Ruin Rule Rumor (w)Rapup

Alliteration, ho!

As time passes, more and more rumors and speculation arise regarding Ruin, the newest Khador character warjack. Join me after the break for a quick recap of what we know, what we think we know, and when we'll know what we know for sure.

Yeah.



First - Ruin's full rules will be revealed in the March No Quarter. This was supposedly confirmed on the No Quarter Facebook page (source). The street date for that issue (#59) is listed with a street date of March 18th (source), so we're only a couple of weeks away from seeing the rules in print (and maybe less than that on someone getting and early copy for spoilers).

Second - Ruin's marketing fluff blurb is available:

Ruin is a blend of engineering and black magic, an unsettling fusion that has resulted in a malevolently aware machine. Ruin’s scarred chassis is festooned with powerful Orgoth relics that possess a willful hunger to harvest souls and whisper incomprehensibly directly into the warjack’s cortex. Orsus Zoktavir has been entrusted to exploit Ruin as a weapon for the Motherland, whatever the cost.

Pretty interesting, though as usual there isn't a lot to glean from it. The most obvious things are that: 1) Ruin is Butcher's character warjack, and 2) Ruin can collect souls. How he does that, how he uses them, etc, are all still up in the air. But it's certain that souls are part of Ruin's game, which is a neat new mechanic for Khador to have access to (no, Old Witch doesn't count, sorry).

Finally - apparently Will Schick was quoted during SmogCon as saying that:

Ruin has Reach and his Affinity with Butcher is Boundless Charge (source)

This is the most exciting, as it's direct confirmation of rules from a decent source (it's an anecdote of a quote from a supposedly good source, but that's all you get with most spoilers).

Reach is something that I thought was a foregone conclusion once we saw the artwork, then the rapid prototype model. For as much as people want to be mopey sometimes, PP doesn't do things intentionally to spite players; if a model has a big weapon, yes, it probably has Reach. So I usually believe that until something proves to me otherwise.

Reach automatically puts Ruin in a good spot. That precious rule is hard to come by on Khador warjacks, and it'll be an important thing to have if he's going to make good use of whatever soul collection mechanic it has. Going off the Cryx model (probably the most likely parallel), soul collection range is usually 2", which would combo nicely with Reach.

The second part of the spoiler I'm having a harder time wrapping my head around, but only because Boundless Charge isn't something I'd expect to see as an Affinity. As an Imprint, sure, since you'd just C&P the text of the spell (replacing "target model" with "this model") and it'd be an easy translation.

That was my first thought; that someone mis-heard Will Schick (or he mis-spoke) and this is actually an Imprint rather than an Affinity. If that is the case, there are some solid upsides: any 'caster can make use of an Imprint, while Affinity only works while the model is in the associated 'caster's battlegroup. Having a 1 cost, self-buffing Boundless Charge would be pretty useful for the 'casters that don't have Boundless Charge (which is a lot of them), and it'd still be a solid alternative for the ones that do.

However, I'm also not sure that an Imprint like that works either, because then you could possibly get into stacking it with Boundless Charge, depending on how they word it. And this spoiler (which I've read in a few places) always says Affinity, so it may just be an Affinity.

If that's the case, I'm guessing that Boundless Charge is shorthand for what the Affinity actually does. Something like:

"Affinity [Butcher] - While Ruin is in Butcher's control area, it can Charge without spending Focus. When Ruin begins a charge while in Butcher's control area, it gains +2" of movement and Pathfinder when it charges."

An Affinity like that would be absolutely phenomenal. Free charges alone makes a huge difference in the Focus math of what Ruin would be capable of, and picking up extra distance and Pathfinder along the way is awesome icing on a cake made of high-fives.

This Affinity would be most useful to Butcher1, who has no way to speed up his warjacks, nor give them Pathfinder. It would be decently useful with Butcher2 - he's already handing out free charges, but the +2 SPD from Conferred Rage stacks with this Affinity and Ruin will probably be arriving at MAT 9 (assuming 7 base). And it will of course be pretty great with Butcher3, allowing for either a solid base threat without Energizer (if you want to save your Focus, or try to use it for defensive movement), or a fantastic threat range with Energizer (14"!)

Assuming that Affinity spoiler is legit, Ruin is already starting out in a fantastic place, rules wise. Throw into that mix some form of soul collection and whatever else it may have on it, and Khador may be getting a fantastic new warjack come May 2015.

There is also the possibility that, again accounting for possible mis-communication, that Ruin's Affinity gives it Relentless Charge. That's still pretty good (Pathfinder is always good to have available, especially as a self-buff), though not nearly as impressive. But that's why I keep doubting that (essentially) Boundless Charge as an Affinity is going to be a thing.

We'll know for sure in three weeks. I'll be back to post up any new details that come out, though with the NQ so close I'm willing to bet that the next set of Ruin info will probably be NQ spoilers. If that's the case, I'll do my best to spell and grammar check them before posting, but it may end up being mostly gibberish and frantic keyboard bashing due to excitement.