Warmachine Kung Fu 01 - The Curse of Amon Ad-Raza

Warmachine Kung Fu is a meditation on the styles of Warmachine. The series focuses on individual characters in the Iron Kingdoms for both Warmachine and Hordes.

As a player, I am only a student of Warmachine and Hordes. I have won no honors, no tournaments, and no rewards for gameplay in Warmachine or Hordes. What I have instead are my curiosity and shelves of painted models. In the end, I hope that will be enough to awaken some interest or knowledge.

Introduction

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza was an early choice for me. I started playing Warmachine in the days after the release of Warmachine: Apotheosis, so I thought it would be fun to try out the Protectorate of Menoth warcaster who wore no smokestacks and bore no armor. I even took Amon Ad-Raza to a 750 point tournament to The Game Escape out by Crystal Lake. I made a terrible showing, losing three out of four games.

I did some research and found that it was not just me. Other people had the same difficulties using him due to the limitations forced upon him by his special abilities. He's templated as a warrior monk who has an affinity for warjacks, but he's hindered by lack of armor and focus.

I painted my original High Allegiant in the days before I had a consistent look and feel for my troops. I received a second Amon Ad-Raza in a trade for another Holy Zealots Unit and what would be my third Choir of Menoth Unit, so in place of stripping the paint I opted for a re-do on the new model.

Models Featured in this Issue

1. High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza
2. Choir of Menoth Unit
3. Reclaimer Solo
4. Vassal of Menoth Solo
5. Devout Warjack
6. Dervish Warjack
7. Revenger Warjack
8. Fire of Salvation Warjack
9. Castigator Warjack
10. Wrack Solo

Rating

I'm rating the warcasters on their abilities in:

1. leading Troops
2. fielding Warjacks
3. fighting in Combat
4. casting Spells and using other special abilities
5. overall Background and Theme

In the end, I compile the five point system to come up with a final score between 1-5.

Troops

Amon Ad-Raza doesn't lead Protectorate of Menoth Units into battle. As a warjack-centric warcaster without any troop enhancing abilities, the best he can do is rely on staple troops such as a Holy Zealots Unit with the Monolith Bearer Unit Attachment or a Temple Flameguard Unit with their Temple Flameguard Unit Attachment. Relying on solid troops, however, does not make a warcaster a good field commander.

Instead, Amon Ad-Raza is particularly interested in these guys:

With their ability to enhance or protect Protectorate of Menoth Warjacks, the Choir of Menoth Unit is a must. In games of 500 points you're probably relying on at least two Choir units, and in games of 750 you might want to push three. Any less than that runs the risk of unit leader assassination. Once they lose their Warpriest, they lose any warjack compatibility and become simply speedbumps for the enemy.

Using multiple Choir units requires you to understand how their chants work. Because they use their action only after their movement, and because their abilities protect and enhance warjacks around them at the time of their use, you can use their abilities before a warjack runs out of range, or you can leapfrog using two units of Choir working in conjunction.

Here are two Choir units beginning at the same distance. Their goal is to enhance the Devout Light Warjack ahead while positioning themselves for a turn ahead:

Choir Unit A advances 5" and the Warpriests uses his chant. Enhanced by the Acolytes, it reaches out 8" to the Devout and any other warjacks in the area.

Choir Unit B runs 10". If the Devout charges or runs ahead, it may still be able to benefit from the Warpriest in the following turn. However, any savvy opponent will try to slay those unit leaders as soon as they're able.

Amon Ad-Raza would be using a Reclaimer Solo from time to time. The Reclaimer would be most effective within 7" of both Choir Units as their deaths would lead to soul tokens, but he'd have to move ahead if he wanted to give those tokens to multiple warjacks. It's often a tricky thing to pull off:

A Vassal of Menoth Solo can also help keep your warjacks alive with Enliven. However, they have to be much closer than a Reclaimer does. Bringing him within 5" is sometimes tricky, at best. If you're going to move him, you could bring him within 3" to benefit from the ARM bonus.

All these specialty warjack enhancing troops means that Amon Ad-Raza is spending points on them as well as points on his fancy warjacks. And even though he has a limited pool of Focus, his abilities are better served by having more warjacks rather than less. With no way to keep these fragile troops alive, Amon Ad-Raza isn't ready to be considered a great field commander.

Troops Rating: 1/5

Warjacks

Choosing warjacks for an Amon Ad-Raza force is tricky. The Protectorate of Menoth Warjacks tend to be overcosted or underperforming heavy warjacks, or efficient light warjacks.

He has three main abilities that directly benefit these warjacks.

1. Synergy is an upkeep spell that enhances their melee attack and damage rolls as models in his battlegroup score hits against opponents. Two warjacks that hit two opponents, for instance, enhance the next warjack's melee attack to +2 to hit and +2 to damage.
2. Union- Amon Ad-Raza's feat makes his warjacks faster and increases his focus pool temporarily as he essentially doubles his pool while he casts spells
3. Mobility- His warjacks become 1" faster, ignore difficult terrain and can stand up on their own.

With Synergy in mind, a few obvious choices stand out.

Light warjacks. The Revenger Warjack helps him place sandblasts and their charge bonus helps to build the Synergy chain. The Dervish Warjack has two attacks, an ability that allows them to sidestep and the ability to return missed attacks. And the king light warjack of the Protectorate of Menoth, the Devout Warjack protects a warcaster, uses an attack out of turn, and can protect him from spells.

Two of these warjacks have Reach.

As far as heavy warjacks are concerned, I consider two:

The Fire of Salvation Warjack gives Amon Ad-Raza anti-infantry capabilities and can make gigantic use out of Synergy, while the Castigator Warjack has two strong attacks and the ability to protect itself from infantry swarms with non-Reach attacks with its Combustion fire ring.

The limitation of Amon Ad-Raza's abilities to his battlegroup means that the Avatar of Menoth Warjack is only useful once you've decided on his main warjacks.

So you have a warjack warcaster whose abilities are primarily offensive. He has a low Focus stat, which limits his Control Area as well as the amount of Focus that he can hand out. Sure, he can use Union to generate Focus, a Hierophant Solo to reduce the cost of his spells, or a Wrack Solo to feed him more necessary focus, but all of these things are limited in their use. He needs a large number of warjacks to make the most of his feat, but he simply can't fuel them consistently and his support troops are woefully exposed.

Warjacks Rating: 3/5

Combat

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza is very good at combat, but he's hampered by his ability the Meditative Stance. He gains all sorts of benefits if he stands still, but using it can also expose him to spells or attacks. Meditative Stance helps him control his warjacks, but it keeps him out of the fight.

He is, however, highly mobile. He's immune to combined melee attacks and free strikes.

He has a melee attack that can knockdown and one that can slam. Trip is probably better than Crack the Whip as Trip leaves the opponent right where Amon can get him. If Synergy is still up at this point, Amon has spent 1 Focus to boost his attack roll to Trip the opponent and can now buy three additional attacks to hit at P+S 15. He can buy four additional attacks with a Wrack Solo, and if he spends an additional Focus with a Hierophant Solo he can ignore unspent Focus or Tough rolls on his target by casting Flagellation.

Amon's combat strength is offensive. If he ever becomes targeted, however, he's liable to die even with his high Defense. He doesn't have the ARM or Focus or ability to stay alive. The best he can do is make a Tough roll at the end.

Combat Rating: 3/5

Spells and Whistles

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza's Synergy spell and Union feat are cool. But use of his final warjack ability, Meditative Stance, requires forethought.

Here's a sample deployment for Amon Ad-Raza. It's not a 500 point list, but gives you an idea how to use the Meditative Stance.

The Revenger Warjack is on the outside as a flanking arc node. An opponent who presents a strong center can be Sandblasted to death with a good positioning of the spray template. The next warjack is a Dervish Warjack for offensive melee, and then a nearby Devout Warjack to protect Amon Ad-Raza. Finally, the right flank is held by the Fire of Salvation Warjack.

Interspersed are Choir of Menoth Units. In the distance, perhaps you have a Wrack Solo or some other Advance Deployment target that Amon Ad-Raza can see, but not reach (at least 12" away).

Amon gives out three focus and keeps two to cast Synergy. Two go to the flank, to keep them on pace. This Choir unit will be able to advance and protect them on before the warjacks activate and run:

The remaining focus can go to the Fire of Salvation, to keep it close, or the Devout, to protect Amon.

When Amon Ad-Raza activates, he casts Synergy and declares a charge at a model that he can see, but cannot reach straight ahead of him:

He is now 9" ahead. If he uses Meditative Stance next turn and upkeeps Synergy, he will have 6 Focus to tinker with. If his Revenger is in a good position, that could mean two boosted Sandblasts. Otherwise, he'll probably be using Mobility or giving Focus to protect or run his warjacks.

Unfortunately, he needs every inch to gain an advantage and every scrap of Focus that he can get. Once pieces start to crumble (Warpriests and Devouts in particular), he falls behind and is likely to be assassinated. Be wary of using him as your second warcaster in a large game. Losing those warjacks will be a lot of points.

Spells and Whistles Rating: 3/5

Background and Theme

As a member of the Order of the Fist, Hierarch Voyle's own order of mind over body, Amon Ad-Raza's a very strong concept. His abilities are well represented in game rules, but limited in terms of game effectiveness. It's also very fun playing the agile warcaster, trying to figure out how to place the necessary elements in order to pull off a win in the name of Menoth and Hierarch Voyle.

5/5

Conclusion

3.0/5

Unless you like the concept and theme of High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza, he isn't the most effective choice if you want a warjack themed warcaster. I have lists planned out using an Idrian Skirmishers Unit as a screen, but that relies more on the Idrians than Amon. Even though he's scored below average, the score is highly weighted in favor of theme. In fact, my scores for theme leaked into my discussion of his combat and special abilities, and so a purely objective player would have come up with a more calculated, poorer rating.

Such is the way of Warmachine Kung Fu.

Categories: Protectorate of Menoth Tactica  | Warmachine Hordes Kung Fu