Hi! I just got a Khador Core Army set and I’m super excited to play! I’m still painting them up though and while that’s happening I’d like to know any tips you guys have for a newbie.
and any feedback would be appreciated! I have played a miniatures game before but it was a skirmish one.
Mostly I’m wondering about using my infantry to screen vs protecting them, if plunging my jacks into the enemy is a smart idea or holding them back for counter charges, and what to do with Ilari in general (feat, sniping, how much focus to camp, should I cast superiority twice, etc.).
From what I understand, Khador is a bit short ranged compared with other forces so I will probably be forced to advance into enemy fire. Maybe just ramming my two heavily armored warjacks into their armies, with speed boosts from Illari, then shooting them with my infantry while they’re distracted by the big threat in front of them is a good idea? Or should I cut the two flag dudes to get a gun on the Direwolf?
Also how do I use the shotgun dudes? What are scenarios like?
My biggest advice is: start slow. Try a battlegroup game or three (literally, maybe a 30-ish point game with casters and 'jacks only) until you feel very comfortable with the flow of a turn (maintenance, control, activation), how to allocate focus, how to cast spells, make attacks, and so forth.
My second piece of advice: the game really is designed for scenarios. Playing for straight caster-kill can strongly skew the game toward particular armies. Try out some of the lighter-weight scenarios to get a feel for how scenario scoring works.
Last but not least: use terrain. You should have roughly 8-10 pieces of moderately-sized terrain, centrally located so that it is impactful to gameplay. You want to avoid wide-open killing fields with terrain clustered around the edges of the board.
Your list itself looks pretty solid! Your spell list is definitely geared toward your battlegroup, so your game plan is almost going to certainly revolve around making use of Borisyuk’s spells and feat to have your jacks kill a bunch of important stuff while your infantry helps screen and body-block for your 'jacks on the approach.
Get some table time in and let us know how it goes!
Great questions! And, the answer generally is… it depends. Scenario, terrain, the opponent’s army, all of these will determine how your pieces are used. But, here are some general concepts
Screening: With the new unit movement you can screen against a single model (warjacks, solo) but not a unit as they can usually teleport in. Distance is the best screen.
Sending in a jack first: What is it going into and what could threaten it? Usually you want to keep jacks as a counter punch into another heavy if possible.
Scenarios can be found in the Steamroller packet in the app and have three scoring elements each. Round 12" zones which are scored by units and Leader, 6x12" zones which are scored by Cohort models and Leader, and Flags (40mm base) which are scored by solos and Leaders. Each scenario has between 2-3 zones and a couple of flags. So, having a balanced list helps with scoring purposes.
And welcome. Good choice on the starter set. I’ve been playing it alot.
I think I would play a few games and see what you think. I would be very tempted to switch out some of the left arms on the jacks for a gun or two, but I can see how the points might work out strangely for that. You might be able to swop out the Gunners for a WK Officer - and some better jack load outs (nothing wrong with the melee load outs). I recomend the card that costs a point that can give a model Eyeless sight for its activation. Very good on Boris.
My Favourite great bear at the moment is Aggressive, Mace, Dozer, dire wolf I’ve been using all sorts of things - the shield and cannon is one of my favorite’s - but also been running Mace + the big left hand gun (Heavy auto cannon). Its 11 points - but its very flexible. The reason I suggest these is Boris’s feat supports a mix of guns and fighting. But he really makes all the jack builds fun, I’ve yet to find a really bad option with him.
Unit white the Gunners I don’t think are great with Boris, but I think the WKI are really nice. Avenging forces and superioriy are pretty nice, but you can also consider Fog of War, and a few other spells. I’ve used Iron Flesh and Pussiance quite alot.
The WKI, die alot, but I’ve found all their weapon options pretty good. I think autocannons are the best -but grenades are good too. Rockets I think are less good with boris (but I’ve had OK times with them with Ekatarina the other released warlock) into the right matches.
My goal with this list is to shoot alot of stuff taking control of area of the table, then push forwards a heavy to threaten to do horrible things to my opponent from far away. 13 “or 16” from a mat 8/9 jack that hits at PS17 or 19 keeps people honest. And before then you get to do some OK work with the other guys,
WKI are terrible - but they can kill alot of stuff (then rapidly die)
The shot gun guys - look really really cool, but I think have limited flexibility. They die very easily and have alot of bad matchups. The WKI units I think are more sticky since it takes more attacks to kill them with out AoE and Def13 is alot better than def 12.
Does this mean I need a solo so i can score flags? I currently dont have one in my list. Also! Is there somewhere i can find example set ups of terrain and zones/flags?
Hi! The gunners look so cool I wanna make them work. Are they too fragile/short range for their points cost? I figure they’d have to survive a round of shooting to get their double shoot off which probably isn’t likely…
Also thanks for the advice on cards! I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them.
I’ll make an alternate list with the officer and a gun on the direwolf but without the gunners and try that out too!
Thanks for the advice! I will screen my jacks so they get first punch on enemy heavy hitters. Should i try to keep some of them b2b with the direwolf so they get the blast resistance?
That depends on what sort of blasts your opponent has. If the blast damage they cause is around POW7 or 8, Blast resistance may be more beneficial than the fact that the warjack is an easier target to hit. But if the opponent has high-powered (say, POW10) blast damage, the low-ARM Winter korps dudes still have a 50-50 chance to die to that with Blast resistance. In that case it may be better to keep them separate so that the enemy can’t simply target the DEF11 jack to blast the infantry away. Of course, if you have Superiority on the Dire Wolf, it has the same DEF as the Winter Korps, at which point you may as well hug it with your infantry. My gut instinct would advise to put Superiority on your main melee hitter (Great Bear) to get it into melee faster, but especially if you go for a ranged version of Dire Wolf, being able to advance 7" in a turn and still shoot gives you some tactical flexibility.
Also:
A caster can have only one instance of each upkeep spell active at a time, so only one jack at a time with Superiority, unfortunately. It’s a very good spell.
Hey thanks for all the advice! I completely forgot it was an upkeep spell. Also noted. I will be sure to remember that my jack will probably have lower def than my infantry.
Note you can upkeep Superiority on one Jack, activate them first. Then use your caster to cast it on a second jack that turn to get the effect on two jacks.
Also don’t be afraid to run that dire wolf out and have your caster cast Gallows through it. Remember all your jacks are arc nodes. It can be a good way to get your Great Bear into a target you really want to remove that is just out of range.
