Steelhead Riflemen

Steelheads are willing to fight anyone, anywhere, anytime—as long as the pay is right. Working in concert, Steelhead riflemen thin out enemy lines with concentrated fire before the halberdiers charge in to cut down foes with practiced precision. Numerous, well-trained, and well-equipped, the soldiers of the Steelhead Mercenary Company are the best money can buy.

Basic Info

Mercenary - This unit will work for Template:Crucible Guard mercenary, Template:Cryx Mercenary, Template:Cygnar Mercenary, Template:Khador Mercenary, or Template:Menoth Mercenary.

Abilities

• Template:CRA
• Template:Combined Arms
• Template:War-Tempered

Weapons

• Military Rifle - 10" range, POW 11 ranged attack
• Sword - 0.5" reach, POW 3, P+S 9 melee attack

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Template:Operating Theatre (Only if a Cephalyx Dominator is attached)
  • Template:Steelies
  • Template:The Kingmakers Army. Steelhead Riflemen gain Feign Death in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this unit in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Crosse2 is leading the army.
  • Furthermore, Mercenaries can be hired by other Factions. Normally those Factions' themes will have a limit on how many models they can hire. Refer to #Other Theme Forces, below.

Thoughts on Steelhead Riflemen

Steelhead Riflemen in a nutshell

Steelhead Riflemen where the cheapest 10 gunmen you could buy, now technically beaten by the Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps but the dwarves are the more defensive of the 2 options and in faction there is no theme crossover so they aren't in competition. Unlike the dwarves the Steelheads can actually cause casualties with their special rules helping them hit infantry.

The Steelhead Rifles are a 16" walking threat with rerollable CRA's. There is nothing fancy whatsoever about them other than being able to CRA into melee (but still taking the penalty), but they can probably accomplish something useful from range every turn.

Combos & Synergies

• Captain Damiano - they love his coins. +2 to hit and damage for each of them can be lethal both with and without the two person CRA (a two person CRA is effectively RAT 11, POW 15), however Reposition 5" will keep them alive quite a bit longer as infantry that shoot 10" don't last long.
• Warwitch Deneghra - cheap shooters on the Cryx debuff-and-shoot gunline. Parasite makes their shots hard hitting.
• Snipe means a lot to them.
• Theme - Soldiers of Fortune gives you access to Mark Target, and +2 to hit on RAT 5 models is awesome. Especially if you have an Alexia producing disposable Thrall Warriors.
• Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye gives reinforcements and Stannis Brocker gives Tactician to Steelhead units.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Low RAT, meaning that you frequently miss infantry unless you pair up or have one of the combos above.
• Awful in melee.
• 10" range means they can't play forward or they die fast.
• In general if you're not playing with one or more of the synergies above (not counting Sgt. Nick and Stannis Brocker) they are too impotent and squishy to be worth using. (If you are on the other hand using multiple things that make them more able to hit they are actually pretty good).

Tricks & Tips

• With them being so cheap it's worth risking two of them to snipe a solo.
• If one Steelhead is already in range, have that one aim and lead a CRA, allowing a second Steelhead to move into range for a two person CRA with an effective RAT 9.
• Their role is to unjam your forces and pick off targets after the lines close. Keep them behind the halberdiers and CRA into melee.

Other

Trivia

Released in Forces of Warmachine: Mercenaries (2010)