Warcaster Profile: Harkevich

Ah, Brian Blessed, or as a friend calls him "The Colonel" in reference to his "Chicken Drumstick", one of my favoured warcaster models, not so much due to what he can do as the model itself, it's easy to put together and when painted well looks amazing. Due to Harkevich's spell list he is viewed as a ranged jack caster, however I'm not sure that is the case as I'll cover later.

Harkevich's stats are pretty average across the board, with a higher than average ARM and the same focus as both Sorchas and Butchers. This combined with his spell list puts Harkevich into the support caster category, he doesn't like being up front in the thick of things and when fielded with his character jack Black Ivan he doesn't need to be.




His feat dictates that you should be looking at taking jacks with ranged weapons, as it gives free a charge and slam, granting an additional ranged attack (ignoring ROF) as part of the charge as well as a decent ARM buff (the same amount as Iron Flesh does for DEF). However, I'd suggest taking jacks such as Drago or Beast 09 to make the most of the feat as both jacks can generate additional attacks with minmal focus, which is good as Hrakevich needs every point he can get.

Next, Harkevich's weapons, he comes with the standard Hand Cannon, which is useful if you are limited to what spells you can use or if you wish to kill off an officer or solo without sending another model or unit to deal with it. Also he comes with Minister (or his Drumstick ¬_¬) a relatively powerful caster melee weapon with P+S equal to the POW of a Bombard and it comes with Beat Back, pushing the opponent back 1" and allowing Harkevich to advance 1" on a hit. In theory this means that Harkevich could walk a heavy backwards or break out of melee with an attempted assassin to open the target up to shooting.

Harkevich also comes with an interesting ability that affects his entire battlegroup called Field Marshal, specifically Harkvich's variety of this ability grants Pathfinder to his battlegroup, which given the low SPD of Khadoran jacks is excellent as it lessens the impact of terrain on your jacks and allows you to make the most of the buffs available by using them to their fullest without the penalties, for example Black Ivan walking into a forest making his DEF higher than the average light warjack's DEF.

Looking at Harkevich's spell list the staple basic damage spell comes in the form of Razor Wind, providing a method of hitting incorporeal models at the same RNG as his Hand Cannon. Jump Start is an unusual spell and very efficent in that it allows models in Harkevich's battlegroup to shake of Knocked down and Stationary as well as allowing jacks to then change their facing for a single focus, if you're running a battlegroup of two or more jacks or happen to be facing a pKreoss army this spell is very useful as not only does it lessen the impact of knock downs or stationary and as the model isn't sacrificing or using it's movement it can gain the aiming bonus which is great considering the low RAT of most Khadoran jacks. Fortune allows models/units to reroll failed attack rolls, this works for both melee and ranged attack rolls and works especially well on units using Combined Melee/Ranged Attacks as it increases the chances of the models affected hitting which is especially good considering that if an CMA/CRA misses it's not just one model that has been effectively wasted but potentially two or three. Escort grants a little extra movement and an ARM bonus to the caster as long as he stays relatively close to his jacks, this increases the jacks' threat range which given the battlegroup has automatically got Pathfinder is brilliant allowing Khadoran jacks to run as far as Cygnar's Ironclad and the ARM bonus for the caster makes it that bit more difficult to assassinate Harkevich as with just one focus camped his ARM is equal to that of a basic Khadoran jack. Finally there is the spell many consider to be Harkevich's signature spell, Broadside, this spell allows all models in the casters battlegroup to make one normal ranged attack if they're in his control area and don't count against ROF. As these attacks take place outside of the models activation, jacks can't boost either attack or damage rolls, but Harkevich can as the spell occurs in his activation. I'd strongly suggest that unless you are confident you can get a lot of damage out of this spell leave it well alone, simply as unless you field two Conquests there really is little call for using it given that it uses half of Harkevich's focus and doesn't give you a great deal of options in terms of what you can do with your jacks that turn unless you pop Harkevich's feat which could be something of a waste, whilst there may often be times when the Broadside + Feat combo will work it would leave Harkevich on one or two focus at best (one for upkeeping Escort, three for Broadsides) leaving him potentially quite vulnerable against armies with lots of Weapon Masters or Arcane Assassin, potentially pEiryss could totally ruin Harkevich's day (granted she can do that to anyone just given Escort and his Feat you can sometimes be caught felling a little overconfident and miss Eiryss and lose due to some otherwise not so threatening attacks being thrown your way, or a jack being thrown at you (doesn't happen often, but watch out for it, especially when your opponent has melee jacks with two open fists).

Overall Harkevich doesn't like being up front. He loves his character jack Black Ivan as his affinity saves him a focus by boosting his attack rolls on his Bombard automatically, but also likes melee jacks, especially jacks such as the Kodiak, Marauder or Beserker as all three don't need much in the way of focus (though the Beserker would probably benefit alot from Fortune). The Spriggan is a jack worth considering if you plan on playing offensively as it gets a shot as it charges, has reach and has a point extra ARM comapared to most Khador jacks, from a more defensive stand point I'd suggest a Destroyer or Behemoth, in combination with a Winter Guard Death Star, some weapons crews and the Widowmakers making Cygnar's definition of a gunline look somewhat weedy (not including those featuring Electro Leap) and provides a relatively good way of handling stealth and most tricks Retribution can throw your way. Remember that Harkevich is a small based caster so he's relatively easy to block LOS to and loves to have Shield Wall units especially Assault Kommandos (who incidentally love Fortune due to the large amount of attacks they can throw out), he also loves the wardog given his dislike of being upfront, so being able to walk out of combat free strike free is good, throw in the DEF buff and counter charge and that is excellent.