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Hi there guys

I have been looking at warmachine for sometime now and now with a rather recant growth of popularity in my city, I have decided to take the plunge. I always liked the look of the Khador units and Warjacks, so after reading up on how they work as a army I decided they were the army for me So placed an order for the Starter box with Kommander Sorscha and two Warjacks, (Destroyer and Juggernaut Heavy Warjacks) but since those only arrive in 2-3 weeks time, (just in time to be a Birthday gift to myself ) I picked up a Vladimir the Dark Prince blister that my store had on them so I could get into the Warmachine mood while I wait.

Thread bump for my Vladimir model I finished painting up
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/657949.page


The Khador starter box

So what I am asking for help for here is to help me with what models I should pick up next to make a effective force, from what i picked up Khador doesn't use many Warjacks, but rather go for many infantryman and close combat, so what Infantryman would you other Khador players recommend taking into account I would rather keep my army on the small side as I start up.
My personal favorite Warmachine model would be the Spriggan, so I'll be picking one up for painting purposes even if I don't play it, but it would be nice to build an army that uses one. I read that Vladimir the Dark Prince's feat can work rather nicely with the Spriggan by charging it up close.


I just love the design esthetics of the Spriggan model

Unfortunately being a student I don't have all that much money around to toss at a large army so early on, so I would like to build a force that would be both small and effective, thou I understand that may be an issue as Khador which from what I understand prefer lots of infantry man :/ I plan to build this army of the course of a couple months.

So as a new and enthusiastic Khador and Warmachine player I am looking forward to any help and advice from the WarmaHordes community that I hope to become part of

Welcome to WMH. Here is your complimentary set of goggles and a Juggernaut plushie.

Some things to know about Khador.

They are NOT a warjack or a heavy infantry faction. They are indeed a light/medium infantry faction. You'll be running 1 jack in almost every list. If its not Beast-09, the Behemoth, or Ruin, the jack will most likely be a Spriggan. Its the best non-character jack they have. You will use it a lot.

As for what infantry to pick up, the following packages are the most common.

The Winterguard Deathstar: Consists of a unit of Winterguard Infantry with UA and WAs, along with the solo Kovnik Joe. A variant uses Winterguard Rifle Corp instead, this is a more ranged focused choice instead of the dual purpose Infantry.

Ironfang Pikemen with either UA, along with an Ironfang Kovnik Solo. The Kovnik can give the Pikemen extra movement when they use the shield wall order, making them a little faster while still being durable. This unit has 2 UAs. Normal, and Black Dragon. They each do a different thing, so its really personal preference.

You'll also want to get Widowmakers and a Widowmaker marksmen solo. This is probably the best first purchase as its cheaper and very useful.

Welcome to Khador. It's a really good time for the faction.

Ruin is an amazingly efficient Jack in that he pretty much requires no focus when you take him with any of the Butchers and maybe one or two to get the pumped primed with others.

As was said before the WGDS is a staple of most lists, IFP are just awesome with so many feats. I am a huge fan of Kayazy assassins now that the meta game is shifting away from mass AOE use. The Widowmakers with Marksman and Kell Bailoch are fantastic as well.

A few Mercs I would recommend picking up. Gorman di Wolfe, Ayanna and Holt, Saxon Orick, Ragman, Orin Midwinter are all great add-ons for Khador as well.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Welcome to WMH. Here is your complimentary set of goggles and a Juggernaut plushie.

People keep saying this and I still have not gotten any goggles or a plushie. :( Who do I file a complaint with?

Fear not, PP has begun making actual plushies. The first being the Shredder plushie.

http://privateerpress.com/new-privateer-exclusives-available-during-lock-load-june-5-7

I imagine they'll be making more given the popularity.

Wellcome to you, new MotherLand defender! I have little experience playing WM but what I saw is that Spriggan and Beast 09 are very good killers, when juggernaut for its reasonnable cost is an interesting choice also.
IT is usually suggested to add Widowmakers to the battlegroup to reach 15 pts, or the Greylords Ternion. In both cases they will be quite ti very usefull in larger game.

Thanks for the replies so far

1) it seems like picking up Ruin or Beast 09 would be a good idea, which would you say would be better for me to get considering I have a Vladimir1 and a soon a Sorscha, (the starter box one, not sure which she is)
2) you say that the Widowmakers are a good purchase to make, would they work well with Ironfang Pikemen, (with their solo's Kovnik and Marksmen solo?)

would you still recomend I get Winterguard Infantry or can the ironfang hold their own?

I think that I will pick up the Widowmakers, the marksmen solo, and possibly the Spriggan in the following month once my starter box arrives. speaking which would you consider the units from the starter set a good start?
thanks again for the replies so far, looking forward to more

Starter box is pSorscha. And if your running everyone's favourite ice queen, I'd pick the beast over ruin. But both of them are very similar offerings.

Widowmakers are always good. Send them after hard to hit targets, such as IFP, because they automatically inflict a single wound each time they hit.

You'll never go wrong with winterguard. They go with Sorschas iron flesh like bread and butter. But make sure that you grab Kovnik Joe to go with them. Because he makes them even better.

You will usually use the Widowmakers on top of taking either IFP or Winterguard. Sometimes both.

They're all solid units.

Welcome to the world of Warmachine! As a Khador player I have a few suggestions for starting out.

First things first, get the Khador Battlegroup box with Sorscha a Juggernaut and a Destroyer. Play some games with that box and really focus on learning how Focus works, and the basic mechanics of the game.

Next, instead of buying a new Warjacks, just use the two you have for now. Sorscha really only likes one Warjack, sometimes two, so buying more Warjacks is just going cause you to waste money right now because you won't be using all of them. So, even though it isn't ideal, both of those Warjacks have their uses with Sorscha. The Juggernaut is a solid melee beater, and can lay down some hurt. The Destroyer is good for the feat turn if it doesn't look like a wise choice to send in Sorscha. The first thing I would buy would be either a Greylord Ternion, or the Widowmakers. They are both solid units and will bring you to 15 points. Now take some time and play at this point level.

Now that you added a little ranged or magical support, let's think about getting a good melee unit in there. At this point I would suggest getting the new Iron Fang Pikemen plastic box. It is a heck of a deal compared to how expensive it used to be to make a full unit with attachment. They are a very good small based, with some impressive durability and very capable in melee. Now you are at 25 points.

With some games and experience under your belt, now I would think about getting a Spriggan, Beast-09 or the Behemoth. All three of those go very well with Sorscha. The Spriggan has flares that can remove Stealth so your ranged units can start popping long ranged shots to clear out pesky models, Reach, two low POW Grenade Launchers and can Bulldoze models to get some very interesting charge lanes. Beast-09 is a very solid melee fighter, runs for free, has a higher MAT, Reach, a great Imprint that gives him an additional die to hit living warrior models with melee attacks, and Thresher, which allows him to make a melee attack against all models in his Reach range and front arc (friend or foe, so be careful), he also gets to reroll failed Charge Attacks due to his Affinity with Sorscha. The Behemoth is fantastic as well, unlike the other two he has a lower melee threat range due to lack of Reach, but with Armor Piercing on his fists and the TWO Bombards on his shoulders, he can do some nasty things on her feat turn against Stationary models.

If you decide to pick one of those three Warjacks, at this point I would drop down to just one Warjack and get some good support solos to fill the points you just freed up. Widowmaker Marksman, Koldun Lord, Iron Fang Kovnik, Manhunters, Yuri the Axe, Gorman DiWulfe, any Eiryss, Wardog, Sylys... They are all fantastic options. And each will add to your gameplay.

With a little experience with your changed up 25 point list. Now let's bump it up to 35. Either of the Winter Guard units (Infantry with Unit Attachment, or the Riflecorps) are great depending on how you like to play. Kovnik Jozef is near essential for either. If you go with the Infantry, sprays are always good, and sprays ignore Stealth. They are shorter ranged, but with Combined Ranged Attack, they can pool together to lay some accurate and powerful hurt on models. The Riflecorps have an excellent 14" range on their guns, but lack the ability to do CRA's, sprays and the Bob and Weave order the Infantry have, making them a little easier to hit. What they do have though, is the ability to place out a Suppressing Fire template, than can really booger up light infantry, due to it being an auto hit POW 10.

That is how I would suggest starting, it gives you a little bit of everything, and really gets you some good experience, while still building up slowly and as cheaplyas possible. A lot of guys starting with Khador just buy a whole bunch of 'Jacks, but most of our Warcaster really only want one or two. From this point, I would start experimenting with different Warcaster and Units. You will have a solid core of models that go well with most of our War Wizards, so changing up your army will be a pretty simple affair, with you only needing to get the occasional model or two.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hope that helps some! And The Motherland always welcomes new Comrades.

Thanks for the all help guys, I have a good idea of what to pick up next after the starter set which I picked up yesterday.

So Hopefully I'll be playing my first game later this week.

Cool, glad our info helped! Hope you have fun with your first game! Let us know how it goes.

From what I've found, 'Jack heavy Khador can work because not many people expect it so they don't bring enough gear to crack it.

I've found that a Devastator/Demolisher combo works well, particularly against high DEF armies like Cryx.

Another combo is the MoW Kovnik and a Kodiak on the flank.

True, sometimes going a little heavier on the Jacks can be beneficial. Devastators are fairly focus efficient and don't need much to do what they do best, but it is something that I wouldn't run every game. With how expensive Khador Jacks are, a decent opponent with Eiryss is going to shut down half of your Jacks on any given turn. That, and having 18 points tied up in your Battlegroup takes away from what Khador likes the most, it's infantry.

Yea, some lists and Warcaster don't mind being Jack heavy, because they are geared that way and is somethingthey can support well. And I personally avoid Jack Marshalls, Khador's infantry is tough, but not tough enough for me to risk 10-12 points on a MoW Kovnik and a heavy. In my meta, that Kovnik would get sniped off the board real quick. Leaving a useless heavy sitting there by itself.

There are a few issues with running Jack Heavy. The biggest is that Khador casters generally want to spend their focus on other things. Not fueling jacks. That and the jacks are speed 4 so you are not only spending focus to run them your also spending focus on spells like Boundless Charge and Energizer to get them where they need to be.

That being said we have a few focus efficient jacks that can be run a bit on the heavy side.

If you are running any of the Butcher, Ruin is an auto include. He basically requires no focus (maybe one or two the whole game). That opens up things like taking a springen along.

On of my favorites is the Kodiak. Yes he is a bit pillow fisted but his Chain Attack - Throw is kinda awesome, and he can run for free and has pathfinder....

That and if you are taking a Kolden Lord it can help as well.

If you want to go jack heavy look into Harkevich & Karchev. They do it best.

It isn't exactly newbie friendly though. They are a little tougher then other casters to pull off.

To be honest, I've only ever found focus to be an issue when running infantry heavy. I suppose it's because of all the upkeeps you throw around.

Personally, I can't recommend the Kodiak enough. It's cheap(ish), can dish out damage if given time but it's the chain attack that is the lifesaver.

I love the Spriggan' aesthetics, and luckily he's one of the best non-character jacks in Khador, although with Ruin available at the same points cost now he's kind of being edged out a bit.

Three jacks are a bit much for most Khador casters, but we can run two quite well now thanks to our junior warcaster, so if that appeals to you just get Andrei Malakov. Not only does he run one melee warjack better than most Khador warcasters do, you can stack Sorscha's Boundless Charge spell on his Redline spell to give his warjack a total of four more inches of movement when charging. Be sure to keep him safe though, because if he dies then his warjack goes inert.