Easiest Merc Caster to Start With?

[Stomphoof]

So since I am considering starting a Merc force, I want to build around a caster. I like most of the casters and am thus having a very hard time trying to figure out which to start with.

I was leaning towards the following:

Fiona the Black
pMagnus
Gorten
Broadside Bart
Shae
Ashlynn

No idea where to start though. Any suggestions? And with your suggestion, what would be a good "battle box" level force to go with he or she?

[Faultie]

My suggestions are always either Gorten or pMagnus.

Gorten because he's high ARM, has good power by himself, and requires less of the army to support him than many casters. In this regard, he's more forgiving than most other casters. You can run him as a super-solo, or you can hand him Drillers who can obliterize anything.

Magnus because he's the epitome of Merc casters. He's well rounded, has awesome tricks, free upkeeps, and doesn't require "finesse" or the caution that some of the others require. He's also a good mix of spell slinging, choppy-choppy, and 'jack handling. All this, plus he can snag an arc node.

Plus, both Magnus and Gorten have proprietary 'jacks that are great, which can't be gotten by other 'casters (except Durgen). This is actually where I might suggest Magnus over Gorten, as his 'jacks can be used by more than 1 other 'caster (with the exception of the Renegade). However, if you're fine with the limitations, then the Driller is an amazing face-wrecker (for 6pc!), the Basher is a havoc-wreaker, the Rockram, although better on Durgen, has a nasty cannon and a nice hammer (some will dispute this, but ignore them), and Gunners and Blasters are both cute and deadly.

[whitekong]

Go with Gorten, very high natural armor, solid melee attacks, a very nice shooting attack, and a much improved spell list make him one of the best merc casters. He works well with searforge, highborne and four *.

Gorten
driller
gunner
blaster
min highshields
min forgegaurd
15pts.
Good luck

[Stomphoof]

Well I am not a stranger to the game, I just happen to play Trollbloods.

I was leaning towards Magnus and Gorten as my starter casters... Just was not sure where to go. Thanks for the suggestions so far!

[Cannibalbob]

The nice thing about Magnus and Gorten is that each of them can also be used in a specialized contract in addition to a generic contract (although the same can be said of the pirates).

I would say that you cannot really go wrong with either Gorten or Magnus. Both are very strong casters.

[Ger]

If you are starting WM/H and possibly tabletop games in general. Avoid Fiona. She is a trick caster and is possibly not the best sort for a first caster. Magnus, and Gorten are probably the two best for previously mentioned reasons. Bart can be a solid first caster as well.

I'd probably advise people away from Shae as well. Great caster, but he runs in a very limited army list that doesn't play well with others. Ashlynn I can somewhat see, as her high def and abilities make her much harder to kill now. However, I suspect you'd be better with a high arm caster first.

The question order I'd advise a new merc player to ask themself is as follows
-Pick a battlegroup type (/choose intro warcaster). Rhulic or Non-Rhulic. Would you rather run Durgen/Gorten or the Human warcasters.
-Pick an overall contract you plan to run the most. Basically, pick your troops.
-Have an idea of where you plan to expand.

So for example. You want to start with Gorten. Okay, you need some Rhulic jacks. Do you want to make a Searforge army or possibly 4star or Highborne? So you want to go 4star. Okay, get troops/solos that work for 4 star.

Looking forward to how you plan to expand can help guide purchasing decisions. Say you want to go Gorten > Ashlynn > Bart for your merc warcasters in that order. A good way to start is a Gorten Highborne army, then get Ashlynn + a battlegroup containing a mule and mariner, and then you have a battlegroup Bart can take over and use effectivly when you get him last.


::EDIT::

For you, as your a veteran player. You can go with whomever you want out of that list. So it comes down to who do you want to play with?

[maxxev]

My vote is for Gorten again.

As an added bonus his jack points exactly cover the new Basher, who doesn't even need focus to slam things around, therefore having Gorten as a Super solo can REALLY work well.

Gorten has the highest armour of all the merc casters and (for a dwarf) fairly good defence. With a POW 16 hand cannon he's got the most powerful gun of all the mercs (note Durgen's is powerful for other reasons than direct damage and with his feat). His POW 14 hammer is not AT ALL shabby, and he has 2 attacks in combat (Though the other is fairly worthless against all but the weakest opponents).

His spell list is phenominal with an upkeep spell to make you immune to knock down and blast damage in his control area, a cloud effect / blast area POW 14 offensive spell (countered only by his need to boost it to hit and thus 4 focus cost), +4 strengh spell for his battlegroup, 6 points of auto damage on a jack (as long as you hit) (does he have another one I can't remember... lol).

Gorten can also become the target of his own +4 str upkeep spell! (strength of granite (or SoG)), with a POW 18 hammer and POW 13 "gutter" Gorten can rock most combats with 4 focus (after paying the upkeep for SoG).

His feat is exceptionally good both defensively and offensivly to either give you a further turn of shooting, or bring your opponents into charge range along with de-buffing some of thier stats for a turn.

As stated Gorten can only take rhulic jacks (but then the Driller is superb the basher is extremely useful and the gunners and blasters are great (note ignore the rockram (some people will tell you different))).

He can work for 4star and Highborn as well as Searforge so he's a multi-contract caster (just be carefull of your troop choices, not many can work for all three (only Thor, Rockbottom, Ogrun Bokur and the Hammerfall highshields off the top of my head).

This would allow you to take Gorten with a single basher and then take one or more of the Merc jack marshall for the rest of your jacks (Thor, Meg, Sam, Rutger, Hammerfall highshield unit) Thor is exceptional with the Pronto drive AND tune up, as well as being a mechanic, thematically being a dwarf works too. Meg is not so great really, Sam has the excellent pronto drive, plus a unit behind her who specialise in jack killing. Hammerfall have no drives so use them as a marshall only as a last resort. Rutger is new and no-one yet knows what he does....

Anyway. Having used Bart, Mags, Ash, Durgen and Gorten.

My vote would have been for Gorten or Mags in MK1. Now in MK2, it's hands down Gorten.

[Devilsquid]

I'm throwing in a vote for Magnus. He's a tough nugget, has a lot of good support spells, and good offensive spell, can do good damage in melee, and has access to all the non rhulic jacks.

Plus, he's Magnus.

[DaughterOfFrankenstein]

I can vote for either Gorten or Magnus. with either Warcaster, warjacks will beat the living crap out of people. With Magnus, those warjacks will most likely be the killing blow. With Gorten, while yes, a Driller will kill anything... Gorten can do a pretty good job on his own, and has more 'tricks' up his sleeve than Magnus.

[Devilsquid]

Gorten can do a pretty good job on his own, and has more 'tricks' up his sleeve than Magnus.

Ehhh, not sure I agree with that. Magnus is pretty damn tricksy. Gorten has always felt one dimensional with me. It's a great dimension, and he rocks at it, but you know what Gorten is going to be doing.

No so much with Magnus. His feat is more flexible, his spell list is more flexible, and he himself is more flexible. I'd almost say that pMagnus is our toolbox caster, leaning towards jacks.

[bashamer]

go for ARM over DEF when you start. it is way more forgiving.

[Galleon]

I have to sujest magnus. He was my first caster years ago and he been my favorite since I fielded him in prime. Hes an incredible tool box of awesome , even more so now that MK2 hit. Def 14 and arm 17 with 17 hit points and 6 focus is great. He has average mat and rat and 5 spd because on his fluff. His primary melee attack has powerful attack on it so its going to cost you just 1 focus to boost attack and damage . His second melee weapon is auto knockdown on it. He gained the ability to upkeep for free on himself and his battle group , which is great with his 4 badass upkeep spells. His other two spells are a large AoE and a single target that makes jacks stationary. He cant be targeted with range attacks or spells if hes ever knocked down so say goodbye to the old drop and pop. Hes the only merc with an arc node ( I dont count fiona ). His feat can take some getting use to but a free run and the end of turn with no free strikes is always good. If all else fails just remember , we still got the obliterator.

[Snarl]

I will throw my support around pMagnus as well. He's a tough nut and the free upkeeps allow you to concentrate on other things through simplifying your game.

And run him in 4 star to allow yourself some broad model choices.

My 2 coins.

[maxxev]

I think if you make a vote for a caster you should at least say what other caster's you have used.
No office guys but if you've never even tried Gorten you voting for Mags is just you picking your default setting :P.

[whitekong]

Well I have used Gorten, Mags, Bart and Ashlynn, I thought the op was a new player thats why I suggested Gorten. If he has played before Pmags offers alot of versitility and fun. He was asking for opinions and not a vote.

[Devilsquid]

The mercenary casters I have used are: Yes.

My main three are Bart, Magnus(s), and Fiona, with Gorten and Madhammer in my Searforge. I played with Shae when pirates came out, but found them too one-dimensional, so sold them off.

[Snarl]

I think if you make a vote for a caster you should at least say what other caster's you have used.
No office guys but if you've never even tried Gorten you voting for Mags is just you picking your default setting :P.
Fine. I'll reword just for you. :)

Having played pMags, eMags, Ashlynn, Gorten, Shae, and Fiona in different lists over the last 4-5 years, I recommend you start with prime Magnus.

[Stomphoof]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. So its a toss up between pMagnus and Gorten.

Choices choices.

[maxxev]

Hey I wasn't saying you haven't played the others I just meant to make a decision on a model if 20 people say use this guy but 10 of them haven't ever used the other guy then your getting a lop sided argument.

Good to see that most of you guys have used both :)

[mikethefish]

Actually I have to disagree with many of the sentiments here. My own personal vote for a starting caster would definitely be Broadsides Bart. The key there is "expansion".

Here's the deal. You CAN play him in a very simple and straightforward fashion. If all you want to do is spam his spell, Broadsides, you can do that - and it happens to kick butt. BUT later on, if you want to alter your tactics and explore some of his other abilities, that works just fine too. He can be played as simple or as complex as you desire, and he works equally effectively with both styles. And because of that, he's a great caster to learn with - it's like his abilities are flexible enough to work with the player's gaming skills.

Add to that the fact that he's a really solid and resilient caster with some neat abilities and spells. I know a bunch of people are singing Magnus' praises, but personally if you want to start with mercs and need some practice, go with Bart.

[Hjelmen0]

Although I'm late to the party, I'll go ahead and suggest Magnus. Mostly because he's easier to expand on than Gorten is. Limiting yourself to Rhulic 'jacks might not be the best idea if you want to expand on your merc forces ('jacks of course).

Also, Resourceful and all his upkeeps make Magnus a very good 'caster. Gorten tends to be slow and purposeful, which is both his greatest strength, and his greatest weakness.

[Bert_the_Turtle]

You know, it occured to me that the "easiest" Warcaster to start with would be the one you like the most. Whether its the model itself you like, or the rules you like, or some combination thereof. You're more likely to stick with it and perservere if you like what you're using instead of going with the reccomendation of a bunch of guys on a forum. No offense Guys on the Forum ^^.

It just occured to me someone should point that out.

[TheDarkSideOfValor]

I'd have to say go with pMagnus as a Merc starter, but my personal favorite is Ashlynn, just because of her feat. I started Mercs with Ashlynn and an all infantry army :) i, of course, included Alexia in the fray hehe.

looking back, i think Magnus would have been the better choice for me to start with just because he is a much more balanced caster, and has 'jacks that suit him.

[Stomphoof]

Actually I am starting to lean to the might of Broadside Bart. I just like his flavor and style.

Being able to buff my jacks in either Melee OR Ranged is a very nice ability.