Analyzing OTC Nemo3 List Builds

Nemo3 is the biggest caster in Cygnar at the moment. On his feat turn, his two striders and dynamo melt heavies, and all the lightning generator he can bring melts infantry regardless of its defense. There are twelve Nemo3 lists at this year's OTC, half each of storm division and heavy metal. This should give us a decent sense of what's popular in his lists. Let's dissect things.

Storm Striders

One of the key inclusions in any Nemo3 list is double striders. Ten of the list have this. Only two of them have just a single Storm Strider. My guess is that this is because like myself, those two people don't own two of them.

Fireflies

All of the Nemo3 lists have fireflies. The most popular count is 2, which we see in six lists. Three lists have 4, two lists have 5, and one list has 3 fireflies. I only own two fireflies, so it pleases me to think that this many people think two is enough. Or maybe they all only own two?

Dynamo / Stormwall

With the insane amount of damage Dynamo puts out on feat turn, it's not surprising that he's in all but one list. That list is Tom Guan's Nemo3 list in the "Get Schwifty" team. He has a Stormwall instead. Interestingly this is the only appearance of a colossal in any of the Nemo3 lists here. The stormwall's synergy with Nemo3's feat is less pronounced than the Hurricaine's would be, but the feat does make lightning pods more likely to disrupt.

Stormlances

There was a time when it was canon that stormlances formed the core of any Nemo3 list. But of the six Storm Division lists at this year's OTC, only two have lances. One has a max unit, and one has double min lances. The loss of Laddermore's boost and the e-leaps on the shots has changed the paradigm.

Jakes / Thunderhead

Two lists have the Jakes/Thunderhead combo, and one list has Thunderhead on Nemo. One list also has Jakes with a firefly. Personally, I'm a big fan of Thunderhead, and putting him on Jakes makes sense, granting him a couple extra inches of threat and upping his defensive stats to 14/19.

Squire

Only seven of the twelve lists included a squire, showing that it's less of an auto-include than I'd originally imagined. I expect that the focus efficiency Finch grants is enough to fuel jacks, and Nemo3's feat doesn't require as great a control area since only his own models need to be inside it.

Journeyman Warcaster / Arlan Strangewayes

The junior is in every list. Surprise. And Arlan is in 10 of the 12 lists.

Arc Nodes

There are no hurricaines, and only four of the twelve Nemo3 lists include a lancer. With Force Hammer being such a strong play, I'd have expected to see more.

Merc Models

Only two of the storm division lists brought a mercenary model. One brought a gobber tinker, and I'm sure it's because they had an extra two points they couldn't decide how to spend. The other brought Reinholdt. My first thought was about Nemo's lightning generator shot, but then I realized the main reason Reinholdt was there: stealth negation. When you can negate stealth on a single model near a stealthed infantry swarm, bouncing leaps into the rest of them allows you to solve the problem neatly.

Stormcallers

Five of the six Storm Division players found another answer to stealth: stormcallers. One player brought three trios, three players brought two trios, and one brought only the three stormcallers. Only one storm division player brought none.

Field Mechanics

Two lists carry a double min unit, which to me seems the best option by far, and one carries a max unit. By having the small inexpensive units, it becomes easy to score circle zones. Plus, hiding those min units behind a huge base is a great way to keep your strider around for an extra round or two.

Stormguard. Stormguard??!?

Yes. Two different lists included stormguard, which is weird. I believe I heard on Combo Smite that the Silverline was in the list simply because of the ten point cost. Hey - cheap unchargable infantry. What's more interesting to me is the list that took double min stormguard rather than a second storm strider. That to me is making a very bold claim that this group of infantry is somehow better in a Nemo3 list than the model that everyone else who took Nemo3 took max field allowance on. How could that be?

I'm tempted to write this list off as crazy, but let's look for a method to the madness. Stormguard are so rarely taken that it's hard to even remember what it is they do. And maybe that's part of the play here: The dark horse factor. Nobody knows what stormguard do. They shred infantry. Each of them has a MAT7 POW12 range 2 attack which then generates an e-leap. A nearby firefly can make that an auto-hitting POW12. And if it's Nemo's feat turn, it's a lot of boosted e-leaps.

These guys are DEF14 versus charges, and I imagine that he'll advance them ranked one behind the other. While stormguard can already move through other models in the unit, the stormblade captain allows the two units of stormguard to move through each other. So perhaps is the plan to advance the stormguard in two lines, spaced to avoid blast damage, and catch the alpha. Then Nemo counter-punches. Any heavy gets melted by a strider and dynamo. If it's infantry, the unit and its e-leaps can deal with it. Then the second unit charges through the first to deal with any more infantry. And if there's a heavy there, the stormlances in the back charge through both units of stormguard to hit it. It seems like a difficult trick to pull off, but I'd love to see it work. For myself, stormguards' schtick is so janky and hard to manage that I would just never bother.

Lt. Gwen Keller

One list has the new solo Gwen Keller. Not sure why. I guess she's got that small lightning AoE that stays in place that could be useful? I guess her voltaic vortex grenade could possibly do some work on feat turn. If nothing else, she can probably hold a flag pretty well.

Notable Absences

Neither Laddermore nor any storm towers appear in any of the six storm division lists. Perhaps people have decided that unboostable high POW lightning generator attacks are no longer valuable when you've got two striders. There are likewise no stormblade infantry. I always thought that advance move made them a good choice in storm division, but I guess that Nemo3 isn't lacking for armor cracking.

Final Thoughts

To me, the two most interesting Nemo3 lists at the OTC by far are Black Knight Prime's stormguard list, and Get Schwify's list that includes Reinholdt and a stormwall. The others hew pretty strongly to the standard Nemo3 formula. I also just noticed that The Dad Bod Squad has a Nemo3 list which is literally identical to my own Nemo3 list, which I've yet to play.