Zaron

Race: Human
Class: Soulgazer
Survivability: Med (can be high if played conservatively)
Damage Output: Med
Threat Range: High (uses ranged magic attacks and a summoned skeleton to deal damage)

Profile: He has AGI 4, MOV 4 and a lowish amount of boxes (14) but his mediocre defensive stats are made up for by his ability to contribute at range, often at extreme range. He has a MEL of 5 that you want to avoid using and a MAG of 7. The damage on his magic attack is higher than the damage on his melee attack as well.

He is able to summon a skeleton with MOV 4, AGI 2 and MEL 2. It only has 2 actions and 4 damage boxes.

What does he do?: Zaron's game is focused around 3 things, his soulgazing, his summoning and his magical attack. Of all the soulgazers he is able to contribute most when not soulgazing however unlike Saiyin and Kruul he has no way to strip souls from enemy models and he provides very little support outside of ganging up bonuses from the skeleton. He has the Gift of Life ability which gives a model Leech 2 (the ability to heal up to 2 damage with each attack) an ability I quite like on Brok (BOOOO! errata). With the errata only allowing you to gain 2 life per attack action this is no longer something I would look in any way to build around and instead this is a way to add some healing particularly to ranged models (since your opponent will generally get a turn to try and kill the model before any healing has a chance to go ahead).

Soulgazing - Zaron has two ways to soulgaze, he can get within 4" like a regular soulgazer or he can soulgaze through his summoned skeleton from any distance. This allows Zaron to stay base to base with his effigy, soulgaze and bank. Also when Zaron gets to level 3 he is allowed to use the Shadow Orbs he can place to teleport around the board and of course back to the effigy to allow him to bank. On maps with two soulpits he is able to stand within range of one and send his summoned skeleton to the other soul pit in order to easily soulgaze both spawning locations.

Summoning - In addition to the skeletons ability to act as a soulgazing proxy it also has some useful combat abilities. Though it is only Range 1" and MEL 2 it is able to charge and throw 3 dice at most targets and often as importantly when Zaron gets to level 2 the skeleton will explode when destroyed doing 2 damage (ignoring RES) to all models in 3". It costs an action and a fate to summon a skeleton and is almost always the right move given the versatility of the skeleton. Even when the skeleton does very little you get some value from your opponent directing attacks to destroy it.

Attacking - Zaron has the best base attack at range of any of the soulgazers at 2|3|4 and at MAG 7. This is actually a really strong ranged/magical attack as those go in the game. Though Zaron generally prefers to be summoning and soulgazing he can actually get a fair amount of work down with his magical attack.

Fate Appetite: High. He wants to make a skeleton every turn if he can.

Level Appetite: High. The skeletons are a lot more valuable at level 2 when you add in the exploding rule. You can force your opponent both to waste attacks and to take damage digging it out of an awkward area. His level 3 teleport ability is also very strong. This is mitigated by the fact that he is a soulgazer and will level up easily if there are souls on the board.

Magic Items: Ring of Power (Low), Boots of Agility (Low). He doesn't really need an item, he can generally stay pretty far back and contribute and spends a lot of actions soulgazing and summoning.

Combinations: I wrote this before the errata last night and a lot of this section was the combination I liked with Brok where you put leech on a level 2 Brok, hard to kill in one activation because of Heroic Destiny and then he could heal up to 12 damage back. I'm not sure the combination works now that you can only heal a maximum of 6 damage but you can try it if you want. Considering it's been 12 hours since the errata I haven't had a chance to play around with the new rules. Also I have had some joy using the skeleton to go and engage targets for Piper (you don't risk anything to trigger backstab and your opponent has to waste attacks to deal with it). Generally though Zaron is a very strong soulgazer in a fate light warband (as in where the rest of the warband doesn't need fate). He is the strongest soulgazer for double soul pit maps so far released.

Ban Targets: Zaron doesn't like ranged models both for his ability to stay back himself and for their ability to aim, kill the skeleton and use the symbols generated to move into range of other models. Whenever you take a soulgazer if you can stop your opponent from also having a soulgazer you have an advantage. Watch out for Brok using the skeleton as a way to trigger backswing and get a free attack. Watch out for models like Piper pushing the skeleton into your own models before exploding it. Styx is always a pain for back-line models that do not survive in frontline melee and Zaron fits that bill.

Judy's Judgement:

Brok

Race: Dwarf
Class: Aggressor
Survivability: Low
Damage Output: Very High (up to 24 without his fate abilities)
Threat Range: Medium (Charges 7" + 2" melee)

Profile: He's slow (though his MOV goes up when he charges), he's easy to hit and he has no RES but he does have MEL 7 which is average for an aggressor. His 16 health is neither high nor low.

What does he do?: Brok wants to get crits in melee. If he can get into melee and reliably roll crits then he becomes the best damage dealer in the game, without crits Thorgar does his job better. He also has an ability called cleave which allows him to attack multiple models and is a great way to spend a fate and Molten Metal which can do a lot of damage to defenders.

In order to run Brok effectively you need to set him up in order to be rolling a lot of attack dice, there are a number of ways to do this the easiest one is to have your opponent be a sport and play an all Dwarf/Minotaur warband. Even if they do this though you still only roll 4 dice when not charging which is not enough. I'll put up some dice maths again:

If you can roll 5 dice or more Brok will do more damage than Thorgar, if you are rolling 4 dice or less Thorgar will do more damage (and is also more survivable and has better other abilities). So how else can you dice fix without the helping hand of your opponent. You can stack ganging up bonuses by taking a number of other melee models, you can get knockdowns (Thorgar, Thrommel, Marcus etc. - all also melee models who can gang up), you can take Bastian for both ganging up and his Heroic Ballad ability, you can get poison on your opponent and you can take the Vorpal Blade.

Brok's survivability using only his base stats is extremely low, possibly the lowest in the game, this is compounded by the fact that he is a melee only aggressor. The other AGI 3 models in the game all have some combination of more boxes, RES, Regeneration, other healing abilities or ranged abilities allowing them to stay back. You need to take this survivability into account when playing him, you can mitigate it with his savagery ability, his level 2 ability Heroic Destiny, with defenders and with good placement.

Fate Appetite: Low. Though I did mention cleave and how strong it is, often you just want Brok to go whole hog on a model where he can get some additional dice. His two fate abilities cleave and his level 3 fate ability Molten Metal both add a lot of versatility without being necessary for him to have a good damage output.

Level Appetite: High. He wants to kill the monster, he wants to get to level 2 fast so that he can get a little bit of survivability. His level 3 ability (Molten Metal) is strong but you don't generally need to worry too much about him getting there, with his damage output he tends to level up easily after the two sides become engaged (provided you keep him alive).

Magic Items: Vorpal Blade (High). Brok needs crits to get his kit to work that means he needs as much dice fixing as he can get. The vorpal blade is a good start but he will often need more if you want to get his full damage potential out of him. He is also a good choice for the Glyph of Warding, he can use savagery to lift his RES and get to the front line and the extra RES from this item can be pretty important in keeping him alive.

Combinations: Bastian is the obvious pair for Brok. He can use his 3" melee range to engage and Heroic Ballad for an extra dice. He can also heal Brok when he triggers Heroic Destiny (or preferably before it's gone that far). Marcus and Thrommel can knock down his targets and help him to stay alive and Thorgar is a good aggressor partner for him because he doesn't need the Vorpal Blade quite as badly and can knock down models and bring them to him.

Ban Targets: Istariel. Fire counters Heroic Destiny and she has a field day against his low AGI. A lot of the elves can be a problem for him, they don't have RES so his level 3 ability does nothing and their high AGI makes it hard to get crits against them. Skye in particular is a problem not only is AGI 6 making him near impossible to crit against but also teleports into melee with Brok whenever he goes after another model reducing his dice pool.

Judy's Judgement:

Thrommel

Race: Dwarf
Class: Defender
Survivability: High (average for a defender)
Damage Output: Low (4-7)
Threat Range: Low (Base 8" and difficult to increase)

Profile: He's slow and easy to hit. He relies on his RES of 2 and his boxes to stay alive and he has a 2 action cost melee attack with very high damage although his melee is only 6 (which is good for a defender).

What does he do?: Thrommel has one of the easiest knockdowns in the game, he only needs to damage a model then spend a fate to knock down an enemy model and doing 4 damage on a glance means that he only needs one hit symbol. On top of that you only need to damage and get one combat manoeuvre to stun your opponent. Combined it means that Thrommel can take two actions away from a hero and your opponent can only spend a fate to remove one of those conditions.

He has an ability called bodyguard, it's not fantastic, your opponent does 2 less damage on their first attack to a hero within 2" provided they don't have a way to ignore RES.

Lastly his higher level abilities are very strong. Get him to level 2 and he cannot be pushed or knocked down. This makes him excellent for blocking charge lanes and contesting a shrine. Get him to level 3 and he has one of the best abilities in the game (in my opinion) in dwarf toss.

Fate Appetite: High. At level one/two he wants a fate to charge and stun and knock down a model. At level 3 he wants a fate to dwarf toss into the middle of multiple models then stun one with his warhammer. Without fate a number of other defenders outshine him.

Level Appetite: High. The things that distinguish Thrommel from the other defenders are almost all on his higher level abilities.

Magic Items: Boots of Speed (Low) - on the 5v5 maps I often like to have Thrommel finish of the nearby monster on turn 1 and buy the Boots of Speed. From then on he can really move up into annoying positions to cause problems for your opponent blocking charges, contesting and protecting weaker models and he can't be pushed out of the way. That said he doesn't generally want to be making 3 move actions and the boots don't affect dwarf toss so if you can get by without them you should. Items that benefit from multiple attacks like the Armour Shredder or the Blood Sucker are useless for him. The other boots are also useful as are healing items and the Gift of the Gods. In general he does not need a magical item so giving him one will be match up dependant.

Combinations: An obvious combination is Kvarto allowing him to make an additional attack, this works well if you can knock down a model that has already activated and then hit it again. It works less well if you need to hit a model that is still standing without any positive dice modifiers (MEL 6 isn't the greatest).

Thrommel is one of the better defenders for a ranged aggressor warband, once leveled up he can't be moved out of the way allowing him to protect your squishy aggressors and he is has great knock down abilities which can really dial up your ranged damage output. In particular I will point out Loribella - she really needs a knocked down opponent to trigger spring loaded reliably and she heals Thrommel and gives him extra speed though I personally prefer him with Kogan and Istariel.

He also works well with the standard models that work well with defenders, Nephene, Bastian, Piper...

Ban Targets: Thrommel's low AGI makes him vulnerable to models with abilities that ignore ARM. Allandir can ignore his ARM at level 3 but at lower levels is able to use his low AGI to twin shot damage onto nearby targets. Rakkir and Zhonja, are able to use his low AGI to apply their fate abilities that ignore RES (Rakkir in particular can apply a large amount of damage and then move to safety). Styx can apply a large amount of burst damage that ignores RES as well as pull him out of position even when levelled and Brok is always someone to avoid with a lot of defenders, particularly low AGI defenders he can use to trigger Back Swing.

Judy's Judgement:

Saiyin

Race: Elf
Class: Soulgazer
Survivability: Med
Damage Output: Low
Threat Range: Low (though she moves 5" she has a 1" melee range and cannot charge).

Profile: Saiyin has high MOV, high AGI and low health (Standard Elf stats). Her MAG is high but she prefers to avoid using it.

What does she do?: Saiyin wants to soul gaze and use her support abilities. Though she can attack quite well against enemy models with souls she generally prefers to stay back and avoid the fight using Augury and Holy Shield and gazing/stripping souls then banking them. Her healing Aura is very useful and something that is important to remember when playing her. Augury is a great ability particularly for models that roll multiple d6 rather than combat dice since the change in outcome can be much higher and of course she herself benefits greatly when using Augury to aid her soulgazing.

Saiyin is very strong in one soul pit maps when you can go first. She is able to use Augury on herself and soul gaze until she hits level 3 and can bank two souls. On double soul pit maps she levels up more slowly and is at a greater risk of dying before she can bank, she also will not or at least generally should not do a great deal when the soul is on the other side of the map as you do not generally want to throw her forwards into melee. Though she lacks ranged attacks you are often better off holding her back and not getting much out of her early activations rather than throwing her into melee especially is she is holding souls. This may mean that she doesn't do a lot early on which shouldn't concern you too much.

Her strip soul ability is in general not as good as Kruuls but it has certain advantages. As she is performing a soul harvest she gains an advantage from having models engaging the target whereas this robs Kruul of attack dice, also she doesn't need an action to use her Soul Beckon ability (Kruul needs to use his after an attack which means using an action) which means she can Beckon, Soulgaze then bank using her level 3 ability or back off to a safer location. Be careful if you are sending models forwards to engage the model she is using Soul Beckon on that you leave a place for the soul to spawn otherwise it may be out of range for Saiyin to Soulgaze.

Fate Appetite: Med. Soul Beckon and Soul Bank are great abilities to use late in the game but not generally used early.

Level Appetite: Med. She really wants to get to level 3 so she can bank her souls without moving. Her level 2 ability (which increases her healing) is also nice. That said she doesn't want to go after a monster and she will level up quickly by soul gazing.

Magic Items: Boots of Agility (Low), other defensive items (low). Saiyin in general does not want aggressive items, I quite like the Boots of Agility on her but often they have a more pressing place to be in your warband.

Combinations: Saiyin's healing works very well with the minotaurs as does her ability to stop fire turning off their healing. Augury is really nice with Rakkir, Brok or Zhonja when they use their fate abilities and Holy Shield is a great counter to Rakkir and to Istariel.

Ban Targets: Saiyin like a lot of the elves doesn't like automatic damage or knock downs. They have low health and rely on their agility to live. She is much more likely to be a ban target for your opponent if they have a model like Rakkir than to dictate who you want to ban.

Judy's Judgement:

Rakkir

Race: Orc
Class: Aggressor
Survivability: Med
Damage Output: Med (up to Very High with Toxin his fate ability)
Threat Range: Med (to Very High with Shadow Orbs)

Profile: He is MOV 4, AGI 4, MEL 7 and 15 boxes. Pretty much average across the board except for his aggressor MEL of 7. He has the Cloak of Darkness giving him extra AGI against ranged and magic attacks. His melee range is only 1" which can be a problem.

What does he do?: Rakkir is one of the more specialist aggressors, his base damage output is low for a melee aggressor, his 1" melee range is constricting and can make him vulnerable to models like Doenrakkar and his base threat range on a charge is only 8" (including his 1" melee range). That said his abilities are incredibly strong. Toxin his fate ability does not require an action and is allows him to do an extra 2d6 damage ignoring RES which is extremely strong. From level 1 his able to teleport to and from shadow orbs makes him extremely mobile and adds to his survivability, also he has Invisibility (at level 3) and Cloak of Darkness to add to his hit and run style and make him difficult to kill from range.

What Rakkir wants to do is generally charge in, use the extra dice to apply poison to a target, use his toxin ability then place a shadow orb and teleport out (either using his base ability or by getting to level 2 and triggering Escape from an attack). In the early turns of the game you want to make sure there are shadow orbs allowing you to target important areas of the board, look to see if you can teleport near soul spawning pits to target soulgazers, near shrines to push out or kill contesting models (Rakkir's Toxin ability ignores RES which means he can often finish off wounded defenders) or get charge range to your opponents effigy.

Fate Appetite: High. If Rakkir can't use his Toxin ability then his damage output is much lower than the other aggressors.

Level Appetite: Med. Rakkir really needs to pull back after charging in if he wants to live, he can do that without levelling up by dropping a shadow orb and using an action to teleport away but it is advantageous to be able to do that with an attack. Invisibility his level 3 ability is extremely strong combined with his ability to teleport back after attacking.

Magic Items: Vorpal Blade (High). Rakkir really wants the vorpal blade. I'm going to do something I haven't done previously and put up some dice math.

This is the chance of getting at least a glancing hit and two manoeuvre symbols. The chances are probably lower than most people would guess they are. The odds are broadly similar to what you would have to roll for a crit. What this means in game terms is that if Rakkir charges an elf with no assistance you only have a 38% chance of getting poison off and being able to use Toxin and with your second attack the chance goes down to a very low 8%. You are not generally going to get poison off on an elf without assistance, even against a human or an orc the odds only go up to 50-50. Taking a Vorpal Blade takes those odds up to 64% (closer to 2/3) and sending in a defender to engage the model first and you are up to 73% (closer to 3/4). Rakkir needs dice fixing if you want to use his kit and the Vorpal Blade is often an important part of that. 

Combinations: Zaffen and Kvarto are both able to apply poison to a target independently of Rakkir so can be very useful, Kvarto is also able to use his telekinesis ability to have Ashtooth or Vujasha apply poison. The knockdown defenders (Marcus, Thrommel and to a lesser extent Skoll) are able to knock down targets before Rakkir charges then use their defender abilities to make it hard to get to Rakkir. Bastian is a great source of extra dice to make the poison ability stick and Thorgar is a useful aggressor partner because he doesn't need the Vorpal Blade as badly as Rakkir as well as also having access to knockdowns.

Ban Targets: Ban Saiyin. She can prevent you from using toxin on one target. Kvarto at level 2 is also immune to poison. Skye is also someone who is a high priority on the ban list. After we just finished looking at how important each die is for Rakkir having someone who can both add 5 health to the model you are going after as well as reduce the dice pool is not what Rakkir wants to see.

Judy's Judgement:

Piper

Race: Elf
Class: Supporter
Survivability: High
Damage Output: Medium
Threat Range: High (12" on the charge with Mystic Step & Enhance Self, or two magic attacks at a target 14" away when he starts his activation).

Profile: Piper has an elf stat line, low boxes high MOV, high AGI no RES as well as MEL 6 and MAG 6 and he has a fate ability "enhance self" which adds one to all of those (except RES). His movement is further increased by an innate ability allowing him to gain a 2" place at the start of his activation. Though he only has a 1" melee attack range he has a magical attack at range 6" which allows you to push a model like a melee attack (this is a lot more useful than it seems on face value).

What does he do?: Piper is one of the most versatile models in the game. His ability Duplicate Self allows him to ignore the first attack he would suffer, Enhance Self takes him to AGI 6, and at level 3 he gains Taunt which allows him to force an enemy aggressor to target him rather than a squishier target. Added together that makes him a good pseudo-defender.

On the other hand and again using Enhance Self (although he can do both these things without the ability just not quite as well) he becomes MEL 7, attacks a model already engaged to add another dice to the pool and uses Backstab to do 3|4|5 (glance|solid|crit) damage which makes him a decent pseudo-aggressor.

Lastly with his huge threat he can move models around in the back line and disrupt your opponents abilities and things that contest shrines as well as move models quite far away into monsters to cause your opponent difficulties. He also has a Soul Harvest of 4 which makes him a decent back up Soulgazer especially given his survivability.

Fate Appetite: High. He wants to cast Enhance Self every round if he can, you will always get some use from that ability. That said he can live without it, it will reduce his effectiveness but it won't cripple him.

Level Appetite: Med. Viper Venom (the ability to trigger enhance self of a melee attack) is incredibly useful and Taunt is a fantastic ability that can turn games. That said he can use the bulk of his toolkit without levelling up.

Magic Items: Glyph of Warding (Med). Makes him an even stronger pseudo-defender, the Boots of Agility also do this for one less cost but often your opponent will be looking to knock down Piper or apply automatic damage which makes it less effective (automatic damage will also often bypass the Glyph of Warding). If you are looking to get him an aggressive item to increase his output he gets more out of the Vorpal Blade or if you are up against a lot of models with RES the Armour shredder rather than the Ring of Power.

Combinations: Piper likes melee defenders, particularly Doenrakkar as they can help trigger his Back Stab rule and I quite like the Piper + Lvl2 Zaron combination as you only risk a skeleton and killing it generally does some damage to your opponent anyway. Generally though you take piper for his versatility. He can be a ghetto soul gazer, he can be a pseudo-defender or a psuedo-aggressor and he brings a long threat on his ranged attack that can move models around. He makes a good pick to round out a 5 or a 7 model roster to fill in for an important position that gets banned or in a warband where versatility is important. He also fits nicely into high AGI warbands which are useful for making it hard for your opponent to trigger their abilities.

Ban Targets: He doesn't like being knocked down and automatic damage, this means models like Thorgar, Xyvera and Styx are good ban targets. Thrommel also has the knockdown ability as well as his level 2 ability that prevents piper from pushing him but he really doesn't like duplicate self.

Judy's Judgement:

Kruul

Race: Orc
Class: Soulgazer
Survivability: Low
Damage Output: Low
Threat Range: Med-High (move and shoot 10” charge 9”)

Profile: Standard stats MOV 4, AGI 4, as well as MEL 6 and MAG 7. Average boxes (15). He does more damage in melee but has a higher MAG score so rolls more dice at range. His magic attack increases in damage for every soul bound to him.

What does he do?: Kruul is a more combat oriented Soulgazer than for example Saiyin and is strong on single soul pit maps but still quite useful on maps with multiple soul pits. In single soul pit maps he is able to take a soul then stay near the soul pit safe in the knowledge that if he dies the soul will pass to a nearby model (his Transference ability) and then use his level 2 ability Soul Distortion to make it harder for enemy Soulgazers as well as the extra damage on his Bewitched magic attack. On multiple soul pit maps he can use Bewitched to add some damage without getting bogged down in melee. It is important to note that you can use Transference to send a soul to the effigy provided Kruul dies in range.

Like most Soulgazers he wants to sit in behind the melee and move to take souls. His Extract Soul ability is a very strong ability that can quite reliably take a soul off an enemy model. Null Magic is situationally quite useful and the presence of the ability can often be enough to make your opponent thing twice about buying a magical item.

Fate Appetite: Low. Extract Soul and Frenzy are his two fate abilities. Extract Soul is very strong in the late game when fate is easier to come by and Frenzy requires a lot of effort to get value, I would not build a warband around it but it's nice to have when you need it. Either way he is able to his job in general without fate.

Level Appetite: Low. His level 2 ability is useful especially in single soul pit maps but it isn't necessary for his game plan and as a Soulgazer he levels fairly easily. Nor do you need to worry about getting to his level 3 ability.

Magic Items: Defensive Items (low). Ring of Power (low).

Combinations: Kruul works well with defenders, his Null Magic ability can make it even harder to take them down and when he dies he likes to hand off the soul he is carrying to a model that is hard to kill. Having defenders around can also allow you to push forwards safely to get more use out of Extract Soul. You can also take multiple orcs and get value out of Frenzy late game or you can take models like Nephene and Skoll that take away your opponents options and make it hard to get anything done

Ban Targets: Kruul is at his strongest when he is the only soulgazer on the board. Soul Distortion is good against another soulgazer taking them from needing a 6 to a 7 or an 8 but it can stop your opponent from even trying to soulgaze if they are relying on using non-Soulgazers with a soulgaze of 4. It also really turns on his Extract Soul ability as non-Soulgazers have to be further up the board in general to collect souls. If you can't stop your opponent from taking a Soulgazer getting rid of the defenders who can make it much harder to use Extract Soul are the next best ban options.

Judy's Judgement: