Mad Dog

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Khador Logo.jpg Mad Dog

Khador Heavy Warjack

Soon after the first Berserkers proved their worth in battle, hacking into infantry with their twin axes, the Khadoran High Kommand borrowed its chassis to develop other equally brutal machines. With the Mad Dog trampling forward to crush enemies with bloodthirsty glee and the shield-bearing Rager standing firm as an imposing eight-ton bodyguard, these warjacks are far from obsolete on the modern battlefield.

Basic Info

Mad Dog
Missing Info
MadDog.jpg
COST {{{cacost}}}
UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}}
FA {{{cafa}}}
Warcaster 0
BASE Large
SPD 4
STR 11
MAT 6
RAT N/A
M.A. N/A
DEF 11
ARM 18
CMD N/A
ESSENCE {{{essence}}}
FOCUS N/A
FURY N/A
THRS N/A
HP 27 (★)
F. Field N/A
WJP {{{wjp}}}
WBP {{{wbp}}}
IHP {{{ihp}}}
FA U
UNIT SIZE N/A
COST 8
N/A
N/A
(★) Has only 2 Cortex hitboxes
Warcaster 1
COST N/A
N/A
Understanding
the Statblock

Abilities

  • 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.
  • Construct symbol.jpg Construct
  • Fleet - If this model has 2 or more focus before its Normal Movement, it gains +2" during that movement.
  • Smasher - This model can make trample power attacks without spending focus and gains an additional die on trample attack rolls.
  • 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

  • Hammer Spike (x2) - 1" reach, POW 3, P+S 14 melee attacks

Theme Forces

Khador

Infernals

Recent Changes

No changes since 2018.04

Thoughts on the Mad Dog

Mad Dog 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.

Mad Dogs are by far the most focused of the Khadoran archaic warjacks. It tramples, does it well, and that's about all it does. Its Hammer Spikes have very low POW for a heavy warjack and its Fleet and Smasher abilities make it clear that it shouldn't be doing anything other than running head-long into enemy infantry. Within this niche, the Mad Dog is quite effective and impressively efficient. Controlled by a Warcaster, Battlegroup Controller or Greylord Forge Seer it functions absolutely wonderfully with the 1 focus it likes to activate Fleet so it can trample (for free thanks to Smasher) 9", rolling 3d6 to hit while staying safe from an untimely Unstable roll. The major issue with the Mad Dog is that this dedication to trampling leaves it extremely inefficient in match-ups that lack good targets for it (Small-based low-to-medium-ARM infantry) to pulverize. The current edition of WARMACHINE emphasizes a prevalence of larger, tougher models, leaving the Mad Dog without a niche to thrive in. In match-ups with a lot of enemy infantry like Steelheads, Mechanithralls or Cephalyx Drudges the Mad Dog is worth its weight in gold, but how often can you safely tailor your list to suit that exact type of encounter?

Combos & Synergies

The Mad Dog has only trampling on its mind and works well with anything that helps it get into trampling range as soon as possible. Beyond maybe a single point of focus it doesn't need any support and is best used as a missile intended to cause havoc and explode behind enemy lines.

    Warcasters    

  • 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.
  • Karchev the Terrible: 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. Mad Dogs don't need help to hit as long as they're trampling, and are great as Karchev's crowd control division.
  • Sorscha1's feat will enable you to trample the Mad Dog through a crowd of models you'll automatically hit.
  • Vlad1: Both thematic and extremely synergistic, Mad Dogs thrive under the combined effects of Boundless Charge, the signaturate Signs and Portents and his devastating Forced March feat. Mad Dogs especially appreciate the movement bonuses so they can trample even further into enemy lines.
  • 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! Do be wary that her Doom Reaver lists tend to have plenty of anti-infantry capabilities already so a Mad Dog might end up redundant.

    Junior Warcasters    
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.

  • Malakov1: 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.
  • Sorscha0: 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.

    Other    

  • Greylord Forge Seer: Both a great Marshal and support model for a fire-and-forget strategy with a Mad Dog, it likes being safely Empowered for that one focus it likes to activate its Fleet ability with.
  • Battle Mechaniks: While typically hard to reach, the Mad Dog can be Repaired, 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 there's nothing to trample, it will be very confused.
  • If it can't reach melee it can't do much.
  • Its POW 14 attacks aren't very 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.

Tricks & Tips

  • Between Power Up and Smasher, it probably never has to test for Unstable.
  • 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. A severely damaged Mad Dog is an amazing fire-and-forget missile you launch into enemy lines to wreck shop, and then spend focus to (hopefully) intentionally blow it up, causing more damage.
    • For this maneuver to work, the Mad Dog needs both it Cortex and Movement systems to be functional.

Other

Trivia

This entry can be found in Warmachine: Reckoning (2015)

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 : 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)

RC symbol.png

Rules Clarification : Fleet      (Edit)

  • If you have 2 focus, then spend 1 to run/charge/etc, then you do get the +2" movement.
RC symbol.png

Rules Clarification : Smasher      (Edit)

  • Smasher is a "gain", so you can still boost it if you want.
RC symbol.png

Rules Clarification : Unstable      (Edit)

  • You have to resolve Unstable even if some other triggered ability causes a "activation ends immediately" situation. (Infernal Ruling)
  • You can spend a focus even if you have a buff that says "Warjack can do [X] without spending focus" (such as Full Throttle or Boundless Charge). The "can" is optional. (Locked Thread)
  • Not considered an attack & "Non-attack damage roll" (Edit)   [Show/Hide]
    • There are two ways you can get these "non-attack" damage rolls.
      • Type 1 - A secondary damage roll that is not considered to be an attack. Some attacks create a second damage roll that is explicitly "not considered an attack" (such as Electro Leap).
        (Note that although the secondary damage roll is not an attack, the original attack certainly is and will trigger stuff normally. These clarifications don't apply to the original attack.)
      • Type 2 - A damage roll that's not from an attack. Some special abilities & special actions tell you to make a damage roll without mentioning whether it is considered an attack or not (such as Vent Steam and Flak Field).
    • When it comes to other abilities that trigger on damage (such as Vengeance) both types function the same way. For brevity we'll refer to both as "Pure Damage".

    • Pure damage is not an attack, so doesn't trigger stuff like Vengeance.
    • Pure damage is not an attack, so doesn't benefit from stuff that affects 'attack damage rolls' (such as Bethayne1's feat). (Infernal Ruling)
    • Pure damage (normally) doesn't actually hit the model(s) it damages, so doesn't trigger stuff like Shock Field. (A few of them do specify they hit, though, like Warhead.)
    • Pure damage is not from an attack, but it is (normally) damage from the original model. This has two implications:
      1. It's not an attack from a weapon so:
        • it won't gain damage buffs from the weapon (such as Poison).
        • it won't gain any Damage Types from the weapon. (Infernal Ruling)
      2. It is a damage roll from a model so:
    • Exception: Some damage is not from an attack and not from a model (for example, Collateral damage). In this case, you should reverse the stuff listed under #2 above.
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