Crucible Guard Rocketmen

Squads of Crucible Guard rocketmen streak across the skies, giving the Crucible Guard an edge against a more numerous foe. Rocketmen assault the flanks of an opposing force, picking off strategic targets with their carbines or dropping devastating gravity bombs into packed enemy formations. Able to fly over traditional defenses, rocketmen squads are tactically versatile soldiers unlike anything before seen in the modern militaries of the Iron Kingdoms.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Everyone
  • Template:Flight
  • Template:Gunfighter
  • Template:Breather
  • Template:Defensive Action
  • Template:Strafing Run

• Captain only
  • The Officer has better stats
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Death From Above
  • Template:Granted (Template:Dodge-alt)
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Swift Hunter-alt)

• Gunner only
  • Template:'Jack Hunter

Weapons

Leader & Grunts	Carbine File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  10 1 Template:- 10 Gravity Bomb File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  4 1 3 12 Template:Cumbersome Template:Sky Dropped
Captain	Carbine (x2) File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  10 1 Template:- 10 Gravity Bomb File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  4 1 3 12 Cumbersome Sky Dropped
Gunner	Slug Gun File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  4 1 Template:- 14

Theme Forces

• Crucible Guard
  • Template:Magnum Opus
  • Template:Si. The Rocketmen are one of the few models not allowed in this theme.

• 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 a Llaelese unit and gains Pathfinder in this theme.

Thoughts on Crucible Guard Rocketmen

Crucible Guard Rocketmen in a nutshell

Rocketmen are the swift moving air assault forces of the Crucible Guard. Using Carbines to skirmish with opposing troops until it’s time to rocket forward and utilize manually dropped bombs to take out harder targets. Speed and defense should be prioritized over armor and durability. Hit and run tactics should be emphasized over directly fighting.

The Crucible Guard Rocketmen are skirmishers who rival the Crucible Guard Infantry in their role of anti-infantry shooting. Flight and speed gives them a lot of mobility, and high DEF can be really useful.

Thoughts on adding the Attachments

• UA is nearly mandatory for that great +2 DEF/Blast immunity order.
• WAs are good against Warmachine armies and better if you can debuff the enemy, but they aren't really worth it against Hordes.
• tinfoil armour

Combos & Synergies

• Major Aline Benett passively gives them Flying High, pushing them to the point that your opponent will probably give up trying to shoot them. She also has Raid and Down Range. Which improve damage output.
• Aurum Adeptus Syvestro and his Transmutation spell plus UA's order pushes their DEF to abusive level, add immunity to blast damage and you've got yourself one hell of a screening unit.
• Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart & Mr. Clogg loves his infantry (even the rocket-propeled kind) and they may serve as a great more mobile element in his gunline.
• Application of Rust makes their WAs very scary against enemy warjacks.
• Ashlynn D'Elyse can give them Quicken which makes them very hard to hit, and more importantly can give them a base speed of 11 or get them 18 inches up the board turn one.
• Hermit of Henge Hold really turns these guys up to 11 (or more accurately, 12). Rocketmen don't care as much about the -2 ARM as other units due to their high DEF-skew (what can hurt them will hurt them regardless of ARM 11 or 9), and as such the Hermit's -2 ARM aura works as an almost purely positive benefit for the Guard player.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Their low ARM mean that anything that hits them kills them.
• Overall damage output of the unit isn't that high and relies mostly on debuffs.
• WAs are useless in some matchups.
• The unit can get expensive.

Tricks & Tips

• You can only use one Order per turn. You've got 3 to choose from: run/charge; extra mobility; or extra survivability.

Other

Trivia

Released with the Faction launch (2018.06)