35pt pStryker List - Newbie needs some help!

[TheRupert]

First off, thanks for taking the time to read my post.

So a group of friends and myself (long time WHFB players) have finally made the jump into Warmachine and have been playing 15 point games for the last 2 months. Finally comfortable with the mechanics, we've all decided that it's time to move up to 35pts. I've grown to really like pStryker and EQ, so I'm going to stick with him for now, and have come up with the following list for 35 point games:

pStryker
Ol'Rowdy
Lancer
Squire (Would I be better off dropping the Squire and taking Rhupert to boost the Stormblades?)
B13
Stormblades
Storm Gunner x2
Stormblade UA
Stormclad

What do you think? Does this look decent for an all comers list to continue to learn the game and army with that will still be able to hold it's own???

Any suggestions, comments or advice that you might have would be GREATLY appreciated. I can use all the help I can get!

Thanks again for taking the time to look.

[1.21 Gigawatts]

You hit the nail on the head about Rhupert > Squire. pStryker doesn't really benefit from the increased control range or extra focus specifically. Squire's ability to reroll missed Earthquakes can be nice though. If you are going to run some many points in Stormblades, than I would go whole-hog and run Rhupert.

Otherwise, the list looks good to me. B13th for range/stealth. An arc-node to keep Stryker out of the fray. Rowdy to bodyguard and Stormclad to assassinate things. I would offer that Arlan Strangeways would be an option as well. Then, you could throw another focus on the Clad or repair damaged aspects, which can be a pain for you. I would still go with Rhupert, but Arlan over the Squire for this list.

Rhupert > Arlan > Squire

[lowry]

a journeyman warcaster with a hunter wouldnt go amiss

[paddyalexander]

I have to disagree with 1.21 Gigawatts (awesome name by the way) in regards to the Squire with Stryker1. Your caster has 3 very good upkeep spells, that work beautifly with the different elements in your army, but with all 3 in play Stryker doesn't have any focus to dish out if he wants to run his arc-node or activate Ol'Rowdys' imprint and cast Earthquake at the same time. That extra point of focus is invaluable. But thats not just what the Squire does. An extra 2" on Strykers' control area is excellent for his feat and for extra flexability when it comes to possitioning his arc-node and the Squire provides a reroll for those vital Earthquake attack rolls, especialy with only a focus stat of 6.

If you really have your heart set on including the Piper or want to include Arlan (both excellent choices) then I would recommend dropping the two Stormgunners.

[SanguinaryDan]

And don't bother marshalling the Stormclad. He only has to be in range of the Stormblades to get the bonus focus. If he is part of Stryker's battlegroup he can have a full load of focus and make full use of that P&S19 reach sword.

[Tort]

Marshalling the stormclad gives it an extra focus without using any from styker. If you can take strangeways as well you can run it on full focus without taking any away from stryker. Styker doesn't have a lot of focus to give away.

I think Wyshnalyr is better than the squire for Stryker. The free upkeep is always used, you get an additional die on earthquake to hit and remove the lowest which gives you a similar boost to the squire. Lastly you get +2 RNG which helps if you drop the lancer. I like to drop the lancer, you only really need it for earthquake and an occasional shield bash cortex removal run. I'm not sure it's worth 6 points with stryker.

I pretty much always take a journeyman with stryker, two arcane shields are better than one. Normally he marshals one of the two hunters you see in every cygnar list due to the trouble we have cracking armour but your list has all the best options we have outside of the hunter for cracking ARM so you don't need the hunter. That second arcane shield would still be golden but it starts getting a bit expensive then.

Rhupert is a pretty good option as you lack pathfinder and tough and +1 DEF (for b13, don't forget it's there, it'll make a difference in some games) are really useful in the list you have. Generally the first two solos everyone looks towards are Eiryss2 and Gorman di Wulfe and you might want to have a look at them too. Eiryss gives you upkeep removal which is pretty essential if your list comes up against a unit of iron fleshed winterguard with kovnic Joe it's going to be torn apart, ditto for iron fleshed kayazy. Defenders ward will give you trouble, crippling grasp will make your stormblades useless... plus she's a really good shot at killing other solos, hard to kill and pretty good at helping with assassination runs. Gorman can give your caster some extra protection by throwing smoke and black oil will take one thing out of the game for a turn at least or if you can get your opponents warcaster give you the game. If you have a point spare Reinholdt is worth it too. Lucky charm and two shots are useful but even if you don't use then, a 1 point solo with DEF 16 is very useful to run in to a zone. Eiryss1 also is not a bad choice with stryker. You can use earthquake to knock down intervening models between eiryss and your opponents warcaster and then shoot them. Eiryss2 can do it too, they both remove focus and allow you b13 to have a crack at killing the warcaster but Eiryss1 will stop them from getting focus next turn as well.

I suppose I should actually give an opinion rather than just talking about options. Drop the hunter and squire, take wyshnalyr, Eiryss2, rhupert and reinholdt. Also consider dropping the two storm gunners for Arlen too. Stormblades do their best work with snipe, that gives them a threat range of 18" with the UA (move 5+3 for charge, shoot 4+4 for snipe+2 for being within 5" of the leader), you don't really need the extra range from the two gunners (but the extra shots are always useful).

[SanguinaryDan]

Marshalling the stormclad gives it an extra focus without using any from styker. If you can take strangeways as well you can run it on full focus without taking any away from stryker. Styker doesn't have a lot of focus to give away.

True, you can get 2 focus plus the "pseudo focus" from the marshal. But that's only if Strangewayes always activates first. So you force yourself to keep the Stormclad within 3" of the Storm Blades and to activate Strangewayes before the jack. Seems like a pretty heavy set of restrictions. With the Stormclad in the battlegroup you gain a lot more freedom of action.

[stompy]

Marshalling the stormclad gives it an extra focus without using any from styker. If you can take strangeways as well you can run it on full focus without taking any away from stryker. Styker doesn't have a lot of focus to give away.

Don't forget, Strangewayes can only give focus to a jack that has no focus on it already.

Yeah, don't marshall the stormclad. You don't want to risk only having one focus on it on the turn where you can engage an enemy caster. Between the squire and the free focus it gets for being around the blades, you can still run it effectively with pStryker.

[Tort]

You need to keep the jack within 3" of the stormblades to get the focus regardless of whether it is marshalled or in the battlegroup. Theoretically stryker can give it 3 focus himself but you have to juggle that focus between his 3 upkeeps, his other jacks and earthquake. You only need one member of the unit to be within 3", when the jack is marshalled he needs to be near the stormblades anyway as they are marshalling him. Send them both to an objective/zone/flag, it's really not hard and you're going to be doing regardless of whether the jack is marshalled or not. You want Strangeways to activate first so he can stay further back away from the fighting and his activating first doesn't affect other models in any way, it's not like he'll be blocking charges. These are not heavy restrictions.

It'll always be on no focus if it's marshalled, the jack marshal bonus is not a focus and it only is allocated a focus by the accumulator when it activates.

I don't want to sound like I'm saying definitely marshal the stormclad but if you don't marshal it you'll be giving up something to let it have focus, whether it's Ol'Rowdy's focus or strykers spells. Stryker is really miserly with his focus, you need to work out ways to get performance out of your jacks without using strykers focus if you want them to work well.

[1.21 Gigawatts]

Don't forget, Strangewayes can only give focus to a jack that has no focus on it already.

Yeah, don't marshall the stormclad. You don't want to risk only having one focus on it on the turn where you can engage an enemy caster. Between the squire and the free focus it gets for being around the blades, you can still run it effectively with pStryker.

I agree with Stompy.

There is no reason to Jack Marshal the Stormclad, in fact, there more reasons to NOT marshal it. Losing the jack marshal would inactivate the jack is the big downside. I can't remember if you can reactivate the jack with a warrior model or if it goes dead (inert).

You want to keep the Clad in your caster's group, just so you have the option to load it up with 3 focus. Every other turn you can get 2 focus, which will suffice for the Clad.

1) Start of turn, do not give the Clad any focus.
2) Activate Arlan first -> use Powerbooster to give a focus to the Clad.
3) Activate the Clad after and it gets a focus from proximity to Stormblades. Shazam. 2 focus!
4) Apply Clad sword to faces.

[paddyalexander]

Losing the jack marshal would inactivate the jack is the big downside. I can't remember if you can reactivate the jack with a warrior model or if it goes dead (inert).

Nope. If a Jack Marshal is destroyed the Warjacks under its' control become autonomous. If the Jack Marshal is part of a unit the leader is the Jack Marshal. If the unit leader is destroyed then the promoted grunt becomes the Jack Marshal.

[Tort]

You have to kill the whole unit to get the rid of the jack marshal bonus too. If you do give it to the caster be aware that you can't add strangeways focus to any from the caster. The jack marshal bonus isn't a focus and the bonus from the stormblades comes when you begin your activation so they don't interfere with the focus from strangeways but when you run it with your caster you have to give it two (and one from the stormblades) or none and one from strangeways.

Honestly Stryker struggles to give 3 focus out to his jacks. If you put the stormclad in his battlegroup understand that you'll only be able to get anything out of one jack a turn or that you'll be giving up earthquake (don't give up earthquake).

[Tort]

You have to kill the whole unit to get the rid of the jack marshal bonus too. If you do give it to the caster be aware that you can't add strangeways focus to any from the caster. The jack marshal bonus isn't a focus and the bonus from the stormblades comes when you begin your activation so they don't interfere with the focus from strangeways but when you run it with your caster you have to give it two (and one from the stormblades) or none and one from strangeways.

Honestly Stryker struggles to give 3 focus out to his jacks. If you put the stormclad in his battlegroup understand that you'll only be able to get anything out of one jack a turn or that you'll be giving up earthquake (don't give up earthquake).