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.