Hermit of Henge Hold

File:Mercenary Logo.jpg File:Minion Logo.jpg File:Infernal Logo.jpg File:Retribution Logo.jpg

Template:FH2

A mad Iosan prophet, the Hermit of Henge Hold is beset by visions of possible futures, many of them laced with horror and imminent destruction. The truth he perceives is invaluable to every denizen of the Iron Kingdoms—included the invading infernals. Whom and why he serves are secrets only he is privy to, though it is possible he doesn't even understand why. For now, he is committed to no one but serves as a messenger to everyone.

Basic Info

Mercenary - The Hermit will work for Template:Crucible Guard mercenary, Template:Cryx Mercenary, Template:Convergence Mercenary, Template:Cygnar Mercenary, Template:Infernal Mercenary, Template:Khador Mercenary, Template:Protectorate Mercenary, or Template:Retribution Mercenary.

• Template:Partisan
• Template:Partisan

Minion - This model will work for Template:Circle Minion, Template:Grymkin Minion, Template:Legion Minion, Template:Skorne Minion, or Template:Trollblood Minion.

Abilities

• Template:Ancient Shroud
• Template:Dark Prophecy
• Template:Mad Visions
• Template:Marked Soul
• Template:Magic Ability

Weapons

• Template:Unarmed

Spells

{{Category: Template:Grip of ShadowsTemplate:Whispers at the GateTemplate:Word of Ruin }}[[Category: Template:Grip of ShadowsTemplate:Whispers at the GateTemplate:Word of Ruin ]]

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Template:The Irregulars
  • Template:Flame in the Darkness
  • Template:Strange Bedfellows. He gains Swift Vengeance in this theme.

• Minion
  • Template:Will Work For Food

• Infernal
  • Template:Dark Legacy. He doesn't use up your "Up to one Mercenary solo" in this theme.
  • Template:Hearts of Darkness. He can be included no matter which warcaster leads the theme.

• Retribution
  • Despite being a Retribution Partisan, the Hermit isn't explicitly allowed in any Retribution theme. So he'll always use up your "up to one Mercenary solo" slot. Refer to #Other Theme Forces, below.

• Other Factions
  • Convergence players can use this model in the Strange Bedfellows theme. He gains Swift Vengeance in this theme.
  • Cygnar and Khador players can use this model in the Flame in the Darkness theme.
  • Protectorate and Khador players can use this model in the Warriors of the Old Faith theme.
  • Furthermore, Mercenary/Minion models 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 the Hermit of Henge Hold

Hermit of Henge Hold in a nutshell

The Hermit of Henge Hold is a wacky, crazy prophet, or maybe just crazy, or maybe just a prophet. No one knows! He works for every army in the game, and depending on the host faction, he may act as one part support piece, one part mad prophet, and one part missile.

• Dark Prophecy is the missile part, punishing your foes for slaying him by stripping their spell casting. It can also be a tactical nuke if blows up in the midst of an Infernal Battlegroup, stripping them all of their essence points and causing activation order issues or even resulting in vanquishing them by the end of the turn for not being able to pay their tithe for staying in-game. Of course, a skilled player will do anything to avert that - see Trips and Tricks.
• Mad Visions is essentially a once-per-game use of the Vision spell, perfect for warding off a single high-powered attack, or keeping your important model in-game for just a little longer. If you happen to have a similar ability (like the above-mentioned Vision spell), it can be downright obnoxious.
• His spells provide a menu of various abilities to supplement your army in different ways.
  • Telemetry bumps up your magic accuracy and works with all friendly models instead of friendly faction models.
  • Word of Ruin is a dead spell on your list unless you play with or into Infernals - in that case, he can punish enemy Horrors or fuel yours. In a Dark Legacy army, this makes him an auto-include, as he makes fuelling horrors so easy that you can barely call it an "economy".
  • Master of Ruin is a faction-independent ARM de-buff, just be on the lookout that it affects your models as well.

Combos & Synergies

• Models that are already low ARM (like Crucible Guard Rocketmen) don't care about another -2 ARM, so are fine to suffer "friendly fire" from Master of Ruin. The same goes with models who have access to Reposition moves.
• Use him in conjunction with a caster who has Sacrificial Pawn or Sucker! to make that caster near unkillable at range. Your caster gets hit, transfers it to the Hermit, who then takes only 1 point of damage. For example: Khador under Malakov2 or Cryx with a Blood Priestess.
  • In Secret Masters and Disciples of Agony he becomes an eligible Sac Pawn target to the caster as well.
• Sylys's Arcane Secrets combined with Telemetry can give spells of even low FOCUS casters a decent chance to hit. Telemetry also makes your magic attack rolls all the more reliable - especially magic sprays.
• Given he only takes one point of damage at a time, if he's a friendly faction model, healing him will make your opponent hate you with a passion. Lynus & Edrea, Sergeant Nicolas, Lys Healers, and The Wretch in Hearts of Darkness are all examples of models with healing capabilities. It can also be healed by the Stockpile Steamroller objective.
• Though he's popular as a Mercenary choice, a couple of cross-faction themes like Flame in the Darkness, or Warriors of the Old Faith make him a friendly faction model, meaning you can speed him up with things like Vladimir3's Dash, or with Stryker2's feat.
  • He gets Reposition in the Defenders of Ios theme, as he's a Partisan of the Retribution.
• Anything that can extend his movement, be it pushes, weapons with slams or throws, Reposition, Telekinesis, etc. He will only take one damage anyway, so even your most powerful slam guns are eligible threat extenders. Examples include Shae, Banshees, Scaverous, or the Paingiver Task Master.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• His abilities are criminally short-ranged meaning he will likely die after using them.
• Dark Prophecy is much less threatening against Warmachine battlegroups than Hordes or Infernal ones.
• Awful defensive stats (though greatly enhanced by Ancient Shroud).
• Master of Ruin affects your models as well.
• No weapons, thus never makes free strikes and will never engage enemy models.
• Cannot use Mad Visions in an Infernal army.
• Neither Dark Prophecy nor Mad Visions can be triggered on non-attack damage (like collateral damage, electro leap, etc).

Tricks & Tips

• He can use Mad Visions on himself (as long as he isn't in an Infernal army).
• Slam him forward with a spell or weapon (eg Force Hammer or Smite) and you can push his aura further up the board at the cost of only 1 hitpoint.
• Watch out for weapons that don't actually do a damage roll, such as Deadly Shot. Those weapons get around Ancient Shroud's ability to reduce a damage roll.
• Due to only taking one damage from each attack, he is an effective piece against the various pure-jack and pure-beast themes. Because they lack infantry, having to dedicate multiple jack or beast activation to kill a single 5 point solo can make the difference in the attrition game.
  • There is one notable exception and this is the Consume ability where RFP gets triggered on hitting the model. You want to keep the Hermit away from models with this ability.
• Getting disposed of him without activating Dark Prophecy is usually being done by slamming something above/into him for some collateral damage, or taking his last HP away with non-attack-related damage (Ashes to Ashes, electro leap, trick shot, etc.). Depending on his position this may take excess time on your opponent's deathclock, and getting you further ahead in the attrition war.

Other

Trivia

File:MiniCrate8 4 HermitTheFrog.jpg

Hermit the Frog; Minicrate Exclusive.

• Released 2019.07, in the Oblivion Campaign boxed set.
  • This was an unpopular decision among some players, as they felt they were forced to buy a USD$60 boxed set "just" to get access to this powerful solo. In fact, some players claim that the Hermit was deliberately over-powered on purpose just to increase sales of the campaign book.
  • As of 2020.02 he can now be bought as a stand-alone model.
  • Template:LES

• The Hermit is an Iosan of the Seeker order who has actually discovered the terrible truth of what happened to their gods. See the Oblivion campaign book for the answer.
• The scroll case contains a message from the Infernals to two denizens of Immoren in particular.
• The Hermit has a Twitter account, where he shares the visions that drove him mad. Put together, the tweets tell short stories and this is how PP did fluff for a while.
  • Twitter Account
  • Summary #1
  • Summary #2
  • Summary #3
  • Summary #4
  • Summary #5
  • Summary #6