Whose ready for some Big Vinny D?!?
Vindictus is among my favorite casters in the Protectorate, I adore his style but he has needed just a wee bit more love I think to get to quite where I wanted him. With the recent reveal of our Exemplar Interdiction theme force, though, I think Vindictus is as good a home for a troop-oriented version of it as you get. So, I opened up War Room and threw down some ideas. In the end, I came up with this:
Vice Scrutator Vindictus
-Redeemer
-Redeemer
-Dervish
Knights Exemplar w/CA
Knights Exemplar w/CA
Exemplar Errants w/CA
Exemplar Vengers
High Exemplar Gravus
min Choir of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Wrack
Wrack
The free models are, of course, the three CAs for the units. Essentially this is just shock and awe; the Errants give a bit in the way of options, having some guns to pew pew at some infantry a bit. They take Defenders Ward early to be pretty resistant to a lot of regular infantry clearing (14/18 is solid, not the easiest to hit, POW 10 attacks unlikely to kill, POW 12s have to hit the DEF 14 and still roll a 7 on damage.) With Advance Deploy and the additional 2" deployment from the theme, they're up in your face extremely quickly and will buy time for the rest of the army to get there.
The rest of the army is fairly self explanatory, but has a lot of room to shift. The Vengers are just good, can't go too wrong with it when you're adding in True Path to give them absurd threat ranges. The Knights make up the true armor crack, and will be delivered with the feat, true path, and additional deployment at remarkable speed. With minifeat and Battle Driven active, Knights Exemplar kill basically anything they get to.
One change I considered, though, was removing the CAs from the two units of Knights. I think for their points the unit is great either way, and loses a bit of punch and some attacks against infantry by losing the CA, but in exchange I would get a pair of Knight Exemplar Seneschals, which gives a little bit more options in the way of activations, and hit like a truck in their own right. The feat and their own abilities will help deliver them, and would make the list, I think, a tiny bit more flexible at the loss of some hitting power.
Gravus is another piece that could be a few different things. I don't hate the idea of him just straight up being a third unit of Knights Exemplar, but Gravus gives a nasty piece with extreme threat who can buy and boost attacks, since the list has plenty of souls for him. I could go either way on that decision. Dude is also tough as nails with Defenders Ward.
The support is straight forward, I don't get a Hierophant in theme which is a bit painful for Vinny, so the Vassals and Wracks pull some focus load off of him. The Choir are pretty clear, boosting up the 'jacks.
The battlegroup was an interesting set of decisions. Could easily run a pair of Templar or something but... the battlegroup of this army is going to be hanging back for a long time. Vindictus has no accuracy helper for his 'jacks so relying on MAT 6 'jacks to do damage kind of bugs me... in the end I came down to going the reverse route and making the battlegroup into an infantry clearing option. The Redeemers can contribute at range pretty effectively, clearing out infantry and keeping me from having to use my highly valuable weapons masters to kill basic infantry any more than I have to. In the absence of much enemy infantry, they're hunting support, and Redeemers do that pretty well. The Dervish was largely because that's how many points I had left, but I like him as a bit of a finisher as well as being alright at clearing a little infantry in a pinch. He's just efficient and doesn't need a lot of help from the caster to do a bit of work. And then... well, Protectorate lights can just hit pretty hard when Choir is around. Cheap PS 15 boostable melee weapons don't suck!
What do you all think? Would you run Vindictus in theme? If you did, how would you build it? What are your thoughts on the battlegroup, and the choice of free models in the list? I'm excited to try this or something like it out in the near future!
Vindictus is among my favorite casters in the Protectorate, I adore his style but he has needed just a wee bit more love I think to get to quite where I wanted him. With the recent reveal of our Exemplar Interdiction theme force, though, I think Vindictus is as good a home for a troop-oriented version of it as you get. So, I opened up War Room and threw down some ideas. In the end, I came up with this:
Vice Scrutator Vindictus
-Redeemer
-Redeemer
-Dervish
Knights Exemplar w/CA
Knights Exemplar w/CA
Exemplar Errants w/CA
Exemplar Vengers
High Exemplar Gravus
min Choir of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Wrack
Wrack
The free models are, of course, the three CAs for the units. Essentially this is just shock and awe; the Errants give a bit in the way of options, having some guns to pew pew at some infantry a bit. They take Defenders Ward early to be pretty resistant to a lot of regular infantry clearing (14/18 is solid, not the easiest to hit, POW 10 attacks unlikely to kill, POW 12s have to hit the DEF 14 and still roll a 7 on damage.) With Advance Deploy and the additional 2" deployment from the theme, they're up in your face extremely quickly and will buy time for the rest of the army to get there.
The rest of the army is fairly self explanatory, but has a lot of room to shift. The Vengers are just good, can't go too wrong with it when you're adding in True Path to give them absurd threat ranges. The Knights make up the true armor crack, and will be delivered with the feat, true path, and additional deployment at remarkable speed. With minifeat and Battle Driven active, Knights Exemplar kill basically anything they get to.
One change I considered, though, was removing the CAs from the two units of Knights. I think for their points the unit is great either way, and loses a bit of punch and some attacks against infantry by losing the CA, but in exchange I would get a pair of Knight Exemplar Seneschals, which gives a little bit more options in the way of activations, and hit like a truck in their own right. The feat and their own abilities will help deliver them, and would make the list, I think, a tiny bit more flexible at the loss of some hitting power.
Gravus is another piece that could be a few different things. I don't hate the idea of him just straight up being a third unit of Knights Exemplar, but Gravus gives a nasty piece with extreme threat who can buy and boost attacks, since the list has plenty of souls for him. I could go either way on that decision. Dude is also tough as nails with Defenders Ward.
The support is straight forward, I don't get a Hierophant in theme which is a bit painful for Vinny, so the Vassals and Wracks pull some focus load off of him. The Choir are pretty clear, boosting up the 'jacks.
The battlegroup was an interesting set of decisions. Could easily run a pair of Templar or something but... the battlegroup of this army is going to be hanging back for a long time. Vindictus has no accuracy helper for his 'jacks so relying on MAT 6 'jacks to do damage kind of bugs me... in the end I came down to going the reverse route and making the battlegroup into an infantry clearing option. The Redeemers can contribute at range pretty effectively, clearing out infantry and keeping me from having to use my highly valuable weapons masters to kill basic infantry any more than I have to. In the absence of much enemy infantry, they're hunting support, and Redeemers do that pretty well. The Dervish was largely because that's how many points I had left, but I like him as a bit of a finisher as well as being alright at clearing a little infantry in a pinch. He's just efficient and doesn't need a lot of help from the caster to do a bit of work. And then... well, Protectorate lights can just hit pretty hard when Choir is around. Cheap PS 15 boostable melee weapons don't suck!
What do you all think? Would you run Vindictus in theme? If you did, how would you build it? What are your thoughts on the battlegroup, and the choice of free models in the list? I'm excited to try this or something like it out in the near future!
I like it. I'd seen something similar posted that didn't have the focus support but this should work better I think. I could see the Seneschals potentially being better than the CAs but I've loved the CAs almost every time I've run them. Adds a lot to the unit.
ReplyDeleteThe only change I would make is to drop the Errant CA, and take the Errant Seneshal instead. They lose assault, but gain unyielding. Pair that with Defenders Ward and you have your errants at Def 14 Arm 20, just waiting for their Exemplar brothers to come clear them off (or a stray rocket from a redeemer).
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