Warmachine/Tactics/Convergence of Cyriss

Iterative successes converge towards our inevitable victory, bitches.

Why Play Convergence?

Fluff-wise: it's a religion full of scientists, engineers, and steampunk neckbeards who transfer their souls into clockwork bodies and talk to their science moon goddess through the inconsistencies in the output of a giant calculating machine. They're also working to prepare the world as a vessel for her to inhabit, regardless of the desires of all those Philistines who don't think turning Caen into a giant sterile clockwork utopia is totally awesome.

Crunch-wise: the Convergence can play a 'jack heavy game on par with the Protectorate. Between unique rules, plentiful access to Repair and/or Bodge as well as a support solo or two many Convergence warcasters can build perfectly viable 'jack heavy lists. Supporting your 'jacks are a variety of troops who have all the advantages of being non-living models without the taint of ridiculous bullshit, who are in turn supported by solos who can bring back destroyed warrior models over and over to really piss your opponent off. Also markerlights flares.

Much like their fluff this is very much an army where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Each gear may not be particularly outstanding on its own and your order of activations will be very important, but when things go just as planned your Rube Goldberg army will grind your opponent's army into clockwork kibble between their teeth. Basically, if the statement "Warmachine is just Magic: the Gathering with models" doesn't send you screaming out of the room, you'll probably find something to like in the Convergence.

Our Warjacks are Different

Because the rules for Convergence vectors (warjacks) are so important to how the overall army functions, it's worth briefly discussing the differences:

• The Interface Node: The cortex equivalent for vectors, because the Convergence doesn't believe in building machines with an artificial intelligence. Basically a cortex for all intents and purposes (if it's crippled, you can't allocate focus to the vector), but any rules that specify the cortex specifically (e.g. Domination, the auto-cortex damage on the Lancer's shock shield) don't apply to the interface node. Spells and abilities that specify the cortex aren't overly common (relegated to Cygnar, mostly), but it's worth keeping in mind so that you can tell that eHaley player to screw off when she tries to Dominate your Cipher.

Additionally your warcasters can reactivate vectors within 6 inches without having to be in base contact and vectors cannot form bonds (since they don't have cortexes), but this probably won't come into play much unless you play a lot of multi-warcaster games or your group makes heavy use of the warjack bonding rules.

• MAT and RAT scores: Unlike other warjacks, vectors do not have innate MAT or RAT scores, instead using their controlling warcaster's current MAT/RAT values. Vectors are also immune to any abilities that increase or reduce MAT/RAT unless their warcaster is affected, which means that a vector ignores things like the MAT penalty from Gorman's Black Oil bomb (although the other effects will still apply). Anything that adds or subtracts from an attack roll still works normally, however, since it's not directly affecting the vector's MAT/RAT score.

With the current stable of warcasters, this rule is something of a mixed blessing: with the exception of Syntherion (who has the most well-rounded attack scores at 6/5) every warcaster in the Convergence has either a below average MAT (Directrix) or RAT (Aurora somewhat, Lucant and Axis particularly). The low average RAT scores is particularly painful given the number of vectors that have ranged weapons: while you can use Flare support to compensate somewhat, trying to make heavy use of non-Cipher or Diffuser shooty vectors with someone like Axis and his asstastic RAT 2 will probably be a fool's errand. This in turn will heavily affect the rest of your army's composition, as the value of certain models and units will vary considerably from warcaster to warcaster based on their ability to cover areas that a vector may not be able to adequately handle.

Be VERY careful with your warcaster. if someone manages to land a MAT or RAT penalty on your warcaster it will effect all of your Vectors, conversely you just need to buff your warcaster to buff all your Vectors board wide. This will be a massive efficiency boost to all buffing and nerfing spells, for you and for your enemy if you allow it.

• Focus Induction: The ability that makes this faction tick. Once per turn when a vector spends focus, it may allocate a focus to another vector within 6 inches: a vector can receive multiple focus points this way, although it can't exceed normal allocation limits.

Unique to Convergence, this gives vectors a degree of focus efficiency that is not present anywhere else in Warmachine, because the efficiency of a point of focus increases when there are more vectors that it can be passed around to (as opposed to normal Warmachine factions, where too many warjacks will otherwise strain a warcaster's focus without some sort of mitigating spell or ability). You'll run into diminishing returns if you take too many focus-hungry vectors (e.g. ones that are going to spend 2-3 focus per turn, but who can only pass along one due to the induction rules), but you still get more effective focus to work with regardless.

Because of how induction rules work, you're generally not going to want to fully load down one vector with 3 focus during your main allocation, as is typical with most Warmachine factions: instead you'll probably want to spread the focus around to vectors with lower overall focus consumption, activate them first and then pass along the focus to the vector you want loaded for bear. This will allow you to do more with less focus, but requires you to plan out your turn farther in advance than you might have to with other factions to make sure that the focus points are where you need them when you need them. Take this into consideration when building your lists: vectors who are going to sit back and plink with their guns can probably get away with one or two focus a turn and will probably be the start of your induction chain, while melee vectors who are going to be smashing heavy targets will need all the focus you can give.

Unit Analysis

Warcasters

• Aurora, Numen of Aerogenesis: While most other teenagers were off getting high, Aurora was learning how to fly! She is the Iron Mothers flesh and blood daughter, so you can imagine what that would do to a person to have a metal squid as a parent... She wants to become a clockwork vessel but her mom won't let her (typical parent!) so instead she focuses all her energy on killing the enemies of the great work (typical angsty teenager!). Aurora is the factions extremely fast assassin caster. Her fluff, special rules and tier list all tend to want more clockwork angel units than anything else.

Field Marshal [Apparition]: All of your jacks (and aurora herself) get an additional 2" at the very start of your turn. This turns our mediocre spd 4 jacks into spd 6 jacks which isn't half bad. Also helpful for bumping up our jacks 2" so that they can potentially sac movement to gain the aiming bonus which is always handy since her RAT isn't stellar. Also note that Apparation places the battlegroup instead of pushing or advancing, so you can use that to get your 'jacks out of melee and stuff.

(Feat) Eleventh Hour : Gives the army refuge. The biggest thing this is used for is to try to assassinate the enemy caster when they think they're safe (When combined with her spell- flashing blade). Spelled out- she starts her turn and apparitions up 2". She charges 7"+3"+2"reach+2" diffuser beacon, hopefully onto an enemy heavy or something with low def. She uses her initial charge attack then ends combat. Refuges forward another 7", going directly over the enemy heavy. She is immune to free strikes in this second movement and she can fly directly over any models or terrain. She then uses flashing blade to hit the enemy caster 6 times. If this fails, then you have probably just lost. So that's an assassination run from 7+3+2diffusor+2apparition+7refuge+2reach=23" away, flying over their screening models... Before you start this assassination you need to move an angel into melee with whatever you're hoping to kill. Aurora's flank ability gives her +2 to hit and an extra die of damage. Without that, she's not going to be killing any caster that is camping any focus/ fury.

• Axis, the Harmonic Enforcer: Fluffed as a bat-shit insane leader of a minor cyriss off shoot. When the main cyriss faction went to exterminate this minor offshoot, the Iron mother was so impressed by his bat-shit tendencies she decided to keep him. Unlike most of the faction he is a fleshy human wrapped up in a metal suit (which means he can't be healed like several of the other casters)...but it means that he has hammers for hands... His model is one of the derpiest in the game, so prepare for your opponent to make a thor reference, yell out HAMMER TIME, or to ask how this poor bastard gets his pants up. As can be expected from a man with hammers for hands, his RAT (and thus the RAT of his battlegroup) is total garbage at 2 but his MAT is a sexy 7.

Field Marshal [Counter-Charge]: Gives all jacks (and himself) counter-charge which allows you to smash your opponent in the face pretty hard if they decide to get close. This creates an interesting dynamic that forces you not only to plan your charge lanes but your counter-charge lanes in case your opponent gets feisty. Plan your movement accordingly and know when NOT to use the ability as counter charging one enemy can leave your newly advanced model in range of other enemies that may have been out of range before... This field marshal ability LOVES the inverter due to its ability to knockdown opponents. "I made my charge" "I got the piss knocked out of me on my turn!!" Another interesting thing to do is to counter-charge with axis himself...who has beat back to push the enemy away from the model it charged and prevent that attack altogether!

(Feat) Circumpotence : Gives -2 STR and SPD to enemies and +2 STR and SPD to friendlies in his control area. This feat is offensive...it's defensive...it's everything you want on a stick and more!! Pop it at the beginning of your turn to increase the threat range of every single model in your army and increase how hard they hit....did your assassination/ full frontal rape-fest not do the trick? Well, now your opponent can't charge you and when they swing they are slightly more pillow fisted! If you are able to get Axis in melee with the opponents army when he has full focus he should be able to tear them a new one ON HIS OWN! Double strike gives him 14 POW 16 (on feat turn) attacks!! and he's able to move up the field while attacking so if there are infantry in the way...you beat back their corpses and get into the juicy center of their army where you continue going ape shit!...seems like suicide...until you consider he has a lot of robots swarming in behind him!! (Did we mention the bat-shit insane tendencies?)

• Iron Mother Directrix: The squid mother was recently elected to lead the Convergence. She decided that full scale war would be the best bet...pretty solid plan seeing as the rest of the land is already mobilized for war and Cyriss really doesn't have any standing forces at the moment, but I digress. The iron mother elected transform into a clockwork form early in life and has taken to improving her form much over the years. She is currently in the form of a man-sized-blade-squid that randomly spawns balls to follow her into battle. THAT'S RIGHT! She spawns metal balls for when she goes into battle! She misses her human form (which is why she doesn't want Aurora to transform yet) but she can't tell anyone that lest she be viewed as a non-devout.

Field Marshal [Arc node]: She and her battlegroup are all arc nodes. This is amazing. Her balls also gain arc node because they are part of her warcaster unit and therefore part of the battlegroup. This means that when she activates the two balls can move in opposite directions and then cast spells for the mother as long as they don't run (if they run then that means the unit ran). Her arc node ability comes in really handy when you fight other warmachine factions especially due feedback and dominate. Do note that if you issue a run/charge order, you can have Iron Mother charge one of your balls, then have the charged ball fly off to where you need an arc node. This precludes the use of your chest gun, but allows you to cast spells exactly where you need them.

(Feat) Mathematical Perfection: Her MAT and RAT both become her Focus stat for one turn. This means that for one turn every vector in your army can hit anything and everything (MAT/ RAT= 8). And this is not to mention the fact that you should probably have attunement servitors or ciphers spitting out marker lights everywhere to make you an effective MAT/ RAT 10! This feat can help win a game but in and of itself is not game breaking (though the idea of a colossal at MAT/RAT 8 having drag and POW 20 fists is pretty scary). Note that if Denny1 lowers your focus with her feat then your MAT/ RAT will only go to 6...

• Father Lucant, Divinity Architect: The old man of the faction. Literally created the first functional clockwork vessel a couple hundred years ago. He has taken a back seat in the religion of Cyriss and is content to watch events unfold. Having said that, many consider him to be one of the strongest casters Cyriss has to offer.

Field Marshal [Shield guard]: He and all of his vector buddies can take ranged hits for each other or other models in the army. This adds a level of survivability to some of the more fragile elements of the list. If your opponent ever wants to shoot at the servitors/ optifexes/ light infantry you can have a heavy step in the way of the shot which is great considering Lucant's feat.

(Feat) Clockwork Reinforcement: All ff models in his control range get +4 ARM and repair checks auto-pass. This takes your light jacks to a beastly ARM20!! Not only that but you will also have a turn of beefing your health back to full. This is a purely defensive feat that will go a long way to countering your opponents feat (hopefully). Timing this feat properly allows you to overextend your army a bit and weather the retaliation very well, which is the main reason why Lucant can wrest back territory in a scenario despite his army's typically slow speed.

• Forge Master Syntherion: Fluffed as a savant completely disconnected from his humanity that hates leaving his workshop and ruthlessly disposes of any who fail him, making him the steampunk robot equivalent of every engineering professor you've ever had. Syntherion is a 'jack heavy warcaster in a 'jack heavy faction, and it's not hard to see why: between an array of strong vector-centric upkeeps (that he can upkeep for free thanks to Resourceful) and minimal support for infantry, you generally want to load up with as many vectors as you can feasibly run. This isn't to say that infantry don't have a place, but Syntherion's ability to cover many of his bases with the best overall offensive stats for a Convergence warcaster (6/5) and the various tools provided by his vectors means that taking them is more down to taste rather than necessity. Keep in mind, though, that an army full of SPD 4/5 vectors will not be beating anyone to objectives or zones, so you will generally be building around assassination or grinding it out rather than hoping to sweep your opponent by scenario.

Field Marshal [Auto-Repair]: Models in Syntherion's battlegroup heal D3 every turn. Simple and effective, this allows you to shrug off incidental damage advancing up the field and turns your vectors into pseudo-warbeasts (where any vector that isn't dead is only 1-2 points of healing away from being a significant threat again). Note that this happens after focus allocation, so you won't be able to directly allocate focus if a vector begins the turn with its induction node disabled: given the various ways you have to move focus onto vectors though, this is no great loss.

(Feat) Technological Superiority: models in Syntherion's battlegroup can charge for free and gain Weapon Platform. In case you were confused by the roughly half-dozen variants PP has for "you can shoot your gun in melee", Weapon Platform allows you to target models in your melee range with ranged attacks, but you still suffer the target in melee penalty against them. You'll generally want to use this rule to shoot at targets not engaging the firer, unless you ignore the in-melee penalty (Prime Axiom, for being a colossal) or you don't care about directly hitting (Cipher). Also remember that you have to use ALL your initial attacks (both ranged and melee) before you buy additional attacks, or you lose them. Finally, you still have to do everything in order, so no fire gun->charge target->melee attacks.

Despite all this, this feat is deceptively powerful. Free charges are always nice, but Weapon Platform is amazing given how many vectors have guns attached to them. Critically, Weapon Platform makes being engaged in melee mostly irrelevant for your gun-vectors: the Monitor can still snipe that critical solo and the Cipher can use its Bombardment shots to clear the chaff humping its legs or flare the target it's going to punch. A Prime Axiom becomes a ballcrusher under this feat, as it can make a whopping nine attacks (3 shots from the Accelespiker, two tow cable attacks and their follow up melee attacks, THEN its two initial melee attacks) before spending a single point of focus, which will reliably skullfuck anything unfortunate enough to be in tow cable range. The best time to pop the feat will depend on opponent and your build: in general you'll want to use it when you're bogged down by the opponent or you're about to get stuck in, but you can do some fun tricks (e.g. charge a target, THEN use the extra distance you got from the charge to fire your gun at another target your opponent thought was too far away to get sniped) where you may want to keep it in reserve. One more thing to note is that this feat extends the drag threat of the Prime Axiom by quite a bit (with Magnetic Hold & Diffuser shot, charge 12" + shoot 11" = 23" drag threat). This can turn out to be quite the gotcha if you get a +3~+4 bonus from Synergy going.

Spells:

• Convection: a 2-cost spell that does a single POW 12 and dishes out a focus if you finish the target off. Meh.

• Hot Shot: Target battlegroup model gains boosted ranged attack damage rolls. Works on any ranged vector (or even Syntherion himself), but you'll get more mileage out of a target that can force multiple damage rolls every turn. Ciphers are probably the best choice by default, as the ability to throw out two 4" AOEs with fully boosted damage (even if only POW 6 base) will go a long way towards keeping all but the most heavily-armored infantry in check. Assimilators are good targets as well, though you trade the Cipher's quantity for the flexibility of Ground Pounder. Cycle this spell between two Ciphers and watch light infantry everywhere piss their pants.

• Magnetic Hold: -2 SPD and DEF for the affected model/unit, and friendly constructs gain additional movement when charging an affected model. Would be worth it just for the SPD debuff alone, as being able to deny a unit of weapon masters the charge makes your vectors that much more survivable. The obvious downside is that this spell costs half of Syntherion's focus: boost or Flare your target to ensure that it sticks, because you don't want to be casting it twice if you can help it.

• Reconstruct: the Warmachine version of Saeryn's spell, slightly better as most vectors have more systems than warbeasts have aspects. As with Saeryn you don't want to plan too heavily around this spell: while in some cases your vector might die on the very last attack and heal up without threat of further damage, in just as many the spell will trigger and your opponent will use one more attack to destroy it anyway. Still, with all the Repair in Convergence it doesn't hurt to have it up if you can spare it: Syntherion's field marshal ability plus the large amount of Repair in faction means that your vectors can come back from near destruction to somewhat-pristine very quickly, and if nothing else this will force your opponent to commit more to destroying the affected vector than he might otherwise have been willing to use.

• Synergy: While it's tempting to look at this spell and decide to RUN ALL THE GALVANIZERS in imitation of eVyros or Amon Ad-Raza, resist the urge. While Syntherion may have a superior mechanic in focus induction, Vyros and Amon have both better lights (compare the raw combat ability of the Galvanizer to a Griffon/Repenter/Dervish) and non-Synergy damage buffs (Arcanists, Choir) that allow them to run a herd of light warjacks that don't need to rack up a huge synergy chain before they can even hope to begin penetrating heavy targets. Instead, view this as a nice passive ability that you get for free (since it is the only upkeep that Syntherion can have on himself, unless you give him Hot Shot for some odd reason): most of your SPD 4 walkers and the Prime Axiom come with strong melee weapons by default, so you only need a couple Synergy stacks before they reliably start trashing most targets in melee. Bringing a Galvinizer or three for the Synergy boost isn't necessarily wrong, of course, but make sure you're getting enough utility out of them otherwise to justify not taking another heavy instead. Also remember that Syntherion is a part of his battlegroup, and so benefits from (and can count towards) Synergy in a pinch.

Vectors

Light Vectors

• Corollary: Yes.

...sorry, the tactica? Okay. A Squire pumped up on steroids, and the model that makes vector heavy Convergence armies so deadly. At its most basic the Corollary is a focus bank: you can dump focus into it (that won't go away at the beginning of your next turn), which it can then pass to one of your other vectors. If this doesn't sound particularly interesting so far, consider this: a Corollary can get a free focus by activating near your warcaster, and its focus passing ability counts as spending focus and thus triggers induction (allowing you to allocate another point of focus in addition to whatever you just transferred). What this all adds up to is a potential for an additional 2 "free" focus (one from being near the warcaster, one from induction) per turn, or up to four if your Corollary starts fully loaded from a previous turn. It can also be an efficient way to "recycle" focus, as your other vectors can use induction to pass focus back to the Corollary, which in turn can pass it back to them next turn with no input otherwise from your warcaster. And if getting gobs of free focus for 3 points still isn't enough to convince you, it gives your warcaster an extra 2" to their control area just like a Squire.

So yeah, pretty good. The only real reason to not run this is if you're going extremely vector light and don't have enough vectors to justify the 3 points, which generally won't be the case.

• Diffuser: Has a slightly inferior hand cannon weapon as its primary armament (because prime numbers), but you're not taking this to play a ghetto Charger. The big money here is Beacon, which gives friendly models additional distance when charging the target and lets your vectors charge for free: the free charge is always nice, but the extra 2 inches of movement are critical given that your heavies are almost all SPD 4/5 models without reach. You can also reroll misses on the shot, meaning that this vector is actually a viable choice even with the Convergence's low RAT warcasters (to put this in perspective, a Diffuser under Axis taking a boosted shot at a Warpwolf will hit roughly 60% of the time, which is pretty impressive for RAT 2). How critical a Diffuser is will depend on your army composition: if you have some infantry units to tarpit/tie up enemy heavies and use yours in a counterpunch role then you can probably save the 3 points, but if you're running infantry light you'll almost certainly want to take at least one so that your heavies can do the giving as well as the receiving.

• Galvanizer: A POW 12 melee weapon with legs and a surly disposition. It's also the first warjack with the Repair skill, and while it has a good skill rating to use it with (9), the Convergence has so many models that can repair that this novelty is not a particularly big selling point on its own. No reach and SPD 5 means it's not particularly impressive as a melee light, but it's cheap as dirt and focus induction gives you the ability to run a herd of these things at someone with minimal focus spent(which is funny, if not necessarily optimal). Aurora and Directrix will usually have better ways to spend 3 points, but it has applications with Syntherion (cheap way to get Synergy stacks), Lucant (a shield guard that can keep Lucant or another model's health topped off) and Axis (cheap Bulldozing light that is not hopeless in melee).

• Mitigator: Probably the most "love it or hate it" of the current light vectors. It's a gun platform where the gun has a piddly 7" range--not a great start--but is a 3" AOE with the Quake (knock down models in the AOE on a direct hit) and and Puncture (which doesn't count as blast damage, so Satyxis and their Force Barriers can fuck right off). Can be useful since the gun has both the ability to tie up heavier targets with the knockdown and deal with infantry, but at 4 points your mileage may vary depending on your local meta: you'll probably want to leave it at home if your opponents have raging hard-ons for things that can't be knocked down and don't care about the piddly one point of damage (e.g. colossals).
  • If you're taking the Axiom, there's a good argument for taking a Mitigator as an Axiom buddy: knocking down targets for the Axiom means it can save its focus for punching rather than boosting the attack roll on its tow cables, as well as getting around some anti-drag tech (e.g. a friendly warjack/beast weaponlocking another to prevent either from being pushed and hence dragged).

Heavy Vectors

Your heavies come in two flavors: the SPD 5 floater chassis with pathfinder and the defense stats of a Legion heavy (read: will crumple under any serious offensive pressure), and SPD 4 walkers with Steady and Protectorate heavy stats (read: not great, but not terrible either). The viability and role of each will vary depending on the warcaster, but in general a role they'll always be able to fill is armor-cracking: most of your infantry lack either the raw power or consistent output to carve through enemy warjacks or warbeasts, and so your vectors will generally be called upon to handle the big stuff that they can't.

• Assimilator: Anti infantry for the most part. 8 points buys you a conservator chassis, and a great AOE gun. He can ignore stealth and concealment with ground pounder (but walls and cover are still a pain), and POW 12 is good enough for clearing infantry with ease. His melee weapon, the rendering claw, looks deceptively weak for a heavy warjack weapon at first glance. However, it has weapon master and open fist making it quite useful. It allows for minor healing after scrapping a warjack, but this is situational at best.

• Cipher: Arguably the workhorse heavy vector of the Convergence, the Cipher comes stock with two POW 18 pistons that give it a fairly healthy melee punch, which is unfortunately somewhat mitigated by its slow speed and lack of reach. However, what makes it most notable is the ROF 2 gun strapped to its face that can fire off either Flares, rough terrain AOEs or a POW 6 blast damage AOE to take care of lighter targets, and unlike most other heavy vectors with guns you don't care if you directly hit making this weapon still valuable even in the hands of someone like Axis. The most expensive heavy vector at 9 points, but the fact that you get Flare on a durable platform means it's often a good starting point for most battlegroups.

• Conservator: One of your two heavies without any sort of gun, the Conservator comes with two bucklers that give it respectable survivability for a floater, Shield Guard and Hand of Vengeance (+2 to attack and damage rolls when a friendly model is killed nearby, because it gets righteously pissed ABSORBS ENERGY FROM DESTROYED CLOCKWORK SOLDIERS BECAUSE SCIENCE). Without Hand of Vengeance (and even a bit with it) this vector is hilariously pillow-fisted, so you'll want to use it as a second-line model, preferably where it can use its Shield Guard to protect key pieces. There's an obvious synergy in having this vector hang out with an infantry unit accompanied by a Enigma Foundry, as it will be able to make use of both of its special rules very well.

• Inverter: The other heavy without a gun, and your only vector with a Reach weapon. One of the things that immediately leaps out is the Macropummeler, a P+S 20 weapon that automatically knocks down the target hit, which would be a lot more awesome if it wasn't restricted to making one attack per round but is otherwise pretty scary. The Meteor Hammer is a pretty average weapon all things considered (POW 17, reach, but with Chain Weapon to get around shields), but makes a good sidearm to the Macropummeler regardless. These are fun (and nigh-mandatory) with Axis for counter-charge knockdown shenanigans, but they're a good choice for when you need melee power without the fluff or extraneous nonsense.

• Modulator: Cygnar spawn. This thing is immune to electrical attacks, shoots an electrical attack that can shock intervening models, and shocks anyone that hits it in melee. This thing is really cheap for a heavy and has pathfinder. His immunity to electricity means that you can run multiples of these and have them shoot each other to kill anything in between!! So,basically he gets off on killing infantry and can't do diddly against anything with decent armor. His P+S 14 melee is nothing to write home about and his electrical shots (and bounces) are less. Having said that, the idea of him charging into a bunch of screening infantry (preferably with synergy, Iron aggression, or positive charge) and then having them free strike you to activate the plasma nimbus is just hilarious!

• Monitor: A decent heavy that has a great ability "true sight" which allows him to ignore stealth, concealment, and camouflage while using his POW 13 gun...here's looking at you Gorman and Eiryss! His melee weapon has decent P+S and sustained attack which means he should be able to lay quite a bit of hurt down when he gets in close. The Monitor synergises with most casters in some way shape or form, but you'll get more use out of him with someone that actively uses his saw instead of his fist: the ability to take down stealthed solos at long range is an ability that Everblight players value for a reason.

Colossals

• Prime Axiom: The angry refrigerator has an impressive stat line with arm 20 and a ton of health boxes. Two P+S 20 claws (with Sustained Attack), two drag harpoons, and a decent secondary weapon in its Accelspiker (POW 11 gun with ROF 2 and Autofire[3]). The drag harpoons will ruin every heavy's day in your opponent's army. If you hit with the harpoon, it does one point of damage, triggering drag...then you can punch the bastard to death with your drill fists! He is expensive but he also poops out that pile he's sitting on a servitor of your choice once per activation. This leads to fun times with activating the Prime, moving 5", shooting/ attacking, pooping out a bomb 2" away to have it charge another 9" and blow up on some poor unit that thought it survived the turn...you can also use these free-bots to close charge lanes, heal, or drop flares for the rest of the army. It is also fun when you drag in his key piece and punch it down to having one health box...he rejoices at the near miss...then you spawn the repair servitor to pinch it to death! Enjoy the butt-hurt! More practically, the Axiom has two open fists and those free servitors make great two handed throw fodder. They're shaped like baseballs for a reason. Reach out and touch someone! He is slowish also has the highest innate melee threat range of all Cyriss vectors (Speed 5 + Reach for being a colossal) and can have that further increased by Diffussers, Syntherion, Axis, and Iron mother (first increases charge range, second with Magnetic hold, third with the feat, fourth by increasing drag range). Definitely one of the stronger colossals in the game.
  • Be mindful though that a lot of the Axiom's threat is in its double Tow Cables: this makes it an unholy terror to anything vulnerable to being dragged, but this colossal is otherwise fairly undergunned compared to its contemporaries (even the Cryxian Kraken has bigger guns than the Axiom), and it's not terribly optimized for taking on infantry hordes, though being able to spawn Reflex servitors on demand does mitigate this somewhat. Build and plan accordingly for those situations where you simply can't yank-and-spank your way to victory.
  • The extra attack that you get from drag is gained as long as you hit the enemy model and they end the push in your melee range (even if they started there and even if they didn't move). But if you shoot with the harpoon and miss then you will not get the bonus melee and you won't get to buy additional attacks because those are triggered by getting the original bonus attack...so don't miss with that last harpoon!!

Units

Unless you're going extremely vector heavy (e.g. Syntherion's tier list), investing in at least one mainline infantry unit generally won't go amiss. At their most basic, your units can be cheap chaff (Obstructors, Reductors) to tie down weapon masters or other enemy infantry that would otherwise be bogging down/hacking apart your vectors while they do their thing, while some like the Clockwork Angels can give you mobile spot removal that you can't get from any other equivalent model in their price bracket. Like most Convergence models their base stats are rather mediocre at first glance, but Flares can make nearly all your units an impressive MAT 8+ and Enigma Foundries can give them staying power out of proportion to their actual numbers.

The medium based units (Eradicators, Reciprocators, Perforators) additionally come with variable weapons: at the beginning of the unit's activations you choose one of two available rules for either their melee or ranged weapons, which the unit then uses until its next activation. These modes don't change the unit's role dramatically (Reciprocators will usually still be the best at tanking, and Eradicators will generally be better at punching), but they give you some flexibility from turn to turn.

If Convergence units have one notable weakness in particular, it's CMD: while most of your units are constructs (and thus fearless), their slightly below average CMD score limits how far they can spread out. This is mostly an issue for your 10-man small-based units, but remember to keep an eye on your CMD range with units who have a large amount of non-standard or out-of-turn movement like Angels or Eradicators to make sure they don't accidentally derp and wander out of coherency.

• Clockwork Angels: These lovely ladies are Advance Deploying, SPD 7 models in an army that is overwhelmingly SPD 4-5 and not, and so will generally be acting in a skirmisher role. It's probably best to think of this unit as a flying POW 13 gun: their base combat stats are overwhelmingly mediocre (MAT/RAT 6/5, POW 10s on both melee and ranged), but their speed combined with Reform and a high defense against ranged attacks (watch out for AOEs) will allow them to opportunistically CRA snipe valuable support models and generally be a pain in your opponent's ass. They have Brutal Charge on their swords, but this is generally a trap unless you're playing Aurora: keep them at range unless there's nothing left for them to bother shooting at, you have a good chance of killing what you're going to charge, or you need something tied down and are willing to sacrifice your girls to do it.

• Eradicators: The infantry blenders of your medium-based troops, these guys start with two initial POW 12 attacks and Side Step, allowing them to get deep even into the most thinly-spread enemy formations (be careful not to go out of the leader's CMD range, though). Against more dodgy opponents you can use their Accuracy weapon mode for an effective MAT 9, and suddenly you're bitch-slapping Satyxis left and right and even have a decent chance to make contact with Iron Flesh Kayazy. Try not to use this mode if you don't have to, however: without Shields Up they're relatively fragile, since 8 wounds never go as far as you think they should when you're ARM 15. The lack of reach also generally means the unit will be taking charges more often that it leads with them, so models with Repair or an Enigma Foundry to keep the unit topped off generally won't go amiss.

• Obstructors: The most "plain" infantry choice, a 4/6 unit whose primary purpose will be (surprise, surprise) to get in the enemy's way. Shield Wall can give them some durability once they're in a zone or on an objective, but the lack of Set Defense means that they're still vulnerable to enemy chargers. Still, a 10-man unit with reach can make a large part of the table a no-go zone, and CMA Chain Weapons give them a decent bite in a pinch.

• Optifex Directive: The bastard love children of a mechanik unit and a Choir of Menoth. Fewer in number than their Cygnaran/Khadoran counterparts at 3 for 2 points, but come with a higher Repair[8] as standard which means that getting a damaged vector back into the fight is much less of a crapshoot than it is with other factions. In lieu of repairing models in the unit can also give any model in your army with the construct rule Pathfinder and/or Magical Weapons for one turn: the value of Pathfinder should be evident in a faction of SPD 4/5 models who are vulnerable to being bogged down by terrain, and Magical Weapons are particularly useful given that even the majority of Cyriss warcasters lack a single magical weapon. Unless you're going extremely vector light you definitely want at least one unit of these guys to keep everything up and running smoothy.

• Recipricators: When you absolutely, positively need to contest or hold a zone, these are your dudes. 8 boxes, ARM 20 under Shield Wall and Set Defense makes these guys fairly resistant to everything short of mass weapon masters and heavy warjacks/warbeasts, and even those will probably have to spend a couple rounds hacking at them before the unit gets taken out of the fight. Have an Enigma Foundry tag along and enjoy your opponent's rage as he expends so much effort trying to kill one of these things only to have you put one back down the next turn, fully healed and ready to go. Do keep in mind that like many medium-based units they suffer from only having one attack per model, so try to make sure they're not stuck trying to clear their way through a cheapy 10-man unit until they've arrived where you need them to be or have other tools to deal with infantry zergs.

• Reductors: Sprays are pretty good, particularly when they're POW 13 and on a unit that only costs 6 points for 10 dudes. Their short range and lowish (decent for sprays) RAT means they won't be drowning the entire enemy army in BEEEEEEEEEEES with their Swarm Projectors, but their low cost means that you can throw them into fights against most other infantry and count on volume of attacks at a relatively low cost to carry the day (or at least bog down or neuter a superior unit). Because they can spray through friendly models without worrying about hitting them, there are two primary ways to run the unit:
  • On their own, run the unit in two ranks (or at least so that some models are out of enemy charge ranges but close enough to support the others). The first rank acts as a shield for the second, blocking enemy charges while the second can use sprays to free up any models in the first rank that survive, allowing them to use their sprays and rack up some kills.
  • Run them behind a dedicated melee/tarpit unit like Obstructors or Reciprocators, freeing them up to continue advancing or tip the odds in their favor. This is particularly handy for Reciprocators or Perforators, since their low number of attacks makes them vulnerable to being swarmed. If you're using the unit in this role decide if you want to go in for the full unit of 10 (making for an impressive, but pricey brick), or if you can get away with the minimum unit and use the extra points elsewhere.

• Perforators: Eradicators are your blenders, Reciprocators are your brick, and Perforators are your somewhat-oddball heavy armor hunters. Each Perforator comes with an Armor Piercing javelin launcher: the base pow of this weapon is laughably low, but halving the armor of medium, large, and huge bases means that you're rarely rolling anything lower than dice - 4 for damage on most unbuffed heavy warjacks. They also have the Assault rule, which allows them to fire their javelins (hopefully using the +2 damage weapon mode), before delivering a charge attack (only POW 12, but still capable of crippling a heavy that's been softened up by the javelins first). These guys are your best non-vector option at taking out heavier targets, but try to get at least one round of shooting in (using the Snipe mode) before charging: these guys run out of steam fast after charging in, since they have the same low number of attacks as Reciprocators as well as the thin armor of Eradicators.
  • Like all models with Assault, remember that the target of the Assault ranged attack does NOT benefit from the target in melee penalty, even if the Assaulting model does not make it into melee with the target. This means that you can Assault at a target you probably won't reach (say, a warjack tied up by Obstructors) and lob off some shots without having to worry about the attack penalty. Situational (since you still have to follow the general rules for a charge, so no "charging" zero inches and firing), but worth keeping in mind.

• Transverse Enumerator (UA): Not really a unit in and of itself, but listed here because it's a unit attachment that can be attached to any Convergence unit (bar Directrix and her servitors). 2 points buys you an odd grab bag of abilities, but there are two standouts: the first is a CMD of 9, which allows your clockwork units to spread out a bit further than allowed by their somewhat derpy default of 7, while the second is a minifeat that allows you to reroll all failed attack rolls and skill checks during the unit's activation. This arguably makes the Enumerator strongest on the more offensive Convergence units (Reductors, Eradicators, Perforators), since being able to reroll 2+ attacks per model will go a long way towards upping the unit's killing power on a critical turn (or in the Eradicator's case, enable them to kill reliably without having to drop their bucklers). The UA's personal combat prowess and defensive stats are nothing to write home about, so try and keep him(her?) out of danger until s/he's blown his/her minifeat load.

Solos

• Accretion Servitors: 3 for a buck, your default "my list is one point short" filler if you can't justify taking a Dispersion Optifex. That being said Bodge isn't bad: while it only repairs one point, no skill roll is required so it can be more reliable to have a servitor heal the one point needed to bring a crippled system back online rather than trust the vagaries of a skill check (although you'll still probably want to bring a Directive unit for the higher potential healing and other benefits). Strip will rarely come into play, although the time you deliver the killing blow to a Stormwall with one of these little bastards will be priceless.
  • These are your cheapest (and thus, most expendable) way to get more models on the field, so feel free to use them as fodder/targeting beacons for Modulators and the like.

• Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex: Meat Arc nodes, bring at least one if you expect to be doing any serious offensive spell-slinging. Keep them far enough behind your vectors so that they aren't a priority, but close enough to be able to run to where they're needed at a moment's notice. If they survive until your next turn after channeling spells consider it a pleasant bonus.
  • remember that Directrix turns all models in her battle group into arc nodes, so this guy is not needed for her.

• Attunement Servitors: Come with 4" flares that reduce enemy defense by 2. Your cheapest source of flares, but with a low life expectancy due to their relative fragility, short range, and priority as targets for all but the most low base DEF factions. Assume you'll get one Flare out of each servitor at best, and try to make each one count.

• Elimination Servitors: A floating gun with a 9" range and Puncture, that unfortunately comes with a less-than-ideal (for a gun platform) RAT 5. These servitors are your cheap complement to your low POW blast spam to get rid of higher armor single wound targets, but whether you want to run servitors in this role rather than let the rest of your army handle things with armor values higher than 12 is somewhat debatable. You'll want to take advantage of their solo status and low threat profile to get in your opponent's back ranks, hopefully either to get rear-arc bonuses or to thin out important support units like Mechaniks or Choir.

• Enigma Foundry: AKA the reason why Cyriss doesn't (and probably never will) have weapon master units. This model collects soul tokens from destroyed friendly models in its command range (everything that isn't a vector or a servitor), and uses them to return friendly construct warrior models to play (up to 3 small-based models or one fully-healed medium based model). The ability to return models to play is one of the Convergence's unique strengths, and can allow you to hold the line with a relatively smaller number of warrior models than other factions might use. Some caveats on how this works, however:
  • The rule says "return" a model to a unit, not "add a model" to a unit (ala the Necrosurgeon and Mechanithralls). This means you can't increase a unit's count beyond its starting size, or return models that have been removed from play.
  • You only get souls from models destroyed by enemy attacks for the most part, so no murdering your own Optifex for their tasty souls.

You should strongly consider taking at least one of these if you're running any serious amount of construct infantry. Do note that this model has to be relatively close to do its thing, and as a large-based model that will be drowning your opponent in robot corpses will draw a significant amount of attention: ARM 18 and ten boxes will allow it to shrug off incidental damage, but it will still fall to concentrated fire or if it gets charged by a serious melee unit. A Conservator makes for a decent Foundry buddy, since it can protect it with Shield Guard and enough things will probably be dying nearby to set Hand of Vengeance off.

• Reflex Servitors: Counter-charging, dug in, mines that can be a major pain in your opponents ass. They only have one attack...a kamikaze POW 14 blast to who ever gets close. Dig-in means that they're fairly resilient to shooting and counter charge makes your opponents measure and remeasure every movement near them. Your opponents will be quick to point out that counter charge doesn't activate if your model is engaged (from their charging model for instance)...which is why you always keep several of these bastards floating next to each other so that if they make the charge on one of them the others can swoop in for the kill.

• Steelsoul Protector: A 2-point Shield Guard/bullet catcher, invaluable in a faction full of models with HUGE GUTS GEARS who will be getting shot at by every Defender, Reckoner, and Ravagore that catches wind of their presence. Durable enough to take a boosted damage roll from the above and have a chance of surviving, so combine with models that can repair (and since this is the Convergence, that could very easily be the model that the Protector is catching bullets for) for a Shield Guard that will not have the courtesy to die. When not busy jumping in front of enemy fire the Protector also has Defensive Strike, and while you shouldn't forget it don't count on a single MAT 6 POW 12 to be a particularly effective deterrent.

Battle Engines

• Transfinite Emergence Projector: What can be said about a tower that sprays down lazors on your opponent? It has a spray attack that can be altered depending on the position of the servs that it spawns every turn. The 3 spawning balls can be placed in the right, left, or back arcs and can increase the number of dice for damage, number of dice for attack, or number of attacks, respectively. Short and skinny of this means that you start with 2 dice to hit, 2 dice to damage, and 2 autofire attacks. You can increase any of those by 1 for each bot you put in the respective arc....which means you can go after high def targets, high ARM targets, or a ton of targets (that are close together).

The balls can also take the hit if your opponent decides to shoot at it. This means your opponent must shoot at you a minimum of 4 times before he hopes to touch you and this thing has high ARM and a good amount of health so shooting will require a ton of effort. It IS vulnerable to melee attacks. It doesn't synergise all that well with most of the casters (Iron mother has her servitors that can make it hurt more) but does it really need to synergise with anything, it is a threat all on its own.

Tier Lists

Aurora

• Maiden of Gears (FoW): If you're running Aurora, you are running her with a bunch of clockwork angels. This list gives some nice bonuses to said clockwork angels, and allows you to buy two extra units of them. It also gives a bunch of bonuses to Steelsoul Protectors such as advanced deployment and the possibility to field more of them, which help guard Aurora's otherwise squishy clockwork flock. The tier 4 of this list requires two or more heavy vectors. Although this doesn't seem to synergize well with Aurora's otherwise fast, assassination-oriented playstyle, convergence players should almost always be using some heavy vectors anyway, and the tier bonus for this level gives them advanced deployment move to help them work better with your angels.

Axis

• Sustained Attack (FoW): There are two reasons that you take this theme list and some of the extreme restrictions it applies (limited warjack selection, minimal shooting even by the low standards of an Axis list, and not even a single way to get Flare support): one, you get to bring 4 Enigma Foundries for 8 points, ergo you get to return up to 12 infantry models a turn. Two, your clockwork vessel infantry units get AD. This is probably the ur-jam list for Convergence, as 4 full units of Obstructors/Reductors (flavor to taste) and 4 Enigma Foundries sets you back only 32 points for 40 bodies that can replace a little over a full unit a turn in ideal circumstances. Needless to say, this is a skew list: you will roll over a lot of lists that simply aren't prepared to handle that many infantry in one place, but be wary of mass infantry kill or lists with high defense that can walk through most of your infantry with minimal fear for their lives (e.g. any Khador list with Iron Flesh).

Directrix

• Carrier Group (FoW): This theme exists in case anyone wanted to know what it was like to run a swarm of bees into battle. If you follow this to tier 4, then all servitors go to FA4 which could amount to FA4*4types*3per group=48 servitors (for 28 f'ing points!!!)and your two prime axioms will spawn 6 more of your choice turn 1 and one more every turn after that...that is silly. (Don't take max servitors). This theme isn't bad though if you take a bunch of bombs and elim servitors along with double axiom. Your bots take out infantry and axioms to lay the hurt on literally everything else...arc noding through the axioms every chance you get. You will lose the servitors very quickly but hopefully not before you take out all of their infantry that can kill the axioms...with those out of the way the axioms can clean up everything else (in theory). A hilarious, although not necessarily practical, way to run this list is to take max elimination servitors. Then drag in an opponent's warjack with the Axiom, cast Backlash on it, and put 10+ damage on the opponent's warcaster with puncture.

Lucant

• Iron Giants (FoW): As the name implies, this tier list is about taking a wall of steel, and plastering your opponent against it. There is also an alpha-strike theme, apparently, as the list gives you +1 to your roll to start the game at tier 1 and gives a unit Advance Deployment at tier 2. Other than that, you get more, cheaper heavy vectors, and you are limited to basically anything with a medium or large base. Not the best tier list, but not the worst either.

Syntherion

• The Great Machine (FoW): The CoC version of the Mortenebra or Absylonia tier list, where you're working under restrictions that don't matter too much because you mostly get to take what you wanted to take anyways. The benefits are correspondingly modest, but nice to have: tiers 2 and 3 are probably the most important, as they allow you to put all your friendly-target upkeeps out on round one while still being able to allocate focus to your battlegroup, and free focus on your Corollary means that you have a bit more flexibility early game because getting it fueled up isn't a priority. The tier 4 bonus (free Galvanizer) isn't something to build your list around, but free is free.