Aspis

A marvel of Iosan force mastery, the Aspis is an unmistakable sight on the battlefield. The myrmidon is equipped to manipulate its own protective field dynamically and can catch bullets with it before they strike. A stalwart guardian of its controlling warcaster, the Aspis can smash even the largest enemies backward with blows of its force-enhanced fists to keep its master safe from harm.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Field Dependent
• Template:Force Fields
• Template:Phoenix Field
• Template:Shield Guard

Weapons

Repulsor (x2)
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				3				11
Template:Beat Back

Theme Forces

• Template:Defenders of Ios
• Template:Forges of War
• Template:Legions of Dawn. In this theme Aspiss can ignore friendly Dawnguard models when determining LOS, and it can advance through friendly Dawnguard models if it has enough movement to move completely past them. Also, if someone 'Jack Marshals Aspis, it gains Flank [Dawnguard].
• Template:Shadows of the Retribution

Thoughts on the Aspis

Aspis in a nutshell

The Aspis is shield guard jack with a rock-bottom price tag. There are few lights in its point category, apart of Cryx bonejacks, and a few mercenary pieces. This one is designed to stay near models that you don't want to get hit with ranged attacks. It's Phoenix Field helps it to take that one attack per turn with little lasting damage. Once it gets into melee, it can occasionally push heavier targets out of position via beat-back or take out light-moderate armor infantry models. Don't get carried away though; this jack is as brittle as it seems. 8 points of targeted damage can shut down all of its special rules, but even so, that 8 points were likely been redirected from your more valuable pieces.

Combos & Synergies

• None, really... it does what a good, cheap Shield Guard does and protects your caster from opportunistic shots. It's self-healing, making it more likely to be able to Shield Guard effectively from turn to turn. It's worth having an Arcanist Mechanik close at hand to help repair if required (chances are, another gun-toting Myrmidon will be ahead to deliver counter shots during your turn so the Arcanist can be assigned flexibly). This also forces your opponent to invest significant resources to deal with the Aspis, or discourages any potential ranged assassination altogether.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Any drawback would probably be worth listing here will be covered by its 6 pts price tag.
• However, cheap though it is, it's role is subsumed almost entirely by the Forges of War theme, which grants Shield Guard to every Myrmidon in the list (and its self-healing ability is taken by any Myrmidon marshal'd to the House Shyeel Artificer. Almost the only reason to include it in a Forges list is because of its price, but there are often better things to spend the points on.

Tricks & Tips

• Look for targets, who just barely chip the edge of the zones - one (or two) Beat Back hit will likely push them out of position.

Other

Trivia

• Aspis is the ancient Greek term that, alongside hoplon, meant 'shield', which is rather fitting for Ret's only jack Shield Guard.
  • Also, strangely for a Ret jack, this is a historic term, rather than mythological, a feature it shares with Imperatus, if in a more straight forward way.
  • And as a third declension Greek noun, its plural is 'Aspides'.
• The Mk2 Aspis had the most hitboxes of any light warjack or warbeast in the game.
• Released in the Warmachine: Wrath expansion (2011)