Ashlynn Mercinaries List 50pt

[WarHammerman]

Hello there everyone!

I was thinking of workin' up a 50 point Mercinaries army, based around Ashkynn d'Elyse.

Here is what I have so far- I'd like everyone to give me your thoughts and Opinion:

Ashlynn d'Elyse
Vanguard x2
Mariner
Mule

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) x2
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer x2
Gun Mage Captain Adept

Anastasia di Bray

Rutger Shaw
Taryn di la Rovissi
Mangler

I really like the Taryn & Rutger Shaw combo.
And the Anastasia model is going to be awesome to field.

The rest I'm not 100% on. I am thinking the Manger would be awesome for Rutger to Marshall. And all the other jacks are under Ashlynn's command.

Do please let me know what I can do better.

Your friend!
- Hammerman

[Tort]

Alright so some tips:

Ashlynn has some really good spells but if you want to cast them then you won't have as much focus for jacks. So it's generally a good idea to minimise the jacks in her battlegroup. Her feat also is better for higher DEF models so it doesn't protect warjacks as much as other troops.

Looks like your going for her theme force. It's pretty good but it struggles to kill high ARM models. You might want to pick up the precursor knights or Captain Sam to give you something that can kill a heavy jack.

The mule is pretty good marshalled to the gun mages, it saves you some focus from Ashlynn and rune shot is really good.

If you run Madelyn Corbeau with Anastasia your able to get more models in her Espionage move and her abilities make it more likely that you'll be able to get the ability to come off.

Rhupert Carvolo is magic with her. The +1 DEF can be massive and he can also give pathfinder or tough to a unit and her list is lacking in pathfinder.

She's also really good outside of her theme list with Rocinante and the Nyss hunters. I wouldn't Marshal the Mangler with Rutger Shaw, it's a bit expensive and it's not particularly suited to being marshalled.

[WarHammerman]

Then how about this change:

Ashlynn d'Elyse
Vanguard
Nomand

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Vanguard

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Vanguard

Precursor Knights
Precursor Knights Officer & Standard

Anastasia di Bray
Madelyn Corbeau

Taryn di la Rovissi
Rutger Shaw
Nomad

[WarHammerman]

After a bit more thought, advice and such...

Re-tooled to this:

Ashlynn d'Elyse
Talon
Talon

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Vanguard

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Vanguard

Precursor Knights (10)

Anastasia di Bray
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan

Rutger Shaw
Rover
Taryn di la Rovissi

Thoughts?

[Keravin]

I would be giving the Gunmages a decent ranged jack. Mules work great with them. Vanguards I find work better with people in the thick of things.

I take it you're running Tier list.

[laestli]

The two Vangaurds must be in Ashlynn's Battlegroup to meet the teir 3 requirement, which means your list is currently illegal because it has one too many UAs for the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages.

I agree with Keravin, give the ATGM's mules, it's worth noting that the +4 RNG Mules get when aiming does not come from Snipe, so this is one the very rare occations when a model can get two +4 RNG benifits.

[Tort]

Vanguards are really good at tying up control zones or protecting Ashlynn. Don't expect to get the shield guard off because if you turn your model so that Ashlynn is in it's front arc and the vangaurd is not it cannot legally become a target of the attack. 13/19 with set defence and Ashlynns feat though will make them really difficult to shift. You do need two of then in Ashlynns battlegroup to get the second gun mage attachment.

I'm not a big fan of the Talons with Ashlynn. They don't have the survivability/annoyance factor if the Vanguards and they won't do much without focus and the Vanguard will do a bit more with that focus and still be pretty good without it. If you want to take a Talon and you want to marshal a jack to Rutger Shaw then you might want to try marshalling the Talon. It's more likely to give you flank because it has reach or it can charge with the marshal bonus and he can give it reroll in case it misses it's stun lance attack. The rover doesn't have reach and it's a bit expensive to then be running without any focus if Shaw dies.

Mule with gun mages is pretty good. The Precursor knights need their UA. Their an OK unit without the UA but the UA makes them awesome.

[WarHammerman]

Okay - I can see what your saying.

Unfortunately, thinks have worked out where a pair of Mules would be too expensive to field.

How does this look?


Ashlynn d'Elyse
+ x2 Vanguards

x2
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
w/ Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
+ Vanguard


Precursor Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Precursor Knight Officer & Standard

Anastasia di Bray
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan

Taryn di la Rovissi
Rutger Shaw
+ Talon

[Grentain]

I feel like, with Ashlynn's feat, it's almost silly not to consider giving her a mule. The critical effect is just way, way too good.

[laestli]

Okay - I can see what your saying.

Unfortunately, thinks have worked out where a pair of Mules would be too expensive to field.

How does this look?


Ashlynn d'Elyse
+ x2 Vanguards

x2
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
w/ Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
+ Vanguard


Precursor Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Precursor Knight Officer & Standard

Anastasia di Bray
Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan

Taryn di la Rovissi
Rutger Shaw
+ Talon

I, like Keravin, do not see the value in Vanguards being marshalled to ATGM. You could ditch both the ATGM vanguards, the talon, and Shaw for the points to add a Mule to each ATGM. If you are set on runnig shaw with a Talon though you could still drop the same vanguards marshal one Mule and have 2 points left over for another solo like:

Gorman di Wulfe, Gun Mage Captain Adept, Harlan Versh, or Rhupert Carvolo

anyone of which would be awesome, my suggestion would be Rhupert. His buffs are not spells so you can target the Precussor Knights with them. Really no reason to bend over backward just to shoehorn in another 'jack for the second ATGMs to marshal.

There is another point I don't like about your list, you want 4 Vanguards, that's a lot of real money for a 'jack that the only reason I even own two of instead of one is specifically for Ashlynn's teir, I can't image a tabletop reason to own 4 of them, it's not even super-fluffy to use that many.

I feel like, with Ashlynn's feat, it's almost silly not to consider giving her a mule. The critical effect is just way, way too good.

Ashlynn's feat applies to all models within her control area and the ability to boost one attack or damage roll is something a 'jack marshal can do on top of their drive action or in the case of ATGM the rune shot so there's no need to have the mule in her battle group.

[Keravin]

I just don't see the point of Vanguards with the Gun Mages - what's the thinking there?

[WarHammerman]

To be honest, I'm not sure what I want. I'm just trying to get this all to fit - and be smart.

I'm new to Warmachine, so I'm not aware of the combos, or which units are good.

I can see the advantage of the Jacks being marshalled by others - keeps them up and going, and not loose all the focus - when Ashlynn is a "Caster" - ya want her to use her focus on spells.


So, I wedged in 4 Vanguards cause it fit.

I have Taryn cause I gotta - but she works so awesome w/ Rutger.
He looks like he wants to be a Jack Marshall, and one set up for close combat - Talon looks like it would fit that well (especially w/ the stun lance)

I have Anastasia cause I gotta - but I'm told combo-ing her with Madelyn is excellent. Now, I've read both carefully and I can see why they work, but I don't see how Madelyn can come with Anastasia along w/ the infiltration.

I personally think the ATGM's rock the house, and the Officer is really helpful - especially w/ the jack marshal deal.
- I had used Vanguards cause they do have shield cannons so it could benefit from the Marshalling, but yes - the Mule would be better (if not more expensive).

Precursor Knights have been drilled into me and to take them with their Unit Attachment - so that's staying (but not necessarily the 8 pack, perhaps just the 6)

So yeah - I'm looking for help, and I don't know what I want beyond "Merc Theme List" - and I'm told Ashlynn is a fun, good theme list.

[laestli]

To be honest, I'm not sure what I want. I'm just trying to get this all to fit - and be smart.

I'm new to Warmachine, so I'm not aware of the combos, or which units are good.

I can see the advantage of the Jacks being marshalled by others - keeps them up and going, and not loose all the focus - when Ashlynn is a "Caster" - ya want her to use her focus on spells.


So, I wedged in 4 Vanguards cause it fit.

Some advice I got when I first started Warmachine is "Fewer 'jacks are better 'jacks" not interm of points spent but in terms of number of used.

I have Taryn cause I gotta - but she works so awesome w/ Rutger.
He looks like he wants to be a Jack Marshall, and one set up for close combat - Talon looks like it would fit that well (especially w/ the stun lance)

She is good with him, better then without, but you do not need to make full use of every models ability. 'Jack Marshalling in particular is something I'd say is something that you chose to do for a specific reason, e.g. what the ATGM Officer gives a Mule. Is a re-roll on a jack that can only stun warjacks (a model type only half the game has access to and usually no more then 1-3 of those models will be used by an oppenent) sound good. That's your call.

I have Anastasia cause I gotta - but I'm told combo-ing her with Madelyn is excellent. Now, I've read both carefully and I can see why they work, but I don't see how Madelyn can come with Anastasia along w/ the infiltration.

That specific pairing requires Anastasia deploy like a normal model so you aren't using the Ambush ability on Anastasia but Madelyn does the same good work with other models (like Ashlynn) so you can, from game to game, deside how you want to deploy and supequintly use Anastasia.

I personally think the ATGM's rock the house, and the Officer is really helpful - especially w/ the jack marshal deal.
- I had used Vanguards cause they do have shield cannons so it could benefit from the Marshalling, but yes - the Mule would be better (if not more expensive).

Precursor Knights have been drilled into me and to take them with their Unit Attachment - so that's staying (but not necessarily the 8 pack, perhaps just the 6)

So yeah - I'm looking for help, and I don't know what I want beyond "Merc Theme List" - and I'm told Ashlynn is a fun, good theme list.

The other bit of advice I got when I started was to "Avoid buying two of anything until I had one of most things" and this wasn't because of some anti-spam hate. It's just that redundancy doesn't have to come from identicality. This does apply in this case because you are running a theme list which explicitly requires two Vanguards and to ATGM units.

Other advice I got was that theme list are not inherintly better, many are infact much worse, but Ashlynn's, in my oppionion is solid.

[Keravin]

I tend to run Taryn without Rutger because though he does give her an extra boost I find I want the points elsewhere. Her prime role for me is to use her ability to remove things from counting for LOS purposes which is great for shooting at people who think they are shielded.

Ashlynn d'Elyse
Vanguard
Vanguard
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Mule
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Mule
Precursor Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Precursor Knight Officer & Standard
Anastasia di Bray
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Taryn di la Rovissi

is the list I'm planning on running. Though I do like running two smaller units of Precursors to give a little more flexibility. I've also had some good success with Harlan Versh if only because of the fear he generates when he does work well.

[Tort]

I would suggest taking one mule rather than taking two vanguards marshalled to the gun mages or two mules dropping Shaw and the Talon. The crit devastation is nice on the feat turn (remember though you will have to boost and roll 5 dice to be confident of getting it to work) and especially nice if you don't need the snipe bonus and can combine it with a crit Brutal Damage bonus from the gun mages but it's also a good ranged jack with the gun mages on every other turn too. Don't be afraid to move and rely on the snipe bonus, sometimes that's better than getting the extra range from aiming.

Vanguards are great, I love them and use the two vanguards for the Ashlynn theme force as reinforcements for other casters. I can't see using 4 though and they don't get anywhere near the utility that other models like the mule get when marshalled to the gun mages.