Theme - Exemplar Interdiction

99% of this website is about Mark 3 (mk3), which is the previous edition of the game (2016 to 2022). The reasons for this are explained here. 1% of the website is about Mark 4 (mk4), but only in regards to which mk3 models are useable in mk4 Prime and which are mk4 Unlimited. See Legacy Armies for more detail.
	Theme - Exemplar Interdiction Protectorate Theme Force Exemplar Interdiction - Guardians of the Temple - The Creator's Might - The Faithful Masses - Warriors of the Old Faith

Legacy ... sort of This mk3 Theme Force is somewhat similar to the mk4 Legacy Army "Final Interdiction". If you're planning on starting a mk4 Final Interdiction army you may get some use out of this article, espcially the In a Nutshell, the Theme Weaknesses, and maybe even the List-Building Tips sections.

The ruling priesthood and scrutators of the Protectorate of Menoth have no more loyal and steadfast protectors and warriors than the Exemplars.

Theme Rules

For the core rules on how Theme Forces work, see this article.

Theme Restrictions

An army made use the Exemplar Interdiction theme force can include only the following Protectorate models:

• Protectorate warcasters
• Non-character warjacks
• Fire of Salvation
• Exemplar models/units
• Reclaimer models/units
• Scrutator models/units
• Vassal models/units
• Choir of Menoth units
• Hierophant solos
• Wrack solos

• This army can also include one Mercenary solo and one Mercenary unit that will work for the Protectorate.
  • These models/units can be included even if they have the Partisan [Protectorate] rule.
  • Mercenary units can include non-Ranking Officer attachments

Full model list

The models allowed in Exemplar Interdiction are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2019.07   (Edit)

Warcasters

• All Protectorate warcasters

Warjacks

• All non-character Protectorate warjacks
• Fire of Salvation
• Other character warjacks can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.

Units

• Choir of Menoth
• Exemplar Bastions
• Exemplar Cinerators
• Exemplar Errants
• Exemplar Vengers
• Knights Exemplar
• Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard

Solos

• Exemplar Bastion Seneschal - ('Jack Marshal)
• Exemplar Errant Seneschal
• Exemplar Warders
• Exemplar Warder Elias Gade
• Hand of Silence
• Hierophant - (Warcaster Attachment)
• High Exemplar Gravus
• Knights Exemplar Seneschal
• Reclaimer Gatekeeper
• Severius0 - ("Junior Warcaster")
• Vassal of Menoth
• Vassal Mechanik
• Wracks

Battle Engines

• Vessel of Judgment

Structures

• Shrine of the Lawgiver

Mercenaries

• One solo
• One unit

Requisition Points

• One Protectorate CA
• Two Vassal solos
• Three Wrack solos
• One other small- or medium-based Protectorate solo with a point cost of 5 or less

Theme Bonuses

1. The melee weapons of Protectorate warjacks in this army gain Blessed.
2. Exemplar models in this army gain Aegis.

   Aegis - Models with Aegis are immune to continuous effects.

Thoughts on Exemplar Interdiction

Exemplar Interdiction in a nutshell

Exemplars are the elite infantry of Protectorate, and this theme rewards you for fielding them. Given that all Exemplars have Weapon Master on their melee weapons, you're going to have a terrifyingly potent melee force. Aegis as a benefit for you Exemplar is better than nothing, it prevents them from dying to continuous effects, but as they have no immuities to any attack types, they can still die to the attacks inflictim said effects. Blessed weapons on jacks are quite a good feature on melee jacks, saving you Focus and/or model activations dealing with whatever buffs your opponent has on their models. However, the interdiction is chalck-full of melee models so its usually better to bring ranged jacks or a single colossal to offset the lack of guns. Still, the cheap and trusty Crusaders will have a real shot at punchin way above their weight class, making them the envy of factions that have to pay way more for a simple beater.

Core Units - Role Recap

• Heavy Infantry
  • Exemplar Bastions - Retaliatory melee unit able to soak up damage
  • Exemplar Cinerators - Defensive melee unit able to form the frontline through Shield Wall
  • Exemplar Vengers - Elite heavy cavalry unit
• Light Infantry
  • Exemplar Errants - Combined arms vanguard unit (10-12 troopers)
  • Knights Exemplar - Offensive melee unit (6-7 troopers)

Theme Weaknesses

Slow army

Most of the Exemplar units are quite slow. While there are some mitigating options like Gravus you'll still want a caster that can either speed them up or protect them.

Limited Guns

Most Exemplar units do not have ranged weapons. You'll want to include some way of sniping out annoying enemy support solos, whether via Exemplar Errants, the Errant solos, or with an arc node and offensive spells.

Weakness to Guns

Part of the above, most Exemplars are not tough enough to weather too much firepower. You'll want some method of weathering the storm before you get to the enemy, such as screening with Exemplar Cinerators, Kreoss2's Tough bubble, or Vindictus' feat.

Starter Set

Starter set

Unlike most themes, the Exemplar Interdiction have a starter set. This is a decent purchase as you save about 11% over buying the contents individually. The contents are:

• A 5-man unit of Exemplar Cinerators plus their command attachment.
• A 6-man unit of Knights Exemplar plus their command attachment.
• An Exemplar Warder solo
• This adds up to 31 points, plus the Warder who you'll take as your first free card.

You'll notice that there is no warcaster or warjacks included.

List-Building Tips

You requisition cards are not really up for debate; take Severius0 and two Exemplar Warders as contesting solos and ablative Shield Guards. Any list will field at least a min unit of the Choir. Wracks and Vassals are also good and cheap utility solos. Rhoven brings more Shield Guards and useful support spells. There are essentially three infantry-heavy archetypes for Exemplar Interdiction.

• Infantry-spam, involves taking many of the small-based Exemplar, Knights and Errants, and swarming the field with high volumes of accurate, high damage Weapon Master attacks. It is excellent with Testament of Menoth for souls and recursion or Vice Scrutator Vindictus as he can speed up and protect large numbers of models.
• Medium-base spam. Bastions and Cinerators offer very high damage output and good survivability at the cost of speed and volume of attacks. This means the list excels with The Harbinger of Menoth who can protect the higher value targets with Martyrdom, and speed them up via Crusader's Call.
• Cavalry heavy, which is best run by Kreoss3. Take double Vengers and Gravus, Choir, Severius and some solos and go to down with a fast moving army.

Starting a 25 point Brawl list

In 2020.11 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, put together this list for the Brawlmachine format. It was then updated for the 2021.10 errata. He even wrote about it's playstyle and expanding it beyond 25 points, which you can read here.

Cyrenia1: [+28 WJP]

• Hierophant: [2 pts]
• Fire of Salvation: [13 pts]
• Purifier: [8 pts]
• Dervish: [7 pts]

Exemplar Bastion Seneschal: [Free] (5 pts)

Exemplar Warder Elias Gade: [3 pts]

Vassal Mechanik: [1 pt]

Wrack: [1 pt]

Exemplar Bastions (Min unit): [8 pts]

Knights Exemplar: [7 pts]

• Command Attachment: [3 pts]

For more Brawlmachine list ideas, see Category: Brawl List

Caster Thoughts

Cyrenia1

She is another great choice to run Exemplars with. Her Battle Plans are quite useful, and she increases her troops offensive and defensive capabilities via her spells and feat.

Harbinger

She is an excellent Warcaster to run with medium- and large-based Exemplars, able to increases their threat range and melee accuracy with her spells, while Martyrdom keeps them alive. Especially frustrating on ARM21 Cinerators, or the ever-annoying Knights Exemplar Seneschal.

Kreoss2

He gives Exemplars Tough thanks to Paragon of the Faith, and his feat turns your melee attacks up to 11.

Kreoss3

He favors running Vengers (often two units) thanks to providing Divine Inspiration to them via his Elite Cadre; his spells support them and other Exemplars as well.

Reclaimer1 and Reclaimer2

Either version are good at running troop-heavy forces. They can recycle your troops further forwards, helping offset the slow speed of Exemplars.

Thyra1

She is a potent force multiplier for Exemplars; like Cyrenia, she gives her troops a threat extender (via feat), as well as a POW and accuracy buffs. Occultation prevents a unit from getting shot.

Vindictus1

He can speed them up with a spell and protect them with his feat.

Other

Trivia

Released 2017.05

Other Protectorate models

• Category: Exemplar Interdiction

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Blessed and/or Creator's Wrath     (Edit) Blessed ignores spell buffs even if they're not directly on the target. (For example, Haley3's Temporal Distortion spell is cast on Haley and gives a DEF buff to everyone within 5". Blessed ignores it on everyone, not just on Haley.) (Locked thread) You only ignore the DEF/ARM buff if the spell directly adds to the stat (for example Arcane Shield gives +3 ARM). Whereas a spell which grants an ability, and the ability gives a DEF/ARM buff, would not be ignored by Blessed (for example Cloak of Ash gives a model concealment, and concealment gives +2 DEF). (Infernal Ruling) If a spell buffs DEF/ARM and [something else] then you ignore the buff but not the [something else]. (For example, the spell Death Ward grants +2 ARM and the defender chooses which column suffers damage. You would ignore the ARM bonus, but the defender still picks the column.) This ability only ignores buffs from spells, not buffs from feats (such as Stryker1's Invincibility +5 ARM) or abilities (such as Protective Aura's +2 ARM).

Rules Clarification : Aegis - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification: Theme Forces     (Edit) Themes that change a model's Faction   [Show/Hide] Many themes swap which Faction a model counts as. They're slightly inconsistent with how exactly this is worded. Despite this inconsistency - whenever a model is considered a different faction to normal, it will not be its original faction. (Infernal Ruling) For instance Lukas stops being a Crucible Guard model when taken in an Infernal army, and as a consequence he cannot take Toros or Vanguards in Infernals. (Infernal Ruling) Rerolling the starting roll   [Show/Hide] You cannot use the theme benefit to reroll if it is a draw. Instead both players reroll until there is a loser, and then the loser can use their reroll benefit (if they have it). (Infernal Ruling) If both players have a reroll, first the original loser uses their reroll. If the original loser still loses, fine. If the original loser now wins, the other player can use their reroll. If it is now a draw, both players reroll until there is a loser. Then the player that hasn't used their theme benefit reroll can still use it, if they want. Warjacks/Warbeasts with bonds   [Show/Hide] A warjack/warbeast with a bond can always be included in a theme force, whether or not they're in the list of allowed models, but only if they're controlled by that bonded model. This applies even if that bonded model isn't a full warcaster/warlock (changed as of 2018.06). Including Mercenaries   [Show/Hide] Number of Mercenaries If your "up to one Merc" ... ... can take warbeasts/warjacks, then you can add warbeast(s)/warjack(s) (without exceeding your "up to one" allowance) ... comes with a Companion model, then you'll get that Companion (without exceeding your "up to one" allowance) There is a bug in Warroom that allows you to not only take one Merc solo/unit, but the entire FA of that Merc solo/unit. It's a bug. Mercenaries and Ranking Officers Adding a Ranking Officer to a Merc unit doesn't increase the number of Merc units you can take. Other See also the section on Partisans Including Partisan Mercenaries   [Show/Hide] Partisans & Theme Forces (Edit) Partisans are Mercenary/Minion models, so there are two ways you can add them to a theme force: Freely: If the Partisan is on the list of allowed models, then you can take as many as you want plus another Mercenary unit/solo. (Infernal Ruling) They can be explicitly allowed (for example Jaws of the Wolf allows "Kayazy models/units" so Partisan Kayayz can be used freely). They can be implicitly allowed (for example Scourge of the Broken Coast allows "living Cryx models/units" and Partisan Cephalyx fit that criteria, so they can be used freely). (Infernal Ruling) Limited: If the Partisan isn't on the list of allowed models, it does use up your "Up to one Mercenary/Minion" slot, so you can only have the one. Whether you used option 1 or 2 above, once they're in your theme force they count as a Faction model and so: They can be taken as a Requistion Option (if they fit the Requistion description). For example Lanyssa can be taken as a free solo in the Legion of Dawn theme. (Infernal Ruling) They will get any theme benefit that they fit the description for. For example Storm Division gives all Cygnar models Immunity Electricity, so Partisan Mercs in that theme get immunity too. For example Nemo4's Mechaniks get Reposition [3] in Heavy Metal. (Infernal Ruling) Requisition Points   [Show/Hide] You can choose the same Requisition option as many times as you like, as long as it doesn't put you over a FA limit. You can't mix and match models from different options. Say one option allows 3 Machine Wraiths and another allows 3 Necrotechs. You can't use your Requisition Point to get 2 Wraiths and 1 Necrotech. If you have an option that allows one other solo, you can't use it to get something already on the list. For instance, Ghost Fleet allows 3 Misery Cages (which are FA 4) for one Requistion Point, and it allows 1 other solo. That "other solo" can't be a 4th Cage. If your theme allows "3 weapon attachments" as a Requistion Option, you can spread them into different units. (Locked Thread) Models with the Man-Sized rule count as small-based models for the purposes of being a Requistion Option. (Locked Thread) Free models and Specialists (ADR)    [Show/Hide] If your theme only allows one merc solo, you can't have one in your main list and a different one in your specialists. Unit Attachments   [Show/Hide] If a unit is allowed in a theme, any-and-all of its attachments are allowed too. Exception: Ranking Officers are not allowed unless explicitily mentioned. If the theme force gives a benefit to a specific unit, any-and-all attachments to that unit will benefit too. Even if it is a "generic" attachment like the Void Leech. (Infernal Ruling) For example, a Trollkin Sorcerer will gain Serenity if its attached to a Dhunian Knot unit in a Power of Dhunia theme force. If your theme allows "3 weapon attachments" as a Requistion Option, you can spread them into different units. (Locked Thread) A non-character unit with a character attachment (i.e. Captain Karli) still counts as a non-character unit. (Infernal Ruling) When to apply theme benefits   [Show/Hide] With reference to special abilities that themes give to models, Ranking Officers, adding new models, and/or taking control of models: Theme force benefits are applied when you construct your list or put a new model into play. A model already in play will not lose or gain any theme benefits mid-game based on any changes of faction status or otherwise. (Infernal Ruling) However, if the theme gives a benefit to models "at the beginning of the game" (such as Devourer's Host letting models begin the game with 1 corpse token) then this benefit does not apply to new models that are put into play mid-game. (Locked Thread) Example 1: Sons of the Tempest says "ATGM units in this army gain Pistoleer". If your opponent takes control of one of them, it keeps Pistoleer while under their control even though it's currently not "in the army". Example 2: Storm Division gives Immunity:Electricity to "Cygnar models in the army." If you include a Mercenary unit with a Ranking Officer, they will get the theme benefit and also keep it even after the Ranking Officer dies. Example 3: Stange Bedfellows gives solos Swift Vengeance. If Nemo4 creates a new solo mid-game, that solo will have Swift Vengeance. See also these Theme-Specific Rulings   [Show/Hide] Rules Clarification : Black Industries      (Edit) The entry which allows "Cephalyx models/units" only applies to Partisan Cephalyx. That's because the theme's rules start off with "this army can only include the following Cryx models"​. Partisan Cephalyx are the only ones that fill that condition. The Cephalyx Agitator also works for Cryx and can go in Black Industries but, because it is not a Partisan, it will use up your Mercenary solo slot. (Infernal Ruling) Rules Clarification : The Creator's Might      (Edit) ​Elias Gade is allowed in Creator's Might. (Infernal Ruling) You can spend the "Two Vassal solos" requistion option on one Vassal Mechanik and one Vassal of Menoth. Warroom has a bug and tells you that you can't. (Infernal Ruling) Rules Clarification : Flame in the Darkness      (Edit) You can take any number of Mercenary jacks. You can also select two additional jacks from Khador and Cygnar in any combination you like. Character warjacks with a bond don't count against this limit of 2. (Infernal Ruling) There is a bug in Warroom that allows you to take two Cygnar and two Khador jacks. Morrowan Battle Priest: If your warcaster is a Cygnar model that makes every unit you take a Cygnar unit, and Battle Priests can be attached to any unit. Warroom has a known bug where it doesn't allow this interaction. If your warcaster is a Mercenary or Khador model, though, the only units the Battle Priest can attach to are the Morrow ones. If you attach the Battle Priest to The Devil's Shadows Mutineers then it can be returned via Blood Bound. (Infernal Ruling) Rules Clarification : Llaelese Resistance      (Edit) It is 2 Cruicible or 2 Cygnar or 2 Menoth. You can't take more than 2, and you can't mix and match from multiple Factions. (Infernal Ruling) You can have a non-character unit with a character attachment (i.e. Captain Karli). (Infernal Ruling) Rules Clarification : The Talion Charter      (Edit) The 3rd benefit is "Sac Pawn [Sea Dog trooper]", not just any Sea Dog. (Infernal ruling) Rules Clarification : The Bones of Orboros      (Edit) Una1 cannot be taken in this theme (yet) due to the conflict between the theme's "Only Construct warbeasts allowed" and Una1's "Must take warbeasts with flight". There are no construct warbeasts with flight (yet). But if/when there is, then Una1 can be taken in this theme. (Infernal Ruling) Rules Clarification : The Devourer's Host      (Edit) Bradigus1 is not legal in this theme. The theme only allows living warbeasts, his rules only allow construct warbeasts, and you can't just 'skip' his battlegroup - you have to spend your warbeast points. If you create a new model mid-game (ie with the Well of Orboros and that model can have corpse tokens, that model does not enter play with a corpse. Because it's not the beginning of the game. (Locked thread) Rules Clarification : The Wild Hunt      (Edit) The animus benefit doesn't apply to enemy warbeasts. (Infernal Ruling) The animus benefit doesn't stack with the Druid Wilder's Herding ability. (Infernal Ruling) When it comes to other things that alter COST (such as Lamentation), follow basic maths: Double/halve first, then add/subtract. Rules Clarification : Oracles of Annihilation      (Edit) Kallus1's feat doesn't stack with the Minion bonus rule in Oracles of Annihilation, because one triggers at disabled and the other at destroyed. (Locked Thread) Rules Clarification : The Exalted      (Edit) If a Construct model loses the Construct advantage mid-game, it keeps the theme benefit anyway. (Infernal Ruling) Rules Clarification : Band of Heroes      (Edit) Boomhowler2 uses up your Minion slot. His Fell Calls ability is not enough to make him a "Fell Caller model/unit". (Infernal Ruling) Boomhowler3 does not use up your minion slot on account of having the Champion keyword. Rules Clarification : The Blindwater Congregation      (Edit) Void Leeches attached to a Gatorman Posse will gain Snacking, but they won't gain extra hitpoints. (Infernal Ruling) Rules Clarification : Magnum Opus      (Edit) If Mosby is attached to a Mercenary weapon crew unit, they would gain 3" reposition and would not lose it if Mosby is no longer in the unit. (Infernal Ruling) Rules Clarification : Hearts of Darkness      (Edit) Lukas can't take Maker Marked warjacks in Hearts of Darkness. (Infernal Ruling)