Man, struggled to make a list that will do what i want with Lukas...
Edit: okay, completely changed up the list due to the fact that in Magnum you can't have Gorman and Rags in the same list. Boo. Ultimately dropped gorman, dropped a Rocket, picked up Alchemists (So most of the reason i wanted gorman was black oil - i can get that in a ghetto fashion in Ice Cage. Its not ideal, but meh), and two mechanics instead of one. The alternative was drop gorman, alyce, mechanic, pick up a vanguard. More defensive with a touch of melee punch and sustainability, but ultimately i wanted something a little more utilitarian.
conflictchamber.com/#cf201b_-12lqlulvlvlGlClClolc9ulDlBlliqlECrucible Guard Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Magnum Opus (CID)
!!! Your army contains CID entries.
!!! You are using a pre-release theme.
(Lukas 1) Aurum Legate Lukas di Morray [+29]
- Liberator [10]
- Toro [13]
- Toro [13]
- Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc [0(5)]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [2]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [2]
Prospero [5]
- Suppressor [13]
Ragman [4]
Combat Alchemists [7]
Crucible Guard Storm Troopers (max) [16]
Dragon's Breath Rocket [0(6)]
Horgenhold Forge Guard (max) [16]
- Doctor Adolpheus Morely [3]
Idea: A good mix between spell slinging, resource efficiency, melee threat, and ranged threat with a pinch of magic assassination. Basically you're well balanced diet of a list, with an emphasis on multi vector buffs and debuffs.
Melee vectors: The Toro's are the workhorse of the list, to be supported vs. their targets by Lukas slinging disintegration and depending on target the Rockets Humor or Rust and ragman to have a possibility of PS24. Now in all likelihood, that's probably not going to happen in conjunction, but still, getting the Toro's up to 20 should be very easy, and 22-24 as the situation presents itself. While 11 defense is nothing to write home about, its possible Lukas and the liberator can assist in that regard to give the Toro's decent defense for a heavy.
The Foreguard are there for additional melee threat. Idea here is to use Morely + Lukas + outside debuff to pump their melee damage output to a bazillion and a half. They are a possible Iron Flesh target as well for a nice ARM 20. Morely can protect on approach, as can Lukas with Burning ash - in fact, once their dug into combat, Morely can continue to use burning ash and the liberator can use ashen veil to hinder incoming fire. Morely, the liberator, and Lukas combine their abilities to keep the forgeguard alive as long as possible.
Ranged: I really like the storm troopers, though i expect them to change. They can effect a long range attack at impressive POW, and with some of the debuffs the list can muster it can get pretty nuts pretty quick. These guys are here to soften up targets on approach and get hard to reach back line targets.
Rocket: The list is not very anti-hordes, and a couple vectors of the debuffs are construct only, so i wanted to bring the rocket for Humor vs undead / living stuff, and an additional arcing fire vector. I like the rocket, but i need to test it, i'm not sold its worth its points (it may be, a big pie plate -2 arm to living / undead is very, very nice, but RAT 5 sucks and the point cost is a touch high). I may remove the second one and see if i can squeeze in a different solo.
Suppressor: Suppressor is here for conjunctive use with Prospero's Guided Fire for a (hopefully) at least RAT 6 boosted pair of sprays. Boosted RAT 6 sprays that confer Ice Cage sounds delicious, and Fire is always useful. It is also another vector of rust - this list is really punishing to constructs. Open fists make for handy throwing in a pinch.
Assassination: I look at Lukas less of an assassination spell caster as an enabler - someone who assists other elements of his lists do the killing. Lukas' entire kit contributes to this ; whether he's keeping things protected on approach via burning ash and Iron Flesh, he can provide a threat mitigator and accuracy fixer in Force Hammer (not to mention potentially very hard hitting), and Disintegration is a nice spell if a touch costly (and by that i mean that any nuke at 3 focus is costly, its worth every point of focus, this spell would be bullshit good at 2 focus). Disintegration is essentially always an effective POW15 spell, as the arm debuff takes effect on hit, therefore when the damage roll comes around the targets armor is already -2. This with its nice offensive range of 10" and the fact that the caster with it can be potentially 8 (... or up to 16 once a game....) Focus and we have access to Harmonious exaltation means that its cost 3 is not overly punitive if you want to make frequent use of it (and i do). A caster with 7-16 focus on 2-4 turns of the game simply cannot be ignored when they have access to Disintegration and Force Hammer as an assassination threat.
The Liberator in the list serves typical Arc role here, though i love that the Lib can play attack role debuff duty as well (particularly by raising defenses from attacks by living models via ashen veil). It helps justify its points. It is possible that you could sling Disintegrations and Force Hammers from 12" + medium base size + 10/12" away respectively. That's a really nice zone of threat for these two spells. While you probably won't be looking for it every turn, your opponent is always going to have to worry about high POW force hammers getting slung around.
A note on Lukas: Juicer is a very convoluted ability that seeks to emulate an 8 focus caster in the faction without giving the faction an 8 focus caster. Its a mechanic i'm mostly fine with, though it does seem clunky. Essentially you have 3 Juice boxes (lulz), and each turn during Control phase you can mark one - i see functionally zero reason to ever use this Turn 1, frankly i don't think there's a compelling enough reason to throw out a ton of burning ashes turn 1. Turn 2, different story, I will concievably "juice" on turn 2 almost religiously. From there on for each box marked, the bonus gets 1 less, so the second turn you're FOC 7 and then 6. The feat helps "reset the clock, and there's really two uses for this - Resetting the juice boxes for more turns of 7-8 late game, and cutting for damage for a feat turn of 15-16 focus on the caster at FOC 7 or 8. Note you can only get to 16 focus if you wait to "juice" the turn you feat, and if you do this, you functionally sacrifice your first set of FOC 7 and FOC 6 turns - which if you murder your opponent and end the game, essentially no longer matters, but for a drawn out game its worth remembering. I don't think i'll seek to save the first Juice for feat turn too often, but rather opting to Juice, wait a turn - and on that FOC 7 turn feat. Reason being is this gives a turn at FOC 8, a turn at Foc 7/8, Then 7 then 6 if it goes that long - at which point you're at the 5th turn and most games end turn 4-5.
Support:
Prospero - Vet leader Jack is really nice, and guided fire is a dream for the Suppressor. Instability Equation is a really nice though risky resource expounder, and its a great late game equalizer. I enjoy the idea of Dispel on the Suppressors sprays.
Ragman: One of the few magic attacks in the list, and Deathfield, duh. Lacking reposition unlike i'm used to in Cygnar with Gibbs, its going to take some getting used to playing Rags without reposition again.
Mechanics: here to mitigate rough terrain, early loss of arc node, and keep the Toro's humming for as long as they are alive.
Alchemists: a compromise due to not being able to legally take Rags and Gorman in Magnum. I still get my clouds, and i get my access to additional defense Debuffs, Acid blast is not nearly as good as acid bomb, but whatever, that's not the main reason i was taking Gorman. Ultimately i get my cloud protection here that i wanted and i get my defense fixer if they live to get up into things. I suppose they have the utter jank that is critical upkeep removal, too.
Strengths: The list excels at medium to short range, and can really stack a lot of debuffs quickly to devastating effect. There's a lot of armor on the table as well, and almost everything in the list has the potential to hit like a truck.
Weaknesses: I don't love only the 2 toro's on Lukas. I really wanted a third, but that'd mean dropping Prospero and the suppressor and that felt like i was giving up a lot. The HHFG + Morely are expensive, but i think really, really good (subject to typical weaknesses, like Kayazy, but i think this list has a decent amount of good answers for Kayazy). Still, the lack of the third melee beater that can take a punch is noticeable.
I don't love the changes and sacrifices i had to make on the altar of Bizarre Mechanical Theme Operation stupidity. I really wanted dual rockets for Hordes, but i had to sacrifice one. Additionally the Suppressor is now my sole method of achieving Rust. I'm actually a lot more "ok" with the alchemists in the list over gorman than i thought i would be, i just don't love the additional price tag because its boxing me out of another model. Gorman for 4 points was doing what i needed him to ; hid Lukas, and then late game give me a nasty def fixer potentially. The Alchemists still do this, but they are nearly twice as expensive. At least they are contributing to me getting 2 freebies in the theme.
There is another version of this list that i want to give a whirl that will have to be a little less spell slingy - it drops ALyce and Alchemists for a Vanguard, and trades Rags for Gorman. Cloud stays around for Lukas Protection, but with added Vanguard shield guard - the Vanguard also adds as a not-quite-as-heavy melee hitter, but can still reach some pretty nice heights with its Guisarme. It sacrifices a lot for the gain of i'm not altogether sure that much, but its a build i want to try. Part of the reason is that running Ragman without Reposition given by Gibbs (in cygnar or mercs) is infinitely more of a pain in the ass to get Death Field to work well, so i'm not 100% certain that Rags will end up being worth it in this list, as I lack a Huge base to utilize Deathfield off of... we'll have to see.
I also feel like i'm taking a few things for a single reason and not utilizing their full fit well which i hate. Alyce and the Dragon crews are in this boat but the "single" reasons they fulfill are important ones (anti-hordes, focus efficiency which is vital for how i want to play Lukas).
