Ok, first things first, 50 is a really high points value to jump in at, if you haven't played much Warmachine before. But on with the actual help!
Stonewall wrote:
General idea is to separate the force into two segments, the "block" formed around the Stormblades/Stormclad/Jakes, and the "shooters" formed around the gun mages. The block picks the biggest, nastiest part of the enemy army and smashes it to flinders
Stormblades are a unit which can really bring the pain, especially with their
UA. So this is not a bad idea, but they will have no buffs to accuracy/damage of any kind in this army. No Silverline Stormguard, no Deadeye on the caster, etc. The closest they'll get is ignoring stealth/concealment if you drop the B13 leader's AOE on their target, but it's not really the sort of thing you want. The Journeyman will help their survivability with Arcane Shield, but even then they aren't the toughest of infantry. So really, they may struggle to hit/do damage, and/or struggle to survive.
Stonewall wrote:while the shooters, with abundantly accurate but mostly low power shooting pick out high
DEF low
ARM infantry (things like Daughters of the Flame and Satyxis raiders spring to mind).
That's their usual purpose, yeah, but they aren't actually able to do this all the time. They'll need above average dice to hit things like Satyxis Raiders, who can run and engage the
ATGM from outside of their shooting range (not walk-shoot, but then you are sitting at
RAT 7 vs
DEF 15 or 16, which isn't good odds to save your squad from the ensuing run-engage). The Gunfighter from
eCaine helps here, but it doesn't fix it.
Stonewall wrote:That being said, I think it will take me a little while to get all the nuances of the
ATGM units. Caine and Eiryss can pull off an assassination after the rest of the force has opened up a path to the enemy caster, with the elf stripping off defensive spells and extra focus followed by Caine's feat and Pistols Of
ROF Infinity Death finish off the unfortunate victim.
Caine's feat doesn't give him extra focus, so I'm not sure where you are reading that. pCaine shoots at everyone in his control range, but
eCaine gets additional damage/hit+an AOE on kills. Not focus. And don't get pigeonholed into thinking of him as only being able to assassinate, you can also use his feat to basically erase 2 heavies, or things like that. Sometimes that will give you the leg up and cripple the opponent's army such that you will win on scenario. There's not much better than bringing a caster like
eCaine and having the opponent so scared of the potential assassination that he misses the scenario victory you've set up.
Stonewall wrote:Overall, I think it's pretty versatile. Potential modifications I am considering would be dropping the minuteman, giving Caine the hunter, junior a sentinel, and adding an extra
WA to the Stormblades. Also, I could drop one of the 2 point solos for a squire, but which one? I have none of the models as yet as i like to plan out my lists ahead of time. Now please, share your wisdom comrades!
What I think will really help is a blocking unit of some kind, a tarpit. A common one seen in Cygnar is Boomhowler and Co., the mercenary trollkin unit. I use them and love them, even though I can't roll a 4+ tough to save my life. I usually throw arcane shield on them so they are sitting at
ARM 19 with a 4+ tough then, once they are past their usefulness, Arcane Shield moves to whatever squad is backing them up (in this case it'd be your stormblades) to ensure that they can now survive a bit better, without having had to have walked across the fields themselves. I'd definitely recommend a squire. An extra 2" measurement, and an extra shot on feat turn (if you have an accumulator circle unmarked by that point, which you really should) is pretty damn good. Reinholdt the Gobber Speculator also makes his way into a lot of Caine lists, because if he activates when he is in
B2B with caine, he can give him a third initial (so you don't need to pay focus for it), which makes his feat turn (and his normal turns) pretty damn awesome! I'd steer clear of putting the hunter on Caine just to buy a sentinel, I honestly think that getting rid of both lights for a heavy of some kind is a better bet. You lack staying power in your list, something to contest a zone, and a Centurion is a great jack for doing that, coming in at 9 points, which means that dropping the Hunter and Minuteman (11) leaves you with 2 points for the squire as well! Or something like that, I love my hunter so I'm loathe to get rid of it, but that's just my first thought as I'm typing.
Stonewall wrote:Caine2 +5
Minuteman (5)
Allison Jakes (3)
Stormclad (10)
Jr. Warcaster (3)
Hunter (6)
Eiryss2 (3)
Gun Mage Captain (2)
Stormblade Captain (2)
ATGM (6) w/
UA (2)
Black 13th (4)
Stormblades (5),
UA (3), 1xWA (1)
Total: 50 pts
The Gun Mage Captain Adept is an...ehhh... shooter, I'm not really a fan. For the same amount of points, Taryn di la Rovissi (spelled it wrong I'm pretty sure, but the first name is right) is a mercenary gun mage from Llael (Cygnar's northern neighbour) who gets 2 pistols instead of the
GMCA's one...as well as some really useful shots. I sort of commented on the make up of the list in the above responses, so I'll leave it there for now. Hope this has been mildly helpful