The High Reclaimer

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

The divine power of Menoth flows without effort through the High Reclaimer as he sends forth clouds of burning ash and causes the unworthy to burst into flame. These unfaithful are consumed with brutal agony before their lives are snuffed out and their souls sent to Urcaen. One crushing blow from his great weapon Cremator smashes torsos, rends warjack armor, and ignites anything it does not immediately demolish. No one is safe from reclamation at his hands.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat : Resurrection

Return to play d3+5 friendly destroyed Faction troopers. Place those models completely within 3" of their unit commander and completely within the High Reclaimer's Template:CTRL range. Models that were destroyed this turn cannot be returned as a result of Resurrection.

Abilities

• Template:Reclaim
• Template:Soulstorm

Weapons

• Cremator - 2" reach, POW 7, P+S 14 melee attack
  • Template:Magical Damage
  • Template:Continuous Fire

Spells

{{Category: Template:Ashes to AshesTemplate:Burning AshTemplate:Hand of FateTemplate:ImmolationTemplate:Sacrificial Lamb }}[[Category: Template:Ashes to AshesTemplate:Burning AshTemplate:Hand of FateTemplate:ImmolationTemplate:Sacrificial Lamb ]]

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 High Reclaimer1

High Reclaimer1 in a nutshell

The High Reclaimer was one of the stronger casters in the faction but some of the oblivion releases have made getting souls harder. At first sight it might be hard to figure out what makes him a strong caster given his low FOCUS and a spell list that is functional but not outstanding. It is the army surrounding the High Reclaimer that lets him achieve success on the battlefield. He gains focus by friendly troops dying in battle so he could end up with an incredible amount of focus on one turn. However, that would mean his army has taken a pounding, which is not good. So you need to strike a subtle balance between feeding your opponent enough fodder that you remained fully fueled, without giving your opponent a feast. Then he can then later bring back some of those troops via his feat. He can protect himself with clouds, and he can make his army hit and hurt harder.

The High Reclaimer himself is not a melee powerhouse, but works closely with his battlegroup and warriors, supporting them. His ARM and DEF are not outstanding, and he wants to be not too far removed from the action to get the souls of his dying warriors. This is key to success with him, as is knowing how to protect the last model in a unit, and when to activate his feat to bring back key warriors and where to place them for maximum effect.

Feat thoughts

High Reclaimer's feat is quite potent - there are few methods of recursion in the game that allow for bringing a model back and allow them to make a combat action in the same turn. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing targets:

• Exemplars are universally excellent targets for the feat; all of them are Weapon Masters, and due to their somewhat mediocre defensive stats, you'll have probably lost a few on the way in. Special notice goes to bringing back Knights Exemplar and Exemplar Vengers; if a model in the unit was damaged by an enemy attack, the model(s) brought back will be affected by Battle Driven. Exemplar Cinerators are in the same boat but with Vengeance.
• Bringing back Command Attachments can provide a drastic upswing in the unit's performance. Idrian Skirmishers are mediocre without Prey, so bringing back the Guide is almost always worthwhile. The Command Attachments of Knights Exemplar and Exemplar Cinerators provide powerful abilities to their units and should be highly considered if you've lost them. The Errant command attachment can be placed strategicaly in order to provide their Mark Target buff.
• He can also bring back unit leaders, such as Rhoven, so long as an Honor Guard is still alive.

Spell thoughts

• Ashes to Ashes - A recurring spell in the Protectorate, particularly with Severius1 and Severius2. A very useful spell for eliminating enemy infantry and/or support. It works better with Severius arcing it through the Blessing of Vengeance, but if the High Reclaimer ends up with a large focus pool after garnering friendly souls it is a useful way to pay the hurt back into the enemy.
• Burning Ash - The big change. The spell was so cheap in Mk2 that it was used to make a wall of clouds to help safely deliver him and his army. But that is now too expensive to be an option, given his very low focus, and if he has more focus from souls, then it is probably too late to benefit from a cloud wall anyway. Instead it is a useful utility spell to help protect the High Reclaimer himself (or a key piece of his army) either from the concealment from being completely within it, or lurking behind it to block Line of Sight.
• Hand of Fate - The new spell, and very very useful for a caster who does 'love him some infantry'. Making infantry more accurate and do better damage is just plain good.
• Immolation - Every caster seems to need a ranged, AoE attack spell, and this is his. Don't forget it does fire damage and has a critical continuous fire (if you do happen to need to cast it for some reason - like shooting your own Knights Exemplar in the back to kill them so you can pop your feat and resurrect them far forward in position to kill your opponent).
• Sacrificial Lamb - An efficient way to power up him and his battlegroup, at the cost of a two warriors - as he is likely to have a number of 'disposable' troops around to help give him souls and he can revive the sacrifices with the feat anyway. Note that he, unlike his jacks, can have more focus than his FOCUS stat of 5, making it pretty deceptive.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• If a model is Removed from Play, it doesn't generate a soul token and can't be returned with his feat.
• Reclaimer's Control Area is only 10", meaning it can be difficult for your army to cover the field while staying close so that they provide souls when they die.
• Models destroyed by non-attacks, such as Electro Leaps, won't give you souls.
• You can only return models to a unit as long as at least one model in said unit is still on the field; if the entire unit has been destroyed, there's nothing to return them to. Try to keep at least one model in a unit you expect to target with your feat hidden so that doesn't happen.

Tricks & Tips

• If you have a unit with a dead Officer, use the feat to "Leap frog" your resurrected troopers an extra 4". Place the resurrected Officer 3" in front of the current unit commander (ie the Leader model), then the Officer will become the new unit commander and additional troopers can be summoned 3" in front of him. (3" + base width = about 4" extra.)

List Building Advice

Strategy

High Reclaimer is a powerful attrition warcaster. Recycling lost models is the name of his game; any troops that die turn into souls, which allows him to create clouds to screen the rest of your forces up the field. Hand of Fate can create powerful dice swings, especially when combined with the innate power of certain Menoth models like Exemplars or the Judicator. With the proper targets, his feat can have a backbreaking effect; returning charging Battle Driven Exemplars to the field to run down the enemy once your opponent has thrown them into the fray can swing the game in your favor. Since the models returned come back at full health, it means your opponent will now have to remove them again, hopefully with more difficulty than before assuming you managed a crushing counterattack with said returned models.

Theme thoughts

Exemplars in general make excellent feat targets due to their offensive stats. They also appreciate the cloud wall immensely, as they need help with delivery.

• Exemplar Cinerators - Make an already tough unit even more annoying to deal with by bringing them back. Additionally, since they're immune to Fire and have low DEF, you can hit them in the back with Ashes to Ashes to help clear off blocking chaff.
• Exemplar Errants - Are your first wave unit of choice and as such they are great for Sacrifical Lamb and his Soul Taker. The CA also brings Mark Target which makes the Judicator super accurate.
• Exemplar Vengers are the biggest thing to bring back with his feat.
• Scrutator Potentate Severius - Eye of Menoth on a stick is fantastic, even more so when the Judicator is standing in the bubble.
• Choir of Menoth - The mainstay of any PoM army. +2 to jack damage rolls hurt a lot.
• Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard - Rhoven can give his Judicator Eyeless Sight on top of Hand of Fate, so it ignores clouds, concealment and Stealth as. His Honour Guard can Shield Guard for choice models, or protect the Judicator's systems.

Although Faithful Masses is a powerful theme with good models, it doesn't play to High Reclaimer's strengths, i.e. large, powerful units. With Hand of Vengeance and Hand of Fate, it will make for a very potent Judicator however.

• Initiates of the Order of the Wall - High Reclaimer can make this already tough unit even more obnoxious by bringing them back for another go. Of course, this might be difficult to accomplish, as a knowledgable opponent will focus on wiping all the paladins out to prevent them from being brought back.
• Holy Zealots - A cheapish source of souls, High Reclaimer can bring back their command attachment, who can then bring back fallen Zealots with his mini-feat. They benefit greatly from Hand of Fate; with the Menite Archon, their bombs become capable of reliably hurting harder targets.
• Idrian Skirmishers - Idrians lose a great deal of effectiveness if they lose the Guide; being able to bring him back lets him contribute more. Like all models, the Idirans benefit greatly from Hand of Fate.

Guardians of the Temple suffers from the same problems that Faithful Masses does in comparison to Exemplar Interdiction, i.e. lack of powerful units that benefit from Reclaimer's feat.

• Flameguard Cleansers - Hand of Fate makes them more accurate, and his feat allows models to be placed in interesting places. With the command attachment, you should be able to put down flames where you want to.
• Flame Bringers - Fast cavalry that is a bit fragile and not particularly hard-hitting, even with Weapon Master. Reclaimer fixes both issues with his feat and Hand of Fate; with Parry and their naturally high SPD, they can get around quite well when brought back.

• Choir of Menoth - Basically an auto-include. If you're running multiple warjacks, you can take a max Choir and use the extra grunts for Sacrificial Lamb fodder.
• Hierophant/Wrack - Given Reclaimer's low Focus, anything that can help is greatly appreciated.
• Hand of Silence - Reclaimer has a small aura for collecting souls; Hand of Silence significantly increases the bubble, as well as helping you with soul management issues if you have other models that collect souls.

• Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs with an Attendant Priest can do really interesting things being brought back from the dead to drop point-blank AoE knockdowns (that are fired from too close to fully miss). Unfortunately, as of the Oblivion update, this combo is only available in the Creator's Might theme list, and will be your only unit outside of Rhoven and the Choir.
• Menite Archon - You can put Hand of Fate on him so it'll stack with its Divine Inspiration just like the Judicator. Additionally, the "bounces" from Ashes to Ashes get buffed by the Archon's Fuel for the Flames.

Battlegroup

• A Judicator is one of your best targets for Hand of Fate; when combined with the Hand of Vengeance theme benefit from Faithful Masses and Choir, the Judicator becomes a very deadly model.

Other

Trivia

Released way back in Warmachine: Prime (2003)