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?




The come the differences that emerge between the stock Destroyer and the souped up Ivan Variant. As well as a slightly better RAT, Ivan also has a slight DEF boost, add to this that Harkevich grants his battlegroup Pathfinder, then explain why this guy isn't an auto include in his lists. Because the best bit that I really like is Dodge, if your opponent attacks with ANY type of attack Ivan and misses Ivan advances. I emphasise the any there because the first time that happened was against a Ret Myrmidon (Fancy name for a warjack) which had reach, with Ivan 2" away and on his last attack he missed, which meant Ivan could then walk in to melee range, this also makes Ivan a very fast 'jack if you opponent puts out enough attacks Ivan's way as free strikes are ignored during this movement, and if just two shots miss Ivan (which given his DEF is possible) he effectively gets a free advance, with no fear of free strikes. A further addition that makes Ivan very nice is that like the Clam 'jacks and Spriggan, he has Bulldoze, meaning during your activation you move into bases to base contact with a model and then you can push it up to 2" away, obviously never do this against an opponent with Reach as it doesn't help you and you've just given away the advantage you had.

The last and one of the nicest upgrades (although some will view it as more a downgrade) is his melee weapon. Swapping out his Executioner axe for the Bear Claw, Ivan lost, Critical Amputation, but gained Critical Brutal Damage, effectively Ivan has Weapon Master as this abilitity gives an addition damage dice on a critical hit, but this doesn't count as boosting so you can still boost, add in the additional dice for charging and Ivan is looking at 5d6 for damage, oh and did I mention the fist is also and Open fist, so you can use all power attacks barring, obviously, Double handed throws. Ivan in a word is quite parctically a 'jack of all trades only falling down against masses of infantry or that lesser seen tactic of Warjacks that act as Cavalry courtesy of Kraye (Cygnar Warcaster, if you see a man on a horse and he isn't ginger (lStryker is rumoured to be on a horse, which would be in line with lVlad and lKreoss) then prepare to see very fast 'jacks running at you).