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.

More Earthbreaker

I'm going to start with something I'm adding to my wishlist. An army builder that lets you build three lists in parallel and checks for character overlap as well as normal list validation. War Room is never going to be able to do it as long as Tinkerhouse Games is running the show (they still haven't updated War Room with the new NQ theme forces or the earthbreaker either). Must be because they are spending all their time trying to bring the same list validation every single other army builder has had since day 1. God they suck. Anyway:

After listening to the latest Muse on Minis I am considering pairing the Durgen/Pirates with Damiano/Four Star. My thought process is that I would rather not have two lists with colossals and Damiano is the only Merc caster I think is better without a colossal. So right now one of these two casters is going into Four Star and one is going into Highborn with pirates but I'm not sure which. My list (different from the muse one) is:

Mercenaries

Four Star Syndicate

PCs: 50 / 50

50 models

[00] Captain Damiano (0 / 6 WJ remaining)

[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker

[09]  >> Rocinante

[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)

[10] Croe's Cutthroats (9 grunts)

[08] Kayazy Assassins (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Kayazy Assassin Underboss

[03] Kayazy Eliminators

[03] Kayazy Eliminators

[09] Steelhead Riflemen (9 grunts)

Possibly dropping the Riflemen down to min with Kell Bailoch and Rhupert. Both lists really want him. 

Damiano

Highborn - Gun Mages with Deadeye are probably better than Croes with Deadeye. Pirates also really enjoy deadeye. 

Four Star - Kayazy with sure foot are pretty ridiculous. Everything is better with primed than Death March but Kayazy need the speed increase more than the pirates and the pirates have more attacks to abuse primed with. Kayazy also hit a lot harder with the feat. 

Durgen

Highborn - Pirates have an absolute crapton of attacks with primed, don't care about the ARM debuff and also add to his ability to shoot really well. Taryn really improves his assassination

Four Star - Kayazy murder things with primed like no ones business. They kill high DEF and they kill heavies or multi wound infantry (although ARM stacking is an issue for them). Their higher POW means he has more ability to kill heavies than the pirates (but the extra attack with the pirates might even it out). 

Now that I've gone through it I think I'll at least start with Durgen pirates. I think Durgen is weaker in four star. Damiano might be as well but if he is I doubt the difference will be as big. 

Merc Dojo

Two things I've been working on at the moment (well 3 things if you count Morvahna1) are 35 point Merc lists for MOAB and Earthbreaker dojo.

He's Especially Good at Expectorating

A shiny cookie for everyone who now has that song stuck in their heads.

Gaston Crosse

Just a few thoughts on the kickstarter model I am most excited about. He will be in a lot of lists, I'm not quite sure how many yet but even in Cygnar I expect to have trouble with character restrictions stopping him from being in both lists. Sprint with your ranged attack is brilliant.He shoots really well himself, the Vangaurd is the best light in the game at 5 points, at 4 points it's getting to auto include territory.

Galleon?
This is something that is going to require some playtesting. Galleon does not use his moving shadows ability but he does allow you to take a Galleon in Cygnar lists. And Arcane shield it. You can also take Dougal and cast fire group and snipe the damn thing too for range a billion (technically it can only shoot stuff that is 27" away, with +4 to hit from Rangers and Dougal). The major issue with this is it leaves Gaston 14/14, 8" behind the Galleon and if you can kill him the Galleon becomes impassable terrain. You can take Haley2 and he's 16/16 which is better, and you can take Galleon and a Stormwall., deadeye the Harpoon shot or just take Thorn with Haley so you can throw out her spells. It's interesting and someone, somewhere will do it (me, I will do it).

Rocinate
If Gaston has Rocinante no one benefits from Guard dog but I think the Jack is still worth taking. With RNG 14 POW 14 on its gun and it can benefit from either Moving Shadows or fire group it's a handy companion to the man. He can still give it 3 focus in melee as well and let it kill some stuff. It's interesting at least, not an option for Mercs but something worth having a look at in Cygnar.

Mule/Mariner
I'm still down on these jacks, He can't double boost and use fire group and moving shadows so you are still going to have the range problem with the Mule. The Mariner too is very squishy and he really wants to be 8" back from his jack not next to it loading it. Of these two the Mariner is the better option but if you aren't taking Rocinante in any of your lists pay the extra point.

Vangaurds
4 point Vanguards. This will take my head some time to wrap around but I think taking two Vangaurds with this guy is never a bad move. Double Vanguard was my favourite reinforcement option in Mercs last year. They become among the hardest 8 points in the game to remove and they fight really well. On top of that you have shield guard.

No Jacks
He has a RNG 12, POW 12 hand cannon with ROF 2, it's magical and he has 4 focus every turn to boost with. He may only be RAT 5 but that is straight up worth it. At the very least once his jacks have died you still have an awesome model that is going to keep doing work.

Which Casters?
Haley1 is an obvious choice. Haley2 with either single or double Vanguard or a Galleon or fuck it, double Vangaurd and Galleon all seem good. That will however restrict her match ups. You just can't drop that against Irusk or Seige or someone else who can just snipe him out. Gorten is going to love this guy and makes him immune to blast damage (and can put him behind a wall if he doesn't need it). Ashlynn probably wants him too and you can now take a Galleon in a Durgen list. Also in Cygnar it's an option with Nemo1, Seige and either Caine. Time will tell what lists he stays in.

Lastly

Meta Benders - Bart Galleon

What's the Problem?

• The Galleon is ARM 24 all the time with a ludicrous amount of damage boxes. It can be repaired. All it's ranged damage rolls are boosted often giving it the equivalent of 5+ extra focus (often closer to 7 extra focus). Boosted blast damage kills infantry, boosted direct hits can kill heavies (especially with the damage buffs available in the list). It rerolls deviation and direction on scatters, it drags in a heavy from 10" (12" once per game) and can easily kill whatever is screening it. All those attacks can be magical if needed. It's RAT 7 with the AOEs and has two damage buffs, it only needs one to one round most colossals. 
• Batten down the hatches is not an upkeep so there is no way to remove it
• Wrong Eye and snapjaw submerge so cannot be shot and the shield guarding Vanguard is also ARM 24. 
• The feat buys you an extra turn of shooting and protects the Nyss hunters when they get forward into scoring positions. 

How to Deal

Don't kill the Galleon. Colossals are hard to kill and this one is the hardest to kill of the colossals. If Homer Simpson has taught us anything it's that if something is hard to do it isn't worth doing. There are two ways to win this game, assassination and scenario and neither of those requires you to kill the Galleon. Whenever I am playing this list I want my opponent fixated on how they are going to destroy the Galleon, the game this list is designed to play is the can you kill or can I kill everything that threatens the Galleon. My suggestion is to jam past the scenario zones. If you absolutely positively must kill the Galleon then you need to layer buffs, and preferably be immune to knockdown. Make sure you protect all the pieces you need to take out the Galleon because the Galleon player will be targeting them. You may see suggestions to go after the support, don't. Support becomes less and less important to the Galleon player as the game goes on, the only really important support models are Wrong Eye and Bart. Taking out support models will generally require you losing more points than you remove from the Galleon player. If you can take out support models consequence free then do it otherwise play for scenario or assassination whichever your list is stronger towards. 

Caster Recommendations

Mercs - MacBain. Swamp the Galleon in countermeasured Kayazy or Boomhowlers and then ignore it. 

Legion - Lylyth2. Spam out wraithbane, pin cushion the Galleon then feat to remove it turn 2. Other caster with Wraithbane and legion threat ranges are not particularly scared. 

Cygnar - Constance Blaize in theme force is particularly good. Kara Sloan pirates works. Caine2 with his infantry swarm and all the ARM fixers also works. 

Trollbloods - Grissel1 in theme force (or even out of theme force), jam past the scoring zones. Jarl, jam past. Be interesting to see how well a Madrak2 list with Warders does against it, I think it will do pretty well. Grissel and Madrak2 (and the Grim2) and probably kill the Galleon too if you are into that. 

Menoth - Kreoss2 in theme force (jam past), High Reclaimer is a good match here as the Galleon sure can't shoot through clouds and Bastions will kill it dead. Venger Cav under Kreoss3 with Ignite will also do the job. Reznik is not a terrible match up either. 

Minions - Rask. Midas will kill that Galleon dead. Rask. Carver can jam past in theme force. Rask. Also Rask will stop that thing from shooting for a turn, take off Spiny Growth, Put a Wrastler that doesn't care about knockdown into it at POW 20 with 2" extra inches movement and a free charge (and a throw if needed) then do it again next turn or put in a unit of Gator posse. The list also doesn't like ambushing Bog Trogs. 

Other factions - Satyxis are immune to blast damage, knockdown and have backlash, DEF 16 against shooting, have power swell and half the cryx casters can induce a 5 point ARM swing, they are also SPD 9 and have 2 attacks each. Take one of those casters and win. Or take Litch2 and run screaming at it with banes, parasite and kill with feat if it manages to wipe out your banes on the first run at it. Satyxis are also really good at jamming. Circle has purebloods and Baldurs feat also stops the Galleon from having pathfinder. Ossyan and mage hunter strike force is a really bad match up for Bart. 

Playing Against Mercenaries

Bartolo Montador

What does he do - his feat knocks down anything that moves and stays in his control area (and also gives -3 on attack rolls). He adds ARM to all his warjacks, hot shots one (boosts all ranged damage rolls), and can make everything in his battlegroup shoot again outside of activation. 

What does he bring - Galleon

How do you play against him - Armlock your heavies, get the behind walls or bring a shield guard and hide it behind your heavies (so it shield guards and gets pushed to B2B with your heavies). Spread out your infantry, have a plan, if you can't kill an ARM 24 Galleon set up the assassination or do something else to take it out of the game. 

Phinneas Shae

What does he do - Makes his pirates stupid fast, pulls assassinations out of nowhere, Storm Rager (a warrior model becomes awesome) and Phantasm (reduces the RNG of some ranged attacks when you shoot at one unit).

What does he bring - Pirates and all the solos, Nomads

How do you play against him - You are going to eat the alpha strike. Shae has one of the longest in the game. Set yourself up to survive it. You won't be able to pick match ups either the pirates are too fast and have advance deploy. Take out the solos, make use of things that stop tough. Watch for the assasination there is the commodore cannon (keep your caster away from your jacks) Blow the Man Down (stay clear of Shae) Storm Rager can make a warrior model awesome and Veil Of Mists (which will let Shae's stuff move through your stuff). 

Gorten Grundback

What does he do - Slides a chunk of stuff 8". Reduces their SPD, RAT and DEF. No blast damage, no knock downs, puts up a rock wall and his jacks hit stupid hard.

What does he bring - Dwarves and/or gun mages or Kayazy. There are a number of different builds with him that work.

How do you play against him - Same advice as for Galleon when it comes to avoiding being pushed by Gorten's feat (armlock your heavies, block of models with terrain). Watch the scenario, he has no problem dominating and will push all your stuff out of the zone with his feat. Use the advantage you have with threat range (particularly over his jacks) and be careful he can't slide half your army forward and kill it with his feat as that's really the only way he's going to alpha strike you.

Durgen Madhammer

What does he do - Blows up all the things. He makes his infantry awesome but also explody (if I can make up an adjective). He personally will kill all your infantry. 

What does he bring - low ARM infantry (Nyss, Steelheads, Kayazy), Dougal and Reinholdt

How do you play against him - Spread out your infantry. You'll still lose a bunch but don't make it easy for him. Durgen tends to get assassinated so keep on the look out for that. 

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. 

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.

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.

Hacksaw on Mercs

Hacksaw was on Road to War (one of the warmachine podcasts I listen to):

http://museonminis.com/road-to-war-episode-16/

He was talking about Mercs and I think gave a great summary of the faction. 

In particular this cracked me up. Magnus the Traitor (Magnus1) has Feign Death (when knocked down you can't target him with ranged attacks) so when dealing with ranged assassination lists you headbutt him with one of your own light jacks, knock him down and your opponent can't shoot you.

Pirates (and zombies)

So I love pirates so I tend to keep a look out for pirate lists. There was one mentioned on Muse on Minis which I liked. I made a few little changes to it but the base of the list is the same:

Mercenaries
Highborn Covenant
PCs: 50 / 50
50 models

[00] Captain Damiano (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[09]  >> Gallant
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Bosun Grogspar
[02] First Mate Hawk
[02] Doc Killingsworth
[02] Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile
[02] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier
[06] Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster
[03]  >> Sea Dog Crew Rifleman (3 Riflemen)
[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

I don't think I've mentioned it before but I like Gallant with Damiano (for sure foot) and Rocinante with Constance (she needs her jacks to stay back and Rocinante is the best of the shooting jacks, Guard dog helps keep her alive too). Feels a bit weird not taking the steelhead heavy cav with Damiano and means giving up money shot (great name for an ability) but I can see how the list is supposed to work and it looks fun. The original list had a Nomad instead of Gallant and Gorman and Reinholdt. I like Gallant better and I have the jack so it needs to go in someone's list. The fact that this list combines pirates with a zombie horde also appeals to me.

So what does it do?

Well for four focus you can deadeye 7 shots from the gun mages with a great critical effect (either an extra dice damage or knockdown) and 14 of the 15 shots from the sea dogs. The list is mostly immune from knockdown, 4+ tough and any guys that die come back as zombies. You also have the abilities of Hawk and Longbottom which mean that in melee you are rolling 3 dice to hit as well and against warrior models an additional dice damage (from the hand weapons but not from the pistols) and your shooting is at POW 12 RAT 6 (Dougal gives you an extra 2" range too). One unit will have +2 MAT and vengeance (hilarious on the zombies late game). This list will rip apart any infantry on the table.

What doesn't it do?

Armour. The only damage buff is the feat. As you have pirates the +3 ARM isn't going to help you (they go up to a spectacular 15) so you can focus on using the feat for a strength buff. It still gives you only POW 13s and 14s, so your sea dog crew, press gangers and zombies (at a mighty POW 10 under the feat), lacking reach or multiple attacks that can benefit (point blank is a melee attack but does not use strength) still face an uphill battle to kill heavies even with the feat. Gallant too is only POW 17 which is where the Merc Heavy Jacks top out (excepting the dwarf Rockram). But you do have the gun mages, as long as you aren't facing a Colossal or Tiberion you can jam the zones with pirates and push any enemy models out to win on scenario.

Good Match Ups 

Khador (Sorscha, Irusk, Old Witch...): Gun mages will shoot stealth Kayazy apart at RAT 7 + boost (or even RAT 9 if they aim). DEF 17 is irrelevent when you are Mat 9 boosted. Everything but the conquest can be pushed out of the zones, you have a lot of shooting to threaten khador's casters and plenty of living models to be recycled into zombies.

Ret - Everything is advance deployed, fast and you can outshoot and outfight Ret. Ret does not have a lot of great Jacks so more living infantry for you to kill. Watch out for Ravyn and her Mage Hunter Strike Force. If Damiano is within 22" of that unit they will kill him but you can snipe you gun mages with deadeye and kill enough of that unit to allow you to have a game.

Trolls (Madrak1&2, Doomshaper1 (but not 2), Borka, Grissel1, Jarl)  - Lots of medium based multi wound warrior models. This list excels at taking them down. It can't deal with lots of troll heavies but trolls have some really excellent infantry and the casters I've listed love their infantry. Madrak2 in particular is a great match up for this list.

Bad Match Ups

Menoth - The jack faction. Menoth will out shoot, out melee you, be immune to your shooting, be to high ARM for your melee attacks, enliven away from any charge and will have no trouble getting through an infantry swarm. Menoth is a nightmare for this list. Only thing worse than Menoth has to be

Everblight - Not only will you be facing an army of heavies but Scytheans have take down. No tough rolls and no corpse tokens for Alexia. There is a trick you can do with Scytheans against tough troops, you make your first attack, if they make their tough roll then you use their animus to get take down, auto kill the guy and then get a free thresher against everything else in 2". They also have typhons sprays which will shred an infantry swarm and Ravagores can easily kill with blast damage, leave templates that you can't walk through, and set your guys on fire if they make their tough rolls. You can also shoot your own heavies with a Ravagore shot, if you don't have reach you have to take a point of damage if you want to get in melee range and nothing in this list has reach except Gallant. To make matters worse it would take a while for the everblight player to destroy your swarm so the game would be a long one too.

Conclusion

It's a skew list, designed to tear up infantry but terrible against a lot of heavies. This is not unusual for pirates. It's looks like a good list in a friendly game when you know your opponent isn't taking Menoth or Everblight but I probably would not take it to a tournament. The problem is that what this list does well Mercs in general do well. All the top tier Merc casters can shred infantry. You can create a less skew list by taking the Steelhead Heavy Cav and some Halberdiers. The Cav shoot at POW 14 with money shot and with flank either get 2 weaponmaster attacks one at POW 13 or a weaponmaster attack at POW 13, a POW 14 gunshot and a pow 10 mount attack. It gives you more versatility but you lose the strength of this list against infantry. I have to admit I like the skew list more but I tend to like skew lists. Also I like pirates and zombies.

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

Mercs

So the plan was to concentrate of Gators after the super series but I've been having some ideas about Mercenaries that I want to give a crack.

Madhammer, I love this guy. He's a crazy nutcase and his spells and abilities lean him towards that kind of playstyle as well.

This list is still in the development stages (i.e. I haven't played it yet, so it might change drastically once I get it on to the table. All I can guarantee will stay is the Kayazy):

Mercenaries
Four Star Syndicate
PCs: 50 / 50
35 models

[00] Durgen Madhammer (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[06]  >> Ghordson Driller
[08]  >> Wroughthammer Rockram
[03]  >> Grundback Blaster
[02] Kell Bailoch
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
[02] Thor Steinhammer
[02] Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile
[08] Kayazy Assassins (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Kayazy Assassin Underboss
[10] Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (9 grunts)
[03] Herne & Jonne

Kayazy are ludicrous with primed and they and the Nyss can scrap a jack with primed. Redline and Thor means that his jacks can crack armour pretty easily too or handle high DEF without difficulty (primed does the same thing again). There are a lot of AOEs that will go down on feat turn, all with an additional dice damage. It's not a control list, it's got solid shooting and solid melee but it doesn't really force your opponent into any difficult situations (other than by killing his models) expect for the Kayazy who with Eiryss will kill any caster that gets within 9" dead without difficulty. A little note on the Kayazy because they are the base of this list - they are MAT 7 P+S 10, they have gang which takes them to MAT 9 P+S 12, you can cast primed on them which takes them to MAT 11 P+S 14. They have stealth and they have DEF 14 which goes up to 16 when they are engaged and once per game they can move and charge straight through enemy and friendly models. Primed also drops their ARM by 2 but it's so low that their isn't an attack in the game that will not reliably kill them anyway so -2 on that makes no difference. Lastly primed makes them explode with 3" AOEs when disabled (not boxed or destroyed so it's pretty difficult to prevent), they don't have reach so if you are engaged by them you either cop a very deadly free strike or a POW 14 explosion to the face. I desperately wanted to fit the risen into this list (just because I think it's funny to put primed on them) but I can't find 5 points (Kell can go but everyone else has an important job).

Mercenaries

Highborn Covenant

PCs: 50 / 50

54 models

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

[09]  >> Rocinante

[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

[02] Bosun Grogspar

[02] First Mate Hawk

[02] Doc Killingsworth

[02] Master Gunner Dougal Macnaile

[02] Lord Rockbottom, Expedition Financier

[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)

[10] Long Gunner Infantry (9 grunts)

[08] Sea Dog Crew (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster

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

[02] Sea Dog Deck Gun

[06] Press Gangers (9 grunts)

Believe it or not this list is based around long gunners. Nonokrion Brand on long gunners is silly and I can switch it back and forth between the long gunners and Rocinante (or the pirates). I've tried to keep the cross over with characters to a minimum (so I could use them in a character restricted event without major changes) but Rhupert and Dougal are in both. So whats idea here? First off Fiona is ARM 18 and cannot be knocked down. She gets pretty survivable at that point. This list is about primarily shooting but the privateer package also makes it a pain to deal with (it's a lot of work to chew through all that 4+ tough) and gives the list the ability to fight in melee (and on feat turn you only roll 1 dice to hit them). The risen also mean that any privateers you do manage to kill will come back as zombies. The deck gun is her cultist unit (if it is within 1" of her she gets an extra focus, I expect the deck gun to never fire a single shot). The long gunners though shoot 14" (16 on dougals mini feat) through all models regardless of line of sight and can combined ranged attack and shoot twice if they do not move. It's a nasty combination. It's about the only thing in the army that can crack ARM too. Rocinante can do it too if he gets into melee but I'm looking to keep him back shooting switching Nonokrion brand between him and the long gunners (upkeep, activate the unit it's on, activate your caster and cast it on the other model/unit then upkeep it again next turn and switch it back, for 3 focus a turn both the long gunners and Rocinante get it.) The big thing I'm not sure about is that I don't have Aiyana and Holt. They would help significantly with the ability of this list to crack ARM. It would have to be Alexia who was dropped, and I could then take a third rifleman. I'll have to try the list both ways at least. 

Some people prefer her without the pirates (except Grogspar who gives her no knock down) in which case you'd take some more jacks, probably Boomhowler, some other excellent Merc solos, maybe the steelheads (the cav and the halberdiers are an expensive package too but no where near as expensive as the pirates but you do get a lot less out of them too). She work well without the pirates too but I want to play pirates. 

Mercenary Warcasters

Graham is going to be playing the Mercs next week if he's still alive (I do hope nothing has happened now I've made that joke) so I thought I'd give a crap on about the Merc casters I like.

Ashlynn D'Elyse
My favourite merc caster. Feat is devastating (for one round everyone rolls two extra dice and you choose which two are discarded). Means you will hit more of your opponent and your opponent will not hit much of you. To take advantage you want high def troops. She is great in melee, has high def, tricks to fight back if attacked or shot at and some great movement tricks. She wants to play much closer to your opponent than most other warcasters.

As her feat doesn't do anything to protect jacks (though it's great at helping them kill stuff) and she wants her focis to cast spells/kill things she can't give a lot away to jacks. Ideally she wants one jack: Rocinate (which I don't have). Other than that the Nyss are a great choice, gun mages, Aiyanna and Holt (really help this army which struggle against heavy jacks/beasts), Rhupert Carvolo (gives something +1 DEF), either Eiryss.

Magnus the Traitor
Magnus1, feat makes him very fast has some great jack spells and doesn't pay upkeep for spells on jacks which allows him to free up some focus. Since all of his good spells are upkeep all of that focus should be going to his jacks.

Take some renegades with him. Only he can take them and double renegades at 35 points is brutal. Add in a Mule if you want to make this an assassination list. Also the Mangler loves him, one of his jack spells gives a free boosts for all melee attacks and the Mangler has reach and thresher. As for troops you need something that doesn't need any help (or that wants snipe/blur in which case take wyshnalyrr). I like to continue the theme and go for jack marshalling a heavy. In this case Captain Sam and a freebooter. Captain Sam can give the freebooter a free move with her drive and her unit can cause knockdowns which gives the freeboter another damage dice and automatic hits before it's free power attack. Means your opponent has to deal with 3 heaves and 2 lights. A lot of lists will struggle with this. His theme force is quite good but I don't have the steelheads to run it.

Magnus the Warlord
Only with his theme force. Bad seeds is excellent as a warcaster though he's nothing spectacular.

Fiona the Black
Great warcaster when playing against lots of infantry. She wants a Mariner (I like the range on it with nonokrion brand, lets you shoot through screening models), and some pirates but needs something that can fight heavy beasts and that means taking her as fourstar or highborn. Other than that she's pretty flexible. She doesn't want a lot of jacks so she can arc affliction (when damage roll doesn't exceed ARM you do one point of damage, upkeep on a unit - she has another spell to make an arc node) but she can take two or three without a great deal of difficulty. Her feat is a good defensive feat for high arm and high def models.

Phineas Shae
My second favourite warcaster after Ashlynn. Theme force is the best in the game. Take every solo he is allowed and lots of pirate units. He doesn't do anything for jacks and like Ashlynn he likes to play forward and cast spells. His army is very weak against jacks but ludicrously fast. The pirate units are looking at around 14.5" threat range on feat turn just make sure that you have the solos positioned correctly so you can activate in the correct order. Storm rager is best cast on Shae himself, though you can cast it on first mate hawk until you are ready to throw Shae in. I like him as a second tournament army if your other army is good against jacks/beasts but by himself he can struggle a bit. You'll need Aiyanna and Holt for the damage boost against heavies and don't forget gang works on pirate pistols as well as they have point blank not gunfighter so they are making melee attacks with their pistols. If you are facing a few jacks/beasts though you'll need to just gum them up with press gangers and rely on their 4+ tough rolls to stop the jacks from really doing anything.

Gorten Grundback
My third favourite Merc warcaster. Let's start with the obvious, he only has 5 focus. He needs Wyshnalyr (one free upkeep). He wants one heavy (A driller usually) to cast strength of granite on. He can also take Grundback blasters which are spectacular. One focus and you boost all to hit and all damage rolls on its 8" spray. You can't really justify taking more than two but they will absolutely shred infantry. He also allows you to put down a wall a fantastic defensive spell which will keep your driller alive until it's ready to kill something. You can upkeep solid ground which means no knock downs and no blast damage. He's just so tight on focus that you need to be very careful what you choose to do and not to do. His feat is brilliant, slide everything up to 8" (you pick the distance) and drop its defence, RAT and speed. He just needs a well balanced mix in his army so you can use his feat how it best suits you. You might want to slide stuff out of the way and charge everything behind it, slide everything back and then shoot at it or most importantly slide everything away from an objective and make it too slow to get back. The speed debuff applies to running and stops you from charging.

Picking Tournament Lists

Been working out what I want to take on Sunday so I can try to get it slightly more painted. In the end it came down to Trolls or Mercs and I've decided to take the trolls but since I like to crap on about warmachine here is what I'm not taking and why I think it's good.

Mercenaries
Highborn Covenant
PCs: 35 / 35
31 models

[00] Ashlynn D'elyse (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[08]  >> Mangler
[06] Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
[08]  >> Mule
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[10] Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (9 grunts)

Mercenaries
Highborn Covenant
PCs: 35 / 35
38 models

[00] Constance Blaize, Knight of the Prophet (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
[09]  >> Gallant
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
[03] Ogrun Bokur
[06] Steelhead Halberdiers (9 grunts)
[08] Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 grunts)
[08] Precursor Knights (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Precursor Knight Officer & Standard

First off these are two very different lists, one high DEF and one high-ish ARM. That enables me to pick the thing my opponent will struggle with. Neither has many jacks, that's because mercenaries lack a good jack running caster.

Ashlynn: great offensive and defensive feat, everyone rolls two extra dice when rolling to hit and then discards two dice of your choice. Your opponent discards the high dice and you discard the low dice. To get the most out of it you want high DEF troops, that's the Nyss and the gun mages. Lots of shooting allows you to be flexible, if your opponent tries to force you to use your feat defensively to avoid being killed on the charge you can still shred them with feat assisted shooting and then be protected when they charge (though best results still come from feating and charging). Gun mages also allow you to push around the things you don't want to face or to open objectives when you can't kill the thing holding them. Risen give you anti-magic and generally get in the way of your opponent, with the large amount of troops you have you'll be able to raise more. The risen also give you dominate undead, great against Cryx and Cryx will already struggle as Ashlynn's feat negates their high DEF. It's important to run up first turn and get in your opponents face early with this army and it has a problem going against more than 1-2 heavies.

Constance: Most important thing for a second army is that it is strong against the weaknesses of the first army and though this army actually contains less jacks it has more jack killing power. On the charge forge guard and precursors will kill 2 jacks each on average and the Gallant can wreck two if your opponent made the mistake of leaving upkeeps on them. The Halberdiers are in the list to die, they serve no other purpose, they stand out in front of everything else blocking charge lanes on the feat and die giving up souls for Constance (her feat gives her a soul for every warrior that dies, each soul makes everything else +1 ARM and gives Constance an extra focus next turn). If your opponent has things with cull soul then they can shut this down so this list is weak against Cryx, a weakness covered by the first list. The other thing this list is good at is dealing with upkeeps, the Gallant gets additional hit and damage dice against anything with an upkeep, Constance has banishing ward so you can get rid of enemy upkeeps on your troops and she and the precursors have blessed so they ignore increases to DEF and ARM from spells.

In the end I decided to go with trolls because more of them are painted. I might even be able to finish painting them before Sunday.