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Got a fairly good sized Magnus merc army that I've collected over the last few years, its mostly painted but I've never really been sucessful with it. I was wondering if anyones got good builds for Magnus, builds w/tactics please. I'm even more that willing to add some privateers to my army if it would make me more sucessful at SR. Also what privateer casters and Jacks work well with regular merc stuff (Alexia, Coes, Mules, etc.).

Paging pcerreti!

I've not played Magnus, but I've played against. He's a pretty good Mangled Metal caster. His 'jacks--especially the mangler--are really destructive. Mostly the way I've seen him run is 'jack heavy (mostly his stuff, but often with a mule), with Croe's Cutthroats and Herne & Jonne and/or Boomhowler. H&J are screened by Boomhowler who move up one flank, Croe goes up another to eliminate units and/or stray solos. Magnus pops his feat pretty early on and moves all the 'jacks forward asap, taking shots with the mule (or with the bottle rockets) at closer and closer range before getting stuck in. Again, that's mostly what I've seen. Menoth hordes and Irusk Hordes (inhospitable ground FTW) can really give Magnus fits (basically, anything that can limit his speed), but otherwise he does just fine, thank you.

From what I know of Magnus, you'll want to pick up Master Gunner Dougal Macneille. He has a once per game ability to increace the RNG and POW of all ranged attacks made by Mercenary warjacks near him. So take him and a brace of Renegades with Croe's, and you should be able to clear LOS with one Renegade, Knockdown the caster with the second, and have Croe's finish the job with poison bolts.

Of the Privateer casters, Bartolo is best for regular mercs, in my opinion. All he needs is ranged warjacks (so, Mariners and Mules) and Dougal. He has one troop buff that gives a unit Terror, so put it on the Cutthroats, and non-fearless infantry will think twice before engaging them. Since Bartolo is primarily a jack caster, you might not have enough infantry to make Alexia really effective unless your opponent has a lot of troops or is Cryx.

Fiona is an infantry caster. She has one jack only buff, so you only need one jack; a Vanguard is probably the best choice, but a Mule would be fine. She needs a unit of Sea Dogs to be her Cultists, but this could be the Deck Gun Crew, so that would be a minimal investment. Nonokrion Brand is a great spell for Croe's, but, IIRC, it prevents Alexia from harvesting their corpses. But you should have plenty of infantry on the table with Fiona that it might not matter.

Shae is Talion Charter only, so you must use him with Privateers and Privateers only.

Thanks, that’s exactly way I was looking for. I went and picked up "The broken Coast" book. My old complaint was that you couldn't just swap casters and still use the same models I have already painted for my Merc force. Now, it looks like with Four Star and the new Privateer casters you almost can (save a couple of jacks). That’s awesome cuz I've been looking for an excuse buy some privateers since they came out. Sounds like there’s some nice combos too.