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Warcasters
Capt. Darius

Heavy WarJacks
Defender..............................(8pts)
Defender..............................(8pts)
Centurion.............................(8pts)

Infantry
6 Sword Knights...................(4 pts)
6 Sword Knights...................(4 pts)
Sword Knight Attachment.....(free)


Is this a decent starting point for a list?
Where would you grow from here to 35 or 50 points?

Rather interesting combination of models but it is certainly something that is playable.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Darius likes Centurions

Caine likes gun mages and Ol'Rowdy

Thunderhead doesn't really work well with either of those casters he wants casters like the Haleys or Nemos.

Stormblades leader without stormblades is rather strange.

Do you mean Sword Knights or Stormblades? Or Stormguard?

Sword knights, sorry
Thanks for the input. I'm meeting a buddy this Sunday and hes going to show me the game. I will be sure to leave the thunderhead.

I think my buddy just bought what he thought looked cool. Of course, I'm not in a position to complain.

Stormblades with the UA marshalling a Stormclad is a good combination though, I would get them first thing IMO. Its basically 2 free Focus for the Stormclad, making it independent from the Warcaster.

Updated to include army list.

For 35, I'd swap a Defender for a Stormwall-- they're just too good not to take, considering your ability to help it. (I think that's the right difference in points, if not, you can downgrade one of the other jacks to make it fit)

Is a stormwall a heavy jack? If not, that would break my tier list, so the upgrade would cost me 13 points (as i would lose my 3 free tier points)
If it is a heavy jack, that's a good idea.

No. Collossals are not heavy warjacks

Yeah, but they are still Warjacks.

You would lose your tier list but the Stormwall is so good it would more than make up for it.

Sounds good.
Thanks for the input.

And as long as they don't kill it in one round, you basically get a brand new one whenever you want to replace your dinged up one

I've played my Darius list a few times now, and that's one of the problems I've discovered. It seems that its really not that hard to kill something in one turn -- which really reduces the overall effectiveness of Darius. I've used his feat to fix up a few scratches before, but I've never taken a heavy from the brink of death back to full health. I expect the stormwall would be different.

Here is what I've learned thus far with Darius.
- His steam cannon is actually pretty good at doing AoE damage. On more than one occasion I've used it to good effect on infantry
- Halfjacks are very good at blocking movement. Since Darius poops out one per round, Ill generally send one up to either turn into a mine or just block charge lanes
- Fortify + polarity shield make for a good wall. Throw Jr's AS onto it, and you have a heavy with a 26 ARM. Its not perfect, as I've had the buffs dispelled before, but it significantly increases the centurians chances of living. Fortify also keeps the cent from being knocked down or pulled back.
- I've used Darius ability to knock down everything with 2" before to good effect. Ive used that to clear lanes before so my heavy can charge his mech.
- The mines are good for board control. They don't do to much to jacks, but can cause problems on infantry. Their goal is to help ensure I get the charge.
- Darius's jackhammer allows him to pull some good tricks. I can walk the cent forward, put up polarity field on it, then have Darius use jackhammer 5 times to hit a heavy mech.
- Darius plays well with strangeways/Jr. When strangeways or Jr are running defenders, they cannot take advantage of "Full Throttle" they take a focus load off Darius. That helps him, as darius only has 5 focus after fortify.
- Full throttle is a bit situational. You have to assume that your going to be boosting attacks, charging, etc at least 3 times to get effect from it. Since Darius is not swimming in focus, you can't full throttle and boost up 2 jacks to wreck face. (full throttle should be a feat, not a spell) You also don't need it when hitting heavy mechs. You need it when your going after lighter targets and need those extra dice to hit, like when your pounding infantry. A good example would be using a centurian to walk up and smash 5 infantry by using full throttle to boost all the dice to hit, and giving the cent 3 focus to swing extra attacks.
- Darius has a P+S of 15/11. While not great I've actually used him to charge things and smack down with his hammer. The situation does not happen often but has happened. I walked up, did the tremor attack (boosted) to knock everything down, then gave Darius 5 extra attacks to hit his prone warcaster. My opponent was quite suprised.
- The crane can be used early game to get a slow moving jack to position. I've also used to it increase the charge distance of a jack.
- The best advantage I've seen overall is Darius' ability to effectively allocate more than 3 focus to a jack through the use of full throttle and jackhammer.

Darius plays a lot of druids did in vanilla WoW. Hes not the best tank, but can tank in a pinch. Hes not the best ranged DPS, but has some. Hes not the best melee DPS, but can throw out some. Hes good at healing, but others are as well.
As I learn more Ill eventually post up a full strategy guide.