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hey all,

I played a game against mercs last night and I have to say I enjoyed it. I do think however that my opponent did not. I do not think it was really because of me either, I just did my thing...

We played 475 (all he has right now). I used cryx and he had a mostly pirates list with a fe3w add ons...

I had:

pdenny
- cankerworm
- defiler
- ripper
- ripper

pistolwraith

mechanithralls
bilethralls
banethralls

he had (roughly):

fiona the black

Gudrun the wanderer
- Bokur
Bosun
-bokur
First mate hawk
Bradigan
master gunner

deck gun
deck gun
Sea dogs
privateers

He wants to use a mariner and the light merc jack (with net...) but has not got them jet, so they where out. I think it would have made a lot of difference...

We (me and my friend) know the following to be true now:

Good:

Fiona is a weird caster. She does not do a whole lot with her spells (or so it seemed after the first time I saw her being played) She has 7 focus and some cheap spells, but I think she is better of giving 3 or 4 focus to jacks every round... her troop enhancement and arcnode-making is tempting, but not that effective...

keep important things screened and spread out. He had his sea dog leader and first mate hawk in a unit at the front. they where easy targets. bradigan was also with them. My second turn saw me casting 2 venoms on the unit trough an arcnode. I could have done a third if I wanted, but decided to boost hit against hawk. Looked dangerous...

ogruns have good armour, but will still die if pain is directed at them. I killed both bokurs before he could do anything. First (with gudrun) by a combo debuff, 2X purge and the other with 1 purge and 1 banethrall hitting it on the head for 13 damage (love throwing 4 dice against an opponent...

the good points:

Bradigan with a unit of pressganger in combat is a nice force to be reackoned with. he rolls enough dice then to seriously hurt things...

Deck guns can be good. What they shot, they hit (combination of standing still, high ground, crewman and master gunner...

all in all I took his list down in 2 rounds, after witch he desperately tried to take down denegra with fiona and failed (my trap worked, he could not get within stealth range ), leaving him open to attack. )I had a bonejack and the banethralls and macthralls ready to pounce him, with deneghra for good measure. (cankerwurm was tied up with gudrun, who had been knocked down already...) My pistolwraith was about to sneak up on master gunner and the deck guns...

Does anyone have tips on how to play a pirate list without jack support?? What caster is best (fiona did not come trough, or did we miss a option??). what are the best synergies...

Hope to hear from ya...

I almost think that Fiona vs. Deneghra is a hard match due to Cryxian arc nodes.

Deck Guns have to stand still in order to fire. They get +2 to RAT because of the Crewman
using *Range Finder. Being elevated only helps if you are shooting at an elevated target
(otherwise you're firing at a penalty -2 if you're not elevated and the target is).

One Deck Gun should be her Cultists, to make her have 8 Focus to play with. For
spells, she should have Telgesh Mark on a model early on (it's very short range to cast), and
it has to be a model she can keep alive. I'm thinking either Gudrun or Hawk. She'll probably
use it to cast Affliction where she wants it or Discord on the mechanithralls. It would also
give her a threat against the Pistol Wraith as it can allow her to cast Soulfire at it kind of like an Arc Node.

I *think* this works: you need LOS in order for Telgesh Mark to work as a pseudo arc node. Cast
Nonokrion Brand on Fiona in order to let her see through intervening models. Then she can cast
spells without worrying about her LOS as much.

Nonokrion Brand would go on a Deck Gun in order to give it the ability to fire cannonballs
that go through models.

Another thing, Bile Thralls are a threat and should be treated as such. However, the Sea Deck Guns are
Range 14, AOE 3. The POW 7 Blast damage should be able to do some hurt on the unit before it gets
within Purge range. That's, what, 12" threat from the Bile Thralls?

Tell him to pick up the rest of the solos-> Doc, Rockbottom & the Piper as they will multiply his forces. I don't know too much about Fiona, but I really like Bart.

I almost exclusively play Fiona, and she is an infantry caster. Period. She's okay with jacks, but she loves infantry. Loves them.

I would suggest that your friend try her with a full unit of Nyss Hunters, Eiryss, or Steelhead Halberdiers. Put Telgesh Mark on Eiryss, Nonokrion Brand on the Nyss, and Affliction on whatever unit he wants to kill. The Nyss hit something like DEF 15 on average rolls with the aiming bonus, more or less ignoring all intervening models, and every hit = a wound. Kill a whole unit of Bane Knights in one turn every time a Nyss rolls a 4 or better to hit, for example.

If he's not looking to play jacks, he should check out Lord Rockbottom. Money Shot is a pretty awesome ability when you're running that many sea dogs.

My two cents, anyhow...

I will take the tips to him. He is also still working on the list, but it should be a piratelist foremost. He likes the bokur model and the rules for gudrun, that is why he uses them...

As for the deck guns, We thought elevation and standing still granted bonus to shooting it and where apparently wrong. Does not really matter in the end. (Although he might have scatterd on 1 or 2 direct hits and gotten nothing/more...)

The Piper, Alexia + Risen and Aiyana + Holt are good choices against Cryx and are cheap to field. I would reccomend the Mariner as one of the best mercenary Warjacks available.

I field this list with moderate sucsess agains all opponents.

Fiona The Black
Mariner
Ogrun Bokur
Piper of Ord
7 Croe's Cuttroats
8 Steelhead Halberdiers
Alexia
Eiryss

Aiyana + Holt are my next purchace.

Oh wow. hes playing Fiona and no Eiryss? Tell him to get one. With her ignore intervene models spell and the mage bolt (forget the name, kills focus though) That combo will be the bane of all enemy warcasters. that is unless eiryss is killed.

A mule wouldent be a bad idea as she can just dump one focus on it and let it do its thing. Alexia is a solid choice in any force so thats another pic up.

And a nomad isnt to bad for a cheep hard hitting jack. 2 focus on it and a clear path to a focus drained warcaster is pretty much game.

Also, tell him he needs to protect his pirate solos.

Seadogs supported by the appropriate solos will kill anything in the game and be incredibly hard to get rid of. If he's letting you snipe his solos before he can make use of them, he's in for a world of hurt.

When pirates lose their synergy, they're really not all that impressive.