Raj - Sorcerer Kings Guide (english)

Raj

In the background, a Raj is highly respected by his followers and personally leads from the front lines, engaging his enemies directly with steel and magic. This translates well into the game.

Cost: At 100 points, the Raj is fairly priced and solid.

Strengths:

• Arcane Conduit: Every character stand of the Sorcerer Kings in a zone at the end of the round gives us a Ritual Marker.
• Wizard (7): Every character of the Sorcerer Kings, except the Sardar, rolls 7 dice for spells.
• Rituals: The character stand has access to the Elemental Rites action and rituals. I explained that here: Sorcerer Kings Rituale
• Arcane Derwish: When the Raj is our Warlord, all Elementals gain Terrifying 1 in zones. Besides the fact that there is a faction against which this is completely meaningless, it is also the worst Supremacy in the faction's game.
• Terrifying 1: Reduces the Resolve of enemy units, against Clash and Impact attacks of this regiment.
• Court of Flame and Court of Air: The Raj is a member of both courts, knows all spells of these courts, and the regiment he joins gains both the Born of Air and Born of Flame special rules.
• Born of Flame: When a friendly wizard casts a fire spell on the regiment, it immediately heals 2 wounds. Additionally, there are synergies with other faction abilities.
• Born of Air: When a friendly wizard casts a wind spell on the regiment, it immediately heals 2 wounds. Additionally, there are synergies with other faction abilities.
• Flexible Warband: All Wizard character stands of the Sorcerer Kings have the option to choose Rajakur, Dhanur, and Ghols as Mainstay and to use up to 5 regiments in the Warband. However, one of them must be Dhanur or Rajakur. Depending on the chosen Court, all fire models are Mainstay or restricted.
• Flurry: The Raj may reroll all hit rolls during a Clash or Duel action.

Weaknesses:

• Limited Mobility: With a movement range of 5, the Raj is not particularly fast and can slow down Dhanur or Elementals if he joins them.
• Moderate Defense: Nearly everything in the Sorcerer Kings has Defense and Resolve 3. This is not bad but far from good. Therefore, the Raj does not want to engage in a duel, but as soon as he is under Molten Blades, the opponents don't want to engage him either.
• Scaling: All good spells have Scaling.

The Power of Magical Courts:

The Raj knows the magic of both the Court of Fire and Court of Air.

Court of Fire:

• Molten Blades (Range: Self, Attunement: 3, Scaling): The target regiment gains the Cleave (1) and Deadly Blades special rules until the end of the round. This makes Rajakur nice and Sword Dancers very dangerous, especially when combined with the Sorcerer's Sandstorm, enemy regiments melt away.
• Cleave 1: In melee, with a Clash attack, reduce the enemy's armor by 1.
• Deadly Blades: Each armor roll of 6 is two instead of one damage on attacks with this special rule. If the enemy has no armor against the attacks, they still need to roll, and for every 6 they receive two damage.
• Wreathed in Fire (Range: Self, Attunement: 3, Scaling): The target regiment gains the Aura of Death (2) and the Dread special rules until the end of the round. The selling point here is clearly Dread, as the Aura of Death often comes too late or in a direct follow-up activation of the regiment and therefore leads to a Clash action. Then Molten Blades would simply make sense.

Aura of Death 2: Automatically causes 2 hits per stand with this special rule against enemy units in contact with the regiment when activated. Dread: Enemy units in contact with stands of this special rule cannot benefit from the effects of the "Inspired" special rule.

Court of Air:

• Storm's Wrath (Range: 12", Attunement: 3): The target regiment treats all terrain zones as Perilous. I have not yet had a meaningful opportunity to cast this spell.

Perilous: When a regiment moves across terrain with Perilous, roll one die for each stand that enters or goes through the terrain. For each roll of 4, 5, or 6, the regiment suffers 1 wound. Cavalry and chariot regiments suffer 2 wounds each. No defense rolls can be made against wounds caused by Perilous terrain. Additionally, no morale test is required.

• Wind Kissed Blades (Range: Self, Attunement: 4, Scaling): The target regiment gains the Counter-Attack and Parry special rules until the end of the round. Since the Parry change, I find this useless. At least Attunement 4.

Parry: Enemy stands cannot reroll dice when in contact with a regiment with this special rule. Counter-Attack: Each defense roll of 1 against Clash actions by the opponent inflicts a hit without special rules on them. Nice to have, nothing more.

Optional Patron's Gifts: The Sorcerer Kings have only a small selection of equipment, roughly one third of which is useful, and the Maharajah can choose up to two. I mention only those that I find useful:

Banners:

• Banner of Elemental Dominion (30 points): Regiments with the Elemental rule within 10" of this character stand gain the Unstoppable special rule. Ghols appreciate this a lot, but due to the limited range, it's rarely worth the 30 points.

Weapons:

• Dancing Scimitar (30 points): The character stand gains the Dancing Scimitar Draw Event. This allows inflicting 3 automatic hits with the Armor Piercing (2) special rule on an enemy regiment or target marker within 12", without triggering Resolve Tests. Very strong and not cheap. If you have the points, both the Scimitar and the Khanjar are solid options.
• Prijm Khanjar (30 points): The character stand gains the Prijm Khanjar Draw Event. This causes 5 hits on an enemy regiment in contact with this character stand, although these hits do not benefit from any special rules of the character stand, but morale tests must be made. Very strong and not cheap. If you have the points, the Khanjar on a Raj in Rajakur is my preferred choice if I do not choose Niyantran.
• Shu'laat (20 points): The character stand can always start rituals with two markers instead of one. A must-pick, ideally worn by the Maharajah Warlord. Additionally, the stand also gains Blessed, which only helps it in the Clash.

Arcane:

• Jadoo Kavach (30 points): When the wizard successfully casts a fire or wind spell, all regiments of the corresponding Courts reroll 6 on all attack dice. All. If we have a pure fire army, our entire army can simply reroll any sixes on attack rolls. Due to the difficulties with Scaling, the Raj should not wear this item and leave it to the Sorcerer or Maharajah.
• Eye of the Blazing Tempest (30 points): Heals all friendly regiments with the Elemental rule within 8" by 3 wounds after an Elemental Rites action. A bit expensive, but it provides a pulse healing. Overall, good.
• Niyantran (20 points): Grants Wizard (+1) and reduces the scaling for targets by 3 stands. A relief for the Scaling-plagued Raj. This way, the buffs are almost guaranteed to succeed.

Optional Masteries:

• Lord of Conflict (20 points): What does the Sorcerer Kings melee character want? Exactly +1 on Clash, attack, and wound characteristics. For 20 points, it's not cheap, but okay.
• Best Money Can Buy (30 points): The infantry regiment to which this character stand belongs gains the Hardened (+1) special rule. Rajakur go to Hardened 2 and Dhanur to Hardened 1. I find this very strong, but only if the infantry regiment condition is removed. So it's a "nice to have" when points are free, at least currently.
• Bound to the Elements (40 points): The character stand becomes a Brute and gains the Elemental special rule. If a member of the Court of Fire, it must join a regiment of Efreet Flamecasters or Efreet Sword Dancers. If Court of Wind, then Windborne Djinn or Steelheart Djinn. This is cool but too expensive. Additionally, the movement of the corresponding regiments is reduced.
• Elemental Feedback (35 points): Heals the attached regiment by 2 wounds for every 2 successes when casting spells. Not cumulative with Born of Air or Flame, but with Niyantran and Conflagration, there is already a lot of healing. Personally, I find this better on a Maharajah, but it is also often purchased for the Raj.

General Tactics:

The spells from the Court of Air are rather mediocre, even though Storm's Wrath looks very strong on paper. It should actually work well, but the limited range is depressing. So you usually stick with the two Court of Fire spells and use Wreathed in Fire for protection and Molten Blades for offense. He can fight quite well himself, and with Molten Blades, every regiment becomes dangerous for the opponent. Therefore, he is very often played in Rajakur, which however only have Clash 2 and therefore need support from Jadoo to bring enough hits to the opponent. The other option is to put him in Sword Dancer, but that costs 40 points, and the movement of the Sword Dancers is reduced to 5. In my opinion, it's not worth it, but I like to play it because it looks cool.

If he didn't have Scaling on the important spells and Bound to Elements wasn't so terribly expensive, he would probably be very popular. Currently, however, he clearly lags behind the Maharajah and the Sorcerer.