Warmachine Crucible Guard and Protectorate of Menoth Preview - Start Collecting Warmachine

Published: August 28, 2018 1:00 PM /

Previewed By:


warmachine crucible guard (1)

This month we started our Start Collecting Warmachine / Hordes series. Following on from that, Privateer Press have sent us some previews of Warjacks and Warcasters for the new Crucible Guard army and a new Warcaster from the Protectorate of Menoth, which we will showcase here.

The units we are going to look at are:

  • Aurum Lucanum Athanor Locke - Crucible Guard Warcaster
  • Toro / Vindicator / Suppressor - Crucible Guard Heavy Warjack
  • Prospero - Crucible Guard Solo
  • High Exemplar Cyrenia - Protectorate of Menoth Warcaster
[gallery columns="4" size="large" ids="251025,251024,251026,251027"]

The Crucible Guard are a limited release faction for Warmachine, meaning they won't have as many units and releases as the full Warmachine factions. From what I've seen so far, they are quite a ranged heavy faction that likes to focus on buffing their units, but they're still very potent in close combat and short range.

Aurum Lucanum Athanor Locke has some incredible buff spells for Warjacks including Road to War, which lets a warjack advance after removing an enemy and Redline, which boosts the speed and damage of a warjack and allows it to make trample or slam power attacks for free, but the warjack takes D3 wounds at the end of the turn. These are useful for pushing towards an enemy if your warjack was going to get taken out this turn anyway, or to get ahead early with damage dealing. Locke can repair any damage the warjack takes with a repair skill action, but it could leave her exposed. She can also push for a enemy Warcaster assassination run herself with Engine of Destruction, which boosts her speed, strength, and melee attack for a turn with Bombshell thrown in if you can afford it for a great boost on critical hits. Her Feat is a combination of offense and defense and is great for stripping upkeep spells, which can really benefit her if she is pushing for an assassination attempt on the enemy warcaster.

Prospero is a support model, who does have his own attacks but is primarily used to boost others within his control range with spells like Guided Fire, which boosts battlegroup ranged attacks within his control range.

The Toro Heavy Warjack pack allows you to build either a Toro, armed with a shield and sword; a Vindicator, armed with Multi-Chambered Compression Cannon and a Maul; or a Suppressor, armed with Pyrodraulic Jets and its fists. We built the Vindicator because we like the maul and the compression cannon packs a real hit. The Vindicator uses the different ammo options for its cannon to fill a lot of roles and is its primary focus. The Suppressor is armed with shorter ranged jets that can spray ice, fire, or rust, and the Toro is a melee warjack.

The best warjacks combination for Locke and Prospero would be a Toro, Suppressor, and a light Liberator warjack, as they would synergize well with their powers and abilities. If we continue to collect the Crucible Guard, that's where we'll look to take them.

warmachine crucible guard 10
The datacards for the Crucible Guard units discussed. All datacards are available from privateerpress.com.

High Exemplar Cyrenia is a new warcaster for the Protectorate of Menoth. When we asked a friend of ours who use to play Warmachine to a high competitive level about using the Protectorate, we were simply told, Faith and Fire, Denial and Synergy. That's what the Protectorate are about, and that's what they do well. To use Cyrenia effectively, we were advised to take a big melee hitter to cast positive charges on and some Exemplar units to take advantage of all her buffing. She's very tactical to use, so probably not suitable for a beginner as she has a lot of movement tricks and great defensive abilities that can making your opponent pay for each Exemplar they kill. Cyrenia can speed all her friendly warriors up and make them immune to free strikes, letting your force maneuver and cause mischief.

[gallery size="medium" ids="251023,251164,251163"]

Having been researching and testing out the new miniatures for the Crucible Guard and Protectorate of Menoth, we're now very keen to begin forces of our own for both factions. The Exemplar miniatures look incredible and we love the synergies that both factions offer in game. We'll be looking to start our own forces and will update you on our progress.

Do you play Warmachine / Hordes? What do you play? What do you think of the new units for the Crucible Guard and the Protectorate of Menoth? Let us know in the comments below.

These miniatures for Warmachine were provided by Privateer Press.

Previews you can trust: To ensure you're getting a fair, accurate, and informed review, our experienced team spends a significant amount of time on everything we preview. Read more about how we review games and products.

 

Have a tip, or want to point out something we missed? Leave a Comment or e-mail us at tips@techraptor.net


A Potts TechRaptor
| Senior Tabletop Writer

Adam is a Tabletop Specialist for TechRaptor. He started writing for TechRaptor in 2017 and took over as Tabletop Editor in 2019 and has since stood down… More about Adam