Ruin

Ruin Khador Character Heavy Warjack

Unlimited Only This model can only be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can see the other models with / without mk4 rules on this page. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules.

Ruin is a blend of engineering and black magic, an unsettling fusion that has resulted in a malevolently aware machine. Ruin’s scarred chassis is festooned with powerful Orgoth relics that possess a willful hunger to harvest souls and whisper incomprehensibly directly into the warjack’s cortex. Orsus Zoktavir has been entrusted to exploit Ruin as a weapon for the Motherland, whatever the cost.

Ruin, the Khador character warjack Ruin, the Grymkin Arcana

Basic Info

Ruin
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Large SPD 4 STR 12 MAT 8 RAT N/A M.A. N/A DEF 10 ARM 20 / 21 (★) CMD N/A ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 34 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA C UNIT SIZE N/A COST 17 N/A N/A (★) 21 with the Buckler rule Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

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

• Construct
• Bond [ Butcher ] - If this model begins the game in Butcher's battlegroup, it is bonded to them. This model is not considered to be bonded while under your opponent's control. While this model is bonded to Butcher and in their control range, Ruin gains Boundless Charge. (Boundless Charge - During its activation, a model with Boundless Charge can charge without spending focus or being forced and gains +2" movement and Pathfinder when it charges.).
• Sacred Ward - This model cannot be targeted by enemy spells.
• Soul Taker: Spirit Harvester - This model can gain soul tokens. When a living enemy model is destroyed within 5" of this model, this model gains the destroyed model's soul token. This model can have up to five soul tokens at any time. At the start of this model's activation, you can remove soul tokens from this model to give it 1 focus point for each token removed.
  • Arcane Vortex - This model can immediately negate any spell that targets it or a model within 3" of it by spending 1 Soul token. The negated spell does not take effect, but its COST remains spent.

Weapons

Armored Fist
		RNG				POW				P+S				LOCATION
		1				4				16				Left
Buckler Open Fist
Black Iron Mace
		RNG				POW				P+S				LOCATION
		2				6				18				Right
Damage Type: Magical Dispel - When this weapon hits a model/unit, upkeep spells and animi on that model/unit immediately expire.

Theme Forces

• When taken by Butcher
  • Armored Korps - Models gain +1 to repair rolls when repairing this model.
  • Flame in the Darkness
  • Jaws of the Wolf. Ruin gains Pathfinder in this theme.
  • Legion of Steel
  • Warriors of the Old Faith
  • Winter Guard Kommand
  • Wolves of Winter

• When taken by anyone else
  • Wolves of Winter

Thoughts on Ruin

Ruin in a Nutshell

Butcher1

It's a beatstick heavy with an anti-magic twist. The passive Sacred Ward is only good if your opponent has offensive spells and they want to cast them on a warjack and that warjack happens to be Ruin (but it is great then). Both the free focus and the Arcane Vortex are dependent on Soul Taker - and thus dependent on 1) your opponent putting the right things in their list and 2) Ruin being in the right place right time to get the souls. All in all, if Ruin can gobble up some souls without getting swamped by weapon master infantry (or similar) then he can become quite impressive - but otherwise he feels a bit like an over-priced Juggernaut. So let's do that comparison shall we?

Compared to a Juggernaut Ruin costs +4 points, is slightly more durable with +1 ARM from the Buckler, and is of comparable melee output - Ruin's main weapon hits slightly weaker than the Juggernaut's, and his fist hits slightly harder. His main weapon swaps Critical Freeze for Damage Type: Magical and Dispel. Importantly, Ruin has +1 MAT and +1" melee range over the Juggernaut and, when taken with Butcher, he also has the very useful Boundless Charge (so overall threatens 3" further).

Ruin is best used in larger games where he is more likely to get access to souls. If you can't benefit from Ruin's soul-based abilities you're usually better off spending its points on something else (unless you absolutely need its Dispel).

Non-caster combos

Butcher2

• Battle Mechaniks to repair him.
• Greylord Forge Seer: Every warjack likes being Empowered when the opportunity presents itself.
• Colbie Sterling/Gobber Tinker/Raluk Moorclaw: These three are Mechanikally Adept, meaning they can Repair Khador models.
• Kell Bailoch can snipe enemy infantry near Ruin, letting him start getting souls.

Ruin plus Butcher

Butcher3

As a Bonded warjack it gains Boundless Charge with The Butcher, an absolutely excellent ability to help it satiate its bloodlust (if that's even possible). A 9" charge range makes it faster than having it run and that Pathfinder is very much appreciated with a warcaster that can't or prefers not to dole it out to his battlegroup. Orsus loves getting up close and personal to decimate infantry, easily generating souls for Ruin to gather before its activation and Orsus can frankly benefit a lot from its arcane protection.

• Butcher1: Orsus has a perfect activation-wide buff for Ruin in the form of Full Throttle. It can already charge for free thanks to the Bond, but now it also gets to trample and reliably reap a unit's worth of souls in one activation. Vengeful is also great with this melee beatstick, as is Orsus' legendary feat.
• Butcher2: Khador's resident Homicidal Maniac is a great fit with Ruin. He shreds infantry, fueling both his feat and Soul Taker and can even give it rage tokens for an insane activaiton. Conferred Rage makes Ruin blisteringly fast on the charge and even more terrifyingly accurate and Ravager lets it blow through swathes of models with ease.
• Butcher3: Orsus doesn't like handing out focus directly but instead has Energizer to set Ruin up for a charge and Impending Doom to pull targets in close enough for Ruin to collect souls from them or beat down on especially heavy targets.

As to themes, the first thing to note is that outside Wolves, the theme force that Ruin "wants" to be in will often be dictated by which one Butcher wants to be in.

• Armored Corps: Ruin doesn't have any exceptional synergy with the Armored Corps, but Orsus likes leading Man-o-War and the usual anti-magic utility models (like Orin Midwinter and Eilish Garrity) are so low-ARM compared to the Man-O-War that they are often sniped out first. So Ruin offers a nice anti-magic substitute.

• Jaws of the Wolf: Nearby Kayazy and Widowmaker models appreciate not being vulnerable to magical attacks centered on Ruin, and the latter are great to help generate souls at opportune times.

• Legion of Steel: The Legion is a force dedicated to quickly mixing things up in melee combat so Ruin is right at home with the Iron Fangs.

• Wolves of Winter: See below.

Ruin in Wolves of Winter

With Ruin you can create a mostly spell-immune army barrelling head-first into battle. Also with any caster able to take him this opens up some new combos, such as:

• Vladimir2 - Hand of Fate or Assail are excellent spells on Ruin.
• Vladimir3 - Ruin is a great target for both his feat and Infernal Machine.
• Sorscha1 - She does not have a damage fixer, so she apprechaites jacks that hit hard by themselves. Also, she can replicate the bond with Boundless Charge.
• Zerkova2 - Ruin makes a great target for Telgesh Mark and arced offensive spells can help Ruin collect souls before his activation.
• Doom Reavers and Greylord Outriders are both experts at killing infantry with either their Berserk attacks or their sprays, which is great for Ruin as he can rake in the souls of their victims. The Reavers in turn also appreciate the Dispel on its mace, as if strips defensive buffs.
• Koldun Lord - His arm debuff lets Ruin hit almost has hard as a colossal.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Typical for Khadoran warjacks, it has low native SPD and DEF.
• It lacks native Pathfinder outside of the charge, and at all without Orsus.
• It's an expensive warjack lacking additional defenses.
• If it can't reach melee it can't do much.
• Ruin doesn't have any special tools for dealing with jamming models.
• It can't collect souls from friendly models.

Tricks & Tips

• Try to set things up so Ruin can gather souls before its activation so it can use them right away.
• If you can push, slam or throw living models close to it Ruin will appreciate it.
• Don't forget Ruin's mace does Magical damage because Khador can have trouble with Incorporeal models.
• Make sure you spend souls liberally enough that you don't miss out on collecting any. Once Ruin gets stuck in it's easy to hit the maximum 5 souls and Ruin can't convert more than 3 souls (2 if it didn't use a Focus: Shake action) per activation. But be sure to leave 1-2 souls on it as insurance unless you really need them.

Other

Trivia

• Released in Warmachine: Reckoning (2015).
• The unholy fusion of maddening Orgoth weaponry once owned by the Orgoth warlord Torazard and a Khadoran heavy mobility warjack have created Ruin; Orsus Zoktavir's own personal warjack. Ruin is haunted by incomprehensible Orgothi whispers that drive it to a bloodlust that can only barely be contained by its master. Ruin is total melee combatant, its Khadoran frame empowered by cursed relics that draw power from the souls of its enemies to drive it forward and render enemy magic null and void.
• Ruin is based on a Khadoran mobility chassis like the Grolar & Kodiak. Despite having a mobility chassis it does not have unconditional Pathfinder.
• The pelt nailed to its frame is from a Circle Pureblood Warpwolf heavy warbeast.

Other Khador Models

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

Rules Clarification : Shield and/or Buckler     (Edit) The only time you lose the Shield bonus is when the weapon is crippled, or if the attack originates in your back arc. (Infernal Ruling) In other words, you still get the Shield bonus while knocked down or stationary. You don't get the Shield bonus vs stuff originating in your back arc. This includes stuff that "leaps" off models in your back arc, such as Electro Leap. (Locked thread)

Rules Clarification : Open Fist  (aka, Power Attack Throw)     (Edit) Throw ( Edit ) See also the Throw article for a recap of the core Throw rules. If a model is somehow thrown at itself (which can happen with Durst1's feat) it would not move, it would be knocked down, and it would take a standard power attack damage roll but it would not take an additional die for colliding with itself. (Infernal Ruling) Because you move the target model between the attack roll and the damage roll, you can get different buffs applied to the two rolls. For instance, if you throw the target in or out of a Flanking model's melee range. Incorporeal vs Slammed/Thrown models ( Edit ) Incorporeal models cannot be moved by someone trying to slam them. Slammed models can move through Incorporeal models. If they have enough movement to get past them, no dramas. If they land on them, you move the Incorporeal model out of the way as per the Rule of Least Disturbance. If the Incorporeal model cannot be moved (i.e. it's a flag) then you move the slammed model out of the way, also by the rule of Least Disturbance. For the purposes of Collateral Damage, only the model(s) you contacted before you applied the rule of Least Disturbance count as contacted. The same logic applies to Throws. Collateral Damage Collateral damage cannot be boosted and is not considered damage from an attack or model. Refer page 33 of the 2021.08 version of the rules pdf. As a result: It doesn't trigger stuff that relies on being hit by an enemy (such as Shock Field) or damaged by an enemy (such as Vengeance). It doesn't get bonus damage from stuff that adds to a model's damage roll (such as Signs & Portents or Prey). It doesn't matter if the attacker has crippled weapon systems or aspects. Throw - Power Attack When you make a Throw Power Attack, no other abilities of the Fist weapon (such as Chain Strike) are applied unless they specifically mention Throws. (Locked Thread) If you do a Power Attack Throw and you choose to throw the target directly away, no deviation is rolled to determine the final position of the model. (Locked thread) A model that cannot be targeted by melee attacks (such as Una2's feat) cannot have models thrown at them, either. (Infernal Ruling) Since throwing Model [A] at Model [B] involves making a melee attack roll vs Model [B] which is out of your melee range, it technically breaks a whole bunch of core rules. (Infernal Checking) Even though you make a "melee attack roll" vs Model [B] you don't actually make a melee attack vs it. Also, the damage it suffers is from Collateral damage, not from the original attack. So you can't trigger stuff like Snacking from damage you did to Model B.

Rules Clarification:  : Magical Damage      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

* The "Damage Type: Magical" is not inherited by "secondary" damage from a weapon. That is, stuff like arcs (Electro Leap) or hazards (Scather). (Infernal Ruling) All spells have "Damage Type: Magical" (refer errata). This is inherited by "immediate" secondary damage (such as Eruption of Spines). (Infernal Ruling) and might be inherited by "lingering" secondary damage (see below). If a spell leaves a template in play that does damage to models that walk around in it, then: if it is not described as a hazard it will do magical damage to models that walk around in it. (Example: Razor Wall) if it is a hazard then it will not do magical damage to models that walk around in it. Instead, it does whatever damage type is specified by the spell description. (Example: Breath of Corruption). (Infernal Ruling) If a weapon/spell includes Magic Damage and another kind of elemental damage it will still damage Incorporeal models. Incorporeal models are not affected by the rule "if an attack does multiple types of damage and a model is immune to at least one it is immune to the entire attack." The phrase "immune to non-magical damage" should be interpreted as "immune to damage that doesn't include Damage Type: Magical" (not interpreted as "has immunity to Corrosion and Electricity and Cold and etc.")

Rules Clarification : Dispel      (Edit) Dispel can't be used versus upkeeps that are not "on" a model/unit (such as Rock Wall, Void Gate, etc), because you can't "hit" them. Because Dispel causes spells to expire on a hit, it will prevent spells that trigger on a hit from triggering at all. For instance, the defensive animus Spiny Growth causes any model that hits the target to suffer d3 damage. This damage will not occur if it's hit by a Dispel weapon. Anti-Upkeep vs a unit (Edit) If an upkeep is on a unit, then all you need to do is make it expire off any member of the unit and the spell will expire from the entire unit. It doesn't matter if the target is in formation or not. (Locked thread) However, if an upkeep is on a single model within a unit (such as Scything Touch) then you need to dispel it off that particular model to make it dispel. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Warjack      (Edit) The Cortex/Induction core rule means a warjack cannot have more than 3 focus at any time (maybe 4 if they're really special). Many abilities give out focus and don't state an upper limit (such as Convection and Empower). Despite not stating an upper limit, they are always "hard-limited" by the core rule. A warjack can have more than 3 focus during a turn, though. For instance, a knocked down warjack can Power Up and be Allocated 2 focus, then spend 1 to shake knockdown, then another model could Empower it back up to 3. Warjacks cannot spend focus outside of their activation. For instance, they can't boost free strikes or trigger Powerful Attack on Broadsides. (Infernal Ruling) Inert warjacks Abilities that say they cannot be used if the model is stationary (such as Shield Guard) cannot be used while a warjack is inert, either. Refer "Warcaster Destruction", page 59 of the core rulebook.

Rules Clarification : Construct - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Bond      (Edit) Bonds are ineffective while the model is under your opponent's control. Refer the core rulebook. Bonds & Themes If a warjack/warbeast with a bond is in that caster's battlegroup, they can be taken in any theme force. Refer the core rulebook. This is true even if the caster isn't a full warcaster or warlock (this interaction changed as of 2018.06).

Rules Clarification : Boundless Charge      (Edit) Pathfinder (Edit) - Pathfinder does not apply to involuntary movement (pushes & slams). (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Sacred Ward and/or Spell Ward     (Edit) Sacred/Spell Warded models can still be affected by spells. For instance, CTRL area spells, AOE that deviate, and/or sprays that target a nearby non-warded model.

Rules Clarification : Spirit Harvester      (Edit) A warjack cannot go over its normal focus limit (which is 3 for most jacks) as a result of Spirit Harvester. Refer to the Cortex rules.

Rules Clarification : Arcane Vortex      (Edit) Warjacks and warbeasts can spend focus or fury, outside of their activation, to use Arcane Vortex. (Infernal Ruling) Mulg spends fury to use it, he is not forced for fury. (Infernal Ruling) Arcane vortex can be used to counter spells with "Range: Self". (Infernal Ruling) Some spells do not have a target, mostly CTRL area spells (such as Siege's Foxhole) but also some (★ Action) (such as Ragman's Death Field). These cannot be cancelled by Arcane Vortex. Infernal Ruling) The "Cost" for non-warcaster models includes stuff like "using your special action" or "killing a Mind Bender Drudge." Arcane Vortex triggers at step 3 of the spellcasting sequence. (Resolve effects that occur when a model is targeted by a spell.) (Infernal Ruling) If a channeled spell is cancelled, it doesn't count as being channeled, so the channeler can't trigger stuff like Reaction Drive or Spell Martyr. (Infernal Ruling) There are a couple of odd spells: (Primal Shock and Essence Blast) - Both these spells "Choose" model A, then gets to "Target" model B with an attack. In this case you can trigger Arcane Vortex only when model B is targeted. (Crevasse) - This spell attacks model A, then gets to use model A to make another attack vs model B. In this case you can trigger Arcane Vortex only when model A is targeted. (Infernal Ruling for both of the above.)