Khador Musings

In a recent public poll I posted where I asked people to vote for what faction I should analyze, Khador came out on top. Although Khador has never appealed to me personally, I love their presence in the game both thematically and gameplay-wise. In Mk. 2 Khador felt left behind compared to the other top dogs. In Mk. 3 however they got a significant boost. Ever since the release last summer I believe Khador has been among the very best factions in the game. They also have solid internal balance (especially their casters!) with the choices they take largely depending on what the meta has, in my experience. Obviously the Winter Guard theme force is incredibly strong and somewhat polarizes Khador lists, but I think we'll see a lot more than Rockets and Juggernauts in the long run. However you build Khador, the list tends to be very brutal in my experience: Lots of durability and hitting power in various combinations. Let's take a look at where they have been, where they are and where they could possibly go!

I remember going to Iron Moot 2016. The drive was a few hours from Oslo so we signed up for a late Steamroller on Friday and drove down the same morning. That Steamroller turned out to be a shark tank of epic proportions. Out of 32 players I believe well over half of them were WTC players (or at least of that caliber!). One of the players present had an obscene amount of jacks. He had literally borrowed Mad Dogs from all over Sweden. Little did I know at the time that I would face this list in a big game the next day. I was stunned to see that it was even possible and the talk started: Where did this list come from? How did they get there? The story I was told was that one of the Swedes, Jocke Rapp I believe, sat down with the Khador book basically immediately after the Mk. 3 release and spotted the Mad Dog entry. The question begged itself: "This jack looks underpriced, if we just spam the shit out of it, what caster is best?". Karchev (with the pre-nerf feat) stood out as the best candidate by far. The rest, as they say, is history (Privateer Press on Karchev). Coupled with this Karchev list we saw a number of variants, some of which are still popular today: Vlad1 with rockets, Butcher3 with heavies, Vlad2 with a combined-arms approach, Irusk2 with dude-spam and some even more exotic variants. At WTC2016 Khador had one of the best (if not the very best) caster spread, a testament in my opinion to their internal faction caster balance.

Fast forward to today and we now have 3 themes which all seek to polarize Khador lists. One of them, the Winter Guard one, is already tested and proven to be solid. In many ways like our Storm Division it feels like good ol' Machinations from Mk. 2: You get everything you want and receive bonus points and other benefits. Pretty sweet deal! Casters like Sorscha1 and Vlad1 love this setup, tons of freebies -and- a huge boost to survivability. I've also seen Butcher1 exploit the possibilities here.

With the Winter Guard theme dominating, let's look at some sample lists. My first example comes from Canada. Bubba Dalton I've been told is an amazing player and he sure has a lot of results to show to. He recently took first place in the Ontario Team Championship where he played the following Butcher1 list in his pair:

Butcher 1 Winterguard Kommand
Ruin
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Marauder
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min)
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min)
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min)
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Jozef Grigorovich
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew

A very classic list which illustrates my point about how Khador is about durability and projecting force. This is just plain brutal with few tricks to speak of. Ruin is a solid jack and if you want him in the theme you have to take Butcher. I take it Bubba didn't consider this to be a disadvantage and who am I to question him? The Marauders are numerous and under Butcher's feat they become downright ridiculous against huge based models, which a lot of lists (Cygnar in particular!) feature these days.

The next example comes from the other side of the world. Chris Davies from Australia had an absolutely achievement last year. He won the Iron Gaunlet, Warmachine Weekend Invitationals -and- the WTC. I don't think anyone's ever done it before in the same year and I would be extremely impressed if anyone can replicate it. In my opinion, this makes it interesting to listen to what he has to say. He's not correct by default, but he clearly understands a thing or two about this game which the vast majority of the rest of us never will. A couple of months ago he had a pretty good run at CanCon where he played this Sorscha1 list:

Sorscha 1
Spriggan
Spriggan
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min)
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min)
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Infantry (max)
Winter Guard Infantry UA
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Rocketeer
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Jozef Grigorovich
Gun Carriage

He wrote on Twitter that he did find the list solid. Granted, this was before the sac-nerf (Sorscha could sac to the Gun Carriage) so I'm not 100% if this is still the preferred build. What I find interesting here though is the jack setup, and indeed the battle engine! This list lacks a lot of melee punch which we typically see e.g. Vlad1 and Butcher1 provide to supplement their impressive shooting. I like it when people take it all out and that seems to be exactly what Chris has done here. I've also seen Sorscha1 with a Conquest which would be a natural start for me personally as I love the stability a colossal provides defensively, especially with squishy casters who like to play aggressively on their feat turn (which Sorscha certainly does).

The next example is a vanilla Vlad1 list which is played locally. The basic recipe for Vlad1 seems to be 5 heavies, (flavour depending on taste) and rockets. This accomplishes a nice balance between the threat his shooting proposes with Signs and Portents, combined with a very nasty counter-charge through his feat once the opponent starts closing in.

Vladimir Tzepesci, The Dark Prince - WJ: +28
- Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
- Marauder - PC: 10 (Battlegroup Points Used: 4)
- Marauder - PC: 10
- Marauder - PC: 10
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 4
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Rifle Corps - Leader & 5 Grunts: 8
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew - Gunner & 2 Grunts: 0
Winter Guard Mortar Crew - Gunner & Grunt: 0
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3

I see variants of this list popping up regularly in many places, from DGI's tournament overview to forums and social media. You could go even more extreme but the setup above appears to be the most common variant in my experience.

The last common caster now is somewhat of a European phenomenon: Harkevich. I haven't see him around elsewhere a lot. That doesn't mean he doesn't exist necessarily as far from everything makes the internet. I find Harkevich to be tricky to play against, the combination of Khador jacks' innate durability combined with his feat, field marshal and clouds make it a hard nut to crack.

Kommander Harkevich, The Iron Wolf - WJ: +28
- Kodiak - PC: 13 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
- Kodiak - PC: 13 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
- Kodiak - PC: 13 (Battlegroup Points Used: 2)
- Juggernaut - PC: 12
- Juggernaut - PC: 12
- Marauder - PC: 10
- Marauder - PC: 10
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 4
Winter Guard Infantry - Leader & 9 Grunts: 10
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Rocketeer - PC: 2
- Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard: 0

I'm not sure how important advanced move is on multiple jacks, the infantry could be made to a min unit to make room for an artillery piece, thereby granting 2 Kodiaks advanced move.

Obviously the Rockets are all over the place. It is their theme force! In many ways it's like Cygnar and Storm Lances. Personally I think that's fine. It's just what the faction is about. Like we got Heavy Metal, Khador now has a jack theme as well. Perhaps the de facto Khador template consisting of 3x3 Rockets, some heavies and add caster to taste will be challenged by this? It's early days yet but even prior to this theme I saw Khador players experiment with Butcher3 and Karchev as jack spammers for example. I think the new theme might just be legit enough to make these approaches as viable as the rocket-builds, perhaps even more. Consider this for example:

Karchev the Terrible - WJ: +30, Jack Theme
-    Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
-    Juggernaut - PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)
-    Marauder - PC: 10 (Battlegroup Points Used: 6)
-    Marauder - PC: 10
-    Marauder - PC: 10
-    Marauder - PC: 10
-    Marauder - PC: 10
-    Marauder - PC: 10
-    Rager - PC: 11
Greylord Forge Seer - PC: 0
Greylord Forge Seer - PC: 0
Manhunter - PC: 0
2x Kayazy Eliminators Units - PC: 10

You have 9 heavies, 2 extra focus dudes/solos and 2 units. I think the inclusion of the Kayazy in this theme is a brilliant idea. The main problem for such lists in a lot of matchups is to be physically blocked out from scenario, which can lead to the CP running away before your strong attrition game can catch up. Kayazy are a cheap and effective way to counter this. Although this list isn't Mad Dogs v2.0, it still looks like a scary spam to me for sure. I can definitely see something like this paired with a more shooty variant becoming a staple Khador pairing.

The infantry spam theme is also interesting. I don't really know how effective spamming infantry really is, but Khador infantry is an interesting choice if you want to do so. Fairly fast, good threat projections, tons of bodies and fairly hard-hitting, Iron Fang Pikemen are not to be taken lightly. I fought my fair share of this kind of Khador list in Mk. 2 and while Haley2 dealt with it ok back then that might not necessarily be the case any longer. Casters like Vlad2, Kozlov and Vlad3 can build some scary lists. I'm eager to see if anything takes off here, it would be different given the current meta for sure!

Outside of themes I still see Vlad2 a little bit. Typically a Conquest, a shooting unit and then melee troops, either Man-o-wars or cavalry. It's a terrifying list to face and Vlad2 is a toolbox caster with a lot of unique abilities (for Khador). Looking forward it's easy to get caught up in extreme theme force variants like the 48 Pikemen approach with Kozlov or the 9 heavy build with Karchev. I think it's important to keep in mind, especially for Khador players, that there are a ton of strong casters outside of the usual suspects as well. Butcher3 is an ever-present one because of his personal ability to, well, kill basically anything. Zerkova1 and Irusk2 also have really solid skill-sets. The former is an excellent counter to Haley3 for example. I think Khador's in a really good spot right now. Some tweaks could possibly be needed but overall they are a strong, versatile faction with multiple approaches without breaking the game. Exciting to play, difficult to face, rewarding to beat.

I am by no means an autority on Khador. I play Cygnar exclusively (save for when I swap sides with an opponent every once in a while). On top of that my local meta doesn't have a lot of Khador players and neither of them are hyper-competitive. Don't get me wrong, they are far from beginners and visit tournaments regularly with strong lists so I certainly have a challenge on my hands! The volume you need to put in to be at the top in this game is staggering and very few people do that. What I'm trying to say is that I want you to make up your own mind about this, I've simply tried to take a quick dive into the "Red Army" to see what it's like there. Hopefully you found that dive interesting.