Trencher Master 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.

Trencher Master Gunner Cygnar Trencher Solo - ('Jack Marshal)

Prime This model is available in one Prime Army, First Army. 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.

Master gunners are survivors of countless battles and have earned expertise that makes them some of the most valued artillerists in all of Cygnar. These men and women are versed in all the skills of the artilleryman from barrage firing patterns to the use of defilades. They are experts in the complex commands used to coordinate a battery of field guns. Where other armies make use of artillery as support, the master gunners orchestrate their batteries into precision instruments of war.

Basic Info

Trencher Master Gunner
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Small SPD 6 STR {{{str}}} MAT 6 RAT 6 M.A. N/A DEF 13 ARM 13 CMD 9 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 5 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA 2 UNIT SIZE N/A COST 3 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Abilities

• 'Jack Marshal
• Tough
• Artillerist (★ Action) - RNG CMD. Target friendly Faction model gains +2 RAT when making its next AOE ranged attack this turn. If the attack does not directly hit, you can reroll the direction and/or distance of its deviation. Each roll can be rerolled only once as a reasult of Artillerist.
• Battery Fire (★ Action) - RNG CMD. Target friendly faction weapon crew model. If the model is in range, it can make one additional ranged attack during its activation this turn.
• Foxhole Buddy - While B2B with a friendly model that is dug in, this model gains cover, does not suffer blast damage, and does not block LOS.
• High-Angle Fire (★ Action) - Choose a friendly Faction model. While in this model's command range, the chosen model's AOE ranged weapons gain Arcing Fire. High-Angle Fire lasts for one turn. (Arcing Fire - When attacking with a weapon with Arcing Fire, a model can ignore intervening models except those within 1" of the target.)

Weapons

• Scatter Gun - 8" spray, POW 12 ranged attack
• Trench Knife - 0.5" reach, P+S 9 melee attack

Theme Forces

• Cygnar
  • Gravediggers. He gains Rise in this theme.

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

Thoughts on Trencher Master Gunner

Trencher Master Gunner in a nutshell

The Trencher Master Gunner is an odd mix of abilities. He's a jack marshal without a drive. He can use Battery Fire on a weapon crew for an extra shot - but costs as much as a cheap weapon crew by himself. He's a Trencher, but has no direct access to Dig In. Overall, he is a support piece for your gunlines - mainly those centered around your AoE lobbing pieces and/or weapon crews. He's also one of Cygnar's few wielders of spray weaponry.

Combos & Synergies

Using him as a jack Marshal

• Sentinel - All Jack Marshals love Sentinels, but bringing it for the Gunner alone is quite a waste of points. If there's an important target to be protected from getting shot, and you cannot trust the Sentinel under your warcaster's control, then go for the Gunner. Otherwise, choose something else instead.
• Avenger - Its RAT is pretty poor by Cygnaran standards, so getting it up to RAT7 with either Strike True or Artillerist can help compensate for generally having to move and shoot. Combine the two for Eiryss-level accuracy. The High Angle Fire can also be useful sometimes.
• Reliant - Your cheapest heavy with an AoE gun.
• Grenadier - First and foremost, you should consider this jack for marshalling. If it digs itself in, it can provide you shelter due to Foxhole Buddy, and the Gunner can reload it. Occasionally, you can bring a Patrol Dog to form a great deterrent against flanking solos and units with Stealth (and a second reload source too).

Using him for his abilities, which is more appealing anyway:

• Trencher Cannon Crew - Joint most expensive of Cygnar's field artillery and the one that can gain the most.
• Trench Buster - RAT 7 is better than RAT 5
• Trencher Express Team - The best trencher artillery piece and a core part of every Gravediggers list. He gives them 2 shots per turn.
• Hurricane - This colossal also has 2 AoE guns - and Arcing Fire on them can open up interesting threat vectors.
• Stormsmith Storm Tower - Two shots from your storm tower mean potentially twice as much fried infantry. They cannot be in the same theme force though.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• He's a jack marshal without drive, and no extra ability to tune up the jack under his care,apart from Artillerist, if the jack just so happens to have an AOE gun.
• Needs another model with Dig-In to get the benefits through Foxhole Buddy.

Tricks & Tips

• Use Battery Fire until the time for artillery is done - then use his spray

Other

Trivia

• Released in the Mk2 forces book Forces of Warmachine: Cygnar (February 2010)

Other Cygnar models

Cygnar Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup & Similar
Warcasters	Caine1 - Caine2 - Caine3 - Constance - Darius - Haley1 - Haley2 - Haley3 - Jakes2 - Kraye - Maddox - Nemo1 - Nemo2 - Nemo3 - Sloan - Stryker1 - Stryker2 - Stryker3 - Siege1 - Siege2 - Sturgis1
Warcaster attachments	Squire (Cygnar) - Madelyn Corbeau (Merc) - Reinholdt (Merc) - Wyshnalyrr (Merc)
Other Warjack Controllers	Battlegroup Controllers: Caine0 - Nemo4 - Jakes1 - Journeyman - T. Warcaster Lieutenant 'Jack Marshals: Runewood - Strangewayes - Anson Hitch - Stormblade Captain - T. Master Gunner - Gun Mage CA - Stormblade CA - Sword Knights CA
Light	Charger - Firefly - Grenadier - Hunter - Lancer - Minuteman - Sentinel Ace - Thorn
Heavy	Avenger - Centurion - Cyclone - Defender - Hammersmith - Ironclad - Reliant - Stormclad Brickhouse - Dynamo - Gallant - Ol' Rowdy - Thunderhead - Triumph
Colossal	Stormwall - Hurricane
Units, Solos, Battle Engines, & Structures
Units	Arcane Tempest Gun Mages - Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Field Mechaniks - Legion of Lost Souls - Long Gunner Infantry - OoI Resolutes - OoI Vigilants - Precursor Knights - Rangers - Silver Line Stormguard - Storm Lances - Stormblades - Stormguard - Stormsmith Grenadiers - Storm Tower - Sword Knights - Tempest Blazers - Tr Cannon Crew - Tr Chain Gun Crew - Tr Commandos - Tr Express Team - Tr Long Gunners - Tr Infantry - Tr Mechaniks Special CA : Captain Jonas Murdoch (Mercenary unit) - Special WA: Morrowan Battle Priest (any unit)
Solos	Arcane Tempest Rifleman - Archduke Runewood - Captain Arlan Strangewayes - Captain Maxwell Finn - Commander Anson Hitch - Dreyfus1 - Dreyfus2 & Flubbin2 - Grand Master Gabriel Throne - Glyn Cormier, Illuminated One - Gun Mage Captain Adept - Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine - Journeyman Warcaster - Harlan Versh, Illuminated One - Lieutenant Allison Jakes - Lieutenant Bastian Falk - Lieutenant Gwen Keller - Major Katherine Laddermore - Major Harrison Gibbs - Morrowan Archon - Savio Montero Acosta - Squire - Stormblade Captain - Stormcallers - Tr Buster - Tr Master Gunner - Tr Patrol Dog - Tr Warcaster Lieutenant - Viktor Pendrake
Battle Engines & Structures	Nemo4 - Storm Strider - Trencher Blockhouse
Theme Forces
Flame in the Darkness - Gravediggers - Heavy Metal - Sons of the Tempest - Storm Division
Mercenaries
Refer to Who Works for Whom and/or Category: Cygnar Mercenary
This index was last updated: 2021.11

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : 'Jack Marshal      (Edit) If a warjack gets a marshal benefit (such as Crush) but then moves out of the marshal's CMD range, it keeps the benefit. (Infernal Ruling) Marshals can control character warjacks. (Closed thread) Although they never get the Power Up bonus, a marshaled warjack can gain focus via other means (such as Accumulator, Empower, Spirit Harvester, etc). They can do this even after the Marshal dies and they become autonomous. 'Jack Marshal & Ranking Officer (Edit) If a Ranking Officer joins a unit with the 'Jack Marshal ability, then they can still only take Mercenary warjacks - they don't gain access to Faction warjacks. (Infernal Ruling) They can control that mercenary warjack as normal, even though they're technically no longer the same faction as the jack. (Infernal Ruling) See also this article for the Autonomous warjack rules and how to re-control them.

Rules Clarification : Tough - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Artillerist and/or Lucky Shot and/or Spotter     (Edit) This ability doesn't work on weapons with AOE (★) weapons (such as Old Witch2). (Infernal Ruling) Roll both direction and distance before choosing which you want to reroll (if any), then reroll those. This means that if you choose to re-roll only one die, and after re-rolling that one die you now want to re-roll the other die ... too bad. (Mk2 2010 Infernal Ruling) which Dark Legacy confirmed in 2021 via Facebook (which I won't link to) If you have two rerolls, you repeat the above process twice. Roll, choose which to re-roll (if any). If you still don't like the result, choose which ones to re-roll a second time. You can even change which one you re-roll. Again, confirmed via Facebook (which I won't link to)

Rules Clarification : Battery Fire - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : High-Angle Fire      (Edit) The chosen model doesn't need to be in command range at the time you use the ability, just when it is actually shooting. Rules Clarification : Arcing Fire      (Edit) Arcing Fire lets you ignore models but not terrain. You don't ignore clouds, forests or buildings.