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!