Model Review- Easterling Dragon Cult Acolytes

 In anticipation of (what likely is) the next book for MESBG, Forge World have released a few things over the last few months teasing the conflict between Dale/Erebor and the Easterlings. For me this means more options for my Easterling army, and I've got the new Dragon Cult Acolytes myself now so thought I'd write about how I think they work best as an addition to my original tactica.

Looking at their profiles, 11 points per model looks like it's steep and in Easterling armies cost of warriors already stacks up really fast so that can be an issue. They do have Black Dragon statlines though with Fight 4 and Courage 4, plus Unyielding Combat Stance and 2 attacks which make them look like great frontline warriors and really nasty backed up by 2 pikes. However, I would personally not advise making your entire front line Acolytes as they are only Defence 4 and very likely to be killed should they lose a fight, and still Strength 3 so not fantastic at killing things themselves either. They also lack the Phalanx special rule to protect them from being trapped by their own models, which is an issue if you play a phalanx more rigid but if you play more fluid with them (which is probably better in general with Acolytes anyway) you can easily make sure that you will have spots to retreat to should you lose, although 2 attacks backed up by 2 pikes (and possibly even a banner) should be getting you winning fights more often than not. The other big thing they have to keep in mind is Throwing Daggers, which promotes a bit more aggressive play than Easterlings traditionally play with, but it adds more potential damage output and that alone is always nice to have so I definitely rate it fairly highly. They do have a unique special rule that gives them a bonus to Jump, Climb and Leap tests making it impossible for them to roll lower results when attempting them, but that part of the rule is ultimately far more niche and the other part (ignoring In the Way when striking over barriers) is way more useful and plays into their role as linebreakers of sorts and less defensive warriors. 

In general the main thing I will be using them for is as a scalpel to apply where pressure is most needed and maximising the pike benefit there to make sure you throw 4 dice at things you don't like, which will almost always be more than the opponent will have (assuming you use them to attack other warriors, because you have fantastic duellists in your own characters). Mixing them in at a 50:50 rate or slightly less with regular sword/shield Warriors (which for me ends up being 2-3 in a warband) to waste opponents time by sitting around shielding while your more aggressive Acolytes can thin the ranks makes for a very interesting use of a loose phalanx, and although it needs a bit more finesse to use it is likely to get better results than without using Acolytes at all.