5 systemic changes I'd like to see

MkIII has been a recurring topic of discussion amongst the community for a good half year now. Like many people, I don't think a brand new edition is really required as the core rules of the game are still in a relatively good state, unlike the late- MKI rule which were bloated with errata, clunky in wording and kinda ridiculous in interpretation at times. However, like many, I also believe the meta has become a bit stale and the top pieces are staying where they are and the bottom pieces are too. A few careful nerfs are in order if we are to keep things vibrant, along many buffs/redesigns to highly maligned models.

Being a game that is best played from a competitive mindset, I can understand why people take the best stuff they can, but at the same time a stagnating meta leads to stagnating challenge. On the other hand, I think the number of OP models and the number of total garbage models is really small. There is a lot of stuff around the "pretty damn crap" bracket which could use a little sheen though.

I've made posts about things I would change in Gators (very little, without an edition change), and also a post about how I would approach changing warjacks within factions. All theoretical, naturally.

Here are 5 things, outside individual model power balance changes, I feel should be addressed going forward.

1.Tough spam

So anyone who has read any other article on this blog knows I think tough spam is a major issue in the game. In fact they are probably tired of me whining about it (1).I think it's one of the few things in this game that I dislike more than Gargossals, but where I feel Gargossals simply reduce the potential for excellent playing experiences, tough spam can and usually does create negative play experiences for both the spammer and the guy on the bottom.

The main culprits here are the Piper and the Witch Doctor. These can grant tough to ANY UNIT IN THE LIST. If that doesn't cockblock design space, I don't know what does. I think neither of them should grant tough at all. The Witch Doctor can just make something Undead (which is a REALLY good buff in itself) and the Piper can just make something fearless (being able to give Dirge and Pathfinder is already quite legit). Straight "nerfs" to both, still good models.

Secondary culprits are Terminus and Irusk2 with their giant FU auras of tough. These types of auras should be removed because they are just stupid. They're on all the time and you don't have to sacrifice anything to get them. If they were tied into a feat or similar it wouldn't be so bad, but they aren't. Remove those entirely, still good models.

Tertiary culprits are 4+ tough things like Irusk1's feat, Doc Killingsworth, Boomhowlers and so on. These aren't so bad because they exist in a vacuum - you know from now until the next edition what exactly can be affected by these things and when. Irusk1's feat lasts for one turn, Doc can only be taken in a specific list and can be sniped out with a little luck (and isn't 4+ tough himself). Boomhowlers are a bit OP but it's not just because of the 4+ tough (which, again, is a competing alternative with 2 other really good effects after initial engagement). These don't bother me as much as the primary and secondary culprits which are the equivalent to rolling your face on a keyboard in terms of game skill and strategic brilliance.

I don't mind tough granting models in the style of Kovnik Joe because he only does it for a specific unit and it is at the sacrifice of making that specific unit have "normal" damage output that turn rather than calling down half-naked, steel-clad valkyries to skewer your opponent on spikes (metaphorically speaking).
I don't mind Trolls either. They are still a bit frustrating but usually more frustrating to the Troll player than not, and their limitations as a faction (bricky and not too sneaky) don't allow them to take advantage of tough spam like other factions can. It almost feels... you know, balanced.

The Skorne Minion Task Master "UA" on the other hand is kinda dumb in that it will apply to ANY MINION UNIT EVER MADE, which is just another thing new Minion units will have to be balanced around. Unless the unit doesn't work for Skorne, but the fluffers on the PP staff will probably never let that happen. At present it's not a big deal because there are only 4 combat minion units - Gators, Slaughterhousers, Brigands and Bog Trogs. These all have low DEF stats so no drama with No Sleeping on the Job. Slaughterhousers are already tough, Brigands are overcosted, Bog Trogs should be ambushing so will be too far out and Tough on Gators isn't a big deal because they are only a 5man unit (at 2pts each). Whether Shamblers + Task Master becomes annoying/OP or not remains to be seen. In the end, the Task Master probably means Minions will never get a high DEF unit.


Basically, any ability than can grant tough without restriction and on a large scale is stupid and should be eradicated from the face of the earth.

 2. Efficiency of focus when spent on warjacks relative to when spent or camped by caster

Basically, the problem with warjacks is that each point of focus is usually spent more effectively on either camping or casting spells, and therefore warjacks are less resource efficient than a competing choice after warjack points have been spent. There are two exceptions to this: CoC and PoM.
CoC gets around this problem via the focus induction mechanic. Basically, this means that the first focus spent on each warjack each turn is worth TWICE as much as a focus point spent elsewhere, because that focus point will replicate itself on another warjack. This allows you to do amazing things like running your entire battlegroup for one focus on turn 1, and is 100% based on your ability to plan ahead and activate things in the right order. This rule makes me want to high-five DC and buy him a beer or eight.
PoM gets around this problem by making warjacks mostly independent from the warcaster's focus pool. They do this by having a large range of support models that buff warjacks offensively and defensively such as Choir, Vassal and Reclaimers, as well as warjacks that pretty much run themselves like Sanctifiers and the Avatar. If a warcaster chooses to give a warjack a focus, they are getting a really high quality, high polish attack out of it. Ultimately, PoM uses Army Points as a warjack resource.

Khador, Cryx, Cygnar, Ret and Mercs don't have anything like that.
Each has a few casters with amazing battlegroup buffs , but still have a limited focus pool which is more efficiently spent camping for ARM or buffing infantry units. There are of course exceptions to this observation, like Mortenebra's all-in Rube Goldberg assassination machine or eVyros Synergy griffon spam. Or Stormwall being a god amongst titans.

Even PoM or CoC do not run all warjack lists. The lists are pretty balanced on average looking at every caster. These two factions usually run lists a bit more like Hordes lists. There is still only so many resources to go out, even in PoM and CoC, just like there are only so many beasts you can run before they all go crazy.  For the most part, you're looking at 0 - 20% of non-WJ points spent on jacks in competitive lists. I would say Hordes is closer to 50% on average, with a much larger deviation depending on faction and warlock. Someone like Madrak might just take a single Dire Troll Mauler, whereas someone like Vayl puts up to 80% of her army points into beasts (the other 20% being beast support pieces).

Quick suggestions to get an idea of what I am suggesting, paraphrasing what I wrote previously:

• Khador: All jacks have innate Powerful Attack (boost attack and damage rolls for 1 focus per attack) and Mechanics grant free Pathfinder charges or free power attacks to warjacks as a special action (thus Mechanics become like a Khador Choir).
• Cryx: Warcasters can "heal" helljacks (not bonejacks, because healing arc nodes is stupid) during their activations like warlocks heal warbeasts, and all helljacks/bonejacks have Cull Souls which counts towards their focus allocation.
• Cygnar: All warjacks have a Grenadier/Stormclad-like ability that grants them a buff if they positioned a certain way from a unit type, ie. Cyclone gets boosted attack rolls when shooting at model/unit previously hit by Long Gunner models that turn.
• Retribution: Something to do with power fields, like every focus spent by the jack heals d6 from the field irrelevant of the generator system. Unspent focus on jacks could also add to ARM while the generator is online. This gives them something tanky they otherwise don't have to tarpit and hold zones.
• Mercs: Maybe just way better jack marshall options, or the equivalent of Minion Lesser Warlocks (where you get a lesser warcaster/super jack marshall and character jack combo).

In order for warjacks to become a more competitive choice in list building, each focus point spent on warjacks has to be at least as efficient as a focus point spent elsewhere, all things considered. The release of the new journeyman warcasters will probably lead to slightly more warjacks being put on the table by increasing the supply of focus on the table. That's nice I guess, but it doesn't really solve the core problem.

3. Exaggerated Khador arcnode / Morvahnna douchisms / rubberbanding

Everyone knows it's stupid but hey, it's completely legal. Why not do it? I would if I played an asshat faction with asshat models.

The main problem with this is primarily with full unit recursion, because any mechanic this powerful that is uncounterable is not really interesting games design. You reduce Morvahna's feat and Regrowth by fully wiping out a unit, the same way you deal with Maelok's Revive, or the Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (who are vastly underrated). But that is almost impossible when one model from that unit is sitting 5" behind the enemy caster, feigning distress. So I suggest this asshattery be dealt with by adding the following rules to Units:

1) Models out of formation when the current unit leader model is destroyed cannot be field promoted.
2) If no model can be field promoted while no Officer models are part of the unit, the unit is removed from play. If an Officer model leaves play and the unit does not have a Leader model, remove the unit from play.

Something like that anyway. This can represent the unit collapsing from lack of leadership and scattering to the winds or whatever, makes it that if you kill an entire unit and one guy is rubberbanding, then the unit goes pop.

The second issue is the exagerated Khador arc node. The Khador arc node is basically leaving a single model in the unit as far away from the leader model as possible while maintaining formation, so that he can be within range of those RNG 6 buff spells. This is perfectly fine in my opinion.
The exaggerated version of this is to leave a model from the unit standing next to your warcaster, way out of formation and running 0" toward its leader every turn. Any unit buff spells targetting him will affect the whole unit. This is stupid, and Privateer Press also seems to think it is stupid since they errata-ed the Bane Thrall standard bearer to not grant his buff while not in formation. Which brings up the question of why it hasn't been errata-ed yet. One would think it's not as simple as these 3 rules I made up in 10 seconds seem to indicate. Or that they in fact are totally cool with Pendrake/Bloodtracker/Croctor parties in the backfield so they can sell all the Morvahnas. Then again, it did take them a long ass time to errata the Shield Guard/Cover/LoS thing.

3) Any spells targeting friendly models not currently in formation automatically miss / Friendly models cannot be targeted by friendly spells while outside formation / something to that effect.

And now people can have a chance at killing your entire unit of Bloodtrackers before you feat them back. It's not easy, but not easy is better than impossible.

4. Spells are spells, animi are animi.

The 'spell vs animi' thing can be annoying to keep track of. It means for example that I always have to cast Spiny Growth on my warlock with my Snapper if I want MHSF to not ignore it. Is that really a decision I have to make (ie. skill), or just something annoying? At least in my lists, it is the latter.

Have animi be animi, and spells be spells plox. If a warlock casts an animi, it can be cast just like a spell as it currently is, but is still an animi in effect.

There are probably some unintended consequences here that will break open the game, like Wrongeye's dual faction allegiance having some supposedly unintended consequences with Galleon.

5. Water re-examined as a terrain piece

I play Blindwater so one would think I shouldn't care, but shallow water is very negative towards warjacks to the point where I never see it on the table except for Swamp Pits and the almost entirely inconsequential Blindwater Pact templates. Therefore it is not only bad for terrain diversity, it is bad for me.

Shallow water could be considered rough terrain (as present) and non-amphibious models who are knocked down or made stationary in shallow water cannot shake. That basically makes throwing beasts, warcasters and warjacks into water reasonably sweet while not completely hosing warjacks (the few that I see these days, anyway). It smooths out the effects across the board, makes water not the worst thing of all time for Warmachine, and makes amphibious more than just shitty pathfinder.

Deep water can remain as is and will continue to never see table time as it completely screws anyone and anything that is not amphibious.

-----------------------------------------

Aside from individual models and the above rules, the only thing I really dislike about the game at present are Gargossals and the way they flatten the tactical depth of the game. I don't think there is really a way around it. The main issue I have with them is their general invulnerability to the majority of game effects, with a handful of exceptions like attack damage, Black Oil and a small handful of special rules and effects (ie. Backlash, Voltaic Snare, etc.) But they are pretty balanced for what they are, just not really tactically interesting in the greater scheme of the game.


I have a 35 pt event coming up in about 2 weeks, but SR 35pts is kinda stupid after you've played a lot of 50pts so I'll probably just bring stupid lists and hope to outstupid my opponent's list. Using skill, of course. Look for the write-up of me losing my first round then.


(1) This is the best reason for it to be #1 on the list.

Stuff that sucks

Some models are bad - and that's ok.

That is going to be my post for the week - talking about models considered bad and my experiences with them. It's bound to offend some people, but entertain me.

First, some theory for framing perspective. Here are some reasons why models are bad:

1. Badly costed

Points cost is the single most important statistic on a model's card, especially at lower points levels, as the difference between X and X-1 can be quite significant. Lowering or increasing a model's PC can have a huge impact on whether you see them in a list or not, or if you see 8 or 1. Cryx Stalkers, for example, were PC:3 in the Mk2 Field Test, and Cryx players were spamming those things like crazy. Get a single Stalker with 3 focus on the enemy caster and that was probably game over. Fortunately they were increased to PC: 4 at release and their value relative to Bane and Satyxis swarms decreased and we thankfully don't have to play against 6 Stalkers anymore.
On the flip side, you have Trenchers, where a full unit with all the UAs and support modules costs about 4.2 million points, and is still not as good as the Winterguard Deathstar, buffs or not.

2. Opportunity Cost

A different way to look at the cost issue. Sometime there are just models available to you that do practically the same thing at better value, or bring additional options to the table. Often this will be a merc model, but sometimes within the same faction. That is like the ultimate kick in the nuts.

3. Very situational

Some models have abilities that are extremely dependent on matchup, and their effectiveness is thus dependent on your opponent's list. This is not really a cool place to be, unless you know exactly what you're going to be playing against every time
Take Strakhov for example, who is pretty good against Legion shooty lists because he has Occultation and he is immune to fire. Meaning that Legion has no way to shoot him to death outside Bolt Throwers. And his stuff is really really fast. Sometimes abilities that are fundamental to a model's effectiveness but only work on living models, or warbeasts. As you would expect, these models are usually noticeably less sweet when their preferred targets are not around. This point of course bleeds into....

4. The Meta

What you play against has a large impact on the value of your models. If you expect to play against a lot of heavy armor, as has been the case in a Colossals meta, then armor crackers like heavies and weapon masters are valuable. If you expect to face lots of troops, then models that can generate multiple attacks in a turn and AoEs and sprays are valuable.If you expect lots of tough, anti-healing and Take Down is good. If you expect incorporeal, then magic weapons become more valuable, etc. etc. etc.
Points size is also a factor, as are tournament formats. Character restrictions have made a big difference in model viability by removing the option to take more powerful character choices in every list. Playing scenario vs not playing for scenario makes a huge difference to the power of some models. Some casters and models are much

5. Clunky design

Some models actually do fine in games purely on a capability perspective, but are annoying to play or get to "work" for many people. Sometimes there are too many hoops to jump through, sometimes they Skornergize* with your models, sometimes they just try to do lots of things and suck at them all. Either way, they still suck. In any case, they are just not really enjoyable to use in a real game but usually look sweet in theorymachine.

6. Designed for that annoying tart that wants to make everything work all the time

You know those guys that want everything to work all the time? Yeah. They are the guys that post threads on the PP boards every few weeks about how they've figured out Assault Kommandos and Tharn Ravagers. I admit I am guilty of this type of behavior at times. But I've come around to the fact that some stuff just sucks.... and that's ok. Pleasure from pain. If you still enjoy putting your balls in a vice and spinning the handle at varying speeds in random directions in the hope that you'll find some kind of personal satisfaction or enlightenment, you go ahead and give yourself blue balls.

7. Light artillery

Pretty much all light artillery sucks, except perhaps the Mortar crew. Nobody really knows why, but my theory is that because they can't move and shoot, they lose a lot of tactical depth and become predictable. If you look at the stats of most light artillery models, they are pretty decent and usually straight up better than a ranged solo at the same cost. However they only do one thing, which is shoot AoEs or potentially high-ish POW attacks at highly predictable ranges. They also usually can't boost on top of that, which makes you hate them more and just spend your points on super expensive warjacks with the same gun instead (which are probably worse).

Much like Gargantuans, I can't complain that Gators don't have any light artillery.

8.  Design decisions that err on the side of caution

I think several members of the Warmachine design team engaged in Opus Dei-type self-flagellation as the result of Mk1 brokenness. It is quite clear these days that whenever given they choice, they will choose to make a model tamer and lower on the power curve rather than risk a model winning the majority of tournaments. That would be really horrible. In my opinion, this will often lead to some changes late in the design process that don't get playtested as thoroughly as they should and have a bigger impact on a model's viability than expected.

I'm sure everyone prefers this state of affairs to Mk1 "everything is broken" balance. It is funny how often I hear that MkII is 'perfectly balanced' after hearing the same thing about MK1 for years. PP do a great job of keeping the game balanced, but anyone who has played Warmachine for a few years is aware that balance issues will almost always be present to varying degrees. You can't compare an eLich to a Venethrax, or McThralls to Drudges. There is always room for improvement, not only in terms of nerfs, but also of buffs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a small, non-exhaustive selection of models that are usually held up as bad/ crap:

Cygnar:

• Trenchers - They cost too damn much. They can do lots of stuff (not particularly well), but 1pt per guy is a hefty cost, especially when you throw in all the additional stuff. They already have an amazing UA which doesn't fix their standing - I think it's just a matter of reexamining the cost decisions on Cygnar units (who are obviously costed with great shooting buffs in mind). Long Gunners are arguably in the same boat but benefit hugely from Snipe.
• Stormblades - Cost too much for SPD 5, totally average defensive stats, and no reach. Sure, they can hit hard and have guns and tons of gizmos, but what's the point when you can't even do the basics? Again, already have a UA and WA, so I'm thinking either Stryker3 gets Lightning Tendrils AND Deflection/Deceleration or these guys will be coated in a thick coat of grey dust by the time Mk2 Remix hits.

Cryx:

• Venethrax - First of all, he isn't one of the other Cryx casters. Second, he is very skewed towards livings models. Third, his feat ranges from random as hell, to self-defeating, to not doing much at all. It's cute. Unlife in the Cryxian Empire has not been kind to Skeletor.
• Drudges - These are just straight up worse than McThralls for more points. Or worse than any unit in Cryx for any points. And 90% of their effectiveness is tied to one pretty easy to kill model. Like... what? Redesign these so they have flexible weapon modes like CoC infantry and don't hold onto the Mind Slaver for dear life and we might see them on the table.... one day.
• Cryx Heavies - Two problems with Cryx heavies, who for the most part are actually pretty good: One, they are squishy as all hell and have no repair option that can really keep up with them at full speed so losing 3 systems to a boosted Reckoner shot makes you want to just play more Banes instead. Two, you could just take Banes/ Satyxis/ McThralls, who hit equally hard, put out more attacks and need less focus to do it. Opportunity cost at work here.
  Deathjack ADs, has armour and heals itself, so he is immune to criticism and costs a ton.

PoM:

It's hard to find bad things in Protectorate,because the whole faction is based around jerking itself off so everyone feels good and high-fives each other. I mean, Amon is considered bad in that faction, since he has some incentive to not stay 6 miles back.

• Deliverers - Perfectly fine unit. However, nobody takes them because they take soooooooo long to resolve at full efficiency, and don't get all the buffs a Redeemer does. They attempted to fix them in Mk2 by giving them a huge 5" AoE CRA so they can activate faster, but even then Redeemers are better and die slower.
• Paladin? - What happened here? I never see these anymore. I guess they aren't as tough as Seneschals, and only become really great with Vilmon, who people don't take anymore for some reason. Too many magic weapons in the meta I guess.

Khador:

• Zerkova - universally acknowledged as the worst caster in Khador for many reasons. First she is squishy and her defensive tech is bad. Second, she has every incentive to move upfield since her main influence on the game is through offensive spells and her pDenny-style feat. The most effective way to play her would be to take some shield guards (Bokurs), upkeep her spells, feat and then camp focus all the time and hope to live. That is even more boring than eKreoss. Third, no real game plan - everything is reactionary or denial, and not that great at it.
• Decimator- requires wayyyyyy too much focus to make up for his craptastic RAT. I suspect he will come back with Malakov, because that Beat Back POW 15 gun combined with a POW 20 sustained attack melee weapon seems really good on a SPD 6 jack.
• Assault Kommandos - Do like 10 things, and all of them suck. There's no getting past mediocre stats, very low POW attacks, highly situational abilities and a pretty high points cost (except giving them +3 to all stats). Remember how good Trenchers were in Mk1? So do these guys.
• MoW Kovnik - This guy looks like serious business on paper. Problem is SPD 4 and no reach combined with no movement tricks means this guy isn't really getting to hit anything (unless you give him +3 to all stats). Second the emphasis on his jack marshall abilities, in a faction where jacks are focus-hungry, get great battlegroup buffs and have some very impressive buffable troops. And now have Malakov.

The poster boys for failure in JS Land

Mercs:

• pMagnus - great spell list, but no feat. Not having a feat kinda sucks. Imagine how much people would hate pStryker if he didn't have a feat - that's pMagnus. It's not really a matter of terrible as much as lame.
• Devil Dogs - too many hoops to jump through, and other people just do what they do better and more reliably. Charge maybe 7 around a warjack if graced by the favor of God himself, hit maybe the 3rd or 4th net, then get three POW 10 weapon master attacks. Then die. Short ranged guns and no way to deliver.... just legitimately bad.
• Blythe and Bull - WTF. It's like Ayanna & Holt that don't have Harm or Magic Weapons or Stealth and only one big meaty gun. Most obvious IKRPG conversion ever.
• Avalancher - Those Rhulics and their power pieces. I think they should get their own faction. Then Minions won't be the worst faction in the game anymore. This jack just seems like an even shittier version of the Destroyer, which is already a pretty shitty jack. Am I missing something?

Ret:

• Garryth - melee assassination casters don't tend to do too well in the current meta. Garryth would be great if he could keep his army standing long enough for him to get to the enemy caster, but Ret isn't built that way. And his feat being skewed so hard towards Warmachine sucks for him.
• Gorgon - The  Force Lock ability seems really strong. However it is tied to both a squishy warjack with rather crap combat capabilities and a squishy Generator node. It might cause slight activation issues for your opponent, but if that's what you're going for you might as well play this next guy....
• Nayl - Have no idea why people don't play him. As a Hordes player, I find him annoying as hell. Sure, he can screw you over if you place your caster nearby and he gets thrown over there. OR he can get in the middle of the opposing army and take P+S 13 free strikes on everyone since he is way too annoying to deal with and destroys your opponent's time. Guess two points is a lot to give up to completely mess up your opponent's plans for a turn.

Apparently if I ever get a tattoo, it has to be this.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Trolls:

• Gunnbjorn - he has a sweet gun, pretty good spells but again, no feat. Or a feat that doesn't work for his spell list, since it seems only good for protecting a rampaging horde of rushing trolls on the advance, which will be way ahead of him. Trolls usually have underwhelming spells and feats on paper, but this guy also has them on the table!
• Winter Troll - I haven't had the pleasure to see why this guy sucks on the table. If the animus was RNG: Self, I would totally understand but at RNG 6 it might see some use. Maybe it's the RAT 4 on the spray. Maybe it's the pillow fists when you could be taking some baller Troll Hero or a Pyre Troll that brings +2 damage to said Troll Hero.
• Mountain King- He might be awesome if he came out 2 years ago when people weren't designing lists to 1-round much heavier targets. Alas, people are doing just that. He's also MAT 5 for no reason at all. WHY MAT 5?!?!
• Sluggers - So their stats suck more than the average Troll, for some reason. And if they move and shoot, they really suck. If they stand still and shoot, they get 5d3 RAT 7 POW 13 shots off, which is pretty good with Snipe. But then they are 5/8 for 3/5 guys with 5 boxes each. Why they have boxes, nobody knows. More muscle mass from lifting I guess. But we do know this is the best example of Snipe tax known to man.

Circle:

• Ravagers - It's because they die. Like, really easily. If everyone played in heavily forested terrain all the time, they would probably be legit, but such a thing is rare.
• Sentry Stones - This thing was ridiculously overpowered in Mk1 for doing almost the same thing. Then Mk2 happened and I have not seen one since. Is it the 3pts? The short 6" CMD range? The reliance on enemy warbeasts to do it's thing? I really don't know.

Legion:

• Rhyas - Again, a melee assassination caster that doesn't seem to get love. How odd. I think this is the case of a caster that doesn't do much. She hides in the back, casts Dash and upkeeps two spells. If you play against Hordes you might risk her to kill a warbeast and steal its fury and run away. Her feat is good but kinda reliant on your opponents list and positioning. Also no pathfinder is stupid.
• Grotesques - Not only are they uglier than my ass, they are potentially the least exciting unit I have ever seen. Mediocre to poor stats all around, BUT they can fly, are fearless and gang. That sure makes up for that single MAT 5 POW 10 attack. If they were 3/5, they might see some play. Might.

Skorne:

A fall from grace that would make Satan jealous.

• eMorghoul - A melee assassination caster! Yep, and eMorghoul also sucks to play. In Mk1, he was probably amongst the most OP casters in the game since he was not only an assassin machine with good support spells (same as now), but his feat Blinded your opponent's entire army. That was pretty OP. Anyway, they dicked around with him in the Play Test for several editions until they slapped his current lame-ass boring feat on him in the last release and left it at that, together with passive stealth. Two weeks more/less of playtesting would have made a world of difference.
• Savage - I don't know why I don't see more of these. I submitted so many feedback forms that the animus should cost 1. Now it costs 1 and nobody takes them. FML. More evidence nobody really likes melee lights unless they are spammable, and Savages are not spammable at 5pts. dat animus though...
• Cannoneer - Warbeasts with big AoE guns are amazing since you can boost pretty much everything you need at will. The reason this guy is left on the shelf however is firstly because his animus does nothing. It did nothing in Mk1 and doesn't do much now - the range is too short, and the cost is too high for a warlock relative to two more transfers. Secondly, he is very average in melee and Skorne doesn't stand for that jazz.
• Siege Animantrax - This thing not only sucks on the table, but also sucks on paper. I would have loved to see this thing in playtest, it must have been broken as balls before those last minute tweaks.

Minions:

• Arkadius - People want to cast Crippling Grasp - they miss, they die. On the flipside, pig beasts are pretty crap so his entire shtick is consequentially equally crap. Better pig beasts please.
• Calaban - I like my warlock to do things. If I wanted to just cast one spell, upkeep things and hope like hell I don't die, I'd have played PoM. If Grave Door didn't require 14 hoops to jump through as well as a full tax audit and vetting process, then maybe he might be cool had Rask never come out.
• Brigands - People take these with Carver. They don't take them otherwise. Because giving them CRA and Fearless is a thing when they have otherwise poor stats.
• Boneswarms - I have written on Boneswarms before. They could have three different roles, yet they don't do any of them well. They do the tanky role in Midas' theme list pretty well. Sucks for you, Gator players.

Feel free to share your thoughts. Remember that, at least in this context, 'good' and 'bad' are entirely relative, so it makes sense for every eLich,  Molik, or Satyxis unit, we have an eMorghoul, Avalancher or Grotesques.

*Skornergy, for you young ones, is a term coined by the podcast Focus and Fury to describe the Skorne list design process during the Hordes Playtest. It is essentially synergy that looks amazing but doesn't actually work, or screws itself over at some stage in the process. Lots of Skorne warlocks had this feature.

Keeping Kommitment Krisp with Khador

Last weekend I played my first game with Gators since Wolfcry last month. I even took a Boneswarm with Maelok as I was trying to gimp my list as much as possible. It did ok - killed a trooper, got one corpse token and jammed with its animus. It died after I forgot the +2 ARM from Maelok's feat but would have done a pretty good job tanking had I remembered. The least disappointed I've ever been with it. I won after I failed to assassinate him with Snapjaw, and then he failed to assassinate Maelok with his caster - ARM 21 is legit.

I've been filling my 1-2 Warmachine games a week with some proxying instead, mostly Khador at the moment. This is mostly to take a break from Gators for a while so I can come back and be excited about playing them again - a good strategy for keeping yourself playing the same faction all the time despite no new releases for what is set to be a full year.

I've been having fun reading the Khador boards and their response to being the worst "real" faction in the game (even Minions seem to do better in tournament rankings). It's not quite as fun as reading through the Trollbloods forums during the 'OMG MOUNTAIN KING IS SO BAD!!' phase, because the Khador players are mostly just stiff-upper-lip people who want to kill as much as possible on the table, winning be damned, while the Troll players are trolls. But it's still fun.

Anyway, here is a summary of Khador in my mind. Not much has changed for them in 2 years or so.

• Iron Flesh Kayazy are good. Stupidly good. But they are not the answer to everything anymore since Wrath/Domination + Gargosals has provided buckets of high DEF hate (none of which really worries Satyxis), and the meta has adjusted to have one list to deal with high DEF spam.
• 1-2 jacks at the most - most casters will only want to run one jack, and that jack will be a heavy hitter - Beast, Behemoth, Spriggan, Drago (with Vlad) or Conquest. If you take a second jack, it is either a cheap one like a Juggernaut, or a utility one like a Devastator or Demolisher.
  I guess this is fine in the great scheme of things, since regular Hordes lists will take 2-3 heavies in larger points games, with a couple of support lights. I wish MoW solos were more like lights in providing good utility or ranged support. The MoW Kovnik is a beast but SPD 4 no reach really hurts him (I always had one marshalling a Destroyer in my eVlad lists way back when - worked great) - other than that, MoW are really crap.
  If anything, this highlights how focus still doesn't work the way people want it to in terms of running warjacks, and Cryxmachine will continue until it does.
• Half the faction (casters/jacks/infantry/solos) are great when put in the right place, and the other half is balls.

I guess in the end this isn't that different to Cryx - half your casters are amazing (especially the 3 prime ones), half your troop choices are super amazing, you have a few amazing solos.... and the rest is entirely overlooked. I guess Khador does at least take 1-2 heavies while Cryx takes a few lights, maybe a Kraken, maybe Deathjack.

The main thing holding Khador back at present is the lack of tricks and how the meta at high levels has changed to deal with raw stats superiority - namely high DEF and high ARM. Jamming is also a more prevalent tactic with SR2013, which means that Khador's style of focusing on charge lanes is become less effective. What they have received so far in Vengeance does seem promising however, so let's hope it brings them out of the gutter, and they can go back to realizing how great eVlad actually is.

TL;DR: eIrusk is the Calaban of Khador, Butcher/Vlad/Sorscha are all great fun to play, and I hope Butcher3 is sweet.

Next I'll probably play some Protectorate, Circle, maybe even a little Cryx and Pigs - whatever I can get my hands on before the next nearby tournament pushes me to practice with Gators again. It's good to have a regular gaming group that lets you borrow all their stuff so you can get better :)