Siege - 35pt all comers list - thoughts? suggestions?

[TheRupert]

Just getting started with Warmachine, but I'm comfortable enough now with the game to make the jump to 35 points. I have chosen Siege as the Warcaster I want to use, so after doing lots of research on the net, here's what I've come up with for my 35pt list:

Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane
Defender
Defender
Squire
B13
Rangers
Sword Knights (1 Leader & 9 Grunts)
Sword Knights UA
Captain Arlan Strangeways
Reinholdt

Does this seem viable? Balanced enough to handle both shooting and melee? I have access to pretty much everything Cygnar has, so all suggestions and tips are welcome and very much appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to have a look!

[Brushmonkey]

For me, drop a Defender and add in a Storm Strider. Hits almost as hard as a Defender, but is great for keeping your caster out of trouble. YMMV

[Tort]

Why the sword knights with UA without a marshalled jack? The sword knights don't do a great deal except die (which is usually their purpose when I take them). You have the UA and Strangeways though which introduces another option they are great at, jack marshalling. Pronto is quite possibly the best drive in the game and you can give the jack two "focus" using strangeways. I don't like the storm strider model so I may be biased against it but two Defenders with Siege is pretty awesome (foxhole anything screening the caster two focus each for boosted attack and boosted damage, you can normally aim too, I normally take one marshalled by gun mages but the sword knights will do it well too). Remember that ground pounder is a special attack so you can only make one even with reinholdt (though the additional shot is not bad).

As you have the list you don't really have much melee. As I said the sword knights won't do a lot of damage, a tactic you often see with them is to use a cheap reach jack to engage something you want them to kill. The buccaneer is great for that and it can assault and knockdown so the swordknights auto hit as well. If you aren't set on swordknights I like the Nyss with Seige. They can combine fire for big shots on feat turn, take out lots of infantry, fight in melee and deal with terrain well, they are a really versatile piece. You don't have any upkeep removal in the list so it will struggle against things like Iron Flesh. Eiryss (epic Eyriss) is important for upkeep removal and helps with assassinations (which Seige is great at) if you aren't taking her maybe precursor knights to give you some melee and blessed.

The thing with Siege is that he is very versatile. You generally want shooting because Foxhole and magesite are spells that help with shooting and with his feat and in Cygnar shooting will often devastate your opponents force before they engage. At the same time though he works well with melee stuff, you probably want fast stuff though because he is more of an alpha-strike caster. The list you have will work though honestly you have to drop the sword knight UA, it's two points to let your unit that is going to struggle to kill anything but low DEF low ARM single wound infantry charge through each other and choose which column they put their 1 damage to a warjack/beast on. Also Strangeways is better when you are marshalling a jack, the jack marshal effect is almost the same as a focus but doesn't count for his power booster ability so a marshalled jack can have 2 "focus" (3 if it's a stormclad or Gallant near the right troops). One focus on a defender is useful but 2 is all the jack needs to operate at 100% and that's very useful is a Siege list. Still he can repair and use evasive if they Jack needs two focus.

Sorry if this is rambling and incoherent, I'm very tired. Seige is the Cygnar caster I use the most (I get less complaints that he is broken than with Haley2 or Caine2 my two favourite Cyngar casters). I find he's better at 50 points, at 35 I find I only really have shooting or the list doesn't quite work.

[TheRupert]

Thanks for the tips and suggestions folks.

So here's what I've changed the list to be. Does this look more viable???

Siege
Defender
Squire

ATGM
ATGM UA
Defender

Boomhowler & Co

Rangers

Reinholdt


Thanks again!

Rupert