Warmachine: Why You No Pronto?
4 Minute Read
Apr 30 2014
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Arguably the best warjack drive in the game, sees very little use. Here is why you should get him on the table.
Today’s warmachine lists really don’t see too much jack marshaling. I think it is a combination of factors. You can’t load up a jack with full focus, you can’t marshal character jacks, and sometimes the jack marshal investment doesn’t outweigh the cost. I am here today to convince you that Pronto is worth it.
Who has Pronto?
Cygnar: Sword Knights UA
Mercenaries: Thor Steinhammer Rhulic and Sam+ Devil Dogs
Retribution: Sentinel UA
Sword knights can be a hard sell to a cygnar player. They don’t have reach, average infantry stats mean they will die to anything that hits them, and without flank they don’t hit very hard. For 6 points you can get a min unit with UA.
Thor is the most economical point cost at 2. He is limited to Rhulic jacks , but he has the added benefit of Tune up.
Sam and the Devil dogs is a really hard sell because they only have access to merc jacks and the unit does nothing exceptionally well.
Sentinels are probably the most well known unit as they see standard play. Some Ret players might not even know they can jack marshal with this unit.
Why Pronto?
Alpha! I am a very aggressive player and always want to get the charge. Pronto is close to a guarantee that your jack will be a long range charge threat. You are effectively doubling it’s speed. A speed 5″ jack with reach goes from a 10″ threat to 15″. Talk about board control! Don’t have snipe. How about double move to get into shooting range? Hunter at speed 12″ , Mule at speed 10″, Grundback blaster speed 10″, and Banshee at speed 10″ can be real headaches for your opponents.
Duct Tape Sprint: You don’t always have to use pronto for aggression. After delivering a boosted damage roll or a charge on an annoying solo, use pronto to move back to safety. Charge in with your Stormclad, kill X model, activate sword knights, move the Stormclad back out of retaliation range.
Cygnar combos:
Stormclad has focus accumulator next to Stormblade models. In combination with Arlan Strangeway you can effectively have 3 focus on a 15″ threat Stormclad.
Siege doesn’t usually want to fuel a melee jack , with a Swordknight jackmarshal he can have huge threat, and with Breach attack from a heavy could be devastating.
EHaley can really get the shenanigans going. Temporal acceleration and Telekinesis gets that threat range to absurd levels with an extra attack to boot.
3 Stryker has Iron Aggression. With free charge and boosting to hit your pronto’d jack becomes a real assassination threat. Couple with the feat even a full camped butcher will think twice.
Mercenaries combos:
Thor is probably most famous for the Tuned Up Grundback Blaster. The speed 5″ Rhulic light moves 10″ and delivers either a boosted to hit or boosted to damage Sray 8″ Pow 10. Crazy good infantry clearing and is a deal for 5 points. Durgen Feat+ Thor + Basher= Auto hitting , additional dice damage, Flak Field 15″ away.
P Magnus and Macbain have iron aggression and can work well with a devil dog Mangler or Thor driller. Ashylyn feat and quicken make even a merc jack an assassination threat.
Retribution combos:
First off, Arcanists are a jack marshal’s friend. Power booster and +2 str both make Pronto jacks better. Rahn with Telekinesis or Ossyan with Quicken can get 2″ threat increase. Ravyn + Snipe makes a Pronto’d Hydra or Manticore have a 28″ threat range on its ranged weapon. That is 3″ away from shooting into someone’s deployment zone.
I encourage everybody to try some Pronto out. It can really be a shocker at how far some of these threat ranges can get!
I hope I gave you all some reasons to dust off those jack marshal’s and maybe rattle your local meta a little bit. I have been encouraged to start a Warma/Hordes/WHFB blog next week here: http://revenantspt.blogspot.com/ Do you use pronto jack marshals? Have any great pronto stories? Tell us your thoughts.
Author: Revenant
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