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!
Avatar Of Slaughter 