Trencher Express Team

The thundering rifle of a Trencher Express team means death to even well-protected foes of Cygnar. Each team consists of a human spotter working alongside a burly trollkin soldier wielding the largest hunting rifle ever manufactured, the Raevhan Express. Originally designed to bring down the towering Raevhan buffalo, these powerful weapons punch through heavy armor with ease.

Karli served proudly as a Cygnaran trencher for most of her youth, eventually earning the rank of captain through sheer grit and skill. She was present at some of the greatest battles in recent history, including the world-shaking battle of Henge Hold that led to the apocalypse. Karli is one of only a handful of survivors from that ill-fortuned event, and she bears the scars to prove it. With no trencher corps left and no Cygnar to return to, Karli began to wander the wasteland looking for other survivors. While her gruff, no-nonsense attitude has scared away more than a few would-be rescuees, many others have stayed by her side for protection. Karli doesn’t know where she’s taking everyone or even what to do once they get “there”; all she knows is she going to do everything she can to keep what’s left of the world safe.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Entire Unit
  • Template:Advance Deployment
  • Template:Pathfinder
  • Template:Tough
  • Template:Dig In

• Gunner only
  • Template:Trollkin - The Gunner is a Trollkin model. This does not make the unit a Trollkin unit, however.

• Spotter only
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Cautious Advance

• Karli only
  • Template:Granted (Template:Hunter-alt)
  • Template:Guns Blazing
  • Template:Riot Quest

Weapons

Spotter	Carbine File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  10 1 Template:- 10 Trench Knife File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 9
Gunner	Raevhan Express Gun File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  14 1 Template:- 14 Template:Grievous Wounds Template:Range Finder Template:Thunderbolt Trench Knife File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 10
Karli	Grenade Revolver File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  12 1 3 14 Template:Arcing Fire Trench Knife File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 12

Theme Forces

• Cygnar
  • Template:Gravediggers. This unit gains Rise in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this unit in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Sloan is leading the army.
  • Mercenary players can use this unit in the Template:Llaelese Resistance theme. They become Llaelese models in this theme.

Thoughts on Trencher Express Team

File:Captain Karli.jpg

Captain Karli

Trencher Express Team in a nutshell

The Trencher Express Team is a cousin of the various light artillery units and generally does the job of the Trencher Cannon Crew better than the cannon. It's effectively three points for the gunner and two for the spotter - neither of which are bad.

The Trencher Express Team can do a strangely effective job of mitigating heavy targets.

• A boosted RAT 5 is going to reliably hit heavy targets.
• POW 14 isn't the strongest attack in the game, but it will make dents in most standard heavy warjacks.
• The d3” of push from Thunderbolt is very significant if it can buy your Cygnar army another round of shooting.
• It can also be difficult to overstate how effective the Grievous Wounds can be. Given that Trenchers frequently rely on their rifles and carbines to kill targets, an army may find itself trying to take apart a heavier target over time rather than all at once. If your opponent has any access to healing, an Express Team can be absolutely key.

Thoughts on adding the WA

As part of the Riot Quest winter wasteland set she is a female Ogrun grenade launcher who grants the unit Hunter and offers an extra shot to each model in the unit as a mini feat. She doesn’t really ‘gel’ with the other models in the unit as she can’t spot for the Troll and the Hunter buff is usually match and deployment specific, but Guns Blazing is fantastic and let’s the unit double their output for a turn. Also Karli does not need to be within 1" of the Gunner, so she is a bit more flexible in where she positions herself. 5" of CMD isn't much, but its something.

Normally you will start with Karli’s activation so that you don’t knock things out of her range with Thunderbolt. Her gun is very similar to the Trench Buster but doesn’t have the Fire damage type, which actually makes it better, as it bypasses immunities.

Her main down side is that she can only be added to one unit of express teams, as you will always run two units. However, the fact alone that for 3 points you can have the output of three express teams for a turn makes her worth her inclusion, anything else is extra.

Combos & Synergies

• Grenadier plus two models = three shots to the Grenadier. This is a cheap way of getting two models that can actually keep up with the three-shotter and dig themselves in while doing work.
• The boosted attack roll from the spotter aids in getting that critical knockdown.
  • This can really help out assassination-oriented casters such as Caine2 or Sloan
• The Trencher Master Gunner can give you another shot.
• While dug in, models do not block line of sight. You can use this to fire from forward positions without blocking fire lines from other models in your army.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• RAT 5 on the gunner, POW 10 on the spotter. The Carbine is pretty much only for show. The spotter's main job is being within 1" with the gunner, don't over expose them both just to get a pow 10 shot into something.
• If the Spotter dies, it hurts your mobility and defense. If the Gunner dies, there's no Take up, and the unit is pretty much crippled.
• They are among the rare models in the faction with Grievous Wounds - against several match-ups this makes them a priority target.
• The UA makes them quite a time consuming unit, also with 3 different guns with 3 different ranges and preferred targets it’s difficult to get the most from her mini feat. If all else fails just use the mini feat for an extra Gunner shot. That's what you brought the unit for to begin with.

Tricks & Tips

• Move, dig in, fire is awesome.
• Target specific models in shield wall to break the B2B formations.
• They can be worth playing out towards your flanks. Thanks to Advance Deployment, they're pretty far forward. With Cautious Advance, you can often get the team into a position to shoot behind the central piece of terrain required in Steamroller scenarios. Coupled with Thunderbolt, you can sometimes push out high value models from behind it into line of sight of the rest of your guns (Ideally, Trencher Long Gunners).
• As a back line unit, they are ideal for scoring circular Steamroller zones while you infantry or commandos go rushing off to kill things. Their small footprint also means they can be kept relatively safe with terrain.

Other

Trivia

• Unit released in the Gravediggers expansion (2017.06)
• WA released 2020.12
• Despite being a captain, Karli isn’t the leader of the unit. Her promotion was post-apocalypse.