Siege Animantarax

Are there any rumors of what the changes will be? I heard they are going to have 30 health boxes and "support abilities". This probably means he will go beast with the caster that supports the same troops as he does given the offensive stats are lacking.

...With the ability to output more damage then Khadoran jacks can even with Maximum Focus.

Why do Hordes players always selectively forget about limitations of Focus?

I've been wanting to use the Animantarax for a long time, to the exasperation of my more experienced Warmachine friends. I have one painted up, and I keep finding inspiring nuggets on its cards.

Despite this negative reaction from my friends, I do think there's something to the Animantarax. Having looked into it, I see synergy with a few casters.

Hexeris2 loves it for how it interacts with Black Spot. Since you can shoot while in melee you can waltz up (with significant speed once whipped) to a heavy and begin to shoot an adjacent unit under the effects of BS, buying you free tail attacks into the heavy for every trooper killed with your guns. Not always easy to pull off, especially in an infantry-light meta, but really high value if done correctly.

Morghoul2, being the generalist that he is, loves the Animantarax. His feat and Mortality allow it to more reliably hit targets, and punch hard into hardier models.

Our other generalist, Rasheth, particularly likes guns. The Animantarax' Reiver can reach rat7 pow19 (Blood Mark and feat) for an average 3 shots against large or huge bases. Granted it's not boosted, but that does a decent amount of damage at 23" range after being whipped and trampling. Nevermind that the tail can hit for p+s22 under the same conditions, both of which you can do on the same turn or even against the same target!

Hexy1, Xerxis1 and Makeda1 can all buff its multitude of abilities to a certain extent as well.

The problem is that it is immensely fragile. A few casters mitigate this to some extent, but it never seems to live through even a modicum of effort from an opponent. The huge base is burdensome, and also very exposed. Its reposition and great range add survivability, on the other hand.

Another problem I have with it is cost. At face value the cost is acceptable, though still a little steep for my liking, but when you consider having to devote Handlers to it, the cost goes up. Even if you're talented enough to use a single Handler unit for both your beasts and for whipping the Animantarax, it's a mental trial to govern everything on the table for this to work.

Nope.

You mean Powerup? Uh yeah, with that new rule, jacks can finally charge without taking 1/6th of most warcasters resources.


Are you SERIOUSLY complaining about the Jack Marshal Rule? Seriously? Because your right.

Man PP REALLY missed the Mark on Jack Marshal Rules. The whole "Take a Colossal For free", it's freaking crazy! Why do Jack Marshalls just give youfor free. With No Drawbacks whatsoever. PP is crazy sometimes.

I think your being needlessly whiny.

Because no Hordes Heavy is arm 20 pow 19 for 12 points.  Why does every Warmachine player forget their stuff is inexpensive?

Agree to disagree.  Warmachine has better rules and models.

I'm pretty sure the confusion is that you think horde can use fury like candy while warmachine is limited to the amount of focus their caster gains every turn. First, lets correct something.

A horde beast cannot be forced beyond its capability, which is generally 3 (same as jacks without powering up) but sometimes 4, 2, or even 5 in rare cases. A warlock's battlegroup and the warlock him/herself is also a single pool, just the decision on when to use that boost comes at a different time. Warlocks never "regain" fury like warcasters, however. Our beasts produce it and we reave it from them. Even with this, however, we are limited in the amount we can reave. If, for instance, we go all out with all of our beasts, racking up a tremendous 20 fury!!!!! wow, sounds awesome!! but we can only reave the amount we used back... and we try to sit on 1 or 2 so our locks can actually survive... so even though we accumulated 20 fury! all of our beasts who pass the threshold check next turn will still be stocked full and won't be able to generate additional PLUS the ones who fail go charging off into the distance, generally out of control range where we can't gain control of it for another damn turn x.x; FYI, unlike in warmachine where jacks just lose power-up when outside control range, our beasts auto frenzy until we can get our lock back into range. Basically, as far as pros and cons go, warmachine and hordes is in a virtual tie.

Second, a warmachine caster has more than the labeled focus on their card. They gain an additional focus for every member of their battlegroup that is automatically allocated. Thus, whenever you take into account the amount of focus you can produce in a turn, you always have to include an additional one for every jack in your battlegroup.

Third, warmachine casters automatically come with more spells than warlocks with comparable stats. This is done on purpose because warlocks gain their beasts animi. However, the cost of our beasts are still increased based on the usefulness of their animi. On top of this, warlocks lose the ability to use that animus once the beast is dead. I've stated this before, a warlock's strength is equal to the number of beasts in his party; the more you kill off the weaker he becomes. On the other hand, a warcaster is not affected in the slightest by the death of a jack or two. In fact, it allows him to use his focus more freely, making him more deadly as he can pour even more into his ample spells and left over OP jacks.

Fourth, it is true that, if we see a chance for assassination, we can purposely produce more fury than we can manage. However, if we fail in doing this, we pretty much lose the game. Skorne probably has the ability to use the most fury out of every horde faction. However, what allows us to do this is one of the weakest units in the game. Any REAL player will show you exactly how vulnerable fury management makes the horde factions. A well placed AoE can cut the amount of fury management we have in half! What about Warmachine mechanics? how do you reduce focus effects? FYI, just like you have the cortex, we have spirit