Why play Exemplar Bastions?

Much has been said about the Bastions and their transition from Mk I to Mk II, so now that I actually own a box of these beefy plastic exemplars, I thought I’d finally weigh in on the topic myself.

Why haven’t I weighed in yet? Two reasons:

One: I haven’t extensively tested them out since  I don’t like proxying. I’ll do it in a pinch, but I’d much rather own the correct model. It’s a personal preference, but I like to think of it as a respectful nod to PP, and also to my opponent, who doesn’t have to constantly remind himself that the line of three Vengers, a Dervish, and an Impaler are actually all infantry.

Two: I’ve been avoiding the threads. There’s enough negativity out there in the world, and online environments often result in things being blown way out of proportion. It can be difficult to maintain an objective assessment when the guy disagreeing with you is a freakin’ moron who wouldn’t know the difference between KE and KEE… Of course, I’m exaggerating to make the point. Everyone knows that KEE are the ones with pointy swords, a rarity in the Iron Kingdoms where the majority seem to favour swords you can’t effectively stab with.

Okay, so the Mk I Bastions.

One complaint I’ve  heard about these guys was that they’re a Spd 4 infantry unit. You know what? My first army was Searforge. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Spd 4, you just need to be willing to work your battleplan around the idea that it may happen in your half of the board rather than your opponents, and that you may not necesarilly get the charge.

With that in mind, how well can these guys absorb a charge? Well, naturally it depends on just what’s charging them. Let’s look at some loose numbers, if only because I know it’ll irk the snot out of the mathemeticians out there. We’ll assume you’re not running a skirmish screen, that the Bastions are at full health and wide open to receive the incoming chargers.

First up, a unit of infantry charging with an average P+S, let’s say 10, Considering the base size of the Bastions, let’s say your opponent gets
8 models in melee with the Bastions, a few of stragglers being just out of charge range. That’s 8 attacks hitting the Bastion’s mediocre 11 DEF.
We’ll say they all hit. Going with averages:

Four attacks hit at P+S+dice 20 – ARM 17 = 3 damage ea.
Four attacks hit at P+S+dice 21 – ARM 17 = 4 damage ea.
That gives us a total of 28 damage, which is *just* enough to take out the unit, unless you manage to keep one or two out of melee – not an easy prospect considering the number of attackers coming in.

Now, let’s look at a charging Heavy Warjack, with two melee weapons averaging out at P+S 15 apiece. Fully loaded with three focus, since your opponent really wants to get rid of the Bastions.

First attack hits at P+S+dice 25 – ARM 17 = 8 damage Four attacks hit at P+S+dice 22 – ARM 17 = 5 damage ea.
That gives us a total of 28 damage, once again enough to wipe out the unit… but since there’s no way for the Heavy to be in melee with all five Bastions at once, you can ensure a couple survive, and they should be swinging at +4 damage thanks to Vital Force.

Okay, so that’s a little depressing, though not necesarilly surprising. 100-ish points, with a charge, can take out an opposing 100-ish points.
Fair enough, that just highlights the need for support your stuff and not let it get isolated. The conclusion is that, unsupported, Mk I Bastions should survive a charge from a warjack, but not necesarilly from infantry.

Now, what about offensively? We’re talking five weapon masters with reach, a high enough MAT to provide reasonable assurance of hitting, and Vital Force for extra damage. Like any Exemplar model, they’ll kill what they attack. They’re hitting at an average P+S+dice 25 per model on a charge – that’s 6 damage each through a heavy warjack’s 19 armour, without Vital Force. Barring unfortunate collumn placement, 24 damage should disable the target. If Vital Force is active, it’s pretty much assured.

So why not use them offensively? They have a 9″ threat range, no?
Knights Exemplar only have 8.5″!

True enough, but Knights Exemplar are small bases, and you get twice as many for your points (at base unit size). Both Knights Exemplar and Bastions are P+S 11 Weapon Masters, so it comes to how maneuvrable the unit is (small bases win), how many you can bring to bear on a single target (small bases somewhat balanced out by Reach), and then there’s the fact that six Knights Exemplar have twice as many attacks as three Bastions.

Mk I Conclusion: If you want to use the Bastions offensively, provide a skirmish screen or otherwise ensure you get the charge. With Searforge, Gorten’s Rock Wall does the trick for the Forge Guard. With Bastions, slap a throwaway unit in front of them (and of course, have Reclaimer on hand to reap souls).

So if it’s pretty much a trade-off when working offensively – whoever gets the charge wins – why run Mk I Bastions?

Base size.

These guys provide a defensive wall that can screen every model in your army except for Heavy Warjacks, Horses and the Harbinger (since the Covenant’s a “small base”). That means Reznik is safe behind them, that means your light warjacks are safe behind them.

Wondering how to get that Repenter close enough to make it’s spray worthwhile? Want to ensure you get to charge with your Revengers? How about just making sure your opponen’t Black 13th can’t snipe your Redeemer before it unleashes a volley of skyhammer rockets onto the Long Gunners? Bastions may be just the solution you’re looking for.

If you’re worried about their low SPD at this point, remember – there’s no benefit to their not running, so you can just run them 8″ per turn and advance your Warjacks and Warcaster behind them at regular walking pace, saving focus until you’re ready to strike and casting support spells as needed.

And here’s the kicker: If your opponent wants to remove your defensive screen to get to the squishy bits of your army, they need to do at least
24 damage after armour to the unit before a single model goes away (if you spread the damage around), and whoever they’ve been wounding will do that much more damage should the opportunity to strike occur.

You may get better offensive value out of other infantry units, but as a defensive wall the Mk I Bastions look like they’ll live up to their name against ranged attackers.

So how about the Mk II?

Statwise your standard Bastion Knight is identical except for a 1 pt drop in armour. This is the tradeoff for an extra three wounds per Knight. They’re still Fearless, they’re Weapon Masters with Reach… but they’ve lost Hold Strong, so they can be knocked down. Also AWOL is Vital Force, traded for a static +1 to their P+S with their Consecrated Halberds (which used to be Bastion Glaives).

Offensively, they’re pretty much on par with what they were; slightly less potential damage thanks to the loss of Vital Force, but higher base damage…

… but I’m more interested in how they fare defensively.

The loss of Hold Strong is a huge blow, since now they’re vulnerable to being knocked down, and thus being temporarilly removed as a screen to protect your Warcaster, Light Jacks, etc. Thus, an opposing ranged army can effectively negate them if they have any reliable knockdown effect.
Ick…

But what about absorbing damage? Back to our previous examples:

Infantry
Four attacks hit at P+S+dice 20 – ARM 16 = 4 damage ea.
Four attacks hit at P+S+dice 21 – ARM 16 = 5 damage ea.
Total 34 damage on a unit that now has a total of 40 wounds. Hang on…

Notice the differential there? On average rolls, the unit still has 6 wounds remaining. That means that after taking the charge from our generic infantry unit, if you spread it around… Every. Single. Bastion. is still on the board. All five of them.

Warjack (P+S upped to 16 base)
First attack hits at P+S+dice 26 – ARM 16 = 10 damage
Four attacks hit at P+S+dice 23 – ARM 16 = 7 damage ea.
Total 38 damage on a unit that now has a total of 40 wounds. Huh.

Okay, so the Warjack’s able to kill three of the Bastions… but as mentioned before, this assumes that you’re evenly spreading the damage around rather than just letting one guy take it for the team. Either way, the Warjack can’t kill the entire unit on average rolls.

Also of note, if your opponent isn’t packing reliable knockdown, remember how they had to do 24 damage after armour to remove a single portion of your screening wall? Now they have to do 35.

Mk II Conclusion: Your opponent can now circumvent your Bastions if they invest in Knockdown, but other than that they’re even harder to remove than before. Your 100pts (ish) of Bastion Wall is now capable of taking a hit from 100pts (ish) of melee attackers without crumbling, and then attacking back with with P+S 12 + 3d6 halberds.

In the end, the Bastions are a walking fortress, shielding your reserves and stemming the tide of unbelievers.

If it’s down to a choice between invulnerability to knockdown and actually being able to survive a charge, I’ll take the latter, thank you very much.