Warjack Profile: Decimator

A mixed bag of a jack, in that it's one of the Khadoran jacks which comes with both a melee and ranged weapon, one of many avaiable though it stands out as while it's melee weapon suggests you should put it in melee with heavies, it's gun suggests otherwise.

The Decimator shares the same stats as the Destroyer, giving it the low SPD Khador jacks are expected to have, ok MAT, poor RAT and DEF, but good ARM. Essentially this means ideally the Decimator is a jack hunter, leaning more towards heavies than lights unless you want to throw the Decimator into combat with lights, which tends not to happen unless your opponent chooses to leave a light out in the open nearby.


It's weapons are quite unique in terms of what Khador has to offer. Firtly there is the Rip Saw, P+S just a point less than the Juggernaut's Ice Axe, combine this with it's Sustained attack ability allowing you to auto hit a target you've already hit and you have a jack that literally tears heavies apart in melee. While this is a very nice weapon it won't tend to be used as often as it's gun. The Revolver Cannon has the same range as pIrusk's Sword Cannon and POW a point greater than a Bombard, with ROF 2 and Beat Back (pushes the model hit directly back 1" and the model that made the attack advances 1". This is the primary reason for taking the Decimator, other Khadoran jacks can dish out damage in melee, but short of the Conquest there isn't an in faction jack that can move enemy models without being in melee or base to base. When combined with either Sentry or Watcher the Decimator's cannon can stop an assassination run and move where it can best protect the caster.

Like the Marauder this jack excels in scenario play, where the ability to shift enemy models can prove to be a game changing tool to have, the ability to move 1" short of charge range while pushing an opponent's model back 2" is brilliant, failing that having the ability to put several auto hitting high P+S hits is always a nice incentive to put off potential assassinations. The way you play this jack tends to be reliant upon casters as at range the Decimator will need every single point of focus it can get (one for the extra shot, two to boost attack rolls, due to the low RAT), making eIrusk, Old Witch, Zerkova and the Vlads as good choices, especially pVlad due to Signs and Portents, Harkevich can also be used with Fortune (cheap upkeep allowing you to reroll misses, most times needing just over average dice to hit heavies at range it's a nice ability to have). Alternatively if you wish to run the Decimator for it's melee abilties use a caster that has ways of boosting attack and damage rolls using spells, such as Karchev's Unearthly Rage (boosted attack and damage rolls as well as granting magical weapons to his battle group) or Butcher's Full Throttle (free charge and boosted attack rolls) as this means you have more focus to buy attacks.

By no means should you attempt marshalling this jack, unless you are using it at range in which case use the Man O War Kovnik, for his drive to boost attack rolls and use the psuedo focus to buy the additional attack. In melee this jack needs to be a part of a caster's battlegroup to get the best out of it, marshalled the greatest amount of attacks the Rip Saw can have is three without charging (Koldun Lord using Power booster to grant 1 focus, and then the psuedo focus to buy an additional attack), as opposed to four potentially fully boosted attacks under pButcher (Feat + Full Throttle + 3 focus).

That said by no means should that put you off fielding the Decimator, the jack works well in conjuction with jacks that are focus efficient such as the Kodiak, Beserker, or Marauder. If playing a scenario the Kodiak/Marauder and Decimator pairing can be very good as all three have the ability to move models off objectives and in the case of the Marauder and Kodiak can do this realtively cheaply in terms of focus, though  it may be best to consider fielding models such as Greylord Ternions, Outriders or Gorman Di Wulfe to increase the chances of your jacks hitting home.