Dawnguard Trident

Built expressly to serve as an armored assault platform for the Dawnguard, the Trident unleashes a blistering barrage of fire. Utilizing advanced gravity-mitigating fields first developed by House Shyeel allies, the arcanist guiding the Trident can impel it forward at great speed, also accelerating accompanying myrmidons or warcasters, before delivering its weight with ramming force. It follows this crushing assault with an onslaught of its primary weaponry — a trio of heavy thresher cannons, each crewed by an expert gunner.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Flight
• Template:Build Up Power
• Template:Coordinated Movement
• Template:Dual Attack
• Template:Pyscho Matrix
  • Template:Force Shield
  • Template:Telekinetic Wave
• Template:Reposition 3
• Template:Shooting Gallery

Weapons

Thresher Cannon (×3)
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		10			d3			Template:-			13
Ram Prow
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				4				16
Template:Shield Template:Smite

Theme Forces

• Template:Defenders of Ios
• Template:Forges of War
• Template:Legions of Dawn
• Template:Si

Thoughts on the Dawnguard Trident

Dawnguard Trident in a nutshell

The Trident is a floating gun platform with some added utility. Not all of the battle engines are capable of boosting attack or damage rolls, but the Trident's Build Up Power solves this issue easily.

With its Psycho Matrix it can reach very high DEF against shooting for a huge based model, and can still teleport friendly units, if has enough tokens to do so. With an adequate ARM20 on the front and 30 damage boxes it can stand up to some heavy brawling and can still respond in kind - though a fully loaded heavy may still like to thrash it.

Normally huge bases can be difficult to maneuver around the battlefield and will often get jammed in place by opposing troops, but between Dual Attack, Shooting Gallery, Coordianted Movement and Flight jamming the Trident is anything but easy.

Typical Activation
There's quite a lot going on with all those special rules, so to break it down this is what it normally does:

1. Move with your Normal Movement
2. Generate 1 power token thanks to Build Up Power
3. Finish movement, and trigger Telekinetic Wave (if you want to)
   • You can only use Telekinetic Wave once per turn.
4. Roll all 3d3 ROF at the start of your Combat Action
5. Make all your ranged attacks, and your melee attack, in any order
   • Dual Attack allows you to shoot before melee even if you charge (if you want to).
   • You don't have to 'complete' a gun before switching to the next one. You could shoot once with the left gun, then with the right gun, then switch back to the left gun (if you want to).
6. Cast Force Barrier at some stage (if you want to).
7. Finish all attacks, and Reposition 3".
   • You can't trigger Force Barrier after Reposition, because Reposition causes your activation to end.

Combos & Synergies

• Adeptis Rahn - The Trident is an excellen target for Polarity Shield as it keeps it save from charges which are the main way to deal with high ARM models such as the Trident. Telekinesis is also a great way to extend its threat ranges and MAT.
• Lord Arcanist Ossyan has three great upkeeps for it. Fortune is great on any model (but can eat huge portions of your clock), Shatter Storm combined with its high fire rate makes it an infantry blender and Quicken gets it up the board real fast. Remember that a model can only be affected by one upkeep, so you have to choose between them wisely, e.g. use Quicken to get to the frontlines faster, then swap to Detonator if the enemy brought many soldiers. If he has an army with a lower body count use Fortune instead. Lastly, his feat puts its damage potential through the roof, as with any ranged model.
• Elara, Death's Shadow - Main synergy here is the feat. Charging 12" through enemy lines without provoking free strikes is great, especially if you can smite something into the enemy caster and for setting up shooting gallery (which also stacks with Marked for Deathfor effective MAT 10).
• Lord Ghyrrshyld, the Forgiven - Let's see: A RAT fixer, anti-stealth, an ARM debuff AND ghostly? Yes, Tridents are great with the top most caster of the Retribution.
• Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn - Blinding Light is another RAT fixer, while Crusaders Call speeds it up. The Feat is also great on the Trident, solving Stealth issues and upping hitting and damage. Also it can be ARM 22 under Inviolable Resolve, though you might want to put that on a unit.
  • With her character jack Hemera's Mark Target Shooting Galery and Blinding Light it can shoot at RAT 12! Add in her feat and you will comfortably hit Def 20 models.
• Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper - Banishing Ward can keep it save from spells, while her feat keeps it save from shooting and charges. Alternatively, Refuge can be great on the Trident, allowing it to ferry into relative safety after shooting. Blur also makes it DEF 17 against shooting and magic.
• Ravyn, Eternal Light also has a slew of great tools for it. Snipe means it can shoot something from 21" away, which will only matter in earlier turns though, given that you want to make use of Shooting Gallery. If you are close enought for Shooting Gallery though, you are also close enough to Countermeasure, which can be great on a huge base. Veil of Mists also gives it effectibe ghostly again, so if can phase through enemy models without provoking free strikes. And lastly, the Feat (Ret has a lot of feats adding die to guns). With Swift Hunter and its high RoF it can potentially move 18" in all directions.
• Thyron, Sword of Truth - Spellpiercer is decent on any ranged model so they can shoot Gremlin Swarms and the like off the table, and blessed is never a bad thing to have either. Since you can't put Storm Rager on it, the synergies end here, unfortunately.
• Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard - It's the only piece which can benefit from his Veteran Leader, which he can also take into multiple themes, like his favourite, the Forges of War. MAT 7 is very good and the Trident is an excellent shooting and scenario piece for his game plan. Deceleraition is also very good on it, of course.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• You cannot run and use its supporting abilities.
• Though it has one of the highest DEF against shooting among the Battle Engines, ranged magic attacks may still easily hit it.
• Like all battle engine, it is not part of your battlegroup, thus cannot be enhanced by those spells.
• Guns with random rate of fire can let you down in the worst possible moment.
• Your damage output is tied to your combat action, while Power token gathering is tied to advance. Watch out for - the fortunately few - things that counters either one or both of them like Shadow Bind, Blind, Blinding Light, Deadweight, Haley2's feat, etc.
• Template:BAHI2

Tricks & Tips

• You don't have to spend all your power tokens. They don't expire, so unspent tokens will be kept for your next activation.
• The timing on Build Up Power vs Telekinetic Wave is a bit easy to misintrepret, but the end result is you generate new Power Tokens before you can spend any on Telekinetic Wave.
• Forfeiting your movement to aim is rarely worth it; Shooting Gallery means that often you don't need the aiming bonus and also, somewhat more importantly, if you aim then you won't generate power tokens.
• Thanks to Dual Attack you can charge in, slam your target, then pepper the now knocked-down target with all of your shots.
  • Note that the slam doesn't get the extra 2" slam distance (mentioned in the huge base rules) because that extra 2" only applies to a Power Attack Slam.

Other

Trivia

• Released in 2018.11
• Nicknames: Dawnmower, Lawnmower, (Dawn)sled
• Nickname for the 'Telekenetic Wave'-ability: Shipstream