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Hey all, I've been kicking around ideas for my escalation league force for quite a while (seriously, this is keeping me up at night) and have come up with three different eventual 35 point lists to pick from. If anyone has time to look at them, I'd love to hear people's opinions on which might make for a better all-around list. I don't have a single game under my belt, and part of these lists is just based off of models I love whereas another part is building toward a greater collection, so I know none of them is perfectly efficient. Thanks for any input you can give me!

List 1:

Lieutenant Allister Caine
Hunter
Squire
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard
3 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner
Trencher Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)
2 Trencher Infantry Grenadier
Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper
Captain Maxwell Finn

List 2:

Lieutenant Allister Caine
Hunter
Stormclad
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard
1 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner
Trencher Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper
Journeyman Warcaster

List 3:

Captain Allister Caine
Hunter
Defender
Squire
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Trencher Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

(In this list, I'd been thinking of swapping out the Defender, Reinholdt and the Dude for an Ironclad and some Rangers - so I guess it's really four options...) Again, thanks for everyone's help thus far and in the future!

The biggest question is, How do you want to win?

List 1 is the biggest hybrid list of the bunch. You can dance around and shoot with Caine, the Trenchers and the Storm Blades, or you can launch into melee with the Storm Blades buffed with extra damage from Aiyana and Holt.. This list will require you to adapt on the spot and adjust your play to you're opponents play style -- you won't have a "point and shoot" plan for victory.

List 2 has a decided Melee tilt. The Stormclad with put a burden on Caine's focus, but it will get some free focus from the Storm Blades. The Trenchers seem primarily there to escort the Storm Blades and Clad to the enemy. If you lose the Stormbades, or otherwise can't deliver them, you've probably lost. This list will win or lose by plowing through the enemy in Melee.

List 3 is solidly a ranged list. Since you have nothing truly durable you'll be falling back along relying on trencher smoke to save you from return enemy fire. You'll have to be mobile and will probably win by ranged assassination. You'll likely have a hard time with scenarios that force you into the center of the board or opponents that can restrict your shooting.

Thanks again, Endgame! I always appreciate your insight. So the ATGM unit with elite cadre won't stand up well in melee? Not having any practical experience, it was hard for me to tell whether or not they'd work as a melee unit. Would it be wise to swap out the Defender in that list for the Ironclad? Of course, then I lose the Dude, so the Ironclad will be on Caine, who doesn't seem to want to run two 'jacks by himself. Hm.

I would go with the list 2. The games tend to get ugly in the middle of the objectives at some point and I've noticed that ranged lists have hard time winning these matches.

What I would try to do however is to fit rangers into that list. They give such high benefit to shooting and even though the list 2 is definitely leaning towards melee every unit in it can also shoot, so the +2 to hit would give you universal bonus.

Shane wrote:Thanks again, Endgame! I always appreciate your insight. So the ATGM unit with elite cadre won't stand up well in melee? Not having any practical experience, it was hard for me to tell whether or not they'd work as a melee unit. Would it be wise to swap out the Defender in that list for the Ironclad? Of course, then I lose the Dude, so the Ironclad will be on Caine, who doesn't seem to want to run two 'jacks by himself. Hm.

The ATGM are passable in Melee, but Pow 10s only get you so far. In your list 3, you'll have problems against a number of lists that can bring lots of Multi Wound models and / or Arm 20, like Khador, Protectorate, or Trolls.

As for pCaine running jacks, it can work, but Caine has a very easy time spending focus. He can easily spend 7 focus / turn just making ranged attacks, upkeeping snipe, and teleporting. Add in turns where you want to cast Thunderstrike and you can end up not having anything left to actually allocate. The Stormclad is nice because it can generate its own focus with Storm Blades, and if you can find a way to squeeze Strangeways in there, you can drop 2 focus on the Storm Clad without having to use any of Caine's focus. To ease Caine's focus woes, you can always move the Hunter to the Journeyman. The journeyman has 2 focus spare each round normally (he should be upkeeping Arcane Shield), and the extended control range on the hunter allows it to be decently far from the Journeyman and still receive focus.