Major Beth Maddox
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Major Beth Maddox |
Prime This model is available in one Prime Army, Storm Knights. It can also be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can view the other Mk3 models that made it into a Legacy Army at this page. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules. |
A fierce Storm Knight of consummate skill, Major Maddox is a born survivor and a superlative officer, a woman whose courage and resolve have made her the face of the modern Cygnaran military. Maddox survived as a prisoner of war held by the Protectorate of Menoth and managed her own daring escape after years of captivity. She has adopted a “no man left behind” policy and does not hesitate to go off-book to ensure the safety of those under her command.
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 : Thundering Rage
While in Maddox's control range, friendly Faction model's melee weapons gain +3 POW and Beat Back. Thundering Rage lasts for one turn.
- Beat Back - Immediately after a basic attack with a weapon with Beat Back is resolved during the attacking model's Combat Action, the enemy model hit can be pushed 1" directly away from the attacking model. After the enemy model is pushed, the attacking model can advance up to 1" directly toward it.
Abilities
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Immunity: Electricity
- Quick Work - When this model destroys one or more enemy models with a melee attack during its Combat Action, immediately after the attack is resolved it can make one basic ranged attack.
- Flank [ Storm Knight ] - When this model makes a melee attack against an enemy model in the melee range of other friendly Storm Knight models, this model gains +2 to attack rolls and gains an additional damage die.
- Resourceful - This model can upkeep spells on models in its battlegroup without spending focus/fury.
Weapons
Storm Strike | ||||||||||||||
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RNG | ROF | AOE | POW | ||||||||||
10 | 1 | - | 12 | |||||||||||
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Tempest | ||||||||||||||
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RNG | POW | P+S | |||||||||||
2 | 7 | 13 | ||||||||||||
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Spells
COST | RNG | AOE | POW | DUR | OFF | ||
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Assail
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2 | 6 | - | - | Upkeep | No | |
Target friendly Faction warjack can charge or make slam or trample power attacks without spending focus. The warjack gains +2" movement when it charges or makes a slam or trample power attack. Models slammed by the warjack are moved +2". | |||||||
Dauntless Resolve
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2 | 6 | - | - | Upkeep | No | |
Target friendly Faction warrior model/unit gains +3 ARM and Tough. Models are not affected while out of formation. | |||||||
Electrical Blast
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3 | 8 | 3 | 13 (Electric) | - | Yes | |
Electrical Blast causes electrical damage. Warjacks damaged by Electrical Blast suffer Disruption. | |||||||
Onslaught
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2 | SELF | Control | - | Upkeep | No | |
The spellcaster and friendly Faction models beginning their activations in its control range gain Relentless Charge for one turn.
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Snipe
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2 | 6 | - | - | Upkeep | No | |
Target model/unit's ranged weapons gain +4 RNG. |
Theme Forces
- Flame in the Darkness. She gains access to Khador and Mercenary warjacks in this theme.
- Gravediggers
- Heavy Metal
- Sons of the Tempest
- Storm Division. She gains Unyielding in this theme.
Thoughts on Major Beth Maddox
Major Beth Maddox in a nutshell
Maddox is the Mk3 "battlebox caster" for Cygnar. As such she is designed to be relatively simple to learn and straightforward to use. If you're learning the game, it is best to use her vs one of the other battlebox casters because they're all designed to have roughly the same power level. Despite her combat prowess and big lightning sword, Major Beth Maddox is a support caster with a large variety of buffing spells that can fit many situations and her abilities address many of the common perceived weaknesses of Cygnar troops by helping them survive, hit harder, and have pathfinder.
With the 11/2020 update gaining Resourceful has helped her focus efficiency allowing her to swap Snipe and Assail a lot more comfortably while upkeeping Onslaught for free, the upgrade to her melee game via Flank and her much improved gun are small quality of life changes that you will only really notice if you are trying to end the game as she still isn’t that tough and shouldn’t be that far forward.
Spell thoughts
- Assail - Put it on an important warjack early and don't let it drop. An extra 2" movement can make an important charge happen. Since the charge is free, it’s often worth cycling, but alongside, dauntless resolve and snipe, this leaves Maddox focused starved unless she is using Resourceful.
- Dauntless Resolve
- In a battlebox fight, the only suitable target is Maddox herself. Because of Resourceful it will be free to upkeep on her only, but you can’t have it and Onslaught on her at the same time.
- Best when used on high-ARM warriors like Storm Lances, Stormblade Infantry, and Silver Line Stormguard.
- Can also be used to prevent squishier troops like Gun Mages from dying to blasts.
- Sword Knights go from being great jammer infantry to fantastic jammer infantry.
- Electrical Blast
- Usually nuke spells are used to hunt Incorporeal models, and since your sword-gun has no magic ranged attack, this spell is best applied to either that or to cause disruption on warjacks.
- Given that you have to damage the warjack, you'll probably boost damage, making this an expensive spell. So only go after a 'jack you really want disrupted.
- Don't forget that the Firefly buffs this spell's damage if it stands close enough to the target.
- Watch out for anti-disruption tech, like Empower.
- Onslaught - This is probably worth casting on turn 1 and upkeeping for the whole game (it’s free after all as Maddox is in her own Battlegroup). The Steamroller scenarios demand quite a few terrain pieces, so it will have plenty of time to prove its usefulness.
- Snipe
- Cygnar's staple ranged buff.
- Marginally useful in the initial battlebox fights, but increasingly important in larger games. Keep it on the Firefly and you won’t have to pay to upkeep it.
- Very good on units with follow-up movement after their shooting, like Tempest Blazers: if they use Snipe to shoot from max range, then reposition even further back, usually you'll have an extra turn for shooting before the enemy reaches you.
- If you run Maddox in Storm Division or Heavy Metal, Snipe is excellent on a Storm Strider. 23" threat on two attacks that have D3 e-leaps clears out important support models in the back of an army. Also works well on Stormblade Infantry, pushing up your assault threat to 18" (24" on your Gunners).
Feat thoughts
Battlebox casters rarely have complicated feats and Maddox is no exception. Use it when most of your army smashes into your opponent. A +3 modifier on your melee attack damage rolls will usually equal about a boost on those rolls. If the enemy denies a charge, the attacks will still hit almost as hard as a non-feat normal charge. It is perfect to counter STR penalties on your troops (like the one in Thagrosh1's Death Shroud), though this is not a STR bonus - so you won't throw enemies farther, for example. Don't forget keep models within Maddox's CTRL range during feat turn. If you trigger a beat back that pulls a jack out of range, it loses the damage buff on subsequent attacks.
Battlebox Fights
In a battlebox fight, two players who bought nothing but their Faction's starter set use everything in that box to play a game. Maddox wants to win by attrition by hitting the enemy at range with the Firefly and then grinding down what remains with her Assail-enhanced Ironclad (and Onslaught, if the enemy abuses terrain). Snipe helps you win ranged duels, but battles themselves will rarely be won at range. Despite her decent MAT and Quick Work ability you don't want to commit her into battle. Her sword has a good effect on it to help finishing off jacks, but it is tied to a critical effect which makes it fairly unreliable. You can boost attacks to increase your critical effect chance.
- Ironclad - Standard cheap beat stick for Cygnar. Put assail on it for extra effectiveness. Its Tremor attack knocks targets down for follow-up attacks and it can hit hard on its own.
- Lancer - With only a single offensive spell you will mainly use it for support duties and upkeep cycling (explained in the #Tips & Tricks section below). Set Defense pumps protects it a little against charges, while Shock Field and Shock Shield can potentially cripple enemy jacks' cortexes.
- Firefly - Cygnar's unique theme is lightning and the Firefly is all about electricity-based attacks. It won't be relevant in the battlegroup-only fights outside of buffing the damage from its own guns, Maddox' sword and her spell. In larger games you will find its presence extremely useful. The Storm Division Theme is unimaginable without it.
Maddox does have a few issues to consider in Battlebox fights and Journeyman Leagues weeks 1 and 2:
- Two of Cygnar's unique tricks are cortex damage and disruption, which don't bother warbeasts at all.
- The third Cygnar gimmick, electro-leap, is best on grunts and solos, which your opponents won't have yet.
- Dauntless Resolve and Snipe are really best used on infantry units, which you don't have yet.
- Maddox has limited synergy with the Lancer and Firefly with just the Battlegroup.
Many of these issues go away once you start getting some units and solos into your army, but could be frustrating during Battlegroup play. If given the option, consider running Maddox with an Ironclad/Hammersmith and a Stormclad instead, which has a lot more synergy with Maddox. Two cost efficient heavies are better than a heavy and two light jacks in Battlegroup play.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- She is very support oriented. You'll likely want to upkeep Snipe and Arcane Armor. Her toolkit has quite an overlap with another Cygnaran Warcaster, with his feat plus Arcane Shield and giving him a battleplan -while she just does a lot of things and is more focus efficient.
- No accuracy buff for her army.
- Vulnerable to anti-upkeep tactics (Purgation, Lamentation, Purification, Eiryss2, Eilysh, etc.); four friendly upkeep spells means that she's at high risk of being hard-countered.
- Quick Work and Flank are kind of a wasted ability on her since outside of Storm Division she does not have the defensive stats to go in deep, kill stuff and survive. Stay back and support your forces and you will be better off.
- You will always have to pay upkeeps for Dauntless Resolve unless you put it on her, in which case you cannot also have Onslaught, since you cannot put it on jacks at all, which also means she cannot make her jacks any tougher.
Tricks & Tips
- Beat Back doesn't have to damage the opponent; a hit is all you need to trigger it. That means a lowly Mechanik can push a heavy out of a zone! Great for unjamming models.
- Snipe and Assail can be spell cycled to affect two units in a turn. You do this by putting it on a unit the turn before, upkeeping the spell and using that unit/jack before activating Maddox. Then activate Maddox to put the spell on a different unit/jack before activating it.
- Electro-leap slingshot is a staple trick of Cygnar's forces. If you want to remove a model with low ARM but high DEF, shoot a low DEF model near it with your main attack. The electro leap will then bounce to the squishy model you wanted to kill. If there's no suitable models nearby (or they're not the closest), then send a sturdy model of yours near a target and use it as a starting point for the leap.
- Keep in mind that you cannot target your electro-immune models to bounce electro leaps and lightnings into other models. Also, Storm Division all Cygnar models gain Immunity: Electricity. So in that theme your best options for arcing Electro Leaps is your mercenaries (if you brought any at all).
List Building Tips

Strategy
Once she moves beyond the battlebox fights discussed above, Maddox' overall strategy changes little with a larger army. Most of the buffing spells will have self-evident targets and the buffed melee attacks will help you to win via attrition. Keep in mind the Beat Back element of her feat - even though you cannot destroy a target, you can use it to push contesting models out of the zone, if they are just chipping the zone's edge. Maddox likes a combined arms army. Take a decent variety of troops including some ranged choices for Snipe, some moderately armoured troops for Dauntless Resolve, and some good heavy warjacks for Assail.
Theme Thoughts
Your support duties really come into there own here, but even with Resourceful after cycling Assail you don’t really have that much spare FOCUS, so your force needs to be a little atypical focusing around a unit of Sword Knights plus their incremental support (mainly Archduke Runewood).
- Sword Knights - These guys make incredibly good use of Dauntless Resolve. Defensive Line provides immunity to knock-down which in turn allows them to make use of multiple tough rolls. Maddox's spells amplify their power and with the feat they can hit pretty hard.
- Long Gunners or Storm Strider - This list has a surprising amount of ranged presence, each enjoying the range buff from Snipe. Long Gunners are better against infantry spams, while the Storm Strider is better at taking out hard targets.
- Stormclad - Normally an inefficient choice in the Heavy Metal theme as you can't field any storm knight units or solos to power it's accumulator - unless you take Maddox as your warcaster. To take this into perspective: A Stormclad powering up close to Maddox and receiving Empower from Arlan Strangeways will activate with 3 focus. Exactly the kind of focus efficiency a focus starved caster needs!
Your toughest units can be found here - making good use of Dauntless resolve, but really they love her entire kit; Snipe to help with the short range of the units, Onslaught for Pathfinder. Maddox getting Unyielding helps weaken a melee assassination also.
- Lieutenant Gwen Keller - Force Barrier is a great anti ranged assassination tool and it makes it harder to destroy the units she wants.
- Storm Lances - The best cavalry in the game and the best target for Dauntless Resolve. Pathfinder from Onslaught is icing on the cake.
- Silver Line Stormguard - As they're often immune to charges, Dauntless Resolve allows them to survive the low pow shooting, blast damage, and unboosted melee attacks they are likely to receive. This helps deliver their lightning damage POW buff.
- Stormblade Captain and Laddermore - Essential army support because Maddox is also a Storm Knight, so their buffs work on her too.
- Marshalling a Stormclad with him is not that bad of an idea if you also have Strangeways in your list. With Assail it has a free charge and two focus from Accumulator and Empower and it benefits from every single generic Drive. Reposition 5" means it can shoot and back up, Aim and still move into a zone, ect.
- Savio Montero Acosta - He's a friendly faction model in the theme, benefiting from Onslaught and your feat as well (provided he lives long enough to use it).
- Stormblade Infantry - Between Iron Zeal and Dauntless Resolve they are hard to damage. While under Maddox's feat (and with their leader alive) they'll hit with an effective P+S 18.
- Sir Dreyfus the Storm Knight - He gets awkward places and her feat with his Flank makes him hit hard. Roadblock isn’t that useful but hiding Maddox behind him in the early turns can help.
- Nemo4 - Maddox is all about her infantry and Nemo can bring back d3 troopers every turn, which is especially good on a Dauntless Resolve unit. He can bring a Firefly to buff Lightning Damage and with Lightning Shroud said Firefly will actually hit very hard for a light, an ideal target for her feat! Nemo is also a very good target for Snipe in his own right, or you can bring in a Gun Mage Captain Adept
- Trencher Commandos - As they are the only Trencher unit that do not resist blasts very well, consider putting Dauntless resolve on them. Making them ARM 16 solves that problem nicely, meaning the have to be brought down by either Sprays or less conventional means of infantry clearing.
- Trencher Blockhouse - An outstanding target for Snipe as it has a quality gun that sets up targets of opportunity for the rest of your army. Combine its trenches and reinforcements with Alexia2 and you make your entire list very hard to get rid off, which is excellent for scenario play.
- Trencher Long Gunners - Another great target for Snipe as they bring the most quality mass shooting out of any unit in this theme.
- Captain Maxwell Finn and Trench Busters - The feat turns them into unholy terrors that hit really, really hard. Beat Back also makes them sceneario bullies.
- Trencher Master Gunner - Giving your sniped Blockhouse Arching Fire means it can cover a huge potion of the board. Alternatively he can give it Artillerist, or give an Express Team an extra shot.
- Rangers - Maddox has no innate tools to boost accuracy on her troops, so the presence of the rangers are most welcome.
Several fairly tough units that can benefit from her support spells and feat. Onslaught is excellent so you don't have to give up Throne's +2 damage to get a unit pathfinder and also one of the few ways to get pathfinder to the variety of excellent jack choices in this theme. Plenty of melee units and options that can benefit from her feat. Also vengeance in theme greatly helps as she has no way to speed up melee units on her own. Dauntless Resolve has a few good places to go; Archons, Resolutes or even LoLS.
- Legion of Lost Souls - A solid option for Dauntless Resolve with tough adding to the annoyance of their recursion.
- Precursor Knights - Her feat and Throne alone are a combined +5 not to mention the other options in theme to increase melee damage. It is trivial to get the PKs up to at least P&S 17 weapon masters on feat turn.
- Thamarite Archon - Excellent option for Snipe.
- Morrowan Archon - A good target for Dauntless Resolve and provides her with Veteran Leader, though she has no real business attacking anything.
- Resolutes love both Dauntless and Snipe, so cycle accordingly.
- Gallant - As focus efficient as a Stormclad with Morrowans (Beth included) around. Also it has Shield guard and Sacred Ward instead of the e-leap.
- Devastator - Another great target for Assail. Bulldoze and Beat Back from her feat also make it an excellent scenario bully.
This is an odd theme for Maddox; as it leaves few mentionable targets for your feat, but you do get free upkeeps in play (Dauntless Resolve on the Tempest Blazers, and Snipe on any other Arcane Tempest unit), This list usually fixes your accuracy problems and has damage boosts on its own via solos (e.g., Falk, the GMCA and Caine0) and Rangers for the same reasons noted in Gravediggers.
Support models - Various themes
- Sylys - A free upkeep for 1 of your warrior upkeep spells? Yes please.
- Squire - Whether it is a free focus or Arcane Assist, it leaves you with more FOCUS to play. The Squire boosts your CTRL area and thus Onslaught and feat area, but the offensive boost that Sylys can give is also handy sometimes.
- Arlan Strangewayes' Empower lifts her focus burden as well. A Stormclad will virtually never need allocations among power up, empower and Accumulator
Battlegroup
- See also the comments about the battlebox warjacks in the #Battlebox Fights section above.
- Hurricane - Perhaps the single greatest target for the Assail spell, because the Hurricane has slam guns that also benefit from the +2" to slam distance. The bonus to threat range is also very much appreciated. Furthermore, Maddox can sit behind it's massive base and stay safe while handing out buffs through it's arc node.
- Stormclad - Possibly The single most focus-efficient jack for her, since her presence can charge it up because she's a Storm Knight. Also a great target for Assail. You can put it under the care of a jack marshal instead, as well.
- Reliant - For the same reason as the Stormclad its very focus efficient with Maddox. Note that a Stormclad and a Reliant fill her WJPs exactly.
- Firefly - An absolute mainstay in Storm Division. It can buff Maddox's attacks or those of a Stormclad or Hurricane. Its a good idea to outsource it onto a Journeyman Warcaster.
- Hammersmith - It's a great Assail target if you didn't bring a Hurricane. Try to bring tech that can help boost its low speed.
- Brickhouse - Maddox's personal 'jack. He is an expensive and slow choice for a heavy hitter with some limited control aspects. You should take Field Mechaniks with him though, since Brickhouse really needs his systems working to get the job done (mainly its right hand for Force Lock). Generally a Stormclad or Centurion is better for less points, you only take Brickhouse for the novelty.
- Defender - A great ranged jack that loves Snipe.
- Centurion - If you want to babysit an important solo, like a Stormblade Captain, this jack has you covered. Assail makes it faster, which is great for a SPD 4 jack.
Starting a 25 point Brawl list
Written by Phillip Melvin, the accompanying strategy article can be found on the main LOS site. This list has the correct points cost as of 2022.01.
- Lieutenant Gwen Keller: [Free] (5 pts)
- Sir Dreyfus the Storm Knight: [5 pts]
- Stormblade Captain: [4 pts]
- Silver Line Stormguard (Min unit): [9 pts]
- Stormsmith Storm Tower: [4 pts]
For more Brawlmachine list ideas, see Category: Brawl List
Other
Trivia
- Released in 2016.06 in the battlebox set
- Resculpted in 2021 as a standalone model.
Video Battle Reports
- 2019.05 Encounter Wargaming, vs Helynna1
- See also Category: Video Battle Reports for more casters with videos.
Other Cygnar models
Rules Clarifications
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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 : Disruption (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Cortex Damage (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Electro Leap (Edit)
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Rules Clarification: : Warcaster (Edit) | ||||
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Rules Clarification : Electricity (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Flank (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Resourceful (Edit) |
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Rules Clarification : Quick Work (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Dauntless Resolve (Edit) |
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Rules Clarification : Electrical Blast (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Onslaught (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Snipe (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Beat Back (Edit)
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- Cygnar
- Morrowan
- Storm Knight
- Model
- Battlebox Caster
- Does have Mk4 rules
- Warcaster
- Beat Back Feat
- Buffs-POW (Melee) Feat
- Electricity Immunity
- Quick Work
- Flank
- Resourceful
- Electricity Damage
- Critical Disruption
- Electro Leap
- Magical Damage
- Critical Cortex Damage
- Assail
- Dauntless Resolve
- Electrical Blast
- Onslaught
- Snipe
- Flame in the Darkness
- Gravediggers
- Heavy Metal
- Sons of the Tempest
- Storm Division
- Brawl List
- Video Battle Reports