Evaluating Warlocks

Having done an article about evaluating warcasters, this one won't take as much work. However, you can't do them quite the same.

I'm going to roll through the same basic questions I used for framing a post on warcasters, but the answers will be a little bit different.

Introduction

1) How vulnerable am I to assassination?

2) Can my warlock kill things?

3) What support does the warlock offer to the army?

4) What's my feat do?

Then, we get to the tie-it-all-together type of questions.

5) How does my warlock like to play?

6) How do they like to win?

7) What beasts/units/solos do they like?

Initial Round of Questioning

1) What's My vulnerability to Assassination?

We start to answer this question by looking at your base side and card. What's your DEF? What's your ARM? How big is your base? How many hit boxes do you have? This is your way of figuring out how easy you are to hit (based on either 2d6 or 3d6 odds, and the occasional 4d6) and how easy you are to damage once hit. Your base size tells you how easy it is to hide your warlock; bigger bases are harder to hide.

Most warlocks tend to be a little...squishier...than warcasters. Some of this may be their specific statline, but the other issue is that unless you've got a buff on you, your ARM is your ARM. There's no overboosting your power field. However, the 'locks have a wonderful trick up their sleeve: transfers.

When you're calculating how hard it is to kill a warlock, you can't get the full story from their card. You can get an idea how easy it is to damage them, but the availability of transfer targets and fury talks to ultimate durability.

Note, though, that warlocks tend to take a fewer heavier hits better than they take the death of a thousand cuts. Why? One fury transfers 4 damage as much as it transfers 14 damage.

2) What's my warlock's personal threat value?

What melee weapons do you have, and what's the MAT that goes with them? Warlocks tend to play closer forward, so you're more likely to use your melee weapons. Similarly, if you have a ranged weapon and a decent MAT, you might be able to sit back a bit more and still contribute.

As a rule, warlocks don't channel spells. There are a few exceptions (spells that turn something into a node, or warlocks that bring their own special-issue arc node beastie) but they are very much exceptions. What's that mean? If you're casting offensive spells, you're gonna be close to the enemy. Most offensive spells have an 8 or 10-inch range, and if you're firing 'em off, then you're close enough for someone to charge or run to engage you. It's not impossible to roll this way, but it requires more attention to threat ranges, lest you be fatally surprised.

3) Spells/Utility

The spell list is one of the biggest differences between warcasters and warlocks. With 'casters, you look at your spell list and you know all the spells you have. This is where it gets complicated.

First, look at your spell list. Some warlocks have as few as three spells. Your spell list will generally speak to your core playstyle. However, your warlock will also have access to a handful of animi from its battlegroup. It opens up some versatility in your forces. It also means you need to familiarize yourself with all your beast' animi in the book. Your spell list might also tell you what to look for with beasts.

Most of the time, an animus that's a buff will have a single target, and they may be specific about what can actually benefit from them. Bottom line: you have more spells to memorize and track, but your beasts can ALSO use the animus. Pay attention to whether the animus has a range in inches or one marked 'self', as the latter limits the use to the beast that owns it and the warlock that runs it. It also means you can get some buffs/effects off outside of your warlock's activation.

Second, check your special rules (if any). Some warlocks have neat extras, like Baldur's ability to heal constructs by spending fury like everyone else can for regular living beasts.

4) Feat

What's your feat do? Most feats tend to fall broadly into offensive, defensive, or denial categories. There are some oddball extras that take a little more though to use, and not all feats are created equally. Maybe your feat is best used early to either soften up the enemy (many ranged feats fall into this category; eLylyth's Field of Slaughter is good for +4RNG and a double-tap on all the beasts...it's as sick as it sounds). Maybe you have a feat useful for finishing off the enemy (IE: pKreoss knocks you down; rest of the army KILLS YOU). Maybe yours is defensive, in which case it'll buy you time to position for the kill or scenario win.

Round Two of Questioning

After you've looked at the first four basic questions, it's time to put it together and try to get some overview-type answers.

5) What kind of game does your warlock play?

Someone like pSeverius has a 16" control range and access to an arc node, so he can sit WAY behind everything.

Your warlocks, on the other hand, need to be closer to the fight as a rule. Why? You can only force beasts if they're in the controlling warlock's control area. Some support models can extend this range, but the rest of the time, if you want that warbeast to crank out extra attacks after a charge, you've got to be aware of where they are in relation to their controller. It's a change of pace for warmachine players, as you can load a jack up, fire it out, then move the 'caster back up to keep it in control range for the next turn's focus allocation.

You're balancing this with the inherent fragility of your 'lock. I would hazard that warlocks tend to have a DEF/ARM in the 14-16 range, usually with more DEF than ARM. That's what transfers and beasts are for.

Here's another crucial thing to bear in mind with warlocks: attrition is not your friend. You need warbeasts for two things: 1) generate fury for you to spend, and 2) transfer targets. The kicker is that you can't reave fury from a warbeast you kill via a transfer. This shouldn't rule out a scenario win, but your warbeasts are both your sword and shield. Additionally, your warbeasts are likely to be your heavy hitters while your infantry are generally good at killing other infantry. You're also closer to the action (between your need for beast-forcing and lack of an arc node) so the longer things go on, the more likely you are to run out of screening bodies.

Past that, you're looking at your spell/animus list for how you'll play. Usually it's a question of what buffs you have access to in combination what what beasts/infantry/solos you brought. What do they let you do, and how does your feat help you out?

You want to know how close you need to be to the action (which is a function of threat ranges on your beasts, your control range, and range on your spels) and what you're going to do when you get there. Who do you buff, where do you send them, and how do you preserve/utilize your beasts and the life of your warlock?

6) Win Condition

As I've mentioned, warlocks tend to be closer to their beasts than warcasters are to their steam-powered crush-bots. You need them alive for fury, but you harm them to keep your warlock alive. What's this tell you? The clock is ticking.

That being said, you can still win by either assassination or scenario. If you see a good chance to pop the enemy leader, do it. If you're going to go for more attrition, do your best to keep some of your beasts intact.

And remember: play to not lose the scenario at the bare minimum.

7) Army Composition

What kind of army does the warlock want?

What do your buffs do? Are there particular animi that you want to bring? What does your feat do? What units/beasts/solos benefit the most from these? In general, what kind of utility do you have and what kind of utility do you need? Are there any animi in particular that you would like, and can you use both the beast and the animus in the list? Or is one good enough that you don't much CARE about the other (I mean, ok, ignoring Tough is useful but highly situational. The Scythean, on the other hand, is sick enough by itself that you're fine with a situational animus).

Make sure you carefully read what your buffs can target. Some are beast-only, some are unit-only. Some buffs may be cast on warrior models, but it may buff just one model. Keep this in mind when making your plans.

There's also the question of how many beasts you can run effectively, and how many you need. There is not a hard-and-fast guide other than you should probaly bring more than 1-2 beasts*. If you have a couple of beasts, the enemy is liable to prioritize them and screw you out of Fury and transfer targets, which usually means you're gonna lose. You want to be able to keep your warlock in Fury, and you want to make sure you can do so without maxing all your beasts out on Fury (since you can't transfer to beasts with full fury on them). You also want to be able to take losses without compromising your ability to keep your warlock fed.

And, of course, what weaknesses do you need to cover/what support do you need? Look at units/solos that help you with beasts; namely healing and removing fury. Beasts are easier to heal than warjacks, and you only need one unmarked box in a spiral to bring it online. Being able to heal one prior to your warlock's activation (or without spending their fury) can be helpful, and fury removal can let you run up more fury than you might otherwise think safe.

Past that, support is support and beefing up stats/threat ranges/other things applies as it would in Warmachine.

Conclusion

I honestly think that evaluating warlocks is a little more difficult than evaluating warcasters. Why? Two main reasons: 1) durability is harder to gauge due to the magic of transfers, and 2) access to animi and possible neat combinations thereof require you to look at more options and be familiar with them.

That being said, there's a big dividend to playing hordes: the fury system. On the one hand, it's a risk. The best analogy I have for it is that it's like heat in Battletech: run your mechs too hot and they blow up and do bad things. On the other hand, if you don't care what happens (read: can win this turn) who cares if you redline all your beasts? A Hordes army can deploy much more fury than a warmachine army can focus, and fury is more flexible. I mean, good dice on damage can see a warjack total a hard target and still sit on focus, which means wasted resources.

At the end of the day, though, I think sitting down and pouring over a warlock's stats, spells, feat, and the rest of your book will give you an idea of what to do with 'em. This is not a definitive gospel how-to by any means, but I intend to use it as a framework for analyzing warlocks in future blog posts.

*You can get away with fewer beasts if they're tougher, if it's a smaller game, or if you preserve them more. Bottom line: you need your fury. You know this, your opponent knows this. Hell, one of the primary tasks when plotting a Hordes assassination is making sure they can't transfer all the damage away, and you do this by one of three ways:

1) Hit them too many times

2) Hit them too hard so that damage spills over

3) KILL HIS BEASTS AND LAUGH** AS THEY LOOK FOR SOMEONE TO TRANSFER TO!

**Laughter is therapeutic. Maniacal laughter is scientifically proven*** to be twice as therapeutic.

***That's what Doctor Arkadius told me. Didn't think it was worth checking his references.

Evaluating Vyros

It's everyone's favorite sword-wielding elven warcaster, the Dawnlord Vyros. This guy's a little bit of an oddball caster and occasionally gets some flak. On the other hand, I like the idea of crushing someone's face in with a sword, and Vyros can do that. Vyros can also help deliver Warjacks to the fray, arguably faster than the rest of his faction at this point in time.

I'm going to run through the framework I've outlined in a previous post for putting my impressions down.

Round 1: Basics

1) How Hard is it to kill Vyros?

DEF 15, ARM 17, and a small base make Vyros one of the harder warcaster targets out there. Honestly, it's a sold combo of defense and armor: you need to be Terminus to have harder armor, and you're either Legion or eCaine if you have higher defense. He's upper middle-of-the-road for defensive stats, on top of a small base and no rear arc.

If you DO manage to hit him, he's sitting on 18 boxes. Not invincible, but pretty hefty. If he does camp on his focus, he's sitting on DEF 15 and ARM 23.

Invincible? No. But, if he's in terrain he's hard to shoot down, he's not too hard to hide, and he's reasonably durable.

2) Personal Threat Value

Vyros has no guns. He DOES have a PS14 reach sword with MAT 8. More than that, he's got flank [friendly warjack], so if you put a friendly warjack in melee with the target you are a MAT 10 PS14 weaponmaster.

Yeah, Vyros can wreck face. Can he get there? That SPD5 doesn't look too promising, but mobility turns him into a SPD7 Pathfinder, AND he can charge without paying attention at all to forests.

Vyros does NOT really have an offensive spell; technically he has Eliminator but it's half his focus for a POW13, 3" AOE and he can get a 2" move for each enemy it tags. Ok, this isn't bad, but you still probably won't use it so much.

If you fire Stranglehold at someone, it's only 2 focus, but with a POW11 and a need to damage the target you're going to be spending 3 focus because you'll either boost the hit or the power. It's a fun little denial spell that may work, but not a way to kill the target.

3) What kind of spells/utility does Vyros have?

Vyros is friendly to myrmidons, but in a different way than other warcasters. By this, I mean he's got a pair of neat spells and a solid ability to buff warjacks, but he does not have a way to make his jacks for focus efficient, a la Iron Aggression*. He's also sitting on FOCUS 6, and CMD 10.

First, Bird's Eye. That bird isn't for show. Vyros' battlegroup has no rear arc in his control area, and ignores clouds, forests, and intervening models when determining LOS. His buddies can hit you, wherever you are. Do be aware that this can allow the enemy to potentially work around free strikes, since you have to leave a warjack's melee range to get the hit.

Vyros' other moneymaker is Mobility. 2 Focus for Pathfinder and +2SPD for his warjacks. You can use this to fire warjacks through cover, or just to help them pace you. You can also increase warjack threat range; suddenly that Phoenix is hitting you from 13" away through a forest, and crushing your face in with a sword. Or, your other heavies are going 11" and crushing something when they get there.

The other explicit warjack buff is Hallowed Avenger. It's an upkeep that lets the friendly warjack charge for free if the enemy KOs a living target within 5" of the jack.

The last buff is Inviolable Resolve: good for a flat +2ARM and fearless. You do one of three potential things with this:

a) Make a warjack a little tougher

b) Make a Dawnguard unit even MORE annoying to kill (YAY ARM19 after defensive line)

c) make a lighter-ARM unit less allergic to blasts

Honestly, I'd rather use this to put Dawnguard up to needs-warjack-to-kill ARM19, though it doesn't help them against things like Corrosion.

Your other spells are offensive; Eliminator is an AOE with a side of 'move the Vyros'; however it's half your bloody Focus. Stranglehold is 2 focus and has a RNG of 10, but POW11 on top of 'must damage the model' limits the effectiveness of it; if it DOES go off then it makes the target forfeit its movement or charge as the owner decides.

4) Feat

Vyros' feat is one of those 'oddball' feats. If a friendly kills an enemy model with an attack, you get to allocate 1 focus to a friendly warjack in Vyros' battlegroup in his control area. Of note is the part that your own warjacks (especially those with reach) can basically stand still and start cutting everyone around them.

Round 2: Synthesis

5) Playstyle

Vyros has the melee capability and defensive stats to play in the second line. He's still gonna die if the enemy hits him with a fully-loaded warjack or a heavy warbeast with some attack buffs, but that's the game for you. Still, he CAN assassinate personally, especially if he's got Flank from a friendly warjack.

Turn one is probably Mobility + Inviolable resolve, and focus from arcanists to make sure his warjacks move upfield. Turn two may involve more Mobility, and possibly Hallowed Avenger. Note that with both upkeeps up, Vyros has a whopping four focus to hand out, so he's not necessarily going to be fueling a ton of warjacks.

6) Win Condition

Vyros can personally assassinate from 12" away. Measure range (since your threat range with Mobility is 12") and see if you can get a warjack in there, then go forth and beat the holy mess out of the target; if you can't kill it with 3-4 PS14 MAT 10 weaponmaster attacks then you should microwave your dice (or think twice about charging Karchev, maybe, I dunno).

Vyros has no particular tricks for a scenario victory outside of killing the hell out of anything in places you need for the enemy to not be.

Vyros is capable of hurling a fully-loaded heavy great distances; Mobility does great things to the enemy threat range.

If you feel like trying to make fully-boosted Hydra shots work, you can fuel a couple up and then use Bird's Eye to make a jolly lil' jack walk 8" and throw a POW15 up to 15". Hope you hit...

7) Army Composition

I admit that I'm still fine-tuning this. Basic framework involves a couple of heavy warjacks, and a heavily-armored infantry unit to slap Inviolable Resolve onto.

Myrmidon Selection

Phoenix: the Arc Node is optional, but otherwise it's a solid jack.

Hydra: ignoring forests and intervening models is always solid when you're a giant gun. Focus Battery is nice for a guy who likes to hold onto his focus. Might get iffy to keep them fueld, though.

Manticore: covering fire is always tactically useful, and these non-reach guys love an extra couple inches from Mobility.

Discordia: the imprint on top of Inviolable Resolve makes for some VERY hard-to-kill Dawnguard; ARM21 at range means the enemy will either rely on snipers or heavy warjack guns. Failing that, you can always find a use for a boostable spray and an accurate melee warjack.

Chimera: you really don't need a dedicated arc node.

Gorgon: Force Lock checks for the melee range of this warjack, so you double your Force Lock coverage, and make yourself that much more annoying/of a target.

Griffin: now it's an even longer-ranged missile, and a mini-thresher in Feat turns.

Frankly, I think you can make any of the heavies work with him, but I think the Hydra may have issues if you intend for Vyros to fuel them all the way if you want 'em full-up quickly. If you think you'll face heavy ranged combat, consider Discordia.

Unit Selection

Inviolable Resolve suggests you pick up a well-armored unit, which means 'Dawnguard.' Putting Dawnguard up to ARM19 after defensive line makes them a pain to deal with unless the other guy has thresher warjacks, snipers, or ample corrosion.

Dawnguard Invictors give you a shooting game, but suggest at least one Reach warjack to take advantage of Flank once the enemy closes. Invictors also, in a pinch, give you another potential assassination vector by shooting the enemy HQ repeatedly.

Sentinels are fairly self-explanatory: they're hitty, they kill whatever they touch in melee, and only get meaner with ARM19/21. On the flip side, higher ARM does make it harder to trigger Vengeance, but what the hell. Free movement, or more weaponmasters reaching the enemy? If you bring Sentinels, consider Manticores/Discordia for the ARM buff and for covering fire.

Destors are, at this point, a bit of an unknown. With SPD8, they can pace your warjacks. They go up to ARM19 (21 with Discordia) and give you a bit of a ranged game and an army that's happy to relocate on a moment's notice.

If you do take a costly Dawnguard contingent, consider dropping a point on a bloody Soulless escort, since you'r bringing one big, juicy, lethal target (aka brick-in-a-sock).

If Dawnguard isn't your thing, you can make Houseguard Halberdiers annoyingly tough to kill. Base ARM14 is only slightly less than Dawnguard; with Inviolable Resolve it hops to 16. Throw a Shield Wall order on top of that and you've got ARM20 infantry; Discordia pumps that to ARM22 vs ranged. Suddenly, a Defender is wondering why a friggin' elf with a shield didn't go down when it backstopped a cannon round.

Note that you're getting a little more defense (13 vs 12) and you're paying a little less (9 for full+UA vs 11). You're also losing some hitting power, going down to MAT6 and PS10. You can shore that up with CMA and the mini-feat, which is good for Gang. Under gang, your boys can pair up for MAT8 PS14 attacks (vaguely comparable to PS12 weaponmaster attacks, albeit with lower max damage); and if they pull this on a charge, you get friggin' MAT10 PS14 hits thanks to Powerful Charge.

Hmm. AJ the Ronin might've sold me on these guys, as they lose a whopping 1" to the Dawnguard; you bring the UA, walk 6" with Shield Wall, and Reform 3". Ooh, 9" vs a Dawnguard 10" run. Not bad, not bad.**

Points permitting, you could probably find use for House Shyeel battle mages, and with high ARM values firing into your troops with stormfall archers (provided you don't use the Fire round) is even an option.

Solos

Bring two arcanists, full stop end of story. You're gonna bring a couple of warjacks, and you're not always high on focus. Either hand out the focus to run, one charge, or buff hitting power. Come on, these guys are almost always useful.

I'm torn on trying to make a Dawnguard Scyir work with this army. Marshalling a warjack excludes it from the feat, Bird's Eye and Mobility. On the other hand, Vyros probably has a mob of Dawnguard for you to use Coordinated Strike with. I figure if you were set on making a Scyir work, you'd take it with a Griffin in support of Invictors.

House Shyeel Magisters can be used to make you throw that heavy warjack (or Vyros) even further. It's another 3" and a useful solo.

Mage Hunter Assassins are ALWAYS scary. Given the kind of threat ranges Vyros can give his warjacks, it probably doesn't hurt to have a psychotic chain-weapon-wielding elf running up a flank and worrying the enemy.

Ghost Snipers can be an auto-focus on feat turn by popping an enemy model.

Lanyssa Rivel's Hunter's Mark is another potential 2" on the (focus-free) charge, but requires her to hit your intended target with a Magic Ability 7 attack.

If you want to make Vyros the primary assassin, Madelyn Corbeau is 2 more points for another 2 inches, but I'm not sure I'd hinge on making Vyros the primary assassin in the force even if he IS bloody scary.

Overall

Vyros is likely to be leading (or following closely behind) a force of Dawnguard and a couple of heavy warjacks. Expect him to fire warjacks a fair distance, and while he won't make them sing and dance, he'll increase their threat range and have them avenge insults to his army.

*Iron Aggression: Upkeep spell; the jack gets to charge/slam/trample/etc. for free, and gets boosted melee attack rolls. MAN does it make jacks into wrecking balls.

**Credit to AJ the Ronin for suggesting Houseguard Halberdiers. I don't have 'em at the moment, but I can see these guys competing with Dawnguard here. The only complaint one might have is that Vyros is a Dawnguard caster and these are mere houseguard. Hey, you like Dawnguard so much, consider the Vyros tier list.

Critera for Evaluating Warcasters

Honestly, the leaders are kind of the focal point of a Warmachine army. They provide the spell list and feat around which you'll construct an army. Or, you'll pick a favorite unit/model/what-have-you and then pick a 'caster that fits with them. Either way, part of this game is figuring out just what you're going to do with your leader.

I've spent some time trying to figure out how to approach this question. Here's what I've got so far.

Introduction

These questions are in no particular order, but here are the things I've started looking at:

1) How vulnerable am I to assassination?

2) Can my warcaster kill things?

3) What support does my warcaster offer to my army?

4) What does my feat do?

Once I've answered those questions, I'll move on to a few broader questions:

5) How does my warcaster prefer to play?

6) How do I win with them?

7) What warjacks/units/solos do they particularly like?

First Round of Questioning

1) What's my vulnerability to assassination?

It's important to know what gets you killed, and how easy you are to kill. What goes into this? The basics aren't too hard: look at your statline.

What's your base size? Smaller bases are easier to screen; a 30mm base can comfortably wander around behind a couple of heavy jacks and can use clouds to great effect. A 40mm base starts getting rougher to hide, as you can use medium bases to screen from infantry. A 50mm base is a special concern; warcasters like the Harbinger, eThagrosh and Terminus require special care to avoid stuff like ranged assassination.

The next part is to look at your DEF, ARM, and the number of hit boxes. Don't kid yourself; DEF 14 and 15 are pretty hittable. DEF 16 is where most warjacks start needing a boost to get the job done reliably, and DEF 17 is where you MIGHT be able to get comfortable. Base ARM speaks to your vulnerability to stuff like blast damage; a DEF 17 warcaster with ARM 13 in base with a low-DEF warjack is begging for a boosted blast damage roll. Always bear in mind that you CAN sit on your focus and boost your field, but that may not save you from a dedicated attempt.

2) What's my warcaster's personal threat value?

You might have to look at your spells for a better idea of this, but you can look at some gear and MAT/RAT values and figure out if you WANT your leader to swing or take potshots. Someone like Kara Sloan, with a high RAT and weaponmaster on a sniper rifle with good range, WANTS to shoot at the enemy. Someone with a RAT 5, POW12 hand cannon, on the other hand, is packing a backup ranged attack. Similarly, MAT 6 and a POW12 melee weapon is not exactly threatening, though there may be some hidden utility there.

Sometimes, casters may need a little outside support to reach their full killy potential: Dawnlord Vyros can get a flank bonus from a warjack to become an effective MAT10, POW14 reach weaponmaster, AND can get SPD7, Pathfinder, and can ignore forests for LOS. Kinda scary, when you think about it.

3) Spells/utility

What's your spell list? What does it do? Do you have offensive spells, buffs to offense, buffs to defense, denial, what? If you have offensive spells, what's your FOCUS stat? What kind of upkeeps do you have, and how often do you expect to have them up? IE: Dawnlord Vyros has a FOCUS stat of 6, and at least one upkeep you'll be using. He also has Mobility, which costs 2 Focus, which he'll probably be using most turns. So, really, he's looking at having 2-3 spare focus a turn for whatever.

If you have offensive spells, your FOCUS stat (and admittedly access to Arc Nodes) is going to determine how effective you can be with them. If you're primarily a buffing/upkeeping caster, then you don't actually CARE about hitting the other guy with your spells.

4) Feat

What's your feat do? Most feats tend to fall broadly into offensive, defensive, or denial categories. There are some oddball extras (IE: pMagnus grants you extra battlegroup movement) that take a little more though to use, and not all feats are created equally. Maybe your feat is best used early to either soften up the enemy (many ranged feats fall into this category; kill the other guy before he gets close). Maybe you have a feat useful for finishing off the enemy (IE: pKreoss knocks you down; rest of the army KILLS YOU). Maybe yours is defensive, in which case it'll buy you time to position for the kill or scenario win.

Round Two of Questioning

Once you've given the first four questions some thought while looking into your warcaster's stats, it's time to look at the broader questions and put it together.

5) What kind of game does the warcaster play?

Do you lead from the front, or from behind? Remember those questions about survivability? You don't want to put a frail warcaster towards the front where they're undefended and open. Some warcasters thrive on leading from the front and getting into the thick of it; the Butcher and Terminus are examples as the Butcher is a walking killzone and Terminus can pawn shots off to his minions while closing in to personally kill the enemy leader. Others may not be in the front, but still want to be moving in close enough to threaten; warcasters like eStryker and Reznik are fully capable of mutilating enemy leaders in 1-2 hits but can use their army to get the job done as well.

Other warcasters that are a bit more frail are probably happy sitting in the back with arc nodes. I mean, honestly, if you don't need to be up front to shoot or stab something, don't be up front. Someone like Severius, with a mighty DEF and ARM of 14, should be using his large control range (16") and an arc node or two to make SURE the enemy has to work to get to them. Honestly, DEF/ARM14 isn't going to stop a blessed thing that wants to kill him. Being out of range, on the other hand, is a fine defense. Same goes for the Harbinger; poor defensive stats are somewhat forgiveable when you have a 20" control range.

After your survivabilty and weapons, look to your spells for a hint on how close you should be. Most buffs have a 6-8" range if they're targeted upkeeps. If you're going to cast those first turn and not cycle them between units, then you don't really need to be that close. pMagnus has several buffs, and once those are out he has one offensive spell with a decent range, and past that? He's probably sitting behind a warjack. (though unlike some, he's perfectly capable of defending himself between an auto-knockdown melee weapon and a solid sword).

Basically, do you need to be close to the action in order to do damage and/or support your troops? How close is 'close enough?' Do you have a way to deny the enemy anything? What does your feat do (offense/defense/denial/other) and when should you use it? How close do you need to be to use it?

6) Win Condition

Some 'casters love assassination; you only have to kill one enemy model to win if it's the right model. Some are capable of playing an excellent scenario game and wearing down the enemy. Some can do both.

This one's a bit trickier. Honestly, the minimum you need to do is make sure you don't lose the scenario. Make sure you don't pull something out of position and end the game this turn. That's a player thing moreso than a warcaster thing, but it always bears mentioning.

The type of victory you want to go for may also play into your force selection.

7) Army Composition

What kind of army does the warcaster want/need?

If you have the ability to bring arc nodes (IE: someone other than Khador) then do you need arc nodes? If you're squishy and have good offensive spells, you might consider arc nodes. If you have primarly buffs, then you may not need arc nodes that much.

What does your feat do? If it favors a specific type of combat, make sure you bring that. Kara Sloan's feat favors a battlegroup that specializes in ranged combat, so don't bring warjacks with melee weapons.

How do you maximize your feat's effectiveness? eKreoss lets people move, auto-hit, AND make an additional melee attack. Unsurprisingly, he likes a lot of infantry to take advantage of this fact. pSkarre buffs to-hit rolls naturally, and hitting power with her feat; considering her spells/feat are 'control area' you can give more models the benefit if they're infantry instead of a few warjacks. On the other hand, eSkarre's denial feat has 1-5 targets, so she can protect a few hardened targets better than a horde of infantry.

Regarding warjacks in general, do you have support for them? Debuffing the enemy or buffing the warjack are both viable sources of support. Bear in mind you're also going to need to fuel warjacks with focus, and not all warjacks have the same demand for focus. A Cyclone can deny a swath of space with zero focus, and the Deathjack and Seether can both crush face. on the flip side, a Leviathan can decimate infantry with eSkarre IF you can debuff the infantry and feed the warjack 2-3 focus.

Do you have any buffs for infantry? It's crucial to read your buffs for 'friendly model' or 'friendly model/unit.' Vyros can give a warjack +2ARM, or he can give a unit of Dawnguard +2 ARM and fearless. It's the same cost; either 1 focus to upkeep a +2ARM bonus for one warjack OR +2ARM on a dozen infantrymen. Sometimes you want to buff the unit, sometimes you want to buff the jack. Figure out how far you can spread your buffs, and bring units that can take advantage of them. If you have snipe, consider bringing someone with a gun, for example.

Another thing to look for when picking your units/solos/jacks is what weaknesses do you need to cover? If you've got a huge warcaster, you might want to consider something with Shield Guard; warcasters in particular HATE the disruptor bolt from Eiyrss. A 3pt Ogrun Bokur or similar bodyguard can nullify that threat. Anyone with cloud effects can keep you out of sight and potentially out of danger. If you don't have a lot of focus to fuel warjacks, then jack marshals and support solos like Arcanists and Warwitch Sirens can help you run your warjacks effectively (though make sure you don't necessarily NEED jacks in your battlegroup, first).

Conclusion

And here's that wall of text you've been waiting for. Honestly, I'm trying to cobble together a framework for evaluating warcasters, and this is the first pass. It's big, but I feel that you kind of need to evaluate your warcaster before you pick the army. Know what the caster works well with, and then build the army. On the one hand, it sounds like common sense, but I really doubt it's that easy to come up with the ideal force, as good stuff isn't always obvious.

First Impressions: High Executioner Reznik

Ok, so there's been a slight vacation from blogging. I am not dead; just got busy with the whole 'holiday' thing followed by a dose of 'work travelling' think.

I've got some makeup posting to do from some of the games I've played, so this'll be the first of a couple rapid-fire posts.

I'm not gonna lie; I'm a fan of Reznik's fluff (what there is of it, anyway). He's pretty much a machine of heretic-punishment; go forth and wrack the unbelievers. A lot. Oh, and kill it with warjacks, if you're not going to do it yourself.

Reznik's Stats and Gear

Reznik is reasonably straightforward. SPD 5 is a bit slow, but he can fix it. MAT 7 isn't too shabby, either. His DEF of 14 is so-so at best, and ARM 17 is at least solid. Between the defensive stats and a medium base, he's not that easy to hide and not too hard to hit. He's also got a whopping command of 7; I guess when you kill and burn people (especially your own) you're not that inspiring of a figure. Focus 6 is average, and Terror is a neat flavorful extra.

The only piece of kit Reznik's carrying is a PS14 reach sword with the requisite magical weapon. If someone's silly enough to have an upkeep on the target, you get an extra dice of damage on them via Purgation. Also, if you kill a warrior model, you can get a free Wrack once a turn. Hey, that wrack on the back isn't just for show, y'know.

Reznik's melee prowess is better than it looks on paper, though, as he has Engine of Destruction. For 2 focus, he goes up to SPD 7, MAT 11, and PS18. This means he's got a base threat range of 12", so you can conveniently measure your charge range with your control area.

I find that Engine of Destruction is somewhat counterbalanced by the whole 'medium base + DEF 14 + ARM 17" thing, though, so you should probably be careful when using it.

Spells and Abilities

I've already mentioned engine of destruction, and it's a lovely little smashing tool.

Hex Blast

Every caster apparently needs an AoE. Hex Blast drops upkeep and animi while being an AoE 3, POW 13 shot with a range of 10. Considering it's 3 focus, you won't be using it a whole lot, but you at least have the option.

Ignite

You'll probably throw this out in the first turn or two. It's a flat +2 damage buff with a side of critical fire.

Iron Aggression

Here's your bread-and-butter spell. Target warjack becomes your primary wrecking ball. Boosted attack rolls, free runs/charges/slams? Yes, please. This comes out on turn one, and stays on your primary wrecking ball. This warjack will only need to spend focus on extra attacks, and that just gets horrifying in a hurry.

Perdition

This one's iffy, and Reznik wishes he could use it better. If you damage an enemy model, a warjack of yours gets to advance (limit: once per turn) for free immediately. The downside? You're FOCUS 6, and it's RNG 10 POW 10. I'd like it more with a Hierophant backing it up, since you'll probably want to boost either the hit or the damage roll, and suddenly it's half your focus right there.

Witch Hound

Did someone tag your battle group with a spell? Someone gets to advance. Yeah, this is a nice extra, since it lets you sing the no-shooty hymn. It also makes spell assassination much more difficult (barring Scourge, which won't let you get out of the way if it hits) since you'll probably back out of range. Additionally, it keeps the enemy from readily pulling your slow warjacks out of position with Force Bolt.

Feat: Judgment Day

Everyone in the control area loses all their focus and fury. No one can upkeep spells in his control area. If you think you want to cast a spell, you catch fire. It's either a setup for assassination (lose your overboosted field; lose your ability to transfer) or forces a warlock to cut for fury the next turn. It's also not something that magic-heavy armies like, as things like the Battle Mages and Druids don't like being on fire very much.

An Army with Reznik

Reznik likes himself some warjacks, though there's probably room for an infantry unit or two.

Warjacks with Reznik

I'd look for quality over quantity with warjacks. Get yourself a nice beat-stick, ideally at least one with reach. The Reckoner is a prime candidate, with SPD 5 and reach. The Templar has reach and beatback, so while it's only SPD4 it can at least get smoe movement out of the deal. With a shield, it also hits ARM21, so it can potentially survive a beating. The Vanquisher gives you the lovely Flame Belcher, in case you need help with infantry.

The Avatar, of course, would love itself some Iron Aggression as well, since it's got the SPD5 and reach.

You probably don't need an Arc Node with him, since the only spell you'd be arcing is Perdition. For those 6 points, you could take a Crusader as a melee backup jack.

Units with Reznik

Bring a Choir. Full stop, end of story. Reznik can make warjacks sick with Iron Aggression, and will have a couple of solid heavies with him.

Reznik's only support for a unit is Ignite. Given his medium base, I'd think about taking a unit of medium-based Exemplars. Cut off the enemy's trample avenue, and hamper LOS as well. Is it perfect? No, but you can at least get some PS14 Weaponmasters out of the deal.

The only other thing that comes to mind with him? Keep an eye towards infantry-clearing if you aren't bringing a Vanquisher.

Solos with Reznik

Vassals are a good first step with Reznik, since he's a jack buddy. Wracks are also a decent idea, just to get him a little more focus. Reclaimers are a thought, IF you're bringing plenty of infantry. However, you'd be spending more points on infantry and less on jacks.

Paladins make fine objective-holders, especially if you bring the Vilmon(ster).

If you want to make use of Perdition, I'd consider a Hierophant. He'll grant you a +2 RNG bonus, but more importantly he'll give you the 1 focus discount on the spell, so you can spend 2 focus and get that boosted shot off. If you're feeling ballsy, you might also be able to cycle Iron Aggression between a pair of warjacks for a total of 3 focus (1 to upkeep, 2 to cast after the discount). It's something to think about against higher-DEF opponents.

If you want to assassinate with Reznik, look for the movement-shenanigans solos. Madelyn Corbeau can give you a nice 2" of non-linear movement.

Gorman di Wulf is worthy of notice, if for no reason other than the smoke cloud as a means of screening the caster.

Impressions on how Reznik Plays

First turn? Cast Iron Aggression, run warjacks. Contemplate pulling focus from a Wrack if you need it to get Ignite out. Then, hand out focus to fuel your psychotic coal-powered crushing machines until

Use the no-shooty hymn for the first turn or two, then switch to 'battle' once you can start hitting things. Think twice if your enemy has some kind of uber-nasty debuff.

If you have a Hierophant, keep an eye out for Perdition targets.

Screen Reznik with infantry unless you find an opportunity to assassinate with him.

Find the best way to put a warjack into the enemy warcaster with Iron Aggression and a full focus load.

Keep an eye on the scenario; more to make sure you don't lose as opposed to a quick scenario win.

Overall

Reznik's fun to play if you like to see your heavy warjacks make things dead. If you can get into melee with the enemy, then you can turn them into paste. Reznik's not really fine-tuned into scenario wins, but would LOVE to put either himself or a fully-loaded warjack into the enemy leadership. If that's how you want to roll, that's what Reznik will do for you.

Everblight: Thoughts on Units, Part 1

Admittedly, the Legion of Everblight is not exactly long on support for infantry. Most casters have about, oh, one spell that can target models/units as opposed to just warbeasts. Most animi in the legion are single-model, and it's not exactly efficient to hand those out to a unit...

However, I still find myself looking for an infantry unit in most builds. Mostly, they're meant as a distraction from the beasts, though some of them (like Striders and Raptors) can do some fine damage in their own right.

I've run several of them and own a handful of them, and feel that they're at least worth a look.

Striders

Striders are the sniper infantry. They're angry Nyss with bows, pathfinder, and a hankering for putting arrows into enemy infantry. A half-dozen puts you out 6 points, and with the Officer/Musician attachment, you're looking at a 9pt outlay.

Pros

A full 9pt investment gets you 8 guys that have a 12" command range (thanks to the musician). SPD6, Pathfinder, and Advance Deploy (combined with a 3" regroup move from the UA) makes them very mobile and very able to get there. RAT6 is average, but you can pair up with Combined Ranged Attack for RAT8 POW12s. The UA also lets them ignore forests/concealement/cover, and in a pinch the Musician has Take Up.

Cons

DEF 15 is nice; Stealth is more fun, but ARM11 means you still die to blast damage like whoa. They're also crap in melee, with a mighty sword and crap MAT. You CAN use them in melee as a tarpit with DEF15, but there are counters for high DEF.

Overall

9 points get you a mobile half-dozen Nyss with bows. If you want your unit to help KO ranged targets, this is what you want. They die to AoEs, but can spread out with the UA. Even without the UA, it's still a solid unit. I find they work well with the Lylyths; Parasite helps them take down infantry units and eLylyth's feat + Pin Cushion make 'em nasty. They also have the Stealth to synergize with eLylyth's Shadow Pack. I suppose eThagrosh's +2ARM spell helps against AoEs, but ARM13 is still AoE bait.

Ogrun Warmongers

Do you like big, crazy guys with pointy sticks and a penchant for bloodshed? Then, yeah, these guys are for you. 8 points get you 5 of these 8-wound maniacs.

Pros

For medium-based 8-wound infantry, they're reasonably spry. SPD5 and Reach give them a decent threat range; DEF 12 isn't much but ARM16 is reasonably solid. They have a MAT 7, PS14 death-stick and berserk, so the enemy has room to worry about what happens if they get into infantry. In a pinch, you can probably do some damage on a charge to light beasts/jacks. Finally, as medium bases, they'll block Tramples, which is never a bad thing.

Cons

Berserk is probably the first drawback people think of; if they run out of things to poke they'll probably poke each other, what with Reach and all. If you want to get around this, you can run a Chieftain solo for another 3; this makes the package 8/11 depending on unit size. On the other hand, the Chieftain can buff their attacks and let them stop berserking to heal d3 and RFP living stuff. Hey, everyone gets hungry... Also, SPD5 is not THAT fast.

Overall

Anyone that can buff either the accuracy or durability of these guys is what you want. So far, I've run them with eThagrosh for his +2ARM spell; 8 wounds on ARM18 is rough for infantry. They're reasonably costly, but they require a concerted effort to remove and provide a solid screen. Other downside? The cost; those medium-based metal units can be a bit to acquire.

Blighted Swordsmen

It's a MAT7 maniacal weaponmaster with a good defense and so-so armor. Mostly, it's a weaponmaster; anyone that's ever been charged by Weaponmasters has seen a stupidly damaging roll come up at least once and remembers it vividly.

Pros

Mostly, it's the fact they're MAT7 weaponmasters. SPD 6 is ok, but without reach you have a so-so threat range. DEF 14 is just above average, and with the UA you can up your lethality (as he grants you a 1" move and the ability to make another attack if you kill something) while the Champion can scare people with the prospect of a PS15 Weaponmaster Combo-Strike of Death.

Cons

No reach. ARM13 is only so-so against blasts. While there's a lot of damage-dealing potential, they don't necessarily have the damage stats and strike range to do the damage you really want to see them do.

Overall

Swordsmen promise a lot of damage potential, that's for sure. On the downside, everyone knows this, and unlike other notable weaponmasters (IE: Bane Thralls) they're not as easy to deliver into the fray. pThagrosh can up their defense with Fog of War, but that leaves them open to blasts. eThagrosh can put them up to ARM15, which helps against AoEs. Absylonia's one of those that can buff their MAT situationally. Basically, Swordsmen want help to get there, or to at least make sure they draw plenty of attention. They're not quite my favorite infantry unit.

End, Part One

In the name of not throwing up a critical-hit wall o' text, I'm going to end with the ones I've run. I've got a unit of Legionnaries on the way as a cheaper tarpit, and I also own some Raptors. Given their point cost, though, I've not yet run 'em, and I've kinda not painted them...but I do want to, just because they're stupidly dangerous.