So this summer sees the launch of a brand new and exciting faction for the Warmachine game; the Convergence of Cyriss!  Since the advent of the IKRPG adventure “Shadow of the Exile”, the interest of players, game masters, fiction fans and many others has been roused and curiosity piqued by the mysterious cult who worship a mechanical Goddess,  the Maiden of Gears.  A very brief pass of the material in that adventure gives us an entire temple that the player characters must delve through, and some fascinating revelations about the cult and the worshippers of the Maiden of Gears.  All that served to whet the appetite and fuel the imagination for almost 10 years until Privateer Press finally began to preview a fully functional and operational lesser faction called the Convergence of Cyriss!

 

So the beginning of our exciting year was laid out at Templecon 2013 when Privateer Press released the following preview video showcasing the Convergence for the very first time!

 

After the initial excitement of “Something New!” wore off, it was time to begin speculating about the faction and trying to determine what abilities the faction would have, as well as how the exciting new rules like Induction would work, and how it impacted the game to have all the Warjacks share the Warcaster’s MAT and RAT scores.  What sort of things would we be getting when this faction had it’s initial release at Lock & Load in Seattle?

Thankfully business director Will Shick began to slowly dole information out to us over the course of the next few weeks in the online pages of the Privateer Insider blog. The March 20th Privateer Insider showcased the faction’s Warjack’s, known as Vectors.  We learned that there would be light Warjacks as expected, and two types of Heavy Vectors; the four-legged type and the hovering type.  Since the release of that insider we have seen the Heavy kit all painted up and looking very sexy, but we still have not seen anything more of the hovering variety, the Assimilator, Modulator and Conservator.  The fact that these guys have built-in Pathfinder ability and boast a higher speed than the known Speed 4 of the four-legged Vectors makes me very excited for what the faction may be getting.  We should soon see more of the hovering Vectors in an insider blog or in the pages of a No Quarter magazine.

 

 

 

I’ll be honest and admit that I was at first a bit unsure of the aesthetic of the Light vectors.  It’s really hard to tell which is up and down, what the front or back is, if it’s wearing any pants, etc.  But as I get more and more information, and more previews of the models, I am really starting to see how the design of the light Vectors complements the entire faction and stands out as it’s own thing and not just as a similar robot on a 40mm base.  So kudos to Privateer Press for making something unique that has a very distinct look in the faction of stompy metal men and robots!

 

The next instalment of the series gave us more information on another Warcaster for the faction in Axis, the Harmonic Enforcer.  Here we learned that not all Warcasters are going to be fully integrated as a clockwork organism, and we find out that Axis has not yet been approved for transferring his mind and soul into a metallic body.  It also became very clear that with the help of his primary weapons, Action and Reaction, that he was going to be the beatstick of the faction.  This is a Warcaster who likes to get up close and personal and deliver the beats in melee.  MAT 7, Beat Back, Double Strike, a Feat named Circumpotence and Field Marshall [Counter Charge] all seem to work very nicely in favour of getting out there and delivering a pounding to the face of your enemy quickly.  Add in Unstoppable Force and Onslaught as two of his spells and you start to see that this guy could easily be the Borka, Kromac, or Butcher of the faction.  Certainly sounds like a guilty pleasure to me, here’s hoping it bears fruit and lives up to the potential!

 

Now, even though the Convergence faction would NOT be able to use Mercenary models, that in fact did not mean they would not be getting some solo’s and support options of their own.  The April 3rd Privateer Insider gave us the details on the faction’s main utility solo’s, the Servitors!  The awesome nature of cheap, floating solos that all work to increase the synergies of your army or do cool things like act as land mines or repair bots or flares to light up those sneaky Stealth models trying to position to crush your forces next turn.

The Accretion Servitors are the floating Healbots of the faction, but also sport a fun-sounding new ability called “Strip”, which ultimately sounds like the inverse of Bodge; rather than heal one damage to any column of a Warjack, Strip lets you deal 1 point of damage to a Warjack it is base to base with.  And renders them naked, if possible.  If these guys are cheap and plentiful, what are the chances of having 6 of them swarm a Warjack and take out a branch, just like that?  Tie it up and potentially remove a system?  Yes please!

The Elimination Servitors are the solo-sniping bots, described by Will Schick as being able to “sweep up the sides of the battlefield or use blocking terrain like forests to spring carefully orchestrated ambushes on the enemy.”  They are described as having short ranged weapons, Spike Projectors, that allow them to snipe out important solos and parts of the enemy army you need dead in order to get value out of your offensive plans.  Very cool sounding, and the preview art makes them look pretty sweet too.

The Attunement Servitors are straight up assist-bots, running out ahead of your army and lighting up the enemy stuff with 4″ Flares to help the rest of your ranged attacks hit more accurately.  The short range mentioned is a bit of a concern, but hey if they are cheap and can aid in the ranged game before committing to engage in melee, sounds like it may be an easy choice to sacrifice a few of these guys and get the ball rolling.  Very cool, and I am hoping their 4″ AOE also damages, but that might mean a price increase so hopefully they are balanced in that regard.

The Reflex Servitor is the one that I am in love with, basically being a floating death-bot with some awesome abilities like Dig In, Counter Charge and a POW 14 AOE 4″ that means your opponent has to be really careful where they put their models if a bunch of these guys are in your lines waiting to spring a counter charging trap on their army.  POW 7 blast damage is nothing to laugh at, and all the high-DEF infantry out there cringes at the thought of being directly missed by an attack but still take a POW 7 to the face, with the expected value on the dice meaning even ARM 13 troops take 1 point of damage.  I know my Arcane Tempest Gun Mages are not fans of these little floating balls of destruction.

 

In the April 10th, 2013 Privateer Insider we got a chance to finally meet some living models that work for the faction in the Optifex flavour of unit and solo.  Some devoted and perhaps slightly mad scientists clad themselves in the vestiges of robotic superiority and storm the field of battle alongside the higher ranked constructs, soldiers and battlebots of the Convergence of Cyriss!  The Optifex Directive is a very cool three-man unit of guys that support the army with a Repair [8] skill as well as the ability to do some alterations to constructs in the army for Pathfinder, Magic Weapons, and possibly some other fun stuff.  I imagine they are all * actions, so you may not be able to do more than one thing, but I wonder if perhaps with sufficient command range these guys, like the Choir of Menoth, could affect one construct each?  Give three things Pathfinder, or make a few ranged Vectors’ weapons magical to hit something your opponent is trying to deny you?  Sounds like a great tool, and it’s nice to see a different flavour of Choir for a better faction (My dislike of Menoth is well known, have a listen to Lost Hemisphere Radio and hear me dislike the faction often!).

The Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex solo is a dude that must be insane; he runs around with Vectors and acts as a living, roaming Arc Node for the faction, extending the range of spells for the faction.  Sounds like this guy could be used as bait, or as a great tie up piece that allows you to channel a spell from the Warcaster as well as block a charge lane to the Vector who is going to trade your piece for the solo if you choose to attack it.  Combine this with his Field Allowance of four (4!) for 1 point each, and you likely have an auto-include 4 points for every Convergence list.  And yes Will spoiled that these Optifex dudes all have the Iron Sentinel rule to help beef up their DEF and ARM when base to base with a Vector, but these guys are going to be key to the faction I think, and unless you are a Warcaster who grants Field Marshall [Arc Node] to your army are going to require some finesse to use properly and ensure their survival.

 

Next preview unveiled the second living warcaster for the faction; Aurora, Numen of Aerogenesis.  Not only an impressive name, but this winged valkyrie looks amazing and could well be the prettiest model ever, we’ll have to decide that when the model is previewed and painted by the studio.

Toted as having the ability of “true flight” in the April 17th Insider, I suspect that she has a spell that will allow the Clockwork Angels unit the ability to use Flight without risking free strikes, much like MK I Wings ability.  This makes her very very interesting, and couple that with the fact that she has the Transference spell to allow models in her control area to use her Focus and she sounds like a little bit of the all right.  Clockwork Angels also get CMA from her Elite Cadre [Clockwork Angels] and she has Flank [Clockwork Angels] to make sure she herself can help these flighty trios when they are put to work on the table.  True Path for models in her army is nice, speeding things up and acting as another source of Pathfinder in the faction.  It’s also interesting to note she may be the fifth and final Warcaster of the initial release, which may be why she was previewed early and not included in the cards seen in the presentation video from Templecon 2013.

 

Next up we were finally granted a peak into the Heavy Infantry options for the Convergence, and Will Schick graced us with a preview of the way the weapons and armour of the Convergence models might work.  The April 24th Insider presented us with the three different types of Heavy Infantry for the Convergence of Cyriss; the Reciprocators, the Eradicators and the Perforators.  Using what has been named “Protean” weaponry, the heavy infantry options all have multipurpose weapons that allow them some utility and options on the battlefield.  The Reciprocators boast an impressive ARM 20 when in Shield Wall, and they can either use Set Defense or Empowered Attack with their protean halberds.  So either +2 DEF against a charge or +2 to damage rolls as the situation requires.

The Eradicators seem to suit their name with Sidestep as an ability and a pair of bucklers that grant them +2 ARM when under the Shields Up protean option, otherwise gaining +2 to attack rolls for MAT 9 and some nice infantry-shredding options.  These guys with very little support should be able to tear up the enemy lines, and be chased with Reciprocators for further damage next turn.

The Perforators are the ranged option of Heavy Infantry, with a very cool looking Gear Blade and Spear Gun protean weapon combo.

From what is previewed the unit has Assault which combos nicely with an ability for Variable [Ranged] to give them +4″ range similar to Snipe or Empowered Attack to give them a +2 bonus to damage and get the javelins to a POW 8 Armor Piercing attack, which is bonkers good against medium and large-based models.  I really like how the Protean weapons all give some very cool options for the models previewed, and I hope to see a lot more of them in the future.

 

That gets us caught up with what has been previewed for the Convergence through to May, and I want to save a little more exploration of the faction for another article, as there is some really good stuff that has been previewed by David “DC” Carl since the beginning of May and in the pages of No Quarter magazine issue # 48.  As we’ve seen and read so far, there is a ton of exciting releases coming out for all the Warmachine factions this year, and the introduction of a new and demanded faction just serves to ensure that we all get tempted by something new and shiny in 2013.  If cool-looking Steampunk robots are your thing (and they really should be!), I think that just like me, you will find you are all-in on this new faction and hoping to start replacing body parts as early as June, 2013.

All Hail the Iron Maiden, and may all your Protean Blades be sharp!

– NB

P.S. – Sorry about the delay in today’s article, but I hope the read was worth the wait!