Captain Rahera List Overview

 

Captain Rahera

Rahera is the leader I loved the sound of as I looked at her toolkit. The problem was she was hard to find due to being a later MK3 model and very few games had been recorded on Longshanks. Heck, everyone I was talking about all were telling me "I have never played her" or "Just play Fiona. I rejected these and hunted the model down specifically and have determined to learn how to use her and perhaps prove she is worth the time.

Initial List

My list is a mixed forces list. My goal is to be a bridge between the infantry spam and battlegroup focused list to be a flexible all-comer's option. The core of the idea is that Rahera pushes the Toro jacks into high damage with gang fighter to inflict as much damage as I can on a charge to initial the fight. Then I need to weather the storm of retaliation before using my feat to then kill key pieces with the high output models and secure the victory through a combination of attrition and positioning. (my app doesn't have all the art so sorry about that). 

The timing of the things should be as follows: 

1. Determine if Rahera will give one focus to each of the toros or not (depends if the priority target for this sequence is highly durable or not)
2. Aiyana hits the biggest threat with her spell
3. An infantry unit or solo charges are runs in to engage a target, ideally an enemy solo or unit. 
4. Rahera then charges and kills 1-2 things to put up carnage and curse of shadows as needed, then uses sprint to get out of danger or position for next turn.
5. The Powder monkeys will give a focus to the Toro jacks
6. Toros will charge for free against the priority target
7. The following turn if still engaged with targets or after reengaging with your army, use her feat to secure your standing or remove any other problematic model.

The Toros become MAT7, converted POW24 (Gang Fighter + Aiyana spell + Curse of Shadows) and should theoretically destroy anything put in front of them. If Rahera cannot get into models to kill them, then you will need to hard cast carnage and Curse of Shadows.

Model Breakdown:

• Rahera: Rahera is a combat caster, not a dedicated beater like the butcher is, but not a dedicated spellcaster either. Her challenge is that she has several high value spells and not enough focus to cast them all. Looking at her card she does SO MUCH. 

She has high speed, high accuracy, cant be locked down, and with acrobatics, she can get to a lot of backline models then move out of range of threats easily. With high def and good armor, she is going to be hard to deal with for anything that isn't a heavy hitter. She increases damage potential of your jacks with her Field Marshal ability and I think this is really what unlocks this list. 

Her weapons are not amazing stat-wise, but her melee weapons both have Blood Boon, unlocking a high level of efficiency if she can get into melee with infantry. Note that if hawk is nearby, Ayiana hits with her ability, and Curse of shadows is active, and another warrior is engaging her targets, Rahera is sitting at the equivalent of POW19. If you maneuver well, this could be perfect to kill even heavy targets, but particularly sets her up for a decent assassination run.

Her spells give her a lot of flexibility and options. Some of her options might need to be hard cast, such as Hunters Mark or Carnage. Most of the time you want to try and trigger the blood boon, on infantry if you can so you are more likely to trigger it twice.

• Rough Seas: Probably active turn 1, maybe turn two depending on the situation. This allows her army to advance even under ranged attacks. Pirates actually have decent DEF at an average of 13 making this a really good way to protect your models. Be aware this does NOT protect against arcane attacks.
• Bleed: This is a highly situational spell as usually you want to be casting your support spells, even with blood boon. Don't forget it is there, but it is weaker than her Hand Cannon.
• Carnage: This brings a much needed accuracy buff to the faction's melee attacks. It makes your meager stats into decent and your good stats into amazing. Pair this with Payday from Rockbottom and a unit will have a hard time missing. This will also greatly help your jacks which I will cover later. carnage is one of the 3 options for using blood boon to cast. It is likely going to be your first choice.
• Curse of Shadows: Sharing this spell with Fiona made me think Rahera can provide the same support, but she is much riskier with no arc node or dark rituals. This is the next priority to cast from blood boon and is a much needed debuff to handle ARM20+ models. 
• Hunter's Mark: This spell gets your jacks closer. This particular list is not going to get as much use out of the free charge effect (although the free slam is a nice option) but the +2 speed is the real value. Our jacks are at best average in speed, so the extra speed is a great threat extender. Also, if your opponent is trying to stay out of the Toro's 15" threat with this as an option, they will keep out of engagement range themselves allowing you to push the objectives.

Rahera's feat is slightly at odds with the timing of her other abilities. Her spells are all about setup but her feat wants you to already be engaged or have quality shooting. This list is very much melee focused, so this is mostly used either for an assassination run or a turn after the initial engagement to help clean up. It tips a back and forth into your advantage and is the reason the list includes all the high value output models.

Cohort

• 2x Toros: The double toros are the heavy hitters of the list, bringing both durability and damage. The key is due to aggressive they help reduce the focus draw from Rahera. They are straight forward and effective. The resistances are merely a bonus.

Solos

With the solos, we of course include the standard suite of infantry support, but we also want as many output models as we can to maximize Rahera's feat turn. Just be warned these are key pieces that the enemy will be gunning for.

• Black Bella: Bella is straight forward in that she is a beater who wants to run next to your units to utilize sacrificial pawn, but be wary of sprays and blasts. On the charge she is POW14 (with Hawk) weapon master and will do some heavy damage. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Bloody Bradigan: Bradigan is also another heavy hitter but he gets a buff with other privateer models. At 8 hp he is a bit tougher than other solos, but he can still be shot. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
•  Bosun Grogspar: The Bosun is a critical piece in the infantry focused pirates. His ability to keep your infantry from being knocked down means that tough is always active. Hit attacks are very utilitarian, with critical devastation able to shove models off of objectives. Also, his ability to throw medium/small bases will catch many folks off guard and it is arguable the correct option every time other than during a charge. Keep him safe as long as you can, but do not forget his attacks.
  
  
  
  
  
• Dirty Meg: Meg is here to keep your two heavy jacks in service. Her attacks are never worth taking over her repair action, but with Rockbottom buffing her RAT, she might be useful to stall enemy jacks from time to time, just don't plan on that as a main tactic.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Doc Killingsworth: The other central piece to the super-tough tactic. Doc's main role is to make your widespread tough happen on 4+.  A 50/50 chance to not die is incredibly good especially when you cannot be knocked down via the Bosun. His heal can be useful but usually is only relevant on a solo who makes their tough roll. his attacks are secondary to everything else he does, but do not put him into a danger spot to try and use them.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Frist Mate Hawk: Hawk is the main way we buff out infantry damage to be respectable. She has good defenses against ranged attacks, but beware spell sniping. He attacks are quite dangerous, especially if she can get a hit onto the enemy caster to apply grievous wounds. At DEF15, most targets will struggle to hit her without buffs.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Lord Rockbottom: Rockbottom brings a selection of buff options to your infantry. Mainly you will be using Payday on the Mutineers to give them boosted attack rolls and make the berserker a unit killing menace. The Money Shot buff you will only use when nothing else needs Payday, but it makes the poor ranged damage of several models decent. It can also be used on Nostilla to make the spray pow 16. His Fire Breather is actually a decent attack but requires him to be in a dangerous range to use. Just don't forget about it.
  
  

• 2x Powder Monkeys: Forget these even have attacks. You always want these to be targeting the jacks (or Aberration) with their abilities. If you haven't engaged, add a focus. If you are already engaged, use Ancillary Attack. You wont always want to do it, but you can also run them into the enemy to reduce their MAT. The explosion threat can be enough to keep them from attacking it. This tactic is most useful when you need a warrior to trigger Gang Fighter. These models make your Toro's very efficient. One the charge they will have 2 focus each without Rahera needing to invest (although likely a good idea still).
  
  
  
  
  
  

Units

Most of the units are not meant for doing damage but rather utility and scoring. The exception is the mutineers but never forget they can all be comboed with the Toros to trigger Gang Fighter.

• Lady Aiyana and Master Holt: Aiyana is the important model out of these two. Her Kiss of Lyliss spell is one of the core damage buffs for the army. You usually wont use anything else unless you have noting in range, then you just get stealth. Holt is a good candidate for Money Shot, but otherwise is just a couple decent magical weapons. Where this unit has some extra utility is vs incorporeal models as the aiblity to just grant magic weapons will prove invaluable.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2x Press Gangers: The first of our generic units, these have better melee damage than the seadogs and have ambush. Their ability to replace themselves can come in useful. Keep their ambush in mind as even contesting for a single turn can help you push to scenario victory.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 2x Sea Dog Pirates: Worse melee at the trade of having an additional not-very-good ranged attack, these are purely to gum up objectives. Dont plan on them killing things, and remember they are objective pieces first.
  
  
  
  
  
• The Commodore Cannon & Crew: I covered this in the Bart list, but the main callout here is in addition to the utility it provided by covering multiple objective threats at once, you cannot make extra attacks with it via Rahera's feat. It is a downside but it is valuable enough to bring regardless.
  
  
  
  
  
• The Devil's Shadow Mutineers: The Mutineers are our premier unit killing option. With support from other pieces like Hawk and Rockbotom, they can take on even heavy infantry. Be careful against non-living enemies as they cannot use their Blood-Bound in those situations. Rockbottom turns them into terrifying blenders, particularly Mar with her berserk. Moneyshot is actually good on them as well due to Zira's 2x pistols.
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  

True Merc

I felt the true merc deserved its own slot as this list can use two options. If you go with Magnus and Invictus, you bring prime armor killing potential. I however believe Nostilla and Aberration are better due to what they bring. They do more than solve a problem, but they also provide good utility to the rest of the army and help fight over objectives.

• Nostilla and Aberration: Nostiall has a lot going on. First very hard to kill do to being able to throw ranged attacks onto nearby pirates. They bring plenty of support for Aberration, but their spells are really where their support for this list shines. The spray is already good, but can be buffed by Rockbottom and gets an additional shot under Rahera's feat. Dark seduction is always situationally amazing and can be arced through Aberration. Revive supports the pirates who already can be tough to put down under the super tough combo. Vision gives a single get-out-of-jail-free to any model from Rahera of any of your other output solos, making those assassination runs much more likely.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Aberration is an incredibly tough model who is actually who we want fighting over 50s. Durable and with a slew of useful attacks, this monstrosity both can provide support via its ranged attacks and be an output model. he also benefits from Rahera's Carnage spell making him a terrifying MAT8.
  
  
  
  

  In Summary

This list is wanting to rush forward and bring a mixed force to win objectives. It still will not kill everything on the table as the Pirates just don't focus on that tactic, but with the multiple supporting options I feel it can kill the key problems and push for victory. You will need to be aware of any models that prevent healing or remove models from play. This will be my other list for the June event and will likely be the main list for the Steamroller scenarios. I will dive into each scenario in the future, particularly as I play more, maybe modify the lists, and continue to push forward with the Talion Charter!

Captain Bartolo Montador List Overview

 

Broadside Bart

"I love my women like I love my cannons: large, loud, and full of fire!" - Broadside Bart

Captain Bartolo "Broadside Bart" is the first of several leaders I wanted to explore for the Talion Charter.

Initial List

My list focuses heavily on the Broadside spell, combo-ing with the powder monkeys for up to 3 shots per model (not including Galleon). I would have used 3x mules, but I only own one and I also love the model for the mariner. The idea is that the list present a ton of long range pressure clearing off objectives and forcing opponents to try and engage. The turn I expect them to do so, you use Barts feat Typhoon to make it a problem for them. after 2-3 turns of shooting the list can then engage in melee to clean up. The list uses far fewer units due to the jack focus meaning you are playing a bit differently from the standard Talion Charter tactic of infantry spam. But hey, if 3/4 of the leaders do infantry, why shouldn't I try the leader who loves his cannons?

Model Breakdown:

• Bart: Starting with the leader, Bart brings a few key things to the table.
  Bart has respectable stats but only arc 3 which is a large limiter for him. His initial abilities make him look like he wants to be in combat along with his jacks, but this is just one playstyle which we are not leaning into heavily.
  
  He has some respectable weapons, but they are secondary to his spell list. 
• Batten Down the Hatches: Makes your jacks easier to hit (spoiler they already are easy to hit) and makes their armor much better. This spell is really to use the turn you plan on engaging the enemy so you can outlast whatever survived your bombardments.
• Broadsides: Speaking of, this spell is what turns a few blast focused jacks into an army firing squad. Running multiple jacks to get max benefit is how we will earn the nickname of "broadside"
• Deadweight: A control spell that will rarely be used unless an opportunity arises, but don't  underestimate it. if they have infantry near a jack, you can kill the infantry then affect the jack then slam the jack away either with the commadore or a slam power attack. 
  
• Hot-Shot: Your other main spell for this build. The flow will be turn one cast is on the mule or mariner before they run up the board. Second turn you activate that jack and fire, use the powder monkey on that jack, activate Bart then broadside then cast this spell on another jack, then repeat the jack+monkey activation. Lots of boosted blasts since the spell affects all the damage rolls from the attack.
• Powderkeg, another control spell although meant to target a big model. Harder to get to go off as it required s a critical for its effect, but you can technically boost is for 4 dice on the attack, but then you have no focus for Batten Down or really anything else. 

Bart's feat, Typhoon, is dependent on enemies advancing into it, so you need to position where if they try to engage your models or contest the central objectives, they will be knocked down and as your mercy. The -2 to hit is nice, but I have generally found it to be mostly irrelevant especially as batten down give you -2 DEF.

 Cohort

• Galleon: The Galleon is this list's Colossal. 58 boxes but no structure, it isn't the most defensive at base stats. Bart helps this, but the point is to bombard the enemy to the point where they do not have enough to deal with it come time to engage.
  
  
  
  Good abilities, Bulldoze helps to bully things off of objectives and crane helps with repositioning and moving things like the commodore further up the board to be in range
  
  
  
  The guns are where this shines. Melee is fine with a nice POW21 attack, but really you want the 2x D3 attacks to obliterate any non-heavily armored infantry. This is also a real threat to the enemy caster should they get into range. Hot-shot can make these do a terrifying amount of damage to something, even heavily armored if you are willing to focus them all. And after the bombardment, you can harpoon the target and bring it in to finish it off. Add in McNaile's mini-feat and you have a nasty threat at 12".
• Mule: The mule is a great and affordable range attacker.
  
  
  
  
  Respectable heath and armor, Tried and true is nice but not the main thing you care about, although does guarantee Meg will always heal as least 2 boxes.
  
  
  
  Steam Lobber is the real gem. Arcing fire is nice to allow you other jacks to be better positioned OR you can use it to bombard backline support models or their warcaster. Steam pressure is great, but you only get the benefits during its turn, not during Bart's spell or the Ancillary Attack from the monkeys. Where you really like this model is its Crit Devastation. The ability to spam a shot that can force people off of objectives and bypass blast resistance is fantastic. It alone would make me run 3 if I had more (will work on acquiring them). Add Barts Hot-Shot and boosted pow15/8 is looking really good. 
• Mariner: The Mariner is carrying around a ship's cannon... 'nuff said... Ok but seriously it has a range 15, POW14/8 attack. That is pretty darn good. Add in that it has lash to help any infantry, and its great, although admittedly less useful in this list. 
  
  
  The key difference between this jack and other is its Thresher. If there are any infantry left, this can really mess them up when you go to engage them.
  
  Overall, the focus on these jacks allows a ranged bombardment strategy, particularly if we get to be on the defense side.

Solos

Our solos are some key support pieces.

• Dirty Meg: It is always valuable to have a repair action in a jack focused list. Meg is around just for that, but her Stall attack might be useful, but she sits at rat 4 so not likely. Just keep her behind the colossal to provide the repair.
  
  
  
  
• Master Gunner Dougal McNaile: This guy is to remove stealth on a key target and to buff a jack.
  
  
  The actions are where this guy shines. Being able to ensure you can obliterate a stealth target comes up rather often. However, the main action you use is Artillerist, making any of your jacks rat 7 before aiming.
  
  
  
  His weapons aren't anything to sing about, but not bad either. If your jacks are all engaged then he might want to tall a grenade into infantry or shoot something with his Quad-Iron.
• Powder Monkey: These are your key support pieces in this strategy. Run them behind the jacks to push them to fire fire fire! Once the jacks are engaged, you can judge whether or not the focus or an attack is more needed in the moment.
  
  
  
  
  Be careful as their explosion can cause just as many problems for you as it can for your opponent...
• Swamp Gobber River Raider: These are a mix between point filler and contester. Being 1-cost solos, they can still hold flags and ambush to contest. They help you still push the scenario and even can help with their melee debuff. If all they do is sit on a flag all game, they are worth it, but don't forget their other untility!
  
  

Units

We are only running a couple units for very specific reasons. Firstly we obviously are focusing on the jacks, but then each has their own purpose.

• Lady Aiyana and Master Holt: These two are more about Aiyana than Holt. She provides eyeless site plus magic weapons and an ever crucial damage buff spell targeting enemies.
  
  
  
  Holt just has some decent attacks, but keep this unit safe for Ayaina's sake.
• The Commodore Cannon and Crew: A cannon... and what a cannon. This thing has massive range that is a decently powerful attack along with built in slam! use this to knock down targets before you trop your other attacks into them or prior to a charge. The Incendiary Shot is another good option when you don't need the slam. Put it somewhere reasonably safe. It can't shoot when it moves so turn one use the crane on the Galleon to move one of its grunt up just a bit more to maximize their positioning turn one.
  
  
  
  
• Sea Dog Pirates:  This slot could be a couple different units and it may change in the future. I wanted a unit that could hold objectives for me and have a chance of living if anything got to them, or they could themselves rush into the fray. I am unsure if I will take them out in favor of something else, but right now I will see how they do for me. 
  
  
  
  They have awful stats and no infantry buffs in this list. That is why I am considering swapping them for a unit of gunners and a deck gun, perhaps even two deck guns and another Gobber! We will see if they prove to fill the role needed. Another option is to include the Devil's Shadow Mutineers, but again they have no support so are middling at best. 

In Summary

This list is looking to be fun but has a few key weaknesses. We will see how it fares and I will update it after I get some more games in with it. I have a June event and want to get some practice before hand. 

 

Talion Charter: The start of my voyage

Upon my return to Warmachine, I jumped into a new MK4 (4th edition) army. However, very quickly I had the desire to find and play armies I never had a chance back when I first played Warmachine over 12 years ago (guh, I am getting old). The one that I went out of my way to find and purchase the out-of-print models was the OG Pirates, the Talion Charter Mercenary Faction.

These are going to be both a hobby project and a fun way to jump into the game with! With this, I decided let's start a series of tacticas and strategy articles from the perspective of someone who is both relearning the game and learning the army! Just be aware I have done a LOT of talking with current Talion Charter players and have poured over everything. At this point, I am just lacking excessive experience but will be updating things as I play and learn! These will still be my own opinion and/or perspective!

A Swabbie's First Look

So, first thing to do is look at the army's overall status and characteristics.

Talion Charter (TC) is an "Army of Legend," meaning its models are out of print and the faction only gets rules updates once a year during the January update. The good news is there is a "Prime" list for the army, so it is still currently legal! I was fortunate enough to acquire all the models, so I get to play with them all!

TC overall is characterized by a few downsides, namely being low quality infantry with poor stats access to the mercenary warjacks who are also understated. This is balanced out by the faction having very cheap infantry and the jacks being cheaper and efficient for their cost. They utilize these core features by having multiple stacking infantry buffs and focusing heavily on outscoring through objective play, leveraging their numbers and many different slam or other control effects. 

The main struggles the army has is vs spammed high armor, anti-tough abilities, and multiple area of effect attacks. The infantry having lower POW means that the debuffs need to focus on the few most problematic enemy models/units. This means any army such as Winter Corps that can spam high armor multi-wound models will present challenges.  Our infantry also relies heavily on their 'super tough' status so anything that just ignores or prevents tough (grievous wounds or remove from play effects) completely negate the main way our army prevents enemy scoring. Lastly, with our heavy reliance on mass infantry, armies able to apply a lot of area of effect attacks can do a lot more damage if the right support isn't brought. 

The main strengths are that we have a LOT of cheap infantry than can cover not only objectives to score, but cheap ambushers who can run lots of interference and prevent enemy scoring. I addition, our ranged options have a plethora of blast damage and spray attacks making dealing with infantry rather easy. We also have a lot of knockdown and slam synergy that helps push enemies off of objectives. Add in that all of infantry has tough and we can indeed be hard to move off of the objectives.

Initial Leader Breakdown

I will go over each list option as I build and share them, but we will start with a general overview of the leaders. For leaders we have four options, each with their own spin on things.

• Captain Bartolo Montador: Broadside Bart is the leader who loves his warjacks. His spells list supports his cohort and brings some control options. He either wants to focus on being a melee cohort or a ranged cohort. his feat powerful but defensive in nature so planning battlefield engagements with him is important! This is one of my starting two leaders I have picked for my competitive lists so I will be going over him and my choices soon!
• Captain Phinneus Shae: The first of the leaders and the captain who started the Talion Charter, Shae focuses on mobility and controlling the objectives with mass infantry. He has incredibly high def to protect himself and brings a lot of support to get his crew where he wants them from a speed buff spell to his feat. Currently he is held as the best competitive option due to his focus on what makes the faction unique, spammed pirates!
• Fiona the Black: Our first really spell heavy warcaster, Fiona uses her infantry as arc nodes using Dark Rituals to cast her spells while staying safe. She also wants to focus on infantry but brings a few good control spells and the critical Curse of Shadows to help chew through high armor. She might be one of the best options to flex into assassination because of her spell list and her magical blessed weapon with grievous wounds. He feat is an incredibly powerful defensive debuff that can carry her games.
• Captain Rahera, Terror of the Wailing Sea: Rahera is a caster who also can lead Cryx armies and brings a bit of their style with her. She is highly mobile and when looking at her card she does a lot. She likes to make her jacks better at fighting with your infantry and improves your MAT and has an armor debuff and... she does a lot.. the challenge is she cannot do it effectively without killing enemies to trigger free spells. She has a great defensive spell in Rough Seas, so she wants to get into melee quickly. She also has the least number of games as she is a hard to find model so fewer people know what to do with her. She is my second list choice, and I look forward to figuring out her different tricks!

Time to Set Sail!

I will be sharing my lists over the next couple articles and breaking down each model choice within. I will also do an additional article looking at all non-choices separately in detail. I will bring battle reports and updates on how the army develops both on the paint table and on the war table! It's the pirate's life for me!