Anti Colossal Update

And it involves MACBAIN.

The idea is pretty simple (and stolen from the muse on minis forums), countermeasured Boomhowlers. If you are within 5" of the colossal it can't shoot and if it chooses to try to punch to death your boomholwers they're DEF 12 and 4+ tough or DEF 14 and on feat turn they are invincible. Most colossals can't walk away either because they are SPD 5 or slower, you can't trample over them because they have medium bases so you can't get to something you'd rather be punching. I'm not sure it's better than countermeasures on kayazy in most circumstances but you can still take the kayazy and put countermeasures on them when you don't need to jam a colossal. Boomhowlers are also great for using the feat to block out scenario zones. Take Alexia and the risen for when your Boomhowlers die, spread them out so you still can't trample and give them tough with Rhupert Carvolo. Take a Galleon yourself to Fail Safe and god damn it I've built a MacBain list.

Mercenaries

Four Star Syndicate
PCs: 50 / 50
38 models

[00] Drake Macbain (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[18]  >> Galleon
[05]  >> Vanguard
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist *
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Saxon Orrik *
[09] Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (9 grunts)
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[08] Kayazy Assassins (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Kayazy Assassin Underboss

* I built this list taking into account character restrictions with my Bartolo Montador list (Bart - MacBain not a combination you were particularly worried about running into in a tournament before now). Given the choice switch these two models for Dougal Macnaile and Ragman.

OK, new deal to make with myself (replacing the old deal where I agreed to pretend he didn't exist as a Merc caster). I can play MacBain but I must do it in a fake German accent while paraphrasing McBain. You commie nazis won't stop me from delivering these UNICEF pennies!

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.

More About Colossals

Just want to try and organise my thoughts on Colossals and put them together somewhere. I'll start by going through the colossals we know about so far and talking a bit about them, how they fit into their factions and how good I think they are.

Cygnar - Stormwall

Easily the best colossal for two reasons. One has got to be covering fire on the secondary weapons. Covering fire is awesome, two templates with POW 12 really allow you to control the board at least with respect to infantry and can cause issues with beasts and jacks as well, a damaged beast/jack has to be wary of losing an aspect when moving through covering fire, that it's on the secondary weapons and you can still take two big gun shots a turn makes the ability really sing. The other has to be the pod, there are so many ways this is helpful from making sure your stormsmith stormcallers always get off triangulations to giving you a target for spells and abilities like chain lightning, earthquake, Mage Storm and electroleaping weapons. A little explanation for mage storm, when you don't have enemies you can affect with a pod what you can do is leave a 4" gap between your two covering fire templates and drop a pod in the middle, then have Ryan (black 13th gun mages) Mage Storm attack the pod. It means you can have 10 inches across of auto POW 12 templates which is really good. 

Best Warcaster - Haley2 (though it can find a home in really any caster's list, it's just that good).

Impact - The impact of this jack in faction is massive, it doesn't bring anything new to the faction but it does what the other factions jacks do but better. It shoots and can melee, something Cygnar sorely needed, it's got great defensive and aggressive abiliities and it makes Cygnar's signature spell (arcane shield) really sing. 

Galleon - Mercs

The second best colossal in my opinion though for very different reasons than the Stormwall. The Galleon shoots and fights well. It can put out a lot of AOEs but that number is random and it doesn't really have a great deal of special abilities. Drag is nice but there are a lot of ways to avoid it. You can use terrain, armlock your own models, sit behind cheap screening infantry etc. 

Best Warcaster - Broadsides Bart. Again though it's good with pretty much everyone.

Impact - This is what makes the Galleon so good. Merc jacks have two problems; they suck at shooting and they are low P+S, the Galleon is great at shooting and has high P+S on both melee weapons. The Mariner requires a loader which is painful to set up and the mule has very short range unless it aims, the new releases in wrath helped a bit but it's only really with the Galleon that Mercs finally picked up a really good ranged jack. Previously all Merc jacks (except the Rockram) topped out at P+S 17 where as now we are up to 21 which means Mercs can now crack high ARM. Add to that it brings much needed survivability, merc jacks are generally the least survivable, the base stat lines (general stat lines) for the other factions are Khador jacks 10/20, Menoth 11/19, Cygnar 12/18, and Cryx 13/17 (12/18 for the crab jacks). You can see the pattern,  Merc jacks are 10/18 or 12/17 (pirate) and they don't have a lot of damage boxes either (same as Cygnar jacks, the second lowest, sorry Cryx). This jack fills a huge hole in the Merc line up, gives the mercs an option for dealing with high ARM, a way to deal with stealth (AOEs), and a truely survivable piece to take a control zone. Most casters will love it and it has really changed the faction. 

Judicator - Menoth

First one of the Colossals that I think isn't particularly good. Its stats and abilities are all right except for the fact that it has inaccurate on its rocket pods (bringing it to a mighty RAT 1 except on its sprays) but it puts out four AOEs a turn without focus and the blast damage is POW 9 with the choir. It can also aim and with the choir be back up to RAT 5. Add the choir to its sprays and you will devastate infantry and it's quite good in melee. It picks up a focus for free too which is good but not spectacular. 

Best Caster - Feora2, it's AOEs will set everyone on fire and Feora uses that for her feat, she can give it four focus and she speeds up her jacks which is pretty important for colossals (which generally want to shoot rather than run).

Impact - Very little. The problem is that you can't enliven a colossal. That said you can always throw an ARM buff on it and enliven two other jacks but it means that your most expensive piece is without your best defensive trick. The other problem is that the existing Menoth jacks are just too good, unless you have a specific synergy or a specific role for the Judicator generally you are better off taking the menoth heavies. That said there are some great synergies in addition to the one with Feora mentioned above. Expect to see this jack just not in most lists like the Stormwall and Galleon.

Conquest - Khador

This one is OK not great but certainly not bad. Crit devastation is fun, the gun has a good POW and the secondary batteries are occasionally pretty good but creeping barrage is not covering fire and the Jack lacks other abilities.The jack is saved by its massive amount of damage boxes, P+S 22, the cheapness and effectiveness of Khador mechanics and the fact that regular khador jacks are not that great. 

Best Caster - ? I'm going to go Sorscha2 because she does the most for the jack but the jack doesn't really do a lot for her. Maybe either Vlad or Irusk1.

Impact - Khador has always been an infantry faction. The jacks are too slow, too bad at shooting (except for maybe the Behemoth) and lack survivability (I know it sounds weird to say that as they have the most survivable base stat line but their base stat line is killable and they have no tricks to keep their jacks alive). The Conquest fixes these problems. Not quite as hard as it does for Mercs but still it's a solid improvement, it does what the Khador jacks already do just much better. As such expect to see it in quite a few lists, although as an infantry faction there will still be plenty of players taking a cheaper jacks and spending the points on infantry. 

Krakken - Cryx

On paper the jack look unwieldy, requiring corpse tokens to function at maximum efficiency but it's actually really good without the corpse tokens too. Cryx can buff the crap out of this thing or debuff whatever it wants to destroy. It has massive threat range, its gun shoots forever has a good size AOE and can shoot after it kills something in melee. 

Best Caster - another ? Skarre1? Goreshade2? Mortenebra? Witch Coven? I don't think I can call this one but I think it's one of this lot. 

Impact - Cryx lacks ranged attacks and Cryx jacks outside of the death jack and the great cheap lights leave a bit to be desired. The Krakken gives cryx a survivable jacks with great ranged capabilities that is also fantastic in melee. That said Cryx is still an infantry faction so a lot of casters probably prefer the points to be spent on infantry but the Krakken can work its way into a lot of lists. 

Hyperion - Retribution

Back to a jack I think is straight up good. POW 18 on a ranged attack is fantastic, add in a full size AOE and critical consume and the gun is silly good. It has two smaller guns with the colossals standard d3 attacks and is quite good in melee too. It has the most damage boxes of anything in the game and Ret casters have a lot of buffs they can put on it.

Best Caster - I'm going to have to say Vyros1 he can increase its speed, increase its ARM and let it shoot straight through models and terrain to whatever target it wants. 

Impact - Ret doesn't have a lot of good jacks. The Pheonix is good and the Banshee is good and some other jacks have specific synergies that make up for their "not generally that goodness" but in general Ret jacks are a little lacking, paying a high points cost for their versatility while not being able to do anything particularly well. Hyperion though is just plain good. Ret also has cheap mechanics that can also give the jack +2 on melee damage and they should always be in the list with Hyperion. 

Mountain King - Trolls

:(

Joking aside I might do one for the gargantuans when I know what's going on with the Everblight and Skorne ones. 

Anti Colossal lists

So these will be from factions I play as those are the factions I know. I can give half arsed advice on how to build an anti-colossal list with the other factions and casters but it's going to be just something I saw someone else make work or stuff I don't really understand.

So a quick run down on casters I would take and how I'd use them.

Seige and two defenders (one marshalled) or colossal and defender, Reinholdt, rangers, Journeyman  warcaster and Eiryss. Jr puts arcane shield on Seige because he has to get forward for this. Run a ranger up to within 5" of their caster. Put foxhole on the colossal (or whatever else is screening the caster), Feat, Shoot twice with boosts with siege (Reinholdt lets him shoot the second time), shoot with Eiryss (if camping or using a defesive upkeep), then plough in the shots from the defenders (again with boosts) and then if it's more than 25 points you'll have some other shooting you can unleash. With his feat bonus this is pretty darn deadly. I might even throw in an Avenger and trencher master gunner in order to knock a caster down (why not?).

Fiona the Black. Long gunners, Galleon, Taryn, possible Eiryss again (though as in the above list she is generally surplus, something that doesn't quite work with the other stuff you need to do but in the right situation could make the difference), Dougal Macnaile. The idea here is to cycle nonokrion brand, Dougal adds range to the Galleon and adds accuracy. Taryn gives you extra opportunity to shoot through stuff, she is there mostly to give LOS to Eiryss. Rocinante might make this list as well because I have been playing him with Fiona and because you have the focus to give out if you are just going for the assassination (with wyshnalyr, who should always be in her list, she has essentially 9 focus).

Durgan, Kayazy, Rocram and a driller. you can cycle redline on the two jacks to great effect but the real kicker here are the Kayazy. They can go through the colossal to kill your opponents caster or they can get through to your colossal even if you put a jam unit in front of it and even though they are armed with daggers when they strap some explosives to those daggers they become colossal killers. As you already have Dougal in any good Durgan list you can also add Gorman and black oil the colossal out of the game for a turn or two.

Rhyas. This one relies on her feat. Her feat allows you to place anywhere b2b with the first model you damage. So take a Nephilim Soldier for massacre (charge for free, if you kill charge target move an inch and make another attack for free), a Scythean (your assassin, put Rapport on it to take it to MAT 8), Proteus or a shepherd (extend your crappy control range to include your teleporting scythean). Take a Seraph too just to move your threat range up to a million. (actually it's 6 + 3 (charge) + 2 (reach) + 2 Slipstream + 4 (base + reach again when you are placed) + 2-6 (the base of the thing you hit, + an inch if you kill it) you can push it too for an extra inch. So 20 odd inches but most importantly your front line + 4-5 inches (from the back of the bases of your front line).

Haley2 - yeah OK, everyone hates her. I have stopped taking Haley2 in friendly games which actually means that I haven't played her in over a year (and only then a couple of times). That said she can neutralise shooting to some degree and she can send a Stormwall hurtling up the field with an extra attack and 4 focus. After softening the colossal up with some shooting first and being safe from retaliation because of her feat.

Lylyth2 - Yeah OK I picked the other caster everyone hates as much as Haley2. You can't deal with colossals in this list but everything has stealth so the colosssal can't shoot at you. Most colossals rely a lot on shooting and when they automatically miss you and only scratch your beasts with blast damage they don't do that much. Besides you can damn well kill everything else in the army. Actually you can probably kill the colossal too, two ravagores and two bolt throwers with pin-cushion on feat will deal out quite a lot of damage. Then you can shoot it again next turn because your threat range is stupid long.

Absylonia - Blight field means no focus for your colossal. You can also jam a Gargantuan and achieve the same effect with that spell. She has a strength buff if she needs to kill the colossal and a way to make an Angelius DEF 17. Once your colossal is relegates to only it's inital attacks and no boosts she has the ability to tear apart the rest of your force. Quite a few armies will actually find the DEF 17 Angelius more difficult to kill than a colossal.

Doomshaper2 - The real advantage you have here is that you can refuge one of your beatsticks. So send in Mulg (with rage), beat it almost all the way to death and then refuge him back 7 inches and put a wall in front of him then send in an earthborn or mauler and finish the job. You'll lose that beast but Mulg will be relatively safe, you end up trading a 9-10 point model for a 18-20 point one.. Also you have massive threat ranges here on your beasts so you can get to the colossal. Just watch out for jam units and upkeeps. Upkeeps could be a problem here.

Madrak - He can add a damage dice to any unit and his feat gives everything another attack. Pretty much anything in his army will kill a colossal. Fennblades will kill a colossal with their POW 12s when they suddenly become weaponmasters. It's got to be the long riders though that will be the most feared. on they charge they will pack 2 POW 14s with 4 dice each + the feat attacks. The full unit is only worth 11 points.

Vayl1 - Catch a colossal in Incite, hit it with two scytheans (who are now POW 19) watch it die and then retreat back to safety with your feat.

Nemo1 - can give a jack 5 focus and a strength boost. And has access to eiryss (no upkeeps) and Cygnar shooting which can put a dent into it first. He also has his thunderhead assassination bullshit. I would not use the storwall for this manoeuvre. It can't use the out of activation movement to make up threat range (and change up charge angles) and it can't have arcane shield and the strength boost.

Stryker2 - Can use positive charge on a warjack (probably a stormclad) and charge the colossal. Then send in sword knights. They are suddenly POW 12 weaponmasters. They can then use reform (Runewood should almost always be in his list) to move in front of the warjack and give it a meat shield to protect it from some retaliation. Main problem here will be delivery as you can't do much to increase their threat ranges but 10" stormwall and 9.5" for the sword knights is not terrible.

Damiano - Deadeye, money shot (for steelheads) and Taryn di la Rovissi. Great thing about this is you can deadeye your gun mages and your steelhead riflemen, money shot the steelheads and still have 2 focus left over for Rocinante. Taryn shadowfires whatever is screening the caster (particularly if it's a colossal), gun mages can knock down anything else in the way or just blast away at the enemy caster. Riflemen do the same but with POW 13s or 5 POW 15s if your caster is a little higher ARM. To hit is boosted, from deadeye and they are both RAT 7 to start with (from moneyshot and gun mages are just awesome like that). Gun mages also will crit brutal damage 1/3 times so are quite useful in that regard.

Anyway that's enough for now. I hope I've kind of explained the way I approach colossals and given some understandable examples of the different ways I'm thinking about them and the way I would deal with them.

Dealing with Colossals

Trying to put together lists just now for the casters I haven't used and I'm remembering why I haven't used them. Not sure I'm going to be able to stick to my resolution to bring two new casters (especially since I can't fit the Stormwall into Threemos list at 35 points). Might try one new caster and one old favourite I haven't played for a while or two old favourites... I gave Rhyas a crack against Uli, lost that game although Rhyas was not completely without hope. I didn't get to try the dodgy 19-22" assassination bullshit that list can theoretically pull but I'm not convinced it will work if I do get to try it out.

Anyway some thoughts on dealing with colossals since someone seems to be playing one a fair bit lately.

1. Ignore it. The colossal has super high ARM and a bijillion damage boxes, your opponents warcaster has significantly less damage boxes and much crappier ARM. Lets start with the obvious stuff too, as it will kill those pesky mechanics that tend to follow colossals around as well. Ashes to ashes, eruption of spines, chain lightning, electro-leap, the colossal is easy to hit and the mechanics need to be in 5" if they want to repair it. Haley1 needs to be near the colossal for the additional dodgy bullshit she has. Other warcasters will often use it as a screen which is where stuff that lets you shoot through it like it isn't there comes in handy.  Ghost shot, foxhole, shadow fire, phantom seeker (mage hunter strike force = bullshit, just saying), birds eye, Nonokrion Brand and awareness all let you shoot right through it. Backlash and feedback let you attack the colossal and do damage to the caster, you won't kill the colossal but it may be a way to assassinate an unwary caster. Most warjacks simply don't have enough damage boxes to live long enough for this trick to work, colossals do.

2. Minimise it. Again not trying to kill the model just take it out of the game. When 20 points of your opponents army can't do anything you can use that to get a pretty good advantage over them. So how do you do that? Gorman is the obvious choice (black oil) but expect a shield guarding Bokur to dive in front and take the hit (while yelling NOOOOOOOO!) (according to another recent ruling you can still shield guard black oil). There are other ways to do it too. Crippling grasp hurts colossals a lot. Blight Field stops you from allocating them any focus. Pistol Wraiths can hold them in place as can shadow bind. Anything that prevents forcing or allocating focus is going to hit them hard (remember they can't be disrupted), they really need focus/fury to function. Also don't underestimate the power of the jam. Particularly on colossals that need to fight in order to make their points (Mountain King, Woldwrath, Krakken and maybe the Judicator and Conquest), put some cheap infantry in their way and they will really struggle to get to the targets they need to get to. While someone like Terminus should be quite afraid of colossals his army will also have a horde of cheap troops with tough who can ensure a colossal never gets near him.

3. Kill it. The swing at 35 points when you lose an 18-20 point model is huge. Most of the time losing a colossal means losing the game. At 50 points it's not as bad but it still hurts. So how do you kill one? Well first off you need something that I probably should have talked about for the other two catagories too: upkeep removal. Whenever someone takes a Colossal they will almost certainly be looking at spells and abilities their caster has that can make it awesome. A lot of these will be upkeep spells. Arcane Shield is an upkeep spell, Hot Shot (Bart - Mercs) is an upkeep, spiny growth is an animus, Death Ward is an upkeep, Hand of Fate, Superiority, Infernal Machine... You really need to get the defensive upkeeps off a colossal before you try to kill it and if you can force your opponent to recast their offensive upkeeps you cause activation order difficulties and deplete their resources. Purification is ideal for this but there is also epic Eiryss, hex blast, unbinding, blood weavers, Chasten, The Blood Hag and Gravus. Next you should be looking to debuff it, with colossals debuffs are generally preferred to buffs as you will generally need more than one model or unit to kill it, in addition to debuffing spells (parasite and crippling grasp being the two best) Gorman again rates a mention (rust) but also look out for Aiyana and Holt, Ragman and the Black Frost Shard. Failing that force wide buffs also work really well so feats like the Butchers feat, Ossyan (who will shoot your colossal dead). If you can't do that then buffs are the next thing in line, buff up your own models and send them in, obviously strength/melee damage buffs are ideal. What models should you use to kill a colossal? Well if you are Menoth or Ossyan you can just shoot them to death and you should but everyone else you are generally looking to piece trade something worth a lot less than a colossal. Even a troll heavy with rage and the krielstone strength buff will still struggle to bring down an ARM 19 colossal by itself let alone one with ARM buffs. An enraged Bronzeback can (P+S is one lower but it has 2-3 extra attacks) or if you don't want to send in two heavies then you need some shooting. If you can scratch it up put 20 odd damage on it first then go in to trash it you can generally do it with one model. You also need to be looking at delivery, how are you going to get your colossal killer to the colossal it needs to kill. Haley1 brings a lot of denial, no charging, two templates with pow 12 and she can stop you from casting any spells on the colossal. Haley2 and Broadsides Bart have their feat and your opponent is likely to jam or try and alpha strike anything that can take out their colossal so you need to think about that too. Beasts/Jacks are generally preferable as there are more ways to stop infantry than beasts jacks. You are never going to get infantry to the stormwall with the POW 12 templates it can drop every round. You want a caster that can add threat range to your beasts and you want to make sure your list can clear a troop jam.

All factions have the tricks both to kill colossals or to otherwise deal with them. I don't think every caster can kill a colossal but I do think most can deal with them in some way. There are clearly some stand outs, I have seen a Deneghra1 have a unit of sea dogs shoot a conquest dead (Parasite + Feat + Rust = ARM 13 conquest). Absylonia has blight field so your colossal never gets any focus and a damage buff (once she has the Archangel too she will become much more popular edit: Oh, the optimism of my youth). Butcher, Sorsha2, Ossyan and Carver can pump out the damage (and quagmire is a pain for colossals too).

Menoth Colossal and Ships in the Night

First pretty pictures:

I don't know why they don't have a completed one, clearly if it's being painted then the model has been finalised. Maybe the painting just didn't get finished in time for GENCON but I doubt it.

Ships in the Night:

Tier 1	Army only consists of: Cryx Non-Character Warjacks, Black Ogrun Boarding Party, Revenant units, Skarlock Thall, Warwitch Sirens, Undead solos with 'Jack Marshal (Iron Lich Overseer). Benefits: Non-character Sea Dog units, Freebooter warjacks, and Mariner warjacks these are now friendly Cryx models.
Tier 2	Army includes 1+ Revenant units Benefits: Revenant units/models gain advance move.
Tier 3	Army includes 3+ bonejacks with pathfinder or flight. Benefits: Bonejacks with pathfinder/flight (currently Scavenger and Stalker), gain advance deploy.
Tier 4	Army includes 3+ or more Sea Dog Units Benefits: Reduces the cost of Sea Dog units.

It's another weird one. No solos for the sea dogs and no Walls (monkey guy - he would make the sea dog unit a character unit). I still don't think it's terrible, the mariner offers you some shooting that cryx really lacks and the freebooter is a 6 point monster against anything that has been knocked down and pretty focus efficient (they run in Skarre's battlegroup). The sea dogs become cryx models so benefit from the feat and Skarre's spells. They'll still tear up most infantry they have just lost their defensive tricks and the ability to tear up heavy infantry. It's not a super competitive list but I think it will work.

Other Mercs with the Galleon

First up MacBain

There are a couple of different ways you can take MacBain, I'm going to look at taking him with pirates because I like pirates.


Mercenaries
Four Star Syndicate
PCs: 50 / 50
41 models

[00] Drake Macbain (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[18]  >> Galleon
[02] Bosun Grogspar
[02] First Mate Hawk
[02] Doc Killingsworth
[02] Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile
[02] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
[08] Kayazy Assassins (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Kayazy Assassin Underboss
[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster
[02]  >> Sea Dog Crew Rifleman (2 Riflemen)
[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

Fail safe goes up on the Galleon taking it to ARM 21. No mechanics (I had thought about switching the Kayazy for Eiryss, Thor and a Blaster and Wyshnalyr). Countermeasures on the Kayazy, and fortune on the Sea Dog Crew. Use the feat to protect all the pirate solos, the underboss (to preserve kill stroke) and Mr Walls and if you want the Lass as well. Lets you keep out all your upkeeps and still get everyone you need in the feat. You can use Jackhammer to make sure the Galleon still gets to use the focus or you can fudge around a bit and still allocate two to it. Jackhammer and Failsafe are what makes the Galleon in this list and the Galleon fixes the biggest problem the list has, the inability to crack ARM. That the Galleon can use it's drag to do that while sitting in multiple scoring zones is not to shabby either. 

Problems - expect to see Eiryss a lot. She was in almost every list (except when character restrictions forced her not to be) and she also has her mini-feat (put her within 5" of the galleon and you can't allocate it any focus, it's a "mini feat" because if she's 5" from the Galleon she is going to die). She'll drop fail safe off the Galleon. Also expect to see a lot more purification and hex blast. If you can stop healing (the circle trees or the blood hag) then you can stop the feat and without the solos/officers the list really struggles. 

Mercenaries

Most Wanted (Magnus the Traitor)

(Tier 4) 

PCs: 50 / 50

22 models

[00] Magnus the Traitor (0 / 6 WJ remaining)

[08]  >> Mangler

[18]  >> Galleon

[05]  >> Renegade

[05]  >> Renegade

[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

[02] Saxon Orrik

[06] Steelhead Halberdiers (9 grunts)

[10] Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (4 grunts)

Snipe goes on the Galleon before the game starts (tier 4 bonus), iron aggression on the Mangler. You switch Temper metal to the Galleon after it has given it's first extreme range barrage. And possibly pulled a heavy jack 14" accross the table to be scrapped. The renegades have their massive once a game AOE knockdowns, if they hit a caster you can then put all the Galleon ranged attacks into the caster. Iron Aggression on a Mangler is just silly. I want to take steelhead riflemen as well to increase the shooting you can do on a caster. A lot of people will have ways to deal with the knockdown but if that happens you can always obliterate huge swaths of infantry. Saxon Orrik is there to hand out pathfinder. Gorman to black oil some crap. 

Shae wants it too (and you can take it in his theme force), he struggles a little with high ARM and you can hide Grogspar behind it, not going to do his list because he just takes everything in pirates (there's not much there). Fiona can cycle nonokrion brand between it and a unit of long gunners and the results are a little silly (for those that haven't played Fiona that spells allows a model/unit to ignore intervening models so if your caster gets with anywhere near you they are going to cop a lot of ranged fire). That does mean though that she can't afford to take pirates (sad face). I might actually put together the fiona list:

Mercenaries

Highborn Covenant

PCs: 50 / 50

25 models

[00] Fiona the Black (0 / 6 WJ remaining)

[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker

[09]  >> Rocinante

[18]  >> Galleon

[03] Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

[02] Thor Steinhammer

[03]  >> Grundback Blaster

[02] Bosun Grogspar

[02] Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile

[10] Long Gunner Infantry (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Long Gunner Infantry Officer & Standard

[02] Sea Dog Deck Gun

Not sold on Rocinante but it does mean that you have a DEF 18 warcaster who can't be knocked down. It's a half decent warjack too. I've gone for Eiryss1, you almost always want to go for Eiryss2 but you can put nonokrion brand onto Eiryss1 and your opponent is screwed for a turn. Eiryss2 still has more utility but the trick against warmachine (doesn't work on hordes) works so well with her that I'd recommend losing that utility. Deck gun is her cultist unit, it has to move to stay with Fiona so it doesn't generally shoot but it's worth 2 points for an additional focus. 

More Bart

Mercenaries
Four Star Syndicate
PCs: 50 / 50
32 models

[00] Captain Bartolo Montador (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[18]  >> Galleon
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Ragman
[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
[02] Thor Steinhammer
[03]  >> Grundback Blaster
[02] Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile
[02] Dirty Meg
[10] Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (9 grunts)
[06] Steelhead Halberdiers (9 grunts)
[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Adding the Nyss hunters takes advantage of Barts Feat. Halberdiers allow you to jam, to engage ranged models on feat turn, to block charge lanes to the Galleon. Bartolo Montador actually has a pretty good control feat, if you advance and end movement in his control area you are knocked down before you can attack. By taking some fast, cheap, reach models you can run them up and engage anything that will be looking to back up or aim. 

Mercenaries
Four Star Syndicate
PCs: 50 / 50
21 models

[00] Captain Bartolo Montador (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[09]  >> Rocinante
[18]  >> Galleon
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Ragman
[02] Thor Steinhammer
[03]  >> Grundback Blaster
[02] Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile
[10] Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (9 grunts)
[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Or with Rocinante. You lose the Halberdiers and one of the mechanics but you gain another heavy, who gives your warcaster +2 DEF, gives you another AOE shot with decent POW, and can take advantage of batten down the hatches to push its ARM up into the difficult category. 

Galleon and Bart

 So the Galleon is awesome with Bart. He can boost all ranged damage rolls including the blast damage rolls from the 2-6 AOEs this thing puts out a turn and can take it up to ARM 22. I'm just not sure what else to take in the list with it. Lets have a look at what I think should be the core of the list:

Mercenaries Highborn Covenant or Four Star Syndicate PCs: 30

• {00} Captain Bartolo Montador (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
  • {02} Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
  • {18} Galleon
• {02} Ragman
• {02} Thor Steinhammer
  • {03} Grundback Blaster
• {02} Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile
• {02} Dirty Meg
• {04} Lady Aiyana & Master Holt 

So why all this crap? Lets take it in reverse order of importance. Sylys for focus efficiency. Ragman can models within 3" dark shroud, dark shroud means any enemy models within 2" of the Galleon suffer -2 ARM. The big base means he should be able to do this from a relatively safe position. Thor and Meg can repair the Galleon. You might not need both of them but to start off I'm looking at both. The Blaster is there because blasters are awesome and if you are going to take Thor it's probably worth taking something to pronto and tune up. Aiyana and Holt get used mostly for kiss of Lylys but that isn't the main reason they make this list. Aiyana has another ability she can give a model/unit magical attacks. There are a lot of ways you can avoid non-magical attacks, the most common being the choir of Menoth (who can stop all their warjacks from being targeted by non-magical shooting) but there are also incorporeal models, wind wall the spell, etc. If you don't need magical attacks though you can always put the kiss on something. If you combine that with ragman the main melee weapon of the Galleon is hitting at the equivalent of P+S 25 which is pretty good. Lastly Dougal, he gives the Galleon +2 to hit on all it's rapid fire shots and lets it reroll distance or direction should you manage to still miss some how. He can also give all your shooting stuff +2 RNG one turn once a game.

So what else to take? I've used up a bunch of points there but I feel I get for that the ability to both shred infantry, and kill the heaviest stuff in the game. Even Terminus isn't going to be so tough when he's -4 ARM and facing a Galleon. If I was confident of getting multiple drags to work (Bart has broadsides which will let me shoot again out of activation) then I'd want to take something that can take advantage of dark shroud and trash a dragged in heavy. That could be Wrong Eye and Snapjaw. I could then add in a bull snapper and make the Galleon ARM 24. Snapjaw will drop an already damaged heavy with -2 ARM pretty easily. That's 12 points. Alternately I could take Rocinante, it would take advantage of the +3 ARM from Batten down the hatches and guard dog would be useful for Bart as that spell causes him to lose 2 DEF. Plus if I do cast broadsides then Rocinante could shoot twice as well. If I take him in highborn then I can take gun mages, they'll let me push stuff around in addition to the drag which could complement the drag nicely (push screening models out of the way or the target out from behind a wall or use them along with the drag to clear out an objective)...

Mercenaries Four Star Syndicate
PCs: 50 / 50
15 models

• {00} Captain Bartolo Montador (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
  • {02} Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
  • {18} Galleon
• {02} Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor
• {02} Ragman
• {02} Thor Steinhammer
  • {06} Ghordson Driller
  • {03} Grundback Blaster
• {02} Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile
• {02} Dirty Meg
• {09} Wrong Eye
  • {00} Snapjaw (Companion)
  • {03} Bull Snapper
• {04} Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Maybe... needs more thought