Balthazar Bamfist
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Balthazar Bamfist |
Mark IV Status: Prime - This model is available in one Prime Army, Rhul Guard. It can also be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can view the other Mk3 models that made it into a Legacy Army at this page.
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Fluff
Contents
Basic Info
Balthazar Bamfist | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Riot Quest - Although this model has rules which allow it to be played in Warmachine and Hordes, it was primarily designed for the Riot Quest boardgame. RQ is set in an alternate and/or future timeline where the Infernals won the war. Some of the RQ models are slightly more goofy than their WMH equivalents.
Mercenary - Balthazar Bamfist will work for Crucible Guard, Cygnar, and Khador.
Abilities
- Battle Wizard - Once per turn, when this model destroys one or more enemy models with a melee attack during its activation, immediately after the attack is resolved it can make one Magic Ability special attack or special action.
- Force Barrier - This model gains +2 DEF against ranged attack rolls and Blast Resistance. (Blast Resistance - A model with Blast Resistance gains +4 ARM against blast damage.)
- Magic Ability [ - ] - This model can cast spells. Normally this uses up the model's Combat Action and as such is limited to one spell per activation, but exceptions do exist.
Weapons
Mecha-Fist | ||||||||||||||
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RNG | POW | P+S | |||||||||||
0.5 | 5 | 12 | ||||||||||||
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Spells
COST | RNG | AOE | POW | DUR | OFF | ||
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Empower
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(★ Action) | CMD | - | - | - | No | |
Target friendly Faction warjack. If the target warjack is in range and it was suffering Disruption, it is no longer disrupted. The warjack also gains 1 focus point. | |||||||
Protection of the Great Fathers
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(★ Action) | 6 | - | - | Round | No | |
Target friendly Rhulic model/unit. If the model/unit is in range, it gains Force Barrier for one round. | |||||||
Tectonic Shift
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(★ Action) | - | - | - | - | No | |
Enemy models within 3" of this model are pushed 3" towards the table edge of your choice. |
Theme Forces
- Mercenary
- Hammer Strike. Bamfist gains Tough in this theme.
- The Irregulars
- Other Factions
- Mercenary models can be hired by other Factions. Normally those Factions' themes will have a limit on how many models they can hire. Refer to #Other Theme Forces, below.
- Aside from that, there are a few themes that will change what Faction this model counts as (and thus what "friendly Faction only" buffs it can receive). They are:
- Infernal players can use this model in the Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Crosse2 is leading the army.
Thoughts on the Balthazar Bamfist
Balthazar Bamfist in a nutshell
Bamfist is primarily brought for Empower - an ability not currently available elsewhere in Irregulars or Hammer Strike. 4 points is a fairly pricey package for this ability alone, and it is hard to get great value from his other two abilities in Irregulars. In Hammer Strike he becomes a more appealing option, that being keeping Durgen's Primed Forge Guard from blowing each other up when they die, or combining with Gorten's rock wall for some DEF 16 infantry - but mostly because there aren't many options in that theme...
Combos & Synergies
- Any jack appreciates extra focus and any Rhulic model/unit likes Force Barrier.
- In Irregulars marshaled warjacks gain Flank, and he is the only way to get additional focus onto them.
- The most powerful possible combination would be a Mariner on Boss Machorne, ran with Captain Shae: Shae's Coup de Main spell gives the Mariner a free 12" charge, Machorne would grant it Crush and Dismantle (combined with Flank for two extra damage dice against constructs) and Bamfist would give it the focus point to allow three attacks. However that's a 24 point combo (or your free solo choices).
- If you want to go all in on marshalled jack in Irregulars, he, Lanyssa, and Widget make for an excellent team of enablers.
- Stacking Gorten's Rock Wall cover bonus with Force Barrier pushes the defence stat of any model to sky high levels, even the lumbering Rhulic heavies.
- If you want even more DEF, add Gudrun2's Kinetic Distorsion for a total of +8.
- Ossrum has Bullet Dodger, which you can use together with Force Barrier to make a key solo like Harlowe basically unshootable.
- Durgen can cast Primed on a unit of Forge Guard and Force Barrier makes them resistant to blast damage so they are less likely kill each other when they die and explode.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- When taken in Irregulars his Great Fathers ability has few targets for Force Barrier: Herne and Jonne is the only unit, a few solos like Thor & Harlowe, and your caster/warjacks (if you took a Rhulic battlegroup).
- Spending 4 pts for a single empower each turn is generally very bad points value, so you need Rhulic models in your list for Force Barrier to get value out of him, limiting your list building options.
- Great Fathers in general isn’t great on high armour low defence models, unless you also have another bonus like cover for them.
- He is only available via the RiotQuest starter box or the much less expensive RiotQuest Throwdown kit (his blinged out version). This makes him an expensive solo to own fiscally.
- Rhulic lights don't need Empower, so your targets for Empower are limited to Rhulic heavies or any non-rhulic jack in Irregulars.
Tricks & Tips
- Keep him back - he might hit hard but he's mostly support.
- Force Wall bypasses Blessed weapons because the spell doesn't actually add to DEF - it gives them Force Barrier and the DEF boost comes from there.
Other
Trivia
- Released 2019.07
- Despite being Rhulic in the Warmachine rules, he is not from the nation of Rhul.
- He is an Arcane Mechanik from the mysterious continent of Zu and did not visit the continent of Immoren (where Rhul is located) until after the Infernals ravaged the continent in the RiotQuest timeline.
- It is assumed that he has Rhulic ancestors that travelled to Zu.
- He has a neat glowy ball in his left hand that has absolutely no function in either Warmachine or RiotQuest but is apparently a treasure finder.
- This model has a limited edition sculpt, released in 2020.01.
Other Theme Forces
Crucible Guard (Edit)
Cygnar (Edit)
Khador (Edit)
Other Mercenary models
Rules Clarifications
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Rules Clarification : Battle Wizard (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Force Barrier (Edit) |
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Rules Clarification : Magic Ability (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Ram and/or Batter (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Empower and/or Recharge (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Protection of the Great Fathers - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Tectonic Shift (Edit)
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- Mercenary
- Rhulic
- Solo
- Model
- Does have Mk4 rules
- Riot Quest
- Crucible Guard Mercenary
- Cygnar Mercenary
- Khador Mercenary
- Battle Wizard
- Force Barrier
- Magic Ability
- Ram
- Empower
- Protection of the Great Fathers
- Tectonic Shift
- Hammer Strike
- The Irregulars
- Hearts of Darkness
- Limited Edition Sculpt
- Magnum Opus
- Gravediggers
- Heavy Metal
- Sons of the Tempest
- Storm Division
- Armored Korps
- Jaws of the Wolf
- Legion of Steel
- Winter Guard Kommand