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http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Expanding_with_Commander_Coleman_Stryker

So if you took the models above, the battlebox, and the tool box models for Cygnar,
what kinds of 35 point lists would you write?

I guess I would go with:

Commander Coleman Stryker
^Lancer
^Ironclad
^Squire
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Blur)
^Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
^Hunter (marshalled by Gun Mages)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (Snipe)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (Arc Shield)
^Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Soften the enemy with gun mages, hunter and B13th and prepare to throw punishment with assaulting Stormblades and Ironclad. Little light on melee, but has enough heavy hitters to take on couple of heavies per turn. Infantry heavy lists shouldn't pose a problem either with 3" shots from Stormblades who can be given snipe to get to decent threat range especially with assault. I would try to fit Aiyanna & Holt in there, but don't know what to take out and in addition they were not in the model list.

Added it and gave it your name Thank you.

Not sure how/where to include mercenaries yet.

New Caster:

Siege Brisbane
Squire
Charger
Lancer (Arc Node for Force Hammer)
Reinholdt* (yeah, he's a merc. Siege needs him)

ATGM + UA + Defender
B13
Arlan Strangewayes*
Stormcaller* (only 1pt option left)
Junior (Arc shield on Siege)

ATGM delivery device for crit brutal defender shots with Strangewayes power boosting it. Siege does what Siege does best.

Of those things, the Squire, charger, Lancer are already purchased. What new items?

I'm seeing

Reinhold
Strangewayes
Stormcaller

Any other suggestions (things they don't already have)

12thRonin wrote:
ATGM delivery device for crit brutal defender shots with Strangewayes power boosting it. Siege does what Siege does best.

Ugh, that little module costs you 9 for the Defender, 2 for Strangeways, and 8 for the Gun Mages (though you might be taking them already anyway) and costs you over half the list. And its really only decent at shooting one shot per turn -- enemy engages that defender you're looking at tops 3 attacks, or more likely 1 boosted attack and damage roll.

Given the Starter Box and the tool box, I'd go for a list that tries to maximize Styrker's buffing capability and has some all around utility.

Command Stryker (+6)
Charger (4) [Snipe]
Iron Clad (7) [Arcane Shield]
Squire (2)
Max Storm Guard (9) [Blur]
Gun Mages (6)
^Gun Mage UA (2)
Journeyman (3)
Stormblades (5) [Arcane Shield]
^Standard and Officer [3]

General plan is to use your Storm Guard to screen the rest of the list. With blur they are fairly difficult to shoot and Ranked attack will let your Charger and Gun Mages fire unhampered. Set Defense should help them survive against enemy charges as well, and they are fairly decent at mowing down enemy infantry. The Stormblades are your second wave behind the Storm guard -- the Blades can assault the stormguard in the back to kill enemy infantry engaged with the guard with AoE3s, and you won't even hurt the Storm Guard due to their lightning immunity . The Charger, Gun Mages, and Journeyman all support with shooting from behind the line of storm guard. Pop feat on turn 2 to give a healthy boost to ARM and making the Stormguard a nice Def 15 Arm 20. End game allows for EQ on enemy caster from Stryker (virtually guarenteed to hit with the reroll from the squire, 16" threat) and then popping Charger Shots / Stormblade Shots / Ironclad charge / whatever to end it.

Given unlimited model selection I'd probably chose a different Stryker list, but its not a bad start and pretty darn Themey.

I've run that exact list a lot and its served well. Yeah the defender is a hunk bunk so is POW 15 + 4d6.

Ah, Endgame, your build includes the guard. They're awesome, just tough trying
to reconcile these lists. I know that I'm creating artificial restrictions on these builds, but
the ultimate goal is to have a guide that could fit on a sheet of paper or something like that.

Lack of melee speed bumb is the problem with the list of figures you have given us Malf. There are no trenchers, sword knights, stormguard or mechanics on the list of troops to be selected and at least I like to run troop heavy cygnar in waves. There needs to be something screening stormblades or they will be shot off the board before they've made their impact.

Cool. What should I swap in/out of the toolbox?

I would drop the long gunners from your list, as you can see none of the suggestions above include them. They are decent on paper, but are really lacking in the movement which is needed in the scenario play.

In their place I would then put one of trenchers, sword knights, stormguard or mechanics. Mechanics are the cheapest, then sword knights. Both are a bit useless on melee, but get in the way well. Stormguard are good but pricy and trenchers are something that people either like or hate. I like to run trenchers as they have utility and some survivability, but they are not the most accepted choice. I guess you could also put rangers in the list, they give really good buff to shooting and the list we are putting together is shooty list.

Makes sense.

So which are used more often, Stormguard, Trenchers, SKs?

I would vote for sword knights first followed by trenchers. Sword knights are 4/ 6 unit with decent ARM and DEF, and they have nice hitting power if you can get flank. But for this purpose the defensive stats are more needed. Trenchers on the other hand have AD, CRA and smoke, which is still good even though everblight and co sees right through it. The con of trenchers is the point cost, they pay for the multiple roles they have.

For future expansion trenchers can be paired with grenadier for some really nice shooting and they can be further enhanced with the UA which helps with their mobility.

As said trenchers are my favorite of the bunch, but sword knights could fit better in beginners army.

I only see SK's and Storm blades mainly. Trenchers usually only come out with xHaley.

If you have Junior already, the SK's are pretty much set from armor while they are in Defensive Line.

When beginning an army, the major thing to remember is the the war gamer's creed. "Shoot the melee stuff and melee the shooty stuff!" You want to balance things along those lines.

SK's are good for what they do and their UA makes them disturbing against jacks and beasts... as long as they are picking up Flank from a warjack. Defensive Line them, and give them Arcane Shield if you can in order to get them across the table. Few infantry will be able to break ARM 19. They are also dirt cheap. Perfect for a starting army.

Trenchers have their uses. Screening units, cutting off charge lanes, anti-infantry fire (WA). Haley and Seige offer more for them, but they are the everyman of Cygnar's army. They can work in just about any list, barring eNemo.

Later expansion can replace the Sword Knights with either of the following or both:

Stormblades are really good and only get better with their UA and WA. They do not have any armor increasing abilities on their own, but they make up for it by being monsters in melee. The UA's assault order will clear infantry left and right. These guys cost a good bit. A unit + UA + 2 WA will total out to 10 points. You will want to run the WA's if you have 1-2 points to spare.

Precursor Knights are the cool kids on the block, but cost a bit more due to what they do. They hit hard, they have decent armor with self buff (shield wall they are at ARM 18), their weapons ignore buffs to ARM and DEF, they cannot be targeted by ANY spells (that means some of your buff spells too). With their UA they have a min-feat to do large amounts of damage, they get ranked attacks (don't block LOS for friendly faction models), and they can heal a B2B model for d3 as an action. Walk them in a line with some gun mages or long gunner right behind them shooting all the way.

This is more of a solid starter army as it puts more models on the field.

Stryker 35 Point Starter Army

Commander Coleman Stryker
- Lancer
- Ironclad
- Squire
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
- Hunter
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)
-Sword Knight Officer & Standard


As for mercs... the best starting place is Eyriss, the Mage Hunter.

Actually, if you're going to run Cygnar, the goto merc is Reinholdt since over half the casters like ranged alot.

pEiryss is also useless against half the game and goes into convulsions if she's near a jack. Epic Eiryss on the other hand...

I don't play Cygnar, and I thought Reinholdt was the Cygnar Warcaster attachment when I started playing.

He is, they just colored his card wrong.

Removing Long Gunners in exchange for melee tarpit for Stryker.