AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

[Baron Wastelands]

4 hours ago, Ironbreaker said:

I pulled the trigger today at the store and bought a box of arkanauts . What's a good direction to build in for 1000 points? Maybe start with 500 points.

There are several ways to go, but you want a khemist currently for any of them  

After that, it depends what you like - you can go with large blobs  of arkanauts, or multiple thunderer units, or endrinrigger mobs with ships to drop them. Brokk is also valued by many as a way to add some muscle to a list, though I haven’t any experience with him personally.

[mikethefish]

16 hours ago, Ironbreaker said:

I pulled the trigger today at the store and bought a box of arkanauts . What's a good direction to build in for 1000 points? Maybe start with 500 points.

I'd grab a Khemist, one additional unit of Arkanaughts, and a Frigate.  You need the leader and the extra battle line. 

At 200 pts, the Frigate is now competitively costed.  It doesn't pack much firepower, but it lowers our deployment drops, and provides some mobility and screening.  Additionally, it's a start on an Iron Sky Squadron, which is probably our most effective battalion.

After that, it's up to you.  I'd grab a third Arkanaughts unit, just to get all the weapon options, and to prep for needing three Battle Lines at 2000 pts.  Perhaps also grab one of the Start Collecting boxes?  Recent points drops have made that box way more appealing.  That purchase strategy would give you a pretty decent Meeting Engagement force as well (since you are mostly using minimum sized units).

Edited August 4, 2019 by mikethefish

[WatcherintheWater]

Hey guys! Thought I'd share a write up of a tournament at my local store from a week and a half ago. We had 16 players and a pretty good mix of armies. Forgot to take any picture though.

My List: Barak-Zilfin.

Spoiler

 

Additional Footnotes: There’s no trading with some people & These are just guidelines

·       2x Khemists (general with Stickler for the Code, 2^nd Khemist with the dispel artefact)

·       1 Frigate (with Atmospheric Endrins) – Deployed in the sky with one Khemist, the Endrinriggers, and 10 Company every game

·       40 Arkanaut Company

·       2x10 Arkanaut Company

·       9 Endrinriggers w 3 Grapnels

·       30 Dwarf Longbeards

·       1 Command Point

I realized that I made my list wrong and was playing with 3 fewer Endrinriggers than I was supposed to. Could have used 12 and the list would be 1970.

 

Game 1 (Duality of Death, Realm of Death, +1 Bravery Realmscape Feature)

Spoiler

 

Opponent’s List: Beastclaw Raiders– Frostlord on Stonehorn, Frostlord on Thundertusk, 2x4 & 1x2 Mournfangs, 1 Beastriders on Stonehorn

Deployment: On my left, I had my big Company and a Khemist, with the Longbeards in a protective ring around them. On my right, just 10 Company. He put his Frostlord on Stonehorn and 4 Mournfangs on my right, and everything else on my left.

Summary: He moved forward and took both objectives. His Frostlord Stonehorn got a long charge on my small Company, but rolled incredibly poorly and left 4 of them alive. I dropped my ship a little bit to the right of the board center, and through shooting and an Endrinrigger charge killed the Mournfangs on that objective. However, my Arkanauts failed the 9” charge, so I couldn’t claim the objective this turn (battleline & heroes claim objectives in this scenario). His Frostlord killed the remaining 4 Company, although they did a few wounds in shooting. I shot his other Stonehorn down to just a few wounds with my big Company. I won the turn 2 roll, moved a small company unit onto the right objective, finished off his non-hero Stonehorn (and spread out some remaining shots to his Thundertusk) with shooting from the big Company, and pushed everything on that side of the board forward 4” to threaten his objective. The Endrinriggers charged his remaining Stonehorn and killed it in his half of the turn, but lost most of the unit in return. In his turn he charged in his remaining stuff into my Longbeard wall, killing over half of them and keeping the left objective, putting him up 4-1.

On turn 3 I moved my small company off the objective towards where most of the fighting was (didn’t realize you had to keep units on the objective in this scenario), but shot off his Stonehorn and all his Mournfang except 2. He kept the objective that turn, though, making the score 7-1. I won the turn 4 roll, claimed both the objectives, killed his remaining Mournfang, scoring 2 in turn 4 and 4 in turn 5, resulting in a tie on VPs, but beating him on kill points by a lot. Minor Win

Game Takeaways:

·       Make sure to read the new scenarios before you play them. They are different in subtle ways. I would have easily won if I just keep a Khemist or some Company on the right objective in turn 3.

 

Game 2 (Shifting Objectives, Realm of Fire, +1 Rend to shots over 12” Realmscape Feature)

Spoiler

 

Opponent’s List: Deepkin – Eidelon of the Sea, Vultornos, 2 Soulrenders, 1 Soulscryer, 3x10 Namarti (some shooting, some combat), 2x3 of each type of eel cavalry.

Deployment: Longbeards in a line at the front of my zone. Big Company in a line a few inches behind, with the Khemist in the middle of them. Small Company off to one side to make sure he couldn’t come on behind me. He put Vultornis with a unit of defensive eels on my right, the Eidelon, some Namarti, & a Soulrender in his center, and the offensive eels, more Namarti, & his other Soulrender on my left. The last 2 eel units & the Soulscryer deployed off the table to ambush.

Summary: I gave him turn 1, and he pushed almost everything forward to claim objectives (although he was too aggressive with some of his heroes here). I brought my ship down on the right, behind Vultornis & the eels, and piled out so that I could get a lot of shots into Vultornis. Between shooting & the Endrinrigger charge, I killed them both, and took the right objectve. Longbeards ran to claim the middle objective, & everything else walked up. Big Company shot off the Eidelon. I won the turn 2 roll, and grappled my Endrinriggers to take out some Namarti near the middle objective, and I scored 4 again. He brought on his ambushing units on the right board edge, charging the offensive unit into the Longbeards and everything else into my small Company & Khemist that had been on the boat (where they stayed in combat for basically the rest of the game). Everything else charged into my other small Company & the Longbeards, whipping out the small company, and killing a dozen or so Longbeards, and claiming the side objectives. 8-7 me after 2.

I think I won the turn 3 roll, and mostly kept things out of combat, while using the big company and Endrinriggers to shoot off his eels on the right objective. He killed 10 or so more longbeards over both our turns, but because of the positioning of his Namarti, had a tough time getting his eels into the fight. He scored the primary objective and I got the other 2. 11-11 tie after 3, but he didn’t have much left at this point. The primary objective moved to the right. He took my Longbeards to just a couple left, but really had no way to get any objective except the one on the left. In my turn, shooting from the big Company pretty much destroyed his remaining units. Major Win

Game Takeaways:

·       With a slow army, it’s important to get lots of bodies on the objectives as soon as possible. There were some spots where I could have run my small Companies instead of shooting, to get more bodies on objectives even if I already controlled it. And don’t be afraid to use the 6” run command ability to do it.

·       When his ambushers charged my Longbeards in turn 2, I was able to remove casualties in such a way that he had to decide between piling in off the objective or not fighting with them (he didn’t fight).

·       Don’t think this realmscape feature is very fair. +1 rend on Skyhooks is pretty tough, and all he had with more than 12” range was one unit of Namarti with bows.

 

Game 3 (Knife to the Heart, Realm of Fire, no Realmscape Feature)

Spoiler

 

Opponent’s List: Sylvaneth – Treelord Ancient, 2 Branchwraiths/Branchwitches, 2x30 & 1x20 Dryads, 9 Kurnoth Hunters with Greatbows

Deployment: Big Company, one Small Company, and Khemist clustered around my objective, with the Longbeards on the boarder of my deployment zone. He basically flooded his zone with Dryads everywhere to prevent me from dropping behind him, including one big unit of 30 in a Wildwood on the objective with one of the small casters, and his Hunters & Treelord in the back.

Summary: He outdropped me and took the first turn, dropping a huge Wildwood just to the right of my deployment zone. His Treelord & Hunters teleported to that wood, with his Hunters just out to the side, and his Treelord barely sticking out to cast spells & use his ranged attack. A unit of 20 Dryads teleported to 9” away from my Longbeards, but failed their charge. His hunters fired into my big Company and killed a dozen or so. I pushed up with the Longbeards, but failed their charge into the Dryads. My big company killed the Treelord (he was pretty salty about it). The Frigate stayed in the sky. He won the roll for turn 2 and took it, killing another 8 or 9 Arkanauts with his Hunters, and charging the dryads into my Longbeards and killing 7 or 8, but being shot off by my Arkanauts in my half of the turn. I dropped my frigate about 12” away from the Dryads on his objective, and with shooting & the Endrinrigger charge killed more than half of them. I won the turn 3 roll, and easily killed enough dryads to claim his objective and win. Major Win

Game Takeaways:

·       Generally, it’s better not to charge or run with the Longbeards unless it’s to claim an objective. Re-rolling their save makes them really tough.

·       Against shooting armies, keep your Khemst back as far as you can. He didn’t target the Khemist, but if he did, could have killed him turn 1. Because the big Company is so huge, it should be easy to even put the Khemist in the corner, and just string a few guys back to be within 10” for his buff.

·       In this scenario, I would almost always pick to go second in turn 1 & 2. Getting the turn 3 double is really powerful.

 

Final thoughts:

Spoiler

 

·       3-0 Overall, achieving all my secondaries. Tied for first on battle points, since one other person had 2 majors, & 1 minor with all their secondaries. They narrowly won the tie-break based on strength of schedule.

·       The Longbeards were great. I was intending to use 40 warriors instead, but accidentally left 10 on my painting table. 30 Longbeards & a CP costs the same as 40 Warriors. Basically you trade 10 bodies for a better save & the CP, which seems well worth it. If you don’t run or charge the Longbeards on they have a re-rollable 4+, which can really hold up anything that isn’t doing mortal wounds or a bunch of rend -2. I think some sort of cheap horde screen is cruicial to any army that uses a big blob of Arkanauts.

·       With the lower points, I think I’ll start using this sort of Zilfin list again. It increases the mobility of the army by a ton, and makes the opponent have to defend against your deep strike. There’s no way I could have won Knife to the Heart with a more static list.

·       I think KO really struggle against armies with shooting de-buffs or ignore rend. However, two of those armies (Deepkin & Nighthaunt) have a lot of fly, so the Zilfin re-rolls make those matchups not as bad.

·       Starting the game with a command point was more helpful that I thought it might be. I means you can pass a battleshock if your opponent alpha strikes on turn 1 (like when the Hunters shot my big Company), and because there are so many options for command abalities now, it feels like you can always find a use for them (re-rolling 1s on the big Company in shooting or on Endrinriggers in a crucial combat are very useful)

·       Not really sure what to do with the artefact, but I didn’t dispel a single spell all weekend. Would probably switch over to a defensive option on the khemst near the big Arkanaut unit.

 

 

[Beliman]

Nice tournament! KO kicking hard and fast again!!
And playing with less Endinriggers!!! Just awesome!!!

20 hours ago, WatcherintheWater said:

·       Not really sure what to do with the artefact, but I didn’t dispel a single spell all weekend. Would probably switch over to a defensive option on the khemst near the big Arkanaut unit.

I had a list with some useful artefacts sometime ago...  the only artefacts that I remember are:

• The Aethershock Earbuster for another battleshock phase on the deep-strikining  Khemist.
• The Gryph-Feather Charm for my general (I usually go with the "Prospector" trait to try to focus on offensive Command Abilities). 
• The Aethersight Loupe to stop the Prismatic Pallisade (or any other Endless Spell). Main problem is that i had better results with a Runemaster or Knight Incantor than just using one artefact.
• Ignax Scale for Mortal Wounds abusers on my general. Hate when some random Thundertusk just kills my general...

Don't know if this artefacts are going to have enough presence on your games, but can't wait to see more KO winning!!!

Edited August 6, 2019 by Beliman

[Eocosa]

Hello all,

I was thinking of trying this list, but was curious if I there were any huge holes I am not seeing in it. It’s by no means meant to be ultra competitive, but I would still like to have some chance in local games. I also really like the admiral so would really want to keep him in even if he is not the best.

 

Barak-Mhornor

-Admiral (General) Opportunistic Privateer and Aethershock Earbuster

-Aether-Khemist Aethersight Loop

-10 Arkanauts Skyhooks

-10 Arkanauts Skyhooks

-10 Arkanauts Skyhooks

-Gunhauler with cannon

-Gunhauler with cannon

-Gunhauler with Cannon

-Frigate with cannon

-5 Grundstok Thunderers

-3 Skywardens (is it best to keep them melee or go VG&Skyhook?)

-1 extra command point

-Mercenary Company (Rampagers):

-40 Marauders with shields

-40 Marauders with shields

 

1980 points

 

The plan would be to use the marauders as massive area denial and damage sponges (80 wounds) that will get in the opponents face which I feel like we really need in our army. Meanwhile the Gunhaulers can hug close to the admiral and try to obliterate high priority targets. The frigate can hug close as well or move off to deploy the thunderers and sky wardens on objectives. Meanwhile the Arkanauts and Khemist can try to focus down monsters, lone characters, or other units.

As many of the units which can do some damage can also move fairly fast if something super dangerous gets near the ball of Gunhaulers, one can charge in for a turn while the others all disperse.

Feels very Barak-Mhornor to make use of mercenaries and let them soak up the damage (don’t have to pay them if they don’t make it to the end!) from a fluff perspective which I also like, I just hope it can somewhat work.

Thanks all!

 

[Zplash]

3 hours ago, Beliman said:

Nice tournament! KO kicking hard and fast again!!
And playing with less Endinriggers!!! Just awesome!!!

I had a list with some useful artefacts sometime ago...  the only artefacts that I remember are:

• The Aethershock Earbuster for another battleshock phase on the deep-strikining  Khemist.
• The Gryph-Feather Charm for my general (I usually go with the "Prospector" trait to try to focus on offensive Command Abilities). 
• The Aethersight Loupe to stop the Prismatic Pallisade (or any other Endless Spell). Main problem is that i had better results with a Runemaster or Knight Incantor than just using one artefact.
• Ignax Scale for Mortal Wounds abusers on my general. Hate when some random Thundertusk just kills my general...

Don't know if this artefacts are going to have enough presence on your games, but can't wait to see more KO winning!!!

Maybe if you play a battalion and an extra CP you can think about the brooch too. On a 5+ getting a CP back is not too bad with the new command abilities like reroll 1s in shooting. 

[Kramer]

3 hours ago, Beliman said:

Nice tournament! KO kicking hard and fast again!!
And playing with less Endinriggers!!! Just awesome!!!

I had a list with some useful artefacts sometime ago...  the only artefacts that I remember are:

• The Aethershock Earbuster for another battleshock phase on the deep-strikining  Khemist.
• The Gryph-Feather Charm for my general (I usually go with the "Prospector" trait to try to focus on offensive Command Abilities). 
• The Aethersight Loupe to stop the Prismatic Pallisade (or any other Endless Spell). Main problem is that i had better results with a Runemaster or Knight Incantor than just using one artefact.
• Ignax Scale for Mortal Wounds abusers on my general. Hate when some random Thundertusk just kills my general...

Don't know if this artefacts are going to have enough presence on your games, but can't wait to see more KO winning!!!

Good call by @Zplash on the brooch although it will be as randomly useful as the dispel ability. 

I would also like to add that I only found the aerbuster worth it on a character that you drop in deep. Otherwise my characters are obly used supportive so rarely get into range. 

[ThePie]

So what is best for thier points, shooty skywardens or melee endrinriggers? 

[Kramer]

21 minutes ago, ThePie said:

So what is best for thier points, shooty skywardens or melee endrinriggers? 

What do you need? Something to grab objectives but still contribute if they are away from an enemy? Or something to hit hard to take an objective or kill something? 

[Zplash]

16 minutes ago, Kramer said:

What do you need? Something to grab objectives but still contribute if they are away from an enemy? Or something to hit hard to take an objective or kill something? 

Yeah they serve completely different roles therefore its hard to tell, depends on your armee, scenario, enemy Armee and situation... 

With the point drop I think both are a viable option but not easy to play to really get the most out of them.

But that's KO I think

[ThePie]

Hmm, as it looks now my starting army im looking to buy is some arkanauts, a kemist and an ironclad With points over for one squad of Endrinriggers or skywardens. So perhaps having one mobile squad able to take objectives that are lightly defended would be good. 

 

Havent even bought snyting yet so i just guess il just chance something and see how it works hah. 

[Zplash]

How do you rate the drop count for kharadron? 

Looking at the escort wing battalion and arkanauts not included in the battalion, you kind of always be at around 6 drops... So usually you won't be able to decide the first turn order. 

But on the other hand, is this really an issue for us? What's your opinion or even better experience with it? 

[Kramer]

3 hours ago, Zplash said:

How do you rate the drop count for kharadron? 

Looking at the escort wing battalion and arkanauts not included in the battalion, you kind of always be at around 6 drops... So usually you won't be able to decide the first turn order. 

But on the other hand, is this really an issue for us? What's your opinion or even better experience with it? 

The best way to go one drop is iron sky battalion. Set up the arkanauts outside the frigates but everything outside of the battalion in the boats. 

Takes some practice but turn one disembark at the start of your hero phase into your formation. 

I personally preferred to set up slow and drop some little things first to see were my prime targets are and respond to that. 

[Ironbreaker]

So I've been looking over the different skyports to find one I like, and I've noticed a bit of a problem as far as the battletome is concerned. Most of the skyports don't really have a personality or they are just archetypes. I want to like Zilfin, but I can't really find anything deeper than, "They like their ships, they go fast".  Have skyports been given any more flavor since the battletome in other sources like novels or will we have to wait for the 2.0 battletome to really get a grasp on the sky ports? I might just be reading this all wrong, I'd love to hear your opinion. 

[mikethefish]

9 hours ago, Ironbreaker said:

So I've been looking over the different skyports to find one I like, and I've noticed a bit of a problem as far as the battletome is concerned. Most of the skyports don't really have a personality or they are just archetypes. I want to like Zilfin, but I can't really find anything deeper than, "They like their ships, they go fast".  Have skyports been given any more flavor since the battletome in other sources like novels or will we have to wait for the 2.0 battletome to really get a grasp on the sky ports? I might just be reading this all wrong, I'd love to hear your opinion. 

If you're interested in Zilfin, they were the protagonists in the Overlords of the Iron Dragon novel.  Additionally, KO have been appearing more and more as side-characters in various novels, since their wandering nature makes them useful in the narrative sense. 

In regards to how deep the various Sky Ports are fleshed out, I would suggest that this is an issue with ALL the various sub-factions in AoS books.  The KO ports are neither better nor worse than any of those, really.  And quite frankly, I doubt that a new Battle Tome will change that, since any new book will probably devote about the same amount of pages/words towards individual Sky Port descriptions.  They pretty much are just a basic framework that players can build off of to create the narrative for their own personal armies.

When the KO book came out, they were a completely new concept.  It wasn't like traditional dwarves where we've seen races/characters exactly like them in dozens of different fantasy universes.  GW had to create a whole new society basically from the ground up, and so much of the book concentrates on "big picture" stuff.  Who the KO are?  How does the Code work?  Stuff like that.  They simply didn't have the pages to really delve into the different Ports with any great detail.

In AoS, only Stormcast have have sub-factions (stormhosts) that are more fleshed out.  But...you know... Stormcasts

Edited August 7, 2019 by mikethefish

[ThePie]

So regarding arkanauts... Is there any way to convert extra skyhooks? Doesent seem like any bit site has them in stock. 

 

[Zplash]

18 hours ago, ThePie said:

So regarding arkanauts... Is there any way to convert extra skyhooks? Doesent seem like any bit site has them in stock. 

 

Good question, I'm new to KO and fighting myself every day if I'm going to buy 60 arkanauts or should wait if something is changing our battleline choices... Maybe Cities of Sigmar?

But not sure if I should hope for so much

[dekay]

18 hours ago, ThePie said:

So regarding arkanauts... Is there any way to convert extra skyhooks?

Necromunda Orlock harpoon launcher is a nice looking substitute and it's much easier to get a hold of.

[WatcherintheWater]

19 hours ago, ThePie said:

So regarding arkanauts... Is there any way to convert extra skyhooks? Doesent seem like any bit site has them in stock. 

 

If you build your Endrinriggers/skywardens for melee, there is an extra skyhook in the kit.

Another easy solution is to mount the head of a sky pike to a rotary gun.

[Zplash]

My planned competitive 2k list... 

Pros:

3 different main dmg blobs (40arks, thunderes, hearth guard) 

2 deepstrike options

3 heros

extra cp

Cons:

No dispel / magic

Min. 6 drops

Not too much screen potential

 

What do you think about the list in current meta?

I know it's nothing completely new, more or less a mix of a lot of options mentioned here before. 

 

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords

Skyport: Barak-Zilfin
- Additional Footnote: There's No Trading With Some People

Leaders
Auric Runesmiter (120)
- Runic Iron
- Allies
Aether-Khemist (140)
- General
- Trait: Prospector 
Aether-Khemist (140)
- Artefact: Aethershock Earbuster 

Battleline
40 x Arkanaut Company (480)
- 12x Light Skyhooks
10 x Arkanaut Company (120)
- 3x Aethermatic Volley Guns
10 x Arkanaut Company (120)
- 3x Aethermatic Volley Guns

Units
10 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (240)
- Poleaxes
- Allies
15 x Grundstok Thunderers (270)
- 15x Aethershot Rifles
3 x Endrinriggers (120)

War Machines
Arkanaut Frigate (200)
- Main Gun: Heavy Sky Cannon
- Great Endrinworks: Aetherspheric Endrinds (Barak-Zilfin Skyvessel)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 360 / 400
Wounds: 130
 

[Judicator]

Anyone else notice ko tome is now last chance to buy!  New tome incoming!

[Ironbreaker]

1 hour ago, Judicator said:

Anyone else notice ko tome is now last chance to buy!  New tome incoming!

Where at? US store has it still  listed as normal.

[Judicator]

 

[Ironbreaker]

10 minutes ago, Judicator said:

 

Interesting, but that Dark Elf stuff isn't last chance to buy.

[Kramer]

On 8/7/2019 at 6:40 AM, Ironbreaker said:

So I've been looking over the different skyports to find one I like, and I've noticed a bit of a problem as far as the battletome is concerned. Most of the skyports don't really have a personality or they are just archetypes. I want to like Zilfin, but I can't really find anything deeper than, "They like their ships, they go fast".  Have skyports been given any more flavor since the battletome in other sources like novels or will we have to wait for the 2.0 battletome to really get a grasp on the sky ports? I might just be reading this all wrong, I'd love to hear your opinion. 

Morhnar have a big feature in the gotrek novella the bone dessert. 

But honestly. The whole warhammer lore contains a whole lot of archetypes and especially the groupings like sky ports, stormhosts, wargroves etc. I’m kinda afraid that’s not going to change whatever faction you choose to replace Dispossessed   Hopefully the lore books flesh things out enough for you