Steelhead Volley Gun Crew

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 Volley Gun Crew Mercenary Steelhead Weapon Crew Unit

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.

Engineered as a modified variant of an Ordic weapon first invented by Midfast Munitions, the Steelhead Volley Gun can unload a steady barrage into enemy lines. It utilizes a double-rowed rack of seven barrels firing solid shot in sequence to batter infantry and even light warjacks into oblivion. The crews manning these weapons are in constant motion as they compensate their trajectories after the recoil of previous shots and then reload to begin another cycle of destruction.

Basic Info

Steelhead Volley Gun Crew
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Gunner / Grunts BASE Large / Small SPD 2 / 4 STR 6 MAT 5 RAT 5 M.A. N/A DEF 13 ARM 13 CMD 5 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 1 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA 2 UNIT SIZE 1 Gunner 2 Grunts COST 6 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Mercenary - This unit will work for Crucible Guard, Cryx, Cygnar, Khador, and the Protectorate.

Abilities

• Gunner
  • Officer
  • Man-Sized - This model is treated as a small-based model and occupies the space from the bottom of its base to a height of 1.75".
  • Mobile Artillery - When this model advances as part of its Normal Movement, it gains +1" movement for each Grunt in this unit within 2" of it at the start of its advance.
  • Take Up - If this model is destroyed, you can choose a Grunt in this unit within 1" of it to be destroyed instead. Effects on this model expire, and it gains the effects on the chosen Grunt. Remove the Grunt from the table instead of this model. This model has the same number of unmarked damage boxes as the chosen Grunt.

• Grunts
  • None

Weapons

• Gunner
  • Volley Gun - 12" range, ROF d3+1, POW 12 ranged attack
    • Covering Fire (★ Action) - Place a wall template anywhere completely within this weapon's RNG and this model's LOS, ignoring intervening models. A model entering or ending its activation in the template suffers a damage roll with POW equal to the POW of this weapon. The template remains in play for one round. If this model is destroyed or removed from play, immediately remove the template from play.
    • Volume Fire - Gain +1 to attack and damage rolls with this weapon against medium-based models and +2 to attack and damage rolls against large- and huge-based models.
  • Sword - 0.5" reach, POW 3, P+S 9 melee attack

• Grunts
  • Sword

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Operating Theater (Only if a Cephalyx Dominator is attached)
  • Soldiers of Fortune
  • The Kingmaker's Army. This model/unit gains Feign Death in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this unit in the Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Crosse2 is leading the army.
  • Furthermore, Mercenaries 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.

Thoughts on the Steelhead Volley Gun Crew

Steelhead Volley Gun Crew in a nutshell

Among the most versatile artillery pieces in the game. Between Covering Fire and Volume Fire, there is rarely a turn where this weapon isn't doing something useful, and despite being artillery, it is surprisingly hard to get rid of.

Combos & Synergies

• Played in the Steelhead theme with Mark the Target on solos it gets very accurate.

• Damiano's Money Shot makes it extremely dangerous. Even moreso combined with Rust from Gorman or Hutchuck and Kiss from Aiyana (Pow 20 shots into Heavy Jacks?)

• The Steelhead Gunner can grant its first damage roll an additional damage dice against huge bases, which will be POW 14 from Volume Fire and 16 if you add Money Shot or Calamity. He also adds Veteran Leader.

• The Steelhead Arcanist grants it magic weapon and deals with clouds.

• The Steelhead Ironhead can use Power Lifter to place it into aiming position or pull it back after it drops a Covering Fire template.

• Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye can bring back their grunts.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Not great against high ARM targets that are not huge bases.

• Its price tag is pretty high so it will probably only ever see play in the Steelhead theme.

Tricks & Tips

• Covering Fire is great for blocking charges - and can be done from entirely out of LoS of where the enemy is now.

Other

Trivia

Released at Adepticon 2019.03

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) Exemplar Interdiction Guardians of the Temple The Creator's Might The Faithful Masses	Crucible Guard (Edit) Magnum Opus

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Officer      (Edit) Even if they're not on the Officer's card, an Officer can give (and benefit from) any non-standard orders that are on the unit's card (such as Shield Wall). Refer main rulebook. A Ranking Officer can't do this, though. When the Officer dies, the Leader model becomes the new Unit Commander (you don't get to choose). But if your unit doesn't include a Leader model, then you do get to choose any of the remaining models to be the new Unit Commander. You don't swap the model, but it may be worth putting a token down so you can tell that grunt apart.

Rules Clarification : Man-Sized      (Edit) Despite being mounted on a large base, the model counts as a small-base for any and every rule. (Infernal Ruling) This includes Ranking Officers being able to join them. (Infernal Ruling) This includes being able to take them as a Requistion Option (if you have a Man-Sized solo in a theme that allows free solos). (Locked Thread) This includes abilities that only work vs small-based models (such as Consume, Trampling over them, etc). Those work just fine vs Man-Sized models. When drawing LOS it blocks LOS across the full width of its base (some players think you should swap it for a small proxy base when trying to draw LOS past the edge of its base ... don't do that). Since it only counts as a small-based model, it only blocks LOS to other small-based models. You can see medium and larger bases through it just fine.

Rules Clarification : Mobile Artillery - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Take Up      (Edit) If you use Take Up the attacking model cannot trigger anything that needs the attacker to "Destroy" a model (such as Alpha Hunter, Killing Spree, Berserk, etc). Although the model that was attacked reached the Destroyed step of the timing sequence, Take Up negates that entirely. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Covering Fire and/or Sustained Fire     (Edit) The size of the wall template is 0.75" by 4". (Infernal Ruling) Although it uses the wall template, it is not wall terrain. It does not provide cover nor interfere with models moving. Covering Fire templates do not inherit the Damage Type(s) of the weapon that put it into play. For instance, if you put Explosivo on the warjack, the Covering Fire remains non-magical. However, some versions of Covering Fire already do a specific Damage Type (notably, the Manticore). In this case, the Covering Fire does that Damage Type and no other Type. Templates that do damage (Edit)   [Show/Hide] Most templates that do damage to models that walk into them are defined as "Hazards" (such as Burning Ground) but there are a few that aren't Hazards (such as Creeping Barrage and Wall of Fire). The differences are: A hazard is a terrain element Damage from a hazard template is never considered to be from the model or weapon/spell that put it into play. So hazards never gain special rules of the weapon/spell (such as a Damage Type or Poison), nor does it gain special rules of the model (such as Hand of Fate). Damage from a non-hazard template is considered to be from the model that put it in play. So non-hazards do get stuff like Hand of Fate. (Infernal Ruling) Damage from a hazard is not from an attack (so won't trigger stuff like Vengeance) Damage from a non-hazard is also not from an attack. Instead it will be a Special Action (Covering Fire), or a "instead of making an attack, place a template" (Creeping Barrage), or etc.   Damage templates from spells is complicated: (Infernal Ruling) Spells that leave templates that are not hazards (such as Razor Wall) do Damage Type: Magical. Spells that leave templates that are hazards (such as Breath of Corruption) follow the rules for hazards, which are most likely not magical damage but it varies by the hazard. The initial damage when you place the template, if any, is Damage Type: Magical. For example, Breath of Corruption's initial POW 12 corrosion damage roll is Damage Type: Magical in addition to Damage Type: Corrosion. But the hazard that is put into play from Breath of Corruption is not Damage Type: Magical, just Damage Type: Corrosion.   By default, when you put a template into play it doesn't do damage to models they overlap. The exceptions are templates that are created by an AOE weapon, and templates that explicitly say they do damage when they're placed. A model which is "placed" also counts as "entering" an area, so the template will damage any one who teleports/spawns into it, too. If two templates are overlapping, a model that enters them will take two points of damage.

Rules Clarification : Burst Fire and/or Volume Fire - None yet. (Edit)