Picked up my battle box (more on that in another post) and immediately started work on this guy. Ragnor Skysplitter, The Runemaster. I've used him in a few games so far and he has done excellent for me. He is a good all around caster that supports beasts and infantry well. His only major drawback is his 6 fury. It does hurt some, but if he was 7 FURY he'd almost be too good, so I understand why they did it. He has pretty decent assassination potential seeing how his hammer is STR 14 and can crit knockdown. His spell list is also pretty good. Pulverizer gives you +2 STR and beatback. Shockwave is a RNG 10 POW 14 shot that when it hits, creates a 4" AOE knockdown. Hex blast is a RNG 10 AOE 3 POW 13 that removes upkeeps and animi from a model/unit. Earth's Sanctuary lets a model become dug in, gain cover and not block line of sight. Given the fact that Earth's sanctuary is the only spell on his list that cost less than 3, I feel like you have to include a Runebearer with him. Early on he gives you FURY efficiency making things 1 less, and later in the game he can start shooting off Shockwave and Hex blast as well since he's no longer limited to one spell per game. Ragnor has a defensive feat (which seems to always anger the internetters and makes some overlook him instantly) that says any enemy damage rolls one less die. The important part there is "damage" not damage from attacks, not magic damage, just blanket damage, so things like electroleaps and other things that say they aren't considered an attack, it still protects from those since they still cause damage.
So far I've been running him with a small battlegroup of Runebearer, Mauler, EBDT, and Axer. Filling in the rest of the holes with Fennblades with UA, a Kriel Stone and Elder, 2 units of Runeshapers (which, despite being the Rune Master, he does nothing for really) Janessa and a Fennblade Kithkar. It's been working for me so far. The combo of the Earthborn and the axer creates a catapult effect that can send the EBDT 12" on a charge. With pulverizer up and Stone strength, that's a POW 18, 12" charging troll in your face. It's fun to watch. Anyway, enough talking, here are the pretties.
I enjoyed painting this guy up except for the scrolls on the back. They just seem out of place and I didn't really like how they fit. It's almost like they didn't know what to do with his back, so they just stuck a bunch of scrolls there. All in all I'm pretty happy with him and can't wait to start the league next week.