Captain Sam MacHorne & The Devil Dogs

The Dog Company is one of the oldest and most respected mercenary companies in western Immoren. Under the leadership of Samantha MacHorne, a former pistoleer, sometime mechanik, and full-time gambler, the Devil Dogs hire themselves out as the best professional anti-warjack unit gold can buy.

Basic Info

Mercenaries - This unit will work for Template:Cygnar mercenary, Template:Crucible Guard mercenary or Template:Menoth mercenary.

Abilities

• Grunts only
  • Template:Dismantle

• Sam only
  • Template:Jack Marshal
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Drive Reposition 5
  • Template:Iron Sentinel

Weapons

• Grunts
  • Slug Gun - 4" range, POW 14 ranged weapon.
  • Net - 4" range, 3" AOE, gun that does no damage.
    • Template:Cumbersome
    • Template:Knockdown
  • Pick Axe - 1" reach, P+S 10 melee weapon.

• Sam
  • Hand Cannon - 12" range, POW 12 ranged weapon.
  • Stun Sword - 0.5" reach, P+S 10 melee weapon
    • Template:Stall

Theme Forces

• Mercenaries
  • Template:The Irregulars
  • Template:Operating Theater (only if controlled by a Cephalyx Dominator)
  • Template:Llaelese Resistance

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this model in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Crosse2 is leading the army.
  • Furthermore, Mercenary units can be hired by other Factions. Normally those Factions' themes will have a limit on how many models they can hire. Refer to #Other Theme Forces, below.

Thoughts on MacHorne1

MacHorne1 in a nutshell

Sam and the Devil Doggos are essentially 9 knockdowns on a stick. Due to the way deviation works, a net trown from 4" away from the target will always clip the target's base, meaning the can knock down anything within 10" of their starting position. Additionally they have Dismantle, meaning they are effectively Weapon Masters against jacks, many battle engines, almost the entirety of Covergence, Wolds, and Skorne Exalted. Sam herself brings a neat gun and a stall sword and is also a jack marshal, but you don't NEED to bring a jack with her as her unit is probably overpriced by a few points and you wouldn't want to increase their price tag. Still, against armies without mass knockdown immunity they can be worth their weight in gold, just make sure to screen them or otherwise help them with delivery, because elsewise they die like flies.

Combos & Synergies

• Lieutenant Gastone Crosse - Probably the best Lifebound target in Llaelese Resistance as he can make the opponent not want to kill them by putting Lifebound on them, but any Dog they don't kill will knock something down in turn. This should help deliver quite a few of them.
• Captain Rahera - Run them 12", then feat and have them throw their nets for a threat range of 16".
• Magnus the Traitor or Ossrum - They can snipe them to give them a much larger threat range and they can knock Magnus down to make him feign death.
• Captain Jonas Murdoch - Go To Ground and Assault between them are exactly what the doctor ordered for the Devil Dogs. They are tailor made to be in Cygnar with Jonas where they can get Snipe and Deadeye with assault and protection from blasts.
• The High Reclaimer and an Attendant Priest get their knockdown into interesting places; from 4" away that knockdown net physically can't miss.
• The Vessel of Judgment (and an Attendant Priest) can let them knock down models on the enemy turn (via doors) - and they can't stand up on the turn they were knocked down.
• Advancing them behind Trencher Infantry in Llaelese Resistance is one way to deliver them with few casualties thanks to Major Harrison Gibbs granting the Trenchers Reposition 3" so they can back up behind their clouds. Another one is to flood the board with two full unit of Rocketmen under Ashlynn's feat. The enemy will have to chew through them in order to get to the Doggos.

Jacks to Marshall

• Marshalling is encouraged by the Irregulars theme force. Sam has an unimpressive drive, so taking a Mangler to get the free charge, Crush bonus and flank in Irregulars would be the best choice if points were no object.
• The Freebooter is generally good and synergises well with the Devil Dogs. With the Crush Order, Flank and Thrash it can utterly mangle anything that a Devil Dog knocked down before.
• Lanyssa, Bamfist, and Widget are a trio of solos that together make any marshalled jack really shine.
• Shae's Coup or Magnus1's Iron Aggression make jacks charge for free so they can Crush! instead of Hurry!
• Remember that there is no obligation to give them a jack, with the right support (e.g. Crosse's Lifebound) they are able to function on their own.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• If you don't face constructs regularly Dismantle is an empty rule.
• Without defensive buffs they die to basically anything.
• They set up enemy models for the rest of your army, they probably won't do much on their own.

Tricks & Tips

• With the net, you can trigger Feign Death on Magnus or any Llaelese models near Major Gibbs.
• Under Jonas Murdoch: When assaulting a medium or larger base, get the first Dog Base-to-Base with the target and the other dogs at maximum Melee. When the first dog throws his net it will not deviate, which will knock down the target and himself but not the other Dogs. The other Dogs hit with their guns on anything but snake eyes and autohit their melee attacks.
• Snipe and Deadeye affects both nets and slug guns.

Other

Trivia

Released in Warmachine: Escalation (2004)