Warmachine: Disturb the Hand of Silence at Your Own Peril
A new character solo has arrived for the Protectorate of Menoth. The Hand of Silence collects loyal souls and guides them to where they will best serve Menoth’s will.
The Hand of Silence rides into battle on his noble steed, Alban, collecting friendly Menite souls and denying enemy souls from being collected. For an in-depth character look at Hand Of Silence, check out this short story by Matt Goetz.
We got our friend at Sprue Loose Miniatures(Facebook, Twitter) to paint up the Hand of Silence, and it turned out great! Check out this paint job and then we’ll discuss the rules for Hand Of Silence!
Photos and Paint Job courtesy of Sprue Loose Miniatures(Facebook, Twitter)
Rules & Abilities
This model is all about the souls! And with a Command range of 10, the Hand of Silence can collect friendly souls and sometimes, more importantly, deny enemy souls to a huge portion of the board. Direct Spirits lets Hand send friendly Faction souls in his command range to any model on the table(assuming they can collect souls). With 3 soul based abilities, it might be hard to decide whether or not he should keep the souls for himself.
- Grave Resonance – Converting 1 soul to 1 focus is a fair exchange rate and allows for some additional warjack support. This is an anytime ability and can even be used to power up multiple jacks, assuming you have multiple souls.
- Soul Powered – Allows Hand to make additional melee attacks by spending souls.
- Strength of Death – Allows Hand to boost attack or damage rolls by spending souls. This can be used to boost all damage rolls, including his spray attack.
Damage Output
Hand’s abilities allow him to turn souls in damage output, either by powering up warjacks or boosting/buying attacks himself. Boosting attack and/or damage on the Flame Thrower attack then re-positioning away is a great way to deal with enemy infantry. He isn’t a slouch in melee either, as cavalry charges give an additional die to hit and he can buy POW 14 attacks boosting damage if needed. Don’t forget about the assault spray, letting the Flame Thrower reach deeper into the enemy lines. Plus all of these attacks set the enemy on fire! Always helpful if you come up short on damage, or the enemy makes a tough check, the fire roll might finish them off.
Being able to provide warjacks focus allows for some fun with ‘jack marshals. Bring a ranged warjack and give them the ‘Take Aim’ jack Marshal ability and choir buff for +4 damage. With the focus from Hand of Silence a Redeemer can easily get to POW 16 boosted damage rockets!
Hand of Silence vs. Reclaimer
Protectorate has had access to a solo with soul collection via the Reclaimer for a long time. So, why would you take Hand over the Reclaimer who is only 3 points?
Well, the fact that both these models collect souls is where the similarities between them end. Really, it’s not a direct choice between the models, but rather what abilities you want in your list. Need to protect your troops with Ashen Veil? Want to protect your caster with a cloud? The Reclaimer is a great choice. Bringing both the Hand of Silence and Reclaimer will allow you to support a balanced list with both jacks and troops nicely.
Wrap Up
The Hand of Silence is currently in 3 of the Protectorate theme forces; Guardian of the Temple, Faithful Masses and Exemplar Interdiction, so he’s got plenty of opportunities to see table time. While he does count towards getting free cards in some themes, he is never able to be a free solo himself. This means that you won’t see him on the table simply because he is an expensive free model, as we do with some other factions. However providing support to his army, denying enemy souls and being able to produce some good damage make him a worthy consideration during list building.
What do you think of Hand of Silence? Will you be taking him in your Protectorate army?
