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The list is as follows

pHaley
Cyclone
Squire
Reinholdt

Gun Mages with UA
Hunter Jack Marshalled

Gunmages

Strangewayes
Hunter Jack Marshalled

This list is specifically designed to position my opponent and when LoS is open have the hunters or the cyclone go for the ranged assassination. Having both the hunters Jack Marshalled makes me nervous as if either the UA or Strangewayes pop then the hunters run on empty so to speak.

After seeing enough games where the gunmages really slap my opponents models around with the combination of push back, critical knock down, critical brutal damage, and snipe is just brutal. Two units allow me to have solid coverage across the board. their flexibility makes them almost an unparalleled unit when the opt for Critical brutal damage they can poke holes in heavies. If Haley gives them deadeye they can eat bone jacks for breakfast (provided lady averages obliges).

Having the Hunters Jack Marshalled though frees up Haley to do what she does best which is buff her allies and cripple her opponent. Deadeye plus scramble and temporal barrier(when the opportunity arises) giver her a huge amount of utility and flexibility with this list.

This list has two major short falls, lack of melee potential and limited range despite being all ranged attacks the range of the weapons are mostly 12" with the exception of using snipe. Some armies are going to be able to out range me until I get into position the cyclone, Mage Hunters high def, and Haley's spells will help with this but it is definitely an issue. However, the shots this army can wield on Haleys feat turn is just stunning.

Black 13. Take them, use them. Love them.

Shatter.proof wrote:Black 13. Take them, use them. Love them.

No

Reason being I am cursed with them they have lost me games because of their treachery.

While the list looks fun to play the exclusion of any melee force would scare me a bit. I think I would also skip marshaling with strangeways, he can still give a hunter a focus every turn and it should help keep the big bullseye off him. I can see one big weakness in your list, many menoth lists are going to be a big problem for you. Good luck.

whitekong wrote:While the list looks fun to play the exclusion of any melee force would scare me a bit. I think I would also skip marshaling with strangeways, he can still give a hunter a focus every turn and it should help keep the big bullseye off him. I can see one big weakness in your list, many menoth lists are going to be a big problem for you. Good luck.

Playing with zero melee is like doing the trapiez without a net, if you have enough skill you can pull it off but if you screwed it up your ed. Thats a good point with strangewayes and I think I will do just that. Menoth does give me pause however the only thing that will hurt me with them is the choir and if I can take out the choir the jacks are unprotected or better yet their warcaster is.

I agree I will have to be at the top of my game every game to make this list win, but it will be fun every time.

Well I agree it should be fun to play, and thats what is really important.

After sitting around with the list and running over it .... too much in my head I thought of changing it around to the following.

pHaley
Cyclone
Squire

Gun Mages with the UA
Hunter jack marshalled

Journeyman warcaster
Hunter

Black thirteenth

This will give me a great deal more flexibility and maybe my curse with the Black Thirteenth will lift. This also allows me to run the Hunters hot and still have Haley at the top of her game. Haley ought to be able to cast 2 deadeyes per turn when at extreme range or keep temporal barrier up and scramble a target as well.

I'd swap the Hunter and Cyclone. The JWC is much better with the Hunter and Haley will do much better with the Cyclone. The JWC is pretty easy to assassinate, and giving him a heavy paints a bullseye on his head.

Fixed

Thanks Dietrich wasn't thinking about that.

Have the two Hunters be Marshalled by the Gunmage Officer (the Dude). When the Dude dies, the squad takes over marshalling duty, even if the squad normally does not have Jack Marshal, this makes your mashalling bonuses more resiliant and gives both hunters free snipe, crit brutal, or knock back/down as long as the Dude is alive.

Also Scramble has some interesting uses, but only at extreme range (usually with an Arc Node). Scramble up close just costs you a fair amount of focus and randomly moves the enemy jack around but if you don't kill it, your opponent can still use it (unlike in mark 1). I'd only use it at extreme range as this can pull the enemy jack into range to kill, or it might move it away, giving me more time against it, however the most likely result is a lateral movement that buys very little. If Scramble is working well for you, please let me know, because I see it as an almost useless spell and I would love to see it used well.

I think you might really like EHaley and her spells, she is very sweet.

Cylcone begs to be marshalled by the ATGM UA.

14" range on dual covering fire? No focus required? I'll take some of that.

JR WC should have a defender under his control.

Haley should have something melee oriented under her control.

imweasel wrote:Cylcone begs to be marshalled by the ATGM UA.

14" range on dual covering fire? No focus required? I'll take some of that.

JR WC should have a defender under his control.

Haley should have something melee oriented under her control.

I am torn about the Cyclone for this reason it really shines with 2-3 focus on it and the ATGM UA con't do that, also if I give it 3 focus I can use the special action to used sustained fire then pay and have it fire both the guns as well.

I have playtested the Defender vs. the hunter and I have found the hunter to be more universally useful.

No, the concept of this list is to have an entirely shooty list no melee at all. That being said the cyclone does wonders in melee for the simple fact that it happens to have two open fists so walk it into range pay 2 focus, use them to two handed throw said heavy the other focus is to boost the attack roll to try and force the hit. Toss the melee heavy away like week old garbage. Then proceed to pummel it with its now massive def 7.

Zhetsuken wrote:
I am torn about the Cyclone for this reason it really shines with 2-3 focus on it and the ATGM UA con't do that, also if I give it 3 focus I can use the special action to used sustained fire then pay and have it fire both the guns as well.

Sorry, you can't * Action and do anything else. *Attacks are where you can attack by paying focus afterwards.

Personally, if I were to go for this Type of list, I would try for 2 Cyclones. 2 Cyclones essentially let you shut down most of the board from single wound infantry (you'll easily kill single wounders that are less than arm 18). I'd also consider Aiyana and Holt for a general damage buff (because you don't have anything that hits terribly hard) and Gorman DiWulf / Pendrake to buff your damage against Jacks / Beasts respectively. Deadeye + Beastlore + Crit Brutal Damage will help against beasts or help you knock down with Thunderbolt.

Zhetsuken wrote:
No, the concept of this list is to have an entirely shooty list no melee at all. That being said the cyclone does wonders in melee for the simple fact that it happens to have two open fists so walk it into range pay 2 focus, use them to two handed throw said heavy the other focus is to boost the attack roll to try and force the hit. Toss the melee heavy away like week old garbage. Then proceed to pummel it with its now massive def 7.

Def 5 actually against ranged The beautiful thing about paring the cyclone(s) with Haley is that temporal barrier will almost guarentee hits against infantry, pow 12 will probably kill, and during the feat turn you're looking at 2d3 + 1 shots. A Pair of Cyclones is shooting 4d3 + 2 ranged attacks! Even better, if you do bring along Aiyana and holt, Kiss of Lyliss works against units, so if you have demo core or something in your face that might survive pow 12s, you can bump it to pow 14s. AND if you bring along the black 13th, you have Fire Beacon to pretty much fully ignore stealth.

If I were to run this idea at 35 points, I'd go with:

Haley
^Cyclone
^Cyclone
Gun Mages
^Gun Mage Officer
^^Hunter
Aiyana and Holt
The Black 13th.

at 50 points, I'd start to play a little by adding gorman / pendrake, the squire, a journeyman, strangeways, and another unit.

@endgame

Exactly what do you have to kill heavy jacks, especially a list that takes 3+ heavy jacks and little infantry?

@zhet

Not having something melee in a melee oriented game is...not wise.

imweasel wrote:@endgame

Exactly what do you have to kill heavy jacks, especially a list that takes 3+ heavy jacks and little infantry?

Who needs to kill heavy jacks -- this list should be able to neutralize them without killing them if necessary. Most heavies are speed 5, worst case you prep for speed 6. A few gun mage thunderbolts push them away from your forces and then you pop temporal barrier (or you TB first, whichever) -- they can't charge and can't advance far enough to hit anything. For additional fun, Kiss of Lyliss the target for the +2 to damage rolls. Drop 3 focus on a cyclone, pop temporal barrier, and charge the target. If its still alive after the charge & extra attacks, shoot it with a thunderbolt shot from an aiming hunter. Effectively rat 11, you'll hit any jack / beast on average rolls and push them out of combat so you can shoot them some more (if you didn't already kill it with the hunter shot).

Worst case, throw Siege in your second list. There is no faster way to discourage someone from running 3 heavies and a unit of infantry than by nuking them on the breach turn.

imweasel wrote:
@zhet

Not having something melee in a melee oriented game is...not wise.

Its doable, especially if you're only taking it as one of your steam roller lists and the other list is eStryker, Siege, or something else thats totally different. Just look at your opponent's lists and go with the best choice.

Considering Haley has deadeye, I'd probably run a small change to the list: Remove a cyclone for a defender and have the Gun Mage Captain Marshall it.

Deadeye both the hunter and Defender and fire critical Brutal shots and use the Marshalling buff to boost damage. 3D6 to hit and 4D6 damage is enough to wreck the day of almost anything and gives the list a good bit more stopping power against heavy targets. Alternatively you can simply expand the range of the units and go 3D6 for either roll. It lets you start hitting faster and harder and opens up lanes for caster assassinations.

Toss in a Strangewayes powerboost, and you've got 4d6 to hit and 4d6 damage since you're almost guaranteed a crit hit.