Karchev The Terrible

Hello all,
 I am excited to begin a series of posts about the main casters that Khador has.  I have used about half and I like them all for different reasons.  I have to say, that Karchev is my current favorite because he is a balls to the wall type of caster.  I used him in a recent 3-player battle and really liked his simplicity and depth.  I am looking forward to using him again.  Here is my current understanding of how Karchev works and what he offers the Khador player.

Gather around, children, and I will tell you the story of one of the Motherland's greatest defenders... Karchev The Terrible.  Gaze at his visage.  Burn his face into your memory. Keep this icon under your pillow.   His image will protect you on those nights when fear grips at your hearts.  

He began his service as a warcaster and revered military leader.  He had an uncanny affinity with those great lumbering hulks called warjacks.  It was during a brutal confrontation with the Cygnaran army that he lost all the forces under his command.  Rather than surrender to sweet death, he pushed himself beyond all limits and slew the hated enemy.  His anger and rage engulfed him and he refused to die.  His body broken and destroyed beyond all repair, Karchev demanded that a warjack body be constructed to allow him to continue his service.  That was well over 100 years ago, children, and still the terrible Karchev protects us.  He is a treasure to our nation.


Feat, Spells, and Weapons
Karchev has a pretty standard Khador type feat which is Total War.  All models in his control area get pathfinder and can charge or make power attacks without spending focus.  Also, at the beginning of their activation, they can change facing which is great for setting up those charge lanes.  This may not seem like much, but given the dearth of focus that he gets, it is crucial.  Paired with his spells it can allow a jack to unleash a beating on an unsuspecting subject.  His spells are geared to giving jacks mobility and firepower.
His own skills are Arcantrik Turbine and Man in the Machine.  Arcantrik Turbine allows him to gain an extra focus or gain +2" movement.  Man in the Machine is a lot of text that boils down to this:  his body can be healed by focus, his machine only by models with the repair skill.  He is a living model, but not a warrior nor a warjack.  He is affected by deep water, just like a warjack.
Tow
The most useful spell is Tow.  This spell allows Karchev to place jacks B2B within his back arc as long as he moved within 2" of the jacks during his movement.   This can really help move those jacks forward quite quickly.  The catch?  Only 3 can be towed.
Unearthly Rage
Unearthly Rage is Karchev's main way of gaining focus efficiency.  Rage allows all of his battlegroup warjacks, in his control area, to gain  boosted melee attack and damage.  In addition they gain the magical weapon trait.  So, for a cost of three, you could boost 3-4-5-? jacks on all attack and damage rolls.  That is incredible!  What's more, you could give two focus to a jack and have them just demolish their opponent with multiple boosted attacks and damage.
Sidearms
This spell is a defensive spell.  Basically it allows models in B2B contact in the control area to gain +1 to defense for each other model in the control group with which they are B2B.  They also avoid knockdown.  This is a great spell for making a brick move with some safety, but the lower defense of most Khador models hardly makes this worth it.  The focus is better spent elsewhere.
Eruption and Ground Zero
These are two AOE spells.  Eruption is a ranged spell that deals a POW14 damage with fire.  In addition there is a cloud effect that damages models entering or ending their move in it.  Ground Zero is a 5"AOE spell that deals a POW 13 damage and pushes the model away from the caster.  Both of these spells are highly situational and cost a lot.  I don't foresee using them too often.
Weapons
Karchev has an open fist and the sword Sunder.  He also has the ranged weapon Fissure.  Sunder is a basic melee weapon at p+s 19.  This will deal a lot of hurt when it hits and coupled with his spells and feat, could well cry the death of anything in his way.  Fissure, on the other hand, is a marvelous weapon.  It has decent p+s (12) but if it hits it knocks down the model. It is a spray so we are usually talking multiple models.  This could set up a painful series of events for your opponent. 

Synergies
Karchev is first and foremost a warjack caster.  No units have particular synergies with him.  So any units taken will just be support for the situation.  That being said, Mechaniks would be useful because they will keep his jacks up and running.  What makes him shine are the jacks that will be unleashed in a hell of fury.


Beast-09
OMG!  With Reach, Thresher, Imprint: Murderous, and Heavy Boiler this beast will roll!  Give it a few focus and unleash your feat and spells and watch it demolish all in its path.
Berserker
This jack will be totally unencumbered with Karchev.  No focus is needed to give it boosted attack and damage, and with Tow you can get them into battle quickly.  Why settle for one B?  Take two or three.  Did I mention chain attack?  Ouch!
Behemoth
OK.  This is amazing.  Two open fists, armor piercing, p+s 12 attacks.  Boosted by Unearthly Rage and can be allocated extra focus for ranged attacks.  Did I mention those same ranged attacks can be made in melee combat?  Did I add that it can make ranged and melee attacks in the same activation.  It may not be very accurate, but who cares.  It is killer!  Can you say, "Time to Die?"  

These seem to me to be the big 3 jacks that gain the most from running with Karchev.  I am looking forward to using him in a 1:1 battle.  That way I can see what he can do when he is totally focused on one enemy.  As always, comments or suggestions about my analysis are welcome!

Wow--- Long Hiatus

OK!  So I have been way out of touch for far too long.  It is not that there haven't been lots of things for me to blog about... I just had little time and I lost my drive to post.  Too much losing made me not so restrained in my discouragement.. but that was then and this is now. 
To kick off my first post in nearly three months, I wanted to talk about my closest game yet in Warmachine.  Steve and I played a game a couple of weeks ago, and it was very close- the way he tells it.  I wasn't so sure, but it did feel great to finally have some impact in the game.  His list was led by the Witch Coven and my list was led by Irusk.

CRYX List
The Witch Coven of Garlghast
- Deathripper
- Deathripper
- Defiler
- Reaper
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bane Lord Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith

KHADOR List
Kommandant Irusk
- Devastator
- War dog
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
- Greylord Escort
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Man-o-war Kovnik


It started off with me putting down lots of forest terrain.  I don't know what I was even thinking because I had no way of gaining pathfinder through that mess.  My brain was somewhere else.  I definitely need to think about the setup better.  That being said, I did like the fact that we had lots of terrain.  It made for some great tactical decisions.
I really liked the way I chose my forces.  I thought about what I needed, the leader that would help me the most, and what I wanted to accomplish.  My main goal was to learn how to use my units effectively.  I totally got that.  I saw how to maximize them, keep them protected, and unleash them for some pain.  I did need to have some more protection for them, and I needed to pop my feat earlier, but all in all I learned what I set out to learn.
It came down to the final few combatants.  I didn't know how to seal the deal, but I did do more than I have ever done before in a game versus Steve, so that for me is saying a lot.  Maybe next time, I will carve out a victory.  Maybe next week there will be a new type of post.  One where I have vanquished the evil! 
Until then, I will remain restrained.  :)

Khadoran Forces Routed By Stunty Dwarves

Ok, so I started this blog because I lose far more games than I ever win.  And rather than becoming frustrated and stop playing games, I would restrain my discouragement and learn from my mistakes.  Well, this was one of the most discouraging battles I have ever fought.  Sorry about the fuzzy pictures, I forgot my camera so I used my cell phone pics.

Khadoran Forces

•  Forward Kommander Sorscha
•   Beast 09
•   Devestator
•   War Dog
•   Kayazy Assasins (9 + Leader)
•   Kayazy Underboss
•   Winter Guard (9 + Leader)
•   Winter Guard Infantry Officer and Standard
•   Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Seaforge Commission Forces

•   Durgen Madhammer
•    Ghordson Driller
•   Wroughthammer Rockram
•   Herne and Jonne
•   Horgenhold Forge Guard (9 + Leader)
•   Ogrun Bokur
•   Ogrun Bokur
•   Thor Steinhammer
•   Ghordson Avalancher

This is how the battle looked at the start

Turn 1

We began by advancing forward.  Seaforge moved first.  Peter moved into some cover and set up his barrage of ranged death.  His total force was set up on the premise that if he could rain death down on my advance, he would be able to destroy me before I could get to him.  Khador moved second.  I activated Sorscha and  I cast Iron Flesh on my WG units.   I ran the WG forward.  Kovnik Joe moved next and  gave a rousing speech that made them fearless and tough.  Courage of the Forefathers!  My assassins advanced on the left flank at a full run, and my jacks moved up.  Beast 09 ran forward and my Devastator (who was bonded to Sorscha) moved as well.  So far so good.  My WG units had a defense of 17 (12 + 3 for iron flesh and +2 for bob and weave from my unit commander).

Turn 2

On turn 2, Peter unleashed some bombarding fire.  It didn't seem to do all that much.  Killed two of my WG units.  He took a couple of pot shots knowing they would miss so that he could get blast damage from the shots.  Some of his units can get three blast shots from one shot.  The luck gods were with him, because each shot he fired scattered in the exact direction he wanted to hit the majority of my figures.  I blame myself for not spreading them out more or double ranking them.  On my turn I ran some more, repositioned my assassins, and again cast Iron Flesh.  I took a shot at his Avalancher, but did minimal damage.   Now we were in his sweet spot.

Turn 3

Peter popped his feat.  His Bombs Away gives every blast attack an extra die on blast attack and damage rolls.  Even with my defense of 17, and tough, my WG unit was decimated along with Kovnik Joe. You see my plan was to get my assassins up close to move through his army to attack his caster.  This was not going to happen, because their defense was simply too light.  And with his Explosivo, and the other multiple ways he can make AOE attacks it was likely he would just wipe them up.  So I changed tactics.  

I repositioned my assassins, and moved Sorscha and my jacks into hopeful striking range.

Turn 4

This was the last turn.  Peter took some shots against my jacks and Sorscha, but their armor was too tough.  He took out 2 assassins and protected his caster.  His last spell on his caster was Inhospitable Ground.  This meant the terrain was rough for me to advance into.  This is where I get screwed up.  Now my options were there, but I couldn't do them in the right order.  I needed to get rid of his guards, but to do that I had to activate my jack and then send Sorscha up to put the final kill.  I couldn't activate my jack to get there without first activating Sorscha to cast a spell that would allow the jack to move far enough.  My assassins could move, but they needed pathfinder, which again meant activating Sorscha first.  It was 12:30, so in the end, I popped my feat, activated Sorscha and charged with her.  I hoped I could get rid of the one blocking model and then do two attacks on his caster.  Well, this was folly.  So Peter won with a well put together force and he used his spells and abilities optimally.

Recap

I am sure there were other strategies I could take to use this force better.  I have never used Sorscha, but I did have a feel for how to use her.  I think the bottom line is that I just suck at tactics.  I just don't get it.  I am a pretty smart person, but unless I can see it and figure it out, or have someone ask/question/show me what I am doing wrong, I won't figure it out.  I can't get it on my own, it seems.  This battle reminded me a lot of AT43 with the indirect fire being the king of the battlefield.  I do like Khador's theme, and the abilities of its casters, I am just not good at making them work against an opponent.  Well, I remain restrained in my discouragement.  

Arcane Legions

A while back, at Prezcon, I tried out a game called Arcane Legions.  It is a miniatures game that takes place in an alternate type universe.  There are three basic factions: The Romans, Chinese, and Egyptians.  While I won't take time to go into the mechanics of the game just yet (I have only played it once and that was back in February) I have started to put the miniatures together.  They are very cool looking.  I especially love the Romans riding the bears into battle.  Once I get the millions (seriously a ton) on figures done and have played a few games, then I will post up a better report.  To give you an idea, here is the link to their website http://arcanelegions.com/ .  Some minis come pre-painted, but the majority come unpainted.

Dude! You are Famous!

Just a shout out to my boi Steve who had his first playtesting credit published this week in an Advanced Squad Leader magazine!  Congrats, dude!  Very cool.

Warmachine (New Minis)

I have been on a buying kick these last two weeks.  For some reason, I have wanted to put together a full fledged, no proxy, army.  I finally got Strakhov and the guard dog primed and ready for painting.  I have cleaned and assembled my Iron Fang Pikemen as well as my Assault Kommandos.  I got the Great Bears ready and my new caster, The Butcher.  I also got one of the plastic jacks kit that lets you make three types of jacks.  I bought magnets so I can swap out the arms, and weapons, etc.  This is the coolest project I have started.  The real challenge is finding someone to play.  Everyone seems real busy with life in general that everyone wants to play but nobody will commit to a time to play.  My glorious force of the motherland may never see the light of day.  Ahh well.

On a fun note, I have joined a competition about playing.  http://boisterous-exuberance.blogspot.com/2010/06/half-year-resolution-progress.html

see the bottom of the post

Pics if I can get all my stuff together this weekend

Manoeuvre

By far, the game I have enjoyed playing the most over the past 2 years is a game called Manoeuvre.  Manoeuvre is a Napoleonics game.  It was designed to be learned quickly and played in under an hour.  The game is absolutely one of my favorites.  In this post, I will try to give the flavor of the game and a rundown of each nation and their strengths.


Size Does Matter
The game is played by two players over a 4 square map.  Each square is divided into a 16 (4x4) grid.  This makes a map that is 8 squares by 8 squares.  The tight nature of the map encourages strategic thinking as well as forcing players into conflict after the first turn or so.  The different map squares sport different kinds of terrain, and this is part of the charm and appeal of the game.  The design allows for infinite replayability.
The pieces are typical cardboard chits, larger than in a wargame, but well suited for play.  Each nation has 8 units representing units that existed at the time.  The units are augmented by a deck of cards that detail the combat capability of the units as well as tactical cards that allow units to heal, move outside of their turn, build defensive groundworks, leaders, ambush, etc.  The mix of cards and abilities are different depending upon each nation and their military skill at the time.  Thus, France and Britain are the best armies of the game and the USA and Austria are the weakest.

The Game is Afoot
A turn consists of discarding cards and refilling your hand to 5, moving one unit, and then attacking with a unit.  Lastly, you may heal a unit or build a redoubt also with the play of a card.  Card management is the crux of the game.  In order to attack, you need to have a card that matches the unit you wish to attack with.  Then the defender has the option of playing a card to add to its defense.  The attacker may then play a leader card to bring in other units adjacent to the defending unit.  Dice are rolled and a simple calculation is used to determine losses.  If the die roll is less than the defense, that attacker takes a loss.  If the die roll is equal to the defense the defender chooses to retreat one space or take a loss.  Twice the defense and the attacker chooses.  Three times the defense and the defender takes a loss and retreats.  Four times the defense and the defender is eliminated.  If there is no retreat, the defender is eliminated.  In order to win you need to eliminate 5 units or get the most victory points at sundown.  Sundown is when both players have exhausted their decks one time.   Each player calculates victory points based on where they are in the opposing side's terrain.  The most vp's wins.

Nations
France- The best army in the game.  France has the highest attack on their cards, and the most maneuverability of any country.  They can make a mistake here and there and still recover from it.
 Britain- England has the best overall attack and defense in the game.  They are a good match for France.  They have excellent leaders and high attack values on their units.
Russia- Great defensive cards.  Russia can let the battle come to them and then stonewall.  A solid counterattack and they can dominate.  (My favorite faction).
Turkey- Lots of cavalry and that means pursuit losses.  Turkey is very agile on the field and can even take down France if they play conservatively enough.  I have won the most with Turkey, I think.
Prussia- An average country that has no real strength in any one area.
Spain- Weak leaders and low values make this a country that could handicap a better player versus a new player.  Spain does have guerrillas which allow it to cancel some tactics.  Very helpful for picking off wounded units.
Austria- Similar to Prussia but not as good.  This country is the weakest.
USA- A bit better than Austria due to its use of ambush.  I still don't think it is very competitive, but it is a fun country to play against.  Very unpredictable.

All in all, this game is a phenomenal game that wargamers and eurogamers both should like.  And you can get it now that it has been reprinted. 
Keep up to date with wargaming news here at my buddy Steve's blog. http://cardboard-warriors.blogspot.com/