League Model - Steelhead Captain Stryker

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League Model - Steelhead Captain Stryker Mercenary Steelhead Warcaster

What if Stryker had become a wanted man for his role in the failed Lion's Coup? With his knowledge of battle and his warcaster training, he would have made an excellent and protective commander of mercenary soldiers, who fights just to make it to the next payday.

Basic Info

Stryker -1
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Small SPD 6 STR 6 MAT 7 RAT 6 M.A. N/A DEF 16 ARM 15 CMD 9 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS 6 FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 17 F. Field N/A WJP +28 WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA N/A UNIT SIZE N/A COST N/A N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Mercenary - In a 2+ caster game, he will work for Protectorate, Khador, or Cryx.

Warcaster - All warcasters come with a stack of standard special rules - most notably being awesome. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.

Feat : Invincibility

While in Stryker's control range, friendly Faction models gain +5 ARM for one round.

Abilities

• Elite Cadre [ Steelhead Riflemen ] - Friendly Steelhead Riflemen models gain Advance Move. (Advance Move - Before the start of the game but after both players have deployed, a model with Advance Move can make a full advance.)
• No Sleeping on the Job [ Steelhead ] - This model and Steelhead models in its command range cannot become knocked down.

Weapons

Disruptor Pistol
		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		10			1			-			10
Damage Type: Magical Disruption
Quicksilver
		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				7				13
Damage Type: Magical Disruption

Spells

	COST	RNG	AOE	POW	DUR	OFF
Arcane Bolt	2	12	-	11	-	Yes
This spell has zero special effects.
Arcane Shield	2	6	-	-	Upkeep	No
Target friendly Faction model/unit gains +3 ARM. Models are not affected while out of formation.
Blur	2	6	-	-	Upkeep	No
Target friendly Faction model/unit gains +3 DEF against ranged and magic attack rolls. Models are not affected while out of formation.
Deflection	3	SELF	-	-	Round	No
While in the spellcaster's control range, friendly Faction models gain +2 DEF against ranged and magic attacks. Deflection lasts for one round.
Lightning Storm	3	8	3	10 (Electric)	-	Yes
Models hit suffer a POW 10 electrical damage roll. This spell's AOE is a hazard that remains in play for one round. Models entering or ending their activations in the AOE suffer a POW 10 electrical damage roll.
Positive Charge	2	6	-	-	Turn	No
Target friendly Faction warjack gains +2 to melee attack and melee damage rolls. While within 3" of the affected warjack, friendly Faction models gain +2 on melee attack and melee damage rolls. Positive Charge lasts for one turn.

Theme Forces

• The Irregulars
• Soldiers of Fortune

Thoughts on Stryker-1

Stryker-1 in a nutshell

Stryker basically has two tricks up in his sleeve:

• Brick up and be invincible on feat turn.
• Use Positive Charge to buff hitting and damage of his army
• Make his army unshootable among Arcane Shield, Blur and Deflection.

Spell thoughts

• Arcane Bolt - A POW 11 zap, so you won't likely use it much.
• Arcane Shield - This is a good protection spell that can save your troops from being killed and make things like Centurion nearly un-killable.
• Blur - A great protection spell against gunlines, but just remember that it won't do much for models with naturally low DEF. Put it on something with mid to high defense to make them nearly un-hittable.
• Deflection - Deflection keeps infantry, and some warjacks alive against shooting. It protects his army and stacks with Blur.
• Lightning Storm - Very expensive for what it does. It taxes his Focus substantially and should only really be considered when its low POW is near guaranteed to do what you want at an important moment.
• Positive Charge - This boosts merc models from good to great. Heavy melee warjacks become extremely accurate and much more damaging in melee, which makes them less reliant on boosting to cause damage, thus granting you more attacks. The 3" bubble of the buff can also can dial up models such as Halberdiers, Croe's or Alexias Thralls.

Feat thoughts

Timing is tricky. Use it too early and the enemy will simply fall back until it wears off. Use it too late and you probably won't have much left to defend. Stryker relies on his army to get the job done, because he himself is not a big source of damage. You should either try to protect your main strike force until they reach the enemy's line or dampen the enemy's counter-attack. In steamroller scenarios, it's best to wait until you are defending or contesting capture points before you pop the feat.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• he's an alt history caster, so obviously he is not allowed in normal Steam Rollers. Talk to your local players if they are okay with you playing him.
• With all the support duty, he's focus-strapped even with Sylys. It will be an uphill battle against enemies with upkeep removal.
• Even with all his defensive tricks, troops and jacks are susceptible to attacks which cause fixed damage regardless of ARM (e.g., Corrosion, Penetrating Strike, Sniper, Deadly Shot, Puncture, Anatomical Precision, etc.).

Tricks & Tips

• Knockdown a jack, then shoot it with your disruption pistol. It cannot get focus to shake the knockdown effect off, so it must sacrifice either its Movement or Action to do anything.

List Building Advice

Strategy

    Scenario & Attrition    

Stryker1 can play scenario very nicely, boosting the defensive capabilities of his forces. His feat is the golden standard for an attrition caster: reduce the losses you'll receive from an enemy attack or counter-attack and outlast your opponent in the remaining turns.

Theme Thoughts

Stryker only has two themes at his disposal, lacking the Morrowan tag his Cygnar versions picked up in the Flames CID.

    The Irregulars    

• You Requisition Options should probably be Hermit, for Maser of Ruin and Mad Visions, Gudrun the Waster for another sturdy solos and Kinetic Distotion to stack with Blur, Deflection and Arcane Shield and Gastone Crosse.
• Blockader - Irregulars offer many junior warcaster who can run cheap jacks to go on PC duty, so he can confidently run a Blockader, which spreads PC far and wide and packs quite a punch. Arcane Shield and the field also gives it an extra turn to do work.
• Asphyxious the Sanctified - Arcane Shield is probably not something he was designed around, making it obscenely powerful on him. Dark Shroud stacks very well with Positive Charge and the cloud wall helps with delivery and attrition. Give him two Talons to spread DS and PC.
• Gastone Crosse - Discombobulate is an amazing spell and he can run a Talon and/or a Buccaneer for PC and Shadow of a Giant double duty. Blur can protect him very well.
• Croe's Cutthroats - They love Gastone's Dicombobulate and hit like trucks against PC targets.
• Idrian Skirmishers - No native stealth like Croes, so they love Blur.
• Lanyssa Ryssyl offers Hunter's Mark.
• Ragman applies Death Field, which goes very well with the Blockader sprays.
• Anastasia - The Irregs mainstay.

    Soldiers of Fortune    

• Steelhead Halberdiers - A great chaff unit, but they also hit surprisingly hard with PC.
• Steelhead Heavy Cavalry - Great Arcane Shield targets and they hit like trucks
• Rhupert - Hands out Tough which is great with No Sleeping on the Job. Concealment stacks with Blur and Deceleration.
• Stannis Brocker - Tactician is important with so many bodies around.

    Both themes    

• Sylys Wyshnalyrr - Free upkeeps, extended spell range for Positive Charge, and extra dice on spells.
• Princess Delores Graciela - She loves damage buffs to go to town with Bullet Hell and an ARM 28 Toro is a pretty good bodyguard to her.
• Alexia2 - Blur is a great way to protect her and she and her Thralls hit like freight trains under PC.

Battlegroup

• Freebooter - They are cheap and thus spammable, so they are great Positive Charge nodes. With a native speed buff and three initials they make great use of the buff.
• Nomad - More expensive than Freebooters, but you still fit 3 of them into a list confidently.
• Toro - Very sturdy and it hits hard and it gives you access to the Princess.
• Talon - The cheapest PC nodes and they are surprisingly hard to take down for a light baseline, so they become a real problem on feat turn.

Other

Trivia

Released for the 2018 Summer League

Other

• See also: League Models (etc)