Long Gunner Infantry

Template:Cygbox2 This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

Renowned for their legendary skill and repeating rifles, the Long Gunners are among the finest riflemen in the Iron Kingdoms. Their level of dedication and skill prove invaluable in their role as soldiers at the core of Cygnar’s modern army, and each of these disciplined soldiers is expert in the use of the repeating long gun. In unison, these well-trained riflemen concentrate their fire and release barrages of withering shots that tear through the enemy.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Leader, Grunts, and Officer
  • Template:CRA
  • Template:Dual Shot

• Officer only
  • The officer has a better statline
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Flawless Maneuvers
  • Template:Granted (Template:Trained Fire)
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Practiced Maneuvers)

• Standard only
  • Template:Standard Bearer
  • Template:Take Up

Weapons

Leader, Grunts, and Officer	Repeating Long Gun File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  14 1 Template:- 10 Sword File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 7 If you ever use it, it's probably game over anyway.
Standard Bearer	Sword File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 7

Theme Forces

• Cygnar
  • Template:Heavy Metal

• 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 Long Gunner Infantry

File:Long Gunner CA.jpg

Command Attachment

Long Gunner Infantry in a nutshell

They're a ranged combat unit. They're only allowed in the Heavy Metal theme force (plus some Mercenary themes). Heavy Metal is centred around jacks, and often lacks quantity firepower. Long Gunners can fill this task.

No discussion of these guys can start without comparing them to the newer Trencher Long Gunners unit (although the two units can never fit in the same theme).

Long Gunners, along with the Winter Guard Rifle Corps and the Houseguard Riflemen, have the longest range in the game among the ranged infantry units. Beside having access to Practiced Maneuvers, Khador has weapon attachments to boost the damage output, the Retribution has ways to engage targets in melee, and Cygnar can sport some extra mobility with Flawless Maneuvers. Long Gunners are also unique with their dual shots, capable throwing as many bullets down the battlefield as possible. With two long range shots per model and the potential of two large combined ranged attacks they can hit hard for ranged infantry. The standard bearer doesn't add much (a sword in a shooty unit? duh'). The officer however brings not only an extra gun, but also flexibility in positioning, and boosts their ability to reposition and engage flanking targets. Once added, keep in mind the minifeat. It has both offensive and defensive uses, from entering back into cover after a CRA to push on to contest a zone you managed to clear.

Long Gunners are known and feared by their superior range (with Snipe they are able to deliver a CRA up to 24" away). Anyone who has ever encountered them will try to evade and/or kill them. Since the Gunners have no way of ignoring terrain, cover and/or concealment (Eyeless Sight, Hunter, etc), enemies will try to use those abilities to close in on your lines and survive the first 2 turns where Long Gunners can get do the most harm.

Combos & Synergies

Long Gunners enjoy support, but even without it they can be strong deterrents against the softer parts of your opponent's force.

Warcasters

• Defensive buffs are usually better be spent on your frontline troops, but any caster with Snipe (Stryker1, Caine1, Maddox, Sturgis1) will have a strong area-denial tool in his/her arsenal.
  • Use Stryker1's Earthquake to line up targets for the killing blow
  • Sturgis1's feat can pull in troops into your Trained Fire range.
• Sometimes you must advance to get the enemy in range, but still need to hit the enemy. Use Deadeye (Haley1, Caine1) if you need to hunt down elusive targets.
  • With the combination of Deadeye, Temporal Barrier from Haley1 and Trained fire, they'll reliably hit DEF 21 targets on the move. Also, they profit a lot from her feat.
• Caine2 - his only notable spell is Fire for Effect, but it has an excellent boost on every ranged unit in the Cygnar arsenal. Sadly, only their first shot will benefit from the spell, but still worth a consideration.
• Caine3 - He supports his army via Calamity, so
• Haley2 - she lacks ways of damage buffing on units, and CRA can be a solution for this. With smart positioning they can capitalize on her board controlling feat.
• Siege1 - Foxhole helps their survival, and there are few better things than delivering a full-unit CRA under his feat.
• Stryker2 - his list normally doesn't favour Long Gunners, but since enemies under Rebuke can neither charge or run toward your gunline, nor can enter to Shield Wall, it allows your Long Gunners to play a bit more forward.

Non-warcasters

• Caine0 and Ace can help them quite a bit with Fire for Effect increasing damage output and Thunderbolt Shots and Shadow fire clearing LOS.

Mercenary themes

The Kingmaker's Army - Special mention: Magnus1 or Magnus2. While the epic incarnation helps them with de-buffing their targets, and limiting their move under feat, the prime version offers direct support with 2 spells. Also, the Renegade's Obliteration rocket assassination happens at long range, and sometimes needs a follow-up unit for attack - the Long Gunners suit the task very well.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• They have several rivals within Cygnar's other theme forces that fulfil a similar role but better (although often cost more points). These rivals are also often present in the Mercenary themes Long Gunners can go in, too.
• Their rivals are considered to be:
  • Arcane Tempest Gun Mages are as accurate with their snipe bullets as a Long Gunner that's part of a two person CRA - and far superior when moving and shooting. They also have some cute tricks. They lack the potential volume of attacks, however, and have to rely on their Critical Brutal Damage shots to harm targets, that a Long Gunner unit with CRA reliably can.
  • The Stormsmith Storm Tower costs only slightly more than a pair of Long Gunners. It sports the same range, a bit higher RAT, and superior POW for its initial shot. The extra lightnings mean that 2 of them are likely to cause the same number of hits upon infantries, as a minimum unit of Long Gunners. It has a higher DEF, but lower ARM, which is somewhat compensated by Take Up. They can also take advantage of the various lightning buffs like the Firefly. However, it lacks the mobility of the Long Gunners.
  • Trencher Long Gunners - superior stats, better resilience, and better against heavier targets, but higher price tag.
• Long Gunners have terrible DEF and ARM - they die horribly.
• Superior range is worth less in the current versions of Steamroller where LOS-blocking terrain is in abundance.
• A lot of factions have access to multiple Shield Guards. This can make the all-or-nothing CRA pointless unless you can remove them first.

Tricks & Tips

• The Reinforce Power Field rule for camping focus means that even weaker shots (such as Long Gunners) can hurt warcasters, especially squishy ones. If the opportunity presents itself, feel free to riddle the target with bullets. They will be forced to make decisions, just like warlocks in Hordes: shall they spend focus on a few points of damage, or keep it for more serious attacks? If you're going to pepper them with attacks, do it early in your turn before your real big guns activate - regardless of whether those guns will be shooting the same target. Just the mere threat of the big guns hanging over them will make your opponent more likely to save their camp and allow a little bit of damage from the Gunners to get through.
• If you aim with the primary attacker, and move with the other participant(s) you'll still get the aiming bonus for a CRA (but lose the moving models' second shot).
• Measure the target number to find balance between quality and quantity shots. An aiming 2-men CRA is technically RAT 9 - but do you need it? Maybe standard shots would give you more damage.

Other

Trivia

• The unit (not including CA) was released way back in Warmachine: Prime (2003)
• The CA was released in Warmachine: Superiority (2006)