Warmachine Hordes Kung Fu is a meditation on the styles of Warmachine. The series focuses on individual characters in the Iron Kingdoms for both Warmachine and Hordes.
In Warmachine Kung Fu 02 - Fire it up! Feora, Priestess of the Flame, I looked at why I would and would not play Feora. She is tough, reliable and solid in hand to hand combat, but various aspects of her character and model kept me from selecting her as an enjoyable 500 pt. warcaster. This article goes even further back in time to Warmachine: Prime to look at a warcaster who was available since the inception of the game: The High Reclaimer, aka Silent Bob.
Introduction
The High Reclaimer was the second warcaster I played from Warmachine: Prime. Seeing as I got into the game because of its characterful infantry models, and seeing as I started out helpless in my ability to keep those same models alive, it seemed a pretty good match to use a warcaster who become more powerful as his infantry died.
I played several games with him at the time, and then quietly shelved him. I needed to learn more about the game before I could rely on the proper use of reclaimed souls.
Models Featured in this Issue
Rating
I'm rating the warcasters on their abilities in:
- leading Troops
- fielding Warjacks
- fighting in Combat
- casting Spells and using other special abilities
- overall Background and Theme
In the end, I compile the five point system to come up with a final score between 1-5.
Troops
They call him Silent Bob for a reason.
They call him Silent Bob for a reason.
I'm still dealing with some of the paradoxes of the game's character design. Silent Bob isn't really a commander, but he benefits the most from infantry models. However, once his opponents start sniping his unit leaders (as good enemies are wont to do), his lack of the ability to give orders to his own troops or for them to use his Command stat can be crippling.
The key is to gain the most out of every death, and to bolster the ranks with commander models.
Prospective units:
A Temple Flameguard Unit can be extremely difficult for the enemy to dislodge with their Temple Flameguard Officer and Standard Bearer Unit Attachment. The Standard Bearer gives the unit resiliency and the Officer gives them both offense and a redundant commander with wounds.
The Flameguard Cleanser Unit is often used with the High Reclaimer's Feat as a way to target enemy models who otherwise have difficulty being hit. Their defense is low enough for the High Reclaimer to reliably cast spells in their back arc to trigger Explosive, but more on that in spells and whistles below.
And finally, there is the Holy Zealots Unit with their Monolith Bearer Unit Attachment. They bear mentioning with almost any of the Protectorate of Menoth Warcasters, but they have particular use as durable sources for soul tokens. An opponent has to decide whether or not to slay the offending models, often committing powerful resources once the Zealots become Defense 16, Armor 14 in order to kill them, and then they realize that they are giving up souls.
Commanders for the High Reclaimer include:
Exemplar Seneschal Solo: keep units moving forward safely in the second wave, while also become stronger for the deaths of the models.
High Exemplar Gravus Solo: maintains the ability to give orders to and benefit from the deaths of a knight themed army. The High Reclaimer's Burning Ash Clouds can keep his large base out of sight.
And lest we not forget:
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon Solo: remains immune from casual sniping while in Impervious Wall.
5/5
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Warjacks
The High Reclaimer's strength is in his ability to convert souls into focus, and while that might tempt someone to use him as a warjack caster, you have to consider that every focus spent on warjacks is a dead model, so there's always cost analysis going on. Because his army relies on troops that can generally handle opposing infantry, the High Reclaimer selects his warjacks for board control, to place Burning Ash cloud effects, and to prevent caster lock down.
The Avatar of Menoth Warjack is a good candidate for board control, though probably difficult to fit in a 500 point game. It generates its own focus, can operate outside the High Reclaimer's pitiful 10" control area, and can use Menoth's Gaze to slow down a unit or slam an offending warjack or other model. It will always generate at least 2 focus, so it's enough to reliably use 1 to slam and 1 more to boost the attack roll.
The Guardian Warjack has Reach, the critical pitch effect that can throw other warjacks (though it's always hazardous to completely rely on critical effects). In addition, it can be used to place cloud effects via its arc node, and its banners can keep an uncommanded horde of Protectorate of Menoth units from running off the table. However, like the Avatar, it may be difficult to use in 500 points given that the High Reclaimer can't actually give it anything other than cloud cover.
In 500 point games, then, the light warjacks are still key. The Devout Warjack protects the High Reclaimer from ranged attacks and the Revenger Warjack is a reliable arc node with a decent enough Reach attack when infused.
It doesn't really pay to use too many warjacks with the High Reclaimer; his spell list and feat don't help them beyond Ritual Sacrifice, but even that spell might not be enough to consider multiple warjacks.
1/5
Combat
Assuming that you have no soul fodder, the High Reclaimer is not all that impressive in combat. However, once he gets close and laden down with soul based focus, the High Reclaimer can put out many attacks and make himself a threat difficult to ignore.
For every friendly Protectorate model killed in his control area, he gains a soul token that turns into a focus point during his next control phase. So if 10 models die the previous turn, then the High Reclaimer will have a whopping 15 focus.
If he upkeeps Soulstorm, that gives him 14 focus with which to buy and boost attacks. If he can reach his target for the assassination, then he's probably better off using all that focus for melee attacks instead of spells given that his Melee Attack is 6 while his Focus stat is 5. However, what does that really buy him?
Boosted melee attack: Hits a Defense 16 50% of the time.
Boosted Cremator damage: 14 + 3 dice = average 24.
2 Focus for the initial attack
3 Focus for every attack after that.
Available focus and number of boosted attacks
5 Focus = 2 fully boosted Attacks
8 Focus = 3 fully boosted Attacks
11 Focus = 4 fully boosted Attacks
14 Focus = 5 fully boosted Attacks
14 Focus can buy 5 fully boosted attacks. However, you will often find yourself with much less available. The unknown factor makes it difficult to plot a melee end-game for the High Reclaimer, but keep your eyes open. If you think you have enough focus, then take the chance.
2/5
Spells and Whistles
The High Reclaimer's premiere ability is the conversion of dead models into Soul tokens. While this can make for some fun rounds, his limited control area and low focus stat can hinder some of the things you want to do with that focus.
Below is a picture of the the High Reclaimer trying to keep his army together in order to benefit from his focus generation ability. 10" is not a lot of space.
Some turns, the large amount of focus will give the High Reclaimer the ability to cast the swarm killing Ashes to Ashes or the solo target assassinating Immolation multiple times. Below, he uses Ashes to Ashes to blow up his own Resurrected Flameguard Cleanser:
The issue with using his focus in this way is that with a Focus stat of 5 he is almost always going to boost to hit in order to make sure that the spell is not wasted. The effective cost of casting Immolation is thus 3 Focus, and 5 for Ashes to Ashes.
Finally, his feat requires some finesse in order to use effectively.
When used offensively (such as the cleanser bomb described above) it's important to note that it's limited by the resurrected models placement (again, 10" control area) and its lack of activation.
When used defensively, his feat brings back a random number.
Thus you must always plan for needing as few models as possible. Resurrect Vengers to block charge lanes, Cleansers to blow up in key positions, or key unit leaders in order to regain the use of certain unit abilities.
3/5
Background and Theme
The High Reclaimer is just one of the ways that faith in Menoth is made manifest in the game. He is a commander without commands and a general who allows his troops to die only to bring them back.
3/5
Conclusion
People refer to him as Silent Bob because they are affectionate about his harsh limitations. He is fun to play because Protectorate of Menoth infantry is fun to lose (gain a buff, gain a soul token), but relying on your opponent to kill certain models and not others adds a certain randomness to his gameplay.
2.8/5
Such is the way of Warmachine Kung Fu.
