Tuesday 6 November 2012

More catch up..... thoughts on Khador

So things have progressed well with Khador this year. Feeling a lot more comfortable with them as a faction compared to the Swans. Thought I would do a quick summary on some of my favourite units/jacks/casters.

Old Witch - Plays very different to some of the more "Axe to Face" Khador casters, she is a battlefield control caster.
Feat - Pretty much total area denial, should allow you to threaten scenario early on and probably get the first hits on an opponent.
Spells - Murder of Crows produces a large cloud that blocks line of site, and does a low pow hit, pretty good for blocking charge lanes. Iron Flesh, great for all the usual reasons! Weald Secrets, fills a gap in the faction allowing for some good defence against shooting and jacks/units with pathfinder. Avatar of Slaughter, Hidden Path, these spells both focus on the use of OW and Scrappy, allowing for unparalleled movement, and a great buff to either her or Scrappy in melee.
She is my go to caster against Cryx, her feat and area control really make life difficult for a faction reliant on infantry and being able to charge, it is probably one of the best ways to stop eGaspy. Her ability to buff our infantry to ridiculous def with both IF and WS, makes her a great support caster.

Kayazy Assassins - These guys have won me countless games, and it is no wonder they are in the top 5 infantry units in the game. With no character restrictions to worry about, they feature in the majority of top flight Khador lists. They have stealth, high natural defence, high mat, and a reasonable p+s for infantry, the latter 2 increased significantly with gang. Of course this all gets more insane when you add the UA to the mix, giving them a further buff to def in melee, and a once per game ability to ignore models for the purpose of making charges (LOS & Movement).
They fit in pretty much any list, become truly insane with any caster that has a damage or defence buff, and really scare people!

Spriggan - Again a staple favourite of the Khador community, one of the premier non-character warjacks in the game. Armed with the usual Khador speed, def and armour, what stands out in this jack is that it is the only non-character jack in Khador with reach. With a MAT boost on the charge, a p+s 18 spear, and a formally (damn Rhuls) Khador only ability to shove models out of the way make for a great assassination piece.

Behemoth - Unique to the game, in that it has 2 cortexes! One for fighting and one for shooting. The Behemoth sports the best in killing tech, 2 rng 14 pow 14 bombards, 2 P+S 12 armour piercing fists, with the ability to fight and shoot due to the 2 cortexes. It has armour 21 and all the boxes, durable, deadly and another piece that inspires fear in your opponent!

Winter Guard Infantry - Probably the top synergy package in faction, if not the game. This is what happens when a cheap mediocre infantry unit gets stackable buffs. With a low MAT and RAT, Avg Def & Arm, short range good power gun & low P+S melee they would be not much to write home about. However they gave them a good UA, adds combined attacks, the ability to turn their guns into spray attacks in exchange for 2 Pow, and an order that gives them a def buff when they advance. Then they gave them a weapon attachment, you are allowed 3, they are essentially regular troopers but with the additional option of firing a rocket, at increased range and aoe instead of their guns. So now we are cooking? So currently 15 guys for 11 points with a good spread of abilities. Then steps in Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich, the Winter Guard Hero! Like a true legend of the war, Joe can inspire nearby troopers to amazing feats of bravery in the service of the homeland! He can give them fearless & tough, +3 Str or boosted attack rolls! This is what really makes the difference, and anyone who has faced off against this will testify that its highly unpleasant!

I plan to do some similar updates to this in the coming weeks, remember these are not tactica articles, just my thoughts on some of the units.

Well this went well.......

So I haven't been very active with my blog... quite a few reasons for this, but I won't go into them!

My plan is to do a few posts over the next week or so in some form of catch up.

Firstly the ETC!

This was a eye opening event for me, my team mates (Luke, Paul, Kenny) where great fun over the weekend and my various opponents from around the UK & Europe where a pleasure.

My final list

Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador (*3pts)
* Behemoth (13pts)
* Black Ivan (10pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard (2pts)
* 1 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer (1pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2pts)

To summarise;

Game 1: Friday Night

First match up was against a Danish Team. I got drawn against another Khador Player (They had 2) with a pIrusk list very similar to the one I had played for before deciding to go with The Old Witch. I knew his units and this would prove to help out. It was a hard pressed game, but in the end his greater experience and a well timed feat won through. And i lost my first game, my other team mates other than Luke also lost, so the Team was 0-1 down as was I.

Game 2: Saturday Morning

First match of the day against Team Epic Slayer, I got possibly the work match up with eHaley Dual Stormwall, with my infantry heavy list and the covering fire templates the Stormwalls locked me out of the game. My opponent was very sporting and said at the start of the match that he felt sorry for me!
The Team also lost putting us on 0-2.

Game 3: Saturday Lunch

I was a bit frustrated by this point as was Team Captain Paul, neither of us or the team had a win yet and our optimism was failing. We where drawn against another northern team, this one from closer to by old home town, Sunderland.

Paul used our team feat this round to secure to solid match ups. I was placed against the Skorne Fatman Rasketh. I secured the first turn and advanced aggressively, my opponent followed suit, I then advanced again and feated, this was decisive and caused me to have 2 turns of attacking several of my opponents key pieces, and eventualy Rasketh fell to the blows of my Kayazy Assassins. A pretty solid win and a great boost for my confidence!

Game 4: Saturday Evening

Last game of the day, and I dearly wanted to finish the day on even win to loss ratio. Drawn against one of the York teams, Paul was keen for us to put them in their place (Paul being from York!). I was paired against the troll player with epic Madrak. I fancied my chances hear as I have played trolls myself and play against them pretty regularly. Again the feat was decisive allowing me to kill all the Tuffaloes and a Diretroll before the lines really engaged, putting me up on the attrition, and eventually Madrak died to massed fire.
Team also won, putting us both on 2-2!

Game 5: Sunday Morning

Old Witch Mirror Match! This was an interesting game, i had gone for a less traditional OW list in that i had 2 Jacks totalling 23 points. My opponents list was far more optimised, and as such i was forced to feat first to defend the scenario, which would ultimately seal my fate. Luckily the team had a better round putting me on 2-3 and the team on 3-2.

Game 6: Sunday Afternoon

This was the match-up i had been waiting for, Cryx with eGaspy. A truly sick caster, but i had one of the few feats in the game that can prevent his from working. Sadly i would not get to play the game out, as my opponent didnt move his caster far enough forward in the second turn and died to the effects of the Kill Box artifice. The team did not fair so well, and we both finished on 3-3, and bang on target for what we wanted in our first ETC!

So I had an awesome weekend! Both from playing games against new and varied opponents, and from spending some quality time with my gaming buddies! We shall never speak of the late night shopping channel again!