Trencher Long Gunners

To the trenchers, the staccato crack of rifle fire represents the familiar tempo of war. Trained in the use of repeating long rifles, Trencher Long Gunners provide their comrades in the corps with dedicated long-range fire support. These troops single out their targets and rain bullets on them from afar, cutting down ranks of enemy infantry with each fusillade.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Entire Unit
  • Template:CRA
  • Template:Tough
  • Template:Dual Shot

• Officer only
  • He has +1 MAT, RAT, & CMD. He has 5 hitpoints.
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Go to Ground
  • Template:Granted (Template:Precision Fire)
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Marksman-alt)

Weapons

• Repeating Long Gun - 14" range, POW 10 gun
• Trench Knife - 0.5" reach, P+S 9 melee weapon

Theme Forces

• Cygnar
  • Template:Gravediggers - This units gains Rise.

• 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 and gain Pathfinder.
  • Mercenary players can use this unit in the Template:Kingmakers theme. They gain Feign Death.

Thoughts on Trencher Long Gunners

Trencher Long Gunners in a nutshell

Trencher Long Gunners are a ranged support unit capable of unleashing enormous volumes of firepower on the enemy. These troops are still relatively expensive for a backline unit at 13 points or 19 with the CA, which should definitely be taken.

They are most efficient when aiming to cut down hordes of infantry, with two man CRAs they will reliably hit defense 15 and break armor 18 on average dice. This means they can pretty much slaughter most shield wall infantry. Against more heavily armored units, they are going to suffer, but they will still manage to put in very meaningful damage into the targets. With large CRAs and Marksman they can snipe out systems and branches on warjacks and beasts. However, as effective as this may be, enemies might bait you into using large CRAs to do this because in terms of pure efficiency they probably should not be using too many of their shots on well armored target if it can be helped.

Hopefully you should be able to shoot any melee units threatening these models before they become a problem by taking advantage of your excellent range. Against other ranged units, choose a critical turn and use the Go-To-Ground minifeat to ensure that next turn your Trencher Long Gunners are relatively unscathed by enemy fire.

In context of themes, they will work well with other Trenchers units allowing Commandos and the more versatile infantry to slow the enemy down while they keep pouring on the fire. Anson Hitch allows them to shoot through their own models expanding their LOS. Express Teams can ensure any damage they deal to larger enemies remains. The Patrol Dog ensures the enemy cannot trivially avoid their damage through use of stealth. Maxwell Finn’s veteran leader allows for them to hit even more accurately, although that might borderline on serious overkill.

The important take away is that Trencher Long Gunners have arguably more fire power than any other unit in Cygnar. They are expensive enough that you will have to deal some serious damage.

Combos & Synergies

• Between Precision Fire and Combined Ranged Attack, you can start targeting Warbeasts' spirit or Warjacks' Cortex columns. Completely cripple them by applying Grievous Wounds through a Trencher Express Team or Caine2.
• Finding it hard to get off that 2nd shot? Use them with a Snipe warcaster or Siege2's feat.
• Hitch can, and probably should, hand them Target Priority to ward off any low rolls when using Combined Ranged Attack.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Very expensive unit with no innate Dig-in ability. Keep the officer alive at all cost if you'll need Go to ground.
• Vulnerable to melee attacks and/or jamming.
• Shield guards make big CRAs pointless.
• Hazard AoEs and covering fire templates will force you to move, losing out on dual shots.
• Can encourage you to play defensively due to their long range and Dual Shot, which means you can leave your scenario game weakened.

Tricks & Tips

Tactician only works for Trenchers, which can lead to other models blocking their line of sight instead. If you're taking Grenadiers, who are typically further forward due to their shorter range, make sure they are dug in. The larger based model would normally block the Long Gunners' line of sight to small or medium based models - If the Grenadier is dug in, it does not block line of sight.

If your opponent's ranged game is weak and you don’t need to use Go to Ground defensively, or you need to deal enough damage and are desperate enough to need to do it, you can use the minifeat as a means of getting around your own line of sight problems because dug in models do not block it.

Other

Trivia

Released in the Gravediggers expansion (2017.06)