The most recent Primecast Episode 44 brought us our first real spoilers about upcoming theme books (aside, I suppose from Exemplar Interdiction's appearance in No Quarter.) Overall, quite a bit about the sorts of things we can expect from the Trencher book and these books in general was talked about, and I just wanted to touch on those and what it *could* mean for the Protectorate.
New Units/Solos/Characters
So in total the Primecast mentioned a new character, unit attachment that works for all trencher units, artillery crew of sorts, unit of combat mechanics, a warcaster, and a brand new model type entirely. This points to the potential of what we could see in an Exemplar book. The releases aren't intended to be mirrored, but the possibility of a universal Exemplar CA or WA could be really interesting, especially something that gives the right benefits for some of our more maligned models like Exemplar Bastions and Cinerators, which we've assumed have been waiting on a CA of some kind for quite some time. The Exemplar order in general is a relatively straightforward one filled with lots of hurt me and I hurt you back types of mechanics, and the new pieces would, I would assume, push that concept.
Really though, what do these units need? Exemplar are typified by their very good offensive stats that typically need little to no help, rules that make them stronger when they're damage by the opponent, and defensive stats that leave much to be desired but are solid with the right buffs. In the case of almost all Exemplar models that nobody has real interest in playing, it's due to deliverability. Attachments that can help actually get more Exemplar to the fight would be the ideal way to go, but may not fit the design intent for PP. If that's the case, they're going to remain at their strongest with a small subset of very particular casters with the tools to deliver them... but some of those casters are already showing a ton of viability even just with the addition of Exemplar Interdiction, much less whatever releases Exemplar have on the horizon.
New Exemplar characters would also be quite welcome, and I'd love to see what they can bring to the table. Admittedly I'd find Veteran Leader a bit underwhelming (accuracy has typically not been a weakness of Exemplar) but... who knows what we'll see.
New Model Type: Structures
The long-eyebrow raising Structures have finally peeked their heads out of the sand, and I for one am very excited. This is a step towards more interesting terrain options on Warmachine tables, something I've advocated for consistently. A Structure is a huge based model that is a piece of terrain, which you pay points for in your list and goes onto the table, ignoring terrain restrictions and it does have an activation. The Trencher one is the Block House, which is essentially a bunker that has guns and acts as a recursion piece for Trenchers.
They could go a thousand different ways with these. Personally I went back to an idea I originally had for a possible Severius3 since (Godless spoilers ahead!) he is no longer among the living; what if he was essentially a holy casket, somehow a warcaster that was immobile, deployed further up the table than is typical, and was heavily aura-based, buffing friendlies and debuffing enemies based on distances. Was just an idea I was toying with, but seems very much in line with possibilities of something a Protectorate Structure could have.
While not necessarily a character or Severius, bodies or remnants of powerful followers of Menoth have been used in a few different places in Protectorate models, and could be the center for a Structure. Could also just be a giant menifix, a field of Wracks, ten Flamebursts stacked on each other, who knows. Overall, my hope is some kind of tomb or powerful relic which has no offense but hands out buffs to our pieces like mad and has interesting aura-type effects, but that's just the kind of thing I quite like about the Protectorate.
Warcaster
The new Trencher theme force book has a Warcaster in the form of Siege2. This may have been teased as something that could appear in these books before but it either didn't or I missed it, I wasn't certain these books would in fact have new casters. So... what kind of 'caster could we see?
So the obvious one from a character standpoint is Kreoss but... he already has three iterations, and I wouldn't be set on seeing Kreoss4 since that's not been done before on any caster outside Shade4's faction swap... although who knows (All New War, huh). The next "obvious" one to me is Tristan Durant, but... his most recent form released relatively recently. The next one on the list of possibilities is the one I would be by far the most excited to see: Vindictus2. It could definitely be a new character, of course, but if I wanted any warcaster to go epic with this book, it would be him. I don't think any caster gained more from Exemplar Interdiction in its current form, and I'd love to see that book really bring him as a character into the forefront of Protectorate competitive play. But... who knows. I've just always loved the Egg of Menoth.
So in the end... what do we know? Well, frankly, not much. I, for one, will be waiting with bated breath for the next teasers and spoilers coming our way once we're past the boring old Trencher nonsense ;P if it ain't burning heretics, I ain't interested.
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| Hey, at least this game got us some neat 3d renders, ok? |
New Units/Solos/Characters
So in total the Primecast mentioned a new character, unit attachment that works for all trencher units, artillery crew of sorts, unit of combat mechanics, a warcaster, and a brand new model type entirely. This points to the potential of what we could see in an Exemplar book. The releases aren't intended to be mirrored, but the possibility of a universal Exemplar CA or WA could be really interesting, especially something that gives the right benefits for some of our more maligned models like Exemplar Bastions and Cinerators, which we've assumed have been waiting on a CA of some kind for quite some time. The Exemplar order in general is a relatively straightforward one filled with lots of hurt me and I hurt you back types of mechanics, and the new pieces would, I would assume, push that concept.
Really though, what do these units need? Exemplar are typified by their very good offensive stats that typically need little to no help, rules that make them stronger when they're damage by the opponent, and defensive stats that leave much to be desired but are solid with the right buffs. In the case of almost all Exemplar models that nobody has real interest in playing, it's due to deliverability. Attachments that can help actually get more Exemplar to the fight would be the ideal way to go, but may not fit the design intent for PP. If that's the case, they're going to remain at their strongest with a small subset of very particular casters with the tools to deliver them... but some of those casters are already showing a ton of viability even just with the addition of Exemplar Interdiction, much less whatever releases Exemplar have on the horizon.
New Exemplar characters would also be quite welcome, and I'd love to see what they can bring to the table. Admittedly I'd find Veteran Leader a bit underwhelming (accuracy has typically not been a weakness of Exemplar) but... who knows what we'll see.
New Model Type: Structures
The long-eyebrow raising Structures have finally peeked their heads out of the sand, and I for one am very excited. This is a step towards more interesting terrain options on Warmachine tables, something I've advocated for consistently. A Structure is a huge based model that is a piece of terrain, which you pay points for in your list and goes onto the table, ignoring terrain restrictions and it does have an activation. The Trencher one is the Block House, which is essentially a bunker that has guns and acts as a recursion piece for Trenchers.
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| Let the bodies hit the... |
They could go a thousand different ways with these. Personally I went back to an idea I originally had for a possible Severius3 since (Godless spoilers ahead!) he is no longer among the living; what if he was essentially a holy casket, somehow a warcaster that was immobile, deployed further up the table than is typical, and was heavily aura-based, buffing friendlies and debuffing enemies based on distances. Was just an idea I was toying with, but seems very much in line with possibilities of something a Protectorate Structure could have.
Warcaster
The new Trencher theme force book has a Warcaster in the form of Siege2. This may have been teased as something that could appear in these books before but it either didn't or I missed it, I wasn't certain these books would in fact have new casters. So... what kind of 'caster could we see?
So the obvious one from a character standpoint is Kreoss but... he already has three iterations, and I wouldn't be set on seeing Kreoss4 since that's not been done before on any caster outside Shade4's faction swap... although who knows (All New War, huh). The next "obvious" one to me is Tristan Durant, but... his most recent form released relatively recently. The next one on the list of possibilities is the one I would be by far the most excited to see: Vindictus2. It could definitely be a new character, of course, but if I wanted any warcaster to go epic with this book, it would be him. I don't think any caster gained more from Exemplar Interdiction in its current form, and I'd love to see that book really bring him as a character into the forefront of Protectorate competitive play. But... who knows. I've just always loved the Egg of Menoth.
So in the end... what do we know? Well, frankly, not much. I, for one, will be waiting with bated breath for the next teasers and spoilers coming our way once we're past the boring old Trencher nonsense ;P if it ain't burning heretics, I ain't interested.
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| I just put my arms out and spin, can't raise them up much... |
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