35pt Themes: Karchev

Karchev is a powerhouse. He is the epitome of the Jack Caster - he is IN a Jack! His feat is lackluster, but one of his spells is better than most other Casters feats! Personally, I find Karchev a lot of fun. His ability to Tow and then Powerslide his Warjacks into position is unique in that you can practically cover the entire board by the time youve completed the manouver, and also almost guarantee the alpha-strike.

Sidenote: Alpha-strike. This is a military term (see Wikipedia) which means a large air attack, ie from an Aircraft carrier. I use it to mean the first decisive strike made by one side in Warmachine against the enemy player. It doesnt mean the first strike, because, well, I could pop a Bile Thrall with a lucky Bombard deviation. Thats not exactly decisive. Having 3 Warjacks Trample your entire infantry line and then buy attacks on your Warcaster however, is.

Things to remember about Karchev:

1) Hes a Jack Caster. I like to bring the biggest, baddest Jacks to make full use of this part of Karchevs Character.

2) Bring Mechaniks. They are the only way Karchev can heal. And sometimes, you reeeally need to heal. Also they can repair any broken Warjacks during the fight as well.

3) Troops that dont act on their own are not useful for Karchev. He has absolutely no way to buff Troops (except for obvious things like Knockdowns) so most units are a waste of time with Big K. Hes also very fast. So leave the slow guys behind. (Im looking at you, MoW STs!)

Karchev 35pt List:

Karchev the Terrible

>Beast-09

>Behemoth

>Drago

>War dog

Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Koldun Lord

Like I mentioned earlier - the biggest and baddest. The combination of the four character jacks in Khador is brutal. (Yes, I counted Karchev as a character jack just then.) With the cost of 3 focus for Unearthly Rage, you get a hell of a lot of high MAT, high POW attacks. With the remaining 3 Focus, you can allocate to these Jacks, you can either have extra POW19 Ice Axes, POW12 Armour Piercing fists, POW19 Sunder attacks or POW16 Executioner axes. You will almost always be in range of these attacks as well, leaving Karchev the enviable position of being able to pick and choose exactly where to catapult these deadly machines during battle. The mechaniks can heal, and they normally hide at the back till they are needed. With the amount of heavy artillery you have, the enemy will very rarely devote energy to the support troops (gorman, koldun, mechaniks) until at least some of the threat has dissipated.

Karchev is like a lightsaber. Gets exactly where he wants to go with extreme precision, and then proceeds to totally obliterate whatever is there.

I almost forgot to mention - one of the main reasons to bring the Behemoth is that he keeps the aiming bonus while being Towed by Karchev. This means most turns you can allocate 3 focus to the Bombards, 1 to upkeep Tow, and then run Karchev all over the damn place while your Behemoth is moving 12" a turn, firing 14" RNG boosted RAT5 Bombards. Oh hell yeah. This is what you do while waiting for them to give you a Powerslide on their caster.