Moshar musings

Moshar is an enigma. I really don't get him. I guess if you visit here regularly you will notice I don't get a lot of things, Ravagers especially! I think Moshar is one of the most powerful Warlocks that the Circle has. I just don't see exactly what he works best with. He doesn't boost his army immensely unlike some of our other Warlocks. His feat is only effective against Hordes, which in my local playing group is a massive disadvantage. We have far more Warmachine players than Hordes.

• Crevasse seems a good spell. With Fury of eight Moshar can reliably hit defence fourteen. The cost is affordable and with a Gallows Grove  channeling this can be cast with little risk to Moshar.
• Curse of Shadows is also fairly good. It too needs a Gallows Grove to really be effective. I like the idea of being able to bypass the effected unit without suffering free strikes. Having it as an upkeep is nice but I don't see it being that important as generally if the models are close enough to be hit by this spell they are in my threat range. If I am not killing them the turn I cast this on them then I am doing something wrong.
• Mirage is another upkeep. It gives a short move in the control phase. It is useful when models are engaged the only problem being is that you have to do this the turn before to benefit from it in the control phase. It is nice to give a boost to the forward momentum of one of my units effectively giving a small increase to the threat range. For a cost of three it is only something I would consider casting on the first turn and then upkeep if needed for the rest of the game.
• Pillar of salt is really where Moshar begins to shine. It is his signature ability and something that nobody else in the game can do. The pillars count as a stucture meaning they are really difficult to get rid of. A base POW of fourteen with ranged weapons (or fire/corrosion) and the fact that you can't charge them means a beast or 'jack needs to deal with them. They block LOS including eyeless sight making them great for annoying legion players. After the first turn I guess I will be dropping three of these on the table and this is where Moshar can really benefit his army.
• Sans of Fate is a get out of jail free card for Moshar. He can charge something get his attacks in and then teleport back to replace a friendly warrior model. While Moshar isn't great in combat with wither he can damage undead and constructs fairly well meaning that the speel could be useful. It certainly isn't an assassination vector. Moshar is just too bad in combat for that to be realistic.
• Sunhammer is a nice upkeep to cast on turn one and keep up for the rest of the game. It isn't going to do much damage to anything but how many times have you left a beast on one or two points just to see them heal a little and have their revenge in the next turn? This spell stops that from happening.

From all the spells in the list it is Pillars of Salt that needs to be considered in army composition. Ideally You want to be casting the Pillars every turn preventing the enemy from closing with key pieces. I see lightning strike having a lot of use with this.  Sending a Warpwolf Stalker forward to wreck havoc amongst the enemy lines only to have it move backwards is excellent. Combining that with a garunteed structure sitting between the Stalker and the enemy is amazing. This also works nicely with the Tharn Wolfriders. The light cavalry move gets them back out of danger and the pillars mean that the enemy is really going to have to dedicate something to take out the pillar before it can even consider getting anywhere near what is behind it. If possible doing this over a sequence of turns will attrition the enemy down to a pint where the pillars aren't needed any longer. Then using a Gallows Grove it is possible to throw out a few crevasses to really turn the attrition to your favour.

Moshar can support the Circles movement tricks better I think than any other Warlock as he provides a direct defence against any retribution. I guess therefore the best things to have in his list are those that play to this strength. Stalkers and Wolfriders immediately jump to mind. There aren't that many other Circle units that really benefit as strongly as they can't move after activation. Puting the Stalker's animus on other beasts helps a lot and so Wilders should be considered so that Moshar doesn't have to do it himself. Reform on the Bloodtrackers is also good. My list is theoretically looking like this:
Mohsar the Desertwalker
* Feral Warpwolf
* Warpwolf Stalker
Tharn Bloodtrackers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
 Nuala the Huntress
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Druid Wilder
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
I am really unsure as to how this might preform. I desperately want another cheap light beast in there but that would mean reducing the Tharn Wolfriders to a minimum unit reducing their overall effectiveness. With the Pillars and the lightning strike animus I think I can keep my beasts safe long enough to make trading them worthwhile.

On a minor note I think the Celestial Fulcrum plays well with Mohar. Reducing anythings armour really helps the Fulcrum as it is assured getting kills then. Behind the pillars the Battle Engine is really well protected. Any guns that can really damage the engine should be the ones used against the pillars. If they don't shoot the pillars that blocks access for combat troops to the Fulcrum. If they do shoot the pillars then they aren't damaging the engine. A good trade for two fury.  I believe that the pillars don't block LOS to huge based models. If that is correct then you can sit behind them all game long blasting away and not be too worried about any retribution!