Aurum Legate Lukas di Morray

Lukas di Morray has kept the rebellious fire of the Order of the Golden Crucible burning in Llael even after the loss of its old headquarters. Driven by a need for new weapons in his war against the Khadorans who seized his homeland, di Morray risked everything to unlock his latent arcane potential. Lukas tested an unstable alchemical formula on himself, and by this succeeded in becoming the first self-made warcaster. Eventually the serum he injects will cost him his life, but he considers the price a small one in exchange for the power it gives him to achieve his retribution.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat : Overdose

Di Morray immediately gains one juice token and 1 focus point, then warjacks in his battlegroup currently in his Template:Control range gain 1 focus point. Additionally, di Morray gains Range Amplifier this activation.

Template:Range Amplifier

Abilities

• Template:Detox
• Template:Health Care
• Template:Juicer
• Template:Rapid Healing
• Template:Irregulars

Weapons

Hand Cannon
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		12			1			Template:-			12
Regulus
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				7				13
Template:Magical Weapon Template:Exothermic Reaction

Spells

{{Category: Template:Burning AshTemplate:DisintegrationTemplate:Force Hammer delete Template:Telekinesis }}[[Category: Template:Burning AshTemplate:DisintegrationTemplate:Force Hammer delete Template:Telekinesis ]]

Theme Forces

• Crucible Guard
  • Template:Prima Materia
  • Template:Magnum Opus

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use him in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme.

Thoughts on Lukas

Lukas in a nutshell

Lukas is a user and abuser. His core concept is based around consuming dangerous chemicals that give him his warcaster abilities. As “Aurum Legate”, Lukas is also the highest-ranking member of the Order of the Golden Crucible active in the Crucible Guard’s fight in Llael.

The ‘Juicer’ mechanic is core to his identity. As you will find many of the warcasters in this faction, Lukas’ spell list is tied very thematically to alchemy. This is represented by things like Burning Ash, Disintegration, and Iron Flesh. Part of the effects of the serum is heightened telekinetic abilities. These are currently represented by Force Hammer and Telekinesis. He is a formidable warrior and should be threatening in combat. Lukas should not be a super-durable front-line caster but should have an active role on the battlefield.

The premier Spell slinger for the faction. Able to dump all focus into spells, feat, and do it all over again at FOCUS 8. Unfortunately he is not played

Spell thoughts

Lukas has (with his normal 8 Focus) an absolutely excellent spell list assuming he's something to channel through. Probably a Liberator.

• Disintegration - a three cost zap doesn't seem good, but a three cost non-upkeep ARM debuff is excellent. One of the best spells an 8 FOCUS spell slinger could have. Note that the debuff is applied before the damage roll, so the spell is effectively POW 15.
• Burning Ash lets him set up a cloud wall - possibly with the help of Combat Alchemists. Very useful.
• Iron Flesh is an excellent upkeep infantry-buff
• Force Hammer is a very situational attack spell. If you see the enemy line things up for you, you might want to use it. But probably not.

Feat thoughts

Template:Ph - this section needs updating to reflect Lukas' new Juicer/Feat interplay.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Low FOCUS stat.
• He is effectively limited to Magnum Opus theme because of his crippling reliance on access to healing (most of which is Ranking Officer + mercenaries, which aren't available in the other theme).
• To fully utilize his spell list he needs to Juice more often than not.
• Max Juicing and keeping your tokens can telegraph your game-plan.
• Juicing every turn without proper healing (or with bad healing rolls) can make Lukas susceptible to assassination. On the other hand his healing package can be somewhat expensive just to use him to his full potential.
  
• Arcane Void and the like can effectively shut him down.

Tricks & Tips

• Zap with Disintegration for a 2 point ARM debuff.
• Force Hammer knocks enemies over - perfect for an assassination.
• Lukas can be primarily an assassination caster or a buff caster with some excellent buffs for his army.
• Bring healing (Mosby with Lynus & Edrea, Wretches) or else he will be severely hamstrung very early.
• He has a damage buff (Disintegration) which is rare in the faction outside of feats. He can get -6 ARM swings against enemy models every turn with Ragman or Hermit of Hengehold.

List Building Advice

Strategy

His main methods of winning are either spell assassination or attrition.

For spell assassination you need two Liberators and Lynus & Edrea with Dr. Morely (for healing Lukas) - 29 pts package. Stack Juice tokens and go to town with 17 focus (Turn 3) or 20 focus (Turn 4). Use Force Hammer and follow with Disintegrations, it's hard to resist since Liberators can channel while engaged.

His attrition plan doesn't have to use Lynus & Edrea but should still have Dr. Morely. This plan counts on a cloud wall delivering Lukas' army.

Theme thoughts - Crucible Guard

Prima Materia is the natural home for Lukas as PM is a 'jack theme, and Lukas and his jacks will positively swim in focus thanks to Juicer, his feat and Cutting Edge. Also double Death Archons are amazing with any TK caster and you can only take one in Magnum Opus.

Theme thoughts - Infernals

Surprise! Lukas di Morray can be taken as an Infernal Warcaster in the Hearts of Darkness theme. This theme offers Lukas access to a number of powerful abilities not native to Crucible Guard, most importantly Accumulator: Soulless, Tactician, and the Infernal Gate's various powers. Notable Guard models for Lukas remain pretty much the same (Alyce, Failed Experiments, Mentalists, a Vindicator, Liberators, but sadly no Railesses).

As such it is often better to think of Bad Guy Lukas as Guard Lukas who has traded his Battle Engines and Archons for access to Infernal solos, Croe's & the Gate. While the options are quite different, the general goal should remain the same; double down on Lukas' potent spell assassination with long range firepower and support-clearing models. Umbral Guardians are a straight upgrade (in terms of points efficiency) over Vanguards, and have the additional function of being Soulless models which can trigger Accumulator.

Croe's Cutthroats are a big fan of Telekinesis to enable their Backstab ability. They also come packed with souls for the gate.

You'll typically want to avoid the non-Experiments Crucible Guard troops, as they take up precious slots and don't benefit from any specific synergies in Infernals. This of course is with the exception of the Gate, as it can gain the souls of any troops you bring. As such an Infernal Gate + Croes may pan out to be a powerful area denial block, especially once layered with the other kinds of Infernal support. Valin Hauke makes the Experimets (and Lukas himself) immune to stationary and knock down, which is amazing.

Another model of note is the Wretch, and the spell that it provides in That Which Does Not Kill You which may look hard to apply at speed 6 and CMD 8, but with Tactician and careful planning with your support, you can get them in good positions to heal up not only Lukas, but a Liberator that may have burned out their Arc Node. Further synergies include Orin2 with his ability to grant Lukas re-rolls, and Hermit who can either give a further arm debuff, or telemetry to make him effectively FOCUS 10 for slinging spells.

Army

Basically every Lukas Crucible Guard list should start in Prima Materia with 2-3 Liberators, Alyce, two Death Archons, and 2 Ascendant Mentalists.

Warjacks

• Liberator: A spellslinger loves himself some arc-nodes, preferably 2. Ashen Veil and Burning Ash also stack for effectively DEF 17.
• Vindicator: You'll want a quality attack to hit a Disintegrated target with. This machine's gun fits the bill. It also packs a secondary ARM debuff in Withering Humour.
• Vulcan: If you manage to knock down a caster, the Vulcan will likely kill it, but that's about it with the synergies.

Units

• Failed Experiments - The best Iron Flesh targets because they are tough thanks to Iron Flesh, but unlike Storm or Assault Troopers they can also be fast, which is relevant for him as he no longer has Mirage. With the Clouds and all the ARM buffs in your list you will have a very bricky list with them at the centre.

Solos

• Aurum Legate Alyce Marc: A quintessential model for the Crucible Guard already, even more so with her husband thanks to his Healthcare rule. With or without Juicer, a Caster with only 5 focus is going to appreciate more focus efficiency. Note also that Alyce can always be taken with Lukas thanks to his Irregulars rule (this is highly relevant for Hearts of Darkness).
• Ascendant Mentalist - Force Aura stack well with Iron Flesh and she is generally sucha good toolbox solo who loves TK.
• Trancers - Trancers are CGs auto-include models because they keep your lists in scenario. As Lukas's lists generally tend to be low in model count their importance increases accordingly.

Battle Engines

• Railless Interceptor - They are just excellent models with lots of attacks. The casual +4 ARM from Mentalists and Archons also helps as they cannot be screened by clouds (but rather sreen his army with their huge bases). With Bulldoze they really help with threat ranges, which is amazing. Oh and you can also TK them around.

Mercenaries

• Death Archon - Mortal Fear is the perfect addition to Iron Flesh and Force Aura and they need the protection from his clouds. TK pushes their threat ranges to silly levels and they love to collect his dead Experimets.

Trivia

• First mentioned in the "Aftershock (Acts of War #2)" book. (2017.07)
• Released 2018.06
• He is Alyce's husband.

Video Battle Reports

• 2018.11 Arcane Assist 75 points vs Rasheth
• Template:VBR