Difference between revisions of "Captain E. Dominic Darius"
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− | Darius and the Halfjacks in his battlegroup currently in his {{CTRL}} range can each completely repair one friendly Faction warjack with which he or it is B2B. Remove all damage from those warjacks. [[Category: Remove Damage Feat]] | + | Darius and the Halfjacks in his battlegroup currently in his {{CTRL}} range can each completely repair one friendly Faction warjack with which he or it is B2B. [[Remove damage|Remove all damage]] from those warjacks. [[Category: Remove Damage Feat]] |
===Abilities=== | ===Abilities=== |
Revision as of 00:25, 18 April 2020
Captain E. Dominic Darius
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Encased in his enormous steam-powered armor, Captain Darius strides into battle like a man of iron. The most ingenious element of this walking arsenal is a drone deployment system allowing him to unleash a number of halfjacks to serve as both weapons and battlefield repair assistants. Darius and his battlegroup act in tandem to disassemble the enemy army with the precision of a well-tuned machine.
Basic Info
Darius
Darius1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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- Warcaster - All warcasters come with a stack of standard special rules - most notably being awesome. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.
- Darius starts the game with 3 Halfjacks solos in play.
Feat: Pit Stop
Darius and the Halfjacks in his battlegroup currently in his control range can each completely repair one friendly Faction warjack with which he or it is B2B. Remove all damage from those warjacks.
Abilities
- Repair [d3+3] (★ Action) - RNG B2B. Target friendly Faction construct model. If the model is in range, remove d3+3 damage points from it.
- Repairable - This model can be targeted with Repair special actions as if it were a construct model.
- Activate Halfjack - At the end of your Control Phase, you can put one Halfjack solo into play within 1" of this model if there are fewer than three Halfjacks in Darius' battlegroup.
- Crane - Once per turn at any time during its activation, this model can choose one other friendly large-based or smaller model within 2" of it. You can place that model anywhere completely within 2" of its current location, and if it was knocked down, it immediately stands up unless it became knocked down this turn.
Weapons
- Steam Cannon - 12" range, POW 14, AOE 4 gun.
- Quake Hammer - 1" reach, P+S 15 melee weapon. He stole it from an Ironclad.
- Critical Knockdown - On a critical hit, the model hit becomes knocked down.
- Tremor - (★ Attack) - Before resolving damage from this attack, center a 4" AOE on the model directly hit. Models in the AOE become knocked down. This model is not affected by Tremor.
- Wrench - 0.5" reach, P+S 11 melee weapon.
Spells
COST | RNG | AOE | POW | DUR | OFF | ||
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Arcantrik Bolt
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2 | 10 | - | 12 | (★) | Yes | |
A warjack damaged by this attack becomes stationary for one round. | |||||||
Fortify
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2 | 6 | - | - | Upkeep | No | |
Target warjack in the spellcaster's battlegroup gains +2 ARM. The affected model and any friendly model B2B with it cannot be knocked down, be pushed, or be moved by a slam. | |||||||
Full Throttle
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3 | SELF | Control | - | Turn | No | |
Warjacks in the spellcaster's battlegroup beginning their activations in its control range can run, charge, or make slam or trample power attacks without spending focus that activation. While in the spellcaster's control range, models in its battlegroup gain boosted melee attack rolls. Full Throttle lasts one turn. | |||||||
Jackhammer
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1 | 6 | - | - | - | No | |
Target model in the spellcaster's battlegroup immediately makes one basic melee attack. | |||||||
Refuge
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2 | 6 | - | - | Upkeep | No | |
At the end of an activation in which the target friendly Faction model hit an enemy model with an attack, the affected model can make a full advance. It cannot be targeted by free strikes during this movement. |
Halfjacks
Halfjack | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Abilities
- Construct
- Companion [ Captain E. Dominic Darius ] - This model is included in any army that includes Captain E. Dominic Darius. If Darius is destroyed or removed from play, remove this model from play. This model is part of Darius's battlegroup.Place all three Halfjacks in play at the start of the game.
- Prime Mine (★ Action) - Replace this model with a mine marker. You can have up to three mine markers in play at any time. After resolving continuous effects during your Maintenance Phase, you can detonate any number of friendly mine markers. Center a 4" AOE template on each detonated mine and remove the mine marker from the table. Models in the AOE are hit and suffer an unboostable POW 14 blast damage roll.
- Repair [1] (★ Action) - RNG B2B. Target friendly Faction construct model. If the model is in range, remove 1 damage points from it.
Weapons
- Unarmed - This model has no weapons.
Theme Forces
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Flame in the Darkness - Gravediggers
- Heavy Metal
- Sons of the Tempest
- Storm Division. Darius and the halfjacks gain Immunity: Electricity in this theme.
Analysis of Darius
Darius in a nutshell
Darius is a melee brawler of a warjack controller, able to toughen warjacks, to repair them, able to speed up one heavy a turn, and relatively focus efficient. He has quite a beefy frame (on par with Butcher) to fend off half-hearted assassination attempts, allowing you to worry a bit less for his personal safety than with other casters in the faction. Make no mistake though; he is on a medium base, and is only as durable as a light warjack. Anything that can one-round a Sentinel or a Charger can make short work on him too.
As of early 2020 Darius is among the underdog casters in Cygnar, mainly beacause of the in-faction competitors and his struggle in the current metagame. He is intended to be a close-combat battlegroup caster who can enhance the survivability of his jacks. He is fun in casual games (and sometimes frustrating to be played against), but more experienced players will be prepared to one-round even the heaviest warjacks or stop damage-removal on them, diminishing your feat's usefulness.
His spell-kit and abilities also suffer from some anti-synergy - namely that you should activate Darius first to get the most out of Crane and Full Throttle. Also, you should activate your warjack first to get into position and make the most out of Jackhammer. It is technically possible to activate Darius first, crane your warjack into position to engage the enemy, punch it into oblivion with Jackhammer, then charge in with your jack to another enemy, but that requires position mistakes on the enemy's behalf, and extra care on yours not to put Darius into a position where he can be assassinated next turn.
As for his in-faction status, he's outdone by Nemo3 in terms of Focus efficiency, and has nothing on Kraye when we talk about battlegroup mobility and threat ranges. Jakes2 and Stryker2 both have Positive Charge, an awesome MAT + damage fixer spell for your jacks (plus the rest of the army), and the latter also has ARM fix against ranged attacks. As with other rarely seen models, we hope that a CID cycle may make this article largely obsolete.
Spell thoughts
- Arcantrik Bolt - This is his only tool for hunting Incorporeal models. Considering the shallow FOCUS pool, it is quite unlikely to be used during the battle, so save it for the endgame. You might consider using it against a warjack to bestow the Stationary effect. If you manage to also knock it down, the target will suffer both effects.
- Fortify - Your bread and butter spell, which usually will be on your biggest, meanest brawler jack from turn one. Since Darius tends to operate close to the front to use his Crane ability, it defends him from slams against the screening warjacks that could knock him down. It makes a Sturdy + Steady model out of your jack, and all those in B2B. You are also protected against non-power attack slams, like Thunder Strike or Force Hammer. However, affected models can still be made stationary, be placed, or be moved via Power Attacks and Throws.
- Refuge - Despite its name, it can be just as good for threat extension, as for seeking shelter after an attack. Considering his low speed, Darius himself can also be a good target for that. Read the spell's rules clarification page to understand how best to use this spell.
- Jackhammer - This spell lets a jack sucker punch the opponent's face for one focus. It is limited to basic attacks, so you cannot use the Ironclad's Tremor attack for example. Unless you cast Full Throttle first, you also cannot boost the attack rolls. Since its range is short, consider arcing through a Lancer if you need to keep Darius away from the fight.
- Full Throttle - This is one of the best battlegroup spells for melee warjacks and it has a higher return-on-investment the larger your battlegroup is. Since it eats up half of your FOCUS pool and Power-Up grants you free focus, always calculate when you'll reach a break-even point. Look for warjacks with nice critical effects, like the Thunderhead, the Ironclad or the Centurion. A note on wording: to get the free charge/slam/trample/run, it is enough to start the model's activation in the caster's CTRL area, but to gain the boosted melee attack rolls you must be within CTRL range at the time of the attack - so don't run too far up ahead. Darius also gains the boosted melee attack rolls.
Feat thoughts
Simple as it gets: you remove all damage points from as many jacks as you can get into B2B with your caster and the half-jacks. Don't expect it to be a game changer though - enemies will concentrate on one jack at a time, ensuring that it won't get up after a proper beating. Restoring your banged-up colossal from 4 boxes to full sounds awesome, but opponents will rarely do that favor. If you can save a heavy - go for it, it can give you the necessary advantage in the war of attrition. Also, be on the lookout for the abilities that cancel healing (see Drawbacks and Downsides). Keep in mind that although colossi cannot be affected by Grievous Wounds, other tricks like Entropic Aura can still stall your repair attempts. In such cases pay attention to remove those "jamming" models before your feat. You should also consider this feat's passive benefits. By having this on the table, you are forcing your opponent to commit (and sometimes over-commit) to "one-rounding" your 'Jacks (and, more importantly, your Colossal). Use the threat of the full repair to goad your opponent into overestimating the resources needed! Example would be to have your opponent over-commit to one flank in early turns.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- He is focus starved.
- He and his jacks are pretty sensitive to difficult terrain, SPD de-buffs, jamming units, and Incorporeal models.
- No army support outside warjacks.
- Enemies will rarely leave around several half-dead warjacks for your feat.
- Grievous wounds and effects like Entropic Force or the Accursed Arcana shut down your feat completely (the latter 2 can affect your colossi as well).
Tricks & Tips
- Darius cannot use his repair ability on himself, as he cannot be in B2B with himself.
- The jacks you feat-repair don't have to be in your control range (although the halfjack doing the repair does). Nor do they need to be jacks in Darius's battlegroup.
- Feel free to use the halfjacks as charge-lane blockers, or contesting pieces. They are solos, which are ideal for scoring on flags.
- Remember that Prime Mined halfjack explosions are "may" and not a "must". You can happily walk into your own mine field without fear. Walk a tasty target on top of one of your own mines and your opponent will need to do a cost-vs-reward analysis to engage.
- Crane is only limited to friendly models, not friendly faction models. Feel free to crane out Eyriss from melee if the enemy ran in to engage her.
- Study your opponent's list carefully, especially models with Steady, Sturdy and blast immunity.
- You can change the facing of the craned model - use it in case your key models were turned around due to Domination or Telekinesis to counter charges, or if the enemy simply ran behind you to avoid being charged at.
Darius can be quite unforgiving in terms of order of activation for beginners. Here's a short guide for him:
- Maintenance Phase - This is where you blow up Mine markers, after you resolved continuous effects, and resolved everything else that happens in this phase (like attacks from Rapid Fire). If you skipped that, no explosions for you.
- Control Phase - You put new Halfjacks into play at the end of this phase. Power Up and allocate Focus first, then drop new Halfjacks.
- Activation Phase - This is where your Crane ability can be triggered. As with all the "any time during its activation", it cannot be triggered after you ran or failed a charge, but can be triggered after you hit something under your Refuge spell, or you made a charge move, but before you attack. Read the End of Activation article for a detailed rundown.
List Building Advice
Strategy
Darius has remarkable tools for attrition and the ability to deny zones to the opponent with minefields or immovable jacks. He may also manipulate the threat range of a single model or provide excellent focus efficiency for his battlegroup.
Theme thoughts
Heavy Metal
This one seems like a no-brainer for Darius. You can get all the necessary supporting solos with requisition points for your nearly all warjack list. However, this force has several weak points like mobility and dealing with jamming infantry.
- Sentinel - Darius' ARM and HP boxes make him one of the toughest warcasters in the game, but the Sentinel is still useful for dissuading ranged assassination runs.
- Long Gunners - As your threat range tends to be short, faster enemies may try to outmaneuver you. Long Gunners can put pressure on them and can help you to score in the circular zones in scenarios.
- Sword Knights - A cheap and disposable screen for your slower jacks who can hit way above their class due to Flank.
- Storm Strider - Having its own boosting mechanism, this self-supporting long-range gun platform can operate without taxing Darius' Focus pool too much, and clear chaff infantry. Although, if you can spare the resources, it is a grateful recipient for Refuge.
Sons of the Tempest
This list solve all the issues with Incorporeal models for a trivial amount of points. Gun Mages are fragile and usually have problem of dealing with heavy armor, but that's what your jacks are there for.
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mages - A unit with their CA is just enough to give you a free solo, great protection against Incorporeal models, means to harass stealthy foes and a modicum of board control with their Thunderbolt rounds.
- Tempest Blazers - These guys excel at harassing flanks and hunting solos.
Storm Division
Although the above mentioned support solos are readily available and Storm Knights are more or less self-supporting units, they tend to be very expensive to reach the free-model point threshold. With the changes in Immunity: Electricity, your means to remove chaff infantry with electro-leaps from your own models were greatly diminished. However, Stormclads may operate very efficiently in Darius' battlegroup thanks to their Accumulator rule.
Gravediggers
Probably the hardest theme to play with him, as most of the important support solos will be unavailable, save for replacing Arlan Strangewayes with Aiyana under Murdoch's care for magical attacks. Trenchers in general tend to be self-sufficient units and Rangers can shore up your chances to hit with your ranged warjacks, but you will be hard-pressed to squeeze in the desired amount of warjacks with the expensive trencher infantry.
Support models - Various themes
When building an army with Darius, consider using the following models:
- Journeyman Warcaster - Arcane Shield is really useful for making tough jacks tougher, and you can put Fortify elsewhere. Try letting Junior run a Charger or a Sentinel.
- Squire - Vital to extending full throttle's reach and helps lessen his focus burden.
- Arlan - Darius is short on magical attacks, which is something Arlan can mitigate. He can occasionally hand out extra focus or repair Darius in a pinch. The problem is that he cannot be everywhere at once and will probably be a high-priority target for your opponent, especially if they rely on spamming Incorporeal models
Battlegroup
Darius likes tough melee warjacks that he can repair.
- Centurion - With full throttle, it can polarity field in the opening turns, and it is a tough and hard hitting melee jack. Fortify makes it even harder to kill.
- Lancer A Lancer is vital to Darius's game plan because he defiently doesnt want to hang out within 6" of his workhouse jack to cast jack hammer, because that will just get him killed. An Arc Node fixes this issue. Note that in Heavy Metal you can upgarde a Lancer into Thorn.
- Hammersmith - Cheap, tough, and hard hitting melee jack. Full throttle means he will definitely get his chain attack off.
- Ironclad - Cheap and focus-efficient melee jack. A boosted Tremor (thanks to full throttle) can be game ending.
- Defender - An ideal target for Jackhammer, helping it to knock out a warjack's cortex. TIt also has decent ranged capability.
- Stormclad - He has the longest native threat range of any Cygnar heavy and the highest native P+S.
- Hurricane - Cygnar's two Colossi are both extremely tough and get alot of mileage out of Darius' feat. The Hurricane has the added bonus of cortex-damage on his fists as well as an arc-node and both help get mileage from Jackhammer.
- Stormwall - Darius has quite a scenario problem if he runs too many jacks. The Lightning pot this machine is able to put into play count as solos so they can contest.
Other
Trivia
- Originally released in Warmachine: Apotheosis (2005)
Other Cygnar models
Rules Clarifications
Rules Clarification : Tremor (Edit)
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Rules Clarification: : Warcaster (Edit) | |||||
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Rules Clarification : Repair (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Repairable - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Activate Halfjack - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Crane and/or Power Lifter (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Arcantrik Bolt (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Fortify and/or Bracer (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Full Throttle (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Jackhammer (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Refuge (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Companion - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Prime Mine (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Unarmed (Edit)
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Note to Editors |