Warmachine/Tactics/Cygnar

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Note that this page is, for the most part, a placeholder, and will be added to over the coming months. Also note that, currently, it only contains units from Prime Mk. 2 and Forces of Warmachine: Cygnar.

Why Play Cygnar?

Cygnar is the go-to faction for the color blue, guns, lightning, and lightning guns; it's rare to see a soldier of the Cygnus without some kind of ranged options, and the same goes to their warjacks. While they aren't the toughest kids on the block, they can certainly hit you fast and at range; with range buffs some of their models can hit your deployment zone from turn one. Their melee doesn't suffer, though, as they have some shockingly strong knights and cavalry (which, true to the boys in blue, can also shoot lightning as well as hit people with it), as well as tricky close-combat jacks that rely more on disrupting the enemy rather than outright destroying them (though they can do the latter just fine).

General Strategy

Shoot them, and make sure you don't get shot back. Cygnar's soldiers are more accurate and have a variety of tricks, but don't hit as hard as other factions. Cygnar is very good at shooting, but don't rely on it; if you have no way of mitigating the enemy from advancing up the field and getting into combat, you're hosed. Popular 'tarpit' units are the mercenary unit Boomhowler and Co, Stormblades with armor buffs and more rarely Sword Knights (the closest thing Cygnar has to a 'swarm' unit.

Their warjacks are on the fragile side, but conversely are more mobile, better and dodging shots and more accurate at hitting things. Like the troops they're loaded up with tricks and special effects, most commonly 'Disruption' which can prevent a warjack being allocated focus for one round; this is an effective way of shutting down focus-reliant warjacks - in particular Khador, who need to boost hits a lot.

Unit Analysis

Warcasters

• Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane: One of the 'Big Three' of Cygnar, along with eCaine and eHaley. Very effective at controlling the flow of battle, he's great at cracking hard targets with his feat. His spells are very expensive, though, and he's easy to overextend with.
• Lieutenant Allister Caine (pCaine): He shoots things and buff things, and does both well, teleporting back to safety once all your important solos and units are so much swiss cheese. More of a support caster, though he occasionally supports his troops by shooting up the other guy's.
• Captain Allister Caine (eCaine): GOD OF ASSASSINS. Best assassin caster in the game. Can fire up to ten shots a round with the right support, and on his feat turn they do more damage each time, and he can give himself True Sight so fuck your defensive measures.
• Captain E. Dominic Darius: The Man in the Can, Darius has a big ol' toolbox of tricks and is the biggest blue target in the lineup. Rides around in warjack-like battle armor, and best supports a big brick of heavy 'jacks. Was probably the weakest caster in the line up until the Stormwall pumped him up to a horrible extent.
  • Halfjacks: You know those Minions from Despicable Me? Yeah. Mostly there to bodge up Darius's jacks, support his feat, and occasionally turn themselves into living mines.
• Captain Victoria Haley (pHaley): An excellent spell-focused warcaster. Temporal Barrier is the spell she's best known for, but her other support abilities and feat are equally good. Hard-counters a large number of asshole feats and casters like eAsphyxious. Beware, though, she can't really run touchdowns on her own all that well and needs her army to win games.
• Major Victoria Haley (eHaley): A Big Three warcaster, and considered one of the best in the game. The Mistress of Time is also an alchemist; she turns her units into gold, and her enemies into shit. Super powerful abilities and spells, the best focus score in the faction, and one of the best feats in the game. Take care though: like her Prime counterpart she's very vulnerable to attrition, and, unlike many casters, she needs her army and cannot win a game by herself.
• Captain Jeremiah Kraye: Cavalry warcaster, gives his warjacks cavalry rules and makes them ridiculously fast, accurate, and mobile with his spells and feat. Makes Minutemen hilariously powerful. Has a number of bad matchups, but still incredibly fun when he works.
• Commander Adept Nemo (pNemo): He's a 'jack runner and spellslinger, loves spellcasters hanging around him since they give him extra focus, and throws lightning around like it's going to dry up. Tends to pump a single 'jack into super mode rather than running with a whole pack of them like most 'jack casters. Not as good against armies that are immune to disruption, which is now more than half of the factions in the game, but a "'jack bullet" is good for anyone when it works.
• General Adept Nemo (eNemo): Oddball, sort of an anti-jack caster, very good at making jack heavy casters cry. His other abilities make him sort of an odd mage/'jack buff warcaster. Becomes more efficient with more 'jacks on the field, but he can still be overloaded with too many bodies to power if you're not careful. An extremely FUN build involves himself, fifty-six points of Chargers and nothing else. The rest of the game, you're in trouble, but dat feat turn...
• Artificer General Nemo & Storm Chaser Adept Caitlin Finch (3Nemo, N3mo and lNemo): Specialist in electrical damage. His spells mostly involve doing electrical damage or helping jacks (or both in the case of his Lightning Shroud), his control radius prevents electro-leaps from hitting things immune to electricity so they land where the damage is done. His feat gives an extra die to all friendly electrical damage rolls in his radius, which, coupled with the fact that he can extend his radius an inch by spending one focus and his gun's range is equal to his control range, can make him a deadly and unexpected assassin since lightning bounces ignore lots of defensive tricks. Note that he comes with Caitlin Finch as an attachment, so he can't use a squire.
• Captain Kara Sloan: Sniping specialist warcaster, very much wants a small and shooty battlegroup but a mixed arms army. Usually you can play her as a classic shoot from afar, but taking a bunch of minutemen and playing up close is an unorthodox but terribly fun and effective playstyle. Anything with Assault is gold on her feat turn, and, just as the fluff would have you believe, Trencher Commandos are a nice choice.
• Commander Coleman Stryker (pStryker): This guy comes in the starter box for Cygnar, and it's easy to see why. He's easy to learn, being a primarily support caster with decent fighting skills and one very good ranged attack. Because he synergizes well with everything, no other caster in the game that will teach you how to use your army more effectively than him. People usually drop him for advanced play, because he doesn't specialize in anything, but that's not quite fair. He may lack outstanding strengths, but he also lacks real weaknesses. If nothing else, he's got Earthquake and Snipe on the same spell list, and no caster with that spell combo in a ranged-heavy army is ever truly uncompetitive.
• Lord Commander Stryker (eStryker): Stryker going through a darker, edger phase caused him to learn to focus on something, mainly, offense. Unlike other Cygnar casters, he focuses on buffing units in melee. Also, he's a much stronger fighter, with a stronger weapon that has Reach. Be careful with that Overload power, he can and will blow himself right the fuck up if you get greedy. Take tons of melee troops and 'jacks, throw your entire army at the enemy, then charge across half the board and cut their caster in half in a single blow with your super-speed once there's a hole in their line. Simple, powerful, effective. Note that, he can potentially deal the highest possible damage roll of any model in the entire game! (Potentially, mind, because you are NEVER going to roll all sixes on Overload and then roll all sixes again on a boosted damage roll while under the effects of Positive Charge. It's just not going to happen.)

Warjacks

Light Warjacks

• Charger: The Humvee of the Cygnar armory, the Charger is a cheap, incredibly versatile platform; with its Powerful Attack and Dual Cannon it's focus hungry but shreds medium armor targets reliably. A good 'jack whose cheap price belies its lack of spammability outside of really niche lists. If you take one, it'll never steer you wrong.
• Firefly: A Stormsmith's best friend, the Firefly can become the stormfront for triangulations, zapping Cygnar's foes with its Storm Blaster and spear. Without Stormsmiths, it's rather mediocre.
• Grenadier: It's basically a metal Trencher with a grenade launcher. Gets free shots when it has Trenchers to manually load shells for it, and can dig in with the rest of the gravediggers. Use trenchers to 'jack marshal it and park it in your gunline.
• Hunter: Able to range out far ahead of many other warjacks, the Hunter is a mobile armor-cracker that ignores half the base armor of a medium/large based target with its armor-piercing long gun. It's also hard to pin down, since it has Advanced Deploy, Pathfinder and Parry, and it counts as being in your caster's control area at double the usual range. Hunters work best in pairs and are a popular pick for assigning to Gun Mage Officers.
• Lancer: Considered one of the best Arc Nodes in the game, the Lancer chassis can also hold its own against heavier warjacks, in particular by bopping it with the shock shield it carries, damaging a 'jack's cortex with each hit. It isn't a front liner, but makes for a vicious second-line/bait warjack when supporting something more nasty, since it has the armor of a heavy. Keep in mind, though, that it's rather expensive, and that pinning it in melee is perfectly possible.
• Sentinel: Shreds infantry with its gatling gun, the Sentinel can also throw itself in front of ranged attacks to take a hit for someone more important than it is. Otherwise an unremarkable 'jack, but at least it's cheap.
• Minuteman: Oh this guy is hilarious, he can fire off a jetpack to give himself ridiculous mobility, clear infantry with its flakfield ability and then shoot both guns at the squishy caster that the infantry were screening. Has great synergy with Kraye and Sloan as it now has ridiculous movement or shooting power. Some people complain it's not worth the hype because it's hard to use well, but the knack is to treat its guns like melee weapons and get up close to targets, or jump behind a line to deny charges.

Heavy Warjacks

• Avenger: The first 'jack on the Centurion chassis to have a gun, and it's time to feel the pain Khador players have always felt at having that stat-line with one. Still, it's a brutally effective gun that deals good damage in a huge AoE that knocks down everything under the pie plate on a direct hit, so giving it a boost or two isn't a bad idea. Also has a really nasty melee weapon that hits like an Ironclad hammer and automatically Stalls a target, which means that one blow instantly solves your accuracy issues... against Warmachine. In a phenomenon Cygnar players are uncomfortably familiar with, it's useless against Hordes. A decent combined-arms 'jack, but at the same price as a Defender or Cyclone you really need to make sure you use all its parts to get your money's worth out of it.
• Centurion: Some units are called speedbumps, but the Centurion is a full blown barricade; massive shield, piston-powered spear, hard to move once it decides it wants to stay. It can also make itself immune to charges at will. Keep in mind, though, it's got the stat-line of a Khador 'jack (read: a crappy one) but doesn't have the extra boxes of one.
• Cyclone: The Sentinel's big brother, an infantry shredder that can two-handed throw anything that it can't rip apart with its dual Gatling guns. Can lay down covering fire templates that shred infantry and hand out board control, but not as great against harder targets that it can't throw. Makes a surprisingly good assassin for any caster with a feat or spell that auto-boosts ranged attacks, since it makes so many. About as expensive as a Defender while fulfilling the opposite role in an army, never take both and use whichever one you didn't to shore up weaknesses in the rest of your list.
• Defender: An excellent heavy hitting 'jack, its got a big gun to snipe hard armor with (this is what you'll be using this for most part due to its long range, the best in the game for something that can fire and move at the same time) and a cortex-shredding hammer of pain. Versatile, but on the fragile side for a heavy warjack, and rather expensive. As with the Cyclone, use it to shore up holes in your list.
• Hammersmith: It's basically a Khadoran 'jack painted blue; the Hammersmith marches up to something then starts hitting it with a pair of hammers until it stops twitching. Simple. Brutal. Effective. Its hammer special abilities and chain attack give it a truly hilarious amount of movement shenanigans too, especially when loaded up with focus for extra attacks. Keep in mind, though, it also has those crappy Khador stats like its chassis-brother the Centurion, and can't quite reliably hit without support. The Centurion's slow speed and low MAT is much more of an issue on a 'jack whose primary purpose is to be a melee powerhouse rather than to tank, and without movement buffs it will need "bait" to get off a charge.
• Ironclad: One of the first 'jacks to come out, and considered the 'standard' warjack of Warmachine. Mediocre defensive stats and boxes on an otherwise brutal statline, plus a Quake hammer with a beefy P+S rating and some nifty special abilities to hand out knockdown. It's a bargain at its cost, and a welcome beatstick/support heavy for almost any caster. You can get better if you really want to pay for it, but at its points you really can't complain.
• Stormclad: One of the best non-character warjacks in the Cygnar arsenal, it allocates itself focus when hanging out with its Stormbros and a loaded Stormclad is a dangerous thing to have within eleven inches of your anything you care about. For the most part, if want something to die in melee, this thing can do the job, packing a high powered sword, with reach, and high MAT to us it with, which also electo-leap. It even has a nasty mid-range shooting attack that also has electro-leap. Fielded with Nemo3 and under his feat, anything not immune to electricity damage with charge range of this beast is dead. It has a buckler as well, so it's a bit more durable than other jacks with the Ironclad chassis. Best beatstick in the faction, but also goddamn expensive, costing almost a third again as much as an Ironclad, so make sure you get your points worth out of it.

Character Warjacks

• Thorn: Coming soon.
• Ol' Rowdy: A beefed-up Ironclad with improved MAT and ARM on top of a Buckler. Also has Counter Charge, so anything that ends its activation too close to it, it can charge, and Aggressive, letting it run and charge for free. In all, though much more expensive the base model, it give even nastier melee, better survivability, and an amazing degree of focus efficiency. Pretty good special abilities when taken with Stryker too. Still, it's the price of a solo for an upgrade that essentially just removes the weaknesses from a cheap beatstick, so it's not necessarily an automatic upgrade.
• Thunderhead: Cygnar's most expensive warjack next to the Stormwall. It has above average armor and damage boxes for a Cygnar jack and its fists are stronger than the average fists (both also have Sustained Attack, but it doesn't stack between them), but the main reason you'll field this thing is his Lightening Coil, on its own is a decent ranged weapon, and it has the ability to automatically hit everything within 6 inches of it even if it the Thunderhead can't target them, and it has Sustained Attack, so any hard targets you hit with it, you can follow up against with its more damaging normal shots. Has a number of weaknesses, especially given it's premium price, so make sure you know what you're doing when you field it.
• Triumph: Siege's personal gun man. This thing is a Defender with extra RAT, can sacrifice movement to ignore stealth, and his cannon that if you spend one focus on, will leave behind a 3 inch AOE. Is weaker in melee than a normal Defender, however, because it trades in the shock hammer for a shield, but that does give some extra armor. Despite what the fluff implies, don't field with Siege, it doesn't synergize well with him. Best use it in a caster assassination list if you use him at all, as most players regard Triumph with scorn as overcosted rubbish.

Units

• Arcane Tempest Gun Mages: A toolbox unit, but not good at head-on fighting, very common to see because it brings options to the table. Lots of trick shots, and suddenly turns super-nasty when given...
  • Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer: Tactics: True Sight on the best ranged 'jack marshall in the game, in the faction with the best ranged 'jacks in the game? Groovy. The Dude is the reason Gun Mages are so ubiquitous. Take the hell out of him if you bring Gun Mages, whatever you were planning to take instead probably isn't worth as much as he is.
• Long Gunner Infantry: Pretty much just stand and shoot, combining your attacks and firing twice. That's about it. The sledgehammer of your ranged firepower, these lads can double up to gun down even some heavy infantry with lots of Pow 12 shots or focus-fire down priority targets with two Pow 20 ranged attacks at a RAT of "Hope I roll snake-eyes, bitch." On the other hand, they have some weaknesses: crap melee abilities mean that they need to be far away from anything that could engage them, crap defensive abilities mean that templates will obliterate the poor bastards, needing line of sight to their targets can mean awkward formations, and Stealth fucks up their shit. Pair them with a caster that accentuates their strengths, like Siege's Foxhole or anyone who can plop Snipe onto them.
  • Long Gunner Infantry Officer & Standard: Coming soon.
• Precursor Knights: Coming soon.
  • Precursor Knight Officer & Standard: Coming soon.
• Rangers: Yes. Rangers buff the hell out of your army, and they're excellent light-to-medium infantry killers in their own right with their own ranged attacks and ability to benefit from their own Mark Targets. And letting them take turns to run up into an enemy's grill out of cohesion to make suicidal marks works better than it has any right to. If you have the points free, a unit will never steer you wrong, unless you're playing some kind of super melee-heavy list.
• Storm Lances: Coming soon.
• Stormblade Infantry: Powerful, but fragile. Their armor will protect them from blast damage and little else, while their crap DEF and mediocre speed leaves them very vulnerable to shooting. Their MAT is excellent, but their RAT is rather low, the range on their lightning shots is absolute pants, and they cost a surprising amount for all their weaknesses. Why take them then? Well...
  • Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard: If you've already taken Stormblades, make sure to bring these guys along. They are an auto-include for the whole unit. Assault turns them from a meh combined-arms unit into a an absolute rape train on the charge, especially if they're under the effects of Deadeye, the most common spell in the faction. And the AoEs let them deal double-duty against some forms of infantry, while the banner-bearer can still fight. They'll still be fragile and in need of support from spells and the rest of the army to get there, but if even a few survive to get off that Assault charge your Stormblades will rock the house.
  • Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner: Coming soon.
• Stormguard: Coming soon.
• Sword Knights: Coming soon.
  • Sword Knight Officer & Standard: Coming soon.
• Trencher Cannon Crew: Coming soon.
• Trencher Chain Gun Crew: Coming soon.
• Trencher Commandos: Expensive, but excellent at tearing up lightly-armored units and difficult to kill on the way. Deadeye is great on 'em, they can blow up casters with sheer volume of Pow 12 grenades.
  • Trencher Commando Scattergunner: If you're investing in Commandos, take a couple. They're excellent UAs.
• Trencher Infantry: Coming soon.
  • Trencher Infantry Officer & Sniper: Coming soon.
  • Trencher Infantry Rifle Grenadier: Coming soon.
• Field Mechaniks: Coming soon.
• Captain Jonas Murdoch: Probably the best Ranking Officer in the entire game. Why? Because there are unreal numbers of mercs that can rock the house under the effects of Assault and the benefits of Faction status. The Nyss Hunters and Boomhowler and Co. are standouts, not least because Jonas also benefits from them. He's also Tough, and has a good defensive mini-feat, so he's hard to kill too.

Character Units

• The Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team: Yes. With brutal ranged powers, brutal stat lines, and great special abilities, the A Team are an absolute bargain for their price and they will never let you down. If you bought the starter group, buying the Black 13th as your first new purchase will bring you up to fifteen points and serve as a perfect complement to your new force.

Solos

• Gun Mage Captain Adept: Meh. Standard solo points for a watered-down version of True Sight and a couple decent-but-not-overwhelming ranged powers. Usually better spent elsewhere, though he's more outclassed than outright terrible.
• Journeyman Warcaster: Give him a long-ranged 'jack if you give him one at all, with a 6 control area and mediocre defenses Jr. is very vulnerable to being gunned the fuck down. Otherwise, three points for a free Arcane Shield and a double-boosted hand-cannon shot each turn's not a bad deal either.
• Stormsmith Stormcaller: One point for an automatic defensive-measure-ignoring Pow 10 damage roll that deals disruption? Not bad before you factor in synergy with other Stormsmiths and the Firefly. Especially consider them with Nemo2, the damage and skill buffs are amazing. Just remember that any attempt to kill a stormcaller will succeed even if it's a futile waste of resources.
• Squire: Support attachment for the warcaster that extends their control radius, re-roll a single failed magic attack each round, and you can mark off a box on it three times a game to give your caster an extra focus for the round. (And games don't usually last more than six rounds at most!) You really have no reason NOT to use this on any caster you can.
• Trencher Master Gunner: Coming soon.

Characters

• Captain Maxwell Finn: Overcosted, and kind of gimmicky, but still awesome. Taking him with Trencher Commandos is your best bet, he's closer to them than to regular Trenchers already, and the buff he can give them before he dies are decent.
• Major Katherine Laddermore: Coming soon.
• Captain Arlan Strangeways: Best repair skill in the game + free focus each turn = great support solo for any caster. Ironically, while he and Nemo can't stand each other in the fluff, he synergizes perfectly with every version of the old man. However, he's about as fragile as a Stormblade and his combat skills are mediocre at best, so keep him in the back glued to a gunner 'jack.