Winter Guard Mortar Crew

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Khador Logo.jpg Winter Guard Mortar Crew

Khador Winter Guard Weapon Crew Unit

Mk4 icon.png
Prime
This model is available in one Prime Army, 5th Division. 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.

Developed in an attempt to modernize the Khadoran military, the Mortar Crews add invaluable long-range firepower to advancing Winter Guard forces. The Mortars are ideally suited to soften enemy positions before Guardsmen reach the opposing line.

Basic Info

Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Missing Info
WG Mortar.jpg
COST {{{cacost}}}
UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}}
FA {{{cafa}}}
Warcaster 0
BASE Small
SPD 2
STR 5
MAT 5
RAT 5 / 1(★)
M.A. N/A
DEF 12
ARM 13
CMD 5
ESSENCE {{{essence}}}
FOCUS N/A
FURY N/A
THRS N/A
HP 1
F. Field N/A
WJP {{{wjp}}}
WBP {{{wbp}}}
IHP {{{ihp}}}
FA 2
UNIT SIZE 2
COST 3
N/A
N/A
(★)1 when you include the Inaccurate penalty
Warcaster 1
COST N/A
N/A
Understanding
the Statblock

Abilities

Gunner
  • Officer symbol.jpg Officer
  • Man-Sized - This model is treated as a small-based model and occupies the space from the bottom of its base to a height of 1.75".
  • Mobile Artillery - When this model advances as part of its Normal Movement, it gains +1" movement for each Grunt in this unit within 2" of it at the start of its advance.
  • Take Up - If this model is destroyed, you can choose a Grunt in this unit within 1" of it to be destroyed instead. Effects on this model expire, and it gains the effects on the chosen Grunt. Remove the Grunt from the table instead of this model. This model has the same number of unmarked damage boxes as the chosen Grunt.
Grunt
  • The Grunt has +2 SPD (SPD 4)

Weapons

Gunner
Mortar
Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW 
18 1 4 16
  • Arcing Fire - When attacking with this weapon, this model can ignore intervening models except those within 1" of the target.
  • High-Explosive - Blast damage caused by this weapon is POW 10.
  • Inaccurate - This model suffers -4 to attack rolls with this weapon.
  • Minimum Range [ 8" ] - Attacks made with this weapon cannot target models within 8" of this model.
Axe
Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S 
0.5 3 8
Grunt
Blunderbuss
Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW 
8 1 - 12
Axe
Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S 
0.5 3 8

Theme Forces

Khador

Other Factions


Thoughts on Winter Guard Mortar Crew

Winter Guard Mortar Crew in a nutshell

The Mortar crew is an ideal artillery unit - cheap, extremely long ranged, and able to take chunks of light infantry out in a single blow. It also has the weaknesses associated with artillery - slow, unable to take close combat, and as likely to drift on your own lines as the enemies.

Combos & Synergies

  • As a winter guard unit, Mortar Crews can benefit from Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich's battle speeches. That can give a much needed boost to Attack rolls
  • The Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan provides a huge benefit to Mortars, allowing a boost to it's terrible RAT and allowing the player to re-roll a dangerous deviation towards their own lines back towards the enemy
  • The one thing a Mortar can reliably hit are knocked-down models. Consider including a Grolar or Marauder to knock down a large model that the Mortar can then drop shells down on
  • Engaged troops? Send a Demolisher or a BM Officer forward, B2B with your models, and shell the enemy with impunity. Thanks to Girded, your infantry don't give a damn about High Explosives.

Drawbacks & Downsides

  • Man-sized can be a big problem. Arcing fire means that only the closest models can block Line of Sight, but terrain can prevent the Mortar from seeing it's target
  • The minimum range means that a delicate balancing act needs to be maintained between being close enough for protection and support, but not so close you can't shoot at incoming models
  • Inaccurate is probably the most-lamented drawback to using the Mortar crew. Even the usually easy to hit Heavy Warjacks can often dodge a Mortar round.

Tricks & Tips

  • With an effective Rat of 1 on the Mortar, the dice fixing offered by Vlad's Signs & Portents can be of a huge benefit
  • Man-sized means that enemy units can have their lines of sight blocked by cheap defensive units like the Winter Guard Infantry
  • The attached grunt needs only to be Base to Base with the mortar when it needs to move. Once in position you can place him a couple inches in front of the mortar to do emergency blocking against potential attackers.
  • Weapon Crews love Reposition. It lets the crew move a few inches after their activation ends, granting both a much needed speed boost on the first couple turns and then letting them continue to move while still gaining the aiming bonus by forfeiting their normal movement.


Other

Trivia

Released in Warmachine: Escalation (2004)

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

RC symbol.png

Rules Clarification : Arcing Fire      (Edit)

  • Arcing Fire lets you ignore models but not terrain. You don't ignore clouds, forests or buildings.
RC symbol.png

Rules Clarification : High-Explosive      (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Inaccurate - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Minimum Range - None yet. (Edit)


RC symbol.png

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.
RC symbol.png

Rules Clarification : Man-Sized      (Edit)

  • Despite being mounted on a large base, the model counts as a small-base for any and every rule. (Infernal Ruling)
    • This includes Ranking Officers being able to join them. (Infernal Ruling)
    • This includes being able to take them as a Requistion Option (if you have a Man-Sized solo in a theme that allows free solos). (Locked Thread)
    • This includes abilities that only work vs small-based models (such as Consume, Trampling over them, etc). Those work just fine vs Man-Sized models.
  • When drawing LOS it blocks LOS across the full width of its base (some players think you should swap it for a small proxy base when trying to draw LOS past the edge of its base ... don't do that).
  • Since it only counts as a small-based model, it only blocks LOS to other small-based models. You can see medium and larger bases through it just fine.

Rules Clarification : Mobile Artillery - None yet. (Edit)

RC symbol.png

Rules Clarification : Take Up      (Edit)

  • If you use Take Up the attacking model cannot trigger anything that needs the attacker to "Destroy" a model (such as Alpha Hunter, Killing Spree, Berserk, etc). Although the model that was attacked reached the Destroyed step of the timing sequence, Take Up negates that entirely. (Infernal Ruling)