I thought it was time for another character analysis and this week I'm going to focus on the Loathesome Lackey that is Kang (The Rail Workers Champion). I've only played against this guy a couple of times but each time this one man army has walloped my zombie hoard and left me cursing the living.
Last time it happened I was left having something of a Kirk moment...
You'll just have to picture Kirk shouting Kang, not Khan....
Now that I have that out of my system. So what is it I don't like about this guy....
Threats
- Cant Keep Him Down ability means Kang is healing a number of wounds equal to the turn number, essentially he becomes more resilient as the game proceeds.
- Hard to Kill means you're not one shotting this guy
- Stubborn gives him 8 willpower in resist duels
- Ignores obscuring on markers or auras, so fog isn't going to work to sneak your boys up on him
- Workers Champion gives crew in range a positive to attack and casting against non living if he kills a non living model.
- You can Try defense trigger means he has a chance of retaliating against a missed melee attack made against him
- Melee Expert means he's doing between 9 and 18 wounds. Before jokers in Melee
- Shovel melee attack has respectable Cb, range and damage and has two triggers that can either knock back the opponent 3" or give a construct easy to wound
- Hot Coals ranged attack, although short ranged, is a pretty solid blast weapon and forces a negative flip on the defensive resist duel
- Fight with Me as a zero action means other MS&U members close enough get plus 1 CB.
- Slow to Die
- Rousing Speech spell can result in instant rallying for comrades in 6" and they gain immune to morale duels
Vulnerabilities
- I see Kang usually used with a pack of rail workers all clumped together, which tends to be vulnerable to blast or drowned damage
- If you target him early in the turn, hitting again and again, until he dies, he's not coming back and the crew looses a powerful character
Lackey's current tactics
I see him played in the middle of the pack until he gets in charge range, when he's either played aggressively to push back my forces or defensively to protect a higher value target or objective.
Played with the embers or Feng he benefits from the steam cloud to shroud him from attacks until he's ready to attack.
Resser tactics
I think it comes down to the tactic I outlined before, you either hit this guy hard, again and again, until he topples or you smack him with multiple blasts. He has to be your target early on in the turn, so you can do enough damage and overcome his hard to kill ability.
I've only played a single game with the Mei Feng Rail Crew so far but Kang got absolutely destroyed in the second round, and then I was 8SS down. I think the most important thing for any opponent to do is to target him as early as possible and swarm him; otherwise, he has the potential to complete devastate the other side. That being said, I think Kang needs to have proper support to keep him around and to perform the anvil you need for Mei Feng's hammer; left to his own devices, he can hit hard but will shred under sustained fire.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Nick. I agree absolutely with what your saying, he's a machine that can be put down if targeted repeatedly early on. Unfortunately with most Ressers favouring the low end of melee, I've bounced off of him once or twice, or simply not done enough damage, which brings me to my Kirk inspired gaming moments.
DeleteIt sounds like your opponent knew exactly what they were doing though. Good luck with the rail crew and thanks for checking in!