The off the beaten path Merc solo

[Jake the Dog]

There is a Merc solo that I don't see many use on their lists: Ragman.
I think this guy has potential with Khador, specially the Weaponmaster models and the Man-o-War Demo Corp. Death Field Demo Corps do 11 or so Damage each on average on the charge against ARM 19 (55 damage total, so they can one turn an unbuffed Stormwall). Great Bears can almost do similar numbers (9 damage on charge swing each, 5.5 damage on the second, totaling 43.5; not bad for a 5 point unit).

Can Gorman do this? Yeah, Rust Bomb can do a -2 ARM debuff. But both can work together and stack the Arm Debuff. I suspect using them both might be a solid 4 point investment against Colossals.

[Taslon]

There is a Merc solo that I don't see many use on their lists: Ragman.
I think this guy has potential with Khador, specially the Weaponmaster models and the Man-o-War Demo Corp. Death Field Demo Corps do 11 or so Damage each on average on the charge against ARM 19 (55 damage total, so they can one turn an unbuffed Stormwall). Great Bears can almost do similar numbers (9 damage on charge swing each, 5.5 damage on the second, totaling 43.5; not bad for a 5 point unit).

Can Gorman do this? Yeah, Rust Bomb can do a -2 ARM debuff. But both can work together and stack the Arm Debuff. I suspect using them both might be a solid 4 point investment against Colossals.

I like to put him in my Eirusk lists as he buffs the shocktroopers and they usually dont outrun him. Otherwise, its difficult for him to keep up with out infantry.

[Jake the Dog]

I like to put him in my Eirusk lists as he buffs the shocktroopers and they usually dont outrun him. Otherwise, its difficult for him to keep up with out infantry.

Shocktroopers make him very hard to kill. Sacrificial Pawn to ARM 21 Infantry, if you get to hit him that is.

[OrsusSmash]

There is a Merc solo that I don't see many use on their lists: Ragman.
I think this guy has potential with Khador, specially the Weaponmaster models and the Man-o-War Demo Corp. Death Field Demo Corps do 11 or so Damage each on average on the charge against ARM 19 (55 damage total, so they can one turn an unbuffed Stormwall). Great Bears can almost do similar numbers (9 damage on charge swing each, 5.5 damage on the second, totaling 43.5; not bad for a 5 point unit).

Can Gorman do this? Yeah, Rust Bomb can do a -2 ARM debuff. But both can work together and stack the Arm Debuff. I suspect using them both might be a solid 4 point investment against Colossals.

Similar to Talson, I've had issues in the past trying to get Ragman to work well with infantry. The potential is definitely there (especially with a cheap reach unit like IFP,) but the positioning and timing of things can be tricky. Also, Raglan relies on Sac Pawn to keep himself safe from shooting, which can be tricky to juggle in Khador; typically your main line infantry are going to be harder to hit (Iron Flesh/Stealth/Clouds/etc,) and you don't want to give your opponent "easy" hits by having Ragman nearby.

All that said, I definitely think his stock has gone up. All of the Colossals require significant effort to take down, so any ARM debuffs you can get are extremely helpful. And, since all Colossals have Reach built in, there's a natural synergy with Ragman hiding behind one: if something charges the colossal and doesn't scrap it, they're getting dusted, or Ragman can move up and potentially buff the colossal with Dark Shroud (a Huge base is, well, huge.)

[PG_Draxos]

Cause if you run him with winter guard or kayazy your opponent with shoot him so you sac pawn onto the hard to bit stuff.

[scout's honor]

... Ragman can move up and potentially buff the colossal with Dark Shroud (a Huge base is, well, huge.)

This is the meat of it, for me. Khador doesn't usually have a great deal of trouble generating damage output - a couple of solid hits from a jack and a lot of hacking and slashing from buffed infantry can deal with most anything in the game. If I'm spending 19 points out of my list on a Konquest I'm having to cut a significant amount of my regular stuff though and that means wondering where the damage is going to come from. Dark Shroud on a 120 mil base goes a long way to fixing that.

[Ganso]

I like the Ragman + Alexia combo, gives your army a nice pseudo-redundancy that may pay off in the end game (Sac Pawn to keep Ragman safe and have Alexia raise the brave chump as undead).

Although, part of the problem I always seem to have with Ragman is that I can't position him in a way that I can maximize Dark Shroud and not block my own charge lanes, i. e., since Dark Shroud is a *Action you first have to activate and move Ragman into position and then activate the models you wish to gain Dark Shroud, I find this dance hard to pull off since being within 3 inches to benefit from the aura means someone is not getting a charge bonus.

[<Archangel>]

Once had a GB 2 hit a Mauler under the effects of dark shroud.

[Auracco]

I like him with the ironfang pikemen, that way they don't need caster support to reliably kill heavies. They also have a lower def than him so he doesn't wear his ''Shoot me'' neon sign over his head. They also have reach so it's easier to set up dark shroud than with non reach trooper.

[comrade]

I've got him and he really wowed me a grand total of one time. Like others have said above it was with iron fangs. The fact that they have reach really increases the range of his dark shroud to a usable level. My success story goes a little something like this... There were 2 cryx heavies ahead of me fairly close to each other. My buddy thought they were safe because they were on the other side of a forest from where my iron fangs were. I walked ragman up right between the 2 jacks and used the dark shroud. Eirusk popped feat and the ironfangs charged through the forest and piled on the jacks. Long story short, I trashed one of em and severely damaged the other. The very next game I played with him I had big problems trying to set anything up, and that's pretty much been the same story since.

[Joasht]

I suspect using them both might be a solid 4 point investment against Colossals.

Thing is, you would also surely want an eEiryss to remove whatever upkeep they are inevitably keeping on their Colossal, pushing your "support" up to 7 points. I'm not saying its a bad idea, but its something to keep in mind.

[PG_ChainGun]

I own him painted and have actually played with him a couple of times. He is at his best in slow units who are supposed to get charged and survive (such as Shock Troopers and other tar pit units or warjacks walls) but fast units really have no synergy with him. Also, if you keep him hanging around till the end game, he can support your caster in the late game "mud fights". All in all, fun model with specific units but there are usually better options.

[Tico Love]

Let me add yet another success story involving IFP and Ragman. It was a game against Circle. He helped a Minimum unit of IFP thrash a Celestial Fulcrum in one activation. I don't even think the entire unit made it into combat. Keep in mind that when you use him to place Dark Shroud on a Unit with Reach, he can be 5-6 inches away from the desired target.

In the following Turn, My opponent used Epic Badur's feat to increase the ARM on his army. Ragman helped my Juggernaut put down A Lot more damage on his Wold Warden than expected.

This is the only time I've used him, but with all these colossals and gargantuans becoming prevalent in people's list, I intend to field him more often.