Powder Monkey

On a busy pirate ship, the sea dogs that crew the vessel come and go, particularly in hostile waters. Oftentimes ships find themselves short on crew and are willing to consider unconventional solutions. A well-trained monkey can be just as useful as the average half-drunk sea dog for many tasks, including running powder to cannon crews and warjacks. Teaching one to light a readied cannon or even to fire small pistols is well within a monkey’s capabilities. Whether or not it’s actually a good idea to hand a torch to a monkey who sits atop a powder keg is another matter.

Basic Info

• Mercenary - Powder Monkey will work for Template:Cryx mercenary, Template:Cygnar mercenary, or Template:Khador mercenary.

Abilities

• Template:Ancillary Attack
• Template:Catastrophic Explosion
• Template:Empower
• Template:Monkey Bite

Weapons

Pistol
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		8			1			Template:-			10
Bite
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				3				6

Theme Forces

• Mercenaries
  • Template:The Talion Charter. Powder Monkey gains Sacrificial Pawn [Sea Dog trooper] in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Mercenary models can be hired by other Factions. Normally those Factions' themes will have a limit on how many models they can hire. Refer to #Other Theme Forces, below.
  • Aside from that, there are a few themes that will change what Faction this model counts as (and thus what "friendly Faction only" buffs it can receive). They are:
    • Infernal players can use this model in the Hearts of Darkness theme.

Thoughts on the Powder Monkey

Powder Monkey in a nutshell

The Powder Monkey is an explosive new support solo for the privateers. This monkey provides an exceptionally cheap 'jack support tool that frees up a lot of the focus load from your 'caster. Primarily, he brings Ancillary Attack to Privateer 'jacks (please note the specific typing on this ability!) and Empower. Secondarily, he... uh, blows up. Yes, that is a feature. At two points for the model the Powder Monkey is a bargain and possibly cheap enough to be considered a theme bonus.

Combos & Synergies

• Any merc jack likes empowering and an extra attack (Notice that only Privateer Warjack get the extra attack)
• Notable are the Galleon and the Swabber under Bart, as they can get multiple out-of-activation shots with Broadside and Ancilliary Attack, which can allow you to drag multiple enemy models into their melee range.
• the Swabber deserves extra special mention as it can make the monkey immune to blast damage and knockdown while in base contact and use shield guard vs small arms fire to keep his hairy friend alive.
• Shae and Rahera struggle to cast all the spells they want to, leaving very little for their warjacks. Empower gets around this issue.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Its CMD range is criminally low, meaning it has to stay close to a jack to apply its buffs, which makes it liable to being fried by e-leaps, blasts, ect.
• It's combat profile is basically non-existant. Combat is not what you take it for though, so that's barely a downside.
• It's only available in Talion Charter and Hearts of Darkness.
  • Technically it can work for a few other Factions but its main abilities, Empower & Ancillary Attack, are same-Faction only - making working for others almost entirely pointless..
• very easy to kill at range it has 5 hp but even an electro leap will kill it on an average roll.

Tricks & Tips

• Ancilliary Attack is amazing on a ranged drag - as with the Galleon or the Swabber
• It's not bad on other ranged attacks, as with the Mariner
• Remember that you can have three Powder Monkeys fuelling a single warjack - you may only use one for Ancilliary Attack, but the other two can Empower it so your caster can use their focus elsewhere.
• Ancillary Attack works on Privateer jacks only. Empower works on non-Privateers.
• Ancillary and Empower only work on friendly Faction warjacks (ie Mercenary warjacks). So there is little point taking a monkey in a non-Merc force.
• Remember that monkeys are eligible targets for Dougal’s mini feat, Grogspar’s aura and Rockbottom’s coins. (But Doc Killingsworth will do nothing for them as they don’t have tough)

Other

Trivia

Released at Adepticon (2019.03)