I’ve been asked to write an article about one of my favourite Thornfall Alliance warlocks, Midas, and the models available to the army right now as part of Warmachine 3D welcome pack.

So, where to start? Firstly, let's get the obvious question out of the way… why did marketing ask the lore guy to write this, and not Warmachine’s Lead Designer Jamie Perkins or Warmachine Developer Fraser McFetridge?

Well, those of you who know me will attest that I’ve been a Thornfall Alliance player since the days of Mk.II. I still have my old Minions Forces Of book from back then, and (not so fondly) recall the days of War Hogs with a 7.5” threat range that needed to be forced to use Aggression Dial.

I’ve spent the last year and a half playing Thornfall Alliance in Mk.IV, and was heavily involved in design and playtesting for the new Thornfall Alliance models. So when the team wanted to publish something for the farrow, Jamie very kindly suggested that I write it, as the most experienced Thornfall Alliance player in the team.

Now that’s said, let's move on to Midas.

Blood, bone, and curses.

I haven’t made a list here. Instead, I want to talk about a few synergies you can deploy. We’ll start with his special rules.

Blood Trade is first up, and is an awesome way for keeping Midas stacked on fury each turn. At DEF 14, ARM 16, he’s not blessed with the strongest defensive stats, so anything you can do to help him keep those transfers handy is vital. It’s an especially good trade when your Bone Grinders can heal him later in the turn, effectively amounting to free upkeeps.

Next up, Curse. Curse is an excellent accuracy modifier for models that can use it — namely Midas himself (and remember, he can use it when making arcane attacks too), Bone Grinders, and best of all, Lytiersis. As a sort of stealthy ‘warbeast bond’, the latter especially has caught my opponents out several times.

Finally, Dismember. A situational ability for sure, but in the right circumstances, it’s utterly deadly, something which is amplified when we get to the spell list. 

Speaking of which, did you know Midas has arguably the best spell list of all the Thornfall Alliance warlocks? Let’s start from the top again.

Avenging Force is a vital piece of kit for speeding up the battlegroup. Midas wants to play fairly far forward to best enable Curse, and also wants to run a lot of infantry to get the best out of his other spells. It's worth noting that Midas himself can also use this move, which is great for enabling a charge.

Battle Lust is an incredible spell that can find a home just about anywhere in the army — including Midas himself (five dice damage rolls when charging a Warbeast, anyone?!). The same is true for Bone Grinders, who really become monsters with Midas. Between Curse for +2MAT, Blood Lust for extra SPD, and then an extra dice of damage from Battle Lust, they’re surprisingly effective switching from support to melee damage pieces.

Unlike Battle Lust, Bond of Gristle and Bone is excellent for boosting the survivability of your troops pretty much wherever you cast it. Personally, I like it on Brigands — when Dug In, they’ll be DEF17 against Ranged, with Resistance: Blast and ARM16, which should allow them to shrug off most AOE damage. Feign Death is again situational, but can be an absolute game-changer on occasion. 

Another fun fact, don’t forget that in Thornfall Alliance, Magnus and Exulon Nostilla can both have this cast on them if you’re worried about losing your super heavy to a warcaster assassination.

Calamity is probably the best spell here. Much like Curse, it affects an enemy rather than one of your own models, so everything in your army gets to take advantage of it. This means that you can effectively stack Curse, Battle Lust, and Calamity (and Dismember if you’re lucky). Farrow veterans will all have stories of how they’ve deleted their opponent’s models this way. It’s especially good with Midas’ feat, which I’ll get to shortly.

Finally, we have Hex Blast. If your opponent has a defensive spell or animus that you need to get rid of? Say no more, you have a tool in your kit.

Tales from the Crypt

So, all that said, let’s chat about Midas’ feat. And what a feat it is!

Pet Cemetery is the reason why I feel that to get the best out of Midas, you need to play very aggressively. One of the big drawbacks with this feat is that if you’re too careful with your warbeasts, you simply won’t have a good feat turn.

There are a few ways to mitigate this.

Most obviously, thanks to Blood Trade, you can march up the field with near enough full fury, and transfer when you get hit, knowing that every hit Midas takes is helping to amplify your end game. This way of playing is actually pretty good for triggering Avenging Force too, enabling Midas to get into a great position to move out of melee range/advance forward using his vengeance move, and then charge something, dramatically extending the range for bringing back models under feat.

Secondly, I also tend to take a heavy battlegroup of four War Hogs (or three, and Lytiersis nowadays), and play them very deep into my opponent’s half of the table. Force your opponent to trade away their own heavies to stop the threat to their army, knowing that you can bring your models back when the time is right. If they don’t take the trade? You’ll smash into their lines and inflict horrendous damage.

Back to the feat, and I think the leader assassination angle speaks for itself. At first glance, the range for returning your warbeasts is only a paltry 6”, but considering that Midas can get a 3” move from Avenging Force, then charge something 8” away, before dropping those warbeasts within 6” (and the warhogs themselves threat 7”...), you’ll typically have plenty of runway to work with, and only an extremely well protected leader will feel safe.

You can’t force your warbeasts when they come back, but play your cards right, and you can curse the enemy leader to give Midas himself more accuracy, then Hex Blast any defensive tech away, Calamity the target, and then the aforementioned War Hogs can descend upon them, with Aggression Dials activated. Not much can survive that…

Build your brood

If Sherwin’s tactics have got your trotters twitching to get Midas on the table, Warmachine 3D is a great place to start. 

Get the 30-point Thornfall Alliance Command Starter led by Midas in your welcome pack at no additional cost, ready to play straight away. But that’s not all, inside you’ll also get a treasure trove of STLs from bases, to conversion parts, the sinister Hive Mind Cadre force and more.

From there, each month brings new models to grow your Thornfall Alliance and keep your options fresh, so you can keep bringing back bacon, and sending your warbeasts in for one more round.