Tactical Arcanist Corps

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Tactical Arcanist Corps Mercenary Rhulic Unit

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. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules.

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 6 MAT 6 RAT N/A M.A. 7 DEF 11 / 13 (★) ARM 16 CMD 6 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 5 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA 3 UNIT SIZE 3 COST 5 1.7 pts each N/A (★) DEF 13 with Ashen Veil Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

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

Abilities

• Immunity: Fire
• Ashen Veil - This model has concealment. Living enemy models without Immunity: Fire suffer -2 to attack rolls while within 2" of this model.
• 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 - An enemy model that ends its activation within 2" of this model suffers the Fire continuous effect.
• 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 causes fire damage. On a critical hit, models hit suffer the Fire continuous effect.
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
  • Infernal players can use this unit in the Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Crosse2 is leading the army.
  • Furthermore, Mercenaries 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.

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

• 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.
  • A low speed also makes it more likely they will take a charge not give one.
• 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.
• None of the current 3 Rhulic casters offer them that much. They are more focused on jacks or ranged support.

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) If you deploy in fire hazard terrain (Burning Earth), then you get set on fire before the game starts. Deploying a model in a hazard counts as being "put into play" in the hazard. Being put into play counts as "entering". When you enter a hazard, you trigger the hazard. 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 : Ashen Veil and/or Swarm     (Edit) The concealment bonus and the attack roll penalty stack with each other. If a living model targets you with a gun/spell, and they're within 2" of you, they effectively suffer -4 to the attack. The attack roll penalty applies to all types of attacks. The attack roll penalty applies even if the enemy model is trying to target something completely different.

Rules Clarification : Battle Wizard      (Edit) A Battle Wizard doesn't have to kill a model to cast a spell. They can instead skip making melee attacks and use their Combat Action to cast a spell. 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 initial ranged or initial melee attacks on the same turn you use a MA. You cannot buy additional melee/ranged attacks after using a MA special attack. Refer to the core rulebook, "Special attacks listed as a rule of the model itself are neither melee attacks nor ranged attacks. The rules for these special attacks indicate the nature of any additional attacks that can be made afterward, if any." 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 without using their Combat Action. These models get around all the restrictions listed above. Models with Geomancy or Necromancy can use a Magic Ability at "any time" just like a warcaster/warlock. Models with Battle Wizard or Necrophage can make melee attacks then get a bonus "free" spell. Models with Combat Caster can cast a spell before charging, then do a normal charge + melee attack. Note that Battle Wizards, Combat Casters, etc have the option to use their Combat Action to cast a spell. Their special rule is in addition to the normal spell casting, not instead of.

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.