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I'd be scared of Karchev as a new player. He looks beefy, and he is, but playing your warcaster forwards aggressively - which seems like what you'd intuitively want to do with a warcaster who is in a jack - is pretty scary.

Part of the problem is in Warmachine, when it comes to things on the front line the question is often not "can I kill this" but "how much would I have to commit to kill this." Even big, tough pieces like heavy jacks or beasts, or even colossals, can be killed in one turn via application of enough force. When it's a caster that's on the front line, committing everything to kill it isn't an issue because then you win.

Karchev is very tough. With Sidearms up, he gets what can be a significant chunk of bonus defense and can't be knocked down. But the right things can mitigate those defensive bonuses. If Mulg (a character dire troll) gets into melee with him with Wild Aggression on, he will just be flat. Lots of lists feature things like that and they can be tricky to mitigate.

Karchev himself is unique and cool, but I'm not sure that he's terribly effective. I have lost a game to him before, though. YMMV!

Khador does get a feat on Harkevich that increases the ARM of his battlegroup. I think that's all for ARM, though they have some stuff that can give a jack DEF.

 jonolikespie wrote:

Something I saw the other night that looked cool was the caster jack, I don't have the rules in front of me but I believe he had a spell to give everyone +1 armour for each jack in base to base. I would think him directly behind 2 of the shield guys would be tough to assassinate.

Also whats wrong with shield wall? Are you just losing movement and don't want to do it until you're in position?

His name is Karchev the Terrible, and he was the second Khador warcaster that I purchased. I have had him for about four years now I think, picked him up with a broken Behemoth for 40$ (still working on fixing the behemoth). I got him for his fluff and because he is the only warcaster/warmachine hybrid thing. Some others come close, but none of them are like Karchev. His fluff is also awesome to read. He is one of the most terrifying warcasters in the entire iron kingdom. warmachines are considerably more intimidating in the story than they are on the tabletop. Try and grasp the idea of being a soldier in a trench line or behind a low wall and seeing a 13' tall spellslinging mountain of iron and steel amidst a wall of similar mountains of iron and steel barreling towards you, crushing everything in their path. He really is awesome, especially at low point levels, At 35-50 points, most armies can take down at least one of our warmachines in a turn pretty easily so he really loses his edge at the higher point levels. However, if you arent interested in competitions, then there is not much reason to worry about that until much later. My friends and I rarely play 35+ games, we almost always play 15-25pts (mostly due to time constraints). Eventually, you will get the itch to try out high point games but there is nothing saying that you have to play at those levels.

 Chongara wrote:
Khador is not the faction to play if you want 'Jacks. It cannot possibly be overstated how poor Khador is at running 'Jacks, bottom of the barrel.

It doesn't (broadly) work on any level.

Man-o-Wars are kind of medicore.

Khador is 100% through-and-through about its foot infantry. There is no other way to play khador.

Everything you have said indicates you would be miserable as khador player.

No, there isn't any real viable way to play around this.
No, I'm not exaggerating.

The faction is an infantry swarm faction centered around their incredible small-based infantry options. The motherland's greatest resource is her people, and she uses it with great force.

You are better off not playing the game than getting into Khador for 'Jacks and Man-o-Wars. You will lose. You will feel like you wasted your money.

Period, End of story. No wiggle room whatsoever. These are hard facts about the faction.

I have had tons of success with the juggernaut and destroyer. Also with the MOW shock troopers. Running the butcher with these is a fantastic choice. Khador jacks are tough but slow. Butcher helps hit even better!! With the right list MOW and heavy jacks work great with Khador!!!

Alright, I spent the day talking warmachine with a mate while painting up our characters for Iron Kingdoms and going through some old No Quarters we managed to pick up cheap.
Anyway here's what I've come up with, hopefully it'll be at least somewhat useful in a non tourney setting:

Wolf Pack teir 4 list: 35 points
Harkevich
*Black Ivan
*Demolisher
*Demolisher
*War dog
Winter Guard (leader and 9 grunts)
*Officer and standard bearer
Winter Guard mortar
Winter Guard mortar

So if battle college hasn't lied to me then Harkevich's broadside, if used before activating the Demolishers, will allow them to fire then activate and turtle up again for their own turn. I haven't figured out yet if that's something that can be cast more than once a turn if you have the focus so some help there would be nice. Because of this I'm taking two Demos and no Devastators, which I also love the look of, is it better to have two demos or 1 of each?
Army builder tells me that comes to 43 points all up, 35 +5 for Hark's jack points then it's not taking into account the 3 jacks being 1 point less, that all makes sense right?
Oh, and supposedly I get wreck markers to place, are those things I should drop in my deployment zone and hide mortars behind?