Shae's Achilles Heel

[baronvonchaos]

Been running A Pirates Life (complete with sea shanties) and I've been loving Shae and the brashness of the pirate playstyle, though I've won quite a few games, Gotten my Jam game on lately and been whoopin' up with it. However, I've lost a few to the same type of list. It's heavy warbeasts/warjacks that have great armor (anything over 18). The list I've lost to twice is the Vayl one, but I have a horrible time with Khador too.

p or eVayl with 3-4 beasts a shepherd or two and a unit (pick one).

The problems I have are not with units or the spawning vessel or anything like that, it's the serpentine beasts that can't be knocked down that have Refuge and charge up 10, kill a few things and overtake, then move back 7. Then the Ravagore/Carnivean/Scythean. They just have high armor. I blow 1 back with a slam ball, and still have 1-2 to deal with. My nomad gets pummeled and disabled because you can't "disable" a beast as easily (which is fine, no contention with that).

1) movement shenanigans are no problem for Shae. Between Coup de Main and his feat, I can get some serious distance off of the charge. And even a Freebooter will lay some serious hurt on an Angelius.
2) I have had sea dogs do an insane amount of damage on a charge to heavy warjacks/warbeasts. Is this the answer (with Payday) for serpentine beasts?
3) Do we have anything else that will help with taking down heavies? I have the same problem with Khador, and I don't know how to confidently overcome a kharchev list.

Here's my 25pt list.
Shae
-Nomad
-Nomad (or Freebooter).
Bosun
Doc
Hawk
Rockbottom
Aiyanna & Holt
Commodore
Sea Dogs (Min)
-Mr Walls

Oddly enough for my list, I wanted to drop a Nomad for a full unit of sea dogs and 3 riflemen or a full unit of Press Gangers. Not sure which I wanted to use though. I thought I could use more troops in the list.

Thoughts, comments, questions?

[canadianone]

ummmm, where are the pressgangers? Honestly with shae, and all the toughness buffs you get, i would drop a heavy and throw in a max unit of press gangers, see how they like a wall of super tough infantry models that do a ****tonne of damage on the charge, and buff up the sea dogs. just my 2 cents.

[absent]

yeah at 25 you can only afford a single nomad sadly.

[baronvonchaos]

So better to drop a beatstick and add a swarm then? I would have 6 pts then. Do you think I shoud max out the Sea Dogs (3riflemen and a full unit), or add a full unit of PG's and leave the Sea Dogs as is?

Actually with access to Shanghai, I wonder if a min PG's and min sea dogs with Walls and 2 Riflemen would be best as you can (usually) shanghai and add to your current sea dogs. And then you get riflemen for range.

[canadianone]

definitely press gangers, other wise most of the bosuns and the doca abilities are wasted, and shae + solos love to support lots of infantry, and 10 for 6 points is always a good deal.

[SevenSins]

killing heavies is a problem for Shae, Nomads being the best solution to destroying them, holding them up with tough infantry seems like the best bet.

[PG_The Captain]

Or you could ignore the heavies and go for the caster. Rockbottom pays Sea dogs for boosted attacks, Hawk runs close enough to the enemy caster to tag the soon-to-be charging sea dogs within her CMD, plant a Veil of Mists to a tactical position if there are enemy models in the way, or slam them with cannon/jack. Flavor with the movement tricks Shae has as needed.

Even a couple of 4D6+10 hits and 2D6+12 hits should drop a warcaster.

[canadianone]

actually, the pistol still gets the extra die from hawk, because it is a melee attack, so it would be 4d6+10 and 3d6+12.

[Breadsmith]

Hawk only gives an extra die to Hand Weapon attacks, so The Captain would be correct

[canadianone]

O_O oops! thanks Breadsmith! i don't think this has ever made much of a difference for me because i rarely face high armor or multi wound infantry, but still, thanks!

[Son of Menoth]

General Advice for Shae VS Hordes:
1. Try to force them run their beasts hot on Fury so they can't transfer.
2. Use range to try to get them to prematurely use a transfer.
3. Feat
4. Coup de Main
5. Storm Rager on Hawk
6. Charge the Warlock.
7. ????
8. Profit

Come to think of it, that usually works for most War-Nouns.