Cygnar Basics: Squire

Everyone's favourite little robot! This article is meant with a newer player in mind but veteran players still might find some use in it or learn something new. 

It has three rules all of which require the Squire to be within five inches of your Warcaster
(Quick note that it can only ever be attached to your main warcaster, Journeyman warcasters can not have this little guy as a buddy. I guess rank has its privileges!)

At 5 points the Squire is more expensive than most warcaster attachments (most cost 4 points) but it is the only one that is a Cygnar model and therefore friendly faction.
If you are playing in one of the theme forces available to Cygnar the Squire is often available to choose as a free option, and is often picked as one due to its higher cost.

Reserve accumulator

Three times in a game during your maintenance phase you can give your Warcaster an extra focus.
I normally do this turns 2,3&4 unless the Warcaster I'm playing has a lot of upkeeps they need to cast turn one, or if I am going second and playing a ranged heavy army like Sloan and want to use a lot of focus to boost shots turn one.

Arcane repeater

Extends your Warcasters control range by 2"
This is really helpful for casters with control range effects, feats and spells such as Haley1&2.
Remember that your control range will only be increased while the squire is within 5" of your warcaster, so if the other player has effects that can move your squire, or they destroy it the effect will stop working.

Arcane realignment

Gives a reroll for a failed magic attack roll. This is great for saving focus by not having to boost to hit if you don't need a high roll to hit or makes it possible to hit those high defence models with a boosted roll. If you boost the attack roll the reroll will also be boosted!

This is the ability that can dictate your order of activations as its easy to forget about it and have your Warcaster advance up and out of range of the Squire.
Planning out your turn can help with this.

For example if Stryker2 would like to cast Rebuke on a unit to prevent them from charging and will need a 6/7 to hit but he has to move up to be in range to cast the spell. You would need to move the Squire up first so that they are within 5" of each other when he casts the spell to allow the reroll to hit.

General tips

At speed 6 the squire is very mobile, none of its abilities require it to preform an action so it can effectivly run 12" every turn if needed.

I have watched a lot of games both at clubs, events and youtube batreps in which the Squire gets picked off early in the game. Often this is because the Squire is way too far up the board next to the Warcaster.
The best place for the Squire early in the game is exactly 5" behind its Warcaster Nemo2 here has his squire following safely along behind him.

Later in the game it has some great uses such as being used to help block line of sight or block a position near your Warcaster that an enemy model could move to to make melee attacks on them.
This is great for a turn you might have to move up your Warcaster into a risky position.

Also the Squire can be used to score flags in scenarios that have them or it can contest a scenario element easily with a 12" run.

The Squire can also be repaired so if you happen to have mechanics in your list and they don't have anything better to do!

I hope that you found this article helpful if you did and would like to see more posts like this let me know. If there is a particular subject you would like me to write about please feel free to suggest it below