Unit Profile: Man O War Bombadiers

The latest Man O War unit and another way for Khador to throw out AoEs with some added melee punch. Like the Demo corps, the Bombadiers fill a second wave role, advancing behind another unit while throwing out shots over them and into the opposing front lines, before charging in and chopping up units and jacks alike.

In terms of stats the Bomabadiers have the same stats as other Man O Wars, but have the ARM of the Demo Corps, making them slow, with decent STR, better than average MAT, RAT equal to Black Ivan, relatively easy to hit by infantry standards, but with decent ARM and a good number of damage boxes, meaning that whilst they are easy to hit, they have enough ARM and health to survive intial hits and survive (as long as those hits aren't from Weapon Master models) also their CMD allows them to spread out enough to minimise damage from AoEs.



The Bombadiers' weapons are the reason you field them over the Demo Corps, their Grenade Cannon has the same range of a Decimator's Cannon and has a small blast with Bombard POW to boot. The best part of this gun is it's Arcing Fire ability (allows shots to ignore any intervening models other than those within 1" of the target) allowing the unit to advance behind shield walled Man O War Shocktroopers and still shoot. Then theres the Chain Blade, which has the same P+S as Sorscha's Frost Fang and Critical Shred, upon a critical hit it allows the model to make an additional attack against the target, this provides and excellent way to potentially carve up some medium based units such as Bastions or Cinerators.

Similarly to the other Man O Wars, the Bombadiers come with Fearless, ensuring that regardless of how many of the unit fall or what Terror or Abomination comes near them, they never have to make command checks, which given the number of models available that have those abilities both in faction and out is quite a good thing.

The Man O War Bombadiers are somewhat more costly than both the Demo Corps and Shocktroopers, however this is due to their increased versatility, being able to advance and shoot rather than simply adavance. They have several potential synergies with casters, such as pButcher, due to his tier bonuses and his feat, pVlad with Signs and Portents and eIrusk using Fire for Effect (boosts the first shot of the unit and boosts all the damage rolls) or Harkevich using Fortune (allows you to reroll all failed attack rolls). As units go Bombadiers work well with Winter Guard mortar crews and Winter Guard Infantry fully tooled up with Kovnik Joe (otherwise known as the Winter Guard Death Star, due to it kicking out so much firepower), obviously Bombadiers work well with Shocktroopers as the Shocktroopers act as a bullet sponge whilst advancing. Alternatively Greylord Ternions could also fill this role using their Blizzard spell to generate clouds after the Bombadiers have activated as their cannon doesn't ignore clouds, making it harder for your opponent to deal with the unit before they get close enough to charge. Battle Mechaniks are another good choice especially with the UA, allowing them to repair Man O Wars, aiding their survivability as well as granting Leash (gives this model and models in base to base immunity to knock down). If you fancy running a full Man O War army, definetly take this unit, you will need the ranged weapons the unit brings to fend off opposing units or models that will end up flanking you, otherwise it depends upon your army composition, if you lack ranged options take them, if you don't it may be better to look at other units, as for their points cost Bombadiers are best used to provide a combined arms unit in your army.