Fiona the Black, looking for advice

[i_like_tool]

I am running late for work but I have to ask, for a good friend of mine, what makes a good Fiona the Black army?
We play in a rather competitive area and that is the caster he is set on learning the game with. He understands that she may not be the easiest caster to start with but he has his heart set on Fiona

Even just glancing at her I can tell she wants solid Infantry, Merc has an abudance of that, and seems to be able to have ample focus for Jacks. So my next question is....what Jacks work well with her? He wants a balanced force and is shooting for 2-4 Jacks but not sure which way to go.

I can only offer him so much advice before I have to turn it over to all of you. My Merc experience stops after Seaforge and Magnus for the most part so any advice is much appreciated. Thanks

[Mosstooth]

You'll want to grab a mariner for sure. Maybe two if you're running the new gun mage marshal combo. After that it'll depend on the rest of the list. Vangaurd is always nice to protect fiona, mangler is solid, nomad is a cheaper solid jack.

[Leto2]

IMO, you dont want more than 2 jacks controlled by Fiona. She needs her focus to cast spells. If your friend wants more than 2 jacks in his list he can use jack marshalls.

Unitwise the Longunners and the Nyss hunters are excellents with Fiona because they benefeit greatly from Nonokrion brand.

You also need to consider a solution to crack high armor because Fiona is not very good against that.

[mikethefish]

Unitwise the Longunners and the Nyss hunters are excellents with Fiona because they benefeit greatly from Nonokrion brand.

You also need to consider a solution to crack high armor because Fiona is not very good against that.

If the new player takes your Longunner suggestion then she handles heavy armor just fine. She simply casts Affliction on the target. Now those Longunners who are double-tapping can hit a heavy jack for 22 pts of damage one point at a time (assuming nobody misses - so probably more like 19-20 against your typical heavy).

Dwarven High Shields are a good unit to protect Longunners, since they have Ranked Attack. You COULD use Precursers for the same job, but of course they don't like Fiona too much ;)

[Leto2]

Close combat, Stealth, Clouds are common things that can negate shooting to the longgunners. This is why, I suggest to have a least one solid alternative like the nomad or the Forgeguards. I personnaly like the nyss because they are decent in hth.

I really like the idea of affliction + longunners shooting but I have no experience with that specific combo. It makes me think that a bucanneer can be very good to set-up this. A KD target is a lot easier to hit when you are rat 5.

[i_like_tool]

She seems to be able to have 8 to 9 Focus nearly every turn, how much does she really need for her own spells? She has a few good ones I glanced over but it seemed to me, at a glance only, that she could indeed run 2 Jacks just fine and possibly a 3rd light. Jack Marshaling is of course an option

Bucanner. He has to have one of these as because he loves them oh so much

[TheDarkSideOfValor]

She seems to be able to have 8 to 9 Focus nearly every turn, how much does she really need for her own spells? She has a few good ones I glanced over but it seemed to me, at a glance only, that she could indeed run 2 Jacks just fine and possibly a 3rd light. Jack Marshaling is of course an option

Bucanner. He has to have one of these as because he loves them oh so much

what are u talking about? unless something's changed she's FOC 7 unless she's within one inch of her Cultists, then she's FOC 8.

as for the 'jacks, i NEVER run her with more than 2. a Vanguard and either a Mule or a Mangler. the more infantry she has the better. in MKi i used to run her in an all infantry army and i had more than my fair share of wins with that army. in MKii there isn't any reason to go 'jack-less anymore, but i still find that the more infantry she's got the easier it is to swarm the enemy and use his infantry against itself with (i don't remember wut it's called in MKii, but anyway) Discord. not to mention she could cast soul fire, kill something, get a focus back, cast discord... repeat. or swarm, gain risen (thank you Alexia) your stuff gets killed, more risen (thank you again Alexia <3) then you simply assassinate the enemy caster with either, Alexia, Hawk, or Fiona herself... genocide suicide fits her character pretty well i think :D

[Leto2]

The arc node costs 1 to upkeep.
Nonokrion brand costs 1 to upkeep but it often happens that you need to cast it on another target during the same turn: Cost 1-3
I rarely cast Roth's mercy more than once par game so most of the time its 1 for the upkeep max.

In general, you have at least 2 upkeeps to pay per turn.

After that you normally want to cast at least one of those spells:
Influence: 1 (when the chance to use this spell presents itself there is big chances that you would want to cast it many times)
Affliction: 3-4 (or 1 upkeep)
Soulfire: 2-4

This is why I rarely run more than 2 jacks with Fiona. When I have 2 jacks, I mainly field the Mariner (2 focus) and the Vanguard (for shield guard and most of the time it receives no focus). It is probably optimal to run only 1 jack with her but this is also a matter of playstyle.

[krom71]

Fiona needs a Mariner for shooty goodness. The Master Gunner helps for loading the Mariner's gun and bumping up its hits.

I've taken to running her under Highborn with either Longgunners or ATGM, a Mariner, Master Gunner and then filling out with hard to kill troops (Boomhowler and/or Pressgangers with Doc.)

The front line troops kill stuff and keep the shooters safe so she can cycle Nono Brand back and forth. She also benefits from hard to kill solos like Hawk, Gudrun and Eiryss to become arcnodes for some offensive magic.

[i_like_tool]

what are u talking about? unless something's changed she's FOC 7 unless she's within one inch of her Cultists, then she's FOC 8.


Focus 7, 8 while within 1" of a Cultist and I completely misread the ability Soulfire. I only glanced over her and see my glaring mistake.

Thanks for some suggested models. Most of the suggestions are fantastic as they are models that he finds visually appealing. Namely Mariner and the Pressgangers with Doc

So with that basic list I'm sitting at 15pts and need to expand it to 25pt/35pts so we can proxy/use what we got before he commits

Fiona
-Mariner
-Buccaneer
Press Gangers(Full)
Doc Killingsworth
Master Gunner
15pts

[mladjanobugarce]

Kayazy assasins are top unit for her because underboss almost always manages to charge enemy caster.

[DevonV]

Kayazy assasins are top unit for her because underboss almost always manages to charge enemy caster.

The Kayazy are certainly good with her, but I don't see them as a guaranteed threat to the opposing 'caster anymore. They lost Ventilate, so the Underboss alone goes in at MAT 8 for two POW 10s. He's MAT 10 POW 12 if at least one assassin gets in with him. I find that a 'caster camping Focus can weather the storm because they cannot boost their POW 12s outside of the charge attack.

Light ARM 'casters and any 'caster foolish enough to get caught in the open where four assassins can get on them will be in trouble.

If you opponent is playing cautious, or brought Karchev, it's better to send the assassins against elite infantry.


The strategy with Kayazy involves the Underboss UA granting them Tactics: Duelist, and Fiona using her feat to take an attack die away from your opponent on a crucial turn. Run them into a melee with an opposing unit. The only models that can hit them at all on her feat turn are 'jacks and MAT 10 models, of which there are few. (and even then they only have a 16.6% chance) If your opponent wants to use spells and AoE weapons, they will be killing their own troops as well. Next turn you use the Underboss's minifeat Kill Stroke and charge whatever high-value targets you can in the backfield. It works a bit like the Holy Zealots' Greater Destiny.

[mikethefish]

Thanks for some suggested models. Most of the suggestions are fantastic as they are models that he finds visually appealing. Namely Mariner and the Pressgangers with Doc


Just as another idea, many people enjoy taking 2 Mariners with her, and here's why...

I can never remember the names of her spells (Glyph this, Sigil that, blah blah... lol), but the upkeep that lets you draw LOS through models.

1) You have that spell already upkept on Mariner 1. It fires at something hidden behind a screen of guys.

2) Activate Fiona, who leapfrogs the upkeep onto Mariner 2. Of course the spell goes away on Mariner 1.

3) Mariner 2 now fires, ignoring models for LOS

4) Next turn start the whole process over with, but just start with Mariner 2 this time.

I use this to target enemy Warcasters, though you probably won't kill them with two Pow 14's, but still, it does hurt with boosting. Mainly though I use it to kill support units like the JWC, Arcanist, and half the Menoth army lol. Mariners are actually fairly focus-efficient, so this works out pretty well.

[Ger]

One thing that keeps flubbing me up is going after the assassination and overextending myself. So there's a round where with Nonokrion Brand I try to take out the head and leave the rest of the army more or less in tact. Feat to survive, everything gets engaged. I can't carve my way out because I have not killed enough of my enemies stuff, and he kills half my army on his next turn.

Not every enemy is prime for an assassination attempt. Sometimes it's better to inflict heavy damage on turn 2 and go for the throat turn 3/4

[Weaselcreature]

My wife runs Pirates with Fiona. True, we haven't played any MkII games yet since the Field Test, but the changes they made on the "Final Release" pdf cards are promising. She tends to run with a Vanguard for protection, a Mariner or 2 with McNaile loading them, a Buccaneer, a Freebooter marshalled by Meg, and then pirate troops and solos.

[moddball]

I have Fiona I tend to run her with 3 Jacks..
One Mule, One Nomad, and a Vangaurd.
I don't have any seadogs (i had a deck gun but gave it away). I use Greygore/Croe and Steelheads with her. I am planning to get her some longunners.

I play Mangus agenda/Teir like 95% of the time so I only brought Fiona to be a 2nd caster in 2 caster games. So when I use her its with the models from my Magnus force.