Warmachine: Thememachine – Wrecking Crew
What’s up folks!? It’s Trevy the Great here again from Way of the Swan here again to talk about another exciting theme force! This time on Thememachine we’ll be covering everyone’s favorite Italian plumber; Captain E. Dominic Darius and his Wrecking Crew!
Just like the Warcaster that leads it, Wrecking Crew; Darius’ original Forces of Warmachine theme force, is straightforward and without much subtlety; although there are some interesting builds that can come out of it. I’m not nearly as impressed with Darius’ newer, No Quarter theme force, Field Tests, because Wrecking Crew allows Darius to take his game (which is insane ARM stacking and resilience) and crank it up to the next level. So what does this theme force do to support that playstyle?
The Theme Force is pretty restrictive when it comes to troops; you can only take Sword Knights, but allows most of the support solos that Darius wants; Squire, Arlan and Journeyman Warcasters. The focus of the theme force is based around warjacks and Sword Knights make a fine screen, so the lack of infantry isn’t felt particularly hard.
-Tier 1 gives models in Darius’ battlegroup Pathfinder on the first turn; not a huge deal but good to get your slow Warjacks through bad terrain if your table edge isn’t great.
-Tier 2 gives you a free Sword Knight UA if you take two units; the Sword Knight UA isn’t particularly useful if you aren’t Marshalling warjacks, but it’s a deal at 0 points! This bonus ignores FA restrictions, so there are some fun lists that can be made with 2 UAs, which I’ll take about later.
-Tier 3 requires no light warjacks, which is pretty restrictive considering Light Warjacks are generally useful to give a list like this flexibility, but the benefit is pretty significant; a 1-point reduction on the cost of heavy warjacks (not Colossals, though; that’s important). That’s huge! This list will probably be taking a lot of Heavies, so getting a bunch of extra points is awesome.
-Tier 4 awards you an additional 2” of deployment zone if you take the Thunderhead; 2” up the table is good for this list because it tends to be slow and steady, but you have to take Thunderhead to do it, so most lists will probably stop at Tier 3.
So let’s take all these pieces and like a true warjack mechanik assemble them into a well-oiled machine of destruction!
Darius' best friend
My favorite place to start with this list is to put all the support and infantry you need into the list first; the Squire, Journeyman Warcaster and Arlan are all useful and should be in your list if you can fit them; they help support Warjacks well and keep them running. Two minimum units of Sword Knights also go in to screen your Warjacks and fulfill that Tier 2 benefit; if the points work out, maximizing one of these units and putting Arcane Shield on it makes it a very tough screening tarpit. With the number of Warjacks that this list wants, these Sword Knights can also hit pretty hard with their +2 to hit and additional die of damage from Flank.
At this point, filling up the remaining points with ‘jacks seems like the way to go! I like to bring Centurions with Darius because of Reach and their resilience. With the support I mentioned above, you can fit 5 9-point Warjacks (which then become 8 points) into the list. Adding a few ranged attacks into the list help supplement its slow speed helps a lot; a Defender for the powerful gun and/or a Cyclone to help keep infantry off the backs of the heavy ‘jacks.
Captain E. Dominic Darius (*5pts)
* Centurion (8pts)
* Centurion (8pts)
* Centurion (8pts)
* Cyclone (8pts)
* Defender (8pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* Sword Knight Officer & Standard (0pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Bricking a list like this up with the Centurions at the front activating their Polarity Fields every turn makes it very resilient to infantry, who generally can’t kill ARM21+ warjacks without charging. A list like this one plays a REALLY long game; Jackhammers, gun shots and mines help clear out enemy infantry. When heavy hitters come in, ARM buffs hopefully prevent the damage from being too severe before Pit Stop repairs the Centurions and Darius Jackhammers any offenders into the ground.
I often play this sort of list with a Stormwall instead of the Squire, Arlan, the Cyclone and Defender. The Stormwall puts a very heavy ranged game into the list in addition to being a very strong choice with Darius. The Centurions with Polarity Field screening the Stormwall keeps enemy heavy hitters that could potentially one-round it from getting there. Once the list gradually grinds the threats to the Stormwall to dust, the big guy can break out from the brick and close the game out.
"I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING CREWWWW!!!!"
Another interesting version of this theme force fields two Sword Knight units with their unit attachments; this allows these units to each marshal two Warjacks, putting four ‘jacks with access to Pronto on the table, which lets them make a full advance during the Sword Knights’ activation after a successful Drive test. Hunters are a popular choice; with the Pronto movement they can fire Armor Piercing shots into the opponent’s deployment zone on the top of the first round, possibly killing or crippling an enemy heavy before they get the chance to act or put up their defensive buffs.
Captain E. Dominic Darius (*5pts)
* Centurion (9pts)
* Centurion (9pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* Sword Knight Officer & Standard (0pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
*Sword Knight Officer & Standard (2pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
* Hunter (6pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
This list also fits in two Centurions or a Stormwall (if you ditch the Journeyman Warcaster) as a meaty center. Either option adds a resilient tank to the list; the Centurions are more difficult to kill, while the Stormwall aids the list’s powerful ranged game and has an astronomical damage output with Jackhammer. As the game wears on, the Hunters can use Pronto to duck back behind terrain or out of threat range; their Parry ability, making them immune to free strikes, allows them to dodge out of combat easily before shooting. If the Sword Knights need to get down and dirty in melee, the Hunters can run in there to give them Flank. A list like this lacks the resilience of the previous version, but Pronto is a fantastic ability that gives it a lot of flexibility and makes it extremely slippery!
Are you a fan of the Wrecking Crew? How do you field Cygnar’s most skilled mechanik’s army of metal men!? Remember that you can check out www.wayoftheswan.com for more awesome Cygnar coverage, including the man in the toilet can, Darius himself!
