Post by Saynt on May 18, 2015 3:47:04 GMT
I do not claim credit for any of the AotW thread, that honor goes to the original authors from the en-forums on Rackham's old website.
This one is from forum member Xalintz:
I am going to cover first each and every model. Strategies will be listed if it’s a generic strategy. Strategies for using models in themes will be covered under the theme discussion which will follow.
Also these are my opinions, which will be bound to differ from someone.
Advantages
High Res, Good Magic, Good Faithful, Good Shooting, pretty good at mitigating fear.
Disadvantages
Average Strength. Average Initiative, Average Attack, Terrible Living Legend
Ability Highlights
The overall ability found on all griffin is Fanaticism. This allows you to re-roll a fear test if it would make you flee. You instead use your discipline instead of courage and if successful you don’t flee but remain effected by the other effects of rout. Not bad. More importantly if you go all attack you get a +1 bonus to your damage rolls in hand to hand.
There are 3 main fluff factions, Hod, Temple and the Inquisition. One thing to notice is that the Temple and Hod almost always have Bravery. Combined with fanaticism you have +1 ATT and damage. The Temple units quite often have war fury or some way to generate an additional attack dice such as sequence. Combined with high RES it isn’t uncommon to go all attack and overwhelm your opponent with dice. Inquisition has its own strategies talked about later.
And lastly because of their close ties to Merin, Griffin faithful have Illuminated.
My rating system is simple
* = marginal usage. Either its underpowered, or there is something better for the cost
** = useable but must be thought about to be useful requires strategy
*** = solid troop
**** = probably could be fit into any army
Warrior Troops
Griffin Spearman
Here is the cheap of the cheap. 13 AP. 2 INI and 2 ATT and a low STR is pretty bad. I’ve never seen the use for these.
Rating *
Griffin Conscripts (Veteran of the Crusades)
You have your modular troops here. The come in 15 and 18 AP choices. I usually use maces for the +2 strength, now with the new rules if using two cards they have to have different weapons so adding in swords for +1INI or spears for +1ATT. Is up too you. You either take INI bonus and pair it with a mace conscript for an INI 4 fray or settle for INI 3 and try and get a hit in easier with ATT 3. Veteran of the Crusades are great for tying up models because they have fierce. There strength is also naturally 1 higher. In other words for +3 points you get fierce and a bonus in strength. Why not take the Veterans.
Rating ** (***)
Griffin War Staff (Temple War Staff)
The war staff especially the temple version (which is prebound to Temple) looks very nice. The regular WS is cheap and useful for widening your leader’s courage bonus to your troops. However they have RES 5 which is low for a non Hod selection. The advantage the Temple War Staff has is the War Fury, Bravery abilities and at least a +1 bonus in every stat. So unless you need a war staff that isn’t bound to the temple I wouldn’t take the normal war staff aside for point shaving purposes. 17/18 AP versus 23 AP . One other thing to note is both versions come in box sets. However there are older harder to get normal war staff models that are very slightly different in blisters still available on special from the rackham store.
Rating **(***)
Legionary of Repentance
No model for this card. It’s a 15 AP Hard Boiled non-modular conscript with slightly different stats. It is slightly more offensive but 'suffers from' RES 5. Still better then Spearmen though. Also it is the only griffin model that doesn’t have Fanaticism.
Rating *
Sister of the Inquisition
This is the Griffin version of the Lion Valkyrie model. For 17 points you get a STR 10 Master Strike. However they have low RES and are bound to the Inquisition. They have marginal usage considering what you can get for less then 10 more AP, especially when they don’t have a model. There is a spell I discuss later that makes them more useful.
Rating **
Griffin Duelists
For 19 points you have a Defense 4 Ambidexterous model. Not bad for tying models up especially if you can boost there defense further because there RES is only 5. And there strength is very low at 3 as well.
Rating **
Fusilier
Here we have a very nice 19 point shooter. Aim 3, Strength 6 and excellent range increments. Hand to hand combat stats are pretty abysmal aside from their strength 6. These guys are great sitting there shooting by themselves but can also be enhanced with a Magistrate. They also come in a 23 point veteran version with sharpshooter.
Rating ***
Griffin Executioner (Executioner of the Inquisition)
For 20 AP this is a very nice role filling model. With a 12.5 movement and INI 4 this assassin troop is very nice. You can hold them back a little bit behind your normal 10 movement troops and then charge in to get a nice strength 7 assassin hit. Not to mention there ATT 5 so its going to hit quite often with charge penalties. However with RES 3 they don’t take hits very well. The 25 point inquisition version has 1 higher RES and are fierce even with the 3.5 changes to fierce I think the 5 points are still worth it for the upgrade.
Rating ***
Griffin Templar (22AP) and Templar of Hod (23AP)
Here is where we start getting into some good stuff. Both these models have Bravery and War Fury, so with Fanaticism and going all attack you have ATT4 STR 5. With a RES 9 (Griffin) RES 8 (HOD) you can rely on your RES to stay up and swarm away with dice.
Rating ** (the 25 point ones are better)
Temple Purifier
This is another Hod pariah unit. As with all Hod units their RES is lower then average for griffin. These are best used for their feint ability. With attack 4 or 5 you have a good shot of getting rid of your opponents dice. This isn’t a troop really to leave on its own. They also have pistols and aim 3 so they are nice 23 point role filling models with good chance of being able to assault fire.
Rating **
Templar Brother
This is a little bonus to the Templar’s spoken about before. They are bound to the Temple and have the same abilities, but they have base ATT 4 STR 6 so 5/7 when war furying. Not bad for 25 AP, and unless you are doing a list that prohibits them (Hod) I’d have at least a card of these in almost any army.
Rating ***
Griffin Thallions
These are your best scout choices for the Griffin army. It’s a shame they don’t release a full on thallion faction, I love them. They have a 4 INI standard griffin attack stats and a slightly below average RES of 7 (in comparison to most of the other elites in the army). However they have pistols and AIM 3 so they make excellent assault firing scouts. Or if you are fielding a faithful you can use them as invisible body guards because they also have the Loyal/1 ability. All for 28 points.
Rating ****
Templar of the Inquisition
This is hardest to kill normal troop with a nice RES 11. Typical of Temple units (even though they are unbound) they have war fury and bravery to make up for there low STR 5. They also have a free special capacity that when fielded with Warrior Mage Inquisitors they can be used as a relay for any spell cast by an Inquisitor from the Redemption path. The only problem is they still have to be 5cm from each other. However it does allow you to cast around corners or use spells that you need to be in hand to hand to cast. Only a 4 point increase from a 25 AP Templar Brother makes these guys pretty nice if you can afford the trade in STR for RES.
Rating ***
Griffin Minelayer
Almost forgot about these guys, probably because they aren’t used often. They have a 12.5 movement but pretty bad combat stats, they are scouts and pariahs. There special capacity allows them to place 1 trap and 3 decoy counters face down after the approach roll. After the approach the decoy counters are removed and 3 more trap counters are placed near the original trap counter to form a line of mines with 3cm spacing. It is annoying to note that these can’t be placed in the opponent’s deployment zone even though the minelayers are scouts. In any case once per round a minelayer within 15cm of a trap counter can try and make it explode. On a roll of 2+ it explodes roll 1d6 for each mine within 3 cm and on a 4 or more it explodes as well. All fighters within 3cm of an exploding mine takes a STR 6 damage roll.
Rating *
Praetorian Guard
Probably the most used troop choice in the army. Especially prior to 3.5. These guys are beast. Think of these as a beefed up Templar of the Inquisition. They have the same RES 11, but have ATT 5, STR 8. They also have Master Strike /2 allowing for STR 16 hits. Instead of Bravery they have Righteous which makes them immune to fear and still gives them the stat bonus to ATT. And on top of that they are brutal so they can re-roll 5’s on ATT and put charge counters on wolfen etc. Then you get into their special abilities. When master striking there attacks is considered sacred so doubles count as killed outright. Also any troop in the presence (within 10cm) of a praetorian guard automatically succeeds on their fanaticism tests.
Rating ****
Griffin Exorcist
These guys are severely underused probably because they are the same cost as a Praetorian and don’t really bring the same power to the table. However with the changes to sequence they are a bit more useable if you don’t always want to use PG’s. They are also righteous like PG’s. The main reason to use them is for their special capacity which allows them to choose a mage or faithful (friendly or enemy) within 20cm and in the exorcist’s line of sight. They then loose a mana gem or 1 T.F. and the exorcist or any friendly fighter within 20cm and line of sight can increase their INI, ATT, STR, DEF or RES by 1. This can only be done once per exorcist. With the new increase of mages and faithful in the game this can be useful for hosing a mage that gets a low mana recovery or is trying to control an elemental.
Rating ** maybe ***
Guardian of the Temple
I like to think of these guys as the PG’s of the Temple faction. For 4 extra AP you get War Fury and Sequence and Bravery. So you trade in the Master strike power for the ability to get 4 dice on 1 guy. With RES 10 they have good survivability even when going all attack. Before the 2007 selection rules I used to have 2 of these guys and 2 PG’s since at the time you couldn’t have 4 PG’s. With sequence being better these guys should be used more often.
Rating ****
Knight Templar of Hod
These guys come with the Nemesis expansion of the Hybrid game. With reasonable stats of 4 – 5/7 – 5/7, 42 AP may be a bit expensive. They do have war fury and a nice special capacity. When a knight of the Lodge of Hod uses War fury, his ATT and his STR are increased by 1 point each until the end of the round. This aura also affects all of his brothers-in-arms. All friendly fighters bound to the Lodge of Hod standing 10 cm or less of a knight of the Temple (in Confrontation) or in the same Unit as him (in Rag'Narok) also see their ATT and STR increase 1 point until the end of the round if they use War Fury. 38 AP
Rating **
Templar of Hod Seneshal
With 1 less STR and RES then the Knight Templar these guys are even more of a question for point effectiveness. They do have a pistol and sequence so they aren’t a complete loss. Also their special gun blade capacity allows them to roll a D6 before any hand to hand damage roll. On a 1 you don’t get a damage roll, on a 2-3-4 you get a normal damage roll and on a 5-6 you get two damage rolls one using the STR of the sword and one using the STR 6 pistol. Not bad but risky. Combine with an assault fire, and you have some potential. Still a bit unreliable for 42 points.
Rating * maybe **
Thallion Rider
There are 3 different profiles for the mounted Thallion. They have MOV 20 and typical thallion stats. However each one has a different ability you get to choose from three different pairs of abilities: Sequence/Implacble/1 ; Instinctive Firing/Harrassment ; and Instinctive Firing/Scout. With MOV 20 and a pistol these guys are pretty good to use for holding objectives and making assault firing charges.
Rating *** (at least until heavy cavalry come along)
Griffin Culverin/Veuglaire
Almost never used in confrontation (prior to 3.5) this has been talked about a lot more as being viable for 400 point games. You basically have the choice of a STR 20 Heavy Artillery and STR 10 Heavy Artillery with Zone. Remember Heavy Artillery means there is no deduction of strength for targets beyond the initial. For 42 AP and only having to take 2 16 point servants that has either Minelayer or Sapper/5 you have to think about how much you are going to be able to take down with the few rounds of shooting you have. You also have to think about defending it from scouts. However for an all shooting force its perfectly viable since everything will be staying near each other and firing at the enemy. There is also a 21 point mechanic you can take as a servant it has AIM 4 instead of AIM 3.
Rating **
Caster Troops
Darkness Hunter
A weaker choice for a warrior mage is the Darkness Hunter. They are designed to be mage killers but they suffer from RES 3. They get a bonus to their stats when fighting figurines with a POW rating. They also can make two shots when they shoot. They do have two different profiles and one of them does have AIM 4 with a STR 6 musket, albeit with short ranges. They are also POW 2 and have spell access to the exorcism path which is mainly used to defend hamper opponents casting. If the RES 3 doesn’t bother you they have their uses. There are 2 spells included with each blister. Circle of Protection gives a 5cm aura that prevents anything with Fear less then 6 from entering it. If they are already within the circle they are stunned. This lasts as long as the darkness hunter doesn’t move or make a mana recovery roll. Sanction is cast right before an Aim test targeting a figure with a POW if it hits the STR is multiplied by 2. Merin’s Edict allows a DH to spend Mana gems to force the enemy magician to sacrifice an equal amount of gems. And finally Excommunication is cast prior to movement anyone charging or engaging the target of the spell (except for character which can’t be targeted) can do so without needing to make a courage roll.
Rating **
Inquisitor
Here is the 2nd choice for non character warrior mages. They have pretty good stats and start at POW 2 most important is their RES 8. For every other inquisitor within 5cm he gets a bonus to all POW rolls up to a maximum of 5. Which makes spells difficulties based on POW really easy to cast. Even with POW 2 they still have a couple good spells. As with the Darkness hunters these come with 4 spells, 2 for each blister. Merin’s Justice allows the Inquisitor to share his current wound level with an enemy model. So if the inquisitor is at critical or serious so is the target. The inquisitor is then healed by 1 level. Wave of Fervour can be cast after moving but not charging and if succesful stuns everything within 5cm, Incandescent Chastiment allows the Inquisitor to roll 3 dice when making damage rolls like an assassin but if you roll triples its considered a killed outright (even to models with sacred armor). Enflammation forces the target to make a DIS roll difficulty 7. If it passes it takes a STR 0 damage roll, if it fails the DIS roll it takes two STR 2 damage rolls. It can’t target a Faithful, Living Dead, Righteous or Construct model.
Rating ***
Magistrate of the Griffin
This is a nifty little faithful. Its primary role is supporting ranged troops. They can take either 1 miracle or two sentences (which are magistrate reserved miracles) They can also roll a die at the beginning of a game round and put it aside. At any point in the turn a friendly miniature in the magistrates aura of faith can use that die roll to in place of the natural result of a INI, ATT, DEF, AIM, COU, DIS, POW, or DIV test. The most important Sentence they have is one that effects ranges by adding +10/+15/+20cm’s to the respective short/medium/long ranges. The other miracle works on buffing troops armed with judgment blades and blessed armor. He can either give a +2 STR (judgement blade) or +2 RES (blessed armor) if successfully cast. If it fails they get a respective 1 point penalty to the stat.
Rating ****
Character Ratings are a little different.
* = might be overpriced marginal usage in 400 AP games
** = overpriced but useable
*** = nicely priced and can be useful
**** = nicely priced and can be a huge impact
Warrior Characters
Abel the Ill-Tempered
This guy comes with the Griffin War Staff box set. He’s a nice little 51 point character with leadership. His 2nd Incarnation gives his leadership range a boost, he gets loyal/1 and a bonus +1 ATT +1 DEF +2 RES and +1 COU and DIS all for 12 points. He has a reserved artifact which is a special 15AP Judgment blade that makes him a warrior monk and gives him Creation 1/ Alteration 1 for his aspects. It also makes him fierce.
Rating ***
Arkhos Templar Commander
The first of a few characters that are over 100 points. Clocking in at 120 AP this guy has a pretty good stat line. With ATT 6 and DEF 7 he can sequence pretty easily without suffering. INI 6 is pretty good too. He has Leadership and DIS 9 so he’s going to win you most tacticals. He has War Fury and Fencer which to me always seems like a silly combination. With RES 10 war furying is safe or you can sequence and try and utilize fencer and counter attack. Being a master of the temple when he takes a war staff it gives a +3 bonus instead of +2. His 5 artifact allows you to reduce the cost of Griffin Templar or Templar Brother’s by 2 AP as long as it isn’t a character. This artifact can be taken by any Templar Commander, the only other one out is Sered
Rating *
Deacon Tiberius
The Praetorian Guard character. Who is probably too expensive for a viable 400 point army, especially with his artifacts which make him pretty nasty. One of the few Hyperians in the game he is Brutal can Masterstrike for strength 21 shots. He is Loyal/2 (mainly utilized in Rag I imagine). His RES 12 is the highest RES in the army. ATT 8 is also the highest aside from the living legend. He benefits from all the benefits of a PG and has a few artifacts that make him even better. Supreme Armor of the Griffin forces anyone rolling damage rolls to roll 3 dice and the player of Deacon gets to choose which 2 dice to use (unless they have something that lets the enemy choose which dice to use like assassin). For 39 points it can be expensive but really good. His other 25 point artifact gives him Fine Blade and he gets to roll a die before each damage roll. On a 5 or a 6 the Strength of the damage roll increases by a number of points equal to the targets RES. In other words they probably die.
Rating * (brutal in big games and rag though)
Garrell the Redeemer –
One of many marksmen character in the griffin army this is the Minelayer champion and therefore benefits from their free capacity to lay mines. He has a slight boost to typical minelayer stats. He does have their low RES 5 but he’s a marksmen so its not like you are going to be diving into combat with him. He boasts an very nice AIM 5, leadership, harassment and Scout. Unfortunately he’s a Pariah like the minelayers. He has both a pistol and a rifle, and he can choose which to fire on his activation. One is a rifle with 25/50/75 range STR 6 shot which he gets Sharp Shooter for, definitely the choice for taking advantage of bullseye with. His pistol is STR 6, 15/25/30 and he gets instinctive firing, good for assault firing into a fray with since he’ll only miss on a 1 and will only hit your man on a 1. He’s not a bad choice for 88 points.
Rating ***
Klayne
Klayne comes out of the Griffin card pack, and is a more expensive version of Arkhos. He is bound to the Inquisition, although with no reserved artifacts you can rename him and put him in any army if you choose to use him. He clocks in at a fat 145 AP. Comparing to the 120 Arkhos he gets +1 ATT, +1 RES and instead of Fencer he has Loyal 1. His leadership range is also 15 instead of 10. Still seems too expensive to use. He is also a Templar of the Inquisition so you can relay redemption spells through him via Armed Hand of the Inquistion. He also has a choice of taking a Sacred Weapon or a Judgement Blade which gives him +2 STR. This is not considered and artifact and its considered to be on his card so it goes with him should you rename him.
Rating **
Kyrus the Somber
This is the special edition sculpt from a contest winner. He has a PG similar stat line, with a 4 INI and a 7 STR. He also adds War Cry /6, Sequence and War Fury and loses Righteous and the on the card master strike from the PG abilities. He’s not bad, but he’s not great for 98 points. Change of pace character.
Rating *
Mira the Reckless
For 70 points Mira is a nice little character. Her stats aren’t average 5/7 – 5/7 but she does have INI 5. Her DIS is a low for Griffin at 5. But she does get a STR 6 pistol and AIM 4 for ‘only fail on a 1’ assault firing. She’s also immune to fire. I’ve always wanted to know if that means she ignores hits from a fire elemental… Her reserved 12 point artifact sword Hauteclaire gives her a +2 STR bonus and gives her the Bane/Possessed ability. It also has special abilities for Incarnation the defunct 1st attempt at Dogs of War.
Rating ***
Phidias of Basarac Another special edition model this guy has a 2nd Incarnation coming out sometime this year. He is a cheap little 62 point Champion from the lodge of Hod. But he isn’t that good. His abilities aren’t great, Survival Instinct, Scout and Bravery. He’s got midrange stats 4, 6-7, 5-6 and his aim for his pistol is only 3. He’s just not worth using when Mira is only 8 points more.
Rating *
Severian, Templar Champion
This guy is the temple version of Abel 2nd and is almost identical stat wise. His 10 point reserved artificat gives him +1 INI and ATT. He can also choose (before the tactical) to gain Survival Instinct until the end of the round, but it forces him to use his War Fury ability.
Rating **
Shanys the Shadow
This is a long out of print model that despite being silly looking, in my opinion, is highly sought out when it comes up on EBAY. She basically to me comes out as the Executioner character (the living legend not withstanding). She has 12.5 movement and INI 6. With ATT 7 and STR 8 you’ll enjoy her assassin ability pretty often. She also has consciousness which allows you to hide her and charge without line of sight. With fencer you can decide to hold a die in reserve to maybe finish someone off after a nice assassin roll. Unfortunately with RES 5 she’s not going to take the return hit very well. She also has Bravery. She has a reserverd 16 point artifact that gives her a choice every round on how to enhance her weapon. She can turn stuns into light wounds, roll two dice and choose which to keep for her INI, or she can give a 1 point penalty in RES to her opponent every time they receive a wound from her. If the penalties she gives ever exceeds the victim’s RES then its killed outright.
Rating ***
The Executioner
This is the living legend of the Griffin Army and its not that great compared to other LL although I’ve never used him. At 267 points he’s a 1 hit wonder designed to kill something in one hit. With his 15 movement, 12 INI and vivacity/rapidity and 13 ATT his assassin ability is hard to avoid. He has STR 9 (or 10 if you go all attack with Bravery) he can give a STR 22 master strike with assassin. But with RES 7 and DEF 7 he’s probably going to die especially if she’s fighting another LL. Her other disadvantage is that he’s on a cavalry base so that means he can be swarmed. His 3 artifacts don’t exactly save him either. As the Pope’s personal assassin he can take a 12 point artifact called Mortuary Alliance which allows him to choose an enemy character and gain Bane against it and ignores its FEAR if it has one. The Mask of the Executioner a 10 point artifact making it impossible to use consciousness to detect him and he can’t be charged or engaged by anyone who didn’t have him in their field of vision. The ring of redemption is an overpriced 40 point artifact that allows him to roll a 4th dice on assassin rolls. Personally I think all 3 artifacts should have been part of his abilities. Then he’d be worth his cost. And then give him some artifacts that allows him to rescout or something. Either that or release General Octavius as a new Living Legend!
Rating * (in rag too, I’d use Aerth or Deacon every time)
Venerable Ambrosius
The better choice of leaders for a Lodge of Hod army. Unfortunately he comes in the Hybrid box set. He has leadership and can even use it to benefit non-pariah’s as long as they are bound to the Lodge of Hod. He is also righteous not that you want him in combat as he’s pretty weak. His best aspect is his artifact and his aura ability. His long rifle is STR 6 with ranges of 20-50-75 and is a Sacred Weapon so exceptional wounds count as killed outright. You can ‘upgrade’ this by 13 AP which moves it to STR 7 and increases its ranges to 30-55-80. It also gave him something similar to bullseye and until the item gets an errata I believe its unusable. He also has the ability to choose a new aura every turn from 3 choices. Aura of Luck: allows a 1 per turn re-roll for anyone within 15cm (INI, ATT, DEF, AIM, COU or DIS). Aura of Protection: gives all Hod members within 15cm of him Parade. Bloody Aura: gives all Hod members that start the round within 10cm of Ambrosius the Implacable/1 ability.
Rating **
Mage Characters
Cairn the Apostle
This is the most economical caster choice for the army. His 1st incarnation is just an initiate of fire. His 2nd Incarnation which is 56 points instead of 41 makes him an Adept of Fire and Air and gives him +1 DIS, which is still a low 4. It also gives him the Redemption path along with the Theurgy path which his 1st incarnation has. He also has a judgment blade which can be used along with the magistrate’s ability to give him a reasonable strength 7 should he get into combat. He comes with a decent artifact that anyone can take for 20 AP. Anyone with 10cm of the artifacts bearer gets a -1 INI, ATT, DEF, and AIM as long as they aren’t Living-dead, Fanatic, Righteous or a Construct. He comes with 3 spells. Immolation is cast on any model friend or foe and gives a 1 point bonus in ATT and STR. If the spell fails (DIFF 6) then the magician takes a STR 0 wound. The best thing about this spell is frequency unlimited and it can be cast as many times as you want on the same target. And the bonuses don’t go away until the target takes a damage roll. (great in combination with inquisition’s grace) Auto-Da-Fe’ targets an enemy model with a STR 5 damage roll, if the target was under the effects of Immolation then the wound is STR 10 and all models in base contact with the target is STR 2. Anyone killed with this spell is removed from the game and can’t be reinforced. It can’t be used on constructs.
Rating * and *** for 2nd Inc
Eschelius the Ardent
This is Klayne but in caster form. He has 1 less INI, STR and RES. But he gains Authority, and he’s a Adept of Fire Warrior Mage with POW 5. He benefits from all the Inquisitor benefits so fielded near 2 other Inquisitor’s he’s rolling as if he had POW 7 (which is his limit instead of the inquisitors +3). He has a judgement blade and access to the theurgy and redemption paths of magic and his artifacts make him even nastier. The blade of last judgement is a 21 point artifact that increases the Intensity limitation of spells he can take by 2. It also allows him to roll a d6 every time he succeeds in an Incantation roll (frequency special or unlimited ignore this affect). The natural result of the dice roll divided by 2 and rounded up is the number of gems he recovers immediately and is added to his mana reserve. This artifact can also be taken by the Grand Exorcist if they ever release him. The helmet of Ardour is a 17 point artifact reserved to him that gives him Righteous and Rallying Cry, and it also increases his COU by +1. The best spell he comes with is Inquisitions Grace it allows him for 2 gems (and a Diff 6 Power roll) to roll a d6 whenever an inquisitor darkness hunter or templar of the inquisition is about to take a damage roll if the spell is cast successfully the damage roll is ignored. With frequency 2 it can basically keep him alive from just about everything. His other spell Witches Stake allows him to give a STR 10 damage roll to an enemy caster after countering or absorbing a spell. And since its Intensity 0 there is no reason not to take it. He is expensive at 149 AP but he is vastly better in my opinion then Klayne or Arkhos now that spells are free.
Rating ****
Melkion the Flaming
This is the premier Adept caster in the army at only 78 points he has POW 5. With Res 11 he has excellent survivability, and his INI 6 ATT 4 STR 6 allows him to fight off scouts with some degree of success. He has access to the Theurgy, Hermeticism, Fire, and Light paths. He comes with a pair of artifacts one, the Phoenix, that allows him to take unlimited intensity of fire spells for 20 AP and a set of Griffin Armor that any griffin character can take that subtracts two from their opponents ATT rolls and gives him counterattack at 33AP. He has 4 spells the first of which Angel of Fire requires fire and light gems but it gives all griffin within 10cm an additional combat die, however they must inflict at least a light wound or automatically suffer one during the maintenance phase. Spiritual Burn is cast upon an enemy (non-living dead, construct, elemental) its defense drops by 2 but its strength goes up by 2. Flash of Lahn is a Intensity 5 spell costing 4 fire and 5 light gems that stuns everything within 50cm that isn’t a follower of the Path’s of Light, anything that has a ranged weapon can only fire at short range until the end of the game. This spell is probably best for ragnarok. Ardent Blast is his final (and banned in 3.5) spell once you’ve chosen a difficulty you divide it by 3 and place that many card sized markers on the battlefield touching each other and starting at the casters front base. Everything caught in the blast or walking into during that round suffers an automatic light wound. At intensity 5 there are better choices unless you’ve taken the Phoenix.
Rating ****
Inquisitor Taetrius
This is a 79 AP Inquisitor character with leadership that comes in the Ragnarok box. It has a slight boost in stats, +1 INI, ATT, and DEF. He isn’t a bad choice, especially if you want to field three inquisitors and don’t want to spend twice as much on Eschelius. He still gets you leadership and DIS 7 and with the inquisitors special all three are still going to be getting +3 on POW rolls. He can be an interesting change of pace instead of using Melkion all the time if you’re looking for a different strategy.
Rating **
Faithful Characters
Misericord
This is Mira’s 2nd Incarnation and she is now a warrior monk bound to the Lodge of Hod with total aspects of 3 for 92 AP. She gets a minimal change in stats, +1 ATT, DEF, and COU, however her RES drops by 1. She’s also righteous now. She has a rifle this time around at STR 6 but it has 20-40-60 for ranges. Hauteclaire gets a substantial upgrade and is now a 28 point weapon, it still gives her +2 STR and Bane/Possessed, but now she can choose 2 of 3 abilities from the following. Halo of Strength gives all Temple or Hod fighters +1 strength if they are within her Aura of Faith. Justice of Fire allows her once per game to give all fighters (friend and foe) a STR 5 wound if they are within 10cm, even if obstacles are in the way. Mercy of the Virtuous allows her once per game to heal herself by two wound levels. She can choose 1 miracle and additionally acquire one of the two miracles reserved to her. The first Prophetic Clairvoyance allows you to choose a fervor before casting and if the call is heard roll 2d6 if the total is higher then or equal to 8 she gains faith equal to the chosen fervor, if it is less then she loses that much faith. The fervor chosen must be less then the faith she has at the time of casting. Sword of the Vengeful Angel allows her to get Brutal and Master Strike/ X. Master Strike/ X depends on the difficulty chosen, difficulty 6 gets you MS/2, 8 gets you MS/5 and 10 gets you MS/8. She’s a nifty little character, but Saphon brings a little more to the table for his costs.
Rating *
Priestess of Steel
This is one of the best Pure Faithful in the game I think. At only 43 points for her first incarnation she has 3 aspects, she has mediocre combat stats but has a spell that makes her offensive stats unimportant. Her RES 8 allows her to survive pretty well. Her 63 AP 2nd Incarnation gets a bonus to STR and Courage, and gives her Leadership and Sacred Armor. She also has 4 total aspects. She comes with the Ardent Icon a 19 AP artifact for any griffin faithful that gives anyone within 10cm of the bearer Immunity/Fear and any fleeing griffin rallies as soon as they enter the area of effect. Burning of the Infidels requires a lot of planning to make work. It allows you to give a wound equal to the amount of T.F. on the caster at the time of casting. This can be devastating if you plan correctly with a lot of loyal troops and some other tactics otherwise it comes out being just an average range 20 attack that you could have gotten from a fusilier probably. Merin’s Aegis cancels all shots passing through leaving or hitting anything within a 7.5cm circle around the caster. Incarnation of Justice is your end of casting spell or your spell when she gets into combat. It removes her Aura of Faith and any remaining T.F. but any wound she takes is reduced to a light wound, and any wound she gives is automatically a serious. She can maintain this for free and turn it off at any point in time.
Rating ****
Saphon the Preacher
Saphon’s 1st incarnation is a 72 AP warrior monk. He only has 2 aspects and below average stats. His best stat is his STR 6 Long Rifle, this allows you to keep him out of combat since he has RES 5. He has a nifty 10 point artifact that transforms his courage into fear, and he gets a bonus to his Fear of +1 for every griffin within 10cm. So you can easily get him up to Fear 10 which is where it’s limited. He comes with a few spells Merin’s Inspiration allows him to get and maintain. Leadership/10. Merin’s Hand increases his AIM 4 to AIM 5 and makes his range shots Sacred against anything that isn’t Immortal, Righteous or a faithful of Merin. Psalm of Heroes gives him a T.F. for every Griffin fighter that died within 5cm from him. The first two miracles are reserved to him the 3rd one isn’t. Unless you have point issues and are determined to field Saphon his 2nd incarnation is much better. Although I like this sculpt better then the pilgrim hat sculpt. *note he can take Absolution the artifact from his 2nd Incarnation*
Rating *
Saphon the Purifier
At 95 AP Saphon’s 2nd incarnation is bound to the Inquisition, his INI, ATT, DEF, RES, AIM all increase by 1, his DIS and COU increase by 2, and his STR drops by 1. That right there is probably worth the 23 point increase. He has a 25-50-75 STR 6 rifle as usual which can be upgraded. He has Authority, Harassment, and Sharpshooter, and his faith range increases to 12.5. Absolution the upgrade to his rifle makes it STR 10 and increases its ranges to 30-60-90. Since he’s a character he has the improved bulls eye making him amazingly good at shooting things at medium range, couple him with a magistrate and start shooting people to death he can shoot those big nasty models your opponent fields and put a hurtin’ on them. Remember you can take any of his 1st incarnation stuff so with Merin’s hand he’s got AIM 6 and a sacred rifle. He does come with 2 new spells. Summary execution can be cast on multiple troops to allow there shots to be treated with bulls eye even if they’ve moved or assault fired. Holy Terror gives a friendly model a Fear value equal to his DIS. Neither miracle is reserved to him. He also comes with a Relic for 12 AP that gives him a bonus aspect and allows him to exchange T.F. for mana (or vice versa) with any mage within is Aura. He can also spend 1 T.F. to nullify a fierce for a fierce fighter who has been killed outright. You still aren’t going to want to be in combat with this guy but he’s an amazing character marksman.
Rating ****
Sered, Templar Commander
This is faithful on the scale of Eschelius at 151 points. He has Praetorian Guard Stats, but with +2 INI and +1 ATT, STR and DEF. He’s exalted, has leadership, and Bravery and War Fury. So he’s obviously a warrior monk. Don’t forget he’s a Temple Commander. His Emblem of Felicity allows him to take up to 3 miracles and before the tactical roll he can acquire iconoclast until the end of the round definitely worth 12 AP. The 11 AP Pillar of Severity gives him +2 STR it also gives him a bonus +1 STR after each damage roll to the same opponent. He also comes with 4 spells. Divine Messenger allows the caster to choose a fervor and give the target that many T.F. this T.F. can then be given to a faithful within 5cm. So it makes someone a moveable T.F. battery, probably best for Ragnarok. Celestial Promise gives the target a -1 INI ATT and DEF until the end of the round and can be called more then once a round. Oath of the Condemned the first miracle reserved to Sered can be called every time he is wounded. Choosing a fervor between 1 and 6 the difficulty is equal to 3x the fervor, once cast each enemy model must make a discipline roll equal to the difficulty of the spell if it fails it takes a damage roll equal to the 3x the Fervor. Vengeance of the Temple is a very important spell to keep in mind. It gives all models already bound (on the card) to the temple Master Strike/1. This includes any fighter that has templar or of the temple on its card as well as Arkhos, Sered, and Mira 1st. He is a pretty expensive character but just as feasible to use Eschelius.
Rating ****
Themes – (reminder any fighter with temple on his card doesn’t have to pay any of the east, west, north, south temple costs to join, only for the solo’s)
Imperial Army
Led by Cardinal Aerth for 1AP per model for the crusade cost a 1 is not considered a failure on discipline rolls, including tactical and approach. Honorary Distinction is a special solo it gives them a bonus of +1 in INI, ATT, DEF, COU or DIS. The cost of the solo is equal to the original value of the attribute. The other solo, outstanding marksman, costing 5 (or 8 for characters) can re-roll any failed aim roll as long as they didn’t move. The other important part of this allows you to form the Army of Djaran which allows you to field 33% Cynwall, 33% Lions, and 33% Griffin. These don’t count as allies so makes it legal for all tournament play. The best aspect I think of this theme is the honorary distinction, upgrading the INI of grunts from 2 to 3 isn’t bad. However the Crusade cost seems a bit pricey since a lot of the characters have leadership you aren’t going to roll double 1’s that often in a 6 turn game. I would use this to pair Cynwall and Griffin and give out some outstanding marksman solos.
Temple of the East
Led by Arkhos this Crusade allows any non character griffin to aquire reinforcement if they eliminated an enemy character or opponent over 60AP. If the character is over 60AP the resulting reinforcement roll is increased by 1 point. The first solo, Quest for Arcavius, costs 3AP and allows any faithful to transmit 3T.F to another faithful in his camp within 30cm. Pure Heart costs the troops ATT in AP and can be used one per game to replace the fighter’s ATT with their DIS. There is another Crusade from the Temple of the East called the Alliance of Sarkai that is free and allows you to field 15% of your army as Orc’s as long as they aren’t characters, or bound to Behemoth or Tracker clans. They are not considered to be Allies.
Temple of the North
The temple of the north isn’t bad for confrontation it’s even better for Ragnarok. It allows you to sacrifice up to two (three for Rag) reserves (refusals for Rag) and designate a card (or a unit for Rag) and the troops for that card (or unit) get +2 strength and resilience. So if you don’t have any problems playing without reserves then this is a less cheesy way to beef your troops then the Temple of the South. There are two solo’s that are pretty decent but kind of costly. For 4 AP you can make a character, warrior mage or warrior monk a keeper of the faith which allows them to get Concentration/x (INI, ATT, DEF) where X is equal to the number of friendly griffin models endowed with the loyal/x ability within 10/cm up to a limit of concentration/3. This is obviously best in a Temple of the North army that employ’s one or two cards of thallions/riders. The Unyielding solo costs 5AP and can be given to a character, all friendly griffin within 10CM get +1 COU and DIS and it stacks with warstaff and leadership bonuses.
Temple of the South
A lot of people consider this the most broken crusade. It has no real crusade cost. The crusade cost allows you to buy counters at 5AP apiece that give you re-rolls for most ability rolls. The broken part is the Solo/Pledge of Kylae. For 1 AP it gives any griffin model +3 STR when charging. The other solo gives bane/mutagenic for 3AP. The Pledge can be used to make up for the average to low strength in a lot of the griffin models. All of a sudden the swarm of STR 4 or STR 6 war furying guys is now STR 7 or 10.
The Inquisition
This is another slightly broken theme however it’s not as cheap as temple of the south AP wise since it costs 2AP per trooper. Before each tactical you are allowed to give 1 troop (per 100 AP) the benefit of Sacred Weapons. You can use this one of two ways. You can use it to make people scared of your grunts the one time I’ve played against this it was in a 13+ model army and the sacred weapons were given to guys that probably wouldn’t be blocked normally. All of a sudden you have to worry about that spearman because he could roll doubles. I prefer instead to put it in a list that has 9-10 strong units probably with war fury and a high RES like the Templars of the Inquisition. The first solo Exorcist costs 4AP and can be given to any fighter with a POW rating, it allows them to get the exorcism path or if they have it +1 POW. Dogmatic is a 5AP solo for a fighter with aspects. Once per round he can counter or absorb enemy spells by spending T.F. instead of mana gems, still can’t be used to counter instinctive magic. Solo/Tormentor works the opposite way and allows a fighter with POW to censure an enemy faithful.
The Lodge of Hod
The main cost of the Temple of Hod costs 1 AP. It then gives you 1 counter for every FULL 50 AP of eliminated fighters. These can be distributed before the tactical roll. One characteristic (INI ATT DEF and AIM) is selected for each fighter with a counter until the end of the round you can spend the counter to re-roll a test bound to the selected characteristic. Solo/Vanguard (3AP) gives any non-character griffin Hod the scout ability. It can only be given to a troop with RES 6 or less. Solo/Close Fires costs 3AP and can be given to templar seneschal or temple purifier and it gives them the instinctive fire ability. Not a bad theme but I tend to find the already bound Hod members a little expensive with their low RES so making them 1 or 4AP more makes them less cost effective. However I did alright the one time I fielded an all Hod all scouting army.
Army List
Saphon 2nd [95AP]
- Absolution [10 AP]
- Summary Execution
Magistrate of the Griffin [31AP]
- Sentence of the Just
- Sentence of the Condemned
Fusilier x 3 [57AP]
Griffin Thallion x 3 [84AP]
Templar Purifier x 2 [46AP]
Praetorian Guard x2 [76AP]
The purpose of this list is to use the Magistrate to buff your shooters and bulls eye anything you have line of sight too, moving back when you need too. The Purifiers are there for the ability to feint away dice from anyone that gets into combat with your marksmen. The Thallions can be used to scout and take out casters or shooters or they can stay with your main force and assault fire when the approaching enemy gets close enough. The Praetorian Guard is your last line of defense.
Decided to add 1 more list that is a little more balanced and too me seems like a nice stable choice for 1st timer's.
Melkion [78]
-Martial Devotion
-Fire Elemental Summoning
-Primal of Fire
-Wall of Fire
-Immolation
-Burn of Steel
-Elemental Chains
3x Templar Brothers [75]
Griffin Inquisitor [32]
-Incandescent Chastisment
2x Praetorian [76]
3x Conscripts [45]
-Maces
2x Fusiliers [38]
2x Thallions [56]
14 Models 400AP
This list is pretty balanced it features the best caster for the army with a large array of spells. You aren't going to be able to cast them all. You can choose to try and maintain the Fire Elemental, but i usually put summoning spells in only to counter an opponents. You have a couple all out shooting models in the fusiliers that can sit back the first couple of rounds and soften up some bigger targets or try and take down some little guys. The thallions are in there as scouts for any undefended mages or marksmen or can approach next to your Hth fighters for some assault firing from scout. Then you have a nice balance of 3 cheap decent fighters (conscripts) mid ranged fighters (inquisitor and brothers) and then your two big hitter's in the PG's. 14 Models is very nice number too the only weakness might be the card count. But come to think of it I don't think i've ever fielded this balanced of a list
This one is from forum member Xalintz:
I am going to cover first each and every model. Strategies will be listed if it’s a generic strategy. Strategies for using models in themes will be covered under the theme discussion which will follow.
Also these are my opinions, which will be bound to differ from someone.
Advantages
High Res, Good Magic, Good Faithful, Good Shooting, pretty good at mitigating fear.
Disadvantages
Average Strength. Average Initiative, Average Attack, Terrible Living Legend
Ability Highlights
The overall ability found on all griffin is Fanaticism. This allows you to re-roll a fear test if it would make you flee. You instead use your discipline instead of courage and if successful you don’t flee but remain effected by the other effects of rout. Not bad. More importantly if you go all attack you get a +1 bonus to your damage rolls in hand to hand.
There are 3 main fluff factions, Hod, Temple and the Inquisition. One thing to notice is that the Temple and Hod almost always have Bravery. Combined with fanaticism you have +1 ATT and damage. The Temple units quite often have war fury or some way to generate an additional attack dice such as sequence. Combined with high RES it isn’t uncommon to go all attack and overwhelm your opponent with dice. Inquisition has its own strategies talked about later.
And lastly because of their close ties to Merin, Griffin faithful have Illuminated.
My rating system is simple
* = marginal usage. Either its underpowered, or there is something better for the cost
** = useable but must be thought about to be useful requires strategy
*** = solid troop
**** = probably could be fit into any army
Warrior Troops
Griffin Spearman
Here is the cheap of the cheap. 13 AP. 2 INI and 2 ATT and a low STR is pretty bad. I’ve never seen the use for these.
Rating *
Griffin Conscripts (Veteran of the Crusades)
You have your modular troops here. The come in 15 and 18 AP choices. I usually use maces for the +2 strength, now with the new rules if using two cards they have to have different weapons so adding in swords for +1INI or spears for +1ATT. Is up too you. You either take INI bonus and pair it with a mace conscript for an INI 4 fray or settle for INI 3 and try and get a hit in easier with ATT 3. Veteran of the Crusades are great for tying up models because they have fierce. There strength is also naturally 1 higher. In other words for +3 points you get fierce and a bonus in strength. Why not take the Veterans.
Rating ** (***)
Griffin War Staff (Temple War Staff)
The war staff especially the temple version (which is prebound to Temple) looks very nice. The regular WS is cheap and useful for widening your leader’s courage bonus to your troops. However they have RES 5 which is low for a non Hod selection. The advantage the Temple War Staff has is the War Fury, Bravery abilities and at least a +1 bonus in every stat. So unless you need a war staff that isn’t bound to the temple I wouldn’t take the normal war staff aside for point shaving purposes. 17/18 AP versus 23 AP . One other thing to note is both versions come in box sets. However there are older harder to get normal war staff models that are very slightly different in blisters still available on special from the rackham store.
Rating **(***)
Legionary of Repentance
No model for this card. It’s a 15 AP Hard Boiled non-modular conscript with slightly different stats. It is slightly more offensive but 'suffers from' RES 5. Still better then Spearmen though. Also it is the only griffin model that doesn’t have Fanaticism.
Rating *
Sister of the Inquisition
This is the Griffin version of the Lion Valkyrie model. For 17 points you get a STR 10 Master Strike. However they have low RES and are bound to the Inquisition. They have marginal usage considering what you can get for less then 10 more AP, especially when they don’t have a model. There is a spell I discuss later that makes them more useful.
Rating **
Griffin Duelists
For 19 points you have a Defense 4 Ambidexterous model. Not bad for tying models up especially if you can boost there defense further because there RES is only 5. And there strength is very low at 3 as well.
Rating **
Fusilier
Here we have a very nice 19 point shooter. Aim 3, Strength 6 and excellent range increments. Hand to hand combat stats are pretty abysmal aside from their strength 6. These guys are great sitting there shooting by themselves but can also be enhanced with a Magistrate. They also come in a 23 point veteran version with sharpshooter.
Rating ***
Griffin Executioner (Executioner of the Inquisition)
For 20 AP this is a very nice role filling model. With a 12.5 movement and INI 4 this assassin troop is very nice. You can hold them back a little bit behind your normal 10 movement troops and then charge in to get a nice strength 7 assassin hit. Not to mention there ATT 5 so its going to hit quite often with charge penalties. However with RES 3 they don’t take hits very well. The 25 point inquisition version has 1 higher RES and are fierce even with the 3.5 changes to fierce I think the 5 points are still worth it for the upgrade.
Rating ***
Griffin Templar (22AP) and Templar of Hod (23AP)
Here is where we start getting into some good stuff. Both these models have Bravery and War Fury, so with Fanaticism and going all attack you have ATT4 STR 5. With a RES 9 (Griffin) RES 8 (HOD) you can rely on your RES to stay up and swarm away with dice.
Rating ** (the 25 point ones are better)
Temple Purifier
This is another Hod pariah unit. As with all Hod units their RES is lower then average for griffin. These are best used for their feint ability. With attack 4 or 5 you have a good shot of getting rid of your opponents dice. This isn’t a troop really to leave on its own. They also have pistols and aim 3 so they are nice 23 point role filling models with good chance of being able to assault fire.
Rating **
Templar Brother
This is a little bonus to the Templar’s spoken about before. They are bound to the Temple and have the same abilities, but they have base ATT 4 STR 6 so 5/7 when war furying. Not bad for 25 AP, and unless you are doing a list that prohibits them (Hod) I’d have at least a card of these in almost any army.
Rating ***
Griffin Thallions
These are your best scout choices for the Griffin army. It’s a shame they don’t release a full on thallion faction, I love them. They have a 4 INI standard griffin attack stats and a slightly below average RES of 7 (in comparison to most of the other elites in the army). However they have pistols and AIM 3 so they make excellent assault firing scouts. Or if you are fielding a faithful you can use them as invisible body guards because they also have the Loyal/1 ability. All for 28 points.
Rating ****
Templar of the Inquisition
This is hardest to kill normal troop with a nice RES 11. Typical of Temple units (even though they are unbound) they have war fury and bravery to make up for there low STR 5. They also have a free special capacity that when fielded with Warrior Mage Inquisitors they can be used as a relay for any spell cast by an Inquisitor from the Redemption path. The only problem is they still have to be 5cm from each other. However it does allow you to cast around corners or use spells that you need to be in hand to hand to cast. Only a 4 point increase from a 25 AP Templar Brother makes these guys pretty nice if you can afford the trade in STR for RES.
Rating ***
Griffin Minelayer
Almost forgot about these guys, probably because they aren’t used often. They have a 12.5 movement but pretty bad combat stats, they are scouts and pariahs. There special capacity allows them to place 1 trap and 3 decoy counters face down after the approach roll. After the approach the decoy counters are removed and 3 more trap counters are placed near the original trap counter to form a line of mines with 3cm spacing. It is annoying to note that these can’t be placed in the opponent’s deployment zone even though the minelayers are scouts. In any case once per round a minelayer within 15cm of a trap counter can try and make it explode. On a roll of 2+ it explodes roll 1d6 for each mine within 3 cm and on a 4 or more it explodes as well. All fighters within 3cm of an exploding mine takes a STR 6 damage roll.
Rating *
Praetorian Guard
Probably the most used troop choice in the army. Especially prior to 3.5. These guys are beast. Think of these as a beefed up Templar of the Inquisition. They have the same RES 11, but have ATT 5, STR 8. They also have Master Strike /2 allowing for STR 16 hits. Instead of Bravery they have Righteous which makes them immune to fear and still gives them the stat bonus to ATT. And on top of that they are brutal so they can re-roll 5’s on ATT and put charge counters on wolfen etc. Then you get into their special abilities. When master striking there attacks is considered sacred so doubles count as killed outright. Also any troop in the presence (within 10cm) of a praetorian guard automatically succeeds on their fanaticism tests.
Rating ****
Griffin Exorcist
These guys are severely underused probably because they are the same cost as a Praetorian and don’t really bring the same power to the table. However with the changes to sequence they are a bit more useable if you don’t always want to use PG’s. They are also righteous like PG’s. The main reason to use them is for their special capacity which allows them to choose a mage or faithful (friendly or enemy) within 20cm and in the exorcist’s line of sight. They then loose a mana gem or 1 T.F. and the exorcist or any friendly fighter within 20cm and line of sight can increase their INI, ATT, STR, DEF or RES by 1. This can only be done once per exorcist. With the new increase of mages and faithful in the game this can be useful for hosing a mage that gets a low mana recovery or is trying to control an elemental.
Rating ** maybe ***
Guardian of the Temple
I like to think of these guys as the PG’s of the Temple faction. For 4 extra AP you get War Fury and Sequence and Bravery. So you trade in the Master strike power for the ability to get 4 dice on 1 guy. With RES 10 they have good survivability even when going all attack. Before the 2007 selection rules I used to have 2 of these guys and 2 PG’s since at the time you couldn’t have 4 PG’s. With sequence being better these guys should be used more often.
Rating ****
Knight Templar of Hod
These guys come with the Nemesis expansion of the Hybrid game. With reasonable stats of 4 – 5/7 – 5/7, 42 AP may be a bit expensive. They do have war fury and a nice special capacity. When a knight of the Lodge of Hod uses War fury, his ATT and his STR are increased by 1 point each until the end of the round. This aura also affects all of his brothers-in-arms. All friendly fighters bound to the Lodge of Hod standing 10 cm or less of a knight of the Temple (in Confrontation) or in the same Unit as him (in Rag'Narok) also see their ATT and STR increase 1 point until the end of the round if they use War Fury. 38 AP
Rating **
Templar of Hod Seneshal
With 1 less STR and RES then the Knight Templar these guys are even more of a question for point effectiveness. They do have a pistol and sequence so they aren’t a complete loss. Also their special gun blade capacity allows them to roll a D6 before any hand to hand damage roll. On a 1 you don’t get a damage roll, on a 2-3-4 you get a normal damage roll and on a 5-6 you get two damage rolls one using the STR of the sword and one using the STR 6 pistol. Not bad but risky. Combine with an assault fire, and you have some potential. Still a bit unreliable for 42 points.
Rating * maybe **
Thallion Rider
There are 3 different profiles for the mounted Thallion. They have MOV 20 and typical thallion stats. However each one has a different ability you get to choose from three different pairs of abilities: Sequence/Implacble/1 ; Instinctive Firing/Harrassment ; and Instinctive Firing/Scout. With MOV 20 and a pistol these guys are pretty good to use for holding objectives and making assault firing charges.
Rating *** (at least until heavy cavalry come along)
Griffin Culverin/Veuglaire
Almost never used in confrontation (prior to 3.5) this has been talked about a lot more as being viable for 400 point games. You basically have the choice of a STR 20 Heavy Artillery and STR 10 Heavy Artillery with Zone. Remember Heavy Artillery means there is no deduction of strength for targets beyond the initial. For 42 AP and only having to take 2 16 point servants that has either Minelayer or Sapper/5 you have to think about how much you are going to be able to take down with the few rounds of shooting you have. You also have to think about defending it from scouts. However for an all shooting force its perfectly viable since everything will be staying near each other and firing at the enemy. There is also a 21 point mechanic you can take as a servant it has AIM 4 instead of AIM 3.
Rating **
Caster Troops
Darkness Hunter
A weaker choice for a warrior mage is the Darkness Hunter. They are designed to be mage killers but they suffer from RES 3. They get a bonus to their stats when fighting figurines with a POW rating. They also can make two shots when they shoot. They do have two different profiles and one of them does have AIM 4 with a STR 6 musket, albeit with short ranges. They are also POW 2 and have spell access to the exorcism path which is mainly used to defend hamper opponents casting. If the RES 3 doesn’t bother you they have their uses. There are 2 spells included with each blister. Circle of Protection gives a 5cm aura that prevents anything with Fear less then 6 from entering it. If they are already within the circle they are stunned. This lasts as long as the darkness hunter doesn’t move or make a mana recovery roll. Sanction is cast right before an Aim test targeting a figure with a POW if it hits the STR is multiplied by 2. Merin’s Edict allows a DH to spend Mana gems to force the enemy magician to sacrifice an equal amount of gems. And finally Excommunication is cast prior to movement anyone charging or engaging the target of the spell (except for character which can’t be targeted) can do so without needing to make a courage roll.
Rating **
Inquisitor
Here is the 2nd choice for non character warrior mages. They have pretty good stats and start at POW 2 most important is their RES 8. For every other inquisitor within 5cm he gets a bonus to all POW rolls up to a maximum of 5. Which makes spells difficulties based on POW really easy to cast. Even with POW 2 they still have a couple good spells. As with the Darkness hunters these come with 4 spells, 2 for each blister. Merin’s Justice allows the Inquisitor to share his current wound level with an enemy model. So if the inquisitor is at critical or serious so is the target. The inquisitor is then healed by 1 level. Wave of Fervour can be cast after moving but not charging and if succesful stuns everything within 5cm, Incandescent Chastiment allows the Inquisitor to roll 3 dice when making damage rolls like an assassin but if you roll triples its considered a killed outright (even to models with sacred armor). Enflammation forces the target to make a DIS roll difficulty 7. If it passes it takes a STR 0 damage roll, if it fails the DIS roll it takes two STR 2 damage rolls. It can’t target a Faithful, Living Dead, Righteous or Construct model.
Rating ***
Magistrate of the Griffin
This is a nifty little faithful. Its primary role is supporting ranged troops. They can take either 1 miracle or two sentences (which are magistrate reserved miracles) They can also roll a die at the beginning of a game round and put it aside. At any point in the turn a friendly miniature in the magistrates aura of faith can use that die roll to in place of the natural result of a INI, ATT, DEF, AIM, COU, DIS, POW, or DIV test. The most important Sentence they have is one that effects ranges by adding +10/+15/+20cm’s to the respective short/medium/long ranges. The other miracle works on buffing troops armed with judgment blades and blessed armor. He can either give a +2 STR (judgement blade) or +2 RES (blessed armor) if successfully cast. If it fails they get a respective 1 point penalty to the stat.
Rating ****
Character Ratings are a little different.
* = might be overpriced marginal usage in 400 AP games
** = overpriced but useable
*** = nicely priced and can be useful
**** = nicely priced and can be a huge impact
Warrior Characters
Abel the Ill-Tempered
This guy comes with the Griffin War Staff box set. He’s a nice little 51 point character with leadership. His 2nd Incarnation gives his leadership range a boost, he gets loyal/1 and a bonus +1 ATT +1 DEF +2 RES and +1 COU and DIS all for 12 points. He has a reserved artifact which is a special 15AP Judgment blade that makes him a warrior monk and gives him Creation 1/ Alteration 1 for his aspects. It also makes him fierce.
Rating ***
Arkhos Templar Commander
The first of a few characters that are over 100 points. Clocking in at 120 AP this guy has a pretty good stat line. With ATT 6 and DEF 7 he can sequence pretty easily without suffering. INI 6 is pretty good too. He has Leadership and DIS 9 so he’s going to win you most tacticals. He has War Fury and Fencer which to me always seems like a silly combination. With RES 10 war furying is safe or you can sequence and try and utilize fencer and counter attack. Being a master of the temple when he takes a war staff it gives a +3 bonus instead of +2. His 5 artifact allows you to reduce the cost of Griffin Templar or Templar Brother’s by 2 AP as long as it isn’t a character. This artifact can be taken by any Templar Commander, the only other one out is Sered
Rating *
Deacon Tiberius
The Praetorian Guard character. Who is probably too expensive for a viable 400 point army, especially with his artifacts which make him pretty nasty. One of the few Hyperians in the game he is Brutal can Masterstrike for strength 21 shots. He is Loyal/2 (mainly utilized in Rag I imagine). His RES 12 is the highest RES in the army. ATT 8 is also the highest aside from the living legend. He benefits from all the benefits of a PG and has a few artifacts that make him even better. Supreme Armor of the Griffin forces anyone rolling damage rolls to roll 3 dice and the player of Deacon gets to choose which 2 dice to use (unless they have something that lets the enemy choose which dice to use like assassin). For 39 points it can be expensive but really good. His other 25 point artifact gives him Fine Blade and he gets to roll a die before each damage roll. On a 5 or a 6 the Strength of the damage roll increases by a number of points equal to the targets RES. In other words they probably die.
Rating * (brutal in big games and rag though)
Garrell the Redeemer –
One of many marksmen character in the griffin army this is the Minelayer champion and therefore benefits from their free capacity to lay mines. He has a slight boost to typical minelayer stats. He does have their low RES 5 but he’s a marksmen so its not like you are going to be diving into combat with him. He boasts an very nice AIM 5, leadership, harassment and Scout. Unfortunately he’s a Pariah like the minelayers. He has both a pistol and a rifle, and he can choose which to fire on his activation. One is a rifle with 25/50/75 range STR 6 shot which he gets Sharp Shooter for, definitely the choice for taking advantage of bullseye with. His pistol is STR 6, 15/25/30 and he gets instinctive firing, good for assault firing into a fray with since he’ll only miss on a 1 and will only hit your man on a 1. He’s not a bad choice for 88 points.
Rating ***
Klayne
Klayne comes out of the Griffin card pack, and is a more expensive version of Arkhos. He is bound to the Inquisition, although with no reserved artifacts you can rename him and put him in any army if you choose to use him. He clocks in at a fat 145 AP. Comparing to the 120 Arkhos he gets +1 ATT, +1 RES and instead of Fencer he has Loyal 1. His leadership range is also 15 instead of 10. Still seems too expensive to use. He is also a Templar of the Inquisition so you can relay redemption spells through him via Armed Hand of the Inquistion. He also has a choice of taking a Sacred Weapon or a Judgement Blade which gives him +2 STR. This is not considered and artifact and its considered to be on his card so it goes with him should you rename him.
Rating **
Kyrus the Somber
This is the special edition sculpt from a contest winner. He has a PG similar stat line, with a 4 INI and a 7 STR. He also adds War Cry /6, Sequence and War Fury and loses Righteous and the on the card master strike from the PG abilities. He’s not bad, but he’s not great for 98 points. Change of pace character.
Rating *
Mira the Reckless
For 70 points Mira is a nice little character. Her stats aren’t average 5/7 – 5/7 but she does have INI 5. Her DIS is a low for Griffin at 5. But she does get a STR 6 pistol and AIM 4 for ‘only fail on a 1’ assault firing. She’s also immune to fire. I’ve always wanted to know if that means she ignores hits from a fire elemental… Her reserved 12 point artifact sword Hauteclaire gives her a +2 STR bonus and gives her the Bane/Possessed ability. It also has special abilities for Incarnation the defunct 1st attempt at Dogs of War.
Rating ***
Phidias of Basarac Another special edition model this guy has a 2nd Incarnation coming out sometime this year. He is a cheap little 62 point Champion from the lodge of Hod. But he isn’t that good. His abilities aren’t great, Survival Instinct, Scout and Bravery. He’s got midrange stats 4, 6-7, 5-6 and his aim for his pistol is only 3. He’s just not worth using when Mira is only 8 points more.
Rating *
Severian, Templar Champion
This guy is the temple version of Abel 2nd and is almost identical stat wise. His 10 point reserved artificat gives him +1 INI and ATT. He can also choose (before the tactical) to gain Survival Instinct until the end of the round, but it forces him to use his War Fury ability.
Rating **
Shanys the Shadow
This is a long out of print model that despite being silly looking, in my opinion, is highly sought out when it comes up on EBAY. She basically to me comes out as the Executioner character (the living legend not withstanding). She has 12.5 movement and INI 6. With ATT 7 and STR 8 you’ll enjoy her assassin ability pretty often. She also has consciousness which allows you to hide her and charge without line of sight. With fencer you can decide to hold a die in reserve to maybe finish someone off after a nice assassin roll. Unfortunately with RES 5 she’s not going to take the return hit very well. She also has Bravery. She has a reserverd 16 point artifact that gives her a choice every round on how to enhance her weapon. She can turn stuns into light wounds, roll two dice and choose which to keep for her INI, or she can give a 1 point penalty in RES to her opponent every time they receive a wound from her. If the penalties she gives ever exceeds the victim’s RES then its killed outright.
Rating ***
The Executioner
This is the living legend of the Griffin Army and its not that great compared to other LL although I’ve never used him. At 267 points he’s a 1 hit wonder designed to kill something in one hit. With his 15 movement, 12 INI and vivacity/rapidity and 13 ATT his assassin ability is hard to avoid. He has STR 9 (or 10 if you go all attack with Bravery) he can give a STR 22 master strike with assassin. But with RES 7 and DEF 7 he’s probably going to die especially if she’s fighting another LL. Her other disadvantage is that he’s on a cavalry base so that means he can be swarmed. His 3 artifacts don’t exactly save him either. As the Pope’s personal assassin he can take a 12 point artifact called Mortuary Alliance which allows him to choose an enemy character and gain Bane against it and ignores its FEAR if it has one. The Mask of the Executioner a 10 point artifact making it impossible to use consciousness to detect him and he can’t be charged or engaged by anyone who didn’t have him in their field of vision. The ring of redemption is an overpriced 40 point artifact that allows him to roll a 4th dice on assassin rolls. Personally I think all 3 artifacts should have been part of his abilities. Then he’d be worth his cost. And then give him some artifacts that allows him to rescout or something. Either that or release General Octavius as a new Living Legend!
Rating * (in rag too, I’d use Aerth or Deacon every time)
Venerable Ambrosius
The better choice of leaders for a Lodge of Hod army. Unfortunately he comes in the Hybrid box set. He has leadership and can even use it to benefit non-pariah’s as long as they are bound to the Lodge of Hod. He is also righteous not that you want him in combat as he’s pretty weak. His best aspect is his artifact and his aura ability. His long rifle is STR 6 with ranges of 20-50-75 and is a Sacred Weapon so exceptional wounds count as killed outright. You can ‘upgrade’ this by 13 AP which moves it to STR 7 and increases its ranges to 30-55-80. It also gave him something similar to bullseye and until the item gets an errata I believe its unusable. He also has the ability to choose a new aura every turn from 3 choices. Aura of Luck: allows a 1 per turn re-roll for anyone within 15cm (INI, ATT, DEF, AIM, COU or DIS). Aura of Protection: gives all Hod members within 15cm of him Parade. Bloody Aura: gives all Hod members that start the round within 10cm of Ambrosius the Implacable/1 ability.
Rating **
Mage Characters
Cairn the Apostle
This is the most economical caster choice for the army. His 1st incarnation is just an initiate of fire. His 2nd Incarnation which is 56 points instead of 41 makes him an Adept of Fire and Air and gives him +1 DIS, which is still a low 4. It also gives him the Redemption path along with the Theurgy path which his 1st incarnation has. He also has a judgment blade which can be used along with the magistrate’s ability to give him a reasonable strength 7 should he get into combat. He comes with a decent artifact that anyone can take for 20 AP. Anyone with 10cm of the artifacts bearer gets a -1 INI, ATT, DEF, and AIM as long as they aren’t Living-dead, Fanatic, Righteous or a Construct. He comes with 3 spells. Immolation is cast on any model friend or foe and gives a 1 point bonus in ATT and STR. If the spell fails (DIFF 6) then the magician takes a STR 0 wound. The best thing about this spell is frequency unlimited and it can be cast as many times as you want on the same target. And the bonuses don’t go away until the target takes a damage roll. (great in combination with inquisition’s grace) Auto-Da-Fe’ targets an enemy model with a STR 5 damage roll, if the target was under the effects of Immolation then the wound is STR 10 and all models in base contact with the target is STR 2. Anyone killed with this spell is removed from the game and can’t be reinforced. It can’t be used on constructs.
Rating * and *** for 2nd Inc
Eschelius the Ardent
This is Klayne but in caster form. He has 1 less INI, STR and RES. But he gains Authority, and he’s a Adept of Fire Warrior Mage with POW 5. He benefits from all the Inquisitor benefits so fielded near 2 other Inquisitor’s he’s rolling as if he had POW 7 (which is his limit instead of the inquisitors +3). He has a judgement blade and access to the theurgy and redemption paths of magic and his artifacts make him even nastier. The blade of last judgement is a 21 point artifact that increases the Intensity limitation of spells he can take by 2. It also allows him to roll a d6 every time he succeeds in an Incantation roll (frequency special or unlimited ignore this affect). The natural result of the dice roll divided by 2 and rounded up is the number of gems he recovers immediately and is added to his mana reserve. This artifact can also be taken by the Grand Exorcist if they ever release him. The helmet of Ardour is a 17 point artifact reserved to him that gives him Righteous and Rallying Cry, and it also increases his COU by +1. The best spell he comes with is Inquisitions Grace it allows him for 2 gems (and a Diff 6 Power roll) to roll a d6 whenever an inquisitor darkness hunter or templar of the inquisition is about to take a damage roll if the spell is cast successfully the damage roll is ignored. With frequency 2 it can basically keep him alive from just about everything. His other spell Witches Stake allows him to give a STR 10 damage roll to an enemy caster after countering or absorbing a spell. And since its Intensity 0 there is no reason not to take it. He is expensive at 149 AP but he is vastly better in my opinion then Klayne or Arkhos now that spells are free.
Rating ****
Melkion the Flaming
This is the premier Adept caster in the army at only 78 points he has POW 5. With Res 11 he has excellent survivability, and his INI 6 ATT 4 STR 6 allows him to fight off scouts with some degree of success. He has access to the Theurgy, Hermeticism, Fire, and Light paths. He comes with a pair of artifacts one, the Phoenix, that allows him to take unlimited intensity of fire spells for 20 AP and a set of Griffin Armor that any griffin character can take that subtracts two from their opponents ATT rolls and gives him counterattack at 33AP. He has 4 spells the first of which Angel of Fire requires fire and light gems but it gives all griffin within 10cm an additional combat die, however they must inflict at least a light wound or automatically suffer one during the maintenance phase. Spiritual Burn is cast upon an enemy (non-living dead, construct, elemental) its defense drops by 2 but its strength goes up by 2. Flash of Lahn is a Intensity 5 spell costing 4 fire and 5 light gems that stuns everything within 50cm that isn’t a follower of the Path’s of Light, anything that has a ranged weapon can only fire at short range until the end of the game. This spell is probably best for ragnarok. Ardent Blast is his final (and banned in 3.5) spell once you’ve chosen a difficulty you divide it by 3 and place that many card sized markers on the battlefield touching each other and starting at the casters front base. Everything caught in the blast or walking into during that round suffers an automatic light wound. At intensity 5 there are better choices unless you’ve taken the Phoenix.
Rating ****
Inquisitor Taetrius
This is a 79 AP Inquisitor character with leadership that comes in the Ragnarok box. It has a slight boost in stats, +1 INI, ATT, and DEF. He isn’t a bad choice, especially if you want to field three inquisitors and don’t want to spend twice as much on Eschelius. He still gets you leadership and DIS 7 and with the inquisitors special all three are still going to be getting +3 on POW rolls. He can be an interesting change of pace instead of using Melkion all the time if you’re looking for a different strategy.
Rating **
Faithful Characters
Misericord
This is Mira’s 2nd Incarnation and she is now a warrior monk bound to the Lodge of Hod with total aspects of 3 for 92 AP. She gets a minimal change in stats, +1 ATT, DEF, and COU, however her RES drops by 1. She’s also righteous now. She has a rifle this time around at STR 6 but it has 20-40-60 for ranges. Hauteclaire gets a substantial upgrade and is now a 28 point weapon, it still gives her +2 STR and Bane/Possessed, but now she can choose 2 of 3 abilities from the following. Halo of Strength gives all Temple or Hod fighters +1 strength if they are within her Aura of Faith. Justice of Fire allows her once per game to give all fighters (friend and foe) a STR 5 wound if they are within 10cm, even if obstacles are in the way. Mercy of the Virtuous allows her once per game to heal herself by two wound levels. She can choose 1 miracle and additionally acquire one of the two miracles reserved to her. The first Prophetic Clairvoyance allows you to choose a fervor before casting and if the call is heard roll 2d6 if the total is higher then or equal to 8 she gains faith equal to the chosen fervor, if it is less then she loses that much faith. The fervor chosen must be less then the faith she has at the time of casting. Sword of the Vengeful Angel allows her to get Brutal and Master Strike/ X. Master Strike/ X depends on the difficulty chosen, difficulty 6 gets you MS/2, 8 gets you MS/5 and 10 gets you MS/8. She’s a nifty little character, but Saphon brings a little more to the table for his costs.
Rating *
Priestess of Steel
This is one of the best Pure Faithful in the game I think. At only 43 points for her first incarnation she has 3 aspects, she has mediocre combat stats but has a spell that makes her offensive stats unimportant. Her RES 8 allows her to survive pretty well. Her 63 AP 2nd Incarnation gets a bonus to STR and Courage, and gives her Leadership and Sacred Armor. She also has 4 total aspects. She comes with the Ardent Icon a 19 AP artifact for any griffin faithful that gives anyone within 10cm of the bearer Immunity/Fear and any fleeing griffin rallies as soon as they enter the area of effect. Burning of the Infidels requires a lot of planning to make work. It allows you to give a wound equal to the amount of T.F. on the caster at the time of casting. This can be devastating if you plan correctly with a lot of loyal troops and some other tactics otherwise it comes out being just an average range 20 attack that you could have gotten from a fusilier probably. Merin’s Aegis cancels all shots passing through leaving or hitting anything within a 7.5cm circle around the caster. Incarnation of Justice is your end of casting spell or your spell when she gets into combat. It removes her Aura of Faith and any remaining T.F. but any wound she takes is reduced to a light wound, and any wound she gives is automatically a serious. She can maintain this for free and turn it off at any point in time.
Rating ****
Saphon the Preacher
Saphon’s 1st incarnation is a 72 AP warrior monk. He only has 2 aspects and below average stats. His best stat is his STR 6 Long Rifle, this allows you to keep him out of combat since he has RES 5. He has a nifty 10 point artifact that transforms his courage into fear, and he gets a bonus to his Fear of +1 for every griffin within 10cm. So you can easily get him up to Fear 10 which is where it’s limited. He comes with a few spells Merin’s Inspiration allows him to get and maintain. Leadership/10. Merin’s Hand increases his AIM 4 to AIM 5 and makes his range shots Sacred against anything that isn’t Immortal, Righteous or a faithful of Merin. Psalm of Heroes gives him a T.F. for every Griffin fighter that died within 5cm from him. The first two miracles are reserved to him the 3rd one isn’t. Unless you have point issues and are determined to field Saphon his 2nd incarnation is much better. Although I like this sculpt better then the pilgrim hat sculpt. *note he can take Absolution the artifact from his 2nd Incarnation*
Rating *
Saphon the Purifier
At 95 AP Saphon’s 2nd incarnation is bound to the Inquisition, his INI, ATT, DEF, RES, AIM all increase by 1, his DIS and COU increase by 2, and his STR drops by 1. That right there is probably worth the 23 point increase. He has a 25-50-75 STR 6 rifle as usual which can be upgraded. He has Authority, Harassment, and Sharpshooter, and his faith range increases to 12.5. Absolution the upgrade to his rifle makes it STR 10 and increases its ranges to 30-60-90. Since he’s a character he has the improved bulls eye making him amazingly good at shooting things at medium range, couple him with a magistrate and start shooting people to death he can shoot those big nasty models your opponent fields and put a hurtin’ on them. Remember you can take any of his 1st incarnation stuff so with Merin’s hand he’s got AIM 6 and a sacred rifle. He does come with 2 new spells. Summary execution can be cast on multiple troops to allow there shots to be treated with bulls eye even if they’ve moved or assault fired. Holy Terror gives a friendly model a Fear value equal to his DIS. Neither miracle is reserved to him. He also comes with a Relic for 12 AP that gives him a bonus aspect and allows him to exchange T.F. for mana (or vice versa) with any mage within is Aura. He can also spend 1 T.F. to nullify a fierce for a fierce fighter who has been killed outright. You still aren’t going to want to be in combat with this guy but he’s an amazing character marksman.
Rating ****
Sered, Templar Commander
This is faithful on the scale of Eschelius at 151 points. He has Praetorian Guard Stats, but with +2 INI and +1 ATT, STR and DEF. He’s exalted, has leadership, and Bravery and War Fury. So he’s obviously a warrior monk. Don’t forget he’s a Temple Commander. His Emblem of Felicity allows him to take up to 3 miracles and before the tactical roll he can acquire iconoclast until the end of the round definitely worth 12 AP. The 11 AP Pillar of Severity gives him +2 STR it also gives him a bonus +1 STR after each damage roll to the same opponent. He also comes with 4 spells. Divine Messenger allows the caster to choose a fervor and give the target that many T.F. this T.F. can then be given to a faithful within 5cm. So it makes someone a moveable T.F. battery, probably best for Ragnarok. Celestial Promise gives the target a -1 INI ATT and DEF until the end of the round and can be called more then once a round. Oath of the Condemned the first miracle reserved to Sered can be called every time he is wounded. Choosing a fervor between 1 and 6 the difficulty is equal to 3x the fervor, once cast each enemy model must make a discipline roll equal to the difficulty of the spell if it fails it takes a damage roll equal to the 3x the Fervor. Vengeance of the Temple is a very important spell to keep in mind. It gives all models already bound (on the card) to the temple Master Strike/1. This includes any fighter that has templar or of the temple on its card as well as Arkhos, Sered, and Mira 1st. He is a pretty expensive character but just as feasible to use Eschelius.
Rating ****
Themes – (reminder any fighter with temple on his card doesn’t have to pay any of the east, west, north, south temple costs to join, only for the solo’s)
Imperial Army
Led by Cardinal Aerth for 1AP per model for the crusade cost a 1 is not considered a failure on discipline rolls, including tactical and approach. Honorary Distinction is a special solo it gives them a bonus of +1 in INI, ATT, DEF, COU or DIS. The cost of the solo is equal to the original value of the attribute. The other solo, outstanding marksman, costing 5 (or 8 for characters) can re-roll any failed aim roll as long as they didn’t move. The other important part of this allows you to form the Army of Djaran which allows you to field 33% Cynwall, 33% Lions, and 33% Griffin. These don’t count as allies so makes it legal for all tournament play. The best aspect I think of this theme is the honorary distinction, upgrading the INI of grunts from 2 to 3 isn’t bad. However the Crusade cost seems a bit pricey since a lot of the characters have leadership you aren’t going to roll double 1’s that often in a 6 turn game. I would use this to pair Cynwall and Griffin and give out some outstanding marksman solos.
Temple of the East
Led by Arkhos this Crusade allows any non character griffin to aquire reinforcement if they eliminated an enemy character or opponent over 60AP. If the character is over 60AP the resulting reinforcement roll is increased by 1 point. The first solo, Quest for Arcavius, costs 3AP and allows any faithful to transmit 3T.F to another faithful in his camp within 30cm. Pure Heart costs the troops ATT in AP and can be used one per game to replace the fighter’s ATT with their DIS. There is another Crusade from the Temple of the East called the Alliance of Sarkai that is free and allows you to field 15% of your army as Orc’s as long as they aren’t characters, or bound to Behemoth or Tracker clans. They are not considered to be Allies.
Temple of the North
The temple of the north isn’t bad for confrontation it’s even better for Ragnarok. It allows you to sacrifice up to two (three for Rag) reserves (refusals for Rag) and designate a card (or a unit for Rag) and the troops for that card (or unit) get +2 strength and resilience. So if you don’t have any problems playing without reserves then this is a less cheesy way to beef your troops then the Temple of the South. There are two solo’s that are pretty decent but kind of costly. For 4 AP you can make a character, warrior mage or warrior monk a keeper of the faith which allows them to get Concentration/x (INI, ATT, DEF) where X is equal to the number of friendly griffin models endowed with the loyal/x ability within 10/cm up to a limit of concentration/3. This is obviously best in a Temple of the North army that employ’s one or two cards of thallions/riders. The Unyielding solo costs 5AP and can be given to a character, all friendly griffin within 10CM get +1 COU and DIS and it stacks with warstaff and leadership bonuses.
Temple of the South
A lot of people consider this the most broken crusade. It has no real crusade cost. The crusade cost allows you to buy counters at 5AP apiece that give you re-rolls for most ability rolls. The broken part is the Solo/Pledge of Kylae. For 1 AP it gives any griffin model +3 STR when charging. The other solo gives bane/mutagenic for 3AP. The Pledge can be used to make up for the average to low strength in a lot of the griffin models. All of a sudden the swarm of STR 4 or STR 6 war furying guys is now STR 7 or 10.
The Inquisition
This is another slightly broken theme however it’s not as cheap as temple of the south AP wise since it costs 2AP per trooper. Before each tactical you are allowed to give 1 troop (per 100 AP) the benefit of Sacred Weapons. You can use this one of two ways. You can use it to make people scared of your grunts the one time I’ve played against this it was in a 13+ model army and the sacred weapons were given to guys that probably wouldn’t be blocked normally. All of a sudden you have to worry about that spearman because he could roll doubles. I prefer instead to put it in a list that has 9-10 strong units probably with war fury and a high RES like the Templars of the Inquisition. The first solo Exorcist costs 4AP and can be given to any fighter with a POW rating, it allows them to get the exorcism path or if they have it +1 POW. Dogmatic is a 5AP solo for a fighter with aspects. Once per round he can counter or absorb enemy spells by spending T.F. instead of mana gems, still can’t be used to counter instinctive magic. Solo/Tormentor works the opposite way and allows a fighter with POW to censure an enemy faithful.
The Lodge of Hod
The main cost of the Temple of Hod costs 1 AP. It then gives you 1 counter for every FULL 50 AP of eliminated fighters. These can be distributed before the tactical roll. One characteristic (INI ATT DEF and AIM) is selected for each fighter with a counter until the end of the round you can spend the counter to re-roll a test bound to the selected characteristic. Solo/Vanguard (3AP) gives any non-character griffin Hod the scout ability. It can only be given to a troop with RES 6 or less. Solo/Close Fires costs 3AP and can be given to templar seneschal or temple purifier and it gives them the instinctive fire ability. Not a bad theme but I tend to find the already bound Hod members a little expensive with their low RES so making them 1 or 4AP more makes them less cost effective. However I did alright the one time I fielded an all Hod all scouting army.
Army List
Saphon 2nd [95AP]
- Absolution [10 AP]
- Summary Execution
Magistrate of the Griffin [31AP]
- Sentence of the Just
- Sentence of the Condemned
Fusilier x 3 [57AP]
Griffin Thallion x 3 [84AP]
Templar Purifier x 2 [46AP]
Praetorian Guard x2 [76AP]
The purpose of this list is to use the Magistrate to buff your shooters and bulls eye anything you have line of sight too, moving back when you need too. The Purifiers are there for the ability to feint away dice from anyone that gets into combat with your marksmen. The Thallions can be used to scout and take out casters or shooters or they can stay with your main force and assault fire when the approaching enemy gets close enough. The Praetorian Guard is your last line of defense.
Decided to add 1 more list that is a little more balanced and too me seems like a nice stable choice for 1st timer's.
Melkion [78]
-Martial Devotion
-Fire Elemental Summoning
-Primal of Fire
-Wall of Fire
-Immolation
-Burn of Steel
-Elemental Chains
3x Templar Brothers [75]
Griffin Inquisitor [32]
-Incandescent Chastisment
2x Praetorian [76]
3x Conscripts [45]
-Maces
2x Fusiliers [38]
2x Thallions [56]
14 Models 400AP
This list is pretty balanced it features the best caster for the army with a large array of spells. You aren't going to be able to cast them all. You can choose to try and maintain the Fire Elemental, but i usually put summoning spells in only to counter an opponents. You have a couple all out shooting models in the fusiliers that can sit back the first couple of rounds and soften up some bigger targets or try and take down some little guys. The thallions are in there as scouts for any undefended mages or marksmen or can approach next to your Hth fighters for some assault firing from scout. Then you have a nice balance of 3 cheap decent fighters (conscripts) mid ranged fighters (inquisitor and brothers) and then your two big hitter's in the PG's. 14 Models is very nice number too the only weakness might be the card count. But come to think of it I don't think i've ever fielded this balanced of a list
