Intervention: Bane Thralls & Tartarus

Intervene: To come between disputing people. This series of articles will attempt to present a realistic picture, of the model/units we generally accept, as slightly overpowered win buttons. I apologize in advance for the trite quotes.

Our scout's torch and lantern went black, and we heard him scream. A moment later a horrible chill washed over us. We could feel them before we could see them. - Tyrell Forlaine

Bane Thralls are the undisputed kings of problem solving, and simply putting the unit in your army ensures a fairly decent return on your investment. They're a unit with a very high offensive potential, and exceptional defensive abilities tossed in for good measure. They can engage and annihilate just about anything, ignore half the feats in the game, and presents your opponent with some really difficult choices. The Bane Thralls are amongst the best units in the game, and every time I take to the field without them, I end up regretting that decision, but they do have issues.

The first problem they face is a lack of Flow: The ability to ignore terrain, enemy models, and slowing effects. That means you can't charge across obstacles, will get stuck in terrain, and will die to free strikes. This can be solved by bringing Saxon Orrik, or using them with a caster that has access to one of the Flow spells or abilities, but this will add to the resource investment the unit requires.

Terrain is often of more value than bravery
- Flavius Vegetius

The second problem is: threat range. The Bane Thralls can really move it when Tartarus is around, but without him they become laughably slow. It's a well known problem, but even with Tartarus, the Bane Thralls are half an inch slower than a speed six reach model, and there are quite a few of those around. That in turn means, that when you face another melee army, your Bane Thralls might be lacking the range to engage. This is a huge problem, because receiving a charge really hurts, and Bane Thralls lack the reach to truly layer their way out of that problem.

He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.
- Sun Tzu

The ability to force you back half an inch every turn might not seem like much, but it's worth a lot more than you might think. He can move up ranged models and fire at will, which means you face a problem without obvious solutions. You can stay back and suffer his guns, or you can move up and receive a charge. There are several ways of getting around this (Darragh Wrathe, slowing/rooting feats, or having more guns than he does), but it's something to keep in mind when building a list. You really want to avoid being in a position where you're getting shot to pieces, and have to absorb a charge in order to advance.

Being shelled is the real work of an infantry soldier, which no one talks about. Everyone has his own way of going about it. In general, it means lying face down and contracting your body into a small a space as possible.
- Louis Simpson

The conclusion is that we need a lot of bodies (8 points), the Unit Attachment (3 points), Bane Lord Tartarus (4 points), Saxon/Skarlock (2 points), and Darragh Wrathe (4 points) in order to cover the issues. That's a rather large package, but I actually feel it's worth it. The models we include just need to serve multiple purposes, because twelve Bane Thralls rarely carry that amount of weight in a game, if they stick to hitting things.

Bane Thralls are walking debuffs, and it pays to remember that. A further ARM debuff is always welcome, and will turn other units from average to deadly, simply by running in, if they've got nothing better to do. I was also recently made aware, that when a model is knocked down it cannot be engaged, but since it's still in the melee range of nearby models, you can apply Dark Shroud without giving the model the added defense.

At this point I've done very little Bane Thrall bashing, and that's because very little is needed. There are a few things we need to keep in mind, but the second Bane Lord Tartarus leaves play, the unit becomes a whole different animal, so I'm going to bash Tartarus instead!

Linchpin: A central cohesive source of support and stability.

Bane Lord Tartarus is crucial to the success of the Bane Thralls, and if he dies your fast, accurate and deadly unit, turns into a slow and inaccurate unit, with some very real problems when it comes to applying their deadly blows where they count. This is actually a big problem, because Bane Lord Tartarus isn't that hard to kill (I've even had him die to boosted blast damage once), and taking him out is such a major blow to your pumped up unit of killers, that an opponent can dedicate a substantial amount of resources to do it.

Bane Lord Tartarus is a four point solo, with some beefed up defenses, but he will still die to a weapon master landing a hit. He will die if he engages, if something ignores stealth, or if you mess up his placement, and when he dies your Bane Thrall monster unit becomes a lot more manageable for an opponent. No more spawning Thralls, no more hitting solos on average dice, and no more useful threat ranges, so choosing when to sacrifice Tartarus is vital. I've seen Tartarus charge in and create three new Bane Thralls (heck I've done it myself), get killed, and suddenly the entire unit of Bane Thralls are stuck fighting Winterguard or Kayazy Assassins, without a realistic chance of ever hitting them.

The Bane Thralls are, without a doubt, amongst the best units in the game, but only while Tartarus roams the table. If you loose Tartarus, you not only loose a four point model, but also take a massive hit to your offensive power, since your main offensive melee unit just got nerfed badly. Keeping Tartarus safe, and knowing when to sacrifice him is what I consider the key, to squeezing that extra gallon of juice out of a superb unit.

Intervention Archive

An archive of the Intervention articles.

• The Deathjack
• Bane Thralls & Tartarus

Intervention: Deathjack

Intervene: To come between disputing people. This series of articles will attempt to present a realistic picture, of the model/units we generally accept, as slightly overpowered win buttons.

Fifteen feet of kettle-black, greasy iron and a gut full of soul burning mechanika, the Deathjack is a steamjack sprung from the nightmares of a madman. - Viktor Pendrake

The Deathjack is a mightily powerful tool on the table, and when I first discovered this game I bought one. I put him on the table a couple of times, and then threw him in a pile of models to be used for parts at some later date. I didn't do it because he failed to perform on the table, but because he was in conflict with the concept of Water Theory. While the Deathjack is actually pretty decent at most things required by the Water Theory, he's simply to expensive, and loosing him is a major blow.

Assuming you still want to use him, this is something you will need to understand, in order to get the most out of your investment: The Deathjack is an obvious target, and he presents your opponent with an easy choice.

All warfare is based on deception.
- Sun Tzu

In this case you have a substantial amount of your army, tied up in a package that everyone knows they need to keep an eye on. The Deathjack is a model that will be scrutinized, noticed due to sheer size, and your opponent will be studying it's card before the game. This means that even with the impressive amount of tricks the thing can pull of, a competent opponent will see them coming because he's diverting a substantial amount of attention to what it does and why. This can be used as an advantage, in which you force your opponent to focus on the Deathjack, while another key piece goes unnoticed, but most players end up giving the thing as much attention as the opponent does.

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.
- Sun Tzu

If your opponent knows where to look, you will loose the element of surprise. The Deathjack is such a powerful model that surprise may not even matter, but Warmachine is a game mistakes. When I spectate matches between great players, it usually comes down to that one crucial mistake: Who makes one first, and does the opponent notice. The Deathjack is anything but subtle, and if you make a mistake with him it will be noticed.

Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
- Sun Tzu

Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.
- Sun Tzu 

I hope you get the concept by now, because it's the reason I think many people are struggling with getting the most out of the Deathjack. The Deathjack is an obvious threat, and it's so expensive that loosing it is a major blow to you, so while the Deathjack is a fantastic piece, and most likely a point to cheap for the abilities it brings, it makes your opponents job easier, and thats never a good thing.

It's a generally accepted fact, that if something needs to die it usually will, though it might cost your opponent a lot more resources than he would like. Again the price tag comes into play, since he can dedicate a lot of resources to solving the problem, and the Deathjack is often crucial to several dirty tricks as well, making it worth even more resources. This means that an opponent can easily dedicate a third of his army to taking it out, and I'm sad to announce, that it won't stand up to that kind of punishment without help.

The Deathjack also lacks reach, which means that is has some very real problems, with making the impact one would expect from such a machine. If it takes out the opponents caster, then points and resources are obviously of little consequence, but if you end up using it to trash a seven point Juggernaut, and loosing it, then your opponent is up five points and is ahead in resources. This is something you should keep in mind when evaluating the offensive capacity, because unless your opponent fails badly and puts two worthy targets close to each other, it's hard to make the Deathjack worth it in an attrition battle.

Finally there's the question of Rendering. This is often brought up in relation to the survivability of the Deathjack, but the effect this ability has is directly proportional to your opponents army and skill. I've seen people swamp the Deathjack in living infantry, but those opponents aren't the ones you need to worry about. In games between the people that scare me as opponents, the ability has a severely limited impact on the game, and rarely has the ability done anything in relations to the survivability of the Deathjack. What it does is a pseudo version of the Warbeasts ability to heal, since you can trample or gore a soul or two into existence, then repair your arms and go to town on an opponent.

In a final summery, the Deathjacks main problems are:

• Being no more survivable than a standard Khador Heavy Warjack.
• Being unable to apply it's massive potential without dying.
• Being a hopelessly obvious threat on the table.

The Deathjack will continue to rampage through entire armies, and roundhouse kicking casters in the face, but remembering it's fragile nature (when compared to the cost), taking into account that everything it does will be scrutinized, and accepting that you need it to perform more tasks than simply destroying things (unless it's a caster), is the key to getting what you pay for.