I have found myself playing exclusively Heavy Metal at the moment (no Sword Knights), there are so many advantages to a warjack only list, and not all are immediately apparent
- virtually no souls or corpses for your opponent
- No easy models to trigger snap fire, blood boon, alpha hunter, conferred rage, etc off
- Any anti-infantry tech you opponent brings has no good targets
- all your models can make meaningful boosted attacks every turn thanks to power up
- you maximise any battlegroup wide buffs like energiser or Iron Horse
- With Heavy Metal you effectively get two lights or a heavy for free, which means you can initiate favourable piece trades easier
I'm in a similar situation.
Heavy Metal gives more points than Storm Division (due to being able to top on 4 free models), gives extra deployment that is always handy, reposition on support models and in general our jacks are very good, so running jack heavy works very well.
Nemo3, Nemo1, Darius, Caine3, and to a lesser extent Kraye and Jakes2 are all very good jack casters, and there are some great tricks in their hand.
At the moment, I find difficult to play anything else, expecially because Stormlances are heavily teched against in my meta.
Heavy metal gives more points, but its harder to make them give good value as its all support points.
In Storm Division, the points often go to fighty pieces early on and when your free points buy combat pieces and you use those points gained to buy more fighty pieces you can end with some extremely aggressive lists. The Iron Fang theme is like this, which spends its free points onto combat UA's and competent melee solos and then gain more warriors as a result.
Heavy Metal, your choices are junior, squire, Jakes, Arlan and Runewood. None of these are directly combat pieces and half of them barely class as support when you start to do things like lose models from the battlegroup and often lose powerful battlegroup abilities. Heavy Metal doesn't really make your list able to be more aggressive, but it allows you to bring a lot of jacks with balanced support pieces.
The kings of Heavy Metal are casters who don't mind when their jacks are taken out of their battlegroup as much, so Nemo 1, Haley 2, Stryker 1 are all there. Other casters can play it, but people like Kara get sad when they are taking jacks that aren't in her battlegroup while losing access to reinholdt.
1. Outside of Wraithbane and Accursed, you mean (although accursed is very hard to proc). Also they do have access to spells and arc nodes, but the Haley's are extremely difficult to kill.
2.
Child
3x S&M
Cage Rager
Rattler
2x Crabbits
Death Knell
Dead Rots
4x Gremlin Swarms
Lady Krianna Rose
What I found facing that list is that Tantrum produces a 15" threat on a Skin and Moans which can one round almost any model in the game, and can pretty comfortably kill 2 heavies. Power 23 while also being blessed with a free charge. It seems like its too much to me.
The rots were the primary vectors for Corpses. While its easy to say "just don't kill them" in the Dojo, but you can't risk leaving whole units of weapon masters unmolested.
3. It doesn't need to be the brickiest brick ever. Remember that if a crabbit is within 3" of any rot while also being within 5" of the Child, it certainly can proc a Shroud. Also, being a hurricane, means that your guns slam models who die after they are moved 3", or you are shooting AOE's that can drift.
If you hit the crabbit then you have procced Tantrum and given an S&M a 15" threat range which will kill anything it touches. If you kill the Crabbit (or any model within range), then the army is Stealth (because remember that Shroud is procced within 5", but affects the control area).
If you want to apply Flare then you are playing Sons of the Tempest (and giving victory to your opponent) or you are playing out of tier (and thus playing points down), which generally isn't tenable without a very powerful and specific interaction.
You can only proc 1 Arcana per turn, which is less of a big deal than you think. The Child can take some casualties and power up her army with corpses (as you simply cannot choose to not attack, that isn't an option in a game), then drop Shroud through use of Crabbits (which also proc tantrum, giving her insane threat extension). When that Skin and Moans goes in on you, you will be forced to kill it which can proc Tantrum, meaning that she has more capacity to fight back.
She also doesn't need to proc it. 84.5 damage losing an attack goes down, but still one rounds a Hurricane.
It is a relevant fact, but not that relevant, imo.
4. Clouds are helpful, but less ubiquitous. I can't use it to stop Legion or Skorne from charging me. It is also a non-theme choice (for now) which has its own problems.
5. I *get* that you are trying to help, but saying the obvious answers often doesn't. I know Arlan can make guns magical, but either your single magical gun can kill Lylith (or the other Windwall caster) or it can contribute on some heavies which are often now in charge range. A Magical Hurricane can sure shoot Typhon from 12" away, but Typhon sure can come straight into you with his 14" threat after it. It is something that can help in a matchup, but it doesn't turn it completely on its head with only 1 piece of access.
6. Yeah, Haley 3 can take Zerkova by gunning for assassination. Its not bad, but the attrition is extreme. It will be a problem for everyone now that she has access to the Iron Fang theme.
7. Piggybacks are brought back at 1 box, but they still have access to Shroud, Wind Wall, and you can bring back 2-3 a turn casually with Old Witch 3. Its not unstoppable, but it was certainly a problem. On Shroud turns they can run into position ready to charge or get into zones. They are a powerful sometimes food and in Bump in the Night they gain Rise, which is actually extremely valuable.
So here are the few lists I've come up with so far with my new list building paradigm with some thoughts about them:
Nemo 2- Heavy MetalHurricane
Ironclad
Ironclad
Hammersmith
Charger
Squire (free)
Strangeways (Free)
Journeyman (Free
> Firefly
Jakes (Free)
> Charger
This list is my main untested one. The reason why I am looking at it is because of Polarity Field on the Hurricane. I will need to be careful with other model placement to make sure that there aren't other models to charge, but against my primary opponents an unchargable Hurricane becomes a problem.
Angels become melee threat 11" (with Slipstream)
Typhon becomes melee threat 11" (With Slipstream and Escort)
Skin and Moans become Threat 12" with Abuse and Tantrum and 8" threat with Boundless charge not working with Old Witch.
Essentially I can drop threat ranges to mainly around the Gun range of the Hurricane or less, which is important as it gives my ranged superiority. With Chargers having Escort it also gives me the ability to move up, shoot and then scoot backwards 2".
The Hurricane will be a lynchpin with a Fail-safed Hammersmith and Arcane Shielded Ironclad sitting in the wings ready to be a nuisance when things decide to come in.
Will need to test on the table.
Haley 2- Heavy Metal
Squire (Free)
Thorn
Hammersmith
Centurion
Centurion
Ironclad
Strangeways (Free)
Journeyman (Free)
> Hunter
Jakes (Free)
> Charger
> Charger
A little lacking in Hitting power, a colossal might become a problem, but Haley 2 certainly brings tools. The list is built around being fast when it needs to be and have a good amount of anti- heavy shooting and control in order to get my pieces where they need to be. Turning around a Skin and Moans or anything without access to out of activation movement will be good at protecting my army from their offensive potential.
Also the ability to assassinate with Chargers and a Hunter is not to be denied.
Jakes 2- Heavy Metal
Squire (Free)
Ironclad
Ironclad
Ironclad
Centurion
Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Charger
Charger
Strangeways (Free)
Junior (Free)
> Sentinel
Runewood (Free)
Tried this list, I liked it. I faced it into Fyanna Oracles with triple Angel and double Neraph. It was tricky because it was playing in a way I really aren't used to and I was out-threated. I kept too far back, using my chargers shooting to crush an Angel down, forcing him to bridge a gap. He took the bait and sent a neraph in but also Scored 3 points on Incursion in the process.
I fought back, casting Positive charge on an ironclad who ran into position to contest the middle flag and to give the bonus to a Hammersmith, who charged up with full focus and killed the neraph and a harrier and sprinted to score that point. The Charger on the right killed his wounded angel and the Centurion ran onto the point (when he should have walked to contest and polarity shielded. I got Greedy). An Ironclad charged a Spell Martyr, killed him and sprinted forward to lock an Angel and Neraph into melee.
I would have won, too. He needed to charge his angel over the top of an Ironclad and a Hammersmith and take both free strikes to get into position to repulse. He did it, I hit both and did damage and left him on 1 box in his Spirit. Very bad luck for me there, and he won the game on it.
Still felt good about Jakes. My biggest issue is when I want to push forward on her feat turn its really hard to keep a jack within 3" of her that can provide the armour bonus from Escort.
I'd imagine forging ahead with a Bullet Dodgered Ironclad and the Arcane Shielded Centurions on the flanks will be a tough lead for opponents to counter. The Centurion is hard to get into meaningfully and the Ironclad can ruin a heavy if they miss his Def 14 and let him Dodge.
My biggest issue with Jakes right now is that my only option for a solo is Runewood. I have a theory that the Gravediggers book may include a Trencher Journeyman Warcaster which would actually be allowed in Heavy Metal. Having even more focus would be a cool thing and so that might help her out more.
Nemo 1- Heavy MetalSquire (Free)
Dynamo
Ironclad
Ironclad
Hammersmith
Hammersmith
Charger
Charger
Strangeways(Free)
Junior (Free)
>Charger
Jakes (Free)
>Charger
Min Mechaniks
I played this list into Amon and the first thing that happened was that I realised that my chargers weren't very useful into Menoth. I lead up forward with them to bait out his lead models while trying to shoot his support.
Nemo's feat was incedible in this matchup. The fact that he increases his CTRL range by 2" per focus spent is huge because it means from a position of safety I hit every jack he had and Disrupted 9 of them, allowing me to cross the field without him being able to effectively retaliate against me. It also lasts for a round, meaning that Decel works for the opponents turn and you can steal opponents spells for power tokens more easily.
It is hard to continually have to recast your spells each turn, but it isn't the worst with reposition on your solos giving you the ability to keep them safe.
I like this Nemo list and hope to be able to use it more and see if there is anything really serious under the Hood.
I've actually taken out the 2 chargers on Nemo since this game and will probably be replacing them with either a Stormclad or a Storm Strider, depending on the way the CID goes. Decel makes opponents less able to just shoot the Strider to death Trivially and repulsion field can keep it safe from heavies.
Just for shits and giggles, Nemo 1 also is very good at killing Crabbits with his feat, which can help attrition games out massively.