Thorn

   Thorn is an effective, if expensive, arc node. I feel that regular Lancers are overpriced and really only worth 5 points, so why shell out 8 points for Thorn? There are a few of reasons.

First it has a higher MAT and POW than a regular Lancer, and so it can be used more effectively offensively. This especially combines well with the second reason, its ability to move an additional 3" once per turn after it channels a spell. These combine together to let the jack be a decent assassin with a few casters. Epic Stryker, for example, can cast Polarity Field through Thorn onto itself, making it effectively MAT 9 POW 15 with 14" of threat range. And thanks to the out of activation move, it doesn't have to take that 14" in a straight line.

   Lastly, all three Haleys like to take an Arc Node, and its affinity with them allows it to channel while engaged, which deals with an arc nodes biggest weakness. It also has a funny Imprint called Disengage which allows it to move away from things that miss it, but I find I don't use it too often as it costs a focus, and opponents going after Thorn usually make sure they're going to hit.

   I converted this model a bit. The spear came bent and eventually broke, so I replaced the front shaft with brass rod. This gave it a similar look to my Centurion, so I also added a power cord to the spear made out of guitar wire to tie the two together even more. It already had a Cygnus on it and its shield, so I added the quartered pattern I have on a number of other models in the army.

Captain Kara Sloan

Kara Sloan is decent warcaster with a couple things that hold her back. She has some very dead spells on her list, and between casting the spells she does have and shooting her gun she certainly doesn't have any left over to fuel warjacks. She is also rarely seen in tournaments as she fights with better casters like Siege and eCaine for Reinholdt.

She is pretty fun however, once you work out a list that suit her strengths. Taking too many jacks is a trap, as she can't feed them and the bonus shots aren't that valuable as they are unboosted. What you want is to maximise her feat with a volume of accurate shots. Boomhowlers with Murdoch are good for this.

 I converted her from waving her gun around to shooting the thing like in her art work. I did a quick saw on the right arm and added a little green stuff to remodel the elbow joint. The left I replaced with eHaley's left arm from the PP store.

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

    The Arcane Tempest Gun Mages, or ATGM for short, are the most popular Cygnaran unit with good reason. Their guns are magic which lets them shoot a whole bunch of things you're normally unable to. Their Unit attachment lets them ignore Stealth which lets them shoot a whole bunch more. Their UA is also arguably the best Jack Marshal in the game, granting the units Rune Shots to the jacks under its control. And the Rune Shots themselves let the ATGM reach a long way out, or even shove stuff around the board. It is a rare turn they can't do anything.

   Their Unit Attachment is also one of the ones you take all the time. Taking the unit without the attachment is just never done, it adds so much.

 

Captain Farilor and Legionnaire Unit Standard

   Farilor and Standard are an interesting unit attachment, because they transform the feel of the Legionnaires a lot. At 6 points the Legionnaires are a good throw away unit and can get in the way of incoming models and feed the Spawning Vessel when they die. At 3 points for the Unit Attachment they become an 9 point unit that you rather expect to get some work done.

   This means I only take Farilor in certain lists. Generally ones where there is some way to stack the durability he provides the Legionnaires with something else. When stacked with Epic Thagrosh's Dragons Blood for example, the Legionnaires are a solid ARM 18 all the time, and an impressive ARM 22 and immune to being made Stationary or knocked down when they use Iron Zeal. Otherwise I don't bother with Farilor and let the Legionnaires feed the Vessel.

Field Mechaniks 2

   This is my second unit of Field Mechaniks. I can't say that I bought and painted them because my first unit was so great. To be honest Field Mechaniks are kind of mediocre at fixing things aside from the leader, which isn't good considering they don't do anything else besides block charge lanes.

   So why have I painted this unit? Because I'm doing the Epic Haley Storm Strider theme list, and for every unit of Field Mechaniks you have a Storm Strider gets an advance move, which is really good for getting those early shots in. Two Storm Striders means I need two units of Field Mechaniks, otherwise I probably never would have picked them up.

Lieutenant Allister Caine

   Caine was the guy that got me into warmachine. I got in during Escalation when a friend showed me the Prime rulebook. This game with giant robots seemed pretty neat. And out of all the warcasters in the book this magic gunfighter had the most appeal. Which is how I started playing Cygnar.

   The great thing about Caine is that he's very well rounded. As a support caster he's solid with Snipe, Blur, and Deadeye. He has some janky movement and assassination potential with Thunderstrike. He can stay very safe with Teleport. But if he needs he can also super solo it up and just kill squads by himself. He's the origin of the phrase "POW 12s kill casters.".

   Soon after I started playing Warmachine Ashlynn was released in NQ#1 and I then got into mercs. Which meant I never got around to painting my original Caine model. Then when the new Caine came out in 2009 it meant I wasn't likely to any time soon either. But I was mainly playing Legion then so he was on the back burner again. Basically it's taken me since 2004 to get around to painting the warcaster that got me into the game.

Major Haley

I didn't have a lot of success with epic Haley when I began using her. People really hate playing against her because of her feat, but the fact is that she's a facilitator. She makes her army do things and slows your oppoent down. If she doesn't get well ahead on the feat turn then they catch right up and breeze by because the less of her army there is, the less she does. It wasn't that she was weak, but I didn't find she stood out when I played her the way I saw other people go on about her.

Then the Stormwall came out and she got much better. Not only did the range game improve, her bonded warjack hit harder and was harder to kill, meaning it got even more work done in melee. Since then she has stood out, a lot.

Stormwall

The Stormwall has been a big deal on a number of levels. Cygnar relies on its jacks to do the heavy lifting, and to provide the hardest hitting guns. But generally if a jack does one it doesn't do the other. The Stormwall does both, and brings good covering fire, and synergises with Cygnar's lighting powers, which are one of its most potent metheods of troop clearing.

It's also a kick ass model. I like it becuase it really captures the grace and technological prowess of the faction while still feeling very Iron Kingdoms. The only conversion work I did was to add the contector wires from the generator to the gauntlets. It makes it look more natural to power its electro-leaps, and ties it in with the Thunderhead.

Storm Tower

   The Cygnar Storm Tower is a rarity in Warmachine/Hordes, a light artillery piece that's worth taking. It's cheap, hits decently hard, catches troops efficiently with the bouncing lightning, and has a decent range. That said it's not for every army. You need to have a decent amount of electrically immune models on the table or you can easily find yourself zapping your own guys. But if you do then the Storm Tower can do some real work.

Ravagore

   I'm a bit behind on updating. I finished my Ravagore in December but I usually take pictures outside and the weather wasn't co-operating. Then I had camera problems. And then for some reason the blog wouldn't upload pictures from my computer. But all fixed now.

   The Ravagore was new to the Legion book and quickly became a staple. It has good range, a hard hitting ranged weapon that can do crowd control with its 3" AOE and template that stays in play, has a solid animus, and with the right buffs is solid in melee as well. It's just a total package beast. I don't take one in every list, but it does show up in a lot. A staple with warlocks like Epic Lylyth or Vayl it works decently with all the others as well.

Nephilim Bolt Thrower 2

   The Nephilim Bolt Thrower isn't something I would normally take more than one of, but I was playing epic Lylyth for a while and it's worth it with her. Although perhaps I should say was worth it as the Naga will be taking it's place in the forseable future.

   I wanted to convert it a bit so the two didn't look that identicle on the table. Fortunately the Bolt Thrower has a handy animus called Glide, that gives it flight for a turn. I had some medium Angelius wings left over from another project so I modled those on to show it with the animus it play. I think it turned out fairly well.

Epic Lylyth

Epic Lylyth is a bit different from most of Legion. For one she's the only really top tier 5 Fury warlock. For two she's the only one that runs Legion as a nearly pure gunline. You still need a heavy that can do the job in melee, like a Carnivean, but the rest of her army is going to be about the shooting. Fortunately she does it well.

Epic Lylyth brings two big things to the table. First she increases the armies threat range with her feat, and second she makes it hard for the opponent to respond in any way except melee due to all the stealth. She's not an auto-win or anything though, because as soon as your opponent closes the armies damage output drops like it fell off a cliff.