Monday 22 April 2013

Warjack Profile: Beserker


berserker.jpgThe cheapest Khadoran warjack and thats not a bad thing. Whilst it does have poor stats for a warjack it's abilities make up for it, taking what on some levels looks like something of an expensive paper weight and turning it into a mean and grizzly jack with a little unstable side to it.

Statswise the Beserker is sub par as Khadoran warjacks go, it's SPD is the same as other jacks, however it loses a point of STR and MAT, gains a point of DEF and loses two ARM and 3 damage boxes. This means that on average a Beserker can hit Stormblade infantry, but struggles to hit models with DEF higher than theirs, this makes it ideal for going after jacks, although this isn't it's primary role.





The Beserker's weapons are two War Axes with the same P+S as Kodiak's fists or Marauder's Pistons, other than that however they've no special abilities, although the model's axes do look very cool.

To make up for all the short comings, the Beserker comes with several abilities, Aggressive (allows the Beserker to run and charge for free), Chain Attack: Brutality (if both the intial attacks hit home the Beserker gets to make a free headbutt attack, which is useful if you happen to be attacking a jack or in very unlikely circumstances, a warcaster) and the main ability of the Beserker, Unstable. This makes the Beseker the jack that it is, at the end of it's actiavtion if you've spent focus on the Beserker, roll a d6 and if the result is equal to or less than the amount of focus spent the Beserker becomes a Bombard POW blast, this dictates that you want to send it after infantry as for the same points as a unit of Doom Reavers you could potentially wipe out a unit such as Errants or Mage Hunters.

As mentioned before, the Beserker is the cheapest Khadoran jack available, as a trade off it tends to require a little assisstance compared to other jacks such as the Kodiak or Marauder due to it's lower MAT if you don't want to use it as a walking bomb and reliably hit units. One method of getting around it is marshalling it with the Man O War Kovnik, using his Drive to boost all its attack rolls, alternatively fielding the Berserker with Karchev, pButcher or pVlad also provides ways of circumventing unstable, Karchev by using Unearthly Rage (Boosts all attack and damage rolls for models in his battlegroup), pButcher using Full Throttle (allows his battlegroup to charge for free and boosts all attack rolls) and pVlad using Signs and Portents (extra dice on all attack and damage rolls dropping the lowest). A further reason for fielding a Beserker or two with pVlad is his tier 4 requirement, that his battlegroup is made of only Drago (upgraded Beserker) and Berserkers, granting extra deployment (as well as tier 1 reducing the cost of his warjacks). Essentially Beserkers are difficult to use as with only two cortex boxes using them primarily for the bomb tactic can be easy to shut down if your opponent has a large number of models with ways of putting damage exactly where they want it, i.e Sniper, Percision Strike. However the Beserker is a cheap jack that can be used as a large road bump, or in an Old Witch list an ambush jack (Weald of Secrets, granting Pathfinder and a slight DEF buff whilst in concealment or cover) and with the right support, the Beserker can be incredibly useful.

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