Khador Starter's Guide

[GlassJaw]

Welcome to the Motherland new Komrades!

There have been a lot of posts lately from new players (which is awesome!) looking for guidance on starting out so I figured a single thread would be better than answering each one individually. This guide is specifically geared toward list-building for new players, whether building up from the Battlebox or otherwise. The goal is provide examples on how to build your force slowing while learning the game but also acquiring models that you will continue to use as you gain experience.

First, here is my advice for all new players:

1. Read Prime.
2. Read Prime again.
3. Play 10-15 battlebox games or equivalent, switching out casters once in a while (more on this below).
4. Read Prime again.
5. Think about moving up to 15 or 25 points.

That is a bit heavy-handed but I hope it illustrates my point. Warmachine/Hordes is an excellent ruleset but there are a LOT of variables and conditions that you can't learn in a single game or read-through of Prime. To really become well-versed in Warmachine, you need to play, study, play, study. Try to learn something from each and every game you play and constantly consult the rulebook (and the forums, including the Rules forum).

Searching is very important. Aside from the books themselves, it's probably your best tool to learn about lists and models. Search, search, search!! There is a good chance someone has asked or started a thread on the info you need. A useful method when searching is to search by title only (Search Forum > Advanced Search > Search Titles Only).

Aside from general comments, this guide is not a discussion of rules, tactics, the strengths and weaknesses of each list, or how to use each model. This guide also does not cover every model and unit available to Khador. The idea is that new players can use this guide to put together some basic lists and then search to find threads on specific tactics and models.

The Battlebox

Most new players will be introduced to Warmachine via the Battlebox. It's even better now because the battlebox jacks are plastic, meaning you can magnetize them. Here's what you get:

pSorscha +5
- Destroyer 9
- Juggernaut 7
Total: 11

The battlebox gives you a solid melee jack, a versatile jack with a ranged weapon, and the iconic caster, Sorscha. Sorscha isn't the axe-to-face caster that you might expect from Khador but she has an extremely powerful feat and can pull off long-range assassinations herself.

Switching Casters

The battlebox can be played in a variety of ways simply by switching casters. For new players, I highly recommend picking up the Prime versions of Butcher and/or Vlad. Both can handle jacks very well and excel in melee. Butcher is one of the toughest casters in the game and has an excellent spell list. The same can be said for Vlad, especially when he casts Blood of Kings. He also has one of the best buff spells in the game, Signs & Portents, which makes everything in his army better.

Starting Without the Battlebox

While the Battlebox gives you the most bang for your buck right off the bat, it is by no means essential. I still highly recommend starting with the casters listed above (Prime Sorscha, Vlad, or Butcher) and a couple of jacks.

Magnetizing a heavy jack kit is an excellent way to add a variety of jacks to your arsenal: you get a Decimator, Destroyer, Juggernaut, and Marauder. You could also pick up a Berserker, Devastator, or a Kodiak. All are excellent jacks that can be used with a variety of casters, although they do add some additional rules. The Berserker may explode when you allocate it focus so you have to learn how to run jacks without focus. For this reason, the Berserker is better suited to Butcher and Vlad. The Kodiak and Marauder have special rules that deal with power attacks. The Devastator has the highest ARM of any jack in the game and a special AOE attack that leaves it vulnerable after it is used.

Trying different combinations of jacks in these games is a great way to learn about the different options available while still keeping the game small as you learn the rules.

Battlebox to 15 points

Depending on the caster and jacks you use, you will most likely need about 4 or 5 additional points of models to build a 15 point list. Here are some good options:

Widowmakers - Widowmakers are the easiest and probably most effective way to get to 15 points. They add some powerful ranged ability to your army and also a good way to start learning the unit rules. You will continue to use Widowmakers throughout your Khador career and are an essential unit to any Khador army.

Manhunters (1 or 2) - The Manhunter is a great solo that has two powerful attacks and gives you the ability to deal with terrain. They work well as independent models meaning they don't need a lot of support from the caster to be effective. They also give you experience with rules such as Stealth and Advance Deployment.

Mechaniks - Khador has arguably the best mechaniks in the game. For just 2-3 points, you can quickly repair your jacks back to full effectiveness. In jack-heavy lists, these are extremely valuable.

Advanced
War Dog – The War Dog is an absolutely amazing solo, especially considering it is just 1 point. Boosting your caster’s DEF (in melee) as well as being able to ignore free strikes is priceless, especially for melee-based casters. What makes the War Dog a bit tricky to use is that its abilities are reactive – they require something to trigger them and it’s up to YOU to remember. Additionally, abilities like Hunter and Return may take some practice before you get the hang of them.

Yuri – Yuri is similar to the Manhunters but adds Reach and Thresher, making him excellent at wiping out clusters of infantry. In addition to the abilities of a Manhunter, he also has the Treewalker ability. Yuri with 2 Manhunters is sometimes referred to as Yuri & Friends.

Widowmaker Marksman – The Marksman is a slightly more accurate Widowmaker and has a special rule that called Swift Hunter (giving him extra movement), which he also grants to Widowmakers in his command range.

Great Bears – The Great Bears are an amazing 3-man unit capable of taking out casters and jacks alike but come with a host of rules and abilities, some of which are unique to each model in the unit. The challenge is remembering which model grants which ability. And while they are extremely powerful, they tend to be a high priority target and can be taken out quickly, making it difficult for you to get them into battle.

Sample Lists:

pButcher +6
- Juggernaut 7
- Kodiak 8
- War Dog 1
Manhunter 2
Yuri 3

pSorscha +5
- Destroyer 9
- Juggernaut 7
Widowmakers 4

pVlad +5
- Berserker 6
- Kodiak 8
- War Dog 1
Great Bears 5

[GlassJaw]

Expanding from 15 to 25 points

Moving from 15 to 25 points is a fairly big jump as you can now think about adding a unit of infantry. Your choice of infantry really depends on what you are looking to add to your army. Khador infantry is very good, although some are definitely a bit trickier to use than others.

Iron Fang Pikeman – IFPs are a well-rounded melee infantry unit. They are fast and hit hard and also have Reach, Shield Wall, and Combined Melee Attack (CMA). They are versatile and can serve as both a defensive and offensive unit in your army. They hold their own without any support and work well with a variety of casters. The UA is good but not required. As a side note, make sure you check the recent errata on the Officer’s mini-feat.

Man-o-War Shocktroopers – Shocktroopers are an iconic Khador unit. They are very slow but incredibly tough to kill since they have wounds, high ARM, and Shield Wall. While they have Reach, CMA, and a fairly high POW, they are primarily a defensive unit. If you like slow-moving, heavily armored troops that plod up the field, the Shocktroopers are for you. They work best as a second wave unit or as a wall to protect your caster. This is especially true with pButcher as they can screen his medium base.

Demo Corps – Demo Corps have similar to stats as the Shocktroopers but they have increased melee ability. They lose Shield Wall and CMA for Backswing, which allows them to make two attacks and Ice Breaker, which gives them an extra die on damage rolls. These attacks are Special Attacks and are denoted with a star (*). A model can only make one Special Attack on its turn, which means you must choose between them.

The Demo Corps main weakness is getting them to where you want them on the battlefield. They are still very slow and because they don’t have the ARM of their Shocktrooper compatriots, they aren’t as resilient. Like Shocktroopers, they work best as a second wave unit but once they get into battle, they will wreck pretty much anything they come into contact with.

Advanced
Kayazy Assassins – The Assassins are a fast-moving, stealthy unit. Their primary strengths are Stealth and Parry, which allows them to ignore free strikes. They have a high DEF and Stealth but are very squishy. Positioning can also be a bit tricky as you want to make use of their Gang ability, which requires them to attack a model in melee range of another assassin. You definitely want to bring along the Underboss UA as well, which grants the unit a bonuee and a powerful mini-feat. Assassins are a common target for Iron Flesh.

Doom Reavers – Doom Reavers are crazed berserkers. They are fast, powerful, and can kill multiple models in melee in a single turn. However, they are purely an offensive unit and their only defensive ability is Spell Ward, which also prevents them from being targeted by friendly buff spells. They are also Abominations, which causes terror checks within 3” – including your own models! They also might kill each other, which can be difficult to avoid since they have Reach.

Deploying, moving, and positioning Doom Reavers can be very tricky as they can be killed easily (especially against ranged lists). The value of the UA is hotly debated on their forums and the decision whether to include it is personal preference.

Winter Guard Infantry – The Winter Guard are the rank and file troops of Khador. At first, they may seem relatively simple but they are one of the few Khadoran units that benefits greatly from synergy provided by other models. The strength of the Winter Guard is that they are cheap, very versatile, and can bring a lot of attacks to bear against the enemy. Although the range is short, they have powerful guns and with CRA, can put a lot of damage on a single target.

The disadvantage is that they can be very cumbersome to use and they rely on support models to be most effective. These support models are the UA and a solo named Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich, commonly known as Kovnik Joe. The UA provides them with additional attack options like sprays and CMA and also adds a defensive order known as Bob & Weave. Combined with the spell Iron Flesh, this can get them to DEF 17, making them a very difficult tarpit for your opponent to deal with. Kovnik Joe can use one of three “speeches” every turn, giving them Tough, boosting their attack rolls, or increasing their strength. You will almost always want to field the WGI with both the UA and Kovnik Joe. The abilities that they provide are essentially the primary reason to field the Winter Guard in the first place.

In addition, you can also add up to three Rocketeers as Weapon Attachments to the unit. They operate exactly the same as the rest of the unit but each also has a long range AOE attack, which is nice if the rest of the unit isn’t in range yet. The biggest advantage of the weapon attachments is that they provide you with additional troops to the unit.

Sample Lists:

pButcher +6
- Devastator 9
- Kodiak 8
- War Dog 1
Kayazy Assassins (min) + UA 7
MoW Shocktroopers (min) 6

pSorscha +5
- Destroyer 9
- Kodiak
Winter Guard (max) 6
- 3 rockets 3
- UA 2
Kovnik Joe 2

pVlad +5
- Berserker 6
- Berserker 6
- Juggernaut 7
- War Dog 1
Doom Reavers 6
Widowmakers 4

[PG_MadMan]

nice write up

[Tico Love]

I've been playing Warmachine for about two months now and obviously Khador is my first faction. I have accumulated 60 points of models so far. Although I am very satisfied with the units I have, I do wish I would have read this thread before hand. This is very valuable for planning a Khadoran Force.

[PG_Draxos]

Told you this was a good idea Chris. Personally im just glad that you got your out and word is that bout of ours get to be stickied eventually

[Mustakrakish]

Thanks for the write ip, it's interesting to see different opinions. I disagree with only a couple of things and am disappointed to not see Beast 09 in pSorscha's 35 pt list. Maybe GlassJaw will expand on this.

[GlassJaw]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Told you this was a good idea Chris. Personally im just glad that you got your out and word is that bout of ours get to be stickied eventually

Definitely a good idea. I liked your write-up a lot. Definitely a more in-depth tactical approach than my goal for this guide.

I disagree with only a couple of things and am disappointed to not see Beast 09 in pSorscha's 35 pt list.

I agree, but my goal for this guide was for players that are slowing building their army. My goal was to maximize the purchases a new player makes while allowing them to build up to 25 points with a few different casters. Beast is amazing no doubt (my favorite jack) but it might not be a first purchase for a new player.

I might write a "next steps" section at the end that will talk about branching out with new casters and models.

[FoolishSpriggan]

Nice write-up!

One quick thing - your 15pt pButcher list has one too many manhunters, and currently sits at 17pts.

Also, while I'm not a new player, I always found myself wishing for a quick Warcaster writeup comparing feats and general playstyle, and account it sheer luck that I stumbled upon Strakhov. Might be a good idea for an addition, if I may be so bold.

[PG_Draxos]

Definitely a good idea. I liked your write-up a lot. Definitely a more in-depth tactical approach than my goal for this guide.

Im thinking I may try my hand a butcher write up so that way we have the prime casters all set

[Adeptius Brushworks]

@glassjaw
Great write up chris- hoping you add an advanced write-up 35 to 50 points.

[CardiffTower]

Great guide! Strangely enough my initial purchases seem to flow with what you put down here.
Battlebox
Wardog
Manhunter
pButcher and pVlad
Great Bears
Full IFP with UA
Greylords and Berserker
All in that order

[Crazy Uncle Doug]

I find this good and helpful as well, and more or less how I started Mk II. I didn't do 10-15 battlebox fights, but I did about 10-15 15-pointers.

Only thing I did that would not be recommended is run about half those fights with Karchev.

[SmellyTerror]

Hey, that was good readin', thanks!

Should mention that the Butcher second list is 28 points, too.

Also, what is "magnetising"?

[Crazy Uncle Doug]

The Khador Heavy Jack kit allows you to construct one of four basic warjacks: Decimator, Destroyer, Juggernaut or Marauder. However, a good trick is to use mini-magnets so you can swap out arms and/or head pieces on the warjack so with one kit you can actually have one choice of the four warjacks for any given battle.

[SmellyTerror]

Oh, cool. That's a damn good idea.

[CrashOverride]

Good writeup. Oddly enough I stuck to this list months before it was written by sheer luck. Battlebox, pVlad, snipers, and Wardog were my first buys. Excellent choices, as their pretty solid starter fare. Played 80ish games and still don't steer too far away from roughly that set of models. Though I will say that I agree with the guy above that stated Strakhov is a good near-the-start caster. At minimum he's good training for Special K and some of the more advanced casters. Just don't take his Tier lists...

[i_like_tool]

I added this to my first post on the sticky, great thread.

[GlassJaw]

I added this to my first post on the sticky, great thread.

Thanks! I really appreciate it.

[Pensfan]

Excellent write up!

While I played back since 2003, I stepped away from the game for a bit so this is perfect for getting back into the swing of things with a new faction.

Thanks!

[GlassJaw]

Excellent write up!

Thanks! Glad it was helpful.

Can't say I approve of your avatar though...

[gmaclennan]

Super write up

very insightful

[Dougefresh]

great writeup bud. This is exactly what any player should read honestly lol

[amidamaru823]

This is great write up I actually found it by placeing a thred saying I was new to khador and war machine and needed some help and I got this its great

[CircleOfKhador]

Wow!! This is great! Thanks for spending much time for writing this.

Is it possible to add a link to the errata of the IFP (here, here and maybe here)? This might help to understand the rules and discutions of the mini feat better.
And another one to the Mark II Quick Reference Sheets (here). I think that would help many people starting Warmachine.

[komrade tom]

just what I needed to read before picking up my first units thank you.
now on to smashing those cygnar fools

[GlassJaw]

Thanks! I probably should revisit this and expand it to 35 points at some point....

[Silvio]

Great starter guide. I'm new to the game and have some trouble to get the minis ( living in Brazil, they are difficult and expensive to get).

As a mini painter also look for nice ministo get into my collection, so I got the starter box of Khador plus the widowmakers, the old witch and the mechaniks.

Now starting reading the books and planning to get more ofthe minis using the info from your analysis.

Thanks a lot!

[Maugatar]

Thanks for the info, only been playing for the last month, but really enjoying the system.

Picked up the Kador/Menoth battle box so playing with Sorcha, Juggernaught, Destroyer an 5 Man o War shock troopers, considering adding Widowmakers more an more, especially after my last game vs an Scyrah.

Loving Sorcha's capabilities as an assassin.

I think i'm still going through the phase of choosing the models I like the look of the most, mainly Berzerkers (bloodangel/Khorne influence) Doom Reavers (same) and the Behemoth (large portion of guns please)

[West996]

Just starting Khador myself, I have yet to actually purchase any mini's I have just been running a few proxy games right now. This is a great starter guide thank you ver much.

It would be nice to have some guidence at the 35 point level. My local meta doesn't really play anything under 35 points so I am pretty much forced to at 35 points. It does seem like a big jump now that I have read this guide but I will have to make due.

[exwingzero]

I'm in the same boat as Maugatar, except I haven't really played more than a few games against the same person. I'm guessing Widowmakers would be a good addition. Thanks for writing this.

[tutenkharnage]

Widowmakers make a great addition to the battle box. They essentially give you a solid shooting unit, which the two-player battle box lacks. Shocktroopers are not for everyone--I like them--but Widowmakers get used quite a bit.

[PG_Duckboy]

I agree with tut. Widowmakers get used a lot when starting out. They are a really reliable range unit. Can't go wrong with them.

[Karl Eller]

My only problem with Widowmakers in 15 pt games is that there usually isn't a whole lot to shoot at. Widowmakers are great for popping annoying things like solos and UAs, but most 15 pt armies (or at least all the ones I've come up against) are pretty 'jack/'beast heavy, with 2-3 beasts/jacks and maybe a small unit or solo. Sniper is good for finishing off a system/aspect on a damaged jack/beast, but other than that, 4 damage a turn to a jack with ~30 boxes doesn't do a whole lot and they don't have the POW to regularly punch through ARM 18+. I'm thinking of probably swapping my Widowmakers out for 2x manhunters or manhunter + widowmaker marksman in 15 pt games when I get the models.

Having said that, Widowmakers are still a great unit and well worth buying when you're regularly coming up against units and multiple solos, and they're a unit you're going to be using for a long time.

[mostholycerebus]

That's a great point, and true, however a counterpoint is that in 15 pt games the opposing caster doesn't have a lot to hide behind either. So, at that point level their targets are casters and solos. At greater points they refocus on single wound infantry and solos, with casters being a lucky opportunity target.

[rivenwyrm]

Widowmakers are great for popping annoying things like solos and UAs, but most 15 pt armies (or at least all the ones I've come up against) are pretty 'jack/'beast heavy, with 2-3 beasts/jacks and maybe a small unit or solo.

They're not necessarily ideal against beasts/jacks, but dedicated shooting into the same column over two turns can often cripple a system or an aspect, which can render a jack useless before it even gets to combat or force some hard order of activation/fury use choices for your hordes opponents.

[saxondog]

Widowmakers are a nice addition, But I would consider adding a Unit of Greylords first. They bring a lot more utility, and would help newer players to start learning about stacking up effects.

SFK

[tutenkharnage]

Four Widowmakers against a stationary warcaster:

ARM 14: 12 damage
ARM 15: 9 damage
ARM 16: 6 damage

That covers a lot of 'casters. Between Widowmakers and a Bombard, Sorscha1's feat turn ends the game if you have three or four Widowmakers in play.

[johnnyspys]

Glass Jaw I have a request. How about writing a synergy or strategy article for fighting other factions. I have a really tough time versus Protectorate. It would be great to understand in a tournament setting which army to use (if you have the ability to field two lists) and what are the best ways to take on various army lists and perhaps even various points.

[JackofUnion]

@johnnyspys- The faithful tend to rarely have the pleasure of charging in first. So using infantry to deny a charge against your jacks or to peg the enemy jacks in melee does wonders. Also, Strakhov is surprisngly effective against Mentoh for this reason as well, feat wrecks us often if done correctly (ie kill our zealots and infantry first).

[johnnyspys]

Except for when the caster (Harbinger) gets close and pops their feet where we can't move within their zone of without taking damage. With the Harbinger caster assassination of ebutcher was rather easy. 10 Focus bought a ton of hits. I am convinced most of my problems are being green and a) not know the rules well enough b) only having six or so games in c) playing really good players that win tourneys d) playing players that just started (I win but I don't learn anything) e) and not fielding a strong all comers list that is dedicated to a particular set of synergies. I have 93 points of models but I am sure I am not using the right caster with the right combo of units. The funny thing is everyone talks about Khador jacks but I am finding many of the build lists only have one or two jacks and I think I need to know how to pick the appropriate jacks for the job.

Lastly, coming from Warhammer Fantasy, Field of Glory, Legends of the Old West, and several other minis games, warmachine plays very differently. Combos and synergy are everything, and what doesn't look good on paper is amazing if you can time everything perfectly. I am sure I need more timing practice. However, a basic set of strategies...if you will a playbook, would be awesome.
Thanks for the tips. JackofUnion...I will try that out.