In just a couple of days I’ll be teaming up with some colleagues to share all sorts of information about the Convergence of Cyriss in a class called “Deciphering the Convergence” at Lock & Load GameFest 2013. We’ll talk about the Cyrissist faith, their beliefs and agendas, the organizational hierarchy, the Nine Harmonics, and much more. I’ll also explain the three pillars that informed our development efforts for the Convergence model rules.

Though I won’t go into the same level of detail here as I will in “Deciphering the Convergence,” I do want to briefly share those three pillars with the broader community.

The first core gameplay element of the Convergence army is clockwork play style.

The Convergence of Cyriss has a lot of interlocking parts, and this is completely by design. Models are intended to function at their best when used in conjunction with other models in the faction. A SPD 4, MAT 5 warjack with a crippled cortex would typically be next to useless. A vector in the same situation, however, can get damage points back, gain focus points, gain Pathfinder, increase movement, charge for free, and even hit automatically! This requires some setup using Repair, induction, All-Terrain, Beacon, and Quake (for example), but it represents the way the Convergence army functions as a grand machine of clockwork destruction. This example is an extreme case, but even the most basic Convergence armies will frequently use induction and Repair, which are common faction elements that promote interlocking gameplay.

The second core element of the Convergence army is centralized control.

The powerful warcasters of the Convergence exert a direct controlling hand over their battlegroups, moving their vectors across the battlefield like chess pieces on a board. Though every WARMACHINE and HORDES army changes dramatically when you change the warcaster or warlock, the changes are even more pronounced in the Convergence of Cyriss. Not only does a different warcaster provide new spells and a new feat, they also provide their battlegroup with a new stat line and a defining Field Marshal ability. Vectors range widely from the MAT 7, RAT 2 charging berserkers led by Axis the Harmonic Enforcer to the MAT 5, RAT 5 spell-slingers led by Iron Mother Directrix. Convergence armies never have autonomous vectors or independent models, however. Without an operational central gear powering the machine, its many cogs will cease to function.

The third core element of the Convergence army is warjack centricity.

I’m not looking to start the age-old focus versus fury debate, but the different economies of WARMACHINE and HORDES lead to different army composition and play style. Much of this is by design, but it’s also a design that we wanted to buck with the Convergence of Cyriss. We set out to create a WARMACHINE army where it is entirely reasonable to run six warjacks or more when desired. The induction ability is a keystone in bringing this plan to life. Given proper board positioning, each warjack beyond the first provides a point of focus to the army rather than simply placing demands on that limited resource. Additionally, a number of faction abilities are geared towards alleviating focus needs. Just one focus point from induction might be enough to allow an Inverter to scrap an opposing light warjack after we factor Beacon, Quake, and Imperil into the mix. The faction’s focus on numerous warjacks is behind nearly every facet of the Corollary light vector, a warjack whose purpose is to crank up the faction’s focus efficiency so they can run more warjacks.

So there you have it: the three pillars of Convergence development were the faction’s clockwork play style, centralized control, and warjack centricity. Writing about it has made me even more eager to get in a few more games with my Convergence of Cyriss army, a force that is ready to emerge from the shadows come Lock & Load.

Locked & Loaded,
-DC