Field Mechaniks

On the battlefield, armor gets mangled, weapons misfire, and warjacks break down. When that happens, Cygnar’s highly skilled field mechaniks and their gobber assistants brave the front lines to make crucial repairs under fire. Each mechanik can perform nigh-miraculous repairs on damaged warjacks, keeping Cygnar’s greatest weapons in the fight.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Crew Chief
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Repair
  • Template:Iron Sentinel

• Gobbers
  • Repair [d3] - As above, but they're worse at doing their job
  • Template:Gobber - This model is a gobber.

Weapons

Crew Chief	Rivet Gun File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  4 1 Template:- 10 Monkey Wrench File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 2 6
Gobbers	Monkey Wrench File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 2 6

Theme Forces

• Cygnar
  • Template:Flame in the Darkness. They gain Vengeance in this theme.
  • Template:Si
  • Template:Heavy Metal. They gain Reposition [3] in this theme. Also, they get +1 to their Repair result.
  • Template:Sons of the Tempest
  • Template:Storm Division. The gain Immunity: Electricity in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Khador and Mercenary players can also use them in the Template:Flame in the Darkness theme. They gain Vengeance in this theme.
  • Infernal players can use them in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Sloan is leading the army.
  • Mercenary players can use them in the Template:Llaelese Resistance theme. They become Llaelese models and gain Pathfinder in this theme .

Thoughts on Field Mechaniks

Field Mechaniks in a nutshell

Field Mechaniks are dirt cheap, costing less than one point per model. Field Mechaniks provide vital survivability and return function to crippled systems. Minimum units of Field Mechaniks are the most points-efficient repair dice in the game.

Combos & Synergies

• Warjacks or other Constructs can always benefit from the restoration of health to stave off death or return function when crippled.
• In addition to the traditional tactic of hiding directly behind the larger-based models, the Crew Chief's Iron Sentinel ability can make the difference against light, inaccurate attacks.
• Gobber grunts unlock Malvin & Mayhem & Malvin2.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Field Mechaniks essentially don't have a combat profile. An entire unit might be able to kill a Gobber Tinker, but even that would take some luck.
• Their survival stats are also negligible - and for certain armies they are just cheap soul and corpse tokens.
• As noted above, Grievous Wounds prevents all damage removal, not just "healing."
• Against lists which can consistently kill Heavies from full health, the value of a Repair ability decreases somewhat. This particularly hurts Field Mechaniks, as they don't have other abilities.
  • Consider Captain Arlan Strangewayes for a more balanced, repair-capable solo. Note that Arlan is notably worse than a Field Mechaniks minimum unit at just repairing.
  • Trencher Combat Engineers have a much more diverse application, but also cost as much as a full unit of Field Mechaniks.

Tricks & Tips

• Two minimum units are better than one maximum unit. You pay the same but get one extra Crew Chief and one extra Gobber. Plus you can spread them further across the board and/or activate them at different times or score multiple zones.
• Note that the Gobber Grunts are usually more survivable than the Crew Chief if due to their higher DEF. Their lower ARM is more or less irrelevant due to the fragility of both models.
• Usually, you shouldn't bother using the Field Mechaniks' weapons. Their time is better spent getting a warjack back into action to allow it to protect them.
  • Opponents risking a free strike from them can sometimes be funny, though.
• While cheap, Field Mechaniks can restore crucial functionality to crippled Warjacks, potentially turning the tide of the battle. Try to avoid taking free strikes or otherwise putting them at risk, as they'll usually just die.
• If you're playing a Warjack skew list, Field Mechaniks are often great for filling out the last few points and giving you some extra scenario presence in Steamroller scenarios.

Other

Trivia

• Released way back in Warmachine: Prime (2003)