Trench Buster

Valued for their size, strength, and courage, ogrun make natural trenchers. Akin to mobile artillery, trench busters cover the advance of other trenchers in the field, obscuring the enemy’s view with explosive smoke bombs. Trench Busters wade into the fight using their massive shields to protect allies from incoming mortar and bombard fire.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Assault
• Template:Tough
• Template:Flank
• Template:Shield Guard

Weapons

• Cinder Bomber - 10" range, 3" AOE, POW 14 gun
  • Template:Fire Damage
  • Template:Arcing Fire
• Bayonet - 1" reach, P+S 12 melee weapon.
  • Template:Brutal Charge
• Assault Shield - 0.5" reach, P+S 12 melee weapon.
  • Template:Shield

Theme Forces

• Cygnar
  • Template:Gravediggers. He gains Rise in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this unit in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Sloan is leading the army.

Thoughts on Trench Buster

Trench Buster in a nutshell

The Trench Buster is an interesting jack of all trades. They can take bullets. They can shoot. They can charge and hit hard. They can hit really hard when charging something threatened by a fellow Trencher - as hard as the main weapon on a charging heavy warjack. They can even just about do it all at once.

Combos & Synergies

• Trencher models. Mostly Trencher Infantry and Trencher Commandos.
• Especially the Trencher Infantry Command Attachment.
• Models that provide a damage buff such as Death Field, Kiss of Lyliss or Positive Charge.
  • Or, even better, more than one of these.
  • If you manage to trigger Flank, you're beginning to look at an ultra-accurate, P+S 18 attack with four dice for damage on the charge. Even heavy warjacks and beasts don't like that.
  • The follow-up shield attack is still a fairly impressive P+S 16.
• Artillerist from the Trencher Master Gunner can give him a solid level of accuracy when assaulting.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• They are more expensive than many models they'd try to guard.
• They pay a "points tax" for having so many abilities, even though they'll rarely do it all at once.
• Consider your other Shield Guard options:
  • The Ogrun Bokur is a similar shield guard that's better in melee but can't shoot or receive in faction buffs.
  • The Sentinel is a more expensive but much tougher one that wants to stay at range.
• The Assault shot can be a trap if you're looking to use Flank, since AOE may kill the Flanker. There are tricks to avoid this though, see below.

Tricks & Tips

• Put him among the Trencher Infantry to keep the officer alive.
• To avoid killing your Flanking Trencher with your Assault shot:
  • Use Trencher Infantry. With 1" reach on their bayonets they can stand at max melee range and be 1.59" from the centre of a small-based model, which puts them out of the 1.50" blast radius. Vs larger models they become correspondingly safer.
  • If you want to ensure that you don't kill your friendly trenchers, ensure they stay at the maximum distance of their melee range.
  • Use a more durable Trencher, such as another Trench Buster, the Trencher Express Team gunner (who doesn't want to be in melee), or Captain Maxwell Finn.

Other

Trivia

• Originally released in the Warmachine: Reckoning expansion (2015)
• Ogryn Bullgryns anyone?