Hey guys, I again don’t have a list that I feel comfortable talking about. I am currently playing and testing my new Maddox list but I don’t feel that I have had enough games with it to for an informed analysis. Fear not however as I do have something that I feel comfortable to talk about that is Cygnar related!

The Arcane Tempest Gun Mages and their unit attachment, including what jacks to bring with them! I figured that I would share my thoughts on these guys to help new Cygnars understand what roles the unit fills. Let’s get started.

The Arcane Tempest Gun Mages(ATGM) cost 11 points, the Officer cost 4 points. Their noteworthy stats are their high RAT 7 and high DEF 14, they have average SPD 6 and a respectable threat range. They however leave a lot to be desired for their ARM and amount of damage they can dish out on their own. The UA gives them a bit more mobility with “Swift Hunter” and a mini-feat giving them “True Sight”, the biggest thing about the Officer however is his ability to “Jack Marshal” and his “Drive: Rune Shot” which I will talk about more later. They have the ability “Attack Type” which allows them to choose one of the following three effects when making a ranged attack : “Snipe: RNG +4”, “Critical Brutal: On a crit add 1D6 to the damage role” and “Thunderbolt: Push hit target D3 inches directly away from the shooter”. Their guns are also “Magical”

The unit typically fills the role of anti-light infantry, their high RAT combined with a RNG of 14” (Base 10” + 4” from Snipe Attack Type”) means that they can often aim to bump up to RAT 9. Meaning that they have a decent chance of hitting anything with a DEF lower than 16. They can also deal with “Incorporeal” infantry since their guns are “Magical”. The mini-feat also allows them to counter “Stealth” infantry and solos. The POW 10 of their guns means that anything that will require you to roll 7 and above to kill is going to be dicey.

Now we get to the fun part, the “Jack Marshal” ability and its interaction with “Drive: Rune Shot”. Having a jack under the control of a “Jack Marshal” instead of a warcaster is typically ill advised, after all these marshaled jacks don’t get the benefit of focus. They do however get a few interesting benefits, they can run or charge without using focus, they can gain +2 to hit on top of aiming and they get +2 to their range attack damage if they aim. Marshaled jacks can choose one of the benefits each turn, this is also on top of the “Drive” ability of their marshal if any.

“Drive: Rune Shot” is where things get really interesting, this makes the jack that is marshaled by the ATGM Officer have their ranged weapons become “Magical” and they can use any of the three “Attack Types” that the Officer has, Snipe, Thunderbolt and Critical Brutal. The means that you would want to marshal ranged jacks on them, here are some of my recommendations.

Defender or Hunter, allows you to deal a single high damage shot from a good distance away using the “Snipe Attack Type”. The damage can then be upped as needed via the “Jack Marshal” benefit of +2 to ranged attack damage if you aim. You can also use the “Thunderbolt Attack Type” to push a model toeing an objective zone for a surprise scoring. Which of them to use will depend on how many points you have, Defenders have more survivability but the Hunter is more accurate. I also recommend brining Arlan Strangeways if you have points to spare or a free solo slot as being able to boost on top of the “Jack Marshal” benefits is just golden.

Avenger, biggest issue I have with the Avenger is that its slow, has a short RNG and has low RAT. When controlled by the ATGM Officer “Jack Marshal” it solves 2 of the 3 problems. “Snipe Attack Type” gives is a good RNG allowing it to aim, the “Jack Marshall” benefit also bumps up this RAT. An interesting trick is that the +2 to ranged attack damage if you aim also applies to blast damage. So if you can pair him up with a caster that has “Fire for Effect” or Cain 0 when he comes out will see you shred infantry even with high ARM.

Cyclone, this by far is my favorite. Using the “Snipe Attack Type” you can reach far, giving more opportunity to aim and allowing you to take the +2 to ranged attack damage “Jack Marshal” benefit. Unlike the Hunter or Defender however, Cyclones can get 2 to 6 shots out that all get the +2. This setup is also very self sufficient in that you won’t need Arlan or Cain 0 to maximize it.

That’s it for the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages and their Officer and the jacks that they marshal. As usual if you guys have comments or questions just let me know down in the comments section and I will try to answer them to the best of my abilities. Thanks for reading…

One of the most commonly said things by veterans about Warmachine is that you can use the same list with a different caster and it will function differently. Well, this week I have a list that proves this point.

War Room Army

Cygnar - Surging Anger

Theme: No Theme Selected
74 / 75 Army

Major Beth Maddox - WJ: +30
- Squire - PC: 5
- Stormwall - PC: 39 (Battlegroup Points Used: 30)
- Lightning Pod
- Lancer - PC: 10

Archduke Alain Runewood, Lord of Fharin - PC: 4

Sword Knights - Leader & 9 Grunts: 13
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 5
Tempest Blazers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 18

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GENERATED : 05/15/2018 11:06:32
BUILD ID : 2066.18-05-11

Basically the list above is my Storm Surge list except I used Maddox instead of Stryker1 and swap out Carvolo for Runewood. The difference of what the list answers and asks however is huge. We’ll start with that the list answers, this list answers medium to high ARM. Maddox’s feat makes Sword Knights with “Flank” on a charge crazy good with a MAT 8 POW 13 4D6. Stormblade become POW 18, Even the Lancer can get some serious damage making his spear hit for POW 16. Infantry spams cans still be answered by the Tempest Blazers, Stormwall, the Stormblades and maybe by the Sword Knights. The Sword Knights are still your main tar pit units with Maddox’s upkeep of “Dauntless Resolve” that combines “Arcane Shield” and “Tough”. The lists still suffers from few magic attack sources and still has no direct answer for stealth, it also has a harder time with high DEF models more so than my Stryker1 list. This list’s attrition game is also weaker due to not having access to the +5 ARM from Stryker1’s feat and loss of Arcane Shield. Dauntless Resolve can only be applied to warrior models/units, leaving your Jacks vulnerable compared to Stryker1.

Reading the above you may start to wonder are the trade offs worth what you gain? Well, you see that’s exactly what the list asks your opponent. This list asks a simple but important question of your opponent, “Can you survive my alpha strike?”. This list can devastate your opponent’s army leaving him/her with little to mount a counter if you manage to get the alpha in on the bulk of your opponent’s army. The challenge is knowing when to go ham and when to wait since a common counter to alpha strike lists would be to bait the alpha strike out while holding enough back to counter attack.

Overall I’ve played this list just 5 times, I only won once and mainly because of my opponent using up his death clock. I’ve yet to master the timing of my “alpha strike”, as mostly I wait too long and loss too much of my army already. It’s a tricky list to play and although I already have a different list in mind for Maddox I intend to still play this list some more just so I can practice the correct timing of an “alpha strike”. I can see using this list on jack/beast heavy lists, provided I can master its timing.

Last week I wasn’t able to make a post discussing a list that I have, in fact I failed to make a post at all. There were two reasons for that, first is that my real life simply got in the way and second is that I did not have a list I was confident enough to talk about. This brought about an important concept when it comes to building a list for yourself which I missed or failed to understand when I first started playing Warmachine. The concept of “grinding games”, so I won’t be discussing a list again this week but I will next week. This week I would like to talk about the concept of “grinding games” with a list.

When I first started out playing Warmachine I had a Mk2 battlebox that had Stryker1, a Lancer, an Ironclad and a Charger. I then escalated rather quickly to buying a minimum unit of Long Gunners second hand. Then I bought a unit of ATGMs with the UA, then Defenders, then Hunters and so on and so forth. Escalation to increase your types of models is never bad provided that you have the proper finances to do so. However this is the point where I felt that the concept of “grinding games” would have aided me.

Having a decent array of models at my disposal to build different lists with and multiple casters to play around with as well, I found myself jumping from one list to another. One caster to another only playing one or two games with each list before moving on a new list. I found myself doing this because I was becoming frustrated with my lists not performing the way I wanted to. Being frustrated with a list for not performing well is not uncommon, however my approach to dealing with the frustration in hindsight was not optimal. The optimal way I think for one to address the frustration of lists not performing as expected is to keep playing a single list, even if it is not performing the way you expect. When you play games with the same list over and over even when you lose over and over you still learn things. This is what “grinding games” is all about, playing games not just to win but to learn why you lose.

How many games one should grind before one makes changes typically depends on the player, but what I personally do is play around 5 games with a list before I make changes to the list. The 5 games gives me enough experience with the models in the list as well as the caster to make informed decisions of what needs to be changed in the list, what are the inherent weakness to the lists and what are its strengths. I then make changes and play another 5 games without changing the list and repeat the process. I do this until I am satisfied with how the list performs.

Grinding games may not be for everyone. I just wanted to share my personal experience when I was starting out in the hopes that it can help other new players who may be having the same frustrations as I once did.