Kodiak

Developed to support Khador’s renowned 5th Border Legion, the Kodiak is a rugged, all-terrain war machine built to fight in close quarters and dense forests. The Kodiak is instilled with a mechanikal instinct for pugilism and metal-wrenching violence, and nothing can withstand its steam-driven assaults.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Construct
• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Heavy Boiler
• Template:Vent Steam

Weapons

Armored Fist (x2)
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S				LOCATION
		1				4				16				1 Each Side
Template:Open Fist Template:Chain Attack Grab & Smash

Theme Forces

• Khador
  • Template:Armored Korps
  • Template:Flame in the Darkness
  • Template:Jaws of the Wolf
  • Template:Legion of Steel
  • Template:Warriors of the Old Faith
  • Template:WG Kommand
  • Template:Wolves of Winter

• Other Factions
  • Cygnar and Mercenary players can use this model in the Template:Flame in the Darkness theme.
  • Infernal players can use this model in the Template:Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Malakov2 is leading the army. This model gains Accumulator [Soulless] in this theme.
  • Protectorate players can use this model in the Template:Warriors of the Old Faith theme.

Thoughts on Kodiak

File:KodiakClassic.jpg

Classic Sculpt

Kodiak in a Nutshell

Khador's "5th Border Legion" or "Mobility" warjacks are modern 'jacks equipped with superior mobility when compared to their classic counterparts. They pack innovative weapons with a lot of utility, letting them perform a wide range of duties and their inherent Pathfinder and high amounts of initial attacks make them formidable warjacks for many occassions. Both of their builds are suited to very different play styles:

• Grolars are combined arms warjacks with weapons for every job. Their 5-7 initial attacks each turn let them fulfill a wide range of tasks each activation and excellent synergy with activation-wide effects.
• Kodiaks are highly mobile melee warjacks with access to the full complement of power attacks and a devastating Chain Attack. Their Vent Steam ability lets them clear out low-ARM warriors with ease and provides endless utility with the clouds they generate.

The Kodiak is an excellent melee warjack at its cost. It is most easily compared to the Juggernaut and it trades the devastating power of the Ice Axe for more mobility, a steam attack and an extra effective initial attack. It's more than a fair trade, and the Kodiak's build makes it a wonderfully efficient and self-sufficient warjack, ideal for a lot of Khador warcasters that don't provide Pathfinder and/or don't have a lot of focus to spare (ie most of them). It's a great fighter that's meant to go after other heavies and beat them down, ideally after receiving a damage buff for insurance. Even outside of combat the utility of its Steam Vent makes it a very useful 'jack to have around, and because the cloud doesn't harm anyone after being played it synergizes wonderfully with models that like to hide in clouds.

Combos & Synergies

The Kodiak is an excellent warjack for a wide range of armies. It's an especially great warjack for 'casters that have a hard time allotting focus and enhancing mobility. Ideally, they can bump the Kodiak's damage output and benefit from its infantry-steaming or cloud-generating capabilities. It's currently not a great 'Jack Marshal target because it plays so far upfield and doesn't synergize especially with existing Marshals but does work relatively well because of its self-sufficiency.

• The Butcher: Orsus is typically either short on focus or flat-out unable to support his battlegroup. He loves melee-centric independent warjacks.
• Karchev the Terrible: Karchev loves efficient melee warjacks and he doesn't provide Pathfinder. The feat, Battle-Charged, Jumpstart and Road to War make the Kodiak stupid fast, and its Vent Steam is great in melee-centric Jaws of the Wolf lists that can have trouble with jamming models blocking charges.
• Kommander Malakov: Malakov's Sneak Battle Plan synergizes with Vent Steam and his feat and Escort, Open Fire and Tactical Supremacy spells work wonders with the Kodiak.
• The Old Witch: Zevanna likes Prowling in steam clouds and doesn't do much to support non-Scrapjack warjacks. The Kodiak is self-reliant and efficient and is great for throwing models into or out of ranges to help set up Gallows, Avatar of Slaughter & Unseen Path attacks.
• Kommander Strakhov: Oleg's feat makes the Kodiak blisteringly fast and it works great with Overrun and especially Superiority.
• Kommandant Kratikoff: This is probably the best jack for Sorscha3 (apart from Beast-09) to run due to their innate Pathfinder and two initials + Chain attack, which makes great use of her Field Marshal. Stoke the Fires is also great on them and the contribute to a infantry mulching clound wall if you combine Vent Steam with her feat.
• Vladimir Tzepesci: All three incarnations of the Dark Prince love working with melee warjacks and the Kodiak likes a MAT fixer to all-but guarantee its Chain Attack goes off and bump its effective damage output.
• Harkevich - His Field Marshal Reposition 3" allows you to drop a cloud then back out of it, blocking LOS to the enemy.

• Kovnik Malakov: Redline is a pitch perfect fit for the Kodiak and steam clouds help block LoS to Malakov so he doesn't have to rely on Sucker! as much for his safety.

• Battle Mechaniks: While typically hard to reach, the Kodiak can be Repaired.
• Kossite Woodsmen: Like the Old Witch, Woodsmen have Prowl and can hide in steam clouds.

• Greylord Forge Seer: While not a great Marshal for the Kodiak, every warjack likes being Empowered when the opportunity presents itself.

• Colbie Sterling/Gobber Tinker/Raluk Moorclaw: These three are Mechanikally Adept, meaning they can Repair Khador models.
• Gorman Di Wulfe/Hutchuk: Their Rust grenades help bring the Kodiak target's ARM into cracking range.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Typical for Khadoran warjacks, it has low native SPD and DEF.
• If it can't reach melee it can't do as much.
• Heavy Boiler doesn't boost the Kodiak's movement on the charge.
• If the opponent doesn't field single Health models Vent Steam becomes a lot less useful.
• Its POW 16 attacks aren't as threatening against high-ARM models without a damage buff.

Tricks & Tips

• Being knocked down causes models to lose Tough so feel free to go after Tough targets with the Chain Attack.
• Use your good Throw skills to get enemies out of the zones.
• If you can give the Kodiak Reposition it can move up, vent steam and move behind it to block LoS to itself.
• There's a particularly dumb (but legal!) interaction between Vent Steam and Vlad2. Because Vent Steam is NOT an attack, you can use it to damage Vlad and trigger Might of Kings. Whether hitting your own warcaster for (on average) 3 points of damage in order to get +2 STR and ARM is debatable.

Other

Trivia

• Originally released in Warmachine: Escalation (2004).
• The Kodiak is named after the Alaskan Brown Bear, known as the Kodiak bear.
• The parts to build a Kodiak or a Grolar are contained in the same box, so you can use magnets to swap their Profile-specific parts for a two-in-one warjack.