Warmachine Gravediggers Core and Auxiliary Expansion Sets Review

You airdropped in with the Warmachine Gravediggers Command Starter and Battlegroup Box, but the enemy has dug in harder than you thought, and you call for reinforcements. Steamforged Games has answered those calls, and the Gravediggers Core and Auxiliary Expansions are ready for deployment. In this article, we'll have a look at what both boxes contain and how they fit into the Command Starter and Battlegroup Box.

Warmachine, a tabletop wargame that initially came to life to focus on balanced and competitive gameplay, has been around since 2003 under Privateer Press, until last year when Steamforged Games announced that they had bought the IP. Warmachine had recently moved into a new edition of the rules, and SFG has continued to run with that, kicking off a roadmap of new and exciting releases. These releases began with a brand-new 2-player starter set, which we reviewed here.

Airdrops Requested!

The Gravediggers are a new army under the Cygnar faction, and can trace their history back to the early days of Warmachine in 2003. The Gravediggers come from a group known as the Trenchers, who were a theme army in the original Warmachine and grew and developed through the various editions of the game. Now, under Steamforged Games, the Gravediggers bring the Trenchers back with a unique twist: they can airdrop weapons, supplies, and even Warjacks into the battlefield, letting them react to the changing landscape and keep your opponents on their toes.

Warmachine Gravediggers Core Expansion Set

The Gravediggers Command Core Expansion Set includes a force that can be played out of the box, but you will have to make some choices on force construction, unlike the Gravediggers Command Starter Set, which will get you straight into the game. But if you're looking for a larger force, or you already have the command starter and want to expand, then the Core Expansion will suit you well.

The Gravediggers Core Expansion Set contains:

• Major Grant Vargus (Warcaster)
• Lieutenant Stella Barron (Character Solo)
• Gravedigger Rangers A (Unit)
• Gravedigger Rangers B (Unit)
• Trollkin Express Sniper (Command Attachment)
• Heavy Machine Gun Crew (Solo)
• Mantlet (Light Airdrop / Defense)
• Gun Mages (Unit)
• Blocker (Light Warjack / Heavy Airdrop)
• Skirmisher (Light Warjack / Heavy Airdrop)

Leading the box from the front is Major Vargus, who has Fleet and Evasive to allow them to get to the front quickly and attack with their powerful Balefire Cannon with D3+1 shots. They also give other Cohort units in their battlegroup Fleet, which lets them spend 1 focus point to add 2 speed that turn. Their feat also gives nearby friendly units +3 armor, allowing you to set up a gunline in the face of the enemy and hamper the power of their return fire. Vargus is backed up by Lieutenant Barron, who, once per turn, can use their Battle Plan ability to give a friendly model a bonus from a choice of 3, like Sneak, which gives a nearby unit with concealment, stealth.

The box comes with 3 units, 2 units of 5 Rangers, and a unit of 3 Gun Mages. The Gun Mages can deploy further forward than normal at the start of the game, and come armed with Magelock Pistols, which can fire 3 different types of ammo, giving them either +3 range, an additional dice on attack (then discarding the lowest), or an Electro Leap, which can damage another enemy nearby to their target. The Rangers come in units of 5, and each has 3 heavy rifles and 2 machine gun-armed Rangers. The Rangers can dig in to give their unit concealment and combine their attacks for brutal strikes against resistant enemies.

The box also includes a Heavy Machine Gun Crew, who can forward deploy and always have cover due to their reinforcement rule. They can make a free attack once per turn if an enemy comes within 8 inches, and their weapon's tracer round attack ignores stealth, and lights up enemies,s making them easier for your other units to hit. A Trollkin Express Sniper is also included and can only be attached to a Ranger unit. The Trollkin ignores concealment and cover when making attacks, and when targeting warjacks, they can pick the damage column when they hit. They also give the unit their attached to a once per game Cautious Advance ability, where the unit makes a full advance, digs in, and then performs combat actions.

The box completes with airdrop units and has 2 of the 3 Heavy Airdrop warjacks (with the third, the Raider, in the Auxiliary Expansion), and the Light Airdrop Manlet. These units can arrive as part of the Heavy and Light Airdrop command cards, and appear 1 inch away from the unit playing the command card. The warjacks in this set can come in under the control of Vargus (who doesn't have a Warjack in this set, but can use one from other sets), or under the control of Stella, the Rangers, or Gun Mages.

Warmachine Gravediggers Auxiliary Expansion Set

The Gravediggers Auxiliary Expansion Set, like the Core Expansion detailed above, can be used by itself with some choices out of the box or combined with the Command Starter (or any other Gravedigger set). This expansion adds more specialized units and completes the options for the Light and Heavy airdrop command cards (if you've picked up with Command, Battlegroup, and Core sets, you will have all of the airdrop options).

The Gravediggers Auxiliary Expansion Set contains:

• Colonel Allison Jakes (Warcaster)
• Gravedigger Commandos (Unit)
• Commando Officer (Command Attachment)
• Captain Argo Brock (Character Solo)
• Beaker (Character Heavy Warjack)
• Raider (Light Warjack / Heavy Airdrop)
• Fuel Canister (Light Airdrop)

The Auxiliary Expansion Set is commanded by Colonel Jakes, the highest-ranking Gravedigger available. Jakes likes to synergize with multiple units, using abilities like Butcher's Bill, which allows you to advance 3 inches and attack with a nearby unit, if one of your units was damaged that turn. This combines with the Synergy spell, which provides a cumulative bonus (capping at +3) on melee attacks and melee damage to each subsequent model hitting a unit. Backing up Jakes is the warjack Breaker, with an empowered arc node, which reduces the cost of spells channeled through it by one. Breaker is extremely durable, removing an additional damage when the repair action is used on it, along with the ability to spend a focus point once per turn to remove D3 damage, further boosted by being resistant to corrosion, electricity, and fire.

The included solo is Captain Argo Brock, who once per turn can boost a nearby unit's next melee attack by +2 damage, or stand up all knocked-down friendly units within 10 inches. Their rate of fire D3 chain gun is effective against medium and large models, and they can draw fire from nearby friendly units with their Shield Guard ability. The Commandos in this set are a unit of 3 Grunts and 2 Support Troopers, and also come with the Command Attached, Commando Officer. As you would imagine, the Commandos can forward deploy, and they can also deploy in any of our control phases after the first turn with their Ambush ability. When attacking, if they hit and fail to damage, they always deal 1 damage, and they can drop a smoke template as an action to avoid return fire. If the unit has the Officer attached, they get access to the Mission Objective ability once per game, which gives all members of this unit +2 to hit and damage a chosen unit for the rest of the turn.

The Auxiliary Expansion closes with a Raider warjack, that is the third type that can be deployed using the Heavy Airdrop command card (along with the Blocker and Skirmisher from the Core Expansion) and the Fuel Canister from the Light Airdrop command card, which can be deployed instead of the other Light Airdrop options from the other Gravedigger sets.

Warmachine Gravediggers Core and Auxiliary Expansion Sets Final Thoughts?

If you're just starting out in your Warmachine or Gravediggers journey, then I do encourage you to start with the Gravediggers Command Starter, which gives a solid impression of the faction and a good core for starting out. After that, adding in either the Battlegroup Box for extra warjacks, or the Core or Auxiliary Expansion sets adds some real flair for what the faction can do. The Core Expansion Set adds a lot of unit options, empowering your gunline, whereas the Auxiliary Expansion adds some synergies with Jakes and the sneaky options of the Commandos. If you are serious about the Gravediggers, then you will want to purchase all 4 boxes, which will give you access to everything currently released for the Gravediggers (except the massive Boom Boom McCoy warcaster), which will give you a lot of army creation options, especially for your light and heavy airdrops.

The standout units from the Gravediggers Core and Auxiliary Expansions Set for me are the Commandos and Rangers. I love how they capture the airborne nature of the real-world units, but beyond that, the Rangers Trollkin Express Sniper is a lot of fun (for you, not your opponent).

The copies of the Warmachine Gravediggers Core and Auxiliary Expansion Sets used to produce this review were provided by Steamforged Games.