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I've been trying to talk myself into buying a unit of trenchers (either commandos or infantry), but at 10 points for a full unit I'm having trouble justifying such a purchase. Then again, I've been looking at long gunners and they just seem a bit uninspiring as well, and I'm a bit unsure on ATGM. With all of this in mind, I'm having a bit of trouble deciding what direction to go in adding some ranged infantry to my army. Does anyone have any advice regarding the matter?

It entirely depends on your list.

Trenchers are good because of their ability to become immune to blast damage. They also have excellent synergy with Grenadiers. You can create a firebase that requires no Focus input.

being hard to hit as well as immune to blast damage is pretty sweet. Just beware of AoEs that have continious effects, you will not be able to ignore Acid or Flaming oil.

This ability is really good for holding a position. Khador warjacks will find it impossable to shift you from range and will be forced to plod over to kill you.


One other thing to consider is the weapon attachment option Trenchers have. The Chaingun and Cannon are pretty decent investments for the Trenchers.

My current list revolves around using tarpits (Sword Knights + Devil Dogs with a Buccaneer) to slow down enemy 'jacks while I harry the flanks and infantry with the Black 13th, various solos, and my own 'jacks. Once things are locked in, I use eHaley supported with a Lancer for the arc node to disrupt locked in enemy 'jacks and open charge lanes before ultimately launching an assassination run once I've got things in place.

Any additional advice based on that?

Doesn't seem like they'll add much to your list. Long Gunners would probabyl work better with what you have.

 grayshadow87 wrote:
I've been trying to talk myself into buying a unit of trenchers (either commandos or infantry), but at 10 points for a full unit I'm having trouble justifying such a purchase. Then again, I've been looking at long gunners and they just seem a bit uninspiring as well, and I'm a bit unsure on ATGM. With all of this in mind, I'm having a bit of trouble deciding what direction to go in adding some ranged infantry to my army. Does anyone have any advice regarding the matter?

squad of six, plus 3 with the rifle grenades. nice and solid. Not for every list, but with the right support, they're pretty neat.

Long Gunners? Slow, squishy. but give them dead eye, or snipe, and watch them shred infantry. 20 shots, or 10CRAs at 18" is pretty damned good. they;re not for every list, but they have their uses.

Gun Mages. Cant crack armour, but they've got answers to lots of other problems. well worth it.

In my limited experience with them, trencher infantry are just plain overpriced. They aren't bad but every time I tried to rely on them my opponent had sufficient reserves to overcome my defenses and shred the unit. I have never tried commandos but the min unit with three scattergunners seems fairly good at playing the up-close skirmish shooting role.

Long gunners are solid with snipe but start to be expensive board control fast without it. if you want to play a pCaine gunline they can work but otherwise they are mediocre.

Gun mages are good, but not at killing things. They are one of the surprisingly few units in cygnar that can run and gun effectively and they have the accuracy and abilities to hunt single-wound infantry. If you find them up against a high armor or high health target they lose their ability to kill anything and start relying on thunderbolt pushes to impact the game. Someone will mention crit. brutal but I find it to be a very bad option since you are relying on dice twice. I guess what I'm saying is that gun mages are good if you can afford for them to play control rather than damage against heavies.

ATGMs w/ UA if you want a ranged unit. About the only other unit in the same class would be Merc Nyss hunters.

They are great. And are plenty of things that they just absolutely murder especially stealth and incorporeal.

With Deadeye (from eHaley) crit brutal goes off about half the time on average and they murder high DEF troops.

walk + snipe gives them a huge threat range.

they do have a CRA order to use against high armor as well that gives them up to a str 17 shot. It is only a single shot, but then if you want armor busting you are not going to get alot of shots, period.

They are mobile. This increases their threat range and playability in scenarios. eHaley also protects them from return fire and offers up other major threats.

If you really want armor cracking at range with Cygnar you really need to skip the infantry and move to jacks. Defender, Hunter, Stormwall all work great. The first two can be marshalled by the gun mages to take advantage of their rune shots. And really, the jack marshall is a great part of what makes them so good.

Rangers, commandos and other units all have their place and can be helpful, but the ATGM w/ UA are just plain good against everything.

 Mordekiem wrote:
ATGM w/ UA are just plain good against everything.

I think that might be overselling the unit. Gun mages get hyped up a lot, and as good as they are, they are not the superunit they often get billed as. They are worth owning and using without a doubt, but there are times that other units play better and lists where they don't fit.

I think trenchers do great as a way of defending your lines. Peppering the enemy, using assault orders to tie up enemies or blocking charges and shooting from the enemy by creating smoke bomb walls allow them to be rather versatile.

Thanks for the advice so far everyone.

I believe I may hold off a bit on long gunners (it seems to be a bit much to maintain their usefulness, and I don't much care for them from an aesthetic perspective). The more I've been thinking on it, the more I'm considering the ATGM+UA with a Hunter marshaled to them. I figure this should give them the widest range of versatility and overall effectiveness, as it allows me to utilize the various options available to the unit while also giving a bit of armor cracking ability.