Cygnar non character solos - how many to buy

Cygnar has a decent amount of non character solos and if you are just starting out in the faction or are filling out your collection it can be hard to know what is worth buying and how many.

So I figured I would give my thoughts on how many of them I think its worth buying.

(Unless you are an insane faction completionist like me who just got max FA of them all...)

Arcane Tempest Rifleman FA 2

If you are intending to play Sons of the Tempest its really worth getting two of these, they work great in pairs to cripple arc nodes or work towards other systems with their deadly shot.

Gunmage Captain Adept FA 2

They are amazing solos with great utility shots, flare and shadowfire which can set up the rest of your army really well. I fully recommend getting two if you want to play SoT

Journeyman Warcaster FA 1

As its FA 1 you can only take one anyway. Not the auto include it once was but well worth getting to include Arcane shield in a list.

Patrol Dog FA 1

Is best doggo, get one!!! But seriously the ability to remove stealth in a Grave Digger list is amazing.

Squire FA 1

Like the Journeyman Warcaster Squire isn't the auto include it once was but its well worth picking up.

Its support abilities for your Warcaster can be great but not every caster needs a Squire to be honest.

Stormblade Captain FA 2

With its tactician ability it is a great inclusion in a Storm division list, I have used lists with two of them but very rarely. I would recommend getting only one at first unless you have a list you really want to run two with. Then proxy the second one for a while to see if it works out for you before buying a second one.

Stormsmith Stormcaller FA 3

These are an interesting one, they come in sets of three solos. If you use the max FA you will have nine of them!

I think one set is handy for dealing with stealth/incorporeal solos like Gremlin swarms.

I have run all nine in a "all Stormsmiths at max FA" list which I found quite fun, but I would only recommend one set at first.

Trench Buster FA 2

These guys are amazing! If you are playing Grave diggers I fully recommend getting two of these.

Their damage output is great and they can help keep important models alive with shield guard.

Trencher Master Gunner FA 2

People mainly use these to allow their Trencher Express Teams to fire twice a turn. I have seen builds which use two Master Gunners and two units of Express Teams, though I would advise buying just one master gunner at first and proxying the second one for a while to see if you like the list with two of them.

Trencher Warcaster Lieutenant FA 1

Seeing as you can only bring one anyway that's all I would advise buying! Though I would add that I rarely find myself putting one in lists, so maybe proxy to see if its worth you getting one of these.

(Though it is a really cool model I enjoyed painting!)

I hope you found this helpful, let me know if this kind of breakdown is something you would like to see down for other model types in the faction (for example warjacks and units)

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Theory Thursday: Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

One of the iconic units in Cygnar, the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages bring a long range high accuracy ranged presence but also a close up damage potential which will catch opponents off guard.

Stats

Speed: 6 Average speed for infantry in Cygnar.

Strength: 4 Fairly irrelevant except in cases which allow a model to use your models strength such as Satyxis blood witches or Tharn bloodweavers. So in this case having a low strength is a good thing!

Mat: 5 Pretty low but they will only ever use it in rare occasions when they can't shoot such as during certain feats or when in the range of abilities which prevent ranged attacks. Having the sword is a nice back up which some dedicated ranged units lack.

Rat: 7 What might be the standard Rat for non character Gunmages is still amazing compared to other ranged units in the game.

Defence: 14 This is on the higher end of defence stats for infantry.

Armour: 11 Low arm which means they will automatically die if hit by most attacks in the game, only the lowest pow blast damage weapons will fail to kill them.

Command: 7 A fairly lower command range can lead them to bunch up, fortunately this is improved to 9 with the CA.

Cost

They cost 11 points for 6 which is 1.8 points each which is pretty cheap considering what they can do. The CA costs 4 points.

At a cost of 1.8 points per member of the unit they are pretty cheap considering the work they can do.

Weapons

Sword

With a melee range of 0.5", a pow of 7 and a MAT of 5 they aren't going to be wowing anyone with their melee skills, but that's not what they are meant to be doing... It is worth remembering that they have the sword however if they ever end up in a situation where they can't make ranged attacks.

Magelock pistol

At range 10" and pow 10 with magical weapon they have the same stats as every other Gunmage with a pistol they are all even named the same so its more about the shot types each different type of Gunmage has.

The shot types

Crit Brutal
If the attack is a critical hit then you gain an additional die on the damage roll for that shot. (abbreviated to CB for the rest of the article)

Snipe
This attack gains +4 range

Thunderbolt
Enemy models hit are pushed directly away for the model making the attack D3 inches, if its a critical hit they are knocked down after being pushed.
(abbreviated to TB for the rest of the article)

Special rules

Gunfighter

Like a lot of Gunmage models they have the gunfighter special rule. I won't go into too much detail on gunfighter here. If you would like to know more about it you can find my article explaining it in detail here

Pistoleer

Gunfighter attack damage rolls have boosted damage.

Although this is a theme benefit I count it as a rule they have. The chances of using them outside of themes is extremely remote.

Command Attachment

The Command attachment (CA) has the same stats as the rest of the unit but with one higher MAT and RAT, and two higher command.

While the CA is alive the unit gains the special rule "Swift Hunter" which allows models in the unit to advance up to 2" after it destroys a model with a ranged attack.

The CA also has a once per game ability (often called a mini feat) called "Moment of Clarity"
The unit gains the True Sight special rule for that activation. Which allows the unit to ignore cloud effects when determining line of sight and they can also ignore the stealth special rule.

The CA is also a Jack Marshal and has a Drive which allows the Warjack it controls to use its Rune shot types and its ranged attacks become magical!

Be aware the Warjack needs to begin its activation in the command range of the CA to use this rule.
If the CA dies the Warjack becomes Autonomous the unit do not keep control of it, and it will lose access to the shot types.

The best options if you want to Marshal a Warjack to the CA are lights like Hunters, Grenadiers (Bring a unit of Trencher Mechaniks to reload it), Fireflies or Sentinels or heavies like Cyclones, Defenders or Avengers.

Caster synergies 

Kraye: while he doesn't do much for Gunmages they can do great work for him, both in enabling his feat with their accurate long range shots which can ignore stealth if needed.
They also make a good target for the countermeasures spell, making them into a decent jamming unit.

Haley1: Her feat allows them to all make an additional ranged attack which is great when making such high quality attacks.
Temporal Barrier reduces enemy models DEF by 2 in her control area, making the already accurate Gunmages even more so.
Deadeye gives them an additional die on attack rolls for their first ranged attack of their next activation. This is amazing to increase the likelihood of the critical effects of CB and TB.

Haley2: Her feat can protect them giving them another turn to shoot. Also if they can knock models down that Haley feats on, they will get nothing done at all! (Unless they can shake knockdown of course)
Her spells Domination and Telekinesis can bring targets into range and turn them around making it easier for Gunmages to get work done, and ignore shields.
Force Field lets you pick the direction that aoes scatter in her control area raising the chance of Gunmages surviving them, though this is no guarantee.

Haley3: Temporal Distortion increases their defence by 2 if they are within 5" of a member of Haley's unit, though it does make them have to bunch up more than is ideal making them prime targets fro aoes.
Tactical supremacy gives them reposition 3" which when combined with Swift Hunter from the Gunmage Officer will allow them to move a total of 5" after shooting (remember they need to kill a model to trigger swift hunter) These two will work together as swift hunter is not an end of activation movement it happens right after they shoot.

Stryker1: His Snipe upkeep spell allows them to use their short range rune shots CB and TB at 14" range. Note that as it is the same name as their rune shot snipe they can't be used together for +8 range.

Blur gives the unit +3 DEF against ranged and magic attacks which with their already decent DEF makes them very hard to remove from a distance.

Sturigs: Snipe - see above.

His feat can effectively increase their threat range by 3" not the best but its something,,,

Siege1 His feat effectively makes their guns armour piecing for one turn upping their damage considerably.
His spell Foxhole will keep a whole unit safe from aoes and even most direct ranged attacks.

Caine1: With the spells Snipe, Blur and Deadeye he supports Gunmages well, though his feat can make them feel a little redundant at times 

Tips and Tricks

You can increase their accuracy in theme with the Gunmage Captain Adepts Flare shot type. This also allows them to hold their Minifeat for a turn as Flare removes stealth. I often use this combo in early turns to deal with stealth light Warbeasts/Warjacks.

The pow of their attacks can be increased by 2 in theme using Falk's Rune Marked shot type.

The Swift Hunter ability is great for allowing them to either move backwards to avoid retaliation, or to move further up the board to claim more table space, contest or score zones.

With Haley1 (who I mainly use them with) they have the potential to move 10" in a turn if they are able to kill 2 models on her feat turn. I have often deliberately picked soft targets for the most forward positioned gunmage in the unit to allow them to move up to contest a far zone. Choir of Menoth and Beast handlers are ideal targets for this.

One of the big considerations I make is whether or not the unit should charge to get within melee range to gain the pistoleer boosted damage rolls. 

If it would get the majority of the unit into melee for the extra damage then I will consider having the unit charge even if it means one or two of them can't attack.

If you do chose to charge it is important that you don't accidentally push the charge target out of melee of other members of the group who haven't attacked yet, as due to the way gunfighter charge attacks work they can't use their initial to attack a model outside of their 0.5" melee range.

Remember that TB only pushes or knocks down enemy models, which means you can use it to unjam your own heavies with the only risk being that they take a pow 10 if you miss and then hit them.

Missed Gunfighter shots do have the chance to hit another model if more than one model is involved in the melee. As its not possible to "engage" friendly models the shot would not count as a gunfighter attack and thus would not gain the boosted damage roll. When rolling to hit on your own models they would also get the +4 DEF bonus for being in combat, making it much less likely you will accidentally kill your own models.

When attacking units be aware of which of the enemy unit is the unit leader and which are Command attachments (CA's).
Gunmages like to scalpel out models so aim to remove CA's early if possible to possibly remove some rules or bonuses they might be providing their units.

If the enemy unit is spread out consider killing the unit leader to force the other player to promote them leaving some of the unit out of command. Then kill the rest of the unit which is in the new leaders command range but leave the leader alive.
If a portion of the unit are now out of command you are pretty much free to ignore them for a turn.
Out of command models don't contest and can't make attacks next turn unless the other player has a way to get the unit back into command before they activate. For example: out of activation movement, or killing their own unit leader to promote to one of the out of command models.

Its nearly always better for Gunmages to be further away from the enemy models, distance is the best defence they have!

If you have the choice between shooting a snipe shot at a heavy Warjack/Warbeast and maybe doing 1-2 damage if you roll well or shooting at a random support model its nearly always the better option to kill the support.
Lowering the efficiency of the enemy army will help you better in the long run.

For example if you are playing against Skorne killing beast handlers to deny their beasts prodding (for a free charge) and Enrage (for +2 Strength) will do more to protect your own heavy options (For me my Hurricane) than doing a few damage to a Heavy. They can always be healed up so even if you take out an aspect from them its not permanent.

Timing when to use their mini feat is a big deal, if the other player has a unit of stealth infantry and they are in range of the majority of the Gunmages then that is often a good time to use it.
If there is a stealth Warjack/Warbeast or solo then I often prefer to try and have a Gunmage Captain Adept use its Flare shot to remove stealth to hold their mini feat for later.
If the enemy Caster has stealth then often holding on to their mini feat can keep that caster back further or camp more focus/fury to stay alive. Reducing the impact they have on the game can have a big effect on the game overall.

When attacking high Def heavies I will often have the first Gunmage use TB to try to knock them down to make the rest of the unit nearly auto hit. (Worth pointing out that Gunfighter being a ranged attack means they they don't get to auto hit even against knockdown models in melee)
Make sure to have the model that's trying to knock down not push the heavy out of melee with the rest of your Gunmages or else you lose the pistoleer bonus!

Beware Ashen Veil! It grants both concealment and a -2 to attack rolls for living models within 2" of the model with that rule. Which will make Gunmages pretty sad.

On a similar be aware of terrain that grants Def bonuses against ranged attacks as this will still count against Gunfighter.

Your opponent might not realise that certain defensive tech doesn't apply to Gunfighter.
Common examples are Retaliatory Strike and Unyielding.
(Made this meme back when Unyielding got errataed)



Be on the look out for models which are immune to knock down or being pushed. It's never nice to pick TB only for the other player to tell you it doesn't work after you have already attacked.

Pistoleer + Crit Brutal + Deadeye = Sad Cryx Bonejack!

Its easy to think that Gunmages can't deal with high armour, but they shouldn't be discounted. Sure they aren't as hard hitting as Stormblades but they have great flexibility.


Free strikes

When they make free strikes you can still pick one of their shot types.
It could be tempting to pick CB for even more damage but there is an interesting interaction if you pick TB. When a model is charging if its movement is interrupted by a push slam or throw it stops, which can make the model fail its charge and thus end its activation.
This can be a great way to stop a model with flight or incorporeal which charged through your army.
In the case of flight or incorporeal remember that the enemy model might actually get pushed towards its charge target as they will get pushed directly away from the Gunmage at the exact moment they leave the Gunmages melee range.
You might also just get a critical hit and knock them down as well! (This is also a good thing to happen if the free strike is not from a model charging)

On a sportsmanship note I would always advise reminding the other player that your Gunmages can stop a charge with a free strike in a friendly game. In a tournament game its more of a personal choice, though it could leave the other player a bit tilted if they aren't aware of this interaction.

Examples of deployment and use during games

In this game vs Thagrosh2 I put one unit on the left to hold the left zone alone. The Legion player had only deployed a single Raek opposite the left unit which I was confident they could handle. I wasn't too worried about much of the Legion army crossing over from right to left due to the house obstruction which their flying Warbeasts would be unable to fly over with my Hurricane shutting down flight.

The Legion player put the Raek on the left into some rubble terrain (the brown template) with it contesting that zone. On the right his other Raek ran to engage to disrupt my order of activations.

With Deadeye the unit on the left use thunderbolt to knock down the Raek with the closer members of the unit. As it is in rough terrain it got pushed 1/2 distance which helped stop it getting pushed out of range of the further back members of the unit. Rather than try to get all the members of the unit within 10" to use CB or TB I opted to have most of the unit stay further back and use snipe. Keeping them safer was important this early as I didn't really want to trade a whole unit just to kill a Raek. If they had failed to kill it I was fine with losing the couple I had put in range to use TB.

On the right I had the a couple of the gunmages attack the Raek that had ran to jam them, with the extra damage from Pistoleer it didn't last long.

Against this Cryx Gaspy3 player I put one unit on their own to defend my close zone, as I expected the hurricane to be toeing the edge of that zone so it could deal with heavies sent to contest I just needed a few TB shots to clear the zone to score and snipe shots to kill solos that attempt to score the flag.

The unit on the left I plan to use more as fodder to contest the far zone and snipe out the arc node and the Stalker light Warjack then maybe TB the heavies to slow them down.

In this game vs Issyria I didn't know where the Mage hunter units would be as they had AD so I placed a unit on each side to cover the whole board. I planned to use the Gunmage CA's minifeat during Haley1's feat to kill as many Mage hunters as possible.

As it turned out the left unit didn't get to shoot at all during Haley's feat turn! They had blinding light cast on them. I ran the unit to engage some Mage hunters and 2 of them even charged Hemera the character heavy with an arc node managing to do a couple of points of damage with their swords!

In this game vs Scaverous I put a unit on each side again, on the right I planned to have them wipe out the Bane Warriors. On the left I planned to have them knock down as many of the Bane Riders as possible with their TB shots.

The plan went just as I wanted, I used Deadeye to increase the chances of the unit on the left getting the crit knockdown from their TB shots. Knocked down cavalry don't get to do anything at all!

In this game vs Una2 I had a unit on each side again, I planned on using the GMCA's to flare 2 Griffons and have the units of Gunmages use snipe shots to kill those 2 for some early attrition. If the GMCA's missed I could always use their minifeats early though I don't think that is an ideal use of it.

In this game vs Durst I planned to have the Gunmages kill all the support models like the Choir and mechanics as early as possible. (I normally get this done by turn 3 on average)

He had a unit of ambushing Daughters of the flame so I bunched my army up to stay out of their threat and lined the right hand unit up to receive them as I expected them on the right.

As it turned out he brought them in on the left which worked out great for me as the Blazers used their eleap shots to kill 2 each making short work of them even with their high def.

In later turns the unit on the right charged into the Temple Flameguard who had shieldwalled and managed to kill all but one of them! Pistoleer really is amazing!

In this game vs Denny1 with Satyxis I put a unit on each side planning to use them to try to contest or hold the outer zones.

He had a unit of blood witches which were ambushing so I stayed out of threat and be ready for when they arrived.

But... it never came to that... my feat turn destroyed both his arc nodes, crippled the Stalker on the left and all but one of the gunslingers. Most of the solos and nearly all the regular Satyxis, I even managed to make it so only 1 of them was left in cmd with 3 or so out of cmd so wouldn't be able to attack me back.

He conceded at this point as I was yet to lose a model.

Painting showcase

Every now and then I see people ask to see alternate paint schemes for various models, I thought it would be a nice idea to showcase some of the Gunmages painted by members of the community.

Andy Marzec

Anthony Sarlo

Anthony Sarlo

Daniel Wakely

Grant Richey

Guillaume Juneau

 Jakob Schulz

Kris Burnett

Will Ozark

And here are mine, you can find more pictures of them here

I hope you found this article interesting and informative. If you spotted anything I got wrong or missed out let me know in a comment below and I will get it changed.

If you would like to pick up a unit you can find them here. This link will take you to The Outposts store in the UK which offers great discount on PP models.
(I also get a small percentage of any sales referred via my links as an affiliate)

If you enjoy articles like this and would like to support me in making them while also having a say on what I write about next consider supporting my Patreon which you can find here.
(Patrons get to vote on what I write about next)

Cygnar Character Warjacks - what themes they should be in

So in recent CID cycles we have seen more and more character Warjacks and Warbeasts added to theme forces allowing them to be used outside of with their bonded caster.

This made me think about Cygnars Warjacks and which themes I think they might fit in. This topic also just recently came up in the Cygnar Facebook page which spurred me on to actually finish writing this! 

So these are my thoughts on which themes I think they should be added to and why as well as combos with casters I would be excited to play if this happened.

Ace

This one seems straight forward to me, Sons of the Tempest

There aren't really any direct combos I would be excited to try with Ace with other Warcasters as without the Bond it shares with Caine, Ace loses a lot of its value.

Brickhouse

Heavy Metal or Storm Division

I would perfer to see it in Heavy Metal to be honest.

I would like to use it with Kraye

Gaining the boosted charge attack roll from the cav rules increases the likelyhood of crit smite

Reposition 5" helps get it into a position to force lock something important.

Haley2 would make great use of its force lock ability especially combined with her feat, you could use it to engage models with a shorter melee range allowing you not to have to feat on them as you know they can't move or make ranged attacks while engaged by Brickhouse

Dynamo

Storm Division seems a good fit for this Warjack

I would like to use Dynamo with Haley2, Kraye or Sloan for its ranged output. Haley2 and Sloan both giving it an extra ranged attack, and Sloan giving it boosted ranged attack rolls from Guided fire.

Gallant

Heavy Metal seems the only choice though I would like to see a new theme allong the lines of "Army of Light" or something like that.

I would be excited to use Gallant with Jakes1 in a Haley3 list for a super high def heavy!

Ol' Rowdy

Heavy Metal seems an easy fit for it,

I could see it being used with either Kraye or Haley2 as a late game defensive heavy. With Haley2 or Nemo1 he would be able to make 5 hammer attacks which is pretty decent.

Thorn

I would put Thorn in Heavy Metal though I can see this as the character jack which is the least likely to get put in a theme. I imagine players of other factions would be very upset about Thorn being available outside of Haley.

I would mainly want to use Thorn with Stryker2 for casting Rebuke and moving back to be safer as sometimes I end up losing a Lancer after I use it to arc a spell.

Its also a great Positive charge target with its increased mobility and higher pow melee weapon than most light Warjacks.

Thunderhead

I only include Thunderhead to be complete and have all Cygnars character jacks included.

It is already available in Storm Division and Heavy Metal, I can't see it being added to any other themes.

Its not bonded to any Warcasters either so there is no downside in including it with certain casters.

Triumph

As its already available in Grave Diggers I can't see it being added to anymore themes in all honesty.

What themes would you like to see these Character Warjacks added to? And what casters would you be excited to use with them? I'm interested in what combinations you would come up with!