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| {{Cygbox2|Captain E. Dominic Darius
| | [[Cygnar]] [[First Army]] [[Warcaster]] |
| |{{Cygnar}} [[Warcaster]]
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| |Halfjacks
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| |[[Companion]] [[Solo]]s
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| }} [[Category: Model]]
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| {{4P|First Army}}
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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.''
| | [[Category:Legacy]] |
| | [[Category:Prime]] |
| | [[Category:Cygnar]] |
| | [[Category:First Army]] |
| | [[Category:Warcaster]] |
| | [[Category:Leader]] |
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| =Basic Info= | | ==Model stats and abilities == |
| ==Darius==
| | {{Model-stats |
| {{Infobox-Model | | | name = Darius 1 |
| | name = Darius1 | | | base = 40 mm |
| | image = Darius1.jpg | | | hp = 22 |
| | base = Medium | |
| | spd = 5 | | | spd = 5 |
| | str = 8 | | | aat = 6 |
| | mat = 6 | | | mat = 6 |
| | rat = 5 | | | rat = 5 |
| | def = 13 | | | def = 13 |
| | arm = 18 | | | arm = 18 |
| | cmd = 8 | | | arc = 6 |
| | focus = 6 | | | ctrl = 12|fa=free |
| | hp = 22 | | | abilities = |
| | wjp = +29 | | {{AbilitySingle|Dual Attack}} |
| }} | | {{AbilitySingle|Activate Halfjack}} |
| | {{AbilitySingle|Crane}} |
| | {{AbilityComplex|main=Special Action|sub1=Repair|sub1a=d3+3}} |
| | {{AbilitySingle|Repairable}} |
| | }} |
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| {{Warcaster}}
| | ===Weapons=== |
| : Darius starts the game with 3 Halfjacks solos in play.
| | {{Weapon|weapon=Steam Cannon|type = R |rng = 10 |rof = 1 |aoe = 3 |pow = 14/8| loc = -| abilities = {{AbilitySingle|Steam Pressure}} }} |
| | | {{Weapon|weapon=Quake Hammer|type = M |rng = 1 |rof = - |aoe = - |pow = 15| loc = -| abilities = {{AbilityCritical|Knockdown}}{{AbilityOptions|Special Attack|Tremor}} }} |
| ===Feat: Pit Stop=== | | {{Weapon|weapon=Wrench|type = M |rng = 1 |rof = - |aoe = - |pow = 11| loc = -| abilities =}} |
| * Darius gains 1d3+2 focus.
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| * This turn, Darius and warjacks in his battlegroup can have damage removed with [[Repair]] regardless of other special rules.
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| * Darius and the Halfjacks in his battlegroup currently in his {{control}} range can each completely Repair Darius or one friendly Faction warjack with which he or it is B2B. Remove all damage from those models. [[Category: Remove Damage Feat]]
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| ===Abilities=== | |
| * {{Repair|d3+3}}
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| * {{Repairable}}
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| * {{Activate Halfjack}}
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| * {{Crane}}
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| ===Weapons === | |
| {| class="wikitable"
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| {{Ranged|Steam Cannon|12|14|aoe=4| }} | |
| {{Melee|Quake Hammer|1|7|15| | |
| * {{Critical Knockdown}}
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| * {{Tremor}} }}
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| {{Melee|Wrench|0.5|3|11| }} | |
| |}
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| ===Spells=== | | ===Spells=== |
| {{Spellbox| | | {{Spellbox|Arcantrik Bolt}} |
| {{Arcantrik Bolt}} | | {{Spellbox|Electrify}} |
| {{Fortify}} | | {{Spellbox|Fortify}} |
| {{Full Throttle}} | | {{Spellbox|Full Throttle}} |
| {{Jackhammer}} | | {{Spellbox|Jackhammer}} |
| {{Refuge}}
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| }} | |
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| ==Halfjacks== | | ==Warcaster Rules== |
| {{Infobox-Model
| | ===Feat: Pit Stop=== |
| | name = Halfjack
| | Remove all damage from friendly Faction warjacks currently in Darius's control range. Additionaly, friendle Faction warjacks currently in Darius's control range gain +2 SPD, MAT, and RAT for one turn. |
| | base = Small
| | ===Additional Warcaster Rules=== |
| | spd = 6
| | {{Category:Warcaster}} |
| | str = 2
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| | mat 3 irrelevant
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| | rat 1 irrelevant
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| | def = 13
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| | arm = 14
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| | hp = 1
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| }}
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| ===Abilities===
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| * {{Construct|Hide_Cat=<!---YES--->}}
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| * {{Companion|Captain E. Dominic Darius|Darius|more text= Place all three Halfjacks in play at the start of the game.|Hide_Cat=<!---YES--->}}
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| * {{Prime Mine|Hide_Cat=<!---YES--->}}
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| * {{Repair|1|Hide_Cat=<!---YES--->}}
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| ===Weapons=== | |
| * {{Unarmed|Hide_Cat=<!---YES--->}}
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| ==Theme Forces==
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| * {{si|Flame in the Darkness}}
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| * {{Gravediggers}}
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| * {{Heavy Metal}}
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| * {{Sons of the Tempest}}
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| * {{Storm Division}}. Darius and the halfjacks gain [[Immunity: Electricity]] in this theme.
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| =Thoughts on Darius =
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| ===Darius in a nutshell===
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| Darius is a melee brawler of a warjack controller, able to toughen warjacks, repair them, able to speed up one heavy a turn, and be 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.
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| Throughout Mk3 Darius has been among the underdog casters in Cygnar, mainly because of the in-faction competitors and his struggle in the 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.
| | ==Changes and Updates== |
| | | ===Release=== |
| 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.
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| 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.
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| As with other rarely seen models, we hope that a CID cycle may make this article largely obsolete.
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| ===Spell thoughts===
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| * '''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.
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| * '''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.
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| * '''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.
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| * '''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.
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| * '''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.
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| ===Feat thoughts===
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| 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. 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! An example would be to have your opponent over-commit to one flank in early turns.
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| The additional focus also massively alleviates one of Darius' core problems - he wants to do too much with too little Focus. Now he can upkeep Fortify, cast Full Throttle and allocate focus to multiple Jacks to an adequate standard...even to the point where he can keep some to protect himself!
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| ===Drawbacks & Downsides===
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| * He is Focus starved on non-Feat turns.
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| * He and his jacks are pretty sensitive to difficult terrain, SPD de-buffs, jamming units, and [[Incorporeal]] models.
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| * No army support outside warjacks.
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| * Enemies will rarely leave around several half-dead warjacks for your feat.
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| ===Tricks & Tips===
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| * Darius cannot use his repair ability on himself, as he cannot be in B2B with himself.
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| * 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.
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| * Feel free to use the halfjacks as charge-lane blockers, or contesting pieces. They are solos, which are ideal for scoring on flags.
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| * 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.
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| * 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.
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| * Study your opponent's list carefully, especially models with [[Steady]], [[Sturdy]] and blast immunity.
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| * 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.
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| Darius can be quite unforgiving in terms of order of activation for beginners. Here's a short guide for him:
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| * 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.
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| * Control Phase - You put new Halfjacks into play ''at the end'' of this phase. Power Up and allocate Focus first, then drop new Halfjacks.
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| * 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.
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| =List Building Advice=
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| ===Strategy===
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| 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.
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| ===Theme thoughts===
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| {{Header|[[Heavy Metal]]}}
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| This one seems like a no-brainer for Darius. With the ability to allow partisans, it allows Darius to run with some more combined arms.
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| * [[Ol' Rowdy]] - Fortify is pretty good on him for ARM 22 and no know down and pushes, as are Full Throttle and Jackhammer.
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| * [[Thorn]] - An Arc Node can be pretty vital to use Jack Hammer on another jack that got stuck in enemy lines. Thorn also doesn't care if it's engaged itself.
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| * [[Caine0]] - He brings some important chaff clearing and solo hunting with Trick Shot and Fire for Effect is actually pretty good on Darius himself and his Steam Cannon. [[Ace]] or a [[Minuteman]] are excellent and cheap options for him.
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| * [[Precursor Knights]] - A cheap and disposable screen for your slower jacks who can hit way above their class due to their mini feat.
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| * [[Order of Illumination Resolutes]] - The are repairable heavy infantry, and as such the synergize a lot with him as he can repair for days. With Arcane Shield from a Jr Warcaster they reach acceptable ARM levels as well. Also they bring some ranged presence he really appreciates.
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| * [[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.
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| {{Header|[[Sons of the Tempest]]}}
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| This list solves issues with incorporeal models and provides Darius and his jacks with multiple tools to scalpel priority targets and an indirect damage buff with Falk. Gun Mages are fragile and usually have problems dealing with heavy armor, but that's what your jacks are there for.
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| Captain Arlan Strangewayes
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| * [[Lieutenant Bastian Falk]] - A great scalpel piece that can directly buff the damage the other gunmages put out. Combined with [[Captain Arlan Strangewayes]] he can enable a damage buff for one of Darius jacks that can persist through jackhammer attacks.
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| * [[Tempest Blazers]] - These guys excel at harassing flanks and hunting solos.
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| {{Header|[[Storm Division]]}}
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| With the changes in {{Immunity:Electricity}}, your means to remove chaff infantry with electro-leaps from your own models were greatly diminished. However, [[Stormclad]]s may operate very efficiently in Darius' battlegroup thanks to their Accumulator rule. [[Storm Lances]] can be self-sufficient, and with the help of a [[Journeyman Warcaster]] and unyielding, can hold a flank while Darius pushes his battlegroup.
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| {{Header|[[Gravediggers]]}}
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| Probably the hardest theme to play with him, as most of the important support solos will be unavailable, save for replacing [[Arlan Strangewayes]] with [[Lady Aiyana & Master Holt|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.
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| {{Header|Support models - Various themes}}
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| When building an army with Darius, consider using the following models:
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| * [[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]].
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| * [[Squire]] - Vital to extending full throttle's reach and helps lessen his focus burden.
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| * [[Captain Arlan Strangewayes|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
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| ===Battlegroup=== | |
| Darius likes tough melee warjacks that he can repair.
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| * [[Centurion]] - With full throttle, it can trigger Polarity Field and run in the opening turn, and it is a tough and hard-hitting melee jack. Fortify makes it even harder to kill.
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| * [[Lancer]] A Lancer is vital to Darius's game plan because he definitely doesn't want to hang out within 6" of his workhouse jack to cast jackhammer, because that will just get him killed. An Arc Node fixes this issue. Note that in Heavy Metal you can upgrade a Lancer into [[Thorn]].
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| * [[Hammersmith]] - Cheap, tough, and hard-hitting melee jack. Full throttle means he will definitely get his chain attack off. But it's slow and Darius has no way of fixing that.
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| * [[Ironclad]] - Cheap and focus-efficient melee jack. A boosted Tremor (thanks to full throttle) can be game-ending.
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| * [[Defender]] - An ideal target for Jackhammer, helping it to knock out a warjack's cortex. It also has very good ranged capability.
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| * [[Stormclad]] - He has the longest native threat range of any Cygnar heavy and the highest native P+S.
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| * [[Hurricane]] - Cygnar's two Colossi are both extremely tough and get ''a lot'' 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.
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| * [[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.
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| * [[Avenger]] - Range 10 on its gun is a problem, but with Refuge it can advance 4", shoot and back up 4" and thus shoot somethign from 14" away and still be safe. With its P+S 18 Stun Blade it works well in melle with Full throttle and Jack Hammer as well.
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| ===Starting a 25 point Brawl list===
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| In 2020.11 LuckGod, a prolific Warmachine blogger, put together this list for the [[Brawlmachine]] format. He even wrote about its play style which you can [https://luckgod84.blogspot.com/2020/11/darius1-brawlmachine-list.html read here].
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| '''[[Theme - Heavy Metal]]
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| : '''Captain E. Dominic Darius''': [+29 WJP]
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| :* Halfjacks
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| :* [[Squire]]: [Free] {{grey|(5 pts)}}
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| :* [[Centurion]]: [16 pts]
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| :* [[Hammersmith]]: [12 pts]
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| :* [[Thorn]]: [11 pts]
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| : Journeyman Warcaster [3 pts]
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| :* [[Charger]]: [9 pts]
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| : [[Field Mechaniks]] (Min unit): [3 pts]
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| Total RRP: USD $209 (based on PP's online store prices 2021.03)
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| :'''Note''' - This list/article was written before the 2021.10 Errata and therefore may have incorrect point values
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| {{Brawl}}
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| =Other= | |
| ===Trivia=== | |
| * Released in [[Apotheosis|Warmachine: Apotheosis]] (2005) | | * Released in [[Apotheosis|Warmachine: Apotheosis]] (2005) |
| * The E. in their name stands for Edward.
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| ===Other Cygnar models=== | | ===Mk3 to Mk4=== |
| {{Index Cygnar}}
| | Pit Stop changes: No longer gains focus. Remove all damage within 1" of Darius or a Halfjack. Affects friendly warjacks (not just faction). All warjacks within 1" of Darius or a Halfjack in his battlegroup gain +2 SPD, MAT, RAT. |
| | Steam Cannon lost 2 inches range, but picked up Steam Pressure. |
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| ===Rules Clarifications=== | | ===Annual Update (2024 Jan)=== |
| {{RC Knockdown}}
| | Pit Stop changes: Now affects friendly Faction warjacks in his control range. No longer affects Invictus. |
| {{RC Tremor}}
| | Jackhammer changed to cost 2, range control. |
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| {{RC Warcaster}}
| | =Lore= |
| {{RC Repair}}
| | ''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.'' |
| {{RC Repairable}}
| | * The E. in his name stands for Edward. |
| {{RC Activate Halfjack}}
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| {{RC Crane}}
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| {{RC Arcantrik Bolt}}
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| {{RC Fortify}}
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| {{RC Full Throttle}}
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| {{RC Jackhammer}}
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| {{RC Refuge}}
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| {{RC Companion}}
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| {{RC Prime Mine}}
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| {{RC Unarmed}}
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| {{Edbox|To edit the halfjack's tagged abilities, [{{FULLURL:Captain_E._Dominic_Darius_:_Halfjack_(Companion)|action=edit}} Click here]}}
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