All Your Focus Are Belong To Us: Profiling Nemo1

Nemo1 has been my favorite caster in the game for a while. Maybe it's because nobody would ever think to take him to a tournament, maybe it's for the same reason that I've vowed to never play a Haley, or maybe it's because he's been so disregarded for so long. Maybe all those reasons are actually the same reason. In any event, I loves me some pNemo. Let's do a deep dive on my favorite caster and see what makes the lecherous old coot tick.




It's true, I've always envisioned Nemo as a dirty old man. And I don't approve of that. But I love putting his model on the table. I've been hearing a lot of buzz about Nemo1 recently on forums and in podcasts. It makes sense that in such a jack-heavy meta, the ultimate anti-jack caster would thrive.

In the same way that Caine1 is an anti-infantry caster, Nemo1 is an anti-jack caster. The difference is that while Caine1 has to rely on his army to deal with armor, Nemo1 has tools to deal with infantry. In fact, Nemo1 has tools to deal with just about everything. Heavy Infantry spam he doesn't like, and warbeasts he needs his jacks to deal with, but overall he's very well-rounded.

Spells

CHAIN LIGHTNING
Nemo1's primary anti-infantry tool. The advantage that chain lightning has over the firefly or Laddermore's lightning generator is twofold. Firstly, it's magic. Secondly, you can boost any of the leaps. I've often considered (but never succeeded in) an assassination based on multiple chain lightnings bouncing off another model and boosting the leap that hit a caster. To keep Nemo safe, you'll usually want to use an arc node for this spell.

DECELERATION
Probably the most useful spell Nemo has. Yes, it's expensive, but you've got ten focus. You should be casting this every round if your opponent has guns. It brings heavies up to a near-unshootable level, keeps arcane shielded stormlances or stormblades very safe, and increases survivability on other models a good bit.

LIGHTNING SHROUD
When you can allocate four to a jack, that +2 damage bonus is even better. Plus, the electroleaps can be super-handy in clearing out infantry. Just keep in mind that it's only range 6. You'll want an arc node if you plan on casting lightning shroud after turn 1.

LOCOMOTION
I've often heard it called a poor man's energizer, but in many respects I think it's better. It's certainly more flexible. If you only need a single inch, you can get it for a single focus. Plus, you can move further than with energizer.

Locomotion can have some fairly complex and seriously useful applications. The obvious two are for extending threat ranges or pulling shooty jacks back to safety after they shoot. But what about locomoting over a wall and then charging? Or moving a jack out of a charge lane, and then allowing it to activate later? There are corner cases for all the corners.

The most important thing to remember about locomotion is its biggest limiting factor: Range 6. Locomotion is the single biggest reason I recommend an arc node with Nemo. You do not want to have Nemo far enough forward to cast this on a relevant jack.

VOLTAIC SNARE
A solid tool in Nemo's anti-jack toolbelt. Sorry, Earthbreaker. I'm going to park here on this flag 6.1" away from you, and you're not going to be able to touch me. Your boosted POW13 shots won't do much either, because deceleration. Being able to stop a jack from running or charging severely limits their threat range. Jacks without ranged weapons are even sadder. And with that big AoE, you can catch multiple jacks if they're close enough.

Feat

Nemo catches a lot of flak for his feat. And yeah - in many matchups, he might as well not have a feat. The game I had recently against Ossrum/Earthbreaker comes to mind. I could have gotten a single auto-hit on the colossal, but that was entirely inconsequential. Against Hordes, the disruption is irrelevant as well, but Nemo can put the hurt on light beast spam. And if he brings a firefly, it can really help.

Timing the feat correctly can be a big deal too. In many ways, disrupting jacks can function identically to voltaic snare, preventing them from running or charging. Just watch out for empower models like warwitch sirens, or you may find that kraken that you thought you were safe from ripping your stormclad a new one.

Other Tools and Tricks 

My personal take on Nemo is that he's all about manipulating threat ranges. I had nothing but failure with Nemo until I realized that, and I've done fairly well since. He increases his own threat range with locomotion and Lanyssa, and reduces enemy threat by disrupting jacks, throwing down voltaic snares, and plopping an unchargable centurian just outside of your walking threat range.

Nemo likes a big battlegroup. I've heard of him being played with charger spam, and I can see that being effective. Nemo can personally power a half-dozen chargers for 12 double-boosted POW12s, cast deceleration, and be able to camp 1 or 2. That would be a strong list. But personally, I like to take heavies. Almost exclusively heavies - the exception being an arc node. Why? Because when you can give a model four focus, you really want to take advantage of being able to maximize that damage output. But that's my personal opinion. What I've found is the bigger deal is knowing when NOT to allocate a jack up to 4 focus. When you're moving in on a heavy, it can be hard to allocate less. But especially with Nemo, I've found that I often overallocate and waste focus. It's just something to keep in mind.

Nemo's overpower rule is something that I'd mostly ignored for a long time. But especially recently, I've found a number of situations in which it's made an enormous difference. An extra two inches of control area for a single focus is very nice. At first, I'd always use it to allow my jacks to go further afield in the hopes of keeping Nemo further back to prevent assassinations. That's nice, but once I realized all the other things it was good for, I started using it much more.

Overpower lets your feat reach insanely far. You could theoretically catch all enemy models in your feat at the top of one by dropping 7 focus into overpower for a feat threat range of 14 + 2 for the squire + 14 for overpower + 5" walk = 35". That is, of course, an extreme case. But it gives you an idea just what Nemo is capable of.

Overpower can be used to expand the area of protection offered by deleceration. This is actually what I use it most for now. Often it's just that extra 2" that makes a big difference.

Lastly, when you've lost one of your models that generates power tokens, or when you want your journeyman warcaster to camp focus this round instead of recasting arcane shield or shooting an arcane bolt, expanding your control area a bit to include the enemy warcaster can be helpful in getting maximum power tokens.

To me, Nemo's Arcane Accumulator is more than just something that makes him good. It's what makes Nemo Nemo. Seven focus is nice. Ten focus is even better. With Nemo, you should have ten (eleven with the squire!) focus every turn. And the sense of character that's forced upon Nemo's army by the mandatory inclusion of spellcasters... I just think it's cool. If you're in theme, you're limited to Arlan, Junior, and Jakes. More on that later. But when you play out of theme like I always have, there are more options.

• The Tactical Arcanist Corps. Since they lost their five boxes at the outset of Mk3, nobody plays them. They're slow, they have victim stats, and they never earn their points back. But they give Nemo three power tokens every turn all on their own, and they provide him the protection that any squishy old man caster so badly needs. I avoided them for so long, but my new Nemo1 list fit them in. Now, I like to put two of them behind cover and drop smoke, then park Nemo behind that smoke. The TAC have cover and concealment, which ups their defensive stats to respectable levels, and Nemo is out of sight. He really likes not being murdered. It's his favorite thing.
• Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress. I was bummed when she went from 3 to 4 points, but I still take her. With a caster that's all about threat ranges, an extra two inches from her Hunter's Mark is very nice. And having a free charge is like your 4 focus jack getting an additional focus. It's just bananas.
• Ragman. To my mind, getting the best use out of Ragman means maximizing what he gives you. Typically, that's infantry, since more mans equals more attacks to get that +2 damage. But with a jack, the extra attack granted by Nemo's extra allocated focus will also make optimal use of the buff. Think about Ragman standing behind a lightning shrouded Stormclad with 4 focus. We're talking about five POW23 attacks. If you can pull it off, that will come close to one-rounding a colossal.
• Rorsch & Brine seem like an odd choice. But I like them with Nemo because of the possibility of the Hordes matchup. They give power tokens, and that's sweet of them, but there's one reason I really like them with Nemo: Gaps. Nemo's stength is against jacks. Brine likes eating living models, and so he covers Nemo's weak spot. Plus, I'm just a huge fan of Rorsch and Brine in general.
• You could also consider Gastonne, Brun & Lug, Aiyanna & Holt, or one of the Alexias with Nemo1, but I don't see nearly as much value with those models.

Attachments

To my mind, there's only one attachment that makes any sense with Nemo. The squire. The squire increases Nemo's default control area from 14" to 16", boosts him up to 11 focus for three turns, and gives him re-rolls on those chain lightnings you might have otherwise missed. I have in the past considered Sylys, because 4-dice-drop-the-lowest on chain lightning damage rolls is nice. But the squire is still the superior choice.

Warjacks

With Nemo especially, warjack selection is big. Fortunately, it's nearly impossible to choose wrong unless you pick something like Triumph. Nemo's warjacks are like his childrens. He loves them all. Except Triumph. So let's look at the options and review the viability of each.

• Firefly: Yes, for a number of reasons. Nemo loves him some lightning, and the Firefly can boost his feat damage, his chain lightning damage, and his character jack's damage. Plus, Nemo will probably have a journeyman warcaster along, and the firefly is a great choice for which jack to have her run.
• Sentinel: Yes. As the best available shield guard option, you'll often want a sentinel. It's tougher than the bokur or the trench buster, even if it does cost a bit more. Plus, it's a warjack, and Nemo loves those! While its primary purpose is to keep Nemo alive, it's also great for absorbing Eiryss shots means to disrupt an important heavy, or just for some extra infantry clearing.
• Charger: Yes. Cygnar's best light jack and its amazing gun are another great choice for Nemo. One focus to help boost the charger's second shot is no sweat off Nemo's massive focus stack. 
• Minuteman: Probably better with Nemo than with any other caster. The minuteman's two main flaws are first that it's too focus hungry, and secondly that it wants to travel so far so fast that it would quickly end up outside of its caster's control area. Nemo doesn't care about either issue. Boosted POW14s are great to hit heavies and then jump/locomotion back, and flak is great for clearing high defense infantry.
• Lancer: Yes. If you're playing in theme, Nemo will almost certainly need a lancer, although I personally prefer to play out of theme with Thorn. Your only other choice is a Hurricaine, but the lancer is very solid for ten points. Keep your arc node safe, because without it, you'll basically lose locomotion.
• Hunter - an interesting choice, if only because a hunter can get insanely far away from Nemo. The two are literally able to sit in opposite deployment zones and remain in control area. The hunter wouldn't be my first choice with Nemo, but it's certainly a solid warjack.
• Ace - I love Ace, but I would never take him with Nemo, or really with anyone other than Caine. His rune shots are what make him good.
• Hammersmith - Yes. As my most recently painted model, it is of course my favorite at the moment. The hammersmith is cheap, well-armored, has some nice abilities, and some serious hitting power. With lightning shroud, it's got seven POW20 attacks, and can do a number on a colossal single-handedly.
• Ironclad - Yes. Another great, cheap heavy. It's hard to go wrong with an ironclad.
• Cyclone - The cyclone has been less popular recently, largely due to its anti-infantry role in a jack-heavy meta. But I've been drawn to it recently because its 2-6 shots per turn aren't POW10s, they're POW12s. Against those forge guard that wrecked Nemo's army and seemed immune to POW10s, having another four POW12 shots would have made a big difference.
• Thorn - Hell yes. One of my absolute favorite jacks to have with Nemo. Thorn can move 4" with a one-point locomotion or an extra 6" with three points, giving him a 17" threat on five lightning shrouded POW15 attacks. You can have Arlan give him evasive for a damned-if-you-do thing, or cast a chain lightning and have him duck back behind a building. With deceleration, he's 13/20 against shooting.
• Reliant - It's really hard to recommend a reliant. The reliant is in competition with Triumph for worst jack in Cygnar. But it's nearly as cheap as an ironclad, has a better crit knockdown than an ironclad, and has a boostable POW13 AoE lightning gun which a firefly can bring to POW15. If you're feeling adventurous, give it a go!
• Defender - Another of my favorites to take with Nemo. In an early iteration of my Nemo list, I had two ironclads. But I realized that for sometimes two turns, they'd be jockeying for position and getting no work done, so I swapped in a defender. The defender did not disappoint. It spends those early turns putting out some serious damage at extreme range, and then charges in and wrecks cortexes.
• Avenger - Nearly as good as a centurian. Great armor, great knockdown gun, and using his stun sword on Nemo's feat turn means that any jacks the avenger hits are doing nothing next turn.
• Centurian - Yes. Another jack that I take in every Nemo list. Polarity field synergizes so nicely with Nemo's threat range control shenanigans. And if the centurian wrecks everything in sight and ends up with focus to spare, you've got something to use it on.
• Gallant - I'm new to Gallant. I just got the model, and haven't yet painted it. My initial impression is that I'd want him with a caster like Caine who could improve his already-excellent defense. But putting Gallant on Jakes with Nemo might be an option because sidekick. A defense 15 heavy warjack isn't something you can easily ignore.
• Brickhouse - Brickhouse is the new guy on the block. With carapace, he's already unshootable. Deflection makes that simply ridiculous. But you can't take him in theme, which is what the cool kids are doing with Nemo nowadays. But his force hold goes well with the threat control theme I prefer with Nemo. Perhaps he'll be worth a try at some point.
• Dynamo - The best warjack with Nemo. And while Nemo3 gives Dynamo a single round of ridiculous shooting by giving an additional die on his every attack, Nemo lets you boost Dynamo's every shot every single turn. For that reason, it's very possible that Nemo1 is the best caster in the game for Dynamo.
• Ol' Rowdy - A strong and focus-efficient jack with a lot of bells and whistles. I can see him being decent on Nemo, although personally, if I'm spending that many points, there are a number of other jacks I'd rather put on Nemo.
• Stormclad - An extremely solid choice. Very hard-hitting, potential for free focus, and locomotion can compensate for its gun's short range. You can even take an assault shot and then locomotion back to keep the stormclad safe.
• Thunderhead - Often hard to justify due to the expense, but Thunderhead has a lot of tools. For infantry-clearing, he's hard to beat. And his gun is very nice. Thunderhead with lightning shroud is a monster.
• Triumph - No.
• Hurricaine - Cygnar's newest colossal is a potentially excellent choice for Nemo1. I've got zero experience, but having an arc node with bigass lightning slam guns sounds pretty good.
• Stormwall - The stormwall doesn't need me to sell it, and once again - zero experience with playing colossals - but I've been quite happy without. 

One of the big questions I've struggled with when selecting jacks with Nemo is the choice between cheap heavies and heavies with guns. Jacks like the Ironclad and Hammersmith are great for only 12 points, but they run the risk of sitting back and doing nothing. On the other hand, a defender or stormclad in the same spot can at least contribute in those rounds before entering melee. It can be a bit of a balancing act, and there's no one correct answer.

Themes 

The buzz at the moment is all about Nemo1 in Heavy Metal, and I can see how that would be really good. But before I dive into that, I'll give you my personal take on why I prefer playing Nemo out of theme. Firstly, restricting Nemo to Heavy Metal means that he's got access to exactly three models that can provide him with power tokens: Junior, Jakes, and Arlan. Those are all good models, and all easy to recommend. But it feels so limiting. My other reason is that there are so many other models that I love to play with Nemo, even if they're not mathematically the best possible models. Lanyssa, TAC, Ragman. See above.

My first Nemo1 list was as fluffy as all getout. It was named "Nemo's Angles", and I was very proud of the pun. I based it on a Charlie's Angels theme since Nemo apparently likes the young ladies in his fluff. He had Jakes, Lanyssa, and my female journeyman variant to provide him with power tokens, and the interesting angles of attack afforded by locomotion and energizer were the reason for the "angles" component in the list title.

After a bit, I'd heard how the Tactical Arcanists were really only ever worth taking with Nemo1, so I decided to try them out. This eventually led to my second Nemo list, "pNeumatic", in which I added Dynamo and the TAC, and dropped the unit of stormblades. Here is its current iteration:

pNeumatic
Commander Adept Nemo
Squire
Centurian
Thorn
Hammersmith
Dynamo
Journeyman Warcaster
*Firefly (or Sentinel)
Storm Lances (min)
Tactical Arcanist Corps
Arlan Strangewayes (or Arcane Tempest Rifleman)
Gobber Tinker
Field Mechaniks - Crew Chief & 3 Grunts

As you can see, I've got a couple models I swap in and out. I'm strongly considering getting rid of the Storm Lances in this list and perhaps adding another jack. Maybe a second firefly and a four point solo. I do really like the huge amount of repair I've got here. In my last Nemo game, I brought Thorn from six boxes back up to full over the course of two turns (before being wrecked by forge guard)

I'm still working on a Heavy Metal variant I like. I want two fireflies. I'd wanted to include a stormclad, but I'm having a difficult time bringing myself to put one in without a storm knight of any kind to give it that extra free focus. Without the tinker, I'd like to up the repair crew to a max unit, or else go with two min units. I'd like to try the minuteman, which I haven't fielded yet in mk3, and I'd really like to try out Thunderhead, although I'll need to paint mine first. I've gotten to be such a snob that I hate playing unpainted models. Without the cloud wall from the TAC, I worry about keeping Nemo alive, so I'm considering whether or not to include my sentinel. Lots to ponder.

The current iteration of my Heavy Metal working list is as follows:

Commander Adept Nemo
Squire
Centurian
Hammersmith
Dynamo
Thunderhead
Lancer
Minuteman
Journeyman Warcaster
*Firefly
Lt. Alison Jakes
*Firefly
Arlan Strangewayes
Field Mechaniks - Crew Chief & 3 Grunts