Captain Kara Sloan
From LOS Warmachine University
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Captain Kara Sloan |
 This model can only be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can see the other models with / without mk4 rules on this page. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules. |
Captain Kara Sloan goes to war as a one-woman rifle brigade. When focused on the destruction of her foe, every warjack she commands becomes linked to the pull of her rifle’s trigger to unleash a barrage of unparalleled accuracy and power simultaneously. Armed with her custom magelock rifle, she walks into the most vicious of firefights without hesitation and always emerges the victor.
Basic Info
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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 - Firing Squad
- Sloan immediately casts Fire Group (see her spell list) without spending focus.
- Additionally, Sloan and models in her battlegroup beginning their activation in her control range can make one additional ranged attack during their activations.
- Firing Squad lasts for one turn.
Abilities
- True Sight - This model ignores cloud effects when determining LOS. This model also ignores Stealth.
- Field Marshal [True Sight] - Warbeasts/warjacks in this model's battlegroup gain True Sight.
Weapons
- Spitfire - 14" range, POW 12 gun.
- Sword - 0.5" reach, P+S 8 melee weapon that you hope to never use.
| Spitfire | ||||||||||||||
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RNG | ROF | AOE | POW | ||||||||||
| 14 | 1 | - | 12 | |||||||||||
| Sword | ||||||||||||||
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RNG | POW | P+S | |||||||||||
| 0.5 | 3 | 8 | ||||||||||||
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Hope you never have to use it. | ||||||||||||||
Spells
| COST | RNG | AOE | POW | DUR | OFF | ||
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| Dust to Dust
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2 | 10 | - | 12 | (★) | Yes | |
| When an enemy warrior model is boxed by Dust to Dust, center a 3" AOE cloud on it, then RFP it. The AOE remains in play for one round. | |||||||
| Fire Group
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2 | SELF | - | - | Turn | No | |
| While models in the spellcaster's battlegroup are in its control range, their ranged weapons gain +2 RNG. Fire Group lasts for one turn. | |||||||
| Guided Fire
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3 | SELF | Control | - | Turn | No | |
| While in the spellcaster's control range, models in its battlegroup gain boosted ranged attack rolls for one turn. | |||||||
| Refuge
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2 | 6 | - | - | Upkeep | No | |
| At the end of an activation in which the target friendly Faction model hit an enemy model with an attack, the affected model can make a full advance. It cannot be targeted by free strikes during this movement. | |||||||
| Return Fire
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1 | 6 | - | - | Round | No | |
| When target friendly Faction model is targeted by an enemy ranged attack, after the attack is resolved the affected model can make one basic melee or ranged attack, then Return Fire expires. Return Fire lasts for one round. | |||||||
Theme Forces
- Cygnar
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Flame in the Darkness - Gravediggers
- Heavy Metal
- Sons of the Tempest. She can upkeep spells for free on Gun Mage models (including herself). She does not get the Pistoleer bonus though, because she lacks Gunfighter.
- Storm Division. In this theme this model gains Immunity: Electricity.
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- Other Factions
- Infernal players can use her in the Hearts of Darkness theme.
Thoughts on Captain Kara Sloan
Captain Kara Sloan in a nutshell
Kara went from one of Cygnar's most neglected casters to the epitome of a gunline caster. She wants to shoot her opponent off the table with her battlegroup from long range. While Sloan can't personally eliminate vast quantities of infantry, she does excel at annihilating hard targets. Her Field Marshal ability makes hiding from her very difficult. Sloan gives your battlegroup the tools to win a ranged battle by boosting range and accuracy.
Feat thoughts
Kara Sloan's feat requires you to tailor her battlegroup to make the most out of it. In its mechanics it is pretty self-explanatory; Sloan and her jacks should be shooting a lot and you will do it even more efficiently than usual on feat turn. Remember, it only grants an additional ranged attack, so jacks and colossi with multiple weapons won't get to fire all their guns again. Watch out for fast enemies, who will try to force you to pop your feat early by rushing your gun line. With Reinholdt and your feat you have excellent chances to shoot pretty much any model you can get line of sight on. If going for assassination, remember to remove Shield Guards, models eligible for Sucker! or Sacrificial Pawn, which would waste your shots.
Spell thoughts
- Dust to Dust - With barely enough focus for your other spells, it is easy to never use this spell at all. At best it's a niche spell, but it RFPs warrior models, so sometimes it worth using as it can nullify the feat of The Twins.
- Fire Group - Not as decisive as Snipe, but its battlegroup-wide effect compensates for it adequately. It extends your gun's range as well, giving a total threat range of 22". Probably your most sought-after spell.
- Guided Fire - That might seem like a no-brainer, but do your maths, whether or not you'll actually need it. Since your jacks can use their power-up focus to boost, sometimes you better spend it elsewhere. It is also good to enable boosted shots for your jacks, if they become disrupted, for example, after the feat of Nemo1. It can also compensate the accuracy decrease of crippled ranged weapons.
- Refuge - You might want to cast it early and upkeep it - but only if there is a nice place out of line of sight or behind a wall you can move the model back to. Just remember that this can leave you without any focus if you've been casting Guided Fire and Fire Group.
- Return fire - This will be another rarely used spell. As the attack happens outside of your activation, it cannot be boosted. Guided Fire only works for one turn, not a round, so unless your opponent is making ranged attacks during your turn, there is no interaction between Guided Fire and Return Fire. Theoretically, you could use it on elusive solos with high damage output, like the Gun Mage Captain Adept or the Arcane Tempest Rifleman, to retaliate for half-measures in removing them, but the short range of the spell makes it extremely unlikely.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- Sloan provides very little support for any models outside of her battlegroup besides killing or softening up targets for them.
- She has no effective counter to spells or feats that prevent models being targeted by ranged attacks such as Submerge or Swamp Pit. She's also vulnerable to Lamentation, making it impossible to use both of her key spells at once.
- In many turns you may want to cast Guided Fire and/or Fire Group, which can leave her with only a single focus to boost Spitfire's damage roll(s).
- She typically plays with low volume, high damage Warjacks. Into high model count armies, she simply can't grind through their models quick enough before they engage.
- Steamroller 2017 makes gunlines more difficult to play, since all packets after 2017 recommend and encourage centrally placed Line of Sight blocking terrain.
- This makes her assassination threat and the ability to focus-fire much weaker.
- The general increase in the amount of terrain has had a similar impact. Her one trick strategy has even more problems to contend with.
Tricks & Tips
- With her feat, there is some discrepancy between the 2016 print of the physical card and the Warroom entry. Warroom is correct - make sure you're using the right version of her rules.
- Remember that Refuge triggers on a model *hit*, not on damage or destroyed. With her high RAT, unless you colossally fail a roll, you'll hit what you're aiming at and walk away safely.
- Now that she is a Gun Mage, in Sons of the Tempest she can upkeep Refuge on herself without spending Focus, giving her a welcome upgrade to survivability.
List Building Advice
Strategy
Kara Sloan hopes to devastate the enemy with lethal waves of gunfire leaving them unable to properly respond. You are typically aiming to get an assassination, but if the opponent is overly defensive, you may be able to take apart their entire army with your shooting. Traditionally, her feat is best used early, you're going to be hoping to alpha strike the enemy with your shooting. Between the good ranges of Cygnar, and the range buff of Fire Group, you should be able to manage at least two turns of shooting. If you shoot everything that was in range to attack you first, you may be able to buy yourself more turns of shooting. Though her army is all about her battlegroup, smart enemies will try to jam her as soon as possible. To counter that, you might want to consider cheap and/or self-sufficient troops to screen your lines.
Theme Thoughts
As things are now, Sloan gets the most work out of ranged warjacks. She gets so much efficiency out of them that her armies typically are almost entirely composed of them. With this in mind, she is most commonly played with the Gravediggers theme list. Despite this, there are still reasons to try to use her out of Gravediggers.
The best case for Gravediggers is the fact she can squeeze an incredible number of highly accurate shots out of Grenadiers. This plus the ranged support in the theme really tip the scales in its favour.
- Rangers - Sloan favours bringing all of the guns, so missing with any battlegroup model is disappointing. Rangers make the battlegroup even more accurate.
- Trencher Master Gunner - A great contesting and shooting solos in his own right, he also supports Grenadiers with Artillerist.
- Patrol Dog - Since it removes Stealth, it is a good pick against many lists for those non-battlegroup models like the Express Team.
- Trencher Express Team - They can knock down targets and dish out heavy damage.
- Trencher Infantry - These guys throw up a cloud wall that her battlegroup can see straight through, but the enemy can't. But, many armies have anti cloud wall tech now.
- Sword Knights - They are an average screening unit.
- Jakes1 - Offers a method to splash some melee power into an otherwise ranged list. She can perform well with a Hammersmith whose poor threat range is largely mitigated by Energizer and the fact most enemies are trying to run to get to Sloan.
Storm Division
Accumulator gives the Reliant and Stormclad an additional focus when they begin activations near Storm Knights. This is super helpful during Kara's feat turn, providing boosted second shots.
- Jakes1 - Mentioned above and can also be in this theme.
- Silver Line Stormguard - They help you fend off early charges.
- Stormblade Infantry - They are a good, self-sufficient unit to screen with and trigger accumulator.
- Gun Mage Captain Adept - Provides Veteran Leader and a Flare shot to further improve your accuracy. Though situational, his Shadow Fire can remove a model blocking LOS, making it all the easier to hit the juicy targets behind.
- Lieutenant Bastian Falk - Rune-Marked can turn Sloan into a POW 14 Weaponmaster rifle.
- Black 13th Strike Force - They unjam with Black Penny and are an excellent unit for their price.
- Rangers - As above are in this theme, too.
Support models - Various Themes
- Captain Arlan Strangewayes - Almost mandatory for Empower so he can alleviate some of the focus burden on Sloan. Arcane Reinforcement can also give Sloan an extra chance into Protectorate warjacks under Hymn of Passage or armies with incorporeal models, but it still means most of her battlegroup can't attack the important models unless you can shoot out the Choir of Menoth first.
- Squire - Can be a useful model to include. Typically Sloan would rather have Reinholdt, but that isn't always an option. Being able to allocate an extra focus to boost damage during her feat turn can be very helpful indeed.
- Journeyman Warcaster - Can be extremely valuable to Sloan lists that include a Stormwall. Arcane Shield protects the investment you make with selecting a colossal. Typically his battlegroup will be just a Charger, Sentinel or Hunter.
- Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine - His Fire For Effect spell can fully boost Sloan's or one of her ranged jack's first attack.
- He can bring Ace with him. Shadow Fire can open up assassination vectors for Kara.
Mercenary Options
- Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr - Applied Knowledge is good if you choose to cripple beasts or jacks rather than go for the straight up assassination.
- Reinholdt - Gives you another shot with Reload.
Infernal Armies
She is the only Cygnar caster available in Hearts of Darkness, but as a pure battlegroup caster it's an iffy theme for her (just as any theme other than Heavy Metal). Still, it does something for her as her jacks gain Accumulator which vastly increases their focus efficiency. Be aware that accumulator won't give you two extra focus if you also bring storm knights and a Stormclad.
- One of the advantages is that you can mix and match (most of) the solos/units already suggested above.
- Howlers, Griever Swarms and the Horrors summoned by Regna Granov provide you with the afoementioned Accumulator opportunities. Saldy Kara does nothing for them.
- Valin Hauke - Provides Tactician (also affects jacks), which is great with Refuge. The refuge target can walk up, shoot and back away through a skirmish screen. Brother's Keeper is a no knockdown / no stationairy bubble which is great with Kara's naturally high defenses and Tough troops such as Trencher Infantry.
- Mordecai - The Shadow ability is excellent to keep Sloan save in a pinch.
- Umbral Guardians or Trench Buster - Another way to keep Kara save. Busters also flank with other Trenchers if you brought them.
- Bastian Falk - Can be brough along to provide a damage buff to Sloan and the Infernal troops.
- The Hermit - Another damage buff and control piece against other Infernals.
Battlegroup
- Light
- Charger - Provides firepower beyond what it's cost typically promises. Unfortunately, despite being good range and RoF, Powerful Attack on its gun isn't terribly efficient if you are also casting Guided Fire. The Charger also typically wants to operate with two focus points so both of its shots are boosted. If you are taking this jack, it may be best to leave it on a Journeyman Warcaster.
- Hunter - The gold standard of a Sloan List. Firing against a Khador jack, this has comparable firepower to the much more expensive Defender at a much cheaper cost. Another important factor would be that it is typically happy to be left with a single point of focus to just boost its considerable attack making it more efficient than the Charger.
- Firefly - Works better on the feat turn than other multi-shot ranged jacks because you'll get 2d3+2 attacks, rather just one extra shot as you would with a something like a Charger or Sentinel. The Firefly's two-inch melee weapon synergizes well with Sword Knights, providing flank in the Heavy Metal theme list.
- Sentinel - Doesn't have a very great gun, but against larger formations of infantry, it can be very useful. The main reason to take this jack is because of the Shield Guard ability.
- Heavy
- Colossal
- Stormwall - This colossal provides several elements that make it a good choice. It comes equipped with two very powerful long-range cannons just like a defender but happens to be well armored enough that even heavy shooting is unlikely to kill it. Also, the Stormwall is a deterrent. Killing Kara Sloan usually means engaging her in close combat where her amazing firepower counts for much less. Having a colossal nearby ensures that such a strategy is a risky one.
- Hurricane - The arc node doesn't often play a large role in her game but does extend the possibility of casting Dust to Dust, or Return Fire, provided the target is near the Hurricane. The Storm Emitter lethality can also be increased by a nearby Firefly. The no-fly zone can prevent charges from flying models from coming near Kara.
Starting a 25 point Brawl list
In 2020.11 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, put together this list for the Brawlmachine format. It was then updated for the 2021.10 errata. He even wrote about it's playstyle and expanding it beyond 25 points, which you can read here.
Theme - Hearts of Darkness (Infernals)
- Umbral Guardian: [Free] (6 pts)
- Eilish2: [5 pts]
- Gun Mage Captain Adept: [4 pts]
- Trencher Master Gunner: [3 pts]
- Patrol Dog: [1 pt]
- Trencher Express Team: [5 pts]
- Command Attachment: [3 pts]
For more Brawlmachine list ideas, see Category: Brawl List
Other
Trivia
- Released in Forces of Warmachine: Cygnar (2010)
- In the early years of Mk3 Sloan was notorious about her Hunter spam, allowing these fast, advance-deploying jacks to deliver a punishing blow into the enemy's front line, with little possiblility to respond in kind. She was the main reson that the Hunter lost Advance Deployment via the Trencher CID in 2017 September.
- This model has a limited edition sculpt, released in 2020.05.
Video Battle Reports
- 2019.07 Feat Fetish, vs Saeryn1
- See also Category: Video Battle Reports for more casters with videos.
Other Cygnar models
Rules Clarifications
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Rules Clarification : Feat: Firing Squad
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Rules Clarification: : Magical Damage (Edit) |
* The "Damage Type: Magical" is not inherited by "secondary" damage from a weapon. That is, stuff like arcs (Electro Leap) or hazards (Scather). (Infernal Ruling)
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Rules Clarification : Weapon Master - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification: : Warcaster (Edit) | ||||
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Rules Clarification : True Sight (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Field Marshal (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Dust to Dust - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Fire Group (Edit) |
Rules Clarification : Guided Fire - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Refuge (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Return Fire (Edit)
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Categories:
- Cygnar
- Gun Mage
- Model
- Does have Mk4 rules
- Warcaster
- Fire Group Feat
- True Sight
- Field Marshal
- True Sight Field Marshal
- Magical Damage
- Weapon Master
- Dust to Dust
- Fire Group
- Guided Fire
- Refuge
- Return Fire
- Gravediggers
- Heavy Metal
- Sons of the Tempest
- Storm Division
- Hearts of Darkness
- Brawl List
- Limited Edition Sculpt
- Video Battle Reports
