Medvedista seems like a very solid block of stats, if not very flashy. Speed of a Dire Wolf, ARM of a Great Bear, hits crazy hard and has Grab & Smash.
Israfyl also seems really good; more utility than Medvedista but it is a Dusk jack after all. Not sure how useful the heal will be on the gun but I just haven’t seen many Dusks lists yet so idk.
The General seems pretty straightforward. Overtake and Righteous Vengeance are good movement abilities and DEF 13 is a nice spot for a heavy to be at.
Molok I’m honestly not sure. Seems to have a lot of soul reliance and I’m not familiar enough with Sea Raiders to wrap my head around how easy it will be to get souls on it.
I am very interested in obtaining a Medveditsa, both because it looks gorgeous and because it has very good stats.
I think there will be no difficulty triggering Hand of Vengeance each turn, considering the preponderance of single-wound low-ARM infantry in Winter Korps.
My first impression is that I am meh on Molok, tbh. As you noted it is completely reliant on souls to do, well, anything. When it’s fully loaded it’s cool, when it’s not, it’s not worth 17 at all. Since it can only collect enemy souls, it’s pretty dead vs Dusk/Banes/Any army with soul denial, and what is worth is that it has active Skornergy with Hell Marked on all 3 leaders, the Reaver solo, Maulgreth, Eilish and Vhanek. I think it’s soul collection would be more consistent if it could collect off any soul within 10".
The other problem is Soul Taker is tied to it’s head system, so if it randomly takes 9 damage to column 3, it loses the abilities off all it’s arms too. Soul Taker should be moved to the chassis itself.
Molok’s issues are fixable, but they need some work atm.
Israfyl is in a league of her own, imo. Fantastic stats, melee with a lot of relevant rules, generator for resilience, etc.
Hazeroth is going to love her since a 12/19 stealth model with drag and dark shroud melee attacks and a 16" threat seems pretty ok.
Medveditsa is a second, to me. Shes less of a insane outlier and more that she pretty much is a great bear with some extra stats for a small points increase. A great bear with pow 19 and shield is often 16 points and so her being a 1 point increase for her stats is great.
Molok is swingy. Lots of interesting tech and hes merely a little overcosted if he doesnt get it. A tyrant with a flail and fist is around 13 points and without souls molok is about similar to that. With souls molok has fantastic defensive stats, arcane vortex and a few other interesting pieces of tech. Probably best with sabbreth to perdition forward and fill up with souls from other model qttacks before sending him in.
The General is like Medeveditsa, mainly just a bunch of extra stats over the basic stryker. Rightous vengeance is amazing and disruption on the sword is incredible with Wolfe.
The thing is that general is around 6 points more expensive than a similar Stryker. Is that worth? Hard to say. But overtake and jackhammer and energiser and righteous vengeance and the Hit and Run card can lead to an extremely long assassination threat. 16", then overtakes. Then run an arc node over, positive charge and buy jackhammers.
This can be after Wolfes feat, btw, so he will have out of activation movement on Wolfes turn.
Medveditsa is very Khador. There’s nothing fancy or elegant about it. It’s tough and hits hard. Extra SPD compared to a traditional Khador heavy is nice.
DEF13 on the General is sweet for a heavy, but having played Gallant in Mk3 often enough I know it won’t save a Cygnaran chassis from death. But with the right buff spells I can see it can be a pain to crack. Solid damage output too.
Israfyl is the clear winner imo, Generator makes it extremely tanky, it threatens far, Chain Weapon and Blessed on the whips means no ARM buffs will apply and the spray is just nice to have. Entropic Force is a great tech ability as well. This is almost what an Eidolon costs anyway, so for me that’s an easy get.
Molok comes in second for me, with the caveat that he is reliant on souls to do his thing. But when he gets them, oh you’re in for a ride! Great abilities, just gotta get those souls.
The General is my 3rd pick, he’s rather expensive, however a further threat increase with Wolfe is crazy and his combat stats are great. Probably worth playing as it can dictate what the opponent can do with impunity under Wolfe Feat.
Medveditsa is sadly my bottom pick, she is very expensive for what she does (which is essentially what a regular Great Bear with Shield and Mace does). Shield Guard can be nice, but it’s not like Khador doesn’t already have a great and affordable Dire Wolf SG. She is entirely reliant on HoV to do what a Shield/Mace/Aggressive Bear already does (she slightly outshines it with HoV) and then she doesn’t have the Heavy Boiler or the free Charge. Threat is also the same. She is a bit too expensive for a role that can be filled with a cheaper jack.
I don’t understand where this narrative that Molok is comparable to a 13 point Claw/Flair Tyrant without souls came from, but I think its a bad take.
Hand of Ruin is not just an open fist, it is P17. That’s a Ripper. And I would argue Crit Shred is worse than Possession.
On top of that, Gates of Hell is P19 and essentially gives Reposition 4. Sure it requires living or undead models, but thats Moloks game plan. He wants souls and Gates of Hell helps him not just die after killing the front line of the enemies infantry. So with +1 POW and Repo 4 I think the Abyssal Mace is a +1 costed Flail.
And then we have Molok at base MAT 8.
I see Molok without souls being comparable to a 15-16 cost Tyrant. 15 easy because that is a Ripper/Flail Tyrant and then I would argue MAT 8 and Gate of Hell bump that cost up by 1.
Yeah, I think so too. Sure, I’m not an Orgoth player so I have no practical experience, but it’s still a MAT8, POW 19 and 17 jack without souls. Soul collection takes it to the next level certainly, so it may be a little overcosted if it can’t get any souls, but against a matchup that is at least somewhat generous with souls, Molok gets to shine more than anything else in its price range.
It’s an almost funny thought that in a match against Winter Korps and Medveditsa, both players want at least some Winter Korps troopers to die every turn.
I had a discussion with a local about how the General wasn’t worth the 3 extra pts over a Stryker with overtake, hammer and shield. I explained that they do different things and that the long threat with Wolfe, +1 pow, +1 def, +1 mat&rat, another initial was absolutely worth the pt increase if you wanted a heavy like that .
I mean, I’d prefer if my Winter Korps troopers strode the battlefield like nigh-invincible gods of destruction, but if they are going to die, I’d like to at least get some benefit from it.
(P.S. - You’ll always be PG_The Captain in my heart.)
True, however if you move her forward, her shieldguard seems less useful. And Great Bears with an agressive head close in fast as well, can have a 2" melee range and are able to hit more after charging. It’s just,… she feels solid, but also not, if that makes sense.
Maybe I will ignore the grab and smash rule mess and see how she does on the table
That’s fair. Admittedly I’m coming from playing zero games with a Mk4 army and only like half a dozen games of Mk4 in general (stupid buying a house taking all my free time) so my thoughts are very theorymachine lol
