Khador Merc choices (help!)

[delstuart]

Hi guys

Starting to expand my horizons and thinking about adding some Mercenaries to my khador so any and all information you guys could give me on nice combos and stuff that works well with our stuff?

Cheers guys

[The Buoyancy of Water]

Sure someone will post up the obvious ones soon, so I'll leave those for now The most interesting combos come from Valachev.

1) Herne + Jonne + Valachev with eIrusk or eVlad (to a lesser extent). Fire For Effect/Hand Of Fate gives big boosts to your carpet bomb attacks! Hand Of Fate has the advantage of affecting Herne and Valachev as well.
2) Sea Dogs + Valachev + Bosun Grogspar and Doc Killingsworth with eIrusk (not tested). Sea Dogs are permanently 4+ tough and no knockdown. Potentially add Lord Rockbottom and Battle Lust to get some sick damage output.
3) Alexia and the Risen + Valachev. Zephyr gets your thrall missiles even further up the field and being in faction will give her access to more Khador buffs. Sudden thought! Take this combo with new Vlad and use Dash! Can't work out the thrall threat range then due to lack of books, but it's even further than normal since it'll benefit from Dash twice!

There's a couple interesting combos to get you going Here's the obvious lot:

Gorman
Saxon
Kell
Aiyana and Holt
Eiryss's

Think that's it! Generally with Mercs, be careful of what's a 'friendly' buff and what's a 'friendly faction' buff. This needs to be considered both Khador > Mercs and Mercs > Khador.

Cheers,
Dave

[scout's honor]

First consideration: the greater part of our casters feats and commonly used spells is faction-only. If you want to use merc units, you'll really want Valachev - outside the Old Witch and perhaps Zerkova.

Second consideration: Valachev is not a great model in terms of rules compared to for instance Jonas Murdoch in Cygnar, but Zephyr's movemenet shenanigans can be quite useful. The most well-known exploit is with Alexia and the Risen, where Zephyr allows you to increase the threat range of a new Thrall Warrior, as well as give them some wriggle room for charge angles. Personally I love Zephyr for tarpit units, since it allows the tarpit to move without incurring freestrikes in order to open charge lanes for models activating after them.

Third consideration: some merc solos offer abilities we have very limited or no access to in the faction. Pathfinder for infantry is only available with the Old Witch and eIrusk (and it's quite expensive with the latter), but can also be provided by Saxon Orrik. Upkeep denial is a Zerkova monopoly in the faction, Eiryss can provide that as well (and there are some solos with anti-spell abilities). Magical weapons in the faction - outside casters - is limited to Greylords and Doom Reavers: there are some decent to good solos with magical weapons in mercs, and Aiyana & Holt can make an entire unit's attacks magical.

There's more to be said on the subject, but I don't have time for that - I'll try to add some more comments later.

[Saekyn]

My most-often used merc is Sylys Wyshnalyrr. He gives range to all spells, Signs and Portents effect on the first offensive spell you cast, and a free upkeep, all for a couple of points. Invaluable for some casters.

Gorman di Wulfe has won games for me. His Black Oil can't be shaken, and if you throw it on a heavy jack from 2.5 inches away it can only deviate a max of 1.25 inches, so it will still hit them. Any jack hit by Black Oil will be out of the fight for a turn with all the debuffs it includes.

I use p.Eiryss when the mood strikes me, but she's usually more of a deterrent for my enemy: the threat of a disrupted heavy/caster is enough to give her a wide berth. I want to try her epic form, removing upkeeps from enemies sounds amazing.

I also want to try Saxon Orik to give a unit Pathfinder. Assassins/Doom Reavers with Pathfinder....yum.

[RevolverAdamska]

Harlan Versh, Reinholdt and Midwinter are good mercs for Khador to

[HellVenom]

Use the mercs that provide you with something that you are missing then add in valchev. IE Steel Head riflemen are bad because WGRC or the deathstar are better and are in faction already. Lady and Holt provide you with a set of skills that we don't organically have and eAlexia can give you a mean alternate support for IFU and pAlexia can put more models on table in game. Mercs and Minions with Hunter, special tough rule, prey, increase you CMD range, increase your effictive amount of focus, act as bodyguards, etc. are the ones in this in this group.

Some of the mercs are list dependant like Kell versus the Widowmaker Marksman versus Ashley, all are the same points and have different strengh and weaknesses based on the strengths and weakness of your list. Same goes for Boomhowler and Co. good for most casters, but not for Irusks. In the same group, are the match up mercs like Versh who are good against support casters, but against assassin casters are just a mild inconvence for you opponent.

If you really want to get a good view of merc that are open to Khador head over to the merc forum and look for 4 star lists which will help you if you run a merc warcaster with a Khador one.

[Steamwitch]

one i use is expensive points wise i have stein hammar marshal an avalancher with its giant gun. He is a great artillary platform if you are okay with forgoeing arching fire. I have a pair of bunnies i use with him on occasion too. Dirty meg and a freebooter and buckanear can serve as a kind of devildog unit with the bucks assalut and the freebooters trash effect they can be really mean.

[HeroZero]

Steel head halberds seriously good with valachev or without. 4/6 unit with crazy amount of stuff included. Become insane under Iron flesh ( def 18 against charges)

[scout's honor]

IE Steel Head riflemen are bad because WGRC or the deathstar are better and are in faction already.

I like the Rifle Corps, but I disagree they're better than Steelhead Riflemen. CRA + Combined Arms is really good for casters that can't boost ranged damage and we only have three casters that can, realistically - eSorscha's feat doesn't count. Riflemen are slightly more expensive, lose out on a big chunk of range and don't have Suppressive Fire, none of which is anything to casually dismiss, but the only thing that really makes the Rifle Corps more worthwhile is Joe and in a CR environment Joe will almost always go in a list with Winterguard.

[Digilante]

There are a lot of merc options out there, so I'll stick just to what I have in my case.

Nyss Hunters (+ Valachev)
I can't believe we got to the 10th post before someone mentioned Nyss. They are an excellent unit, and even better with Valachev. High enough DEF to ward off most attacks without buffs (and iron flesh makes them DEF 18). They have a 12" range on their bows and can CRA to ensure they hit/damage. On top of that they are weapon masters, so they can really tear something up in melee if need be. Their biggest weaknesses are their low ARM (they are very vulnerable to blasts) and their merely standard MAT/RAT. Valachev helps with this second issue as they can aim for every shot while still getting some movement out of Zephyr. He also allows them to easily get out of combat to keep shooting.

Rorsh and Brine
A.k.a. the ninjapigs, this combo brings another heavy to the table that can boost hit and damage without needing any attention from your warcaster. Brine is perhaps a bit pillow fisted, but we have a good number of ways to buff his damage, and his animus helps out there too. Rorsh is also an excellent shooting solo, with the ability to fire his ROF2 rifle and throw a 3" blast every turn with the option to boost using focus. Their primary trick though is the (often surprising) 13.5" threat range on Brine which can be extended even further with our boundless charge casters.

Epic Eyriss
She's just an amazing toolbox. Strip caster focus for your assassination run. Remove defensive upkeeps from enemy units. Remove enemy upkeeps from your units (snipe the officer for one point). Disable their jacks for a turn with the "eyriss bomb" (no allocation or channeling within 5" of her). So many uses that she's guaranteed to be in at least one of my steamroller lists.

Harlan Versh
Also hates upkeeps, and can punish spell casters near him. If find he's less toolboxy than Eyriss, but can fill a similar role for fewer points. Often scares your opponent out of using their best upkeeps spells for fear of his quad iron's wrath. Also brings a gun to the table, which can be useful at times.

Kell Bailoch
Magical sniper. Useful when you need some magic ranged attacks in your list, and left alone (as he usually is) he will rid your opponent of two infantry models per turn for most of the game. Often at odds with the widowmaker marksman, I prefer Kell when there are no other widowmakers in my list.

Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Many of our casters benefit greatly from his free upkeep and pseudo-boost on spells. Extra spell range is also very nice for a faction without arc nodes. He usually makes an appearance in my lists.

Aiyana and Holt
Great when you need more magical weapons or extra damage (looking at you rifle corps). Holt is also great: two accurate hand cannon shots per turn can solve a lot of problems.

Saxton Orrik
Gives a unit pathfinder. Often useful, but not always required. He also can do some situationally useful stuff against warbeasts.

Gorman DiWulfe
Can effectively take a heavy out of the game for a turn with black oil, smoke helps many of our casters stay alive, and his other bombs are pretty good too. This guy can never be left alone.

[Trihnicus]

3) Alexia and the Risen + Valachev. Zephyr gets your thrall missiles even further up the field and being in faction will give her access to more Khador buffs. Sudden thought! Take this combo with new Vlad and use Dash! Can't work out the thrall threat range then due to lack of books, but it's even further than normal since it'll benefit from Dash twice!

Going To complicate this one for you... unless a model begins it's activation in Vlad's Control Area it doesn't gain Dash. No Model/Unit effect individual model basis. So for Alexia to get the Dash Bonus she must start her turn in Vlad's Control range... pretty easy actually. Moving on to when she summons the dude... THAT model must begin it's activation in Vlad's Control range to also gain the benefit. So instead of measuring a 20 something ish charge threat from Alexia herself you need to measure it from Vlad. So 27 inches from Vlad's Current location instead of 27 inches from Alexia's current location. It's only really a double dip benefit if you aren't changing your threat range at all. It can still be used to benefit Alexia if she was significantly behind Vlad or to boost her initial push out with her skeletons instead of both the Skeletons and the Solo.