Theme - Storm Division
Theme - Storm Division Cygnar Theme Force |
Cygnar’s Storm Division is an autonomous military force that delivers the flash of lightning and the roll of thunder to the battlefields of Immoren. The division couples the latest voltaic weaponry and hardware produced by the Cygnaran Armory with the service of skilled soldiers. More Storm Knights fight with the Storm Division than with any other force in Cygnar, and with the aid of accomplished stormsmiths these elite warriors make up a highly mobile army capable of bringing the fury of the storm to Cygnar’s enemies.
Theme Rules
- For the core rules on how Theme Forces work, see this article.
Theme Restrictions
An army made using the Storm Division theme force can include only the following Cygnar models:
- Cygnar warcasters
- Non-character warjacks
- Brickhouse
- Dynamo
- Thunderhead
- Artificer Prime Nemo
- Mechanik models/units
- Storm Knight models/units
- Stormsmith models/units
- Journeyman Warcaster solos
- Lieutenant Allison Jakes
- Savio Montero Acosta
- Squire solos
- This army can also include one Mercenary solo and one Mercenary unit that will work for Cygnar.
- These models/units can be included even if they have the Partisan [Cygnar] rule.
- Mercenary units can have attachments, but not a Ranking Officer.
Full model list
This list was last updated: 2020.02 (Edit)
Warcasters
- All Cygnar warcasters
Warjacks
- All non-character warjacks
- Brickhouse
- Dynamo
- Thunderhead
- Other character warjacks can be taken, but only if they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.
Units
- Field Mechaniks
- Silver Line Stormguard
- Storm Lances
- Stormblade Infantry
- Stormguard Infantry
- Stormsmith Grenadiers
- Stormsmith Storm Tower
- Trencher Combat Engineers
Solos
- Captain Arlan Strangewayes
('Jack Marshal) - Lieutenant Gwen Keller
- Major Katherine Laddermore
- Sir Dreyfus the Storm Knight
- Stormblade Captain
('Jack Marshal) - Stormsmith Stormcallers
- Journeyman Warcaster
("Junior Warcaster") - Jakes1
("Junior Warcaster") - Savio Montero Acosta (★)
- Squire
(Warcaster Attachment)
Battle Engines
Mercenaries
- Up to one unit
- Up to one solo
(★) Because these models are specifically allowed in this theme, they don't use up your Mercenary slot.
Requisition Points
You can spend each Requisition Point on either:
- One Stormsmith weapon crew unit
- One Cygnar CA
- Three Stormsmith Stormcaller solos
- One small- or medium-based Cygnar solo with a cost of 5 or less
Theme Bonuses
- Cygnar models/units in this army gain Immunity: Electricity.
- Storm Knight models in this army gain Unyielding.
- Unyielding - This model gains +2 ARM against melee damage rolls.
Recent Changes
2021.06 Storm Division Dynamic Update
- No changes to the theme itself, but lots of models within the theme got errata'd.
Thoughts on Storm Division
Storm Division in a nutshell
Do you like Storm Knights or Stormsmiths? Well, good news! This is the theme for you. If you intend to maximise the benefits from the theme, you are likely to have quite a strong melee force. Before the 2021 June Dynamic Update this almost exclusively meant Storm Lances since the rest of the (mainly single-wound infantry) choices were questionable at best. It is yet too early to say how the update shapes this theme on the long run but it surely brought some quality-of-life updates to the maligned models in general.
The main selling points are:
- Every friendly Cygnar model is safe from your electro leaps and lightnings - worry not of shooting near your repair crews.
- Most of your troops sport decently high accuracy and damage.
- Cygnar's low ARM casters are protected from Electro-Leap lightning shenanigans.
- This can alleviate problems when facing other Cygnar armies which rely on lightning weapons
- It also offers protection from certain models in Retribution of Scyrah, Trollbloods and Circle Orboros.
Theme Weaknesses
Terrain Mitigation
Pathfinder is quite limited. For an army that can skew towards melee quite easily, this can become a big issue. Your main way to get Pathfinder in this theme is to take the Stormblade Infantry CA or utilise your Warcaster or your single Mercenary solo:
- Onslaught on Major Beth Maddox
- Captain Jeremiah Kraye's Iron Horse ability - which includes only his battlegroup
- Ghost Walk on Major Prime Victoria Haley
Low to medium model count
Being an army of elite soldiers typically means you might have a lowish model count. Also, they have average DEF and ARM scores - the latter is somewhat alleviated in melee thanks to the theme benefit. To alleviate this issue you may want to...
1) Protect your investment of expensive elite soldiers with abilities that improve their armour. Of which lots of Cygnar casters do.
2) add in a few Stormsmith Stormcallers into your list. At 1 point each they offset this issue and for what they are they score flags well.
List Building Advice
- Your most expensive free option is Savio, followed by Keller, the Stormblade Captain, and Dreyfus1. All of them are good options, so you can mix and match to your liking, but Keller is near mandatory and at least one Captain is strongly recommended.
- Stormblade Captain - If you favor Storm Knights, his Tactician and Desperate Pace rule makes it a lot easier to get your different units into place.
- Taking a Journeyman Warcaster is often worth it. Both Stormblade Infantry and Storm Lances have decent armor that can be made pretty great by the inclusion of Arcane Shield.
- It's all about the lightning, so bringing models such as the Firefly to increase your damage output is a good idea. Just keep in mind that all of your in-faction models are unable to arc lightning into the enemy. That goes to your mercenary choices who are Partisans.
- Your mercenaries are not safe from lightning. Keep that in mind if you sent an important support solo within arcing range. On the flip side, get your cheap cannon fodder troop run forward (even outside formation) to act as a "spark-node" to call down lightning on demand into a squishy but important enemy model without remorse. Alexia1's Thralls are great for this and she can collect fallen Storm Knights to fuel her necromancy.
Starting a 25 point Brawl list
In 2020.09 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, put together this list for the Brawlmachine format. He even wrote about it's playstyle and expanding it beyond 25 points, which you can read here.
To accommodate for the changes in the Battlebox caster update AND the Storm Division update an alternative list that may be of interest to you is...
- Lieutenant Gwen Keller: [Free]
- Stormguard Infantry x10: [15 pts]
- Field Mechaniks x4: [3 pts]
In this list Gwen works as a force delivery tool via ranged attacks by granting Force Barrier, the Stormguard take Dauntless Resolve from Maddox and end up as 15/20 vs ranged attacks and 15(on charges)/22 vs melee attacks with tough. Maddox helps with terrain mitigation, passively giving focus to the Reliant with snipe up-kept on it so that when the Stormguard and Firefly are near each other it’s gun can reach pow 17. On feat turn everyone hits hard and you have CMA for accuracy. All in all a very good defensive list that can take the game as it come and forces your opponent to ask certain questions.
For more Brawlmachine list ideas, see Category: Brawl List
Caster Thoughts
- Stormblades make particularly good use of Dauntless Resolve because they cannot be knocked down the turn they use Iron Zeal making them potentially very difficult to kill.
- Onslaught can provide the Faction-wide Pathfinder you need to deliver your powerful melee attacks across the battlefield.
- Her feat Thundering Rage heavily amps up the power your Stormknights already powerful attacks. It should allow you to crack some very hard armor skews.
- Being a Stormknight herself, she will benefit from Laddermore, Lieutenant Gwen Keller or any Stormblade Captains you include.
Armor skew list with ability to remove single heavy targets and annihilate infantry.
- Playing the Storm Strider in a pair plus a Hurricane can be incredibly durable with invincibility with two of them being ARM 27. Add some Fireflies and the electrical guns are accurate and can crack armor rather effectively.
He favors melee oriented gameplay making him good for Storm Division.
- Deflection can make Stormknights hard to kill at range with small arms fire.
- Stormknights are also very grateful recipients of Strkyer 2's feat. The extra movement and attack are very powerful seeing as they operate off of their powerful attacks.
- Haley loves low model count lists, and low model count list loves Silver Line Stormguard to screen them.
- Nemo4 - He's an excellent target for Temporal Acceleration and Telekinesis, but an even better target for it is his jack; a humble Freebooter reaches a total threat range of 18"!
- The self fueling Stormclads an Reliants in this theme are also great targets for TA and TK. As are most of the solos (Savio, Dreyfus, Keller, Laddermore, and Captains) with their strong combat profiles.
Haley is all about the DEF skew with Temporal Distortion:
- Stormguard Infantry - Set Defense, Temporal Distortion and Force Barrier make them DEF 17 against charges or at range. Tactical Supremacy lets them move into Wall of Steel after moving and they offer a way of damage fixing that Haley lacks.
- Storm Lances are absolutely worth reviving and can use the Ghost Walk to disengage and/or reposition without risking free strikes.
' Haley Past can Force Hammer a warjack, then a Storm Tower can disrupt it, rendering it useless.
Other
Trivia
- Released near the start of Mk3 (2016)
- This is Lord Commander Stryker's personal division.
Other Cygnar themes
Rules Clarifications
Rules Clarification : Unyielding - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Electricity (Edit)
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Rules Clarification: Theme Forces (Edit) Themes that change a model's Faction [Show/Hide]
Rerolling the starting roll [Show/Hide]
Warjacks/Warbeasts with bonds [Show/Hide]
Including Mercenaries [Show/Hide]
Number of Mercenaries
Mercenaries and Ranking Officers
Other
Including Partisan Mercenaries [Show/Hide]
Partisans & Theme Forces (Edit)
Requisition Points [Show/Hide]
Free models and Specialists (ADR) [Show/Hide]
Unit Attachments [Show/Hide]
When to apply theme benefits [Show/Hide]
See also these Theme-Specific Rulings [Show/Hide]
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