Temple Flameguard

The unwavering Temple Flameguard comprises the Protectorate of Menoth’s much-vaunted last line of defense. This blazing tide of devoted warriors washes over their foes, swiftly striking down those who dare to oppose the divine will of the Creator.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Everyone except Standard Bearer
  • Template:CMA
  • Template:Relentless Charge
  • Template:Set Defense
  • Template:Shield Wall

• Officer only
  • The Officer has +1 MAT
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Granted (Template:Practiced Maneuvers)
  • Template:Iron Zeal

• Standard Bearer only
  • Template:Standard Bearer
  • Template:Take Up

Weapons

• Everyone except Standard Bearer
  • Flame Spear - 2" reach, Template:Small, P+S 11 melee weapon.
    • Template:Critical Continuous Fire

• Standard Bearer
  • Template:Unarmed

Theme Forces

• Protectorate
  • Template:Guardians of the Temple. In this theme and while B2B with another model in their unit, they gain Tough and cannot become knocked down.

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this unit in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Feora is leading the army.
  • Mercenary players can use this unit in the Template:Llaelese Resistance theme. They become Llaelese models and gain Pathfinder.

Thoughts on Temple Flameguard

File:TempleFlameguardOfficerandStandard.jpg

Temple Flameguard Officer and Standard

Temple Flameguard in a nutshell

Temple Flameguard are the cheapest troops in the Protectorate. Huddling together to stay safe, Shield Wall and Tough make them surprisingly resilient against shooting while Set Defense makes them able to take a charge.

Thoughts on adding the CA

The Officer and his standard bring a larger command bubble and two very situational buffs in Practiced Maneuvers is ironically named as just having practice manoeuvring your models on the table physically can do a lot to compensate for its lack. Iron Zeal is only relevant against small arms fire and will not protect them from common ways to deal with single-wound infantry. This, plus inflating their cheap price point artificially, makes the CA not recommended.

Combos & Synergies

• Anyone with Defender's Ward or Sacred Ward. They are cannon fodder/tar pit, but pretty good one, they are one of the best units to get Defenders Ward on as it pushes their defence to respectable 15 and makes them annoying, really annoying for armies without accuracy buffs, to charge with another +2DEF from set defense and they are not so easy to kill with low POW guns (blasts) and spells thanks to Zeal or shield wall and DW makes it a bit harder.
• Pyrrhus, Flameguard Hero - Standing next to them keeps Pyrrhus alive and in return he passively gives out Rapid Strike. Their P+S 11 spears are nothing to write home about but you can field so many of them, that eventually you can clobber anything to death if you just have enough attacks. And with damage buffs they can actually reach dangerous levels of power.
• They are chaff unit so anyone who benefits from friendlies dying near them (all Reclaimers, Sanctifier, Menite Archon, Shrine of the Lawgiver) will like them as dying is their sole job compared to the more important solos and warjacks.
• They can still be relatively effective to clear enemy expendables back or even charge them if supported by, depending on a type of enemy, either with accuracy buffs (Thyra) or damage buffs (anyone with Ignite and Thyra) as a two man CMA is pretty precise and has relatively good POW to clear one wound infantry. Severius1 helps with both just by being in their general vicinity and he has Defender's Ward AND some of his lists really like fairly cheap body of man to catch bullets for him.
• Feora1 has Veteran Leader and Ignite for them. Under Dauntless Resolve and Shiled Wall they become tougher than any chaff infantry has any right to be.
• Rhupert gives them Concealment. Pathfinder and Tough are less relevant now, but can still be used if you want to run through a forest, or enjoy tough outside of b2b contact.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Shield Wall is a double edged sword, slowing them down and making them much more tempting for AoE and Spray attacks. Especially since ARM 17 doesn't safe them from anything except blast damage. Even a mildly spiked POW 10 shot still does them in. To things like a Void Archon they look like a buffet.
• They die trivially when not in shield wall.
• The CA is FA 3, the unit isn't, so anything beyond 3 units need to go without one.

Tricks & Tips

• Shield Wall is a sometimes ability. It slows them down and doesn't help them survive charges.

Other

Trivia

• Released way back in Warmachine: Prime (2003)