Warmachine: Accretion Servitors
The Accretion Servitors are the third type of servitors to be released for Convergence, and the least expensive in terms of points and money. Are they worth picking up?
At 1 point for 3 small based solos, definitely! For that cost, they’re worth it in any army list that has a point free. The only other 1 point filler option is a Dispersion Optifex arcnode, and not all casters are interested in spell-slinging. 1/3 of a point for a model that can serve as a charge target, contest zones, block lines, and just generally be annoying is probably worth it alone, especially for lists that would otherwise be extremely low model count.
But the real reason you’re taking Accretion Servitors is for Bodge. A guaranteed repair of 1 damage point, no dice roll needed, is often just what you need to get a crippled vector back on line. Even if the induction node was crippled at the beginning of a turn, bodge plus inducted focus from other vectors will let it be fully functional for its activation. Unlike normal warjacks, this puts Convergence closer to being on par with Hordes, in the sense that your opponent must destroy vectors completely, not just cripple them. Also remember that almost everything in Convergence, including 3/5 of the casters, have the Repairable rule, meaning Bodge works on them as well.
The other action available to Accretion Servitors is Strip (in the dismantle sense, not the poker sense). This causes 1 damage point to the column of your choice on an enemy warjack, again no dice roll needed. This doesn’t work on beasts, and is limited somewhat by the threat range (6 inch walk to get base to base), but can be just what you need to finish off an opposing jack. Keep in mind that Accretion Servitors don’t have a weapon, meaning they can’t free strike. This also means that if they’re stripping from the back arc of an enemy, that enemy is not engaged in melee and doesn’t get the defense bonus against shooting (by, say, Elimination Servitors).
Strip is probably most useful against a warjack that’s been hit with Iron Mother’s Backlash spell, because it will damage the enemy warcaster as well. With Backlash, it’s often hard to cause enough damage to a jack to break armor, without causing so much damage that you kill the jack before the warcaster dies. Strip just automatically damages in 1 point increments, so it doesn’t have that problem. Because of the B2B requirement, it’d be a little tricky to use Accretion Servitors as the main source of Backlash damage (although it’s technically possible with a Mitigator clearing off each wave of servitors to make room for the next), but they can certainly help add to the total.
In terms of caster interactions, besides wanting them for Backlash, Iron Mother’s tier 3 list also requires 3 groups of servitors, which is easiest to reach with Accretion Servitors. Syntherion’s field marshall somewhat duplicates the effect of Bodge, but he also tends to run low model count lists, and Accretion Servitors are a way of adding bodies while remaining in tier. Aurora can use them as LOS blockers to herself, since they’re Steady and she’s the only small-based caster. Both Aurora and Axis can extend the threat range of strip to 8″ (although in both cases, there are probably much better uses of True Path / Feat). Finally Lucant’s feat may seem to decrease the need for automatic repair, but another 3 points of repair every turn just increases his invulnerability to shooting attrition.
With only 1 more type of servitor left to release, which have you found to be most useful on the table?
