Praetorian Swordsmen

Praetorians stand as paragons of the warrior caste, their traditions irrevocably rooted in the hoksune code. These soldiers form the backbone of all house armies as well as the Army of the Western Reaches. Praetorian swordsmen require superlative skill to master their distinctive two-weapon fighting style.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Leader, Grunts, & Officer
  • Template:Penetrating Strike
  • Template:Side Step

• Officer only
  • He has a better statline
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Power Swell
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Relentless Charge-alt)

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

Weapons

Leader, Grunts, & Officer	Sword (x2) File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  1 3 9 Template:Combo Strike
Standard Bearer	Template:Unarmed

Theme Forces

• Template:Masters of War. They gain "Optional Take Down" in this theme.

Thoughts on Praetorian Swordsmen

File:Praetorian Swordsmen CA.png

Command Attachment

Praetorian Swordsmen in a nutshell

Without the Officer and Standard Bearer the Praetorian Swordsmen are basically cheap cannon fodder that can kill infantry - in a faction with Praetorian Karax, Paingiver Bloodrunners, and Nihilators. They boast an elite Mat for their cost with 2 attacks and Side Step but every other stat is fairly average and they normally get melted by any anti-infantry tech, but quantity has a quality all of its own.

Thoughts on adding the CA

With the Officer and Standard Bearer the addition of a turn of Weapon Master means they become top-tier damage damage dealers on the charge, and MAT 7, two attackss. Throw in Relentless Charge for Pathfinder, and point for point they may have the best all-round offence of any single wound melee model in Warmachine/Hordes. But they still have no defensive tech and die very very easily unless they have support keeping them alive (and of course with their offensive power they become a fairly high priority target).

Combos & Synergies

As mentioned above Praetorian Swordsmen with the unit attachment have excellent all round offence, able to kill most things they can reach but need help staying alive to reach their targets. Some warlocks help with this.

• Supreme Archdomina Makeda is the all time champion of using Praetorian Swordsmen; she grants them Vengeance, she can put up Deflection to keep them safe, and then Stay Death to keep the officer alive. And Dash to allow them to side-step without taking free strikes. Some Makeda2 lists use the Masters of War theme to spam three to five full units of Praetorian Swordsmen.
• Archdomina Makeda can shield guard the Officer and keep them all alive on feat turn.
• Tyrant Xerxis offers defenders ward or repo 3" and he can also push their damage to unreal levels combining minifeat, feat and a relentless charge for 5d6 on damage, add in an already respectable MAT and you can put damage on just about anything. He also allows them to charge through other units which is a good way of keeping them safe.
• Dominar Morghoul & Escorts can give one unit Stealth, a second Apparition (to appear from behind walls or other out of line of sight places), and the Parry/Side Step/Overtake combo is impressive while Acrobatics is always useful
• Master Aescetic Naaresh can blur a unit.
• Supreme Aptimus Zaal doesn't protect them but ensures that any do get through are scary, and can redirect their souls as well as loving cheap models to power up the feat.
• Zaal the Ancestral Advocate again can power up the ones that do get through, and powers up off their souls. Unfortunately he's mostly used in The Exalted thanks to his feat.

There are also other things than Warlocks that support Praetorian Swordsmen.

• The Masters of War theme grants them take down
• Tyrant Commanders have battle plans.
• They are cheap souls, much to the delight of the soul-collectors; the Ancestral Guardian and Hakaar the Destroyer, the Extoller Soulward and Aptimus Marketh.
• Praetorian Karax are Girded, have Set Defense and are cheaper than Praetorian Swordsmen so are good at taking the charge.
• Praetorian Keltarii are faster than the Swordsmen and can jam for them.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• With DEF 13, ARM 14, and being a melee unit with no defensive abilities just about any anti-infantry tech melts them unless you have some way of protecting them.
• The enemy will work on sniping the Officer. And this really reduces their power.
• Without the UA a minimum unit costs as much as the Legends of Halaak. The Legends are almost always better.
• If you want cheap cannon fodder then Praetorian Karax are cheaper and normally hard to kill, and Venator Slingers cost the same, advance deploy, and shoot. Both also hand out buffs (Girded and Flare respectively).
• The unit loses a lot of value if the Officer is sniped out before you've used Power Swell.
• Unless you're investing in the officer (or have Supreme Archdomina Makeda) it's very hard to justify not paying one more point for the faster Praetorian Keltarii with reach weapons and blade shield to ward off incoming shooting.

Tricks & Tips

• Even when you charge and Power Swell for maximum damage you want to combo-strike against anything with an ARM over 16 and multiple wounds.
• Use Side Step to move out of charge lanes so you can get other infantry in.
• Keep the Officer back as far as possible to keep them alive until you've used Power Swell. Or behind solid walls; you lose little if the Officer runs every turn.

Other

Trivia

• The Praetorian units are named after the ancient Roman "Praetoriani" the elite of the elite of Roman legionaries meant to guard the most important military leaders. Obviously Privateer Press isn't that worried about units being like their real world inspirations on the tabletop.
• Released way back in Primal Mk1 (2006)