Imperatus

As regal as its name suggests, the Imperatus was engineered to be without peer. The myrmidon wields a pair of blazing thermal blades to deadly effect, annihilating foes in a flurry of fiery impacts. At a distance it musters energy from its field to empower the Halation cannon, a weapon that can direct a concentrated burst of superheated energy with pinpoint accuracy. Its most astonishing feature is the Phoenix Protocol, a failsafe system that can rapidly restore the Imperatus to full fighting force.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Bond
• Template:Field Dependent
• Template:Force Fields
• Template:Phoenix Field
• Template:Phoenix Protocol
• Template:Side Step

Weapons

Halation Cannon
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		10			1			Template:-			14
Template:Magical Weapon Template:Fire Damage Template:Flame Burst
Thermal Blade (x2)
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				7				17
Template:Magical Weapon Template:Continuous Fire

Theme Forces

• When taken by Vyros
  • Template:Defenders of Ios
  • Template:Forges of War. Imperatus gains Shield Guard in this theme.
  • Template:Legions of Dawn. In this theme Imperatus 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.
  • Template:Shadows of the Retribution

• When taken by anyone else
  • Template:Legions of Dawn. In this theme Imperatus 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 Imperatus, it gains Flank [Dawnguard].

Thoughts on Imperatus

File:Vyros1.jpg

Vyros1

File:Vyros2.jpg

Vyros2

Imperatus in a nutshell

Imperatus brings one of the most durable warjacks in the game with some melee power to boot. Side step gives Imperatus ways to get deep into enemy lines and strike at the heart of the enemy force. Phoenix Protocol keeps Imperatus alive well beyond what most heavies can take, giving him a total of 51 boxes which takes serious investment to get rid of (for reference, Hyperion/Helios have 64 boxes each).

Combos & Synergies

• Vyros, obviously...
  • Vyros1 offers a great threat extender from Righteous Vengeance and his feat can turn the damage up to 11.
  • Vyros2 has Deceleration and Easy Rider which are both helpful to the army, Imperatus included. His feat is a nice threat extender.
• Arcanist to make Imperatus hit harder.

Legions of Dawn

In this theme any caster or 'jack marshal can take Imperatus. Given he is a a mymirdon of good value and quality with both superb offensive and defensive stats, he is likely to find a way into most Legions of Dawn lists, regardless of caster. However a few combos of note are:

• Garryth2's Road to War spell combined with Side Step provides him with an incredible non-linear threat range.
• Elara2 - Scything Tough and Boundless Charge are excellent spells on Imperatus.
• Thyron1 - He is a big fan of quality melee mymirdons.
• Ossyan1 - Imperatus goes really far under Quicken, or becomes difficult to pin down with Admonition.
• Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir - A pricey package, but Imperatus will gain Righteous Vengeance, which extends his threat range even farther
• House Shyeel Artificer - Pricey again, but double the healing for your force field.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Grievous Wounds will prevent him using Phoenix Field and Phoenix Protocol. He's not coming back!
• Your most expensive myrmidon, high on the target list and quite the investment.
• Sidestep does not ignore free strikes, so he can't charge 2" reach targets hoping to wade past without killing them first.
• His typical assassination run will only really work against newer players, leaving him for trading more often than not, or being kept back as a threat more than anything.

Tricks & Tips

• His two initial side steps can frequently lead to him delivering a scary assassination threat, especially at the tail end of a Synergy sequence.
• Don't be afraid to trigger Phoenix Protocol during your Maintenance Phase if an opportunity arises to get ahead on attrition/assassinate comes up as this may be worth more than waiting for him to be disabled first just to eke the most out of his potential 51 boxes.

Other

Trivia

• Released in the Warmachine: Vengeance expansion (2014)
• Unlike all of Retribution's other jacks, non-character and character, which are named for mythological beings (largely Greek, especially the characters), Imperatus is not, being an inflected variant of the Latin word 'imperio' (I command), from which 'imperator' and thus 'emperor/imperial' come from, which is quite fitting.