Crossing the Themes

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Privateer Press love it when players expand their collections (because that's how PP stays in business). One way they're encouraging players to buy more models is by releasing more and more Theme Forces that use models from multiple Factions - the idea being that players of one Faction will buy models from their non-standard Faction so they can play the new theme.

The purpose of this article is, if you're an existing player that suddenly has access to a plethora of models from a different Faction, to help you know which models are best to buy first for diving into the new theme.

See also Cross-Faction Themes for a list of these multi-faction themes.

The amount of theme cross-over can be generalised as 3 tiers:

  • Light Crossover (1): This is the "traditional" method, where you are playing as your main faction with a couple of Mercenary or Minion models. 90% of the themes in the game follow this format, and we won't cover it further here.
  • Light Crossover (2): Partisan models can cross Factions. Cygnar in particular has a lot of Partisans.

Warmachine - A web of connections

Warmachine is deliberately designed so you can connect most armies to each other with Mercenaries being the center of the web although Infernals have been extremely unsubtly put as a second center.

Cygnar/Mercenaries

There are two Partisan warcasters that can be used in both Cygnar and Mercenaries - Constance Blaize, Knight of the Prophet and Caine3

There are three separate ways of crossing Cygnar with Mercs.

  • Flame in the Darkness uses Cygnar warjacks, although its infantry choices are all Partisans and thus already available to both Cygnar & Mercenaries.
  • The Kingmaker's Army allows Trenchers & Long Gunners in Mercs.
  • The Llaelese Resistance allows a Mercenary player to pick Cygnar, Protectorate, or Crucible Guard. They can then take two units and three solos from that faction. Llaelese lists cannot combine their secondary factions with each other, unlike Flames' almost unrestricted blending of Cygnar & Khador.

Infernals - Hearts of Darkness

The Infernals theme Hearts of Darkness is a theme intended to get non-Infernals players to play some Infernals on the grounds it lets you use things together that can't be used in any of the base themes and that it unlocks certain casters. It is, of course, very difficult by design to play Hearts of Darkness without getting at least some Infernal models; most of the Requisition options are Infernal models and, more importantly, the restriction to two non-Infernal units means that infantry casters are going to want at least one Infernal unit while the Accumulator rule for Soulless models means that the battlegroup casters are going to want at least one Infernal unit.

It's even possible if you already have two Warmachine factions (as many players do) to have them work together as your two armies in a two list pair, just sharing a handful of Infernals models.

Khador/Protectorate: All The King's Horses

There is one theme force that works between Khador and the Protectorate - Warriors of the Old Faith. It's not that complex - and is basically a cavalry force. Nothing wrong with that - and it also lets Khador warjacks mix with the Choir of Menoth.

Mercenary Minions: a Circle of Irregulars Working for Food

There are three theme forces that allow significant crossover between Warmachine and Hordes; the Mercenaries have The Irregulars, Minions have Will Work for Food, and the Circle Orboros have Secret Masters. The overlap is relatively thin between these lists but big enough to create a Rask & Friends style core; Rask (or another caster) with a small battle group but multiple lesser warlocks making up the backbone of the army. And some support solos. The majority of what can be used and cross over in list like this are:

Assuming you don't want Boomhowler or Brun & Lug this list almost writes itself for Rask, Calaban, Krueger, Tannith, Damiano, Drake, or Magnus (although tournament lists use either an extra heavy on Rask or Underchief Mire as the fourth major block after Rorsh, Wrong Eye, and Dahlia).

Minions - about as subtle as an eight foot tall gatorman

Most non-Minion Theme Forces allow that Faction to hire only one Minion unit and one Minion solo. Minion-adjacent theme forces, on the other hand, allow an unlimited number. Some of them even allow Minion warbeasts or Minion battle engines. This makes those themes incredibly flexible when designing your army list. It also makes it very easy for players to expand their collection into other Factions by buying a "core" of Minion models and just purchase a few models from the "home faction".

This article focuses on how to dabble in other Factions in a cost-effective manner. So, for example, although the "home faction" battle engines Throne of Everblight and the Siege Animantarax are great models (and highly recommended for tournament lists) we won't recommend them for purcase. Frankly, if you're invested enough in the "home faction" to buy them then you're not really "Minion adjacent" any more.

The minion-adjacent themes are: Disciples of Agony (Skorne) - Oracles of Annihilation (Legion) - Secret Masters (Circle)

General approach to purchases

A fundamental weakness of trying to use these theme forces in a minion-heavy way is that minions are not friendly faction models for their Warlocks (Hordes currently having no ranking officers and it looking unlikely that Hordes will receive any). This means that in general only two types of warlock are recommended; debuffing spell-slingers (-3 ARM on an enemy is just as easy to exploit whether or not the attacker and the warlock are friendly faction), and the rare One Model Wrecking Crew warlock of which Butcher3 is the archetypal if irrelevant example.

The models that will be recommended are the warlocks and requisition points - and remember, this is not intended to be a guide to the best tournament lists, but to the cheapest ways into and out of a faction via minions. So few models from the base faction will be recommended beyond those that fill the battle group and requisition points.

Circle Orboros - Secret Masters: This is the basics of both Minions and Mercenaries

The Circle Orboros theme Secret Masters is a fairly standard Minion-adjacent theme with no minions allowed beyond solos and units, and for all Circle's reputation of tricksy magic there are surprisingly few debuff casters in Circle. Four come recommended:

  • Krueger the Stormwrath (Krueger1) leads to pan-fried infantry. He does little against armour, but electrocutes infantry fast and hard.
  • Krueger the Stormlord (Krueger2) is the push/pull debuff caster that drives all enemies up the wall. Probably the strongest option here and is the one that is the most satisfying to have on your side for a change.
  • Mohsar the Desertwalker creates pillars of salt and has a nice deep toolbox. Unfortunately he has old man stats and his feat is entirely useless against Infernals.
  • Tanith the Feralsong is the Circle battlebox caster and an excellent all-round spellslinger.

Our Requisition Points play very well into this debuff-approach that works well with all four warlocks.

  • You can actually use minion solos here so there's no need to spend much on Circle models. But if you want to the multi-model picks are both excellent:
  • Three Gallows Grove solos are an obvious pick. Six points and plenty of ability to channel.
  • Two Blackclad Stoneshaper solos are six points and make pointers to our battle group.

This leads to our battle group and other Circle models that we want for bare-bones circle in a minion-centric army.

  • 2 * Woldwarden - we have free Stoneshapers already, and all four of the above warlocks have excellent spells for Geomancy.
  • 1 * Woldwyrd because we need an extra warbeast to have enough fury and to use up Tanith's warbeast points.
  • 1 * Shifting Stones because this is a Circle army, and because they are fun - but although the Blackclad Wayfarer is great because of Hunter's Mark we can just use Lanyssa Ryssl

And we're done. Literally every other model in our army can be minions and the force is workable. I would however recommend a unit or two of Farrow Valkyries to prevent sniping our warbeasts as we only just have enough. If you're looking for a core that's even more flexible see the Circle crossovers.

Legion of Everblight - Oracles of Annihilation: Battle Engines and Blighted Minions

The Legion of Everblight theme Oracles of Annihilation] makes all the minion units blighted, and gives them a special ability to corrode enemies. It also allows battle engines. Unfortunately most of the Legion warlocks tend to be all about Everblight. There are exceptions, but this is the least flexible of all the minion-adjacent themes:

The Twins superficially look like a good idea - but they need far too much Fury for a minimal battlegroup.

Our requisition points are fairly obvious:

Two of one, one of the other.

In our battlegroup Thagrosh loves big warbeasts and would take Typhon if we don't want to bother with Vayl - or if you can magnetise it. Vayl just wants beasts that won't die.

  • Carnivean - the 18 point non-character tank of the faction. And Thagrosh probably makes you kill it again.
  • Any other heavy.

Skorne - Disciples of Agony: And a minion battle group

Skorne are allowed to use minion beasts (from both subfactions) in their battlegroup in Disciples of Agony. This really opens things up as all the Skorne battlegroup casters as well as the debuff casters are good picks, and frequently prefer DEF 12 Minion heavies to DEF 10 Titans. This theme is almost faction-sized in its own right, and more flexible than any other theme in either Skorne or Minions.

From Skorne you need a unit of the until recently almost ubiquitous Paingiver Beast Handlers and three Requisition points - generally taken out of four options.

  • A Basilisk Krea - Skorne's almost ubiquitous anti-shooting beast.
  • Two Paingiver Task Master solos because no knockdown and +2 STR, tough, or Reposition 3 is great for any minion unit
  • An Agonizer - a nice bubble of defence if you're trying to brick up
  • Aptimus Marketh who is the Skorne casting attachment.

This is, of course, not to say that other Skorne warbeasts, Paingiver Bloodrunners (and the Bloodrunner Master Tormentor solo), and even Nihilators aren't good or that you can't play a 100% Skorne army. Just that you don't need any of them to make tournament quality lists starting as a Minions player with just those models and a warlock.

Skorne casters that need no other Skorne models than the above are:

Battlegroup Casters

  • Makeda & the Exalted Court (Makeda 3) - Skorne's S-Tier Caster with Incite, battlegroup Grievous Wounds, a DEF buff and a dance of death that can even lead to Makeda causing an assassination. Makeda is terrifying with her battle group.
  • Lord Tyrant Zaadesh - Countercharge for all, a MAT and STR buff and Defensive Strike for the battlegroup makes this Skorne tournament quality warlock great for a battlegroup, and able to contribute to a cloud wall.
  • Xerxis, Fury of Halaak (Xerxis 2) is the other member of Skorne's top three battlegroup casters, with a battlegroup speed buff, and an unlimited control area on feat turn. He's a little expensive though.
  • Lord Arbiter Hexeris (Hexeris 2) has a classical weakness that he doesn't fix ARM cracking even if he handles infantry, and can run a big battlegroup. A wrastler or battle boar does fix ARM cracking - and he doesn't do that much with or for infantry, but they help.
  • Primus Jalaam is a battle-group centric caster who prefers his heavies to be higher DEF than titans because that synergises with his feat. Warpath is amazing, he hands out Pathfinder, and he has a nice defensive feat and can keep away shooting.

Debuff and other minion friendly casters

  • Archdomina Makeda (Makeda1) has, almost uniquely, a feat that affects friendly models and not just friendly faction ones. Grievous wounds and other things cancel it, of course, and minion infantry isn't affected by Carnage so go for either infantry you want to shoot or ones who have a high enough MAT to not care they don't get carnage.
  • Lord Assassin Morghoul (Morghoul 2) is a pure debuff and assassination caster. And gets Sacrificial Pawn, allowing him to play forward. What's not to love?
  • Beast Master Xekaar can use Aptimus Marketh for an extra Mortality, and a Blind Walker for the channeling he needs (although he frequently needs to boost to hit) - while having Sacrificial Pawn to stay safe.
  • Dominar Rasheth is the premier Skorne debuff caster and so worth mentioning even if he really needs a unit of Paingiver Bloodrunners to channel through; he could manage with a Blind Walker at a pinch for Blood Mark and Breath of Corruption.
  • Lord Tyrant Hexeris (Hexeris 1) has precisely one friendly faction infantry spell - and Death March is good (as all Minion players know) although it really wants Nihilators. He has Parasite which goes well with the Minion gunline but you bring him for his feat which can completely eviscerate infantryspam armies. He's not a tournament caster but is a great counter in league play and utterly eviscerates certain types of army; Minions players will find that he plays very like Calaban the Gravewalker.

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