Khador

Khador is one of the eponymous Iron Kingdoms and one of the main factions in Warmachine. They are stereotypical "Russian" country, blending late Tsarist Russia with the Soviet Union. They like snow, bears, snow, men that act like bears, and heavy industry (like mining). Khador is a bitterly cold and icy land that is frozen five months out of the year, where the land itself and the elements are likely to kill you. However this has strengthened its people, who are known to endure hardships that would break anyone else. They have a seething hatred of the Southern Kingdoms especially Cygnar for, essentially, not rolling over and giving them the world domination they feel they deserve.

History

Who cares about being nice when you can rule the world?

Before the Orgoth arrived, conquered the lands of Immoren and enslaved everyone, Khador was a massive empire with huge tracts of land, having fought and conquered many of its neighbors. When the Orgoth took over, Khador got the worst of the occupation. Even after they were defeated and pushed out countless Orgoth ruins remain scattered throughout the land. After the human Kingdoms pushed out the Orgoth Khador was "betrayed" when large portions of its former Empire were given to the newly formed Kingdoms of Llael and Ord.

Since then this has been the stick Khador has waved at the other nations, though they were always stopped by Cygnar. However, recently between the new Empress and Irusk they've gotten their shit together, taking over Llael and a good chunk of Ord. They've postponed their war with Cygnar to deal with the threat of Cryx.

Khador has few cortexes to build warjacks. To compensate for this they use only heavy jacks which can be salvaged and rebuilt over and over, reusing the same cortex. To compensate for their lack of light jacks they have Man-o-Wars, which are basically elite warriors wearing steam-powered armour. The rest of Khador's army is primarily made up of the Winter Guard, a stereotypical "Russian conscripts" army. However, Khador doesn't just drown then enemy with bodies; in fact, the High Kommander nearly killed himself in shame for daring to think of his men as just numbers. Khador is winning the current war by fighting smart and adapting to Cygnar's tactics (as proven by the existence of the Assault Kommandos).

The High Kommand is willing to make use of nearly any advantage, no matter how inhumane if it will help them destroy their enemies. The rarity of Warcasters in particular ensures that huge exceptions are made to accommodate them as long as they do their duty. Vlad and the Old Witch for example are not truly part of the military but are exempt from this minor technicality and are allowed to command.

Unlike Cygnar and the Protectorate of Menoth, Khador has few religious tensions*. They put far more importance in national loyalty: it doesn't matter whether you worship the Twins (Morrow and Thamar) or the Old Faith (Menoth), as long as you were born and bred in Khador. This is because, unlike the other regions (which are largely ethnically homogeneous), the "Khadorans" are actually made up of a number of different races that don't have much to do with each other outside a common cultural basis. The concept of a "Khadoran" nation is relatively recent in their history, which is why it's so important to them.

• The exception is that they banned Hierarch Severius of the Protectorate. This isn't because he caused trouble or anything; it's just that, last time he came, he left with thousands of converts, and it rather punched a hole in their smug certainty that everyone else is just crazy.

Crunch

On the table Khador is known for being one of the most durable factions in the game, with access to superb infantry units. Khador boasts a lot of heavy hitting units, and can dish out incredible damage.

Khador jacks are the toughest in Warmachine, however this comes at the cost of SPD, and a lack of light jacks.

Characters

The short version, courtesy of /tg/

Orsus Zoktavir "The Butcher of Khardov"- The High Kommand's pet mad man and, Rip and Tear incarnate. Infamously lost his shit when attacking a rebel town, slaying the traitors and his own men when they tried to stop him. Instead of being executed the Empress said "why let perfectly good mad man go to waste?" and pardoned him, if only to ensure loyalty by threatening to send him to any traitor's front door. As the name suggests he's monstrous in close combat, if its in his melee range its gonna die.

Sorscha Kratikoff- The poster girl of Khador and during 1st edition the poster girl of what it means to be broken beyond broken. Shes known as the Ice Queen,(or Freezing Bitch depending on which of her men you ask) to everyone but Prince Vladimir whom she is in love with. She has it in for Orsus since he killed her dad in his infamous rampage, leaving him to die in a battle, only for him to return later. She's also got it really bad for Vlad.

Vladimir Tzepesci- The Not-Vlad the Impaler of Not-Wallacia. Has been contemplating a rebellion against Not-Russia for a long time. Oddly, despite his appearance, probably one of the better-off casters in Khador, morally-speaking. After Khador conquered Llael Vlad fought to protect the people of Umbrey from Cryx, and won a lot of karma points. Not only gaining the loyalty of more then a few native Llaelese but actually being made ruler of Umbrey by the Empress for it. He's currently fighting the Protectorate's northern crusade, and convinced Severius to help battle Cryx. Unfortunately the sinister ministers double-crossing him, with Reznik and the Harbinger heading into Umbrey to convert its people.

Irusk- The Sun Tzu of Warmachine. His childhood was spent learning Khadoran military strategy from his dad before he enlisted at the age of twelve. He's a military genius and even wrote his own version of the Art of War. He briefly considered suicide after he was defeated and lost most of his men because he thought of them as nothing but numbers. Disgusted with his moodiness, the Empress promoted him, basically telling him to atone for it through results or be forgotten as a footnote in history.

Aleksandra Zerkova- Khador's resident mad scientist. Ahem, that is to say she is an occult researcher, archaeologist and historian, raiding old tombs and temples, looking for ancient secrets and artifacts that can be used against Khador's enemies. In addition to being a warcaster shes knows extremely powerful magic and carries a number of ancient artifacts augmenting her abilities.

Karchev- Karchev the Terrible is a living warmachine, a century year old warcaster who's been entombed inside a warjack. Karchev was a veteran warcaster during the Thornwood war where his body was destroyed in a struggle against a Cygnaran warcaster. He asked for a metal body to continue fighting and got it a short time(10 years) later in the form of a modified Bezerker Chassis. Since then he's chugged along getting a new body every couple years. His status has elevated him to a living national treasure, though it hasn't done his mind any favors.

Zevanna Agha- What would Not-Russia be without its Not-Baba Yaga? The Old Witch is older than the Orgoth, perhaps even the embodiment of Khador itself. Though not technically part of the army, the Empress has put out standing orders to let her requisition whatever troops and 'jacks she needs if she ever randomly shows up and asks for them. Her chicken-legged Warjack companion Scrapjack follows her around, arcing spells and teleporting with her. As the fluff has advanced, she's responsible for fucking up the god Menoth, and unleashing the spooky things known as the Grymkin. Scrapjack has apparently been doing leg day, because in the second incantation of Old Witch he is now the size of a Colossal, and has a house/observatory on him as well.

Strakhov- Not-KGB agent, turned Not-Spetsnaz commander. During the Llael war Strakhov crippled the nation's war effort making way for Khador to steam-rolled the shit out of them. Rusky was so impressed he put him in charge of training the Assault Kommandos. While Strakov's usually under Irusk's command, he's got a bad habit of going rogue and carrying out his own missions without waiting for approval. The only thing keeping him from being punished is that they usually end in success.

Harkevich- The Not-Rommel, Iron Wolf Harkevich is Khador's head of the occupation of Llael and in charge of repairing all the wreck people like Orsus caused. Unsurprising he's not very happy about the mess his countrymen left as most of the infrastructure is in ruins and mass unrest from the locals, also because he's a total bro and found it unnecessarily harsh. For the most part he's been extremely successful turning the land from a WWII ruin city to better than new, with many Llaelese finding Khador's new rule a massive improvement. Also helps that he's made a stance on the Protectorate of Menoth "liberation", protecting refugees form the crazed zealots. Unlike most Khador's warcaster Harkevich is a range base rather than close combat, relying more on Warjacks than troops, which is good since his main spell allows warjacks to fire a free shot.

Khadoran Military

Warmachine/Tactics/Khador

Khador's army is broken down in these groups.

Assault Kommandos: Cygnar's main defense is trench warfare and these guys are designed to counter this. Armed with Magtek nightvison goggles, shields, and guns with gas grenade launchers. They sneak in a trenchline and wreak havoc allowing for the Winter Guard to safely cross no man's land. They're immune to Fire and Corrosive damage, two of the other factions main element types, and ignore cloud effects.

Greylords: Greylords are Khador's order of wizards. When Khador's king called for Khador's people to return home decades after the end of the Orgoth war many Wizard of Khadoran descent answered, taking all the secrets they had learned and most importantly the secret of cortex manufacturing with them. These wizard went on to form the Greylord's covenant, specializing in ice magic and finding Orgoth artifacts to use as weapons against Khador's enemies.

Men-O'-War: Since Khador lacks light warjack they just put the best, strongest Winter Guard in steampunk power armor, THEY DIE IN STEAM! They're relatively expensive for a squad but each one has multiple hit points. Come in three varieties, Bombardiers with grenade launcher chainsaws. Demolition Corps with giant freezing hammers, and Shocktroopers with their class axe and cannon-shield combo. Man-O-War solos include the Cannon-Axe-armed Kovnik, the twin-shielded Tankers, and the Drakhun, a Dragoon unit mounted on one strong-ass horse.

Iron Fangs: The oldest type of warriors hailing all the way back to the days before the Iron Kingdoms. Simply put they're heavily armored troops with spears, now they're used as anti-warjack units given spears with exploding tips. Come in cavalry form as Uhlans.

Winter Guard: The backbone of Khador's army. All men are conscripted while women are only volunteer, most aren't forced; they see this are a proud honor to serve their nation. Most of Khador's attempts to modernize it's army are here. Until recently they only had axes, now they carry outdated guns. A few more elite units have been outfitted with actual rifles. The cheap point costs and versatility of a fully upgraded squad has been coined as the "Winter Guard Deathstar". While it has been toned down a bit since MK2, it is still a very popular build.

Widowmakers: Khador's elite marksmen, and one of their two most feared units. They've got high RAT and are frustratingly hard to hit in cover. They're rightfully feared for being able to pick off any single box infantry, making them an auto take in any list.

Kossite Woodsman: Ornery woodland hillbillies from the fringes of the far north with pretty abysmal RAT and MAT. While the rest of your troops are encased in metric shit tons of armor, the kossites wear nothing more than leather and rivets. While the rest of your army carries cannons and grenade launchers, kossites bring ancient ass muskets and bows to bear. This of course means they die in droves, and have a hard time doing jack shit to high armor targets, but that's why you'll be targeting softer things like support solos that tend to hide in the back. Ambush puts them right behind your opponent at the beginning of your second turn (you can deploy them normally on your first turn, but this isn't advised). Camouflage puts them to decent DEF levels when in forests, and Reform can be very handy for hit and run tactics. They also bring a psychological battle to the table. Does your opponent ignore them and risk them possibly taking out something valuable, or does he spend a turn focusing on them while the really nasty khador stuff is advancing from the front? Also be wary of armies that make use of soul and corpse tokens, as Kossites give them generously. Kossites can also make use of Yuri, as he grants them treewalker, which might help them survive an axe to face encounter while huddled up in forests. It also makes it annoying for your opponent when your Kossites ignore forests entirely when drawing LOS.

Doom Reavers: Take a violent criminal, chain a cursed fuckhuge sword to his hand, and what happens? You get a unit that your opponent does not want anywhere near them, and will most certainly make a point to blast them off the table. A decent MAT, combined with a good P+S, Reach, and Weapon Master means nothing is safe from Reavers. If it wasn't enough having a single model capable of cutting a Juggernauts health in half with a single lucky strike on the charge, they've got Abomination, Fearless, and cannot be directly targeted by spells (that includes yours). Unfortunately (or fortunately, based on the predicament they find themselves in) they have Berserk, so if you don't have another enemy nearby that needs to die, they tend to turn on themselves. Adding a Greylord Escort UA gives them silence, so they're not cutting into each other anymore. More importantly, he gives them Tough, and by himself contributes a decent spray to reach out and kill things with that might not be close enough for the Reavers to tear into. If you really like Reavers, run an EButcher tier list, and bring about 5 units + UA's, and laugh as your opponent realizes he has no answer to that many reach weapon master bodies running at him.

WARJACKS

You'll notice quickly enough that all these guys are Heavy Jacks and that Khador lacks light ones. This is because Khador lacks some of the rare elements needed to make warjack Cortex's, so with a shortage of Cortex they made all their jacks to take a beating and it's why unstable Jacks which use the Berserker Chassis are used. This fluff was reflected on the tabletop in MK2, where it was feasible only to field one or two of them. With the dawn of MK3 and the Power Up rule (all jacks get a focus at the start of their turn if they don't have any), players are now fielding lists with EIGHT warjacks in them. These Jack heavy builds, along with the Power Up rule in general, has generated endless civil debate in the WMH community.

Berserker: The oldest jacks being employed by any army, becoming unstable due to their cortexes aging. Because of this they are known to act erratically, charging without orders, attacking with savage brutality, and if pushed too far exploding. Even Butcher has told High Kommand "Guys, these things are unstable as SHIT!". Khadors cheapest 'jack it has respectable armor and weapons and is fairly focus efficient on its own due to it's aggression. Just as well though, when you give it focus it has a chance to explode.

Decimator: Designed to tear through armor and fortifications Decimators are equipped with a Dozer cannon that lets them knock back whoever gets hit and a rip saw that can tear through any armor. Its low RAT makes it largely in effective at range sadly, though its Saw will do scary damage when boosted with focus to make it extra auto hitting attacks.

Destroyer: One of our lesser used jacks. Its got an AOE cannon and Executioner Axe. The Cannon is okay, with long range and reasonably strong blast. Its Executioner Axe meanwhile completely cripples any arm systems that takes damage from a crit. Basically an inferior Defender with indirect fire.

Grolar: The Orkiest of Warjacks. Has RAT 4, but for each focus you spend to buy a shooting attack, it can make two additional shooting attacks. Has Fleet and Virtuoso. Comes with an Auto Cannon, Open fist, and Piston Hammer.

Juggernaut: The workhorse of Khador's warjacks, the Juggernaut has one simple purpose, to be big scary and wreck things in close combat, completely eschewing ranged weapons. It has an Ice Axe which freezes its target on a critical hit, and an open fist allowing it to grapple with its target. For its cost, it's outright deadly, though its mostly used for tanking hits and killing other warjacks.

Devastator: Designed to be even more armored then the Juggernaut, Devastators is one of, if not the most heavily armored jack in the game. It gains extra armor when it does not attack with its shielded arms, but it loses armor when it does leaving it vulnerable. When it charges it can choose to fire its grenade launchers, making all models in B2B take an extremely powerful hit and half damage to all models within 3".

Demolisher: Same stat line as the Devastator. Trades the shoulder mounted Rain of Death launchers for shoulder mounted POW 15 RNG 8 Cannons.

Kodiak: Khador's fastest 'jack, the Kodiak can run for free and is not slowed by terrain. It has a pair of open fists for grappling and can make a pair of power attacks if its first two hit. It can also create a cloud affect damaging all surrounding models.

Marauder: Juggernauts who's arms have been replaced with ram pistons, letting it knock back targets it hits. Good for displacing enemy jacks, messing with enemy coordination.

Spriggan: The most expensive non-character 'jack, the Spriggan is well rounded and versatile, armed with a shield, lance, and a pair of grenade launchers. The lance can punch through most armor with ease, and the grenade launchers are good against infantry. The launcher can also be used to eliminate fog and DEF boosts.

Beast 09: A souped-up Juggernaut with traits designed to make it tear apart infantry. It can run without spending focus, and make a full advance towards whoever damages it. During its activation you can spend a focus point to grant it an extra attack die against all living enemy warriors. It has affinity with Sorscha, giving an extra die against living models.

Behemoth: The single largest 'jack in Khador's arsenal excluding its Colossal and the most infamous. For nearly half your army points it comes with a pair of built in Bombard cannons, and two POW 12 open fists with armor piercing. When first conceived the Behemoth was suspended due to the immense cost of making just one. The project was resurrected by the former regent when he discovered the plans, and through influence and his own fortune saw construction resumed. To this day the cost of construction has made sure that only one Behemoth has ever been made.

Black Ivan: Souped-up Destroyer. Has Bulldoze and Dodge. Instead of an Executioner Axe, it has Bear Claw, a giant bear trap turned into a fist with critical brutal damage. Has Affinity Harkevich, while in Harkevich's control area, this model gains boosted ranged attack rolls.

Drago: The oldest warjack in service to Khador. Drago is pretty much an upgraded Berserker with higher MAT and Executioner Axes, and can make an additional melee attack against all models in range if its initial attack hit. It has affinity with Vladimir allowing it to ignore its unstable rule while in his control range.

Ruin: Doomreaver Warjack. Has an open fist and a P+S 18 mace with dispel. Also has Soul Taker and Orgoth Seal. Has Special Issue Zoktavir, meaning it can be included in any of Butchers theme lists and can be bonded to him.

Torch: An Assault Kommando 'Jack, Torch is immune to fire and corrosion. Has a Flamethrower, Spiked Fist, and Rip Saw for weapons. Comes with Gun Fighter and Virtuoso, also has pathfinder when it charges. As a star action it can use smoke bombs. Has Special Issue Strakhov so it can be included in his theme forces.