Blood and Coin: Mercenary Warcaster Drake McBain
The Iron Kingdom’s newest gun for hire, Drake McBain is a mercenary in the truest sense. Unlike Magnus, Ashlynn, or Shae, McBain has no agenda, and is solely concerned with expanding his coffers doing what he does best. Lets take a closer look after the jump.
His spells and abilities exemplify mercenary strategy giving him many interesting options over a specialized restrictive playstyle. His numerous tools ensure that he can adapt to any situation. He has some great spells for warjacks but his feat really shines for infantry and the numerous solos a merc army can field. His play style is so versatile in fact that I think he may be one of the most fun warcasters to own. Any mercenary player who already has a large collection of minis will find that McBain can be plugged into numerous lists with all of them providing a new gaming experience and holding different strategies.
As for the man himself, at first glance his stats feel a bit underwhelming, with no field being particularly exceptional. But its some of his special abilities that help bring him in above the curve. The Gang Fighter ability brings him up to mat 8 and P+S 15 when attacking something a friendly faction warrior model is already engaging. Additionally his Unyielding ability brings his armor up to 17 when he is engaging an enemy. Be wary though since there are a few ways to get around it. Since Unyielding only works when McBain himself is engaging, he won’t get the bonus if he is knocked down, being attacked from the rear, or if he should be charged by a Magehunter Assassin or anything else with a melee range greater than 2″ (though right now I think the Retribution has a monopoly on that). The Tough ability might keep him alive in a few situations, but anyone with more than a couple of games under their belt should understand why you should always play like it isn’t even there. Finally, and never to be underestimated, is McBain’s trusty Hand Cannon. A favorite of mercenary warcasters, this powerful pistol has finished off many foes who thought themselves otherwise safe. Any warcaster with a ranged weapon is always a potential employer of Reinholdt Gobber Speculator, who provides the extra shot that can potentially yield a caster kill from a second boosted pow 12.
McBain’s arcane arsenal is an eclectic mix of mostly Cygnar spells. All of them are so useful its actually a little difficult to pick any specific models or units to take over others, though with a little thought I’ve definitely narrowed it down to a few favorites.
Countermeasure is McBain’s signature spell. An upkeep for target friendly model/unit, countermeasure prevents enemy models from making ranged attacks while within 5″ of its target. There are two solos in particular that stand out as being excellent countermeasure targets. Epic Eiryss with her mobility, high defense, stealth, advance deploy, and technological interference makes a great candidate to get up in your opponents business and shut their army down so thoroughly they have no choice but to deal with her while the rest of your force can act with impunity. Another favorite of mine is Minion/Mercenary Gudrun the Wanderer. Another mobile advance deploy solo, the drunken ogrun may be a better choice in an all-comers list, since he works just as well against Hordes as Warmachine and can be considerably more difficult to kill. With the Berserk ability, he’s also an excellent early game candidate for Fortune, another of McBain’s spells.
Energizer grants one immediate inch of movement per focus spent to all friendly battlegroup warjacks, up to a maximum of three. The most important thing to keep in mind when considering Energizer is that this movement is done out of activation. An extra three inches might be enough to get your Mangler or Nomad around an obstacle or other model to find itself a vital charge lane your opponent wasn’t thinking about.
Fail Safe gives a warjack an extra 2 armor and keeps it from suffering the effects of crippled systems. If you don’t know how important that is you clearly haven’t played Warmachine yet. Its hard to come up with an extra tactical tip for something with such an obvious advantage, but here goes. Using the Trample power attack can generate some unexpected caster kill vectors, but its entirely possible for a warjack to have lost its arm or cortex to free strikes by the time it finishes its trample next to the warcaster it was hunting. This spell provides a huge amount of insurance to anyone attempting such a maneuver.
Fortune is another spell you can apply liberally to just about anything for great results. Lets face it, there’s nothing that can’t be improved by having the ability to re-roll missed attacks. Highborn Long Gunners are a great choice with their repeating rifles. Sea Dogs also stand out as good candidates with their multiple attacks and potential synergy with McBain’s feat. Steelhead Cavalry are also a good choice since they can make a total of three attacks per activation with backswing and assault. It also gives them a chance of possibly taking out some infantry with their trample attacks which their mat 5 would usually exclude. I also like this spell for Croe’s Cutthroats who often seem poor at their task of being warcaster hunters with their low rat.
Jackhammer is another in the long list of great spells. Brutally straightforward, this 1 focus spell allows Mc Bain to make an immediate out of activation attack. Combined with energizer, this spell can allow a Nomad or Mangler to make 2 attacks against a target that was 15 inches away from it at the start of its activation. There’s also the obvious significance of just being able to wail on a single target until its dead. Since the only Mercenary ‘jacks McBain has access to max out at P+S 17 I recommend bringing along Gorman or Aiyanna and Holt. The extra damage either of them allow adds up fast, and before you know it even the heaviest ‘jacks will whither under the rain of blows.
Rift is a spell I’ve already discussed with regards to another caster. A 4″ AoE spell with pow 13, this spell already seems fair for 3 focus. But the real bonus is the area of rough terrain it creates. Since the spell has to target something, it will never be possible to completely ensure that this spell goes down exactly where you need it (unless you’re willing to sacrifice some unlucky soldier). With so many other great Drake McBain options this will probably be the last spell I’m likely to cast, but I can see some great uses for it in if the need arises.
True Grit is McBain’s feat, and it can be a very handy one. McBain gets to make a number of non-warlock/warcaster warrior models in his control area, equal to his current focus plus 5, unkillable for a round. For those of you without Prime MkII handy a warrior is basically anything that isn’t a warjack. This means that all those great merc solos with all their incredibly useful abilities have one turn where you can guarantee they stay alive to get to do whatever it is they do best. Making your models unkillable becomes even more exciting when you take steamroller scenarios into account. Preventing your opponent from removing you from an objective can’t be underestimated. With McBain’s feat a single lowly Steelhead Halberdier can keep an entire army from scoring any objectives for a full round. The downside is that if they do take enough damage to be destroyed, they instead heal one wound and are knocked down. Fortunately the merc army has many key pieces to ensure knockdown immunity. Boomhowler’s Trollkin, while not actually immune to knockdown, can use Call of Defiance to stand up immediately during their next activation so they can fight normally. Sea Dogs in Bosun Grogspar’s command range have immunity to knockdown, and I’ve already listed why I think they are great targets for some of McBain’s spells. Mercenaries also have access to the Mariner and Freebooter, whose Lash special rule keeps models in base to base from being knocked down. I’m not entirely sure I think the either of them are worth taking over the Nomad or Mangler (who have much better synergy with McBain) just for the sake of Lash, but more games may see me retracting this statement.
And to prove I’m not just theory-machining, I’ve got a few bits of wisdom to share from my latest battle report. My first McBain list was less of a finely tuned machine than it was an experiment. It consisted of full Steelhead Halberdiers, Steelhead Cav, a Nomad, a Mangler, and more support solos than I thought I would really need in a 35 pt. game. Meant as an all-comers list, I faced it off against the first person willing to throw down. I ended up across the table from one of the armies I most dread facing, and one for which I had few tools to counter. Alan’s Cygnar army, which I should probably point out was built solely around the restriction of taking only painted models, was full of hard to kill things which would become nearly impossible to kill things on Stryker’s feat turn. After an uneventful 1st turn of advancing our armies towards the Convergence objective, I popped McBain’s feat on turn 2 out of fear of all the sniped long gunners on the other side of the field. A wise move as it turns out. The numerous blue beads on my troops in the picture below represent models that would have been killed otherwise. Yes that’s all my previously undamaged Steelhead cavalry clinging to life.
With Stryker’s feat up and Arcane shield on both heavy ‘jacks, I knew I wouldn’t be able to accomplish much. Even stacking Rust Bomb, from Gorman and Harm from Aiyana on the Centurion it would still be arm 23 to the Mangler’s P+S 17, despite its chain weapon ignoring the shield bonus. My best bet was to recast Fortune on the Mangler and use thresher on those beautiful Precursor Knights. 7’s with a re-roll should have cleared most of the unit, since the Mangler’s chain would ignore their Shield Wall benefit. Casting Failsafe on the Nomad would probably keep it kicking even after going a round with the Ironclad or Centurion, though either ‘jack could be held up by putting some expendable troops in their way. But instead of going with the safe bet I concocted an elaborate scheme to kill Stryker right then and there, and teach him that when Drake McBain is on the table, even Invincibility is no guarantee.
First I had to get all those Steelheads out of the way. The next step was to move Gorman up (he’s there… really… hiding behind a steelhead) and throw a black oil bomb at Stryker. I knew it would fall a little short, but judging the angle, and distance the odds were 50/50 it would deviate onto the Warcaster. Then, with his defense dropped to 12, he would be an easy target for Aiyana to cast Harm on. Holt would follow up with twin handcannon shots hopefully netting around 4 more damage. Then McBain would activate, and use energizer to move the Nomad up 3 full inches. After some careful control area measuring, I was confident it could then trample the Precursor Knights and end up next to Stryker. Two focus would buy it the extra attacks it would need to finish off the debilitated warcaster. So if you’re reading this, and thinking this plan was way too far-fetched for me to pull off, you’re right. Gorman’s bomb deviated the wrong way, but with 3 focus on the Nomad, and none on the Mangler, I kept at it. Aiyana, and then Holt both missed with their attacks. But the worst part, was that the Nomad, whose move I had so carefully measured, fell about a half inch short of having Stryker in melee. But man if I had pulled it off what a story I would have had to tell.
By the game’s end, Reinholdt and McBain’s hand cannon ended up being the MVP’s. McBain took four more shots on the Cygnaran warcaster over the rest of the game and while the odds were in my favor, the dice were not. Stryker still had 5 damage boxes remaining when an Ironclad knocked McBain prone. I also want to give some credit to one of my favorite unsung heroes of the Iron Kingdoms: Dirty Meg, with her stall gun, kept the Ironclad from charging McBain for a turn. This gave him an opportunity to get in two extra shots he wouldn’t have otherwise.
~So there’s Drake McBain for you. I wish I could have reported that I led the Iron Kingdom’s newest action hero to glorious victory my first time out, but at least we all get to learn something. Its been awhile since I used my Mercs, and McBain reminded me how much fun they are to play. Every game with the faction is like a puzzle to solve; how do you use your warcaster’s crazy bag of tricks to pull off a win? But for now, I won’t really be able to delve any further into them. With the Cryx book on store shelves, I’ve heard the Dragonfather’s call and forsworn prior allegiances. I should be back soon to give you a run down of the newest weapon in Toruk’s arsenal: Lich Lord Venethrax.
