Caster Fanaticism

[mobiusdeep]

To preface, I have been playing WM for roughly a year. My first and most used army has been Protectorate, and I have dabbled somewhat in trolls. Yet the more I played each faction, the less I felt like I had something meaty and fun on the table. Don't get me wrong, I love my over-zealous, firebombing, hymn chanting freaks, but there comes a time when a man wants to put on his man-pants and beat some face.


Then, MKII eButcher showed up. The more I read his card, the more I felt that fuzzy feeling you get when you meet a girl that completes you...When you find that one pizza joint that makes the crust exactly how you want it to be. eButcher is everything I really want in a caster.

His fluff is hilarious, his spells are interesting, his abilities keep me laughing all game, and I feel like I have a good chance at winning with him. Everything I want in the game is all in this one guy. This is really what I think the game should be about: not so much power, but how entertaining it is to play.

So, I'm just curious who your favorite Khadoran casters are and why. Any interesting stories to tell that back up your preference? I'll start.

Today, I was playing against a Kae'lyssa army full of Invictors and Sentinels. My opponent made the mistake of putting his Sentinels within charge range of eButcher, and I was able to pop my feat, daisy chain my attack through the -entire- unit, cast eliminator on his Invictors, get into CC with them, daisy chain up through the rest, and land on his caster's doorstep. After the rest of my activations were over, I had 20+ rage tokens to hand out. In short, he had roughly 7+- models left on the table after Volkov made himself an elf hat. This is exactly why I love eButcher.

[zee]

I know exactly what you mean by that fuzzy feeling reading eButcher's card. I described my first experience reading his card as my "eyes widening and widening... until they were in Bambi territory". Love it, can't wait to buy it. So unfortunately, I'm going to have to share eButcher's slot with you.

But if I had to pick another, I think pVlad was the first to jumped out at me. As a new and yet very fearful and insecure player, he seemed to say to me "it's ok, I have spells to let you play it safe and conservative". Rather bland, but it helped me to feel like I had a caster I could understand and be successful with without much finesse.

[The_Bionic_Labrat]

i like 'em all! :D

For me, firstly its my converted vlad/epic vlad and converted epic sorscha.

i did not like vlad's shoulder pieces so i got the epic model with out them, greenstuffed him up a bit etc. and then i realised i did not like his sword. So ichopped it off, converted it with the barrel of a 40k kroot rifle, and stuck a space wolf axe head on it.

I use him as both VLads, but since he is running around with a bigass axe, he feels like old skool khador. his spells are great, and as a new player, he is quite forgiving to play with. i prefer pVLad mainly for BoK and SaP and have had epic use out of him.
Once had my entire army trashed bar him and a legless destroyer. vlad BoKs himself, and charges in, cuts through a ring of gun mages, parries all their return shots and tears Siege a new one.
THus Vlad has a special place for that victory. if my crisis suit commander in my tau army was all i had left, i would shake hands and take the dignified defeat. with Khador, PP and Warmachine? Heh, gods no! Vlads move summed up "play agressively, and play like you got a pair".

Its the same story with epic sorscha. i have not used her yet, but i love her for the convertedness. i used the epic model, "lost" her left hand so had to take the left hand from starterbox sorscha, greenstuff it and tidy it up, and then had to convert frostfang with more kroot barrels. and she has a pelted coat now. it took ages to convert, but she has a special place in my heart.

And yes, Karchev too. And butcher. and epic Butcher!

__________________________________________________ ________

When i was looking at the forces, i knew i was for khador because of doom reavers. But i liked cygnar too. My issues were that cygnar casters were boring! with the exception of caine, and stryker when he wanted to sink all the menites in the sea, they seemed kind of characterless.
But with Khador? They are screaming with character (and battle lust!)

Vlad. old school awesome.
Butcher. homicidal maniac. great fluff and rules.
Karchev. dreadnoughtman.
Zherkova. all her orgoth lore and dark ministries.
the old Witch. apparently when menoth birthed himself, he found her sitting in a cave waiting for him. she sums up the idea of old capricious gods so well.
irusk and sorscha. straightforward, but still great characters.

[jack frost]

I think of sorscha as the young woman who coached me through my early gaming life in warmachine. and although I went to other teachers (first vlad, then the old witch) my first 20 serious games were with prime sorscha and each one was a inching closer to victory. here in vancouver I can safely say that some of the first players of warmachine had already become some of the deadliest players and so my first 20 real games were losses.

Sorsha stuck with me and we sweated it out and pounded the table each week for 5 weeks until I finally beat one of the store veterans who had 2-3 years on me. I was so happy I did a little dance and becausee everyone had been watching me struggle to learn everyone's armies even my opponent was happy for me.

Sure sorscha is easy to play with when your a veteran, but she teaches you what a veteran needs to know; how to push your enemy around when they have the tools to crush you in a heart beat without making any mistakes and always having the initiative.

Epic sorscha is my new love and I beleive we have a long road of victories and glorious defeats ahead of us. She has been changed through harsh experience on the unforgiving battlefields into a cold hearted calculating homing missile that will not hesitate to smash face at the first sign of weakness from her opponents and that is the playstyle I love best.

[0ver.d0se]

Epic Butcher has been my favorite since Mk1. He's metal to the core, and maybe just a little mentally unstable. So I can relate.

[Khador247]

PVlad for me. Sure Signs and Portents is great for making your whole army better. There is nothing more fun though than casting Blood of Kings, ignoring free strikes, and weaving your way through enemy troops to get to the caster and kill him. Good times.

[Appolus]

Irusk, the consummate military man, a visionary in terms of strategy, military technology, and national destiny. The commander dedicated to bringing the motherland out of the technological and territorial shadow of Cygnar. Also, the man with the most epic hat in all of the Iron Kingdoms, BAR NONE!

[vytzka]

PVlad is an honest to god vampire noble, it's very hard to top that! Though I'd like him to be more like Vincent Valentine. Shave that outdated moustache and the beard for one :p

Karchev the Terrible, goodness gracious, it's impossible to get more over the top than that. I knew I had to have that guy just from seeing the artwork and the fluff, and the rules - and the spectacular model - are just gravy. He's putting the word "jack" into the phrase "jack caster". Everything about that man, to the last bolt and shattered bone, just screams badass.

Also http://old.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=192039!

You know what, people keep mentioning epic Karchev every now and then. I want Privateer Press to not do it until we get some kind of superheavy jack class, 60mm base or 80mm or whatever. Then give Karchev an upgraded body!

Actually I keep imagining the final battle of Iron Kingdoms as we know them to be skyscraper sized Ultimate Mega-Karchev fighting Toruk one on one :D

[Marth]

Irusk, the consummate military man, a visionary in terms of strategy, military technology, and national destiny. The commander dedicated to bringing the motherland out of the technological and territorial shadow of Cygnar. Also, the man with the most epic hat in all of the Iron Kingdoms, BAR NONE!

Quoted for truth. All shall bow to our heel-rocking, dove-watching, RoF-2/Pow-13-to-the-face applying general.

[tedwin183]

pButcher is what got me into the game. I love his fluff, love his mechanics, and was totally FLOORED when they gave him Full Throttle! In my opinion, he's easily our best balanced list caster. Iron Flesh for the WG, Full Throttle for the jacks, and plenty of face smashing ability on his own. I used to have a hard time winning with him, having racked up my only wins with pSorscha, but I figured him out and since then, my opponents fear when the man from Khardov hits the table!

eSorscha would be a close 2nd. My favorite moment with her was when I got a charge off from 16" away, using Cyclone and Boundless Charge. The look on my opponent's face, followed by the feverish reading of eSorscha's rules was priceless.

[Cuagau]

Vlad, Via Drago.

Read Drago on battlecollege :-
Sweet, sweet model - Check
nice Affinity - Check
Affinity stacks with Signs and Portents - robogasm

[Skarburn]

Irusk.

Enough said.

[Jyggdrasil]

Also, the man with the most epic hat in all of the Iron Kingdoms, BAR NONE!

Of course the man is a military genius. Imagine how big his brain must be to hold up that hat.