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This is my first list I have ever built for warmachine so take it easy on me please : )


Captain Bartolo Montador +5 WJ

Master Gunner Douglas Macnaile - 2

X3 Sea Dog Deck gun - 2/each

Mariner Heavy Warjack - 8

Buccaneer Light warjack - 3

Captain Sam Machorne & the Devil Dogs - 7
-X9 Grunts

X2 Freebooter Heavy Warjack 6/each

Dirty Meg - 2

So the cannons, the nariner and the buccaneer will go with caster for fire base, the sam marshalls the freebooterrs with them and meg backs them up.

Hm ... Personally I don't like it. You're far to reliant on ranged attacks, and on a 'jack marshal for delivering your only real melee threats. I'll tell you what I think, and try to be nice too

The Deck Guns might seem like a good idea at first, but I think you'll get run over by any sort of infantry list, stealthed models/units or a heavy 'jack list, since you cannot out-shoot masses of infantry, you can't even shoot at stealthed models, and you can't really harm heavies, outside getting a knockdown and a Freebooter to the target (which can be harder than it sounds, even though you have the Dogs and their nets)
If you're really intent on using them, by all means go ahead, but I think you're in for a poor experience, especially when sinking 6 points into it.

Sam & the Devil Dogs are ok marshals, I won't argue against that, but when they're marshaling two heavy melee 'jacks, you're going to have to get them pretty close to the action, and then they become very vulnerable. And you can be sure that since it is your only unit, your opponent will either gun them down at range, debuff them easily so they become ineffective, or engaged them quickly so they get bogged down. One Freebooter on Sam is plenty.

Meg is a decent marshal for a Freebooter or the Buccaneer, so she could probably run either one or the other, freeing up some room on Bartolo for a Freebooter. Batten Down the Hatches on Bart will allow you to get the relatively squishy Freebooter(s) up the field without getting shot to bits, and his feat can set up some knockdowned models for the Freebooters and the Devil Dogs to take advantage of.

Personally, I'd change your 'jacks around, drop the Deck Guns and get another unit in there. Something to get in the way and absorb charges. Steelhead Halberdiers spring to mind (great and cheap meat-shield, with some good offensive potential too).

I hope that helped a bit. Warmachine is often a game that rewards a "combined arms" approach; stacking up on one aspect (ranged attacks in this case) can more often than not earn you a one-way ticket to Davy Jones' Locker, especially when you're new to the game.

Please don't hesitate to ask again!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you really want a big shooting list with Bartolo, then you'd go a long way by taking out the Deck Guns and either Meg or the Buccaneer and including a Mule run by Bartolo.

The Mule is a great shooting jack, and will benefit you a lot more than Deck Guns, despite only having initial one shot. But with Broadsides (one of Bart's spells) you get another shot, giving you two chances of getting that tasty tasty critical effect from the Mule. Also, the Mule isn't all that bad in melee, if it ends up getting stuck in.

If you drop the Buccaneer, you can include Reinholdt, which will give Bartolo himself up to 3 shots in any given turn!

Thanks for the responce, First question I have is with the stealthed units. The way I read the rules I can shoot at them but auto miss, but with a aoe shot against a unit that might not be the worst thing, especially when I get 8. But if I am reading that wrong then my whole thought process goes out the window. I do feel like a even small unit for a meat sheild around my fire base would be huge. The other question I had is the way that sams drive works ( again I have only played a few introductory games) She can drive her jacks to make a full advance. Can they then activate and run/charge ? if so will that not be a fast enough rush with the two freebooters ? Thanks again for the post, its the only way besides just playing to get any prespective on the game.

AOEs can still target stealthed units, auto miss, and then drift.

Drive: CMD check on Meg's activation, warjacks advance. They can charge on their activation.

Thank you

I few experiences I have had in playing mercs.

1. Bucaneers are the best 3 pt investment I have ever taken. With Broadside, this might be doublly so. I think you will find the knockdown much more effective than all the seadog guns.

2. Sea dogs are amazing, if a bit crunchy. With Gang, I have never been disapointed in their effectiveness (well, there was that one time they got into Shield Walled ManoWars). Press Gangers as well are nice -and- cheep.

3. What Contract are you playing? Croes and Forgeguard are also nice Merc units that can be effective. If you are planning on sitting back, the low movement of the Forgeguard isn't that much of a detriment.

4. Depending on what your plans are, the Nomad might be a better choice over the Freebooter. Further, the mariner would still give you range and have a Thresh attack for multiple infantry spam. There is nothing that says Dugan can't load on two Mariners. Plus the Mariner's damage can be boosted, the deck gun can't.

Mercs can also do ugly things with Ash/Mules/Bucaneers. Her feat turn can get into a serious knockdown fest.

Again thanks, The bit on the sea dogs helps alot, I was wondering if they were any good.

malfred wrote:AOEs can still target stealthed units, auto miss, and then drift.

Yes they can. You can also target something you can see and hope for drift.

In a recent game, I reminded whitekong that my Bane Thralls were stealth. So he targeted the nearby Mechanithrall.

End result, 4 dead Banes as the drift was friggin perfect.

I hate AOEs.

Yep, you can shoot at stealthed models, and auto-miss. But then you're depending on good deviations, which, in my view, is never a really great idea; it's just too random.

Shotgun has a point about the Nomad. A single Freebooter is actually a good idea, but a Nomad instead of the second Freebooter might actually be better.

If you like your list, then play it! Don't let some pushy nerd on a forum tell you what to play. If those are the models you want to play, then play them

It depends on how far away and how wide a target you have.

Deviations are never more than half the distance up to RNG of RNG of a weapon. So a RNG 12+
weapon will scatter 6" max, while a RNG 10 weapon will scatter 5" max, but if you're 8"
away neither will scatter more than 4".

So if you're staring at a widely spread out Mage Hunter Strike Force unit, then deviations are
a good thing to look for.

If you're trying to deviate onto the Black 13th, you're taking a much bigger chance the further
away you get.

Oh, I'm well aware of how deviations work, but personally I find it too be too variable to build a solid plan on I guess it comes down to playstyle as so many other things do...

Just like everything, if you throw enough gak at the wall, something is bound to stick. Works with AOEs also.

Durgen, Reinholdt, Herne and Jonne, Explosivo+ shooty stuff. Something is bound to hit.