Kommander Oleg Strakhov

Few soldiers are as hated and feared by the Motherland’s enemies as Kommander Oleg Strakhov. Strakhov takes pride in the fact that he has never refused a mission, no matter how dangerous. Although he prefers to rely on his physical superiority, his potent arcane abilities have been refined to aid him in the shock assaults in which he excels. Strakhov and his ‘jacks launch brutal strikes against enemy positions, slaughtering the enemy before they can react. With each engagement, Strakhov changes the face of warfare in the Iron Kingdoms to match his vision of bloody excellence.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat: Iron Fist

1. Friendly Faction models that charge or slam power attack an enemy model while that model is in Strakhov's Template:Control range gain +4" movement when advancing as part of their Normal Movement and Pathfinder.
2. Warjacks in Strakhov's battlegroup can charge or make a slam power attack targeting an enemy model while that model is in Strakhov's Template:Control range without spending focus.

Iron Fist lasts for one turn.

Abilities

• Template:Corrosion Immunity
• Template:Fire Immunity
• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Alchemical Mask
• Template:Resourceful
• Template:Sprint
• Template:Veteran Leader

Weapons

Cinder Bomb
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		6			1			3			14
Template:Fire Damage Template:Smoke
Riot Gun
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		10			d3			Template:-			12
Trench Sword
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				6				13
Template:Magical Damage Template:Brutal Charge

Spells

{{Category: Template:Battering RamTemplate:OccultationTemplate:OverrunTemplate:SentryTemplate:Superiority }}[[Category: Template:Battering RamTemplate:OccultationTemplate:OverrunTemplate:SentryTemplate:Superiority ]]

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 Strakhov1

Strakhov1 in a nutshell

Strakhov is a Kommando. This means lots of tools, lots of special rules, and a very mobile game. He offers a fairly unique, alpha-strike based game, which is something unexpected from a faction, known for its SPD 4 warjacks. He is the living proof, that being a "slow faction" is not the same as being a "faction with low SPD warjacks".

Spell thoughts

• Overrun - a watered-down version of Road to War, it is still the cornerstone of your plans. 4/6" extra movement for a Khador jack can mean the difference between getting engaged, and getting shot to pieces. Especially useful against units with Polarity Shield, as it can offset the loss of the extra 3" from the charge denial.
• Superiority - goes hand-in-hand with Overrun. Cast it on turn1, and keep it up.
• Sentry - If you expect your combined-arms jack to be caught early by jamming troops, put it on, and watch chaff infantry evaporating from blasts.
• Occultation - put it on a tanky troop you want to deliver safety, or on your brawler solos.
• Battering Ram - for occasional Incorp hunting, but frankly, you'll rarely have enough focus for this zap.

Feat thoughts

This is where the fun starts. Iron Fist makes slow models fast, while fast models can conduct nothing short of ridiculous charge ranges. Free charges and slams offer great focus efficiency, and few enemies will survive a charge from Strakhov's army. Terrain is also rarely an issue thanks to Pathfinder.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• He has to play far forward to be effective with his feat, and his defence stats are not extraordinary (apart of being immune to fire and corrosion).
• Anything, that counters charging, or removes upkeeps, will severely decrease his jacks' and units' threat range.

Tricks & Tips

• You have a ROFD3 gun, equivalent of a Hand Cannon - it can prove useful, if you want to kill something important.
• Strakhov is part of his battlegroup, so a kill with him while having Overrun on himself can send a jack forward - and vica versa.
• You can cast Overrun multiple times, although you have to target and move different models each time.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Strakhov has been following a very straightforward game plan throughout the last 2 editions, which more often than not converges toward assassination. The recipients might change, but the main steps are:

• Put Superiority on a jack you want to beat faces with, and don't let it drop.
• March forward until the enemy gets into your CTRL zone. Occasionally help your key models movement with Overrun.
• Allocate focus on your Superiority enhanced jack, cast Overrun, then feat.
• Kill something to trigger Overrun, deliver your enhanced jack, and wreck faces.

You mainly select units for Strakhov's army to make the most out of his feat. As mentioned, +4 movement under charges make everything better.

Theme Thoughts

Template:Header Since most of his buffs resolve around his battlegroup, there's a good case to be made about this theme. He also upkeeps for free on battlegroup models, so basing your strategy around a large battlegroup and only taking a minimal amount of unsupported quality units can be a good idea.

• Behemoth is a fantastic jack in his own right, but needs to be protected since he is not any more survivable than a Juggernaugt. Occultation helps with this.
• Kayazy Eliminators same distance as with the Drakhun, with complete free strike immunity, plus extra distance from Side Step. Thanks to Acrobatics, you don't care about screening models.
  • Also note that, as Partisans, Kayazy can be taken in the other Khador themes too. But in the other themes they'll use up your "Up to one Mercenary" slot.
• Sorscha0 - Boundless Charge on a stick is great for a caster with Superiority and the Speedboosts stack. FoW ist also never bad as it provides a bit of protection from shooting.

• Iron Fang Uhlans - that is 17" charge range for you. They're a great target for Occultation.

• MoW Drakhun - 1" less than Uhlans, but with what a force!
• Shocktroopers - Threat up to 15" away with the Kovnik's Desperate Pace. Who's the slow one now?
• A second pow-20 smite shot from the Man-o-War Siege Chariot is one of the best Sentry targets available

• Gun Carriage can charge in from no less than 15" afar.

• You won't take Greylord_Outriders to wreck faces, but with Occultation they can be particularly annoying.
• Fenris can become a whirlwind of destruction, but he must forgo the spell support.
• Four empowers from the Koldun Lord and Greylord Forge Seer really help a big battlegroup.

• Sylys - best friend of an upkeep-dependant caster - but this is not one of those casters.
• Ragman and Aiyana and Holt are your typical damage fixers.

Battlegroup

File:Torch.png

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

Since Superiority and Overrun amend the speed problems, almost any Khador jack can fit into his arsenal.

• Since you want to use his feat eventually to charge you jacks in, they should hit hard in melee to make the most of it. Juggernauts and Marauders fit the bill!
• Behemoth - As above.
• Destroyer - A great Sentry target.
• Grolar - If it comes to triggering Overrun, no one beast the Grolar and it'S high volume of fire.
• Torch is his pet warjack that he can take in any theme. It's good at triggering overrun, but you might find the Grolar better for that.

Other

Trivia

• Originally released in Forces of Warmachine: Khador (March 2010)

Video Battle Reports

• 2019.03 Tiny Men, vs Goreshade1
• 2019.01 Tiny Men, vs Anamag1
• Template:VBR