Kommander Harkevich, the Iron Wolf

Khador’s Iron Wolf has earned a reputation as a peerless master of heavy armor on the battlefield, a war hero beloved by his men and respected even by the enemies of the Motherland. He is famous for his ability to move large numbers of warjacks at an unprecedented pace to arrive where the enemy least expects him. Where Harkevich and his iron army stride, the enemy finds itself hounded, outmaneuvered, cornered, and eventually obliterated by overwhelming firepower.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat: Hour of the Wolf

1. While in Harkevich's Template:CTRL range, models in his battlegroup gain +3 ARM.
2. Models in his battlegroup beginning their activation in his Template:CTRL range can charge or make slam power attacks without spending focus.
3. A model in Harkevich's battlegroup that declares a charge or slam against an enemy model while in his Template:CTRL range can make a basic ranged attack before advancing.

Hour of the Wolf lasts for one round.

Abilities

• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]] (Template:Reposition 3-alt)

• Template:Iron Sentinel

Weapons

Hand Cannon
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		12			1			Template:-			12
Minister
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				7				14
Template:Magical Damage Template:Stagger

Spells

{{Category: Template:BombshellTemplate:BroadsideTemplate:JumpstartTemplate:Mobility }}[[Category: Template:BombshellTemplate:BroadsideTemplate:JumpstartTemplate:Mobility ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Armored Korps
• Template:Si
• Template:Jaws of the Wolf
• Template:Legion of Steel
• Template:Si
• Template:WG Kommand. In this theme the caster gains Sacrificial Pawn [Winter Guard trooper model].
• Template:Wolves of Winter

Thoughts on Harkevich

Harkevich in a Nutshell

Harkevich is a close-to-the-line warjack support warcaster that excels at speed and attrition. His spell Mobility lets normally slow Khador warjacks strike first for once, and Field Marshal : Reposition[3"] gives them an unusual amount of adaptability. His feat gives his battlegroup incredible durability. He has excellent defensive stats and abilities, making him difficult to assassinate. He lacks any infantry support and plays best with a warjack-heavy list, often in the Jaws of the Wolf or Winter Guard Kommand theme forces.

Feat thoughts

Of the two Feat effects, the +3 ARM is the most important. There are only a few abilities in Khador that increase the ARM of our already tough jacks, and for good reason. Armor 23 for most jacks or ARM 26 for closed "clam" jacks (like the Devastator and Demolisher) can be very difficult for an enemy to crack. This lets you weather the inevitable counterattack after rushing your jacks in with Mobility. Also remember that Harkevich does benefit from his own feat, and can be very difficult to assassinate on feat turn.

The second effect, an additional ranged attack before charging, is controversial. Like the spell Broadside, it encourages you to take ranged 'jacks, but our low RAT jacks rarely make the additional attacks count. Remember that you can shoot things other than your charge target, and look for opportune targets like knocked down models or clumped up infantry. Treat it as a nice bonus, but don't feel obligated to build your whole list or strategy around it.

Spell thoughts

• Bombshell - AOE attack with a great critical effect. Expensive (especially if you boost to hit, maximizing the chance of a critical hit) but situationally useful. Use against something you really need to move, or against difficult infantry that is normally immune to blast damage.
• Broadside - Expensive but potentially powerful ranged attack generator. You will want to either take 3+ ranged jacks and cast this every turn, or mostly ignore it in favor of casting Mobility or allocating focus to your battlegroup.
• Jumpstart - Very situational, but incredibly useful for making sure your battlegroup doesn't get shut down by things like Disruption, Telekenesis, knockdown, ect. You likely won't need to cast it much, but you'll be glad to have it when you do.
• Mobility - Hark's "other" signature spell. Makes Khador heavies as fast as most infantry. Great for extending your threat range or getting an additional 4" up the field. If you run a melee-focused Hark list, you will likely cast this every turn, at least until you're stuck in with the enemy.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Harkevich has a relatively low amount of Focus for the amount of jacks he wants to run.
  • On top of that, most of his spells are pretty expensive. Playing into anti-magic tricks like Arcane Suppression can be annoying, while Lamentation might cripple your battle plans altogether.
• He doesn't have any spells to support non-battlegroup models directly. This means his infantry has to be completely self-sufficient.
• Broadsides generally needs at least 3 warjacks to justify the focus cost of the spell and the shots from the spell cannot be boosted - a hard pill to swallow on low RAT Khador Warjacks.
• The Pathfinder aspect of his Mobility spell is redundant in the Khadoran jack theme, Jaws of the Wolves.
• Harkevich is not a very "active" warcaster, usually handing out focus and casting 1 or 2 spells a turn. His big spells and passive abilities are effective, but he might feel boring to play for some people.

Tricks & Tips

• Harkevich is a model in his own battlegroup, so he benefits from Broadsides, Mobility, and his feat.
  • However, he is not a warjack so doesn't benefit from his Field Marshal:Reposition ability.
• There is a skill in knowing when to cast Broadsides or not. If you cast it, you double your amount of fire and can drift more AOEs, do more damage to low ARM models, etc. If you don't you can instead allocate the focus to boost the shots the Warjacks make during their activation.
• Bombshell is a great charge lane opener. Cast it into the middle of the enemy line and stick a Decimator or Demolisher in the new hole to disrupt the enemy line with a high ARM threat.
• Remember to Reposition your jacks after their melee actions. It's a great way to clear charge lanes, fit more jacks in, and generally get better positioning.
• With Mobility up, Trampling gets you the same distance as Running due to reposition: (4+2+3+3) vs (6x2), but you can buy attacks at the end of a Trample and then Repo further.

List Building Advice

Strategy

There are two major schools of thought with Harkevich: running a ranged-focused jack list that relies heavily on Broadside, or running a melee-focused jack list that relies heavily on Mobility. Either way, you want to pressure the enemy into committing the models that can actually deal with a large volume of high armor warjacks. Once you take those out, you should have no problem bullying the enemy caster for a scenario, attrition, or even assassination victory.

A ranged-focused list should look for ways to knock down or otherwise reduce the DEF of enemy models, since the low RAT of Khador warjacks is the biggest challenge for this strategy. Repositioning backwards can help you get more rounds of shooting in, and the additional shot when charging on feat turn should help when you do eventually close to melee.

A melee-focused list relies on the fact that Khador jacks are already awesome, they just need a little help getting to the enemy. Mobility helps with +2 SPD and Pathfinder, hopefully letting you engage the enemy on your own terms. Make sure to bring jacks that can handle screening models (Like Kodiaks, Berserkers, or Ragers) so you don't get bogged down with cheap infantry, and can prioritize the enemy models that can actually hurt you.

Theme Thoughts

Template:Header He's a battlegroup caster, so at first glance one might think to run him in Jaws of the Wolf. On the other hand, the main theme benefit (Pathfinder for jacks) is redundant with his Mobility ability, so he's by no means tied to the theme. The main draws here are probably access to the big bad Behemoth, Sorscha0 for even further threat ranges, and Ambushing Kossite Woodsmen.

Another direction to go in could be Wolves of Winter. In this case, the DEF debuffs that set up your shooting come from Greylord Ternion, along with ARM debuffs from Koldun Lords and Void Archons. Koldun Lords can also copy the Empower spell of the Forge Seers, giving you a total of 4 focus per turn if you run them at max FA.

• Adding a War Dog and keeping in Iron Sentinel range can take Harkevich to very good levels of defense and ARM in melee. With pathfinder from Mobility, it's also easy to put him in ranged DEF boosting terrain. He also becomes immune to knockdown and back strikes, making him all around difficult to assassinate.
• Greylord Forge Seers can use Empower to help take the focus strain off of Harkevich.
• Greylord Adjunct - Mandatory, as Guidance helps ranged jacks against clouds, stealth and incorporeal.

Battlegroup

File:BlackIvan.jpg

Black Ivan is his pet warjack that he can take in any theme.

• Harkevich and one or more Demolisher can be a potent combination. Since they only "open up" when making melee attacks, they can close in while making many high powered (if inaccurate) shots under Broadsides. Under feat, they go up to a ludicrous ARM 26, making them an amazing first wave for your opponent to try and overcome.
  • Demolishers also have Gunfighter, allowing them to take advantage of Broadside even when engaged.
• Kodiaks synergize very well with Field Marshal : Reposition[3"]. They can Trample up 9" under Mobility, use Vent Steam, then Reposition backwards 3", just enough to get them out of their own steam cloud. The cloud will block line of sight, protecting them from ranged attacks/charges. Use several of them to create a cloud wall for the rest of your army.
• Marauders usually only need their 1 Power Up focus to do their job, which is good for the focus-hungry Harkevich.
• Decimator - +2 Speed and Repo 3" does a lot to mitigate the low range on their guns and since they have Batter, they can set up knocked down targets to shoot at for their brothers if you run them in multiples.
• Black Ivan is a souped up Destroyer that is worse in melee and a bit more effective at range thanks to the bond, this matter especially with Broadside, where Ivan will be probably the only jack to ever have a shot at hitting anything that is not debuffed.
• Spriggan - Flare helps the low RAT Khador jacks land their mark, which especially helps on Broadside attacks. It's no slouch in melee either. The main strike against it is RAT 4, so you will need to aim, Guidance and boost to hit to reliably apply it in the first place.

Other

Trivia

• A common fan-joke is that one must grow a prodigious beard in order to cast Broadside, because both the casters with access to the spell, Harkevich and Bartolo both have magnificent facial hair. Mekanolyth breaks the mold on this, which should be your queue to green stuff a beard onto her model.
• Released in the Warmachine: Wrath expansion (2011)

Video Battle Reports

• 2019.03 Guerilla Miniature Games, vs Magnus2
• 2019.03 Tiny Men, vs Helynna1
• 2019.03 Tiny Men, vs Abyslonia1
• 2019.01 Guerilla Miniature Games, vs Helynna1
• 2018.04 Guerilla Miniature Games, vs Amon1
• Template:VBR