Man-o-War Demolition Corps
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Man-o-War Demolition Corps
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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.
Contents
Basic Info
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Abilities
- Entire unit
- Repairable - This model can be targeted with Repair special actions as if it were a construct model.
- Dragos only
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Officer
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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.)
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Weapons
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Dragos |
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Theme Forces
- Khador
- Armored Korps. This unit gains Advance Move in this theme.
- Other Factions
- Infernal players can use this unit in the Hearts of Darkness theme, but only if Malakov2 is leading the army.
Thoughts on the MoW Demo Corps
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
- Greylord Forge Seer: Critical Freeze on the weapon and Freezer can tee things up for Ice Maul swings.
- Greylord Ternion: If you can put something in an Ice Cage the Demolition Corps will like Shattering it. Only available out of theme or in the Hearts of Darkness theme though-
- Man-o-War Kovnik: All Man-o-War units can benefit from the Kovnik's Desperate Pace and that goes double for Demolition Corps that want to get stuck into melee and stay there.
- Battle Mechaniks: All Man-o-War models have the Repairable rule.
- Kommandant Arconovich: All Man-o-War models can benefit from his Tactician ability and a Demolition Corps is a perfect target for each of his Battle Plans. Granting them Retaliatory Strike on a key turn is just mean and pushes their attack volume to levels that can dissuade many opponents from attacking them entirely.
- Man-o-War Shocktroopers: If you're worried about getting the Corps into combat alive there's no better screening unit for them and if you have Tactician active you can charge through your own front line.
- Colbie Sterling/Gobber Tinker/Raluk Moorclaw: These three are Mechanikally Adept, meaning they can Repair Khador models.
- Orin1: Ideal to clear jamming, light models, as well as providing protection from spells.
- Saxon Orrik: Can give them crucial Pathfinder.
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
Rules Clarifications
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Rules Clarification : Freeze (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Shatter - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Repairable - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Officer (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Tough - None yet. (Edit)
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Rules Clarification: : Sanguine Bond and/or Bond of Brotherhood (Edit) |
Bond of Brotherhood triggers when a model is damaged, whereas Sanguine Bond triggers when a model would be damaged.
Who counts as damaged (Brotherhood)
Who counts as damaged (Sanguine)
Both abilities
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Rules Clarification : Tactics vs Granted (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Vengeance and/or Righteous Vengeance and/or Retaliation and/or Swift Vengeance and/or Tantrum (Edit)
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Rules Clarification : Defensive Line (Edit)
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Note to Editors |