Module: Stormclad / Stormblade Captain / Arlan Strangewayes

In Warmachine, people will often refer to a "module", by which they mean a small group of models that have synergies and function very well together. I'm about to cover one of my personal favorites. I first used it in a Caine2 list, and more recently in my Stryker2 list. It's wicked good, guys.




Some day, I'll write a somewhat more expansive article about jack marshalling in Cygnar in general. But for today, I'm sticking to this combo. Jack marshals are pretty frequently maligned as inferior to focus manipulation models. Sure, jack marshals can't fully load a heavy with focus, but there's still some pretty good stuff you can do. Take for instance the stormclad, one of Cygnar's best jacks. It gets a free focus when it starts its activation nearby a storm knight. So here's what you do: have a stormblade captain marshal a stormclad. The stormclad gets a free focus, just as if it had powered up, and then gets the jack marshal bonus for its shot. Either it uses "Strike True" and gets a +2 bonus for a RAT8 shot even without aiming, or it actually does aim and then uses "Take Aim" to get +2 damage, which means a RAT8 POW16 shot. And electro-leap either way. Then, it repositions 5" after everything else, which is a huge distance for a heavy. Seems pretty great already, right? Hold onto your bits - we're just getting started.

This is also the fastest stormclad you've ever seen. On turn one, a regular stormclad would run for 10 inches. This one prefers to use its jack marshal "Hurry!" to trample forward 8" then reposition forward an additional 5" for a total movement of 13 inches.

Now it comes into a position where it's ready to get into melee. Arlan comes up and gives it a focus. Then, it activates and gets a second focus from starting near the stormblade captain. It then uses the "Crush!" jack marshal order, which gives it a +2 damage and an additional attack. So then the stormclad gets four POW21 attacks, each with an electroleap, plus a POW16 open fist. If whatever you went after survived that, you just have the stormblade captain, who hasn't even activated yet, charge with a weaponmaster attack. I wrecked two ARM20 Khador heavies in one round the last time I brought this combo thanks to Stryker2's feat.

The icing on top of this particular cake is that this stormclad is completely immune to disruption due to Arlan. It will function exactly as described above even if Eiryss gets a shot on it.