Need help with the Butcher

[saadeath]

I have played a couple of games with the Butcher and he has become my favorite warcaster. Whatever he gets into combat with he destroys, and my friend hates the Butcher for that reason. So i find in many circumstances it is almost impossible for my Butcher to run up and deal some woop a** without dying or putting himself into a bad position.

The question i bring to the table is, does anyone have any tips or tricks on how to keep the Butcher safe and bring him up the board and allow him to do some sort of assassination run on some pivotal point on an enemies army. Or better yet bring the enemies models to Butcher, I.E 2 handed throws?

[Col_Festus]

Yessir! First off build a battle group that doesnt require him to give focus every turn. So either use a Koldun Lord to powerboost a jack so it can basically run for free, or use Kodiaks/Beast 09. With his jacks moving he has no reason to cast anything after turn one. So he can just camp 4 focus a round (2 to upkeep fury and iron flesh) making him arm 22 most of the time. To top that off have him cast Iron flesh on himself first round, then subsequent rounds he can just upkeep and run. This brings him to def 17. Def 17 arm 22 is damn near invincible, just watch out for KDs. Also if you keep a Wardog near by when you have that 1 round where he is hanging out in the wind before he goes in for the kill hes def 19 against melee assassinations.

Hope this helps! Any other questions feel free to PM me, pButcher is my favorite.

[Khador247]

The Wardog and Bokur are both helpful models with him defensively. I like Uhlans with him too. Three should be enough. Keep them in defensive line in front of the Butcher with Iron Flesh on them. They'll have really good DEF and ARM and will block LOS to the Butcher. Then if you get a juicy charge target for them drop Iron Flesh. If you want them to charge a heavy jack or beast cast Fury onto them. Swarming the flanks with stealthy models is nice too. The Kayazy and Manhunters/Yuri work well for this. The Kayazy can be absolutely lethal with the Butcher.

[rvrchamp]

My biggest suggestion is to learn how to be defensive with your warcaster (yes even the butcher). In the vast majority of games I play it's the army that kills my opponents, not my caster. Use butcher's buffs, and position models to keep him safe. You'll go much further by forcing your opponent to kill your entire army than you will allowing him the opportunity to take a shot at your caster.

[OldOneEye]

I agree with rvrchamp. As much fun as it is to send the Butcher in to do the deed himself-- and he's good at it, in all fairness-- you'll probably be in better shape letting the army do the dirty work. I personally like to play the Butcher as a support 'caster that is virtually immune to assassination. He gets his army there, allows them to strike hard and cripple the opposing army, then forces the opposing warcaster/warlock into doing something desperate.

Check out this write-up of the Butcher here (it's included in the "Khador in MKII" sticky at the top of the faction page). It's got good advice on everything from playstyle to list construction, and covers a lot of the points that have been made here.

[Mercykiller]

Also remember that the Butcher is an incredible lategame caster ... spend your first few turns eliminating any serious armor-busting threats to him and you'll win the game.

[PG_Shadow37]

Also remember that the Butcher is an incredible lategame caster ... spend your first few turns eliminating any serious armor-busting threats to him and you'll win the game.

This is how I play The Butcher most of the time as well. Once the high P+S targets are taken care of I start bringing The Butcher closer to the front line (generally).

[Cold-Iron]

I run him with Yuri and a manhunter going up one side and waiting in the woods to jump whoever comes by and a squad of widowmakers on the other to soften up units for butcher, his puppy, and whatever jacks I am running with him.

[Auracco]

I usually play the butcher as a support caster and I can't even remember a game where he killed something in melee... He's that good as a support caster and I win 75% of the time when I play him. Seriously use you upkeep well and allocate the rest of your focus (at arm 18 you don't really have to fear an assassination attempt), pop your feat at the right time and you should win the game. He's not a sneaky warcaster, his playstyle is pretty straightforward (and somewhat boring, so I don't play him too often otherwise I get bored). It might seem counter intuitive but the butcher is a support caster and he's one of our best caster to use a shooty list. Riffle corp on the feat turn can kill pretty much anything but the toughest warjack, you widowmaker will be light jack killer.

[Kuarnix]

If I want to force my opponent to come to me so Butcher can get up there, I try to bring a list with powerful shooting like Widowmakers/Mortars/Destroyers. The Mortars are especially good because nobody likes having large templates dropped on them, from a psychological perspective. So in the face of that sort of long range shooting, most people will try to close the gap.

Also, if you play Scenarios like Mosh Pit, etc, they're going to have to get close.