Vice Scrutator Vindictus

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

No Menite alive is as concerned for the fate of heathen souls as Vice Scrutator Vindictus. Where others among the Protectorate see only a faceless sea of heretics, Vindictus sees potential devotees of the True Faith. Where others preach with words, Vindictus communicates with agony. The holy zealots who follow this unforgiving priest fight with the strength of fanatics and martyrs, adding to their own numbers with each strike. Vindictus travels far from the Protectorate’s borders, raising armies loyal to the Lawbringer and turning them against any of their countrymen foolish enough to resist the will of Menoth.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat - Divine Protection

While in Vindcitus' Template:Control range, friendly Faction warrior models cannot be targeted by charges, slam power attacks, enemy spells, or non-magical ranged attacks. Divine Protection lasts for one round.

Abilities

• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Call to Sacrifice
• Template:Vindictive

Weapons

Lawgiver
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				6				12
Template:Blessed Template:Magical Weapon Template:Death Toll
Solace
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				6				12
Template:Chain Weapon Template:Magical Weapon Template:Death Toll

Spells

{{Category: Template:AdmonitionTemplate:Defender's WardTemplate:ImmolationTemplate:PenitenceTemplate:True Path }}[[Category: Template:AdmonitionTemplate:Defender's WardTemplate:ImmolationTemplate:PenitenceTemplate:True Path ]]

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 Vice Scrutator Vindictus

Vice Scrutator Vindictus in a nutshell

Vindictus has a respectable denial and attrition game. He should be considered as your #1 choice when playing into enemy gunlines, or fast, hard hitting melee brawlers, like Doom Reavers, or Nyss Swordsmen. His spells help him and his army to stay alive, and navigate through the roughest terrain with ease.

He is in many ways "just" a delivery mechanism for his army. He can't do much on his own and has limited ways to support his boys when they get there, but is pretty good at getting them there on time and relatively safe/alive.

Feat Thoughts

Vindictus' biggest selling point is his feat. It's like Swamp Pit on a bigger scale - shutting down most of the shooting, and thwarting enemy attempts to land the alpha strike on your lines. As there is still a couple of ways to bypass his feat (see Drawbacks), it is crucial to know the threat ranges and attack vectors of your enemy. Watch out for units, standing outside your feat zone too, as they can be targeted by sprays and AoE, or spells with secondary damages, like electro-leaps.

Spell Thoughts

• Admonition - It can be either a life-insurance on Vindictus, or a second-level threat for your opponent's close combat troops under your feat. As they cannot charge you, and must walk up on your lines, they will think twice to do that against a jack under Admonition.
• Defender's Ward - an excellent defensive spell, found on many Protectorate casters. First cast it on your front line cannon fodder, then on second line unit that will get most heat next turn (can be also cast both heavy and light jacks if you just need to keep them on the table) or just throw it on Vindi himself as a lot of enemies will try to cheat you out from your well deserved attrition based victory by assassination. 15/16 with 16 HP is not hard to kill, 17/18 can really improve your chances for survival.
• Immolation - a somewhat lackluster, but sufficiently cheap zap.
• Penitence - This upkeep is a step-child of your Mk2 feat. You may want to cast it onto your own jamming troops, before launching them toward your opponent jamming units. They will either have to remove them with other units, committing excessive resources, or suffer the free strike from them upon ignoring them, or get the damage for destroying them. Either way, it is a boon for you. It also spells doom for single wound shooting units, trying to bring down your charging infantry.
• True Path - Vindictus and his army will rarely, if ever going to be hindered by rough terrain patches, or spells, like Inhospitable Ground, or Rift.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• His melee game is strictly average, as well as his defense stats
• His feat does not stop melee attacks outside charge, special attacks and many of the power attacks (Trample, Headbutt, Powerstrike or Throws). Spells, like Explosivo, also help bypassing his feat completely.
• Lots of upkeep and expensive spells with an average focus pool - he is vulnerable to upkeep hate, as well as anti-magic tactics
• No offensive boost for your army or for him

Tricks & Tips

• Watch out for damages, that don't trigger Penitence, like collateral damage or electro leaps.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Vinny likes infantry as he does next to nothing for his 'jacks. He also likes infantry that can hold it's own in a fight as he lacks any MAT or POW buff to help them. He'll get them where they need to be, but then they are largely on their own.

Theme Thoughts

• Choir of Menoth - With no offensive buffs for your warjacks, and his feat not affecting them, he'll want to bring a unit along.
• Hierophant - Essential for getting his buffs out, as well as making it easier to apply them to different units due to Spiritual Conduit.
• Wrack - Great for helping the Focus-strapped Vindictus. Don't leave home without one (or two).
• Covenant of Menoth - A good all-around support model that likes the extra speed granted to it with True Path.
• Vassal of Menoth - Useful for taking the Focus burden of warjacks off Vindictus, especially if he's running a few of them. Not that necessary, though.
• Severius0 - Eye of Menoth can help make up for Vindictus' lack of an offensive buff, and he can run a warjack independently of Vindictus as well.

Vindictus works well with Exemplar Interdiction and vice versa. Exemplars are slow and some have problems getting up the table; Vindictus buffs speed and can protect them, and appreciates accurate hard-hitting infantry, as he lacks offensive buffs. It also allows you to take Fire of Salvation, a solid warjack under any warcaster.

• Knights Exemplar are cheap, potentially hard-hitting Weapon Masters that get meaner with Battle Driven. Their command attachment, although optional, can help the unit's low volume of attacks via Cleave and Overtake, and her min-feat will give them a serious offensive upgrade.
• Exemplar Errants - Serve as a screening unit. True Path helps them get over their low SPD and weapon's reach; Defender's Ward can help them stick around longer, while Penitence can make them costly for other single-wound infantry to get rid of.
• Exemplar Bastions - Natively hard-hitting and Blessed, they take Defender's Ward fairly well.
• Exemplar Cinerators - An excellent brick of Weapon Master infantry that, with Vengeance and/or Defensive Formation, can cover a surprising amount of ground for SPD 4 models.
• Gravus - Brother's Keeper (and potential beat stick when high on souls), as well as speeding up your Exemplars even further with Desperate Pace.
• Exemplar Warder - A good bodyguard for Vindictus with its, er, Bodyguard ability and Shield Guard.
• Fire of Salvation - Admonation and Righteous Vengeance make it very mobile, or Defender's Ward makes it very durable. Vindictus also loves hard hitters and Shield Guards.

Vindictus doesn't have any real synergy with this theme. He's primarily an infantry warcaster, and although Defender's Ward and Admonition can be put on warjacks, he has no other buffs for them, and his feat won't affect them. However, with the Attendant Priest you can make a takeable Mercenary unit Friendly Faction, allowing it to benefit from his buffs.

Not a great theme for Vindictus. Although it brings cheap, disposable infantry that can be durable for their points, none of them are hard-hitting, and Vindictus is unable to buff their offense, which is a problem when taking him into armies with lots of high ARM models.

• Temple Flameguard - Already a tarpit, they become quite quick and even more obnoxious with True Path, Defender's Ward, Penitence, and Vindictus' feat.
• Daughters of the Flame - You can put Penitence on them to potentially make them obnoxious to remove, especially if they jam themselves into lines.
• Flameguard Cleansers - Defender's Ward can give them decent defensive stats, and True Path, when combined with their CA's mini-feat, lets them threaten up to 20" with their sprays.

Although it doesn't have as many Weapon Masters as Exemplar Interdiction, it has more disposable (and cheaper) infantry. Additionally, Vindictus helps remedy the Paladin model's lack of Pathfinder.

• Initiates of the Order of the Wall - Already a hard-to-budge unit, they become incredibly obnoxious with Defender's Ward and Vindictus' feat, in addition to being Shield Guards.
• Holy Zealots - They take Defender's Ward decently. In combination with their CA bringing models back, Penitence can make them obnoxious to get rid of. Additionally, with Call to Sacrifice, Vindictus becomes much more durable with a unit of them around him. Don't count on adding to their numbers via Death Toll; Vindictus isn't an offensive monster, and is somewhat fragile to be close to the enemy.

• Hermit of Henge Hold - Brings a damage buff, which Vindictus is sorely in need of.
• Menite Archon - An independent, powerful beat stick that will appreciate both Defender's Ward and the speed boost from True Path.

Battlegroup

• Vigilant / Devout He is not squishiest PoM caster, but that is not saying much in faction that is both notorious to being susceptible to assassinations and that also includes Severius, so he still goes down fairly easily. Both Vigilant and Devout can help to keep him safe. Vigilant provides walking bunker (cover and blast immunity) to hide behind and/or infuriating late game object contester, especially if you can spare Ward for him- 14/23 can seem almost insurmountable in attrition-heavy late games. Just watch out for slams, electro leaps and similar cheating maneuvers heathens tend to pull out. Devout provides spell immunity and shield guard and while being arguably less durable (having 3 points lower armour but 1 point higher DEF) he can get some work done with his pole axe if you have a choir boy near by, MAT7 and POW15 axe might just be enough to finish off that annoying heavy and with 2 initials and defensive strike. He can rally do a number on infantry, and again a late game light with DEF15 ARM20 can just make that defender's ward worth casting on him.

• Reckoner Vindictus is not too fond of jacks, so just grabbing one or two of these is often a good choice, they don't need much of a buff besides a choir, can keep up better than crusader-based jacks and, as they won't be in a front lines, having a nice big gun is a good trait. Also, as Vindy can't improve accuracy of his troops, being able to hit a key enemy model with flare before charging it is a good thing. Likewise, POW17(19) an iron with 2" reach is always a nice thing to have. He can clean up the house and makes for a nice target for late-game Defender's Ward, especially against hordes thanks to built-in Ashen Veil. Admonition can protect his exhaust pipe from being turned into scraps after taking a pot shot against speedier armies.

• Templar has nice meaty ball on a long chain to bash things your infantry was too busy dying on. Beat back is nice, giving surviving infantry a second chance to charge or scamper off, and gives a bit more objective control. He has 21ARM with the shield, so he won't be shot down easily (especially with choir), and his shield guard can help to protect key models (such as Knight Exemplar UA, important solos or Vindi himself).

• Dervish cheap jack with high MAT and astounding mobility for its faction definitely not an auto include but still stylish. With his side step he can unjam your infantry, murder a decent number of enemy troopers or put some harm on heavier targets with combo strike, or just use that heavy to sling shot toward those juicy, juicy support models PoM tends to have hard time dealing with in a lot of cases.

• Sanctifier is probably most pillow-fisted heavy in the faction (technically Castigator has same POW, but he has two POW16 initials, so I'd say he wins by a small margin of 2POW points). He still has POW18 on his main weapon with choir help and thanks to his 2" reach he has a top threat-range for PoM jacks. What makes him worth considering is his soul collecting ability. This allows Vindictus to either camp his focus or recast his upkeeps and still benefit from a fully loaded jack. They have no gun (big issue for me personally) but you can take two and just pay for choir from hard points.

Other

Trivia

• Released in Warmachine: Protectorate of Menoth (April 2010)

Video Battle Reports

• 2018.08 Not Snakes Gaming 75 points vs Stryker1
• Template:VBR