Hark the Herald Angels sing

[Tossy]

I think Harkevich is getting a bad rep for no reason. He is our best jack caster but I think a lot of what he does is ignored by the things he does not do.

He is a premiere Jack caster but that does not mean you have to run lots of jacks with him... 3 Jacks is a lot of a Khadorian caster. They also don't have to be AoE pumping crazy jacks either, not even Black Ivan is a lock, he is only 1 AoE 3 template after all and a pillow fist (don't barrate me, BI is awesome I know I know). He is closer to a merc caster than anything else and we should play him as such.

Here is what he does well...

1. We can take the WGI without Joe, yes we lose tough for 2 points but fortune allows for our shots to hit without his boosts. Not to mention IFP if you want an all heavy armour army. They become a threat to infantry too... not to mention you are already a threat to low arm with all the shots you are throwing around.

Or maybe the Gun Carriage... MORE TEMPLATES

2. Makes out armour better for a turn. Seriously think about that for scenario play
3. Broadside (Do you best Admiral Akbar impression here) allows for another shot... dubious at best, if we have some AoE 4's to throw around maybe. Demolisher could make this a gold mine.
4. Pathfinder for our jacks
5. Escort, +2 mov for our jacks

All of this is coocoo crazy when you think about it. He is the ultimate second list in a tournament. If you need a list that will take on a heavies list. Maybe you want to fight against Khador and want to go AoE Heavy... he can do both.

Funny thing about him is he runs Infantry well (remember our infantry is Awesome without support + he has fortune) and runs jacks well... So balance it out... or go to either extreme (more jack heavy we have infantry casters who do it better).

I am finding it really hard to not like the guy. I fear that people are worried about him because of lack of use or trying to hit every synergy, you will never do that. Not every spell has to be used with every caster (and most likely isn't). Give him a go, I would not be surprised if he is one of the next winning Khador lists in a 2-3 list format.

Sure he is not Number 1, but he is up there with the best

*wow, I felt like a cheer leader after that*

[Tyr852]

Nice little write up about him , he is a fun caster that hasn't really disappointed me (although I think I disappointed him the first time I used him)

I quite like him (although I quite like most our casters ) his theme list isn't bad either so it's one of the few that I do play when my friends break out their theme lists and I like motoring around with 3 jacks (normally 2 clamshells and BI) just proves to be to much armor to crack for most lists.

[MagnustheJust]

I think Harkevich is getting a bad rep for no reason. He is our best jack caster but I think a lot of what he does is ignored by the things he does not do.

Welcome to the joy/sorrow that is the life of one Mercenary Privateer
Captain Bartolo "Broadsides Bart" Montador...

Harkevich is fantastic at what he does, and I would play him a lot if I ran Big Red!!

?But you know how it is with the hoity-toity mamby-pamby cake eaters... The more you hand them on silver platters, the more they want, and are dissatisfied with what they have.

[Tossy]

Welcome to the joy/sorrow that is the life of one Mercenary Privateer
Captain Bartolo "Broadsides Bart" Montador...

He was the reason and inspiration for the rant/article... and the reason I started playing Hark. I think both do so much but are mostly ignored for the same options everyone else takes...

*man do i wish we have a mule to take with Hark*

[scout's honor]

He is a premiere Jack caster but that does not mean you have to run lots of jacks with him...

I agree Harky doesn't get the credit he deserves, but I disagree with the notion that he's a premiere jack caster. He's got no focus multipliers outside his feat and Fortune, both of which are great abilities but neither of which is great for that purpose. He has average focus for Khador (which is barely average for Warmachine), one upkeep that will always be up (Escort) and another upkeep that will either be kept up or recast (Fortune). Even with Sylys he's always hurting for focus to hand to jacks. Don't get me wrong, you should absolutely take 3 jacks (or even more) with him, but those really need to be focus-efficient jacks that can dish it out without a lot of support (for me personally that means pretty much bringing the best of our best - the Behemoth, Beast, Drago, a Spriggan, Black Ivan). That's not a premiere jack caster in my book, and Karchev - regardless of how competitive he may or may not be in general - is clearly a better jack caster in my opinion.

[The Buoyancy of Water]

For me, it's Black Ivan, 2xSpriggan and a devastator. I find him great for running that. In tier you can dish out focus turn 1 for everything to run, then you have 4 focus a turn after that. Black Ivan doesn't need any (especially with Fortune) and the devastator will at most use 1 really. This leaves three for spells/spriggans most turns, which I'm yet to have a problem with. He can Broadsides against infantry spam (and watch Black Ivan pop solos) or load up one spriggan/let each spriggan charge.

I think a lot of the dislike comes from people expecting "jack casters" to be effectively handing out the equivalent of 3 focus to every jack every turn. Khador does not do/need to do this and Harkevich is no exception. He still runs multiple jacks well, you just need to be more careful with focus allocation the, say, Cygnar and Menoth, who have loads of focus or boosting units respectively.

Just my rambling anyway!

Cheers,
Dave

[MediumYellow]

My issue with him is that broadside is a trap. His feat, escort, and pathfinder basically give a whole battle group boundless charge and three armor (and a shot I guess). That would be really good if he had a spell that would boost melee attack roles.

I mean why the hell would I want to make another shot with a jack? I have so many ways of getting cheap guns that I don't need a bombard shot. Mortars or CRAs can get the job done.

[The Buoyancy of Water]

A mortar costs 3pts and a CRAing unit costs around 10pts is possibly reasons for using Broadsides over the options you mentioned...

Broadsides is not a trap, you just have to use it at the right time. It's like saying Boundless Charge is a trap because sometimes it doesn't help my jacks charge anything. Obviously Boundless Charge is a great spell, even if it's not usable all the time. Black Ivan alone can make Broadsides worth it! Units like kayazy are badly damaged by two spriggans laying down six AoEs in their face. Black Ivan can snipe solos and support twice as fast. It's not always usable, but at times it's very helpful

Cheers,
Dave

[PG_Draxos]

Once I own IFP I will be running him in tournies. Also once I've got the time at work I will post more.

[Steamwitch]

i think of harks broadside like a freebooter. It can be really cool but you have to set it up. And personally im a black sheep here as i like the decimator and harks broadside on it.

[PtotheRice]

The Decimator with a couple focus and feat and broadsides is SO much fun. 2 powerful ranged shots, free charge, then attack with a powerful weapon multiple times auto-hitting after the first... absolutely incredible.

[MediumYellow]

A mortar costs 3pts and a CRAing unit costs around 10pts is possibly reasons for using Broadsides over the options you mentioned...

Broadsides is not a trap, you just have to use it at the right time. It's like saying Boundless Charge is a trap because sometimes it doesn't help my jacks charge anything. Obviously Boundless Charge is a great spell, even if it's not usable all the time. Black Ivan alone can make Broadsides worth it! Units like kayazy are badly damaged by two spriggans laying down six AoEs in their face. Black Ivan can snipe solos and support twice as fast. It's not always usable, but at times it's very helpful

Cheers,
Dave

Does Black Ivan's bond even work out on bombard shots since you can't boost out of activation? So killing a solo is way less likely on a second shot right?

The spell feels like a trap because it seems as though they wanted him to be a jack caster because of Jumpstart, his feat, and broadsides.

If it was like boundless charge on eSorcha where it is something I sometimes use I would be cool with it, however esorcha does so much other stuff I can view it as just one extra tool that might come in handy, rather than something that needs to perform well in order to make her work as a whole.

[Tossy]

Does Black Ivan's bond even work out on bombard shots since you can't boost out of activation? So killing a solo is way less likely on a second shot right?

The quick answer is yes... yes it does. You can't boost because you can't spend focus out of activation... the bond makes it all the time

[PG_Draxos]

Harhivech is a bit of a trap caster. His spell list screams ranged but the only ranged jacks you want it the Behemoth and maybe Black Ivan. I like having a Spriggan the Behemoth and Black Ivan in his list at 50 points and then some IFP since they don't need support.

I do want to try a min unit of WGI with the UA with fortune although I think that will require two sets of dice in timed turns to get off quickly.

[John of Arc]

I've been wanting to try him out. My only game with him was a horrible loss, but that was because it was a 15 point game against eSkarre fielding Satyxis Raiders, while I had a Demolisher and Black Ivan. Most of his army was practically immune to my jacks, except for the one turn where it literally was :P I just dig his model so much, and he has escort + pathfinder is a lot like Mobility, which is my favorite spell on eMagnus.