Continuing my review of Khador’s MKIII battle
box, today we shall consider big red’s archetypal melee jack, the juggernaut.
Standard disclosure…all mistakes are my own,
comments welcome, bla bla bla.
Basics:
The juggernaut comes with the usual Khadoran
10-20-34 for defense, armor, and boxes.
It looks like its factional equivalents the crusader and ironclad. It has a single open fist and a capable melee
weapon in the ice ax. At MAT 7 it hits
more accurately than some of our warcasters but at SPD 4 getting to the fight
can prove challenging. Critical freeze
on the ice ax means that occasionally the juggernaut will render its victims
stationary.
Role:
The juggernaut is a basher, a smasher, a
crusher of enemies. The ice ax is one of
the most powerful melee weapons in the game and the juggernaut is a capable
delivery system. Its P+S 15 open fist
gives access to standard power attacks as well as making a decent backup melee
enabler. It is built to charge opposing
pieces and remove them with extreme prejudice.
First turn, it runs. Second turn,
it charges or sets up to counter charge/contest. Third turn, it continues pushing up the board. You can use the big lug to block lines of
sight, contest zones, and/or jam opposing pieces; however, it is at its best
when applying the ice ax to your opponent’s biggest model.
Effectiveness/value:
The juggernaut is the standard against which
all heavy warjacks are measured. It hits
hard, can take a punch, and still hit back decisively. Its appeal is the value it provides for 12
points. Assuming the juggernaut
successfully charges with a full focus loadout, it will inflict 27.5 damage
against armor 19. Tack on support spells
and that number skyrockets. Add in a
little pre-charge shooting from widowmakers and most heavies are toast.
In
my testing, the juggernaut was the most effective way to convert one activation
and 3 focus into a dead enemy jack/beast.
It hacked most of the way through a gargantuan on its own. With a little help from the decimator it
cleared out 2 Protectorate heavies in one turn.
I found that on average it killed off most of one heavy but with a
little support—fury, redline, preliminary bombardment—there was no job too big
for the juggy. It helps that even if you
do not get the charge in, the juggernaut can survive a surprising amount of
damage and remain combat effective.
Downsides:
I
just spent a couple paragraphs praising the juggernaut to the heavens—and
rightly so. I want to temper that enthusiasm
with some experience lest other players expect too much of the mighty
juggy. First, Sir juggernaut is kind of
a resource hog. On average dice he
almost kills most heavies—almost. He can
absolutely wipe anything short of a colossal or clamjack on mildly warm dice
but only at the cost of a third of your caster’s stack. If you want to insure his victory, you will
need to soften up the target first. This
functionally limits the number of juggernauts most casters can support. More than 2 and most warnouns are going to
have to make some difficult choices.
Second,
the juggernaut is slow. In order to
employ its prowess, it has to make it to battle. This leaves it in the unenviable position of
hoping to go second against overextended targets or use movement enhancers like
redline to give it that extra push. This
can leave players having to choose between hoping to bate out/catch opposing
pieces and contesting/challenging objectives.
The Juggernaut is not alone in its need for speed, it is however more
inconvenienced than most without it.
Notable strategies:
Every caster can make use of the
juggernaut. At base, give it 2 focus and
let it go-to-town. There are a couple
stand outs however that really let it shine.
Malakov 1 gives it redline which—pound for pound—is just amazing. A free charge enabling a P+S 17 attack, a boosted P+S 21 attack, and
3 P+S 21 attacks is off the charts.
Malakov II gives the juggernaut extra movement with escort, tactical
supremacy, and feat. Harkevich’s feat
and reposition let the juggy play outside its comfort zone. Irusk 1 can boost a juggernaut with
superiority, though in most cases he will want behemoth or a colossal. Karchev turns all jacks up to 11 and the
juggernaut especially so with feat, battle charged, and road to war. Strakhov is a straight up speed buff if you combine
superiority and feat. Vlad 1 has a
variety of ways to buff his jacks between his feat, signs and portents, and
boundless charge. Vlad 2’s assail gives
the juggy a nice boost though many players will probably look for a character
jack in his place. Vlad 3 is perfectly
capable of supporting the juggernaut with infernal machine, feat, and
dash. Kozlov does good things for the
juggy with feat turn and fury allowing him to reach and remove targets that
would otherwise be out of range.
Musings:
It
is easy to read this battle report or that tournament list and get the
impression that the juggernaut is 16 points of awesome in a 12 point
chassis. I get the feeling that people
assume that pointing a fully loaded ice ax at an opposing model is as good as guarantying
its removal. To be fair, it is one of
the most efficient killers in the faction—especially when you contrast it with
models like Grolar and Behemoth which cost 50 and 100% more respectively.
My experience
says the juggernaut is the cheapest way to administer a decisive SmackDown in
Khador’s 18 jack stable. That being
said, it is not the be-all and end-all that the hype suggests. It is difficult to get the juggernaut to
combat in prime condition against anyone counting threat ranges. Its minimal threat range means that without
buffs, it is a sub-par player in the scoring and alpha games. Average damage rolls leave most heavies
near-but-not-completely trashed—meaning that if a juggernaut removes a threat,
like as not it did so with the help of decimators, widowmakers, and such. Big red has plenty of buffs to compensate for
these deficiencies—Kozlov’s feat turn on top of redline from Malakov 1 is my favorite
so far. So, it is amazing in the value-to-investment
sense—strategic versatility and independence—not so much.
Building battle groups, I keep
running into the Behemoth question. In
anything over a 15-point game, why not take behemoth over say 2 juggernauts? Casters like Irusk, Zerkova, and Sorscha 1 to
a lesser extent seem to prefer a single quality jack such as conquest but for
everybody else behemoth starts to cramp my list design space. After behemoth hits the table, all I care
about are Kodiaks, juggernauts, and devastators. From that perspective, the juggernaut seems
perfectly executed regarding value, effectiveness, and intent. Unfortunately, the more I play with the
Juggernaut, the more I realize just how over-costed most of our non-character 16
and above jacks really are.
It is not a question of value, it is
a question of what do the decimator, grolar, demolisher, destroyer, and
spriggan do that other jacks do not accomplish at a better price point or with
less cumbersome rules? The juggernaut asks
a simple question. If you get within 8
inches of me, can you stop me from removing your piece next turn? If not, then that piece is probably
toast. That is a compelling
question. It is the question we want all
of our jacks to ask to one degree or another.
By that standard, every jack gets compared to the juggernaut. Frankly, point-for-point, the juggernaut
comes out ahead in most of those comparisons.
Conclusion:
The
juggernaut is a reliable attrition piece at an excellent price. It is the best value removal specialist
available to Khador short of a character or huge base due to MAT 7 and P+S 19
on its primary melee weapon. SPD 4 and a
1 inch melee range somewhat limit its impact but at 12 points you can afford to
take 2 or 3 to swing piece trade totals in your favor. With the standard Khadoran armor/grid even a
fully loaded enemy alpha may not remove the juggernaut. It hits the sweet spot between minimal price
and maximum output.
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