To get the combat and hobby commendation patches...

[Skylifter]

...for War-Torn Alliances Season 3, you need to play with 5 different, fully painted casters during the season.

Right, so I only just started Warmachine and have decided to take part in my LGS' league. Now, since I would really like to get all the available patches, and since I think it may be fun painting four models I don't really need right now, I am simply going to do it.

However, since I just started, I own almost no troops to field with them, and since I will have to shell out the money for the four additional casters (I do own pSorsha, as you may have guessed), I won't be buying a lot more. Here's what I have got so far:

- Destroyer
- Juggernaut
- full unit of Man-O-War Shock Troopers
- Widowmaker Marksman
- Kell Bailoch
- Reinholdt

With pSorsha (+5 WJ), this comes up to exactly 25 points. I hope to get all of that painted before the league begins - 3 weeks to go, with only the Destroyer painted up to now, this alone will be a nice challenge.

So now I need to buy and paint 4 more casters. So my question to you is: which of our available casters would actually work with this troop selection? I don't need them to be perfect for this, as I know that is impossible. And considering I am only just learning how to win with pSorsha, I don't expect to win the champion medal with them. But I would like the casters to at least have a few useful synergies with this. I might spend a tiny amount of money on an additional unit or maybe one or two extra solos, but I'd actually prefer not to at the moment.

So what'd you say? Which casters would you add? Oh and btw, Karchev is out because he's expensive money-wise and will take too long to paint, so I might end up not getting the hobby patch, and that would spoil the whole point of this endeavour. I will probably buy him someday, though.

[volt_ron]

I recommend pButcher because pButcher. He really works with a wide range of units. eButcher might also be good.

Either of the Vlads, but pVlad is probably the much better bet as he'll suppport this whole army while eVlad loves a more infantry oriented approach. That is a very basic list with no a lot of synergies currently present so you really have your choice of picks. The Irusks are the only ones I'd probably stay away from as they are more geared towards infantry (especially their feats).

My order would be:
pButcher
pVlad
eButcher (he's kinda hard to play though)
?? Your choice depending on which direction you what to take the army in.

[Skylifter]

pButcher and eButcher were what I was thinking, too. Not sure about pVlad, because I think I'd always want to go with all of his buff spells and won't have enough focus left to actually boost anything or even buy attacks to make use of the buffs. eVlad looks better to me somehow.

I am in the process of having a good hard look at all the casters in my book, and at the moment, not having looked at all of them yet, I am leaning towards trying pOrsus, eOrsus (actually, those two are a given), eSorsha and eVlad in addition to my pSorsha. The only remaining candidates are Oleg Strakhov and Harkevich, though.

[ForestZ]

You'd be surprised how well pVlad will work with Signs and Portents. It's not quite as good as a free boost, but it works on all your Faction troops (So Kell won't get it, but he shouldn't need it). I don't remember the exact math on it but I think it's something almost like an equivalent +2 to all your rolls (and works on your shocktroopers and Widowmakers also). S&P + 3 focus to hand out isn't bad, trust me. And when the chips are down, switch to Blood of Kings and become a super solo. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Harkevich could be fun with that list, also, and he's a fun model to paint.

[Skylifter]

It is an extra die and drop the lowest. Rereading it with your comments in mind, I agree that he is really good and seems easy to use. The model is just so hideous, though. Still, my LGS has one hanging around, so I might just get him.