Theme Force: Storm Division

Cygnar just got its first Theme Force, and it looks pretty interesting! The theme gives you free stuff for taking Cygnar lighting themed models, and some of these are pretty strong. OK, I am lying. Only the Storm Lances are pretty strong, but free stuff is free stuff!

These are the models you will be able to take:

Warcasters

• All Warcasters

Warjacks

• All non-character Warjacks
• Thunderhead
• Any character jack that has a bond to your chosen Warcaster

Battle Engines

• Storm Strider (18 rebate)

Solos

All solos, except Laddermore, can be rebated.

• Captain Arlan Strangewayes
• Journeyman Warcaster
• Lieutenant Allison Jakes
• Major Katherine Laddermore (gives 8 rebate)
• Savio Montero Acosta
• Squire
• Stormblade Captain (gives 5 rebate)
• Stormsmith Stormcaller (gives 5 rebate)

Units

All units, except Field Mechanics, give rebates.

• Field Mechaniks
• Silver Line Stormguard 
• Storm Lances
• Stormblade Infantry + Storm Gunners + CA
• Stormguard Infantry 
• Stormsmith Grenadiers
• Stormsmith Storm Tower

The army-wide theme benefits are fairly weak. You get lightning immune models, and one of our weaker units, Stormblades, get to start 5" further up. I would therefore think that the main reason to take the theme would be to get around a lot of extra points into the army by taking 40+ points of Stormsmith and Storm Knight models. One free solo seems too weak for the restrictions, and I am unsure if any Cygnar caster can really play well with 60+ points of infantry. Maybe Stryker1 can do it.

The obvious combo to take here is 5+3 Storm Lances and Laddermore, which is exactly 40 points of our best models.

Another option could be the Stormblades with 3x WA  + 5 Lances for 36 points, and then adding a CA, a Storm Tower, or a Captain to make it 40+ points.


So, what is the down side with this theme force? The most important thing is that you lose access to Rangers, Trenchers, and all our wonderful merc solos like Lanyssa, Ragman, Reinholdt and Rhupert. You can no longer take Thorn outside Haley lists. Lack of Pathfinder is going to be a real problem, which is why I am using Stormwall in all the lists below.

Major Victoria Haley (75 points - Storm Division)

The list loses Ironclad, Ragman, and Mechaniks from the standard Haley2 Stormwall list, but gains a free Squire, a free Journeyman Warcaster, Laddermore, and a full unit of Storm Lances. An issue with the Haley2 Stormwall list was always the low number of models - this list should have a better presence.

Major Victoria Haley (Haley2)

* Squire (free)

* Stormwall

* Thorn

Journeyman Warcaster (free)

* Firefly

Major Katherine Laddermore

5+3 Storm Lances

Haley and multiple heavies is another classic build. With 40 points taken for cavalry, it's unfortunately hard to fit in three quality heavies. Haley2 fixes Thunderhead's sucky threat range, so that could be a way to go.

Major Victoria Haley (Haley2)
* Squire (free)
* Stormclad
* Thunderhead
* Thorn
Journeyman Warcaster (free)
* Firefly
Major Katherine Laddermore
5+3 Storm Lances

Artificer General Nemo (75 points - Storm Division)

Dynamo with no GMCA seems weak, so I think a Stormwall build looks better.

Artificer General Nemo & Storm Chaser Finch
* Squire (free)
* Firefly
* Stormwall

Journeyman Warcaster (free)

* Firefly

Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Major Katherine Laddermore
5+3 Storm Lances

Commander Coleman Stryker (75 points - Storm Division)

I'm not sure if this is going to work at all... but Stryker1 has the feat and spells which can get Stormblades up the board, and the list gets a whopping 16 points of free solos!

Commander Coleman Stryker
* Stormwall
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Major Katherine Laddermore
Savio Montero Acosta (free)
Stormblade Captain (free)
5+5 Storm Lances
6 Stormblade Infantry
* 2x Storm Gunner
* Officer & Standard (free)