Servath Reznik, Wrath of Ages

Perhaps no man so perfectly expresses the spirit of the Great Crusade as Servath Reznik, a living weapon of his faith. For Reznik the world is a crucible of flame, and humanity stands at the precipice of annihilation. He is a furious legacy of the ancient world, a pitiless instrument of Menoth’s divine justice and the reckoning of heresies from ages long past. Woe to those who would defy the True Law!

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat : Purge the Faithless

When an enemy model is boxed by a melee or ranged attack in Reznik's Template:CTRL range, center a 4" AOE on the boxed model, then RFP that model. Enemy models in the AOE are hit and suffer an unboostable POW 14 fire damage roll. This damage is not considered to have been caused by an attack. Purge the Faithless lasts for one turn.

Abilities

• Template:Cavalry
• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Curse
• Template:Lamentations of Suffering
• Template:Repairable
• Template:Reposition 3

Weapons

• Verdict - 2" reach, P+S 14 melee attack.
  • Template:Weapon Master
  • Template:Magical Damage
• Mount - 0.5" reach, POW 12 mount attack.
  • Template:Continuous Fire
  • Template:Critical Knockdown

Spells

{{Category: Template:Boundless ChargeTemplate:Death MarchTemplate:The Flesh is WeakTemplate:LamentationTemplate:Spellpiercer }}[[Category: Template:Boundless ChargeTemplate:Death MarchTemplate:The Flesh is WeakTemplate:LamentationTemplate:Spellpiercer ]]

Theme Forces

• Protectorate
  • Template:Exemplar Interdiction
  • Template:Guardians of the Temple
  • Template:The Creator's Might
  • Template:The Faithful Masses
  • Template:Warriors of the Old Faith. This theme includes a mix of Khador and Protectorate models, and Reznik can mix what kinds of warjacks he has in his battlegroup.

• Other Factions
  • Khador players can also use him in the Template:Warriors of the Old Faith theme mentioned above.

Thoughts on Reznik2

Reznik2 in a nutshell

Despite the fluff, his huge base and respectable melee prowess, eReznik is rather a support and denial caster, than a melee powerhouse. Though his personal threat is nothing to be sneezed at, his main duty is to provide boosts for his army, and shut down enemy spells.

He has a whole lot of special rules, that give the unique flavour of his playstyle.

• Curse: making you and your jacks super accurate against a selected target. With the added support of the Choir, not many opponent will escape them. Don't forget, it is limited to your 8" CMD zone, rather than CTRL.
• Lamentations of Suffering: you probably want to leave a focus on you for occasional Power Field reinforcement anyway, and now, that focus will make shooting up your large base much more difficult. AoEs can still scatter at you, but you are well armoured not to worry too much about them. There are only 2 things to consider: magic shots (even the ones enhanced by Explosivo), and Eiryss1.
• Reposition, combined with Pathfinder will give you a surprising mobility. It might help you to catch crucial models in your Lamentation or feat bubble, or fall back from the enemy's retaliation range.
• Repairable: this will come up rarely, thanks to your above-average speed. Your only repair source is the Vassal Mechanic, and he has to be in B2B with you to conduct repairs.

Feat Thoughts

An offensive-support feat, Purge the Faithless is mainly useful to clear up clumps of infantry, thanks to the resulting AoEs. Since the AoE harms only enemy models, feel free to walk up close with your elusive troops to slice their throats from the back. Though the feat AoE won't trigger a chain reaction, it is very useful against shield-guarded formations. Heavy targets nearby won't care too much about a POW 14 damage, but supporting models near a destroyed jack will likely to be taken out. Don't forget, the damage is not blast, so blast-immune troops still can be hurt. It's also one of the few sources of RFP in faction, making it valuable against armies that collect souls/corpses or use recursion.

Spell Thoughts

• Boundless Charge - cast it on you for a 14" threat range. Cast it on your SPD4 warjack, and now it can get further with charge, than with run.
• Death March - Especially useful on multi-wound troops, like the Exemplar Bastions, or Vengers, as it is already being triggered on damage.
• The Flesh is Weak - thanks to its high cost, you won't spam it too often. If you have the focus though, don't forget, that it triggers on a hit, rather than on a direct hit, so you can shut down a melee brawler warbeast, basically limiting it to walk-and-punch attacks. It also thwarts counter-charges.
• Lamentation - your #1 choice, when going against strong spellcasters, like Haley, or Deneghra. Due to its huge cost, you might want to cast it on turn 1, and don't let it drop. Thanks to his huge base, he covers larger area than a FOCUS 8 caster on a small base. It works on animi, but useless against Magic Abilities.
• Spellpiercer - Universal tool against many denial tactics, be it Incorporeal spam, or various support spells on your target. That goes for Reznik's weapon too.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Huge base with all its inherited weakness. Though you are defended adequately against non-magical shooting, a couple of things can still get you.
• It is hard to set up charges with a huge base, if there are intervening models. Unlike many battle engines and battle engine casters, he cannot trample through or slam targets away from his path, so a single Tough grunt can stop his charge.
• Enemies with fire immunity, or with an extensive battlegroup will rarely, if ever going to worry about your feat.
• The Flesh is Weak won't work on construct warbeasts and warjacks.

Tricks & Tips

• Reznik is a member of his own battlegroup, so will benefit from Curse.
• Despite the Repairable and Battle Engine rules, he's still a living model, and thus affected by rules and abilities which interact with such models (Life drinker, Bleed, Butcher 3's feat, Poison, Annoyance, Burning Ash, Ashen Veil, etc.).
• The feat RFPs enemy models, not the attacks made under his feat, so it shuts down feats like Cyenia1's or Goreshade4's.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Reznik works on an attrition/denial strategy. Lamentation is his bread and butter spell; the affected area is huge, and can effectively shut down many spellcasters' plans from turn 2 and onwards. Watch out for Resourceful casters, though. You can shut down key enemy warbeasts with The Flesh is Weak, and/or enhance your heavy hitters with Death March and Boundless Charge.

Theme thoughts

• Fire of Salvation - Fastest of the Crusader class, it already has Righteous Vengeance.
• Exemplar Vengers are good recipients for Death March, as it stacks nicely with Battle Driven.
• The Exemplar Warder can raise his DEF in melee to 15 as well as Parry, and is a Shield Guard that occasionally stands up after getting knocked down.
• Severius0 provides the always-useful Eye of Menoth, as well as a warjack that doesn't require his resources. Additionally, you can Boundless Charge his warjacks, granting it a total of a 5" threat extension with Road to War.

• Daughters of the Flame can get into enemy lines and easily trigger Reznik's feat against single-wound living infantry models.
• Blood of Martyrs is a highly mobile warjack with Side Step, allowing you to dance between enemy infantry as you trigger the feat. Grievous Wounds ensures that Tough won't stop your feat from going off.

• As Reznik 2 doesn't have a damage buff of his own, he greatly appreciates Hand of Vengeance buffing his warjacks offensive potential.
• Initiates of the Order of the Wall are self-sufficient, durable Shield Guards that are immune to most control effects.
• The whole slew of Paladin solos can be taken here as well. The buff each other with Girded and Righteous Vengeance and are valuable contesting and combat pieces.
• The Covenant of Menoth furthers Reznik's spell denial.
• The Avatar of Menoth greatly appreciates both Spellpiercer and Boundless Charge, and its MAT is already so high that not benefitting from Curse isn't a big deal.

• Severius0, the Exemplar Warder, and Avatar of Menoth are all available in the theme, and all good choices to take with Reznik.
• Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard are one of two Friendly Faction units in theme. Powerful on the offense, they come with two durable Shield Guards, while Rhoven can provide Eyeless Sight to one model.
• The Vessel of Judgement can be sped up with Boundless Charge, and Reznik appreciates a boostable high POW gun, especially since its Admonisher might allow you to set off even more feat targets. However, it has a rather prohibitive cost,

• Khador's various battle engines (the Winter Guard Gun Carriage and Man o War Chariots) appreciate the speed boost from Boundless Charge and the ability to bypass enemy defenses with Spell Piercer. Additionally, all are potent infantry killers due to their high POW impact attacks and Linebreaker and/or their guns, making them absolutely disgusting against infantry-heavy armies under Reznik's feat.
• All Paladin models, Vengers, Archons and Flame Bringers are all in this theme, too.
• The Victor is a pretty good jack for him. Its RAT is disappointingly low, which Curse fixes and with Hymn of Battle it goes up to POW 22 on the main gun and POW 14 on the Flack Field, meaning it can kill multiple closely packed models and trigger feat explosions. With Spell Piercer it can also snipe out some gremlin swarms and the like.
• There are a plethora of highly effective melee solos in this theme (as in Paladins and Gravus), all of which love Boundless Charge. The Menite Archon and Yuri the Axe also have Thresher, which becomes quite silly under the feat.

• Wrack - you will often want to save a focus for Lamentation of Suffering - why not get it from a suffering sinner, then?
• The Choir and a Vassal of Menoth is as useful as ever, as is the Hierophant for Harmonious Exaltation and the increased range on spells from Spiritual Conduit.
• A Shield Guard is crucial for him, and an arc node can also come handy if you want to strike with The Flesh is Weak form afar.
• The Menite Archon is a really great target for his feat. Being able to Thresh a bunch of dudes, which explode on a kill. The explosions are fire damage, so they receive Fuel for the Flames, cranking them up to POW 16. Among Swift Vengeance on the Archon(s) and Death March induced Vengeance on a unit, the enemy will have a hard time shooting targets without retaliation.

• Madelyn Corbeau can use Parlay to prevent warrior models (including warcasters and warlocks) from hitting him. When she is B2B with him and uses Parlay, even 2" reach can't hit him.
• The Hermit of Henge Hold brings a gaggle of useful support abilities for Reznik, such as a damage buff in the form of Whisper at the Gates, or a damage negate to keep him safe.

Battlegroup

File:ScourgeofHeresy.jpg

Scourge of Heresy is his pet warjack that he can take in any theme.

• Scourge of Heresy is Reznik's pet warjack so he can take him in any theme. Lamentation paired with Arcane Vortex can set up really sweating situations for spellcasters.
• Redeemer - Spellpiercer-enhanced rockets can threaten incorporeal models with their blasts.
• A Devout can run and keep B2B with him to prevent spells from hitting him

Other

Trivia

• Released in the Warmachine: Vengeance expansion (2014)
• Reznik is another Menite of Khadoran origin, similar to Vladimir. Reznik was born and raised in the northern mountains of Khador amongst one of the strictest sects of Menoth.
• Real world origin of the word "Reznik"
  • Jewish (eastern Ashkenazic): occupational name for a Jewish ritual slaughterer, from Yiddish reznik (of Slavic origin).
  • Czech (Řezník) and Slovak (Reznik): occupational name for a butcher.
• Possible real-world origin of his first name (Servath) is from the ancient Armenian bishop, Servatius of Tongeren.
  Servatius was a fervent prosecutor of Arianism, a theological view, that later became branded as heresy by the church. According to the legend, Saint Peter gave him the keys of the Heaven so he could redeem the sinners, and could decide who can enter to the heaven.

Video Battle Reports

• 2018.11 Arcane Assist 75 points vs Dr Arkadius
• 2018.04 Deathclock Dave 75 points vs Orion
• Template:VBR