Themed lists

I love the idea of theme/tier lists but unfortunately for me I haven't been able to use them too much just yet. For the casters I have I really only see one that would be worth my time. Also I am pretty infatuated with mercenaries right now also, especially mercenary Jack Marshalls since I myself have none in my army. what are your thoughts of your theme/tier lists?

The usefulness of theme forces is all over the place. Most of them are to restrictive without adding anything of real value, making them really subpar to free form list building. The ones that really work well seem to have a few things in common.

1) Unit restrictions that dont bother the caster. Losing the unit that the caster enhances best or needs most is a big deal breaker.
2) FA increases that matter. Being able to spam a great unit is pretty nifty. See eButcher and Doom Reaver spam.
3) Free stuff. Free weapons attachments, discounted units and warjacks/beasts. Most discounts like this can get you 3+ free points to add in a power solo or unit upgrade.
4) Unique effects that change the game. Im not talking about +1 starting roll either. The good themes make your units really pop, extra souls, advance deploy and move, starting the game with upkeeps on and upkept for free, army wide stealth for the first round.
5) Units your faction cant get any other way. Pretty rare but incredibly awesome.
So going on the quality of the Blindwater pack and the original 2 caster themes. (I dont have Dominion so no Maelok.)

Blindwater pack- Access to everything in Blindwater (ie no pigs) plus 2 water terrian pieces. Considering Im literally forced to take this if not using the theme forces, the bonus isnt bad.

Caliban theme- access to Farrow bone grinders is great on a spell focused caster, plus you can attach a spitter to wrongeye for 6 points and it gets advance deploy. Probably the best theme in the faction. Lose a few solos but still completely worth it.

Bloody Barnabas- The only noticable bonus is the teir 4 discount on heavy warbeasts. Shaving a point off of 3 heavys isnt bad, but 3 heavys is pushing the fury theshold pretty hard. Also before Dominion there wasnt much to spend that 3 points on. Still isnt much but a free Witch Doctor solo aint bad. Not a terrible theme force but no real reason to take it yet.

Well said. It seems that in my factions case there are so many casters and the themes definitely range from not worth it, up to decent to good. Most theme lists in my opinion seem to be "space fillers" There are only a couple of the theme lists that I would consider playing as of right now. Though, on the other hand if I were playing competitively I would prolbably use a couple more/different theme lists.

I look forward to seeing everyone's different theme lists. Now that we are getting more players, with each getting more and more points, they will be showing up more and more I am sure. I like to use them more whilst playing more scenarios.

Most of the Retribution themes are found lacking. Kaelyssa's seems alright. I'm not really familiar with any, except Ravyn's. Which looks iffy at best.

pGaspy's theme list is good even if I only have t1 atm it gives AD McThralls. pDenny's is ok but you have to run jack-heavy which isn't in my best interest most times. I don't have the models for Venny's as he uses obscure stuff. I havn't really looked at Scavy's but I know its actually pretty decent - extra soul tokens ftw. eDenny I don't really have the models for either. Big T has a cool theme list if you want to run all pirates and amphibious jacks... which is hardly ever.

dcmechanix wrote:Big T has a cool theme list if you want to run all pirates and amphibious jacks... which is hardly ever.

But it is quite helpful if you play both Cryx and Pirates like I do!

Well I think most of you know I love my "big game hunters" list (pmorg Teir 4). Its very useful, 18inch deployment arcurii and -pts to heavys is great and easy to field. Raseths Teir is amazing as well, allowing for multiple agonizers and for them to start with fury *drool* but over all teirs seem hit and miss, and more often than not I build a list and see if its close to anything that i can do a few quick changes to, as opposed to simply building for the tier.

Once I get my Character Light Jack assembled i can run pSeverius Tier 4, which is by far the best PoM theme list IMO. The problem I have with running the theme lists though is that I very much enjoy the few mercenaries that I have. More often than not I would rather mix and match than play a theme list. I do look forward to trying some of them out though.