750pts Khador Army (eIrusk)I had a great 750 point game against Phil’s Protectorate of Menoth force recently which I’ll post photos from in the next few days. I wanted a chance to field Epic Irusk as I’ve only had a couple of opportunities to use him before. He is still an excellent troop ‘caster and his abilities are geared to buffing his own army and controlling the battle field. In his non-Epic form I’m a big fan of Inhospitable Ground and I was initially disappointed that he didn’t retain it as a spell. That was until I read Artifice of Deviation! At a focus cost of 3 I can cast it up to twice per turn and not only hinder my opponents movement, but also open up difficult terrain for my own troops to move across. Battle Lust is another great troop spell, as is Tactical Supremacy. His feat is quite good in many situations, but I think his most powerful ability is Martial Discipline. He has to be close (within his CMD range of 10″) to his troops for them to benefit from it, but it stops units of troops from getting blocked by each other. This is essential if you are fielding a large troop army and want to funnel your opponent towards it. Here’s the 750 point list I went for –

747/750 points, 29 VP, 34 models
Warcaster

    Supreme Kommandant Irusk

Battlegroup

    Destroyer
    War Dog

Troops

    Great Bears of Gallowswood
    8 Iron Fang Pikemen
    Iron Fang Officer & Standard Bearer
    3 Man-O-War Shocktroopers
    Greylord Ternion
    Widowmakers
    4 Battle Mechaniks

Solos

    Man-O-War Kovnik
    Man-O-War Drakhun (+dismount)
    Manhunter
    Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

I only went with one ‘jack and I think Fire For Effect is a great spell to put on the Destroyer, with his first (and only) ranged attack auto-boosted and the blast damage boosted. This is a devastating combo for even well armoured enemy troops. The War Dog is something I quite new to and it’s role is primarily to screen the warcaster and help hinder anything nasty that gets close to him.

For me the IFP and UA are an auto include. The are fast, can charge across (even if slowed) rough terrain and have 2″ reach. Couple that with Battle Lust and Artifice of Deviation to open up charge lanes and they are a powerhouse. The Great Bears are again new to me and I wanted to see what they could do. On paper they are excellent troop and light ‘jack killers who work very well with an IFP unit escorting them. I have mixed results with the Shocktroopers and it is their lack of speed that tends to frustrate me. Tactical Supremacy (a free 3″ move after all activations) should enable them to get moving. They are a great tar pit unit and can really hold up an enemy on the flank. The Grey Lords are almost an auto include for me too. They are delicate, but the ability to buff the defence and provide concealment is great (for a faction that tends to have poor DEF). Their Frost Bite Pow 12 spray attack is great for clearing out infantry. I’m usually careless with my Widowmakers as they tend to die early. That said they’ll shoot a good few enemy troops before they die and their high DEF means they are not easy to kill, so they can act as a road block. I had points left over, so the Mechaniks were included. In MkII I think I’ll try to include them in any army that has two or more ‘jacks. In this army the role of the Destroyer is to pound the enemy at range until the endgame, so I hope the mechs won’t be needed. They can act as a cheap speed bump to delay inbound enemy troops or ‘jacks.

For my solos I included a Kovnik, but opted not to have him control the ‘jack. He was going to act as further protection for Irusk. The Drakhun has many functions and a great threat range. His role is to take out light ‘jacks and be a fast moving headache for my opponent. Speaking of headaches both the Manhunter and Eiryss are in the army to harry my opponent by skulking forward and getting near the ‘caster, or in Eiryss’ case taking out unit leaders or disrupting ‘jacks.

Owen