Tactica: Temple Flameguard

It has been a while since I have done a tactica blog post and have a few in mind so here is the first of a small series: Temple Flameguard.

Unit Overview:

Temple Flameguard minimum unit

The Temple Flameguard (TFG) are a cheap infantry melee unit, being a mere 4 points for six men and 6 points for a full unit.  Their defining feature is that they are speed 6 with reach giving them an effective 11” threat range for offensive duties: they also have combined melee attack (CMA) which mitigates their average MAT and P&S somewhat.

They are defence and armour 13, which is fairly average, possibly slightly better than average, but have the shield wall order which improves their ARM to 17 and set defence to improve their defensive odds of survival against charges/slams etc.

In my opinion this unit is fairly versatile, being able to weather a charge with improved defence and armour as well as put the hurt out offensively with their CMA.  They are a cheap unit and so nothing too fancy should be expected of them, that being said they’re certainly worth their points for their battlefield role.

Unit Attachment Overview:

TFG officer and standard bearer unit attachment

The UA for the Temple Flameguard comes in at an average 2 points and for that you get an officer with the expected increased stats over a regular trooper (+1 MAT and CMD) as well as five damage boxes and a host of additional abilities (discussed below) and a standard bearer (with no weapons).

The officer grants the unit Ranked Attacks, an ability which allows friendly faction models to ignore the TFG for line of sight purposes.  Not a fantastic ability, but can be useful when needed.  Note the ability is granted, therefore if the officer dies the unit looses this ability.

The officer has tactics: Menoth’s Howl, an ability which confers continuous fire to the melee weapons of the TFG as well as the unit causing terror.  Note that as this is a tactic so if the officer dies the unit keeps this ability.

Lastly the officer has a once per battle ‘mini-feat’; Iron Zeal, which can only be activated by the officer (so if he dies before activating it, it’s lost), this has been recently stolen by the Khadoran Black Dragon UA (the cheek)!  This ability confers an additional +4 ARM as well as immunity to knock down and stationary effects for one round.

The standard allows a standard command check re-roll and combined with the officers improved CMD of 9 will help the unit stay in the game and seldom flee.

Temple Flameguard Tactics:

The TFG units various attributes have been described above, clearly they have an array of capabilities that can be brought to the field and this article will attempt to discuss how to get the best out of them:

I have found that the UA is a mandatory choice when fielding the TFG if you want to get something more than bodies in the way of LOS to your caster for example.  The officer is the key to making the unit worth its salt and raising it from the mediocre to good.  This is always of course situational, but I will draw from my experiences.

The Menoth’s Howl and Iron Zeal are why the unit performs so well.  The TFG have a large influence on the field; 12 men at speed 6 with reach means they can engage several units and cause terror checks, which can turn the fate of several games alone – should a key enemy unit fail its command check.  One note on this; you should let your opponent move all of his models (when he declares a charge on your TFG), then let him take the test, as if you mention it when he has moved his first model and he fails the check, you can bet your bottom dollar that the remainder of the unit won’t be positioned where they would have should he have passed!

The continuous fire melee weapons improvement is invaluable as combined with a CMA, you’re likely to hit and if you fail to kill there is a good chance the fire will finish the job, a kind of insurance policy if you will.  This is especially relevant to in-game effects such as shield wall, ‘can’t be/difficult to damage’ for a round effects from feats etc where the fire will get them in their next Maintenance Phase (where such abilities are not in effect).  I’ve managed to catch a few players out who thought they were safe, but ended up loosing their unit to the continuous fire.  Looking for this opportunity can certainly win games, though there is a 1/3 chance the fire will extinguish, so don’t rely on it!

I keep the officer back during games to keep his Iron Zeal option open as long as possible.  I often advance the TFG in shield wall most of the game and use the mini-feat on the turn I expect the enemy to try and kill them, so the increased ARM (21) for that turn will counter this and I get the most out of them.  However, this is not perhaps the most tactical use of the mini-feat, albeit most satisfactory seeing them almost impervious to enemy attacks (watch out for anatomical precision however)!  They can mini-feat and then run (not the other way around I must stress).  I’ve done this a few times when I really need their bodies in the way to protect important pieces such as Interactive Objectives from being destroyed (running 12”) – I believe this alone won me two games recently, so certainly a tactic to employ at the right time.  Getting the most out of Iron Zeal is something that will come with practice and reading the game, but aim to use it in combination with shield wall when you expect to get them hit hard initially, other than that look out for interesting opportunities when it will help, e.g. a free-strike situation or running through a cloud that causes damage and you absolutely must get through for example.

So as discussed above the UA’s abilities are what create the best usage out of the unit in my opinion, but their inherent abilities, CMA and shield wall also define the units battlefield role.  I personally use them to help guard Menoth’s squishy support pieces and Warcasters, they will often be in shield wall so can help block LOS, canny players will however snipe out single models to get the LOS they need.  Trying to counter this by clumping many together can be disastrous however for incoming enemy AOE’s and sprays, think continuous fire above when they don’t have their mini-feat or shield wall in your next maintenance phase.  For this reason many players adopt the three man triangle approach, where killing one does not remove the shield wall bonus and spread out three’s is harder for nasty AOE’s/sprays to affect more than three troopers.  See the photo and explanation below on this tactic.

The second ability, CMA, should not be forgotten as their mediocre MAT of 6 will rise to 8+ when two or more TFG combine, you should judge how many, if any, to combine on mathematical chances of to hit and to damage, this is always situational of course!


TFG trio-tactic

[Edit 15/08/2012]  This section has been re-written, an expansion from the original caption in the photo below:

Arranging the unit into small sub-groups of three (two at the front and one at the back) is a defensive formation.  A unit can make several of these defensive trios where the loss of one does not result in the remaining two loosing the shield wall bonus.  Benefits include damage mitigation from AOE and spray attacks which cause continuous effects and the unit being able to defend and threaten a wider area.  Drawbacks include the loss of two meaning the third will have no shield wall bonus and LOS being more easily drawn through your lines, more-so for ranged threats.

As seen the two front troopers form an inverted 'V'

Note that the front two models in the defensive trio are angled slightly into an inverted 'V' shape, this means that they will get a free strike on enemy models easier when they try and run past them to engage your rear lines, this can be important when protecting support pieces such as vassals and choir from enemy melee attacks.  The gist is that because the base is angled an enemy trooper won’t be able to get as deep into your lines compared to when the base is straight.  It should be noted that you will reduce your own LOS (for potential charges next turn) with this tactic, however this formation is defensive.

Three groups of trios.  Note the 2" reach markers.

This photo shows several sub-groups of defensive trios, as seen they cover a wide area.  Two trios can be placed up to 5” apart and still be able to threaten a free strike (or two) to anything which passes through the gap.  Note that I placed the Officer and Standard at the back in an effort to keep the officer alive.

One tactic might be to place one of these trios out front in an effort to bait an unwary unit into a charge, where it appears remaining unit members are just in range, but will of course take free strikes due to your careful positioning.  This may result in a piece trade which is considerably favourable.

Be wary of enemy units with the reach ability themselves and use your judgement for the situation in hand.

TFG support

I’ve discussed the TFG as a stand alone unit and the merits of its UA, however when planning an army the TFG will interact with other pieces, most notably the Warcaster.  Regular readers will know I like certain Warcasters and some of these have access to defence buffs such as Defender’s Ward, this spell is particularly effective when cast on the TFG as it raises their basic DEF and ARM to 15, which is well above average before you add in set defence and shield wall/Iron Zeal abilities.  In the games (briefly mentioned above where I used the mini-feat and then ran), I placed Defender’s Ward onto the unit making them DEF17 and ARM19 for the inevitable charge, something very difficult for my opponents to effectively deal with.

Of course there are many offensive uses of the TFG, I use Kreoss1 a lot and his feat effectively makes them auto-hit in melee, so that is P&S10 +3D6 damage and set on fire whatever is not dead, if they are charging, perhaps the mini-feat should be used to protect them, or they might be advancing in shield wall and be killing knocked down Kayazy and not need the charge bonus.  As noted above it is all situational.

Lastly the TFG can be supported by numerous solos, such as Rhupert Carvolo, who further buff the unit with advantages such as Pathfinder or tough or even a further +1 DEF.

It should be noted here that there is an endless list of interactions between the TFG and other models creating good combos and I've just mentioned a couple I personally use, feel free to add any comments on particularly cheeky or effective ones I've not mentioned! :-)

Conclusion:

The TFG in my opinion are one of the better Menite unit choices, but they require some skill and mostly experience to get the best out of.  Initially I just used them to stand around in front of Severius1 to block LOS, a four point meat shield, and sometimes ran one off to become a target for Ashes to Ashes, a sacrifice to kill off some hard to hit enemy models!  I also dismissed the UA as not being worthwhile initially, but after a while came to appreciate I could get so much more out of this unit with its presence and hence my tactica article you have read thus far!

As to taking a min or max unit, the answer is unclear, however when using the max unit they tend to stick around longer and can tar pit down more expensive units and they can hold their own.  It might also be dependent on the game point size and how tight on points you are.  For me I generally use a min unit with the UA and deploy them on a flank with the thought of holding objectives, absorbing a charge, blocking LOS to my warcaster and protecting the choir/vassals/support pieces and for late game charges.  Its not a glorious job, but absolutely essential in the type of Menoth armies I use.  I feel they are a good counter balance to Exemplar Errants which I also use (I will provide a tactica on this unit too).  So in my final statement they are as I said in the opening paragraph a unit that doesn't do anything fancy but they are certainly worth their points for their battlefield role.

Hopefully this article has inspired you to think about the TFG the way I do, perhaps use them better if you’re a Menoth player or just hate Menoth even more if not ;-)  Obviously some of these tactics can be employed with similar units so...

Thanks for reading.