Tactical Arcanist Corps

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Tactical Arcanist Corps Mercenary Rhulic Unit

The Tactical Arcanist Corps always work in threes. They undergo training and drilling together until they can meet and even exceed the exacting standards imposed by the Brand of Odom for Rhul’s elite battle mages. They defend those they are contracted to protect with scorching salvos of arcane fire, incinerating those that challenge them.

Basic Info

Tactical Arcanist Corps
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Small SPD 4 STR MAT 6 RAT N/A M.A. 7 DEF 11 ARM 16 CMD 6 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 1 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} UNIT SIZE 3 COST 5 1.7 each N/A FA 3 N/A Warcaster 1 BASE N/A SPD N/A STR N/A MAT N/A RAT N/A DEF N/A ARM N/A CMD N/A FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP N/A WJP N/A WBP N/A UNIT SIZE N/A COST N/A FA N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

• Mercenary - This unit will work for Crucible Guard, Cygnar, or Khador.

Abilities

• Immunity: Fire
• 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.
• Righteous Flames - Enemy models that end their activation within 2" of this model suffer continuous fire.
• Magic Ability [ 7 ] - 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

• Thermo Mace - 0.5" reach, P+S 13 melee weapon
  • Flame Burst - When this model boxes an enemy model with this weapon, enemy models within 1" of the boxed model suffer the Fire continuous effect.

Spells

	COST	RNG	AOE	POW	DUR	OFF
Flame Blast	(★ Attack)	10	3	13 (Fire)	-	Yes
This spell deals fire damage. On a critical hit, it inflicts continuous fire.
Smoke Bomb	(★ Action)	-	3	-	Round	No
Centre a 3" AOE cloud effect on this model. This AOE remains in play for one round.

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Hammer Strike. They gain Tough in this theme.
  • Operating Theater (only if controlled by a Cephalyx Dominator)

• Other Factions
  • Hearts of Darkness. They can only go in this theme if Crosse2 is leading the army. They become Infernal models in this theme.
  • As a Merc model they can also be taken in a bunch of other Faction's themes. Refer to #Other Theme Forces.

Recent Changes

2019.07 Dynamic Update

• Points drop to 5 (from 7)

Thoughts on Tactical Arcanist Corps

Tactical Arcanist Corps in a nutshell

The Tactical Arcanist Corps are a very slow, very cheap unit able to create a smoke wall and that can shoot things with their POW 13 flame blasts. They die like flies but are so low threat that they do not draw much attention. With the Hammerfall Siege Crawler (that returns them to play) they have found a place in the Hammer Strike theme force as a source of clouds, blasts, and magic attacks.

Despite Battle Wizard they are a second wave unit, not a frontline unit. They use smoke clouds to block LOS to your more precious support pieces, and occasionally take potshots with Flame Blast. Late game, they can afford to go for broke in melee and trigger Battle Wizard.

Combos & Synergies

Within Mercenaries

• The Siege Crawler increases their survivability, as mentioned above.

Outside Mercenaries

• Cygnar: A unit can fill up Nemo1's Arcane Accumulator all on their own. They can also give a much-needed LOS block for that fragile caster. Taking them with Murdoch is strongly advised; his minifeat, combined with Nemo's Deceleration bubble makes them fairly resilient against shooting with an effective DEF 15 ARM 18, and blast immunity for a round.
• Khador: The Ranking Officer Valachev can give them Zephyr, letting them place a cloud then advance backwards and hide out of LOS.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• They're a special order model.
• Too slow to get in front of most things that would like a smoke wall. (Unless it's Ossrum's feat turn.)
• Battle Wizard means you need to get into melee first. MAT 6 is not terrible, but also not great melee stats.
• Low DEF and ARM that dies to direct fire.
• Righteous Flames only triggers once in a blue moon, and even then it only might cause damage a whole round after it is triggered.

Tricks & Tips

• Put them in front of your caster to smoke wall.
• Keep one back so they don't all die and the Crawler can return them to play.

Other

Trivia

Released in Warmachine: Vengeance (2014)

Other Theme Forces

Cygnar (Edit)

• Gravediggers
• Heavy Metal
• Sons of the Tempest
• Storm Division

Khador (Edit)

• Armored Korps
• Jaws of the Wolf
• Legion of Steel
• Winter Guard Kommand

Crucible Guard (Edit)

• Magnum Opus

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Flame Burst     (Edit) Rules Clarification : Fire     (Edit) Moving into "Shallow water" standard terrain does not cause continuous fire to expire. It's magic fire. You can always use non-standard terrain if you agree with your opponent before the game starts, however. A weapon can inflict continuous fire without itself being a fire damage weapon (for example, the Helios's fists). In this case, the attack can hurt models with Immunity:Fire it just won't apply the continuous effect. In terms of which player's clock is running down during the Maintenance Phase: The active player will roll for expiration of all the continuous effects. Then the inactive player will roll for all the damages of the continuous effects. (Judge Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Battle Wizard     (Edit) Cavalry Battle Wizards can trigger it from their Mount Attacks. (Infernal Ruling) This does not, however, allow them to trigger it twice in the same turn. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Righteous Flames - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Magic Ability     (Edit) Using a Magic Ability counts as a spell, for effects such as Spell Ward, Witch Hunter, etc. Combat Action Nearly all Magic Ability spells require the spellcaster to use their Combat Action to cast the spell. As such it is not an "at any time" ability (like it is when warcasters/warlocks cast spells). This means ... You must complete your movement before you use a MA. A model in a unit cannot use its Combat Action to cast a spell until all members of the unit have completed their movement. (Infernal Ruling) You cannot make ranged or melee attacks on the same turn you use a MA. You cannot use a MA on the same turn you charge. Because a charge must (almost always) be followed by a melee attack. Non-Combat Action There are a few models that can use a Magic Ability at any time (eg Geomancy and Necromancy), or can cast a spell "for free" under specific conditions that would otherwise require their Combat Action (eg Battle Wizard and Combat Caster). These models get around all the restrictions listed above.

Rules Clarification : Flame Blast - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Smoke Bomb     (Edit) While this model is in the centre of the cloud, no one else can get concealment from the cloud. Cloud radius = 1.5" = 38.1mm. Small base radius = 15mm. That leaves 23.1mm space, which is not enough for another small base.