SPOTLIGHT: "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."

Since MK2, I feel that a review of what was once considered a "perfect warjack", is due. Right from Prime, the Destroyer was a powerful force, with the Bombard cannon. Probably one of the best ranged weapons in the game, a RNG14 POW14 aoe 3 weapon. With its upgrade from MK1 to RAT4, on average rolls you are hitting DEF11. With no boost! While nothing great, the main bonus of the Bombard is the POW7 splash damage you are deviating around, trying to catch low armour units in it. POW14 on average rolls will kill most solos, and boosting will do some serious damage to 'casters and 'jacks directly hit by it.

When boosting, you can pretty much reliably hit DEF14 - with a direct bombard blast. With boosts from things such as Signs and Portents, Aiming, or 1-2 Ice Cages to help with hitting, you can nail even the most agile solos and warcasters. With 18" threat range plus Arcing fire to ignore intervening models multiple Destroyers can attack rear leading Warcasters and Warlocks quite easily.

On the defensive side, the Destroyer shares they standard Khador chassis. The same ARM and health boxes as a Juggernaut. Although a little more vulnerable as they have low DEF and slower than other "sniper/mortar" type jacks they can withstand a lot more punishment. Any increase in DEF would have been almost pointless anyway, as all Jacks recieved a MAT/RAT increase, and they were easy to hit with anything anyway.

Warcaster support like S+P, or pButchers new spell, Warmonger, turns Destroyers into some seriously lethal ranged support. The ability to boost to be able to hit high DEF targets, deviate onto hidden support units, high power on a direct hit and to be able to boost blast damage rolls gives it a way to destroy all types of enemy units.

Basically, although the relative cost of the Destroyer went up, to a modest 10 PC in MK2, the core mechanics of what the Destroyer is and does, (Destroy things) has stayed the same. Still brutal with their favoured warcasters, they have some new favourites as well. pSorcha, pVlad and also now pButcher have Destroyers as one of their most favourable Warjacks.

While they dont compare well to the Behemoth (at 13 points) for his 2 Bombards and AP fists, they are also FA:U and can be Marshalled. Which is a topic for another Spotlight!

(pic to come)

SPOTLIGHT: "Don’t you know who I am? I’m the Juggernaut, b*tch!"

Ahhhh.... Warmachine MK2. As well as consternation, doubt, grief and pure all-out anger (often spouted in Nerdragey-like threads on the official PP forums) there has been brief moments of pure ecstasy.

One of these is the new and improved Juggernaut. Normally, the plain old Juggernaut was incredibly vanilla. Suffering all the drawbacks of Warjacks, (low MAT, low DEF, low SPD) with only one decent special rule - Critical Freeze on the Axe - and at a (relatively) hefty 105 points cost. For the same price, you could get Drago, who could output a rather large amount of damage, and came with a boatload of special rules to further distance him from ol' Jugger.

Now, with MK2 changes coming about, the Juggernaut benefits from several of the overall warjack changes. +1 MAT brings him up to the average trooper level, at MAT 6 hes hitting DEF 13 on average, which is about the maximum DEF most Heavy Warjacks will get to. Also, practically every medium or heavy base trooper as well! He still has crit freeze, which, although easier to mitigate with the new shake effects still can force an opponent to spend a focus to get out of it. The new damage system basically gives him an extra 3-5 damage points AND he is (practically) fully functional during this time as well, as opposed to losing 11 damage and being completely useless without his Ice Axe.

The once weak open fist of the Juggernaut benefitted from a POW increase, up from 12 to 15. This is quite significant, basically the equivalent of Weapon Master on average.

Furthermore, the Juggernaut costs only 7 points. With pButcher, this means you can take one for free!! Most other Warcasters only pay 1 or 2 points for the Jugger if hes the first Jack you take. To see why this is so good, compare it to other Warjacks and units at the same or similar cost.

Basically, its only 1 point more than the Berzerker! In terms of Warjacks, the Juggernaut is definitely the best all-around choice for the 8 points and under category. (This is only because at 9 points, the Devastator and the Kodiak are brilliant!) (Disclaimer: biased opinion alert!)

Compared to units, hes a point cheaper than the full unit of our elite infantry, the Iron Fang Pikes, Assault Kommandos and Kayazy. Im pretty sure this puts him (comparitively) cheaper than he was before. Also, since Jacks got buffed and (some) units got nerfed, hes even better in a direct comparison!

New Army for WM MK2

Me trying to figure out how many MK2 points I have:

Warjacks:

2 x Destroyer (20)
1 x Berzerker (6)
1 x Juggernaut (7)
1 x Behemoth (13)
1 x Drago (9)
1 x Beast 09 (11)
1 x Kodiak (9)
1 x Spriggan (10)

Warjack Points: 85

Units:

2 x Greylords (8)
1 x Max Winterguard + UA + 1 x WA (9)
1 x Max IFP + UA (10)
1 x Min Kayazy Assasins (5)
1 x Max Mechaniks (2)
1 x Aiyanna and Holt (4)
2 x Widowmakers (8)
1 x Max Demo Corps (9)
2 x Mortars (6)
1 x GB's (5)

Unit Points: 66

Solos:

1 x Wardog (1)
2 x Manhunter (4)
1 x Koldun Lord (2)
1 x Gorman (2)
1 x Kell (2)
1 x Doc (2)
1 x MoW Kovnik (3)
1 x Kovnik Joe (3)
1 x Yuri the Axe (3)
1 x pEiryss (3)
1 x eEiryss (3)
1 x Bokur (3)
1 x Drakhun w/ Dismount (6)

Solos Points: 37

Total Points: 188

This would let me wage a WAR!!!! (3 Warcasters, 150/175/200 points)

To get to an even 175 points, I would need to drop 13 Warjack points - meaning that of my casters, I need about 4~ per dude to get a perfect 175... This is where this handy table comes in :)

Warjack points:

Old Witch +3
pSorcha, pVlad, eVlad, eIrusk, Karchev +5
eButcher, eSorcha, pIrusk, Zerkova +6
pButcher +7

So I would / could take my entire army, + Old Witch, eIrusk and pVlad to bring it to a perfect 175 points. Im happy with that :D

That just means I only need to expand 25 + X warjack points to get a 200 apocalypse army, which seems like a great eventual goal for my Khador force. And im pretty close too......

(unless I forgot something I have sitting on the shelf, but I can double check that tomorrow.)