Brickhouse
Brickhouse |
With its advanced armament and heavily armored hull, Major Beth Maddox’s personal warjack Brickhouse is a veritable wall of steel. While capable of enduring sustained assaults and holding vital battlefield positions, the warjack is just as eager to wade into enemy ranks to crush opposing warjacks with blows from its devastating power maul. No matter the situation, this bulwark of Cygnaran engineering is a welcome sight to its allies.
Contents
Basic Info
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Abilities
- Warjack - All warjacks share the same set of special rules. Most notably being big and stompy. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.
- Construct
- Immunity: Electricity
- Bond [ Maddox ] - If this model begins the game in Maddox's battlegroup, it is bonded to them. This model is not considered to be bonded while under your opponent's control. While this model is bonded to Maddox and in their control range, Brickhouse gains Retaliatory Strike. (Retaliatory Strike - If this model is hit by a melee attack made by an enemy model during your opponent's turn, after that attack is resolved this model can immediately make one basic melee attack against that model. This model can make only one Retaliatory Strike per turn.)
- Carapace - This model gains +4 ARM against ranged attack damage rolls.
- Force Hold - Enemy models beginning an advance within 2" of this model cannot advance except to change facing. This model loses Force Hold while its Magno Fist weapon system is crippled.
Weapons
- Power Maul - 2" reach, P+S 18 melee weapon.
- Critical Smite - On a critical hit, the model hit can be slammed d6" directly away from this model. If the model hit has a larger base than the attacking model, it is moved only half the distance rolled. The POW of collateral damage is equal to the STR of this model.
- Magno Fist - 1" reach, P+S 15 melee weapon.
Theme Forces
- When taken by Maddox
- When taken by anyone else
Recent Changes
2019.07 Spoilers
- He's going to be added to the Storm Division as part of the theme remix.
Thoughts on Brickhouse
Brickhouse in a nutshell
Brickhouse is an interesting breed of warjacks. Its main chassis is on a Hammersmith class, with the respective SPD, DEF and ARM, while its charge range and actual hitting power is on par with the Ironclad. It costs 50% more than any of these two, for which it brings two things to the table:
- A Carapace that makes it a tough nut to crack with shooting. Almost the same level of ARM can be achieved by the readily available Arcane Shield too, but this one is unaffected by upkeep removal, and won't be neutralized by Blessed weaponry. On the flip side, it won't protect you from melee attacks, which are not free strikes.
- The Force Hold that can shut down enemy movement. It is almost completely a passive ability, working even if Brickhouse is knocked down, stationary, or the enemy is in its back arc. Hilarious against huge based targets too; even though a Colossal can't be made stationary, this one will shut down its movement, until the enemy deals with it.
Cygnar is not short on capable melee warjacks, and despite its seemingly ubiquitous specialties Brickhouse is a niche choice. It requires careful positioning to make the most out of it (or at least, more than you'd bring out from other, same-costed jacks). It also has immunity to electricity-based attacks, so you won't have to worry about arcing lightning arcs accidentally into it when you let loose your electro-leap shenanigans in its vicinity.
Combos & Synergies
Speed is everything, and Brickhouse has glaring weakness in this aspect. Look for casters who can fix it.
- Maddox - Probably your #1 target for Assail. Upkeeping Onslaught will also help it to deal with rough terrain. Retaliatory Strike with a fairly high MAT can potentially slam away a charging opponent on a critical hit, meaning they will only get one attack.
- Anyone with Repair ability. If the right arm is crippled, Critical Smite won't happen from Retaliatory Strike. If the left arm is crippled, Force Lock will cease to work.
- A Journeyman Warcaster's Arcane Shield can transform a hard-to-kill warjack into frustrating-to-kill one.
Out-of-theme combos
However, if you are deliberately playing out-of-theme, here's some ideas: [Expand/Collapse]
- Haley2 - Temporal Acceleration fixes speed issues, and TK offers a whole lot of fun with Force Lock.
- Kraye - Beside the obvious movement buffs (feat, Iron Horse and Horsepower) the boosted charge attacks allow Crit Smite to happen all the more often. With the following reposition you can advance towards the slammed model to reapply Force Hold. He also has some hilarious (or infuriating) interactions with Force Lock:
- Damage from Lock the Target will counter placement, pulling out the fangs of the above listed placing tricks.
- Admonition is usually not advised against charging models with Counter Charge, as they can charge you again due to the advance from Admonition. Not in this case though, if you remain within 2" after the Admonition move. As they start the advance part of their Counter Charge in your Force Lock range, they can't move from their spot. Do this trick only against enemies who don't have 2" melee range.
- Nemo1 - Universal jack tuner, plus with a Journeyman you can stack Deceleration, Carapace and Arcane Shield for a total of ARM 28 against shooting.
- Nemo2 - Abuse Polarity Shield and Force Lock to ensure that the enemy will only reach you if you want. Or put on Fail Safe, and enjoy the Force Lock until Brickhouse is destroyed.
- Sturgis1 can push or pull opponents into his magno-lock range.
- Stryker1 can stack ARM buffs on it.
- Stryker3 - Speed up with Escort and either deliver an auto-hitting punch under his feat, or get more chance to trigger Smite with Iron Aggression.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- Inherited weakness of its chassis, namely rock-bottom speed and DEF.
- Considering its raw combat potential it barely hits harder than an Ironclad while costing 6 pts more
- More sensitive for system damage than its peers, especially on its arms. Beware with Grievous Wounds, as they need only to hit to counter repairs.
- Can easily become redundant:
- Ironclad also has a very good critical effect on its main weapon, and with its superior speed it can run faster. The Tremor special attack often has more utility than Force Hold.
- Hammersmith can also Smite the enemy - though with a chain attack. It depends on the target, which one happens with greater reliability, but if Smite triggers, it can follow the target, while Brickhouse will remain where it was.
- A Stormclad costs the same, matches its defense in close combat, hits harder, has ranged presence, and due to Accumulator it means less of a FOCUS burden on Maddox.
- Off-themes, Ol'Rowdy offers default Retaliatory Strike, all the offensive output of the Ironclad and the ever-useful Counter-Charge, with excellent FOCUS efficiency thanks to Aggressive. All that for the very same point cost.
Tricks & Tips
- Force Lock is incredibly useful to keep your models in place, if they fall under the enemy's control with spells/abilities, most notably form Domination or Seduction. They can still turn around and attack, but can't advance (and will be in melee with you, if this happens in your front arc).
- Brickhouse is a strong deterrent - with Carapace the enemy will rarely bother shooting (and it often means that they'll shoot something else instead).
- Stop Brickhouse 1.5" away from an enemy with only 1" melee weapons and they will be utterly impotent. Watch out for weapons with Lunge or Chain Strike though.
- Outside of beating Brickhouse to scrap, there are numerous ways to bypass Force Lock. Most common are placement effect (Apparition, Telekinesis, Slipstream), but pushing/pulling (at worst, slamming) shots and blows are also not out of consideration.
- If an Apparition-capable model is in B2B with you, it cannot place itself out of your Force Lock range with Apparition, as it still will be exactly 2" away from you.
Other
Trivia
- Released in Forces of Warmachine: Cygnar Command (2017)
Other Cygnar models
Rules Clarifications
Rules Clarification : Open Fist (aka, Power Attack Throw) (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Smite (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Warjack (Edit)
Inert warjacks
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Rules Clarification : Construct - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Electricity (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Shadow Bind , Force Hold, Force Lock, Quagmire, and/or Crawling Chaos (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Carapace - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Bond (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Retaliatory Strike (Edit)
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