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I was attracted to their ability to shoot well.

I have not invested in any models yet. Looking to play at the 35-50pt level.

On paper, Chargers, Hunters and Grenadiers seem like solid light jacks for shooting and Cyclones and Defenders seem to be solid for heavy jack choices for shooting.

What kind of jacks, infantry and warcasters would work well in an extremely shooty cygnar list?

Warning: I don't play Cygnar, I've just read their book and played against them a few times.

Chargers and Hunters - especially Hunters - seem like very good choices for a shootin' Cygnar army.

The "pay one focus, boost the attack and damage roll" for the Charger is nice, although you'll probably want a Warcaster capable of pouring three focus into it (one for the extra shot on the gun, two to boost each of those attack/damage rolls).

Hunters are good, although at a game I saw recently at my FLGS, a Cygnar player with a Hunter had a problem with all of the enemy Warjacks being stuck in melee with his other Warjacks. Their gun is good, really good in fact, against other Warjacks, but makes a very poor infantry-killer, and an even worse Warcaster assassin. Also - Hunters get parry. They make good bait. They're too dangerous to really ignore, but can dance out of combat with a Heavy Warjack (providing the Hunter survives...) and shoot it in the face.

The Grenadier, at least, makes a good anti-infantry Warjack, especially with Trencher support. If you're not taking Trenchers, then I'm not entirely sure whether or not it's worth taking. I imagine that, for five points, you could find a better anti-infantry option.

Cyclones and Defenders - good choices. The Heavy Barrel is a lovely gun on the Defender, and the Cyclone has two open fists which means you can try and throw people who get into melee with it.

Infantry wise... if you're going with the Cyclone, I imagine that an Arcane Tempest squad with the Unit Attachment marshalling the aforementioned Cyclone would be quite fun. You won't get to do the covering fire thing (I think...) with the Cyclone, but Rune Shot lets you make 2d3 Thunderbolt attacks. Chances are, you'll knock down what you're shooting at with the Cyclone at that point and, if not, you'll at least have pushed it far enough away that it won't be close enough to engage you in melee.

Warcaster wise - I think Kara Sloan is probably the most obvious choice. Her feat will let you get a lot of shots out from your shootin' Jacks, the Refuge spell gives you the option of moving - shooting - moving again. And her gun (POW 12, Weapon Master) makes for a rather good long-range Warcaster assassination tool.

Only thing I can say definitely, the cyclone is amazing, he can shut down paths for infantry to take, using DCF near choke holds.

Also, rangers give a nice boost to your shooty units with mark target.

I would think about warcasters and what kind of shooting you want.

eNemo = amazing feat turn by providing all his warjacks full focus
pHaley = Temporal Barrier makes it a lot easier to hit
Siege Brisbane = make your warjacks fire explosive rounds with a spell, and then halve base armor on feat turn
Kara Sloane= Shooting + more Shooting on feat turn

While running a cygnar gunline can be fun, you really want to try and balance out the list a bit, adding just one melee infantry unit can make a big differece between winning and losing. Storm gaurd are a nice choice as they have ranked attack so all your shooty stuff can see right through them. Also a melee heavy like an ironclad is a good investment, sometimes you just need to hit stuff really hard and the ironclad does that for you. 1 ironclad and a full unit of stormgaurd cost 16 points not a bad investment for when you have to mix it up in melee. Good luck.

Hunters are just great from personal experience.

I play Caine gun mage tier 4 list with 2 hunters marshalled by the tempest gunmage officer and they are just great with snipe and a free boost. They are great for just focus firing down jacks.

whitekong wrote:While running a cygnar gunline can be fun, you really want to try and balance out the list a bit,

Agreed. Consider there are three basic attack modes - ranged, melee, and magic. You need some ability in all three. Ranged attacks can be shut down, with terrain, cloud effects, stealth, or some spells. While a ranged-heavy list can work, it can also be susceptible to rock-paper-scissors matchups.

I would go with pHaley, Siege, or pStryker. They are three of the easier warcasters to learn the game with, and they can all boost ranged attacks. pHaley has Temporal Barrier, Deadeye, and Blitz. Siege has Explosivo, Mage Sight, and Breach. pStryker has Earthquake and Snipe.

It really depends on what you put in the list. Just picking jacks and a caster in a vacumn doesn't make as much sense as picking a whole army list. If you're unsure what to take, picking models that you think look cool and/or want to paint isn't a bad way to go.

Well I decided to go with a more melee oriented list.

35pts

eStryker
-Ol' Rowdy
-Stormclad
-Squire

Stormblade unit
Stormblade unit
-UA
-Stormclad

I usually take 2 Stormgunners with the UA Stormblade unit.

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

You might want to include Piper to that eStryker list. As it is almost completely melee list, difficult terrain can shut you down. Piper gives one unit path finder, which will enable it to move through difficult terrain with no hindrance. Then you will of cource miss the benefits from Tiered list though.

Thanks for pointing out the issue with difficult terrain.

I will look more into this...

Its basically the bad match up that eStryker theme has. So beware Irusk, Baldur, eGaspy and similar casters with Inhospitable ground, Rift or similar spells.

Metsuri wrote:Its basically the bad match up that eStryker theme has. So beware Irusk, Baldur, eGaspy and similar casters with Inhospitable ground, Rift or similar spells.

I think I will also take a look at Siege for a second caster/list.

Siege is a nice and well rounded caster. He can help jacks a bit, can assassinate and has a good feat. With him you have a nice pair up of casters with one ranged and one melee.

I like Siege and epic Caine as a tag team. Siege handles the attrition games, eCaine handles the ones where you gotta get dirty on. Siege is also very good at the assassination game as well while that's all eCaine does.

i seem to be getting to he thread late but i think its worth pointing out that lt. caine supports a shooting army very well and his feat has considerable anti-infantry capability leaving more of your army to deal with heavy armor.

congrats to weasel for going with estryker though, hes fun.