Men at Arms - Unit Guide (english)

Men at Arms
The classic brave man with swords and one of the first Para Bellum models.

Overview and gameplay

I don't like to talk about mandatory selections, but everyone should have 6 stands and the old kits aren't great. For 105 points we get a cheap line trooper with D2 + shield, movement 5, R2 and C2. That's not much, but for its low point cost they can perform very solidly in zones and withstand light fire, light skirmishers and most in their price category. This makes the Man at Arms one of the most used mainstay selections to unlock the good restricted selections. Nowadays you almost only see them as three stands or three stands with a standard, but the boys can do even more. On the one hand, they have two officer models, although currently only the Seasoned Veteran is interesting because it gives them Bastion 1, not +1, and can therefore bring them to D4. This allows you to make larger blocks stable and also raise the resolve into usable regions with one character and the Standard of St. Lazarus. The problem is why the character should be in the Man at Arms and not in another regiment. A water magician is still an option for this, but this quickly becomes very expensive and cannot lift the resolve without the Standard of St. Larzarus. With the healing, the block survives many attacks without a cleave if it has already activated itself and in theory they are also a useful target for the fragment to distribute Smite.

Important: remember that the Imperial Officer can turn them into super scenario speedsters with his Supremacy. With Standarte and Vanguard you get 16" from the edge of your table and therefore into most zones in the September 2023 scenarios. That's really good and they only cost 110 points.

Veterans

The veteran upgrade is particularly interesting with the changed neophyte in armies when the priest is a warlord. This gives the unit not only Devout but also Priest 1 and thus protects the unit and all others with Interefence. Since the standard now only costs 5 points, it also makes the consideration for veterans easier and cheap Clash 3 guys with Devout are good with the priest. In Supremacy they can get Blessed, Deadly Blades and Cleave 1 and really escalate. But that takes a lot of preparatory work and it's a meme list concept. Alternatively, you can of course turn them into veterans with the Seasoned Veteran, but in both cases the points are often better spent elsewhere.

Relentless Drills
If it's free we'll take it, but relying on it doesn't make sense with the Men at Arms. A wide line is always better if the playing field allows it and the one Clash 2 attack makes no difference other than that I would play big blocks with drills because of it.

Conclusion: Once an important pillar of the Hundred Kingdoms, they have now largely degenerated into pure scenario speedsters. But they do the job well.