Warcaster Profile: pIrusk

pIrusk is arguably one of the best casters Khador has to offer for one very simple reason. He is a toolbox caster. He has a spell to get around cover, stealth and LOS, a unit buff, a jack buff, rough terrain generation, a spell  to slow jacks down and a mass melee unit buff. On top of all that he has a respectable stat line, the most focus a Khadorn caster can have and some nice weapons to boot. In terms of his stats he has decent SPD, good MAT and RAT, average DEF and ARM for a caster and an amazing CMD, making him brilliant at ensureing warrior models don't break and run. He comes with enough jack points to get a free Beserker and as mentioned before he has a very good amount of Focus for a Khadoran warcaster.



Featwise, pIrusk's is very nice granting a slight buff to hit with ranged and melee attacks for your warrior models as well as giving them Fearless and Tough at 4+ for a turn and are immune to knock down. It is worth noting that you can affect units mostly out your control area with the buffs to hit as the wording states models/units so as long at least one model from the unit is in the unit gets the buff. The 4+ Tough is specifically only effective in his control radius, outside that they are just standard Tough, but still are immune to knockdown, meaning you don't have to sacrifice action ot movement next turn if you pass your tough roll.

pIrusk's weapons may look a little underwhelming but when you take into account his abilities they do show their worth. His Sword is a little lacking in power, though it is magical, you will tend not be wanting Irusk to be in melee combat with anything anyway due to his somewhat delicate nature, being relatively easy to hit and kill. However his gun does allow him to manage to put out damage from a distance as it has power just shy of a Bombard cannon, add to that the choice to shoot twice and you are far more likely to be threatening from a distance while your army marches forwards. Combine this with his abilities, Assault, allowing pIrusk to shoot after his charge movement, he isn't counted as being in melee when making the shot so it's a nice if somewhat risky way of getting a few extra inches of range for your gun, to make that distant solo a little more accessable. Also his ability Quick Work allows you to take an extra shot ignoring ROF when pIrusk has killed a model (so no beasts or jacks) and is unengaged. Honestly, whilst I've yet to find myself in a situation where I've found using that ability would not end up in me dying next turn, as previously mentioned pIrusk doesn't like to be up front.

In terms of spells pIrusk has Airburst, a spell that places a small AOE on a model in his control area, ignoring Concealment, Cover, Stealth, LOS, Camoflauge and Elevation and deals a low POW blast to that model and all models under the AOE. This spell is a great way of taking out a cluster of models that rely on stealth or cover buffs to avoid being shot at, like Cygnar Rangers, Menoth Caster Thyra, most of Cryx and the Mage Hunter Strike force of Retribution. Then theres Battle Lust, this gives a friendly faction model/unit Fearless and an extra damage dice on melee damage rolls, on units such as Kayazy Assassins this turns a unit from a solid unit to an incredibly hard unit, especially when dropped on units that already have Weapon Master, also it is a great way of getting around charging units or models with the Terror or Abomination abilities as in the turn you charge you will more than likely kill the unit or at least make them turn and run. Grind is a good spell for hampering warjacks, as on top of the damage done by the spell, the jack takes a point of damage to it's first available movement box, this also provides pIrusk with a way of killing off incorporeal models without getting into melee with them, Inhospitable ground makes pIrusk's control area rough terrain to your opponent's army for a turn, a very nice way of ensuring your opponent doesn't get the alpha strike on you, unless you are facing off against Circle of Orboros, or Kraye as both either have Pathfinder or ways of handing it out. The final two spells are Iron Flesh and Superiority, Iron Flesh is a Khadoran staple, giving a slight DEF boost well dropping your speed a little bit, the best way of using this is often to cast it the turn before you wish to charge with a unit, then drop it next turn as the speed drop stops you being able to charge. Superiority gives a friendly faction warjack a buff to SPD MAT and DEF as well as immunity to knockdown, worth noting this can be cast on a jack thats being marshalled as it only states "Freindly Faction", so this spell has a large amount of applications and makes jacks such as the Beserker even more viable.

Overall pIrusk is very much a troop caster, he buffs his warrior models and has a feat to ensure they hit what they aim for and surivive any reprisals your opponent cares to throw at them. Add on to all of this his ability to add an extra die to damage output and slow down your opponents army, pIrusk comes with tools to do most things and do them well. Whilst I'd not recommend fielding more than one jack with Irusk (generally Behemoth) I think it's viable if you were to take two jacks which don't need much in the way of focus or supported the army well, i.e. Beserker, Marauder or Kodiak. I'd not recommend using pIrusk as your first caster, but once you get to understand how you play, I'd recommend trying him out as he can be very reliable and very fun to try.