Character Jack Profile: Torch

Strakhov's special issue 'Jack and one of my personal favourites, I've only fielded it once (see Battle report 35 points Starkhov vs pSeverious) and while in that game Torch didn't do much I did see a lot of what makes him incredibly good.

Firstly as a Character jack, Torch is an improved version of an existing Jack chassis, in this case the Decimator. Now where the Decimator prefers to hang back and engage at range, Torch is geared solely towards close quarters fighting, with effectively three weapons in melee ranging from relatively low to very good P+S, this jack is capable of taking on infantry and Jacks with no real sign of struggling against either. To further compliment this, Torch got a stats boost to both MAT and Rat in the upgrade, making him less reliant on focus to hit targets, leaving more to either increase damage or just put out more attacks. While Torch doesn't come with any Affinities like other character 'Jacks he does have immunities to both fire and corrosion, which when faced with Menoth armies led by Feora or Cryx armies featuring Bile Thralls is a very useful ability to have.

To boost or not to boost

It's often a question that occurs in a players mind when playing Warmachine or Hordes. You have focus or fury left over on a Jack or Beast. Do you go for more attacks or simply boost your chances of hitting or damaging?

Essentially the whole question boils down to three things, probability, damage output and target priorities. Firstly, in terms of probability more often than not if a Jack or Beast attacks another Jack or Beast chances are that you're going to hit, given the low DEF of average Jacks (Can't speak for Beasts, was quite surprised when I saw a Feral Warpwolf's DEF), however if you have a Jack or Beast attack infantry then you start entering the area where you may want to think about boosting. Although another issue arises where I start wondering why anyone would choose to charge a Jack at infantry, because as a friend once told me, Infantry kills Jacks. The whole point of Jacks in game is a brick that can be thrown at something in your opponents army that is relatively tough that will threaten other models in your army, granted there are exceptions (Beast 09 springs to mind due to Thresher, giving it the ability to attack enemy models in LOS and melee range), but most Jacks have two melee weapons at most, throwing that sort of model at infantry is something of a waste, if you want to kill infantry use other infantry or shoot it before it gets close enough to do it's job. However, there is one infantry unit I would always recommend charging with a Jack and that is your opponent's caster.

Unit Profile: Man O War Shocktroopers

One of the Iconic Khadoran units, these guys have been around right from the beginning of Mk1, for good reason. Man O Wars have the potential to either massacre warjacks, provide a defensive screen for the rest of your army or just provide your army with an adaptable unit with the ability to be a bullet sponge one turn to a fairly intimidating unit as far as most targets are concerned.

Stats

In terms of their stats Man O Wars have good stats barring their SPD and DEF, meaning they are both slow and easy to hit. However, given the number of damage boxes and the base ARM of a Man O War more often than not each one will take a fair beating before going down, more so given their special abilities.




Weapons

Shocktroopers come with two very distinctive weapons, the first being their Annihilator Blade, giving them Reach (which can compensate for the lack of speed), as well as a pretty good P+S behind it (only just falling short of the P+S of Khadoran Open fists). More often than not if Shocktroopers are doing anything they will be moving forward to hit something with these. If the Blade can't quite reach the target then the second weapon comes into play, the shield cannon. Whilst it's range is less than the MOW's charge range it is still useful as there are occasions when a group of medium based infantry charging may block a charge lane, this Cannon (with the same POW as the  Annihilator blade) is a respectable alternative. Though situations where it's use is preferable over charging are rare and the MOW's poor RAT making it difficult to hit much shy of a Warjack, it's always far better to have that choice than not to have it.

New Gaming Night

Hi all, just wanted to give a mention for those of you in the St Annes and Blackpool area who are looking for a place to play all your favourite wargames, be it Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and Hordes, Malifaux or even some new system yet to be unearthed there is a new club night for the Warpdragons club at the British Legion in St Annes (I will find out the address and put it up) .

For those who haven't heard of the Warpdragons, we range from gamers with 20 years plus of experience, all the way to people just starting out in with their army of choice. We also cater for Trading card games, mainly Magic the Gathering, although if you have something different, bring it down, you never know you may find other gamers raring for a game. I would like to point out that as a club we are warm and welcoming to newcomers (after all we do like to have new opponents) and our members will be often more than willing to help if you have a question.

Character Jack Profile: Black Ivan

First off it's a Character 'jack, basically meaning Privateer Press have taken the basic 'jack stuck some add ons to it, given it a stats boost and a few new rules. Now that may not sound great, but then it hits the table and you really grow to appreciate it. The 'jack Ivan is built from is the Destroyer, so it has a Bombard cannon, it also has a slightly better RAT, which is good, because you hit more often, then you get the cherry on top of the cake, Harkevich's affinity. When Ivan is fielded with Harkevich, his Bombard shots are auto boosted free of charge, essentially meaning that stealthed army you were looking at and wondering how to hit it, now you only need to wonder, how hard do you hit it? As with a regular Bombard it comes with Arcing fire, so any 'casters who feel particularly squishy are either going to be hidden where they can't effectively do anything, or they're going to be hiding behind a terrain feature where the rest of your army will then be able to pin them and kill them (in best case scenarios at least).

When I first saw Harkevich's model I liked what I saw, then I heard he had a character 'jack and after much thought decided to make it, several games later I almost wish I could find a way to make a better Harkevich list as in almost every game the last two units standing were Harkevich and Ivan. Partly because I misunderstood what Harevich was about, partly because I mistook Battlegroup for army...
But this aside, it showed me just how good Black Ivan actually is, both as a model and on the table top, because I do really like the claw, despite all the cursing that went into getting the claws to stick in the correct way, once I got the model part way painted I really did grow to like it's rugged almost feral features, but what makes it so good?

Solo Profile: Widowmaker Marksman

First solo I bought after the Wardog, simply because of how good he is both on his own, or fighting alongside his fellow Widowmakers. He is average cost for a solo, with the same stats as the regular Widowmakers apart from a slight increase to both his RAT and COM, which is important as part of the reason why he is so good with the Widowmakers is his ability Swift Hunter.

Upon destroying an enemy model with a ranged attack the model may then advance 2". On his own this makes the marksman good as he forfeits his move to aim (if you really need/want to) shoot, destroy a model, then pull back, either denying LOS by being too far into terrain for enemy models to see him, or by denying charges, doubling the distance non Pathfinder models without Reach require to get to hit him.

Warjack Profile: Kodiak

The first warjack I bought, having bought the starter box and widowmakers was the Kodiak, because as anyone who has the Khador army book will know, the background to it and the imagery that is served up with it is absolutely amazing. So what makes the Kodiak so impressive?

First of all this is the only Warjack that Khador can field (excluding Scrapjack) that comes with Pathfinder (not counting relentless charge) which is huge, the fact that this jack can walk through a dense forest as if it was open terrain is an incredible boon to any force even more so in the case of casters like Old Witch and Starkhov who throw down Terrain features as part of thei Tier lists, then add to this that for a point of focus the Kodiak can use it's Vent Steam ability, to not only deliver a world of hurt to a fair number of infantry, but also gives concealment, giving you a heavy warjack with DEF equal to the basic DEF of  widowmakers and blocking LOS to anything sat close enough behind.

Unit profiles: Widowmakers

Widowmakers are a unit that many players dread seeing upon the field. A four man (well 3 men and a woman leading them) unit with the potential to wreak havoc upon most units and solos and one of the first things I'd advise any new Khador player to buy straight away.

Widowmakers are the best shots in the Khadoran army (Baring one model who is an improved Widowmaker) they have a high RAT for a unit and they use it incredibly well, often standing still to make their RAT equal to Butcher's MAT, they have several abilities to make them more deadly and more irriatating to fact. The first ability that we come to is Sniper, roll to hit a model and if you choose to don't roll for damage, just deal one point of damage. This is a brilliant ability against single wound shield walling models such as Iron Fangs or Assault Kommandos as whilst they may have the ARM of an average Heavy Warjack, they are a single wound model meaning 1 point of damage and you've killed the model. Add to this that this also applies to Warjacks and Warbeasts, except in the case of you hitting (which given their RAT almost always happens) you can choose a column or branch and apply the point of damage to that branch or column. This is an excellent way of just finishing off those near crippled systems or aspects, although they are better suited to taking out infantry.

Solo Profiles: Wardog

A dog is a mans best friend, never has that been more true than in the Khadoran army. I've had many games where my opponent has put more attacks into this one model than my entire army and for very good reason.

The Wardog is the cheapest model in the entire Khador force that can be fielded on it's own (in the sense that you don't need to buy a unit to take it) it's only requirement is that it must be attached to a warcaster, and this is where it's use shines through. It is possible to use the Wardog to run and charge a unit or model alone, although the only reason I would ever suggest you do this is when you plan to charge your Caster in after the dog, the defensive buffs the dog offers only occur when the caster is in close to the dog, so charging the dog after the caster is largely pointless.

The first Ability the dog brings is Guard Dog, while the dog is not knocked down, the Caster it's attached to recieves a DEF boost in melee and is immune to free strikes, this makes the melee focused Khadoran Casters (Butcher, Sorcha, Vlad and even Karchev) nigh untouchable when charging and in melee, especially if you charge the dog in first so that the moment your Caster enters the bubble of the effect no one will be hitting you unless they divert some of their army to take the dog down first. This is where the dog's second ability comes in Tough, on regular infantry this is a pain, on models like the dog that are buffing your Caster as they are it's essentially like the what happened at the end of Men In Black 1, your opponent puts in so much effort to kill this one model, thinks it's dead before it turns around and takes another chunk out of something. Although it rarely happens, when you succeed a tough roll on the Wardog expect a fair bit of cursing from your opponent, because of this next abilitity.

2 Player Starter box

Just had the thought that so far most of the articles so far haven't been aimed so well at the new starters of Warmachine and Hordes, so to change that I'm going to take a brief look at the Khador half of the 2 Player Starter box.

What do you get in the box?

Ignoring the Menoth half of the box, Khador get some very nice kit from the box, namely pSorscha (Warcaster), a Destroyer and a Juggernaut and a five man unit of Man O war Shocktroopers along with all the cards for each model. To start with lets look at Sorscha.

Sorscha

Put very simply Sorscha is widely known as an Assassination caster, meaning that her tactics generally entail finding an opening in your opponent's lines then rushing in and (hopefully) killing the caster. This is mainly due to her spell list and her very nice feat. To start with Sorscha's spell list contains two gems that really aid her assassination runs, Boundless charge and Windrush. Boundless charge is important as it gives a model/unit a little extra movement, but best of all it also gives out Pathfinder, this special rule allows models to ignore terrain (other than Impassable, which as the name suggests can only be moved round, not through) which in a faction like Khador, where the majority of models will have a relatively low SPD stat is a great bonus, especially when your opponent decides to park a soft unit/model on the other side of a forest so that you still have Line of Sight (LOS) to that unit/model, you can then cast Boundless charge and more often than not get the charge. As for Windrush, this spell allows the affected model to make a full advance (move upto the amount of SPD the model has) and then grants a DEF boost, as spells can be cast before movement takes place this means Sorscha could advance almost as far as she would ordinarily charge, then charge and as her melee weapon Frostfang has Reach (adds a little extra onto your melee range) meaning that she has an incredibly long reach. However, it is worth keeping in mind that if this charge fails, more often than not Sorscha will die next turn. This is due to Sorscha's ARM rating being somewhat low when compared with other Warcasters on offer.

Rise of the Cavalry

The recent release lists put out by Privateer Press have caused me a lot of excitement in terms of two things. One, the Winter Guard Death Star should be easier than ever to obtain given that all you need is now being reboxed and packed together, (part of the reason I've yet to run it is simply because trying to get all three rocketeers is incredibly difficult when you don't really want to go online for them.) The other is the release of two cavalry sets, the Arcane Tempest Blazers for Cygnar (so Arcane Tempest gun mages with horses) and for Khador the Greylord Outriders. The scene looks to be set for a duel of speedy bullet dodging gunslingers against the cold steely spellflingers that the Greylord covenant have to offer.

For both units there are a few things that are certain to change from their base form to their cavalry form, firstly a speed boost, that I'm aware both units are classed as light cavalry (which means we may soon be seeing units such as Iridian Skirmishers on horse back for Menoth players and Bane Knights on horse/undead mount thing (Not sure what else to call it really) for Cryx). Now on the face of it I'd say that isn't really needed, but then you think of the possibility of flanking your opponent with something that makes the Kayazy look comparable in speed to Man O Wars, (Overstatement I know, but I still feel they will have some form of rule that makes them incredibly versatile for moving round terrain, though I don't think it'd be Pathfinder, though I'll happily eat my words on that if I am wrong), then blasting the units that hung back for so long (looking at you Long gunners) with the magical shotgun Greylords are so well known for. Then round comes your opponents turn with a rush from their other flank with sniping gun mages who simply don't care how far, just how many.

Pictures... Finally

I've managed to find some pictures to brighten up the blog which I think was becoming something a little wordy and plain, just to explain, these pictures are pictures of my army I had originally painted up for an army builder, (called Rise of the Machine, hence the blog's title) and some other models) I appreciate this isn't the best painting you'll have ever seen, but the idea is simply to provide some motivation for those with unpainted armies (you know who you are... I'd name and shame but I'm at the same stage where I have 50+ models to paint and I've no motivation to lift up a brush, so here is some of my better work, at some point I'll try to get some other (better) painted model's pictures but for now here is what I have.

pButcher and  eSorscha

Juggernaut, with Widowmaker marksman in the foreground.

Caster profiles: Butcher of Khardov

First of many of my personal insights into casters, here I will try to give a bit of information concerning the strengths and weaknesses of casters I have used or fought, including spells, abilities and army composition, so where better to start than my first caster, pButcher.

Stats wise Butcher is slow for a Khadoran caster, as well as somewhat easy to hit, however he makes up for this with an insanely high MAT, STR and ARM values, average focus, a relatively low Command (COM) and a RAT that will allow you to hit low Def models, but not much else unless you boost the attack roll. He also has the highest amount of Warjack points for any Khadoran caster, enough to get a free Beserker, which synergises quite well with Butcher due to his spell list. This dictates that where possible he should aim to get into melee, but not too early when there are vast amounts of models on the field that could threaten him with a surprise assassination (See my first post for an example), however mid to late game Butcher can really tear a hole in units and send others running thanks to his special rules.

Feat

Butchers feat is incredibly simple, all Friendly faction models in his control area get an additional dice when rolling for damage. To put this into perspective, average troops charge and get 3D6 on the charge, this feat then takes that already impressive damage, throws another D6 on then slaps you on the back and shows you where to go, with weapon master this allows you to take 5D6 to the enemies face and it even applies to ranged attacks, so you are now looking at for example Behemoth, with two armour piercing fists and two bombards, not really even needing focus because it's got 4D6 of damage per fist and 3D6 per Bombard cannon. This also makes for some hilarious charges from a certain warcaster's best friend (referring to the Wardog who I'll do a profile on later), where ripping a warjacks' arm off can bcome a suprisingly common sight.

Battle report 35 points Strakhov Vs pSeverious

Welcome to my first battle report, unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me last night other wise I'd have pictures to illustrate my commentary so that it actually makes some form of sense. To start here is the list I took

pStrakhov + 6WJPs

Torch 10Pts

Widowmakers 4 Pts
Kayazy Assassins (Max) 8 Pts
Kayazy Underboss 2 Pts
Kayazy Eliminators 3 Pts
Kayazy Eliminators 3 Pts
Great Bears of Gallowswood 5 Pts
Greylord Ternions 4 Pts

Widowmaker Marksman 2 Pts

And my opponents list (Roughly)

pSeverious

Blessing of Vengance
Repenter
Vanquisher

Deliverers (min)
Errants (min)
Cinerators (max)

Heirophant
Paladin of the wall

Welcome to Warmachine/Hordes

Hi, I'm Jonathan, I've been playing Warmachine with my Khador army for around 6 months now. I'm still learning but I feel I have a grasp on most of the basics and have learned a few tricks of my own, which is why I've decided to start this blog, to give an insight to people looking to start in the game. Primarily this blog will be focusing on Khador, but I will attempt to branch out, putting up battle reports, and throwing some of my thoughts on whats hot and whats really not in terms of what it does on the table top. For those of you wishing to start Hordes, you shall not be ignored, I'll also aim to try and add some Hordes related articles and battle reports as and when they are available. Hope you all find this a useful resource or even just something entertaining to read, especially when I put up reports with some incredibly silly blunders, i.e. Charging pButcher into a Menoth heavy warjack scrapping it, leaving him with no focus, then watching him get squished by Kreoss' ever popular pop and drop feat trick, lets just say 7 focus isn't something to shake a stick at...

I hope to be able to provide you with some occasionaly 'guest' writers on the blog too, for those who want to know a little more about a different faction or just for a completely different playstyle and view on how they would play in their sitaution. I have a friend who runs a Retribtuion army and is starting Skorne for an upcoming journeyman/army builder league (which is a fun interesting way to start off in the system, so if you get the opportunity to participate in one do so, you'll learn loads), so hopefully he'll be able to come on and spill on what makes the elves tick and maybe even provide some battle reports of his own. More on that at a later date.