Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Are Assault Kommandos any good? What are the best ways to use them? What about the unit attachment?

From what I've seen they're pretty good anti-infantry, an okay tarpit, but their ability to kill heavy armor is garbage (and by heavy armor I mean above ARM 13), they can't kill jacks, they just tie them up in combat.

Immune to Fire and Corrosion though so Cryx, Menoth and Everblight suffer (especially with Strakhov and Torch), they are immune to cloud effects, and have shield wall. They can also shoot and then charge.

Can't say much more though, haven't used them much. Not a fan of their sculpts though

Apparently they were used incredibly well by some player at a tournament and it shook everybody up, so they can be good, but they are generally considered average.

Can't tell you any more than that though (like what the guy used. I think signs and portents was involved if that helps anybody).

I know that on the PP forums they are slated again and again.


I quite like them, and they do really well at killing light infantry (3 attacks a turn, due to their assault and battery order) but they do suck at harming anything tougher. They also have rather poor MAT and RAT, so that doesn't help either. And that gas launcher does absolutely nothing if it misses.

But, against things which work on fire and corrosion damage, they will laugh it off. They are ARM18 when shield marching too, so they can be tough when they want to be.

I like them. But then again I tend to lean towards what's cool in my lists, rather than 100% efficiency! S&P was what made them rather good in said Iron Gauntlet match; as it offset their not so good RAT. The Iron Fang Kovnik solo also gives them a boost too.

The UA is fun; esp. with the additional effect of him blowing up. 2-handed throw the guy at someone as a living bomb. Have him run past a load of enemies. DARE them to free strike you. Always good when they actually do.

They are an anti-infantry/tarpit unit. And a good one at that.

Lots of ranged AOE shooting in this game is either Fire or Corrosion typed, and their immunities can get them into melee to do their job without dying to lots of the typical anti-infantry tech.

The Flamethrower WA is basically mandatory for them. The nice thing is that you can get the other Kommandos into melee and have the Flamethrowers stand behind them and spray into melee without fear of hurting your own guys. Only issue is the not so great Rat5.

 dementedwombat wrote:
Apparently they were used incredibly well by some player at a tournament and it shook everybody up, so they can be good, but they are generally considered average.

Can't tell you any more than that though (like what the guy used. I think signs and portents was involved if that helps anybody).

See here for the list in question and the video of the list in play.

This is also a bit of an understatement here. They were fielded by, arguably, one of the best players in the convention tournament scene as a hard counter to the tournament meta. They can be used to great effect, but Khador has better options for the points for general use - specifically Winter Guard Infantry and Iron Fang Pikemen.

Their DEF is mediocre, their RAT and MAT is mediocre, their speed is lower than their competitor's, their damage output is low. However, we can solve alot of those problems in Khador. We can boost their DEF at the cost of SPD, we can increase their movement with the new Iron Fang Kovnik, and we have several warcasters that can buff their damage output. I have only ever run them with pButcher since he can increase their DEF to a respectable level as well as crank their damage output to extremely dangerous levels. In fact, Butcher gets more mileage out of Assault Kommandos than with any other infantry unit by combining Fury and his feat.

With Fury, their 3 attacks on the charge are P+S: 10, 11, 12. Add in his feat that adds a damage die to all of the attacks and you get some very high damage output, enough to crush most heavy warjacks. On the charge, while buffed by Fury and pButcher's feat, they will inflict 9 damage on a standard Khador heavy assuming all their attacks land. An Iron Fang Pikeman with the same buffs against ARM 20 results in 10 damage, so they can effectively crank out some respectable damage, maybe not as reliably as an IFP against heavy armor but they arent as weak as people make them out to be, under the right conditions of course.

The 3 attacks may give them some advantage over the IFP for dealing with clustered infantry, but they dont have reach so the number of targets you could engage is not going to be as many.

I think, if their gas grenades did not need to directly hit to have an effect and they could shoot them as their free shot during a charge, then they would be much better.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Rereading the assault kommando rules, they actually have SPD6 so they match WG and IFP, and they can use their gas grenades during the charge. Still, Mediocre RAT combined with needing to directly hit with an AOE attack doesnt make any sense, and changing it would probably make them much more effective since the gas drains DEF and attack rolls. It would be the same as having MAT8 and DEF 14 base.

If like to run them because I'm a big fan of strahkov, but the models are just godawful looking. They rank down there in the very small yet very ugly pool of figures, next to the classic gorax

 dementedwombat wrote:
Apparently they were used incredibly well by some player at a tournament and it shook everybody up, so they can be good, but they are generally considered average.

Can't tell you any more than that though (like what the guy used. I think signs and portents was involved if that helps anybody).

The person you're talking about is Will Pagani and it should be pointed out that he's one of the top 10 players in the U.S. you can find a discussion of his list,why it was effective, and why he chose what he did here here http://www.chain-attack.com/2013/11/episode-127-jason-flanzer-vs-will-pagani-wmw-invitational-final/ or the actual game here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqboYrslYTs

On Assault Kommandos themselves they're a mediocre unit that can be very useful under the right circumstances. It's just that there are better options in the Khador arsenal that are much more versatile and effective over the long run.