Praetorian Karax

The proud Karax form imposing phalanxes of interlocking shields to impale closing enemies, sweep aside all incoming blows, and protect themselves, and those behind them, from explosive blasts. Endless training in unit tactics removes all trace of individual initiative and allows Karax to advance resolutely into even of the most earth-shuddering artillery barrage as shrapnel and fire wash harmlessly over their shields.

In battle, a force of karax under a strong officer's command becomes an unbreakable wall of steel acting in perfect tandem to strike swiftly and directly. Skorne tyrants understand that a phalanx of karax at the fore of their cohort can mean the difference between magnificent victory and ignominious defeat.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Everyone
  • Template:CMA
  • Template:Girded
  • Template:Set Defense
  • Template:Shield Wall

• Officer only
  • He has +1 MAT and 5 hitpoints
  • Template:Iron Zeal
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Practiced Maneuvers)

• Standard only
  • He doesn't have CMA
  • Template:Standard Bearer
  • Template:Take Up

Weapons

• Leader, Grunts, and Officer
  • Pike - 2" reach, POW 5, P+S 11 melee weapon

• Standard Bearer
  • Template:Unarmed

Theme Forces

• Template:Masters of War. They gain "Optional Take Down" in this theme.

Thoughts on Praetorian Karax

File:Praetorian Karax CA.jpg

Command Attachment

Praetorian Karax in a nutshell

Praetorian Karax are an extremely cheap and fairly durable unit. They are pretty good at surviving charges thanks to set defense. Blast damage doesn't hurt them. In shield wall most anti-infantry shooting doesn't worry them (in addition to their blast damage immunity) and most infantry attacks bounce off. For their cost they take an exceptional amount of work to put down.

The Officer & Standard Bearer in a nutshell

The officer and standard bearer trade the major virtue of being possibly the joint cheapest non-Cryxian combat unit in the game for a turn either of exceptional ARM (meaning they take even fewer casualties) or of running and spreading out at higher ARM than most anti-infantry attacks can deal with. One virtue or the other. Generally consensus seems to be that Karax are cheap enough you want extra Karax.

Combos & Synergies

• Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - move faster in shield wall. Always useful.
• Agonizer Karax may be the cheapest foundation to geta Skorne brick goin’, but they are still the foundation to a Skorne brick.
• Archdomina Makeda Carnage means they can hit people in melee effectively. And Girded and Shield Wall makes incoming fire even less useful.
• Supreme Archdomina Makeda On feat turn who cares what their MAT is
• Dominar Rasheth Cheap models to dark ritual through. And Plague Wind makes their shield wall even harder to break.
• Tyrant Xerxis The discount brick option still works really well with Xerxis.
• Ancestral Guardian or Extoller Soulward because they are a cheap source of souls.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Weak melee attacks for a combat unit ok pow poor MAT. It's all in the defense.
• Smart enemies will often just walk out of melee with them.
• Def 12 is weak, and ARM 19 dies most of the time to most charging infantry. (This is the purpose of Iron Zeal; a lot of infantry won't break Arm 22).
• Compared to their Praetorian rivals they are a hard sell unless you want them as a girded anti-blast damage tech piece
  • ARM 15 melts to incoming fire. You need shield wall to survive against small arms; the other Praetorians with their Def 13 survive better.
  • Mat 5 is bad enough that a two person Karax CMA is little better than a single Swordsman, and a minimum unit of Swordsmen costs the same.
  • Keltarii are faster, more accurate, get two attacks, get reposition, and are DEF 15 against incoming fire. All for a point more for a minimum unit.

Tricks & Tips

• You can choose to run rather than shield wall.
• Against some enemies spreading out the Karax and putting them base to base with your other models makes blasts bounce off.
• Shield walls are best in three person arrowhead formations so they have to kill two to get at the undefended one.
• If you're expecting to take a charge you may want to simply spread out; boosted damage from almost anyone will kill Karax (assuming they don't have Iron Zeal up)
• practiced maneuvers is good, makes them surprisingly effective vs weaker targets ( very easy to get lots of cmas on a solo or two ).

Other

Trivia

• The Praetorian units are named after the ancient Roman "Praetoriani" the elite of the elite of Roman legionaries meant to guard the most important military leaders. Obviously Privateer Press isn't that worried about units being like their real world inspirations on the tabletop.
• Released in Hordes: Evolution (2007)

Other Skorne models

Index Skorne