So yeah, Menoth. My first Warmachine and Hordes faction.
I technically started all the way back in MK1 but I never played much past tiny games until MK2 came out, more models became plastic, they actually gave you full unit boxes rather than sell you a minimum and make you fill it out with blisters, and the game just got more affordable in MK2. That's when I truly started to play, which meant 50-75 pt games (and that's 50-75 pts in MKII points, mind.)
At first, I didn't know what I wanted to do with Menoth. I knew from bad early experiences with Deliverers that I really didn't wan't to focus too much on shooting. But I decided as I looked through my little MKII faction deck. I wanted to be hard to kill as I always struggled to charge in myself and get the first hit, And I wanted to be able to counterattack hard if I couldn't get the charge/alpha strike. It always felt like the opponents would always get to do it first instead.
Exemplars. I gravitated hard to Exemplars. With weapon master, I didn't have to get the charge off to roll 3 dice for damage! I know it's even more valueable for charging because of 4 dice, but the thing is I struggled to find opportunities to charge, I just wanted to be able to do somethng impactful with whatever I had left after the opponents turn. Outside of Weapon Master, sure, at first my Knights would drop off like flies to shooting and stuff, but when they got down to the last guy or so, not only were they really hard to kill, but they hit way harder, too. due to Bond of Brotherhood.
Over time I expanded and got things like Bastions who I also liked for the same qualities, hard to kill with Sanguine Bond, and had Weapon Master with the added benefit of REACH!
For Warjacks I gravitated to jacks that'd be able to assist my warcaster and Exemplars in fighting up close, The Avatar of Menoth for a way of breaking through heavy armor and having a really hard to kill piece, The Templar for giving my often dangerously close to the frontlines warcasters who had to give the rest of the army support, both through shield guard and Beat Back. And it's damage wasn't bad either, especially with Choir help! And then there was that Character Crusader, The Fire of Salvation, which I loved. Going ham with that imprint was great in MK2
For Warcasters, I Gravitated to Mr. Exemplar himself, Krieoss2 who had a feat that worked in tandem with my "weather the storm and then counterattack" playstyle very well in MKII. Made Exemplars harder to kill, and was pretty good in melee himself if it was required of him.
I also played quite a bit of Severius1. Eye of Menoth and Vision were great paired with the Avatar, and all the exemplars loved the Eye.
I loved playing Harby a LOT! Having such a gigantic control range and such an impactful feat was so much fun.
Over time I started to struggle, especially movement, and against shooting, and it felt like since my army was entirely melee there was nothing I could do about being peppered to death by shooting as terrain gummed me up and I'd lose on attrition. But then I Found my savior. Exemplar Errants.
Errant answered the big struggles I faced. Pathfinder. Crossbow with a very reasonable pow and range so they could actually do something impactful if they couldn't make it into melee! and when they do make it in, they got to shoot someone for free every time they killed someone in melee! Still had weapon master, they were squishier than other exemplar but they had more guys and their defenses got better with buffs. Or since they didn't get gummed up by it, I had something that could USE terrain rather than avoid it like the plague!
I was still losing and struggling, but I felt like I was making games out of it, I rarely had games where I didn't score a single CP or got completely tabled or assasinated early anymore, But then.
Then MK3 happened.
With MK3 came an almost unilateral nerf to Exemplars. Knights lost Bond of Brotherhoodfor the far-inferior Battle-Driven, no longer could those last few guys hold on for deal life and deliver a savage counterattack, now they were probably shot dead by the top of turn 2.
Bastions didn't change much but they began to struggle for MK3 meta related reasons, powerful shooting cropped up that tore the once-mighty Bastions to ribbons even with buffs.
And the Errants.... the poor, poor Errants. They losteverything that made them the unit that helped me so much. They no longer got Pathfinder and they were just as badly slowed to a crawl in terrain as everything else. Quick Work was replaced by the baffling Assault, which meant they'd often shoot the guy they're charging and end of failing to charge. They felt pointless now, like they only exist to be a screen and die for the rest for the army. But, for way less points, you can have Holy Zealots fit that bill. And chances are with a Monolith, they'll live long enough to wreak some havoc witht heir grenades, where Errants will probably not be able to do much other than die.
In addition to that, changes in MK3 made certain things that used to work well completely unviable. Whole Warcasters were turned to bottom tier casters that never saw play. Krieoss2 once great feat and ability to lead Exemplars fell to the wayside because his kit didn't offer enough anymore because of the Exemplar nerfs and he didn't offer enough to Warjacks, and the game has become so battlegroup-centric.
Harbinger, who was once one of our best casters for scenario play, her feat got decimated to the point she just wasn't worth playing anymore, her spells didn't have much impact, especially after the exemplar nerfs, because she liked infantry over a BG, so she didn't have a place in the meta with her big gimmick taken away.
So the game had changed and how I used to play was now invalid. What to do about it?
I tried to adapt with the models I had, I made purchases, mostly some more Warcasters and some new stuff to adapt to this new Battlegroup-heavier game.
My collection ended uplike this:
Warcasters:
Krieoss2
Sevvy1
Feora2
Harbinger
Reznik1
Light Warjacks:
Devout
Blessing of Vengeance
Heavy Warjacks:
Castigator
Templar
Avatar of Menoth
Fire of Salvation
Guardian
Scourge of Heresy
Solos:
Vassal of Menoth x2
Vassal Mechanik
Vilmon
Gravus
Wrack x 3
Units:
Choir x2
Knights (don't have the CA)
Errants+ CA
Bastions
Cinerators
Holy Zealots+ Monolith
Vengers
Attachment: Hierophant
So, I tried to make lists with this. Here are some of the lists I played, and them I'll give you some cliffnotes of what I played against and how I started to really struggle again, how I started tog et completely tabled again, the early assasinations, losing before scoring a single CP, etc.
I built a Feora2 list because I decided she was a good candidate if I wanted to commit to more of a battlegroup gameplan.
Feora2
-Castigator
-Fire of Salvation
-Templar
-Devout
Vassal x2
Vassal Mechanik
Wrack x3
Min Choir x2
Cinerators
Full Holy Zealots+ Monolith
The idea I had was that I knew I wanted to run about 3 heavies with her, I know that Feora2 was one of those casters that was greatly helped by Power Up and with bringing along some Vassals to give focus to jacks so I know she could handle the 3 heavies, but I threw in a Devout because I'm paranoid and I thought a combat light might be nice.
With a battlegroup like this I feel like I need 2 Choir just to spread out more Hymns. as our jacks are kind of crap without them.
For units I decided to refrain from my usual Errants and stuff because Feroa2 really doesn't offer them anything and with the loss of pathfinder and thus less able to use terrain, they really need help to not die, and by help I mean "Defender's Ward". Feora2 does not have Defender's Ward, so Errants are a bad, bad idea now.
So I went with Cinerators, who are actually the only Exemnplar unit to get buffed in the transistion, gaining Vengeance, which is pretty huge for Medium Base infantry that's gonna attract shooting.I thought about throwing in Knights buit I was like "nah they die too easy now."and I went If I'm just putting another unit in to be a meatshield, why not just take Holy Zealots." and.. that's what I did. Holy Zealots have 1 job, to die to waste the opponents resources, and maybe firebomb some stuff and possibly die to a bad deviation roll, plus both the units pack the possibiity of setting stuff on fire and enabling Feora's feat a bit more.
As for Feora herself, she's pretty much casting Escort turn 1 and never, EVER letting it drop. Our jacks are painfully slow and they can't quite survive the opponent's alpha the way they used to. timing her feat has always been a problem for me, I would oftebnn struggle to get enough fire on the field to get good mileage out of it.
But anyway, onto some quick game cliffnotes with this list.
I've really struggled to make this list worked.
-Played it into Cryx: Denny1 and got tabled and lost on scenario because everything aside Feora was torn apart. Denny got huge Scenario lead on her feat turn.
-Then I played this against Lylith3 I learned just how quickly a herd of shooty Legion beasts could shoot this army and my jacks off the table.especially once Chior was dead. I got upset I was losing Scenario due to losing everything I had so I moved Feora too close and Lylith3 got a run off on her.
-The last game I played with this list was against.... Circle. Specifically pre-nerf tuna. does anything else need to be said? If I'm getting tabled by Denny1 and Lylith3 of course I lose to pre-nerf griffon spam. That's just science.
So I was pretty frustrated after that, and tried to come up with different lists.
I decided rather than try something new, how about I STICK TO WHAT I KNOW, nerfs be damned?
I went with Sevvy1 over Krieoss2 because I have no idea how Krieoss2 would work out, I did play a few MK3 Krieoss2 games but they..... they were a bad time let's not talk about it.
Sevvy1
-Hierophant
-Fire of Salvation
-Templar
-Blessing of Vengeance
-Devout
Wrack x3
Vassal x1
Vilmon
Choir x1
Full Errants+ CA
Knights
So, fairly sizable Battlegroup, I really wanted to take Avatar but.... it's just too prohibitively expensive in MK3. The fact you can't spend jacks point on it basically means, you either take it or infantry, you can't have both. And given if you're playing battlegroup heavy Avatar is still bad there because PoM loves their Battlegroup spells which don't work on the Avatar, so eh, went with other jacks, despite Sevvy1 being one of the few that could use it. Maybe that was a mistake.
For jacks I just toook cheap bneatsticks. Fire of Salvation being a little more expensive but I feel the imprint's worth it, it was mostly my compromise for not taking Avatar. Templar provided Shield Guard and beat back and just a strong hitter. Sevvy always needs his character node, especially Sevvy1 for some Ashes to Ashes goodness. And a Devout too to fill out.
You may be looking at Vilmon, a Devout, and Templar and go "that's too many shield guards". Look, when Feora2 is getting so easily picked off... if I'm gonna play the old man I'm gonna.... I'm gonna be a little paranoid about it, okay?
Despite me saying a bunch that Errants are useless now, I took them anyway. Sevvy1 can Def Ward them and maybe make them useful.... maybe.
How did it go? Well....
-First played against Retribution and Rahn chain blasted the old man into oblivion with the help of battle mage pulls..... so all my paranoia with 3 shield guards was..... for nothing.
-Next game was against Kromac2 Tharn theme... all my infantry did was turn into Snacking healing while Kromac2 and his beasts killed everything.
-Third game was against Karchev jack spam. I killed one jack that was it. Then I died.
-Last one was against Irusk2 Winter Guard Theme. It was packing 2 full death stars, Gun Carraige, A spriggan and two AoE jacks (Decimators?) I couldn't move hardly with all the terrain Irusk and his battle engine made. Winter Guard sit in the woods where Errants couldn't charge them or shoot them, they they crept forward jsut enough to spraay them. Lost on scenario very quickly.
I tried something new, and I tried sticking to what I know, and not only was I losing, but it felt like I was just wasting my opponent's time, y'know? I could score a point or contest to save my life,, couldn't stop getting assasinated, and couldn't do anything about losing all of my units, heavies and stuff and getting tabled.
I didn't know what to dom, and since there wasn't a single other Menoth player in my area, I had nobody to help. Most of the other players said "I should buy Iridians, I should get Vindictus, I should hop on the High Reclaimer bandwagon.... I should go Flameguard or go spray heavy and fire heavy and play Malekus or Durant 2 or something.
But you know what, if I was goung to do that I might as well play different factions if I'm gonna have to buy that much. And that's what I did.
God that was a lotta words, but hopefully you all took something from this and understood why I felt like I can't play my first faction anymore and felt the need to switch and play different factions. See you next time!
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