The Spiciest of Updates

So Warmachine Christmas happened and, boy, did Khador make out like bandits. I was excited going into the updates and spoilers, but got more than I hoped. I could continue to wax lyrical, but we all know you’re here for the spiciest of hot takes. Let’s go!

We’re gonna go through each of the changes on the update document and discuss how impactful and why for each one. I might group some of them together for relatedness, or I might not. For I am capricious and overexcited.

Casters:

Assault Kommander Strakhov & Kommandos 27 WJPs (+5):

Strakhov 2 was always a weird place for PPs habit of docking WJPs because of free dudes in the unit. Butcher 3, Old Witch 1 and Zerkova 2 all suffered this as well. Strakhov’s posse has always been decent, with good guns and smoke bombs, but not really worth the 5+ points you were losing over taking another caster. The main effect here is that he feels less bad to take as a caster and he gets to take a real battlegroup, instead of the trash he was taking before. Strakhov is an infantry caster, he does basically nothing for jacks, and therefore wants to spend no spare points on jacks.

Expect to see Strakhov 2 a bit more often now, especially with some of his favourite infantry getting cheaper, allowing him to take more stuff. For example, him and 3 full units of Demo Corp are gonna do well, as they are now cheap enough to cast Last Stand on without feeling bad.

Forward Kommander Sorscha 29 WJPs (+2), Iron Flesh becomes:

Target friendly Faction warrior model/unit gains +2 ARM and Blast Resistance. Models are not affected while out of formation. (A model with Blast Resistance gains +4 ARM against blast damage.)

This is as good a place to talk about the Blast immunity change as any, as I have basically nothing to say about Sorscha 2. She is still unfocused and bad. 29 WJPs is nice, but basically irrelevant, as she still needs a change to her kit to make her actually fit a niche.

The blast immunity change, on the other hand, I can wax lyrical about. It’s a massive buff for Khador in general. For a long time, our whole ranged identity has been blasts, and though that is no longer 100% true, what is true is that the likes of Clockwork angels, Trancers and Rocketmen are now gonna feel the sting of our blast damage. Blast Resistance being a flat +4 to armour means that those arm 11 models are only getting to arm 15, which is not high enough to prevent them dying to Creeping Barrages, or Behemoth shooting, or Bombards, etc. At the same time, blast immunity in the faction is still excellent. Even Kayazy Assassins, our nominally lowest armour option for Iron Flesh, are going to get to armour 18 vs blast damage, which is fairly safe. Fantastic change that single handedly makes a lot of our ranged jacks more viable.

Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova Rod of Whispers becomes RNG 12,

Grave door becomes:

A model disabled by this weapon cannot make a Tough roll. When a living or undead enemy model is boxed by this attack, you can choose to take control of it. If you do, remove 1 damage point from it, causing it to no longer be boxed. You can then immediately change its facing. For the rest of the turn, this model can channel spells through the affected model while it is in this model’s control range. This model can channel spells even while engaged. The affected model cannot activate. At the end of the turn, the affected model is destroyed.

Did not see this one coming. It’s minor, but nice. In Mk 3, Zerkova has been a caster that can stand really far up and be safe, so the range of her Ice Cream cone has not traditionally been an issue, but being able to threaten a touch further, and be a bit safer is just nice. The changes to Grave door are really just a text clean up, allowing you to channel in melee, making it a bit easier to use.

As I’m not going to cover it later, I’ll also just touch on the change to Thamarite Advocates, as they can now be taken in any list with a Thamarite caster, providing Thamrite only Power up that can be given to the caster and re-rolls on magic attacks. Both of these help out both Zerkova’s and I would consider at least one with either Zerkova mandatory. Neither change really impacts Zerkova 1’s game plan, but they are nice quality of life improvements.

Kommandant Irusk 29 WJPs (+2)

Iron Flesh changes

Russian Sun Tzu got a couple of WJPs, which is nice but irrelevant. The more interesting change is that the models he likes to take got better or cheaper. Irusk 1 is a pretty good Armoured Korp caster, and Armoured Korp got tons better just through virtue of actually being able to fit all the models you want in a 75 point list. Irusk also really wanted to take just the one jack, and is one of the better casters to run just a Conquest on. He might actually be interesting now.

Kommandant Sorscha Kratifoff gains Irregulars [Medium-Based Man-O-War]

The first of the really transformative changes. Sorscha can now play in whatever theme she likes and still take as much Man O War stuff as she likes. Which is cool, as she is likely pretty good Jaws or Wolves of Winter. Note that this gives her access to the majority of Man O War models. This opens up some fascinating list options, such as Demo Corp backed by Greylord support, or a jack spam in Jaws with a MOW contingent to abuse Flank and get access to . There are going to be some interesting lists come out of this change, as it really opens up some inter-theme play. Most interesting is probably Wolves of Winter, as Doom Reavers like the concealment and cloud wall on the approach, Greylords like the same, and the additional vectors for debuffing makes her jacks more interesting.

Kommander Andrei Malakov Cut Razor Wind, Gain Discombobulate, Open fire becomes cost 1

Discombobulate – Cost 2, RNG 10, AOE -, POW -, DUR TURN, OFF Yes – Both the front arc and back arc of target model/unit is treated as its back arc.

This is another game changer. Malakov has always been an interesting caster, that has struggled with parts of his kit not being amazing. He has a bunch of tricks and his feat is a pain in the ass to deal with, but his output buffs have always been difficult to bring to bear. Discombobulate and Open fire change this massively. Being able to turn on Backstab is a massive power up for him, especially for ranged units. It’s kinda cute on the likes of Doom Reavers or Demo Corp, but the money units are the likes of Winterguard Infantry or Bombardiers. A full Winterguard deathstar is actually kind of interesting with him, with Rockets loving backstab on a turn to turn basis, and the dream being the full unit going in at pow 12 weapon master charges and pow 12, 3 dice sprays on the assault.

The other area Malakov is kind of interesting is in a ranged jack list. Malakov brings a cloud wall, a walking movement buff and cheap open fire. Combined with the changes to Decimators and Demolishers, and the accuracy buffs from Discombobulate and Spriggan Flares, and we could well be seeing the first decent ranged battlegroup list in the faction, with a distinct Khador flavour. Is it shooting you from 20 inches away? No. But it’s threatening 14-16 inches with decent shooting, feating, and then backing up when it get’s hit. On top of that, he can put out a ludicrous amount of POW 15 shots, which when backed up by Wolves of Winter debuffs and focus magnification, could be very impressive. Interesting times.

Kommander Orsus Zoktavia Arcane Dementia: replace d6 with 2d3. Also gains Reckless Arcana.

Reckless Arcana – Once per turn, when a model in this model’s battlegroup destroys one or more enemy models with a melee attack, immediately after the attack is resolved, this model can cast a spell with COST 3 or less without spending focus.

So Butcher 2 got a double buff. Hooray! Is it good enough? No probably not. The problem is that Butcher 2s big schtick is still not great. He excels at murdering the crap out of things and surfing through infantry, but he’s still terrible at triggering Conferred Rage. 2d3 is more reliable, Reckless Arcana is nice to have, but if he’s going to be a decent caster, he needs a way to get out of danger (ala Sprint/Cyclone/reposition etc) or he needs to lean more heavily into the battlegroup stuff (ala going the full Alpha hunter route and giving free runs/charges). Give him a different speed buff to boundless so he can stack with Sorscha we’ll talk. At the moment, he’s still worse at everything he wants to do than other casters in the faction.

Kommander Zoktavir, the Butcher Unleashed 24 WJPs (+2)

A couple of extra points is nice but not majorly impactful. Devastators not opening on exploding is kinda interesting for him.

Obavnik Kommander Zerkova & Reaver Guards 27 WJPs (+3),

Sacrificial Lamb text becomes:

Up to two friendly warrior models other than the spellcaster suffer 1d3 damage. For each damage dealt this way a model in the spellcaster’s battlegroup gains 1 focus. A model may gain no more than 3 focus this way. Sacrificial Lamb can be cast only once per activation.

So, between the WJP increase, the point drop on a lot of the Greylords and the betterment of the ranged jacks, Zerkova 2 has received a significant bump. The assassination potential has reached ludicrous levels. Between the changes to Thamarite Advocates and to Sac Lamb, she can reach the dizzying heights of 10 focus, whilst slinging out spells with stunning accuracy. She can get access to, not 1, not 2, but 3 re-rolls and potentially 4 dice to hit, making her ridiculously accurate. Combine that with her extra room in her lists for even more Bad Santas and her tendency to just murder the opposing caster becomes silly. I could already kill the likes of Falcyr through a 7 camp, now I’ll have a go at Karchev if I come across him.

Orsus Zoktavir, The Butcher of Khardov

Iron Flesh becomes:

Target friendly Faction warrior model/unit gains +2 ARM and Blast Resistance. Models are not affected while out of formation. (A model with Blast Resistance gains +4 ARM against blast damage.)

Not much to say here other than Butcher can probably run a better Armoured Korps list now that Armoured Korp is cheaper.

Supreme Kommandant Irusk

Solid ground becomes:

While in the spellcaster’s control range, friendly Faction models cannot become knocked down and gain Blast Resistance. (A model with Blast Resistance gains +4 ARM against blast damage.)

This is actually kind of a nerf for Irusk. He was probably playing Winterguard, which are gonna be arm 17 to blast damage now, instead of immune. Arm 19 with Iron Flesh is pretty solid, but arm 17 is gonna die a lot to high explosive and powerful shot AOEs (ie Behemoth). It’s not a big change, just note that you might actually want to spread properly with your terrible peasants.

What is slightly more interesting for Irusk is the changes to Assault Kommandos. But we’ll get there when we get there.

The Old Witch of Khador 24 WJPs (+6),

Iron Flesh becomes:

Target friendly Faction warrior model/unit gains +2 ARM and Blast Resistance. Models are not affected while out of formation. (A model with Blast Resistance gains +4 ARM against blast damage.)

Whelp, it’s not quite what I wanted (I wanted a mat bump for scrappy as well), but it’s enough. 6 WJP means that Witch is no longer playing 10 points down on every other Khador caster. Frankly, if my suspicions about infantry making a big up swing in the future come true, she will be excellent. Witch continues to be a massive middle finger to infantry, and she’s a pretty damn good jack caster as well. She’s a pretty good option to run a 6-7 jack list in Jaws, especially with Behemoth’s point drop and her (relatively) new option of putting Weald Secrets on Ol’ Grim (who is crazy accurate as it is).

Zevanna Agha, the Fate Weaver 29 WJPs (+2),

Text of Windstorm becomes:

While in the spellcaster’s control range, enemy models’ range weapons with a RNG greater than 8 suffer –5 RNG on affected ranged attacks to a minimum of 8. When an enemy AOE ranged attack deviates from a point in this model’s control range, after determining the deviation distance, you choose the deviation direction. Windstorm lasts for one round.

Windstorm being nerfed kind of hurts Witch 2. On the upside, more jack points is nice, as it pushes her either take a 3rd budget jack, or 2 expensive jacks. Not much else to say.

Warjacks:

So our points didn’t get reduced as drastically as say, Trollbloods, but we already had hella cheap jacks to be fair. Let’s have a shufti!

Beast 09 16pts (-2), New text for Shield Guard on bond (TEMPLATED)

Beast at 16pts feels a hell of a lot better than 18. He is essentially a beefed up Juggernaut with 2 inch reach. He’s still mostly gonna see play with the Sorschas, and Sorscha 1 and 2 still don’t care. He is now cheap enough that Sorscha 3 might play him, as the hilarity of counter charging, Crit Freezing, murderous attacks against the likes of Archons or other super solos is pretty hilarious. He’s probably still a touch too expensive for Sorscha 0, but, hell, if you’re running the likes of Kozlov or Strakhov 1 anyway, you might break him out. A nice change!

Behemoth 20pts (-5), Sub-cortex affects all weapons (instead of just ranged ones)

This is a big reduction. At 25pts, if you weren’t making Behemoth the core of your list, it wasn’t really worth taking him. As such, he was generally only taken by the casters who specifically wanted something from him, like Strakhov for Overrun triggers or OW1 for a jack that inherently could kill just about anything. 20pts makes him cheap enough to consider as a candidate in a minimum jack build, or as an upgrade in a list. Powerful Attack on the fists is… definitely something, but frankly, Behemoth doesn’t really want to boost to hit in melee. It is a nice bonus if you really have to I guess? As a final note, he is now named in Armoured Korp, which is pretty nice actually. Casters like Butcher 1, Irusk 1 or Sorscha 3 might quite like him there, and he makes a nice centre piece for a Bombardier based shooting list.

Black Ivan 16pts (-3), cut Evasive and Point-Blank, gain Dual Attack

Ah, the infinite meme machine. Losing Evasive is sad, as is point blank. Dual attack is a good rule, but unfortunately, means that he is going to be pretty inaccurate with anyone but Harkevich, who is still terrible. Some active player made the point that he might be good at solo hunting, which is definitely a thing he could do. However, Ol’ Grim is a model that exists now, and our other shooting is better. I still say that he needs to be better in melee to be an option. Seriously, just give him straight up brutal damage on the claw already.

Conquest 33pts (-2)

So the big boy got a straight points decrease (which is very nice). The more important thing for the Conquest is the changes to blast immunity. Creeping Barrage is much better now, being able to block off the likes of Clockwork Angels, Rocketmen and Satyxis much better now. Even with the plus 4 armour, these models only tend to hover at around arm 15/16 which is very killable for high explosive AOEs.

Dozer Cut Beat Back, Gain Batter

Another big change. The Dozer (for those who didn’t know) is the ranged weapon of the Decimator. Batter is effectively beatback (pushes an inch, decimator can advance an inch) but it also knocksdown. This is amazing for 2 reasons. The first is for the decimator itself, as it has always struggled with efficiency. ROF 2 is great, but not when you want to boost hit and damage on both shots. You can now boost to hit, and boost 2 damage rolls with a full stack, making the upper limit of it’s efficiency much better. Stacked on top of this is reason 2, which is that having access to boostable knockdown in every list makes Khador ranged jacks much more viable. Between this and the demolisher change, I am actually pondering a couple of different ranged jack builds with the likes of Harkevich and Malakov (though it is a very Khador ranged list, no 20 inch threat ranges, but a tonne of armour on the other side).

Demolisher

Armored Shell becomes:

If this model makes a basic melee attack or throw power attack its base ARM is 19 until the start of its next activation.

So the devastator got the same rule, which is bonkers (more on that later), but frankly this change, combined with the above decimator change, actually makes the Demolisher pretty viable. The problem with it was always that it’s terrible inaccurate shooting was not worth opening up for. Now that you don’t, and that knockdown is available, it’s dual pow 15s are more interesting. I spoke above about the possibility of a ranged Khador jack list, and these would be excellent as the tip of the spear.

Destroyer becomes 13pts (-1)

So the point decrease is nice. It makes taking one or 2 in a minimum battlegroup a bit nicer and more accurately reflects how valuable they are. Building a ranged list is probably not going to use these (the demolisher, Spriggan and Decimator are a bit more interesting) but at 13 points, you might throw one into a Strakhov or Karchev list for triggers, or elsewhere for a boostable gun.

Devastator

Armored Shell becomes:

If this model makes a basic melee attack or throw power attack its base ARM is 19 until the start of its next activation.

So devastators were already really damn good. Now they probably never open. There are maybe 2 casters that actually want it to make melee attacks (Kozlov and Sorscha 3), but the rest are pretty happy with a straight pow 18 that doesn’t have to roll to hit. It’s generally a good idea to have at least 1 of these in your list.

Drago 13pts (-1)

Drago getting cheaper is nice, but he still has the same problem. The models that can turn him up don’t want to take him, as he might explode and none of the Vlad’s really care (Vlad 1 wants cheaper jacks, Vlad 2 is probably taking Ruin and a Marauder or a Victor, and Vlad 3 is either taking a Judicator or Victor).

Grolar 16pts (-2)

The Grolar being 2 points cheaper is nice, makes it a bit easier to fit in. A Grolar and a Kodiak are a nice pairing for a minimum jack loadout (28 points is a good amount to fit in WJP) and gives access to a decent pair of beaters and some decent gun shots. They both have pathfinder, both run further. Really good change overall.

Kodiak 12pts (-1)

I find this one mildly hilarious. It now occupies the point value that the Juggernaut used to, and is still amazing. As I said before, pairing one of these with a Grolar is a good use of WJPs and Kodiaks remain an amazing jack. What they lose in POW over a Juggernaut, they gain in utility. Excellent jack remains excellent.

Mad Dog

Fleet becomes:

While this model has 2 or more focus it gains +2˝ movement when advancing as part of its Normal Movement.

The fleet change is… interesting, but Mad dogs are still bad. It’s still a trample specific jack at pow 14. Fleet is cute, but it’s a desperation move to load up an Unstable jack, and the Mad dog will probably disappoint you. I don’t know what to do to fix this jack, but it’s pretty bad. I don’t know why I would take one of these over a Berserker.

Rager 9pts (-1), New text for Shield Guard

Ragers a great go-to jack for Sorscha 0 or to marshall, so you tend to see one of them quite a lot. I have no-idea why they got cheaper, but I’m not complaining.

Ruin Armored Fist weapon gains the buckler advantage

Ruin was already one of our better character jacks. Good price, good mat, good rules, good POW, good bond. Available in a good theme. And now he is Arm 21. It is pretty nice as most opponent assume he has a shield anyway. C’est bonne!

Spriggan Cut Targeting Flare, gain Flare on ranged weapons

So the loss of Targeting flare is a little bit sad. It was a cool rule, didn’t require rolling to hit, and had some niche play into cloudwalls. That being said, Flare is an upgrade for sure. The Spriggans biggest problem has always been Mat 6. It’s just not super accurate for a 17 point jack. Well, now if it gets into melee, it’s going to be Mat 8, Mat 10 on the charge (it can’t miss a target in melee with it due to the drift). That’s more like it. On top of this, it’s also going to be a critical component of any ranged list. Having access to a +2 def swing is exactly what our ranged models needed to be more effective, jack or otherwise. Increasing the utility of this premium model is exactly what was needed to see it in lists more often. Excellent change.

Torch 17pts (-1) Cut Targeting Flare, gain Flare on ranged weapons

Torch is the quintessential Character jack for me: really good with his bonded warcaster, kinda meh elsewhere. He is available in Winterguard Kommand, but is kind of meh there. His big selling point is that he is a good utility character with randomly good rules. Relentless charge would be a big deal in Wolves, Legion or Armoured Korp, but WGK has access to Sorscha 0, so meh. Where he shines is with Strakhov 1, where he is a fantastic assassin (due to sustained attack) and piece trader (due to Sprint and Overrun). Flare just makes him better at this, with his charge attack going at Mat 11, as the Flare AOE can’t miss if you’re in melee.

Victor 32pts (-2)

Cheaper is better. Nuff said.

Solos

Iron Fang Kovnik ARM 17 (+2), switch current leadership for leadership – unyielding

So Arm 17 is nice, especially as it will be arm 19 to melee. Unfortunately, Unyielding is kind of irrelevant to Iron Fangs. Unless you are going super high armour, such as Strakhov 2, it’s just kind of irrelevant. Loss of Precision Strike also really removes a niche that Legion of Steel had. Meh.

Kapitan Sofya Skirova 4pts (-1), New text for Shield Guard

Her being cheaper is functionally irrelevant, as she is probably one of your free cards. She’s still excellent, just in a bad theme.

Koldun Lord 3pts (-1) gain prowl, Change Leadership – battle wizard to leadership – prowl

Now here is a dank leadership change. Prowl for Greylords is pretty huge. Every Greylord model except for the Escort and the Forge Seer can proc it themselves and it just makes them much more difficult to murder. Zerkova 2, in particular, can pull the hilarity of a stealthed, immune to spells cloud wall. It’s also hilarious that Karchev and Zerkova can benefit from it as well.

The point change is actually pretty impactful as well. Usually, we were taking 2-3 Ternions as Req options, and that hasn’t changed, so the Koldun dropping a point actually frees up some points.

Kovnik Andrei Malakov 3pts (-1)

Like the Koldun lord, Malakov was not usually your free model if you were taking him. Considering that Malakov is a nice choice with a couple of casters, it’s a nice change.

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich 3pts (-1), New text for Sacrificial Pawn

Jo getting cheaper is nice, but the real story is that he can now tell stories to Assault Kommandos. Being Rat 8 on an important Stranglethorn Gas, or being pow 15 on the charge is pretty amazing.

Manhunter 2pts (-2)

So Manhunters are still massive disappointments, but at least now they are cheap disappointments. I am actually considering a couple of these with Kozlov. Seriously though, can they get 1 inch reach it at least. Those axes are massive!

Man-O-War Drakhun 8pts (-1)

8 points is a much nicer cost for them, and they will still never be taken, as Tankers are still free options. Either make them a free option, or make them better at their jobs. Next!

Man-O-War Kovnik 3pts (-1)

So, many want these idiots to have Desperate pace as an anytime ability. Frankly, I don’t really care, as they only tend to do stuff late game anyway. 3 points is really nice place for them, as Armoured Korp needs all the points it can get. You were never taking these guys for free (because then you weren’t taking Tankers or Dragos for free), so this change is nice. Not getting too ahead of myself, but the changes make it actually possible to field Armoured Korp without compromising now.

Widowmaker Marksmen 3pts (-1)

I was taking the Marksman a bunch more, mostly due to Ol’ Grim. 3 pts is a good place form him, and Deadly shot is still an excellent rule.

Winter Guard Artillery Kaptain Cut Close Fire, Gain Veteran Leader [Winter Guard],

Fire & Displace becomes:

RNG CMD. Target friendly Faction weapon crew unit. If the unit is in range, it gains Reposition [3˝]. Fire & Displace lasts for one turn. (At the end of an activation in which it did not run or fail a charge, a model with Reposition [3˝] can advance up to 3˝, then its activation ends.)

Losing the one instance of Repo [2] in the game for repo 3 is good. It was always a weird rule. More important is Vet Leader Winterguard. We can still take 2 for a req choice, and in WGK, I think these are going to be the first choice for free cards. Once again, giving +1 to hit to Assault Kommandos is very nice, as is the +1 to every Winterguard model. Field Guns now get to rat 10 aiming with Joe bonus. Noice!

Yuri the Axe 4pts (-1)

Was gonna be free if he was taken before, still likely to be free. Meh. More interesting now that Kossites are decent and Manhunters are cheap.

Units:

Assault Kommandos 7/11pts (-2/-4) gain Winter Guard keywords, New Text for Shield Wall

Big change is big. First of all, they got wayyyy cheaper. They are now an in-between unit for Infantry and Rifle Corp. That’s pretty big, but even bigger is that they now ahve the Winter Guard tag. Why is this a big deal you ask? Well, because they now get access to Winter Guard buff.

Of particular note is Joe, who can give them +2 to hit, tough, and, most importantly, +4 strength. Bear’s Strength has always been the most niche of Joes stories, because Winterguard units only go up to POW 12. Good with another buff, but pretty meh otherwise. Assault Kommandos, on the other hand, are pow 11 on the charge, making them hit at POW 15 with bear’s strength. That is pretty hard hitting. Combine that with their random immunities and shield wall not slowing them down as much, and these guys will be pretty damn good in any Winterguard list. I will be particularly interested to see how they perform in a Stalingrad list.

Battle Mechaniks 2/4pts (-1/-1)

2 points for the min unit is an excellent point level. 4 points for the max is a bad point level. You will likely just take 2 units of 4, rather than 1 unit of 6. 2 points is a convenient amount for list building as well.

Black Dragons 9/15pts (-1/-2), New Text for Shield Wall

With the drop of precision strike leadership from the Kovnik, these guys finally have a niche, in that they have Precision Strike. It’s just a shame that they are still going to die on the approach. Shield wall change is nice, unyielding is nice for them (arm 23 to melee on the Iron Zeal turn), the point drop is nice. But they still aren’t fast enough or resistant enough to shooting.

Greylord Outriders 9/16pts (-1/-1) Gains Battle Wizard

I have no clue why these idiots got cheaper. They also got Prowl, which is always triggered due Snow Wreathed. An excellent unit that got better. Nuff said.

Greylord Ternion 5pts (-2) Gains Battle Wizard

Ternions have retained their status as a free option and 5 points is a nice price point for them. Battle Wizard base is nice, though it rarely comes up. Of more interest is the addition of Prowl, which makes them much more survivable.

Iron Fang Pikemen 8/13pts (-1/-2), New Text for Shield Wall

A nicer price point for them and the shield wall change is good. Still not had their core issues fixed however.

Iron Fang Uhlans 10/17pts (-2/-3)

Uhlans are actually mildly interesting here. 10/17 is a good price point, and Unyielding is actually decent on them. Cheaper is better, and Uhlans are still the best unit in Legion of Steel.

Kayazy Assassins 8/13pts (-1/-3), gain Duelist

Is very nice! They get cheaper and gain Duelist base. They still struggle with threat range at 9.5 inch threat, but are much improved. The real spice comes with the Underboss. More on that later.

Kayazy Eliminators 4pts (-1)

Usually taken for free, so not a big deal. These ladies are still amazing, as they still cause random anxiety in opponents.

Kommandant Atanas Arcondivich & Standard 5pts (-2)

Continuing the theme of MOW getting cheaper, 5 pts is a much more reasonable price for Atanas. Some themes need access to Tactician, Armoured Korp doesn’t really, and his battleplans are nice to have, but most of his abilities aren’t autoinclude. 5 points is therefore a good price point for him.

Kossite Woodsmen 7/11pts (+1/+1), gain Backstab

Well, hell definitely has frozen over, because Kossites are actually good now. Backstab on an Ambush unit is amazing. They are not going to kill heavies, or kill casters, but just getting reliable pow 10 shooting to dent heavier targets or take out infantry is a big deal for Jaws of the Wolf. Excellent change.

Man-O-War Bombardiers 8/14pts (-2/-2)

Cheaper is better. We can actually fit a full 3 units with support and decent jacks.

Man-O-War Demolition Corps 7/12pts (-1/-2)

2nd verse, same as the first (as an aside, 12 points is cheap enough to just spam them with no UA, Strakhov 2 will love them with Last Stand)

Man-O-War Shocktroopers 9/15pts (-1/-1), New Text for Shield Wall

Good point reducation. The shield wall change is amazing for them. They will always be shield walling now, unless charging, as they are only losing an inch. Amazing change.

Widowmaker Scouts 7pts (-1)

Snipers are great at the moment, but 7 points is still too much for what they are. I actually would have preferred them to stay at 8 points and pick up Stealth or reposition 3 to be honest. At the moment, I would take a minimum unit of Kossites over these.

Winter Guard Field Gun Crew 3pts (-1)

With the points drop, accuracy buff from Kapitans and extra options from Assault Kommandos, WGK is going to be much improved. Field guns were almost never taken as free cards, so the point drop will be impactful.

Winter Guard Mortar Crew 3pts (-2)

These were usually at least one of the free cards, but equal cost to the field gun feels approriate. Vet leader makes them mildly more accurate, and the Blast Immunity change means they will be killing more stuff. High explosive, as noted before, is excellent against the likes of Clockwork Angels and Rocketmen.

Winter Guard Rifle Corps 7/12pts (-1/-1)

Rifle Corp are cheaper, nuff said.

Attachments:

Assault Kommando Flame Thrower 1pt (-1)

They probably weren’t worth 2 to be honest. They aren’t great in the current role that Assault Kommandos have, but at a point, they make a good point filler for WGK.

Battle Mechanik Officer 1pt (-2)

Again, decent point filler. Still bad, still speed 4, probably not worth the points tbh. Might be okay as a source of Girded for Kayazy?

Black Dragon Officer & Standard 3pts (-1)

Nice point drop, still irrelevant.

Greylord Adjunct 3pts (-1)

Considering Kung fu santa here is in basically everylist, him dropping a point is basically a free point in every list.

Greylord Escort New text for Sacrificial Pawn

No real change here, just that you can’t sac pawn an attack more than once. Since Escorts can only Sac to Doom Reavers, it is totally irrelevant here.

Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard 3pts (-1),

The second sentence of Defensive Formation becomes:

“This activation, models not affected by the Shield Wall order in this unit…”

Again, cheaper but still irrelevant. The one saving grace is that you might fit in better/more jacks in your terrible theme list.

Kayazy Assassin Underboss Cut Tactics: Duelist, gain Duelist and Tactics: Shadow Dance

Tactics: Shadow Dance – Models in this unit gain Shadow Dance. (When a model with Shadow Dance hits an enemy model with a melee attack, immediately after the attack is resolved you can place another model in its unit completely within 3˝ of the placed model’s current position. A model can be placed by Shadow Dance only once per turn.)

So this is…. something. I’m still not sure where this came from, but the jank is real folks. I think what this ability boils (other than random jamming and contesting down to is going to be getting backstab charges off much easier. 2 Kayazy go into a target, the first hits and ports the second into back arc of the charge target. I really like this as a work around for their terrible charge range. Get a couple into melee and minifeat to make these guys either hit their charge target really hard, or get faux charges on other models. Very impressed.

Man-O-War Bombardier Officer 3pts (-2)

Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer 3pts (-1)

Sergeant Dragos Dragadovich 4pts (-2)

All these MOW changes amount to one thing really. You can fit more stuff in your Armoured Korp list. This is excellent, because it was always difficult to get everything you wanted in the average Armoured Korp list, and now you can live the dream.

War Dog 2pts (-1)

Scoobey Doos Russian cousin, Boris, is much better at 2 pts than 3, but is still irrelevant because taking an Adjuncy is still better. Like, you might bother with the likes of Butcher 3, but even then, the Adjunct can give you concealment and an extra focus to camp. If the Daag was slightly more difficult to kill, then maybe?

Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard 3pts (-1),

Last part of the second sentence of grape shot becomes:

“…and gains assault , and the RNG of its blunderbuss becomes SP 8 instead of RNG 8.”

So the Winterguard package getting a touch cheaper, a touch better (Vet leader) and getting access to assault is a big deal. The charge becomes pretty decent with this unit now, especially with a buff, like Backstab from Malakov. Excellent change, that makes the full Winterguard DeathStar of Old a bit more appealing in modern Warmachine.