Aurora, the Numen of Aerogenesis

Accompanied by her personal guard of Clockwork Angels, Aurora flies into battle at the vanguard of the Convergence army, striking its enemies with swift precision alongside her mechanikal allies. Aurora is blazing a new way forward for the Convergence, proving herself a peerless warrior and visionary inventor. A beacon of inspiration to all within the Convergence of Cyriss, Aurora sweeps aside any who would impede the Great Work, continually seeking to prove she is ready to transcend the flesh and be set into an immortal clockwork vessel.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat : Eleventh Hour

Friendly Faction models currently in Aurora's Template:CTRL range gain Reposition [5"] and Parry. Eleventh Hour lasts for one turn.

Template:Reposition 5-alt

Abilities

• Template:Flight
• Template:Apparition
• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]]

• Template:Flank

Weapons

Polynomial Beam
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		12			1			Template:-			12
Template:Magical Damage
Polynomial Staff
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				7				12
Template:Magical Damage Template:Mechanikal Seizure

Spells

{{Category: Template:AdmonitionTemplate:AerogenesisTemplate:Arcane MightTemplate:Bladed GaleTemplate:Flashing Blade }}[[Category: Template:AdmonitionTemplate:AerogenesisTemplate:Arcane MightTemplate:Bladed GaleTemplate:Flashing Blade ]]

Theme Forces

• Convergence
  • Template:Clockwork Legions
  • Template:Destruction Initiative
  • Template:Strange Bedfellows

• Other Factions
  • Mercenary players can use her in the Template:Strange Bedfellows theme.

Thoughts on Aurora1

Aurora1 in a nutshell

Aurora runs what is likely the fastest army in the game. Her Aerogenesis spell combined with the myriad speed boosts offered in Strange Bedfellows, extends her army's threat ranges to impressive lengths. She also enhances melee accuracy (and sometimes melee damage) with her Arcane Might spell.

What she does not do is provide any protection for her force, so she relies on a quick and devastating alpha strike to ensure victory. Unless the foe has an impressive defensive feat or excellent ranged prowess, she will have the advantage.

She also does nothing for ranged infantry beyond Aerogenesis, as Arcane Might can only boost melee rolls.

Feat thoughts

The feat is simple, and powerful. First gaining Parry in combination with Flight is fantastic, your models can now charge wherever they damn well please. Your extra fast units, such as Angels and Soulhunters, can drive deep into the enemy backline to kill support or start an assassination run. Your main units can ignore the frontline of screening enemy, declare charges vs juicy targets in the second rank of enemy, and get there without eating free strikes.

Secondly Repo 5 is a lot longer move than it appears on paper. You can strike the enemy frontline, kill it, and fade back and be somewhat safe from the enemy's second line. Or you can push forwards and gum up the second line to keep them away from scenario. Or better yet, so both; gum up the enemy with cannon fodder, and fade back with your valuable models.

It is a feat that can be held until the third or fourth turn. When used in Strange Bedfellows with a combination of Asphyxious4, Void Archons (or Death Archons), Angels of all types, and Soulhunters, all under Aerogenesis, it is something to be feared.

Lastly, note that while her signature spell Aerogenesis only works on warrior models, her feat works on everything. So don't forget to apply it to your warjacks and battle engines.

Spell thoughts

Most of the time Aurora is going to cast Aerogenesis, upkeep Arcane Might on herself, and camp the rest of her focus ready to trigger Arcane Might. This simply doesn't leave her focus to do much else.

• Admonition
  • A great spell to put on Aurora if a) you need to put Aurora in a forward position that could leave her vulnerable to charges and b) you're willing to lose Arcane Might this turn (in which case, why are you playing her forward?)
  • You could put it on a warjack but it is tough to find the spare focus to afford the upkeep. And she doesn't love her warjacks that much that she desperately wants to keep them alive.

• Aerogenesis - Her signature spell. When combined with Apparitionand Swift Vengeance in the Strange Bedfellows theme, it extends threat ranges to unparalleled levels.

• Arcane Might
  • Devastating when combined with high-value models like Void Archons (note they are friendly Faction only in Strange Bedfellows) and Asphyxious4.
  • Mostly wasted on the rank-and-file infantry of Convergence, with some exceptions
  • Negation Angels can boost their melee attacks for better chances to hit and cause Paralysis. Great for assassination attempts.
  • J.A.I.M.s loves the ability to boost her second attack.
  • Death Archons can get 4 dice to hit drop lowest, practically guaranteeing the chain attack.

• Bladed Gale - fairly expensive, but accurate due to her high FOCUS. With Void Archons in her army, you'll never need it.
• Flashing Blade - With Flank: Angel, this gives her some late game smashing power, but only in a must-win situation would you do this.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• She herself is quite a boring caster, mostly standing around casting Aerogenesis every turn while upkeeping admonition on herself and MAYBE dropping it to use Arcane Might if going for an assassination.
• She offers no defensive help for her force.
• She is easily killed if knocked down or made stationary due to her need to play quite forward when using Arcane Might.
• She runs vectors and warjacks poorly.

Tricks & Tips

• Watch out for things that counter or interact with Flight - things such as the Hurricane's Turbulence, the Victor's Flak Fire, or Lanyssa Ryssyl's winter storm can be very dangerous for Aurora.
• Go first and meet the enemy on their side of objectives. Force them to sacrifice or lose on control points.
• Apparition works even if you are stationary or knocked down.
• Flashing Blade is not an attack per se. If you're knocked down but don't need to charge, it is better to forfeit your Combat Action to stand and save the focus to cast this spell, than it is to spend a focus to shake the knockdown.
• If you have a Shield Wall unit already in melee on your feat turn, issue the Shield Wall order, fly into the enemy's back arc ignoring free-strikes thanks to Parry then, once you've finished your attacks, Reposition back into a Shield Wall formation.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Aurora will win with a crippling alpha strike or by killing the opposing caster from a long way off after whittling down the army a bit. If the enemy can prolong the fight, she will fold fast.

Another strategy is running a bunch of slow but hard-to-kill models in Clockwork Legions - more on that below.

Theme Thoughts

This theme is unique in that it provides her with the perfect blend of models that work well with her kit. Among cavalry to speed up, free angels to flank off of, hit and damage fixers, merc jacks, and a friendly faction Hermit it is likely this theme will be her new home.

Aurora doesn't want to spend points she doesn't have to on warjacks, and to work well Convergence jacks generally require 6 points of support in a Corollary. Mercenary jacks are therefore normally a much better choice for her. A couple of heavies (normally the Toro or the Mangler) to soak up most of her warjack points and then she might spend what she has left over towards a Diffuser because improved threat ranges are great.

• Cryx options
  • Soulhunters - Probably the single best recipiens for both Aerogenesis and her feat. SPD 9 Cavalry with Flight and Parry is no joke, especially since they don't need her focus to boost due to the Cavalry and Strength of Death rules.
  • Mechanithralls - sometimes quantity has a quality all of its own, especially with recursion from the Necrosurgeon. And especially when they fly and move fast.
  • Bloat Thrall Overseer Mobius - He's a pretty good shooty solo but he's stuck at SPD 4, so he loves Aerogenesis.
  • Bloat Thralls - Similar to Mobius. You can also play around with Death Blast and throw them into enemy lines where they blow up.
  • Scrap Thralls - As above, use Aerogenesis and send them screaming into enemy lines as mobile bombs.

• Convergence options
  • Asphyxious the Sanctified is a melee threat of his own right and likes the combination of Parry and Aerogensis. He is great with Arcane Might, since he can spend his own focus to buy attacks and Aurora's focus to boost those attacks. He also brings a damage buff to Aurora's army.
  • Negation Angels - More Angels to proc flank and they provide hitfixing to boot in Paralysis, meaning they set up the rest of your list to slaughter what the Angels can't kill. There is also virtually no reason to boost against paralysed targets, meaning you can use your precious focus to boost damage.
  • J.A.I.M.s - Speed buffs go a long way on combat solos, as does the ability to boost attack or damage rolls on a models that is already a Weapon Master. Aurora turns her into a fearsome ball of bladed death. We are talking a model with speed 9 and two boostable, Weapon Master, MAT 9, P+S 17, Grievous Wounds, ripping claws so long as you attack a Prey target under Dark Shroud and Master of Ruin.
  • Prefect Hypatia - She grants Apparition to Angels in her CMD range, which is a critical piece of the threat range game.
  • Reflex Servitors - If you go for the exploding thrall boat, here are even more solos who blow up!

• Mercenary options
  • Hermit of Henge Hold - Special mention here because he becomes faction friendly and thus gains Swift Vengeance and is affected by Aerogenesis and her feat, which means he becomes even easier to deliver. As usual the arm debuff and Mad Visions is great and a M.A. 9 Bladed Gale is neat, too.
  • Toro - A no-frills beat stick with Countercharge. Perfect for Admonition!
  • Mangler - Apparition is great on it, as it desperately needs a speed buff. Aggressive makes it nicely focus efficient to boot.
  • Mariner - It has a great gun and can get by without focus.
  • Nomad - Powerful Charge means it can deliver an accurate attack without needing focus if it is needed elsewhere.
  • Death Archon - This being friendly Faction in Strange Bedfellows means that the nerf is felt the least here: it still gets access to Swift Vengeance and Aerogenesis for a threat of 16 inches (18 with the diffuser and 20 if Nemo4 summons a Steelhead Ironhead).
  • Princess Delores Graciela - Aurora gives her +2" threat range with Aerogenesis and her feat gives her much appreciated Repo 5". Arcane Might lets her boost her guns if you want to empty Auroras stack very quickly. In SBF she also gins Swift Vengeance, which wont let her attack, but gives her a 3" move regardeless.

In comparison to Strange Bedfellows:

• Most of the Convergence models available in Strange Bedfellows are also available here.
• You lose access to the Cryx & Cygnar troops, and the Mercenary warjacks.
• You gain access to Convergence's non-Angel unit options.
• You keep access to the Mercenary solos/units, but they won't become Faction-friendly in this theme.
• Instead of solos gaining Swift Vengeance, the medium-based units gain normal Vengeance.

One strategy is running a bunch of slow but hard-to-kill models with Enigma Foundries and using Aerogenisis + her feat to get them across the board and bog down the enemy. The idea being that you move fast enough to claim the scenario zones.

The troops in this theme are a little pillow-fisted though, so to avoid the game turning into an un-fun grindfest you'll be relying on the few damage buffs available (Asphyxious4, the Hermit, and/or the Void Archon).

Aurora1 works quite well with the medium-based troops, as her Aerogenesis spell nicely overcomes their low SPD.

Aurora does not want to be in this theme. It's for battlegroup casters, and she prefers infantry.

Battlegroup

As mentioned in Strategy, Aurora doesn't have much focus to spare and will end up with a very small battlegroup.

In Convergence she'll want:

• Corollary to basically manage her jacks focus for her. Used smartly, she shouldn't have to allocate focus all game.
• Conservator - A nice shield guard to keep her save, though you are probably better served with Steelsoul Protectors.
• A Diffuser (or two) to get another +2" on your charges and make her army's mobility even more ridiculous.
• Her RAT isn't great so, aside from the Diffuser, you probably want to avoid shooty jacks.

In Strange Bedfellows she's probably better to skip the Vectors entirely and just have some self-sufficient Mercenary warjacks (suggestions given in Theme Thoughts).

Starting a 25 point Brawl list

In 2021.03 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, put together this Mercenaries list for the Brawlmachine format. It was then updated for the 2021.10 errata. He even wrote about it's playstyle and expanding it beyond 25 points, which you can read here.

Theme - Strange Bedfellows

Aurora1: [+29 WJP] (Mercenaries)

• Toro: [13 pts]
• Conservator: [11 pts]
• Corollary: [5 pts]

Void Archon: [9 pts]

Prefect Hypatia: [Free] Template:Grey

J.A.I.M.s: [5 pts]

Widget1: [3 pts]

Scrap Thralls: [2 pts]

Negation Angels: [6 pts]

Similarly, In 2020.11 Jaden Iwassa, one of the LOS authors, put together this Convergence list for the Brawlmachine format.

Theme - Clockwork Legions

Aurora, the Numen of Aerogenesis: [+29 WJP]

• Cipher: [15 pts]
• Conservator: [12 pts]
• Corollary: [6 pts]

J.A.I.M.s: [Free] Template:Grey

Void Archon: [8 pts]

Eradicators (Max unit): [13 pts]

Total RRP: USD $202 (based on PP's online store prices 2021.03)

Note - This list/article was written before the 2021.10 Errata and therefore may have incorrect point values

Template:Brawl

Other

Trivia & Lore

File:NonMetallicNumen.jpg

Non-Metallic Numen, Mini Crate exclusive

• Released in Forces of Warmachine: Convergence of Cyriss (2013)
• Template:LES
• For Lore, refer to Lore - Convergence characters

Video Battle Reports

• Advanced Maneuvers, 2018.03 75 points vs Helga
• Template:VBR