somewhere (some TOs don't do that). Decent boostable ranged attack, watcher is potentially interesting. I need more time with her, I may think of a list to put her in. Currently though I have none.

Rotterhorn Griffon

Here is the second griffon I think is good (after the Razorwing). Its animus is interesting, letting you do an special action at the end of your turn after you do a combat action (or another special action). It also has a shreik it can do (a special action) that does a POW 8 to all models within 2". I already have this guy in a list. Baldur2. I think he's an interesting piece to sit behind a woldwatcher and counterattack with. Its animus is interesting: things I have thought about with it - you can concentrated fire and then zephyr back with the Woldstalkers or Zephyr twice. You can use the devouring and then still use elemental protection, you can remove wurm tokens from Baldur after attacking, and it works well with the Moonhound. 

Argus Moonhound

The animus of this beast is as yet unknown and I still think it is a good light without one. It has a special action which gets rid of stealth and camoflauge and it has mark the target. Other than that it has two POW 11 initials, SPD 7 and pathfinder. With the Griffons animus it can charge 10" (must be a successful charge) and then get rid of stealth from within 5". It's 4 points which is a great points slot for a light (same as the Rotterhorn). DEF 15 is a good DEF, pathfinder is also welcome. A good animus will put this guy through the roof but all I really want is a decent utility one. I am seriously considering putting this guy into my Kromac list. Both Kruegars also seem like fine choices. 

Fyanna the Lash

She has all the rules. All of them and yet is still missing the ones I wanted her to have the most. Stealth and sprint. Instead of stealth we have prowl and instead of sprint evasive. She is not bad but I don't like her. I don't see a spot for her. She is a POW 12 without weaponmaster and chooses from Dismember, Pitch and Beat Back for her attacks (she has two). Uses I can see for her are getting to solos/uas through units with her 4" reach and pitching them back. She's still only a MAT 7 too. 3 points and worse than a mage hunter assassin. And a character so you can only take one. I don't know how much of me being down on her is just initial disappointment so get back to me on this one.

Tyrant Zaadesh
Tag team gives his warbeasts gang. Perdition burns all 4 of his fury making it a bit risky to cast. He also turns all his warbeasts into super shield guards for him (they can shield guard a spell or shot from him once per turn). Gang stacks with the flank the reptile hounds already have taking them to MAT 9 POW 10 weaponmasters, POW 12 with enrage and a free charge, you can xerxis feat them for extra damage and it very quickly gets pretty ridiculous. This guy unlike the other two lessers has no restriction on warbeasts. You can put Molik Karn with him (don't do that). You can also go Krea/Drake and turn the Krea into a MAT 8 POW 16 weaponmaster and give yourself another caster for paralytic aura. There are a lot of possibilities with this guy. I think he is an interesting piece.

Horgle Ironstrike
Here is another guy I really like. He gives a discount to the two elemental lights with damage buffs. He has hot shot so you can boost all the damage rolls on a Pyre AOE or double boost both Slag shots against a jack. He helps fury starved casters hand out more damage buffs. He's straight good. If you can find two more points in any list with a pyre or slag (i.e. most troll lists, the damage buffs are pretty important) then you can slot him in fairly easily, he gives you an extra animus and he turns on the shooting of that beast with hot shot.