As part of the grand theme rework, Privateer Press has kindly shared the new Forges of War theme with me.

At first read through, your reaction is probably like mine was: one of our less powerful themes didn’t gain any new shinies and got worse by losing upkeeps. But I’m going to encourage you to look on the positive side.

First up, all of our current Forges builds got a little better:

Vyros2 can include RAT7 tridents without losing free cards. You might be more excited to build V2 with access to Vyre lights, but the arcanists handing out focus are such a key enabler in his list that going from 9 free focus to 3 in any other theme feels limiting.

Rayvn can run a shooty battlegroup with two tridents and access to arcanist units to hand out focus, and still get 3 free cards.

Rahn has his usual access to battle mages – if your meta isn’t full of steady sturdy models – and doesn’t have to squeeze in extra jacks and can now happily use – yep you got it – tridents and arcanists.

But rather than looking back at old lists, I wanted to play with new things and see what was possible in the theme now. I asked Andy Caskanette from the Retresent podcast to throw in a few ideas as he has been a consistent champion of the Forges theme.

First a quick run down of pros and cons of the theme:

Pros:

Access to tridents. Shared with all but one of our themes, but it’s such an important model in the faction right now.

Arcanist units. A great force multiplier, especially when taking more than just warjack points

Shield guards. We haven’t seen Defenders or Shadows yet, but assuming they keep solo repo and pseudo-take down, respectively, this hold up pretty well as a theme benefit. Certain armies have fits against the amount of shield guard we can bring to the table, especially with a Hydra’s kinetic capacitor or a Phoenix’s Phoenix field.

Max 21 points of free stuff. Privateer Press have put out there that most themes get around 18 points of free stuff. Those, like Forges that can get more than 18 should consider that as one of their theme benefits. 2 units of arcanists and Eiryss1 comes to 21 points.

Discordia in theme. She’s not as obviously powerful as Imperatus, but she has a useful set of tools.

Cons:

Limited jack choice. No Vyre lights is a reasonably big deal.

No screening infantry for your jacks. Battle mages don’t really feel suited to do that job

None of our elite infantry the faction is known for.

Limited character jacks.

But rather than trying to tweak lists that worked in MK3.0, I wanted to look to the future with some of the options that opened up. A big one for me is Nyss Hunters not costing 26 points when you factor in the opportunity cost of a third card.

The first list I wanted to build was a Vyros1 list who wants to run jack heavy but also wants fast infantry to enable his feat.

Vyros1

– Sylys Wyshnalyrr

– Imperatus

– Discordia

– Phoenix

– Gorgon

– Griffon

Max Nyss Hunters

2 x Arcnanist units

2 x Arcanist solos

Artificer

Lanyssa Ryssyl

Those speed 7 Nyss can plink a few shots before charging or running to allow flank on Vyros’ feat turn. The Artificer protects them from blasts on the way up. This list was totally possible before, but just polishes it up and you don’t feel bad for losing out on free cards.

After that my thoughts went to Garryth2. Road to war is great with jacks, and tridents at great at setting it off. Again, Nyss love the stealth he can give and the no blast from Artificers:

Garryth2

– Sylys Wyshnalyrr

– Discordia

– Moros

– Gorgon

– Gorgon

Trident

Trident

Nyss Hunters

Arcanist unit

Arcanist solo

Artificer

Eiryss1

Road to war sprays are fun, as are feat turn sprays. This is as good as Nyss are going to get.

Andy has some other thoughts. His first list was with Kae Bae:

Kaelyssa

– Hydra

– Hydra

Trident

Trident

Elara1

– Griffon

Nyss Hunters

2 x Arcanist units

2 x arcanists

Artificer

Stealth, no charge tridents with shield guard Hydras. Def 19 Nyss seem obnoxious to shoot at. Elara1 is another option that’s opened up more in lost building now.

Speaking of options that have opened up, everyone’s favourite Snek is back in Andy’s second list:

Elara2

-Phoenix

-Phoenix

Trident

Trident

Artificer

-Hydra

Dahlia & Skarath

2 Arcanist units, one with soulless escort

2 arcanist solos

1 more free card to taste.

Elara1 has always been a good option for jack marshals and Snek as so little of her kit is battlegroup only and her feat isn’t friendly faction. Now we can freely add in the danger noodle without worrying about losing free cards.

These lists were only our initial thoughts, but I’m definitely keen to get Forges on the table, probably with Nyss hunters in the list where I couldn’t bring myself to take them before.