Brainfarting with Warmachine. Boy do I have some Gas.

Kommander Oleg Strakhov is our Assault Kommando Warcaster who does everything better than Captain Maxwell Finn.

Strakhov keeps with the Khadoran Playstyle of "I'm in your face, what are you going to do about it, bucko?" with a P+S 13 Sword with Brutal Charge, and his abilities "Sprint" and "Pathfinder".

Brutal Charge: This model gains +2 to charge attack damage rolls with this weapon.
Pathfinder: This figure ignores difficult terrain during any advancement it may make.
Sprint: At the end of this model's activation, if it destroyed one or more enemy models with melee attacks this activation it can make a full advance.

This is great, as you can agitate your opponent by staring up his nostrils, telling him "I found nothing but fingerprints, ya nose picking bastard", and then dashing back amongst your army. If that doesn't work, you can always cast "Overrun" on a warjack and dash off again.

Overrun: Cost 2, Range 6; When target model in this model's battlegroup destroys one or more enemy models with an attack, immediately after the attack is resolved one model in this model's battlegroup that is in its control area can make a full advance, then Overrun Expires. Overrun can be cast only once per turn and lasts for one turn.

This spell gives you a Plan A and a Plan B. You cast it and have Strakhov charge and if he returns, then you can take advantage of moving another Warjack, or the attacking Warjack, or you can move Strakhov further back. A Decimator would love Overrun as it fires off, and it moves an inch because of its Beatback ability, and then moves from Overrun, and then fires it's second shot from ROF 2.

But any Warjack can love Overrun though. Berserker is another example. If he has fallen behind because a heavy target figure has caught him up, then he finishes it off (Maybe with some extra focus for attacks) and then piss bolts closer to the fray. And a Berserker is a choice figure for Strakhov's other spell, and a personal favourite, "Superiority".

Superiority: Cost 3, Range 6, Upkeep; Target Friendly Faction Warjack gains +2 Speed, Melee Attack, Defence and this figure cannot be Knocked Down.

With the additional bonus to melee attack, he's most likely going to kill whatever is in front of him and then the additional Speed will bolt him into somewhere more favourable so he can tear a new one out of whatever he touches next turn.

Moving on, we find another spell that greatly benefits a single model:

Sentry: Cost 2, Range 6, Upkeep; When an enemy model advances and ends its movement in the LOS of a target friendly Faction model, the affected model can immediately make one normal ranged attack, then Sentry expires.

So the spell only sucks in that it affects one model. Okay. That's cool. So we cast it on a Warjack or a Solo. Cool. What are our best choices?

Behemoth
Destroyer
Decimator
Widowmaker Marksman or Unit Figure
Winterguard Field Gun
Winterguard Mortar

What can we cast it on to be funny?

Spriggan
Kovnik Joe
Assault Kommando Flame Thrower
Winterguard Rocketeer
Man-O-War Drakhun
Man-O-War Kovnik

This isn't to say that they aren't bad choices. A couple of them are pretty good choices, like a Drakhun can fire off his shield cannon before counter-charging. It's an unnecessary overkill. Heck, I'd have to check but AFAIK you can choose which ability triggers first, so you can charge and get the chance for the Critical Knockdown on the Impact Attack on the target and then fire the Power 14 shot straight into their face. That would be awesome.

Moving on, we check out his remaining 3 spells.

Battering Ram: Cost 2, Range 6, Power 12, Offensive; When an enemy model is hit by Battering Ram, it can be pushed 3" directly away from the spells point of origin.
Occultation: Cost 2, Range 6, Upkeep; Target friendly model/unit gains Stealth (attacks originating from more than 5" away from the target automatically miss. While more than 5" away, ignore this model when determining LOS.)
Rift: Cost 3, Range 8, AOE 4, Power 13; The AOE is a Rough Terrain and remains in play for one round.

I'm going to start from the bottom. Rift is pretty good. Not a bad range, has a decent cost for what it does, and the bonus can deny so many opponents from charging your army. So no complaints about that. I don't exactly see me using it very often as the support spells are rather awesome, but it's an option.

Occultation I do see myself using quite a lot. You cast it on a unit that's taking a flank and let them do their business from Alaska way.

I'll just explain my little joke there, when I first discovered that you can upkeep a spell on a figure who is outside of your control area, I imagined Irusk talking to a Warjack that he doesn't like, casting Superiority on him to get the job done faster, and telling him to walk to Alaska and the spell would still be upkeepable.

The only fault is that quite a lot of armies can ignore Stealth, so while it is a pretty substantial spell, it isn't the super-freakin-awesome spell that will win a game. But it can play a serious bonus on keeping a unit alive as they get into position of something.

So lastly is Battering Ram. Now, it's a good spell, but I have one problem with it. It's short range. If it were 10 or 12, I would be happy. But sadly it's only half that, meaning if there is a target that requires a magical weapon or magic attack to eliminate, and I haven't adjusted my army to substantiate that condition, I'm required to adjust my game play to that, putting my Warcaster at risk by using a cheap spell with a short range, or a better ranged spell with a higher cost, or kill it by hand. The melee is the best choice because I move 9" towards it, and if I kill it (which most likely I will) Strakhov is moved back 6".

Returning back to the spell, I'll grant it's still good. A target 6" away will move it back to 9". Were I in the midst of things about to take advantage of Sprint, I could see that working out well. Even better would be shifting a figure out of the way of a charge lane to a juicy target. But then I'd be vulnerable again unless Sprint was kicking in too, or it was a sure fire way of getting a target.

It's a tricky one. Now the lane-to-fruit-juice isn't a bad idea. Especially on his feat turn:

Feat - Iron Fist: Friendly Faction models that charge or Slam Power Attack an enemy model while that model is in Strakhov's control area gain +4" movement and Pathfinder. Warjacks in Strakhov's battlegroup can charge and Slam Power Attack an enemy model while the enemy model is in Strakhov's control area without spending focus. Iron Fist lasts for one turn.

This is great. For one, a Warjack pretty much doubles his Speed which normally stands at 4, and then adds another 3" to his movement. Add in Superiority and you have 13" of movement in a Death-Toll-Sprint towards whatever poor soul would be on the wrong end of the stick. Speaking of Sticks, if a Warjack with Reach were charging, you can add another 2" to the threat range. 15 inches of "IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!" It's pretty amazing.

A very cool thing to note is that this affects warrior models too. So you can have those slow moving units of yours bolt across the field into someone's face. I like this idea. Man-O-War who have the same Speed as Warjacks? Yeah, they're going off like a Hare at the Dog Tracks.

Now a little twist that I noted in this which is a very VERY large benefit. Most beneficial feats require the friendly figures to be within the control area of the Warcaster for it to affect them. It may affect models individually, or i can affect a whole unit if a tiny sliver of a base is within the Warcasters Control area. The same thing goes for Negative effects with the enemy models required to be within the control area of the Warcaster.

Now, this is where I make my point. I consider this to be a beneficial Feat. It gives your friendly Faction figures a bonus to Speed and are able to ignore terrain during the movement. However, the only requirement is that the target of the charge or slam is within Strakhov's Control area. You could have a the Ironfang Uhlans, cavalry models with a Speed of 8, start on the other side of the board and tear 15" across the board, which is littered with Rough Terrain, to smack something that are another 2" away from their base because they have reach on their charge attacks.

That is rather impressive. I would say it's better than the Dark Princes Feat, but only for the reason that it makes a massive difference to your infantry. The Feat of Vladimir Tspesci, the Dark Prince, is "Double the base Speed of Warjacks in his control area and they don't spend focus to run or charge". But I would rather Strakhov's Feat.

So now we've come full circle back to Strakhov. What I haven't covered here is his self sufficiency. Strakhov stands with a good Stat line, with a decent Defence and a slightly better Armour stat. As mentioned he likes to be in the face of the enemies and it was proven by a few of his abilities and his Feat.

But that's not all he has to offer. Were he caught with his pants down in the midst of a battle, and surrounded by strange enemies, he can take solice in that he has Immunity to Corrosion and Fire. That's right, the Protectorate of Menoth's cleansing fires spewing forth from Warjacks kitted with Large Cannons do NO DAMAGE to him. Same thing with the waddling sacks of vomit from last weeks bender that Cryx have for Bile Thralls do no damage as well.

In return, he can fire off one of his two ranged weapons. He can drop a Cinder Bomb near his feet, cracking open a Power 13, AOE 3 Fire grenade on what poor souls would like to shake his hand. To boot, it leaves behind a smoke template to block sight to whatever he was staring at.

Or, he can fire off his Riot Gun. With a chance of 1-3 attacks each turn, he can pop off a shot with disregard for the results, or he can bang someone stupid. You can say that while you're making your attacks. "Bang. Someone. Stupid." With a decent Range of 10 and an Average Power of 12, he can Bang some pretty good Stupid. And no magicians smoke veil will stand in his way because his Alchemical Mask allows him to ignore it.

I'm rather excited, frankly. This guy looks cool, plays cool and with my Man-O-War army, he sounds like a prime contender.