M2E+Aionus


 * Aionus, Outcast Henchman**

=__Overview__= Aionus, the Lord of Time, is a model from the fourth M2E book. He was released on Black Friday 2015, as a celebration of Wyrd's 10th anniversary.

Aionus gives a lot of support, speeding up friendly models and manipulating Scheme Markers and other markers. He also provides some surprising attacks, ignoring armor and affecting buried models.

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=__Mobility__= His Wk clocks in at a respectable 5, with a Cg of 8 to match. Coupled with his close attack Rg of 2, this gives him a decent threat range of 10" (or 15" on the first two Turns).

His **Stolen Time** ability lends a little extra mobility for the first couple of turns, so he shouldn't have much trouble getting where he wants to go. **Stolen Time** gives an extra AP usable only for Walk Actions on Turn One and Two. On later turns, it instead gives an extra AP for Casting actions, so once Aionus gets into position, he'll have a lot of combat actions.

Aionus can also extend the whole Crew's mobility with **A Stitch In Time**, which allows a discard to give nearby friendly models **Fast.**

=__Offense__= At a glance, Aionus doesn't seem to have the offensive power you'd expect for a 12-stone Henchman. His basic attack, **Bony Fingers**, has a decent Ca, and – being a Ca attack – will get past Incorporeal. Its damage track isn't anything special, but it does get slightly better against models with the **Slow** or **Fast** condition. On a mask, he can hand out **Slow** to the target – ideal for the first attack on a charge so the second can get the damage boost.

Note that **Bony Fingers** can also be used to do a lot of damage to models that are otherwise very hard to hurt. It ignores **Armor**, which can help against many constructs. Also, more frightening, the attack can target buried models -- this can be a devastating way to destroy models that bury themselves, such as Leveticus, The Dreamer, Bete Noire, Killjoy, Bad Juju, and others. Tara's own Crew is very vulnerable to this as well. Aionus can devastated opponents when they think they are safe.

Aionus has another way to hand out **Slow** with his second attack action, **Out of Time**. Being a Henchman, he can burn a Soulstone to hit the trigger and have the potential to hand out **Slow** to multiple enemy models. Not bad for 1 AP! He gets more offensive as the game goes on, gaining an extra AP from turn 3 onwards that can only be used for Ca abilities. One combination that can be very useful is to use **Out of Time** to Slow an enemy model, then Charge it to get +1 damage to his attacks. Another option is to bury the enemy model with **Bony Fingers**, then keep attacking it.

Aionus gets an extra attack each turn on Turn Three and later, thanks to **Beyond Your Magic** which gives an extra **Ca** action.

Aionus also boosts the offensive potential of the rest of your Crew, since you can discard a card greater than the Soulstone cost of an activated friendly model within 3", to give that model **Fast.** This can massively increase your Crew's action potential, but can be a card drain if used on larger models.

=__Resilience__=

Aionus's **Df 6** and **Wp 7** are quite high, and he has a hefty **Wd 12** as appropriate for his Soulstone cost. He takes half damage from **Ca** attacks thanks to **Beyond Your Might.**

As a Henchman, Aionus can also burn Soulstones to prevent damage, which may keep him up longer under concentrated fire.

=__Upgrades__=

As a Mercenary, Aionus's upgrades vary by Faction.

=__Tactics and Tips__=

As the Lord of Time, Aionus unsurprisingly works well alongside Tara. She can hand out **Fast** and **Slow** for Aionus to deal more damage.

As a Mercenary, Aionus can be hired in any faction, although at the high cost of 13 Soulstones. He brings a lot to the table when paired with Colette, particularly through his two tactical actions, particularly **Midnight**. Being able to move every scheme marker on the table, even if it is only 2", can be a massive benefit to Colette's crew – moving scheme markers near her for her //Now You See Me...// trigger, moving them near friendly models for her **All Together Now** action from Practised Production, etc. It's also worth remembering that he's a good way to counter Colette, too – due to the restrictions on placing scheme markers near other scheme markers, it's likely that Colette may only have the one scheme marker near her for //Now You See Me...//, and removing it can make an assassination attempt a serious threat rather than being Mission: Impossible. Combined with the //Shifting Sands// trigger, he could almost be considered the perfect anti-Colette model!

He can be a good match for any model who uses markers such as Nicodem, Ramos, etc. as he can move their required markers around into optimum position.

His two tactical actions are both (0) so you'll only be able to use one each turn, but both bring something new to Malifaux. **Time Changes All** is an interesting action that moves any non-strategy marker up to 6". This encompasses scheme markers, but also the Widow Weaver's Web markers, Waldgeist's Germinate markers, scrap and corpse counters, and Sonnia's Flame Wall to name a few! It only needs a 3 of tomes to cast, or a three of anything and a Soulstone, and with no way to resist it should be easy to cast if you really need it. It has the potential to have a huge impact on the game, limited only by its short range.


 * Midnight** only targets scheme markers, but lets you move every friendly scheme marker in play up to 2". This opens up a wealth of options for misdirection, planting scheme markers as if you're going for A Line In The Sand and then moving them to score for Breakthrough.

=__Leading a Crew__=

As a Henchman, Aionus can lead Crews in low Soulstone games.

Building a Crew
Aionus does well with Crews that use Markers, and with low-cost Minions that can benefit from **A Stitch In Time** more easily.

=__Playing Against Aionus__=

There are a few important things to remember if Aionus is on the table.

First, be aware of his ability to attack buried models. If your Crew depends on keeping models safe, you are going to need to put that on hold until you kill Aionus! You may need to put other things on hold to make Aionus a primary target in this case!

Second, don't attack Aionus with Casters. He'll shrug off the damage pretty easily. Send Melee beatsticks to kill him instead. He's got high Defenses but can't defend against concentrated attacks for long.

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