In my neck of the woods, it seems like the Citadel Weapons Master is the go-to Daqan champion. Being a Waiqar player, I never gave it much thought until I started tinkering with Daqan lists in part to make suggestions helpful to my Daqan opponents. But now that I'm messing around with Daqan lists in earnest, it seems to me that Lancecorporal is a much superior choice, especially if you're running Hawthorne and doing a first turn inspiration boost.

Assuming Aggressive Cornicen, because that also seems to be a Daqan "must have" you get a guaranteed hit on the charge if you want it, which to me seems better than the possibility of 5/8 chance of a hit plus a 1/8 chance of a double hit. But the real treats are that you can add a hit modifier at the initiative 3 yellow attack action or add defense to an attack. You also get a small, but significant point savings over the weapons master... plus one additional defense.

The best case I can make for the Weapons Master is that since he doesn't exhaust, you can get more bang for the buck without needing to burn inspiration and rallies, for example if you're not running Hawthorne or don't have a rallying Cornicen handy. You can run Tempered Steel more easily because you're not competing with an exhausting champion for precious inspiration and rallies. And if you run him in 9-tray unit, then the defensive advantages of the Lancecorporal aren't as significant... although now you're playing with a very large unit that is already sucking up a lot of points and you've committed to a strategy of letting a fair number of that valuable unit die.

Anyway, my sense is leading me to think that Lancecoporal in 4 to 6 tray units of spearmen is more optimal. But what says the collective intelligence of the forums?

They're both good, but it's also hard to depend on either if your opponent has a lot of accuracy. Personally I prefer weapon's master since my opponents usually prefer to prioritize it over aggressive cornicen which you can't afford to lose early.

I haven't looked at the Lance Corporal enough, but I think I like what you're saying. He does provide a whole ton of utility. You've mentioned most of it already -- but another one I see is doing a sideways shift-charge on init 6? Anyway, he gives a lot more flexibility than a red die. This could be a better upgrade (and cheaper / more armored too)

If you build your army around your spearmen unit (fully loaded with frontline golem etc.), Lance Corporal is really good. I have had good success with a small 2x1 support spearmen unit that only carries Rallying Cornicen. This can help remove blight and ready Lance Corporal, Tempered steel and Kari's Fortunas Dice.

In a smaller unit without the support to help ready the card, I think its a matter of taste.

A red die seems good, but Corporal gives a lot of versatility. Weapons master helps a bit agains blight though.

3 hours ago, Elliphino said:

In my neck of the woods, it seems like the Citadel Weapons Master is the go-to Daqan champion. Being a Waiqar player, I never gave it much thought until I started tinkering with Daqan lists in part to make suggestions helpful to my Daqan opponents. But now that I'm messing around with Daqan lists in earnest, it seems to me that Lancecorporal is a much superior choice, especially if you're running Hawthorne and doing a first turn inspiration boost.

Assuming Aggressive Cornicen, because that also seems to be a Daqan "must have" you get a guaranteed hit on the charge if you want it, which to me seems better than the possibility of 5/8 chance of a hit plus a 1/8 chance of a double hit. But the real treats are that you can add a hit modifier at the initiative 3 yellow attack action or add defense to an attack. You also get a small, but significant point savings over the weapons master... plus one additional defense.

The best case I can make for the Weapons Master is that since he doesn't exhaust, you can get more bang for the buck without needing to burn inspiration and rallies, for example if you're not running Hawthorne or don't have a rallying Cornicen handy. You can run Tempered Steel more easily because you're not competing with an exhausting champion for precious inspiration and rallies. And if you run him in 9-tray unit, then the defensive advantages of the Lancecorporal aren't as significant... although now you're playing with a very large unit that is already sucking up a lot of points and you've committed to a strategy of letting a fair number of that valuable unit die.

Anyway, my sense is leading me to think that Lancecoporal in 4 to 6 tray units of spearmen is more optimal. But what says the collective intelligence of the forums?

You can check out one of my battlecast and see how crippled my army becomes when the lance corporal dies... ?. I like champion slots but my favorite are ones you can afford to loose. Citidel is nice because if he dies you just took less dice.

My Primary army uses a 6 tray spearmen with Lance and Shield Wall. For 51 points I think it’s an incredible amount of utility. While any other upgrades would be nice, I like having 149 points for a strong rest of my list. I will note I run a stand-alone Hawthorne with that army.

My second Daqan army I have been trying out 2x 4-tray spearmen with Weapons Master and Rally Conc’s to support each other. This army does not have Hawthorne, and I think the weapons masters help make up for dropping from threat 3.

Bottom line, I think lance corporal is the better choice overall, but I like my spearmen as mid-sized, light upgrade units, a shaping operation unit, not the decisive operation.

I don't tend to run either, but I give the edge to the lance corporal. He's also 4/1 so harder to snipe if my memory is working.