Protectorate of Menoth

Does your pope go to war alongside his subjects? Didn't think so.

The Protectorate of Menoth is one of the eponymous Iron Kingdoms and one of the main factions in Warmachine. They are the obligatory religious fanatics and holy warriors faction, combining the Dungeon Punk genre, elements of Catholicism, Islam and a backstory taken piecemeal from the history of the Middle-East.

History of the Protectorate (and also the Church)

The menofix.

Menoth, also known as the Lawbringer or the Creator, is the original patron god of humanity. Thousands of years ago he created mankind as servants. A man's sole purpose is to serve the Creator and his reward is a peaceful death and passage into the City of Man in Urcaen (The menite equivalent of heaven, and generally a good place in the generally really awful place that is Urcaen). After creating humanity he granted them the gifts of fire, walls, and laws, to help keep out the darkness and creatures that covered Caen. At this time, Caen was also a pretty bad place, covered in monster-infested forests and jungles where cannibals and other savages lived. It was the domain of the Devourer Wurm, Menoth's ancient enemy and opposite. Menoth's gifts gave humanity a fighting chance to stay alive and perform their purpose, to strengthen their creator. Where Menoth embodies and is strengthened by civilization, order, and servitude, the Devourer Wurm embodies the wilds and feeds on chaos and savagery. Menoth then left mankind to continue his eternal battle.

Menoth's a very strict god, and kind of an asshole. There's all kinds of laws that must be followed to the letter to get into the City of Man in Urcaen (Urcaen being where souls go when they die, and the City of Man being a pretty good place in a dimension that's otherwise pretty awful). the Church of Menoth began to falter with the rise of the Twins, Morrow and Thamar, two humans who believed anyone can rise above their stature, even to the point of ascending into Godhood (which they did).

The Church didn't really start to fall until the Orgoth invaded. The Orgoth are essentially black magic vikings from across the ocean who will both kill you and enslave your soul, or use the latter to fuel their magic. The Orgoth killed priests and burned temples, yet Menoth did nothing (This could be because he was too busy fighting the Devourer Wurm, which would've been more difficult as his strength waned when those who believed in him died or wavered in their faith. It could also have been a test to see if mankind would stray from the True Law.) Seemingly left to their fate, many humans felt Menoth's lessons felt hollow, while the Twins, the upstart gods Morrow and Thamar's message of hope started sounding more and more appealing. This, combined with Thamar's gift of arcane magic, allowed Immoren to drive out the Orgoth, resulting in the Menite church being a shadow of its former self.

However, a few faithful remained and started growing more and more resentful living under the new kingdom of Cygnar's rule (Namely because its capital, Caspia, was founded by the Twins). In 482 AR (Almost 300 years after the Orgoth were forced from Immoren) the faithful started an ultimately failed rebellion, which ended in a treaty. The Menites would still be a part of Cygnar, but have control of half the capital city (which they renamed Sul) as well as a fairly large area, mostly resource-poor desert to the south. But since it was Menite holy land, they didn't really mind. The other clause of the treaty was that they weren't allowed to have any warjacks or a standing army. They were however allowed to have a defensive militia (Which they exploited as a loophole). After converting the desert locals and re-founding the proper Menite capital city of Imer, things started to look up. They found rare jewels, which they used to bribe Cygnar officials from looking the other way of their more and more obvious attempts at disregarding the treaty. They also found oil, which they could refine into Menoth's Fury (think napalm or promethium) to fuel all kinds of fire-based weapons, from spears to flamethrowers. This combined with internal problems within Cygnar, namely their king being a dick with a younger, nicer brother who overthrew him, allowed the Protectorate to ignore the treaty entirely and build a massive army.

Their first goal was to fully conquer Caspia, but that didn't work out so well.

Now they're fighting Khador over Llael, and some of the locals are starting to find they prefer the frozen Iron Fist of the non-Russians over the burning Iron Fist of the Protectorate.

Life in the Protectorate

The nation is a strictly ruled theocracy. The Hierarch (read: Pope) of the Synod (read: Church) is also the political leader of the Protectorate, although most of the day-to-day operation of the nation is done by the Synod of Visgoths (read: cardinals). The previous Hierarch, Garrick Voyle, is largely responsible for the structure of the Protectorate, as well as it's military power. Since he was a very martial dude, he ended up being killed in the battle for Caspia. His successor, Severius, also has a very hands-on approach to leading, and was until recently on the frontlines in Llael, converting and burninating locals and enemies alike.

According to Cygnaran propaganda, life is shit in the Protectorate. This is only partially true. Yes, citizens of the Protectorate live in an extremely hot desert, they're regularly conscripted to become fanatic meatshields holy warriors (Although most actually volunteer), and they follow a religion that demands total obedience to both the priesthood and Menoth. However, if you labour for your allotted time, follow the commands of the priests, and of course, you're a faithful menite, then things could be worse. It's however illegal for any citizen to own any real currency, and the Scrutators developed a system specifically to prevent its citizens from amassing wealth. Instead of coins made from valuable ores, they use clay shaped into beads with holes through them so they can be tied to strings. Not big on capitalism, are they?

Menites outside of the Protectorate don't fare much better. While members of the "Old Faith" (which are a bit more conservative compared to the Sul-Menites in the south) are a fairly large group in Khador, they are sometimes treated with disdain due to the tensions between Khador and the Protectorate. The Cygnarans are occasionally quite religionist, throwing Cygnaran menites into a terrible prison (Although most of these were released after the civil war). And yes, Cygnar are the Mary Sue good guys of the setting. And in the wilderness, the domain of the Devourer Wurm, yeah, that's not really an option for a menite. In short, for a devout menite, the Protectorate is probably the best place to be. Plus... if you refuse to live there (for whatever reason), the Synod might send the High Executioner to hunt you down.

Even the church isn't as bad as is sometimes said. Refusing to worship Menoth makes him weaker, which is bad for everyone, as he's the only one that can fight the Devourer Wurm. Also, the church of Morrow broke its promise of honoring Menoth aside Morrow, although Morrowans point out that Menoth did nothing during the Orgoth invasion and so he isn't a "real" deity, and that they do worship Menoth alongside Morrow. Then the Scrutator petulantly says they don't do it enough and has them all crucified, because Scrutators argue like that fifth grader who used to punch you whenever you disagreed with him.

Also, with the fight against Cryx ramping up, the Protectorate is pretty much the only nation that can count on their souls being saved from the Cryxian necromancers. The Protectorate's Reclaimers literally channel Menite souls through their bodies to the City of Man on Urcaen. With this process, devout Menites know that they won't be turned into zombies or used to power bonejacks.

The Protectorate & Non-Humans

Menoth has a very poor track record with non-humans. Menoth (besides being a dick) is also very clearly the god of mankind. This is, to be fair, slightly justified, since many non-humans used to worship the Devourer Wurm, or at least that's what the Synod thought (Rightly so when they were the Morgoth). Because of this, ogruns, trollkin and gobbers were killed on sight for much of the Chruch's early history. The Protectorate has mostly cooled off on the xenophobia, partially because they don't expect non-humans to follow their faith. Non-humans are generally still not allowed to live within the Protectorate's borders, they aren't being exterminated either. Unless they interfere with Protectorate business or are Devourer Wurm worshippers.

The Protectorate as a whole have a much better relationship with the dwarves of Rhul and the elves if Ios, although they're still not well-trusted. For instance, the Protectorate will hire dwarf and elf mercenaries (Especially elven Mage hunters, whose goals line up very well with Menoth's), but they're still fairly unwelcome within the Protectorate proper. This stance is changing, however. The dwarves and elves are two of the few races that are free to worship their own pantheons in the Protectorate. This comes from the fact that they weren't created by Menoth. The Protectorate is also seeking to establish closer ties with both Rhul and Ios.

Canon of the True Law

• There is no god above Menoth.
• There is no labour unendurable in the name of Menoth.
• There is no pain unendurable in the name of Menoth.
• There is no fear unassailable with faith in Menoth.
• There is no object that cannot be given up for Menoth.
• There is no word other than the Word of Menoth.
• There is no end. There is a place for us all at the feet of Menoth.
• There is no third n in Canon. That type of Cannon is for heretics.

Cool things about the Protectorate

• You have the protection of some of the best Paladins and Knights in the setting. What's that, Sword Knights? You don't work for an organization whose moral standing is iffy at best, and therefore don't question your own ethical position?
• While it's hot as an oven in the desert, the priests only have people work part of the day.
• Free healthcare. This is the tradeoff for the common man never being able to so much as see the Protectorate's vast deposits of oil and diamonds, let alone claim any of it.
• You very literally have your god at your side via the Harbinger and the Avatar. My deity has incarnated as a Decepticon. Your theological argument is invalid.
• Unlike Cygnar, citizens of the Protectorate proper will not be under constant attack by Skorne, Cryx, Trollkin, or the Legion of Everblight. Though the great Skorne army is slowly creeping across Western Immoren, so that will probably change.
• Do you like modeling helmets? Do you hate painting faces? Do you find it weird when certain other companies have squad leaders and commanders take off their helmets despite the extremely high need for them? Then the Protectorate has you covered, quite literally.

Things that suck about the Protectorate

• The Scrutators control the Knights and are trying to get rid of said paladins.
• The Scrutators are total assholes and pissing one off will get you strapped to a wrack (Crucifixion with less nails and more chains)
• The Priests and Scrutators don't let you have any of the riches. This is doubly insulting when you realize said money is made of clay, and food is often rationed with vouchers.
• Your god is a HUGE asshole who might kill one of your loved ones in order for him/her to serve in his real army. Best not invite a Reclaimer to dinner. He could make things awkward.
• The Protectorate is generally very unpopular since their tendency to invade, burn and/or convert other nation's populations. They're not very popular with any of the Hordes factions either, partially due to past xenophobia and partially due to being the nation of Menoth (which is a problem mostly for the Circle Orboros, who generally aid the Devourer Wurm)

Characters

Kreoss' Epic incarnation. One magnificent motherfucker.

Mikael Kreoss (aka Paladin without Lawful Good)- Kreoss is currently the only Exemplar warcaster, and was the first Protectorate caster to have three editions (Previously known as Prime and Epic incarnations. Almost everyone called them Kreoss1, Kreoss2 and Kreoss3, and in Mk3 Privateer Press adopted that same naming scheme to differentiate character versions.). His first incarnation, High Exemplar Kreoss, was one of the first warcasters in the game and in the Protectorate (Back when there only were four factions in total and each only had three warcasters). Fluffwise he was an Exemplar commander. Then when his boss and mentor died he was promoted to Grand Exemplar, the head of the entire Exemplar order. Some years later, Severius gave him the title of Intercessor which basically grants him full command of all Protectorate military assets and second in command to only the Hierarch and potentially the Visgoths.

• Kreoss is (or was) the closest thing to a "main character" for the Protectorate. He originally wanted to become a Paladin, but since he was too emotional he was found by an Exemplar instead and taken in for training. Nevertheless he prefers to protect the common man, but does not let his principles and moral get in the way of his orders. Of course, there aren't that many people that can give him orders. It's pretty much only the Hierarch and Harbinger of Menoth, but she, Severius and Kreoss are bros so they don't mind.
• Currently in the fluff he's working on recalling the Northern Crusade (the army that's been mainly fighting Khador in Llael and converting people), after the capital Imer was besieged by the Skorne led by Hexeris.

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Anson Durst (aka Dwayne Johnson) - He's a Paladin of the Order of the Wall warcaster, which means he will prioritize protecting the weak and the innocent and saving lives over even following orders directly from the Hierarch (unlike the Exemplars, who would burn an orphanage if they were told to do so, and not spare on the gasoline). Being a Paladin also means he's going to be really tough, which is reflected in everything he does. He's not only the toughest Protectorate warcaster to date, his Feat also makes his 'jacks into solid brick walls, and all his spells are either defensive or defensively offensive (I.e kill my dudes and my 'jack is going to punch your face in). This doesn't mean he's a slouch in combat either. He's got some of the best MAT and P+S in the faction, and can easily kill infantry models and put a sizeable dent in enemy heavies if he needs to, not to mention turn a misplaced enemy caster to paste.

• In the fluff he's pretty much a background character who currently isn't up to anything. He was in Reckoning, the book he was released in, where he said "Fuck you, Hierarch. I'm going to save these Cygnarans and Khadorans anyway, because at least they're not robozombies." which helped persuade Severius to commit the Protectorate army at all (The Protectorate can't afford to lose valuable warcasters on a trivial dispute) and so Iron Kingdoms threw Cryx off the mainland.

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The Harbinger of Menoth (if Jesus, Moses and Mohammad were a magical girl) - Once upon a time a girl was found in a small Protectorate village. She was floating in the air, and she said Menoth had come to her in a dream and said she was too holy to touch the earth, and so she didn't. The teenager was taken to the capital to meet Hierarch Garrick Voyle, and after a full day of questioning by the Visgoth, the Hierarch stood from his throne and pointed to the girl's shadow, which hadn't moved an inch since she arrived. He knelt before her and asked she become his personal advisor. Fast forward several years and she's now a grown woman who primarily acts as a conduit between Menoth's guidance and the Protectorate. That's not to say she's not for some good old heretic burning every now and then (While the popular meme is she'll float away into the sky without her attendant priests holding her chains, the more reasonable (and awesome) reason is they're there to hold her back so she doesn't get herself killed charging the enemy gunlines. She is the embodiment of a vengeful god, after all). She was the one who cited the need for the Northern Crusade, partially to convert the locals, but mainly to repel the Cryx that were gaining a foothold within the Thornwood forest. The first attempt succeeded but the Harbinger was killed in the process (But it was okay because Menoth resurrected her in front most of the the Menite faith, which is pretty good propaganda). But turns out they weren't thorough enough, and so the Cryx returned for a second bout, which ended in a combined victory for the Iron Kingdoms in the second round.

• Up until recently the Harbinger was traveling around the countryside, converting villages and towns and using Reznik to crush all resistance they encountered. As of currently, both she and the Testament of Menoth (the second closest warcaster to Menoth) are missing and nobody knows where they went perhaps save Severius.
• In the game she's primarily a defensive warcaster who focuses on aiding infantry by keeping them alive (Harbinger takes damage, infantry dude stays alive for another attack). While her massive focus pool of 10, the largest in the game, could be used to run a bajillion warjacks, it's better spent on her powerful spells and to protect herself and you only really need the bare minimum of defensive 'jacks with her (Let Exemplars deal with enemy armour). For Mk3 her feat was literally cut in half, and so many players discarded her as junk. But she's still a powerful choice against the right opponents and can be as oppressive as ever if you know what you're doing.

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Severius (aka the Obligatory Old Man) - Old timer who started off as the one of the three first warcasters in the faction. Literally his first page of fluff way back in Mk1 described how old he was becoming. Age has it's advantages though, and he's one of the most powerful spellcasters in the faction. He started off as the Grand Scrutator (Basically head preacher and inquisitor rolled into one), and he can convert entire towns with nothing but his voice. He was cool with his current station, but when the previous Hierarch, Garrick Voyle, died, he was deemed the most appropriate choice for the new Hierarch by the Harbinger herself, and nobody disputed that he was the most qualified. Where Voyle built the Protectorate's infrastructure, industry and military, Severius focused his attentions on spreading the Protectorate's influence and faith. He was at the forefront of the Northern Crusade until the very end, converting or burninating. Being away from the capital for so long has started to cause fractures within the hierarchy, and so after a vision from novice warcaster Tristan Durant warned against a hidden threat to the faith, he deemed it was time to return. While en route home along with Tristan they received news that Tower Judgment (The Paladin headquarters and a prison/torture chamber) was under siege by the Skorne. After joining the battle and as an 80+ old man fighting toe to toe with one of the greatest warriors in the Skorne Empire he was grievously wounded and died, the first instance of a long-running, major character death in Warmachine & Hordes. This isn't really a spoiler either since it's literally on the cover of the novel Godless, and it's been brewing for quite some time to be honest. Without a strong Hierarch to lead the Protectorate's future is uncertain.

• In the game, both Severius' incarnations sacrifice personal combat power and defense for some of the best spellists in the faction, powerful feats and a large focus pool. Nobody slings defensive and offensive spells like Old Man Sevvy. Bring his personal arc node Blessing of Vengeance with him and he'll easily kill enemy casters and infantry with mind bullets. Severius1 is famous for being able to run literally anything in the faction and make it work, since he's just that flexible. This writer is hoping that Severius3 will be a pimped up Vessel of Judgment with Severius' soul casting spells and controlling warjacks from beyond the grave. Even in death you still serve Menoth.

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Servath Reznik (aka Chaotic Evil on a leash)- Reznik is the High Executioner of the Protectorate, which should tell you most of what you need to know. A church-sanctioned murderer who enjoys his job way too much for everyone else's good, his job description is hunting down heretics decreed by the Synod and Hierarch, and either outright execute them, strap them to a wrack, burn them, or a combination thereof. At least he's entirely loyal to the Visgoths and Hierarch, so think of him like the Protectorate's Butcher with an off switch. He's the closest you're going to get to a Black Templar, especially with how large his rageboner for witches and heretics is. Nobody likes him and even fewer want to be within a mile radius of him. Except Malekus, as the two are probably drinking buddies.

• In the fluff he was recently promoted by the Harbinger into the Wrath of Ages, which is pretty much the same thing except Menoth is literally giving him a thumbs up for his work. Our god is an awesome god. He spends most of his time being an antagonist in other factions warcaster's fluff or acting as a ruler to show that most of our other casters are actually kind of benevolent.
• On the table, almost every ability and spell on Reznik1's card has to do with spell hate. Cast a spell at his battlegroup? Burn the witches, his warjacks get to move. Cast a defensive spell on your models? Burn the witches, both he AND his personal Decepticon now get extra dice against them, if he doesn't just remove the spell entirely. If he feats he removes all of your focus and fury, so you're completely defenseless when he hulks up to tear apart anything short of a Colossal. The best ability on his card is when he kills a warrior model, he can actually strap them onto a Wrack. It's an act of great satisfaction and humiliation to wrack the enemy caster. Reznik2 trades some spell hate for army support, which is just spell hate on a larger scale in his case. He's a fragile but powerful warcaster. Most importantly, this puts him at the reins of a giant, burning war chariot with a bunch of crucified heretics on the flatbed, making him the most metal warcaster in the game.

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Testament of Menoth (aka A big guy) - Originally the High Reclaimer until he journeyed into Urcaen, where he fought his way to a holy city of Menoth. There he found the Omegus, basically the Stone Tablets of Moses. After that souls of dead Menites helped him come back to the mortal world, making him the only mortal to enter Urcaen and return. Overall this guy is pretty cool and is a good commander, all without saying a single word, for as a reclaimer he is forbidden to talk, so-much-so that they bolted a metal mask to his face (removing it would be extremely painful.)

• Typically forces that travel with him adapt mainly black attire to reflect the Testament's journey through Urcaen. He's currently missing along with the Harbinger.

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Feora (aka Trogdor the Burninator) - She's hot *SSFPHOOOOOOSHHHHH* BURN THE HERETIC! She developed the ability to control fire at a very young age (it's rumored she might actually be an arcane mage with an affinity for fire magic, but if that's the case her powerful parents covered it up, and her warcaster ability gives her merit points. And she's a very faithful Menite too, which helps.), and as a grown woman she's unrivalled when it comes to controlling, manipulating and empowering fire, which is a pretty good in a nation where fire is the main (undesired and involuntary by the importers) export. She's the head of the Flameguard Temple, and has made it loyal to her first, Hierarch second. And she has ambitions to govern the Protectorate, so what could go wrong really. Even the people who dislike her have to admit the Protectorate's military successes wouldn't have been possible without the ranks of well-drilled Flameguard at the frontlines. With the death of the Hierarch, it's likely she's going to make a move to take the position of Hierarch soon. She has a long-running rivalry with Kreoss, partially because Kreoss outranks her and because their ideologies don't match very well. That Severius was grooming Kreoss to become Hierarch doesn't help either.

• On the table all three incarnations of Feora focus on lighting things on fire, and she's pretty good at it.

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Vice Scrutator Vindictus (aka Cousin Vinny) - Generally seen as Severius' right hand, or the dagger Severius holds behind his back. A master of information warfare and the arts of the Scrutator, his job is largely governing the Protectorate in the Heirarch's absence. With his death, it's not known what Vindictus is going to do next. He's one of the main obstacles of Feora and the reason she hasn't tried a coup earlier. He's also a very skilled converter of heretics, though uses more force and torture where Severius uses words.

• On the table he focuses largely on protecting infantry with defensive spells and on speeding up his army. He has all the best defensive Protectorate spells, and a great defensive feat to boot.

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High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza (aka if Bruce Lee was middle-eastern) - One of the leading members of the Order of the Fist (Monks that act as both the Protectorate's police force and the FBI/CIA.). He's an Idrian tribesman who eventually converted to Menoth after he overheard a priest's sermon. Overall he doesn't really have much fluff and is a very minor character in the grand scheme of things. In battle he uses a giant ball and chain and has some martial arts-related abilities, making him a bit weeaboo, but he's pretty awesome regardless. Besides that, on the table he is the unmatched master of running lots of warjacks. Between Synergy and Mobility, two of the best battlegroup support spells in the game, he can turn up our warjacks beyond 11 in accuracy and damage output, and give them both a speed boost and Pathfinder (an ability that's otherwise hard to get for Protectorate 'jacks). His downfall is somewhat poor raw defensive stats, low Focus, and a pretty unimaginative feat. But you can't have everything, and Amon is still one of the best warcasters in the Protectorate for those who wants to run lots of stompy robots.

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Thyra, Flame of Sorrow (aka Insert period joke here) - Thyra was a pretty normal, happy woman at one point, until Cygnaran mercenaries murdered her whole family and children (basically she is the knify version of the Punisher). That caused her warcaster abilities awaken and she went a bit insane. From there she became the leader of a band of zealots, mainly women who had also lost their loved ones, and wrecked Cygnar's shit. Eventually a priest tried to stop her rampage, but Thyra struck him down. This being the Protectorate, she was captured and sentenced to death. Feora, seeing her potential, used her influence to save her and took her on as an apprentice. Since then Thyra has become the leader of the Daughters of the Flame, an all-female force of mobile assassins consisting of widows who seek vengeance for the death of their loved ones, and to earn entry into Urcaen so they can be united with their families again.

• On the table Thyra has one of the most flexible list of abilities in the faction, making for a true jack of all trades or generalist warcaster who can play a vast variety of lists and has a large supply of tricks up her sleeve. Her main weakness is a low Focus stat and reliance on her spells, but while she's in a similar seat as Amon in this regard, she has tools and stats to stay safe even in otherwise dangerous positions. Fitting of the leader of the Daughters of the Flame, she's also an infantry meat grinder with excellent assassination potential should the opportunity arise.

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Tristan Durant (aka The new kid on the block) - Fresh of the presses that is Reznik's warcaster training program, Tristan brings some much needed Sympathy to balance out the Psychopathy in the Protectorate warcaster stable. Originally from Llael, he saw the light as a child when Grand Scrutator Severius walked through the gates of his town. Sicne then he's spent a lot of time preaching to the locals, and his only desire was to become a priest and teach the common man about the Creator. Then it was discovered he was a warcaster and he was immediately assigned to learn the arts of a warcaster under Reznik. After being with the Northern Crusade for a few years, he received a vision from Menoth showing a great threat to the faith. Bringing this to the Hierarch's attention, Severius deemed it as time to return to the nation's capital. As described earlier, this didn't go so well and Severius was killed. Afterwards he was thrown into the Protectorate bureaucracy, wholly unsuited for due to his lack of experience. He became surprisingly good friends with Malekus, despite their differing ideologies, and the two worked together while defending the capital from the Skorne Empire. His story is currently being developed in the Fire & Faith trilogy, starting with Godless. Even as a warcaster, Tristan is very humble and cares for the common folk of the Protectorate. He often visits the poor areas of cities to preach and sermon the Creator's word. For some reason the citizens of the Protectorate like him a lot.

• Tristan1 is the Protectorate's journeyman warcaster. He's got enough focus to fuel one or two warjacks, and has a defensive spell to boost the armour of a 'jack, and an offensive nuke you will probably never cast. A very effective package is to run him with two Redeemer warjacks, which he can fully fuel and let it rain high explosive ordinance. Sovreign Tristan Durant, or Tristan2, is primarily a 'jack caster who focuses on giving out lots of focus, improving his 'jacks damage and accurate as well as being able to heal all nearby friendly models. People are a bit split on him, but in general he's not bad.

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Malekus, The Burning Truth (aka Mr Freeze with a fancy for fire) - You know that song, 'School's Out Forever'? Turns out that is Malekus' personal motto if you read the Mk3 fluff for the new Warcasters. Sorry kids, your teacher has no skin left, and you have no school anymore. Raised in a super shitty Morrowan orphanage Malekus torched it to the ground and entered the Protectorate where his devotion to Menoth allowed him to find peace, tranquility, love and purpose. Just kidding about those first three, his purpose is to burn everything remotely blasphemous to the ground. The right hand of Feora, he's dedicated to self inflicted masochism and Feora-sama. Malekus might just be around Reznik levels of crazy. In fact, the two are likely excellent drinking buddies when they're not occupied with their favourite pastime of burning heretics. Godless has shown that unlike Reznik he's probably not entirely irredeemable, and has become good friends with Tristan. If this friendship will become a problem if Feora and Tristan end up on different sides, we will have to wait and see.

• Malekus, similarly to Feora, is all about burninating the heretics to crisps. To help him he's got a cookbook in one hand and a barbecue fork in the other, but he's pretty cool nonetheless. His spellist is a bit weird, but at least he has Ignite for extra damage and 7 focus. His feat grants an additional die to all fire damage rolls, making Reckoner cannons shoot what equates to an ICBM nuclear warhead as far as damage output is concerned. Overall he's not bad but a bit inflexible in what he does.

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Military of the Protectorate

This section is outdated as of the release of Warmachine Mk3. It will be updated in the near future.

Units

The soldiers of the Protectorate consists of a couple of primary groups. The elite Exemplars, the standing army of the Flameguard, various militia contingents, and support staff like priests and Vassal attachments just to name a few. The Protectorate arsenal seems primitive at first, using ballistas instead of cannons, and swords instead of rifles, but the tradeoff is buffs that turn many otherwise mediocre weapons to crazy levels of damage.

• Knights Exemplar - The basic Exemplar unit. Six dudes armed with two-handed swords that hit really hard. When someone in the unit dies, the rest gain stat bonuses. Like all Exemplar units, they have the Weapon Master ability which makes each one hit like a freight train.

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• • Knights Exemplar Officer - Command Attachment for the Knights Exemplar. The first confirmed female Exemplar. Besides being a combat powerhouse herself, she grants massive bonuses to her unit, boosting their already impressive damage output to obscene levels for one turn, and increasing their infantry meat grinder abilities by letting them move after scoring a kill.

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• Exemplar Bastions - Some particularly badass Exemplars are selected to fight within Bastion armour, which is essentially unpowered Terminator armour. And Man O War think they're tough. Bastions are trained to "ignore the mundane needs of the body" and can fight for weeks without removing their armour. Their selection process consists of standing in a square for three days without food or water in the blazing desert sun carrying weights that could break lesser men. Those who persevere and aren't otherwise permanently damaged become Bastion trainees. On the table their currently pretty lackluster. They want to be all tough and damage soaking, but they're actually really squishy. Some people claim they've made them work, but most people agree that they need help. Avoid them unless you already own them and want to try them out.

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• Exemplar Cinerators - The offensive to the Bastion's defensive, the other flavor of units wearing Bastion armour. They're slightly more durable, and get to move and attack if a member of their unit suffers damage. They have good damage output but suffer from being very slow and still relatively easy to kill. They work well with casters like Vindictus who can speed them up and protect them.

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• Exemplar Vengers - Exemplars riding hordes. They're powerhouses of a unit with good speed and damage output. They suffer from the ridiculously stupid Lance and Close Combat rules which prevents them from using their swords if they use their lances and their lances if they use their swords. The abilities need to be reworded entirely to function more logically, really. Overall they're not bad. Like many Exemplar units they benefit when units in their units suffer damage, which boosts their damage output, durability and gives them Pathfinder.

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• Exemplar Errants - Special ops Exemplars. They are Knights Exemplar who leave their two-handed swords at home to use simpler one-handed swords, shield and magical crossbows. From the glory days of being the hands down best unit in the Protectorate, they've been reduced to some kind of combined arms melee unit that doesn't really do either well. They've lost most of their former tricks and are pretty mundane now. Not bad, but there's way better options like Idrian Skirmishers.

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• • Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard - The Errant Command Attachment. Used to give them lots of good abilities, now doesn't as is kind of pointless.

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All Exemplars, especially those wearing Bastion armor, have some of the finest pauldrons in the entire setting, rivalled only by Khador Man-O-Wars and Iron Fangs.

• Attendant Priest - The Attendant Priest isn't a unit on it's own. It is a Unit Attachment for Mercenary units. It can be attached to small- or medium-based Mercenary units and provides various buffs like magical weapons or spell immunity to them. Most importantly, it makes the mercenary unit into a Protectorate unit when determining spells and other abilities. If you're running mercenary units, it's probably worth the points.

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• Choir of Menoth - The signature auto-pick support unit for the Protectorate. This unit makes Protectorate warjacks go from so-so to Awesome. They do this by singing one of three hymns. The first gives warjacks a buff to both damage rolls, the second makes them immune to non-magical targeted ranged attacks, and the third makes them immune to targeted enemy spells. The drawback is a 'jack can only be affected by one hymn per turn, so you can't sing Battle for extra damage and then protect them from enemy ranged attacks in the same turn. The unit is dirt cheap and is a must have for any Protectorate player. Just be mindful to keep them safe, because, like most Protectorate support units, they're incredibly easy to kill.

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• Deliverer Skyhammers - Militia armed with rocket launchers. They're painfully inaccurate, but can combine their shots to increase both accuracy and damage. However, they're only AOE 3. Generally considered the worst unit in the faction at the moment, despite Privateer Press' insistence that they're actually great.

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• Deliverer Sunburst Crew - Deliverers manning a ballista. The much better alternative to Deliverers, it actually has a chance to hit it's target and has excellent damage output and range. Two of these are less than the cost of a full unit of Deliverers. Recommended for any gunline.

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• Holy Zealots - Militia armed with fire grenades and maces. The grenades are very short ranged with high damage, and the unit leader and use Prayers to buff the damage even further. They're supposed to be a cheap "quantity over quality" unit, but they're too short ranged to do much of use.

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• • Monolith Bearer - The Holy Zealot Command Attachment. Consists of a guy carrying a giant stone Menofix on his back. Once per game he can bring back all models in the unit that died the previous turn, which sounds good but really equates to 2-3 returned models most of the time. He makes the unit disproportionally expensive, so he might not be worth it. He also gives +4 ARM to the entire unit when a member of it dies, which also sounds great, until you realize that means they become ARM 16, which is still bad.

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• Idrian Skirmishers - Cygnar initially put the Protectorate in the deserts to the east to protect the realm against the Idrian tribes, and as a way to prevent the Menites from growing too powerful in exile. Boy were they surprised when the Protectorate converted them to their cause. One of the few Protectorate units with innate Pathfinder. They've got rifles and swords named Kopis, both with average P+S values. They're probably the best ranged unit we have, especially with Combined Ranged attacks to boost their accuracy and damage. Outshines Errants at the ranged game so hard the Exemplars might as well be painted black, and are only marginally less powerful in melee.

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• • Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide - Adds Conan the Barbarian to the Idrian Skirmishers. Allows the squad to make a ranged attack after which they must charge or run. He also gives the squad Combined Melee Attack, in addition to their innate Combined Ranged Attack. He also brings a Guide that gives the squad the Go To Ground and Huntsman rules, making the squad tougher and better at killing a certain enemy unit.

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• Daughters of the Flame - An all-female organization within the Temple Flameguard specializing in agility and mobility over the static defense of the rank-and-file Temple Flameguard. They excel at running around and pricking enemy units to death. Their Anatomical Precision ability guarantees at least one damage per attack, of which each Daughter has two. They also have the Acrobatics ability, making them a pain to deal with on the battlefield.

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• Flame Bringers - Daughters on horses! Faster and more agile than their Exemplar counterparts, but not as tough or as hard hitting.

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• Temple Flameguard - The professional military of the Protectorate. They used to only guard holy sites, hence their name, but were then reformed by the Hierarchs to also be an active military contingent. Their primarily a defensive unit, having the Shield Wall order and wielding average P+S spears with Reach and Set Defense. Their Unit Attachment makes them awesome.

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• • Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard - Gives the Temple Flameguards Ranked Attacks, Terror and the Fire continuous effect to their spears. He also has a mini-feat that makes the Flameguards tougher and immune to knocked down and stationary.

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• Flameguard Cleansers - Flameguard armed with flamethrowers. Immune to fire and can preform the Incinerate order, which makes a big AOE attack that lasts for one round afterwards. The go-to unit for burning swathes heretic infantry.

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• • Flameguard Cleanser Officer - Unit Attachment for the Flameguard Cleansers. He gives the unit the Bushwhack order and the mini-feat Scouring Flames, which increases the Cleanser's flamethrowers range but decreases the power. He can also make literally walls of fire. And he looks pretty cool.

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• Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard - A support unit that can remove continuous effects and animi from nearby models, as well as giving a friendly Faction model the ability to ignore Stealth and cloud effects. the Visgoth can also remove one point of focus from nearby enemy models. His honor guard Gius and Cassian are two Exemplars with Blessed Magical Weapons with Reach.

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Solos

Most of the Protectorate solos are good, some even being auto-takes for almost every army. Others are more specialized and require certain other units or Warcaster in order to be used to the fullest.

• Allegiant of the Order of the Fist - Contender for the longest name in the game. Runs around and punches things with his Punching Gauntlets, with which he is Weapon Master. The Allegiant is Tough, isn't automatically hit in melee when knocked down, cannot be targeted by combined attacks or free strikes and is overall a one-man tarpit for enemy infantry units.

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• The Covenant of Menoth - Two guys carrying around a big book of holy scriptures. It always only takes one damage from any attack and can give buff to friendly units, such as immunity to knockdown or the Fire continuous effect to their weapons. It is also Fearless.

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• Exemplar Bastion Seneschal - Allows ALL Exemplar Bastion models, including himself, to heal one point of damage. That's every alive model in every unit, meaning it makes Bastions even more durable if you spread the damage properly with Sanguine Bond. Unfortunately (Or perhaps fortunately for the rest of the Iron Kingdoms) it doesn't stack with multiple nearby Seneschals.

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• Exemplar Errant Seneschal - A particularly badass Errant. Has the Assault rule and gives nearby Errants the Hunter rule.

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• Hierophant - A Warcaster attachment that gives said Warcaster some nice boosts. He can reduce the cost of a Warcasters spell, he can heal any friendly living model that is base-to-base with him or give +2 range to a Warcasters spell. The ability to heal opens up some nice synergy with Warcasters like the Harbinger of Menoth and Exemplar Bastions. Like the Choir of Menoth, he is armed with a Staff with Reach.

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• Initiate Tristan Durant - The Protectorate novice warcaster from the upcoming Warmachine: Tactics. He comes with two simple spells, one defensive and one offensive, and a focus pool of four. Is also a Battlegroup commander, meaning that he can run a few warjack by himself. But with only four focus running more than one or two is stretching it.

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• Knights Exemplar Seneschal - A particularly badass Knights Exemplar armed with two fancy swords rather than one. He is a monster in close combat and is buffed up and healed by friendly models dying. He is cool enough to be immune to continuous effects and can slam models away from him.

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• Nicia, Tear of Vengeance - A Flameguard solo, but she's more of a Daughter of the Flame really. Doesn't give anything to Flameguard and is purely an agile combat solo.

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• Paladin of the Order of the Wall - These guys are the only true good guys in the Protectorate. Their primary concern is the protection of the people. And they will even, unlike the Exemplars, disobey orders that could lead to innocents being harmed. Paladins are close combat powerhouses with durability to match. They hit hard and their Stone-and-Mortar Stance he gains more armor than a Khador heavy warjack. Unfortunately you can only take two of them. Naturally, they are Fearless.

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• Reclaimer - Support solos that are supposed to give friendly warjacks focus by claiming soul tokens from nearby dying friendly models. Good for relieving some focus points from your warcaster. They also deal some damage to nearby enemy models while they have one or more soul tokes on them.

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• Vassal Mechanik - Praise the Lawbringer and pass the accumulator plugs. The Mechaniks sole purpose is to repair friendly warjacks. They're fairly good at it, and have the Iron Sentinel rule, giving them some added durability when base to base with friendly warjacks.

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• Vassal of Menoth - Usually captured heretics who are then chained up and forced to support the Protectorate's warjacks. They're a solid support solo with a couple of abilities. They can make a nearby warjack immediately make a ranged or melee attack (which ignores rate of fire), toss an Arcane Bolt at the enemy or allow a warjack to make a full advance after taking damage with Enliven. Can make hilarious things happen when Ancillary Attack is combined with weapons like the Vanquisher's Flame Belcher.

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• Wrack - Wracks is the Protectorate's equivalent of crucifixion. A heretic is chained to the Wrack and left there for days or weeks, usually until death. They generate focus that friendly warcasters can claim during their activation and add it to their focus pool. The catch is that when the focus is removed there is a 50% chance that the Wrack explodes in a not insignificant explosion. High Executor Reznik loves Wracks, and both creates them when killing enemies in melee and gets more of them for free through his theme list.

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• High Exemplar Gravus - A support solo for the Exemplars. He makes nearby Exemplars immune to knock down and stationary effects and can collect soul tokes to help his melee capabilities. He comes on a horse by standard and can also dismount and become a regular infantry unit.

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• High Paladin Dartan Vilmon - Dartan Vilmon is the personal bodyguard of the Harbinger of Menoth, and said to be the best Paladin in the Protectorate. In the game he is a slightly beefed up Paladin (given that Paladins of the Order of the Wall are already amazing solos, this means that Dartan Vilmon is one of the best solos short of a warcaster). He allows other Paladins to use his Impervious Wall ability, which makes them immune to continuous effects, damage, effects from non-magical ranged and melee attacks and they cannot be knocked down. In exchange they have to forfeit their action or their movement. This makes it possible to activate both Stone-and-Mortar Stance and Impervious Wall during the same round, making the Paladins effectively invulnerable until they decide otherwise. There is very good reason why he's known as 'Iron Kingdoms Superman'.

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Warjacks

Protectorate warjacks are defined by being heavily armoured and slow, but being fairly good at hitting things hard. Due to Cygnar forbidding them from making advanced weaponry at the end of the civil war combined with Menoth's dislike of magic, makes their warjacks generally worse than the other factions, but units such as the Choir of Menoth and Vassal of Menoth serve to buff them up and make them on par or even superior to their heretical counterparts.

Light warjacks

• Dervish - Very agile and running around with two swords they're excellent at clearing infantry. It can also put a dent into heavier stuff if it needs to. Works well together with Amon.

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• Devout - A slower but slightly more armored light warjack designed to work as a bodyguard for warcasters and other weaker units. It can poke things that come too close with its spear.

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• Redeemer - Armed with a mace and a rocket launcher. It is like most other Menoth rocket weaponry ridiculously inaccurate, but it has a higher rate of fire so it's all about quantity over quality. Because of that it is pretty good at killing stuff that's normally hard to hit.

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• Repenter - Slower and more armored, the Repenter is armed with a flail and a flamethrower. Thus it's great at clearing hordes of smaller stuff, but the flail allows it to ignore shields and Shield Walls, making it a threat to most units.

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• Revenger - One of three arc nodes available to the Protectorate. It also has a halberd and a repulsor shield, that makes it good at both stabbing and defending things.

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• • Blessing of Vengeance - Severius' character jack. Mostly the same but with slightly better MAT the ability to attack before moving.

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• Vigilant - An heavily armored light warjack armed with two shields mounted on the forearms. This leaves both hands free, allowing it to make the full range of power attacks available. It's great at protecting squishy stuff from blast weapons.

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Heavy warjacks

• Crusader - The first warjack used by the Protectorate. It was designed to be concealed as a labourjack, and because of that doesn't have any permanent weapons attached. It has an open fist and it's signature weapon the Inferno mace. It is cheap enough to throw away but with just a buff or two it can smash much more expensive stuff to scrap. It also has an hilarious amount of both regular and Character warjacks based on it's chassis, a total of nine different jacks. Don't fix what isn't broken heretical.

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• • Fire of Salvation - Kreoss' character warjack. It costs three points more than the Crusader, but gains improved stats and two abilities that make it hit harder and more reliably as well as granting it additional attacks when it kills stuff.

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• • Blood of Martyrs - Thyra's character warjack. Essentially the Dervish's big brother.

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• Castigator - The Castigator is based on the Reckoner, but it was actually supposed to be the other way around. A problem with its weapon systems prevented it from being finished in time, and the crew working on it were wracked to the point of death before released and put back to work. The problems were solved almost immediately. It is armed with two flame fists, which are kind of like having flamethrowers for hands. It's great at killing hordes of small stuff, and since the flame fists count as open fists it has access to the full range of power attacks. Hilarity ensues.

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• Guardian - The Protectorate's only arc node that's mounted on a heavy 'jack. It has a giant burning spear, making it quite a formidable fighter alongside its Crusader-esque statline. It is a bit expensive though, so if all you want is an arc node you're better off taking the Revenger.

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• Indictor - A Guardian armed with a big magical sword and a shield, as well as having some abilities that prevents enemies from casting spells nearby it, as well as being untargetable by spells itself. Released in the latest expansion, Vengeance, so it doesn't have an official model as of yet.

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• Reckoner - The first warjack completely built by the Protectorate. It has a fuckhueg bat and a cannon. Its Assault rule and built-in defensive buff makes it very good at close combat, and two or three of them can kill a Colossal in a single round. It does all this and only costs two points more than a Crusader.

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• Sanctifier - Also based upon the Reckoner, it generates its own focus from soul tokens of nearby friendly units. It also has an aura that makes nearby enemy models lose incorporeal. It also has a giant Menofix-shaped mace named the Grave Maker for showing heretics the errors of their ways.

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• Templar - A Crusader armed with a flail and shield, making it a bit tougher and better at killing more heavily armoured targets. Simple but effective.

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• Vanquisher - The Vanquisher is based on the Crusader, but instead armed with a big flail and a cannon. While the flail is a decent weapon (It lacks Reach, but it gains Thresher) the Vanquisher excel as a ranged unit, its Flame belcher cannon making short work of packed infantry and can severely hurt bigger targets too. Fun times are had when a couple of these receive Ancillary Attack from Vassals of Menoth.

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• • Scourge of Heresy - Reznik's character warjack. If Reznik ever converted to Cyriss, this would probably be the result. It replaces the cannon with a giant sword and specializes in assassination and denying spells.

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• Avatar of Menoth - Literally the "living" incarnation of Menoth, it generates its own focus (between 2 and 4.) and doesn't have a cortex. It has some nice abilities built in, a big ol' shield and a hard hitting sword that, despite it being tiny on the official model, has reach. It's a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for.

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Colossals

• Judicator - When the Protectorate learned that the other factions were building Colossals, they weren't far behind to make their own. The result is a four-storey walking mausoleum with flamethrowers and rocket launchers. Like all Colossals, it's big, expensive and hard-hitting in melee. Even though the Judicator is the pinnacle of Menite weapons technology, the rockets are still hilariously inaccurate. It's really fine though, because each rocket creates a secondary blast away from the first one, resulting in ample amounts of dakka, especially when combined with Epic Feora's Warjack Bond ability which is going to set EVERYTHING ON GLORIOUS FIRE!

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Battle Engines

• Vessel of Judgment - Like the Judicator, the Vessel of Judgment also has a corpse inside. But instead of walking around it's a giant carriage being pulled around by some poor sod. The Vessel exchanges damage points to use one of three different miracles. The first removes all continuous effects and animi on nearby models, the second one allows a boxed friendly model to make a full advance and an attack and the third one sets all nearby enemy models on fire and pushes them away. It can also spend a damage point to boost an attack or damage roll, as well as damaging some nearby enemy units whenever the Vessel is hit in melee. Since it relies on taking damage, giving it a dedicated Vassal Mechanik or two might not be a terrible idea.

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The Protectorate gets shit done

The Protectorate is arguably one of the few factions whose goals are getting accomplished. While Cygnar and Khador fought each other and made Cryx stronger, the Protectorate marched its forces and stopped the Cryxian forces from stealing an Orgoth soul well. In order to fight Cryx's mainland base the Protectorate launched an attack on Llael and stole it from Khador (well half). All in all they are starting to get an extremely good track record of victories over Cryx and Cygnar which is getting even more people to join the Protectorate.

That said their luck seems to be running out as they failed to claim Caspia, their main goal since Day 1 (Arguably because this would effectively kill off Cygnar as a faction so you will not ever see this happen ever fluff wise, it could also mean that letting Cygnar fall will empower the Devourer wurm too much so on the Cusp of Victory Menoth takes the leader. Eventually it could be said he will only let Caspia fall when he can convert all of Cygnar in one fell swoop), a civil war is brewing and their zealot mindset is preventing people from wanting to join, and the few that do only do so because of protection from Cryx.

Crunch

On the tabletop, the Protectorate is mostly about synergy, to an even greater extent than the other armies. Thanks to Menoth's sort-of ban on magic, their warjacks are shit; they have the slow speed and inaccuracy of Khadoran 'jacks and the fragility of Cygnaran 'jacks in one mediocre package. However, they can quickly become really, really good when aided by a Choir of Menoth, which make warjacks either bulletproof or murderific. They also love fire; although their ranged weaponry is about as accurate as a bottle rocket, it will set everything around it on fire when it lands. They also have access to the most weapon master attacks of any faction. Rolling 4 dice on a charge can really ruin anyone's day.

Gallery

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  Knock knock, you're 'bout to get blown up

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  It is written in the Canon of the True Law that PROMOTIONS are the best way to serve Menoth.

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  Servath Reznik, Wrath of Ages. God this artwork is fucking cool.

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  "Original model may contain more cloth."

Links

• Warmachine/Tactics/Protectorate of Menoth
• Battle College page [1]