In this episode of Analysis, I'm going to be taking an in-depth look at one of the best things to come out of the Gargantuans book: Midas. He's not the most powerful warlock in the book, but he's certainly got flavor (insert pigs/bacon joke) and a lot more funny business available to him than you might think at first glance.
There are going to be two ways to play Midas: with his tier list, or with the Thornfall Alliance Pact rules. I'll go over his rules and synergies and then discuss the pluses and minuses of each. Just to give you a sneak peak though: Play him in his tier!
Stats and Abilities
Midas clocks in at a SPD of 5, equal to Sturm and Drang but slower than Carver and Dr. Arkadius. Midas actually wants to be able to hustle up the field because of his excellent spells. He also needs to be up the board to take maximum advantage of his feat (which we'll talk about later). SPD 5 should be adequate, but he's certainly not fast.Midas has a MAT of 6 without outside effects. However, he has a few tricks (Curse, Calamity) which we will discuss later than can effectively increase that stat. He lacks any ranged weapons and thus his RAT shouldn't come into play.
He has DEF 14 and ARM 16. That's not a good combination on a caster that wants to be relatively close but has only 16 damage boxes. Make sure you keep some of his 6 FURY around for those transfers and hopefully you can avoid spells/effects that block transfers. He has 5 warbeast points, which is enough for part of a Road Hog (which he'll probably want to take).
One of the key abilities Midas has is Butchery. When a living warbeast (friendly or enemy) is destroyed OR removed from play while within Midas's 12" control range, he gets a bone token. Once per turn during his activation, Midas can turn up to three of these bone tokens into a fury point. There's no limit to the amount of bone tokens Midas can carry around, but he can only spend three per turn (bringing him up to 9 fury to spend on a maxed out turn).
Curse [Bone Grinder] is his second listed ability. Its limited to his CMD range of 8". It targets an enemy model or unit. Friendly Bone Grinder models charging a cursed model gain +2" movement and +2 to attack rolls against that cursed target. Midas is himself a Bone Grinder so he would benefit while attacking a cursed model/unit, bringing him up to a MAT of 8 and giving him +2" of movement when charging. He can also use it in conjunction with Hex Blast (with an effective FURY of 8).
Then we have the very situational Dismember ability. When Midas hits a warbeast (friendly or enemy) with a melee attack, roll an additional damage die.
Midas is carrying around a magical Bone Saw as his weapon. It's only got a P+S of 13, but immediately after resolving an attack where it destroyed an enemy warbeast, Midas is allowed to cast either a spell with COST 3 or less or cast the animus of the destroyed warbeast WITHOUT spending fury.
Spells
Four spells are available to Midas but they are fantastic, in my opinion.First up is Bad Blood:
Bad Blood: COST 2, RNG 10, Offensive Upkeep: A warlock leaching from target warbeast suffers 1 damage point for each fury point leached. The affected warbeast cannot be healed or have damage transferred to it and loses Regenerate.
Obviously only useful against Hordes, but it can really screw with an opponent who needs to leach fury back during his next turn (or any future turns). Sure, most warlocks won't mind 3-4 damage the first time they are affected by this spell, but what about the second or third time?
It's also good to make sure that if you get a warbeast way down there in health, it stays there. I have friends who dislike playing against Hordes because if you can't completely kill a warbeast, it's almost always back to full offensive capabilities for it's next activation because of how easy it is to heal. Bad Blood not only fixes this for one round, it's an upkeep so you can keep that damaged beast hurting.
Just remember if you kill the warbeast, the enemy caster "reaves" instead of leaches so it won't hurt him at that time.
Battle Lust: Cost 3, RNG 6: Target Friendly faction warrior model/unit gains Fearless and gains an additional die on melee damage rolls for one round.
It's not an upkeep but it's pretty obvious why! Think about how good this could be when cast on a unit of Slaughterhousers. They're already P+S 11 with reach. They gain an additional die on damage rolls when damaging an already damaged model. When charging, they could get up to MAT 8 (via Powerful Charge) and be hitting for P+S 11 + 5d6. Each one would be averaging 28.5 damage to a target if it was damaged (25 if attacking a non-damaged target).
Brigands could charge in for P+S 10 + 4d6 (average 24 damage). Heck, even Bone Grinders with their little P+S 9 knives could bring things down when charging and being granted an extra die of damage. Plus, since they benefit from Curse, those Bone Grinders are almost as likely to hit as the Slaughterhousers against a Cursed unit.
It won't work on warbeasts, but it would on Solos. The Farrow don't have a lot of great melee solos but all it takes is one: Gudrun the Wanderer. With his P+S 15 Battle Glaive (that has reach) and the Berserk rule, Gudrun can really clear a path when he is under the effects of Battle Lust. Of course it does cost 3 and can't be upkept so using it on him is normally not going to be as good as using it on the Slaughterhousers, but he's got SPD 6, Pathfinder, and Advanced Deployment so _if_ you could manage to cast it on him (range 6 hurts here), he could really tear through a unit/jack/beast that wasn't expecting him to put out quite that much damage.
Calamity: Cost 3, RNG 8, Offensive Upkeep: Friendly models gain +2 to attack and damage rolls against target enemy model/unit.
All those damage numbers up there under the analysis of Battle Lust? Add 2 to them. Battle Lusted Slaughterhousers are an effective MAT 10 when charging a unit affected by Calamity and average 30.5 damage against a damaged target. 30.5! That would be your entire stack of Fury unless you were casting using Soul Food from the Bone Saw, using extra fury from Butchery, or upkeeping Calamity from a previous turn.
Calamity is really the reason Midas wants to get up close. If only the Farrow had a Pork Node...
Hex Blast: Cost 3, RNG 10, POW 13, Offensive: Enemy upkeep spells and animi on the model/unit directly hit by Hex Blast immediately expire.
His one damaging spell and his only way (outside of melee) to hurt incorporeal models, Hex Blast is what it is. It costs a lot for the damage it does, but removing enemy upkeeps can be important. It's situational and expensive, but you'll be glad you have it in your toolbox.
Hex Blast can combo with Calamity and Curse. If you choose to cast a Hex Blast on a unit that has been Cursed and is under Calamity? FURY 10 with POW 15.
Don't forget the Farrow Bone Grinders' ability to Craft Talisman. This can give Midas an extra +2 RNG on his spells. Suddenly Calamity is RNG 10 and Battle Lust RNG 8. It's amazing how important two extra inches can be (insert immature joke here).
Feat
Now we get to the reason Midas is dramatically different from almost every other Hordes caster out there.Pet Cemetary: Midas spends any number of fury points when this feat is used. Return each destroyed warbeast from Midas' battlegroup to play within 3" of him with one unmarked damage box in each aspect. For each fury point spent, remove 1 damage point from each model in Midas' battlegroup that is within his control area. Returned warbeasts gain Undead. Returned warbeasts cannot be forced this turn. Returned warbeasts that were destroyed this turn cannot activate the turn they are returned.
You really, really have to watch where the periods are in this one, folks. There are a LOT of independent things that get kicked off when Midas pops his feat.
First, all destroyed (not removed from play) warbeasts from his battlegroup come back onto the board within 3" of him with one undamaged box in each aspect. Note that it says "within" and not "completely within" and remember the size of a heavy warbeast's base. If those returned warbeasts were killed during this turn, they can't activate. That applies to warbeasts that you kill in your own turn for whatever reason. Those warbeasts become Undead (which minorly sucks because it means they can't benefit from the healing that Bacon provides). Returned warbeasts CANNOT be forced this turn.
Secondly, for each point of fury Midas chooses to spend, every model in his battlegroup (including himself and including warbeasts that didn't have to be returned) gain back a point of health.
As a side-note, if you are taking Bone Grinders with Midas (and you certainly will be) they cannot choose to use the animus of warbeasts who have been returned to play via the feat. They're not destroyed. If they die again, the Bone Grinders can use the animus again.
So these returned beasts can't be forced, which means no runs, charges, etc. What good are they then? Well, you can place them anywhere within 3" of Midas which means you can set up spray attacks from your Road Hogs or walk+attack moves with the War Hogs. Even without forcing the War Hog is MAT 6 and has three attacks. The Road Hog has a SP10 attack with RAT 5 or a pair of melee attacks. Razor Boars can be brought back to block charge lanes. Gun Boars can be brought back in positions where they can aim and get themselves to RAT 7. Almost all those numbers get better if Calamity is out there hampering your foe. That includes that Gun Boar's blast damage jumping up to POW 9 instead of 7.
Returning the models from play isn't optional though. The reason I bring that up as a point is the side-note I made above. The War Hog's Massacre animus allows a friendly model to charge without being forced, and if it destroys something it can advance another 1" and get an additional melee attack. There might be situations where it would be cool to just leave a War Hog dead to let the Bone Grinders throw out that animus but unfortunately you can't. You can still have Midas cast Massacre, of course, for only 2 fury.
Synergies
Usually I would go into an analysis of combination of this caster and other models available for his list, but we're going to deviate from that and look at the tier versus non-tier stuff first.The Thornfall Alliance restricts you to Minion Farrow models/units and people like Dr. Arkadius and Gudrun the Wanderer. It's benefit is that all Farrow Units in the army gain Advanced Deployment. That's very cool for making sure your Slaughterhousers and Brigands get to where they need to go. You also get to increase the Field Allowance of all non-character Farrow models and units in the army by +1. It's not bad, but chances are you'll never want to play it with Midas because of his Tier List benefits.
You're limited to non-character Farrow warbeasts, Farrow units, Farrow solos, and Rorsh & Brine. You lose out on some of the human solos and Gudrun but you can survive without them. At the first tier, Farrow Bone Grinder units become FA U (increased from 2). You also get to take Boneswarm warbeasts.
At tier two, you have to take one or more Farrow Bone Grinder units. This is NO problem as you are going to want at least two in medium- to high-point games. For each Bone Grinder unit you take, one warbeast in his battlegroup gets Advance Move. Road Hogs get that extra 5" of movement they want and even War Hogs (usually hampered by their terrible SPD 4) can get a bit further up the field early.
At tier three, you have to take one or more Slaughterhouser units. I've shown how powerful these guys can be under the effects of Battle Lust. You'll want one. For each Slaughterhouser unit you take, a Boneswarm can start with three corpse tokens.
At the final tier, you have to take four or more warbeasts. This is no problem at all thanks to the much maligned Razor Boar (who is so maligned because he's just not what people wanted). The Razor Boar is two points and is worth it for Midas. The benefit from this tier is why you want to play his tier list. You get to add one Farrow non-character warbeast to Midas' battlegroup. The warbeast begins the game destroyed.
This is fantastic in conjunction with Midas' feat and Bone Grinders. I mentioned Massacre above (the War Hog animus). Now you have access to it with your Bone Grinders on turn one. The combination here is obvious: Bone Grinders cast Massacre on a Road Hog, it charges for free and uses Assault to get that SP10 attack way the heck out there. Force the Road Hog with Full Boar (+2 SPD and Pathfinder but suffer d3 damage) and suddenly you can charge 10" and spray another 10". Just make sure you stay within Midas' 12" control area and you can reach out and touch someone (or someones) with a POW 12 continuous fire attack and still have 3 fury left for boosting damage. Targ can help out with the control area problem and hand out a bonus Ancillary Attack for another spray.
You can choose a Road Hog as your dead beast, but I see the benefits of the dead War Hog as much more important. Massacre is just that cool when cast for free by Bone Grinders.
Boneswarms probably need a mention here. They're 4 points and usually belong in the realm of the Gatormen. They're honestly not great, but they have a good animus which Midas will probably want to cast on himself:
Swarm: Cost 2, RNG Self: This model has concealment. Living enemy models suffer -2 to attack rolls while within 2" of this model.
It gives Midas another transfer target and fully loaded up with corpse tokens (which it can be easily with tier three benefits) it has a P+S 15 attack and 18 ARM.
So what kind of tricks can you pull with Midas?
If you want to keep things simple, you can always take his Tier Four list (which can be shockingly cheap in terms of points) and feat on Turn One. Toss six fury into the feat to get the summoned beast up to 9 health and then use Targ's Medicate ability. Voila! A partially damaged but fully functional warbeast for "free".
During your first few turns, you won't have a lot to cast. You'll probably be either throwing our the Razor Boar's Vicious (RNG 6, grants a Friendly Faction warbeast Hyper Aggressive) and/or the Boneswarm's Swarm (explained above). Vicious might let those slow War Hogs get up the field to actually do something (stupid SPD 4). Try to use the Bone Grinders for the heavy lifting with Massacre or other dead beast animi.
Lightning Strike is always good to throw on him during risky turns. It's the animus from the Road Hog and you might be able to cast it with the Bone Grinders depending on if you've managed to get one dead. It just gives Midas Sprint. Give Midas Lightning Strike somehow (himself, Bone Grinders, or a nearby Road Hog), charge something you can kill. toss Curse out on the target if you need to, attack and kill something, cast your bonus spell with Soul Food from the Bone Saw if you killed a warbeast, and then Feat. If you have fury remaining, throw out Massacre on your beasts that just respawned. Sprint the hell away.
You can increase the range of his spells with Craft Talisman, as stated above. Do that, get Midas up the field and cast Calamity on the enemy caster. If you have some dead Road Hogs, bring them back and introduce the enemy caster to the joys of RAT 9 (aiming plus Calamity) POW 14 continuous fire sprays. The sprays aren't boostable, but 21 average damage can hurt (along with the continual fire next round if you're lucky). Use Targ to get another attack if you want. You won't get the aiming bonus for the Ancillary Attack, but you can still be RAT 7 and POW 14.
You want to really be tricky? Bring back a warbeast in a strategic spot, slam it from behind with one of your own non-returned warbeasts or pick it up and throw it. Knock down whatever you bowl over. Then follow up with ranged attacks from Road Hogs, Gun Boars or Brigands. This works even if you killed the warbeast during your own activation because, while it forfeits it's own activation that turn, it's still there on the table and is available for other creative uses.
Don't overdo it with Warbeasts just because they come back from the dead! Your infantry are really going to still be the keys to your success. Throw out a wall of Razor Boars to keep them safe if you have to. You do not want to lose your Slaughterhousers before they can get into the mix. It may seem backwards (like so much of what Midas does), but use the beasts to keep the infantry safe. Collect your bone tokens when your poor Razor Boars die and put them to good use later on when you need that extra fury. Sometimes it might even be worth it to kill your own Razor Boar just to get that bone token and the Bacon effect.
If you somehow manage to get close enough to an enemy caster without killing him, don't forget that if you place your respawned beasts behind the enemy caster, they'll be benefiting from back strikes. This can help overcome the lack of forcing. A War Hog plus back strikes plus Calamity should kill almost any caster unless they're transferring.
Seriously, you can get to his Tier Four at 15-points and still have leftovers for a lot of stuff. It can almost seem unfair to your opponent when you bring back a relatively expensive warbeast from the "dead" that was never on the table.
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