Warmachine Weekend

Keith Christianson won Warmachine Weekend with Cygnar. It's pretty rare to see Cygnar do so well so I wanted to have a look at his lists. I had been predicting that Cygnar would be a lot more competitive now that they have the Stormwall but until now that had not materialised.


Cygnar
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
47 models

[00] Captain Allister Caine (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Squire
[09]  >> Ol' Rowdy
[03] Journeyman Warcaster
[05] Rangers
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
[02] Ragman
[01] Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
[09] Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (9 grunts)
[05] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (9)
[08] Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 grunts)
[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt


[01] (R) Stormsmith Stormcaller
[01] (R) Stormsmith Stormcaller
[06] (R) Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> (R) Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer



I love this list, I'm going to have to try it at some point. It's designed to crack high ARM and in particular shoot down a colossal without using Caine's feat. There are 3 armour debuffs here the idea being that even if you do your best to protect these key models you can always expect your opponent to be able to kill one, with 3 debuffs you still can apply two ARM debuffs as well as having Eiryss shoot off any buffs your opponent has put on the model. It also works equally well on Trolls and Skorne who can put down a lot of high ARM beasts and Menoth who can put down a jack wall. It has a massive wave of tough infantry, you can put arcane shield on Boomhowlers, heightened reflexes on the forge guard (with tough from Carvolo) and Blur on the rangers and pretty much everything becomes a massive pain to kill. While your opponent is dealing with that you have time to move Caine in position to assassinate or you can use his feat to destroy key pieces and attrition your opponent out of the game with your infantry horde. It's got a great mix of ranged and melee, it's fantastic at dealing with the menoth gun lines that have become very popular (and which it faced in the final).


Cygnar
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
25 models

[00] Major Victoria Haley (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Squire
[19]  >> Stormwall
[02] Captain Arlan Strangewayes
[03] Journeyman Warcaster
[01] Stormsmith Stormcaller
[01] Stormsmith Stormcaller
[06] Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
[02]  >> Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
[06]  >> Hunter
[04]  >> Sentinel
[04] Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team
[05] Rangers


[02] (R) Anastasia Di Bray
[08] (R) Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 grunts)

This is a pretty standard epic Haley list, only with the tarpit infantry unit she usually brings (Steelheads or Stormguard) replaced by more shooting. The Stormwall bonded to epic Haley is ludicrously good. +2 SPD on a colossal is huge as is the ability to give it 4 focus. This list is designed to shoot the crap out of everything and use Haleys feat to get an extra turn of shooting the crap out of everything. You have everything you need to make the colossal sing, stormcallers, Journeyman Warcaster and a Sentinel which has shield guard to dive in front of the colossal and save it from any shooting that's going to hold it up. The Sentinel marshalled to the gun mages is really great too as you get the rune shot ability on every shot (it has a d6 shots). Not enough to justify it's points cost by itself but now that the shield guard rule has been fixed it's become a good useful jack again. Haley's arc-node has also been replaced with more shooting but she does also have a Sentinel to shield guard her for some protection. 

I have not taken Cygnar to a lot of tournaments (just 1 normal two list tournament if you don't count highlander events) but when I did I took Haley2 and Caine2. I think they are a great match, Haley is the scenario caster and Caine the assassination caster. Haley is a far back support caster and Caine is an aggressive super-solo who wants to be shooting at his opponents every turn. With this configuration Haley shreds infantry while Caine cracks ARM. It gives you fantastic balance between your two lists. Also the tools you need to kill an infantry horde are very different to the tools you need to take down an arcane shielded colossal so it makes life difficult for you opponent. If both your lists are infantry hordes then your opponent can safely pick whichever list of his is best at taking down infantry. This way you make your opponent make a more difficult choice.