Converging on Convergence

October 21, 2016 by neathleanan 3 Comments

Ever since the launch of Warmachine MK3 some of my friends here have been muttering about running a Journeyman League. Well, June turned to July, then August and nothing happened. But with the summer over, September seemed a natural time to reboot some Warmachine love!

I volunteered to run the League (which could have been a mistake) but I did have an ulterior motive… When we ran our last Journeyman League, I was going to start building the models I had in the ‘Convergence’ box. That obviously did not happen, so I was quite determined that with an All New War should come and an all new army. And as a big plus, nobody else at club is playing Convergence so this would be new for everyone.

The plan was simple, have the models prepared before the league starts, and use a simple colour scheme, so I can paint stuff fast. I failed on both counts.

OK, possibly this might be an overly harsh statement because I did prepare most of the models before the league and five weeks in, I do have a fully painted 65 point army (OK, almost fully painted 65 points).

Because I did not have a Galvanizer, I had to adjust Syntherion’s battlegroup, but over the course of five weeks this is how my army grew:

Week One (0 points, battlebox):
Forgemaster Syntherion
Monitor
Diffuser

Week Two (10 points, battlegroup):
Conservator

Week Three (25 points):
Cipher
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex

Week Four (50 points):
Corollary
Reciprocators (Min)
Optifex Directive

Week Five (65 points):
Transfinite Emergence Projector

You will notice this is missing a 75 point list. This is because I originally planned to swap warcasters in week four, so the Reciprocators could become a five robot unit, and I could add a Steelsoul Protector; however this did not happen. Plus the last week of the league clashed with my daughter’s birthday, so bullet dodged there.

As the League has developed it has been interesting, and frustrating, to play Convergence. At the low points levels Syntherion is focus staved without the Corollary, making it very difficult to use his best spell, Magnetic Hold. On the flip side, once his three battlegroup upkeep spells are cast (Reconstruct, Hot Shot and Synergy), he can keep them going for free.

With the new rules, ‘focus induction’ vs ‘power up’ is also interesting, and induction requires some skill to use efficiently. For example, sometimes you won’t be able to induct focus because your plans change mid-turn putting your Vectors out of position, or sometimes the stupid robots just over-perform leaving you unable to induct that last critical focus point to another Vector. On the other hand, chain inducting three focus across many Vectors is really good when it works just right.

Coming from Retribution and Cygnar, the Reciprocators have been a revelation. Hardy medium infantry is glorious! And I can see the TEP (Transfinite Emergence Projector) has great potential although I have only used it once. Running Convergence can something be a bit of a puzzle.

So far my results reflect some of the complexity of this faction and it has been a struggle. This said, there is plenty of potential here and once the Journeyman League is finished, I will explore Convergence outside the restrictions of the JML, and that will begin with a tournament at the end of October.

Wish me luck, because I’m going to need it!