Editing Warmachine/Tactics/Protectorate of Menoth (section)

===Warcasters===

*'''Anson Durst, Rock of the Faith:''' The most recently released Protectorate paladin warcaster, Anson is a long awaited gift from Menoth. Big, tanky, and with a lot of emphasis on defense, Anson is early enough in his career than no list has yet unlocked his ultimate potential. What ''is'' known is that he can actually survive some heavy firepower, which is pretty much unique among Protectorate 'casters. He is blessed with the highest base armor of any Warcaster in the Protectorate's and a weapon which has earned him the moniker "Butcher's little brother." Two distinct play styles seem favored. One levies Deflection to deliver infantry to frustrated ranged armies. The other allows some of the largest battlegroups in the Protectorate access to Boundless Charge, gives the Protectorate 'jacks a non-Amon option for difficult terrain and a bonus movement bump. Focus support is needed as his mediocre (for Protectorate) Focus stat makes running jack heavy tough. Reclaimer solos and Sanctifiers have increased stock due to this need. Anson's feat basically keeps everything important alive and even the most potent of attacks become nothing more than scratched paint when 8-point jacks can get up to 14/24 stats under this paladin's holy guidance. He is not, however, of the Order of the Wall, so Vilmon does not grant him immunity to all but magic attacks. Standing base to base with a pair of Reckoners with his stance up does give him a 17/24 stat line vs living melee, 17/25 vs shooting and magic, and neither he nor his jacks b2b can be pushed, placed, moved, or knocked down. Watch for throws.
*'''High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza:''' One of the Protectorate's premiere 'jack casters. Amon puts crazy amounts of emphasis on light warjack play, particularly Dervishes and Devouts, because he has a spell called Synergy which applies a ''cumulative'' bonus to attack and damage rolls for all 'jacks in his control area. This can let even your lightest 'jacks hit like a Khador heavy. He also makes his 'jacks much more mobile than they would otherwise be, since he has another spell that gives them a SPD boost and delicious, delicious Pathfinder. Even his feat makes his 'jacks more mobile and more choppy, so the basic idea is to get a big pile of Dervishes together and then mince your way across the table. Unfortunately, he does nothing for infantry, and his FOCUS is fairly low, so he needs to be dangerously close to the front lines in order to keep his 'jacks murdering efficiently. As he's not particularly durable (he wants to spend a lot of his Focus points, especially on his feat turn), this makes him risky, but he can certainly do a lot of damage. 
*'''Feora, Priestess of the Flame (pFeora):''' Aggression, aggression, aggression. pFeora is all about murdering everything, generally up close and personal. To facilitate this, she has a much more solid statline than your standard Menite 'caster, and her signature spell, Engine of Destruction, makes her an absolute monster on the charge. It's a rare turn that you won't want to pay for the Engine. On top of this, she has access to Ignite, which gives a solid +2 to damage rolls and Critical: Continuous Fire to a unit, so she can pump out even more damage. Oh, and also fire. Lots and lots and '''lots''' of fire. Seriously, there will be ''so much fire'' on the table if pFeora is in play. Even her feat just ''sets everything on fire''. Take her with some Temple Flameguard and some heavier solos, cast Engine of Destruction, camp the rest of your focus to keep yourself at a comfortable ARM 21, and just get stuck in to burn some heretics.
*'''Feora, Protector of the Flame (eFeora):''' And you thought pFeora was bad. This crazy woman loves fire more than her Prime self. So much so, that she can GAIN FOCUS AND TRANSFER FIRE ON HER FEAT. She can also be bound to a jack to make its attacks cause fire as well. Perfect with fire spray warjacks and can be used to create fire shenanigans. Get within her feat range with an enemy warcaster, put a tough thing on fire, pop feat, put said fire on enemy warcaster, watch as the warcaster runs around, flailing his arms around while slowly figuring out that that fire isn't going out anytime soon. Her spell list is also pretty beast, with escort giving all warjacks in her force <strike>+3 speed</strike> +2 movement (there IS a difference, people). Fiery step is also a very good way of getting out of combat and still killing or hurting something before she can even move. And, if a single damage model comes within two inches of her, they combust into flames that can't be taken off in her command range. Lull the enemy warcaster into a false of security then fire step before you move and charge his smug prick face. Unfortunately, she lost her double sprays in favor of a SP10' spray. She can also make flameguard fearless in her command range, which is also a godsend at times.
*'''Harbinger of Menoth:''' Hands-down the most popular Menite warcaster in tournament play, and for good reason. Harby is an absolute monster on the tabletop, taking the Protectorate's philosophies of support and denial to their absolute extremes. She sits on an absolutely monstrous FOCUS 10 - the highest FOCUS stat in the game - and it comes with the attendant 20" control radius, which lets her lock down almost the entire board with ease - and all without having to get near the front lines. That range advantage is good because she's very fragile unless camping at least half her focus and she has a large base, so she's hard to screen effectively, and she has Martyrdom, so she's often going to be sitting at pretty low health. Not that Martyrdom is bad, though - she can take d3 points of damage any time a friendly warrior in her <strike>control</strike> <b>command</b> (Could you imagine?) area is disabled to save their life, so your vital solos just got that much harder to dislodge. She also inflicts a penalty to all attack rolls made by living enemy models in her (massive) control area, making your army even harder to remove from the board. Her feat turns her entire (again, ludicrously huge) control area into a no-go for your opponents, as any enemy model moving towards her gets to eat a POW 14 hit to the face. And is entirely without getting into her actual spell list. The Harbinger has her rep for a good reason.
*'''High Reclaimer:''' An odd duck, but definitely not a bad choice. The High Reclaimer has a low FOCUS stat and a correspondingly small control area, but can gain bonus focus from collecting the souls of any loyal Menites that fall in battle. His feat then recalls a few of these models from their deaths, ideally to make a game-winning charge. The ability to reclaim souls can briefly boost his poor focus pool, but this implies that you just lost a hell of a lot of infantry, and it won't stick around for long. Letting your infantry die for no reason, and then counting on the Reclaimer's briefly-boosted ARM to save him, is a poor strategy. Other than Reclaim, his signature ability is Sacrificial Lamb, which lets you off an infantry model to give a free focus point to all your 'jacks. Like most Menites, he's a support 'caster, not a frontliner, and should be kept back accordingly. Give him a solid infantry brick, a Choir, and a few warjacks (not too many, because, again, his focus pool is pretty small), then have him hang back and use his Burning Ash spell to give your army some cover. 
*'''Testament of Menoth:''' For all intents and purposes, a slightly more aggressive High Reclaimer. He still isn't a frontliner himself, but he does allow your army a bit more freedom of movement, and his feat - which turns all your models incorporeal - can be great for assassination runs. He trades the ability to place concealment-granting ash clouds at will for the ability to shove that cloud on a unit, and the ability to revive a bunch of models all at once for a single turn for the ability to bring one grunt back forever (albeit with one health). Other than that, he's pretty much the same. 
*'''High Exemplar Kreoss (pKreoss):''' The Protectorate's battlebox caster, and not half bad at that. His spell list is well-rounded for both defense and offense, his FOC stat of 7 is pretty good and ties in well with his feat, which knocks down every enemy model within his control area.  This makes assassinations very easy as it can free up models to move in for the kill, or more frequently, give LOS to ranged models (often a Redeemer with full focus) to gun the enemy warcaster/warlock down.  Be warned though; the moment you put pKreoss on the table, people will know what you're doing, and will plan accordingly.  Also, if the opponent has knockdown immunity, that can throw a major wrench in your plan.  His defensive stats are also kind of ass (DEF 14 ARM 15).
*'''Grand Exemplar Kreoss (eKreoss):''' eKreoss is an infantry lover. He brings them a couple of useful passive abilities, a supportive spell list, and one heck of a feat (granting all friendlies in his control area auto-hitting attacks, as well as an extra attack for free). The feat is one of the two big things that he brings to the table, the other being the ability to make a P+S 14 armor piercing attack, though truth be told, he might not get too many chances to use it.
*'''Intercessor Kreoss (Threeoss, Kreoss3):''' The Intercessor is a bit hard to get a solid handle on. Like pSeverius, there isn't much that he doesn't work with, and he can field almost any kind of army and do so fairly well. He'll have a little bit of trouble with larger groups of 'jacks, though, because he's fairly focus-hungry. He also quite likes Exemplar Vengers, but Vengers are such a rarely-used unit that it's hard to know whether or not this is a good thing. He himself is also mounted on a large base, which makes screening him hard and makes him deceptively squishy - his ARM is high, but he's big and likes to spend a lot of focus, and as such vulnerable to massed fire. On the other hand, he does solve a lot of Menoth's mobility issues with his Warpath spell, and between Holy Ward and Ignite, he can both keep his units safe and allow them to pump out some serious damage. His feat allows him to cast his upkeeps without spending focus and makes enemy spells/upkeeps/animi dispel in his Control area. In layman's terms this means that misplaced Holy Ward and Ignite can be cast to affect more deserving unit. This may or may not be Kreoss himself, specifically with Holy Ward, should he find himself in a place where he might not want to be. Ignite is one of the things that makes full units of Vengers somewhat useful, as 5 models that hit P+S 18 on charge, P+S 20 with enrage, and has Divine Inspiraion is not strictly bad. Remember that Ignite affects mount attacks!
*'''High Executioner Servath Reznik (pReznik):''' While not balls-crushingly competitive, Reznik is still fun to play.  Purgation+Engine of Destruction can be utterly terrifying against a warcaster/lock who has an upkeep on him/herself, and Witch Hound can definitely throw a wrench in your opponent's plan. Laugh as someone with Telekinesis tries to pull your warjack forward to be charged, only for you to turn them right back around and end up FURTHER back than when they started. He has some 'jack synergy with his Iron Agression (see eReznik below) and Perdition, which is an OFF spell that gives one jack full advance should it deal damage towards nearest enemy.  However, his buffs are entirely offensive in nature, and he doesn't really have much to support infantry other than throwing Ignite on them.  You will typically win by assassination, or die trying. One fun gimmick that Reznik can do is that he can box model with his attack and place a wrack within 3" of himself. Then someone else can shoot and kill the wrack, making it explode with POW 14 5" blast. This can give Reznik some more offensive power and give some unexpected kills. Remember that you can only wrack enemy models though! 
*'''Servath Reznik, Wrath of Ages (eReznik):''' Reznik decided walking is for heretics and got himself a giant chariot. His spell-list is at odds with his focus pool of 7, containing a weird mix of 3-cost spells. He's got hands down the coolest model in the faction, but unfortunately he's barely playable in more competive circles. However, he has some niffy things that are often overlooked: One is that even though he has only 7 focus to cast his 3-cost spells, all of the spells minus Flesh is Weak (a POW 12 AOE 4 meh spell) are upkeep spells. The Iron Aggression is extremely powerful buff when upkept, since you give one warjack boosted attack and damage rolls, and warjack can charge, trample, slam or run without spending focus. This means that Reznik basically spends 1 focus after turn 1 to give 3 focus to warjack, and also means that if you "overboost" the warjack by giving him 3 focus on top of Iron Aggression, you're looking at a warjack that charges, hits his base attacks with boost and attacks 3 more times with boosts (plus anicilliary attacks from Vassals etc...). Getting the 'Jack into combat might prove difficult though, and you might want to hold eReznik back until he gets his upkeeps up and the buffjack gets into position. Oddily enough, Guardian is okay choice for the buffjack as while you won't get much use out of the Arc Node, the Critical Pitch (remember that all of the attacks are boosted) can help to shove 'jakcs off eReznik's charge lane, plus Guardian has enough boxes to not die as easily as other heavy jacks. Alternate would be Reckoner to help eReznik survive his charge and to just straight out blast the obstructions out of the way instead of trying to dislodge them. Also keep in mind that the Death March is not neccessary in most cases, and Lamentation is extremely powerful upkeep to shut down heavy spellcasters or casters that rely on focus (Butcher3, for example loses 50% of his potency by just being close to Reznik). Some units that specifically benefit eReznik are Wracks, which help him get his upkeep spells up in time, as well as gain additional focus for those moments that you need to gain more attacks, and Vassal Mechanicks since being a battle engine, they can repair him for D6 points of damage. That can be lifesaver if eReznik's charge goes tits-up. eReznik's base offensive is lackluster with only P+S 13 Verdict that has magical weapon, Reach and Flame Burst (models within 1" of model boxed by reznik burst into flames), but if you combine that with Creator's Wrath (other upkeep that you should keep on all the time) you have +D6 to attack and damage rolls, meaning that there is very few models that you cannot hit (note that it applies to mount impact hits), and you can further boost the damage of the attack as the Creator's wrath does not say "boosted" but "additional die" so you're looking at impact hits with average P+S 13+10 (23), and weapon hits with boost to P+S 13+14 (27). Given good rolls, eReznik can hit like runaway train on stereoids. But! There is one big, stinky But! in the cogs: Huge base, Def 13 and Arm 17. Quite literally, once the eReznik does his charge, it's all in: either you kill everything in cascade of fire and shrapnel, or you fail to kill that one model who gets free strike at eReznik and kills him in few hits. Also Huge base means that his mobility is extremely predictable if you were not planning on ploughing through your own troops in order to get into combat with the enemy (not bad idea, by the way, to charge your way through thin line of friendlies since with back strike bonus, you can gurantee passage). Tier 1 list is advisable to get unlimited wracks to overboost the focus of Reznik and get all of his upkeeps at turn 1, and to make that one "do or die" feat+ charge turn even more devastating. All in all, eReznik is like his younger counterpart in the role he plays: All in, do or die.
 
*'''Grand Scrutator Severius (pSevvy):''' The Protectorate's answer to Lord Voldemort, Sevvy is Menoth's premiere blasting mage. He has an absolutely brutal spell list that can drop solid damage to all types of targets, an excellent FOCUS of 8, and a feat that can completely crush the enemy in a single stroke (it completely denies the enemy warcaster their focus allotment for next turn). If you want a warcaster than can throw fireballs with the best of them, he's your man. On top of this, he comes with two of the Protectorate's best buffs: the Eye of Menoth, which grants +1 to attack ''and'' damage rolls for ''all'' friendly units in his control area and should be upkept every single turn, and Defender's Ward, which grants a +2 bonus to both DEF and ARM for a single model or unit, turning your Exemplars Errant from "annoying tarpit" to "OH GOD WHY WON'T THEY JUST GO AWAY". His primary weakness is that he's made of paper even by Protectorate standards, so he absolutely must be kept back. As such, at least one arc node is mandatory for any pSevvy army, and two is more common - in particular, it's a rare Severius list that isn't sporting the Blessing of Vengeance, which is his signature warjack. Other than that, though, there really isn't anything that Severius doesn't work with. Between Defender's Ward and Eye of Menoth, he simply makes everything that the Protectorate has better all around. 
*'''Hierarch Severius (eSevvy):''' The Dumbledore to... well, his own Voldemort. eSevvy is not the fireball-tossing murder machine that pSevvy was. He's turned in his blasting spells for a more utility-oriented toolbox set, but he's no less powerful for it. He retains his previous FOCUS 8, which is a good thing, since he ''also'' kept his toilet-paper armor and he needs that massive control area to keep himself alive. He still has a few ways to deal damage at range, but they're no match for what he was sporting in his previous incarnation, so don't expect him to do all the heavy lifting himself. Fortunately, he's gained the ability to enable everyone else to do it for him. He can enable your models to ignore cover, concealment, and intervening models when calculating LOS, disable any special abilities or orders that an enemy unit might want to use, and briefly take control of enemy units to disrupt battle lines. Much trickier to use than pSevvy, but not weaker by any stretch.
*'''Vice Scrutator Vindictus:''' A bit of a mixed bag. He gives you a free Holy Zealot any time he kills an enemy warrior, and lets aforementioned Zealots take the bullet for him any time he gets hit. On top of this, each of his weapons allows you to ignore a certain type of defensive buff, so he looks like a 'caster who wants to wade in and mix it up, but he suffers from the fact that he is a Menite warcaster who isn't Feora, and thus doesn't actually want to do that because he'll probably explode. He's got the High Reclaimer's ability to sacrifice infantry for warjack focus, but he's focus-hungry himself and so can't actually allocate much to the rest of his battlegroup. If you take any more than a couple of fairly focus-efficient 'jacks, he's going to be overloaded. His feat is also highly matchup-dependent: it deals one point of damage and knocks down any enemy models that hit your guys, which means that it will devastate armies which are heavy on light infantry and do jack-all to everyone else. His spell list is also a bit schizophrenic, with no clear emphasis on any one strategy. So, on the whole, he's not really the best 'caster the Protectorate has to offer, but he's definitely unique and a hell of a lot of fun, particularly if you like Holy Zealots.
*'''Thyra, Flame of Sorrow:''' The closest thing that the Protectorate has to a true assassination 'caster. Thyra is fast and hits like a truck on the charge, and has high DEF to keep her safe. The problem comes when you notice that she has abysmally low ARM, so if the enemy can knock her down, she's going to get squished. Also anything that sets things on fire automatically (que p/eFeora) kills her outright. As such, the Covenant of Menoth is practically mandatory with her, as it can keep her from getting locked down. She also loves her some Holy Zealots and Daughters of the Flame, the former because of their synergy with her feat (another round of ranged attacks after your opponent thought they closed the gap, yay) and the latter because she grants them Vengeance. She sports a lot of tools to grant herself more mobility, along with Stealth, so, as a general rule, she wants an army that can clear a path to the enemy 'caster so she can dive in and secure the kill. High risk, high reward.