Arlan Article for Review

[knight_actual]

I am taking this note in a slightly different direction than most of the notes that have come before. In this, I will discuss Arlan Strangeways, the arcane mechanic, from the top down approach focusing on his functions rather than the bottom up approach currently fashionable.

Overall, Arlan is a very good model that I tend to include in almost all of my lists (sometimes replacing the squire in lists such as eNemo when I can?t fit both). He supports warjacks extremely well and has decent firepower in his own right. However, he can do so many things that it often feels he does not get enough actions in one turn. His speed 5 is also a significant hindrance to his function. When playing Arlan, one must try to think 1 turn ahead to ensure that Arlan continues to be able to help his warjacks after this turn. Finally, his fine power armor often could not handle the attacks that comes his way because of his usefulness.

+1 focus

Power booster gives the army one extra focus to play around with. This focus is limited by some requirements. Arlan must start within 10 inches of the recipient. The recipient must have zero focus when receiving. This makes him less versatile in the role than say a squire who adds generally to the caster's pool. However, it also allows him to add to a marshaled war jack. The following are some notable synergies that rely on Arlan.

Stormclad marshalled. Marshalled SC that receives a power boost from arlan then starts near some storm blades will effectively mimic a full load of 3 focus.

eNemo's 9th focus. After pulling a focus from the squire, eNema can get his 9th focus by pulling a focus from a power boosted Jack using his focus matrix.

Un-Disrupting a Jack

Power booster also has the beneficial effect of undisrupting a warjack, which allows it to be allocated focus as well as arc spells. In the case of arc-nodes, this is perfect because usually arcnodes want to have 1 focus with which to run into position to arc spells.

Notably, this un disruption ability does not allow warjacks to go to its full 3 focus, but eNemo can load up warjacks during his activation. Therefore, eNemo can still allocate to the disrupted jack as long as Arlan power boosts it first.

Warjack disengagement

Evasive action allows a ranged warjack that really would prefer to stay out of melee to disentangle itself from melee to continue to shoot.

Enhanced trampling.

Similarly, Evasive action also allows a warjack to trample through a cluster of infantry without worrying about freestrikes. Against infantry without reach weapon, trampling usually generates little if any freestrikes at all. However against infantry with reach, or in cases where the jack cannot afford take any hits at all, evasive action will help the warjacks perform the trample safely. Notable examples follow.

Cygnaran warjacks are average speed, but with assistance, they can cover enough grounds to make trample worthwhile. eHaley and Kraye can propel their warjacks to higher speeds, which makes trampling a more frequent option with them. As such, Arlan has more room to help with these casters.

//theory machine// Along the same line as trampling, a firefly under the effects of evasive action can achieve better placement for triangulation purposes with evasive action.

Repair bot.

At *repair(10), Arlan will reliably put that hammer back on Ol?Rowdy. The troubles with depending on Arlan for repairs are two folds. First, general repairs are not high on Arlan?s list of things to do. He would rather be casting evasive action or power boosting. So he would only be doing repairs only if the game depended on Ol?Rowdy having that arm intact. Second, he is only speed 5. He must be within 5? of a warjack about to suffer damage at the beginning of the opponent?s turn. This presents a problem concerning advance planning and general durability.

Advance planning (movement).

Arlan is slow. The warjacks that he helps are sometimes very fast. Simply getting to within 5 of a recipient and casting evasive action or power booster often means that the warjack in question goes out of his benefit range next turn. When moving Arlan, one must think not only on what he is doing this turn, but also on the next and maneuver accordingly. Remember, where your army ends this turn, he should still be within 10? of several warjacks and is possible within 5? of the one you expect to take a lot of damage? without putting Arlan in too much jeopardy of course.

Durability.

Most of Arlan?s abilities are dependent on him being within 10? of the recipient warjack at the beginning of the turn, or within 5? of a warjack in need of repairs. This puts him in significant danger because warjacks are more of then than not at the forefront of the action. Being within 5? of that area puts Arlan at significant risk, so repairs are generally right out. Being within 10? is tolerable, but being one model with def12, arm16, and 5wounds make Arlan easy prey for many things. Hordes breath weapons kill him good; lone pistol wraiths generally have no trouble taking him out in one turn either. Incidental damage such as blast, or random pow 10s will mostly bounce, but that would be all I expect the arm16, 5wounds to handle. So generally I try to hide him behind terrain, or if I have a Sentinel on the table, keep them near each other to somewhat deter attacks against him.

Of note is his immunity to lightning damages. This makes him good for hanging out near a Thunderhead in support because the T.Head?s pulse is 360 degrees and electric. This almost makes him good as a chain lighting anchor to target things that are stealth or not targetable by magic (zealots, mage hunters). Both items being fluff and meta suitable in a pNemo list? making Arlan a natural fit for pNemo. (Arlan is also notably synergistic with pNemo for the fact that power booster and evasive action are spells, which generate a power token for pNemo)

Offense.

Arlan brings a lot in terms of offensive capabilities. Pow 12 reach weapon is no joke. Being only mat5 ofcourse makes it very hard to justify using Arlan to swing that wrench instead of repairing, or castings spells. A spray8 pow10 ranged attack is also very good. Especially since many things in cygnar that are liable to be engaged in the melee that Arlan is about to hose with lightning *are immune to lightning. Rat5 is a hinderance, but when you?re catching 3 or 4 guys in melee, Rat 5 is pretty good. (Bringing Rangers, or Haley or pStriker can help with this of course.) Be mindful when playing against Circle or other Cygnar players. Many items in those lists are immune to lightning as well. Arlan doesn?t get to use his gauntlet much because he is so useful with power booster, evasive action, or even repair.

Of special note regarding the gauntlet is its disruption capability. There is a huge synergy with knockdown effects such as Stryker's Earthquake spell, Ironclad's Quake hammer, or the Hammersmith's chain attack. A warjack, having sufficiently low def that Arlan can reliably hit, can be knocked down and will be unable to shake off the Knockdown effect due to disruption.

Inert warjack recovery.

With the ability to marshal a warjack, Arlan can recover warjacks that went inert after junior bites it. I would not recommend trying to stretch his marshal ability beyond this function. Cyngaran battlegroup abilities, marshals, and junior all contribute to make Arlan one of the lesser jack handlers at Cygnar?s disposal. Besides, Arlan is already such a high priority target that tethering a warjack to him simply makes him a bigger target and further hampering his ability to position himself for spells and repairs. I have never deliberately given him a jack and do not see it happening unless junior buys the farm.

Summa:

-Great jack support abilities.
-Slow speed requires thinking 1 turn ahead about his placement.
-Has decent defensive and offensive capability that should not be used due to his support abilities.

[Darkangeldentist]

Quite a nice write up covering his abilities and uses. Although not mentioning the anti-disruption effect of power-booster or that his spray attack causes disruption as well is missing out on some important information. The free movement from evasive if missed by a ranged attack is also worthy of note although I've yet to see it actually occur in a game.

[knight_actual]

Good point on the disruption stuff... Adding

[Wolfslord]

Nice article. My Arlan sadly seldom lasts the game, as he really need to be close behind the front line jacks. As for his spray, I really like to use it. In most of the games I used Arlan there were wonderful targets for it: Clustered infantry, easy to hit and disrupt Menoth jacks, targets in melee and cover,....

Just a question: Does a jack marshall give one focus for free or where do the 2 focus via Arlan come from ?

[knight_actual]

I was actually thinking in thestormclad example of 1 marshal buy/boost, 1 focus from Arlan's power boost, and 1 focus from storm blades.

Unless I'm mistaking your reference.

[MadJack]

One thing that I would add: unlike most Cygnar solos, Arlan is a good target for Arcane Shield. DEF 12 is not great, and it's not really worth putting Blur on him, but ARM 16 is high enough that buffing it with AS makes him fairly survivable. ARM 19 with 5 wounds means that your opponent will really have to make an effort to take him out. I usually prefer to put AS on targets that can already take a lot of pounding (Ol' Rowdy, Stormclad, etc), but depending on how much your battle plan relies on keeping him alive, putting it on Strangewayes instead can really be worth it.

[Wolfslord]

I was actually thinking in thestormclad example of 1 marshal buy/boost, 1 focus from Arlan's power boost, and 1 focus from storm blades.

I'm just not up to date, when it comes to the rules at the moment, so I was just suprised in a positive way, that mashalling gives one boost/buy.

[knight_actual]

...Arlan is a good target for Arcane Shield. ...

I agree with you here that Arm16 makes him worth putting arc shield on. However, I'm more likely to put the arc shield on the jack he's supporting more than he himself. Without the jack to support, having a live Arlan to me is less valuable.

[MadJack]

I agree with you here that Arm16 makes him worth putting arc shield on. However, I'm more likely to put the arc shield on the jack he's supporting more than he himself. Without the jack to support, having a live Arlan to me is less valuable.

Agreed. Which is why I said almost the exact same thing

[UGG]

I've been having Arlen Jack Marshall a Defender. Boosted hit and damage on the shot, and it keeps him alive further away from the front line.

[Rahlen]

I've been having Arlen Jack Marshall a Defender. Boosted hit and damage on the shot, and it keeps him alive further away from the front line.

For the life of me I have never thought of this.

[PG_Menset]

I played in a Tourney this past weekend and my one opponent had Arlan Jack marsheling a hunter. It worked very well, JM and powerboost gives it the 2 "focus" it needs . I have also started working around this and the 3 focus on the Stormclad trick

[MadJack]

I played in a Tourney this past weekend and my one opponent had Arlan Jack marsheling a hunter. It worked very well, JM and powerboost gives it the 2 "focus" it needs . I have also started working around this and the 3 focus on the Stormclad trick

The problem with this combo is that you have to keep the Hunter close to Arlan in order to benefit from Powerbooster, with the result that you lose out on one of the major advantages of the jack: it's mobility.

Also, if you're going to do the 3 focus Stormclad trick (well, 2 focus + 1 pseudo-focus), make sure you marshal the Stormclad to the Stormblades, not to Arlan himself. If you put the Stormclad on Arlan, then all the other guy has to do is take out a single solo, and the Stormclad loses the equivalent of 2 focus a turn and becomes autonomous until you reactivate it. It takes a lot more to kill 8 Stormblades, one of whom is a multi-wound officer, than to kill Arlan.

[knight_actual]

The thing about arlan that I dislike the most has got to be that he's the same cost as the min team of mechanics. I prettymuch always prefer the doughy arcane mechanic over the flimsy unit that losses function at the loss of it's irreplaceable officer.

[Sharp]

So if you prefer him, why do you dislike that about him? Shouldn't that be a dislike aimed towards the mechanics?

[Darkangeldentist]

I think the issue with Arlan compared to field mechanics is why they cost the same when they are so very different in terms of usefulness. Arlan is always useful whereas the mechanics only help if your jacks have been damaged but not wrecked. They aren't nearly as survivable either. It's a question of redundency and Arlan trumps the mechanics in just every way save the repair potential and model count.

I have fielded mechanics over Arlan before. They have a dedicated purpose to repair jacks so there's less thinking needed about what they need to do on a turn by turn basis. The gobbers are also completely expendable making them quite useful for sacrificial duties and delaying tactics for scenarios. (Being quite hard to hit is very useful here.) I've also used a gobber to give Ryan some reliability when trying to block line of sight. (Run the gobber up and shoot him in the back, good for blocking charge lanes and line of sight or upsetting stealthed models without bothering Lynch.)


For general purpose aid though Arlan is definitely first choice.

[MadJack]

In all honesty, I don't like using Arlan as a mechanik. The reason isn't that he's not good at it, it's because it seems like any turn in which I would like him to be repairing something, I have more need of power booster or evasive action. To me the fact that he has more options makes it way less likely that I'll ever use repair with him...

[Darkangeldentist]

The thing about repair crews (for any faction) is that they are generally only good for repairs, there are exceptions but most are only any good for fixing up damaged jacks. This brings up two issues, firstly just about all repair crews are weedy fragile guys who don't like to be up close to the fighting. Secondly, all too often properly planned jack fights tend to leave one side as scrap in a single turn, leaving nothing to repair.

So buying mechanics assumes that you'll suffer survivable damage and can get them into position to do their job. Even then they are unlikely to repair enough damage to make it survive another turn of attrition. Most of the time you've just bought an extra turn of functioning jack to through at the enemy. Which can be extremely useful but very glass hammer.

Arlan is just about the perfect mechanic since it's only one of his abilities and most of those are much more versatile. Thus the repair function is the plan B contingency it should be when writing your list.