ChainGun
10-05-2010, 06:41 AM
Kommander Orsus Zoktavir is both similar to and different from his Prime incarnation. He is almost as brutal (slightly weaker, as he lost Blood Frenzy) and is more vulnerable (having lost Iron Flesh and “gained” Arcane Dementia) but his feat is a strategic one, allowing you to win games by assassination and he can easily handle multiple Khadoran warjacks.
Strengths:
The Kommander is Brutal. With high MAT and incredible damage output, very few models in the game can survive an assault by Orsus.
Terror. Fearless units are more of a rarity in MK2 so this ability might prove useful from time to time.
Conferred Rage. What’s the down side of Khadoran warjacks? They are slow and inaccurate. Epic Butcher makes them fast and accurate. Well, sort of. Getting a free charge is easy enough; all your warjack has to do is stay within 12” of Orsus. Getting the SPD and MAT bonuses is trickier as it depends on Orsus killing something but deadly when activated.
Weakness:
Arcane Dementia. 1+d6 focus per turn is effectively 3-4 focus warcaster. That sucks. What it means really is that you upkeep Fury, allocate focus and only cast spells if you’re blessed with above average focus rolls. Don’t count on Eliminator, Ravager or Boundless Charge when planning your next turn as in most turns you’ll simply not have enough focus to cast them. Also, you can’t reliably count on hoarding focus for increasing your ARM.
Shortest direct threat range in the game. If you want to hurt something with the Butcher directly, the furthest you can take your damage is 13": by walking 5" and then shooting for additional 8" for a total of 13". All other Khadoran casters have greater threat range and other factions have access to Arc Nodes. This weakness means you can't count on the Butcher to actually hurt something. All Butcher players want to “apply axe to face” but it's better to acknowledge the fact that against a clever opponent it's not likely to happen and prepare for this situation.
Low CMD. The Butcher has relatively low CMD and will not be able to support his non-fearless troops very well. Since most of our melee infantry is fearless this is not going to be a major issue, but if you field winter guard, widowmakers or, to a lesser degree, Iron Fangs, a Kovnik could be handy.
Vulnerable. Without Iron Flesh the Butcher is a medium based model with substandard DEF and unreliable ARM stats. In addition, due to his Conferred Rage and Feel the Hate he needs to be in a very frontal position in order to make good use of his abilities. Bear in mind he is much more vulnerable to assassination than Prime Butcher and you need to protect him more. In a way, due his base size, complete lack of defensive special abilities and unimpressive defensive stats, he’s the most vulnerable warcaster in the game.
The Butcher’s allies:
Warjacks. Even though you have an average of 4-5 focus per turn, Conferred Rage will give you the equivalent of slightly more. I only take P+S 18+ warjacks with Orsus, for reasons I’ll specify later.
Juggernaut. Cheap and Brutal, I always get my points back when I assign a Juggernaut to Epic Butcher.
Spriggan. Not so cheap but hits hard enough and his Reach combined with increased MAT makes him a real infantry killer. With Powerful Charge you can charge at MAT 8 and still boost attack rolls.
Beast 09. Sigh. Everything every other Khadoran warjack does, the beast does better. With Conferred Rage that’s a MAT 9 Khadoran warjack.
Destroyer. Hits hard and can give you Rage Tokens during feat turn.
Devastator: an exception to the 18+ rule, the Devastator can shower you with Rage Tokens if you get close to infantry swarms. It is also a great “charge marker” if you want Orsus to charge something of your own.
Behemoth. Deadly against anything medium or large based but not a good assassin against small based warcasters and warlocks. Also, it can generate Rage Tokens with it twin bombards.
Not recommended warjacks:
Berserker. Not much of a synergy here. The Berserker doesn't benefit anything from Conferred Rage's free charge and the SPD/MAT bonuses can't be relied on.
Snipers. You want accurate long range models for generating Rage Tokens on the feat turn.
Destroyer and/or behemoth.
Widowmakers, Eyriss, Kell Bailoch, Alten Ashley, Rifle Corps + Jozef.
Fast, deadly models. Along with the warjacks, these are also potential assassins. Run them during the feat turn and then give them Rage Tokens to assassinate your opponent’s warcaster/warlock or simply open big holes in his army.
Fenris. Run + Rage Token = 26” threat range! Additionally, it can both generate multiple Rage Tokens and use them later.
Drakhun. “Only” 23” threat range, but can be targeted by Fury.
Doom Reavers. Fast and deadly.
Great Bears. Amazing with Fury on them.
Manhunters/Yuri. Pathfinder makes it easy for them to assassinate what you need killing during feat turn.
Kayazy assassins. With the Underboss’ minifeat and Rage Tokens it’s easy to get them near what you need dead. Gang + Fury makes them hit really hard.
Medium based models. If you’re used to small base warcasters it’ll take you a few games to adjust to the fact that the Butcher is hard to hide. A MoW Kovnik or MoW troopers will benefit you immensely in hiding the Butcher. I’d take minimal units, though, as their speed does not integrate well with the play style Orsus dictates.
MoW Shock Troopers
MoW Demolition corps
MoW Kovnik
Fearless troops. The Butcher’s mediocre CMD rating can’t guarantee high moral when the chips are down. Fearless troops or solos which lend their high CMD such as Jozef or the MoW Kovnik will benefit your non-fearless troops.
MoW Shock Troopers
MoW Demolition corps
Iron Fangs (with unit attachment)
Doom Reavers
Great Bears
DEF boosting units. Epic Butcher is more front lines than Prime Butcher only without Iron Flesh. You need all the help you can get.
Wardog
Gorman
Greylords
· Additional helpers
Ogrun Bokur – remember you’re playing the most vulnerable warcaster in the game. Defend him in any way possible.
Reinholdt – you focus is tight and you need to shoot stuff to trigger Conferred Rage and Rage Tokens. Reinholdt can boost your attack rolls or allow you to reload
Koldun Lord – every focus point counts
Strengths:
The Kommander is Brutal. With high MAT and incredible damage output, very few models in the game can survive an assault by Orsus.
Terror. Fearless units are more of a rarity in MK2 so this ability might prove useful from time to time.
Conferred Rage. What’s the down side of Khadoran warjacks? They are slow and inaccurate. Epic Butcher makes them fast and accurate. Well, sort of. Getting a free charge is easy enough; all your warjack has to do is stay within 12” of Orsus. Getting the SPD and MAT bonuses is trickier as it depends on Orsus killing something but deadly when activated.
Weakness:
Arcane Dementia. 1+d6 focus per turn is effectively 3-4 focus warcaster. That sucks. What it means really is that you upkeep Fury, allocate focus and only cast spells if you’re blessed with above average focus rolls. Don’t count on Eliminator, Ravager or Boundless Charge when planning your next turn as in most turns you’ll simply not have enough focus to cast them. Also, you can’t reliably count on hoarding focus for increasing your ARM.
Shortest direct threat range in the game. If you want to hurt something with the Butcher directly, the furthest you can take your damage is 13": by walking 5" and then shooting for additional 8" for a total of 13". All other Khadoran casters have greater threat range and other factions have access to Arc Nodes. This weakness means you can't count on the Butcher to actually hurt something. All Butcher players want to “apply axe to face” but it's better to acknowledge the fact that against a clever opponent it's not likely to happen and prepare for this situation.
Low CMD. The Butcher has relatively low CMD and will not be able to support his non-fearless troops very well. Since most of our melee infantry is fearless this is not going to be a major issue, but if you field winter guard, widowmakers or, to a lesser degree, Iron Fangs, a Kovnik could be handy.
Vulnerable. Without Iron Flesh the Butcher is a medium based model with substandard DEF and unreliable ARM stats. In addition, due to his Conferred Rage and Feel the Hate he needs to be in a very frontal position in order to make good use of his abilities. Bear in mind he is much more vulnerable to assassination than Prime Butcher and you need to protect him more. In a way, due his base size, complete lack of defensive special abilities and unimpressive defensive stats, he’s the most vulnerable warcaster in the game.
The Butcher’s allies:
Warjacks. Even though you have an average of 4-5 focus per turn, Conferred Rage will give you the equivalent of slightly more. I only take P+S 18+ warjacks with Orsus, for reasons I’ll specify later.
Juggernaut. Cheap and Brutal, I always get my points back when I assign a Juggernaut to Epic Butcher.
Spriggan. Not so cheap but hits hard enough and his Reach combined with increased MAT makes him a real infantry killer. With Powerful Charge you can charge at MAT 8 and still boost attack rolls.
Beast 09. Sigh. Everything every other Khadoran warjack does, the beast does better. With Conferred Rage that’s a MAT 9 Khadoran warjack.
Destroyer. Hits hard and can give you Rage Tokens during feat turn.
Devastator: an exception to the 18+ rule, the Devastator can shower you with Rage Tokens if you get close to infantry swarms. It is also a great “charge marker” if you want Orsus to charge something of your own.
Behemoth. Deadly against anything medium or large based but not a good assassin against small based warcasters and warlocks. Also, it can generate Rage Tokens with it twin bombards.
Not recommended warjacks:
Berserker. Not much of a synergy here. The Berserker doesn't benefit anything from Conferred Rage's free charge and the SPD/MAT bonuses can't be relied on.
Snipers. You want accurate long range models for generating Rage Tokens on the feat turn.
Destroyer and/or behemoth.
Widowmakers, Eyriss, Kell Bailoch, Alten Ashley, Rifle Corps + Jozef.
Fast, deadly models. Along with the warjacks, these are also potential assassins. Run them during the feat turn and then give them Rage Tokens to assassinate your opponent’s warcaster/warlock or simply open big holes in his army.
Fenris. Run + Rage Token = 26” threat range! Additionally, it can both generate multiple Rage Tokens and use them later.
Drakhun. “Only” 23” threat range, but can be targeted by Fury.
Doom Reavers. Fast and deadly.
Great Bears. Amazing with Fury on them.
Manhunters/Yuri. Pathfinder makes it easy for them to assassinate what you need killing during feat turn.
Kayazy assassins. With the Underboss’ minifeat and Rage Tokens it’s easy to get them near what you need dead. Gang + Fury makes them hit really hard.
Medium based models. If you’re used to small base warcasters it’ll take you a few games to adjust to the fact that the Butcher is hard to hide. A MoW Kovnik or MoW troopers will benefit you immensely in hiding the Butcher. I’d take minimal units, though, as their speed does not integrate well with the play style Orsus dictates.
MoW Shock Troopers
MoW Demolition corps
MoW Kovnik
Fearless troops. The Butcher’s mediocre CMD rating can’t guarantee high moral when the chips are down. Fearless troops or solos which lend their high CMD such as Jozef or the MoW Kovnik will benefit your non-fearless troops.
MoW Shock Troopers
MoW Demolition corps
Iron Fangs (with unit attachment)
Doom Reavers
Great Bears
DEF boosting units. Epic Butcher is more front lines than Prime Butcher only without Iron Flesh. You need all the help you can get.
Wardog
Gorman
Greylords
· Additional helpers
Ogrun Bokur – remember you’re playing the most vulnerable warcaster in the game. Defend him in any way possible.
Reinholdt – you focus is tight and you need to shoot stuff to trigger Conferred Rage and Rage Tokens. Reinholdt can boost your attack rolls or allow you to reload
Koldun Lord – every focus point counts