The Big Pig vs The Scrap Heap

Last week, we finished off the Khador models currently available. There are a few more on the horizon, including the Bear Riding Warcaster and the Mastodon, our Colossal. Today we’ll be looking at the 2 80mm merc models that everyone can take, Magnus the Unstoppable and Carver Ultimus. Both are similar in a number of ways. Both are lesser Warnouns with a single model in their battlegroup (Invictus and War Boar respectively), and can’t take any other cohort models. They both cost 20 points and fill a similar role in terms of being additional high armour models, that are focus-independent and have a pretty good amount of output. Naturally, they hate each other, so it’s one or the other, not both. Let’s dig in.

Magnus the Unstoppable and Invictus

Magnus 3, and his walking scrap heap that he calls a Warjack, are a 20 pt merc duo that work for every faction in the game. Magnus is a journeyman Warcaster with a decent statline of SPD 5, AAT 6, MAT 7, RAT 6, DEF 14, ARM 17, ARC 5, CTRL 12 and 10 boxes, whilst Invictus is rocking SPD 5, MAT 7, RAT 6, DEF 9 ARM 20 and 34 boxes. This base statline is pretty decent, making both models pretty tanky and reasonably accurate. They both compare pretty well to our own jacks, with Invictus being about as hard to kill as a Great Bear, whilst Magnus himself can tank a few shots, especially with a camp of 1 or 2. MAT 7 and RAT 6 on both also makes them pretty accurate, especially when comparing their ranged output to our own. Invictus is also an 80mm base, which has a number of benefits, such as destroying Defenses and Scatter terrain.

Adding to this theme of durability and threat are the spells and abilities. Magnus has Hellwrought, Energiser and Convection, meaning that Invictus is usually going to be ARM 22, effective SPD 7 and will get a vengeance move if he gets attacked. This means that Invictus can potentially threat 16 inches without any interaction from our own models. The abilities are also interesting. Magnus himself has Tough and Dual Attack, as well as Feign Death (making him potentially very difficult to deal with if he toughs), whilst Invictus has all the usual power attacks, as well as an Arc Node, Unstoppable and Retaliatory Strike. This raises a few things of note, including that, with his 3 inch melee, Invictus is almost always going to get his Retaliatory Strike, but also that he doesn’t natively have any way to gain Pathfinder. Obviously, he can receive the Pathfinder command card, but we can also put Weald Secrets on him for the double whammy of Pathfinder and Prowl. Potentially worthwhile for a high output model like Invictus.

As important as the abilities and Spells are, the weapons are what we are really interested in, and both models have 4 initials each, 2 ranged, 2 melee. Magnus has a RNG 14, AOE 2 POW 14/8 rocket launcher, a Spray 6, POW 12 shotgun, a RNG 1, POW 12 sword with * Attack Armour Piercing and Powerful attack and a RNG 1 POW 12 Fist with Beatback. This array of weapons means that Magnus is pretty useful at all ranges. He is probably not going to be one rounding heavies by himself, but he can put serious dents into them from range and in melee. He also threatens a reasonable distance at 11 inches with an Energiser in melee or 21 at range with his Rocket Launcher. Just remember that his Rocket Launcher has Cumbersome and his Armor piercing is a special attack. If you use either, you don’t get your other initials (you also can’t buy melee attacks if you fire the Rocket Launcher. Potentially, it could be worth slapping Puissance on him to get him to POW 14, but it’s generally not going to be worth it, except maybe in the very late game.

Invictus also has a suite of weapons, but unlike Magnus, he can generally always use them. He has an Obliterator at RNG 12, AOE 3 POW 15/8 with Crit Knockdown and Arcing Fire; a RNG 8, POW 12 Flamethrower; a RNG 3, POW 18 Flail with Chain Weapon, Crit Knockdown and Thresher; and a RNG 2, POW 18 Scrap Saw with Crit Shred. In terms of melee output, this puts Invictus in the same realm of an unbuffed Medvitsa, but has the option of a RNG 3 POW 18 thresher, making Invictus dangerous to both heavies and heavier infantry. His large base means that he can hit a lot of models with a single thresher. Again, remember that a * Attack sacrifices your other initials. In Winter Korp, he can also receive Puissance, taking his weapons to POW 20. Combined with his potential 16 inch threat range, this makes him a dangerous melee threat that can lead the charge. His ranged output is also pretty reasonable. RNG 12, SPD 5 and access to Energiser means that Invictus can potentially threaten 19 inches with his big gun, or threaten 17 inches and then back up a bit. A single POW 15 is good but not amazing, but combines well with Magnus’ POW 14 and the other shooting we have in faction. Whilst he lacks a stealth out, (although we can put Guidance on him) having a AOE 3 on Invictus and an AOE 2 on Magnus means that they have options for dealing with stealth and high defence models.

Overall, Magnus the Unstoppable and Invictus are an interesting option in Winter Korp. To start with, we have a few spells that can actually affect the pair. Guidance, Puissance, Fog of War, Weald Secrets, Banishing Ward and Kill Order can all affect one or the other, meaning that we can give out some buffs to this already solid duo. The main skornergy is that a lot of these are Upkeeps, which means that Invictus cannot have, for example, Puissance and Hellwrought at the same time. In terms of Warcasters who will actually want to take Magnus and Invictus, it’s a little more specialised. 20 pts is a full 5th of a 100 pt list, meaning that this duo needs to be getting a lot of work done in a match up, and should ideally be both supported by the list, as well as supporting the list in turn. The most obvious caster for this case is Ekaterina, for a number of reasons. She has the most rack slots and best ability to cast buffs onto them (Banishing ward on Invictus can be incredible depending on the match up), but they also benefit massively from her feat. They also fit very well into her game plan, being both resilient and hard hitting, whilst also being self fueling. Ekatarina, ideally, doesn’t want to have to fuel her own jacks, and Magnus does a very good job of contributing in that realm.

For our other 3 casters, Magnus is a bit of a harder sell. Boris mostly wants jacks in his own battlegroup, 20 points is a lot of infantry that Savaryn isn’t taking and, whilst she does like the ranged support and resilience of the duo, Tatiana doesn’t support them at all and gets more mileage out of taking Winter Korp models.

War Boar MMD47 and Carver Ultimus

The other merc pair that are willing to work for any and everyone. The only caveat being that they won’t work with that bastard Magnus. This duo are a bit more recent than the walking scrap heap and friend, but are similar enough in role. A big, hard to kill heavy that is fueled by a solo. Where the pigs differ from the scrap is that, where Invictus is clearly focused on melee (vengeance moves, energiser, 3 inch melee range threshers, etc) the Double Baconwich is much more about that ranged threat. Don’t misunderstand, they are both capable in both areas, but the Warboar gets more shots at a higher POW and Invictus threats further in melee.

First things first, Carver has a pretty decent statline. 20 pts gets you a SPD 5, AAT 6, MAT 7, RAT 6, DEF 13, ARM 19, ARC 5 lesser Warlock with 12 boxes, and a SPD 4, MAT 7, RAT 6, DEF 10, ARM 19, Fury 5 Extra large heavy with 35 boxes. Thats an good statline, especially on Carver, but it really comes together with the abilities. Carver is rocking Tough and Hyper Aggressive, with the Spells: Batten Down the Hatches (-2 Def, +3 Arm, Immune to knockdown for battlegroup), Quagmire (Models b2b suffer -2 DEF and can’t advance) and Torment (RNG 10, POW 12, damaged models lose tough, can’t heal and can’t transfer). The Pig has all the normal power attacks, plus Eyeless Sight, Gladiator, Bulldoze, Exhaust Fumes and Full Boar, with an animus that grants Swift Hunter. Taken together, the duo is going to be high armour (22 on each) with a few tricks up their sleeves. For example, putting Quagmire on the Pig means that flying or ghostly models can’t charge through the War Boar. The armour spell not being an upkeep is important as well, as there are many more instances of upkeep removal than blessed in the game at the moment, meaning that that armour 22 is hard to get around.

But wait, there’s more. Whats the point of these models being durable if they can’t contribute. Carver himself is strictly a melee threat. Unlike Magnus, he isn’t going to be contributing early game, as his ranged options include a RNG 6, POW 12 Spray with ROF 2 and Both Barrels, as well as his RNG 10 nuke, that, again unlike Magnus, he can’t channel. Were he does shine over Magnus is in the Melee department. Carver is Fury 5 with a POW 15 RNG 2 Cleaver and a RNG 1 POW 13 Swine Ripper. He can mix it up with heavies and can either finish off wounded models, or deal with a bunch of bunched up infantry. He typically won’t be doing this until late game, however, so his main job throughout the game is to hang back and cast Batten every turn. He has some cute plays with Torment, such as tagging a Warlock late game to enable an assassination, and can receive the odd buff (faction dependent) to get to the point of killing heavies himself. One interaction to look for is the Jaga Jaga list, where she can feat on him to deliver boosted Signs and Portents POW 19 to something you love and care about.

The star attraction is definitely the War Boar. He is toting 2 Volley Cannons, that are RNG 12, ROF D3, POW 13 with Pistol and Volume Fire, alongside RNG 1 POW 18 Chain Tusks with Crit Shred. These guns are, frankly, ridiculous. Threatening 18 inches (RNG 12 + SPD 4 + Full Boar) with up to 6 POW 15 shots and 5 boosts is the level of output that straight-up kills the average heavy. It generally won’t one round a Khador jack, but it is a tonne of damage. This is not even counting the various debuffs and non faction buffs that it can receive. For example, in the above mentioned Jaga Jaga list, the Warboar can receive Rage to be POW 17, Signs and Portents and Enliven, making him a absolute beast at range. Most factions have some sort of similar pig shit they can do with him as well, particularly Orgoth, Dusk and Blindwater Congregation.

He is also incredible in melee. Although he only has the one melee initial, he is still fury 5, meaning that, without outside help, he can charge 10 inches and deliver 5 POW 18 attacks (assuming no crits) and 2d3 POW 15s, due to the pistol nature of his guns. All of this is backed up by his abilities, Eyeless sight to ignore stealth and see through clouds, Swift Hunter to move a heinously far distance with his shooting (I’ve seen a Pig charge a unit of Shocktroopers, kill them all with shooting and moving 6 inches to then murder a Dire Wolf) and Bulldoze/Unstoppable to make it hard to lock him down.

At the moment, I would say that Carver Ultimus is the more powerful of the 2 merc duos, and this is born out in the pig appearing in most factions and most pairings that I have seen lately. He is expensive but does a ton of work. Winter Korp has some interesting synergies with him, for example:

• Katarina feat can help to protect the Pig, and it ties in very nicely to her game plan of Shoot, Feat, Charge. She can also put Banishing Ward on it, making it very difficult for certain factions to take it down.
• Boris can use it to trigger Prowl trivially, and its firepower is a welcome addition to the combined arms, heavy heavy-centric lists he wants to take.
• Savaryn can bring shield guards aplenty to help cover for the pig, and can get Carver to POW 19 between Kill Order and Puissance
• Tatiana doesn’t bring much to the pig, but it does fit well with her game plan of high armour and high damage output. It also gives her some much needed ranged firepower if she wants it.
• A few of the spells on the rack also benefit the mountain of Pork. Puissance is a given for POW 20 on the melee, but Weald Secrets is also very welcome on the Pig, due to it lacking Pathfinder and getting a kick out of Prowl. Remember, it can benefit from Stealth, but not from Concealment.

We also have a couple of Casters that are particularly good at dealing with the Pig from the other side of the table. Boris stands out, due to his turn-by-turn access to Blessed and Magical, as well as a list built around killing heavies from range. Barring a mass quantity of shield guards (like 4 +), he can generally kill the pig before it gets to shoot, or at least cripple and Grevious Wounds it. By the same metric, Savaryn is pretty decent at dealing with the pig as well. Lots of Shield Guards, and Suppressors reach the ideal damage range of Dice off 3 on the feat turn. Finally, Ekat can cripple the pig for a turn (SPD 4, RNG 8 is a poor statline), whilst also threatening it with Gallows. Tatiana disdains such things as “tactics” or “Strategy” and hits hard enough to just kill the damn thing if she gets to it, but struggles a bit to lock it down or prevent it from doing its damage. The 4+ shield guards she usually takes do help, however.

Overall, the 2 merc duos are interesting additions to the game. The fact they work for everyone means that they can be very different depending on the faction they are taken in. They can work very well in Khador, mostly with Ekatarina, but the primary question you should be asking yourself is around seeing it on the other side of the table. 20 pts is the 5th of a list, meaning that the performance of the Duo chosen is going to impact the game heavily. When you see one or the other in the list, take a moment and try to figure out what its doing there. What role is it playing? What buffs/debuffs can your opponent use to help it? How central is it going to be to their game plan? How are you going to deal with it? If you can answer these questions early on, you will have a much easier time dealing with Invictus or the War Pig.

For the Motherland!

PS: Heres a spoiler for what we are discussing next time.

The Medium Lads

Last week, we looked at the chunky lads of the MOW Korps. Today, we are going to do a bit of a round-up of the remaining Winter Korp models available. This includes the Shock troopers and the Mechanik. We’ll also take a quick peak at the new Medium-based Merc solo, as I’ve actually managed to get some table time in with him. I’ve got some hot takes to give out on him. Onwards!

Shock Trooper Gunners:

These are the ranged variant of the Shocktroopers, who are themselves an evolution of the old Assault Kommandos, armed with new weapons and armour. Their stat line looks reasonably familiar. 7pts gets you 3 models at SPD 5, RAT 6, DEF 12, ARM 15 alongside 5 boxes. They also get a bunch of Resistances, namely Fire, Cold, and Blast, as well as Repo (2). This all adds up to a pretty fragile set of models, that might survive a direct unboostable shot, but probably not 2, whilst being fairly resistant to several light infantry clearing tools, such as Sniper or AOEs.

Where they shine is on offense. Their gun is Spray 8, ROF 2, POW 13, and has Both Barrels, meaning that they can move up, place in very advantageous places and either spray down a large amount of infantry or put POW 17s into heavier targets. RAT 6 is pretty accurate on a Spray, and we have several ways of increasing the accuracy within the faction, such as Invocation, Mark Target or Kill Order. In addition, POW 13/17 is in that sweet spot for the intended targets. POW 13 will usually kill single-wound infantry, even the tankier variety like Soulless Guardians or Reavers, and POW 17 will either take decent chunks out of heavies or kill lights and heavy infantry. Gunners also have a good role in unjamming, as their guns also have Pistol, making them good at clearing out jamming infantry, before using Repo to get out of the way. They work very well with Ekatarina or Savaryn, as they can both increase their output and protect them. They also work well paired with either a ranged Dire Wolf or a Bison, to give some extra defense (Shield Guard or Road Block) and add some weight to their fire.

Shock Trooper Pikemen:

The older, cooler brother of the Iron Fang Pikemen, these Shock troopers wielding blasting pikes are running a slightly different role to the Gunners. Where the Gunners are a second-wave unit, clearing and finishing off models, these are more of a front-line unit, meant to lead the charge and hunt heavier models. 7 pts gets 3 models at SPD 5, MAT 7, DEF 12, and ARM 16 with 5 boxes a piece. They also have the same Resistances as the gunners and lose Repo for Shield Wall. This puts them at a reasonable stat line for resisting guns, 12/18 with 5 boxes is going to shrug off most direct gunshots, and this only increases when mixed in with some shield guards or a buff such as Iron Flesh or Fog Of War. They will die to quality, boostable guns, but those guns also want to be targeting our heavies, so this is generally a positive. Pikemen are also resistant to a lot of control effects. They can’t be made stationary, set on fire, knocked down, or threatened by blast damage.

Their weapons are reasonably good for dedicated melee infantry. RNG 2, POW 15, Crit Armour-Piercing blasting pikes, and RNG 1, POW 10 shield along with CMA make them hit pretty hard. This becomes doubly true with any kind of buff, as Puissance or Kill Order takes them to POW 17. Invocation is also particularly good as it makes Crits slightly more accurate. Into a heavy, the unit can charge, putting out 3 POW 15s and a combined POW 13 shield bash, whilst into lighter targets they can put out 6 attacks, meaning that, while they are particularly oriented into hunting Cohort models, they can also put out a good amount of attacks into lighter infantry. Similar to the Gunners, they do well with Ekat and Savaryn, but are also very good with Tatiana, as Positive Charge makes them hit hard and accurately. Like the Gunners, they also pair well with a Bison or Dire Wolf, as they complement each other.

Overall, the Shock Troopers are decent, relatively cheap models that can output a decent amount of damage. They sit at the midpoint between the Winter Korp Infantry (cheap and squishy) and the MOW (expensive but durable). They are not going to have the durability of the MOW or the bodies and board presence of the Winter Korp, but they are reliable and have a high amount of output for their price. They do require some defending but will perform if they can reach their targets.

Battle Mechanik:

This solo is the mandatory, cheap mechanik avaialble in every faction. 2 pts a model is pretty low, and gets you SPD 5, RAT 5, DEF 12, ARM 15 alongside 5 boxes and blast resistance. It repairs for d3+2 and has Jack Hunter for its 2 guns, a RNG 4, POW 10 Rivet Gun with Beat Back and a SP3 Torch at POW 12. There isn’t much more to say.

Unfortunately, the Mechanik continues the tradition of our repair options being worse than other factions. Cygnar get a unit of Repair with access to Empower, Orgoth get a solo at the same point cost who has 3 options for supporting jacks and Dusk gets a 4 cost model who also has jack support options. D3 + 2 Repair is a good ability to have access to, but sadly the Mechanik just isn’t seeing any play in my lists at the moment, as he keeps being replaced by the much more interesting WK Officer. Having access to Old Faithful gives the same benefits once per game. Give him something else to do on his turns and he might see more play.

Krueger Wrath of Blighterghast:

The new boy is a weird model to have access to in Khador. We don’t usually get this kind of flexible ranged combat solo. First off, he’s reasonably expensive for a pure combat solo, 5 pts gets you SPD 6, RAT 7, DEF 15, ARM 15 with 8 boxes and a butt load of abilities. Icon-wise, he has Pathfinder, Resistance (Fire), Eyeless Sight, Gunfighter and Advance Deploy, whilst his card is sporting Ashen Veil, Burning Blight (Living models get +1 to MAT, but -1 to ARM), Hyper-Regen, It Burns!, Mental Force and Path of Flames (Sac movement to place 8inches and inflict a POW 13 Fire damage roll on everything within 2inches). Rounding off the card is his gun, RNG 10, ROF 2, POW 12 with Fire, Continous Fire, Magical, Pistol and 2 ammo types, either Eruption of Ash (replace model boxed with a cloud template that deals a POW 12) or Howling Flames (Spray 10, sets stuff on fire).

All of this is a big confusing mess, so what does it add up to. Lets start with offense, because that’s kind of the point of taking an expensive combat solo. Krueger murders infantry. To death. With fire. He is high accuracy to start with (RAT 7 is pretty decent), but then can boost on top of that. Combine this with Eyeless sight and an option of a Spray to ignore Cover and Concealment and he is regularly hitting base def 16 models. 2 boosted 12s is not going to kill heavies, but pretty much everything else that isn’t fire resistant is fair game. And to be honest, being able to boost means that he has a pretty decent chance of killing a lot of Fire Resistant infantry as well. He kills a Shock Trooper gunner a good chunk of the time when he’s firing at them. His offense also includes his shot options, allowing him to really punish sloppy placement. Did your opponent bunch up those WK infantry? Guess their all dead now from an Eruption shot. Is that valuable solo stood behind some shield guards? Fling a Howling Flame shot forward. Opponent jammed your line with infantry? Teleport in and burn a bunch of them, before slinging 2 shots to clear the rest. It’s a pretty crazy amount of output. If Sergeant Sergei is a credible threat to heavy Warjacks, Krueger is an existential threat to most infantry in the game.

Underpinning this is his defense and mobility. 15/15 is a mediocre statline fora Warcaster, but is incredible for a solo, especially one that has Kruegers output. Ashen Veil means that he always has concealment and drops the attack rolls of living models by 2 within 2 inches of him, meaning that into the majority of other infantry, he is going to be DEF 17 regardless of range or melee. ARM 15 is no great shakes, but he’ll probably survive a pop gun or 2 that manages to get lucky and actually hit him. Finally, he has the greatest defense measure in this game, distance. He threatens a good 18 inches and can place, which means that he can hide behind a forest or a building before teleporting up and ruining someones life. Once committed, he is not likely to last long to any retaliation, as he has likely just burned between 2 and 6 of his 8 boxes, but in my games so far, he has either murdered everything near to him, or has gotten so much value out of his shots that it doesn’t matter. AD is particularly good here, as it allows you to always see your opponents deployment before you place him, meaning that you can set him to hunt models that suit his attacks. Don’t try to get him to murder heavies, send him after problem infantry.

Overall, he is exactly the kind of combat solo we want in faction. He deals well with the kind of infantry that gives the rest of our faction difficulty. For example, in a previous game, he trivially annihilated a unit and a half of Nyss Swordsmen with Fog of War. These would normally be a pain to remove at range, due to being def 18 stood in the middle of nowhere. Krueger didn’t even break a sweat. He makes an excellent combat solo with our jack bricks, able to help those lists make up for a lack of attack density. Just be careful about where you place him, -1 ARM can be a big deal on our Warcasters.

Next time, we’ll take a look at the big 80mm bases available to us. Steel and Bacon.

For the Motherland!