How fun are Kharadron Overlords?

[ZealousJ]

Tedious question time!

Been a while since I posted - some old friends of mine got me back into 40k and that's all I've played for over a year but now were going to get into aos proper! Hurrah!

 

So here's the thing: I have the start collecting kharadron overlords box knocking about. I love dwarves. I love the aesthetic of the overlords. But looking at their rules they seem pretty vanilla compared to other factions. They've no magic, little anti magic, few buffs, and no cavalry or monsters. It seems to me they're based around fairly squishy mediocre infantry and surprisingly fragile transports.

Are my readings of the faction correct? Don't get me wrong I don't mind playing a faction that isn't very powerful, but I like to play a variety of models and have options in game. Overlords seem pretty one dimensional to me.

I've been looking at Daughters of Kaine and Seraphon among others and they seem as if they'd be much more fun to play. Am I wrong?

Any thoughts would be very welcome

Cheers 

 

PS - I feel similarly about fyreslayers so any info on them would be appreciated too.

[HammerOfSigmar]

From my understanding, both KO and DOK have very limited options for your army list if you want to play competitive. Seraphon are more variable but  you need to pay more attention to the details to play well, which I heard from a competitive Seraphon player.

[ZealousJ]

3 minutes ago, HammerOfSigmar said:

From my understanding, both KO and DOK have very limited options for your army list if you want to play competitive. Seraphon are more variable but  you need to pay more attention to the details to play well, which I heard from a competitive Seraphon player.

Thanks! 

 

I don't particularly want to play competitively. I just want to be able to build an army that doesn't always lose and has a bit of variety in it. I can see how DoK have a limited model pool, but they do have access to deep striking flyers, ogre sized models, cavalry, and spells, all of which KO are missing.

[Bruinin]

I have been playing KO pretty much since they came out.  They are a fun army with excellent models.  They can be powerful, but they are very unforgiving, one mistake and you lose.  The models are great, especially the ships.  If you are looking for variety, they have 4 heroes, 2 infantry, 2 cav and 3 ships, their roster count is similar to other armies released in the last few years.  Unfortunately, if you use match play points they have horrible internal balance and therefore if you wish to put your best foot forward there are few choices.

They have one battleline, every 2000 point army will have 3 units of Arkanauts.   Fortunately the Arkanauts are clearly better than the other infantry unit, but that means you will likely not use the Thunderers.  

The "Cav" are the skywardens and endrinriggers, the riggers are your only choice here.  The riggers are better in everyway and cost the same.  I still use the skywarden models but they are proxies for more riggers now.

The ships all have a purpose, but again the clear choice is only the ironclad.  The frigate is a rhino, it has minimal damage output.  The gunhauler is ok but I use those points on a Khemist.   The way you carry troops around and the way most games play out the ships only give you a deployment drop advantage, it you don't deploy your troops on your first turn you risk not being able to deploy them and they are not shooting.

The heroes are ok, the Khemist is very good but overpriced, the admiral has some good buffs but really sucks in damage output.  The endrinmaster has some damage output and can heal, the navigator can dispel and is cheap, surprisingly his slow ability won me my first AOS 2.0 game against nighthaunt.  The named character is awesome now that his points are reasonable.

My lists always have:

1 ironclad

3 units of arkanaut company

Brok, Navigator and a Khemist

Bunch of endrinriggers

I feel my chance of winning is often more dependent on the scenario than either army on the board.

They are fun, but sometimes not for your opponent.  This is a stand back and blast 'em army.  I have had games where my opponent didn't get to me until turn 3 and by then they are chaffed up and beat up.  They seem more frustrated than usual, especially if you snipe their characters off :)

 

[Lightbox]

DoK have synergy out the wazoo and fun options both for competetive or more casual play. Plus the models are gorgeous (if a bit daunting to paint)

I've found I've had lots of fun with Morathi and blood sisters with DoK and spells like razormind (i think it's called) paired with buffs from hag narr temple and hag brews can really stack up the pain. They're also a bit more survivable than one would initially think due to their 6++. But make no mistake they are definitely a glass cannon army, hit hard, fast and cripple your opponents by choosing good targets before they get a chance to tear chunks out of your squishy girls.

 

Kharadron I have less experience with however I think they are sort of supposed to play like DoK in that hit hard and fast to take out key targets. The only issue is they are much much lower power level than DoK. However their models are lovely and aren't too bad to paint as they can be as detailed or as simple as you like, they're also simple to put together and not particularly difficult to convert either. At a more casual level you'll definitely be able to have some fun with them because just because they lack in competetive doesn't mean they can't still pack a punch in more casual (I'm more of a casual player too)

 

With kharadrons skyhooks being buffed by khemists is generally considered a strong option (though bear in mind half our battletome is faq'd so make sure to check the faq so you don't get khemists wordings wrong etc) endrinriggers also like khemist buffs on their saws to pack a nice punch and their high movement is very good for getting to objectives or harassing opponents.

 

Main issue is we're very mid range shooting (a lot of 18's and 12's with some 24's) which does mean you'll need to take into account the possibility of getting charged and alas our flyboys don't hold up too well in melee. You'll have to work a bit harder with kharadrons to make them shine than DoK but if you like a fun challenge and love the models then I'd say go for it.

[WatcherintheWater]

I agree with most of what people above have to say about KO. They are my primary AOS army and I've played ~30 games with them. Especially if you like the models they can be really fun to play.

Power Level: Better than most of the non-battletome armies, worse than most of the battletome armies. Plenty high enough for anyone who isn't trying to play at tournament top tables. I've won ~60% of my games.

Play Style & Variety within the army: I actually think KO have more variety than it seems just based on the # of units.  All the heroes are pretty unique, and almost all the units can have different weapon load outs. Depending on what you pick, you can go combat glass cannon, gunline, full on alpha-strike or more. Even the ships can be customized with different weapons & artifacts. The different skyports can help you build different lists (Zilfin = ship focused, Nar = anti-magic, Urbaz = Khemists buffing everything, Mhornar = shooty alpha strike). There are a few things that you will almost always see in a decent list though, Khemists (you probably need at least 1), Endrinriggers, and you have to take Arkanauts for battleline.

Uniqueness as an army: I think the only army with the transport ability. A ton of special weapons. Artifacts/traits that let you do fun things like change abilities mid game, and a bunch of once per game footnotes. A ton of multiple damage and rend -2 attacks.

Weak points: No magic, no monsters or super-heroes (Brok is pretty good though), no real durable units, low access to mortal wounds. Unless you go Arkanaut heavy, usually pretty low model count. I think KO are also a very swingy army. You usually aren't rolling that many dice, but a lot of them do multiple damage, so it's pretty easy to have a lucky couple rolls that obliterate everything or a bad couple that completely bounce. And if you have a shooting heavy list, the turn 2 & 3 priority roles can be really huge.