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Hello !

Warmahorde just arrived in France and my FLGS started stocking it !
Me and my roomate are going all in, i'm starting cygnar and he is going with everblight.

I want to play lots units, not really into the warjacks yet. Is this possible ?

Well, you will have to play with at least 1 warjack because the Warjack points your caster comes with can only be spent on Jacks.

Fortunately, Warmachine factions tend to only run 1-3 jacks even in large games. Cygnar does have some really nice jacks though.

Hordes is a little different, they not only have the same deal with having Warbeast points, but they also NEED beasts to generate Fury so they can cast spells.


If you really want to run a bunch of things that aren't warjacks, Khador would have been a better choice. They almost never run more than the mandatory 1 warjack.

With Cygnar, you can easily just run 2 Jacks and be done with it though.

You will need something to crack armor(enemy jacks and beasts) and Cygnar's only real options for that are Jacks. They do have infantry with good offensive output but they are fragile(Stormknight infantry)

If you only want a couple Jacks, I'd go with a Defender and an Ironclad. That will get you plenty of armor cracking at both range and melee without eating up your points.

 mayfist wrote:
Hello !

Warmahorde just arrived in France and my FLGS started stocking it !
Me and my roomate are going all in, i'm starting cygnar and he is going with everblight.

I want to play lots units, not really into the warjacks yet. Is this possible ?

It is indeed quite possible, and with plenty of cygnar casters, the preferred way to play.

the only points you have to spend on a warjack are each casters "warjack points," which means everybody plays with at least one Jack.

Cygnar can play with a lot of jacks due to having good jack marshalls (non-caster models that can control/support a jack). We also have plenty of good infantry, although we're lacking in either very fast hard hitting infantry or super hard medium base infantry.

You picked a good faction if you like infantry. Cygnar has access to some great infantry, and access to may of the mercs infantry.

I have a friend in my play group that only plays with one jack, and he does quite well....

eCain runs 1-2 jacks in his lists . a lot of other lists run a stormwall as their only jack , although it is one hell of a big jack. Cygnar has a lot of access to good infantry , specialy of the merc sort . It does not mean though that all cygnar infantry is bad .

How do mercs work ?

From what I gathered they are not a faction ? ( No starter box and little info in the presentation given by the guys introducing it in the country )

Also, I wanted to know if these units are worth taking, i love the models.
- Long Gunner Infantry
- Arcane tempest gun mages (love these)
- Rangers
- Precursor Knights

They are a faction.

Actually a couple mini-factions.

Each individual unit/model has the Mercenary rule on their card which says what factions they work for. Those factions can include them in their lists.

In addition, you can play Mercenaries by themselves. You simply pick one of the 4 Mercenary Contracts, or one of the caster's theme forces. You then have access to a specific range of Merc models for your list. Each contract has some benefits that apply to your force.

4 Star Syndicate: This is the generic merc contract and has the widest choice of models.

Highborn Covenant: This is the Llaelse Resistance to the Khadoran invasion. They have access to similar things as the 4 Star but also a few Cygnarian units.

Talion Charter: Pirates! all day and all night.

Searforge commission: Dwarves! Limited to picking Rhulic models only but has some neat tricks.



Of the 4 units you mention, the ATGMs are the best. As in amazballz good.

Rangers are an ok unit. You take them for the buff they give to your shooting. they're basically a disposable mobile accuracy buff.

Long Gunners are a decent medium-long ranged shooting unit, although Gun Mages are better.

Precursor Knights are actually both a Cygnar and a Mercenary unit at the same time. They're a decent melee unit, good for taking out anything that is using a buff spell to stay alive. But they aren't going to be a problem for other elite troops like Errants to take down. They also have Spell Ward, which can be a help and a hindrance. Your enemy can't hit them with spells, but neither can you. And cygnar has some nice buff spells(read: Arcane Shield)

 mayfist wrote:
How do mercs work ?

From what I gathered they are not a faction ? ( No starter box and little info in the presentation given by the guys introducing it in the country )

Also, I wanted to know if these units are worth taking, i love the models.
- Long Gunner Infantry
- Arcane tempest gun mages (love these)
- Rangers
- Precursor Knights

Most Cygnar casters only want 1-2 jacks. That is pretty much all the Warmachine factions, though. Hordes factions tend to want 3+ warbeasts and fewer troops.

As for the units none of those are bad. But it depends a lot on the caster you choose. The warcaster is the number one thing that determines what else fits in your list.

Gun mages work well with almost any caster. But you will want to get the Unit attachment (officer).

Long gunners tend to work well with casters who have access to Snipe. There poor mobility tends to be a drawback as this game is not about static gunlines. In a lot of cases you are better off with gunmages, but long gunners have their use as well.

Rangers are great if you have shooting that you need to make more accurate. That is their biggest benefit. So as a support unit you want to make sure you have things for them to support.

I like Precursors, especially with the UA (unit attachment). Their inability to be targeted by spells is a blessing and a curse. A blessing if the enemy has lots of debuff type spells, but a curse if your caster has a lot of buff spells. So they work well with casters that don't rely on targeted unit buffs like arcane shield. So again, you need to look at your caster and the rest of your list to determine if they are better than say SIlverline or Boomhowlers.

So, in case I didn't hammer it home enough, one of the first things you want to do is pick your primary caster. Then get units and warjacks that works with it and each other. A great place to start is battle college. Also be sure to check out the PP boards as the Cygnar faction forums have a lot of great guides and tactica for newer peeps.

Thanks for all the info !

Of the 4 units you mention, the ATGMs are the best. As in amazballz good.

This makes me very, very happy. I just fell in love with the models.

Also, what does Captain Jeremiah Kraye do ? The model is just.. amazing. I want to field Rough Riders in 40k and that is pretty much how i imagined them.

Kraye is pretty much the premier Warjack caster in Cygnar, and turns any jack under his control into a cavalry model. Also hands out a ranged accuracy steroid, can double the speed of a single jack in his battlegroup, and his feat makes melee jacks absolutely brutal (free charges, facing change, movement bonus, and auto-boosted attack rolls).

Damn, that's a shame.

What would be the best warcaster fro me if i field a infantry heavy force ?

I'm not really a Cygnar expert (to be honest I'm not really an expert on anything this game...except maybe Convergence of Cyriss and they don't count). From what I can tell though Caine might be the guy you're looking for. He's basically a super-gun mage who loves to help out all his ranged infantry buddies.

Stryker might be your guy too...don't really know much about him even though he seems to be the "generic Cygnar caster".

 mayfist wrote:
Damn, that's a shame.

What would be the best warcaster fro me if i field a infantry heavy force ?

Ecain . He is a greedy caster and wants all the focus to himself , which makes jacks not very effective with him . People do as an utility use
a Rowdy[character ironclad] with him , because it can be run without ecain giving him any focus . The other options to run with him is a hunter attached to gunmages . Both options are good , but far from being must haves . You may as well run him with 0 jacks and tons of infantry. A word of warrning here , the infantry he runs is more offten then not of the merc kind .

Well you can't really use 0 jacks in Steamroller, unless 2014 changed it, because you generally have to be within X points (I think it is 2) of the point limit, and since eCaine has more than 2 WJ points you'd need to put something on him.

And yes I'm sure you play some odd version of organised warmachine Mak, with quite different rules to regular Steamroller, but your store/area is hardly the norm when it comes to organised play.

Well, if you wan't to buff infantry, you have a lot to work with. Cygnar 'Casters tend to have good buffs for Infantry and Warjacks alike, but no true Infantry-lover IMO. Here is a couple to use, though.

eHaley is our main spellslinger - she got a lot of focus and can throw around spells with her amazing Control Range and great synergy with her personal 'Jack, Thorn (Thorn has an Arc Node, which lets the 'Caster controlling it cast spells through it - Thorn is best Arc Node in the game, if you ask me). She can throw around enemy 'Jacks and boost both melee and ranged units. She is quite squishy, though, and won't stand to any real attacker if engaged.

Siege is the thoughest bastard this side of Maxwell Finn. He's very tough, and likes to boost his own shooting, aswell as his troops and 'Jacks. He also have a personal 'Jack called Triumph, who is well served sitting in the back lines, destroying stuff with its Heavy Barrel. His spells protect his guys from explosions and shooting and forms the area around him to his bidding. His Rocket Launcher is also the most boss thing ever.

Stryker2 is good alongside the Stormblades, and he boosts them quite well too. He likes to be around the frontlines, destroying and slinging spells erryday. His job, however, is twofold - Suddenly, he turns into a homing missile capable of ending many enemy Warcasters very quickly! He can be pretty tough to play as, though.

Striker 3 leaked rules make him a heavy cavalry caster if you like stormblades it might be worth waiting for him.

His feat and spells also help his jacks a fair bit too.

I've got the Cygnar Starter set, with Stryker, a charger, a Lancer and an ironclad.

I am going to get Gun mages, because they are just amazing models to own !

What sort of list can I start making with this ? What else should I get ?

Well I would defiantly pick up a squire and the Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer for the gun mages. The officer makes the unit much better as well by allowing them to deal with stealth and is one of the best jack marshals in the game for ranged jacks to due to rune shot. You don't have to marshal anything to him though, he works fine without jacks.

As far as an caster that lets you run infantry heavy? You have to be more specific than that honestly. Cygnar has casters that play well with melee infantry, ranged infantry or both. Prime striker, the guy that comes with the starter, plays well with both. Arcane shield and his feat help out melee infantry a lot. His feat is not as useful on ranged infantry due to them having lower ARM, it will protect your gun mages from most blast damage though. Snipe is amazing on any cygnar ranged unit really, though the snipe spell and snipe attack type don't stack BTW. Earthquake and blur are useful on both, earthquake being basically an accuracy buff and blur protecting them from ranged/magic.

Both the older and the new Calvary striker as well as Constance play much better with melee troops while Sloan, prime Caine and prime Haley all play really good with ranged troops. Even if you go more ranged heavy don't pass on the melee part of cygnar. Warmachine/hordes is more melee focused game and cygnar does the whole combined arms theme VERY well.

If you want to do ranged infantry, you mentioned long gunners and gun mages, I would look at first just starting with Striker but maybe taking a look prime caine,or maybe Kara sloan. I like Kara, one of my favorite warcasters, but the internet doesn't like her as much.

Presursor Knights I have never used personally, though from what I have seen the unit attachment is very useful on them. The knights do play better with warcasters that aren't as focused on upkeeps or spells that target like epic haley or epic striker.

As far as an caster that lets you run infantry heavy? You have to be more specific than that honestly.

Well I'm still very new to all this, sorry if I seem a little vague !

I'd like to play a ranged list, but I'll stick with what I've got so far.

Next week I shall play a couple of games with the starter, and order those gun mages with that officer.


Thanks for all the info!

Check out Siege.

He works well with alot of the units you are talking about, is very toolboxy, and has a powerful gun of his own.

His biggest drawback is that he has very little buffs for his troops so you need troops who are self sufficient like ATGM and precursors.

He might fit what you are looking for.