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Recently, I was going to start Hordes, but seeing as my FLGS only had a Warmachine setup (One game and I was hooked) I've decided to start Warmachine instead.

So, after buying a Battlebox, what should I add for a 15-20 point list?

thanks in advance.

well, longgunners have always served me well, as has a journeyman warcaster.
Trenchers seem to be often useful also.
I'm rather fond of my hunter, and look forward to it shooting up stuff in the jack enriched environment of mk2

Ok then, here's my list

Commander Stryker

Ironclad

Charger

Lancer

Hunter

any thoughts?

Stryker is going to run out of focus with that list.
In the early game you'll want to close in with the ironclad and lancer (2 focus for running) and shoot with charger and hunter (5 focus) and it wouldn't hurt to cast some Arcane shield and snipe (4 focus) to help in the process.
Then when things start to heat up in the melee you'll need to give 3 focus to IC to help in the beat down, upkeep AS and then you'll have 2 focus left to run the 3 jacks left. That's not so great situation.

Drop either the charger or hunter from the list and replace it with either some units or solos. greenskin lynn has some good possibilities listed.

If you're playing with solos and units and like to field lots of warjacks then a Journeyman Warcaster and/or Arlan Strangeways (sp?) Arcane Mechaninc should be high on your list. Sword Knights make excellent fodder for a warjack heavy list and have Synergy with Warjacks.

I rarely run a list which hasn't either a Hunter or a Centurion in it. I never played with a Stormclad, but the looks great on paper, especially with all the Synergy effects going on.
The Journeyman's extra Arcane Shield is worth it every time.

From what I'm getting here

1. A Journeyman Warcaster is useful

2. Hunters are also great

3. But with a hunter Stryker will have Focus problems.

alrighty then. I'll re-arrange the list and see what I can do. I'm looking at a Jorneyman Warcaster, Longgunnners, possibly a centurion, or storm knights.

Well, here's what I've decided on

Commander Coleman Stryker

Ironclad

Charger

Lancer

Captain Arlan Strangeways

Journeyman Warcaster

I'm not too sure about this one. At least I won't run out of focus (lol)

A lot of it comes down to personal preference. The feared Stryker list (at one point) was 2 lancers, 20 Longgunners, and whatever else you wanted. Arc Earthquake through the Lancer, shoot with the Longgunners - either what you KDed or what was hiding behind it (like the other caster). Personally, I don't like Longgunners, because they're a static unit in a game that rewards mobility. In fact, I sold off both of my units (or traded them) awhile ago, and even with Mk II, I don't plan to pick them back up.

Stryker can run with melee units - especially with Blur adding to magic and ranged DEF.

All the Cygnar solos are good, although Finn is probably just 'okay'.

I'm a total WM noob, but would the Jack Marshall ability be benificial? In reading about it online I saw a lot of hate aimed towards it but it might be an option here.

One of the things that are good about the hunter is that he can operate within double of it's caster's regular control area, but this doesn't work with 'Jack Marshal.

For Cygnar, Jack Marshals weren't that great in Mk I. They were nice, but you were almost always better off running your jacks on the Caster.

Now, in Mk II, I don't know. I think it's better. Jacks are better, and with boosts to MAT and RAT, they may not need as much focus to run. Plus, if the unit commander dies, another one takes his place, so there's still a jack marshal (in Mk I, if the unit leader was the marshal, and was killed, the jack didn't get the marshalling bonus). Plus, there's now ways to put FOC on a marshalled jack (Stormclad or Strangeways), so you can Marshal a Stormclad, have it get a FOC from Stormblades or Stormguard, get another from Arlan, and the free Marshal boost - it's like giving it 3 FOC from the caster.

I still think that Marshalling is generally better on a ranged jack than a melee one. I think the two best are probably still the Sentinel or the Grenadier.

Does the Marshal boost for the Charger give it two boosts, or does that require Focus?

One of the things that are good about the hunter is that he can operate within double of it's caster's regular control area, but this doesn't work with 'Jack Marshal

Ok, a couple of things here as well.

1. So once my list becomes 20 points, I should add a hunter then?

2. 'Jack Marshal? sorry 'bout that. Once again, I'm a Warmachine N00b.

Note: Does anyone think that Captain Strangeways is a waste? I just wanted to know

It all depends what sort of budget you are on.

If your budget is good get some of everything, if your budget is not choose carefully.

In any event if you want to expand on the box set get some Trenchers as they are the most universally useful unit cygnar can have, also adding a unit as opposed to another jack adds to the flexibility quickly.

Second buy a Journeyman, this is your first solo and is always useful. Now with Stryker leading two jacks and the journeyman leading one Stryker can now afford to pour more focus into spells and still boost the jacks as needed.

Your third purchase should be a second warcaster. Why? Because this gives the greatest variety at minimum expense and helps you climb the learning curve. Wondering what to add next, you could have added a new unit for a bit of diversity, howerver a new warcaster instead chan ges the entire outlook of the army. I sugest Haley for a clean second start.

Fourth get a Defender, a survivable heavy jack with good gun, staple of the Cygnar army.

After that get a second infantry unit, third warcaster and another solo or a UA for the Trenchers. Build up from there.
However unless you are filthy rich stick to no more than two of any jack, one of most and no more than one of any unit. You can get a good enough army from that. Due to the way Warmavhine is balanced you dont need to max out a field allowance wirth the good stuff, you need only find workable combos. By varying your warcaster and the mix of different units and jacks you will find nasty combos quickly and can become an effective - which reads unpredictable - player.

Orlanth wrote: By varying your warcaster and the mix of different units and jacks you will find nasty combos quickly and can become an effective - which reads unpredictable - player.

I've tried that and yes, it makes me unpredictable sometimes. It doesn't necessarily
make me effective.

Hmmm, fine then, it seems that Trenchers are the way to go.

malfred wrote:Does the Marshal boost for the Charger give it two boosts, or does that require Focus?

The marshal focus can be used for boosting attack, which in Chargers case at the same time boosts damage.

After the box, buy Journeyman warcaster, then you can give the charger for him to run and Stryker keeps lancer and ironclad. After that buy trenchers, either just the box or full unit of 10. After that you can pretty much spend on what ever you find interesting, the foundation of decent basic list for cygnar is in there.

Metsuri wrote:The marshal focus can be used for boosting attack, which in Chargers case at the same time boosts damage.

This is not the case, the Charger's Dual Cannon requires Focus to gain this effect. Unless there's some rcent errata you know of.

George Spiggott wrote:

Metsuri wrote:The marshal focus can be used for boosting attack, which in Chargers case at the same time boosts damage.

This is not the case, the Charger's Dual Cannon requires Focus to gain this effect. Unless there's some rcent errata you know of.

Ok, it seems that I had missed the point about using focus to boost both attack and damage. Seems a bit silly to have it go that way, but it seems thats how it is written.