Perforators

Perforators fulfill the Convergence’s need for ranged firepower with protean javelin launchers powerful enough to punch through heavy armor. The souls selected for these vessels are chosen for their ability to quickly calculate ballistics trajectories based on an extraordinary insight into the efficiency of motion. With keen mind and powerful weaponry, perforators overcome opponents who threaten to stall the army’s advance.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Assault
• Template:Soul Vessel
• Template:Variable
  • Template:Empowered Attack
  • Template:Snipe Attack

Weapons

Protean Javelin
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		7			1			Template:-			6
Template:Armor Piercing Template:Predator Protocol
Gear Blade
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				4				12

Command Attachment

They can have a Transverse Enumerator. Her info has been omitted for brevity.

• Her weapon benefits from Variable [Empowered Attack], but not Variable [Snipe] because it is a spray.
• In Clockwork Legion, she also gains Vengeance if put with this unit..

Theme Forces

• Template:Clockwork Legions. They gain Vengeance in this theme.

Thoughts on Perforators

Perforators in a nutshell

It does what it says on the box; throw an armor-piercing javelin at people. And armor piercing is an awesome ability. Unfortunately, even if you charge, the damage roll on the ranged attack isn't boosted making it so-so vs a lot of targets when you factor assault and the +2 damage they do hurt but it really needs to be versus the right targets...

As an example using assault and +2 damage on ranged attacks vs a Khador heavy (10/20); they hit on anything but double 1 and on average dice deal 6 damage with the ranged attack and 2 damage with the charged melee attack. With 3 medium bases in melee range they won’t kill a model at full hp without some serious dice spikes.

Whereas a Cryxian heavy (13/17) under the same circumstances (not black industries) you have a 92% chance of hitting and on average you are dealing 7 damage with the ranged attack and 5 damage with the charge attack. 3 models will deal on average 39 damage and you will kill the slayer (or equivalent).

Vengeance from the theme benefit makes them deceptively mobile models but the easiest to kill of the 3 heavy infantry convergence options.

Combos & Synergies

• A screening unit to jam and prevent the enemy counter-charging.
• The usual Clockwork Legions synergies.
• They are a decent unit to attach a Transverse Enumerator, if you time the mini-feat with the turn you get the Assault attack. In the ideal setup you get successful charges, giving you rerolls on both the gun and the melee attack.
• Aurora1:
  • Her Aerogenesis spell gives warriors flight, making moving medium base troops around a lot easier.
  • Aerogenesis also gives +2" movement. Add the Perforator's Assault and Snipe and you can shoot models 21" away. (Note that Assaulting from this far away causes your charge to fail, and this means you won't get the Reposition from her feat, if it is her feat turn.)
  • She also has Arcane Might, which lets warrior models boost some attacks. You can't afford to boost every attack, but an all-important armor piercing can be all the difference.
• Lucant
  • Does what he does for all infantry - improves their armour until they can get stuck in.
• Orion

Not typically a caster that likes the infantry theme but he can be made to work.

• • Armour buffs are awful on armour penetration as the bonus is added after the value is halved Spellpiercer gets around this.
  • His feat is one of the few ways to get a conditional damage boost on the guns.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Although they have melee weapons, they're very much a shooty unit.
  • They have terrible range, even with Snipe and Assault, and will often only get one turn of shooting before getting bogged down in melee.
  • Also their RAT without predator protocol is only "okay", and their original RAT-fixer (Attunement Servitors) are mostly locked away in another theme.
• Armor Piercing is great against models with a high base ARM, but not so great against models which have a lot of ARM buffs (such as Legion of Lost Souls or Initiates of the Wall). Because the ARM buffs don't get halved.
• Squishier than they look, a boosted POW 12 damage roll will take one out 50% of the time.
• Their POW varies enourmously ("If this, then I get +1, and if that, I get a +2, and if the other thing, your ARM is halved.") This means that if you split their attacks vs different targets, you waste your clock figuring out their effective POW vs each different target.
• at the time of writing convergence do not really have a caster that can improve infantry ranged output AND deliver them safely both of which they need to some degree.

Tricks & Tips

• You can declare a charge vs a model that is out of charge range, and you'll still get your Assault attack. Combine that with Snipe, and you can get a shot vs something 19" away from your start position. The main downside is, you'll fail your charge 11" away from your target and will likely get countercharged next turn.

Other

Trivia

Released in Forces of Warmachine: Convergence of Cyriss (2013)