Khador having a lack of good Tournie casters.

[hairsolo]

Im gearing up for a Resurgence tournie in my local area and I have noticed that a certain constraint of viable casters to use in a all comers serious list.

My friends and I have a group rule. Friendly games are friendly games but tournament games you bring your A game.

So looking through the casters and trying to narrow down my choices I find that with MKII its not as broad as it once was.

Fist there was pVlad or EVlad. They were always a good choice. Easy button aside they were good models to take if you wanted to maximize your chance of winning/doing well. Now pVlad is pretty much useless. With 2 spells at 4 focus he is totally boned against Kreoss's Lamentation. Kreoss is his worst match up and being one of the best Menoth tournie casters you will probably be up against him if you play against Protectorate.

pSorsha - she used to be awesome. She was another great choice. Her feat used to be insane and a great way to increase your chances of winning. With her feat getting nerf after nerf she (IMHO) isnt even tournament viable anymore. Now models have to have LOS to her to become stationary. Jacks and casters can now shake off the stationary effect with focus. Having Immunity to cold makes you immune to her feat. A 2 pt Protectorate model (covenant) makes everything within 10 of it immune to her feat and her knockdown spell. Wind rush no longer boost her def up to 20 anymore. What does she do? She's pretty much a 4 focus caster (cause you have to cost wind rush every round) with two spells that cost four focus that are made useless by a 2 pt model or model immunities.

eSorcha - Looks like she might be a new tournament regular. With Iron Flesh and her Winter guard synergy she has a lot of tricks she can bring to the table. Not to mention a feat that works even better then her prime version. At least it effects most models (minus cold immunities) and so far there aren't that many models that can completely bork it. Not until the Covenant of Menoth turns the page and gets to Chapter II Element Immunities.

pButcher - Probably our best caster now. Full throttle on Khador jacks is stupid good. Boosted melee attack rolls???? Yes please!! Can I trample and charge for free with that as well??? Really!! Sign me up!!! his biggest problem is a medium base which causes him to get shot in the butt way too much. I can't tell you how many times I have utterly crushed my opponents army only to have him pull together the broken pieces of what was left get LOS to the Butcher and shoot him right in the face.

EButcher.... haven't used him yet. He looks like hes a blast to play. But with him getting d6+1 focus a turn makes him iffy to play in a trournament. I dont know about you guys but there are times when I need a 3 to hit something and I end up rolling double 1's.

pIrusk - Board control, board control, board control. Great feat, good spells, 7 focus. His only problem is that he wants to bring only one jack. Inhospitable ground is good but alot of models that are brought to tourneys have ways of being granted pathfinder. Take in point Nyss hunters. I see Nyss hunters alot. All and all I think hes a pretty good choice for tournament play.

EIrusk - never played him. Looks fun. MKII version dosent know if he wants to play with Jacks or troops....

Old Witch- Personally I think shes garbage. Her feat isnt as usefull as it was in MKII. My opponents usually just walk out of her control range. If they are too far away from the edge of her control they are usually close enough to charge her and I end up getting charged by models that shrug off the pow 14 hit. Unseen path is awkward. Yes, it can get you in range of the opposing caster but if you can't kill him that turn he will kill you next turn. Murder of Crows is an upkeep so it can be banished by pkreoss (pKreoss again). Iron Flesh is excellent. Gallows is debatable. 3 focus to bring you 1d6 closer..... ive rolled a 1 or a 2 before and wasted my focus.

Karchev - never played him. He looks fun. Large base is a problem thou. Tow and Side arms are upkeeps so pkreoss (pkreoss again) kinda borks him. But still scotting around the board dropping jacks off to wreck face looks fun. Just not tournament viable.

Zerkova - Doodie. I don't see her winning tournaments. Shes not good at anything. She reminds me of some of my college friends that couldn't decide what they wanted to major in so they ended up with degrees in communications.

In my opinion were pretty limited to what we can bring. pButch, eSorch, pIrusk, ....... and eVlad if you don't mind the crap you'll get because of his MKI shenanigans. Which is kinda sad because your shoe horned into using them if you want any chance of doing well.

[Mutton]

I think the Irusks, eSorscha, pButcher, and the Vlads will be the top tier 'casters. Karchev and eButcher are going to be solid second listers though. Hell, I've even seem some damn strong OW lists that might be second list material. Zerkova though? She's got nothing.

[zverbug]

I plan on running Butcher for the resurgence in my area. I see you haven't played EButcher yet.... he's all about his feat turn. I suggest getting a couple games in before your tourney to get a feel for him, but really, if you can manage to kill something with Butcher and feat, get a decent amount of rage tokens, the look on your oppnents face after you charge Beast or Spriggan and then move attack with him at spd 6 +2 MAT is pure win. Generally a very viable assasisnation run while keeping Butcher safe. The biggest challenge is ensuring you kill enough models on your feat turn to get enough rage tokens, which is limited by the fact that Butcher's control area is only 12.

[whats82]

eButcher can sometimes assassinate with just 2 tokens, with Beast starting up to 19" away from the enemy caster, on a turn he rolls 1 or 2 for focus. I've won local tournaments with him.

Imo, eIrusk, eSorscha and both vlads are still top tier. They have a few match-ups but tend to have the tool or brute force to plow through.

[tedwin183]

pSorscha is still really, really good too. The beauty of playing her is you don't NEED to depend on her until you've set up the assassination. She does well casting Fog of War and upkeeping it the whole game. My favorite thing to do is let my whole army smash things up, get stuck in and evolve in battle a bit. Then, when some of the dust has settled from the initial charge/being charged, Sorscha uses Boundless Charge on herself, Wind Rushes up, pops her feat, ignores all the free strikes, etc. and then charges. That's 19" of threat range +2" for Frostfang. Name another caster, besides eSorscha, who can do that. Your opponent will be shocked, everytime, when you do this. The beauty of it is that, if you're close to the center of battle, you KNOW your opponent's caster is close enough to take the charge. Only thing you need to worry about is Squire+7 FOC Cygnar casters. 16" control range means they'll be tucked safely in back.

On a side note...

pButcher is definitely a top-tier for us now...Iron Flesh+Full Throttle = love for both jacks and infantry. Very nice, balanced spell list, 6 FOC is decent and he is a melee monster, just like mkI.

[hoya4life3381]

I know how good Iron Flesh, extra damage dice, and Full Throttle's boosted melee attacks can be, but pButcher and his jacks just don't have enough threat range IMO. A regular jack has 7 inch threat range and a reach jack has 9. Simply put our low threat range and being hit first isn't compensated for by our allegedly higher armor. Add in some board control elements such as Temporal Barrier, Fear of God, Enliven, Crippling Grasp, etc and the speed is further reduced.

The only problem with pIrusk is that his feat is so reactive. Often times, it can be hard to gauge when an opponent will strike and time it with your strike. His feat just isn't game-changing enough particularly in tournament scenarios.

[Jamie P]

I disagree that the witch is garbage, at 35 points atleast she can hold her own in the hands of a skilled player. Shes my second caster behind E-Sorscha. But then not everyone can get away from the easy buttons and win so...

[Hangedman]

In the resurgance tournys I think the old witch will be viable. The scenario that is in place will be brutal with her feat. She has alot of denial oportunity and some board control. I am seriously considering her for my local event.

I have played four or five games with Zerkova using the scenario for the Resurgance event. Her feat is a g reat way to keep your oponent from doing anything for one round. Her spells are nifty as well. She is not an assasination character. If you are going for a caster kill you will need something else to do it.

[Deputy57]

[QUOTE=tedwin183;114655] Sorscha uses Boundless Charge on herself, Wind Rushes up, pops her feat, ignores all the free strikes, etc. and then charges. That's 19" of threat range +2" for Frostfang.

I don't believe you can cast boundless charge on herself.

[0ver.d0se]

all the casters with boundless charge can cast it on themselves.

[Cuagau]

In MKi, it used to be the case that it was the models NEXT activation in which it must charge. This is no longer the case. It's is the models charges during the spells duration.

[PG_General Nemo]

In my opinion, Khador has no weak options. All of our warcasters have the potential to win in a competitive environment, but it will rely heavily on player skill more than anything.

[Beastman]

In my opinion, Khador has no weak options. All of our warcasters have the potential to win in a competitive environment, but it will rely heavily on player skill more than anything.

I agree, though I would add that who you are playing is an important factor in the equation (both warcaster-wise and player-wise).