Random ramblings. I will clean up spelling and grammar after I get coffee. Too early. Here is how I feel from my experiences playing her.....
I like to play attrition style games. Its just the victory path that I enjoy most. Scenarios? Assassination? Meh.
So when I build a list, that's the end goal I work towards.
With that in mind, Aurora seems like a very strange caster choice for me. Here is a caster that clearly prefers warrior models and seems to favor assassination.
Just look at that spell list and tell me, the only one there that you can even use on a jack is Admonition. So, ya, warrior caster.
Do I sound crazy for running her in Destruction Initiative yet?
Here is why:
1. She fixes our warjacks' greatest weakness.
2. She's hard to assassinate
3. Lots of spare focus
4. She can get work done herself
#1
Our jacks are cheap, have sweet abilities, and can hit hard. But they're slow. Our walkers are speed 4 and the floaters are speed 5. But we don't really have
any battlegroup wide threat extenders. We can extend out threat against specific targets, if we can manage to hit them with an ability, but nothing that just speeds us up.
Aurora does exactly this. Her apparation extends your threat by 2".
But its actually better then just +2 spd. Apparation occurs before you allocate focus.
This means you can be outside her control range and then apparate 4"(2" jack + 2" her) closer to get back in range. This is more useful then you think.
Plus is means her Jacks can be 20" away at the start of your turn and still get focus.
#2
Remember how I like to play attition games? I build my lists accordingly to ensure that I'll win said attrition fight. Which means that my greatest chance of losing is
if my opponent forces me to play either a scenario or an assassination game.
I find she's great at preventing this. The range from which she can control her Jacks, means she can sit a very far distance back. In addition, while 16/15 isn't the greatest defensive stats, she'll always have cover or concealment.
Meaning that she's really a a 18/15 or 20/15 that will be camping 3-4 focus. That's far harder to kill. I've now closed two different paths of victory off to my opponent. I'll win attrition, and he can't assassinate.
Making scenario, my main remaining threat of defeat.
#3
Her lack of spell casting means she'll always have spare focus.
Yes, I know, the can induct focus between our Jacks and in theory our entire battlegroup could use the same three focus given by the corollary.
For me, that doesn't happen. My dice and my opponent always seems to have other plans. Smart positioning by my opponent will often make it hard for me to induct all my jacks.
Likewise, more times then I can count, I had to change my plans mid turn when something didn't die like it should have. I also sometimes just make mistakes with my activation order.
This is where her spare focus comes in. I plan ahead and throw three focus on one of my jacks. If/when my induction chain started from the corollary is broken, I can restart it from the opposite end
with the Jack she personally allocated focus to.
#4
Be cautious, but never be scared to use her. Flight, and speed 7 means she can get all over the board. Often my opponents will leave a small force off to the side to score points, while his main army duels with mine.
Many times she's handled a lone light jack, solo, or unit that was up to no good. Don't expect her to assassinate a full health warcaster off the table, but don't ignore her completely.
Play Style:
Your forces are going to want to form two lines. The first will be a line of servitors. They should be placed as best as possible to block charge lanes, but at the same time, make sure they are close enough to do their Shield Guard goodness.
If a strong ranged attack is incoming, They should sacrifice themselves to protect your jacks from that ranged shot. If its a weak attack, your conservitors should shield gaurd it in order to save the servitor(since it probably wont even tickle the conservitor).
AoE attacks should be 'chain' shield guarded away from any clusters of units.
Our goal here is to get on top of the scenario points to prevent scoring, then get into a slug fest. You're the brick. Feel the inner brick. Now go smash them in the face. Alpha is great if you can get it, but don't worry too much. If you can't, that's fine too.
That's why you have your tarpit of servitors for. Make them wade through the servitors in order to get to your Jacks. All the attacks that's going into to clear the lanes is less attacks against your Jacks. In fact, we want some of our servitors
to die before we fight. If you can get your converitors angry before you engage, the +2mat/+2str is going to make trades heavily favor you.
Use your feat to get into awkward places and move your Jacks out of the way after they've attacked. Getting one more Jack into range of the collossal thanks to reposition can be the difference between killing it and letting it live.
The feat can also let you kill ranged units, then reposition into melee of additional ranged units, if you're fighting a gunline. Gunlines love it when you engage them in melee.
Also, enemies also love it when you reposition your warjacks into melee with their warcaster. Having to deal with that warjack suddenly becomes priority #1 and their old plans go out the window.
Lastly, remember: just because she isn't casting spells like most warcasters, its ok. Its fine that she doesn't have warjack spells. If you're winning the attrition game, then the most important job she has is to not be the weak link.
It seems like warcasters have 3 things to do with their focus, allocate, cast, and camp. But they only have enough to do two of the three. Fine. So do the other two. Its really not a waste.
Army comp:
I like to take a mix of conservitors and inverters, with a cipher thrown in. Conservitors trade well for their points, can shield guard, and have the armor to soak a ton of hits. The inverters are there for knockdown and a little bit of armor cracking.
The Cipher is for the utility and the melee prowess.
Corollary, and 1-2 diffusers are no brainers. Diffuser count is up to personal taste. If they have a big expensive unit like a collossal, then one seems to be enough. Otherwise, if they just have a swarm of heavies, two is nice.
Things to mention:
-Areogensis helps your servitors move. Its not required that you cast it, but it can help get into position sometimes.
- She can't crack armor as hard as Father. If your opponent is going to be dropping Arcane Shielded Stormwalls and popping Stryker1's feat, this list isn't for you.
But for the average heavy, its fine.
-Diffuser + Apparation gives your Conservitors a 13" threat range(plus they have pathfinder)
-Use your servitors as a tar pit. They should be out in front of your army. That doesn't just mean your Reflex servitors either.
All five free units of servitors that you get from the theme should be in front of your Jacks. If one can die protecting a warjack, its a good death.
-Reflex Servitors shouldn't always counter-charge. In fact, I rarely do. I use them to block charge lanes. 'Hold the line' should be their motto
youtu.be/GTMIFns_4g8
