Warmachine: Thememachine Episode 1 – Army of Light

6 Minute Read

Dec 7 2014

Welcome to the first installment of Thememachine, which covers a variety of cool Theme Forces found in Warmachine/Hordes. This time, we’ll investigate the zealous Morrowan knights of Constance Blaize’s Army of Light!

What’s up guys, it’s Trevy the Great here on loan from Way of Swan! This is the beginning of a little series I’m going to call “Thememachine,” because I love jamming different words together in strange and unnatural ways. In this series, I’ll talk about some of my favorite theme forces to play or see on the table. Caveat! I’m a gross, slimy Cygnar player, so I’ll talk mostly about Cygnar theme forces that I’ve played.

I play a lot of tournaments and I like to think that I’m a relatively competitive player, often to the derision of my far more capable opponents; I don’t generally play too many theme forces in tournament play, but I love them as a sort of “palate cleanser” that gives you a taste of something different without even having to leave your favorite Faction or ingest gross mouthwash. They’re also awesome for fleshing out your favorite Warcaster or putting a cool unit on the table that you rarely drag out.

Theme Forces are exactly like this delicious lemon sorbet.

That’s the case with Army of Light; I love Precursor Knights and bought a unit from a friend a long time ago to use in a weird list I made. I like the idea of noble, religious knights along the conceptual lines of actual historical knightly orders that don’t belong to the pyromaniacal Protectorate, but unfortunately they don’t fit too easily into lists. Army of Light not only lets me put my tiny knights in shining armor on the table, but it lets me get another unit on the table, complete with their awesome unit attachment! Without further ado, let’s get into the awesome benefits of this Theme Force.

Firstly, it’s Constance Blaize’s theme and Cygnar’s resident warrior nun would be remiss if she left home without zounds of devout Morrowans to trigger her Flank ability (giving her +2 to melee attack rolls and an additional die of damage against models they’re engaging) and make use of her Inspirational presence (she makes Morrowans in her CMD effectively fearless), so her theme force includes all Morrowan units and Solos (only Harlan Versh and Precursors… for now). Being all about stalwart knights, she also gets Sword Knights and their best buddy; Archduke Alain Runewood as well a Field Mechaniks and a Journeyman Warcaster to support her Warjacks.

In Morrow’s name!

The first thing to note about this theme force is the utter lack of ranged attacks you’ll be bringing to the table, a refreshing break from Cygnar’s usual mantra of pewpewpewpewpewpew. Usually, you’ll be stuck with Harlan’s Quad Iron and a Hand Cannon or two, leaving your Battlegroup to fill in the rest. So, what do you get for this (admittedly hefty) sacrifice?

Tier 1 gives Harlan Versh Advanced Deployment, which is great for counter-deploying him opposite from models which are likely to get an upkeep and get his Purgation ability (which gives him an additional die to attack and damage rolls against models with an enemy Upkeep spell on them) rolling.

Tier 2 is very important, and a large part of the Theme Force’s appeal; if you take a second unit of Precursors (which is sort of the point, so why not?) you get a second Unit Attachment for free. This is awesome because it gives both units access to their mini-feat Morrow’s Name, which gives them an addition die on damage rolls on that one critical turn!

Tier 3requires Archduke Runewood, who is awesome in the list anyway because he buffs Cygnar’s Faction infantry with his Battle Plans, so he fits right in. The benefit is awesome; +2 SPD to all the knights (Precursor and Sword) on the first turn of the game; remember, that’s SPD not Movement so they can run a whopping 16”! They’re basically on horses at that point! If you end up taking second and your opponent gets too feisty, you can sometimes generate 13” charges with Crusader’s Call. In any case, this benefit will give this list significant board presence and often a solid scenario game.

Tier 4 requires Gallant and gives Blaize’s Warjacks that aren’t sporting guns Advanced Move, which will allow them to keep up with your blazingly fast infantry.

I like guns a lot, so the Army of Light I tend to field has several of them; I ended up only hitting Tier 3 and not going all the way to 4, although there is something to be said for a strong infantry jam supported by a lot of fast Warjacks. Here’s what I play:

Constance Blaize, Knights of the Prophet (*6pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
Precursor Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard (0pts)
Precursor Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard (2pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Archduke Alain Runewood (3pts)
* Sentinel (4pts)
Harlan Versh (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)

The idea is that you have a strong infantry jam that gets up the board very quickly, spearheaded by Sword Knights with Arcane Shield to give them +3 ARM. Constance calls for Divine Intervention the turn before the enemy makes contact, and you use the Feat to collect the souls of destroyed knights to blunt the force of the enemy attack and fuel up the Stormwall on the subsequent turn to get to clobbering (just look out for RFP effects that will take away your delicious souls)! The Sentinel is there to add another gun to the mix as well as keep Constance and the Stormwall safe from those pesky Eiryss bolts and Gorman bombs.

I like the Stormwall in the Theme Force because of the many ranged attacks it brings to the table; it can fire its big cannons to soften up enemy heavies on the way in and use its Metal Storm guns to clear out screening infantry models so your Precursors can dig in deep. The key is to keep it safe with infantry, while still keeping it far enough forward to fill it up and rocket it out to punch things to death after your Feat turn when Constance is bloated with Focus.

Stomwall; making Cygnaran Theme Forces more interesting since 2012!

A similar, but more aggressive game can be played with a couple Heavy Warjacks (usually Gallant and a Centurion to take advantage of the Tier 4 benefit, or a pair of Stormclads to use their ranged attacks); what you lose in ranged attacks is usually made up for by multiple threats and the ability to often fuel multiple Warjacks after the Feat turn. The key is screening those Warjacks with your infantry so they can deliver a strong charge when the time is right. Usually, you’ll want to take the charge on Sword Knights so those souls aren’t coming from valuable Precursors who can often hit high above their weight class with Morrow’s Name.

Even for a Theme Force as restrictive as Constance Blaize’s, there are still many archetypes to choose from. Melee vs. ranged attacks for your Battlegroup is just one of them; if you want to bring ALL THE KNIGHTS and rely on strength of arms alone, you can easily fit 60+ dudemans into this list, which can be a significant problem when combined with +2 SPD from the theme force, Crusader’s Call for +2 Movement on charges and Transference (which allows Constance to boost Warrior’s attack and damage rolls using her Focus) to make as many attacks as possible count, not to mention the Feat!

Before I wrap things up today, I want to give a quick shoutout to Brandon Andrews, who took 2^nd in the highly competitive GenCon Master’s event, using Army of Light as one of his three lists. Brandon was running Gallant and a Centurion in Blaize’s Battlegroup to bring the list all the way up to Tier 4, screened by two full units of Sword Knights and two units of Precursor Knights (both with their attachments). You can take a look at his lists in full here! Congrats to Brandon!

I hope you all enjoyed; I’ll be around here and on Way of the Swan to talk about all sorts of Warmachine and Hordes stuff, especially Cygnar shenanigans like more Theme Forces, so stay tuned! Take it easy, folks!

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Author: Trevy the Great

Trevy is a veteran tabletop wargamer with over 10 years of experience. His specialty is Privateer Press' Warmachine & Hordes gamesystem. He began writing for BoLS in 2014.

Armylists Cygnar Warmachine-Hordes