Combat Alchemists

These soldiers combine alchemical talents with traditional combat training to support more conventional military units. Carrying a variety of specialized alchemical grenades, they can effectively assault many different targets. Combat alchemist teams are drilled in path-finding and skirmish warfare, as they are often deployed in advance of a larger army to neutralize key threats.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Advance Deployment
• Template:Corrosion Immunity
• Template:Fire Immunity
• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Alchemical Mask
• Template:Prowl
• Template:Smoke Bomb
• Template:Swift Hunter

Weapons

Alchemical Grenade
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		6			1			3			12
Template:Attack Type Template:Acid Bomb Template:Blood of Urcaen Template:Ice Cage
Dagger
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				2				7

Theme Forces

• Crucible Guard
  • Template:Magnum Opus
  • 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 Combat Alchemists

Combat Alchemists in a nutshell

The Combat Alchemists are a unit that can produce an advance deploying smoke wall and throw around grenades that both eliminate infantry thanks to automatic corrosion, and debuff high DEF targets thanks to Ice Cage - neither of which need to hit directly.

After the “Drugs are Bad” CID update they gained swift hunter, pathfinder and 1 of their most used shot types improved. This is all great as it adds to their mobility and improves board positioning. However with other models in fact also being buffed and with another competing unit on the horizon it’s unlikely they will see much more time on the tabletop.

Combos & Synergies

• Other Combat Alchemists to get that Ice Cage or smoke wall. Two units in Prime Materia is very common.
• Suppressor is another source of ice cage.
• Run a couple of units in front of your army to create a cloud wall.
• Baldwin - Veteran Leader makes them RAT 7, which is very good.
• Railless Interceptor - Exhaust Fumes grants them concealment to trigger Prowl.

Drawbacks and Downsides

• You cannot screen huge bases with clouds.
• Blood of Urcaen only has a 1/12 chance of triggering per Alchemist (assuming the target is Def 12). This is not high enough to be considered reliable unless you can land multiple attacks, and should really only be considered viable into larger units.
• Combat Alchemists are very vulnerable to anti-cloud tech (such as Eyeless Sight or the Steelhead Arcanist), as their primary utility is often to drop a wall of clouds to protect your low ARM models from enemy shooting.
• 3 person units are seldom worth casting spells on.
• If you get tied up in melee, you won’t do much with a P+S 7 response.
• With swift hunter they can be 8" away from what they just threw bombs at. Which is not a great place to be in for squishy units.

Tricks and Tips

• Combat Alchemists are very flexible, and should never be considered useless models even when the unit is down to its last man.
• Blood of Urcaen has a 1/12 chance (assuming a Def of 12) of removing upkeeps per attack. This means a full trio of these guys has a 1/4 chance of triggering when attacking a unit, provided they can land all three of their attacks. This goes up 1/12 for each additional attack which lands. A tightly packed unit is unlikely to keep their upkeeps when facing Combat Alchemists.

Other

Trivia

Released with the Faction launch (2018.06)