Theory Thursday: Pow 20 Stormsmiths?

{This article is based on mk2 rules}

Pow 20 Stormsmiths???

I'm a big fan of Stormsmiths, most Cygnar players are but how filthy can they be?

I was writing my eNemo tier 4 list and I got thinking about them.

eNemo gives them elite cadre making the skill check easier and the damage two higher

The Sliverline Stormguard give +2 damage to electrical damage rolls making 

So I started thinking just how high can I make the damage?

Obviously nearly all the damage buffs Cygnar has access to are not allowed in tier lists so this would have to be in a normal list.

I know this would be very hard to set up but awesome if it did happen.

Silverline +2 to electrical damage
Ayana +2 damage rolls

Ragman -2 Arm in death field
Gorman -2 Arm to Warjacks

Giving you +8 against warjacks 6 if not a jack for pow 20 and 18 respectively.
The best order to set this up is to have Ayana and Gorman start as they would prefer the target not to be engaged.

Alternatively you can swap eNemo for Nemo3 for 2 less pow but boosted damage on his feat turn. Though the skill check is slightly harder.

Mix things like a Stormwall (for the pods) and Firefly warjacks to make triangulations easier to set up for some crazy times!

Thoughts? I am very aware this would be a very strange list using all the damage buffs in one list, but this is just for theory...

Reposing Sloan

I have been meaning to repose Kara Sloan for a while now, but like most wargamers I have far to many active projects. And reposing a model is a little intimidating for me if I'm honest, I don't have a lot of experience with green stuff.

A fellow Cygnar blogger Vomkrieg recently did a post about his Kara it gave me the inspiration to get mine done. His post can be found here

I wanted to use as much of her original arms as possible as I'm not great with green stuff and wanted to keep as much detail as I could.

I doubted I could pose her so she was looking down the rifle in a realistic way so I opted for a "just fired" look.

 

I started by bending her arms forward and the right arm (her right) inwards as well.

I filled down the area on her hip where the left fist used to rest.





















Left hand I used a pin to give a guide to where her arm would go

 I messed up with her right arm drilling too far through...
I would have to fix that later

On the back of the elbow you can see the pin sticking out...

Final pose ready for green stuff!

 I filled in the gap after the right glove area.


















Sculpted a hand with fingers gripping the underside of the rifle

Covered the pin to make the left forearm. I tried my best to make it look like it has an armour plate on it.

Fiddly bit! made a thumb for realism...

The gap filled on the right arm

I added a round armour patch on her elbow to cover up my goof earlier!

Back view because of reasons!!!

And she's done! Now I just need to paint her... yeah that could be a while based on my painting speeds.

I hope this repose was helpful, and didn't drag on too long. Let me know what you thought of it!

Cygnar Stormguard painted

 Finally finished painting one of the first units I got for my Cygnar. Been meaning to complete these guys for a long time and I'm glad they are finally done. They show off how my "Blacknar" scheme looks on storm armour.

This was one of the first times painting voltic coils (something that I will have to do a lot of in the future) I'm pleased with how the effect turned out.

The leader with his weird gunblade...

What do you guys think of my painting??

Look forward to reading your suggestions

Theory Thursday: Shooting Top of Turn one with Trenchers

{This article is based on mk2 rules}

I'm aware that Trenchers are not universally liked by Cygnar players, but I really like how they look and enjoy that lots of people don't realise what they are capable of.

It can catch an unsuspecting opponent off guard to shoot at their army on Turn one with you going first!

With a 7" Deployment zone when going first the Trenchers will be 13" in due to Advance deploy. 

Before the Trenchers activate you must first have your Warcaster cast snipe on them, this tactic does limit you to the warcasters pCaine, pStryker and Sturgis.

Next have Maxwell Finn use Desperate pace on the for +2 Movement.

The Trenchers can now use an Assault order for move forward 11" and fail to reach their charge targets, but still get to take their assault shots which should reach 38" across the board and be exactly your opponents deployment line.

Obviously this will not work if they even deploy 1/2" back from their deployment line, but I have found that most players tend to deploy as far forward as they can.

The other consideration is that each trencher must be exactly opposite their intended target as the threat distance on this is precise.

Your opponents Advance deploy are much easier to reach, but advance deploy troops often have better defensive stats or abilities such as stealth.

Each caster brings something a little different to them.

• pCaine can give them deadeye greatly improving their chances of hitting, and the next turn he can give them Blur pushing their DEF up to 20 when Dug in!

• pStryker can't do much to help them hit on that first turn, but in later turns can offer them Blur or Arcane Shield pop his feat with this for ARM 21 Trenchers! Probably not the best use for it though...  Earthquake is his best way to improve the effectiveness of their shooting later in the game.

• Sturgis doesn't offer Trenchers outside snipe, he has Arcane shield but its not great with Trenchers.

Other army options that can help out with this tactic.

Viktor Pendrake can use Beast Lore to give Boosted attack rolls when shooting at Warbeasts.

Aiyana can use Lurynsar's touch to give them magical weapons, this will allow you to take out some of those annoying incorporeal models early.

Runewood or the Piper can give out Pathfinder so you get your distance should there be rough terrain in the way.

Hope you found this interesting, leave your thoughts down below!

Theory Thursday: Cygnar Avenger Warjack

{This article is based on mk2 rules}

A new type of post I figured I would try out.

I will start my first Theory Thursday with one of my favourite heavy warjacks, the Avenger.

The best thing about it in my mind is the Seismic Cannon, which on a direct hit on an enemy model knocks down everything in the 4" AOE.

The problem lies with its RAT of 4... but there are ways around this, I typically marshal the Avenger to Gun mages to get use out of their great Rune shots. 

I'll breifly cover those shot types and how I think they are with the avenger

• Critical Brutal is not great on a AOE attack as it only effect models directly hit, so has no effect on the blast damage and as a crit effect its unlikely anyway.
• Thunderbolt is only worth doing if you are shooting at shield wall troops (push them out of formation then roll the damage to get around that armour bonus) or you are trying to get models out of a zone.
• Snipe is the best for this Warjack, gets the range up to a more respectable 14" (which often means you can aim to mitigate the poor RAT)

I tend to use the Avenger to deny ground to my opponent rather than get kills. At POW 14 its ok but I mainly end up using the Jack marshal bonus to boost to hit. If it kills something that's great, but I would always rather hit and knock things down than miss because I wanted to boost damage. 

I was idly reading the its card the other day and something twigged for me. The knock down only triggers on a direct hit on a enemy model, and playing steamroller scenarios as most players do I remembered that the objectives you often get are classed as enemy models.

Also I have found that a lot of player will use these objectives to hide their Warcaster. So it can be a nice way to knock down their caster and you only have to roll a 3 to hit an objective! 

The Avenger also has great synergy with the Trencher Master Gunner, who can give it Artillerist to give it +2 to ranged attack rolls and a reroll on distance and or deviation.

Or he can give it Close Fire to allow it to fire into troops that have run to engage your Gun Mages. Using Thunderbolt in this situation helps as it can push them clear out of combat even if they survive the shot itself.

A great Jack for clearing line of sight for either Caines, Siege or Sloan to assassinate.

An odd trick you can do with it when its in Sloans battlegroup is to run with the Avenger in its activation, and then when Sloan activates have her Feat and shoot to trigger a feat shot for the Avenger who is now further up the field and perhaps has now got a better line of sight. 

It can also be very mean to run it on Gun Mages with eHaley as your Warcaster, cast Temporal Acceleration on it to knock down even more of their army!

Appologies if this is all super obvious or you all already knew this, I just want to try something new and get some of my ideas out there. 

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments and let me know if you want more of these or not!

Finished magnetising my Avenger Warjack

While I had my pinning stuff out for the repair work I figured I would finish magnetising my Avenger Warjack.

I magnetised the chassis and the avengers weapons a while ago, but never got round to finishing the other options of the Centurion and Hammersmith.
Mainly because the Avenger is so good, I have a Centurion already and don't find the Hammersmith worthwhile with the casters I have been using.

But I finished it up now.

Drilling into the shoulder until the magnet will be flush with the joint

On the wrist I drilled until two magnets deep

 Magnet inserted and super glued into place, I made sure that all the arms are aligned the same way.

Wrist all finished up. Again all aligned the same,

The weapon choices all finished, the reason I drill two magnets deep on the wrist is because there is not enough room to fit a magnet in the hands.

Avenger

Hammersmith

Centurion

Now all that is left to do is paint it up! Should make me more likely to use the other options.

Post move repairs

Its been over a month since I last posted... new flat, looking for a job. Moving across the country has been stressful.

I have also not had the internet for quite a while now, hence the lack of posts...
So on a rainy day last week with nothing better to do I figured I would repair the damaged models from the move.

Time to bust out the pinning kit!

This poor Trencher commando lost his hand, nice quick and easy fix

My Firefly Light Warjack suffered a broken spear, I had to clean up the break on both sides before pinning to insure a smooth join.

My Stormguard break all the time and I have resolved to not just glue them back together, but to pin them hoping to not have to fix them again... Two of them needed work, one a weapon the other had come apart at the waist.

The Stormblade Captain's pommel had bent on his sword, bending it back snapped it off...

I had to trim it back to make the connection smooth.

Two Ironclad's needed their hammers reattaching, very quick and easy.

This was a nasty one, my Lancers arm had snapped in two. It was tricky to line up the pin holes just right as there is not much room to fit the hole I drilled.

Here they all are good as new. (Nearly)

All the Warjacks need repainting as I have changed my colour scheme since I painted them (or they are second hand)