Dark Age: Fanaticism Pt. 3 The Second Coming of the Saints
Time for one last peek at Fanaticism to check out all the models I didn’t cover last time.
I previously went over the new Prevailer Council Subfaction. It was a pretty long article but I still only managed to cover about 60% of the entries in the book. The rest of the space is taken up by other new Forsaken goodies.
First off there are three new Generic Forsaken. These guys can be used in any Forsaken army – with the Saints or with the Prevailer Council. Additionally there are four new mounted versions of existing saints, and a new sidekick for each of them. Finally Renegade Saint Johann gets some love. There are already two versions of the Forsaken’s black sheep, so rather than create a third one, they’ve given him a giant Scorpion pet. I’m going to try to go into less detail about specific abilities than in my last article since you can see the all the cards I’ll be discussing under the downloads> cards> Forsaken tab on the Dark Age website. First I’ll be talking about the new militia on p.5.
At only 30 points, at the very least they fill a point slot that wasn’t available before. List building in Dark Age can feel like a puzzle sometimes. You start with those first six models you really want to take, only to find you don’t have enough points left to fit anything else in. This means models at every points value can help you out. Now there is a 30 piece puzzle piece for when your list just doesn’t want to math any other way. This particular puzzle piece is also helpful because it has a ranged attack: the little Scrap Bomb. It’s a woefully unreliable one, but given how many good melee options the Forsaken have, it’s nice to see a ranged one that you can just tuck in there for cheap. The Militia also have a mace. And while it’s not even a terrible Mace, it’s definitely the bomb you’ll take these guys for.
Next is the Shepherd. He’s barely a better hand to hand fighter than the Militia – and he doesn’t even have a ranged attack. His DF is decent but even with an extra wound his low armor means he’ll probably go down pretty easy. The reason why you take the Shepherd is for the abilities he passes on to the flock – another new troop type. These guys are the cheapest troops yet for the Forsaken. Their stat line seems like about what you’d expect for 25 point models. But when you take them with a Shepherd he unlocks some real potential for them. With Berserk they’ll become markedly better fighters. And if they end up dying from their exhaustion counters, they’ll get to make that one last whack against anything in melee with them. And of course cheap models have the added benefit of being able to gang up with other models and add to the AS and PW of those around them.
That covers it for the generic Forsaken so lets move on to Saint Mark Harbinger of Judgment. He’s the first of the new mounted Saints. You can still only take one Mark, so why take this new one. Yeah he looks awesome but is he 70 points more of awesome? Well pretty much yeah. The new Saints are all just freaking tanks – walking weapons platforms that unleash death. Not only that, they all get a couple extra wounds right off the bat. I feel like a couple of extra wounds on Mark would probably be worth about 50 points, regardless of everything else. Although it is a pretty big deal that loses two DF to get those wounds. He also loses his Cutter Arm, but it’s replaced with a much better Assault group. Ravage, which I can only assume represents that dragon chowing down, is an AS 10, PW 8, two attack Assault Group. Since it has the Crush ability, if you hit with the first swing the next attack you make in that AG with that action will automatically hit. That’s up to 4 auto-hitting attacks with Mark’s 4 AP. He’s coming for you Johann. It can still fail if it Malfunctions – but it has a base MAL of -. The only way a MAL is possible is with Cult of Metamorphosis shenanigans. His BlowBack Missiles will hit anyone he’s basing and can send models flying across the table. He even still has his old gun, although it’s sporting a new name. He has Command 2 like all the saints, but has a little bit of Inspire to go along with it, which is nice. The only thing he seems to lack vs. the other Saints is crowd clearance – although he’s only slightly less amazing at it. But it’s no big, he has a new buddy to help him out with that.
Is your opponent blocking Mark’s Path to their juicy Arbiter with hordes of slaves? Well that’s where the Sentinel comes in. Hit and Run will let this guy just keep killing and killing as long as there are more models within his 4″ Move. Infiltrate and Elusive will crush any dreams you might have had of finishing him off before he reaches your models. All I can say is spread out your army. Spread it out. Spread. It. Out. Of course if you have a more Elite force with fewer higher point cost models that will minimize the benefits he gets from his key ability as well.
Next we have Saint Luke, Bastion of Wisdom. If Saint Mark Lacks for ways to kill mobs of infantry, Luke is his opposite. His first Assault Group is a Multi-weapon one and both of those weapons have Pierce. That gives him the potential to slay up to four enemies every time he uses it. His Lance has Proximity Strike for that extra Blast Template, and his final Attack Group is a Spray. He has the Parry skill, and AS 10 on one of his AG’s, so there’s a good chance he’ll block a lot of incoming melee attacks. And since Luke can Pop Smoke, shooting him to death is also going to be tough. Luke might not have the highest ARM of all the new mounted Saints, but with Parry and Pop Smoke, he’ll be tough to kill.
His buddy Zuriel seems like he’ll be a pretty indispensable counterpart. That Shotgun’s no joke, but what makes him really intriguing is the Med Pack. If your opponent actually manages to damage Saint Luke, Zuriel can heal him. There might be only two uses on that medipack but that’s two wounds you can put back on a model that’s already tough to hurt. He also has immaculate maintenance. It’s not quite enough to get the shotguns of Luke and his Arsenals MAL free, but it will reduce the odds of a MAL from 1 in 10 to 1 in 20. Zuriel is kinda like rolling a Field Medic and a Weaponsmith into one. Finally he’s another model that can pop smoke.
Saint Mary Herald of Vengeance is next. She’s the fastest of the new saints with a SPD of 4. That might not sound like much but remember a model can move once per AP, and if that move brings it base to base with an enemy model, it counts as a charge. This gives Mary the potential to kill a lot more models per turn with her 4 AP. If she does charge, her unicorn’s Impaling Horn will get that Extreme Damage, which is a really powerful ability. If that’s not enough to bring down a tougher target then she can use that Boundless Fury of hers if getting that wounding hit is just that important. If mass troops are a concern she has Vindicator with the Arc ability as well as that Nailgun of hers. Mary has the most to offer to her fellow troops with both Blok Stopper to protect them and a good Field Order with Furious Charge.
Mary’s new companion is Joan. She and Mary are actually at the center of most of the story in Fanaticism, so you learn a lot about the two of them. Joan is decent enough in a fight, but she has a really strong Field Order for her fellow Banes: Hatred. Her Psychogenic ability is also pretty helpful. For some reason this one didn’t make it into the Psychogenics Document. Cast on a 16 or less it gives Mary back the AP she spent to cast it and gives her a precognition counter she can spend to allow a friendly model to re-roll a failed attack or armor save.
Our last saint is John, Aegis of Faith. If you want to bring down those really hard targets, John is your man. His signature Power Maul is back with a new name, Lawbringer, and now you don’t have to worry about powering it. This makes John the only saint with an Extreme Damage Weapon that can be used for every attack. The tradeoff is that John doesn’t seem quite as effective at killing mobs of dudes. He has an assault group with three attacks in it, but they can only be used against models in melee. His Griffon’s Screech can hit a lot of enemies, but it’s PW is appallingly low. You can still power John’s Armor if you want to, but it’s as risky as ever. I wouldn’t mess with it unless you are really worried about his safety.
Mark’s new henchman is Elijah. This guy’s key ability is clearly Assassinate. I mean deployment ANYWHERE on the table? Put him where there are some nice juicy targets for that Bone Bow and watch your opponent pull their hair out as they have to send their troops back into their deployment zone to finish Elijah off. And if they don’t send enough to finish the job he’ll just go regenerating on them.
That does it for the Forsaken Saints, so lets look at Johann’s pet the Scorpius. The Followers of the Heretic list hasn’t been updated with it’s card – yet so I’ll have to do my best to describe it. What this thing does really well is not die ever. It has ARM 20 and 6 wounds – which puts it at a tie for most wound having model in the game with the Brood Howler and Numbskull. At least I don’t think there are any other 6 wound models… But I digress. The Scorpius also has the new Consume rule which lets it grow back a wound whenever it kills another model. Also it can attack friendly models if it really needs to heal. It only has 3 AP but it’s Pincer Attack Group can be used twice per action, so this thing can deal out up to six attacks per activation. Well 7 actually since those Pincers have Latch On. This means once per round, if it hits with two pincher attacks with the same action (not too hard with AS 8) It can do a Stinging Death Attack. This one causes no damage, but will inflict Poison 14. It has some other cool abilities too, and definitely seems worth it’s 200 pts, but it just isn’t as exciting to me as the new saints with all their crazy flashy weapons. Which is fine really since Johann is already pretty exciting.
Last up is Haborya. Again you won’t be able to find her card online yet. At 85 points she’ll set you back almost as much as three harpies, but she’s improved over them in almost every way with slightly higher Def, higher AS, significantly higher PS, and a couple of extra rules. Key among these would seem to be Harpy Matriarch – a rule which will probably remain unique to Harborya. It lets harpies within 8″ re-roll an attack roll during their activation. Another new rule, Onslaught, will allow her to ignore models with one movement action once per activation. She also has Human Shield, and of course Vault and Gliding Deployment like all Harpies. She seems like she’ll be a lot of fun to break out with all those Harpies you’ll buy whenever they get a resculpt.
~Whew and that’s finally it for Fanaticism. I really want to do a Dark Age painting article soon. Hopefully it won’t take too long to find the time to pretty up some of my prized Fanaticism models.
