Riding the Storm: A Pirate's Life Tactica

[PG_vytzka]

Riding the Storm - A Pirate’s Life Tactica

Face in the wind, we ride on the storm
We’ll stay our course, whatever will come
Wandering souls in the sea of the damned
Death or glory - ooh we are riding the storm!

Theme force of Captain Phinneus Shae, the unsurprisingly named Pirate’s Life, was probably the most welcomed surprise of Forces of Warmachine: Mercenaries. While there were a lot doubts and naysaying about Shae and pirates in general among the community before, few people would have asked for more than we got. This development did away with the biggest complaint - reliance on expensive rogues gallery of Privateer solos - in a true Gordian fashion, and added a galleon full of extras on top, blatantly rewarding you for taking stuff you would never dream of leaving home without. A Pirate’s Life is one of those very few truly great theme lists where everything just goes together, nothing is an inconvenience and, perhaps most importantly, a warcaster that needed just a little bit of help gets exactly enough of it to get back among the other stars of the show.

Getting started with pirates can be a daunting experience to many, including - or maybe especially to - landlubbing mercenary players. You can’t use your old favorites, you likely have to buy most of the army from scratch again, some of it only usable with Shae (but take it from me - that’s the part you’re least likely to ever be disappointed with. Guaranteed!) and the rest feeling at least a bit questionable in non-pirate forces, justifiably or not. However, past the initial hurdle lies an army with dynamic, fast paced playstyle, backed by one of the most capable warcasters in the game and riding on a theme that might just be the best recognizable of them all. It doesn’t get any more, well, piratical than the Pirate’s Life.

Since we’ll discuss army building choices later, let’s now focus on gameplay of a typical Pirate’s Life army. I’d like to group the traits exhibited by such a force into Flexibility, Concentration and Resilience. Now, they’re not truly universal, in that with effort it’s possible to avoid having one or more manifest in your army, but it actually does require willfully going against the grain while the reverse is purely natural - you’re more than halfway there just by going by bonuses and requirements of the theme force. Let us examine in greater detail what I mean by all of those fancy words.

Flexibility - and again this is about play-time, not list building - denotes the ability to switch your plans on the fly, depending on the situation at hand. A large part of Shae’s power, especially when it comes to infantry, rests on the fact that most of their bonuses and special rules are not written on the cards but instead supplied by solos and Aiyana&Holt. Rockbottom in particular serves a role much the same as the Factions’ own warcaster attachments, only with an option to blow his wad in a single crucial turn giving you a second, non-focus resource to manage. Not only you can rather seamlessly switch your support to a backup unit if the primary is taken out (but solos are intact), it makes it difficult for your opponent to plan for your next turn making them either overestimate the threat or get blindsided. Even after they have had some experience against the Pirate’s Life (because the first few games just aren’t fair) they have to constantly pay attention to your full synergy chain potential or get sucker punched into next Payday.

Furthermore, while people tend to think of Shae’s army as a melee force, it actually possesses a nice amount of firepower, albeit oriented to fewer, more powerful attacks than volume of weaker ones. Not only there’s the intimidating Commodore Cannon and the occasional Mariner, but Sea Dog Riflemen CRAs feel like real half-unit CRAs when backed by some pieces of eight, while Master Holt and Shae himself can pick off other key models with the handcannons. It is true that these ranged capabilities are means to an end rather than a full-on ranged game but they’re enough to make an even less ranged-capable enemy make an unenviable choice between standing and getting pounded or coming right into your trap.

Concentration means ability to exert the greatest amount of force on a required area, and/or a particular moment. Not only can the Commodore Cannon reach out and touch someone across the Kill Box, your Sea Dogs and First Mate Hawk are just really capable of going places, usually with a Reach jack or several waiting in the wings if you need to get someone behind walls or other, knocked down, models. Coup de Main in particular is just a phenomenally efficient support spell and it’s completely free if you have three jacks that want to charge (and you should). And when someone is getting dogpiled by your jacks (an important type of concentration by itself - you should always use the cheap mercenary heavies to outnumber more expensive Faction jacks) your infantry just buffs itself and reaps the speed benefits just the same. Three Sea Dog Crewmembers under Payday got to the enemy caster under Kiss of Lyliss while Hawk is hanging around nearby if not stabbing them herself? That is a perfect example of Concentration right there.

Resilience is slightly more obvious than the other two. Everyone knows about the 4+ no-KD Tough already, and it’s one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal that you should always take advantage of. When it comes to jacks, it’s even simpler. Coup de Main and the theme force itself rewards you for taking lots of jacks - so you should have lots of jacks! No matter if they take out one, the rest will just keep going at it, Meg should always be around to fix a system in a pinch and when you think about it, who needs a Cortex anyway, eh? Finally, make sure to use your speed and numbers to exploit defensive mismatches. Things that would eat your jacks may struggle with a load of Tough infantry, things that would shred infantry will grind to halt when they have to go through a Nomad or two and if you’re all out of options, throw some of Pressgangers or even a solo into the breach and pray.

However, nothing is as easy as it sounds and your ship can run aground if you meet some of the really bad matchups. Tough removal will seriously ruin your day while mass continuous effects will wreck havoc with your manpower - alas, Walk it Off expires before they are resolved. Large number of AoEs will simply wither down your infantry no matter the Tough rolls, while accurate, powerful long range shots can take out your key solos, especially Bosun who sticks out like a sore thumb, making the rest of the force much less intimidating. Finally, movement denial effects - worst of all upkeep spells like Crippling Grasp or Fear of God - can seriously neuter your close combat potential. Getting your main Sea Dog Crew resigned to CRA duty for the rest of the game is highly undesirable, so make sure to bring some backup.

[PG_vytzka]

Lonewolf: Captain Phinneus Shae

The law demands its order, he's bored with all their lies
He can't take it any longer, his anger will arise
He's a lonewolf
Furious and castaway
Yes, he's a lonewolf - and he's on the prowl again!

Let?s take a good look at our brave Captain first.

The front of the card doesn't look groundbreaking. Average SPD, MAT, RAT, STR and FOC, decent CMD - only deviations from the norm seem to be subpar ARM and DEF tied for highest in the game. Attacks don't seem to be anything out of the ordinary either - obligatory magical sword Squall and a hand cannon. But fear not, back of the card is where it gets interesting.

First off, we've got Amphibious. That is certainly novel, even if the usefulness varies widely. If you ever find yourself playing on a table with deep water terrain it can be your ace in the hole, but don't bank on it. As using deep water seems to be frowned upon nowadays, this is likely to stay just a flavor rule.

Groundwork is the first eyebrow raiser. Basically, Shae ignores the defense penalties (or lack thereof) for being knocked down and thus is a lot more likely to hold on to his DEF 17 than most other casters. Now, this is slightly less useful in a pirate army than elsewhere as knockdown protection is easily available, but a smart player will aim to and often times succeed in depriving you of it, while there's nothing they can do against Groundwork. There are of course other ways of reducing defense - watch out for Gorman! - but taking out trivially available slams out of equation is a huge step up in survivability, not to mention taking a lot of bite out of some casters' trademark assassination ploys.

Swashbuckler on it's own is like a cooler version of thresher on every attack but it gets really exciting in conjunction with Beatback on Squall. Make an attack against every model within melee range (even in back arc!), push any or all of them, move Shae an inch, rinse, repeat. This either lets you clear the way for other charging models or make spectacular assassination runs with Captain himself, especially including the feat. Just make sure to have enough juice left to do the job when he finally gets to the caster. Even when you're not in the mood for such risky plays, it still works as an attack multiplier if the enemy leaves multiwound infantry or lights (or Cryx heavies) close enough to each other.


Shae's spell selection is very unique - if I recall correctly, only Veil of Mists is shared with the Retribution, all the rest are exclusive to him. For this reason they tend to be on the powerful side without the danger of Factions getting their paws on any of this awesome mojo.

Blow the Man Down is his lone offensive spell, and on the expensive side but it packs a punch - not only is it very powerful, it has knockdown on hit and even slam on a critical. Still, it will eat majority of Shae's focus, since you usually want to boost hit and probably damage as well so it won't be cast often but when you need it it's there. RNG could be better but hey it's a 3 focus offensive spell with kickass extras. Just don't bank on the critical appearing, because (IIRC) 44% isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Coup de Main pretty much blows every other movement buff spell in the game out of the water. +2" charge to everyone in CTRL? Where do I sign up? And it's model/unit, which means that if anything is out of range for it you're just not trying. Oh and jacks charge for free? That's just crazy talk. When people talk about taking a mass of Nomads or Freebooters with Shae they're thinking of this spell, because consider this - if you're paying for charges for three of your jacks, the rest of the massive bonuses (including charges for the remaining of them) are completely free. Whether you think of it that way, or supercharging your infantry and have your jacks tag along as freebies, spells don't get more efficient than this and is one of the keys to those long threat ranges you keep hearing about. And Nomadness, which we will surely bring up at an appropriate point.

No one has a bigger gun than Shae (of which more anon) but people do have and bring more smaller guns and when things aren't looking good conjuring up a Phantasm to mess with their targeting could be right up your alley. It's not going to be useful against all opponents but when it is you only have one of it and thus need to consider the target carefully. The Commodore Cannon is a good choice if the enemy has long enough range to threaten it - otherwise, slapping it on the biggest gang of Sea Dogs you have often works, as the rest of infantry and solos can take some shelter behind them. Be aware that it doesn't protect from spells or sprays and AoEs can often target your larger based models further back so it's not foolproof. Finally, Bosun Grogspar is in a uniquely vulnerable position among all the Talion solos due to his medium base, and it can sometimes pay off to make him the target of this spell.

Storm Rager will make you give Shae's statline a second, more respectful look because this upkeep offers sizeable bonuses to both offensive and defensive capabilities. It can also be applied to other warrior models than Self, making Hawk a good target as she leaps over people to deliver some stabbings to the enemy caster but doing so pretty much forfeits the defensive half of the spell which is impressive indeed. To wit: you now have a warcaster that is not only DEF 17 and keeps it when knocked down, but cannot be targetted by combined attacks either! If that doesn't sound even the slightest bit unfair to you then you just have no conscience. Finally, it makes the Captain being set on fire - normally a highly undesirable circumstance for the Talion player - slightly less dramatic, as unlike overboosting focus the armor bonus from Storm Rager stays on when continuous effects are applied.

Finally, Veil of Mists is one of those swiss army knife/when all you have is a hammer type spells that can be used to solve assorted battlefield problems with varying results. First of all, it's obviously a cloud. A bit on the expensive side unless you're upkeeping it, but it's four inches and freely placeable which can be nice. It can be seen through by your own models which is even better. Finally, and this is the best part of them all, your own models can move right through other models and obstructions when in it, and gain Pathfinder while they're doing so to boot. A very important thing to note is that these rules apply to models within the template, not completely within, thus making the affected area quite substantially larger than the 4" circle you're plopping down.


Last but not least, GODSPEED, although etymologically suspect, completes the picture already distorted by speedlines with yet another broadly applicable burst of movement. While it is commonly used as a simple 3" push forward for most of the army before the charge, it can be harnessed for a lot of different purposes, from simply letting Shae charge a model the enemy caster is hiding behind and dart around it (and still get the charge attack against the original target with Swashbuckler), to teleporting your models through a house under Veil of Mists and letting them charge out of the blue, to repositioning your army and closing the ranks after that critical assault turn. Kicking your models out of the way of charges, bumping them over linear obstacles, nudging slow moving stuff like Rockbottom and Commodore Cannon forward or taking your in-combat models out to charge 3" back in again and receive charge bonus are all just gravy and I'm sure you can think of more.

[PG_vytzka]

Lions of the sea: Pirate solos

Lions of the sea
They ride the wind eternally
They fight to be free
Roaming the seven seas of fate

Let's begin with Lord Rockbottom, who gives far more than just an excuse for you to mulch on chocolate coins during the game - but never discount such simple and yet effective pleasures of life. In defiance to the romantic pirate ideals expressed by Running Wild, he uses hard cash to motivate your crew into performing far beyond the capabilities of ordinary sailors. Let's dwell upon our options:

• First of all, we've got Bought Loyalty. Along with First Mate Hawk, it ensures that your units will simply continue fighting no matter what against, but perhaps more importantly it ensures jack-marshal Drive check success. It's a reactive ability (thank God) so that's all there is to it. Use it if you need to.
• Money Shot (guys in the back, one more snicker and you're out!) is the key to the pirates' ranged game. It is the perfect way to add some kick to the anemic Deck Guns, make Riflemen CRA actually feel like one and especially juice up the Commodore Cannon - take or leave the rest but try to always have a spare coin for the latter. Worth noting is the fact that you get +2 to damage rolls, not weapon POW, so blast damage gets the full bonus. Collateral damage is sadly unaffected.
• Payday is a melee buff, and an even better one at that. Boosted attack rolls on infantry are pretty much crazy to begin with but in addition to that you get a pseudo-overtake. This is obviously more useful to Sea Dog Crews with two initial attacks than Press Gangers with one, but both can make good use of it.
• Finally, Walk it Off simply gives Tough to the unit, and in a pirate army being Tough can take you a long way. Pointless on anyone but Sea Dog Crews and some people scoff even at that, preferring to save their hard-stolen cash for offensive effects, correctly believing that you can always get more Sea Dogs, often in the same battle. Still, the effectiveness of this is hard to ignore and I find the option invaluable.

He also has a continuous fire causing spray gun and while you may not want to expose him to the full extend of battlefield hazards while he still has coins left, he will still have a use once they run out. As to the way you use your coins it is I think very dependent on army composition (namely, number and type of units) and personal preference. There is only one rule of thumb - a coin spent during the game is more useful than one still unmarked on the card when it's over. Not to mention that you get to eat more chocolate coins that way. But I digress.

Doc Killingsworth might make a good example for why you need medical licensing in a different day and age, but pirates are more interested in practical results, and this man delivers. He uses his disregard for the Hypocratic oath as a bludgeon to beat the models in your army back into shape, although it doesn't work on himself for self-evident reasons. Thus he can sometimes be one of the least-Tough models in your army with just the regular, boring, your dad's 5+ Tough and the fact that we actually need to specify that we're talking about 5+ Tough in this article is pretty rad by itself. Anyway, that makes him somewhat vulnerable even though he should have no great deal of trouble hiding behind other models. He boasts both melee and (poisoned!) ranged attacks, but they're limited by his mediocre accuracy. Doc also has a Surgery *Action and while Shae normally exists in one of two states - fine or dead - it doesn't cost anything and at least Doc will be hanging out far enough forward and easy to catch. Regrettably, he doesn't have a Bake Cupcakes *Action, due to a printing error.

Bosun Grogspar is another cog in the pirate synergy machine, although not a very small one... more like a medium cog I suppose. He's not a very nice person and enjoys tossing overboard the sea dogs he finds lazying around so according to the laws of natural selection the ones still aboard the Talion will never be knocked down while in his CMD range. The Bosun is even big enough to pick on Buccaneers, although the bigger warjacks don't fear him as much and thus are unaffected. Sadly, his size is also his biggest drawback as he can usually be seen over the smaller infantry models, so try to account for that - cast Phantasm on him, put a Vanguard nearby for Shield Guard (he's just a little too big for the Bosun to bully) or just stick some jacks in front of him as No Sleeping On The Job doesn't require line of sight. Really, that rule is enough for what you're paying (for) Grogspar but for the adventurous and the desperate he also has a decent dynamite gun AoE and a melee attack with the hook that lets him throw models around. Sadly he cannot throw heavies so make sure he picks on someone his own size.

If you want something more offensively minded (let's pretend for a second that you actually think a bit before taking all the 1 point solos), how about First Mate Hawk? Not only she kicks maximum *** in combat with two Weaponmaster cutlass attacks - especially once you add in Storm Rager, - she can get there at will with her speed, Acrobatics and Sucker for survivability, and if you think your Sea Dogs were left out for once, would you like something to the tune of Fearless and extra damage dice? The latter only apply to hand weapon attacks and only against warrior models but they're enough to make the Sea Dogs pretty decent multiwound unit busters in the game, in addition to being premier crazy-high-DEF unit busters, likely at the same time, which adds up to warcaster busters? This lady packs it all, although according to some rumors Captain Phinneus Shae doesn't like to share. And don't miss the fact that unlike most passive Sea Dog bonuses, Fearless affects units in her command range.

Okay, honest now, if you're actually thinking "hey is there something in there that doesn't give bonuses to Sea Dogs" (just as an intellectual exercise - I doubt anyone could wish for that) you may want to hear about Dirty Meg. Actually you want to hear about her anyway because she's the only jack marshal in the Talion Charter and a damn good one at that. Buccaneers are pretty much custom made for her with Off-Road allowing them to Assault and then boost the hit and she can even take a Nomad off Shae's hands every now and then. Now, granted, a free charge with pathfinder is slightly less of a big deal when you're packing Coup de Main but it's still good and it lets the marshalled jacks make slams instead which is pretty rare. She doubles as a source of Repair which can make all the difference during crunch time, and while her great wrench is mostly just for that, she has a very useful gun. Stall will either make enemy jacks easy pickings for your Nomads and Freebooters or prevent them from reaching you on their own turn, and you finally get to use those counters from the set! Those will also serve as a reminder that it's a continuous effect instead of expiring after one round as my mind always insists it does.


Finally, in a true scoundrellous fashion I'm including Lady Aiyana and Master Holt, who are neither pirates nor solos, in this chapter. Appropriately enough to their background, they fit in even less in any other section so you'll just have to deal with it. About the only thing that makes them different from solos with fancy rules is the fact that they don't get a two point discount in Pirate's Life, which is a scary thought indeed.

Lady Aiyana is our elf spellslinger lady and she's just as much if not more welcome here as in any Faction army. First off she can magic up your unit's attacks with Lurynsar's Touch, which normally means the Commodore Cannon - who's laughing now, Choir? Secondly the +2 damage from Kiss of Lyliss is awesome when your jacks hit at P+S 17 or worse, or when your caster hits at P+S 15 too when you think of it - and she will usually make it stick with her Magic Ability. Lastly, well, she usually has better things to do than cast Aiysla's Veil for Stealth but it's there, for instance if you're bored enough to have Holt clean up enemy shooters. While we're on the topic of Master Holt, he may be just a regular dude, albeit with a fashion sense and freaking GUNBLADES. But he's got two ranged attacks at impressive RAT and thus adds some welcome punch to the ranged game of a pirate army as well as giving some protection to Lady Aiyana. Everyone should also try to put Storm Rager on him at least once just to witness it.

[PG_vytzka]

Unation - Sea Dogs

Strong and proud, we'll survive the grief
Scream and shout of what we believe
Fists up high, freedom to defend
Dark to deny - unation stands!

I'm pretty sure that "unation" is not actually a word, but you don't get to sail the high seas and loot the vessels full of Cryxian drugs or whatever while checking your every step with the CCD (Corvis Cygnaran Dictionary). The spirit is what matters. Thankfully, our Sea Dogs here are a pretty spirited bunch and that's good too because they'll have to go against the baddest dudes of the regular armies of the continent (and Cryx) and come out on top. That sounded less dirty in my head...

Well, let's not waste any time, fellows. We know you're here for the Commodore Cannon & Crew. It's okay, everyone wants it - oh the Faction players might tell you they don't, but their voice trembles a bit when they say that and you can see they're crying inside. Indulge yourself! This perfected tool of devastation is now within your reach.

Seriously, I mean do I even have to tell people why this is awesome? Have you seen the cards? Okay, I'll try - first of all, let's get the obvious stuff out of the way. Yes, Gunnery is cumulative (people keep missing that for some reason) so you'll always be shooting at RAT 8 or more, and yes, Rockbottom's Coins work on the Commodore Cannon. If you throw the cannon with a jack then it can still fire normally because it doesn't get knocked down and it didn't move during its activation. In case you ever find yourself short on mens, just walk or run a Sea Dog Crew model (or however many you need to get back to full) within 3" of the cannon itself, they'll join the unit and you can activate the Cannon & Crew normally that turn if you haven't already done so. If you need to do this often, you may want to consider casting Phantasm on the unit. Also, when you use Fire special action (sadly only one unit member can do it) the grunt in question must also have LOS to the target but the cannon model doesn't block his LOS.

Oh and do whatever it takes to remember to use Gunnery before Fire - most of my activations go roughly like "so the Commodore Cannon & Crew activates, I'm using cannonball ammo and shooting at your Cru ...GUNNERY! GUNNERY! FIRE! ...yeah and I'm targeting that Crusader". But I know I could do better.

It has three modes of firing - the slamming cannonball, the 4" autofire AoE and the "now you're just making things up" spray (a common reaction). The cannonball is probably the most useful - it's best for slamming jacks into other jacks/walls/units, multiwound troopers into multiwound troopers if there are no jacks around, jacks through the caster if they're being too dumb to live and of course slamming things off objectives. Raw damage is really secondary to the havoc you inflict and it makes life very difficult for the opponent as they don't have a lot of preventive measures - hopefully you brought Lady Aiyana & Master Holt if it's Protectorate. The AoE is good for when you want to clear out troops or set fire to a warcaster that you couldn't otherwise reach this turn, but I feel it's kind of secondary to the cannonball. The spray is a risky proposition due to the short range, and it will work a lot better if you have the cannon thrown by a jack. Of course it will be devastating if you pull it off, but it's probably best to not let the enemy get into range at all and stick to cannonballs and the occasional incendiary shot.


No matter how many guns you have, or how big your ship is, or how hot your First Mate, you're not going anywhere on the high seas but down without a good and well paid Sea Dog Crew. They don't look really special for the cost at a glance, although they can attack twice in melee which is nice and have Gang. The real fun begins once you start adding outside help.

• With Hawk they'll be Fearless and rolling four dice of damage on the charge against warrior models. Bastions beware!
• With just a single coin they'll be making boosted attack rolls with probably MAT7. Combine it with above and they can be killing warcasters.
• With a different coin and Bosun and Doc chilling nearby, they'll be passing Tough rolls on 4+ without knock-down.
• With a yet another coin they... will pretty much still be pointless at range. But see Riflemen, below.

Also, and this should be stressed, you can now only put one incentive on a unit per turn total (e.g. Tough on Sea Dog Crew, Money Shot on a Deck Gun and Money Shot on the Commodore but not Tough and Money Shot on a single Sea Dog Crew).

So it should be established that you will probably want at least one Sea Dog Crew. As for more... coins tend to be a limiting factor. You always have just five, and Sea Dog Crews need some investment to perform best. Solo CMD bubbles are also limited. But if you subscribe to the notion that Sea Dog Crews don't deserve coin for being Tough, that frees up some resources and also removes the need to fit everyone within Doc's and Bosun's CMD. If you want to maximize the gains from Shanghai (more on that below), it can also be worth it to have a secondary Sea Dog Crew to soak up all the fresh cannon fodder. But for games up to 50 points, I think one Crew is enough unless you really don't like jacks for some reason.

To spice up a Sea Dog Crew you can add Riflemen to it. These guys have all abilities of a regular Sea Dog with a range upgrade, CRA and Take Up. Three Riflemen cost the same as four regular Sea Dogs so it's not that much more expensive for the additional capability. The CRA makes taking more than one a good choice, and three is probably best - with Money Shot they'll be shooting at RAT9, POW 15 and that's a legit half-unit CRA in other factions. Of course, you probably shouldn't expect your Sea Dog unit to stand around shooting all game but trust me, there will be times where this becomes relevant - and for the rest, they'll still be killing stuff in melee just as well. A final point is Take Up which can be a lifesaver when you just have to have a Sea Dog standing (or even lying) around blocking a particular spot, or remove a model further back when the unit is being shot at and you want to maximize next turn's charge range.

Mr. Walls, the Quartermaster is the requisite UA for the centerpiece unit. He's a Tier 2 Theme List requirement which gives everything Pathfinder on the first turn, and Advance Deployment for his unit to start with. That means most (if not all) of your larger units will start with AD which makes your deployment zone less suffocating, and harder for your opponent to guess your plans - though they can get some estimate by looking at your solos (one of just the two inconveniences by playing A Pirate's Life - the second being lack of Dougal). He's got two powerful Heavy Pistols and all around better stats than Crewmembers, but no Hand Weapon which means he gains no benefit from a charge, or First Mate Hawk. Finally, he comes with the No Quarter! minifeat that recently caused quite an uproar in other, slightly slower parts of the forums. Pathfinder, Terror, Fearless and +2" on a charge, whee! Add that to Godspeed and Coup de Main, and what do you get? 16" of charge movement for your premier Sea Dog Crew. Hope you've remembered to spend some coins.


Being a Sea Dog is kinda hard. People will send you against the scariest things ever, will tell you to "walk it off" after getting chomped on by Snapjaw, and your mates are only looking for you to kick it so they can nick your musket (which you have bought yourself, I am sure). Since they haven't invented PR agencies in the Iron Kingdoms yet, the second best thing is Press Gangers. Their raison d'etre is ostensibly Shanghai which lets them turn living enemy warrior models into more Sea Dog Crew grunts (it sadly doesn't work on warbeasts - but it does work on warcasters, cavalry, Gatormen, Lord of the Feast and the Khadoran War Dog) but really they're a pretty good, very cheap unit with Tough and the standard Sea Dog benefits. They only have one attack and no pistols, because while a truncheon in the head won't do any lasting harm to a potential Sea Dog, shooting them in the face will. The Lass also has Seduction, which is less useful regularly because it can't be used on a charge, although with Godspeed it can come into play a bit more often. Lastly, Press Gangers have a limited FA of 2 which means that while you could theorethically want to run even more of them (unlike Sea Dog Crews), 2 units will have to suffice. It's well enough for 50 points and below, anyway.

Finally, we've got the redheaded stepchild of Sea Dogs, the Deck Gun. And through no fault of its own - it's a passable light artillery in the game where no light artillery is really good, and with a warcaster who gets to take the Commodore Cannon. No artillery in Warmachine will ever look passable next to the Commodore Cannon, so we should evaluate the Deck Gun on its own benefits plus the fact that it can benefit from Money Shot. Which is really the crux of the matter - if you can spare a coin or two through the game then it will probably be useful to you with the POW15 direct, POW9 blast damage AoE, if not then you should look elsewhere. Either way, two is probably excessive.

[PG_vytzka]

Powder & Iron: Warjacks

Powder & iron, gun down the flag
In rapid succession the thunder will crack
Powder & iron, the fire will blow
The devil is waiting to take their souls away

Warjacks are, at least on paper, the most flexible part of your list as you get by far the most choices. Now, some of them are a better fit than others, but in a pinch it's possible to use any of them. However, Shae prefers simple beatsticks and the more the better, Reach if possible - Coup de Main gives free charges with +2" movement to all the jacks in control area whether you have one or seven of them and the benefit of having more than three is rather obvious. The warjacks should therefore be evaluated with an eye towards melee capacity (at least those that will be in the battlegroup), but thankfully our supposedly ranged jacks don't lag too far behind in that department.

Buccaneer is one of the staple jacks for Shae and it really fits in. Dirty Meg can make it Assault with Pathfinder, and then boost the hit and the Buccaneer doesn't want anything else. In exchange it will knock down things for your bigger jacks to hit effortlessly, give Thrash bonus to Freebooter (if any), sometimes even tie up units and generally be a nuissance for that low, low cost. Unless you have no melee jacks at all (and I hope to God that is not the case) you should probably have at least one Buccaneer, and it should be marshalled by Meg unless you need a third battlegroup jack for T4 bonus - or possibly even then. She will save you two Focus for every Assault and you already have Meg anyway.

Freebooter is a finesse piece masquerading as a frontline jack. Don't be deceived by the highest theorethical damage output against high armor of all Talion jacks, because that usually requires too much effort setting up. Use it for throwing things around in objective based games or repositioning the Commodore Cannon on the first turn (or for the occasional perfect spray shot) and if you get a chance to really Trash the tar out of something take it, but don't expect it to handle your biggest beatstick role consistently.

Mangler is kinda like a Nomad on steroids, that is more durable but crucially costs 2 more points. Sea Dogs can take care of infantry well enough and the usefulness of Chain weapon is somewhat situational. For me I'd take one, maybe, if I expected to go against shields a lot. But if you actually just want a Nomad, then just take one (more).

Mariner is the quintessential pirate warjack, and while the lack of Reach kinda hurts it, it still packs a punch in melee and has a pretty nice cannon on the side. Make sure to remember Loader (Sea Dogs work fine) and charge in the way that would maximize Thresher. Not much more to say about it, a solid versatile jack albeit a little on the soft side. Lash is normally redundant but in case Bosun croaks too early you could have some use out of it. Amphibious is even more situational but who knows, you could get lucky with the terrain.

Mule is a fine jack, but one that is slightly at odds with Shae's talents. Its unbuffed range is unimpressive and it really needs two focus to shine which is luxury for Shae and makes it a subpar choice for marshalling - but it at least has Reach on a passable hand weapon. If you want one then better get used to the idea that it will have to double up as a melee jack, in stark contrast to how Mules are used in the majority of Mercenary lists. Dirty Meg can also marshal one in a pinch - that won't make the best use of it but will at least save one focus. Do NOT make any plans on the critical appearing except for desperation shots, but keep an eye to maximizing the potential in case it does happen. Still, with plenty of positioning and knockdown choices in the list, you may want to just boost damage much of the time and leave the attack dice as they are if you have a decent margin with aiming (say 6+).

Nomad, ooh, now we're cooking with gas! There is no jack - or three - that's a better fit with Shae. Madness? No, this is Nomadness*! It has Reach, respectable P+S, very decent armor and is cheap cheap cheap. If one charging Nomad doesn't sort out the problem you've got - and it probably won't - you should have brought more Nomads because enough giant swords will take care of anything. It only has a MAT of 6 which can hurt when you're banking quite a bit on the charge attacks, so try to arrange a Stall or KD on the target heavy before pounding the proverbial stuffing out of it (KD also helps with Enliven, Admonition and the like which is an added bonus). Defensively they're a pretty cheap way to get armor boxes at ARM 18/19 in bulk so don't hesitate to put them in harm's way either. They have an Open Fist which can be used for the odd power attack but that's just gravy. It's all about the giant swords, baby.

Talon is the redheaded stepchild of Mercenary jacks and it's by no means bad, it's just a lot less useful against Hordes and is placed at an extremely inconvenient price point between Buccaneer, Vanguard and Nomad. That's kinda like if you were at a party, standing between David Coverdale, Errol Flynn and Glenn Danzig (please substitute three men that you consider the most attractive instead for the purpose of illustration). Don't expect a lot of girls to pay attention to you, and we, the Pirate Life players, are in the shoes of those girls here. If you know you'll be playing against Cryx it's going to be more useful, relatively, but in any case I think you should have it marshalled on Meg if at all.

Finally, Vanguard is slightly less face beating oriented than many other choices (although it's certainly capable of laying the hurt on things that are not heavy warjacks/beasts) which can be a bit of a shock, but it's a great way to make sure your solos don't kick it before doing their job. In addition to Shield Guard it has three initial attacks on the charge, Set Defense to make a great stopping block and impressive armor. Therefore it can wander around and make peoples' lives miserable when it's not Shield Guarding, like standing in the way or tying units up. Like the rest of our lights it's utilized well by the Dirty Meg so should probably stick with her frolicking in the field, taking shots for people and making the occasional slam.

*the term "Nomadness" originally coined by DaughterOfFrankenstein.

[PG_vytzka]

Observations on Shae in a tournament setting,
presented by Ger

List Choices, and their strategies.

Shae may only run in his theme list or Talion Charter.

I will be brief. "A Pirate's Life" is far and away the default way to run Shae at present. However, Talion Charter is the better idea at high point level games. (75+) At about 50 points the two are somewhat evenly matched. For the rest of this piece the assumption will be "A Pirate's Life" army.

Learning your army

A Pirate player can make a number of fatal mistakes very easily. Order of activation and position being the two most basic and easiest areas to fail at. Don't just jump into a tournament with Pirates. Play friendly games with your army, re-read your models rules, and then repeat to make it comfortable.

Your biggest enemy

Time is the greatest enemy of a Shae player in a tournament. There are several reasons for this.

• Many small attacks - A Shae army typically wants to make many attack rolls on every turn.
• Confused Opponents - Pirate's have a large variety of rules that only appear in concentration within their own army. Gang, Point Blank, The Commodore and more. All typically catch an opponent off guard and make him ask questions. Answering questions takes time.
• Required Planning - Proper activation order is very important for a pirate army. Not having Hawk in position or failing to payday before charging Sea Dog Crew in can ruin a turn...thus you need to spend more time planning what you are going to accomplish.
• Tough Checks - Nuff said
• Shae's Feat - One of the longest to resolve feats in the game.

Dealing with these problems or having a plan for them is very important. If you got into a tournament and get blindsided by them you can easily lose a game to time or the frustration of trying to get everything done will cause you to make stupid choices.

Tools are a major way to solve some of these issues. A template that can measure 3" can drastically reduce the time Shae's feat can take. Have a d6 in your hand ready to go for tough checks. Further having a good roll method can get you through your attack rolls quickly.

Confused opponents are a bit trickier to deal with and may be the biggest hurdle. Be quick to stop the clock. Do not let a barrage of questions run you out of time. Try not to get frustrated. Having to stop to answer a question can throw off your train of thought but don't let it throw you off your game.

Remember that a lot of this confusion is because of the high burden of knowledge associated with Pirates. Explaining every Nuance of the Commodore Cannon can easily take 5 minutes. As a Pirate player you likely already know all of it. Whilst your opponent just hasn't had to deal with it before. The rarity of Pirates in a tourney setting thus become a major problem.

There is no easy answer. Fact is you must answer your opponents questions and share what's on your cards. The trick is finding a way to do it quickly, and efficiently. I'd suggest asking your opponent some questions before the game starts. "Have you faced Pirates before?" "Do you know what Point Blank and Gang are?" "Please read the Commodore card carefully it is not light artillery".

Just don't over do it. Overwhelming an opponent with information can be very unfair. Be friendly and polite while you try to beat the tar out of them.

Summary

The biggest hurdle will be time. Play experience and good planning can help reduce the impact of this. Be ready to explain your army to someone that has never seen it before.

[PG_vytzka]

Reserved for pirate trivia and/or assorted shenanigans.

[PG_vytzka]

I hate copypasting from Google Docs. The formatting gets messed up in various interesting ways so don't worry if something looks weird (yet!).

Anyway. This is my personal interpretation of Phinneus Shae theme list tactics that I've been wanting to write for a while. At first I put it aside in favor of a Magnus tactica article but SpirallingCadaver did it first, then I considred doing a consolidated mercenary tactics thread but Faultie said he would do it, and then I just got really lazy and played a lot of Super Robot Wars but the Windless Wastes coin design pretty much kicked me into action again. Since I have no patience whatsoever I'm sharing the first half as soon as it's done, and expect the rest to come up soon.

This is not a replacement for the Mael's excellent Talion Charter thread and I owe a lot of ideas to it, but I felt like there was a room for concentrated Pirate's Life goodness without all the additional stuff so here it is.

These days when so many Mercenary players are uncertain about the future of their chosen army with the ranking officers and whatnot, I think it's important to reflect on what our true values are. Captain Phinneus Shae remains our exclusive treasure that we don't have to share with anyone and while it may be strange, I find solace in this. This thread is for celebrating that exclusivity, and pirate style as well.

Because as everyone knows pirates are totally sweet.

Rock on, my friends!

[PowerToast]

How am I the first to reply to this?

Please post more!

[CoachB]

I guess since I don't play pirates I didn't bother looking, but now, wow.

Nice job Vytzka.

Now we can get Faultie to sticky this and get someone on the "bootcamp".

[raincaller]

question, do you have to wear jacksparrow eye makeup to play shae? I have hear this is the case...

[viperidae99]

Phenomenal write-up mate. Still working through it, but as a brand new Pirate buyer, still building an army, this is gold.

Respect for taking the time! Do more! Please!

[PG_hendybadger]

This is great. Cant wait to see the rest

[Justin Kase]

question, do you have to wear jacksparrow eye makeup to play shae? I have hear this is the case...

No mate, all you need is enough rum

Very nice work Vytzka, I'll be directing our local piratical player to this thread.

[Robert Shepherd]

I am now seriously considering a few games with pirates. Or maybe more.

[viperidae99]

Doc also has a Surgery *Action and while Shae normally exists in one of two states - fine or dead - it doesn't cost anything...Regrettably, he doesn't have a Bake Cupcakes *Action, due to a printing error.

Cracked me up haha.

[MagnustheJust]

I haven't quite read through it all, but I must say Vytzka...

Absolutely Brilliant!!!

Some "how-to's" are kind of stale and sleep inducing, but yours are a really good read!!

question, do you have to wear jacksparrow eye makeup to play shae? I have hear this is the case...

You... YES!!!

Everyone else... Optional!!
{makes puppet with sack & waves...}

[navajas]

This thread is awesome. Let me specify that with more clarity. The awesomeness that this thread possess is in its own right, awesome. In addition, that awesomeness, and I'm talking about the awesomeness that modified the first awesome I mentioned, is also individually awesome as well. Similarly, that tertiary awesomeness is compounded further by itself being awesome.

[PG_hendybadger]

This thread is awesome. Let me specify that with more clarity. The awesomeness that this thread possess is in its own right, awesome. In addition, that awesomeness, and I'm talking about the awesomeness that modified the first awesome I mentioned, is also individually awesome as well. Similarly, that tertiary awesomeness is compounded further by itself being awesome.

To be honest, that post could have done with just a touch more awesomeness

[PG_vytzka]

Sorry for the delay, everyone. Real life kinda got in the way, first I was really busy, then sick but I'm mostly back and will make sure to finish this ASAP. I'm glad you guys like it.

Not really a Jack Sparrow fan myself but I always carry a flask of rum with me to events (in case I need to celebrate) and will probably be getting an eyepatch for the league. I also carry my tokens in a nice little old wooden chest. I need more chocolate coins though, they have a habit of disappearing even when I'm not gaming .

[MagnustheJust]

You actually make it to the games with the chocolate coins!???! I'd be lucky to make it out of the store...

[TomTwice]

So, is this getting finished any time soon?

[PG_hendybadger]

So, is this getting finished any time soon?

PG_vytzka is the Paymaster General for the Windless Wastes league so Im guessing it wont be until after the lague is over. About 2 weeks from now

[PG_vytzka]

The best thing about being horrendously inconsistent is that you sometimes manage to finish things that people weren't already expected you to, and thus pleasantly surprise someone. That happens less often than I would like, mind you, but I have (purely accidentally: I just happened to be in the mood for writing tonight) just added a thing or two about Sea Dogs and warjacks.

I also took the time to fix the trainwreck that was the Google Docs copypaste code for some reason by going through everything by hand and purging all extraneous tags with fire, so if anything looks funny or inconsistent don't hesitate to tell me.

By the way, the problem with Running Wild is that all the songs that have the coolest titles are either about nothing whatsoever or about being an *******, and since I insisted on having Riding the Storm as the title, there was a certain heroic theme that I was forced to keep. Therefore Powder & Iron was the closest I could get to warjacks, but at least I was able to fit in Unation which is an awesome song.

And yes, I did spend inordinate amounts of time by choosing the titles and verses. Time that altogether more productive members of society would have spent on, you know, actually writing stuff, but where's the fun in that?

[PG_hendybadger]

The new additions are great. Given me allsorts of things to think about now when playin Pirates Life (which I usualy do)

[viperidae99]

Wicked write-up continues, looking forward to your thoughts on Steamroller with A Pirate's Life.

[PG_hendybadger]

And if we ask really nicely he might even do the other 2 Casters and Solos when this thread is finished?

Not that I dont like Maels sticky thread but I found this one alot more helpful and in depth

[elderik]

This is about Captain Phinneus Shae's tier list: A Pirate's Life. So i don't think he's gonna do the other casters.

[PG_hendybadger]

I did mean when this is finished.
Maybe do others for Fiona and Bart. Either Tier or just basic Talion

[viperidae99]

Have to agree with hendybadger.

As a non-merc player just discovering the awesomeness (and buying many pirates), I have to say this is the best thread I've read to introduce players, explain some basic tactics, and inject some comedy. It reads easily and is informative at the same time.

I would love to see PG_vytzka do a write-up like this for all the contracts/theme forces, if he's up for it. Once this is finished, of course

How do we get this stickied? Or at least added to a compilation thread? There are so many up there already, but this deserves to be...

[Tuckers]

Bloody brilliant mate. I am pretty sure this writeup has finally convinced me to ask for Shae and Company for mah birfday, along with some rum and chocolate coins.

[PG_hendybadger]

Nothing but praise for you here vytzka

[SecondMateEagle]

This made me order the Forces of WARMACHINE: Mercenaries book and a Buccaneer so I will have a 15-points army. I haven't played for years and I have no players around here, so I'll probably only be able to play a few times per year.
All that against buying anything, but this thread is just filled with so much WIN I couldn't resist.

Brilliant I must say.
I'll chip in my two pieces of eight and join the crowd that think this ought to be stickied.

[Snarl]

Yarr. It be a bonny tactica.

[TheSanityAssassin]

What a great write up! Having suddenly found myself in possession of a very big Pirate army thanks to a deal I couldn't pass up, this makes my task of figuring out what to do with them MUCh easier.

[Thamarite Merc]

You probably should try to include the words "tough", "Doc Killingsworth" and "tarpit" into your description of the Pressgangers. And they don't use up Rockbottom's coins to get it.

Instead of charging, specially against shooty units, or units, that gain a lot from being able to charge themselves, just running PG 12,5" into melee, to tie up the enemy, will often be a valid tactic, too. Running costs 3 Focus less than charging under Coup de Main, and gets them 1" further.
If there aren't good options for all the models/units in your army to charge, the 3 focus might find better use elsewhere, while the PG stick themselves to the single whatever in range, and threaten anything up to ARM 16 with free strikes

Stopping jacks with small-sized models is a bit iffy, especially with a min unit, or if some of them are already dead, but trampling can be avoided, when there is no place to end the move, so a proper formation, with only 2 of them B2B with the jack, while the rest spread out, can often do the trick. Effetive use of terrain features, or a second wave following behind the PGs may help to achieve this. Medium templates, like light Jacks and/or Bosun Grogspar, at any place in their ranks, make this trick muh easier to pull off, but will draw a lot of spells and bullets, if used for that purpose.
Of course all heavy and even most light jacks, and a lot of Hordes beasties will be able to just turn around and walk away from PGs with little risk, but as long as the PG can deny them the direct path towards Shae, or another valuable target, purpose is often served.

Thanx to their toughness, PG can be very annoying to get rid off, and pester units of double their price and more for quite some time. Toughness is the reason, people hate to fight trolls and love to field Boomhowler, after all, and with the Doc and the Bosun around, PGs can beat trollkin at their own game. Their lower armour value is misleading, as a direct hit by anything will make a trollkin do his tough check as surely as a Pirate, so the only difference is the trolls greater ability to survive POW 6-9 blasts, while the Pirates are a tiny little bit more adept at dodging sprays. Stay away from continuous effects, when possible, anyway, as they kill tough people dead.

To the description of Veil of Mist, maybe a word, that while it allows to move through models, it does not allow to ignore free strikes. With Grogspar around, privateers can keep on moving/running/complete their charge, after surviving a tough check, though, which can be useful to get some feisty club hits at pesky enemy support solos, hiding behind the lines, or simply to get a few bodies towards an onslaughting Hawk, that finds herself threatened by CRAs, a lot of shooty solos, or even a shooty caster like Caine.

And, as I said about the Mangler in the other thread: Shae can successfully run a lot of jacks, even at small points, but he will be strapped on points for Infantry, and Infantry-clearing power (and probably the benefits from tiers 2-4, if he completely avoids them and therefor not includes Mr. Walls), when he does.
In this special case, and if not playing Mangled Metal, the Mangler can be far superior to the Nomad, because Tresher and Reach allow him to free himself of tarpit units.

[TheSanityAssassin]

Also, the Running Wild quotes increase the awesome of this thread by a hundred. Rockin' Rolf for the win.

[Tossy]

Firstly... thank you. This is what I have been trying to find since I started with Shae. I am new to warmachine in general and play for fun, you have just made it more fun to be a pirate.

However, I am still trying to figure out how to run Aiyana and Holt to make them worth their points. I must be missing something. I have no idea what to do with them at all

[Feverdream]

From the looks of things, Shae has not been made obsolete. That's a good thing. I'm the only Privateers/Merc player. I've yet to win with Shae, but I don't stop trying, despite the limitation on my unit selection.

I'll definitely try out a lot of the tactics presented here, and I sincerely appreciate it.

[PG_Devilsquid]

TL; DR



Nah, kidding. A solid write up, lots of good points, and definitely puts attention on the Merc caster who stand alone.

Yar har me matie, yar har!