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Recently looked over the Karchev entry in Forces of Khador, and got to thinking that he might be fun to try some games with. Before purchasing, I'd love to proxy some lists, so I made a few in iBodger. Thoughts and critiques are welcome and asked for, this will be my very first experience with the big man.

Karchev -5
Berserker 6
Juggernaut 7
Kodiak 8
War Dog 1

6 Battle Mechaniks 3
Great Bears 5
Kovnik Joe 2
10 WG Rifle Corps 8

or:

Karchev -5
Berserker 6
Decimator 9
Juggernaut 7
War Dog 1

4 Battle Mechaniks 2
Great Bears 5
Kovnik Joe 2
10 WG Rifle Corps 8

i may be missing something here but how do you plan to use the rifle corp?

It would help if you could give us a general rundown on how you imagine this army to work

The first list is better, however I personally would drop the dog and beserker for another Juggernaut.

Personally I think Karchev's tier is one of the few tiers that are worth looking into. Its very focus efficient and easy to get T4.

Rifle Corps is there to take on lower-armor infantry and tie up things that need tying up, especially with Joe's bonuses. I'm picturing using them as a sort of screen in front of Karchev and the warjacks - the warjacks are the core of the list, and ideally they'll be able to take on high armor and open charge lanes for Karchev.

Casper - why another Juggernaut? Is the dog not worth it for the DEF bonus? I've always thought Juggernauts were pretty focus-intensive jacks, while the Berserkers charge for free and would hit like bricks under Unearthly Rage.

I'd love to go for Karchev's Tier, but I don't own 2 units of MoW and would rather hold off on buying another til the new plastic kit is released.

Well I suggested the other Juggernaut because I couldn't fit in another Kodiak. There are 2 Karchev players at my LGS, one uses all Jacks and the other runs his Tier.

I can understand waiting for the plastic kit. I still think the Tier is the way to go when you get around to it.

Hello,

This is my first post on the Warmahordes section of the forum so excuse me if this doesn't make sense. I've started to look into the game and i'm doing a lot of research on battlecollege, and Dakka. Karchev is one of my top choices for a warcaster (need to playtest him first before I buy). One thing that piqued my interest was what Karchev can do with a Spriggan. (i'll quote it so it makes sense)

"The Spriggan makes an incredibly assassination 'Jack for Karchev. Tow + Feat + Bulldoze + Reach will allow you to strike anywhere you want with in about 20 inches. And there is no a caster in the game that will take 3+ Unearthly Rage boosted attacks and stay standing. You'll either catch your opponent totally off guard or they will be forced to keep a tight defensive wall around their caster and such a brick is the perfect target to drop some grenades into."


I undersatnd that its a more expesive choice and would require you to change your list, but personally, this looks like a game changing strategy to me. An word from experienced players as to how useful this combo is?

You should take BC with a grain of salt at times since they tend to make alot of strategies out to be Karate Kid style Crane Kicks ("if do right, no can defend"). There are several things that can affect the success of this attack. Bulldoze is directly away from the Sprig and it can only be done once per turn so you have to watch angles or you'll be stuck and wasting focus. The other thing is if it does get blocked you've wasted all of Karchev's focus (upkeep Tow, cast UR, load up the Sprig).

Basically, it will work once or twice and then they will learn to block it. Beast 09 would probably work better overall since there's no bulldoze games to play and he just leaves a trail of bodies.

Also if you want other casters who turn Khador jacks into bullets, look at Strakhov and pVlad. IMO, Karchev does the inevitable advance while those two are the "Where did that come from???" attack better.

Also, Spriggan grenades are godawful. While I do love his launchers, you're not using the POW 5s, you're using the targetting flares to solve our issues with Stealth.

Mind you, the Spriggan IS a good choice with Karchev. Flares help with gunboat tactics, it's got higher than average armor, and the reach weapon is a godsend. It's just not going to be able to get those Bulldozes off to open charge lanes, and if it does it'll likely be taking free strikes in its vulnerable ARM 19 rear end.

I do personally prefer Beast-09 usually, but of course he's FA:C and the Spriggans are FA:U...

Karchev's powerslide works quite well these days. You don't take your shot turn two anymore, but it's still a very viable play. Having many years and both editions' worth of Karchev play under my belt, I can say that expecting him to slog up the field slowly is a bad idea. Everybody out there excepting Circle and Cygnar has models that can one-turn him, and if you allow those models to get in good positions you're going to have a rough time. If you let him get bogged down and negate his ability to Tow slow Khadoran Warjacks much farther than they could normally get, you're giving away his best ability. Unearthly Rage costs three focus. With three heavies you're getting maybe eight attacks with it, not including Karchev. A maximum of eight models killed by the entire output of your heavy warjacks and focus for a turn is a pretty crappy turn, especially when Karchev has such ability to maneuver and put Khadoran heavy jacks in optimal positions, every turn.

I prefer Beast with Karchev, since he hits more accurately and powerfully. The Bulldoze is a nice ability, but if you need to clear charge lanes for Beast on the powerslide turn, that's what Widowmakers and Widowmaker Marksman are for. Add in eEiryss to make sure they don't have any focus or defensive upkeeps when Beast gets there, and call it a day. A Bokur is a good idea to cover Karchev's fat ass from enemy elves, as well.

Sure, it has problems against MHSF and infantry hordes where there's too much congestion to clear a good vector, but everything has a weakness. It's not a crane kick in that you can't defend against it, it's more like a sweep the leg that you can kinda see coming but it's still going to knock you over and f you up.

-Dis.