Theme - Flame in the Darkness
  
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Theme - Flame in the Darkness Khador & Cygnar & Mercenary Theme Force |
 This mk3 Theme Force has no equivalent in mk4. You can't even build something similar using the Unlimited rules. |
The enemy of my enemy is my ally. This is understood as the salvation of humanity among the forces of the Church of Morrow that has come together to halt the Infernal procession descending upon the Iron Kingdoms. Driven by the common bond of their religion, forces that might otherwise turn on one another find they are stronger together, and by setting aside their differences, they can save one another alongside everyone else in the path of evil.
Theme Rules
- For the core rules on how Theme Forces work, see this article.
Theme Restrictions
An army made use the Flame in the Darkness theme force can include only the following models:
- Morrowan and Thamarite warcasters
- Non-character Mercenary warjacks
- Up to two non-character Cygnar or Khador warjacks
- Gallant
- Alexia models/units
- Morrowan and Thamarite models/units
- Field Mechaniks units
- Hermit of Henge Hold
Full model list
This list was last updated: 2020.12 (Edit)
Warcasters - For Mercenary players
Warcasters - For Cygnar players
Warcasters - For Khador players
Warjacks
Note: All warcasters get the same warjacks to choose from, regardless of their original Faction:
- All non-character Mercenary warjacks (except the Rhulic ones)
- Up to two non-character Cygnar or Khador warjacks (one of each is legal).
- Gallant
- Other character warjacks can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.
Units
- Alexia1
- Devil's Shadow Mutineers
- Field Mechaniks
- Legion of Lost Souls
- Order of Illumination Resolutes
- Order of Illumination Vigilants
- Precursor Knights
Solos
Requisition Options
- One Command Attachment
- Two Thamarite Advocate solos
- One other small- or medium-based solo with a point cost of 5 or less
Theme Bonuses
- All models in an army made using this theme force are considered to be of the same Faction as the warcaster in this army.
- Note: The way this benefit is worded means you do not get access to other Faction's warcasters, and vice versa. The warjacks available are the same, no matter the warcaster, though.
- Units in this army gain Vengeance.
- Vengeance - During your Maintenance Phase, if one or more models in a unit with Vengeance were damaged by enemy attacks during the last round, each model in the unit can advance 3" and make one basic melee attack.
Thoughts on Flame in the Darkness
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Blended Theme
See also Category: Blended Theme |
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If you want to use this theme in a two-list tournament then your second list must be the same Faction as the caster you used in this theme. For instance, if you use Zerkova your second list must be a Khador list. |
Flame in the Darkness in a Nutshell
This theme represents the Thamarite and Morrowan forces putting aside their ideological differences and teaming up to fight off the Infernal invasion. Odd as it seems, this mirrors Morrow and Thamar’s team up to help their followers fight the Orgoth using the gift of magic bartered from the Infernals.
It is a Mercenary, Cygnar, or Khador theme depending on the faction of the caster you pick.
The theme reflects the tendencies of the Twins' worshippers, being composed mostly of Morrowan units with a few supporting Thamarite individuals.
While the theme has access to ranged units, its great strength is in its unparalleled ability to stack ARM fixers. Between Alexia3, Ragman, Throne, and the Hermit, plus whatever your caster brings, enemy armor should crumble before you.
The most powerful aspect of the theme is army-wide Vengeance on all units, which is exceptionally strong.
Theme weaknesses
- Limited guns
There are guns in this theme, but not great guns.
- Single Wound Infantry
The theme-wide vengeance and unique units available go a long way to mitigate the weaknesses inherent to running lots of single-wound infantry... but several still remain. Scathers and corrosion effects will circumvent all the defensive tech available to your units except tough.
- Limited Pathfinder
Pathfinder is sparse but available from Throne with a huge opportunity cost.
- No extra Mercenaries
Unlike normal themes, you're not allowed up to one extra Mercenary solo/unit.
List Building Tips
The most expensive free models you can get are two Thamarite Advocates priced at 6, then Alexia, The Undying, Glyn Cormier, Illuminated One or Hermit of Henge Hold at five. As many of the units take buffs exceptionally well, the cheaper option of Ragman is worth consideration.
There is not a huge diversity of options available. Many lists will have 1 unit each of Precursors and Legion of Lost Souls. Bringing Legion almost mandates Alexia3. Gabriel Throne is an excellent damage buff and pathfinder bot, but pricey. Archons are exceptional models, but are pricey at 8-9 points each - don't go overboard on them unless you have a plan in mind.
Savio is the only Storm Knight in this theme, meaning he can fuel a Stormclad's or Reliant's Accumulator. Combined with Gallant and his Accumulator and you can have a hard-hitting battlegroup that only needs 2 focus from your caster per turn.
Jakes1 is the only junior allowed in theme and she has some useful spells for the jacks she runs making them faster and increasing their DEF, which synergizes very well with Blaize's ability to make her jack even faster still with Crusader's Call and the Morrowan Archon's Blinding Radiance to increase its DEF even further. She can bring a Charger or Hunter to provide the quality guns the theme otherwise lacks, run an extremely dodgy Swashbuckler that can contest and be in the way, or go all-in with Gallant, whom she makes DEF 15 (without Blinding Radiance factored in) with immunity to knockdown, which is insane on an ARM 19 frame. Also, he Accumulates off of her while providing Shield Guard to her.
Caster Thoughts - Cygnar
- Constance Blaize, Knight of the Prophet will play in this theme almost exclusively. She has fixes for speed, MAT, Melee damage, and general dice reliability on Morrowan models which are the major focus of FitD. The Morrowan Archon also keeps her and her souls safe. Connie also flanks off nearly every model you take.
- Jakes2 and a Toro or three with Sprint and Counter-Charge makes for an interesting combination, alternatively Freebooters with Excort and Positive Cahrge are very spammable. Her feat allows the low-model-count Vigilants to potentially destroy larger screening units in a single activation and the combination of practiced maneuvers, reach and parry means that a blob of Precursor Knights can charge into some very interesting places (if they survive, and Jakes does nothing to help with that). Bullet Dodger and Blinding Radiance from the Morrowan Archon are an obnoxious combination for models that cannot buff their hit chance. Savio or Black Bella are excellent targets for Bullet Dodger. The latter can also eradicate entire swathes of infantry that are not extremely spread out thanks to Killing Spree and feat-induced reach.
- Maddox will have a lot of thankful recipients for her upkeeps and feat. Assail on a Devastator is a great use of the spell and the combination of Bulldoze and Beat Back from the feat will make it an incredible scenario piece. Meanwhile Gallant will turn into a melee monster under Thundering Rage. Dauntless Resolve and Snipe can go on the Archons and/or units to great effect (she is almost identical to Stryker1 in this regard). And lastly, almost everything in the theme will benefit from Onslaught.
- Stryker1 will appreciate the strength buffs from the support solos and the naturally high power of the Precursor Knights, since he doesn't fix the damage. His feat and spells also allow the knights to survive en masse, allowing for a devastating charge with up to 17 weapon master attacks. Both Archons become utterly obnoxious with his defensive upkeeps in play, and all the units with guns appreciate snipe to achieve a shooting threat above their "ok-to-mediocre" baselines. Gallant under Jakes with Sidekick and the feat is an almost impossible to dislodge scenario bully. To top it off, he can run a Blockader in this theme, which reaches very high amounts of ARM and boxes to chew through and naturally hits the hardest out of the colossals available in this theme.
- Stryker2 is happy getting escorted up the board by the Morrowan Archon under Deceleration. Positive charge plus Alexia3/Throne allows for enough buff stacking for the Vigilants, Resolutes, and Legion of Lost Souls units to shine into harder targets. Between the theme-wide vengeance and his feat, the list can put out quite a lot of attacks in a turn and move much faster than Stryker's lack of a speed buff would imply they should.
- Stryker3 is an excellent choice for this theme. Escort and Iron Aggression are extremely powerful on a Blockader. Alexia 2's thralls are counted as friendly faction thanks to the theme and become 21" non-linear threat auto hitting power 10s with 5 dice damage. With the prevalence of Archons in metas currently, Stryker 3 is one of the best methods of dealing with them. Auto-hitting charges with an additional die damage kill Archons dead. Fury on Precursor Knights with Throne makes for auto hitting P&S 17s with 5 dice damage on feat+ mini-feat turn or save the mini-feat to have two turns of effective weapon masters instead of just one. If you do decide to do both, 4 precursors do an average of 60 damage to an ARM 20 Colossal or Gargantuan (P&S 17 is dice -3 on 5 dice for 17-3=15 avg each). The Hermit and Battle Priests help keep him alive despite the large base.
Caster Thoughts - Khador
- Zerkova1 She can easily deliver the infantry with clouds, ghostly and her feat (especially good for the vulnerable Precursor Knights), and she finally gets access to arc nodes. The Hurricane is actually everything she ever dreamed of, being an excellent Watcher target thanks to the slam guns AND sporting a much-coveted Arc-Node (though it will cause issues for your Archons as it takes away their flight). The Thamarite Archon makes her highly accurate with her sprays, and the Hermit offers both hit fixing with telemetry or an armor debuff so arcing through a single well-placed lancer can devastate any kind of infantry less durable than multi-box shield-walls. It is safe to say that Flames is Zerkova's home theme. Two free Advocates are also huge for her.
- Zerkova2 is unlikely to be played in this theme. She has no synergy at all with the near totally non-magical theme options beyond a few cute tricks like doubling up Alexia's thrall creation, allowing Hermit, Thamarite Advocates, and Ragman to run and cast their spells, or allowing Jakes1 to get two energizers off. These are good "gotcha!" moments but aren't worth what you lose in taking her over her first incarnation.
Caster Thoughts - Mercenaries
- Ashlynn1 ends up as a weaker version of Fiona in this theme, giving up all of her Llaelese synergies for access to arc nodes. Playable due to her useful spells and great feat, but not the best fit. She can take the Archons and Ragman in Llaelese Resistance anyway, which recommends her to stay home.
- Constance Blaize, mentioned under the Cygnar heading, can also be taken as a Mercenary caster. In terms of list design, making her a Mercenary in this theme will affect your list pairing in a tournament and that's about it.
- Crosse2 sacrifices access to Reinholdt and cheap disposable Life Bound targets for ready access to damage buffs and hard-hitting troops. His main problem is that there is only one living 10-man unit for Life Bound, the Precursor Knights, but they hit hard when they get there, and with Ghost Walk, Life Bound, Vengeance, and a turn of Stealth on feat turn they should get there. Ghost Walk is an excellent spell for the units in this theme, providing Pathfinder where you need it. Dauntless Resolve can be on Resolutes to make them ARM 20 or on Archons to make them a headache for your opponent to get rid of. He likes the Morrowan Archon protecting his souls, and the Thamarite Archon makes his assassination runs more dangerous due to the reroll. The free advocates give him a free focus and can fuel his jacks, which becoomes very interesting with Cygnar jack. Chargers need tow focus to fully boost their shots, so Power Up and Power top them off completely at no strain to his focus pool. Hunters only need one focus to operate efficiently, as their preferred targets usually don't warrant boosting to him. Both of these jacks love Fire Group, so are a natural fit for him.
- Fiona1 brings a valuable ARM debuff that works with shooting, hands out stealth, and creates interesting threat extension with Befuddle. She loves both Archons, with the Morrowan causing living models to easily miss even Toros under her feat and the Thamarite increasing her spell accuracy. Her Cultist options are extremely limited to date (Devils Shadow Mutineers and Field Mechaniks...), but healthy Archons and Resolutes will survive Dark Rituals. You would not go wrong taking her here. Mercenaries can't usually do medium base armies, but Fiona is good with Resolutes which opens up a different playstyle. Like Crosse, she loves free Advocates.
Sample Lists
25 points (Brawlmachine)
In late 2020 and early 2021 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, put together these three lists for the Brawlmachine format. It was then updated for the 2021.10 errata. He even wrote about their playstyle and expanded it beyond 25 points, which you can read here (Blaize1 in Cygnar) and here (Crosse2 in Mercenaries) and here (Zerkova1 in Khador).
- Morrowan Archon [8 pts]
- Grand Master Gabriel Throne [7 pts]
- Precursor Knights (Min unit): [8 pts]
- Command Attachment [Free] (4 pts)
- 1x Morrowan Battle Priest [2 pts]
- Thamarite Archon [9 pts]
- Thamarite Advocate [3 pts]
- Glyn Cormier, Illuminated One [Free] (5 pts)
- Order of Illumination Vigilants (Max unit) [10 pts]
- Field Mechaniks (Min unit) [2 pts]
- Alexia3 [Free] (5 pts)
- Thamarite Advocate [3 pts]
- Ragman [3 pts]
- Legion of Lost Souls (Max unit) [18 pts]
For more Brawlmachine list ideas, see Category: Brawl List
Other
Trivia
- Released 2019.07
- To represent the idea of light being limited it's Flame in the Darkness. Things are so bleak they can't find more than one, despite what some people say!
Other Faction models/themes
Rules Clarifications
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Rules Clarification : Vengeance and/or Righteous Vengeance and/or Retaliation and/or Swift Vengeance and/or Tantrum (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Flame in the Darkness (Edit)
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Rules Clarification: Theme Forces (Edit) Themes that change a model's Faction [Show/Hide]
Rerolling the starting roll [Show/Hide]
Warjacks/Warbeasts with bonds [Show/Hide]
Including Mercenaries [Show/Hide]
Number of Mercenaries
Mercenaries and Ranking Officers
Other
Including Partisan Mercenaries [Show/Hide]
Partisans & Theme Forces (Edit)
Requisition Points [Show/Hide]
Free models and Specialists (ADR) [Show/Hide]
Unit Attachments [Show/Hide]
When to apply theme benefits [Show/Hide]
See also these Theme-Specific Rulings [Show/Hide]
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