So, you want to be a soviet do you? Sound good does it? A communist state? In that there is no state. Or classes. Joining a vanguard party to lead your motherland to the way it should have been since the beginning? Feasting on hardy Khadoran turnips, and wielding the mighty hammer of the proletariat in one hand, and the noble sickle of the people in the other? It sounds good, doesn't it? Well, it's not. It's a hard life, full of cold, snow, bitterness, iron, and miniscule threat ranges.
So, in case you haven't guessed already, this is an article about
So, with that, the Khadoran Strengths:
1. Present a good combined arms force. With Winter Guard Infantry + things like the Behemoth that're able to deal significant ranged damage (WGI in particular have individual shots, sprays, aoes and combined ranged attacks, it's kinda silly) as well as units like Iron Fang Pikemen and The Great Bears who can really tear it up in melee. They don't really have many ways to deal magical damage however (which is something we'll come to later).
2. Possibly the most resilient army in the game. Khador is interesting in this regard. Jumping from extraordinary high armour on their jacks (20-25), to almost no armour on some infantry (11). However, that same infantry reaches a mammoth Def 19 in melee. It's ludicrous. So the way it tends to go with Khador is you either can't hit it, or you can't hurt it. It's a sad day where for some armies it's actually easier to go for the ARM 21 jacks with your infantry cause you can'y physically hit that unit of Kayazy (not that I'm bitter cause I play Skorne or anything).
3. The army throws a punch like their renowned hero, Ivan Drago. Seriously, when it comes to laying smackdown to the capitalist pigdogs, there aint no right hook like that of a Great Bear of Gallowswood fightin' for his turnips. And Khadoran Warjacks hit really quite hard (when they hit). With their P+S floating around 19. And then there's the Behemoth, and he's just stupid (P+S 12, but halves their armour, meaning dice +3 against arm 18, effective P+S21).
4. This could be a strength or a weakness, but Khador, as a faction, are relatively straight forward. This buff goes here, this unit does this, this does that. That doesn't mean that they have a low skillcap (they're in my opinion one of the strongest factions in the game) or anything, but they're easy to pick up for a new player and do fairly well with. Alternatively, if you're looking for something particularly complex, I'd probably point you in the direction of the (wonderful) Circle Orboros.
Even the mighty Khadoran Empire is not without weaknesses. And some of them are pretty severe. So, here we go:
1. Slow. Whilst when it comes to preparing the cold ground for bearing turnips, it is best to go slowly and make sure the job is done right, every now and then a job needs to be done quickly. This is something Khador struggle with. They don't really move fast at all, with most threat ranges floating around 8.5"-10". This makes their army more of a "take the first punch and counterattack" kind of force. Not that that's a weakness, but it does mean if you don't prepare for it people can just sit outside your threat ranges. Clever management of objectives and screens can help you mitigate this however.
2. Low Focus Warcasters and no Arc Nodes. I'm putting these two together cause it tends to cause one fairly severe issue. Whilst it's true that Khador boasts a mighty selection of Warcasters (you wanna go toe to toe with Karchev? Oh you do, well, in that case, how about pButcher? On his feat turn. Yeah, that's what I thought, get back in the corner) they do have generally low Focus. The highest FOC stat in the army is 7. They also don't have any Arc Nodes outside the Scrapjack. This means a few things. One. Unless you have a Jack efficiency spell (Full Throttle/Unearthly Rage for example) you most likely cannot run more than one Warjack (the Old Witch can do 2 due to FOC7 and Great Power). Whilst this isn't a bad thing (the army is balanced around it) a LOT of new players fall into what I like to call "The Jack Trap." Which is trying to run 3+ jacks on a caster who CANNOT support them. For example, running 2 Juggernauts and a Behemoth on pSorscha. It's silly, and not gonna work.
Also, low FOC means a small Control Area. This means your casters need to be (usually) within 12" of your jacks. Whereas some casters can pull off 16"+. It also means you have less FOC to spend (duh), which isn't necessarily a bad thing (again the casters are based around it). You'll find most Khador casters cast a few upkeeps then the rest goes to jacks. Occasionally they cast a spell. Thing is, as I mentioned earlier, you have no Arc Nodes, and a tiny control area. This means to affect the game you're gonna have to be pretty close. I would wager the most common cause of death to casters of a new Khador player is assassination. This, in my opinion is one of the hardest bits about learning Khador (and the game as a whole, but Khador have it rough). Keeping your caster safe from harm. That close to the front line, they're bound to get piled on from time to time, make sure you plan for this.
3. Reliance on Mercs. Again, this isn't technically a weakness, just some people find it kind of off putting. Personally, I like Mercs, but anyhoo. The main offenders being eEiryss (but everyone but Cryx runs her so hey) and Aiyanna and Holdt. The last two because of the next disadvantage (almost no magic). Basically, these are 7 points you should have spent in most all of your Khador armies. Because without Aiyanna and Holdt, that guy running the eDenny/Mordikaar tier is going to stomp you. And just generally, it can make Menoth really hard to deal with. The other unit is Nyss Hunters, but they're just very good with Iron Flesh. Gorman is also pretty tasty, but he is in every army.
4. Lack of magic. Covered most of this above, but in a typical Khador army the only magical weapon in it will be the one your warcaster is hefting about. And if your Warcaster is someone like the Old Witch that's not really much good. As a result Khador are basically forced to bring Aiyanna and Holdt, just to deal with certain things in the game. But that said, that's why Aiyanna and Holdt are available to the faction. PP thinks about things like this. ;)
In summary, Khador are a very powerful faction, based around a "take ground, then punch the crap out the enemy when they try to take it off of us" playstyle. They hit like a tonne of bricks and don't afraid of anyone. They'll tear down your proletariat, your ideals, and your bloated monuments to capitalism. They do tend to struggle in a few areas, but it's nothing that can't be countered by good army design.
Nostrovia comrades!
