Friday 20 September 2019

John Constantine- Model Review

Hi all! After almost 2 months off writing I've returned to finish off some older posts before I get into some of the newer toys. Starting off with this quick one I had half-finished, but this is a guy who has been the topic of a lot of conversation since his release almost 2 years ago.

The meta boogeyman himself, John Constantine. As is fitting for his character, this model is a right bastard and can be the bane of anyone inexperienced against Magic. Whilst not as obscene of a damage dealer as others, namely Zatanna, he more than makes up for it in sheer reliability and his toolkit being excellent
Offensive
With only attack 3 John isn't stellar in combat, but his damage potential isn't bad by any means through the use of Magic. As I mentioned with Enchantress, Black Pain is a great spell to put hurt on enemies outside of the classic Magic Bolt, while he also has a couple more esoteric spells to help out in other situations. His unique spell is a quite simple 10" range, double blood and Fire to do some good damage, and at 9+target's defence isn't especially hard to get off. Should you face an opponent with Incorporeal, Ghost, Demon, Vampire, Undead or Entity (read- not often, and what even is Entity? It's not in any book) he has another spell from Exorcism (and this is Exorcise Soul, so the main point of the discipline) at 8+defence instead that deals 2 blood, and they must pass an endurance roll or lose 2 counters. Possible loss of 3 counters is massive and it's good damage for 2 Magic Counters as well, so although it won't come into play often it should absolutely be used when it does.
His regular attacks are ok and have their uses, but aren't excellent. Blessed Knuckles doing double stun damage at strength 4+ is nice, and Magic helps when it's relevant, but he still won't be much of a beater with attack 3 making him so easy to block. The Amulet Lighter is less damage at only a single stun, but it does have the benefit of Fire to add potential stacks of blood damage onto models should he hit. All in all not amazing, but good enough to do the job should a situation call for it
Defensive
John's Defence 4, endurance 8 is respectable, but only gets better with his trait list. Charm helps him from being hit in melee, forcing willpower rolls to be able to attack him, and Survivor kicks in with a little extra chance to protect him once he actually dies. He can also leech off a bit of damage with Necromancy if he needs to, although being once per game and only a single blood it isn't a massive game changer.
Arcane Protection from the Exorcism Magic discipline is a great useful spell as well. Simply gaining +1 defence is good, but also being able to be immune to spells until the end of the round is well worth using should there be an opposing Magic user on the table. Not quite as amazing as Zatanna's Hover against melee, but it does combo well with Charm and is strictly better against guns.
Overall
The big one here is Luck. John will always have 3SC allocated to reroll what he wants, and because of this he can very easily perform when he needs to (spells and punching). Divination is yet another source of rerolls both through spells in the discipline (Guided Hands- it's underrated and amazing) and the trait itself The Devil You Know also plays into this with him being able to palm off potential downsides from failing spells (not that he will often). The usual Magic abilities apply through Elemental, with effect clearing and healing being the big 2, and he also brings along Necromancy and Exorcism for some darker Magic. The spells here have been mentioned previously (above and with Enchantress) and he can do great work with these spells when needed (I've even seen him Resurrect DKR Batman, however unlikely it is). Exorcism also provides him a possible 1 Magic Counter for +1 to Magic tests once per game, which is useful potentially but ultimately not that worth doing instead of another spell.
Detective is nice for reasons I have discussed very often, but BatB don't often tend to make huge use of it as they trend towards a lower model count.
Willpower 8 is excellent for 100 rep, and Constantine tops it off by having the dual rank of Free Agent and Sidekick. This means he can lead a crew or give out Sidekick buffs alongside a Leader, but also has the option of tagging along with another Leader/Sidekick combo (Modern Age Batman and Robin for example) and has a little bit more list versatility as a result.

1 comment:

  1. For me John kinda falls a bit too much in the middle of the pack and fails to stand out. He doesn't deal damage on Zatanna's level, or support the team like Raven, or control space like Jason. If it weren't for one thing he would be one of my least picked Magic Users (though that's mostly because I pick the other Magic Users first, I'd pick him over most normal Free Agents), however that one thing is golden: He gets to be a Sidekick. In a world were every other magic user is a Free Agent, this gives John a place in list building that no other magic user can compete in. Being able to fill your Boss slot with a Magic User is just so, so juicy.

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