Anson Durst, Rock of the Faith

Template:Procbox This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

Anson Durst is the rock on which the enemies of the Protectorate break, a bulwark to the faithful who weathers tides of violence to keep blameless Menites safe. He earned his epithet fighting alongside the theocracy’s defenders to repel wave after wave of invading soldiers. Countless times he used his powers and a steel wall of warjacks to prevent harm to his men. Fuelled by faith and his devotion to the code of the Order of the Wall, Anson Durst is all but undefeatable when committed to the defence of his people.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat : Bastion of Faith

1. While in Durst's Template:CTRL range, warjacks in his Battlegroup gain +4 ARM and Brace for Impact (as per Abilities, below).
2. When a friendly Faction warrior model in Durst's Template:Control range is directly hit by an attack while B2B with a warjack in Durst's battlegroup, you can choose to have the warjack directly hit instead. The warjack is automatically hit and suffers all damage and effects from the attack.

Bastion of Faith lasts for one round.

Abilities

• Template:Sturdy
• Template:Brace For Impact
• Template:Retaliatory Strike

Weapons

Recompense
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				7				14
Template:Magical Damage Template:Weapon Master Template:Eruption of Ash

Spells

{{Category: Template:Boundless ChargeTemplate:BulwarkTemplate:Cleansing FireTemplate:DecelerationTemplate:Hallowed Avenger }}[[Category: Template:Boundless ChargeTemplate:BulwarkTemplate:Cleansing FireTemplate:DecelerationTemplate:Hallowed Avenger ]]

Theme Forces

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

Thoughts on Anson Durst

Anson Durst in a nutshell

Durst is a battlegroup caster, who makes his army nigh-unkillable.

Understanding how Durst and his feat and his spells interact with his army, how to keep him safe, and how to maneuver him and his battlegroup for best threat (and safety for Durst) can take some practice. There is more he can do than just run a large battlegroup forward, feat as they close with the enemy and take an alpha strike fairly safely and then hit back harder - that works, but digging deeper can be rewarding and set your opponent questions that are difficult to answer.

Feat thoughts

Anson likes to be a brick, and his feat not only delivers him and his battlegroup, but helps protect his army. This looks slightly better written down than in practice, as you can only snuggle up so many models to his 'jacks on feat turn. The feat is best used to make your 'jacks almost unkillable for a turn, especially if absorbing an enemy alpha strike. A Templar with shield under his feat gets to ARM 25! Durst too looks very protected under the feat, able to play aggressively and closer to the front lines than most other casters. This is possible but has its risks depending on who you are facing (See Downsides and Drawbacks below).

The feat coupled with Bulwark should be used to keep the battlegroup safe for a turn, and some key solos or support (e.g. Choir of Menoth). But note only damage from direct hits can be transferred to the 'jack a model is B2B with, squishy choirboys and other solos may still be caught in blasts nearby or on direct hits on the 'jacks they are close to, and they will still take this indirect (blast) damage.

Spell thoughts

• Boundless Charge is your basic threat extender. Cast it when you want to get a model from Point A to B faster regardless of the terrain. Although you'll usually want to put it on a warjack, putting it on a high-value combat model like a Knight Exemplar Seneschal or Durst himself can be a good idea.
• Bulwark will be most useful if you can stack other defensive bonuses, like being behind a wall. It'll be most useful on light warjacks or those with Ashen Veil, but even raising the DEF of "naked" heavy warjacks like the Crusader from 10 to 12 can be useful against models with MAT 6.
• Cleansing Fire is a standard nuke. Durst's Focus is too low for him to want to cast it often, especially since he has two upkeeps; it's best used to deal with a pesky Incorporeal solo blocking a charge lane or contesting a zone.
• Deceleration is an army-wide defensive buff against ranged shooting. It's great when you can't put Passage up on your warjacks, or for hardy models like Paladins or Exemplar Cinerators.
• Hallowed Avenger grants a Vengeance-like ability to a warjack, increasing its offensive output and threat range. It's good for putting on your slower warjacks. As it's not battlegroup specific, you can put it on a journeyman warcaster's warjack to speed them up.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• His feat is good, but also rather tricky to manage. Durst behind two Templars B2B, looks very safe, can't be moved in slams and under Bulwark safe from being knocked down, but two 'jacks with an open fist or two can throw the Templars out of the way, leaving Anson very exposed near the front of your lines. The feat also doesn't protect from blast damage so don't commit too many choirboys to get close to the 'jacks if the enemy has AOEs he can chuck at the jacks, as he will be going after them if he cannot really remove the 'jacks themselves that turn.

• He is a high ARM caster, with good MAT and is a weaponmaster with a fairly powerful reach melee attack. He can remove an enemy heavy warbeast or warjack by himself if need be. And will kill an enemy caster easily if he can get close. But the temptation is to push him too hard, use him when you can and can protect him, guard him other times and use the threat he poses to your enemy to keep them on the back foot.

• He is a bit predictable in his battle plan as he is all about attrition with a few speed boosts thrown in for good measure.

Tricks & Tips

• Eruption of Ash from your melee attack is not optional.
  • Be careful not to unintentionally block your LOS to targets with the newly placed clouds (for example if you want to cast an offensive spell afterward).
  • You should also refrain from melee attacks with this weapon if you want to use those targets to fuel your soul/corpse gathering mechanisms.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Durst's main win condition is mainly attrition. He buffs the defense of his jacks and the armour of everybody in his control against shooting. Then, his feat increases that even more and you can jam key models like the Covenent of Menoth right up front, maximizing their impact and being close to unkillable on that feat turn. That really does mess up hordes in particular. Break out after the feat you should be well-positioned to kill key enemy pieces and get to needed control points to score or contest.

To help clear enemy infantry that might jam up his battlegroup from making contact where it wants, you could add some infantry clearing options like a couple of Repenters - but this stretches his focus resources yet further. A better approach is to take some infantry (refer to the #Theme thoughts section below). Ones that benefit more from Deceleration are a good choice.

In fact 'pods' of 3 lights base to base, such as 3 Devouts or 2 Devouts and Dervish, is an efficient way of maximizing his protection spells.

Theme thoughts

• Although Durst's feat only affects his battlegroup, consider putting Severius0 in your list. Eye of Menoth is an excellent buff for your warjacks, while a warjack with Boundless Charge and Warpath gets an additional 5" of threat extension. If you can somehow get Hallowed Avenger triggered, that's 8", the biggest swing possible in the entire faction, with 6" of it being non-linear.
• The Exemplar Warder allows Durst to really get into melee and use his powerful combat stats with less fear; with Bulwark, Durst's DEF goes to 17 in melee. Consider taking him if you want him to mix it up.
• The Living Covenant - He can teleport Durst around, so he can do some work personally, or keep up with his army.

Starting with a wall in play can help keep Durst and his squishier support models safe.

• Champion of the Order of the Wall gives Durst Girded.
• Avatar of Menoth - It does not gain the benefits of the feat, but still appreciates Boundless Charge, Hallowed Avenger, Deceleration and comes with its own focus pool
• Dartan Vilmon, Paladin of the Order of the Wall, Initiates of the Wall, Allegiant of the Order of the Fist all are cheap self-sufficient solos that contest for him and love Boundless and Deceleration.
• The Living Covenant is here, too.

• Temple Flameguard like his Deceleration spell, in combination with their Shield Wall order and their Iron Zeal minifeat.
• Daughters of the Flame can give you a stronger scenario presence with or without Ambush.
• Shrine of the Lawgiver can be protected from shooting with Deceleration, and it provides anti-infantry measures via its gun.

• Severius0 and Exemplar Warders are in this theme, too.
• Exemplar Vengers - The main reason to play this theme with Durst. They are durable enough to really benefit from Deceleration and fast enough to help Durst with his weak scenario game.

• Anastasia di Bray is a great Mercenary option due to Ambush and her high SPD, allowing you to contest far-off zones and flags.

Battlegroup

Durst loves his 'jacks. Templars and Indictors, in particular, get to outrageous levels of ARM on his feat turn, but all the Protectorate jacks, including the lights will be getting over ARM 20. With the right use of his feat you can deliver a large number of hard-hitting 'jacks straight to the enemy's face. Now which 'jacks you take is a matter of personal preference and play style. But for the beginner, a good selection would be

• 4 or so melee heavy 'jacks such as the Templar, Indictor, Crusader, Sanctifier (Durst has focus problems) or possibly even a Castigator.
• To help Durst survive up nearer the front lines a Vigilant or Devout may also be useful, to take some ranged hits from him or provide cover.
• The Purifier with Ashen Veil and Bulwark can be effectively DEF 17 to shooting, and also DEF 17 in combat to living enemies (15 to non-living) while Bulwark is in effect.

First Seven Purchases

A few veteran players have put their heads together and tried to figure out the seven best things to buy for this specific caster. This is not designed to add up to a nice round points limit, nor be balanced vs other "First Seven" lists you find on this website. It is simply going to give you some of the essentials this caster needs most of the time.

1. Warjack: Indictor
2. Warjack: Indictor
3. Solo: High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
4. Solo: Menite Archon
5. Solo: Menite Archon
6. Unit: Choir of Menoth
7. Unit: Initiates of the Wall

Other

Trivia

• Released in Warmachine: Reckoning (2015)
• Sculptor = Shawn Bruner

Video Battle Reports

• 2018.09 Not Snakes Gaming, vs Siege1
• Template:VBR