Dragon's Breath Rocket

Dragon’s Breath Rocket artillery are devastating long-range rockets used in the place of traditional artillery like mortars and cannons. Containing a payload of explosive charges and debilitating alchemical agents, on impact they first devastate an area with a concussive blast wave, then the dispersed aerosol form of the compounds within blanket the target with a cloud of toxic gas.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Entire unit
  • Template:Immunity: Corrosion
  • Template:Immunity: Fire
  • Template:Breather

• Gunner only
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Man-Sized
  • Template:Mobile Artillery
  • Template:Take Up

Weapons

• Gunner
  • Rocket - 14" range, 4" AOE, POW 14 gun
    • Template:Arcing Fire
    • Template:Withering Humor
  • Sword - 0.5" reach, P+S 9 melee weapon

• Grunts
  • Carbine - 10" range, POW 10 gun.
  • Sword - 0.5" reach, P+S 9 melee weapon

Theme Forces

• Crucible Guard
  • Template:Magnum Opus. This unit gains Reposition [3] in this theme.
  • Template:Prima Materia

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this unit in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Lukas is leading the army.
  • Mercenary players can use this unit in the Template:Llaelese Resistance theme. This unit becomes Llaelese and gains Pathfinder in this theme.

Thoughts on Dragon's Breath Rocket

Dragon's Breath Rocket in a nutshell

Dragon’s Breath Rockets are a staple in Crucible Guard armies that do no have a Vindicator for Whithering Humor. Applying Withering Humor to the opposing army is very important versus living models. This model does not have different ammunition types, and thus is significantly less useful into Construct-heavy factions (such as Skorne, Convergence, or any warjack list).

Combos & Synergies

• Withering Humor will be relevant in almost every matchup (with the notable exception of Convergence, which consistently runs all Construct lists).
  • -2 ARM at an 18" threat is ludicrous, and makes the faster elements of your army (Railless, Rocketmen, 'jacks with SPD buffs) very scary for enemy casters.
  • Even the threat of a DBR shot can keep your opponent honest, and prevent them from taking a commanding position in the center of the board
  • Order of activation really matters; if you intend to go for the assassination make sure you are not relying on a support set up which runs out of activation (such as needing Snipe on the DBR, but then also needing Baldwin's shots to get the -2 ARM debuff). As such, your DBR(s) should be one of the first things you look at to decide where it will fall in your order of activation.
• The DBR pairs well with pretty much every model in Guard, but especially the faster ones.
  • Rocketmen are of particular note, as they are naturally better into the warjacks the DBR cannot debuff. At the same time they really like the -2 ARM debuff to hit the medium-base tanky units common in the meta at the moment.
  • The Railless Interceptor has a huge mess of attacks of relatively low POW, so a large ARM debuff is exactly what it wants.
  • Crucible Guard Storm Troopers benefit tremendously from Withering Humor, as their blast damage is natively buffed.
  • Pretty much all Crucible Guard 'jacks have relatively low POW, and are balanced around the ARM debuffs provided by the DBR & others. If you're not getting at least some kind of debuff in before you send in your 'jacks (especially the heavies), you are not getting your points worth in terms of hitting power.
• Gains Reposition in Magnum Opus, allowing the unit to walk, shoot, and reposition 3" for a total move distance of 7", versus their running speed of 6" (SPD 2 x2, +2" from crewmates)
• Their ARM of 14 is surprisingly resilient to low-POW ranged attacks when combined with Deceleration and Force Aura.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Victim stats, but like any weapon crew they have Takeup so at least your opponent will usually have to kill all three of them to eliminate the gun.
• No defensive abilities apart from 14" range keeping them away from the fight. They are vulnerable to the same things as other weapons crews (electroleaps, AOEs, collateral damage, etc.)
• RAT 5 is sad. You should get really good at rolling and measuring deviation because you will be doing it a lot.
• Withering Humor only works on Living & Undead, which turns the DBR into just a gun when playing against Convergence.
• The DBR relies on its range, which means abilities that decrease your range or make models untargetable make it very hard to apply, and abilities like Stealth make it harder to apply accurately.
• Against lists with few to no living models, high DEF, gas effect immunity (e.g. mirror match), and/or blast immunity, the DBR may contribute very little.
• The Vindicator has the exact same shot type on its gun, but the shot is fully boostable with just its Power-Up focus and the Vindy is SPD 5. And if there is no living or undead model to debuff, it can still choose another shot type, or go into melee, where it will perform excellently as well. All of this combined with the above drawbacks has made the DBR all but obsolete in competitive lists.

Tricks & Tips

• The -2 ARM debuff and loss of Tough against living and undead still applies even if the models are immune to blast damage, but not if they are immune to gas effects. This is relevant against models like Trenchers and Resolutes.
• Reposition 3" in Magnum Opus makes them much faster and easier to use than in Prima Materia. Also note that DBR cannot be taken as a Requisition option in Prima Materia.
• If your opponent has some squishy living models being protected by durable Shield Guards, you may be able to aim for a high-DEF model (for example, your own blast-immune Trancer engaging them) with the intent of drifting the deviation into the squishy models, killing them with blast damage. AOE shenanigans like these work with CG's other AOE weapons (Vulcan, Railless Interceptor, etc) and will usually work out in your favor a few times per game, but don't clock out wasting your time on low-odds deviation drifts.
• Even against constructs, POW 14 rockets are still fairly effective, especially with help from a feat, Rust, or other buff/debuff.
• The DBR can get to some truly bonkers threat ranges with the right suite of support:
  • Baldwin has Snipe, which by itself gives the rocket a 22" threat.
  • Lukas can give them Apparition, which only extends their threat to 20" but costs only a single focus per turn to upkeep. They go back up to 22" when run in Lukas' Hearts of Darkness list, thanks to the 2" from the Infernal Gate.
• Don't forget the grunts have rifles, and they all have swords!

Other

Trivia

• Released with the Faction launch (2018.06)
• The kit has a "standard" unit leader (the dude with goggles). However the gun itself is small enough that any of the models could be put on its base.