Warmachine: Intercessor Kreoss
I’ve gotten in quite a few games now with Intercessor Kreoss. Time to report on what I’ve learned.
I was more than a little excited last year when I first got my hands on Colossals and saw the new Protectorate warcaster. Kreoss on a horse? With this set of rules? It sure seemed like he had everything: a nasty spell list, an imposing statline, a slew of awesome special rules (including one of the most ridiculous Elite Cadres in the game), and a very solid feat that seemed to suit him very well. Of course I was cautious… no matter how good a caster looks on paper there’s always that chance their rules just won’t quite mesh right once you get them on the table. Having now played more games with Kreoss 3 than I can remember, I can confidently say that he is every bit as good as he looks.
Lets look over some of his spells and abilities real quick before I go into the lists I used.
Invocation of the True Law: Might as well start with the feat. I still feel like the point of this feat is to set Kreoss himself up for a truly devastating assassination run. It lets you clear any upkeep spells that might be keeping your target safe, then lets you cast Ignite and Death Sentence for free to make absolutely sure Kreoss gets to murder whatever he was going after in the first place. Of course Kreoss doesn’t have to do the murdering himself. You can use the feat to set up a heavy warjack or a unit of Vengers for the kill. Try not to be tricked into using it too early to clear a really annoying upkeep your opponent has in play. You really want to try to have all your pieces in place so they can get their own free upkeeps before you move in for the kill. Of course timing the perfect feat turn is always going to take a little practice with a new warcaster.
Time to move onto spells.
Crevasse: I have to admit, this spell has been relegated to “once in a while” status after I erroneously used it a couple of times my first game to get Warpath triggers (Warpath doesn’t trigger off spells you see). It has a high base cost, and with lots of upkeeps to keep in play, and lots of ‘jacks to run I rarely find a use for it. But always keep an eye out for bunched up models. This spell can take out quite a few in a pinch.
Death Sentence: I’ve never cast this one. And the more I think about it the more that feels like a drastic oversight on my part. It only costs 2 to cast and can drastically boost your murder tally. And of course it’s free to use on Kreoss’ feat turn.
Force Hammer: There was a time when having Force Hammer was all the excuse you needed to include an arc node in your list. The advent of huge bases means that isn’t quite so true anymore. But that hardly makes the spell irrelevant. There are still plenty of times when you can use it to clear charge lanes or knock models out of control zones.
Holy Ward: What’s not to like? Usually best when cast on something that isn’t already immune to spells.
Ignite: Another great upkeep when you really want to pour on the damage. The only real way to go wrong with Ignite is to cast it on the Choir. And even that might have its uses really late game.
Warpath: This has become Intercessor Kreoss’ defining spell for me. With all the damage a Protectoarate army can dish out, it’s hard to find yourself in a situation where you just can’t get a kill to trigger a Warpath move hen you need it. With that extra out of activation three inch move, the Protectorate’s brutally hard hitting warjacks can actually get the drop on their enemies for a change. And you can do trickier things with Warpath like using the move it gives you to get onto an objective after you kill the thing that was blocking your way to it. And since the move is out of activation, it won’t deny a warjack with ranged attacks from getting an aiming bonus.
That takes care of spells. Lets move onto abilities.
Imperishable Conviction: Kreoss has a large base. That means there’s a good chance he’ll find himself taking an incoming shot or two. So since parts of your army are going to die, it’s nice to know they’ll be healing Kreoss a little when they do. It’s yet to help me in any way though, since the times when I’ve let Kreoss get killed all the damage was done to him at once.
Divine Inspiration, Brutal Charge, and Blesed: Roll three dice and drop the lowest for all attack and damage rolls with P+S 18 on the charge while ignoring spell effects that add to DEF and ARM? How did this guy make it out of playtesting with all these rules on him? With access to ignite, there aren’t many things this guy can’t take out in a single round.
Elite Cadre: Vengers get Divine Inspiration too? Yes please?
Here’s the first list I tried out:
Intercessor Kreoss – WJ: +5
– Fire of Salvation – PC: 9
– Repenter – PC: 4
– Repenter – PC: 4
– Vanquisher – PC: 8Vassal of Menoth – PC: 2
The Covenant of Menoth – PC: 2
Wrack – PC: 1
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord – PC: 2Exemplar Vengers – Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Exemplar Errants – Leader and 9 Grunts: 8
– Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard – Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard 2
Choir of Menoth – Leader & 3 Grunts: 2Advertisement
Getting and painting a new unit of Vengers was all I could think about after I’d read Kreoss 3’s Elite Cadre rule. Eventually prudence won out and I decided to run some practice games before I committed to the new purchase. Really it was the thought of painting an entire new unit of cavalry that swayed me to start my list with models I already had.
The first step was to throw in the obligatory unit of Vengers. And while the Errants are a welcome addition to any Protectorate list, there’s some extra incentive to field them with Kreoss 3. With their standard giving them Purity and Kreoss himself having Holy Ward to give out, that’s two units in the army that can’t be targeted by spells. In fact if you’re having trouble in your local meta with the likes of Rahn or Vayl 2 or anyone else who likes to throw spells around you can tailor a whole list with Kreoss 3 that has complete spell immunity… but I digress. For now lets focus instead on the fact that Ignite makes Errants even cooler than they already are.
My choice of warjacks is based almost completely on what works well with Warpath. Fire of Salvation is downright balls to the wall bonkers with warpath. He’s already more bonkers than most people give him credit for what with Righteous Vengeance giving him a potential 13 and a half inch threat range as long as you can get a model killed within 5″ of him. If you can get a Warpath trigger that number goes up to a truly insane 16 and a half. And the beauty of it is that all that movement happens in three different stages. So you don’t even need a perfectly straight charge lane cleared out to get the ‘jack from point A to B. Most people are completely unaware that the Protectorate can come anywhere close to that kind of distance. That ignorance has won me games. And it doesn’t hurt that the ‘jack hits like a ton of bricks. And has Dispel. Just one quick warning: be very careful with this guy around the Errants. His Righteous Vengeance move doesn’t trigger if one of them is destroyed as a result of Self-Sacrifice. If they’re the only friendly faction warrior models around, make sure you let at least one of them die the normal way. Anyway, I could probably write a whole article just on Fire of Salvation but this isn’t that article so lets move on.
Lets talk Repenters. Seriously these guys are great. Four points gets you a spray, a decent melee weapon, and enough ARM and damage boxes to require a concerted effort to remove it from a zone. In any other faction you might (emphasis on might) have to think twice about including a jack that does what the Repenter does. But we’re talking about the Protectorate. And the Protectorate have Choir. That makes these little ‘jacks a RAT 7. I like to hang them out on the end, and just a little bit behind the line of Errants. Then you wait until the Errants get charged – usually inevitable since they’re a bit slow. On your turn the Repenter Warpaths up to get a nice line of targets – and all that with an aiming bonus. I’ve done it quite a few times now and it never gets old.
The rest of the stuff in this list is all pretty straightforward. You probably don’t need me to explain what Rhupert is doing here or why Wracks are good for a warcaster who likes to run kinda ‘jack heavy and sling spells.
Let’s move on to my next list.
Intercessor Kreoss – WJ: +5
– Hierophant
– Fire of Salvation – PC: 9
– Repenter – PC: 4
– Repenter – PC: 4
– Templar – PC: 8
The Covenant of Menoth – PC: 2
Vassal of Menoth – PC: 2
Reclaimer – PC: 2
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord – PC: 2
Choir of Menoth – Leader & 3 Grunts: 2
Exemplar Errants – Leader and 9 Grunts: 8
– Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard – Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard 2
Temple Flameguard – Leader and 9 Grunts: 6
– Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard – Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard 2
The Protectorate heavy Cavalry do have an impressive threat range: a full thirteen inches. But that’s only a half inch over the range that most infantry can run to engage. If the infantry in question also happen to have reach, they can actually run and engage at a further distance than the Vengers can charge. To make things worse, cavalry can’t make impact attacks unless they move at least three inches. That means if my opponent really wants to jam up my Vengers, they only really have to be able to run a unit to within two inches or so. Sometimes you can still make oblique charges to get yourself some impact attacks, but then you’re getting in your own way. Don’t forget that even though making impact attacks during a cavalry charge is optional, if you do choose to make them you have to make them against every model (friendly or enemy) in your melee range. And since that whole Divine Inspiration thing isn’t optional, your Vengers can really hurt themselves if they go bumping into each other during their cavalry charges. If they can’t charge, Vengers are limited to one measly melee attack per turn. We’re talking about one of the most expensive units in the game here. There’s no way you’re going to get your points back with them if they’re only getting one melee attack per turn.
So after several games of watching my poor Vengers get bogged down and twiddling their thumbs, I decided to see if I could whip up a decent Kreoss 3 list without them. I’d been having lot’s of success with the Intercessor even with 11 points of army just barely pulling their weight. Surely if I took them out and put in something else I’d end up doing splendidly right? With the Vengers gone, I was able to add (among other things) a unit of Temple Flameguard with their unit attachment. These guys do splendidly with Kreoss 3. Holy Ward makes them a very respectable DEF 15. And that bumps up to 17 versus charge attacks thanks to set defense. Bring that up to 18 with Dirge of Mists from Carvolo. Run them and use Iron Zeal early game and they’ll be nearly impossible to get unstuck. And since we’ve got all these nice warm bodies, why not add a Reclaimer to free up a little focus for Kreoss to cast some spells? Speaking of warm bodies, having this many also gives you the potential for a lot more Imperishable Conviction heals.
With the Vengers gone, I was less worried about clearing infantry to try to make charge lanes for them. That meant I could drop the Vanquisher for a Templar. This guy is a great ‘jack who usually gets overlooked in favor of the identically-costed Vanquisher and Reckoner. With Warpath to give him an extra 3″ move, the Templar can overcome his low SPD limitation and really get to shine for a change. There are two reasons this ‘jack is great for scenario play. He’s hard to kill thanks to that shield of his, and with his Beat Back rule he can push models out of zones and away from objectives all while he moves closer to them.
With my last point I upgraded my Wracks to a Hierophant. He’s mostly there to give Kreoss some extra range for his spells with Spiritual Conduit.
I don’t have a picture for my last list. That’s because I did something I almost never do. I proxied some Steelhead Cavalry for a second unit of Vengers. I really wanted to see if I could get the Vengers to do better than I had on my first go through. What better way to figure them out than try two units at once? And of course it didn’t hurt that I’d asked around for some advice. Here’s list number three:
Intercessor Kreoss – WJ: +5
– Fire of Salvation – PC: 9
– Repenter – PC: 4
– Repenter – PC: 4Vassal of Menoth – PC: 2
Vassal of Menoth – PC: 2
Wrack – PC: 1Subscribe to our newsletter!Get Tabletop, RPG & Pop Culture news delivered directly to your inbox.By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Exemplar Vengers – Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Exemplar Vengers – Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Exemplar Errants – Leader and 9 Grunts: 8
– Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard – Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard 2
Choir of Menoth – Leader & 3 Grunts: 2
My mistake with the Vengers during my early games was my inability to let go of what I think of as a unit. Essentially I was keeping them too close together. To really make these guys work you almost have to think of them as five solos. These guys have CMD 9. With 50mm bases you can spread them out over almost two feet and they’ll still be in coherency. With that much space in between the models it’s nearly impossible for anyone to jam them up too much. Keep each unit on a flank. Run them towards the enemy deployment zone while keeping them well spread out. Watch your opponent struggle to figure out how to engage them and keep their caster safe from all of them.
Now I still have to admit that this list has some bad match-ups. Real infantry swarms like the ones you see Cryx players throwing around sometimes can still ruin your day. But anyone that wants to brick up will begin to panic when the Vengers swing around behind their army and they find themselves completely surrounded. Given how hard they can hit with Ignite and their Elite Cadre, the Vengers can also do well against low model count armies. Especially warbeast heavy ones that rely a lot on high defense.
~So yes, Intercessor Kreoss is every bit as good as he sounds. If your a Protectorate player, take him out for a few games. I really think he’s up there with top tier casters like Feora2, Severius 1 and the Harbinger. Although using him well definitely requires a little more nuance. And if you’re not a Protectorate player, watch out if you see this guy on the other side of the table.
