Vice Scrutator Vindictus has finally dropped!

I must say I’ve been very excited to see this caster, as I was pretty impressed by the first two new casters.

After reading his entry, I found myself a bit confused.

He has a pretty average stat line (Briefly: SPD 6, MAT 6, FOC 6, DEF 15 ARM 16). He has a blessed weapon, but it’s only P+S 12, no reach, no weaponmaster. He also has a P+S 12 chain weapon.

His spell list was the most impressive aspect for me. He has Defender’s Ward, one of the best defensive buffs in the game, as well as Sacrificial Lamb, which makes him fairly efficient with warjacks. His signature spell, however, HAS to be True Path. This spell is giving warrior models in his control range +2 movement and Pathfinder. This is why I think a Hierophant will be almost and auto-include with him, as the spell is 3 Focus and non-upkeepable.

His feat gives you an infantry-control element: Perdition- When one or more friendly faction models are DAMAGED by an enemy attack while in his control area, after the attack is resolved, the attacker takes one damage point.

On the whole, I think he’s a pretty solid addition to the Protectorate Lineup. He’s awesome with their infantry, and can run a few jacks pretty damn efficiently. Toss in his Sacrificial Pawn ability, and he’s pretty good. I’d toss him into about the middle tier of Protectorate casters, though he will be significantly better if your meta is troop-heavy.

Now that we have seen the new casters for four of the five original factions, I’d rank them as follows: 1. Strakhov 2. Sloan 3. Vindictus 4. Venethrax

-Rick

Lich Lord Venethrax was spoiled yesterday via the Privateer Insider newsletter, and subsequently posted in the forums. For those of you who haven’t seen:

http://www.privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?t=18017

I’ve read through his line a few times, and I keep thinking that while his concept seems fun, he might be a difficult caster to use, and might struggle to enter the upper echelon of casters. Like Aspyxious, he just seems a bit confused. One one hand he has excellent melee capabilities with a P+S 14 Reach weapon (which will be 16, because c’mon, you should be casting Dragon Slayer turn 1 and upkeeping it) with MAT 8. Dismember and his fury-reaving ability give him absolutely murderous potential against Hordes. His defensive stat line is solid, with 15/16 base and 15/18 with Dragon Slayer.

I enjoy his spell list, and think that he’ll get a ton of milage out of it. Between the effect of Dragon Slayer and Cull Soul, he could be sitting on a pretty respectable amount of focus. Blood Rain and Hellfire are both solid damage/effect spells, and I think that Lamentation is a very interesting addition to a Cryx spell list.

The biggest disappointment for me on this model is his feat. It seems like it’s going to be somewhat difficult to learn to use properly. On one hand, it can definitely be used to distribute some LOS-blocking covering fire, but it seems like it might be problematic against lists that don’t rely on infantry.

The fact that the model is on a medium base also hurts in a Cryx list. He’ll need to hide behind some jacks or something like Bloodgorgers to get him up the field where he wants to be. It’s mitigated somewhat by his good ARM stat and focus to camp, but one good Eiryss shot could take away both of those advantages.
All in all I love the model, and think that he looks very interesting to play. Can’t wait to see him on the table to see what he can do!

-Rick