What’s The Call? (or WTC discussions)

WTC is right around the corner and lists dropped recently. They make for interesting reading, with only 20 Khador players (this might seem low, but bear in mind that last year there were only 17). The lists also make for an interesting snapshot of the meta as it currently is, which can be used for comparison to previous years. For example, this year has seen the controversy over the 265 Clockatrices split between the 80 lists that have been submitted by Grymkin players. Compare to last years 239 Slayers amongst 62 players last year. Regardless of whether you think Clocks are ok or not (for the record, I think they need nerfing), there is a definite trend amongst the top players of this game to take the most bullshit model they can find and spam the hell out of it. We can see that in our own stats, with Doom Reavers appearing 55 times over 14 Wolves of Winter lists (which is by far our most popular theme according to the stats), averaging around 4 units a list.

What I want to do today is have a look at what Khador players at the WTC are bringing and maybe have a go at analyzing just what those lists are meant to do. A year is a long time in this game and we have had a bunch of changes over that time to the faction. Oblivion, Cornucopia, and not to mention the various mercenaries that have come out over that time. So, how has the meta changed for Khador?

Well, for a start, Wolves of Winter has come on leaps and bounds. Back in 2018, it was the least popular theme with only 3 instances. In 2019, it accounts for 14 out of the 40 lists. The least popular at the moment is Legion of Steel (joint with Flames in the Darkness, which is largely incomplete due to lack of models). A lot of people are speculating this is because Legion of Steel is in need of updating, but frankly, I think it’s because Wolves is newer and shinier, and a lot of people were annoyed by the lack of changes from the Oblivion update. Outside of those 2, the other 3 themes are well represented with 6-8 entries apiece. Warriors of the Old Faith appears 3 times, with no Menoth casters being taken at all, Vlad 3 is the only Warriors caster to appear. Overall, I’d take this diversity as a good sign for Khador. The newest of the main 5 is the most popular, and the theme that most recently annoyed the Khador community is bottom. No surprises there.

Compared to the theme representation, the Caster list is pretty surprising. In a turn of events, Old Witch 2 has gone from the least popular of the taken casters (yours truly was the only one to take her last year) to the most popular, appearing 6 times. The top 5 also include the likes of Vlad 2, Vlad 1, Sorscha 1 and Sorscha 3. Surprisingly to me, Strakhov 1 and Zerkova 1 were only taken once, despite them being some of the best casters in the faction (imho).

In terms of the actual list makeup, we have a few recurring lists. Witch 2 Wolves, Sorscha 3 Armoured Corp, Vlad 1 WGK

Old Witch is mostly in Wolves of Winter (with the one exception of Valius Vaitkus from the Lithuanian team, who is heroically running a variation on my Witch list from last year – good on you man!). They all seem to follow the same theme, of running a shit tonne of Doom Reavers at the enemy. They vary in details but mostly follow this scheme of loads of crazy men with swords. I kinda get the point of the lists (Doom Reavers are good and Witch debuffs things/protects them), but don’t really like her in Wolves. She has some interesting synergies, especially with the hilarity that is the Koldun Lord/Windstorm combo (though one list decided not to take any Kolduns, which I find odd as they are probably one of the best reasons to play that theme) , but feel that Doom Reavers just outpaces her ability to support them too quickly. To be fair, that’s probably just a matter of taste on my part. My favourite of these Wolves Witch lists is being run by Alexander Grob, of Austria 1, who is running 4 units of Doomies with a good combination of solos, Alexia, Fenris, and some other pieces, as I think that 4 units well supported are better than 6 units not. We’ll see how they do.

Sorscha 1 is also mostly being run in Wolves, with a lone WGK list poking its head out. I’ve spoken before about how I think Wolves is Sorscha’s natural home. It gives her the support that she needs, as well as access to self-sufficient troops that like her particular skill set. She can get a good assassination run out of all the spell-slinging that can be done in one of her lists. Most of the lists at the WTC seem to be taking just her Warjack points worth of jacks, which I feel is a mistake. In my experience, she gets more out of a colossal, as either the Victor or Conquest give her good fire support as well as access to a late-game piece that can crack armor. Most of the lists are taking mass doom reavers, with a couple of Kolduns and Ternions. I prefer a much more combined arms approach, with Outriders and gun jacks. Overall, I like seeing so much of her in WTC lists, as I think that she is a strong option in the current meta.

Sorscha 3 seems fairly common as well. Her list tends to write itself. She wants Jacks and Man O War, so you put her in Armoured Corp and take a reasonable battlegroup, usually around 4 jacks. Marauders seem to be the most common choice at the WTC, with a variety of Man O War builds. Some are taking a mass of solos, and some are taking more infantry. Personally, I prefer a build with more infantry and at least one unit of Demo Corp, as they synergise really well with her (Freeze AOE to trigger shatter, Iron Flesh to make the mini feat go further and feat to deliver them). I’m hoping she does well this year.

Vlad 1 WGK is a pretty bread and butter list for Khador. In a lot of ways, it’s very quintessential of the faction. It takes a bunch of cheap troops, big stompy pieces and amps them up with Signs. Some have been complaining that we lost access to Ayiana and Holt, due to the Oblivion changes to ranking officers, but frankly, the list doesn’t need the damage buff. Jonathon Clarke is taking what I consider to be the optimal build of the list. 3 marauders, 2 gun carriages and a whole bunch of infantry. Having played against it a bunch, it’s one of the few true gun lines we can field and hits like a truck. If I was going to make a prediction about which of our lists will have the highest win percentage, it would be Vlad 1 WGK, Nuff said.

Vlad 2 makes a return to the WTC, but this time with Doom Reavers more than MOW. I personally prefer MOW with him, as he gets more mileage out of medium bases with his feat, but what do I know. They are all going to be fast, hit hard and hit accurately. Only one of the Armoured Corp lists has a unit of Outriders, which I feel is a mistake, as they are the best unit in theme to receive Hand of Fate, but otherwise the lists look about standard. I am a bit skeptical about how well he is going to do into the mass of Grymkin and Circle, but who knows.

Outside of the main few casters, we have a smattering of other casters. Sven Dosch is running Strakhov 1 in Jaws, who is my favourite caster at the moment. He’s running Jaws (as opposed to my Wolves list) and it’s a big question of a list. Taking a tonne of steel and flinging it down the board as fast as possible. I prefer Wolves myself, but Jaws is by no means bad. One to watch.

Zerkova 2 has a smattering of players, and with the changes to Wolves she has really found her list. For anyone who hasn’t played against it, it can trivially assassinate 80% of casters in the game. You have to be some combination of immune to cold, spells or high armour to survive. I expect Zerkova to have a reasonably high win rate, as most don’t expect to see her and a lot of the current casters de jour are vulnerable to her brand of cold horrible death. For my ideal version of her list, check out Jonathon Clarke’s version. Double max ponies, double Koldun, Double ternion and triple Doomies.

I really have to call out the single Flame in the Darkness list being run by Irelands Gerry Nolan. You are a brave man Gerry, what with the theme lacking several key models. Having said that, his list is pretty close to optimal with the current options, having a Hurricaine for shenanigans, double Precursors which will hit like a truck and the interesting option of Gallant on Jakes for a jack that can reach out and touch something (12 inch threat is no joke). Am really interested to see how this does, as it will give me some data for how it performs when everything has dropped.

Warriors of the Old Faith has made something of an appearance as well, entirely run by Vlad 3. Most of them are running a Judicator (because of obvious synergies, Vlad 3 might be the best Judicator caster in the game, bringing Hand of Fate and a Speed buff). One of them, run by one of the Swedish players, is very interesting, as he is running double Menite Archon and no Cav units. I can see the point of it and it’s still going to hit like a truck. Interested to see how this theme does.

There are some other lists about, Irusk 2 with his usual Stalingrad, Karchev with his brick and Strak 2 in Legion. I have a theory that Khador is on the rise at the moment, being generally alright into most of the big list at the moment. The mass inclusion of the Hermit might be an issue but is probably fine. Overall, I’m predicting a good year for Khador at the WTC. Hopefully, I’m right.

For the Motherland!

Burning with the Flames of Youth

Sorry this one is a bit late guys. Been a busy week. Last week we had a look at the Riot Quest mercenaries, and this week I wanted to have a look at a list I’ve been trialing for a while now. With the release of Oblivion and the update to themes, we have had a multitude of new options. The most different are the two new themes, Flames in the Darkness and Warriors of the Old Faith. These themes are super restrictive in what they are allowed to take, especially in the realm of which casters we can take. Today, I am going to have a look at Flames in the Darkness, specifically with Zerkova 1. Before we start, a disclaimer: We don’t know the final rules for a bunch of the models I will be talking about here, so I am going forward with the assumption that they are going to be pretty much what they were in the final week of the Oblivion CID. On with the rambling!

Let’s start with a brief examination of Zerkova’s playstyle. Zerkova is a denial caster, pure and simple. There are other casters in Khador that have denial elements, such as Malakov and Old Witch 2, but no other Khador caster really does denial like Zerkova. Her feat is an obvious denial feat, as it might as well read “No, you can’t do that”, but the rest of her kit also supports denial. She has a cloud wall, that also debuffs to hit rolls, Watcher, which can be very difficult to work around, Hex Blast to deny defensive buffs. She also has immunity to spells, which, when combined with her other denial elements, makes her difficult to assassinate.

This is all great. Zerkova tends to work well with lists that are self supporting, bringing a level of denial to help her army do it’s thing. In terms of our normal themes, that generally means Legion of Steel and Armoured Corp, as they both tend to have a lot of internal synergies that make up for her lack of direct buffs. Jaws tends to be bad for her as she doesn’t run jacks well, WGK really wants buffs from the caster to work well, and Wolves, whilst not terrible, tends to out pace her fairly trivially. The one thing that non of these themes do particularly well though, is support her denial ability itself.

Khador as a faction doesn’t really have a lot of denial models. There are a couple, such as the Suppression Tanker or the Koldun Lord, but in general, denial is not really a Khador playstyle. That’s fine most of the time, but it does mean that Zerkova’s denial tends to be surmountable and can struggle to affect enough of the board at times. Flames in the Darkness changes that quite a bit. Suddenly, Zerkova has access to all sorts of tools and tricks to supplement her own denial abilities, taking some of the heavy lifting off of her. She can take Alexia 3 for magic denial (the one thing that her feat doesn’t prevent), Morrowan Archons to stack hit debuffs, Thamarite Archons to rfp and deny souls, etc. It also gives her access to higher defence models to make using her freezing mists even more of a deterrent. Lets build a list:

[Zerkova 1] Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova [+28]

– Hurricane [35]

Alexia, The Undying [0(5)]

Glyn Cormier, Illuminated One [0(6)]

Hermit of Henge Hold [5]

Morrowan Archon [8]

Ragman [4]

Savio Montero Acosta [0(6)]

Thamarite Archon [8]

Legion of Lost Souls (max) [18]

Legion of Lost Souls (max) [18]

The Devil’s Shadow Mutineers [7]

Let’s go through this step by step. First of all, the jack choice. Flame in the Darkness brings a wealth of jack options, with options from Mercs, Cygnar or Khador. Zerkova is quite picky in what she wants. Ideally, she wants something that interacts well with Watcher (so a knockdown or other effect on hit), something that is fairly self sufficient in terms of output (as she has no output buffs) and it should have a decent innate threat range. A bunch of the Cygnar jacks meet this criteria, and infact are probably better for her than the Khador jacks. However, none of the other jacks really function for her as well as the Hurricane. It brings top quality shooting, decent threat range and a denial effect, as well as an arc node to help her project to more of the board. Whilst it seems counter intuitive to run a huge base with a cloud wall caster, its synergies with Watcher are undeniable. Being able to fire the slam cannons fully boosted means that with proper positioning, it is very difficult to actually go in on the Hurricane with heavies and the fact that it has a decent range means that it can have a go at shooting at stuff that goes to melee with Zerkova as well (even if it misses, it might slam Zerkova out of melee which is pretty hilarious. Whilst there are some other options, such as taking a Blockader or a bunch of smaller jacks (Gallant in particular is pretty tasty), I think the sheer utility of the Hurricane gives it the nod.

Next up is Alexia. I think that regardless of what path you go down with Zerkova, you probably want to take one of the Alexia’s in Flame in the Darkness. Alexia 1 is particularly interesting because she gains access to Vengeance, an incredible rule for her. Alexia 2 is always good in pretty much any list that has souls available. Alexia 3, on the other hand, is a very specific pick. She brings innate access to shield guards, as well as being a decent combat solo and access to Null Magic, an incredible ability when coupled with Zerkovas other denial abilities. This is all great, but doesn’t bump the other 2 from contention. The main way you see her is if you are running Legion of Lost Souls, as her damage buff is too good to pass up. We’ll discuss them a bit more later, but for now just know that the reason she’s in instead of either of her other incarnations is the synergy with Legion of Lost Souls and for Null Magic.

Glyn Cormier was interesting during the CID, bringing a gun that placed a model on damage. Now, it’s fairly low power, so the likely-hood of it actually working on a heavy is swingy enough to not be relied upon. She’s in this list as an Eyriss 2-esque combat solo. She’s fast, has a ton of rules, is accurate and advance deploys, making her an ideal flag camper and contesting model. Nuff said.

The Hermit is the Hermit. He particularly benefits from Zerkova’s preferred playstyle, as she can limit the angles that opponents can get on him. Again, nuff said.

The Archons are interesting in this list. Both of them have direct benefits to the rest of the list, as almost everything is either a Morrowan or Thamarite model. So either they are getting Veteran Leaders or re-rolls to hit. Zerkova herself becomes ridiculously accurate with her access to both re-rolls and Telemetry. Beyond that, both Archons come with their own flavours of Denial. The Morrowan Archon brings his semi-Awe ability, as well as shield guard and a ridiculous statline, whilst the Thamarite Archon brings RFP and soul denial. Both of them can also get to ridiculous statlines. The Thamarite Archon, with proper placement of the Morrowan Archon and a Freezing mist, can be Defence 20 with dodge, and the Morrowan Archon is pretty much always going to be def 16, Arm 20. Combine this with Zerkovas denial abilities and they become really difficult to take down whilst also bringing decent melee output.

Ragman is kind of a no brainer here. The list has some decent damage output, but Ragman just tips it over the top. Even ignoring the hermit, the combination of Ragman and Alexia 3 or Throne gets Legion of lost souls or Precursors up to pow 16, which is a great pow for taking down heavies efficiently. Combine that with the variety of 2 inch reach models in the list and Zerkovas denial abilities and he becomes fairly easy to apply and keep alive.

Acosta is an interesting solo. He has pretty ridiculous stats which this list can make even better, def 19 with dodge and riposte is pretty solid. He is also a high accuracy piece and hits pretty damn hard, perfect as a flanking solo that can hold his own. Add in his access to re-rolls from the archon and he is an all purpose melee solo that can be a right pain in the ass to deal with.

Finally, we end at the real pivot point for the list, the infantry selection. There is no doubt in my mind that Zerkova wants a big infantry brick. She just doesn’t have the spells or abilities to run jacks properly. The theme gives vengeance to units, which means that any of the units in the theme are going to have that as an extra ability on top of their card. With that in mind, in flames we have 3 real options for what infantry we are going to take. We can go with Legion of Lost Souls, Precursors or we can take Order of Illumination models. They all have their own merits. Precursors hit pretty ridiculously hard, Order of Illumination have good guns to back up their own decent melee and Legion of Lost Souls have the advantage of being flexible. I prefer Legion of Lost Souls myself, primarily for the interactions with Alexia and having the longest innate melee threat range. Add in their recursion mechanic and they fit in well with Zerkovas style of play. I also think they take the most advantage of Vengeance, as they can recur bait models and have innate 2 inch reach, taking them up to a mighty 14 inch threat with vengeance. In terms of melee heavy hitting, it almost doesn’t matter which ones we take. Precursors are going to hit the hardest, but when we have access to the amount of damage swing this theme does, it almost doesn’t matter as regardless of unit there is a solo giving plus 2 strength and access to 2 different armour debuffs. Pow 16 on infantry is usually more than enough.

Finally, we have the devils shadow mutineers. They are a bit of an odd unit, being very flexible in terms of what they do. Again, they have access to vengeance and can recur their own models, being good targets for Alexia to recur shield guards from. They add to the gun power of the list and are surprisingly accurate with access to re-rolls from the Archon.

Overall, this list is aiming to take the inherent denial that Zerkova brings and build upon. Whereas other Khador lists with Zerkova tend to focus on her delivering the army, this list is going to clash in the centre of the board and be a pain in the ass to deal with. High innate defence models with effects making them harder to hit are a pain, and the list hits particularly well with the right set up. On top of this, it will shoot well from range, doing enough damage to threaten heavies reliably, whilst still being difficult to come into.

Next week, we’ll have a look at some of the Khador lists in the WTC and speculate on how well Khador will do there.

Sounds like a Riot

Last week I looked at mercs in Khador in general. Today, I thought I’d look at some of the new solos that have come out for Riot Quest as well as rate them based on whether Khador gives a damn about taking them. Riot Quest itself looks pretty fun and has been something that I have been curious about since I saw the first reveal trailer at Lock and Load 2018. Now that we know some more of the fluff behind the game (bad future where the infernals win), I’m even more interested, especially as I actually quite like the general silliness of the aesthetic. So, let’s have a look at the Riot Quest models available now on War Room:

J.A.I.M.S:

I had a look at the Convergence Kayazy last week. She is effectively a Kayayzy Eliminator with lower defense, higher armor, and some other innate rules. She retains the parry and Acrobatics of Eliminators, as well as the same MAT and threat range (speed 7 and range 0.5). Where she differs is in the details. Her base POW is 11 (the same as a Kayazy unit with the gang) and lacks combo strike, making up for it with Weapon Master and prey. Pow 13 Weapon Master is pretty good output. To complete the package, Blade Shield takes her statline up to 16 Def, 17 Arm against range, making her fairly sturdy on the approach, as well as making her more resilient against the kinds of guns that normally prey on Eliminators (though Eliminators native Stealth help them against some guns that J.A.I.M.S might be vulnerable to). The quality that makes her likely to be taken in Khador though is access to Grevious Wounds, which is fairly rare in Khador.

Rating: Great, likely to show up in Khador lists

Balthazar Bamfist:

The Blue Haired face of Riot quest is…. kind of a disappointment actually. He has a decent stat line, as well as an auto knockdown fist. Force Barrier is good for keeping him safe, and he has some interesting Magic Abilities…. for Dwarves. He is pretty clearly a solo intended to be played with Rhulic models, and only Rhulic models. That’s fine, but his abilities are also kind of meh even there. Empower is nice, but not really necessary. Force Barrier for Rhulic models is kinda meh, as they tend to be low defense and high armor, giving not much of a toss about blast damage. Tectonic shift is an ability that can win games but is super situational. Overall, I like his theme, but he’s not that interesting.

Rating: Meh, not likely to be seen in Khador.

Black Bella, Duchess Of Dread:

Cool name. BB is a privateer and Thamarite model (which means she’s eligible for FITD). She is pretty clearly a single role model, in that she is a Killing Spree model. She is in the same kind of role as Tharn Bloodweaver Night Witches or Maxwell Finn. The only other such model in Khador is Butcher 2 himself (the original surfing axe maniac). BB is also a high defense model, being base 15 and having duelist. This puts her on the same defense level as Eliminators. So far, so good. Thing is though, she’s not actually that interesting in Khador. Her defense is not actually that daunting, as most lists will have some boostable guns capable of reaching out and killing her. She also only threatens 10 inches, which is not bad but does mean that most lists will be able to deal with her before she manages to get in and do her thing. Add on to that that whilst Mat 7 is good, it’s not reliable enough to really get through a large quantity of infantry. She’ll likely be scarier in Talion Charter (large threat range from Shae, Boosted Attack rolls from Rockbottom), but in Khador we have no great ways of buffing her and don’t really need her anyway.

Rating: Close, but no Cigar

Boomhowler, Solo Artist:

He’s back, like a Lion riding a church bell in an avalanche. Boomhowler brings with him a decent gun and some interesting fell calls. Too bad the fell calls are friendly faction only. He is still somewhat interesting, between covering fire and cacophony, as he is a cool denial piece. The gun can be somewhat interesting in places, but more interesting is Cacophony. For a lot of matchups, being able to deny channeling is a strong ability to have, helping to keep our pieces safe from spells. He’s a lot more interesting in mercs or trolls where he gets the full range of his abilities, but frankly, Cacophony might be valuable enough to pay his price of entry into the factions. Consider him if you are building for spell-slinging factions like Cryx or Infernals.

Rating: Good, tech choice.

Dez:

Big lady, big gun. Dez is a pretty one-dimensional model. She’s going to advance turn one and dig in, then either aim and shoot with a boost, or advance and shoot with a boost. Her big pow 14 gun has momentum on it, which is pretty crazy, as she brings access to a boostable knockdown gun on a fairly survivable model. There isn’t much else to say. She looks like she’ll be a good flag camper, and her gun is really good. Ranged knockdown is really powerful, especially when it’s boostable, and ranged slam cannons are even better.

Rating: Good, tech choice.

Eyriss, Fortune Hunter of Ios:

Eiryss 4, who’d have thought it. The elfy lady brings with her the usual multitude of Eyriss rules, advance deploy, stealth, high defense, high rat, etc. This incarnation is blessed and has fortune hunter, as well as a way of ignoring stealth. And all of that is irrelevant when set next to Eyriss 1 or 2. She just doesn’t match the flexibility that Eyriss 2 brings with her vast array of rules (including Disruption), or the potentially game-winning shot from Eyriss 1. I just don’t see why you would ever take her over one of the other Eyriss models.

Rating: Good model in better company.

Gorman the Mad:

Gorman 2 is first and foremost a tech choice. He brings a decent spray, that has a bunch of different ammo types, as well as the usual array of immunities, stealth, and gunfighter. He has some value as an unjamming model, as sprays are usually good for that, especially with gunfighter. The real value, and reason that you bother taking him, is for the shot types. He has the traditional acid shot type, but the moneymakers here are aetheric blast, for removing clouds, and Weaken, for debuffing living models. Both are pretty useful in Khador, as he brings a way to deal with cloud walls and an effective armor buff for our jacks in the right situation. Honestly, though, he probably doesn’t see inclusion in Khador over his first incarnation, or other models. We have ways around cloud walls now, and other tools are just more useful.

Rating: Good model, probably not going to be seen.

Gubbin:

Aw, he’s so cute and explody. So Gubbin is an interesting model. He has quite a lot of damage output, considering he’s got access to either 2 aoe 3 high explosive shots, or 2 pow 7 armor-piercing shots. Shame he’s so short range and no defensive tech for the approach. No stealth, no high defense, no nothing. So he’s just going to die before he ever gets in range. Good output, terrible delivery. Hard pass.

Rating: Oh god, no.

Harlowe Holdemhigh:

A Rhulic gun mage. So this is an interesting solo. He has 2 magic hand cannons and rat 7, which is already pretty tasty, as well as advance deploy. Prowl is nice, especially with pathfinder innately. The gunshots are pretty nice as well. Ghost shot is always useful, and psychomorphic destabilize is situational, but great. Unfortunately, he suffers from the usual problem of not really bringing the tools Khador needs out of a merc solo. If this was pre-Adjunct, then he would be amazing, if only to deal with things like Wraith Engines, but we have tools in faction to deal with that kind of thing.

Rating: Good model, but we don’t need him.

Widget, Tinker Extraordinaire:

Widget is what I think most mechanic solos should be. She has utility outside of just repairing jacks. Honestly, it would be nice if the Battle Mechanic attachment had something like Ancillary attack to make him justifiable in any list. Frankly, Widget is pretty decent at being a mechanic, and has the advantage of being survivable on top, as Flying High is a great rule, meaning that a lot of the disadvantage of having a mechanic (needing to be near the front lines and getting in the way) are mitigated, as she doesn’t stop other models from moving around and she’s less likely to be shot in the face. If you have 3 points free and want some repair and a model to score flags, then go for her.

Rating: Great model, could see her being taken.

There are yet more Riot Quest models coming out, such as Helga 2, the Wolf with no name, and others, but those are the ones that are currently on War Room. Once they get released, I’ll have a look at them, but until then, these are the mercs that Khador gives a damn about.

For the Motherland!