Warmachine/Tactics/Khador

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Note that this page is, for the most part, a placeholder, and will be added to over the coming months. Also note that, currently, it only contains units from Prime Mk. 2 and Forces of Warmachine: Khador.

Why Play Khador?

People are drawn to the mighty forces of Khador for many reasons. It is well known that they have the biggest 'Jacks in the Iron Kingdoms, but trying to play a 'Jack heavy army with them is nearly impossible unless you fancy playing with Karchev exclusively since their jacks, for the most part, aren't very mobile and have low MAT and RAT, which means they need a lot of focus to get any shit done. It is well known in the Khadoran community that you 'come for the 'jacks, but stay for the infantry'. More over Khador dishes out more hurt than any other faction.

Unit Analysis

Warcasters

Note about Warcasters: Casters have Epic variants that offer new spells, weapons and feats. This does not make the epic versions better than their normal forms! Your caster choice WILL change the dynamics of your army and different versions of the same caster might not support the same style of play or list-building decisions.

• Kommandant Irusk (pIrusk): Infantry commander extraordinaire. pIrusk has some nice buff spells, with Iron Flesh, Battle Lust, and Superiority for a jack. His Feat Undying Loyalty makes Infantry amazing, with buffs to attack, Fearless, and boosted Tough for a turn. You'll want to keep him at the back of the line upkeeping buffs, sniping solos with Airbust, and handicapping enemy units with inhospitable ground.
• Supreme Kommandant Irusk (eIrusk): Whereas pIrusk was all about buffs, eIrusk is all about positioning, with a suite of movement based spells and abilites that makes his army horrifyingly mobile. Friendly faction warriors in his CMD range gain Tough, can ignore each other when drawing line of slight, and move through each other. His Feat lets infantry ignore concealment from Forests and cloud effects, gain Pathfinder and stand up, while enemy units are slowed and cannot do orders. What makes him so amazing is that he negates Khador's main weakness of being slow. Energizer gives him and his jacks an extra 3' inches of speed, Tactical Supremacy lets a unit advance 3' after everyone else, and Artifice of Deviation will let you move through rough terrain and enemy units, allowing the Kommandant to have his forces appear in places people may not expect. All while your units can move and shoot through each other, keeping them from getting in each other's way. While he's great for infantry he doesn't have any spells designed specifically for jacks so you'll have to plan accordingly.
• Karchev the Terrible: If you want to field an army composed Khador's big jacks, this guy is your man. He can give some extra movement to your slow jacks to hit around their slow speed, and has a spell that boosts the attack and damage rolls of every warjack in his control area, which is arguably more dangerous than his feat. Karchev himself is pretty deadly as well, basically a Juggernaut with extra MAT that can't lose systems, making him the most durable caster in the game
• Old Witch of Khador: Tricky bitch describes her perfectly, one of the hardest warcasters to play in Khador. Don't bother with her tier list it tries to make Kossite Woodsman happen. You know how people say Warmachine is magic in minatures, that makes her one of those control decks that requires you to know a fair bit about your opponent's capabilities to function properly. But if you do you can do some nasty shit. She is pretty much only going to take Scrapjack as her spells are meant to work on it.
  • Scrapjack: Coming soon.
• Kommander Sorscha (pSorscha): Sorscha1 is proof that even support 'casters can bring the pain. With a nice mix of offensive, defensive, and support spells, Kommander Sorscha has a trick up her sleeve for pretty much any possible situation. Her feat can make for clutch plays, as a large part of Khador's weakness lies in the fact that it has a hard time hitting with most of its attacks.

Sorscha is best used with lots of offensive units. Beast 09 is a great pick, and she's the battlebox caster for a reason. She can support a couple of warjacks, and she's not as infantry-reliant as many other warcasters (who cast lots of unit-wide buffs). She also hits pretty hard: if you see an opportunity where Sorscha could use a combination of her spells and boosted/bought attacks to charge the enemy warcaster, take it. If you've got her Feat handy, even better. Always remember her sick long range. A combination of Windrush together with Boundless Charge on herself in addition to Reach on her weapon makes for a scary 19 inch charge (6 for Windrush, 6 for move, 3+2 for charge & 2 for reach)!

• Forward Kommander Sorscha Kratifkoff (eSorscha): Sorscha, Infantry Edition. Everything above still applies, but now her spell selection is tailored for supporting units of infantry. Her feat is most useful when used with infantry and she makes Winter Guard into a pretty scary force to face.
• Kommander Strakhov: The Rushin Russian. He has a fair set of support spells and most of his focus will be going to upkeeps, he also gives all friendly assault kommandos pathfinder. Strakov himself has average stats, with the same gear and immunities as assault kommando. His feat gives a range bonus to friendly faction models charging enemies in his control range. This is powerful but trickey as you have to put him right in the thick of it. Between this difficult play style and his preference for Assault Kommandos, he's not a very popular caster.

• Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince (pVlad): Having a hard time figuring out who you should start with? The Dark Prince is a solid bet. He's very straightforward to play: use Signs and Portents to make your models hit harder, Boundless Charge to get your warjacks into combat, and then Blood of Kings and Wind Wall to make him nearly unkillable (throw in a War Dog for added amusement) when the match approaches end-game.
  • Vlad is similar to the Butcher: He buffs his army, but as the game winds down, he /becomes/ the army, and very difficult to kill at that. Watch out for Blessed weapons and Arcane Assassin, as they can negate parts of Blood of Kings. His feat is quite useful for getting the first strike, which is important. Consider running two 'jacks with him for best results (Draigo, Spriggans, and Juggernauts all work well, as do Berserkers).

• Vladimier Tzepesci, The Dark Champion (eVlad): This is the Dark Prince, Infantry edition. His power-up is now reactionary and contingent on being damaged, but now he can more actively support infantry with everything from his feat to his spell selection. He's still decent for warjack support and has a mean endgame, though not as mean as his previous incarnation. Otherwise, the things that were said for Vlad1 still apply here. Hand of Fate is Signs and Portents light, on a single unit at half cost. Air Blast spell can remove cloud AOEs and mess with a unit's RAT, for example removing trencher's smoke or flushing shooters out of a good position. With BoK gone he's not quite the beat stick he used to be. He can get free boosted melee attacks and Parry from Martial Paragon though. Word to the wise, don't EVER let your opponent damage him hoping to proc Might of Kings, it's not worth risking your caster possibly getting killed. His Feat takes some finesse, giving D3+3 models +3 to all stats for one round. It only affects 4 to 6 models so you really need to know who to buff and where to make the most out of it.

• Vladimier Tzepesci, Great Price of Umbrey (Vlad3) Coming Soon.
• Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova: Coming soon.
• Orsus Koztavir, The Butcher of Khardov (pButcher):When you look at pButcher you should be drawn to three things: his MAT, his P+S (tied with Terminus for highest among warcasters, but he also brings Weapon Master to table) and his SPD. He can hit just about anything, and kill anything he hits. On average rolls, he puts out a whooping 27 damage each attack. He comes with a reasonable amount of focus, which is best used on his spells rather than being selfish. Speaking of his spells, Butcher comes with four. Pay special attention to Iron Flesh, which can turn already hard to hit infantry into frustratingly impossible. Watch your Widowmakers become DEF 23 when hiding in woods. His other main spell is Full Throttle, which allows all the warjacks in his battle group to run, charge, slam or trample for free. In addition, every model in the battlegroup gets boosted ATK rolls for free, even Butcher himself. If you have two 'jacks in your battlegroup, you are effectively saving a focus point on each. Butcher is one of the better 'jack casters that Khador has due to full throttle, and when combined with his feat everyone in his control area gets boosted damage rolls. In this turn the entire army goes nuts and can crush the enemy army underneath their snow covered boots.

When using Butcher, do not try and run him at the front like a rampaging lunatic. Otherwise you will be peeling him off the curbside when he gets mowed down by the enemy, while tough for a warcaster, he's still only about as durable as a light jack. Instead you should let him hang back, using his spells to buff the army. He has slow Speed, only offset by the Reach on his axe. But you should hold him back and only push him forward when it is safe, because he will destroy anything he touches.

• Kommander Orsus Zoktavir (eButcher): Some adjustment to Orsus's spell list an abilities has likely made him the single most dangerous melee model in the game. His attacks now hit everything, friend and foe, within 2 inches of him, and he now has a spell that gives any model, say him, Berserk, allowing him to single-handedly destroy whole units. He is a bit tricky to use though: his abilities allow him to run warjacks more cheaply, but a lot of his best tricks kick in when he destroys enemies.
• Kommander Zoktavir, the Butcher Unleashed (Butcher3): From pButcher to eButcher, we saw a decrease in army synergy, and an increase in personal wrecking power. And it seems like the third incarnation of the Butcher has followed the trend again. He now offers nearly nothing to the rest of his army at all, but now, he IS the army. His raw power isn't perhaps what's improved - his flashing blade doesn't quite hit as much as eButcher's standard attack (especially since he lacks the 360 arc) - but he now has much more consistency in his damage output, that no longer relies on him killing shit to get his juices flowing. In theme, his new feat (full focus refill for the Butcher) helps him and him alone wreck more face. Naturally, he tends to run warjacks that are pretty focus efficient, such as Berzerkers or Kodiaks, so he can hog a fair bit of the focus for himself, even if it's for overboosting.

The truly scary thing about Butcher3 is his threat range. He has a few ways of getting additional movement such as energizer, or a vengeance movement if one of his pups die (that's right, he now brings two war argus into battle with him, and he still has FOUR warjack points), or bringing along Madelyn Corbeau for a possible extra 3 inches. Throwing any extra inches he can get with his charge and impending doom, he can have a threat range on an enemy caster of near 20 inches (or even over, if the stars align), and he would still have enough focus for enough flashing blades to kill everything and anything that gets pulled into melee with him, provided he pops feat. It's fucking scary to face.

• Kommander Harkevich, The Iron Wolf: Coming Soon.

Warjacks

Note that, unlike most other factions, Khador does not have light warjacks, only heavies (with the exception of Scrapjack, who we talk about above).

• Berzerker: Oldest warjack in production/use by Khador. Khador weakest jack armor/stat wise but also the cheapest. They can run and charge for free and get a free headbutt off their chain attack ability. They can also EXPLODE if focus is given to it (unstable cortex and all)! Its fairly unpopular, though thats not to say it completely terrible. Some would use the free run/charge for its utility and avoid using focus on a point cheap jack. Others would load it with focus and create a boosted unboostable hit/damage jack that can finish its activation with a STR 14 5 inch explosion! /tg/, I know which we'll go for.
• Decimator: Juggernaut build scheme with short range revolver cannon and a fuckhuge ripper saw. Each successful hit from the cannon pushes the target back 1 and lets it advance 1, but is otherwise useless due to the jacks low RAT. The saw on the other hand is very powerful and makes all attacks to auto hit after one connects each activation. Decimator with three focus usually means a funeral pyre should be waiting for the other jack. Very focus hungry though.
• Destroyer: The 'first' ranged 'jack in the Iron Kingdoms. It shoot cannon balls with a AoE that acts like Ordnance and ignores models that block LoS and it has a axe that can slice off a 'jack's limb on a crit. So, what is there not to like? It is easily one of the most expensive point wise among your choices AND you only get attack with either weapon per turn! You are wasting 50% of your point cost earn turn with this choice, regardless of weapon. Plays nice with some casters, but not others.

-> Usually considered our worst Jack. Hint for new players: You can get the Black Ivan Upgrade kit and use it on the Destroyer in the Starter Box. Although not our best Jack, Black Ivan is way better for just the 1 point more.

• Devastator: A Juggernaut build with large shield panels attached to its arms. Rolls on the board with a impressive 25 armor (which means without any boosts a lot of weaker stuff can't even damage it) but each arm destroyed drops the armor by four points... Naturally, this only happens if you melee someone or open up to give a explosive goodbye to targets base to base with the jack. That and it can bulldoze other models, even other 'jacks for crowd control and/or control zone dickery.
• Juggernaut: Your primary workhorse, and what most of your other jacks are based on. It's durable, hits hard (it's ax has best P+S of Khador next to Orsus (thanks to his Weapon Master) and the Conquest), but slow and has low MAT, but for its cost, you generally can't go wrong fielding at least one to kill heavily armed targets. Minor note is that this thing's ax has Critical Freeze so it make a target stationary if you're lucky. Don't plan around it, but it's helpful when it happens.
• Kodiak: A Khador jack designed for mobility, and that actually works since it comes with Pathfinder and can run for free. POW 16 weapons are considered pillow-fisted though.
• Marauder: Have you ever seen a Khador player use a Marauder? More than likely not. It is the same price as the Juggernaut so it often ends up competing, losing out to that all powerful Ice Axe. But the Marauder has its own special powers, it can slam. Instead of attacking, the Marauder can unleash a nasty P+S 20 slam which will send anything aside. Use it to clear charge lanes and other nonsense. Watch your opponent's face drop when he realises that the 'jack which was screening him is going to drop on his casters head.
• Spriggan: A lance, a shield, and shoulder-mounted grenade launchers that can negate Stealth, Camouflage and Smoke. The Spriggan does a bit of everything, and since most Khador lists won't be running a lot of jacks, having a generalist model with a toolbox of useful abilities is typically better than only having a model that can do damage. Don't let the grenade launchers fool you, they're only good for flares. Generally considered our best Warjack-of-all-trades and the only non-character/non-Collosal Warjack with Reach in Khador.
• Demolisher: Devastator that traded its close blast for two ranged ones. It retains bulldoze and Armored Shell, meaning it can still shove enemy models around. It and any friendly models in B2B ignore blast damage too, which is awesome.

Character Warjacks

• Beast 09: A more expensive Juggernaut with higher MAT, and ax with Reach and can use a Thresher attack, when fielded with Sorcha it can also Imprint for extra die against living warrior models, so unlike a normal Juggernaut, it's outright deadly against most everything near it. It can run for free and can advance whenever it takes damage when it's not his activation.
• Behemoth: Sorta like a mini-colossal, though it came first. It has a couple more boxes than Khador's usual jacks, and a cortex and subcortex for both its weapons. The main cortex you use for its melee attacks, and the subcortex you allocate to for using its two cannons. While expensive at 12 points, this thing gives you the firepower of two Destroyers at a much lower cost. Its Blast Fists have P of 0, but have armor piercing, so this excels at killing medium and large base models, but the usual low MAT of Khador jacks means it will run into trouble with heavily armored small base models.
• Drago: Berserker with higher MAT, and a pair of Executioner Axes. Replaces its original chain attack with one that lets it attack everything in range. Fielded with Vlad it can ignore unstable and gets an extra die on attack and damage rolls dropping the lowest. Vlad is the only one who should really be taking Drago, since its affinity negates Unstable and it gets whats basically Signs & Portents for free.

Units

• Assault Kommandos: Anti-Infantry with a few neat tricks. Ignore cloud and gas affects, are immune to corrosion and fire, can form Shield Wall and have an order that lets them run or charge after shooting. Good against light infantry but will struggle against heavy infantry. They also suffer from bad RAT.
  • Assault Kommando Flame Thrower: Decent range Flaming spray weapon, explodes in an AOE that sets everyone on fire(which Kommandos are immune too) when he dies.

Additionally the key object in the so-called "Khador Handgrenade". Take a Jack with 2 open fists and throw those fuckers at the enemy frontline. Every blood spilled for the Empress is good blood. And she prefers it hot.

• Battle Mechaniks: Because the moment your bigass Jacks get scratched you can simply unscratch them. Played right your opponents will have to focus down one warjack a turn or else have the battle mechaniks fix most of the damage. Essential if you run Kharchev the Terrible as it keeps him spry and ready to headstomp bitches.
  • Battle Mechanik Officer: Lets your mechaniks unscratch Man-O-Wars in addition to warjacks.
• Greylord Ternion: Three Ice spray attacks for four points? Yes please. Their other two spells are situational, though handy when you need them. The spray attack they provide is what makes them a reliable investment, however. Ternions and Widowmakers are the two most useful units for general support in Khador. Pair them with a Koldun Lord that's marshalling a Juggernaut or Berserker for added hilarity.
• Doom Reavers: A glass cannon unit. They have high MAT and deal a ton of damage, but they lack of any armor means they're use frail as you'd expect. They also have Berserk, so they can easily devastate tarpit units, but it also means they can end up attacking something you don't want them to if you aren't careful.
  • Greylord Escort: Prevents the Doom Reavers from attacking each other, very good. Also not a bad fighter on his own.
• Iron Fang Pikemen: Armored infantry with Shield Wall and Combined Melee Attack, meaning they can prove quite deadly against warrior models and jacks/beasts. If you don't have the attachments for Winter Guard, consider using these as their armor and numbers mean they can also make a good speed bump.
  • Iron Fang Officer & Standard: The officer grants Iron Fangs Pathfinder when charging and lets them make a full movement and shield wall after their initial activation once per game. Overall very useful. The Standard Bearer on the other hand just stands around with a banner, and no melee weapon whatsoever.
• Iron Fang Uhlans: Coming soon.
• Kossite Woodsmen: Bleh. Fairly poor for their points, in theory you can force your opponent's deployment forward and away from the flanks with a few units. Or you could field more Winterguard or Ironfangs to kick much more ass?
• Kayazy Assassins: Sneaky fuckers with daggers, not an assassin unit like other factions roll with, but quite good at drawing attention away from your army as your opponent needs to commit anti-stealth to deal with them and they will kill any single wound infantry sent after them that aren't tarpits. Armies with solos or small units that like to camp on the flanks or the rear are prime targets for some stabbiness. Not a super important unit but good with some lists especially ones that like to have something to disrupt the enmies formation like the Old Witch. Putting Iron Flesh on them is a classic "uber-strategy," effectively rendering them immune to everything but templates.
  • Kayazy Assassin Underboss: Essential upgrade as it gives a good boost and adds another set of knives to enter some one's jugular vein.
• Man-O-War Bombardiers: Clocking in with five blast AoE's per turn, the Bombardiers make a terrifying lawn mower. Point them in the direction of your opponent's infantry and watch them disappear. If somehow the infantry manage to close with them, they do almost as much damage in close combat as they do at range. Durable, eight health boxes a pop, and the many infantry-boosting casters of Khador make Bombardiers a very good choice, especially with Iron Flesh (as you don't need to worry about charging them). Combine with a Spriggan to mow down Bane Thralls, Mage Hunter Strike Force, and all the other irritating Stealthed units that see regular play.

Alternate take: Good lord do these suck. Low stats acrossed the board where a shooting model should not have them. Speed. Speed 4. Range 10. Rat 5. They cant hit the broad side of a fuking colossal. If you must run man o war take the shock troopers and an iron fang kovnick to speed them up. A max unit of these fuckers will set you back the same cost as Beast-09. And $50.00. Piss away that paycheck.

• Man-O-War Demolition Corps: Apply hammer to face, repeat. Demolition Corps can threaten everything from Heavy Warjacks to swarms of infantry. They're tough, they're effective, and if you have something like Bombardiers to force your opponents to close with you or else take heavy casualties at range, they can bring the pain.
• Man-O-War Shocktroopers: Your light warjack replacement, and a very effective one at that. Clocking in at 5 fellows for nine points, the Shocktroopers are exceptionally useful. Khador 'jack level armor (with shield wall), cannons built into their shields, Reach weapons with high POW+S, and eight health boxes a pop means that most armies will have a hard time getting past them at all, and they won't be unscathed.
• Widowmakers: Heavy Infantry's worst nightmare. All the ARM in the world doesn't matter if a Widowmaker aims at your single health box. They quickly lose efficiency against anything with more than one health box, but you have lots of other heavy-hitting options for those. Take them with a Spriggan for killing Stealthed units quickly and reliably.
• Winter Guard Infantry: Rank and file troops. Not so tough starting out, but if you invest points into their attachments and field them with the right warcaster and solos, WATCH OUT.
  • Winter Guard Officer & Standard: Coming soon.
  • Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer: Adds a nice long range blast to the unit. Good for taking out high DEF low ARM models that the rest of the unit have trouble with.
  • Winter Guard Field Gun Crew: Coming soon.
  • Winter Guard Mortar Crew: Coming soon.
• Winter Guard Rifle Corps: Winterguard that cost more and have weaker but longer range rifles, have a special abilty that lets them pull down an AoE depending on size and either be 3" to 5" that any thing entering or existing it takes a strength ten hit automatically great for stealth units or funneling units.

Character Units

• Great Bears of Gallowswood: Fun unit of badasses, works best against infantry that aren't going to tarpit them or just squish them in one attack. Each guy gives a buff to the rest of the unit, but is lost when they die.
  • Volkov: Unit Officer, grants Pathfinder to the unit when charging.
  • Kolsk: Makes the unit immune to knockdown.
  • Yarovich: Gives the unit Circular vision(counts every angle as front arc).

Solos

• Koldun Lord: Coming soon.
• Manhunter: Steampunk Spetznaz. Run in, hack your opponent with axes, repeat. Squishy but fun. Best used as a distraction, as the threat of them hurting and or tying up a unit can be quite annoying.
• Man-O-War Drakhun: One word. Durability. ARM 19 with 10 boxes, and immunity to knockdown while mounted is bad enough. When your opponent finally does kill him he comes back as a full 8 box solo on foot. Other than that his MAT and RAT are only one point better than traditional Man-O-Wars, and has the same gear as Shock Troops but with weapon master on the annihilator blade.
• Man-O-War Kovnik: Coming soon.
• War Dog: Khador's attachment for their warcasters. The most important part of the War Dog is that it increases the survivability of its attached caster against melee attacks. While its counter-charge ability is decent, that +2 DEF against melee attacks and immunity to back strikes is what you're paying the point for.
• Widowmaker Marksman: Sniper solo. Has a more powerful gun than the standard widowmaker, stealth, and a leadership ability granting swift hunter, which allows a 2 inch advance after destroying a model. Can really let you play your widowmakers a little more aggressively, as they get a 2 inch retreat if they make their kill.
• Iron Fang Kovnik: Support Solo with Commander, and Jack Marshall. Can buff the speed of one Shield Wall unit, and makes Iron Fangs immune to knock down while he's nearby. He's got weapon master and reach. Iron Fangs are the ideal synergy unit but MoW Shock Troops and Assault Kommandos can also benefit, Shock Troops in particular to buff their slow speed.

Character Solos

• Fenris: Holy shit the rape train is here!!! Take a Doomreaver stick him on a fuckhuge horse give him two fuckhuge swords and you have a retardedly killy model. He even chooses when to make his berserk attacks on his own and any doomies near him. Not to mention with how mount rules function he has an incredible amount of speed and additional attacks for running over models.
• Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich: For 2pts Kovnik Joe brings so many buffs to Winter Guard its not even funny. He can give one of three buffs per turn, either giving +3 STR, Tough and Fearless, or boosted attack rolls. Joe is a staple of a lot of Winter Guard 'deathstars' for good reason.
• Uhlan Kovnik Markov: Kovnik Stalin is more or less a Unit Attachment for your maxed-out Uhlan Unit who will greatly appreciate being fearless. He might be a Uhlan himself but he has no Relentless Charge. This & his semi-high cost will make him a very rare sight picked on his own.
• Yuri the Axe: Coming soon.
• Kovnik Andrei Malakov: Coming soon.

Battle Engines

• Gun Carriage: SPD 7, huge AOE cannons that make rough terrain, is a cavalry unit, Weapons Platform, and can make trample attacks. FUCK YES. Its low RAT means it has trouble hitting but the fact that the cannons make where ever they land rough terrain makes this an after thought, since it'll effectively handicap whatever it doesn't kill.

Colossals

• Conquest:
• Victor: Replaces the cannons of the Conquest with a single fuck huge siege mortar, and a pair of smaller gating guns. The big gun is inaccurate but has a large AOE with several effects, ranging from dropping DEF, creating rough terrain, or setting everything on fire.