View source for Baldur the Stonecleaver

[[Circle Orboros]] [[Category:Circle Orboros]] [[:Category:Secret Dominion|Secret Dominion]][[Category:Secret Dominion]] [[:Category:Warlock|Warlock]][[Category:Warlock]] [[Category:Leader]]

=Model stats and abilities=

<table>
   <tr>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid grey; vertical-align: top;">
{{Model-stats
| name  = Hellyth
| base  = 30 mm
| hp    = 15
| spd   = 7
| aat   = 6
| mat   = 6
| rat   = 7
| def   = 14
| arm   = 17
| arc   = 7
| ctrl  = 12
}}
</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid grey; vertical-align: top;"> <table > 
          {{Model Advantage | advantage = Resistance Fire | icon = Resistance Fire}}
          {{Model Advantage | advantage = Resistance Corrosion| icon = Resistance Corrosion}}
          {{Model Advantage | advantage = Pathfinder| icon = Pathfinder}}                    
          {{Model Advantage | advantage = Dual Attack | icon = Dual_attack}} Corrosion}}
          {{Model Advantage | advantage = Tough| icon = Tough}}   
          {{Model Advantage | advantage = Undead | icon = Undead}}
          {{Field Marshal | ability = Hyper-Aggressive}}            
          {{Model Ability | ability = Arcane Machinery}}
          {{Model Ability | ability = Arcane Calibrations}}
          {{Model Ability | ability = Ionization}}
          {{Model Ability | ability = Vexing Alignment}}
          {{Star Attack | ability = Death Rattle}}
          {{Star Attack| ability = Marionette}}
          {{Star Action| ability = Pupppet Master}}
          {{Model Ability | ability = Prowl}}
          {{Model Ability | ability = Reposition}}
          {{Model Ability | ability = Take Down}}
          {{Veteran Leader | ability = Assault Kommando}}

      </table> </td>
</table>

{{Warcaster}}

=Weapons=
   <table style="border-collapse: collapse;>       <tr>
		<th>Weapon</th><th>Type</th><th>Stats</th><th>Specials</th>
	   </tr>
        {WEAPONNAME1}}
        {WEAPONNAME2}}

</table>

=Feat=
FEATNAME
{{#ifexist: Template:Errata-FEATNAME| 
{{Template:Errata-FEATNAME}}
|  }}

=Spells=
{{SPELLNAME}}
{{SPELLNAME}}

==Spell Rack (Slots 2)==


=Errata=
No Errata specifically for this model. Ability errata will appear in an expandable box next to the rule (Pistol, for example).

=Changes and Updates=
=== [https://home.privateerpress.com/2024/01/10/warmachine-app-update-january-10-2024/ WARMACHINE APP UPDATE January 10, 2024] ===
* Added to the Secret Dominion army as a Scout warlock.
''"Notes: We felt that Baldur was a solid and natural addition to this army.

"''

=Lore=

=Trivia=

=Battle Reports=

=Videos=

----------------legacy----------------

''A bastion of strength and resolve noted for his steadfast loyalty, Baldur the Stonecleaver is an unstoppable juggernaut on the battlefield.''

=Basic Info=
{{Infobox-Model
| name  = [[Baldur|Baldur1]]
| image = Baldur-the-stonecleaver.jpg
| base  = Small
| spd   = 5
| str   = 7
| mat   = 7
| rat   irrelevant
| def   = 14
| arm   = 16
| cmd   irrelevant
| fury  = 6
| hp    = 17
| wbp   = +31
}}

{{Warlock}}

===Feat: Broken Earth===
# While in Baldur's {{CTRL}} range, friendly Faction models gain [[cover]]. [[Category: Cover Feat]]
# While in Baldur's {{CTRL}} range, enemy models never have [[Pathfinder]] and treat open ground as rough terrain.
: Broken Earth lasts for one round.

===Abilities===
* {{Pathfinder}}
* {{Elemental Mastery}}
* {{Forest Walk}}

===Weapons ===
{|class="wikitable"
{{melee|Tritus|2|7|14|
* {{Weight of Stone}}
* {{Magical Weapon}} }}
|}

===Spells===
{{Spellbox|
{{Earth Spikes}}
{{Rapid Growth}}
{{Solid Ground}}
{{Stone Skin}}
}}

===Theme Forces ===
* {{Secret Masters}}. In this theme he gains [[Sacrificial Pawn]] [Minion Warrior]
* {{The Bones of Orboros}}. He can start the game with friendly upkeeps in play in this theme.
* {{The Devourer's Host}} 
* {{The Wild Hunt}}


=Thoughts on Baldur1=
===Baldur1 in a nutshell===
Baldur the Stonecleaver is a generalist support warlock. A bit of control with his feat and forest, a bit of buffing with Stone Skin, a bit of protection with Solid Ground, and several different assassination methods.

===Feat thoughts===
Baldur's feat is best used during the early turns of the game, during your approach toward the enemy.  While he's geared to run Wolds, don't overlook Warpwolves with him. With cover from his feat, they're very difficult to shoot without combined ranged attacks, and Circle excels at removing the units that can perform those combined ranged attacks.  Even more importantly, Warpwolves (especially [[Feral Warpwolf|Feral Warpwolves]]) are fast, and can claim objectives early while Baldur uses his feat to slow down the opponent and get easy victory points as a result.

===Spell thoughts===
Baldur's spell list is also pretty strong.  
* '''Solid Ground''' pairs well with the tough [[Tharn Ravagers]] and [[Tharn Blood Pack]], keeping them on their feet for more tough rolls.  The Blast Resistance spell is even more useful for Circle Infantry, as they tend to have high defense and low armor.
* '''Stone Skin''' is the spell most people think of when they think of Baldur1.  With the extra strength and armor, you can turn a [[Woldwarden]] into a Khador Warjack, or you can give [[Tharn Bloodtrackers|Bloodtrackers]] a strength bonus that enhances both their ranged and melee attacks.  Bloodtrackers are really good unit with Baldur since they benefit heavily from Blast Resistance spell's +4 ARM for blast damage.
* '''Rapid Growth''' allows him to drop a forest anywhere in his Control area.  While the first thing many people think about is it enabling a forest walk assassination... and while that's true, it doesn't happen as often as you'd think.  Rather, it's a great tool for line of sight blocking... with two Woldwardens and Rapid Growth, you can block off about 12" of line of sight that almost nothing in the game can see through.
* '''Earth Spikes''' is a fairly decent nuke spell, but even moreso because of the list of defenses it ignores - most of the ways enemy solos try to hide from being hit.  This is especially true when you're using Geomancy from the Woldwardens... between ignoring those defenses and the Woldwarden's ability to boost, there isn't much he can't hit. Finally the AoE has a base 4/9 chance of scoring a critical knockdown so when boosted is sometimes worth slinging idly at the enemy caster for a pop and drop assassination with little lost if it fails.

===Drawbacks & Downsides===
* He doesn't have any terrible matchups - he's a bit too all round for that. (Although beware of armies with easy access to Ghostly and/or Flight.)
* Be sure to think of your plan when picking your army. Baldur doesn't provide one for you.
* Using Rapid Growth to give Baldur somewhere to teleport to for a Forest Walk assassination looks like a good idea. In practice your opponent only needs a small camp and it will probably fail; a more reliable method is presented below.

===Tricks & Tips===
* Forest Placement
** When blocking LOS with Rapid Growth, be sure not to place it too close to the model you're trying to block, or they'll simply walk into the forest and negate the disadvantage.  
** A single forest generally isn't sufficient either... you'll usually need at least three forests in a line to block enough line of sight that they can't move around it to shoot their intended target. 
** The closer the forests are to the shooter, the more of their line of sight it blocks.  Also, the closer  the forests are to the intended target, the fewer  line of sight angles there are to shoot him. 
** If you know their intended target, surrounding it with forests can often be more effective than building a forest wall.

=List Building Advice=
===Strategy===
The problem picking an army for Baldur is he works well with everything, but he doesn't have a "key win" condition. Coming up with a plan and picking models to suit it, will probably work better than picking a bunch of models and trying to figure something out. He buffs a bit of everything and has two assassination options but is not amazingly great at anything. He's a pretty good warlock for learning the ropes with and hard counters a couple of tactics including blast template spam.

'''The Baldur Assassination''' requires three models and only works against enemy casters who start in Baldur's control area, but Baldur to start in a forest. It is, however, unusual enough it will catch a lot of people by surprise. In order to do it you need a [[Blackclad Wayfarer]] (either starting within 8" of the enemy caster or by some shifting stones), and a [[Woldwatcher]] in the vague area. Then:
* Teleport the Wayfarer either behind the enemy caster or walk him up to him.
* Kill the Wayfarer with the Woldwatcher either by shooting (if the Wayfarer got behind the enemy) or melee if in melee with the enemy. Use your backstrike bonus.
*  The Wayfarer having been turned into Fertilizer, Baldur can now Forest Walk into melee and pulp the enemy.

Taking [[Shivers]] with a [[Woldwarden]] in the Wild Hunt theme makes for a potent assassination run: Run Shivers into the desired position, activate the Woldwarden and cast its animus and mimicry it with Shivers. Now if you're in a forest you can teleport into melee with the enemy caster. Running Shivers next to Baldur, activating the Woldwarden and casting its animus also works. Then you are able to activate Baldur and cast Rapid Growth next to enemy casters and start the assassination.

Earth Spikes spammed through Woldwardens can make for a a very potent magic "gun"line.

===Theme thoughts===
Baldur the Stonecleaver works with almost everything. Living or stone warbeasts. Single wound or multi wound infantry. Which of course means that he works well with any theme force.

{{Header|[[The Bones of Orboros]]}}

Is the obvious construct theme. A little more assassin-y than most, load up on wardens and fire away! The main problem is that other themes also allows you to use Wolds and have better model selection. Bones' Wolds are just slightly more tanky and you get a free Stone Skin at the strt.
* [[Sentry Stone & Mannikins]] are excellent
* [[Stone Keeper]] - +2 STR so your wardens hit like real heavies at P+S 18.
* [[Wayfarer]] - Your Wolds already charge for free but the +2 distance is nice.
* [[Chuck Dogwood]] - Veteran Leader for your favourite warbeasts! It affects Geomancy, too, so Wardens become very competent spellcasters. absolutely essential.

{{Header|[[The Wild Hunt]]}}

Brings the Skinwalkers - and a lot more infantry, all of whom love both +4 armor against blast damage and cover from incoming fire for a turn.
* [[Warpborn Skinwalkers]] under Stone Skin are ARM 20 with 8 wounds and Hyper Regeneration in melee. Oh, and hit at P+S 16.

{{Header|[[The Devourer's Host]]}}

* [[Tharn Bloodtrackers]] and [[Tharn Bloodweavers]] are DEF 14 with Stealth but ARM 11. They die horribly to blast damage except under Solid Ground.
* [[Tharn Ravagers]], [[Tharn Blood Pack]] love Solid Ground because it makes them no-knockdown-tough. Bloodpack is brutal, and durable with Baldur1.
* This theme has excellent targets for Stone Skin in Ravagers. Remember that STR buffs also apply to thrown weapons, so Wolf Riders or Bloodtrackers are also an option.

{{Header|[[Secret Masters]]}}

The better version of Bones as it gives you access to all the models in it, sans Mannakins but also unlimited Minion models.
* [[Farrow Valkyries]] - a unit to score circular zones with and ablative Shield Guards.
* [[Hermit]] - Telemetry provides +2 to magic attack rolls, while master of ruin pushes Earth Spikes to effective POW 15.
* [[Thamarite Advocate]] - An reroll to magic attack rolls is always neat.
* [[Scythe]] - Wild Growth gives her a forest to hide in for Treewalker.
* [[Bog Trog Mist Speaker]] for Guidance.

===Battlegroup===
[[File:Megalith.jpg|thumb|[[Megalith]] is his pet warbeast, which he can take in any theme.]]

* [[Megalith]] is his pet warbeast, which he can take in any theme force. However Megalith's bond is only really useful with [[Baldur the Stonesoul]] as Baldur1 doesn't damage himself.

* '''Construct warbeasts''' look obvious with Baldur as he grants free charges, and some of them (including the [[Wold Guardian]] and [[Woldwrath]]) don't suffer from Stone Skin's DEF debuff while loving its ARM buff.
** The [[Woldwarden]] has a special place with the Stonecleaver with because it's able to independently cast Earth Spikes.Load up on on them and spam away to see what is left standing, use it to snipe solos, or to enable assassinations. 
* '''Warpwolves''' ([[Pureblood Warpwolf]], [[Feral Warpwolf]], and [[Warpwolf Stalker]]) use DEF 14 to protect themselves and are very vulnerable to being knocked down, 
** [[Wrong Eye & Snapjaw]] make those high DEF warpwolves even harder to hit via Star Crossed.
** Combining a Pureblood with a Woldwrath with the Pureblood flanking isn't a bad idea.

===First Seven Purchases===
A few veteran players have put their heads together and tried to figure out the seven best things to buy for this specific caster. This is ''not'' designed to add up to a nice round points limit, nor be balanced vs other "First Seven" lists you find on this website. It is simply going to give you some of the essentials this caster needs ''most'' of the time.

# Warbeast: [[Storm Raptor]]
# Warbeast: [[Ghetorix]]
# Structure: [[Well of Orboros]]
# Solo: [[Tharn Ravager White Mane]]
# Unit: [[Tharn Ravagers]] + CA
# Unit: [[Death Wolves]]
# Unit: [[Boil Master & Spirit Cauldron]]

=Other=
===Trivia===
Baldur1 was one of the Circle warlocks, released way back in MK1 Hordes Primal (2006).

===Video Battle Reports===
* [https://youtu.be/aKucnjfI28g 2018.11 Deathclock Dave], vs [[Ravyn1]]
* {{VBR}}

===Other Circle models===
{{Index Circle}}

===Rules Clarifications===
{{RC Weight of Stone}}
{{RC Magical Weapon}}

{{RC Warlock}}
{{RC Pathfinder}}
{{RC Elemental Mastery}}
{{RC Forest Walk}}

{{RC Earth Spikes}}
{{RC Rapid Growth}}
{{RC Solid Ground}}
{{RC Stone Skin}}