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Basing this off my gaming experience:

http://pokeminiatures.blogspot.com/2009/05/three-warmachine-mark-ii-test-battles.html

There's a brief article here on Dakka about changes in Warmachine from Mark I to Mark II.
It should list all the changes mentioned here.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Warmachine%20Mark%20II%20Field%20Test%20Changes#Warcasters_2

Grand Scrutator Severius

RAT Increase. I think this is in place to justify his epic version's use of a ranged attack
through an arc node. It certainly didn't affect my playtime with the model as he doesn't
have any ranged attacks in his regular manifestation.

Convert Becomes a *Ability This was a welcome change, but not one I took
advantage of. It doesn't require a to-hit roll, but it still requires the command check. The
only reason to use it is because Severius is probably not going to use his full action to
do much else. Perhaps it's best used on isolated grunts. While outside a Leadership
Command bubble, the grunt has a Command penalty of -2. So even if they are
benefiting from a nearby Commander model, the highest Leadership they'll have is an 8.

This is an opportunity ability and not one to base a plan of attack around, especially
since the Protectorate doesn't have any command debuffs. Remember, this ability is
in his COMMAND range and not his CONTROL area, which is a difference of about 7" (HUGE).

Loses Blessing of Menoth, Convert Spell, Holy Vigil and gains Protection of Menoth
I only ever used Holy Vigil, but losing Holy Vigil is a good tradeoff for adding Protection
of Menoth to his spell list. Holy Vigil was fantastic, but it didn't increase armor and it went
away if you moved the mode/unit. Protection of Menoth is an upkeep spell that stays on. I
can say that it's one of the reasons I would be tempted to run High Exemplar Kreoss and
now I don't have to.

Death Sentence Cost reduced. Range increased. and changed to Allow models to re-roll
attacks against target model/unit.- This was a fantastic change. Even crappy Idrians get
re-rolls on their Combined Range Attacks, so you can have faith in larger volleys (typically
I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket with CRAs and CMAs. Too much tempting of
the dice lords to give you double 1s). While Redeemers are still going to miss, you can really
stack the odds in your favor.

Vision Can be cast onto another Faction model. . More importantly, it's no longer an
upkeep. So severius can recast this spell on himself all day long and still keep Eye of Menoth
cast on himself. It will cost him 3 focus a turn (2 for Vision, 1 for Eye of Menoth), but it
will still work in a pinch. In fact, if you have one solid threat facing Severius, advancing Severius
and laughing at that initial warjack charge might be fun. If you use it after a Divine Might turn,
the enemy won't have any focus to give Warjacks for additional attacks.

You might also want to recast this every turn on something vicious and beat-sticky, or
something that is vulnerable to only particular types of enemy attacks (a Paladin or a
a Vilmon). The only issue there will be placing the 6" range spell. It will be 8" with the
Hierophant, of course, and Severius will have his Arc Node , but he will need to be able to
place the spell and the Arc Node is usually setting up for the offense.

Severius loses a lot of fat in Mark II, and the old man comes out a more efficient version
of his former self. He's still a support warcaster, but his other abilities are no longer
completely irrelevant.

I recall a game where I was playing around with my friend's Menoth army, and I used a combo of death sentence + Those rocket infantry guys + zealots to assassinate Coleman stryker. Needless to say, my opponent was pretty pissed when all these guys that have a 1 in 36 chance to hit beat the hell outta his commander.

KingKodo wrote:I recall a game where I was playing around with my friend's Menoth army, and I used a combo of death sentence + Those rocket infantry guys + zealots to assassinate Coleman stryker. Needless to say, my opponent was pretty pissed when all these guys that have a 1 in 36 chance to hit beat the hell outta his commander.

Of course you're right. However, Deliverers wouldn't have to roll to see if they exploded
because it's an auto-hit situation with Death Sentence. So as long as they had range, they
would hit their target.

However, Death Sentence is a five focus spell in Mark I. Six if you boost (or just five if
you use Harmonious Exaltation from the Hierophant and boost). It's a hail Menoth pass
as the target of choice for it would have to be the warcaster or warlock.

I kind of like its new version even if I'm unlikely to use it (mostly because I'm into
melee and stuff).

Even if you are into melee, its a nice upkeep for a jack trying to take out the warcaster no? I always have problems hitting enemy warcaster seeing as how alot of them have DEF around 15+. Would be nice to upkeep that spell for 1 focus and not have to boost attack rolls.

Is it an offensive upkeep spell?

Death Sentence is an upkeep spell in Mark II, but not so in Mark I.

Grand Exemplar Kreoss

Elite Cadre only grants Aegis of Faith to Knights Exemplar units- I think it's also
limited to the standard Knights Exemplar variety rather than to all, so Knights Exemplar
Errants are even more out of luck than they used to be.

Justifier- Loses Powerful Charge, Thrust becomes Armor Piercing, gains Smite *Attack that slams models
Without Hallowed Vengeance, epic Kreoss can no longer slam three models in a turn (upkeep
and recast Hallowed Vengeance and buy an extra attack). As a * Attack it's limited to his
initial strikes, and now it's unstackable with Armor Piercing in Mark II (You used to get
Slam AND an armor debuff with both abilities in Mark I). Armor Piercing is still a great
ability to have on an initial strike, however Smite is less impressive now that Warcasters
and Warjacks can spend a focus to stand up (still useful if you have a powerful follow up).

Lost spell: Retribution and changes to Sacrosanct and Inviolable Resolve. Even
though he has a free upkeep spell on the Fire of Salvation, are you really going to cast
the new Inviolable Resolve or Sacrosanct on it? Immobility was a great feature of Inviolable
Resolve and Retribution was a wonderful deterrent for the Warjack. He needs a better
warjack upkeep spell to go with his affinity for the Fire of Salvation.

Cleansing Fire Changes- It's cheaper to cast now, but at AOE 3 I just can't see
myself using it all too often. Part of the point of Cleansing Fire was its larger template
and the chance he might light the entire thing on fire.

Strength of Arms and Imperishable Conviction- These are still two great reasons
to field the Grand Exemplar. Even though you're not going to stick him on the front
lines with his 14/16 DEF/ARM, 7 Focus with less reasons to cast upkeep spells makes
it more certain that he's going to fuel warjacks or camp focus. Castigate keeps him
safe from Cryxian shenanigans. Strength of Arms gives his Cavalry a fearsome Impact
(auto hitting impact attacks helps guarantee they'll get where you want them to be), and
Imperishable Conviction continues the attrition theme.

Testament of Menoth
I just want to add again that it's fantastic to be able to use epics outside of larger points
games. They're not necessarily as effective as their original versions in a smaller points
game (compare the do-it-all Kreoss vs. the support warcaster eKreoss), but it's great
fun being able to use them.

Loses- The Omegus, Soulstorm
There's a lot of complaints over these changes on the Privateer Press boards. I could
take it or leave them, even though it was a really cool rule. Losing Soulstorm hurts
because they modified soulstorm on both Reclaimers so that it's an auto-on ability.

Reclaim- Soul tokens are only gained for enemy attacks and enemy induced collateral damage.
I never took advantage of gaining my own Soul tokens by killing my own models, but
there are those who did. I hardly ever felt it was worth expending resources to do so.
At least it encourages me to still field my Choir of Menoth even when they have a minimum
unit.

Urcaen's Gate- Becomes a place effect
Huge change. Before when he was pinned or knocked down Urcaen's Gate was no
use. But now that it's a place effect, it lets him move in the Maintenance Phase.

Dust to Dust- Triggers off "boxing" a model.
Not sure. I never used his focus, a supremely precious commodity with the Testament
and his five Focus stat, to cast a spell that might hit and create a cloud effect. While
it's good to keep remove from play in mind for tagging annoying solos, Field
Promotion prevents unit lockdown from simply capping the leader.

Hallowed Avenger- Allows target Warjack to charge instead of advance
I never got to use it in my game with the Fire of Salvation as the Fire of Salvation
was locked down by Killbox, but the ability charge AND move out of turn is rare
in Mark II.

Revive- Revives as a one wound model
I'm okay with this. If you're reviving Vengers then you're still bringing back a
potential killer for the feat turn. And with the new Command Rules it's highly
possible to place them in much better positioning than they otherwise would
be.

malfred wrote:Revive- Revives as a one wound model
I'm okay with this. If you're reviving Vengers then you're still bringing back a
potential killer for the feat turn. And with the new Command Rules it's highly
possible to place them in much better positioning than they otherwise would
be.

Possible use for a Hierophant? That drop in the cost of spells will help too.

True. So let's say you have a Wrack and a Hierophant.

The maximum number of models you can revive before soul tokens and upkeeps factor in
is 3. With soul tokens you're always operating at a net loss (three souls to Revive 1).

I'm not sure what upkeeps to keep all the time now that Soulstorm is gone. Is Hallowed whatever
it's called worth the upkeep? What about Ashen Veil?

I can see sticking Ashen Veil on the Idrians for DEF 19 against ranged attacks. But
beyond that, what?