'Jacking in Prime

If there's one thing a Steampunk game must have, it's Giant Robots. Warjacks are that equivalent in Warmachine and fill a particular role of being pillars of Strength and Utility. With high health, armour and damage, they bring a worried face to many of the forces of the Iron Kingdoms.

Khador has a particular playstyle which, personally, can be described in three words: Axe To Face. Three of the Warjacks featured in Prime are a starling example of this. To start, they all have the same stats. Low Speed, Defence and Ranged Accuracy, Average Melee accurasy and High Armour and Strength. While they all match in stats they do come in a variety of flavours and armaments, from melee monsters to the handful of ranged killers.

So what do we have? There's always more than one way to skin an Argus, and the Juggernaut is first to give it a go with his Ice Axe and open fist. He throws himself at the opponent and whales down with such vigour that it leave a massive dent in whoever he's whaling upon, if not destroying them. The Juggernaut is well known for the utility of having an open fist and a very high strength Ice Axe, so strong that only four figures in the game have the same base Power and Strength.

But that's not the only thing that the Ice Axe offers. It's not made of Ice, which is a roaring positive since during summer it would be a little impractical, but it does turn opponent into ice. Critical Freeze is an ability that is few and far between, and even rarer is the immunity to it, and if caught under the effect of it then a figure is in a bit of strife. Melee attacks Automatically hit, and Ranged attacks have to hit a DEF that can only be missed on a roll of Snake Eyes.

But there's a small problem with having a Juggernaut with Critical Freeze. It's not the shake off rule, that's a problem for a lot of figures that can cause Stationary or even Knockdown. And it's not the immunity to it, because you can count the number of figures immune to cold damage on one hand. But it's the fact that the critical freeze is on a very high power attack, which means that even if you freeze a target they probably won't be around for the next attack. Though if they do survive, then you have another attack that doesn't need any boosting to hit, and ranged attacks you can throw in for good measure.

On the other side is a towel draped over the forearm, and holding an engraved silver platter serving what is colloquially known as the Knuckle Sandwich. The Open Fist gives the wonderful option of more Power Attacks, something that can change the game phenomenally... or not at all. You can Throw someone into another figure or you can stop someone from attacking by grabbing onto their weapon, or even their head!

But it's not necessary to have an open Fist to make Power Attacks. You can always perform a Headbutt Power Attack, where you knock them down so you can lay into them a little. While facing small based infantry, Trample has always been a wonderful option as you run over and destroy them by stepping on their heads.

The last option, and wonderful as part of an opening or final move, is Slam. Slam is great for throwing your target into his friends and knocking them down. If a Warcaster is behind a Warjack, for example, the Warjack is thrown a long distance and is knocked down, while the Warcaster is knocked down, along with damage taken everywhere!

There's only one Warjack in Khador that can do a better job of Slamming: The Marauder. Originally a mining jack, Khador figured that if it can do such damage to stone then imagine what it could do to a Warjack! Armed with a pair of Ramming Pistons the Marauder can pound a target into a murky paste, or he can Slam them far away with one single King hit by combining the Power of both of the Pistons.

However, a single high powered attack is not the be-all and end-all of some targets. Occasionally there's the necessity to follow up with something else, such as more hits from a Juggernaut (which will certainly destroy someone) or maybe a ranged attack even. This is where the Destroyer comes in follow his namesake and... well destroy targets.

The Destroyer is a simple jack with an Axe in one hand and a long range cannon in the other. The Axe is reasonably powerful for a Warjack of it's design and, given the opportunity from a critical hit, can cripple both hands of a Warjack in a single stroke. The Cannon is a bit more special, with the Arcing fire ability to help target the poor hapless saps that have been knocked down by the Marauder by ignoring the intervening models.

These are the basic tools of Khador. The only differences between these three warjacks are the weapons they are equipped with. They all have low defence, high armour and are all a bit slow off the mark. Combined with the right Warcaster or 'Jack marshall, they can either make up for the lack of Speed or the accuracy of their attacks.

Marshalls of Khador, however, will be discussed in a later post.