Table of Contents
CREDITS
Welcome to War! . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
WARMACHINE: Tactics Game Development
WARMACHINE Creator Matthew D. Wilson
Multiplayer Tactics. . . . . . . . . . 4
WhiteMoon Dreams
“No Man’s Land” Story
Cygnar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Matthew D. Wilson
Project Manager
Protectorate of Menoth. . . . 17
Michael G. Ryan
Khador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Writer
Stu Liming
Cryx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Tactics Campaign Guide . . . . .
Editors
Michael G. Ryan Michael Sanbeg
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Graphic Design Director
Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Josh Manderville
Graphic Design Bryan Cutler
Visit: www.privateerpress.com Privateer Press, Inc. 13434 NE 16th St. Suite 120 • Bellevue, WA 98005 Tel (425) 643-5900 • Fax (425) 643-5902 For online customer service, email
[email protected] Game © 2014 Privateer Press Interactive, Inc. and WhiteMoon Dreams, Inc. All rights reserved. WARMACHINE property and related intellectual property rights are the property of Privateer Press, Inc. and are used under license. WARMACHINE®, WARMACHINE: Tactics, Cryx, Cygnar, Khador, Protectorate of Menoth, warcaster, warjack, and related logos are trademarks of Privateer Press, Inc. in the United States and other countries and are used under license. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective holders.
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Welcome to War! WARMACHINE: Tactics is the first video game based on the award-winning tabletop game WARMACHINE. If you’re already familiar with the tabletop game, you’ll recognize the world of the Iron Kingdoms—warcasters, warjacks, and bloody clashes between enemy factions. If you’re new to the world of WARMACHINE, you’re about to discover a place where magic and technology blend together to make warfare especially brutal and unpredictable. This guide will arm you with knowledge and strategy to help you compete in online multiplayer matches as well as conquer the “No Man’s Land” single-player campaign effectively and efficiently. By the time you reach the end— assuming you survive that long—you’ll have encountered an incredible array of heroes and villains. Get ready to take your first step onto the battlefields of the Iron Kingdoms to experience war like never before!
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MULTIPLAYER TACTICS The Basics
SPD bonuses are affected by any multipliers, like a run. A run will always be double a unit’s SPD in distance.
Playing head to head can introduce challenges and issues you would never face during the WARMACHINE: Tactics campaign. This section includes a few tips for surviving against the hordes of other players out there.
MAT: This stat refers to how accurate the unit is with its melee attacks. You won’t need to do the math, though—when you select a target, the menu shows you the hit percentage. RAT: This refers to a unit’s skill with crossbows, guns, and any other ranged attacks.
The First Rule of WARMACHINE
There is one immutable rule to WARMACHINE, no matter the faction or the point size: don’t let your warcaster die.
MAG: This is used to represent a unit’s accuracy with spells. Don’t worry: spells that target friendly units, such as Defender’s Ward and Boundless Charge, automatically hit. Your MAG stat only comes into play if you’re targeting an enemy unit with a spell, such as Earthquake or Crippling Grasp.
Warcasters are sorcerer-soldiers trained to fight not only with martial and arcane prowess but also with the rare gift of being able to mentally control warjacks. Warjacks are hulking, mechanikal constructs built for destruction. Normal soldiers might be able to direct warjacks with coded phrases or gestures, but the degree of control a warcaster can exert over a warjack is exponentially better, and warcasters have the added bonus of being able to command several warjacks at once.
DEF: This is used to represent your unit’s ability to evade attacks. It’s used against all forms of attacks. ARM: ARM reduces the damage from an attack for every point it has. Some units, such as the Lancer, gain a bonus to their ARM unless they are attacked from behind.
The battles in WARMACHINE: Tactics multiplayer currently can only end one way: with the death of a warcaster.
Weapons
Anatomy of a Unit
Each weapon in the game is categorized as melee or ranged. Within these categories, each weapon has a name. The DAM stat tells you how much damage the weapon can do, to within a few points. Just as with MAT, during an attack command, a rough estimate of the damage it will inflict is displayed. These predictions are adjusted if you are spending focus, gaining charge bonuses, and so on.
Units have numerical representations of their battlefield prowess. These are abbreviations of which aspects they represent. Consider Commander Coleman Stryker. First, notice the HP and Focus callouts are next to the unit’s portrait in the red and blue gear. This allows you to view them at a glance from the activation queue. HP: This represents how many points of damage the unit can take before it is destroyed. Focus: Some units have a Focus stat, showing how many focus points they currently have. Warcasters are unique in that focus points add to their ARM stat if those focus points remain unspent. This is called overboosting.
There is also a word that follows in parentheses. This is the damage type. Most weapons in WARMACHINE: Tactics are the Physical type. Occasionally, a weapon will have a different type, like the Purifier ranged attack here, which is Fire type. Some units and abilities grant immunity to certain types of damage. Immunity means the affected units do not suffer damage or effects from any attacks of that type.
SPD: This refers to how fast a unit can move. Each point of SPD allows the unit to move one square in a straight direction. Diagonal movement does not let you move as far. Occasionally, bonuses are granted to either SPD or movement. Movement adds only statis squares to your movement potential whereas
So, in the example of the Flameguard Cleanser’s Purifier weapon, Cleansers are also immune to Fire type damage, meaning if one Cleanser hits another Cleanser with the Purifier attack, the other Cleanser is safe from harm! Units have this information under the Advantages section. Some units have spells they can cast, and they have the same profile as ranged attacks, with the exception of the associated focus cost, if any. 4
Line of Sight
Line of sight is an important concept in WARMACHINE: Tactics. Typically, it’s used to determine if a unit can charge or make attacks against another unit, but line of sight also applies to other abilities, such as Kommander Sorscha’s feat, Icy Gaze. A unit’s line of sight is determined by its facing. Units are able to see in three directions: the direction they’re facing and the directions to either side of them. For larger units, this extends to the middle of the sides of their profiles. If a unit highlights an enemy unit for an attack and the attacking unit is outside of the enemy’s line of sight, this icon appears over the enemy unit. This grants a +1 to the attacker’s MAT and ignores 1 ARM on the enemy unit. If a unit is on elevated terrain, such as on top of a barricade or a platform, that unit’s line of sight extends past certain units that would normally block line of sight. AOEs also have a chance to put some damage on the board if they miss. An AOE attack that misses its intended target deviates up to 6 squares away in one of eight directions— the four cardinal directions and the 4 directions in between them. If an AOE attack misses, all units in the AOE’s new location take the reduced damage that the target’s neighbors would have taken. Sometimes the RNG, or range, is defined as SP or has AOE: Spray listed. These are spray attacks. Some ranged attacks or spells list “Spray X” as their range, with X being either 6, 8, or 10. Spray attacks hit everything their template touches, and an attack and damage calculation is made separately for each unit in the template. Be careful: review your targets, as the templates change depending on the angle between the attacker and the target. Consider the differences between these two templates. No units have moved; only the selection of the primary target has changed.
Normally, this Winter Guard could not see the Mechanithrall through his compatriot; however, being on elevated terrain allows the Winter Guard to shoot the undead servant of Cryx. Some attacks may not need line of sight to affect a specific target. Area of Effect, or an AOE, attack affects several squares at once. Typically, the target of an AOE attack suffers greater damage than the target’s neighbors, but several AOE attacks come with secondary effects, such as Knockdown or the continuous effect of Fire. 5
Actions
When you select a unit by left-clicking on the unit or on the unit’s portrait in your activation queue, you get several options:
Continuous Effects
This command allows you to move your unit. A light blue barrier shows you all the places a unit can move to and still get an action. A large red barrier shows where the unit can move to if it forfeits its action. Note that, with a few exceptions, such as warcasters casting spells, performing an action first automatically forfeits your movement.
Some attacks and abilities cause status effects. Continuous Corrosion: Continuous Corrosion does 2 damage and ignores all mitigation at the beginning of a round in which it doesn’t expire. Continuous Fire: Continuous Fire does 5 damage at the beginning of a round in which it doesn’t expire. This damage is lowered by mitigation. When calculating this damage against a warcaster, that warcaster receives only his or her ARM bonus from the focus the warcaster didn’t spend during the previous round.
Before and after a move action, you have the opportunity to change a unit’s facing to one of the four cardinal directions. Facing determines which adjacent squares are in your melee range, which units are in range and line of sight for ranged attacks and spells, and where enemy units have to be to get a back strike.
Continuous Stall: Warjacks affected by Continuous Stall cannot run or charge and lose their defense bonus.
This arrow shows which direction your unit is facing.
If performing the attack would consume focus or if the particular roll is to be boosted, this icon lights up.
This action opens up a sub-menu, displaying the available melee attacks for the unit. If the unit only has one melee attack, the weapon’s name is added to the text. If no targets are eligible for attacks, it is not displayed with white text.
This acts like the Melee action, but it outlines ranged attacks. Remember that range and line of sight factor into which attacks are available, and a unit can’t make a ranged attack if it is engaging a unit with one of its melee weapons or if it is being engaged by an enemy’s melee weapon.
If an attack would require focus to perform or if a roll could be boosted with a focus point, this icon is displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the command.
This displays all special actions for this unit. Common special actions are Combined Melee/Ranged Attack, Shield Wall, and Combo Strike. If you hover your mouse over the special action, a description of its effect comes into play. Every unit in the game has a few special and unique actions, so be sure to explore them all!
What’s in an Attack? All attacks have mathematical odds of being successful or not. When you make an attack, imagine three sixsided dice being rolled. Now we add and subtract the MAT, RAT, or MAG against the target’s DEF, we include other bonuses and detriments, and then we compare them. The difference moves the percentage probability by that difference between that number and 10. This number is now the Target Number. Next, imagine three six-sided dice being rolled again. These three dice are trying to roll the Target Number or above. This may seem complex, but the computer does all the work for you when it displays the percentages. Critical effects are calculated on whether two of the three dice would result in the same number.
If a unit suffers Knockdown, the first thing it will have to do is Stand Up. This forces the unit to give up either its movement or its action.
If a unit has an enemy in range and line of sight for a charge, this icon appears. If you could charge with multiple weapons, it asks you to select which weapon you wish to use.
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The UI
The basic user interface has a few features that are quite handy.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Activation Queue: This list shows all remaining units for your army. Units still in color have not activated yet this turn; once activated, they fade. Left-clicking a unit selects it if it has not yet activated and displays the unit’s information in place of the queue.
You don’t have to use the mouse for all of your commands. There are several commands that can be executed with keystrokes.
If you ever select a unit you do not wish to activate, you can click the "Deselect Unit" button to put that unit back into an inactivated state. You can also press the Z key to deselect the unit. Timer: The timer information at the top center of the screen tells you what Round it is—a Round is defined as the period of time it takes for the activation of all of your units and all of your opponent’s units. It also tells you what Phase the Round is in, with a timer telling you how long you have been in the current Phase. Note the End Turn button is currently grey. This turns red once all of your units have activated. You can also press the Delete key to end the turn instead of clicking the button.
G: The G key toggles the grid on the map. Your melee range, movement range, and control area are still displayed.
Z: The Z key deselects a unit you have selected if you haven’t taken any action or ends that unit’s activation if you have.
Space: The space bar allows you to cycle through all available targets in your attack menu. Alt+F9: This quick combination toggles the UI. This doesn’t have an in-game benefit, but it can make screen shots much nicer. Perfect for bragging to your friends! Delete: The delete key ends your turn. A warning will appear if you try to end your turn before all units have activated, but you can forfeit their unused activations.
The Combat Log: The Combat Log keeps brief notes of what has occurred in the game so far.
Tab: The tab key selects the next unit in your squad. Units that have already activated do not enter into this cycle.
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Advanced Tips
have a RNG stat that is measured in grid squares. So, a RNG 6 gun on the Nightwretch can shoot a target in line of sight within 6 grid squares of him.
Thinking Moves Ahead
“Thinking moves ahead” means you need to think not just in terms of what you want to do on your turn but also in terms of what your opponent is likely to do in response to your moves. Let’s look at a prime example. Here we have a few troopers just a turn away from dishing out some pain. Let’s move our Stormsmith Stormcaller to here…
Hmm. Close enough to arc some spells but not for the Nightwretch to get in on this action. If you count the grid squares, you can already see the Nightwretch can’t shoot any of the Flameguard. Yet.
An aggressive stance for Cygnar but not as aggressive as it could be... Why not? …with the Stormblades backing him up left just a bit behind. It’s not because they’re slower but because they want to be in position for the Temple Flameguard’s response:
Combined Ranged and Combined Melee Attacks Some Units have a Special Ability of Combine Ranged Attack (CRA) or Combined Melee Attack (CMA). To perform a CRA/CMA: 1. A unit declares the CRA/CMA Special ability and chooses a target. All other units of the same type can now only move and contribute to the CRA/CMA. (Those units have the CRA/CMA icons above them.) 2. When other units of the same type (i.e., Winter Guard, Trenchers, etc.) activate, the squares in which they can contribute to the CRA/CMA are highlighted.
Oh...that’s why. Sure, that poor Stormcaller is in dire straits, but now we have a Temple Flameguard and a Cleanser—each worth more than the Stormcaller cost us—in assault range of our Stormblades. This technique of baiting out units by offering a weak or sacrificial unit in exchange for luring other units into charge or attack range of your more powerful units is a basic demonstration of thinking moves ahead. Knowing that your moves not only advance your cause but also affect your opponent’s decisions is a big advantage, and you should keep it in mind at all times. Notice the Exemplar Cinerators are waiting for the Stormblades to charge in to counter on the Cinerators’ turn!
3. Once all units you want to have contribute to the CRA/ CMA are in position, re-select one unit and execute the CRA/CMA (for added help with a CRA, choose the unit that didn’t move, if possible.). 4. The attack resolves and the round continues. Note that until the CRA/CMA resolves, units of other types can’t activate.
Knowing Your Ranges and Measurements
Being able to see a grid gives you a lot of information, and that information can be put to great use. Ranged attacks 8
vulnerable and can be destroyed like any other unit in the game. Sometimes allocating focus judiciously is the wiser course of action.
Deneghra on the left has a much better chance of surviving to see the next turn with cover and several focus points than she does with a more aggressive stance, on the right.
There we go! The Defiler can have his pick of Menite targets there! Fortunately, the Defiler doesn’t have these problems! With its spray template, it can potentially hit many targets at once. The yellow lines show potential targets. Additionally, while highlighting a square or set of squares where your unit can go during its movement, the game also draws lines to all available targets, giving you a nice visual reference of what you can and cannot shoot. Since you still need line of sight, be mindful of your facing before you commit to an attack.
You Can Move in Parts
Many times, you will just select where you want your unit to end its movement and select it. You can move less than your maximum distance, however, and still have the remainder to use. Here’s an example:
Know Your Abilities as Well as Your Opponent’s
Every unit in this game has Special abilities. Knowing what options you both have is your key to victory. I wouldn’t bunch up my Mechanithralls when Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers have AOE attacks that can deal damage to multiple targets at once!
This Winter Guard moves forward cautiously...
Time to hand out a bunch of damage to those undead! You Do Not Have to Spend All Your Focus
...and, upon seeing that the coast is clear, goes on to complete his movement. Use this to get in position while avoiding free strikes.
It can be tempting to allocate all your focus and let your warjacks cut loose, but that may not always be the best course of action. While warjacks are powerful, they are still
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You Don’t Have to Move Forward
While instinct might suggest you need to always move forward, many times that is not necessary. Sometimes, it’s wiser to back up.
A Guide to Command Hints When you place your cursor during a unit’s activation, the grid has a few hints to show you what will happen if you commit to the command right then. Here's a quick look at what they mean: The blue circle means a unit moves here and will get an attack or action to perform. Remember, they may need to change their facing in order to make some attacks, so if you moved up to hit and can’t attack, check your facing! The red circle means a unit moving here is giving up its action in order to do so. Early turns will typically see forces running, but be careful about running up so far you run right into your opponent’s attacks!
This Arcane Tempest Gun Mage could charge in and show that Man-O-War his mettle, but he decides his pistol is what makes him valuable, not his sword, and so he backs up...
The shield icon shows that a unit stepping here will gain cover from at least one angle. Be sure the wall or terrain is facing a probable angle of attack to get the bonus, though! This icon means that moving a warjack here will place it out of the warcaster’s current Control Range. The thin yellow line you see around the battlefield shows the current Control Area’s borders. A warjack won’t lose focus on it by leaving the Control Area, but it won’t be able to arc spells or get more focus until it’s returned to the warcaster’s Control Area. When making a charge or assault attack, these sections light up around your current target. The red square (or squares, for larger units) shows where your unit ends its charge. Green squares represent other squares your unit can successfully end its charge in. If you want multiple units to charge, make sure the previous units end its charges with space for its allies to get in on the beatdown!
...to take a smaller shot now but, more important, to survive to take more shots in the future. This also allows the Stormblades, who tend to do much better in melee, to charge in. Even not moving at all can have an advantage. By forfeiting your movement, you gain a bonus to your ranged attack values. Arc Nodes Keep Your Warcaster Safe
Spells have ranges, just like ranged attacks, and sometimes putting your warcaster forward to cast a spell can expose him or her to danger. The Revenger, Lancer, Deathripper, Nightwretch, and Defiler all have an important ability called Arc Node. This allows the warjack’s controlling warcaster to cast a spell at a target as if he stood where the Arc Node is, thus enabling the warcaster to add spells to the fray without exposing himself to danger. The Arc Node needs to remain in the warcaster’s Control Area in order to be used, so don’t let that warjack stray too far!
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Cygnar WARCASTERS
Known as the Jewel of the Iron Kingdoms, the great nation of Cygnar is beset by enemies on all sides. Against these threats stands the elite army of the Cygnus, including battle-hardened trenchers, deadly long gunners, and the legendary Storm Knights, warriors whose weapons bristle with lightning. Armed with the most advanced mechanika in the Iron Kingdoms, the stalwart and courageous soldiers of Cygnar stand resolute against those who seek to destroy their beloved homeland.
Commander Coleman Stryker
A paragon of Cygnaran virtue, Coleman Stryker embodies the newfound hope in Cygnar. Joining the Royal Guard at the age of sixteen, Stryker would, within the next few years, become a critical player in his nation’s history, fighting during the military coup that saw Cygnar's leadership shift from a malignant king to his benign brother. Diligently trained in the arts of martial spellcraft, Stryker has defended Cygnar’s borders with a singular devotion to saving the lives of his compatriots. Stryker is a man dedicated to duty, honor, and the preservation of the Cygnaran people.
In play, Cygnar is very much a faction of position and precision. Cygnaran units can typically play several roles at once (think jacks-of-all-trades with no specializations like some of the units found in other factions), or they are dedicated to a single act in war but don't do as well if they must act in another capacity. This requires you to use pieces in specific roles and to understand that the forces of Cygnar are more than just the sum of their parts. Your opponents will often forget or ignore the flexibility of your troops, and this can be used to your advantage.
Stryker can make everything seem easy: Snipe allows units to shoot from impossible distances. Arcane Shield makes units stand tough as nails against attacks. Blur prevents enemy ranged attacks from finding their targets. Plus, Stryker’s weapons cause Disruption, and his feat Invincibility causes his squad to truly live up to its name. As if that weren’t enough, Earthquake creates a massive AOE that causes Knockdown.
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Electro Leap, as properties on his dual blades. His feat, Dead on Arrival, pushes all enemy units three squares closer to Sturgis, and those that end within three squares of him take 4 DAM. Any units destroyed by his feat generate focus points for Sturgis’ warjacks. With all this, you may be tempted to let Sturgis loose and go all-out on the offensive, but be cautious. Sturgis isn’t invulnerable, even with his Arcane Shield spell in place.
Major Markus “Siege” Brisbane
Whenever Cygnaran leaders are forced to crack fortified positions, they call on Major Brisbane for his infamous skills. Armed with his mechanikal hammer Havoc and his rocket cannon, “Siege” has laid waste to more enemy forces than he can count. Major Brisbane is famed for breaching the notoriously impervious walls surrounding the Protectorate city of Sul, which had not been penetrated for millennia. Uninterested in the politics or intrigue some warcasters actively pursue, Siege is the consummate soldier, and has served the Cygnaran military faithfully for over two decades.
WARJACKS Lancer (light warjack)
The Lancer is the pinnacle of Cygnaran ingenuity and technology, designed to maintain and defend its arc node on the field of battle. Arc nodes are expensive, made of fairly rare materials, thus necessitating a warjack with the defensive capabilities of the Lancer. Built on the agile chassis of the Charger, its shield generates a shock field that can disrupt the processes of an enemy warjack’s cortex when struck. Add in a heavy war spear, and the Lancer is a formidable weapon for any warcaster.
Siege’s talents are represented by abilities designed to bring the hurt to enemies who would otherwise be safe. Spells like Foxhole protect your forces and can be used to remove problem units blocking line of sight to juicy targets. Mage Sight lights up units relying on Stealth to keep them safe from Cygnar’s many ranged attacks, and Rift can slow down your opponent’s approach and throw out damage as a bonus. Breach—Siege’s feat—even allows you to ignore all ARM and damage mitigation for one attack, including any focus a warcaster kept to help him weather your attacks. On top of all that, Siege can use an ability on his rocket cannon called Ground Pounder, allowing him to place an AOE in his Control Area and make attacks against everything in that AOE.
Set Defense and the Shield ability allow the Lancer to stay at the vanguard of a Cygnaran force, allowing its controlling warcaster to cast spells from a position of safety and daring enemies to approach. Once engaged, its Shock Shield causes Disruption, blunting the capabilities of any warjacks that hope to take it out. The Lancer can also be quite difficult to eliminate, as the Shield ability gives it an effective 5 ARM, and it has only two HP less than Cygnar’s heavy warjacks.
Commander Dalin Sturgis
Commander Dalin Sturgis is a master duelist who believes in leading his troops from the front lines. Nimble and deadly, Sturgis has honed his impressive combat skills to lend support to his warjacks and soldiers even as he surges across the battlefield delivering death from his twin-bladed mechanikal staff. For those who dare threaten his beloved homeland, a flurry of precisely targeted blades rends their lives from their bodies before Commander Sturgis disappears in a flash of arcane light to
Charger (light warjack)
The Charger is the most heavily produced light warjack in history. Its flexibility and superior articulation make it the prime choice for commanders throughout the nation. Employing the reloading mechanism originally intended for the Defender, the Charger's device has been modified to allow the recoil of one shot to load a second round almost instantly. Don’t let the Charger fool you: although it is the least durable of Cygnar’s warjacks, it can put damage out like no other, wielding a gun that is able to fire twice in a single activation. To make it even better, Powerful Attack means that giving a Charger its full allotment of 3 focus points can allow it to make two attacks with boosted attacks as well as boosted damage! At a mere eight points each, a few of these can create a serious threat for anything but the hardiest of enemies.
track down his next opponent.
Commander Dalin Sturgis plays far more aggressively than the average Cygnaran warcaster, using Snap Strike to get two additional attacks for the price of a single focus point and featuring Chain Attack: Flash, and both Feedback and 12
as “gravediggers,” as they typically precede the bulk of an army to set up cover and trenches for the battle to come. Trenchers can also cover their fellow soldiers’ advance by dispersing small explosives, clouding an area with smoke to hide their allies from enemy fire. Interestingly, the trencher infantry first began as an experiment by Cygnaran generals to see if they could discipline surly or insubordinate soldiers into skilled combatants.
Ironclad (heavy warjack)
The Ironclad is the mainstay of Cygnar’s frontline heavy warjacks—it signified the shift from creating ’jacks for labor to designing them specifically for war. The Ironclad wields a Quake Hammer it can slam to the ground, causing anyone nearby to lose their balance.
Trenchers are soldiers with many talents. They feature the Assault ability, allowing them to combine a ranged attack with a charge, making them one of the few units able to potentially kill another unit in a single activation. With Dig In, Trenchers can be very pesky to remove if they find cover on the battlefield. Their Smoke Bombs are also highly useful, providing concealment and blocking line of sight behind them. They also have Combined Range Attack, allowing several Trenchers to assist the others in taking down difficult targets. Trenchers are well suited to several tasks but do not individually excel at any one thing.
Not only does the Ironclad have one of the highest natural DAM stats in the game, it also has the Tremor special ability, granting it the chance to knock down anything within two squares. This means the Ironclad can be used as an excellent face beater or as a synergistic piece, knocking down enemy units to allow its allies to make short work of them. Defender (heavy warjack)
No other warjack has such range with a cannon. Though ranged weaponry is nothing new in warjack technology, the Defender sets a new bar for excellence with its heavy barrel rapid reloading mechanism and the ability to maintain a melee presence. The Defender features a significant shift in the Cygnaran armory, introducing long-range firepower of unprecedented accuracy.
Trencher Infantry Grenadier
Trenchers with experience and interest in demolitions are often granted a newer piece of military technology: a grenade that can be fired from a rifle, allowing these trenchers to expend them with reasonable accuracy. This ordnance is essential for breaking tight formations of Winter Guard and those of other enemies of Cygnar.
A variant of the Ironclad, the Defender exchanges the powerful Quake Hammer and Open Fist for a Disruptiongranting melee weapon and an impressive ranged attack. Sporting RNG 16 and DAM 7, the Defender has the longest potential threat range of any warjack in the game. Thanks to Disruption, the Shock Hammer—though not as impressive as the Quake Hammer—forces enemy warjacks to think twice before engaging the Defender. It is currently the most expensive of all the Cygnaran warjacks, but it is also the most flexible, being a potent combatant both at a distance and up close.
Trencher Infantry Grenadiers have Grenade rounds, a special ability that turns their ranged attacks into AOEs ahd lower armor, though you cannot make Combined Ranged Attacks with Rifle Grenade rounds. Apart from the Rifle Grenades, The Grenadier is in all respects a Trencher. For only one extra point to get an AOE attack each round, however, a Grenadier can be a great value. Stormblade
WARRIORS Trencher infantry
The trencher infantry corps is made up of common Cygnaran folk trained for war, steadfastly representing the enduring spirit of the nation’s people. While trenchers are not brutal masters of either melee or ranged combat, it is certainly a mistake to underestimate them. They are sometimes referred to
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Pioneered by Leto Raelthorne before he seized the crown, Stormblades are trusted with the most advanced mechanika wielded by any soldier in the Cygnaran military. Stormblades undergo intensive training to supplement ancient martial tradition with state-of-the-art weaponry, and are counted among the finest fighting men in service of the king.
Brutal: Brutal shots provide boosted damage on a critical hit.
Short of heavy warjacks, Stormblades are the hardest hitters you can bring. Their Storm Glaives hit for an impressive DAM 7, and their ranged attack is DAM 6. RAT 1 and RNG 6 means they aren’t going to be shooting opponents down from across the board, but they do have access to two excellent abilities: Assault and Thunder Thrust. These allow Stormblades to dish out some incredible damage if they can land the two attacks. Storm’s Eye also means ranged attack hits can hurt nearby units. Finally, if they truly have a difficult time putting out damage, Stormblades have Combined Melee Attack. Stormguard
Thunderbolt: This shot will slam into the target, pushing it back 1–3 squares and knocking it down on a critical hit. Phantom Seeker: This allows the Gun Mage to ignore line of sight considerations. Phantom Seeker and Thunderbolt will often be your best options, allowing you to dictate positions and to counter clever moves by your opponent. Stormsmith Stormcaller
Many of the best and brightest minds in Cygnar’s army are recruited for their mechanikal aptitude and trained at the Strategic Academy to become masters of the arcane, capable of harnessing the power of the storm. Using complex devices known as Stormcallers, they can conjure lightning from the sky to scorch men or disrupt the delicate cortexes of warjacks. Multiple stormcallers can assist in their fellows’ efforts and chain lightning between them or into a large area.
Eschewing the Storm Glaive in favor of a Voltaic Halberd, the Stormguard use a mechanikal capacitor to discharge an electrical arc with every swing. The very air darkens around them in combat, thick with the smell of ozone and the promise of death.
Stormguard are possibly the best front line unit in Cygnar. Reach and Set Defense allow them to get into melee early and often. Once there, Electro Leap allows them to take down nearby enemies. Electrical Charge lets them put damage out to several units at once by charging past, zapping them with their electrical fields. Stun Strike is a very solid ability to lower the DEF of a target and to prevent it from moving as well—perfect for locking down a big target!
Stormcallers don’t cost a lot of points and don’t offer much in the way of durability; however, these critical units can affect a huge portion of the field. They have three special abilities, each dependent on how many Stormsmiths are on the field: Stormcall: A RNG 10 attack that ignores Concealment and Stealth, inflicting 4 DAM (Electric). It can also cause Disruption to warjacks.
Arcane Tempest Gun Mage
Elite arcanists trained to channel their magical energies through specially crafted rune bullets imbued with deadly effects, gun mages from the Militant Order of the Arcane Tempest are unique problem solvers. Their very presence inspires confidence among other Cygnaran troops.
Surge: If two Stormcallers are within 20 squares of each other, they can draw a line of electricity between them. This causes the same DAM and possible Disruption as Stormcall. Triangulation: If there are three Stormcallers within 20 squares of each other, they form a triangle in which three targets are selected. There is a separate attack for each unit, and each attack has the same damage and effects as Stormcall.
Gun Mages are not going to be the star players, killing everything in one shot. They are, however, going to be key in many games. When they make a ranged attack, they can choose between one of four different effects: Snipe: Snipe shots are given +4 RNG, allowing them to place a few potential damage points on units that would otherwise be safely removed from the front lines.
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Faction Feel
Stormsmiths, Gun Mages, and Stormguard
Cygnar tends to cover its bases with specialists. Stormblades, for example, are typically not fielded to contribute to a ranged attack threat. Fortunately, you can rely on the more accurate Gun Mages or the more powerful Defender to take care of that concern. This combined arms thinking is required for success with Cygnar. There are also several significant themes in Cygnar that center around warjack supremacy.
At first, these three may not seem to have a lot of synergy, but this combo shuts warjacks down. Disruption, Critical Knockdown, and Set Defense all work together here, making it an above-average task to take down these Cygnarans. Toss in a couple of hard-working warjacks, and by the time your opponent reaches your front line, you’ll be in a prime position to deliver the hurt with a minimum of pain.
Facing other Cygnaran armies can sometimes prove a challenge, as a significant number of your units are immune to Electrical-type damage. If you believe you may face Cygnaran opponents, consider how that could affect your plans—and what you can do to disrupt theirs.
Power Combos
Please come in…please.
Stryker, Stormblades, and trenchers
Major Markus “Siege” Brisbane really brings this list together, assisting in the early game with Rift, Foxhole, or even Force Hammer. He can use Mage Sight to circumvent Stealth and cloud effects, while Breach allows this army, which might otherwise struggle against multiple heavy warjacks, to unleash some surprising damage.
Stryker has an oft-forgotten spell in Earthquake. Coincidentally, Stormblades suffer from difficulty in hitting with ranged attacks. Consider knocking a target down, raining lightning down on that knocked-down target, and then using Trenchers to either produce clouds or pump more ranged attacks into the helpless enemy.
Sample List Major Markus “Siege” Brisbane Ironclad x2 Arcane Tempest Gun Mage x4 Stormsmith Stormcaller x3 Stormguard x5
Remember: stick with your buddy! This list can be a little light in the HP department, so be aware of effects like Wretched Rain that can chip off a few points in a large AOE. Siege may want to concentrate Rift spells or Ground Pounder attacks against models with such attacks to put them down before they become too irksome.
The Lancer is there to arc Earthquakes beyond the reach of Stryker’s control area. Trenchers should lead the way and use their Smoke Bombs to block line of sight to the Stormblades until those Stormblades can unleash their deadly assaults on the knocked-down target.
stryker and heavy 'jacks
Another way to use Stryker is to cast Arcane Shield and Blur to make your units nearly invulnerable. It’s also wise to place single-target buff spells on units that will hang around long enough to enjoy them, so warjacks like the Defender and the Charger make ideal targets.
Sample List Commander Coleman Stryker Charger x2 Lancer Stormblade Infantry x5 Trencher x4 Trencher Grenadier Be wary of losing Trenchers too quickly, and be especially cautious of continuous effects like Fire and Corrosion. Should your opponent neutralize your Trenchers’ defenses too soon, do not be afraid to spend your feat and run everything into melee just to rob your opponent of options and to get into the thick of combat.
Go on, try and take out a warjack. I dare you.
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Stryker’s feat needs to be timed very well to keep things moving smoothly. Units like Stormsmith Stormcallers and Gun Mages can pin down troublesome enemy elements as you focus fire into designated targets. A Lancer is useful not simply for firing off spells as they are needed on the front line, it’s also as a fine bulwark to take point against the brunt of an enemy attack.
Sample List Comander Dalin Sturgis Lancer x2 Stormblade Infantry x4 Stormguard x6 Stormsmith Stormcaller x3 Unlike the role they play in many other lists, the Stormguard are not here to be thrown away. Sure, they are your front line units because of Reach and Set Defense, but even they are valuable, and you should not sacrifice them lightly. Don’t be afraid to Arcane Shield one of them if he is staring down several potential charges next turn.
Sample List Commander Coleman Stryker Defender x2 Charger x2 Lancer Arcane Tempest Gun Mage x2 Stormsmith Stormcaller Keep in mind that, with this many warjacks and upkeep spells, your focus points will be stretched pretty thin, and you’ll still need to keep Stryker safe. Don’t be afraid to let warjacks take their chances with unboosted shots or to transfer Arcane Shield to Stryker himself to maintain a degree of safety. Stormblades, Stormguard, and Stormsmiths
What could be better than jamming all the faction’s lightning-generating units together and making your own Storm Division! The Stormguard can absorb the first wave, freeing the Stormblades to use Assault while the Stormsmiths sit back and zap away at their leisure or set up a massive Triangulation attack!
Mosquitos everywhere, beware! This army is all about setting up waves of attack. It may be tempting to use Sturgis’ feat early to get the Stormguard into the fray as quickly as possible, but they are primarily there to keep the backfield alive and to stay in prime position for a counter-assault. This list can really lay into an army, as all units but Sturgis and his battlegroup are immune to Electrical damage.
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Protectorate of Menoth WARCASTERS
While the Menite religion itself is rooted in antiquity, the rise of the Protectorate of Menoth as a military power has occurred only within the last several decades. It has been extremely successful in expanding and revolutionizing its military while staying true to its religious convictions. Driven by Menoth’s will, the Protectorate now wages a crusade against the other nations and “lesser faiths” of western Immoren. Powerful warcasters imbue their towering warjacks with divine might while masses of zealots, mighty Knights Exemplar, and ranks of disciplined Temple Flameguard stand ready to cleanse the stain of heresy wherever it may be found.
Grand Scrutator Severius
Few can match the majesty and presence of Grand Scrutator Severius. Before the Protectorate of Menoth initiated its ongoing war against the other powers of the Iron Kingdoms, Severius frequently traveled to those nations as an ambassador of the Sul-Menite faith. On one such occasion, he inspired so many Khadorans to abandon the Motherland for the Protectorate that he was formally banned from Khador. Now he strides the battlefields, thundering the Litany of Menoth, blasting disbelievers as he goes.
Where other armies must rely on less certain traits like loyalty and duty, the Protectorate of Menoth military has proven that faith has a tangible power. There is no army in western Immoren as singularly united. Against those who carry out the Creator’s will, there can be no hope of victory!
Severius is perhaps the most vulnerable warcaster in the game; however, he more than makes up for this vulnerability with his potent spell list. Eye of Menoth’s importance cannot be overstated, as it grants all your units a +1 on all attack stats along with an additional point of DAM. Defender’s Ward adds 2 to a unit’s DEF and ARM stats, and Vision can prevent the next attack that unit is hit by from inflicting any damage. His feat can set up an assassination, as it prevents
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WARJACKS
enemies from casting spells, and any warcaster or other unit that uses focus caught with the feat will not replenish focus points on their next turn.
Crusader (heavy warjack)
As part of the peace accord following the conflict with Cygnar that led to the creation of the Protectorate of Menoth, it was declared that the Protectorate would not be permitted to maintain a standing army. Yet warjacks were still produced using cortexes smuggled from Khador and parts scavenged from various battlefields, and the greatest of the new Protectorate designs was the Crusader. Built with heavy armor, the Crusader was made to endure any assault and retaliate with devastating force, enhanced by the inferno mace inspired by the flaming maces of the Reclaimers.
High Exemplar Kreoss
Kreoss is a prime example of the virtues extolled by the Exemplar order. Originally from Khador but later taken in by Protectorate Menite pilgrims, Kreoss channeled the feeling of loss that came with separation from his family into a relentless pursuit of perfection. Members of both the clergy and the military respect his prowess as he directs interdictions of zealous soldiers and warjacks to key points in a battle, a living legend among the people of the Protectorate.
Crusaders are simple but effective warjacks. Costing only 12 points, there’s certainly an argument for throwing one in just to have a unit on the field that can bring a lot of pain and take a lot of punishment. The DAM 10 Inferno Mace features the Critical Fire ability, but otherwise it’s not a complex unit full of special rules—it’s simple and powerful.
Kreoss offers an answer to any situation. If there are too many upkeep spells or continuous effects, Kreoss can cast Purification, which can also prevent more spells from coming into play. Defender’s Ward keeps his units safe from harm. His feat, Menoth’s Wrath, knocks down all enemy units in his control range, allowing your units to disengage without free strikes and to land melee attacks with incredible ease.
Vanquisher (heavy warjack)
The Vanquisher was built in secret and not fully revealed until the Protectorate had entered into full revolt. It lumbers across the field whirling its massive spiked flail, known as a blazing star. Deafening thumps emit from its flame belcher as cannonballs explode with a fire so hot it melts metal to slag on impact. Once the Vanquisher closes in on its targets, its blazing star crushes bone and steel alike.
Feora, Protector of the Flame
Feora, Protector of the Flame is the head of the Temple Flameguard, but her ambition extends well beyond their ranks. During the Cygnaran assault against the Protectorate city of Sul, Feora was nearly crushed under the weight of a destroyed warjack. Rather than simply succumb to death, she rose again to become instrumental in repelling the enemy from her city. Reforged in purpose, she will purge in righteous flames everyone who stands against her.
The Vanquisher is the Protectorate’s most expensive warjack, but it’s well worth the cost. The Blazing Star, a Chain Weapon with the Thresher special ability, inflicts a respectable DAM 8. The Flame Belcher ensures nothing reaches the Vanquisher undamaged. Its impressive AOE attack covers a fairly large area and inflicts continuous Fire against any units within it, perfect for eliminating massed troops and for taking on light warjacks.
Feora plays with fire in a very literal sense. She has a range 10 spray attack (the biggest in the game), two spells that can cause fire damage to enemy models (Ignite and Cleansing Fire), and she prevents continuous Fire effects from expiring within her control range. Her feat, Wild Fire, allocates focus to her warjacks for each enemy unit suffering from Fire and allows her to manipulate which units suffer from continuous Fire.
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temples dedicated to Menoth, this order has over time become one of elite infantry. A small, perpetually burning reservoir of Menoth’s Fury in every Flame Spear inflicts burning wounds with each strike.
Revenger (light warjack)
Protectorate forces captured and reverse-engineered early Cygnaran arc nodes to lengthen the reach of the True Faith’s arcane warriors, while the development of the repulsor shield was a true Protectorate innovation, allowing the Revenger to rebuke opponents. Once those enemies have been pushed away, the Revenger uses its halberd weapon to retaliate from a safe distance, giving it an edge in combat against foes bigger than itself.
Flameguard are a cheap and potent unit that can hold the line like no other. Shield Wall and Set Defense make a formidable combo, but Protector’s Rush gives you the best of two worlds—a charge attack and Shield Wall! This can allow you to set the line of combat and force your opponent to react defensively. Menoth’s Howl can also put fire damage out there and Terrify your enemies as well! Flameguard Cleansers
Flameguard Cleansers are charged with a grim duty. Once, they were dispatched to the homes and hideouts of heretics within the Protectorate to incinerate those structures and anyone within them. Now they take to the field with the same zealotry displayed in the execution of their sacred duties. With the flames of raw Menoth’s Fury lighting the sky, Cleansers stand a grim vigil to execute enemies with the curved blades at the end of their purifier weapons.
The Revenger, much like Cygnar’s Lancer, is a light warjack that sports a heavy warjack’s ARM, thanks to its shield. Unlike the Lancer, however, the Revenger is suited to be highly aggressive. Powerful Charge encourages you to charge rather than bracing to absorb a charge, and Repel as a quality on the shield allows the Revenger to push back would-be assailants, denying them multiple attacks. The Revenger’s arc node will make it a staple in almost any Protectorate list. Repenter (light warjack)
Menoth’s Fury, the volatile oil found throughout the Protectorate’s desert lands, is refined to produce many of the fiery effects of the nation’s arsenal, but the Repenter is armed with the substance in its most basic form. The Repenter pumps out this substance as a spray, igniting it to immolate those who would reject the True Law of Menoth. Should heretics survive this trial by fire, the Repenter’s threeheaded war flail is sure to deliver them to the afterlife.
Flameguard Cleansers are the most common means for players to put the Fire continuous effect onto the field. They are immune to Fire themselves, so don’t be concerned if Cleansers get in the way of each other’s attacks. If Cleansers aren’t in range of an enemy unit, Flame Wall will provide an excellent deterrent to their enemies, as any units moving through take 2 DAM and are then affected by the continuous effect Fire. Incinerate is also a handy ability to have, sending out a fiery cloud effect. While this may not hit as many units as the Cleansers’ default Spray attack, blocking line of sight with cloud effects is extremely useful when playing against ranged-heavy forces.
At only 8 points, the Repenter is a warjack of true value. Its War Flail is not to be underestimated, but the real manner in which the Repenter earns its keep is its spray attack, causing continuous Fire to anyone hit by it.
Exemplar Cinerator
Only the most dedicated soldiers are invited into the Exemplar order, and to become an Exemplar Cinerator, one must endure punishing trials of endurance and stamina in preparation of the burden of their massive armor. Years of prayer and training allow Cinerators to channel wounds into a spiritual fervor, speeding these Exemplars ever closer to their enemies. Their blades are imbued with countless blessings, and their flickering suggests an unquenchable flame that explodes when wielded in battle.
WARRIORS Temple Flameguard
TFG
While many average citizens of the Protectorate take up arms in their nation’s crusade, the Temple Flameguard were formed in the Protectorate’s earliest days to create a permanent, dedicated order of disciplined soldiers. Ostensibly formed to guard the many
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Cinerators are the Protectorate’s heavy hitters with plenty of HP and Weapon Master to let them dish out serious damage. Flame Burst is also a real boon, setting nearby units on fire when a compatriot dies. Shield Wall is excellent, Relentless Advance extends the Cinerator’s threat range, and Melting Blade can, with clever placement of fire, ignore an opponent’s ARM to cause massive damage. Exemplar Errant
The Errants are an order within the Exemplar brotherhood, acting as its advance strike force. Often deployed beyond the Protectorate’s borders for extended periods, they understand that too often their exploits and even heroic deaths will go unrecognized, save by their brothers awaiting them in the afterlife. Armed with heavy crossbows inscribed with blessed sigils to bypass heretical magic and with a traditional sword and shield for when the fighting gets close, Errants stand ready to sacrifice themselves for their righteous cause. Exemplar Errants are a powerful advance unit. Their crossbows are deceptively potent due to Blessed, which allows them to ignore any spells enhancing an opponent’s DEF or ARM. Like all Exemplars, they are Weapon Masters in melee, but Self-Sacrifice is their truly interesting ability, granting them Tactics’s only tool to heal units. This doubles the amount of HP healed if an Errant gives his life for it, which could net a possible 10 HP—perfect for keeping key units alive. Be warned, however, that warjacks cannot be repaired in this manner.
Vassal of Menoth
Whether native born or captured from foreign powers, arcanists were once reviled by the Protectorate but have in recent years found a place within its military, shackled and convinced that their sorcerous powers are shameful and corrupt. As the Protectorate’s army became a power to be feared by its neighbors, its reliance on arcane abilities to maintain and construct warjacks increased with the use of these poor souls.
retreat to safety, while Ancillary Attack is perfect for when you need just one more attack to seal an enemy’s fate. Arcane Bolt is a basic but useful ability as well. Normally, standing too close to a key target like a warjack can put a unit at risk, but the DEF and ARM bonuses granted by Iron Sentinel, along with immunity to Knockdown, can mitigate that concern.
Faction Feel
The Protectorate of Menoth’s strength is built on the use of abilities that must be activated in a specific order to achieve maximum effectiveness. Unlike most factions, the Protectorate often brings units that enhance other units rather than contributing directly to combat. The Vassal of Menoth is a good example of this, using Ancillary Attack or Enliven to deliver victory. Protectorate armies also punish opponents for not being able to completely eliminate models such as the Exemplar Cinerators. Most Protectorate warcasters serve to enhance their armies; only Feora, Protector of the Flame is really a melee powerhouse. Given that protecting your warcaster is of paramount importance anyway, being called on to pay more attention to your warcaster’s vulnerabilities isn’t that much of a detriment. Just a few Temple Flameguard—to Shield Wall in front of your warcaster, blocking line of sight, and to provide a hefty speed bump for any units that want to engage with them in melee— may provide all the extra protection you’ll need.
Power Combos Flameguard Cleansers and Temple Flameguard
Fire can be potentially more devastating that Corrosion. While Corrosion does bypass ARM and other forms of damage mitigation, Fire—like that of the Flameguard Cleansers—starts at a whopping 5 DAM. Warcasters suffering Fire damage are protected only by the ARM bonus of unspent focus points from the previous round. This can force enemy warcasters to hoard focus points instead of spending them on warjacks or spells, which works to your advantage. Combine this talent of the Flameguard Cleansers with the inexorable wall of armor the Temple Flameguard provides, and you can light the fire and watch your enemies burn to the ground!
Vassals of Menoth are not warriors in the traditional sense, but they are still a potent addition to any Protectorate force. Enliven allows a warjack to bait out an enemy unit only to 20
Burn, baby, burn!
With plenty of ways to put Fire out there, it will be simplicity itself to mow down wave after wave of troops while marching forward, giving the enemy warcaster less and less room to maneuver. Enemy troops will crash upon the shields of the Temple Flameguard while the Flameguard Cleansers either make Incinerate attacks or set up Flame Walls to punish heretics for attempting to engage your forces.
Sample List High Exemplar Kreoss Repenter Vanquisher x3 Vassal of Menoth x3 There are ways canny opponents can mitigate the power of this list, and you should be aware of them. First and foremost, cloud effects block line of sight, and you won’t have a way to remove that. Also, a warcaster can hoard focus points to boost ARM, making it difficult to assassinate him. While a warcaster with his full allotment of focus is hard to injure, keeping all that focus means he isn’t casting spells or empowering warjacks to buy more attacks or boost rolls. With this army, it’s best to concentrate on their units and warjacks and wait until they have no choice but to try and take you on personally.
Sample List Feora, Protector of the Flame Crusader Vanquisher Flameguard Cleanser x3 Temple Flameguard x6 Vassal of Menoth You may find yourself struggling to deal with high-ARM, heavy-HP units like warjacks. Combined Melee Attacks from the Temple Flameguard can alleviate that, and Feora herself can certainly get into combat and help out. Her naturally high ARM, combined with Escort, will allow Feora to survive all but the heaviest blows.
Grand Scrutator Severius and Revengers
Like Kreoss, Grand Scrutator Severius has several great spells, but in this interaction we want to focus on one in particular: Eye of Menoth. Eye of Menoth adds +1 to all attack stats and to the DAM of any weapon. This is huge, and it affects all friendly units in Grand Scrutator Severius’ considerable control area.
High Exemplar Kreoss, Vanquishers, and Repenters
High Exemplar Kreoss brings a lot of powerful options to the game, such as Defender’s Ward and Purification, and his feat can be used to extremely potent effect. Knocked down units do not block line of sight and cannot engage your units in melee, so Vanquishers and Repenters can use their ranged attacks to lay down attacks against your opponent’s back line—including even the enemy warcaster himself! Further, both warjack types have ’jacks with Chain Weapon, allowing them to negate any attempts to bolster ARM by forming a Shield Wall. Kreoss’ assassination angle is very hard to counter, as no blocking and no units to deny line of sight can stop Kreoss when he decides the game ought to be over.
The Eye has fallen on Kreoss . . . and found him wanting! With Eye of Menoth, your units are getting an effective halffocus point boost with each attack. This means handing out your remaining focus for further boosting or for additional attacks should give you all the edge you need. A Revenger’s arc node allows Grand Scrutator Severius to put out any spells he needs to even the odds. Ashes to Ashes, while expensive, can remove smaller targets to lower the enemy unit count in your favor.
Normally, it would be a slog to try and kill all these Winter Guard. Let’s just cut to the chase, shall we? 21
Sample List Grand Scrutator Severius Revenger x4 Temple Flameguard x3 Vassal of Menoth x4 With such a low unit footprint, be conscious of getting flanked by units that could bypass your front line and take out the Grand Scrutator. If you're confronted by enemies your own units can't cope with that may have a route to attack to Severius, drop Eye of Menoth in favor of Defender’s Ward on Severius himself to increase his survivability. Exemplar Cinerators and Exemplar Errants
Just as the two types of Flameguard units can assist one other, exemplar units give each another synergistic support. Exemplar Cinerators are nigh-unstoppable melee monsters, but none in Immoren are truly invincible. Exemplar Errants, however, can restore life to their allies’ wounded bodies. Errants can inflict early damage with their ranged attacks to cover the Cinerators as they advance. Then, once the Cinerators have joined the battle, the Errants should fall back to use Self-Sacrifice to keep the Cinerators alive. The flaw here is that Cinerators are slow, so they can take a while to get into melee and will likely be charged rather
That is a lot of HP to chew through.
Sample List Grand Scrutator Severius Revenger Vanquisher Exemplar Cinerator x3 Exemplar Errant x5 Vassal of Menoth x2 than charge the enemy themselves. Try to limit the models your opponent can kill outright to a minimum by spreading your forces out and staggering them rather than running them all up in a line. Grand Scrutator Severius’ spells Vision and Defender’s Ward can blunt the damage inflicted by enemy charges, so cast your spells wisely.
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Khador In the cold north of western Immoren lies the mighty Khadoran Empire, whose massive military epitomizes the national ideals of strength and resilience. Legions of Winter Guard march at the call of the empress, bent on conquest. Led by powerful warcasters as unrelenting as the Khadoran winter and backed by elite soldiers such as the disciplined Iron Fang Pikemen and the imposing Man-O-War troopers who stride into battle in great steam-powered suits of armor, the army of Khador is ready to crush all who stand against it. In play, Khador is a faction of brute force. Its warjacks are heavily armored and loaded with HP, and its troops— notably the Man-O-Wars—pack a substantial punch. Even the humble Winter Guard can shoot, chop, and spray into the heart of their enemies. The faction has much more to offer than just Winter Guard, however, and can readily field fearless Iron Fang Pikemen, those robust Man-O-Wars, mysterious Greylords, and ruthless Assault Kommandos.
WARCASTERS Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff
Driven by the image of her father’s death to survive the rigors of war and excel as a soldier, Sorscha Kratikoff is a warcaster who channels her strength and bitterness into her arcane prowess. “Fiery rage and icy hatred!” she was once heard to say. “These things a good soldier makes, not warmth and comfort.” Her fury has been described as that of some goddess of frost and death; she is driven by her patriotism, but this is becoming increasingly eclipsed by the darkness growing in her heart. Sorscha brings a swift and surprising threat to the game, but her high DEF can lead players to overconfidence. Her feat, Icy Gaze, makes enemies Stationary, locking them down as they’re frozen in place. She has to tread a fine line between aggression and arrogance, however. Fog of War keeps her army safe on the approach, Boundless Charge allows models to increase their threat ranges, and Tempest grants
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Knockdown. Sorscha herself can use Wind Rush to skyrocket her DEF and in essence gain a second move. And Icy Gaze freezes everything Sorscha can see in her Control Range, which is more restrictive than one may think. Keep those two caveats in mind before you commit to using her feat. Kommander Strakhov
When the Khadoran High Kommand requires a dangerous operation to be conducted deep behind enemy lines, they call on Kommander Oleg Strakhov. Fearlessly infiltrating enemy territory, Strakhov was crucial in the early days of the war against Llael. Strakhov was also the driving force behind the creation of the Assault Kommandos. If he has any weakness, it is his impetuousness—often, he executes maneuvers and operations before his superiors have approved his actions. In WARMACHINE: Tactics, Strakhov plays as a dodgy, sneaky warcaster until the moment arises when he or one of his warjacks can eliminate the enemy warcaster. Occultation removes the threat of ranged attacks, Battering Ram slows the enemy advance, and Rift places rough terrain to slow down an oncoming opponent. Sentry is excellent for keeping enemies paranoid about their movements, and Superiority gains one of Strakhov’s warjacks an edge against any other warjacks and warrior units. Strakhov’s feat, Iron Fist, increases units’ threat ranges, adding free Charge and Slam attacks while granting Pathfinder and an additional four squares of movement when charging or slamming. This all makes Strakhov’s forces incredibly unpredictable, for an enemy knows that at any moment impassioned Khadorans may surge forth to crash into their lines.
Orsus Zoktavir, the Butcher Unleashed
Orsus Zoktavir’s patriotism may be beyond reproach, but his methods have often been criticized. Zoktavir earned the nickname “the Butcher of Khardov” after slaughtering both the citizens of the village of Boarsgate and his own detachment of Winter Guard who were unwilling to raise arms against them. A mountain of a man, the Butcher strides across western Immoren with his mechanikal axe, affectionately named Lola, in hand. Anyone with any sense fears the Butcher—even those under his command. The Butcher plays a fairly straightforward game, moving ahead and destroying everything. Lola hits for a massive 8
damage and has both Reach and Weapon Master. Add to that the Butcher’s spell Flashing Blade, and the focus point you would have spent to make one additional attack can now buy an attack against everything in melee range and line of sight. The Butcher’s feat causes units to become Terrified automatically and replenishes his focus, and his Impending Doom spell drags in units from beyond his melee range. All in all, the Butcher is more than capable of killing almost anything in the game, and he can withstand an incredible amount of damage before he will be put down.
WARJACKS Juggernaut (heavy warjack)
In Khador, bigger is usually better, and the Juggernaut is a testament to that attitude. Its merciless Ice Axe encases its target in layers of ice, freezing pistons and gears and forcing them to seize up. Size and power are prized attributes in Khador, and the Juggernaut is a prime example of both.
The Juggernaut might seem like a fairly basic warjack at first, but looks can be deceiving. While it lacks ranged attacks or clever movement abilities, it more than makes up for those deficits with raw power. The Ice Axe inflicts a massive DAM 11 and causes Stationary on a critical hit. Even its Open Fist has DAM 7, granting the Juggernaut unparalleled damage potential. Destroyer (heavy warjack)
Whereas some nations develop new warjacks and their associated technology with speed, Khador’s development cycle is on a slower track. This is because Khadoran workmanship, more so than that of any other nation, is designed to last. The Destroyer has been Khador’s warjack of choice for siege warfare and troop dispersal for nearly a century. Do not mistake the power of the Bombard Cannon as an indication the Destroyer cannot perform in melee—the Executioner Axe it wields is more than capable of rending man and metal apart. The Destroyer is able to handle several small threats with its Bombard AOE attack or rush into melee with its Executioner Axe, which can cause Critical Amputation to lower a unit’s MAT and RAT for the rest of the game. The Destroyer is a warjack eager to earn kills every round.
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Marauder (heavy warjack)
Even when Khador builds a secondary purpose into its warjacks, these machines still epitomize the brutal efficiency of the Khadoran temperament. The Marauder, which was designed to pulverize buildings and heavily armored warjacks, employs its ram pistons to slam targets back and reduce them to scrap. Other warjacks require a running start to slam their enemies, but the Marauder needs no such room. The Marauder is a subtle unit some Khador players may pass over in favor of more straightforward warjacks, but you should not underestimate the effect the Marauder’s Combo Smite can have. By sending enemy units flying about, you can open charge lanes and create attack opportunities that didn’t exist at the start of your turn.
Decimator (heavy warjack)
The Decimator was developed to take on other warjacks with direct fire before ripping them open with its enormous rip saw. Mighty walls and heavy warjacks alike have fallen victim to the Decimator’s wrath. It is brute force personified.
The Decimator, much like other Khadoran warjacks, is built to withstand the mightiest blows. It is, however, more heavily dedicated to ranged warfare against other warjacks. Whereas the Destroyer uses an AOE to affect several units at once, the Decimator targets a single unit, knocking it back each round and advancing in sync with that forced movement. The Rip Saw is a potent melee weapon, using Sustained Attack to eliminate its odds of missing with subsequent attacks.
WARRIORS Man-O-War Shocktrooper
Manufacturing warjack cortexes is both expensive and labor intensive. The Khadoran solution to this resource drain was to create steam-powered suits men could wear to become wrecking machines in their own right. Wielding powerful axes and shield cannons, they stride through the battlefield,
smoke billowing from their armor’s engines, laying waste to all they encounter. Man-O-War suits grant their wearers massive HP bonuses and make them excellent as smaller unit-count solutions to enemy armor. They tend to fall into the same broad category as light warjacks in terms of durability and damage output, but they have a few other tricks up their metal sleeves. Armor Splitter removes armor mitigation from targets, allowing less-powerful units in your army to make a healthy damage contribution. Shove and Shoot is useful to give your troops breathing room, as this ability pushes a target back one square and then allows the Shocktrooper to make a ranged attack. The Shocktroopers have Reach, so this push will leave a target in their melee range, thus blunting any ranged counterattacks. Further, Man-O-War Shocktroopers have the Shield Wall and Combined Melee Attack abilities. Assault Kommando
Founded by the deadly Kommander Strakhov, Assault Kommandos are well versed in trench warfare. Girded with alchemically treated armor and masked for protection against their own Strangle Gas attacks, these patriots were critical in the siege of the Cygnaran fortress of Northguard during the Llaelese War. Any Assault Kommando would be filled with satisfaction after driving Cygnaran Trenchers out of their own trenches. Assault Kommandos work best in teams and boast immunity to some of the game’s most insidious effects: Fire and Corrosion. Shield Wall keeps Kommandos in the game longer than one might expect, and Assault & Battery is not to be underestimated, allowing a ranged attack to precede a Charge or Run action. Combine this with masks allowing them to ignore cloud effects, and they can bring a counter-effect against every other faction in the game. Finally, Strangle Gas is of interest to tactical players: the Kommando makes a ranged attack, and if it hits, it centers on the target a 3-x-3 square cloud effect that lowers DEF and all attack stats, forcing anyone in the AOE to either suffer those effects or flee from their position.
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Assault Kommando Flame Thrower
As the Assault Kommando program bloomed into a success beyond the front lines, High Kommand continued to capitalize on its success, introducing Flame Throwers as a new addition to the Kommandos. Training is both rigorous and dangerous, but there is no shortage of volunteers.
Winter Guard, and war is now even more devastating to enemies of the Motherland. The Rocketeer has all the abilities of a normal Winter Guard, along with the ability to fire a Rocket to create a small AOE to knock down small- and medium-based units. These units are well worth an additional point for their added value. Iron Fang Pikemen
Proud soldiers of the Motherland, these hardened soldiers are members of one of the oldest military orders in Khador. Far evolved from the steadfast spearmen who stood firm against the roving horselords who once dominated the edges of their empire, modern Iron Fangs wield pikes with blasting caps at the tips that can knock an opponent off his feet, should an explosive thrust fail to end that foe’s existence.
This variant of the Assault Kommando forgoes gas grenades and carbines for a spray attack with Fire as a continuous effect. This also gains the Flush Out ability, which drives enemy units from cover. Be cautious, though, as a Flame Thrower that is destroyed will explode in a glorious ball of flame, catching anything nearby on fire. Winter Guard Infantry
Its ranks filled by the common citizens of Khador, the Winter Guard is the heart and soul of the Khadoran war effort. Whether they are volunteers driven by a sense of duty and patriotism or conscripts forced to serve a mandatory tour of duty, Winter Guard patrol their nation’s cities and fill their nation’s ranks on the front lines.
Winter Guard are cheap, solid units. While Combined Ranged Attack and Combined Melee Attack make them dangerous in groups, both at a distance and up close, they have a few other clever options they can offer as well. Grape Shot exchanges a small bit of power in favor of a spray attack, and Aim Low allows a few choice Winter Guard to take point and trip up the enemy lines, giving the rest of your force more rounds of shooting before the battle degenerates into a melee brawl.
Iron Fangs take an aggressive stance and are bent on taking down enemies much bigger than themselves. Combined Melee Attack allows them to gang up on a target while Shield Wall helps them survive a counterattack, but their tricks don’t end there. Penetrating Blast can take advantage of a knocked down target by inflicting 5 DAM that cannot be mitigated by ARM, and Dash allows them to move through enemy troops, taking them out in the process. Greylord
Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer
Following the fall of Llael, many alchemists within that nation’s Order of the Golden Crucible have been captured and forced to enhance the power of Khador’s growing arsenal. Amid the various products of this forced labor, portable rockets have been fabricated and distributed among the more trusted members of the
The premiere occult order of the Motherland, the Greylords Covenant began as a splinter group of the Cygnarandominated Fraternal Order of Wizardry and is responsible for bringing the secrets of warjack cortex fabrication to Khador. Some Greylords focus on arcane mastery, some work closely on warjack technology and mechanika, and others search their frozen lands for forgotten weapons from a terrible age.
Greylords can deliver Critical Stationary attacks and provide rough terrain. They primarily set up obstacles for the enemy rather than eliminating them. Blizzard shrouds ally units in obscuring cloud effects that follow them, Rime Blast places rough terrain on the map, and Ice Cage can potentially freeze units in place. Even if Ice Cage doesn’t
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succeed in making anyone Stationary, it still lowers the SPD and DEF of the target.
Faction Feel
Khadoran armies can go in multiple directions, fielding a swarm of agile warriors or an implacable wall of armor, one that is seemingly impossible to breach. While some players may skew to one extreme or another, many prefer to bring a balance of the two, forcing their opponents to provide both high accuracy and high damage. While Khadoran warjacks are characteristically slow, each warcaster can mitigate this to catch unsuspecting opponents off-guard. Khador can also introduce interesting challenges that opponents may not expect. Stationary can lock down warrior units and force a warjack to spend a focus during the Control Phase, just like Knockdown. Unlike Knockdown, however, one cannot ignore it and still be productive that activation, so you’ll force your opponent to deal with it or accept that he’s essentially lost that unit for the round.
Power Combos Iron Fang Pikemen and Man-O-War Shocktroopers
These units can march forward in an impervious wall, their ranks unbroken until it comes time to bring the pain. Between Knockdown, Shield Wall, Armor Splitter, and Combined Melee Attack, this is a list that is tough to crack at range and even tougher to stop once you’re engaged.
The calm before the Iron Storm. This list may lack speed and long-range threats, but Iron Fangs and Man-O-War Shocktroopers are among the hardiest units in the faction. Even after five grueling rounds of combat, this list remains very durable. Depending on your ratio, you will have an average of 13 to 15 HP per unit. The sample list here comes in at an average of 14.23 HP per unit, which is pretty durable relative to the typical damage output of most enemy armies.
Look at all the HP that’s left!
Sample List Kommander Strakhov Decimator Marauder Iron Fang Pikemen x8 Man-O-War Shocktrooper x2 The key to playing this list is in knowing when to shift gears. Because you can’t attack and Shield Wall, you need to practice and learn when to Shield Wall, when to attack, and when to use Combined Melee Attack, Armor Splitter, and so on. Developing an intuition about when to change tactics will make all the difference. Assault Kommandos and Greylords
Assault Kommandos ignore all sorts of things: Fire, Corrosion, and even low-damage ranged attacks, thanks to Shield Wall. Strangle Gas is great, but they need to directly hit for it to function, and sometimes they struggle with that. Enter the Greylords, who can cast Ice Cage to lower DEF values and make enemies more susceptible to Strangle Gas. Not only are the Kommandos immune to Fire and Corrosion damage, they can now shoot and gas enemies with impunity. The Greylords’ Ice Cage ability lowers DEF and hits with regularity, which in turn can allow Kommandos to hit more easily. Don’t be shy about having one Kommando shoot gas to further lower the DEF of a target. While Strangle Gas does create a cloud effect, Kommandos ignore cloud effects.
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You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
It’s important to be aware that Greylords need line of sight to their target, but they cannot withstand a lot of punishment. Iron Fangs should be positioned to block and discourage enemy units from attacking the Greylords. Some Greylords may want to use Blizzard on the lead Iron Fangs and forward Greylords to protect them.
Sample List Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff Destroyer Assault Kommando x5 Assault Kommando Flame Thrower Greylord x6 The only problem with this combo is that it lacks punch against high-ARM targets. While you can make enemies Stationary and distribute rough terrain, this list will not casually remove warjacks from battle. It’s best to let your own warjacks take them on and to rely on their higher durability to see them emerge triumphant. Save Sorscha’s feat for when the Greylords can’t afford to use Ice Cage.
Greylords and Assault Kommando Flame Throwers
Khador brings more effects to the game than any other faction, and thanks to Assault Kommandos, it can ignore more effects than any other faction as well. Make good use of Stationary, but follow it up by setting targets on fire. Combined with Rime Blast to slow them down, you’ll be able to eliminate enemy units before they can even begin to deal damage.
Iron Fang Pikemen and Winter Guard Rocketeers
Winter Guard Rocketeers can knock down targets, and Iron Fangs inflict vast amounts of damage to targets suffering from Knockdown, thanks to Penetrating Blast. This is a pairing that can stall out an enemy’s offense and take down just about anything in the game!
These bonejacks are about to get a little freezer burn. The bigger they are... Penetrating Blast’s biggest downfall is that it needs a knocked down target to work, but the Rocketeers bring more Knockdown to the fight and at range to boot! Normally, you’d have to rely on Critical Knockdown from other Blasting Pike attacks or from Sorscha’s Tempest spell. Rocketeers free you from having to try your luck with other Iron Fangs or free you to plan Sorscha’s entire action around one spell. This also allows you to bring another warcaster who can make use of Knockdown to either clear a path or make attacking a mere formality: Kommander Orsus Zoktavir, the Butcher of Khardov.
Sample List Kommander Orsus Zoktavir, the Butcher of Khardov Juggernaut Greylord x4 Iron Fang Pikeman x4 Winter Guard Rocketeer x3
Assault Kommando Flame Throwers can Shield Wall to protect the Greylords, while the Flame Throwers, immune to their own spray attacks, can shoot with impunity without fear of harming each other. On turns in which Greylord attacks are not a priority, the Kommandos can Shield Wall and the Greylords can cast Blizzard on them to make the Flame Throwers nigh unstoppable.
Sample List Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff Destroyer Assault Kommando Flame Thrower x6 Greylord x5 One thing to beware of in this list is Flame Thrower death. While other Flame Throwers won’t be affected, Greylords certainly will. These explosions can also be used to your advantage, however, and any Flame Throwers near death should be put into positions where their Fiery Blast would be most devastating to your opponent.
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Cryx Cryx focuses on massive swarms of troops, lots of spells, and bonejacks with arc nodes to sling those spells from a safe distance. Ruled by Toruk the Dragonfather and overseen by his twelve Lich Lords, Cryx is a nation of pirates, slavers, and worse. Like all dragons, Toruk radiates an unnatural blight, and this warps and twists the populace of his island nation in terrifying ways. Necromancy is a common and well-understood magic here, and undead servants that would horrify mainland folks are a common sight. From the cruel-but-alluring Satyxis to the cannibalistic trollkin Bloodgorgers that dwell across the islands of Cryx, this faction has no shortage of troops to further the machinations of the Dragonfather. Cryx typically relies on spells like Parasite and Crippling Grasp to make up for its units’ generally lackluster attributes. Under Crippling Grasp and The Withering, Deneghra can threaten even the highest DEF units with nothing more than lowly Mechanithralls. Debuffs aren’t the only tools in her arsenal, though. Spells like Hellfire and Venom are quite capable of eliminating opponents from the battlefield. As if that weren’t enough, Cryx has a number of units that can
capture the souls of fallen enemies and convert them into focus the following turn, punishing your opponent beyond simply losing a unit. Combine this with the dodgy and deadly arc node-bearing bonejacks, and Cryx can put out a spell just about anywhere!
WARCASTERS Warwitch Deneghra
Years ago, a Satyxis witch under the command of Iron Lich Asphyxious received a portent that a girl born off the coast of Cygnar would hold unparalleled arcane potential. Satyxis raiders massacred the populace of the village of Ingrane and stole the child, bringing her back to Cryx. There she was subjected to horrors and twisted rituals that nurtured her arcane gifts as her full warcaster’s powers bloomed under Asphyxious’ tutelage. Warwitch Deneghra, this abductee warcaster, is emblematic of the playstyle of Cryx. Crippling Grasp and Scourge can circumvent high DEF targets, and Parasite can mitigate high ARM from the toughest foes. Combine this with her
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debilitating feat, The Withering, and she can threaten almost anything your opponent dares to bring against you. Deneghra doesn’t care how high you stack your stats—she can knock them down. Iron Lich Asphyxious
A former druid of the Circle Orboros, Asphyxious has great power equaled only by his ambition. Commanded by Toruk to prove his devotion, the druid who would become Asphyxious cast himself into the molten lava of the dragon’s volcano. Toruk then scooped the druid’s remains from the volcano, pleased with the mortal’s willingness to sacrifice himself, and sealed Asphyxious’ soul into a vessel of necromantic power. Asphyxious came to serve the Lich Lords of Cryx, but he desires their level of power above all else and has begun scheming to ascend within Cryx’s dark ranks. Asphyxious tends to be more hands-on in the carnage, with his Sustained Attack ability, Scything Touch, and a feat that essentially gives him double his normal focus points. This feat, Consuming Blight, also inflicts 3 points of damage and ignores all damage mitigation. Asphyxious doesn’t simply walk up and challenge all comers, though. Teleport and Hellfire allow him to engage only when and where he is ready. He also brings Parasite to the table. With these combined abilities, Asphyxious plays much more aggressively than his protégé Deneghra.
Sturgis the Corrupted
Having pledged his immortal soul in service to the Dragonfather, Dalin Sturgis is as corrupt as he was once honorable. Death has done nothing to curb the depraved power of this once great Cygnaran warcaster, who now pits his formidable fighting prowess against those he used to call brother and friend. Though he maintains the same reflexes and skills he held in life, Dalin Sturgis no longer seeks to use his power to protect those around him; instead, his service to Lord Toruk has turned his arcane strength to delivering death to his enemies.
in his melee range to suffer decreased ARM. His spell list features a few changes as well, trading Teleport and Arcane Shield for Occultation and Parasite. Most interestingly, he also picks up Blood Rain, which is a small AOE spell that inflicts 4 DAM and Continuous Effect: Corrosion to anyone in the AOE.
WARJACKS Deathripper (light warjack)
Great beasts are blighted and bred solely for the purpose of harvesting their skulls for these quintessential bonejacks. Though a common sight on the battlefield, bounding forth on two legs while arc nodespewing their master’s foul magic, these machines should not be taken lightly.
While Cryx players will definitely include Deathrippers in their armies for their high speed, high DEF, and Arc Node ability, Sustained Attack can take some of the risk out of attacking a target, should an enemy attempt to pin a Deathripper’s arc node down by engaging it in melee. Defiler (light warjack)
Other nations of Immoren have only a few true innovators of mechanika, but Cryx is not bound by such limitations. Toruk has blessed the Nightmare Empire with legions of necrotechs—mad, unstable, but brilliant minds that ceaselessly labor to propel Cryx’s war machines toward brutal victory. The Defiler is one such invention. Unlike the Deathripper, the Defiler stops short of charging into the front lines, preferring to spray opponents with its Sludge Cannon. Veteran troops know the wisest course of action is to engage a Defiler in close combat before it can wreak too much havoc at range. The Defiler is a clever little bonejack, boasting a RNG 8 spray attack with Continuous Effect: Corrosion. Sprays are a great way of mitigating the defense bonus of concealment and are handy for affecting multiple units at once, if you can line opponents up in a single shot. As with all bonejacks, the Defiler’s arc node is an ever-present threat.
Sturgis has already died in combat, but he hasn’t missed a step. His feat, Dead on Arrival, works exactly as it did when he was alive, as do Relentless Charge, Snap Strike, and Reversal. He has, however, traded Chain Attack: Flash for Chain Attack: Dark Shroud, causing all enemy models 30
All Cryxian warjacks emulate beasts, but more than any other helljack the Slayer tends to favor an all-out animalistic assault. This mainstay helljack can’t stand up to as much punishment as a Juggernaut, and it can’t dish out status effects like a Crusader, but it is unique in that it has three initial attacks, and, with Combo Strike, it is the only warjack with the ability to naturally increase the damage potential of an attack.
Nightwretch (light warjack)
The first Nightwretches were deployed for a test raid onto Cygnar’s shores long ago, and the Cygnarans, ignorant of this new threat, lined their riflemen up shoulder-to-shoulder, eager to drive back the nightmarish machines. The sound of the Nightwretches’ volley soon tore the skies asunder, and before the riflemen could wonder what these new weapons would do, their ranks were eradicated in showers of lead and caustic waste. There were no survivors to tell the Cygnarans’ tale, and the Nightwretch was approved for expanded production.
WARRIORS Mechanithralls
The most common troopers of the Nightmare Empire, mechanithralls’ strength lies not in their individual power or even their speed but in their numbers and their surprising abilities. Necrosurgeons pick over the slain after every conflict, evaluating both flesh and metal for useful components. They then set about their grisly work, cobbling together skeletons and fitting them with crude boilers and large, menacing steam-powered fists. Once reassembled and granted the spark of unlife, theses horrors are sent out as grim harbingers of Cryx’s armies.
The Nightwretch is the last bonejack on the list, but it is certainly not the least. This ’jack has a RNG 6 attack, perfect for adding a little insult to the injury for a warcaster arcing a spell through it. Additionally, if you give it a focus point, the Blaster ability in the Range Attack menu can turn it into an AOE attack, allowing the Nightwretch to tag multiple models at once. Reaper (heavy warjack)
The Reaper approaches battle not as a rampaging animal but as a stalking predator waiting for the precise moment to strike. With a thunderous boom and a rapid staccato of its heavy chain, the Reaper’s Harpoon lances through boilers and gears, dragging its target back to be torn apart.
Combo Strike allows Mechanithralls to deliver the pain in exchange for one of their two attacks, and Pounce, a new ability for WARMACHINE: Tactics, can help them advance a bit farther up the board, put out damage against nearby small-based troopers, and possibly deliver a few Knockdown effects. At a mere two points each for 8 Health, they are only matched by Cygnaran Stormsmith Stormcallers for pointcost-to-Health efficiency.
While the Slayer brings raw aggression to the battlefield, the Reaper offers a certain cunning rarely seen in a warjack. Its Harpoon not only launches a deadly barb to pierce flesh and metal, it also drags its target back into range of its Reach melee weapon, the Helldriver. This allows a Cryx player to potentially reposition enemy units, and triggering Drag with the Harpoon gives the Reaper a free melee attack. Combined with Sustained Attack on the Helldriver, a melee hit from its Harpoon can net a Reaper up to five attacks in a normal activation.
Brute Thralls
Slayer (heavy warjack)
As the eerie green glow of its unhallowed furnace pulses in the twilight, the Slayer tramples its way toward each fresh kill. Rending steel, bone, and flesh with equal ease, a Slayer tears through its victims with a pair of claws and twin tusks.
There are races physically larger than humans in western Immoren, such as trollkin and ogrun, and Cryx does not ignore their impressive carcasses when creating weapons for its wars. Striding through swarms of the much smaller mechanithralls, brute thralls bring their pistonpowered fists to bear, smashing anything within reach.
Not only are Brute Thralls stronger and bigger, they also can cause Terror with their Soulless Roar, cause Knockdown with Grab and Slam, and break up Shield Wall formations with Line Breaker. As medium-base units, however, they
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also provide a bigger target and can’t get into all the small places their man-sized counterparts can access. Skarlock Thrall
The skarlock thrall isn’t just another mindless undead automaton. Instead of the dull flicker of undeath most thralls possess, skarlocks are granted a higher degree of intelligence. During the creation of a skarlock, dense rings of corrupt sigils are carved into their desiccated flesh. Skarlocks are among the few thralls crafted that retain memories, bits of lore they picked up in life, and they are even capable of creating and pursuing their own agendas. During the creation process, a warcaster leaves arcane echoes in their skarlocks, allowing them to cast some of that warcaster’s spells. Skarlock Thralls can ease a warcaster’s burden of fueling spells with precious focus points, freeing the warcaster to either horde focus to increase his or her ARM, fuel even more spells, or bolster the warcaster’s warjacks. Skarlock Thralls can also gain the souls of nearby living enemies and pass them to their dark masters, furthering that warcaster’s nefarious plans with great efficacy.
Iron Lich Overseer
Centuries ago, an invading force known as the Orgoth took one final, destructive stand at the fortress city Drer Drakkerung on the Cryxian island of Garlghast. In the devastating wake of that battle, Cryx came upon several necromancers and other persons of arcane potency. Never prone to let a resource go to waste, Cryxian necrotechs fused these mental and physical fragments together to form a complete mind. This process was far from elegant or perfect, and thus the three minds often function in discordance with one another. Freshly slain souls nearby can be drawn in to temporarily alleviate their bickering and allow them to function as a single entity. Overseers are undeniably mad, but even madness can generate a spark of singular power.
Iron Lich Overseer is capable of granting Stealth to itself and any warjacks in base-to-base contact with it, causing Terror and inflicting 3 DAM to every enemy within two squares, or firing a RNG 10 DAM 4 attack that, should it deal the fatal blow to a living unit, gains the Overseer a soul to convert into focus the following turn. Bile Thrall
Distended corpses pumped full of their own putrid payload, bile thralls are among the most horrifying of Cryx’s creations. Former men and women of Immoren now doomed to waddle across the field at their master’s bidding, expelling viscous acids and poisons created for their corrosive properties. Rare survivors of bile thrall attacks tend to go weeks afterward without eating, and few ever wipe away the memory of the stench and horror of the attack. In addition to their corrosive spray attack, Bile Thralls have a special ability called Bile Spill. This creates a 3 x 3 square of rough terrain and causes Corrosion to anyone who enters those squares. Moreover, Bile Thralls can serve a purpose even in their destruction, triggering an ability called Purge. A 3 x 3 square directly in front of the thrall covers any units with bile, inflicting 3 DAM along with the Corrosion continuous effect. Wretched Rain is also an ability not to overlook—it creates a 50% chance that anyone within a large area these thralls create will suffer from Terror and take a single point of damage.
Faction Feel
Cryx is unafraid to trade a few models for advantageous positioning. Thralls aren’t terribly hardy or agile, and they only have middling attack values, but a plethora of debuff spells elevates them to powerhouses. Light warjacks are important for delivering arc nodes into position to hamper foes sufficiently to tip the scales in Cryx’s favor, while Iron Lich Overseers and Skarlocks add to the spell-superiority flavor of the game. A canny Cryx player won’t just run all his units forward, hoping things will pan out (although that can work too, as you’ll see below). Instead, he’ll keep the more valuable units protected by waves of thralls he can afford to lose due to their low point costs. Many of these Cryxians are also quite opportunistic, stealing the souls of fallen enemies to generate additional focus points the following turn.
As Cryx’s ’Jack Marshals, each Iron Lich Overseer has the ability to grant a single focus point to any warjack under its command. They are also armed with a trio of spells—each 32
Power Combos Deneghra, Bile Thralls, and Reapers
Between Crippling Grasp and Scourge, Deneghra can mitigate the higher DEF of your opponent’s units by allowing Bile Thralls to spray with impunity. Bile Spill and Crippling Grasp can all but guarantee an enemy unit won’t get far, giving you the edge on charge ranges. These DEF mitigation spells also do wonders for Reapers, allowing them to reel in important targets and set them up for destruction.
“Sir, I…I think we need more guns.”
Sample List Warwitch Deneghra Deathripper Defiler Bile Thrall Brute Thrall x6 Mechanithrall x5 Skarlock Thrall
Sample List Warwitch Deneghra Deathripper Reaper x2 Bile Thrall x5 Mechanithrall Skarlock Thrall x2 Use the Deathripper to arc Scourge around the field; otherwise, let the Skarlocks do the heavy lifting and have them use Spell Slave to cast Crippling Grasp and Parasite. Position the Bile Thralls and Mechanithralls to take the brunt of the first wave of attackers, and wait for an opportunity to knock down the enemy warcaster or a similarly important target and drag it in. Deneghra’s feat can be used to either blunt a retaliatory strike or further debilitate the enemy’s defensive effects in preparation for the final blow.
The Skarlock and a pair of arc nodes keep the threat of Crippling Grasp and Parasite active across the entire battlefield—there are simply too many targets for most enemy armies to keep up with. Skarlocks and Iron Lich Overseers
Cryx can bring forth a greater variety of spell slingers than anyone else in WARMACHINE: Tactics, so bring all of them and show your arcane might! Skarlocks can replicate a warcaster’s attack spells, and the Iron Lich Overseer’s Dark Fire spell can snatch enemy souls away. Many Cryxian warcasters can kill an enemy warcaster through spells alone, and Skarlocks can bring even more spell attacks to the game. Asphyxious himself excels at this with his DAM 6 spell Hellfire.
That Defender was happily blasting away at thralls…it was.
There’s more than one way to bring a lot of firepower to the game.
Brute Thralls, Brute Thralls, and…Brute Thralls
While it’s true the game has a 16-unit cap, there’s no reason not to max that out! Thralls are cheap, plentiful, and unholy wrecking machines. They aren’t the most skilled combatants, but quantity has a quality all its own.
These models tend not to be very durable, so have a heavy warjack lead the charge, or use the Bile Thralls’ Bile Spill to slow the enemy down long enough for the rest of your army to eliminate them.
Any Cryxian warcaster can be successful with enough bodies, and an army like this can make the most of Deneghra’s spell list. 33
warned, Corrosion may fade off the target before inflicting any damage, so this is no guarantee. Forcing most of your opponent’s units to suffer the condition does, however, whittle them down with alarming speed.
Sample List Iron Lich Asphyxious Deathripper x2 Slayer Iron Lich Overseer x4 Mechanithrall Skarlock Thrall x4 Allow the ’jacks to take point while the Overseers use Cloak of Darkness to keep themselves and the bonejacks safe from ranged attacks. The Skarlocks should hang back and shy away from any heavy ranged elements while Asphyxious and the Skarlocks expose themselves only to concentrate fire on a few targets at once.
No one makes it to your front line unscathed. No one.
Defilers and Bile Thralls
Corrosion is a continuous effect found almost exclusively in Cryx. Corrosion is helpful, causing an automatic 2 damage points at the beginning of the next turn—though be
Using Bile Thralls to lay out Bile Spill and Wretched Rain will slow enemies down and start eroding damage away. While Wretched Rain only inflicts 1 damage point and only triggers half the time, it’s important to remember that this isn’t simply 1 DAM. Wretched Rain avoids all ARM mitigation. Even a warcaster with all his focus points will still take the damage.
Sample List Sturgis the Corrupted Defiler x3 Bile Thrall x7 Skarlock Thrall x2 Take note: it’s important to understand that these models do not have the raw strength to take down a heavy warjack quickly. Instead, you need to focus on making sure a few points of damage and Corrosion are put on nearly every enemy model on most turns, and let Corrosion do the work for you. Positioning is key here—you will need to open lanes and finish the game by assassination.
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Tactics Campaign Guide This guide will help you navigate the WARMACHINE: Tactics single-player campaign called “No Man’s Land.” While there are many paths to victory and little is certain, this guide is one way to complete these missions and assist Jakes through her most troubling trial yet. You may find a number of other ways to reach the same objectives. Vitals gives you the bare minimum requirements to succeed, and the Rewards section shows which skills Jakes and her battlegroup can develop over time.
Tutorial
A new pair of Winter Guard will appear to the west of the trenches. Fully loaded, Bandit can make short work of one, and two Assaulting Trenchers should be capable of killing the other. An Iron Fang Pikeman will be right behind the last pair of Winter Guard, so either Bandit can charge in and get his hands dirty or a boosted shot from Bandit along with a Combined Range Attack from the Trenchers should take him down. A trio of Man-O-War Shocktroopers appears to the north after you have cleared out the other Khadorans, but Commander Sturgis and his trusty Ironclad will arrive to intervene, saving Jakes from having to worry about them.
Mission 1
Objective Jakes needs to reunite with her Charger, Bandit, and must repel the Khadoran forces.
Objective Open the gates and eliminate the Khadoran guards to access the town of Fisherbrook.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Bandit must survive
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Bandit must survive • Sturgis must survive
Jakes' Rewards • +1 MAT WARMACHINE: Tactics opens with Lieutenant Allison Jakes providing narrative, recounting to a Cygnaran tribunal her final moments in the field with Commander Sturgis. This sets off the action in a border skirmish outside of Corvis, with Jakes and a few of her Trencher comrades separated from Sturgis and Jakes’ Charger, Bandit. As the level begins, the game gives you the option of having the first few rounds explained in detail as a crash course in its controls. You can choose to skip this guided tutorial. As the Trenchers advance to deal with a pair of Winter Guard attempting to destroy Bandit to the northeast of Jakes, Jakes should take on the two Winter Guard to the west. Move north and just a tad west and take a single boosted hand cannon shot at the northernmost Winter Guard. Then cast Energizer for 3 and move to the north and east. The remaining Winter Guard should have caught up to Jakes by now. Make a pair of fully boosted melee attack rolls, killing the last Winter Guard. Sprint up to your Trenchers to help them with the next two Winter Guard. Once Jakes and the Trenchers finish the last two Winter Guard, move Jakes next to Bandit and reactivate it with a special action icon.
Jakes' Rewards • +1 Focus The earlier skirmish opened the way into Fisherbrook, a Cygnaran city that serves as a junction between the Thornwood and vital coalmines. Now Jakes and Sturgis have to breach its gates. Commander Sturgis and Jakes need to break through Khadoran forces barring entrance to the captive town of Fisherbrook. Use Energizer and give Bandit a focus point to run so you can move as fast as you can to the east, reaching the upper platform. Sturgis needs Jakes to shut down those bunkers, and the oil drums on the upper level will do the trick. These barrels should be your first priority, as additional Khadoran reinforcements will continue to spill out to confront Sturgis until they are blown up. There are two sets of barrels here that must be destroyed. Sturgis and his Ironclad will take on the Khadorans on the train tracks below, but they will be overwhelmed if Jakes isn’t quick enough. Once the first set of barrels has been destroyed, a pair of Iron Fang Pikemen will appear to the northeast. Casting Sidekick after the first set of barrels is destroyed will
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help keep the Pikemen from hitting Jakes or Bandit too often. Deal with them and the second set of barrels. Sturgis tells you about the switch to open the door to the north. Bandit can stand at the end rows of the upper deck to provide supporting fire to Sturgis and his warjack. Target the Iron Fang Pikemen first. Have Jakes head to the north, keeping Bandit in her control area, and allocate focus to have it fire on the Pikemen. You can safely drop Sidekick after the Pikemen are dead.
vulnerable. Deal with the two new Winter Guard quickly, because the two at the end of the street have heard your ruckus and are even now moving to intercept. Be cautious as you round the corner, because...
Jakes can open the gate if she is in front of the controls, even if she runs. Once the gate is opened and the remaining Khadorans are eliminated, Sturgis will congratulate Jakes on a job well done.
Mission 2 Objective
Ambush!
Wind through the treacherous streets and discover the reason underlying Fisherbrook’s occupation.
Two pairs of Iron Fang Pikemen appear from within the nearby buildings in an attempt to flank you. You may lose a few brave Trenchers to these heartless Iron Fangs. Keep advancing, though, allocating focus to both the Lancer and Bandit as needed.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Bandit must survive • Lancer must survive
As you round the last corner, a surprise awaits: a Juggernaut, commanded by a Greylord! Bandit pumping boosted shots into the Juggernaut will take it out, and you can leave the Greylord and the remaining troops to Jakes and her Trenchers.
Bandit's Rewards • Prowler (When this unit is affected by cloud effects or concealment, it gains Stealth.)
Lancer's Rewards • Energy Link (If this unit activates within 5 squares of its controlling warcaster, it gains +1 movement.) You’ve now managed to sneak into Fisherbrook to take the fight to the streets. A fully focus-loaded Bandit can deal with one Winter Guard while the Lancer charges the middle one and the three right Trenchers Combined Range Attack the third.
The first unit to round the corner past this sandbag barricade will spawn another two Winter Guard. Be mindful that additional units will spawn as the level progresses, so use a Trencher to recon ahead to set up attacks. Jakes will also want to cast Sidekick on the Lancer to make it less
Bandit will receive the Prowler bond, granting it Stealth whenever it’s affected by concealment. Handy! The Lancer will gain Energy Link, which grants it +1 movement when Jakes activates within 5 squares of it.
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Mission 3 Objective Defend the train escorting your forces out of Fisherbrook, and find out what the Greylords are doing here.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Lancer must survive • Bandit must survive
Jakes' Rewards • +1 DEF Sturgis congratulates Jakes on her survival through the night, but he fears for her safety. Dawn breaks at the Thornwood station as Winter Guard advance on a nearby train. Start by having Jakes cast Sidekick on the Lancer and have it advance just past the barricades near the train’s engine. A Lancer affected by Sidekick can keep several Khadorans occupied indefinitely, even though it may not kill them very quickly.
This is the ideal place to lay down covering fire for the Gun Mage. At their meeting, the Gun Mage quickly introduces himself as Lieutenant Rourke. A Greylord flanked by two Kommandos will appear near the bunker where Bandit has hunkered down. Eliminating the Greylord is a priority. Jakes and Rourke can take shots to help Bandit keep up with the carnage. Don’t let Rourke get too cocky, though. He should rely on his Snipe and Phantom Hunter attacks. Trenchers can assist the Lancer as the Winter Guard numbers drop. The Lancer with Sidekick can slow down any Khadorans from the south. Combined Ranged Attacks do not work against units currently in melee, so setting up Assault Charge attacks will work best to clean up the rest of the Lancer’s targets. Jakes, Sturgis, and Rourke board the train with their troops and discover what turned Rourke into the most wanted man in Fisherbrook.
Mission 4 Objective Recover what forces you can and get them away from the impact site to lead them farther into the mountains.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Lancer must survive • Bandit must survive
Jakes' Rewards
Let the Trenchers head toward the front of the train to take on the Winter Guard with Combined Ranged Attacks. Jakes and Bandit have another task to attend to. Shortly after the initial volleys and activations, Assault Kommandos emerge from the flames at the rear of the train. Around this time, a Gun Mage appears from a building with Assault Kommandos in pursuit! Jakes and Bandit should head a bit west of the train to here:
• Electrify ([Spell. Cost: 2, Range 6, AOE: -, Upkeep: Yes, Offensive: No] If target friendly unit is hit by a melee attack after the attack is resolved, the attacker is pushed 1–3 squares away from the affected unit and suffers 6 Electrical damage, then Electrify expires.) Level 4 introduces a desperate situation: Kommander Strakhov managed to get ahead of Jakes to set explosive charges on the train’s bridge. Jakes approaches Bandit just in time to see a pair of Winter Guard approach. Bandit takes priority, so Jakes should move to Bandit, turning to
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face the Winter Guard and firing a hand cannon shot at a Winter Guard after she activates Bandit. Bandit can take a shot as well. Once those two are dealt with, Bandit and Jakes need to move quickly to catch up to the other Cygnarans who have survived the crash. Jakes will pick up a pair of Stormblades and reactivate her Lancer. Sturgis can be seen on the other side of a gorge, fending off Strakhov’s Juggernaut. Move Bandit and Jakes up to the bridge where Rourke and the Trenchers are battling the Winter Guard. Keep the Lancer and Stormblades facing toward the back of the formation, as once Strakhov has decided discretion is the better part of valor, he will send in more of his Kommandos to keep you from pursuing him.
Once up the hill, Sturgis confronts Orsus Zoktavir, the Butcher of Khardov, in a bid to buy Jakes more time to escape.
Mission 5 Objective Escape your pursuers and find asylum at the monastery on the mountain.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Lancer must survive • Bandit must survive
Lancer's Rewards
Once the Winter Guard have been cleared, a Trencher Sergeant sent off to find a way out of the crash site will flag Jakes, revealing a path farther into the mountains and away from the Khadorans.
• Stubborn (When this warjack is brought below 25% health, it gains +1 SPD, +1 MAT, +1 RAT, +1 DEF, and +1 ARM.) The Khadorans are hot on Jakes’ heels. The good news is that the Trencher Sergeant has discovered a Morrowan monastery that can shelter them. The bad news, however, is that the doors are locked, and the monastery is either unwilling or unable to welcome you. The ever-prepared Sergeant has some demolition charges left to blow the doors open. The charges have a timer, so it takes 4 rounds for the charges to blast open the door.
Sturgis moves to hold off the other flank of Khadoran forces and orders Jakes to move up the mountain, taking as many soldiers with her as she can. Move Jakes and her group up the ramp to safety while firing at the Assault Kommandos attempting to flank the Cygnarans. In the meantime, the Khadorans are catching up. The Trenchers should take advantage of the terrain and keep boulders between themselves and the Khadorans, using Combined Ranged Attacks where needed. Once again, Sidekick on the Lancer and a full load of focus for Bandit is the best way to keep them at bay until the doors open. The blast range is within 2 squares of the doors, so don’t be too eager to get through.
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Once past the first doors, you’ll find that there is another entryway set with thick stone doors. To make matters worse, some clever Khadorans found a shortcut and are now coming into the courtyard! The far side of the wall has fallen into disrepair, though, so a few more charges should do the trick.
Mission 6 Objectives Rescue the Stormsmiths and move to meet Siege Brisbane.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Lancer must survive • Bandit must survive • At least one Stormsmith must survive
Jakes' Rewards • Positive Charge ([Spell. Cost: 2, Range 6, AOE: -, Upkeep: No, Offensive: No] Target friendly Faction warjack gains +1 MAT and gains +2 damage on its normal melee attacks. While within 3 squares of the affected warjack, friendly Faction units gain +1 MAT and gain +2 damage on normal melee attacks.)
At this point, you should engage enemy units on your own terms and take what shots you can without becoming engaged. The good news is that after a few waves of Assault Kommandos, a few Iron Fang Pikemen, and a couple of Winter Guard, Man-O-War Shocktroopers will follow up, and their limited speed will help you cover your retreat past the second wall. Once past the wall, a short bridge is all that separates you from the monastery, and our loyal Trencher Sergeant has a few charges left! Remember that it still take 4 rounds for the charges to go off, so set them a few rounds ahead of your forces crossing the bridge.
Miraculously surviving the monastery’s bombardment, Jakes leads her crew through the mountain pass to meet up with Major Marcus “Siege” Brisbane’s forces. As they near the rendezvous point, some poor Stormsmiths can be seen pinned to the ground by Protectorate of Menoth soldiers. You will have to move quickly to save their lives.
Once across, array your forces to give cover fire to those last few stragglers.
Start by splitting your forces. The Lancer, Rourke, and the Trenchers go right while the Stormblades, Jakes, and Bandit go left. As always, Sidekick works well on the Lancer, and Combined Ranged Attacks are the best way to take out large chunks of a unit’s HP. Now that the bridge is blown, Strakhov feels it is too late to pursue. The Butcher and his Destroyers, however, feel differently.
You won’t have a lot of time on your hands, though. As soon as the Temple Flameguard are alerted to your presence, they will send two of their number out to intercept you, but the third will remain behind to finish the Stormsmiths’ execution.
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The best way to counter this is to attack in an order that allows the closest units to the third Temple Flameguard to be freed from melee by those who aren’t as far forward in the field. You do not have to save all three Stormsmiths, but it is recommended you try to do so. The Stormsmiths come under your control once you defeat the Temple Flameguard, but they begin in knocked down status. At least one of them must survive, so they should not be put in harm’s way if at all possible. Once a few of the Stormsmiths are freed, the remaining Protectorate forces begin to advance. Deal with Exemplar Cinerators all at once. Try not to damage them until you can eliminate them, because once you do, their threat range increases dramatically. Also, eliminating the Vassal of Menoth is helpful in stunting the Repenter’s potential damage output.
Mission 7 Objective
them off. There are only a few Protectorate units that add to the battle each round, so utilize your attacks to make certain they are removed. Bandit with 3 focus points and the Trenchers’ Combined Range Attacking will help ensure the few units that make it to your front lines are eliminated. And the two Stormblades are adept at taking on the couple of Temple Flameguards that come from the far side of the walls to charge.
Beginning in round 9, Flameguard Cleansers will appear and begin to burn down the wooden barricades. At this point, it’s time to start withdrawing past the burned-out husk of a building, taking on the two Flameguard Cleansers and then a Revenger with a Vassal backing it up. If you can, try to bait the Protectorate forces near the house, as a Troll Axer is sleeping inside! As you round the corner, you march into the mines above another Vassal, backed by a Crusader and two each of Exemplar Errants and Temple Flameguards. Just when things are looking grim as all these religious fanatics close in, Major Brisbane appears with his troops! Get your forces up the hill and let his Defenders provide cover for your retreat.
Survive the Protectorate onslaught.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Lancer must survive • Bandit must survive
Bandit's Rewards • Prowler (When this unit is affected by cloud effects or concealment, it gains Stealth.)
Jakes' Rewards • Acrobatics (This unit can advance through other units and cannot be targeted by free strikes.) Replaces Parry. Having freed the Stormsmiths, Jakes has now alerted the Protectorate army to her squad’s presence; their forces have followed her to an abandoned mine, so she and her crew must hold off a Protectorate offensive. At first, the barriers you have been deployed to seem the best places to hole up and defend yourself, but the bridge to Jakes’ right is a deployment point for Protectorate troops. You have several mining charges, left behind by whoever was here before. These charges can inflict serious damage to anyone nearby when they explode, so the key is to bait troops in and fire on the charges, then fire on the troops themselves to finish
Be mindful of the Orgoth totems left behind. A nearby Greylord corpse hints at why these profane markers were exhumed. Move to this chokepoint as quickly as you can, and prove that greater numbers are not as meaningful when battling in tight spaces. Soon, the Protectorate forces will be vanquished, and you and Brisbane can go stop the Greylords from taking the Molicron!
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Mission 8 Objective Assault the Khadoran train to stop its progress.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Lancer must survive • Bandit must survive • Siege must survive
Jakes' Rewards • Ambidextrous Gunfighter (Jakes gains a second Hand Cannon ranged weapon.) • Wall of Steel ([Spell. Cost: 2, Range: SELF, AOE: CTRL, Upkeep: Yes, Offensive: No] While in this unit’s control area and adjacent to one or more units in this unit’s battlegroup, units in this unit’s battlegroup cannot be knocked down and gains +1 DEF.)
Once these are dealt with, the back car will open to reveal the deadliest trap yet: A Man-O-War Kovnik marshaling a pair of deadly Decimators! Take out the Kovnik first to limit the Decimators’ offensive output. Again, Trenchers Combined Ranged Attacking, Rourke using Critical Brutal shot, Bandit boosting his attacks, and Jakes boosting her Hand Cannons should finish them off. Siege has a pair of Defenders on his side and should require minimal support.
Major Brisbane has a job for Jakes. There’s a Khadoran train set to deliver troops and supplies, and it needs to be derailed . . . permanently. There’s just a small trick to it. The train cars are being guarded by a pair of gun turrets. To make matters worse, there’s an even bigger turret at the front of the train!
The keys to countering these are range and defense. Use Trencher Smoke Clouds and cast Sidekick to screen your troops as they clear enemy infantry, and then hit the turrets. By this point, you should be well versed in the Cygnaran doctrine of war: Combined Ranged Attacks, Bandit using two Boosted shots, and Sidekick on the Lancer to tie up a flank you can’t concentrate on. Major Brisbane hasn’t left you behind, though. His contingent is on the other side of the train. There is no easy way to help him at this point, so let him do his job while Jakes focuses on hers.
Mission 9 Objective Destroy the Khadoran supply outpost so Jakes can continue her quest for the Molicron.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Bandit must survive
Lancer's Rewards • Haste (This warjack can advance 1 additional square and gains +1 DEF against ranged and magic attacks for 1 round when using Energizer.) Once the main turret is destroyed, the car with the smaller turrets opens to reveal another pair of Assault Kommandos and Man-O-War Shocktroopers each. Given that your units are likely assembled in a firing line already, these should present no real challenge.
Jakes' Rewards • Field Marshal [Sprint] (All warjacks in this warcaster’s battlegroup gain Sprint). Replaces Sprint.
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Major Brisbane is hesitant to let a valuable resource such as Jakes run loose following some Orgoth legend, but he permits her to leave on the condition that she eliminate a Khadoran supply post.
The plan is simple: bust in, blow the ammo dump, and get out. The station is full of Khadorans, however, and a Winter Guard patrol is just coming back. You’ve swapped your Lancer for an Ironclad by now, which will make a fine target for Sidekick. Eliminate the Winter Guard and have your trusty and eager Trencher Sergeant set up explosives by the door. Unlike in the mountains, these charges will detonate in only two rounds. Once the door has been blasted open, several Khadorans are waiting. Tie them up or eliminate them quickly so they will not reactivate the Juggernauts standing by. Once inside, you’ll see more Winter Guard coming from a path off the side of the map, and you’ll find a pair of Troll Axers lingering outside the other door. Your tenacious Trencher can blow the doors to let them in. This is entirely optional, but feel free to add to the chaos and occupy those Winter Guard by forcing them to deal with the trolls.
With the supply post eliminated, and leaving the trolls to their own devices, Siege allows Jakes to continue pursuing the Molicron—and to avenge Sturgis’ death.
Mission 10 Objective Defend the Cygnaran outpost in the swamp and recruit the Gun Mages on duty there.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Bandit must survive
Ironclad's Rewards • Bullish (This warjack’s trample attacks gain critical Knockdown.) Before Jakes can go after the Molicron, she’ll need more troops. Siege doesn’t have any he can spare, but he knows where more can be found. Out in the nearby swamps, Gun Mages are even now holed up, fending off the occasional Khadoran patrol.
As you’re fighting your way up the hill, the door from the loading dock lowers to reveal a Man-O-War Kovnik marshaling a pair of Juggernauts, thankfully lacking their trademark Ice Axes. Your Ironclad with Sidekick should make quick work of the Juggernauts, and of course your ranged elements should eliminate the Kovnik before engaging the Juggernauts. As the warjacks are pounding dents into each other, your troops need to plant more charges at three storage depots. Once all three depots are set to explode, get everyone out of the fortress and blow the place sky high!
Jakes and her contingent approach this outpost just as the Khadorans are making a push. A few Assault Kommandos and Winter Guard are approaching the towers. Once you’ve eliminated the enemy, the Gun Mages will speak to you. They’ll be a bit surly—until they realize you mean to let them leave.
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The outpost is built so that no one side is blocked off. For this level, the “front” is the facing the Khadorans are assaulting at the beginning. The rear of the station has more formal walls as well. Your initial deployment is to the front and left of the fort.
Mission 11 Objective Survive the ambush and pursue the Cryxian forces.
Vitals
As a bonus, the Gun Mages have an old, working Defender. Get Jakes to start it up, pronto! Send a Stormblade, two Trenchers, and Rourke to the back of the outpost, a couple troops to the top of the barricades, and the rest of your units to the front.
• Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Bandit must survive
Jakes' Rewards • +1 Focus Deep within the swamps, Jakes and her crew come to a stop after realizing the natural sounds of the swamp have vanished. Cryx is about to ambush your forces!
There will be increasingly intense waves of Khadorans assaulting the outpost shortly after the Defender has been reactivated. Jakes will have to either leave some of her warjacks out of her control range or keep herself in the center of the outpost. It may be tempting to abandon the walls and barriers of the outpost, but don’t! Rourke can hide behind a wall and use Phantom Hunter to attack without line of sight. Straying too far from the protection of the outpost will not only separate you from The Gun Mages in the tower but can also distance you from the other Cygnarans who can help back you up. The attacking Greylords will each be accompanied by a marshaled warjack. A Juggernaut will assault the back of the fort, and a Destroyer will attack the front. After the warjacks appear with a few Winter Guard and Assault Kommandos, some Assault Kommando Flame Throwers, followed by a final wave consisting of a pair of Marauders, approach from both the front and the rear of the outpost simultaneously. Once the dust settles, the Gun Mages will gladly join you.
As the level begins, eight Mechanithralls are waiting in the corners nearby. The order of the day here should be “shoot and scoot.” Move your units up the path, but use the preview information when advancing to ensure they end up in good position to shoot. Once you reach two rocks flanking the path at about the halfway point, a pair of Bile Thralls will appear on either rock. Keep advancing while firing as many shots as you can. As you approach the road at the top of the map, an Iron Lich Overseer will burst from the brush and retreat farther up the road.
Once your forces reach the road, you will need to outlast a few more waves of undead monstrosities. Mechanithralls will continue to enter from either side of the swamp. Your
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Ironclad should take point on the road leading out the top of the map. Prepare your forces to settle into this section of road, as Cryx is far from done testing your mettle. Mechanithralls, and later Brute Thralls, will appear from all directions, so don’t assume any direction is safe to turn away from. A Skarlock Thrall will deploy with more thralls at the top of the map to signal the last wave of the attack.
Taking a brief moment to catch their breaths, Jake’s squad knows it’s unlikely they’ve seen the last of the Nightmare Empire’s forces. By this point you have seen Bile Thralls milling about. These disgusting servants of Cryx will explode upon death, causing caustic damage to anyone nearby. Make sure you deal with them at range, even if Bandit has to refrain from shooting something hardier in order to do so. It’s wiser to keep your units in top shape.
Mission 12 Objective Destroy the Cryxian Necrotite rigs and eliminate the undead.
Vitals
Keep moving as you destroy the rigs, not allowing yourself to wander too far. An Iron Lich Overseer with a few Deathrippers is nearby but won’t attack Jakes until either you get too close or destroy all three rigs.
• Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Bandit must survive
Jakes' Rewards • +1 ARM Following the trail of the Iron Lich Overseer has brought Jakes to a harrowing discovery: a Necrotite mining operation fueling a full Cryxian army. Jakes knows the only way to deal with such a horror is to destroy the mining rigs. The key concept is to maintain a relatively small footprint. The Cryxian thralls will not be alerted to your presence until you wander too close, so the notion of spreading out to engage as much of the field as possible is not advisable. Sometimes this means not every unit activates meaningfully. That is okay here, as it is better for a Stormblade to hang back a round than to run into combat with something and thus invite more units to enter the fight. The Necrotite rigs have ARM 4 and 25 HP each. An Ironclad with a Stormblade will make quick work of a rig while other elements of your squad eliminate the various thralls surrounding the dig site. Moving slowly and methodically is the best path to victory here.
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Mission 13 Objective Defend your hasty alliance against waves of Cryxian soldiers.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Bandit must survive • Strakhov must survive
Finally, another Overseer will deploy at the southern edge with a Reaper and a Slayer. Trenchers should Smoke Bomb to prevent the Reaper from using its Drag ability, and the Ironclad—especially if you cast Positive Charge—can make short work of the Cryxian helljacks.
Defender's Rewards • Energy Link (This warjack gains +1 Movement for 1 round when it starts its activation within 5 squares of its controlling warcaster.) Jakes’ and Strakhov’s forces are on the verge of battling one another when Cryxian forces attack, surrounding both forces. Their only hope at survival, Jakes quickly surmises, is if they work together. And it seems you and Strakhov can agree on at least one thing: you’d both like to live. Cryx is sending its forces after both of you, and you need to outlast their seemingly unending tide.
Mission 14
You will deploy blind to all other forces. Jakes will take two sides of the Orgoth ruin with Strakhov’s forces on the other two. The easiest way to survive this assault is to actually abandon the two edges you share with the Khadorans and hunker down in the southeast corner.
Objectives Escape Sturgis’ grasp and reunite with your allies.
Vitals • Jakes must survive
Jakes’ Rewards
Mechanithralls will attack, but they are easily dispatched. Soon after, Bile Thralls will appear. Because of their Purge ability, you should not engage them in melee if at all possible.
Once the Bile Thralls are dispatched, an Iron Lich Overseer with a pair of Defilers arrives. Combined Ranged Attacks and boosted melee attacks from the Ironclad will make short work of the Defilers, and you can dedicate Jakes’ ranged attacks to taking out the Overseer.
• Feat: Powerhouse (While in Jakes’ control area, friend Faction units gain Immunity: Electricity. Affected units’ melee weapons gain Reach and Electro Leap. Powerhouse lasts for one round. [When a unit is hit by a weapon with Electro Leap, you can have lightning arc to the nearest unit within 4 squares of the unit hit, ignoring the attacking unit. The unit the lightning arcs to suffers 3 electrical damage.]) • Blades: Jakes gains Sturgis Blade (left) and Sturgis Blade (right). Jakes has been separated from her troops, and a horrific surprise reaches her before her battlegroup does. Sturgis is alive! Well, still moving, anyway. He still has the key to the Molicron, but he lacks the map. Fortunately for Jakes, she doesn’t have it; unfortunately for her, Sturgis believes he can extract the memory of the map from her mind—once she surrenders her life to him.
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But Sturgis has a surprise for you. The Mechanithralls may not actively search the swamps, but a pair of bonejacks is rooting through to find you. Try to stay one step ahead of them because you can’t simply hide forever. As you progress, it gets more difficult to end your turn in the grass and remain undetected. It may be necessary to eliminate thralls with ranged attacks and wait in the current patch or to attack and then sprint back into the grasses where Jakes began. In the end, there is no good cover. Jakes needs to make a desperate dash for her friends.
This mission is all about evasion. Use the tall grasses in the swamp to hide, as Sturgis will teleport to the rocks above.
Sturgis leaps from the rocks to engage Jakes. Things look bad as he disarms her, and all seems lost until your faithful Ironclad slams into Sturgis, breaking his staff and tossing him from the battle to retreat for now. Jakes has lost her Mechanika Blade and Parrying Dagger, but she can now wield Sturgis’ blades as a pair of weapons. There’s no time to rest, as you have only found a fraction of your troops, and you need to unite the remaining forces to stand a chance against this new threat.
Mission 15 Objectives Free your compatriots and stop the Cryxian thrall foundry.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Bandit must survive • One of the captured Trenchers must survive
Jakes’ Rewards Mechanithralls are patrolling those grasses, and if they find Jakes, they alert their new master to her presence. Thus, Jakes will be caught by Sturgis if she ends a turn either outside the tall grasses or with an alerted Mechanintrall in play. This all sounds like pretty dire news, but don’t fret: Jakes has a couple of things going for her. Sprint allows her to move away from a recent scene of violence, and Energizer can further help her move back into the grassy shadows. Mechanithralls occasionally patrol and investigate nearby patches of tall grass. Keep moving from patch to patch, eliminating Mechanithralls as necessary. Jakes’ Cygnaran friends, along with Bandit and your Ironclad, appear at one end of the swamp.
• Lightning Storm ([Spell. Cost 3, Range 8, AOE 3, Upkeep: No, Offensive: Yes.] Units hit take 3 damage. The AOE remains in play for one round. Units entering or ending their activations in the AOE suffer 3 electrical Damage.) Your compatriots are trapped, and it’s up to Jakes to rescue them for certain doom! Move up, eliminating as many thralls as you can. You need to free the prisoners locked in the cage from that Brute Thrall! Jakes notes there is a nearby Reanimator creating thralls as well as a large Soul Chamber off to the side. These structures are ARM 4 with 20 HP each, so they’re unlikely to be destroyed by individual Gun Mage and Trencher shots; have those units take on the Mechanithralls. Task the Charger with firing boosted ranged attacks into the bonejacks and Iron Lich Overseers. Once the Trenchers are rescued, they will confirm Rourke is not among their number and that he had abandoned them prior to their capture.
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Mission 16 Objectives Assault the Khadoran stronghold and drive Kommander Strakhov from his command post.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Bandit must survive • Rourke must survive • Siege must survive
Ironclad’s Rewards • Distinguished (When this warjack kills an enemy warjack it gains +1 SPD, +1 MAT, +1 RAT, +1 DEF, and +1 ARM for one round.)
Now that the Trenchers are free, it’s time to push ahead and take out the Reanimator. This machine will produce one new Mechanithrall each round until it is destroyed, so work quickly! An Iron Lich Overseer watches over each of these structures.
Kommander Strakhov has blocked your route into the Orgoth structure, placing a variety of fearsome defenses. March forward, conscious of your threat ranges. The Charger and Defender are more than capable of taking out the Assault Kommandos you’ll encounter early on. As you approach the Khadoran battlements, you’ll find several Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers perched high in the surrounding watchtowers.
Finally, it’s time to move on to the Soul Chambers. The Overseers have brought in a Slayer to join the fray. Wall of Steel can help keep your Ironclad in good shape for this final fight. Jakes will mutter about the content of Rourke’s character as she soldiers on and destroys the rest of these profane contraptions. These Rocketeers should be your priority targets, as their AOE attacks can damage several units at once. After the Rocketeers have been eliminated, take the right path up and rely on your units’ superior range to kill the intervening Winter Guard Infantry. Proceed to the bottom of the hill and wait before continuing along the path to the wooden ramp up to the next level. Bandit and the Defender can fire on several of the Khadorans on the area above before the enemy will move to engage you. Use this to your advantage to cut down enemy units before continuing on.
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Mission 17 Objective Eliminate the Destroyers on the Orgoth battlements.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Siege must survive
Defender’s Rewards • Sprint-Fire (This warjack may trigger Sprint if it kills an enemy unit with a ranged attack during its activation. [At the end of its activation, if a unit with Sprint destroyed one or more enemy units with melee attacks this activation it can make a full advance.])
As you reach a pair of Iron Fang Pikemen, a few Trenchers appear on the cliffs above to help you!
Jakes has made it to the top of the Orgoth parapets, and she’s hot on the trail of Kommander Strakhov. With Siege below, it’s up to Jakes to take out the Destroyers above.
Stay close to the walls as you approach Strakhov’s command post. As you work on taking out two Destroyers at once, Major Brisbane will come in from the uppermost level to flank Strakhov!
Jakes is up against the clock to eliminate Strakhov and his trio of terrifying warjacks. This means the Cygnarans need to push forward and move up the board every round. This will test all of your previously learned skills, especially since Bandit and your other warjacks will not be at Jakes’ side.
Now your job is to give Siege some covering fire. He and his Ironclad can take on Strakhov’s Destroyers after you pump them full of Cygnaran lead! Strakhov decides to fall back before he gets too entangled and escapes into the Orgoth compound. Clean up the remaining Khadorans and follow him deeper into the ruins. You will face small groups of Assault Kommandos, along with an occasional Flame Thrower and Iron Fang Pikeman. You’ll fall back on the same techniques as before: ranged attacks to soften up enemy units and Stormblades using Assault or charging in to finish up. Jakes can go in herself and potentially take out two foes each round, since she won’t be spending her focus points on warjacks, and can use Sprint to keep up with her troops. In addition, using ranged attacks from the rear to free up units in the front will help maximize the value of each
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soldier and allow you to gain more ground to take on the Destroyers sooner. Remember the power of the Gun Mages’ Thunderbolt shots to push back or knock down targets. Rourke and the other Gun Mages can use these to delay enemy offensives as you push forward or knock down troops to deny them a charge attack. In either case, Jakes can ill afford to waste time. As you round the first corner, the Orgoth torches lining the parapets flare up in some arcane signal—the Khadorans must be closing in on their goal.
After the third Destroyer goes down, it’s time to eliminate Strakhov himself. Occultation will do a lot to keep him safe from your ranged attacks, however, and he’s likely to have kept much of his focus to increase his ARM. Take him down and get ready to breach the Orgoth inner sanctum!
Divide your forces to threaten each aisle, then converge back onto the center platform and take on enemy units as they approach. Take out the Assault Kommando Flame Throwers first, as their Flamethrowers will explode in fiery blasts when destroyed. As you reach the end of the platform, you’ll find two three-man teams of Greylords conducting their sinister arcane rites. Eliminate them and move on to face the final Khadoran guardian.
Jakes hasn’t forgotten what the Butcher did to her former commanding officer, and now she aims to exact her revenge. Her blood boils at the sight of him, and Bandit is caught up in the emotional link they share. Rourke is nervous about taking on the infamous Butcher of Khardov, but Jakes won’t hear of abandoning her vendetta.
Mission 18 Objective Slaughter the Khadorans and take revenge for Sturgis’ death.
Vitals
Once the Butcher is down to about half of his HP, however, Rourke’s urging overcomes Jakes’ desire for blood. You descend into the inner depths of the Orgoth fortress to confront the evil within.
• Jakes must survive • Bandit must survive • Ironclad must survive You’ve finally forced your way into the Orgoth stronghold to eliminate the remaining Khadorans and stop the Greylords from completing their dark ritual. As you descend the stairs, dedicate as many ranged attacks as possible to the formation of Winter Guard Rocketeers on the center platform. The stairs force you to split your squad, but don’t wander too far. You never know when a critical hit will leave you with a few attacks to support the other side.
Mission 19 Objective Confront your former mentor and eliminate the Cryxian incursion into the Orgoth stronghold.
Vitals • Jakes must survive • Rourke must survive • Trencher Sergeant must survive Cryx has corrupted the once-noble Dalin Sturgis, and it is Jakes’ duty to put him down—or die trying. He has a small Cryxian force with him. The room has a large hole in the center; use this to your advantage, as there are only a few Cryxian units with ranged attacks.
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Mission 20 Objective Destroy the chain holding up the Orgoth structure and bury the Molicron.
Vitals
Deploy Bandit and your Ironclad to either side of the map. The mission is successful when Sturgis goes down, so wait and see which side he takes. Take out the other Cryxian units as soon as opportunities present themselves. Bile Thralls in particular should be targeted before they draw too close; they are packed in with several other Cryxians. If Sturgis deploys on Bandit’s side, boosted shots from Bandit, Stun Strike from the Stormguard, a Combined Ranged Attack from the Trenchers, and Thunder Thrust from the Stormblades are all excellent tools for bypassing his higher than average DEF.
• Jakes must survive • Bandit must survive • Trencher Sergeant must survive Sturgis’ bid to kill Jakes has failed, and she now knows the only way to thwart her former commander is to bury the Orgoth structure and the Molicron with it. This mission is on roughly the same map as Mission 19, but instead of Sturgis and his battlegroup, a scattering of Brute Thralls and Mechanithralls will start out on the map. Jakes needs to blow the chains out from the walls to collapse the structure. These chains have ARM 3 and 15 HP.
If instead Sturgis goes to the Ironclad’s side, use boosted Quake Hammer attacks to trigger Critical Knockdown so the Gun Mages can pour Phantom Hunter attacks into him. Once he goes down, Sturgis intercepts Jakes’ attempt to deliver the coup de grâce, knocking her back and choking her. Slamming her into the Orgoth artifact, he prepares to deliver the final blow.
As you destroy the chains and eliminate the thralls, a few Cygnarans left from earlier in the fight join you. More significantly, thrall reinforcements will come out of the ramps in the corners of the map.
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In the end, Jakes knows to use the battlefield to her advantage, and she maneuvers Sturgis into position for a horrifying death. He falls, along with the Molicron, into the abyss, eliminating both threats from the world.
These new thralls are a mix of Mechanithralls, Brute Thralls, and Bile Thralls. Every other round, more of Cryx’s horrific creatures emerge, so don’t dawdle! At the end of the round in which you destroy the third chain, Sturgis the Corrupted appears to confront you directly, standing between you and the final chain. Jakes has little choice but to destroy the horror claiming to be the noble Cygnaran warcaster.
Perhaps. Jakes’ tribunal comes to a close. The Cygnaran officials confirm what Jakes already knew: her trials as a journeyman are over, but her trials as a full-fledged warcaster have only begun. Just as Jakes has bled and fought hard for her country, so too have you earned your commission as a warcaster in your own right by completing this campaign.
Shortly after this moment, Siege catches up and helps hold the tide of thralls at bay, leaving you to deal with Sturgis and the final chain.
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Glossary Abomination
Back Strike
Advance Deployment
Base Sizes
This character is terrifying. All units—both friendly and enemy—within 3 squares of this unit have a 50% chance to become Terrified for one round. This effect can be applied only once per turn to any one unit the first time that unit is within 3 squares of a unit with Abomination. This character can be deployed up to 6 squares farther than the standard deployment zone. The deployment for this character occurs after all other deployment is completed. Additional Damage
Certain abilities and effects, such as the Weapon Master ability, cause an attack to inflict additional damage. Additional damage increases the damage dealt by 2–4. Additional damage stacks with other damage-increasing effects. Aiming Bonus
When a unit forgoes its movement, it gains +2 RAT that activation. AOE (Area of Effect)
The area in squares that a weapon, spell, or ability can affect. Some AOE attacks must be centered on a targeted enemy while others affect the map itself and can be placed anywhere within line of sight. When placing an effect directly, the center of the AOE must be within range of the attack. Arc Node
This unit is a channeler. A warcaster can cast spells through a channeler in his battlegroup that is also within his control area. The spellcaster is still the attacker, but the channeler becomes the spell’s point of origin. The channeling warjack must have line of sight to the target, and the range is measured from its position. A channeler that is engaged by an enemy unit cannot channel spells. A channeler can be the target of a non-offensive spell it channels, but a spell with a RNG of “SELF” cannot be channeled. Attack Against a Target in Melee
An attacker suffers -2 RAT when making a ranged attack against a target engaged in melee combat. A spellcaster casting a spell against a target in melee that they are engaged with does not suffer this penalty. Attack Arc
If an attacker is fully outside a target’s attack arc, the attacker gains +1 MAT, +1 RAT, and +1 MAG. When making a back strike against a target with the Shield ability, the attacker ignores the +1 ARM bonus granted by the Shield advantage. Back strike also ignores bonuses from Shield Wall. Any unit that occupies a 2x2 space must end its movement on a 2x2 flat area unless the area is a ramp. Any unit that occupies a 3x3 space must end its movement on a 3x3 flat area unless the area is a ramp. Units cannot squeeze through locations that are too small to accommodate their size. Blast Damage
AOE attacks typically have a primary target. The attack is made against this primary target. If the primary target is hit, that target takes full damage from the attack, and all other units in the AOE take damage equal to that but one step lower on the damage chart. A direct hit from an AOE attack may critically hit, but blast damage does not. When the damage of an AOE attack is boosted, the blast damage from the attack becomes POW 4. Boosting Damage
Warcasters and warjacks can spend focus to boost damage on an attack. Spending focus to boost damage increases the damage dealt by 2–4. Certain abilities and buffs may also boost the damage inflicted by a unit for the same effect. Boosts do not stack. Cloud Effects
Any unit that is in a cloud effect receives the +1 DEF concealment bonus. Units trying to draw line of sight (LOS) for an attack cannot draw LOS through a cloud effect. Cloud effects are treated as having an infinite height and block LOS as such. Charging (Power Attack)
A warjack can spend focus to charge, moving directly toward its target in a straight line up to its current SPD, plus movement bonuses, plus an additional 3 squares. At the end of this movement, the warjack’s first attack has its damage boosted. It can then make the rest of its initial attacks and buy additional attacks. Combined Melee Attack
All units have attack arcs extending from the left and right of their own spaces and filling the 180-degree arc in the direction they are facing. Certain units have a full 360-degree view of the battlefield and ignore attack arcs.
Units with Combined Melee Attack (CMA) may improve their accuracy and damage by attacking in unison with other units that also have Combined Melee Attack. During its combat action, a unit with CMA can choose to make a
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Combined Melee Attack against another unit. This ends the unit’s activation and puts the unit in a “waiting” state, as indicated by a line drawn to its target and how the game shades the character. Subsequent friendly units that make a Combined Melee Attack against the same target will be added together with all other friendly units making a Combined Melee Attack against the target. At any point during the player’s turn, he or she can select any unit within a CMA group to trigger the attack from all units in that group. The chosen unit is the primary attacker, and the attack will use that unit’s MAT, the DAM of its weapon, and all other relevant stats for the attack. This attack receives a bonus +1 MAT and +2 to the damage of the attack, which increases by an additional +1 MAT and +2 DAM for every participant in the CMA, to a maximum base damage of 10. Combined Ranged Attack
Units with Combined Ranged Attack (CRA) may improve their accuracy and damage by unleashing their attacks in a unified volley with other units that also have Combined Ranged Attack. During its combat action, a unit with CRA can choose to make a Combined Ranged Attack against another unit. This ends the unit’s activation and puts the unit in a “waiting” state, as indicated by a line drawn to its target and how the game shades the character. Subsequent friendly units that make a Combined Ranged Attack against the same target will be added together with all other friendly units making a Combined Ranged Attack against the target. At any point during the player’s turn, he or she can select any unit within a CRA group to trigger the attack from all units in that group. The chosen unit is the primary attacker, and the attack will use that unit’s RAT, the DAM of its weapon, and all other relevant stats for the attack. This attack receives a bonus +1 to RAT and +2 to the damage of the attack, which increases by an additional +1 RAT and +2 DAM for every participant in the CMA, to a maximum base damage of 10. Concealment
Concealment confers +1 DEF against ranged attacks. Concealment stacks with Cover. Set pieces that provide concealment include shrubs and smoke. Construct
A construct is not a living unit and never suffers the Terrified effect. All warjacks have the Construct advantage. Continuous Effect: Corrosion
Continuous Corrosion inflicts 2 DAM, ignoring all damage mitigation, at the beginning of a round in which it does not expire. Continuous Effect: Fire
Continuous Fire inflicts 5 DAM at the beginning of a round in which it does not expire. This damage is lowered by
damage mitigation. When calculating this damage against a warcaster, that warcaster only receives bonus ARM from focus left unspent during the previous round. Cover
Cover confers +2 DEF against ranged attacks. Cover stacks with Concealment. Set pieces that provide cover include low walls, rubble, and wreckage. Critical Hits
An attack that critically hits increases the damage dealt by 2–4. Other effects may apply. Damage Mitigation
Certain abilities will provide damage mitigation. Damage mitigation lowers the final damage inflicted by an attack by a set damage mitigation value. Deviation
When a ranged AOE attack misses, the center point of the attack drifts up to 6 squares in a random direction. An attack cannot deviate a greater number of squares than half the distance between the attacker and the designated target. All characters under the new position of the AOE suffer blast damage from the effect. Difficult Terrain
Difficult terrain requires double the normal amount of movement to pass through. Difficult terrain includes uneven rubble, thick foliage, and shallow streams, but is not limited to these features. Some spells and abilities may also create areas of difficult terrain. Disruption
Disruption disables one of a warjack’s focus slots for one round. A warjack that has had any of its focus slots disrupted cannot channel spells for the duration of the disruption. Elevation
When a unit attempts to make a melee attack against an enemy unit one elevation step higher than itself, the attack is made without penalty. If a unit attempts to make a melee attack against a unit two elevation steps higher than itself, the range of its weapons is lowered by 1. Melee attacks cannot be made against enemies three or more elevation steps higher than the attacker. When a unit attempts to make a ranged attack against an enemy on a higher elevation, that targeted unit receives +1 DEF. Engaged in Melee
A unit engaged in melee cannot make ranged attacks. Eyeless Sight
A unit with Eyeless Sight ignores cloud effects when determining line of sight (LOS). This unit ignores
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concealment and Stealth when making attacks. Falling
Certain abilities can push units from their current locations, in some instances leading to falls from height. If a unit falls from a height of up to 2 elevations, no additional effects occur. At an elevation difference of 3, the unit takes an additional 2–4 damage and is knocked down. For each additional elevation difference, the damage increases by another 2–4. If the unit would fall to a space smaller than its size, it continues to fall additional elevations down until it lands in a space large enough to accommodate it. If a unit falls into a space occupied by another unit, the other unit is pushed until sufficient room is made. If the unit pushed is smaller than the falling unit, it takes damage equal to that inflicted on the falling unit due to the fall. Fearless
This unit never suffers the Terrified effect. All warcasters and warjacks have the Fearless advantage. Free Strikes
When a unit moves out of an enemy unit’s melee attack arc, that unit can make a standard melee attack against the retreating enemy. Free strike attacks receive +1 MAT and deal additional damage. Free strikes are resolved immediately once a unit moves out of an attacking unit’s melee range. Gunfighter
This unit has a melee range of 1 square and can make ranged attacks targeting units in its melee range. Head-butt (Power Attack)
A warjack can spend focus to make a head-butt power attack at the beginning of its activation. When making a head-butt attack, a unit makes a melee attack against the target, and if the attack hits, it inflicts 3 damage and the target is knocked down. A warjack cannot make a head-butt attack against a target larger than itself.
Magical Weapon
Attacks made by a weapon with the Magical Weapon property are Magical attacks; however, these attacks are not spells. Magical attacks can affect certain units in the game that are immune to normal attacks. Melee Range
Melee weapons, by default, have a range of 1 space. This means they can attack to the front, sides, and at a diagonal of the attacker’s attack arc. Some long melee weapons have Reach, which increases their melee range to 2 spaces. Obstructions
Obstructions completely block line of sight and movement. Obstructions include buildings, large boulders, and trees. Pathfinder
Units with Pathfinder can advance through rough terrain without penalty and can charge and make slam and trample power attacks across obstacles. Push (Power Attack)
A warjack can spend focus to push an adjacent target. A push attack automatically hits, and the target is pushed 1 square directly away from the warjack. Range
The maximum distance in squares between an attack’s point of origin and its target. Reach
’Jack Marshal
This character can have up to two warjacks marshaled under its control. Warjacks under the control of a ’Jack Marshal can boost to hit, boost damage, buy an attack, run, charge, or make a power attack once each round. Knockdown
A unit affected by Knockdown is automatically hit when targeted by melee attacks, loses any DEF bonus against ranged attacks, cannot make free strikes, and has no back arc. During the unit’s activation, it must sacrifice either its movement or action to stand up. Line of Sight
make melee, ranged, and magic attacks. Units can draw LOS to another unit if you can draw a line that is not blocked by an obstruction from the center point of a square it occupies to the center point of a square the other unit occupies. This line cannot be drawn through other units that are the same size or larger than the target. When checking LOS against the height of an obstruction, use the unit’s bounding box to determine whether a line of sight line can be drawn over the obstruction. Line of sight cannot be drawn through small gaps in terrain or units.
Units must be able to draw line of sight (LOS) to a target to
Weapons with Reach can be used to make attacks from 1 additional square away in the attacking unit’s melee range. Shield
The Shield modifier gives a warjack a +1 bonus to ARM. This bonus is circumvented if an attack made against the unit receives the back strike bonus. Slamming (Power Attack)
A warjack can spend focus to slam a target, moving directly toward its target in a straight line up to its current SPD, plus movement bonuses, plus an additional 3 squares. At the end of this movement, the warjack makes a DAM 4 melee attack against the target, and on a hit the target is pushed
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1–6 squares back and knocked down. If the slammed target collides with a unit of equal or lesser size, that unit also takes 4 damage and is knocked down. If the slammed target collides with a unit of larger size or with an obstacle, the slammed target takes 2–4 additional damage, immediately stops, and is knocked down; however, the unit it collided with is unaffected. Spray Attacks
Spray attacks are ranged attacks that fire outward in a cone from the attacking unit. Spray attacks have one of three range designations—6, 8, or 10—that denote the range of the end point of the spray. To make a spray attack, an attacker must have a valid target within range. When a spray attack is made, the cone effect is centered on the target extending outward from the attacker’s location. If the cone touches the center point of a square, any unit occupying that square is also affected by the spray attack; however, a separate attack roll is made for each targeted unit. When a spray attack roll is boosted, only the accuracy of the attack roll against the targeted unit is improved. When a spray damage roll is boosted, only the damage against the targeted unit is improved. Effects that modify weapon range do not affect spray attacks. Spray attacks ignore concealment, cover, Stealth, and intervening units. Spray attack rolls made against units in melee do not suffer the target in melee penalty. Stationary
A stationary model cannot activate, is automatically hit by melee attacks, loses any DEF bonus against ranged attacks, and cannot make free strikes. Steady
This unit cannot be knocked down. Stealth
Ranged and magic attacks declared against a unit with Stealth automatically miss when the point of origin of the attack is greater than 5 squares away. Terrified
A unit that is Terrified suffers -1 MAT, -1 RAT, and -1 MAG for one round and does not gain a MAT bonus or deal additional damage when making free strikes. Terror
This unit is terrifying, causing enemy units in the melee range of this unit or with this unit in their own melee range to have a 50% chance of becoming Terrified for one round. This effect can apply only once per turn to any one unit the first time it enters into melee range of the unit with Terror. Throw (Power Attack)
To make a throw power attack, an attacking warjack must have at least one Open Fist. The warjack makes a melee
attack against the target using its MAT and, on a hit, selects a location within 6 squares to throw the target. The throw automatically deviates 1–3 squares in a random direction from that chosen point. The thrown target then suffers 4 points of damage and is knocked down. If the target collides with another unit of equal or lesser size, that unit also takes 4 points of damage and is knocked down. If the thrown target collides with an obstacle or with a unit of larger size, the thrown target immediately stops, takes additional damage, and is knocked down, but the unit it collided with is unaffected. If the warjack making the throw has two Open Fists available, it makes a melee attack against the target using its MAT+2, and then either selects an unoccupied location or targets a second unit. If an unoccupied location is chosen, the attack is resolved as above. If a second unit is selected, the warjack makes a melee attack against that second target. If the attack hits, the thrown target travels directly at the second target. If the attack misses, the thrown target deviates from its point of origin. The throw then automatically deviates 1–3 squares in a random direction from the chosen point. The thrown target suffers 4 points of damage and is knocked down. If the target collides with a target of equal or lesser size, that unit also suffers 4 points of damage and is knocked down. If the thrown target collides with an obstacle or with a unit of larger size, the thrown target immediately stops, takes additional damage, and is knocked down; however, the unit collided with is unaffected. A warjack can only throw targets its own size or smaller. Tough
When this unit is disabled, it has a 33% chance of healing 1 damage point. If it heals, it is no longer disabled and is knocked down. A unit that is already knocked down cannot trigger Tough. Trampling (Power Attack)
A heavy warjack can spend focus to trample during its movement activation. Trampling requires no target and allows the warjack to move an additional 3 squares, though the movement must be in a straight line. During a trample, a warjack can move through small units, making a DAM 4 melee attack against each unit it moves through. These units cannot make free strikes against the trampling warjack, but if the warjack passes through the melee range of another unit, that unit does make a free strike against it. Undead
This unit is not a living unit and never suffers the Terrified effect. Weapon Master
A hit with a weapon with this quality deals 2–4 points of additional damage.
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