Last time we spoke about Wild West Exodus. We talked about the premise of the game, what the game does and how the game plays. I also tried to convince you about the game and why this is one of the games you SHOULD play. Read all about it here.
I haven’t been in the game for really long. I’m actively playing for a year or two now. Before that I was just collecting some and selling the game as a retailer. No matter how much I tried, I could not get it off of the ground here, but then it happened… Then, as if they saw a miracle people started buying into the game and for me… it was. I could start playing Wild West Exodus and boy o’ boy was I happy with this!
Since then, it has become my go-to game for skirmishers that play in about an hour and a half. Since we, the players need to make others interested in the game, we start with trying to explain the alien madness of the Watchers.
Crash-landed on earth
Obviously, The Watchers watch and don’t interfere. At least, that is the purpose of the Watchers. In fact. the Watchers are a hegemony of different races that signed a pact to work together. For the protection themselves of course, but also watch over the ones that can’t help themselves on an intergalactic scale. Just like the ball of dirt called earth.
But there is something wrong on earth. Something is messing with the natural development of the human race. All ofo a sudden, they have technologies that are far beyond what it should be at that timeframe.
To investigate the interference, the Hegemony sent a ship out to earth. As usual on this planet, nothing goes like planned, and they crash-land in the 1800s Wild West of America. Without any form of communication and stranded on a for them underdeveloped planet, they must survive by raiding settlements and gathering recourses to call the fleet. It’s unsure if they want to leave or reset the planet yet.
The 3 Clades of Wild West Exodus Watchers
3 clades have been sent to earth, each with their own distinct abilities and skills. They need to combine these skills to make them have a chance at survival. Every Clade is managed by a Alpha, the supreme leader.
- The Amber Clade: Strength in numbers is the best way to go for the Amber Clade. Consisting of mostly the common grey troops, but also a couple of specialists.
- The Viridian Clade: Mostly specialists, led by a Legendary Alpha. It has some betas, good for fighting close and at ranged combat. Did we mention jump packs? They are the kinder surprise of WWX!
- The Cerulean Clade: the most vile and sneaky of them all, working under the veil of mimicking the enemies to walk among the stinking humans.
As you would expect, all of them have great strengths and weaknesses. The Amber come with an army, the Viridian are the special forces and the Cerulean have their strength in taking over settlements before the fight even started.
Classic models hint are more Clades?
The old, pre-Warcradle models seem to hint at a more monstrous clade, with a more creature (even for greys) like race. It’s the form of the Magenta and the Umber Clade, where the Umber are just creatures and the Magenta are more a mix of human/ alien/ monsters.
Besides the models and statcards, there is not a lot you can do with these models and they remain in hiding for now, but it’s evident there should be given more attention to our favorite aliens in any game! Come on Warcradle, we, the players are poking with a pointy thing to get you motivated! (and don’t get me started on Carcosa, but that’s another story!)
What do I play and why?
I wanted to dive in on the Cerulean clade, building the posse and see where we could end up after playing a couple of games with the standard posse. Shortly after, the compel ability of the bigger units like the Cerulean Alpha and the Cerulean Nightmare are amazing at making the opponent do stuff that they don’t like. I’m talking about shooting their own units and walking to places they don’t need to be. Yes, taking over the minds of units is fun. Add to the fact that the Cerulean Prime is the only boss model that you can have a total of 3 of, making more compelling games (geddit?)
The Cerulean infiltrators gave me a lot of fun and epic moments, BUT… they are useless against unique units. This is also where the flaw of the Cerulean Clade comes in. You can only shape-shift troops and hands. There are a lot of opponents that use posses without these unit types if you play smaller quicker games. This makes the infiltrators completely useless, so you need some support.
Support for the Cerulean Clade
I had the choice of having a lot of greys on the table from the Amber Clade or choose the Viridian Clade option, giving me fewer units to paint and a more specialized posse to work with. Because the Cerulean specialize on infiltration the field, I went with the Viridians. I never expected them being that brutal!
They work massively well together on the field and with fewer options to take, you have fewer units to control on the field. One team being humans till spotted, while the other is attacking from long range to soften the enemy from afar. Marvelous slaughter for the awiens! Huzzah! Did it win me games? Well… I’m no strategist, let’s put it that way.
A faction to WATCH out for?
For the Watchers, the fun factor of playing them is in the mixture of different clades. It will never be as straight forward as one of the outlaw or lawmen faction, but hella fun to play. They are the odd one out and play like that as well, bringing some fresh thinking in your battles.
In the future, I hope they bring back the Umber and Magenta Clade, as the lore tells of a multitude of races that form the Watcher Hegemony. bacuse of lore, Its only logical that a representative of most of the bigger clades joined the expedition, being ready for the worst. Let’s just assume the Umber and Magenta are waiting for a sign of life from the crashed ship on that mostly forgotten planet.
The good, the bad and the must!
Being one of the least interesting factions to the masses, with the least amount of current models, this faction feels like a faction that has been forgotten by the creators. The models need a redesign and there is even a size difference in the same model, buying it separate or in posse form. I’m talking about the Cerulean Prime here, with almost half a cm size difference in the blisters and the models that comes in the posse starter.
It’s aliens, so it won’t matter, but it portrays the love the faction does not get at the moment, but so dearly deserves. With a recent uptake in Watcher related posts, this is the ultimate time to take action, so this is as much as a deep dive in my favorite faction as it’s a scream for more perfect models.
This should not let it stop you from taking a look at the Watcher Hegemony of Wild West Exodus. Our shop has a big assortment of starters, faction starters and support boxes to get you started on what will become your favorite faction too!
