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Post by tiberius on Mar 28, 2017 10:51:22 GMT
Hello Mercs, a friend of mine picked up Ashlynn (love the new sculpt) and wants to build a dedicated llealese theme that is also functional. What would you guys suggest and what are some good tactics with her?
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Tucker
Junior Strategist
Posts: 103 
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Post by Tucker on Mar 28, 2017 15:02:05 GMT
Your friend will definitely want Thorn Gun Mages, Major Gibbs, and a Vanguard or two for a Llaelese-themed army. Ragman, Gorman di Wulfe, Gaston Crosse, and Anastasia di Bray (in approximate descending order of usefulness) are also Llaelese models and work well with Ashlynn. In addition, you will want some heavier warjacks like Manglers or Nomads (Rocinante too, if you fancy him), and a unit of melee infantry. I like Kayazy the best with Ashlynn, but Steelheads and Forge Guard are also good, and Devil Dogs can be a cheeky way to knock down your own models to protect them with Gibbs' Feign Death rule. Ashlynn also likes all three of the warcaster attachments so get one of those based on your preferences.
A simple game plan for Ashlynn is take Kayazy and run them at the enemy with Quicken boosting their SPD, making it difficult for the enemy to get in the scenario zone. Then Ashlynn moves up with a Vanguard, Rocinante, and Corbeau protecting her to dominate for some easy CP. When the enemy counter attacks you bring up your Thorn Gun Mages and either kill the enemy or push them away with Thunderbolt shots.
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Post by tiberius on Mar 28, 2017 15:32:09 GMT
Thanks for the feedback Tucker. We were definitely looking at the thorn gun mages and the devil dogs. I own Gorman, corbeau and ragman that he can use. He has Gaston already. We had not really looked at forgeguard or kayazy. Will have to check those out.
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Xintas
Junior Strategist
Posts: 824
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Post by Xintas on Mar 28, 2017 16:51:59 GMT
Ashlynn is currently not in the best place, but I'm very partial to her (she was the first warcaster I really played). Quicken is amazing on the Forge Guard (not Llaelese) and she's fantastic with any of the Journeyman Warlocks (not Llaelese).
Unfortunately, she doesn't support Llaelese models all that well currently. Gibbs is really the "I'm playing Llaelese" piece right now, and hes great with basically any of those pieces. If your friend is really invested in playing Llaelese, they have 3 options.
1. Low competitiveness but tons of fun and flavor
2. "Re-flavor" your units with paint jobs and head canon to make them Llaelese
3. Wait until the Llaelese them book and then who knows?
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Post by tiberius on Mar 28, 2017 17:35:12 GMT
We really don't play competitive, no real tournaments or anything like that, more fun and flavor is our bag. I mean I loved the zombie pirates before they were good in theme.
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Xintas
Junior Strategist
Posts: 824
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Post by Xintas on Mar 28, 2017 20:12:36 GMT
Option 1 it is! Another note, Sgt. Nick is Llaelese and gives tough to warrior models in a little bubble. He's designed to work with Steelheads, but they are not technically Llaelese. Your head canon may vary.
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Post by koku0ryu on Mar 29, 2017 10:35:54 GMT
A mule under Gastonne is a great little thing with Ash: aiming with firegroup under the feat makes the mule range 14, boosting to hit means you get 5 attack dice to find a combination of 3 that hits and crits.
Also, unless you're going for pure flavor, I'd avoid the vanguards. Being llaelese does nothing for them, and they're too expensive for what they do. My personal Ash battlegroup is either 2 Manglers or a Mangler and 2 talons.
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Post by tiberius on Mar 29, 2017 11:59:30 GMT
Thanks for the advice, we were definitely looking at manglers. We were considering the vanguard for shield guard, though for the 11 point slot, the nomad looked solid, if vanilla. My friend seemed to like the Rover as well, the 10" gun and shield wasn't bad.
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Xintas
Junior Strategist
Posts: 824
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Post by Xintas on Mar 29, 2017 12:55:40 GMT
Purely IMO, but the Rover just doesn't deliver on all of it's promise. The POW is too weak across the board to make it a real threat, it doesn't take most Merc buffs particularly well, and it isn't insanely resilient...all for a good chunk of points. I'd rather take a Nomad and a 4 pt solo any day of the week.
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Post by tiberius on Mar 29, 2017 13:06:45 GMT
I guess you are paying a lot of points for a 10" POW 14 gun (that can be shot in melee), can you use the shield and gun both? Three initials isn't too bad, but you are right, that is pretty low pow for the cost.
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Xintas
Junior Strategist
Posts: 824
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Post by Xintas on Mar 29, 2017 13:11:21 GMT
You can get 3 initials, but at that low a pow, what are you fighting? A light warjack/beast? For 15 points, I want my heavies to do more than 1-2 round lights. Again, that's just my experience, but since it doesn't add a lot of flavor, takes up a good chunk of your points, and is relatively uninspiring, I wouldn't go out of your way to get one.
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Post by tiberius on Mar 29, 2017 13:23:07 GMT
I play Cryx, Trolls and Circle, so that is what he will be playing against primarily. So other than the trolls which can take it, the other stuff is like hitting lights.
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Tucker
Junior Strategist
Posts: 103
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Post by Tucker on Mar 29, 2017 14:14:24 GMT
Assuming you get into melee range for the Rover's weapons it does almost the same amount of damage as a Nomad, if both warjacks have three focus. -1 POW on the main weapon but +1 initial mean the Nomad only comes out ahead against targets with ARM 20+, and even then only by a maximum of 4 damage boxes. 4 boxes isn't nothing but it's hardly deal-breaking.
The Rover gives you Shield Guard and a gun. It's nice if you want a warjack as a reserve piece, as it can contribute while it hangs out in the back and the first wave of combat units gets to grips. If you don't need a reserve piece then it's not as good as a Nomad or Mangler.
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Post by insyderznf on Mar 29, 2017 16:50:41 GMT
No freebooter love? Thorn gun mages under feat for kd, freebooter not having to boost to hit gets 2 weaponmaster attacks and a headbutt
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Xintas
Junior Strategist
Posts: 824
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Post by Xintas on Mar 29, 2017 20:35:33 GMT
No freebooter love? Thorn gun mages under feat for kd, freebooter not having to boost to hit gets 2 weaponmaster attacks and a headbutt Oh I love the freebooter. It's just not super thematic for landlocked Llael (say that 5 times fast). I've slowly been moving towards bringing more of them in my lists and having great success. I even thought about bringing them under Gaston into a Rhulic list with Avalanchers. That's the new hotness for me lately; I'm just trying to stay on topic. As for the Rover, its definitely solid, but we're comparing an 11 point heavy to a 15 point heavy and saying that the benefits of the 15 are situational. That's generally my problem with Mercs; we overpay for flexibility worse than any other faction. Compare Trencher Infantry and High Shields if you need an example. |
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