High Exemplar Cyrenia

High Exemplar Cyrenia is a cunning battlefield commander and skilled swordswoman who rouses her fellow Exemplar to feats of excellence. A luminary member of the Exemplar Order, she excels in defensive tactical strategies, coordinating the efforts of the knights under her command while inspiring them with the depth of her personal faith. Because of her diligence and peerless conviction to her duties, some whisper that she fights as if Menoth’s eyes were upon her.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat : Vigilance of the Faithful

1. While in Cyrenia’s Template:CTRL range, friendly Faction models gain +2 DEF.
2. When one or more friendly Faction models are destroyed or RFP'd by an enemy attack while in Cyrenia’s Template:CTRL range at any time except while advancing, immediately after the attack is resolved one friendly Faction warrior model in Cyrenia’s Template:CTRL range can can advance up to 3˝. A model can only move once per turn as a result of Vigilance of the Faithful.

Vigilance of the Faithful lasts for one round.

Abilities

• Template:Battle Plan
  • Template:Desperate Mission
  • Template:Heroic Call
  • Template:Special Orders
• Template:Righteous Vengeance

Weapons

• Relic Blade - 1" reach, P+S 11 melee attack.
  • Template:Magical Damage
  • Template:Weapon Master

Spells

{{Category: Template:Hex BlastTemplate:Inviolable Resolve

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Theme Forces

• Template:Exemplar Interdiction. She gains Aegis in this theme.
• Template:Guardians of the Temple
• Template:The Creator's Might. She can start the game with upkeep in play, and upkeep them for free in turn 1, in this theme.
• Template:The Faithful Masses
• Template:Si

Thoughts on High Exemplar Cyrenia

High Exemplar Cyrenia in a nutshell

Cyrenia's kit is devoted to making up for the shortcomings of Exemplars (speed, defensive) while increasing their offensive potential. Her feat, Battle Plans, and Dash makes her army fast and slippery, while her feat, Rock Wall, and Inviolable Resolve can allow them to hold out a bit longer. Positive Charge is an excellent force multiplier for warjacks and warrior models alike. While she isn't the most powerful warcaster in the game, or even in the faction, she's still an Exemplar and shouldn't be underestimated when it comes down to fight (although be careful not to overestimate her offensive potential or durability either).

Although designed with Exemplar Interdiction in mind (her Battle Plans only affect Exemplars), infantry of all stripes can appreciate her spells and feat.

Spell Thoughts

• Besides the obvious defensive benefits of a wall, Rock Wall can be used to restrict the movement of your opponent's models. It will stop charges from models without Pathfinder, and a properly placed wall can prevent a Huge-based model from getting into your models, especially when combined with existing obstructions.
• Dash allows your army to walk out of combat. You can use it to bypass jamming models, avoid free strikes, or walk into the back arcs of enemies if you have enough movement for the juicy backstrike bonus.
• Positive Charge is great on warjacks that can move after they've completed their movement, such as the Dervish with Side Step or the Purifier with Overtake. It really lets you dig deep, allowing your warjack to destroy one model and repositioning into a different area to help other models out with its buff.
• Inviolable Resolve is a nice ARM bonus for a model/unit that can counteract some control effects. It's best used on already tough models like Exemplar Cinerators or a warjack with a shield like the Indictor to make them even more difficult to remove.
• Hex Blast is a costly AOE nuke that can remove enemy upkeeps. Although you won't use it every game, it's the spell you'll reach for when you need to remove Arcane Shield off an enemy model or a debuff like Crippling Grasp on your own troops.

Feat Thoughts

The timing of using feat can be tricky. You typically want to use it so when your opponent destroys models in the vanguard of your army you can move other models into a position to counter-attack the next turn.

The DEF buff provided by her feat, although not impressive, stacks with benefits such as Concealment or Cover; combining it with Rock Wall can let some of your models reach high levels both in melee and against shooting.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Cyrenia doesn't speed up her warjacks, making it easy for the rest of her army to leave them behind.
• She can end up camping low due to how many spells she wants to get out every turn; although she has good defensive stats for a Protectorate warcaster, it might be a good idea to take a Shield Guard or two.

Tricks & Tips

• Cyrenia can use her Battle Plans on herself. Although you'll probably be using Special Orders on her most of the time, Heroic Call can (theoretically) save her once.
• Rock Wall is easily the most versatile spell on her card. Learn to position it so you can block off enemies from zones or reaching your own models.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Cyrenia specializes in getting the vanguard of her army up in the opponent's face to cause problems for the enemy, and then bringing the rest of her forces in to smash them via her feat and backed up by warjacks with Positive Charge on them. Although her army won't be as fast as Vindictus', it's more maneuverable due to Dash and her feat, hits harder, and she can personally deal with enemy upkeeps via Hex Blast. Her warjacks mainly play a supporting role, buffing her army through Positive Charge and providing a good mid-to-late game punch to deal with anything her infantry hasn't destroyed.

Cyrenia often favors a forward element to her army; she feats, rushes them into the enemy's face, and forces the opponent to destroy them, using her feat to move the slower portions of her army up the board.

Theme Thoughts

Cyrenia really wants to have the Avartar of Menoth in her list, but also lots of good solos to support with her kit. Faithful Masses fits the bill exactly. Cyrenia's feat is slightly more useful in Faithful Masses than Exemplar Interdiction due to the higher base DEF of many of the models. Stacking Positive Charge atop the Hand of Vengeance bonus from the theme can turn any heavy warjack into a wrecking ball.

• The Avatar of Menoth is an independent warjack that generates its own Focus and has strong synergy with Cyrenia's spells. She can boost its offense and defense with Positive Charge and Inviolable Resolve, respectively. Positive Charge, Hymn of Battle and Hand of Vengeance push it to MAT 12, P+S 25 on its sword. Being able to generate its own Focus is also a big boon for Cyrenia, who is often Focus-strapped. Lastly placing a rock wall in front of the Avatar and having Gaze force the enemy to advance through the wall is a very crippling combo for many models because wall can prevent good landing spots for them, so with careful placement and Gaze, you can prevent many opponents within 8" from being able to engage it in melee. It is also gains +2 DEF during her feat, which can be really obnoxious when you park a Menite Archon right next to it for Ashen Veil induced DEF 16. In short, she makes its numbers so incredible, you need a very compelling reason not to take the Avatar.
• The various Paladin solos - Paladin of the Order of the Wall, Champion of the Order of the Wall, High Paladin Dartan Vilmon - can all make use of Cyernia's feat to bring them to a respectable DEF 15. Positive Charge also helps up their damage output.
• Allegiant of the Order of the Fist - Shifting Sand Stance + feat makes him nigh unassailable for enemy attacks.
• Initiates of the Order of the Wall are three Shield Guards that can't be knocked down, pushed, or placed while base to base with one another, and are ARM 21 while doing so and all of them are alive. Inviolable Resolve makes one unit ARM 23, and Positive Charge gives them a respectable offense.
• You can run two Menite Archons here, see below.

As an Exemplar and infantry-focused warcaster, Cyrenia works decently well here, but she is better in Faithful MAsses with Paladins and Avatar. Reason for that are that Exemplars thend to be slow and have low DEF and Cyrenia loves models with naturally high threat ranges and DEF values.

• Exemplar Cinerators - Cyrenia speeds them up with Dash and her Special Orders battle plan. Rock Wall gives them a respectable defense against shooting, while Positive Charge makes them hit as hard as Bastions. Inviolable Resolve is a nice ARM buff for them as well.
• Exemplar Vengers - Dash lets them simply walk out of combat, useful in case they get jammed. Inviolable Resolve also helps them weather shooting and light melee, making them base ARM 20 before Battle Driven kicks in. With Positive Charge, their swords are hitting at POW 12 with three dice, POW 14 if they've been damaged, so jamming them up with durable models can be a difficult proposition. They can also sit behind her wall for DEF18 against shooting.
• Knights Exemplar - Positive Charge makes them monsters when combined with Battle Driven, letting them hit at MAT 9 POW 15 Weapon Masters. Cyrenia's feat and Rock Wall can also help them get up the field. They obviously like Tough but Reposition when combined with cleave can allow them to cut deep to stay engaged even after finishing their attacks.
• Scrutator Potentate Severius - Everyone appreciates a +1/+1 to their offensive stats, and Severius' warjack is a great Positive Charge target due to its extra movement from Road to War.
• Exemplar Errants fill the role of a forward element. Additionally, Special Orders allows them to move up, shoot, and back away. Heroic Call makes them Tough; combined with Gravus' no-Knockdown bubble and Inviolable Resolve, you have a (somewhat) durable screening unit. Often being the frontline element of the army and the first to get engaged, Dash has a lot of uses for them. Not only does it extend their charge by one inch and their engagement run by two, but they can then use Parry to get out of the way of your counter charges, or move over to engage the enemy's second line and/or back strike his front line, which also makes quick work much more effective. While this trick can be used with any unit, Errants are the most obvious candidate because of their role and abilities (advanced deploy with pathfinder) and can still be made relatively durable (during feat turn they can be bumped to DEF14 ARM18 with no-knock-down-Tough, and can even be Unyielding and untargetable by magic)
• Fire of Salvation - FoS is a great character jack at a bargain price, with lots of relevant abilities on it's card. Naturally i will love PC.
• Severius0 An auto- include in any Interdiction list. +1/+1 to hit an damge is just, too good to pass up and he can run another Positive Charge node for Cyrenia, that will alos benefit from Road to War.

Like Faithful Masses, Cyrenia's feat is most likely more useful here than Exemplar Interdiction due to the model's higher base DEF. As her spell list is a general force multiplier for infantry, it works just as well for Flameguard as it does any other infantry model.

• Temple Flameguard - Cheap chaff unit that appreciates Dash, Positive Charge, and Rock Wall. Under her feat they become especially obnoxious to dislodge.
• Daughters of the Flame - Fast AD/Ambushing troops that get even faster with Dash. Although they won't hit hard even with Positive Charge, they become a pain to get rid of under her feat.
• Flame Bringers - Increased threat range with Dash and better accuracy/damage output with Positive Charge. Her feat can also help keep them alive.

Although Cyrenia is mainly an infantry warcaster, her spells are flexible enough to support a battlegroup. Additionally, since none of her spells are battlegroup specific, she can fully support the junior warcaster's warjacks. Additionally, the theme has access to some good solos, such as the Menite Archon and Exemplar Warder.

• Both junior warcasters (Durant1 and Severius0) should be taken with Cyrenia; her low Focus precludes her from supporting a large battlegroup, and both offer good buffs for their warjacks.
• The Avatar of Menoth is just as valuable in Creator's Might as it is in Faithful Masses.

• Choir of Menoth - The basic yet versatile warjack support for Menoth. Take at least one.
• The Vassal of Menoth helps her overcome her low FOCUS score, while a Vassal Mechanik can help keep your warjacks running.
• Hierophant - Helps Cyrenia in casting and recasting her spells, as well as providing better range for Positive Charge. Taking a Hierophant should be the first thing you do when making a list for her. Cyrenia has a lot of spells she wants to cast, and Harmonious Exaltation helps her get them all out while allowing her to camp on some Focus. Spiritual Conduit might not seem like a big deal, but the added RNG to her spells helps her spread the buffs around without having to take a costly Arc Node.
• Wrack - Cyrenia needs every bit of help she can get when it comes to her low FOCUS score. Take one or two.

• The Menite Archon, already a durable and powerful melee solo, becomes an holy terror under Cyrenia. With its native Ashen Veil, her feat and/or Rock Wall can bring its DEF up to obnoxious levels (as well as buffing the DEF of nearby friendly models against living enemies), while it benefits greatly from Dash, Positive Charge, and Inviolable Resolve. Being a warrior model, it can benefit from her feat, and combined with Righteous Fury gives it a massive non-linear threat range.
• Rhupert or Saxon can hand out Pathfinder, which is one things Cyrenia can't do for her army. Take one if you're worried about terrain bogging your infantry up. While Saxon can be used to better hold flags, Rhupert can also provide you with a second source of Tough or extra defense for units that are currently not behind a rock wall.

Battlegroup

For the Battlegroup, Cyrenia likes to be able to spread Positive Charge around after she casts it on a warjack, so those who can move after their movement are great for her.

• Dervish - Two of them clock in at 17 pts, so with another heavy you have Cyrenia's warjack points filled exactly. they have Side Step and Parry, so they can deiver PC into interesting places and a combostrike coming from them hits hard to boot.
• Sanctifier - She usually has more than enough bodies in her list to give it a soul or two at which point it hits really hard with Hand of Fate and PC, and it fuels itself with focus as well! Ashen Veil also lifts it DEF to a point where her feat matters on it.
• Reckoner - Another 14 pt heavy also with Ashen Veil, it still has great melee game, but also has a very good gun.
• Revenger - An Arc Node can be helpful for getting her spells around but isn't strictly necessary. 2" reach and the repulsor shield go very well with PC, too.
• Templar - It takes to Inviolable Resolve remarkable well thanks to the Shield.

Starting a 25 point Brawl list

In 2020.11 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, put together this list for the Brawlmachine format. It was then updated for the 2021.10 errata. He even wrote about it's playstyle and expanding it beyond 25 points, which you can read here.

Theme - Exemplar Interdiction

Cyrenia1: [+28 WJP]

• Hierophant: [2 pts]
• Fire of Salvation: [13 pts]
• Purifier: [8 pts]
• Dervish: [7 pts]

Exemplar Bastion Seneschal: [Free] Template:Grey

Exemplar Warder Elias Gade: [3 pts]

Vassal Mechanik: [1 pt]

Wrack: [1 pt]

Exemplar Bastions (Min unit): [8 pts]

Knights Exemplar: [7 pts]

• Command Attachment: [3 pts]

Template:Brawl

Other

Trivia

• Released in Exemplar Interdiction CID (2018.05)
• She is the second (known) warcaster of Idrian descent in the Protectorate, the first being Amon.