Tactical Arcanist Corps

The Tactical Arcanist Corps always work in threes. They undergo training and drilling together until they can meet and even exceed the exacting standards imposed by the Brand of Odom for Rhul’s elite battle mages. They defend those they are contracted to protect with scorching salvos of arcane fire, incinerating those that challenge them.

Basic Info

Mercenary - This unit will work for Template:Crucible Guard mercenary, Template:Cygnar Mercenary, or Template:Khador Mercenary.

Abilities

• Template:Immunity: Fire
• Template:Ashen Veil
• Template:Battle Wizard
• Template:Righteous Flames
• Template:Magic Ability

Weapons

• Thermo Mace - 0.5" reach, P+S 13 melee weapon
  • Template:Flame Burst

Spells

{{Category: Template:Flame BlastTemplate:Smoke Bomb Spell }}[[Category: Template:Flame BlastTemplate:Smoke Bomb Spell ]]

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Template:Hammer Strike. They gain Tough in this theme.
  • Template:Operating Theater (only if controlled by a Cephalyx Dominator)

• Other Factions
  • Infernal players can use this unit in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Crosse2 is leading the army.
  • Furthermore, Mercenaries 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.

Thoughts on Tactical Arcanist Corps

Tactical Arcanist Corps in a nutshell

The Tactical Arcanist Corps are a very slow, very cheap unit able to create a smoke wall and that can shoot things with their POW 13 flame blasts. They die like flies but are so low threat that they do not draw much attention. With the Hammerfall Siege Crawler (that returns them to play) they have found a place in the Hammer Strike theme force as a source of clouds, blasts, and magic attacks.

Despite Battle Wizard they are a second wave unit, not a frontline unit. They use smoke clouds to block LOS to your more precious support pieces, and occasionally take potshots with Flame Blast. Late game, they can afford to go for broke in melee and trigger Battle Wizard.

Combos & Synergies

Within Mercenaries

• The Siege Crawler increases their survivability, as mentioned above.

Outside Mercenaries

• Cygnar: A unit can fill up Nemo1's Arcane Accumulator all on their own. They can also give a much-needed LOS block for that fragile caster. Taking them with Murdoch is strongly advised; his minifeat, combined with Nemo's Deceleration bubble makes them fairly resilient against shooting with an effective DEF 15 ARM 18, and blast immunity for a round.
• Khador: The Ranking Officer Valachev can give them Zephyr, letting them place a cloud then advance backwards and hide out of LOS.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Too slow to get in front of most things that would like a smoke wall. (Unless it's Ossrum's feat turn.)
• Battle Wizard means you need to get into melee first. MAT 6 is not terrible, but also not great melee stats.
  • A low speed also makes it more likely they will take a charge not give one.
• Low DEF and ARM that dies to direct fire.
• Righteous Flames only triggers once in a blue moon, and even then it only might cause damage a whole round after it is triggered.
• None of the current 3 Rhulic casters offer them that much. They are more focused on jacks or ranged support.

Tricks & Tips

• Put them in front of your caster to smoke wall.
• Keep one back so they don't all die and the Crawler can return them to play.

Other

Trivia

Released in Warmachine: Vengeance (2014)