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I am looking to purchase my second Menoth solo (currently have hierophant), and am unsure as to what I should get. Gravus is out of my price range, unfortunately. My gut instinct tells me to go with the Book, but I am considering Vilmon as well. Any thoughts?

What do you need them to do?

The Covenant is a solid tournament piece.

Vassals keep your 'jacks safe.

I'm not quite sure. Since the first real use it will see is a Highlander, I am probably going to use it to support my jack(s) rather than beat someone's face in, though I am considering Vilmon in order to have a solo run up one side of the board as a distraction while my unit and jack(s) advance on the other. With the second list, I would send Avatar and Vilmon off together. Otherwise, stay in one glob. Not sure of the point limit, so here are my lists for 15 and 25.

15-pKreoss+5
Vanquisher-8
Max Cinerators-8
Vilmon or book-3 or -2
13 or 14 points total

25-pKreoss+5
Vanquisher-8
Max Cinerators-8
Vimon or Book-3/-2
Avatar
24 or 25 points

Support your 'jacks = Vassal of Menoth (the one bound in chains).

Between the Vanquisher and the Avatar, you could get some
good use out of both Ancillary Attack and Enliven.

I almost think for Highlander you'd want to leave the Cinerators
out since you won't have models on the table to provide alternate
threats to keep the enemy from focus firing them and just run
a choir as your unit to support 'jacks.

I don't have actual experience with Highlander, though, as I
dislike the format. I tend to play troop heavy.

Vassal, Vassal, Vassal, Vassal.

Did I mention the Vassal?

- Vassal
- Covenant
- Full Choir

Unless you have a good reason for not bringing these 3, you should always reserve 7 points for these support elements of your army. They're an auto-include for me, with the only exception being that the choir might go down to 3 guys if its a smaller point game with less 'jacks.

As far as other good Menite solos go...

Vilmon:

This guy is annoyingly difficult to remove from the table, but, in all honestly, one single attack (yes, I know its a P+S 15 Weapon Master attack) is not going to remove anything. You might kill a solo dead, or cripple a system of a 'jack, but he's simply not the best offensive solo. Rather, Vilmon should always be considered a 7 point investment, in the form of Vilmon+2 Paladins. This 3-pally block makes a great shield for your warcaster, blocking charge lanes and standing around being practically invincible until you dont want them to be. Then, if something gets close, the 3 attacks will actually be able to kill stuff dead.

Exemplar Seneschal

This guy should get serious consideration. Offensively, he rocks 2 P+S 11 attacks (which are usually hitting at POW 13 instead) with weapon master, has a chain attack if you hit with the first 2 (which you should, given his high MAT), and is pretty much impossible to kill as long as there are friendly infantry models within 9" of him. He can, upon being disabled, choose another model within 9" to essentially die for him, and then get back up at the start of your next turn. He is the same cost as Vilmon, but with the potential for 3 attacks per turn, he brings significantly more offensive power to the table.

You should also consider some Mercenary solos as well. Anastasia di Bray, Rhupert the Piper, and Gorman di Wulfe are all excellent 2 point solos, although Eiryss probably wins out in terms of best offensive solo. She's wonderful in both her epic and primal forms, although eEiryss has the ability to "disrupt" Warjacks (cannot be allocated focus for a turn) or, if she hits a 'caster, she can job them of all upkeeps and take away any focus they're camping. She's also impossible to hit while in concealment/cover.

So yeah, plenty of stuff out there.

Definitely a Vassal. You'll be running jack-heavy in most smaller games and the Vassal does amazing things for your jacks. Almost every Protectorate solo is worth using in the right situation though, so I'm sure you'll eventually have a number of them.

shealyr wrote:
Exemplar Seneschal

This guy should get serious consideration. Offensively, he rocks 2 P+S 11 attacks (which are usually hitting at POW 13 instead) with weapon master, has a chain attack if you hit with the first 2 (which you should, given his high MAT), and is pretty much impossible to kill as long as there are friendly infantry models within 9" of him. He can, upon being disabled, choose another model within 9" to essentially die for him, and then get back up at the start of your next turn. He is the same cost as Vilmon, but with the potential for 3 attacks per turn, he brings significantly more offensive power to the table.

You're confusing the 2 Seneschals' abilities.

The Knight Exemplar Senechal(the one with 2 swords) heals when a friendly model near him dies.

The ability you're talking about is on the Exemplar ERRANT Seneschal(the one with Crossbow) and ONLY works with Exemplar Errants.

Platuan4th wrote:

shealyr wrote:
Exemplar Seneschal

This guy should get serious consideration. Offensively, he rocks 2 P+S 11 attacks (which are usually hitting at POW 13 instead) with weapon master, has a chain attack if you hit with the first 2 (which you should, given his high MAT), and is pretty much impossible to kill as long as there are friendly infantry models within 9" of him. He can, upon being disabled, choose another model within 9" to essentially die for him, and then get back up at the start of your next turn. He is the same cost as Vilmon, but with the potential for 3 attacks per turn, he brings significantly more offensive power to the table.

You're confusing the 2 Seneschals' abilities.

The Knight Exemplar Senechal(the one with 2 swords) heals when a friendly model near him dies.

The ability you're talking about is on the Exemplar ERRANT Seneschal(the one with Crossbow) and ONLY works with Exemplar Errants.

True, but the nice thing is that the regular Seneschal gets knocked down whereas
the errant just lets another errant die for him without penalty.

It's a really nice ability.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
For 2 points, I recommend the Errant Seneschal IF you have
Errants in your list already. There's good synergy between the
units.

I recommend the regular Seneschal for grinder type lists with
stuff like Temple Flameguard in them.

However, Vassal (the 'jack buffer one) is the one I'd recommend
given a mostly 'jack list.

I'll actually say against the Covenant if you've not got a good solid reason for it to be in your list. While it is a nice model, it doesn't necessarily HAVE to be in there - 2 points for a line of sight blocker isn't necessarily the best way to spend your points. The main thing people use it for is no knockdown, which is effective against most lists, but only comes into general use when paired with other support solos.

For instance, the main reason to take the Covenant is if you're running Rhupert Carvolo in your army - the combination of tough + no knockdown can make a tough unit insanely hard to break, and with Errants it will basically make them into an unstoppable tarpit of doom that the enemy will have a lot of trouble clearing. Menoth doesn't have a lot of access to tough outside of that (although Press Gangers w. Attendant Priest + Doc can make for a hilarious, Boomhowler level tarpit of 4+ tough saves).

Choir, Vassals, Rhupert, then Covenant is generally my purchase order. You might find those 2 points being used better on a couple Vassal Mechanics or a Reclaimer - the tech the book provides isn't always needed, but it really depends on the list.

I've not used the Vassel much but I can't say anything but good things about Vilmon.

The guy is a beast, a pure assassin at its best and can also be an incredible tarpit against high attack units.

Most undereducated players cannot get along with him and if you make an anti magic wall for him (I usually go Avatar/Choir/Vilmon) he'll caster hunt for you all day long.

Also, I once needed triple 6 to win a game and the little blighter landed it for me!

Well, it depends on your army, if its full of 'jacks, take the vassal of menoth. and you already have the heirophant. so get the vassal

I use a vassal mechanic (VM), a vassal of Menoth, and a Min Choir all the time. The results are devastating to my opponents. An extra attack that has battle hymn is real nice. Keeping the jack going is also a big thing for me, so the VM was a shoe-in. One thing you may not know, the Vassal gets +2 DEF and ARM when in contact with friendly jacks' just like the VM.