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So. The AoK. Such a badass character, but such a failure. Every piece of fluff he's in, he dies. Every time I look at a battle report with him in, he gets roflstomped or just ignored.

So how is one to use him and make him effective? His biggest issue is mobility, and the lack of ablative wounds. Apart from that, if you could bring him to the battle on his terms, he ought to be a total beast.

And no, a WK is not a viable answer to this question

Imo his best use is as an anchor for an advancing line of guardians, and as a deterrent for anything that may want to charge said guardians. Alternatively you could just try and run him from cover to cover and try and charge some big vehicle asap. I find he is most effective in smaller games. I often run mine at 750 and he either gets ignored, at which point he runs across the board and obliterates tanks, dreadnoughts and gunline infantry, or he scares my opponent into targeting him over everything else. The

The only way I can imagine is in a fluffy scenario, with him, a lot of guardians (possibly a Pale Court Storm Guardians) against a specific, balanced fluffy army.

In any other random game he is just to slow to reach combat and to fragile to be a damage sponge.

He gets properly scary if you houserule him to have 12" movement or 2+/4++ save. He can still be easily drowned in fearless hormagaunts or stuck with a 10 man squad of tactical marines long enough to don't really matter in a game, but he is a proper threat this way.

Generally, I'll use a psychic power of some sort to protect him turn 1, and he'll be in the thick of it by turn 2. My last game, for instance, I ran him in a Guardian Stormhost, and turn 1 I popped a Shrouded bubble from telepathy, and ran him toe-in into some ruins. The Shroud also protected a squad of guardians, and after he passed a couple 2+ cover saves he was ignored for the rest of the shooting.

Turn 1 I usually devote all my psychic power to defenses with my footdar list, and I can control where my opponent's shooting goes by what I don't protect. Which is usually my Vyper, which I'll leave somewhere just in range of a big enemy gun.

His mobility issues can be partially solved by having him in a Warhost for 6" run

A good tactic I have tried out is to have him as your warlord and roll on the personal traits table, feel no pain and it will not die help with survivability but then he becomes more of a target, being your warlord

Whatever he is with it should move at the same speed. Usually a couple of biggish avenger units and some reaper's all moving up together is how I play him. Mobility is the main issue but it's up to you. He is a big target and I think he's more of a counter unit really.

 Selym wrote:
So. The AoK. Such a badass character, but such a failure. Every piece of fluff he's in, he dies. Every time I look at a battle report with him in, he gets roflstomped or just ignored.

So how is one to use him and make him effective? His biggest issue is mobility, and the lack of ablative wounds. Apart from that, if you could bring him to the battle on his terms, he ought to be a total beast.

And no, a WK is not a viable answer to this question

Khaine is a good reserve unit but with the obvious flaw like all such things that you kinda have to take it to the chest for at least a round before you can do your thing. Still, this isn't terribad depending on the units that you face regularly. Fast assault and drop armies put themselves right into his sights. Gravity weapons are the issue so you basically have to precede him with an assault unit that can engage those particular units.

If its a downfield shooting force like the Tau Empire might posess then the Avatar is really in trouble. Possible solutions:

1. Terrain. He is a fair sized model and hiding him may not be possible but given that truth, the other truth is that he may. So use terrain wisely.

2. Perhaps use him to lure the grav to one side, preferably a dangerous side terrain wise, and dare thedrop units to overcommit over there. If they don't you might get some play out of him.

3. Target saturation. Given enough targets, it becomes difficult to commit as much force to him as the enemy would like. Massed jetbikes are plenty of worry for enemies while D-Cannons can protect the approach. Khaine is a cheaper WraithKnight as far as function goes though slower and with those two units at your disposal, you might find enemies quite recalcitrant about approaching TOO early. Being bombed out of existence by cannons protected by a fair number of ablative tough 7, 5+ saves? Gravity doesn't like 5+ saves. Meltas dont like cover. Claim both and you can keep the enemy reasonably far from Khaine to start the show. Maybe forever.

I think its pretty valuable to keep those LD 8 bikes from running given how big a part of the offensive they can be. So Khaine isnt too bad an investment if you protect him with the D-Cannons.

Try it?

Divide the map into a 9 space grid. Put a big terrain piece in each space.

Learn 2 hide.

Further take other big things that can block line of sight to the avatar.

Do you have vehicles that aren't wave serpents?

Because feth wave serpents.

I'm sure there's stuff in the eldar arsenal that can make a juicy cover save for an avatar of khaine.

Run him as a Fearless provider who also happens to murder completely anything dumb enough to pod in or Scout. Give him Rapid Shot. Have someone nearby with Renewer, probably make him Warlord. Pretty much covers it. He's totally solid for the points.

Some pretty good ideas, thanks

I don't have the AoK yet, but it's good to have an idea of how to play it for when I do get it. The model's just too badass to not fight with.

His buffs are what make him decent. He is still not good, but he's decent.

As mentioned, the warhost goes a long way to helping the movement problem. With a 12" move on turn one, he should be able to get into grips by turn two or three. Point for point, compared to other MC's the avatar is not bad at all.

His buffs of fearless and furious charge are pretty good. I've found it to be a lot of fun to use with banshees to have STR 4 banshees. It's not top tier, but it's pretty fun. You can also combine them with scorpions and even guardians.

Here is the problem. MC's are overshadowed by GMCs in 40k today. There is no reason to bring an avatar when you can bring a wraithknight instead. My suggestion is to take the FW avatar and use it as a 'counts as' wraithknight.

All the yes.

@Selym

Buy the original 90's model mate, smaller than a guardian and still technically legal.

But it looks unimpressive :c

If I really wanted, I could make that out of a Dire Avenger kit.

I ran him quite a bit and he did quite well. The key for me was to not make him the obvious target. The best I'd ever done with him in a list was 4-1 and winning my bracket (2nd bracket) in a 40+ person event.

I ran a Pale Court and an Eldar CAD and having a Skathach Wraithknight, Avatar, and Wraithseer (with D-Cannon) backed with Warp Hunters helped to create hard choices for my opponent on what to go after. In a Craftworld Warhost, the Avatar ran 6" automatically, which would get him into position faster than my opponents anticipated. With having multiple threats, the Avatar was able to get into assaults pretty easy or act as a counter assault element. My opponents tended to focus more on other units which would work to my benefit.

He is not a fantastic model in itself, but the synergy within the rest of the army is where he really shined. He does have the ability to kill an Imperial Knight on the charge, which some folks were not prepared for.

Don't run an Avatar as your lone 'big' model as he would likely just get removed in a turn by your opponent.

I can see some hilarious results when paired with Striking Scorpions.

The Avatar actually makes Banshees decent with Rage and Furious Charge.