Every faction in Saga: Age of Magic has a unique Lieutenant hero available for the army. This hero is, I suppose, meant to provide some distinct character to the faction and illustrate a defining characteristic of the faction. For the Masters of the Underearth, this hero is the Alchemist.
The Alchemist is an interesting hero. It gets a two-dice, once-per-turn, L ranged shooting attack that doesn’t generate Fatigue. Nothing special. Where it does get interesting is if the Alchemist is shooting at a target within M. In that case, it gets a random number of additional attacks, reduces its targets armour by one and can potentially add a point of fatigue to the target. It is this M ranged attack that gives the Alchemist some potential as a possible inclusion in a force.
In my particular instance, I would be adding the Alchemist to a Dwarven MotU force. I haven’t decided whether to use the standard Masters of the Underearth list or the Legendary Dwarves of the Silverheights list. If I was building a Skaven/Ratmen based force then I think I would include the Alchemist automatically because it just seems like the random, explodey fun that a Skaven force should be. I don’t have all my Skaven ready yet so there needs to be some examination of the hero before I can decide to include it or not.
Pondering
The Alchemist needs to get into range M of a target to be of any use. Two shooting attacks at range L is really nothing to lose Hearthguard or Warriors for. At range M the hero generates an average of 4 dice when shooting. With average dice that is two hits and one wound which will result in a Fatigue on the target.
So the obvious use for the Alchemist is to either place Fatigue on units you want to charge or to try to exhaust targets or put them in a situation where charging you will cause them to be exhausted.
For a standard Masters of the Underearth force this is a usable tactic but it strikes me that the hero is not going to be as useful with the Dwarves of the Silverheights Legendary list. That Alchemist would be reduced to moving S each activation making it difficult to get into range to do his maximal damage but also to get away from threats. The Dwarves of the Silverheights also strike me as being set up to be a traditional Dwarven gun-line and having a hero moving out in advance of that line seems dangerous.
The Masters of the Underearth utilize the Domains of Metal and Time for their spells. Time seems a very good choice to use with The Alchemist since your Sorcerer can use spells like Aging or Decay to help prime a target for the Alchemist to attack or to help to exhaust anything that the Alchemist hits. In fact you might even want to choose the minimal version of Decay when casting it to ensure that you are adding Fatigue to a target.
Firearms
Let us not forget about the Firearms ability while we are considering the Alchemist. Masters of the Underearth Warriors can take Firearms but the more useful option, for me at least, is that the Destruction Teams have the Firearms keyword in their description. That means, like the Alchemist, that if they are within range M they can also add Fatigue if they cause a casualty. Two Destruction Teams and the Alchemist can exhaust a unit in one round of shooting. There are a number of options that this opens up.
- Flank your Warriors with the Destruction Teams and the Alchemist so that your opponent has to worry about getting exhausted prior to a counter-charge.
- Exhaust a Monster or a unit of Creatures before charging them.
- Combine all three with a Decay wielding Sorcerer to spread Fatigue across your opponent’s entire line.
Conclusion
So after some pondering, it seems as if the Alchemist is almost a ‘must include’ option for the army. Combining it with the Destruction Teams and the Decay spell gives the army an incredible ability to spread Fatigue across an army. Even moreso than the Necromancer in the Undead Legions.
Initially I had thought that one challenge would be to protect the Alchemist but since the force has so many sources of Fatigue I think that the Alchemist is probably safe enough. Or as safe as any hero is in the game.
Pile of dice 