Man-o-War Demolition Corps

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Khador Logo.jpg

Man-o-War Demolition Corps
Khador Man-o-War Unit
Sergeant Dragos Dragadovich
Character Command Attachment

Mk4 icon.png
Prime
This model is available in one Prime Army, Armored Korps. It can also be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can view the other Mk3 models that made it into a Legacy Army at this page.

Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules.

Armed with long-hafted ice mauls that can shatter flesh, bone, and steel like glass, the Man-O-War Demolition Corps can deliver destruction to the enemy with devastating ease. Fearless in their heavy steam-powered armor, the Demolition Corps all but ignore incoming fire as they reduce enemy soldiers, warjacks, and fortifications to shards of icy shrapnel with each swing of their mighty, freezing hammers.

In another life, Dragos Dragodovich may have been one of the foremost manhunters to emerge from the forests of Skirov or a barbarian warlord with thousands of warriors sworn to him. Born in a modest trapping village, his youth was spent defending his family’s homestead from wild beasts. Dragos had never even seen a city until his conscription, at which point his size and ferocity let him easily qualify as a Man-O-War. Unlike others of his rank, Dragos does not command a dedicated unit. Instead, he is given special assignments, traveling between Kommands as the war effort demands.

Basic Info

Man-o-War Demolition Corps
Missing Info
Demo Corps.jpg
COST {{{cacost}}}
UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}}
FA {{{cafa}}}
Unit / Dragos
BASE Medium
SPD 4
STR 9
MAT 7 / 8
RAT N/A
M.A. N/A
DEF 10
ARM 16
CMD 7 / 8
ESSENCE {{{essence}}}
FOCUS N/A
FURY N/A
THRS N/A
HP 8
F. Field N/A
WJP {{{wjp}}}
WBP {{{wbp}}}
IHP {{{ihp}}}
FA 3
UNIT SIZE 3 or 5 +1 CA
COST 7 or 12 +4 CA
2.7 points each
N/A
N/A
Warcaster 1
COST N/A
N/A
Understanding
the Statblock

Abilities

  • Dragos only
    • Officer symbol.jpg Officer
    • Tough symbol.jpg Tough
    • Bond of Brotherhood [ Minifeat ] - This model can use Bond of Brotherhood once per game at any time during its unit’s activation. For one round, when a model in this unit is damaged by an enemy attack while in formation, you can choose one or more models in this unit to suffer any amount of that damage instead, divided as you choose. A model cannot suffer more damage as a result of Bond of Brotherhood than it has unmarked damage boxes.
    • Granted: Vengeance - While this model is in formation, models in its unit gain Vengeance. (Vengeance - During your Maintenance Phase, if one or more models in a unit with Vengeance were damaged by enemy attacks during the last round, each model in the unit can advance 3" and make one basic melee attack.)
    • Tactics: Defensive Line - Models in this unit gain Defensive Line. (Defensive Line - While a model with Defensive Line is B2B with one or more models in its unit, it gains +2 DEF against melee attacks and cannot become knocked down.)

Weapons

Unit
Ice Maul
Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S 
2 7 16
Dragos
Ice Maul (x2)
Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S 
2 7 16

Theme Forces


Thoughts on the MoW Demo Corps

Dragos, Command Attachment

MoW Demo Corps in a Nutshell

Man-o-War heavy infantry are elite combatants that trade mobility for heavy steam-powered armor. They are highly trained and equipped to deal with a wide range of threats, benefiting from a highly disciplined combined arms approach to achieve victory. Each of the three Man-o-War infantry units fills a distinct niche:

  • Man-o-War Shocktroopers are the Man-o-War frontline infantry, capable of weathering tremendous punishment before they engage in close quarters combat with their heavy Shield Cannons and Annihilator Blades. They are an excellent screening unit that can do serious damage to almost anything they set their sights on.
  • Man-o-War Demolition Corps are heavy hitters, outfitted to crack the toughest of targets with their Ice Maul hammers. When they connect with the appropriate targets they can do spectacular damage.
  • Man-o-War Bombardiers are deadly combined arms combatants that excel at clearing out swathes of enemy combatants, opting for an overwhelming volume of attacks with the combination of Grenade Cannons and Chain Blades.

Demolition Corps are the least flexible of the Man-o-War infantry units and are instead meant to eliminate hard targets specifically. However, they're kind of a strange unit that warrants some special consideration. Much of Khador and all Man-o-War can be classified as "heavy hitters" and while a P+S 16 is impressive on a warrior model it's not thát impressive when compared to all the other options you have for your armor-cracking needs. Even the "defensive" Shocktroopers are only two points of damage behind and they're far more flexible than Demolition Corps are. Defensively things aren't much better: they have no native defensive abilities and they're just vulnerable enough to lose the entire unit without achieving anything of worth with them. So, in order to get a good return on investment with them you need to do two things: 1) Help them reach melee safely and 2) increase their damage output, either directly or indirectly.

The first is easily achievable by buffing them with spells like Iron Flesh, dropping clouds or screening them with medium-or-larger based models but the second requires some more attention. Khador has excellent tools to buff melee damage: spells like Battle Lust and Fury do wonderful things to push them, but that can be said of almost any Khador melee-centric warrior. Instead, we need to turn to their Shatter ability for guidance. Demolition Corps are absolutely terrifying when they go after stationary models because they hit automatically and do a low average of 26 damage per swing against their target, not even counting charge bonuses. It's their Shatter ability that makes them hit hardest so if you want to play them you'll benefit from having some reliable ways of turning key targets stationary (which means Freezing them, in Khador's case), keeping in mind that certain models cannot be frozen at all (like a lot of Trollbloods) and Huge-based models cannot become stationary at all (per the Massive rule inherent to them). The other effective way of increasing their damage output is by finding ways to increase their volume of attacks. Because individual Ice Maul swings are so powerful, boosting their survivability or granting them abilities like Retaliatory Strike from Kommandant Atanas Arconovich offer a high return on investment. Demolition Corps are a niche unit to be sure, but very powerful within that specific niche. They crush hard targets, and that's what they do best.

Demolition Corps work great in the Armored Corps theme, especially those led by Malakov or Sorscha. While they don't benefit from Advance Move as much as Shocktroopers do it still helps them to move up more quickly and their skillset allows your other infantry to focus on the mid-to-low level threats that they're best at dealing with while the Corps helps takes care of the heavy hitters.

Thoughts on the Command Attachment

Sergeant Dragos Dragadovich is a very strong, very strange command attachment for your Demolition Corps. He's so good that you're probably going to include him every time you field a Demolition Corps unit because he lets them do far more damage than they otherwise would. You wouldn't think that, looking at his special rules, because he doesn't have any abilities that boosts their MAT or P+S or even anything that turns a target stationary. Instead, Dragos is all about punishing the opponent for fighting back. Bond of Brotherhood is an otherworldly powerful ability when used correctly. Effectively, he turns the entire undamaged unit into a 48 HP bloc for a round that doesn't start losing models until the 43d point of damage. If the opponent is unable to do more than 42 points of damage to the unit, everything survives. Making matters even worse for the opponent, you still have the option of letting damage through as normal meaning that if an attack overshoots a Corps-member's HP by too much you can just choose to discard the excess damage by losing a model, forcing the opponent to do damage but avoid doing too much in fear of using too many resources on your Corps. This puts the opponent in quite the bind. They can choose to leave your unit alone and wait the Minifeat out, but that of course leaves your Corps free to cause more havoc on your next turn. Conversely, they can try to do enough damage to take out your entire unit but if they fail there's yet another catch Dragos has cooked up; the sense of Vengeance he's instilled in his comrades. If the opponent gambles and fails to take out your unit you get to advance them 3" and make a free basic attack with them before your next Action Phase! Even normal P+S 16 swings are devastating to many things and you get to activate as normal to boot!

Long story short: if you can position your Demolition Corps so they get into melee on the turn you pop Bond of Brotherhood in a position where the enemy is close, but not close enough to take out your entire unit, you can do a terrifying amount of damage. Take advantage of the melee DEF bonus and Defensive Line for that bit of extra protection and make sure to augment your now effectively Steady Corps with Tough from Irusk or Kommandant Atanas Arconovich so they don't lose the movement on their Vengeance attack and a nice bump in survivability from a spell like Iron Flesh. Bringing Dragos means investing in the Corps and building a good part of your strategy around them but when you position them correctly they will be the win condition that you brought them to be.

Combos & Synergies

    Warcasters    

  • The Butcher: Each version plays nice along with heavy-hitting models. Fury, and/or the prime and epic incarnation's Feat, as well as Silence of Death from the third can really put their threat to the next level.
  • Lord Kozlov: Kozlov is surprisingly good with Demo Corps. Between Fury, Tactical Supremacy and his feat he has a lot of tools to make the Corps more dangerous in combat, but especially get them there quickly. If you can screen them with Shocktroopers you'll be smashing face faster than most other 'casters.
  • Malakov2: Malakov works very well with Man-o-War in general but his skillset lets him push Demo Corps in particular to spectacular heights. Combining his Sneak and Throat Cutter Battle Plans, Feat and Tactical Supremacy and Veil of Mists spells with Kommandant Atanas Arconovich's Heroic Call and Unstoppable Fury Battle Plans further combined with their Command Attachment Dragos' Bond of Brotherhood and Defensive Line and Vengeance make the Corps nigh-on impossible to destroy for a turn, at least not without facing serious consequences.
  • Irusk: Both the Kommandant and Supreme Kommandant can grant the Corps Tough which synergizes well with Dragos' Defensive Line because it prevents knockdown. Between that, his Battle Lust spell and all the other synergies you can stack onto your unit you can make them go a very long way indeed.
  • The Old Witch: She does not boost their SPD per se, but pulling the enemy closer to them with Gallows is just as nice. Also, Pathfinder from Weald Secrets will often come handy.
  • Old Witch2: She doesn't do much for them other than protect them with Windstorm, but then again that's no small benefit. Curse of Shadows is insurance for them to crack hard targets as well.
  • Sorscha1: She works wonders with Demolition Corps for several obvious reasons. Her Feat Icy Gaze and Freezing Grip spell reliably turn key targets stationary, making them perfect targets for Corps led by their Sergeant. Furthermore, she can hide behind them very easily and has Fog of War to help get them to the fray safely. Sorscha even has Shatter on her Frostfang so you can use her to finish off a key target you barely failed to down, before Wind Rushing away.
  • Sorscha3: Of all the Man-o-War infantry units this version of Sorscha seems downright tailored to work with them. Her Feat Dead of Winter, Storm's Embrace ability and Iron Flesh spell get the Corps to battle safely and the Freeze on Frostfang and Winter's Wrath spell provide reliable Shatter conditions for the Corps to exploit. She prefers fighting up close and personal to take advantage of her Field Marshal ability and Stoke the Fires spell as well and she's probably the only warcaster where taking Demolition Corps seems like a downright obvious choice.
  • Strakhov1: Only supports them via Occulation, but his feat allows a crazy charge range for such slow models.
  • Strakhov2: The Assault Kommando warcaster does great with Man-o-War, and Corps like having up to some additional ARM and Tough from Inviolable Resolve and his feat, and SPD and DEF from Quicken.
  • Vladimir2: The Champ works wonders with all elite infantry and between Arcane Might, Hand of Fate and his feat you can get a lot of value from Demo Corps.
  • Vladimir3: Dash was made for slow infantry, while Hand of Fate seriously boosts their offensive capability.
  • Zerkova1: Ghost Walk can give them surprising mobility through rough terrain, while her feat limits the striking capability of the enemy against them. She also has some Freezing capabilities, which lines up well with Shatter.

    Non-casters    

Drawbacks & Downsides

  • Like all Man-o-War infantry, their base SPD and DEF are very low.
  • Without Pathfinder their advance will be slowed to a crawl on rough terrain.
  • They have a very limited function.
  • Models with Massive or Immunity:Cold cannot become stationary.
  • Sgt. Dragos is a character. That means you cannot attach him to more than one unit and Vlad2 cannot feat on him, making him the weak link to the unit on feat turn, who will likely be focused down and taken out first so the unit loses his benefits. If he dies, the unit also immediately loses Vengeance.
  • They require a lot of protection and investment to work. They are squishier than they look due to the absence of a shield and their main defence against guns is their Mini Feat and Vengeance, which results in diminishing returns when they start losing multiple members before they reach the frontline, and their main defence against melee is defensive line, which put them at a meagre DEF 12 against charges. Basically they cannot take an alpha to safe their lives.

Tricks & Tips

  • Using Supreme Kommandant Irusk's or Kommandant Arconovich's Tactician ability you can perform a "leap-frog" maneuver in conjunction with Shocktroopers where advance a Corps right behind a Shield Wall to charge and very likely destroy something obstructing their path, only to advance the Shocktroopers immediately after to guard your Corps against retaliation.
  • Expanding on Kommander Malakov's synergy with them, the trick is to pick a turn to have a combination of these effects active on the Corps at once, with Malakov's Feat and Dragos' Minifeat being the two most crucial elements. Under the Minifeat you can divide any damage done to a Corpsmember among the entire unit. After spreading the damage out over as many Corpsmembers as you like you can make a full advance with the original target from the attack, benefiting from the Parry granted by the Feat. This allows you to move out of harm's way or--ideally--move your much of your unit into the back arcs of the attacking models. This not only stops them from making more attacks, it also lets you reliably set up a horrifyingly strong Backstab onslaught on the next turn. The rules allow you to make Retaliatory Strikes before moving from the Feat and you get an additional advance and attack from Dragos' Vengeance so altogther you're covering an insane amount of ground and doing an insane amount of damage on a very reliable platform. You can use Reposition to wiggle the unit up into an even better position, you have Veil of Mists' cloud and Prowl from Malakov's Battle Plan (remember that a model cannot be affected by Multiple Battle Plans simultaneously) to guard against ranged attacks (although the in-melee defense bonus against shooting does just fine as well and in some case you can choose to just run into melee if you otherwise can't reach your destination), and ignore rough terrain and intervening models and Arconovich can give them Tough if you don't need Retaliatory Strike as much (and the Feat and Dragos' Tactics can make them immune to Knockdown to boot)). It's an insanely involved package of tricks but if you time and place things right you can set things up so the opponent will choose to not even try to touch your Demolition Corps, typically locking a good portion of their army in place and leaving you a whole extra turn to go to town on them with your Ice Mauls.


Other

Trivia

  • Main unit released in Warmachine: Superiority (2006).
  • CA released in the Armored Corps CID (2018.02).
  • The Unit Leader's insignia signify their rank as a Korporal. There is some confusion because the rest of the unit has the same emblem on their left shoulder plates as well, although the Unit Leader has an additional emblem on their chest.
  • As his name implies, Dragos has the rank of Sergeant, which is a rank above Korporal but below Lieutenant. This puts him at the lowest rank of the Man-o-War unit CAs, with a rank only slightly above the Unit Leader's Korporal status.
  • Dragos has his own piece of fluff associated with him in the form of the short story "The Better Part of Valor," written by Matt Goetz.

Other Khador Models

Khador Logo.jpg       Khador Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup & Similar
Warcasters

Butcher1 - Butcher2 - Butcher3 - Harkevich - Irusk1 - Irusk2 - Karchev1 - Karchev2 - Kozlov - Malakov2 - Old Witch1 - Old Witch2 - Sorscha1 - Sorscha2 - Sorscha3 - Strakhov1 - Strakhov2 - Vlad1 - Vlad2 - Vlad3 - Zerkova1 - Zerkova2

Warcaster attachments

Khador: War Dog - Greylord Adjunct
Mercenary: Madelyn Corbeau - Reinholdt - Wyshnalyrr

Other Warjack Controllers

"Junior" Warcasters: Malakov1 - Sorscha0
'Jack Marshals: Man-o-War Kovnik - Greylord Forge Seer

Heavy Warjacks

Beast-09 - Behemoth - Berserker - Black Ivan - Decimator - Demolisher - Destroyer - Devastator - Drago - Grolar - Juggernaut - Kodiak - Mad Dog - Marauder - Rager - Ruin - Spriggan - Torch

Colossal Conquest - Victor
Units, Solos, & Battle Engines
Units

Assault Kommandos - Battle Mechaniks - Black Dragons - Doom Reaver Swordsmen - Great Bears of the Gallowswood - Greylord Outriders - Greylord Ternion - Iron Fang Pikemen - Iron Fang Uhlans - Kayazy Assassins - Kayazy Eliminators - Kossite Woodsmen - MOW Atanas & Standard - MOW Bombardiers - MOW Demolition Corps - MOW Shocktroopers - Widowmaker Scouts - WG Field Gun - WG Infantry - WG Mortar Crew - WG Rifle Corps
Ranking Officer CA : Koldun Kapitan Valachev

Solos

Bulkhead - Fenris - Greylord Adjunct - Greylord Forge Seer - Iron Fang Kovnik - Jozef - Koldun Lord - Malakov1 - Manhunter - MOW Drakhun - MOW Kovnik - MOW Strike Tanker - MOW Suppresion Tanker - Markov - Sofya - Sorscha0 - Ol' Grim - Underboss Vizkoya - War Dog - Widowmaker Marksman - WG Artillery Kapitan - Yuri1 - Yuri2

Battle Engines Gun Carriage - Man-o-War Siege Chariot - Man-o-War Assault Chariot
Theme Forces
Armored Korps - Flame in the Darkness - Jaws of the Wolf - Legions of Steel - Warriors of the Old Faith - Winter Guard Kommand - Wolves of Winter
Mercenaries
Refer to Who Works for Whom and/or Category: Khador Mercenary
This index was last updated: 2021.11

Rules Clarifications

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Rules Clarification : Freeze      (Edit)

  • Remember Stationary only prevents what it says it does. Refer the page on Stationary for a refresher.

Rules Clarification : Shatter - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Repairable - None yet. (Edit)


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Rules Clarification : Officer      (Edit)

  • Even if they're not on the Officer's card, an Officer can give (and benefit from) any non-standard orders that are on the unit's card (such as Shield Wall). Refer main rulebook.
  • When the Officer dies, the Leader model becomes the new Unit Commander (you don't get to choose).
  • But if your unit doesn't include a Leader model, then you do get to choose any of the remaining models to be the new Unit Commander. You don't swap the model, but it may be worth putting a token down so you can tell that grunt apart.

Rules Clarification : Tough - None yet. (Edit)

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Rules Clarification:  : Sanguine Bond and/or Bond of Brotherhood     (Edit)
(Click Expand to read)

Bond of Brotherhood triggers when a model is damaged, whereas Sanguine Bond triggers when a model would be damaged.

Who counts as damaged (Brotherhood)

  • The original target always counts as having being damaged by an enemy attack, even if you transfer all thr damage to another model. (It's a bit like a warlock transfer in that respect.) As a result, the enemy can still trigger stuff like Drag regardless of how much damage is transferred.
    (Infernal Ruling)
  • The model you transfer damage to counts as having being damaged by the ability, not the enemy attack.

Who counts as damaged (Sanguine)

  • With this ability you can do pretty much whatever you like:
    • You can transfer some of the damage away, if you want to count as being damaged by an enemy for the purposes of stuff like collecting souls.
    • You can transfer all of the damage away, which will mean the original target doesn't count as having being damaged by an enemy at all and this will stop them using Drag etc.
    • You can even have the original target "transfer to itself" which will also stop Drag etc. (Locked thread)
  • The model you transfer damage to counts as having being damaged by the ability, not the enemy attack.

Both abilities

  • The original target needs to be in formation to use the ability, but the model you transfer damage to doesn't need to be in formation. (Infernal Ruling)
  • If you add an attachment (such as the Trollkin Sorcerer), then that attachment can receive damage from Sanguine Bond, because it is another model in the unit. But the attachment can't give out damage via Sanguine Bond because it doesn't have the rule itself.
  • Vs simultaneous attacks that hits multiple models in the unit, they can transfer to each other regardless of who was/wasn't damaged. But you can't "double dip" on assigning the transferred damage.
    1. Roll all damage for all models, note it down for each model, but don't mark it. Call this "Raw damage".
    2. Choose which models you'll trigger Sanguine Bond on, and who you will assign the damage to. If you assign damage to a model, the "raw damage" plus the "assigned damage" cannot exceed its remaining hitpoints.
    3. Mark damage on the card.
    • Example: Model [A] has two unmarked boxes, models [B] & [C] are undamaged. Then [B] & [C] are caught in a spray that does exactly 5 damage each.
      What you can do: Assign 1 damage from [B] to [A], and one from [C] to [A]. Then mark damage. [A] dies and the other two live with 1hp each.
      What you can't do: Assign 2 from [B] to [A], then assign another 2 from [C] to [A]. Then mark damage. Then claim Sanguine Bond "overkilled" model [A]. That would be "double dipping" the damage.
    • (Infernal Ruling for the above)
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Rules Clarification : Tactics vs Granted     (Edit)

  • Granted = The unit loses the ability as soon as the model that grants it is taken off the table. (think "G for Goes away")
  • Tactics = The unit keeps the ability for the entire game, regardless of who dies. (think "Tac-Tick = K for Keeps")
 
  • Granted [ Vengeance ]
    • If the model granting Vengeance dies, the unit will not get any Vengeance attacks.
    It is "If you have Vengeance, and you were damaged last turn, you get a move+attack."
    It is not "If you get damaged, you get Vengeance next turn."
    • If you lose Vengeance halfway through resolving Vengeance, then you stop resolving Vengeance immediately. (Infernal Ruling)
RC symbol.png

Rules Clarification : Vengeance and/or Righteous Vengeance and/or Retaliation and/or Swift Vengeance and/or Tantrum     (Edit)

  • Vengeance moves do not have to be towards an enemy model.
  • You can choose to not move, but still get the attack. One is not conditional on the other.
  • Vengeance is not an activation. It does not prevent the model/unit from activating and acting normally later in the turn.
  • Stationary and knocked down models may not perform Vengeance moves nor attacks.
  • Units only
    • Out of formation models cannot make Vengeance moves nor Vengeance attacks.
    However if the unit commander uses their movement to bring the Grunts back into formation, then they can move and attack.
    • When resolving Vengeance, move all models in the unit before making any attacks. (Infernal Ruling)
    • If you have more than one unit with Vengeance, move all of unit A then complete all of unit A's attacks, before starting to move unit B.
    • If you manage to spawn new models during the Maintenance Phase (such as with Reconstruction or Blood-Bound) then those new models can also make Vengeance attacks. (Infernal Ruling)
    • Due to the way it is worded Vengeance can be "inherited" by unit attachments that do not actually have the Vengeance ability themselves. For instance, a Soulless Escort attached to the Spears of Scyrah.
      • If anyone is damaged, including the attachment, everyone in the unit gets to trigger Vengeance.
      • But if everyone is killed except the attachment, then he doesn't get to trigger Vengeance because the rule is "no longer on the table".
    • Granted [ Vengeance ]
      • If the model granting Vengeance dies, the unit will not get any Vengeance attacks.
      It is "If you have Vengeance, and you were damaged last turn, you get a move+attack."
      It is not "If you get damaged, you get Vengeance next turn."
      • If you lose Vengeance halfway through resolving Vengeance, then you stop resolving Vengeance immediately. (Infernal Ruling)
  • Triggers
    • Only enemy attacks trigger Vengeance. There are plenty of ways enemies can damage you without attacking you (such as Electro Leap) and these will not trigger Vengeance.
    • If a CA has Granted: Vengeance then only models in formation have it. However, models that are damaged while out of formation can trigger Vengeance, they just will not benefit from it. (Locked thread)
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Rules Clarification : Defensive Line      (Edit)

  • You don't need to have the entire unit in B2B to get the bonus. Even just two models in B2B will give it to each other. Which way they're facing doesn't matter, either.
  • Defensive Line is 'always on' (unlike Shield Wall).
  • You can still get Defensive Line while knocked down.
  • Since models move in straight lines, it impossible to keep two models B2B while advancing. Thus you cannot benefit from Defensive Line while moving through acid clouds etc.
    • Unless you have an ability to move through models, like Tactician.


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