Building Your Menoth Army: Step 1 - Choosing a Warcaster (Part 2)

Continued from yesterday, we jump right back into our overview of Menoth Warcasters! Up today are the final six casters, broken out just like they were before!

High Exemplar Kreoss (aka pKreoss or Kreoss1)

Spells: pKreoss comes with a good assortment of spells. His only buff spell (Defender's Ward) affects a friendly faction model or unit.

Feat: pKreoss' feat affects enemies.

Special Rules: pKreoss has no Special Rules himself.

Stats: pKreoss boasts 7 Focus and offers 5 Warjack Points, solid Defense/Armor/Damage Boxes. He carries only a melee weapon, but it is Magic, has Reach, Dispels any upkept effects on a model it hits, and has the Chain Weapon rule. It is also no slouch at P+S14.

Results: pKreoss holds a special place in the Menoth Warcaster Lineup as a very straightforward caster, and one of the most feared in our arsenal. He lends himself very well to new players, and he comes in our Battlebox, so can't complain there. One of the reasons pKreoss is so easy to work with is his 0 restrictions on army makeup, he has the Focus to handle some 'jacks and/or to unleash some pain of his own, and his spells lend themselves just as much to Warjacks as they do to troops. Commonly, pKreoss wants to hang in the middle unless he needs to run up to feat; but we will talk more about "Pop and Drop" when we work on his 25pt list.

Grand Exemplar Kreoss (aka eKreoss or Kreoss2)

Spells: eKreoss' spell list is just a hair more troop focused, and I say that because of the loss of Defender's Ward (+2 Def / +2 Arm) in exchange for Inviolable Resolve which is +2 Arm / Fearless.

Feat: eKreoss' feat affects units and 'jacks equally, but I think to get the most bang for your buck, you want more troopers than Warjacks.

Special Rules: eKreoss offers three special rules; first he is immune to Continuous Effects, second he passes on that immunity to other Exemplar units, and finally he heals one point of damage when a friendly faction model in his control area is destroyed by an enemy attack.

Stats: eKreoss keeps his former version's 7 Focus and jumps to 6 Warjack Points, and his Def + Arm + Damage boxes bring him to 47 (the toughest Menoth casters get). He also carries only a melee weapon, it has Magic and Reach, but trades Dispel and Chain Weapon for two Special Attacks - Armor Piercing and Smite.

Results: eKreoss leans a little more toward troops as a Warcaster, Inviolable Resolve is very nice for about half the troop choices Menoth offers (keep in mind that the Fearless aspect is wasted on all Exemplar and Warjacks, so they only benefit from the Armor bonus). His Elite Cadre ability, which passes on the Continuous Effect Immunity to other Exemplar, his ability to heal when Faction models are destroyed, and his feat all put him solidly in the arena of a Troop Caster, but with 7 Focus and 6 Warjack points, we definitely can bring some 'jacks along for the ride!

High Executioner Servath Reznik

Spells: Reznik's spell list is pretty heavily weighted toward 'jacks. Between Iron Aggression, the supplemental affect of Perdition, and the catchall of Ignite; he likes his 'jacks, but can offer some support to his troops as well.

Feat: Reznik's feat affects enemies.

Special Rules: Reznik has two, one of which affects an enemy model that he boxes, and one which affects his battlegroup.

Stats: Reznik is our third and final Warcaster with the Terror special rule and is highly defensible (reaching that 47 number we talked about earlier) to boot. He carries a single weapon, which while keeping the Magical Weapon and Reach Properties we are used to seeing, offers a new effect - Purgation, this allows Reznik to gain an additional die to attack and damage enemies who are affected by an enemy upkeep spell - Note that this is not boosting, it is an additional die.

Theorymachine: So if you cast Engine of Destruction on yourself and then charged a target who was affected by an enemy upkeep spell and boosted to hit and damage you are looking at a MAT 11 + 4d6 (avg. total result 25) followed by P+S 18 + 5d6 (avg. total result 35.5)

Results: Reznik loves his battlegroup - that means he works very well with 'jacks, but also that he is an incredibly formidable opponent in Melee. His ability to turn a model he boxes into a Wrack allows him extra focus in later turns of the game, helping him to maintain 'jacks with his normal focus pool of 6, and Iron Aggression let's him turn any 'jack he has into a chainsaw with the right support. That all said, Reznik can't rely on Wracking people, so bringing some troops (augmented with Ignite) will certainly help him to get his groove on.

All in all, Reznik wants to be close to the front of his lines, just remember that he is a medium base, so he will need Vengers, Bastions, Cinerators, or 'jacks to screen him.

Grand Scrutator Severius(aka pSevvy or Sevvy1)

Spells: pSevvy's assortment of beneficial spells have generic target requirements, allowing him to cast any of them on any friendly faction model he wants (within range).

Feat: pSeverius's feat affects enemy models, it certainly causes some issues for them, but doesn't really affect his army composition.

Special Rules: pSevvy carries no special rules.

Stats: pSevvy is one of our least defensible casters (from a strictly stat point of view), he and eSevvy offer the lowest Def + Arm + Damage score of all our 'casters (44). He offers one melee weapon, running off a Mat of 4 so he isn't there to cause frontline damage either. Of particular note, pSevvy has the Special Action "Convert" - it allows him to turn a living enemy non-character trooper into a friendly faction solo for the rest of the game, however it does prevent them from activating that turn. He also comes with 8 Focus and 6 Warjack points.

Results: pSeverius carries a VERY solid spell list to help protect his army but he is absolutely a back line caster. His high focus and spells like Ashes to Ashes make him a solid Warcaster, but he wants to be as far from any threat as reasonably possible. He will crumple quickly under assault and poses almost no threat in Melee.

Hierarch Severius(aka eSevvy or Sevvy2)

Spells: eSevvy's spell list is a bit different, he offers a battlegroup buff, a self buff, and a general model/unit buff; he also loses Ashes to Ashes from his former incarnation.

Feat: Like pSevvy, eSevvy's feat focuses on enemies, and causes some new issues for them, but like pSevvy it shouldn't affect list building.

Special Rules: There are some special rules which eSevvy gets to take advantage of, the first is Admonisher. Admonisher is basically a light version of Ashes to Ashes, but now eSevvy gets it for free anytime he hits with a melee or range attack. The second special rule he gets allows him to Bond a Warjack, his particular bond ability allows that 'jack (once per turn) to spend 1 Focus when hit by an attack to not suffer damage from that attack.

Stats: eSevvy is again, one of our least defensible caster (from a stat point of view), he and pSevvy offer the lowest Def + Arm + Damage score of all our 'casters (44). You get 8 Focus and 6 Warjack points with him, and he carries both a Melee weapon and a Ranged weapon. His Melee weapon is nothing special, P+S 13 Magical Weapon with Reach; his Ranged attack on the other hand is pretty solid. It is a Fire Attack, counts as a Magical Weapon, and although it is only POW 10, it can be channeled through an Arcnode. This allows eSevvy to drop quite a bit of destruction from a fairly solid range (keeping in mind that each attack that hits benefits from Admonisher).

Results: eSeverius loses some of his protective power but gains quite a bit offensively himself. The addition of Admonisher and a ranged weapon which can be channeled is a huge advantage, and I would say that he definitely made up for what he lost. He is still VERY squishy, and while Admonisher and Creator's Wrath make him a bit more useful in melee, he is still made of glass. eSevvy, like pSevvy wants to sit back and support his troops or use his Arcnode to attack with his ranged weapon or Hex Blast.

Vice Scrutator Vindictus

Spells: Vindictus' list of magic is very solid, he has attacks, unit buffs, and Sacrificial Lamb.

Feat: A lot of folks on the forums find Vindictus' feat to be lacking, I think he is a very worthwhile caster and that if his feat was any stronger it would lead to him being the goto guy. His feat does makes use of your army composition, but we will discuss that a bit more as we build his list.

Special Rules: Vindictus has Pathfinder and two other special rules, both working around the Holy Zealot model. The first lets him add a Holy Zealot Grunt to a unit in his command range after he destroys a living enemy model with a melee attack; the second lets him redirect a hit from an enemy ranged attack to a non-Incorporeal Holy Zealot within 3" of him. Essentially he makes 'em and he breaks 'em.

Stats: Vindictus isn't too shabby, he is fairly defensive, has two melee weapons, one Blessed, and the other a Chain Weapon (both Magical) both running off his MAT 7. He is a 6 focus caster and brings 6 Warjack points to the list creation table.

Results: Vindictus is a solid caster, the doom and gloom of the forums be damned. I don't expect him to replace either version of Kreoss, Feora, or Severius in frequency of appearance, but he offers a playstyle we didn't have (fast Pathfinder troop based army), and should be able to hold his own in our ranks. He should probably play mid field, sneaking out to melee snipe a trooper here or there to help replenish the ranks of Zealots if he has been making heavy use against them. All in all, as a defensive denial caster, he does well.

That wraps up Step 1 of building your army. Whether you are new to the game, new to Menoth, or just looking for where to start on a new Menoth list, I hope this has been helpful. During the next step we will talk about Warjacks and categorize them into general fields, noting any specific advantages when used with a given Warcaster!