Steelhead Gunner

99% of this website is about Mark 3 (mk3), which is the previous edition of the game (2016 to 2022). The reasons for this are explained here. 1% of the website is about Mark 4 (mk4), but only in regards to which mk3 models are useable in mk4 Prime and which are mk4 Unlimited. See Legacy Armies for more detail.

Steelhead Gunner Mercenary Steelhead Rhulic Solo

Prime This model is available in one Prime Army, Soldiers of Fortune. It can also be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can view the other Mk3 models that made it into a Legacy Army at this page. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules.

While most Steelhead soldiers are human, the company is quite willing to take on anyone with solid skills willing to fight for coin, and its officers have frequently fought alongside Rhulic mercenaries. A number of Rhulfolk have accepted work with company branches, negotiating for top pay—few soldiers are more disciplined or cool under fire. Gunners are artillery veterans who know how to get the most out of their crews, coordinating fire and ensuring such weapons are quickly positioned to do the most harm.

Basic Info

Steelhead Gunner
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Small SPD 5 STR 6 MAT 6 RAT 6 M.A. N/A DEF 13 ARM 13 CMD 8 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 5 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA 3 UNIT SIZE N/A COST 3 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Mercenary - Steelhead Gunner will work for Crucible Guard, Cryx, Cygnar, Khador, and the Protectorate.

Abilities

• Tough
• Desperate Pace [ Rhulic or Steelhead Weapon Crew ] (★ Action) - RNG CMD. Target friendly Rhulic or Steelhead weapon crew unit. If the unit is in range, Rhulic or Steelhead weapon crew models in the unit gain +2" movement during their Normal Movement this turn.
• Hit the Deck! - This model cannot be hit by AOEs. If it would be hit by an AOE, it instead becomes knocked down. While this model is knocked down, ranged attacks targeting it auto-miss.
• Siege Tactics (★ Action) - RNG CMD. Target friendly Faction weapon crew. If the weapon crew is in range, the next ranged attack made by the unit gains Siege Weapon. Siege Tactics lasts for one turn. (Siege Weapon - This weapon gains an additional die to its damage rolls against huge-based models.)
• Veteran Leader [ Rhulic or Steelhead Weapon Crew ] - While in this model's command range, friendly Rhulic or Steelhead weapon crew models gain +1 to attack rolls.

Weapons

Fire Breather
		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		SP 8			1			-			12
Continuous Fire Damage Type: Fire
Sword
		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				3				9

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Hammer Strike - This solo gains Tough in this theme.
  • Soldiers of Fortune - This solo gains Mark Target in this theme.
  • The Kingmaker's Army - This solo gains Feign Death in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Mercenary models 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.
  • Aside from that, there are a few themes that will change what Faction this model counts as (and thus what "friendly Faction only" buffs it can receive). They are:
    • Infernal players can use this model in the Hearts of Darkness theme.

Thoughts on the Steelhead Gunner

Steelhead Gunner in a nutshell

The Steelhead Gunner is both a Steelhead and Rhulic model, the first Rhulic release in about two and a half years, and can be taken in themes that allow either. His main job is to provide support to Steelhead and Rhulic artillery pieces, making them faster, more accurate, and very dangerous to huge-base models.

Combos & Synergies

• If you have at least two Rhulic/Steelhead weapon crews, you'll want one or more of this guy.
• Siege Tactics is most effective with the Steelhead Cannon or Dwarf Cannon, giving you 4 dice damage on a direct hit vs Huge bases.
• With Fire for Effect from General Ossrum this solo becomes a budget Grundback Blaster.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Usual squishy support solo problems
  • Easily killed by small arms fire
  • Points you are spending to enhance your artillery - models already priced at a premium
• Probably the lowest impact support solo in Soldiers of Fortune, can easily be left behind when you already have Arcanists, Ironheads and more.

Tricks & Tips

• Utilise the high CMD value, one Gunner can support multiple Artillery pieces spread quite wide.
• Combine Desperate Pace, Bulldoze from your Cavalry and Power Lifter from the Ironhead to engineer some janky Knockdowns with the Steelhead Cannon Crew.

Other

Trivia

• Released at LVO (2019.02)

Other Theme Forces

Cryx (Edit)

• Black Industries
• Dark Host
• The Ghost Fleet
• Scourge of the Broken Coast

Cygnar (Edit)

• Gravediggers
• Heavy Metal
• Sons of the Tempest
• Storm Division

Khador (Edit)

• Armored Korps
• Jaws of the Wolf
• Legion of Steel
• Winter Guard Kommand

Protectorate of Menoth (Edit)

• The Creator's Might
• Exemplar Interdiction
• The Faithful Masses
• Guardians of the Temple

Crucible Guard (Edit)

• Magnum Opus

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Tough - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Desperate Pace      (Edit) Desperate Pace applies to all movement during the Normal Movement part of activation, to include running, charging, and others. (Locked Thread)

Rules Clarification : Hit the Deck!      (Edit) This model cannot be hit by any type of AOE (ranged AOE, magic AOE, or the very rare Point-Blank melee AOE). However the "auto-miss when knocked down" part only applies to ranged attacks. While knocked down, non-AOE ranged attacks can target someone near this model and still hit it. This model cannot be directly hit by an AOE, and it cannot be hit with blasts from an AOE. It also cannot be hit by AOEs that are "spawned" from non-AOE weapons (such as Vortex Blast or Hellmouth). However Hit the Deck is ignored by AOEs that skip "hitting" models and instead skip straight to damage (such as Krueger1's feat) or skip straight to applying debuffs (such as Burning Flames).

Rules Clarification : Siege Tactics      (Edit) Rules Clarification : Siege Weapon - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Veteran Leader      (Edit) Veteran Leaders don't give themselves the buff, because of the "other models within ..." clause. However, if you have two models giving out the buff, then they can give it to each other. (Locked thread) If a model can get Veteran Leader from two sources (such as Vet Leader [Winterguard] simultaneous with Vet Leader [Assault Kommandos]) then the benefit does not stack. (Infernal Ruling) Some versions say "friendly" and some don't. Regardless, Veteran Leader only buffs friendly models. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Fire      (Edit) If you deploy in fire hazard terrain (Burning Earth), then you get set on fire before the game starts. Deploying a model in a hazard counts as being "put into play" in the hazard. Being put into play counts as "entering". When you enter a hazard, you trigger the hazard. Moving into "Shallow water" standard terrain does not cause continuous fire to expire. It's magic fire. You can always use non-standard terrain if you agree with your opponent before the game starts, however. A weapon can inflict continuous fire without itself being a fire damage weapon (for example, the Helios's fists). In this case, the attack can hurt models with Immunity:Fire it just won't apply the continuous effect. In terms of which player's clock is running down during the Maintenance Phase: The active player will roll for expiration of all the continuous effects. Then the inactive player will roll for all the damages of the continuous effects. (Judge Ruling)