Crucible Guard Infantry

The backbone of the Crucible Guard armed forces, these units serve as security and rescue workers for the Order of the Golden Crucible when not needed on the battlefield. Equipped with alchemically treated protections and the Crucible Arms Model 609, a brilliant invention capable of firing multiple types of ammunition, these brave soldiers are able to adapt to any situation.

Given their role as rescue workers in hazardous situations, Infantry units are often assigned an experienced officer to augment their coordination and an alchemical lantern, used to easily locate the unit in the midst of battle and to disrupt enemy enchantments or to ward civilians away from danger when off the battlefield.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Everyone
  • Template:CRA
  • Template:Breather
  • Template:Corrosion Immunity
  • Template:Fire Immunity

• Officer only
  • The Officer has +1 MAT, RAT, and 5 hitboxes.
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Granted (Template:Reposition 3-alt)
  • Template:Guns Blazing

• Standard
  • Template:Standard Bearer
  • Template:Take Up
  • Template:Mage Static

Weapons

Leader, Grunts, & Officer	Crucible Arms Model 609 File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  12 1 Template:- 11 Template:Attack Type Template:Blood of Urcaen Template:Pyrocatalyst Template:Vitriolic Trajectile Sword File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 9
Standard Bearer	Sword File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 9

Theme Forces

• Crucible Guard
  • Template:Magnum Opus
  • Template:Si. CGI are one of the few CG models not allowed in this theme.

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

Thoughts on Crucible Guard Infantry

CGI in a Nutshell

The Crucible Guard Infantry are a fairly generic rifle-wielding infantry unit (akin to Trencher Infantry or Hollowmen), with their main draw being that they can choose between damage types. This ability (which provides a choice of Magical with crit upkeep removal, Fire with crit continuous, or Corrosian with crit continuous) makes Crucible Guard Infantry great at dealing with a wide variety of targets. With CRA and an extra shot; once per game from the CA makes Guard Infantry a staple of their gunline and often one of your most productive sources of ranged damage. Worth additional note is RNG 12" on their guns, which is 2" above comparable troops from other factions.

They do all this and are often cheaper than their opposite number in other faction, so it’s very difficult to go wrong with this unit despite all of the pitfalls that come from single wound infantry.

Thoughts on adding the CA

You will almost never see Crucible Guard Infantry without their UA, as pretty much every abiloty on both the Officer and Standard Bearer is highly relevant. In order of increasing importance, these abilities are:

• Mage Static: Usually relevant especially for a unit which tends to attract blasts.
• Mini Feat: The minifeat allows for some very interesting plays and 1 amazing turn of high output. This plus the Repo often means that Guard Infantry can reliably maintain 10" between them and the enemy well into the latter stages of the game.
• Reposition 3": Almost always relevant every turn the Infantry are on the table, it is Repo which turns the unit up to 11. With the naturally longer range of their rifles, being able to gain an additional 3" of space every turn is unbelievably useful. Another common use for the Repo is to open up lanes for models in front to fall back (such as a unit of Alchemists or Gorman after lobbing a grenade) while allowing space for models behind (such as a Vanguard protecting a Dragon's Breath with Shield Guard) to advance.

Combos & Synergies

• Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart & Mr. Clogg is probably the best Warcaster for CG Infantry. Veteran leader amps their RAT to respectable 6, Deceleration protects them against blasts, Snipe pushes their range to 16", his Battle Plans can give them either Tactician or boosted To-Hit rolls and they can benefit from all these at the same time. Add his Feat and you got yourself a very scary unit.
• Retaliator is their best friend, as Oil give CG Infantry boosted damage rolls at range.
• Bennet - Theyse guys ar eone of the many, many good targets for her Raid spell. Or use Occulatation to keep them safe from retaliation.
• Captain Eira Mackay has Flare for stealthy solos removal, Concealment while near her and Run & Gun on feat turn to amp up their mobility.
• Any model with Rust or Ice Cage can boost their accuracy and damage. The Suppressor just so happens to bring both!
• Dragon Breath's Rocket lays an AoE of no Tough AND -2 ARM. Infantry can then mop the floor with any survivors/multiwound infantry.

Drawbacks and Downsides

• Less than average DEF, average ARM but no way to improve their own defensive stats, and 12" RNG won't save you from 14" rifles on other infantry.
• Ammo types are merely an added extra most of the time as you will not be needing them every game.
• The Rocketmen have the same range when you add SPD+RNG and better defensive stats.
• If you want to utilise CG Infantry to it's full potential, you need to bring Retaliator, making the full package very pricy, and when the jack is destroyed the Infantry lose a lot of their strength.
• Fire immune models with high armor mostly shut down the infantry.

Tricks and Tips

• Do not forget to Reposition away from the enemy to be safe from most melee/low range guns retaliation!

Other

Trivia

Released with the Faction launch (2018.06)