Berserker
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Berserker |
There is something uniquely terrifying about the Berserker. The oldest of Khadoran warjacks still in service, the 'jacks have become unstable over the decades and are prone to charge without orders when near the frenzy of combat. Worse yet, their cortex alloys have become critically decayed and risk massive concussive overload when stimulated by arcane energy.
Contents
Basic Info
Berserker | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Warjack - All warjacks share the same set of special rules. Most notably being big and stompy. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.
Abilities
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Construct
- Berserk - When this model destroys one or more models with a melee attack during its Combat Action, immediately after the attack is resolved it must make one additional melee attack against another model in its melee range.
- Unstable - At the end of an activation in which this model spent more than 1 focus point, roll a d6. If the roll is equal to or less than the number of focus points spent, this model explodes and other models within 3" of it suffer an unboostable POW 14 blast damage roll. Remove this model from play.
Weapons
War Axe (x2) | |||||||||||||||
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RNG | POW | P+S | LOCATION | |||||||||||
1 | 5 | 16 | 1 Each Side | ||||||||||||
Theme Forces
- Khador
- Armored Korps
- Flame in the Darkness
- Jaws of the Wolf. This model gains Pathfinder in this theme.
- Legion of Steel
- Warriors of the Old Faith
- Winter Guard Kommand
- Wolves of Winter
- Other Factions
- Cygnar and Mercenary players can use this model in the Flame in the Darkness theme.
- Infernal players can use this model in the 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 Warriors of the Old Faith theme.
Recent Changes
No changes since 2018.04
Thoughts on the Berserker
Berserker in a Nutshell
"Archaic" Khadoran warjacks are typified by their Unstable cortexes that have begun degrading over their many decades of use. Not one to waste resources, the Khadoran military continues to employ them even as their cortexes have become vulnerable to critical malfunction when overexerted, resulting in spectacular explosions. These cheap and expendable 'jacks have only become more vicious with age and their propensity for blowing up under strain is more typically seen as a benefit, than as a limitation... Treat them as light warjacks on heavy bases and pick their targets accordingly, tailoring their functions to their three very different possible loadouts:
- Berserkers wield heavy twin War Axes to rampage through enemy lines, each kill spurring them on to more destruction as their Berserker frenzy sets in.
- Mad Dogs are specifically engineerd to trample through enemy infantry, flailing their Hammer Spikes against anything in reach.
- Ragers are stout guardians equipped with a heavy Shield fitted with a Shield Cannon, backed up by a massive Gladius shortsword to function as a Shield Guard for their controllers.
Of the archaic Khadoran warjacks, the Berserker sees probably the most time on the battlefield. Cheap, flexible and aggressive, it finds a way into numerous builds looking for a volume of melee warjacks to go to town with. With a name like "Berserker" you might expect its main asset lies in its Berserk ability, but you'd be wrong. Berserk is a thematic, but sadly very situational ability. Without something like Bulldoze or Overtake the Berserker lacks a way to close the distance to a new target after taking one down. No, the Berserker is so popular because it's an excessively cheap heavy warjack with two decently-powered initial melee attacks. A horde of Berserkers under the effects of global buffs punch far above their weight, allowing them to trade up at a relatively low points investment. They're reasonably tough for their cost and when things go awry you can load them up with focus and fish for a small thermonuclear strike to earn its points back and then some.
Combos & Synergies
The Berserker has low SPD, MAT and middling POW on its War Axes. It revels working under controllers that can boost precisely these aspects without needing to rely on focus allocation which might cause it to blow its stack prematurely. It's a great battlegroup warjack, but also performs expertly as a Marshaled 'jack under commands like Crush!, Hurry! and Strike True! to bump its melee prowess.
Warcasters
- Butcher1: Despite being unable to help them with their mobility, Orsus is an excellent warcaster for archaic 'jacks, combining his extremely efficient Full Throttle spell with his Blood Frenzy feat to turn them into absolute melee monsters for a turn. A small horde of Berserkers and Ragers make for a terribly efficent battlegroup, at a rock-bottom cost.
- Butcher2: If he's able to take the lead to trigger his Conferred Rage, archaic warjacks under Orsus' "supervision" become dangerously quick and accurate--further pushed by his classic Boundless Charge spell to help them over rough terrain--and they're great vessels for rage tokens from his feat.
- Karchev1: The Man in the Machine loves a volume of archaic warjacks to multiply the effects of his feat, Battle-Charged, Jumpstart and Road to War to create a roiling engine of destruction. He needs to knock his targets down to help his warjacks hit things however, so be sure to take that into account.
- Karchev2: Special K's second incarnation is a pure battlegroup caster, so unsurprisingly he loves Berserkers. Full Throttle helps fix their MAT and lets them charge for free, Locked Horns helps bring them back up to standard Khador jack toughness, and his feat helps all melee jacks get to where they need to be.
- Sorscha3: Flank Man-o-War elevates Berserkers and Ragers from dangerous to lethal in melee and her Stoke the Fires spell pushes their mobility and aggression to match their appetites. They're simply perfect matches for each other.
- Vladimir1: Both thematic and extremely synergistic, archaic warjacks thrive under the combined effects of Boundless Charge, the signaturate Signs and Portents and his devastating Forced March feat. Vladimir efficiently boosts them in every way they care about, they're excellent together.
- Vladimir3: Beyond fixing their SPD and accuracy against warriors with Infernal Machine his feat is one of the few ways a Berserker can exploit its Berserk ability, in this case using Side Step to move from model to model, easily clearing out entire units in an activation.
- Zerkova2: While relying on focus allocation through Sacrificial Lamb to push archaic 'jacks, she can run a large battlegroup for the cost of something like a Mechanik per activation. They don't roll for Unstable unless they actually spent the focus allocated to them so there's no risk of blowing up your horde before you're good and ready. Beyond that, her armies tend to Freeze models regularly, and stationary models make for great targets. And they'e completely respectable Telgesh Mark-created Arc Nodes to boot!
Battlegroup Controllers
Archaic warjacks are great picks for Battlegroup Controllers because the controllers themselves can be quite vulnerable and losing a big stack of points to an inert warjack is a good way to lose a match. Archaic warjacks are dirt-cheap, mitigating the risk of losing a battle when a controller goes down.
- Kovnik Andrei Malakov: His signature Redline spell is excellent on these expendable warjacks and he has enough focus to load one up and send it in for a glorious assault.
- Kovnik Apprentice Kratikoff: Fog of War offers protection against ranged attacks and Boundless Charge is excellent on the sluggish archaic warjacks. She has just enough focus to load one up up for a frenzy and will continue to help her Winter Guard comrades even after it has done its job and either retired for the day, or exploded into a ball of white fire.
'Jack Marshals
- Greylord Forge Seer: Both a great Marshal and support model for the Berserker, it likes being safely Empowered and makes decent use of his Drive.
- Man-o-War Kovnik: Using their Slam Power Attack ability tees target models up for easy hits and although the Berserker doesn't benefit from the Drive, it does work well with the combat-oriented Kovnik.
Other
- Battle Mechaniks: While typically hard to reach, the Berserker can be Repaired, although archaic warjacks probably aren't worth the effort most of the time.
- Colbie Sterling/Gobber Tinker/Raluk Moorclaw: These three are Mechanikally Adept, meaning they can Repair Khador models, although archaic warjacks probably aren't worth the effort most of the time.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- Typical for Khadoran warjacks, it has low native SPD and DEF.
- If it can't reach melee it can't do much.
- Its POW 16 attacks aren't as threatening against high-ARM models without a damage buff.
- Its reduced number of Cortex boxes makes it more vulnerable to targeted attacks that can easily cripple critical systems.
- Unstable: It never works when you want it to, and it always works when you don't want it to.
- You can't rely on it to block charge lanes, threaten free strikes, etc. You always have to plan your other models' positions around the assumption that Unstable removes this model.
Tricks & Tips
- Never forget that Unstable can work to your advantage. There are a lot of things that don't like taking an auto-hitting POW 14 to the face. And remember, that ear-splitting KABOOM isn't a 3" AOE; it's everything within 3" of the model.
- For this maneuver to work, the Berserker needs both it Cortex and Movement systems to be functional.
- Remember that all of the archaic chassis are DEF 11. Still pretty bad, but when stacked with terrain or effects like Fog of War, something might actually miss them!
Other
Trivia
- Originally released in Warmachine: Escalation (2004).
- The parts to build a Berseker, Mad Dog or Rager are contained in the same box, so you can use magnets to swap their Profile-specific parts for a three-in-one warjack.
Other Khador Models
Rules Clarifications
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Rules Clarification : Warjack (Edit)
Inert warjacks
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Rules Clarification : Construct - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Berserk (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Unstable (Edit)
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