As you know by now, I have been busy at work creating some awesome skirmish lists from our most popular Kickstarter Pledge Level: Heavy Duty. And while it has distracted me from my true love—my Man-O-War-themed Manowar cover band “Man-O-Manowar”—the contract that our editor had me sign with my blood states that “no sacrifice is big enough to not make army lists for our readers.” [Editor’s Note: True dat.]
So, get ready, because the next one is for our latest Faction in Warcaster: the Empyreans!
models painted by Jordan Lamb
The Empyrean Heavy Duty Pledge comes with these models:
- 1 Zenith
- 1 Sentinel Variant B
- 1 Saber Guardian
- 1 Factotum
- 1 Wild Card of your choice (either Corebus, Dr. Myra Hurst, or Harlan Sek)
- 1 Collision Course Expansion Rulebook and Cypher Deck
If there’s one thing the Empyreans are great at, it’s Arc manipulation. While this list has a ton of heavy hitters in it so far, it needs a bit of help in the Arc department. With that in mind, this is how I fleshed out the list:
Forces (8 Units, 1 Hero Solo):
- Zenith (3 Weapon Points, 1 Hardpoint)
- Heavy Antinimator Weapon (3 WP, 1 HP)
- Sentinel Variant B (8 Weapon Points, 4 Hardpoints – Back, Chest, Left Arm, Right Arm)
- Divinator Cortex
- Eclipse Inducer (2 WP, Chest)
- Meteor Cannon (3 WP, Back)
- Arcantrik Destabilizer (2 WP, Arm)
- Antiminator (1 WP, Arm)
- Daemon Variant A (5 Weapon Points, 3 Hardpoints – Back, Left Arm, Right Arm)
- Eidolon Cortex
- Phase Trajectile Cannon (1 WP, A)
- Phase Trajectile Cannon (1 WP, A)
- Nova Cannon (3 WP, B)
- Saber Guardian Squad
- Saber Strike Force Squad
- Oculus
- Oculus
- Factotum
- Myra Hurst (Free Hero Solo)
Rack:
- Fury
- Cacophonic Declination
- Velocity Projector
- Cryo Lock
- Psychonomic Lash
- Geometric
- Umbral Transvection
- Control Inoculum
- Mortality Destabilizer
- Temporal Cycle
- Harmonic
- Dominion Imperative
- Arcanesscent Regenerator
- Excogitation Conspectus
- Overdrive
- Impulse Inducer
- Vengeance Sequencer
- Kinematic Reassembler
Here you have a lean, mean Arc-manipulation machine! Everything on this list has some way of manipulating either your own or your opponent’s Arc, allowing you to constantly use spike abilities that other Factions would use far less often! With the Zenith’s Heavy Antiminator, the Sentinel’s Eclipse Inducer, and Antiminator, you get a nice bit of Arc and Cypher removal to annoy your opponents with. Plus, with 2 Oculuses (Oculi?) and their whopping 14˝ Arc Range, you can cover a majority of a skirmish-size board – meaning that most of your opponent’s models will be in range of your deadly Fury Cyphers. With the Eidolon Cortex, double Phase Trajectile Cannons, and Nova Cannon on your Daemon, you have a model that will get charged at the beginning of each of its activations and just shoots through walls, dealing a whopping 10 POW a turn you can divide up amongst multiple targets. To top it all off, many of these models have abilities that let them charge after the Charging Phase on your turn, meaning you can keep Arc in reserve to power up those Fury Cyphers your Oculuses will be slinging!
models painted by Jordan Lamb
The tricky thing about building a rack for this list is that you want to balance survivability of your units with Fury attacks from your Cyphers. Normally in games with any kind of deck-building mechanic, you want to make the deck as small as possible—that way, you’re more likely to get the cards you want when you need them. With the new Cypher cards in the Collision Course expansion, however, this’s getting harder to do, especially with these amazing Faction-specific ones. So, I ended up with the maximum amount of cards, and I skewed it (as much as possible) between Geometrics and Furies. That way, you get a bit of help with your squads (so you can secure objectives) and Furies being cast from your Oculuses (so you can kill anything that tries to secure one of your objectives).
In order to get this awesome army via the pledge manager and to get as good a deal as possible, I would recommend this: purchase a Heavy Duty Pledge, select Dr. Myra Hurst as your Wild Card Solo, then add on the Empyrean Command Group Starter Set and an extra Oculus! Get the second Phase Trajectile weapon as part of Daemon Weapon Pack A, which is available as one of your free Armory Rewards from your Heavy Duty Pledge. Not only do you get everything you need to make this list, but you’ll also get an extra Fulcrum you can easily swap in!
Remember, you have until end of day today (January 15th) to jump onto our Backerkit! Here’s the link: https://warcaster-collision-course.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
Until next time, happy gaming!
