I've played with the
DKOK rules a few times (proxy trials) so I don't profess to be an expert. But over those few games what I felt was:
Their general infantry aren't so good. They're more expensive and the main thing that stunted them for me was limitations on special weapon loadouts (i.e no heavy weapons). The benefits they have in
CC weren't helpful, maybe since I was versing orks with them.
One advantage though is the
HWS have combined squad rule so you can chuck them in with infantry blobs. Kinda counters the squads not being able to get heavies.
Engineers with the breaching drill are good. Its quite cheap for what it does. Gas grenades are pricey and don't help much, for the cost I'd much rather get a demo charge.
I found the cyclops kinda funny, and had potential depending how you used it. But in reality any opponent who knows what it does would blow it away. Still for a few left over points and an open
FOC they seem reasonable.
Grenadiers are like expensive storm troopers who cannot deep strike. For the 3 flamers 115pts is expensive and the vox is unnecessary. So I would probably avoid them.
The thudd gun, like the rest of the artillery are good since they're so cheap. For things like a basilisk not moving hardly the end of the world.
I quite liked the thunderer siege tank. Pretty much the same as the vindicator but a lot tougher. In a choice between a
LRBT and a thunderer I would take the thunderer any day.
So for your list, I would loose a grenadiers squad and get another breaching drill unit. In terms of upgrades for the unit I would just take a demo charge. Then its like a large blast double tap. Not sure how strongly you want to go with the flamer theme, but overall you're light on
AT. So for a russ variant in this case, I would go for a vanquisher with
MM sponsons.
If I was to make a
DKOK list now (its a bit silly but hey) would do it something like this:
As it stands I think your current list would struggle. With regards to being able to field them that depends on your area a lot. For example in mine it would be fine in general settings, but there would only be certain tournaments I could enter them in. Its probably best to go out and see what your locals think. Some on here will say
FW is allowed in standard play, then others not. But you don't really want to be arguing beforehand that you can field your guys, kinda makes a bad start to a game. Typically I think most would be fine with you taking malcadors. Its only an issue when it overtly benefits you, but
IMO, taking a malcador disadvantages you since its larger.
"We need a new driver, this one is dead"