Clarifications and Continued Spoilers from Vengeance.

its been a few days since Templecon ended, and there have both been continued spoilers of the upcoming Vengeance releases, and some clarifications. Through a number of channels, the PP staffers have continued to tease us with the tidbits that are coming in Vengeance, and in the case of Cephalyx, the book after. I find it moderatly strange that there is so little for Mercs here in Vengance. from everything I have gathered its only the Tactical Arcanist Corps and the Earthbreaker. I figured they’d have more than that.

First, to temper my enthusiasm a little bit about the Cephalyx, Lost Hemisphere had an interview with Will Schik right after Templecon. It clarified a ton about the Cephalyx, both how they will function, and how they will be released. The part that stick in my mind the most, to my disappointment, is that there will only be one caster at release. Exulon Thexus is it.  Now, he’s part of the Mercs, and I can’t really fault them for having only one ‘caster, but I was all ready to jump into the Cephalyx contract: I was going to pick up everything. Now, I’ll still do the same, but It’ll just be less than I Initially thought. I have Drudges and Overlords, thankfully, and they are even painted. I just need monstrosities, the US, solos, and the new unit, and everything spoiled will be mine! I don’t really get a ton of chances to play Mercs, but now I have something to pair alongside my Epic Magnus list to really give people problems: with the long range assassination potential of Magnus, and Wills heavily touted control aspect, I think it’ll be something worth shooting for.

Along with the statement that there will only be a single ‘Caster came the small surprise that there will not be a stand alone, Pirates of the Broken Coast-like, book. Instead, there will be a NQ dedicated to them, which I expect to be May or July, just in time for Lock and Load and a digital rulebook. I like real books, so I am not thrilled, but my Relic Knights is fully digital, so I’m not completely against it. Overall, I am still very, very psyched about the Cephalyx but I have tempered the desire to run them as a minifaction. I expect them to be treated much more like Rhul, which has slowly grown over time to be a complete subset of mercs, than the Pirates.

That bit about the Cephalyx cleared the air a little, and I expect that there will be a fair bit of sadness directed towards it. Today, though, they had three further pieces that came out related to Vengeance.

Reznik was spoiled completely, but Matt Wilson.

The picture of Page 42 was tweeted out and Matt was pretty stoked that he got to spoil something, but Will, who told him what to spoil, set him up. Turns out that the Protectorate forums had someone reveal everything about Reznik about a week ago. In responce to realizing he wasn’t giving the world anything new he then tweeted a clip of Imperatus, the Apotheosis level character warjack for Retribution. With just this little bit, he looks like a bad character.

Reznik looks fairly legit. I don’t think he’s going to break the world open, but he has some really good spells. Iron aggression allows at least one jack to keep up with him every turn, and Lamentation is always a good spell. Deathmarch joins the Protectorates rather small bevy of MAT increasing spells and abilities, and I can really see it being useful with Flamebringers: while MAT 6 sidesteping 3 attacks is good, MAT 8 makes them serious business. If its Rezniks Feat turn then they have effective MAT 10 and everyone explodes every time they get stabbed. Flamebringers Indeed. Creators Wrath gives me the heebey jeebeies. Blessed weapons and additional dice on both attack and damage rolls makes him a serious melee contender. with speed 7, a huge base and low def/arm, I don’t expect him to get there often, but when he does its going to be a massacre. I expect a devout or two will be around him at all points in time to save him from Eiryss and Gorman as he is a very juicy target.

Then, we have Imperatus, about half a pages worth, but enough to have me worried that he’s going to be a pain. DEF 13/ARM 18 is going to be legitimate. He only has 22 or so boxes, if the configuration is consistent with other jacks, but I expect him to have at least 10, if not 15 boxes of Force Field. Compound this with the Phoenix Protocol rule, and I expect to have a hell of a time putting it down for good. 32 boxes + 16 when it regens is pretty impressive. Thinking about it, 15 forcefield might be just a little to much. 48, as it stands, puts it in the range of some Gargantuans. I don’t know whether that speaks to the hardiness of Imperatus, or the vulnerability of Gargantuans. The Halation Cannon seems pretty standard, with pow 14 ROF 1. I am sure it has some insane special rules, but they won’t be listed here. The main standout, though, is the P+S 19 Sidestepping melee weapons.I expect them to be the same Thermal Blade as the Phoenix: Reach, Magic Weapon, and Continuous fire. Sidestep your way into a ‘Caster and light them on fire. That’ll make everyone happy!

The last tidbit that got shared (with me) was Goreshade’s theme list. Will made mention of it in the Interview, but I was to glued to cephalyx information to really pay attention. Here it is, fleshed out in all its glory:

I expect to get to at least tier 2 just to have the charge of the Banes on the table, but I don’t expect to go farther than that. The Desecrator is a decent ‘jack, I guess, but I’d just rather as not take him, and adding the Kraken on top of that is a giant points sink. I mean, were talking 57 points to take full advantage of everything in the Theme. If you ignore the Tier 1 benefit, you end up with 10 points to spend. This will incidentally upgrade all three Mechanithrall units to full and still have room for Tartarus. I’ll probably tinker around with a Tier 2 list and see what I can come up with. Arcnodes everywhere, with Bane Thralls, Knights, Riders and Tartarus seem like it could be pretty cool.

I’m thinking some sort of terrible concept like this:
[table id=6 /]

Thoughts?