Review starts after the break!
Obavnik Kommander Zerkova & Reaver Guard:
Efficacy: 4/5
Zerkova2 is sort of odd to rate on efficacy. She does two things very well that Khador was already pretty good at: 1) sweeping single wound infantry, and 2) getting Stationary 'caster assassinations. That said, she does both of those things in new and fairly interesting ways, all while bringing plenty of spell hate to the table (with Sacred Ward on her unit and Banishing Ward on her spell list). So while she may not be unique I do think she's very effective in her role. She does, however, get dinged for not doing anything against heavy armor in a metagame environment that is drowning in it.
Meta Bending: 3/5
This ends up being sort of a split between Zerkova2's potential highs and lows. Zerkova2 is going to have match ups where she'll brutalize the table, and be a big pain in the ass with the spell denial she can bring. However, there are also going to be plenty of match ups where she doesn't have the tools to cover her bases well enough. She's definitely on the "solidly playable" side of the spectrum, but as mentioned previously she isn't really doing anything new for Khador in terms of playstyle. I think she will cause some serious problems in some match ups (and in general if your opponent isn't ready for her), but I also don't think anyone is going devote time to teching hard against her. 'Ere the twain shall meet, and we arrive at a '3'.
Coolness: 5/5
I love pretty much everything about Zerkova and her Reaver Guards. Zerkova's model is absolutely fantastic (especially when compared to her original model) and I really like the paint scheme they came up with for her and her unit. The fluff behind her Epic ascension is pretty nifty, and she seems like a blast to play on the tabletop. I think her overall design is very well realized (meta concerns or no) and I'm very excited to get her on the tabletop. It is a testament to how good of a job PP did here to turn me from someone that was at best bitterly indifferent about Zerkova into a big fan.
Victor:
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| Victor Artwork |
A chunk of this rating comes from being built on the same chassis as Conquest. Based on previous experience, that means that Victor can be a helluva tank in some fights and can punch like runaway cement truck. So its starting off on good footing. Based on my (limited) experience with the model, the Siege Mortar and secondary Autocannons make Victor a good gun platform, and the range of the Siege Mortar is something to behold (especially since you can walk and shoot with it, unlike a Mortar). And, since it is coming in a point cheaper than Conquest, Victor's suite of abilities is that much easier to fit into lists. Overall, Victor feels like the general purpose colossal everyone wanted for Khador in the first place.
Meta Bending: 4/5
This one is hard to rate. Victor has the potential to be a much more generally used colossal than Conquest has been. That may mean that Victors start showing up in more lists (and making them stronger as a result), or maybe colossals still don't fit into Khador paradigm (I don't feel like that is the case, but I'm also biased to love the big dumb things). Time will tell if Victor has a big faction impact or not. One thing I'm fairly sure of though is that Victor has single handedly catapulted Harkevich from junk tier to at least playable, if not fairly competitive with a pair of them. And that is no small feat.
Coolness: 5/5
I think all colossals start at a basic 3, just for being huge and imposing. Add on bonus points for having an absolutely massive gun (Victor's Siege Mortar will likely put Conquest's Main Guns to shame), the always entertaining Ammo Type rule, and still being a helluva melee beater, and there is nothing for me not to love. Victor's gun may be inaccurate, but my love for it is not.
Ruin:
Efficacy: 5/5 (with Butcher) / 4/5 (everyone else)
Ruin has been available for a little while now, and its rules have been spoiled for even longer, so I think most players are familiar with how potent it is on the tabletop. Ruin is absolutely everything you want in a melee heavy: accurate, good starting P+S, Reach, great weapon special ability. Ruin also adds soul collecting and spell hate (via Orgoth Seal) to make it an absolute steal for its cost. And then you take that package and put it on any of the Butchers, where it gains Boundless Charge as an Affinity, and Ruin becomes an absolutely awesome character warjack.
Meta Bending: 3.5/5
For all of its awesomeness, Ruin is still just a melee warjack. Even in the absolute best of situations, it is only going to kill what it can engage, which leaves it vulnerable to control effects (mitigated somewhat by Orgoth Seal), shooting, and good 'ol fashioned careful positioning. However, if Ruin gets there, it is going to hurt, so your opponents will need to account for that. And Ruin is faster, more focus efficient, and picks up Pathfinder on the charge with all the Butchers, making it an even more pressing concern. Ruin with Butcher3 is actually wonderfully crazy, which helps to elevate it above what I'd otherwise be inclined to give it.
Coolness: 5/5
If I could give it a '6' here I would. Ruin is one of the coolest damn models to come out of PP in a very long time, in pretty much every way. I never thought I'd be this impressed by a Khador character warjack (Beast-09 had a shot, but its model is kind of dumpy) and I'm very happy to be proven wrong.
Mad Dog:
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| Mad Dog Artwork |
And the good times stop rolling. The Mad Dog suffers from having a fantastic rule (Crusher) with an absolutely terrible kit to take advantage of it. Trampling with heavy warjacks in general usually doesn't work out as well as you'd hope, and its much harder to even attempt with a SPD 4 warjack. Jury Rigged can help, and it even plays into the Mad Dog potentially operating as an anti-infantry grenade, but its too random either way: if you want it to blow up, its still only a 50/50 chance of it happening, and if you don't want to blow up, Jury Rigged still gives you a 1/6 chance of that backfiring on you. At least the Mad Dog is pretty damn cheap.
Meta Bending: 2/5
Speaking of cheapness, that low cost is the only thing keeping the Mad Dog from catching a '1' rating here. For however terrible the Mad Dog is, it is still 31 boxes of ARM 18 that your opponent has to deal with, and it can operate totally autonomously thanks to Crusher and Aggressive. There may yet be some value in using these models to add beef to otherwise squishy lists, and there are some 'casters (Vlad1, Karchev, Butcher1) that could, in theory, get some mileage out of spamming them.
Coolness: 3/5
So, the Mad Dog has kind of cruddy rules, and the name is a little silly (and can be confusing since it sounds "character-y"). But I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Berserker chassis, and I do love some punching spikes (even if they are P+S "tickle"). And I can't honestly say that I am so jaded that running a herd of these with someone like Vlad1 wouldn't at least be fun.
Rager:
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| Rager Artwork |
Efficacy: 4/5
In terms of combat, the Rager is arguably worse off than the Mad Dog: it has lower melee damage output (15 and 12 vs. 14 and 14), a powerful but woefully inaccurate gun, and no special trample shenanigans. However, the Rager's job is not to fight or stop; the Rager's job is to catch bullets, and it is very well equipped to do so. The Rager is a solidly durable Shield Guard (which in turn makes it a pretty sturdy 6 point model in general) that doesn't cost you a lot (it can be almost or totally covered by most 'casters WJP) and runs for free so it isn't even a focus drain. That sounds like a pretty good bullet catcher to me.
Meta Bending: 3/5
Having access to an in-faction, heavy warjack Shield Guard in Khador will be nice. I don't know exactly how often it will come up, but just having the option is much better than not (and potentially better than previously available solutions). Where I think the Rager could get really interesting is with Butcher3 (or any of the Butchers, really). He really wants some protection against boostable ranged attacks as well as guns with shenanigans (Paralyze, Disruption. Knockdown, etc), and a Rager is a great way to do that. Energizer helps to ensure that any Ragers you take will be able to keep up with him. With Ruin now likely to show up, and likewise want some protection, there is also some potential in bringing more than one Rager for additional coverage against shooting, which in turn also makes Butcher3's list that much more of an ARM skew.
Coolness: 4/5
If I were capable of doing a backflip, I would have done so when the spoilers for the Rager came out of Lock & Load 2015. I (and many other Khador players) have wanted an in-faction Shield Guard model for about forever, so to finally get one, and have it be in the form of a relatively cheap, Aggressive heavy warjack was very exciting. I also sort of love how dumb its weapons are; the silly little gladius, and ridiculous shield cannon.
Khador Overall Release Rating: 4/5 (taking the highest rating for the character warjack)
I'm sure part of that score is personal bias. But, Mad Dog aside, I think Khador got a pretty awesome set of releases all around. Zerkova2 is a very strong, interesting 'caster whose only issue is that she's sort of redundant/not needed in the current meta (not the worst problem to have). Victor is generally the colossal I always wanted. Ruin is an absolute beast of a warjack. And the Rager is the Shield Guard I always wanted, in a form I didn't think I'd get but totally love.
There is a general feeling of Khador malaise right now, and it is easy to understand where that is coming from. Khador has been facing competitive issues for years, and nothing in this book looks to change that dramatically. However, I think there is plenty of possibility for some of these releases to start to shake things up - battlegroup heavy Butcher3 with Shield Guards, Harkevich + double Victor - and that may open things up in the long run.
Regardless of that, I don't think the quality of the releases in this book for Khador is the source of any issues. Four out of five entries are either great or fantastic, and even that one stinker (which everyone has) is at least fun and possibly okay in some zanier lists. The biggest issue is that Khador is still waiting on the Grolar to come out (though it seems like that may be sooner than later, at long last) and so having to wait for a new colossal and likely another warjack kit to release before we can start using everything is an unpleasant prospect. Fingers crossed that PP has sorted out its production woes.
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Next up: The undead horde gets some new additions as we go over the Cryx releases. Until then, thanks for reading!
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