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So when I look at her on paper, I feel like I understand how she's meant to be played. But, I almost never win with her unless i'm playing her alongside another warcaster, like Feora or eKreoss. Seeing as she is probably my favorite Protectorate model, i would appreciate some insight.

I tend to run infantry-heavy armies. To me, the Harbinger looks like she's an infantry caster, but seeing as she's made of glass, whenever my opponent gets a foot thru the infantry wall, it's over. Obviously i use the Avatar, but should I beef up on 'jacks? I mean she has enough focus to run quite a few.

I'm beginning to assume she's just a high-risk caster to play solo, (which makes sense, given how brutal the payoff for pulling it off is.) But, for all you who know how to tap into her devastating efficacy (or have seen it done), give me some pointers on how to keep her alive long enough to set up a win while still maximizing her fearsome buffs and spells?

The spell guard on is always useful as far as jacks go, upping her survivability against that sort of attack. I'm a Cygnar/Khador player myself, so I don't know how much help I'll be beyond that.

She uses her focus to heal in the activation after martyring key models.

You're going to have to figure out when and where you need to martyr, and what to let die.

Also, the warcaster attachment helps with the healing

Harby is a very difficult caster for new players. Most new players see that she has 10 focus and think they are going to have a easy time with her. She is a big squishy target so keeping a Devout near her to protect her from shooting attacks is key. You also need help healing her so a Hierophant is a important model to help her get hit boxes back from Martyring, using her 10 focus to heal her is also important. Your going to have to make a lot of decisions with her during game play when to Martyring and when not to. The more you play her the better your going to get, so my best advice is to play her and learn.

Get models worth saving. Like paladins and Vilmon.

ultimately she is a top warcaster. Just need practice and study. Check out places like battlecollege, pp forums muse on minis, etc. Just take them all with a grain of salt.

She is a tough caster to use to full effect. New players tend to either not use Martyrdom at all OR go overboard. Its all about finding the balance knowing which models you can afford to martyr.

A devout is basically mandatory. Give it a focus so it can make her untargetable by spells and keep it near for the Shield Guard.

She isn't an easy caster to play, and really she needs trial and error to find the sweet spot. You need to keep her just on the edge of martyrdom range, but also keep her safe.


I usually play her in theme with 3-4 Crusaders, The Avatar, TFG, Zealots, 2 Paladins, and Vilmon. The Tier gives her walls to hide behind, which puts her defense against ranged at a respectable 18-20.

This is all hugely helpful, thanks you guys. I've been sort of on hiatus for the past two years while I finished my degree, and now that I'm diving she's been the main caster i've wanted to play, probably because she seems to exemplify the whole Menoth-synergy theme so well. I've been trying to figure out the Martyrdom balance, usually when it's Khador or Cygnar I tend to hide her and under-utilize it, and against Cryx or Circle I overestimate how much I can afford to lose. Feora was my go-to back when i started, and she's rather straightforward in terms of tactics, so trying to figure out someone with an infinite number of possible gameplays has definitely re-ignited my love for the game.
It's good to know I'm on the right track with focusing on infantry, although I'll add the Devout and the Paladins. I actually just bought Vilmon, I've never used him before. I've been using Cleansers and Daughters, Choir sometimes, but very valid point about fielding units worth martyring for. I appreciate it! Hopefully I'll have a success story to post about soon.

Also, while I'm at it, I don't have any of the Mennite casters to come out in the past couple years while I was on hiatus, any advice on which I should pick up first? A caster that really emphasizes orchestrating the synergy of the faction / or just really fun to play?/

What's really popular now is the High Reclaimer. He is really fun to run, putting out clouds as you advance your army. Just don't run him against Legion since the clouds won't protect you.
A new caster for Menoth is coming out in July, Anson Durst who is a pal warcaster. We will find out more about him in the next few months.

Harby is NOT an infantry caster! Run her with one heavy as she likes to hog all her focus even though she has 10! Hierophant can help her but not essential. I generally run her with the Avatar(great double team with mennoths gaze and harbys feat) paladin trio, nicca, vassal. Bastions are a great choice in her list (well any list really) as with the customary sencial (spelling?). A harby list for me (well how I run her quite successfully) is all about survivability, paladins with either +5 armour or ignore non-magical attacks', bastions withe there spread damage with the sencial healing them and harby with her martyrdom. I tend to play quite aggressive with her (depending on the list I'm playing against of course). I run the paladins' by her and I love to use catylsm with her, charge her target, be it heavy jack or enemy caster and boom pow 20 auto hit to the face!

Two things about running Harby - Reckoner and Gorman are very very useful for her.

*Edit* remove incorrect info */edit*

Reckoner's ashen veil + Awe makes for a respectable DEF 14 against living enemy models on the Reckoner, and he can keep shooting while baby sitting.

Gorman provides a very cheap way to put down a second LOS blocker, without having to have a second heavy baby sitting Harby. Throw down a cloud, advance the reckoner up next to it, then slot harby in behind both, and she should be fully blocked from LOS from the front. More expensive than a Devout, of course, but Gorman and a Rekoner have far more imput too.

Don't be afraid to camp focus when near the front - lots of focus. Take Wracks, cast crusaders call, hand one to a jack, and camp the rest. Arm 20+ helps to make her survivable even after a few martyrdoms.

Lastly, you have a 20" control range - you should be able to measure threat ranges to most things that can threaten you - use this to your advantage, and simply run away if you think too many enemies will be getting a shot at her.

Just a few ideas for you.

The Reckoner gives her concealment, but yeah. That's nice.

I hate her so much.

No he doesn't.

The Reckoner has Ashen Veil. A model with Ashen Veil gains concealment and living enemy models within 2" suffer -2 to attack rolls.

So he does nothing for Harbinger unless the enemy model attacking her is both living and within 2" of the Reckoner.

Haha nice catch.

 Grey Templar wrote:
No he doesn't.

The Reckoner has Ashen Veil. A model with Ashen Veil gains concealment and living enemy models within 2" suffer -2 to attack rolls.

So he does nothing for Harbinger unless the enemy model attacking her is both living and within 2" of the Reckoner.

This is what I get for not having time to play in a couple of months - rusty. Don't mind me, just confusing Burning Ash and Ashen Veil for a moment. Still helps against melee attackers coming for harby though.

It definitely does. Being an effective Def18 is nothing to sneeze at.