Shock Trooper Pikemen - The Unpolished Gem?

The Shock Trooper Pikemen have long been sitting idle in the Khador barracks waiting for some action. Partly because other parts of the Khador military has been busy. Yet, also partly because I haven't been able to figure out what to do with them. Baranova brought four units to this year's WTC and they seem to be performing. So, here are some musing over what the Pikemen can do, which Warcasters do what, and how to polish the gem.

Shock Trooper Pikemen are probably an uncut gem in the Empress' arsenal. They can be made quite a lot more dangerous than what they look on their card. Here I'll go thorough the basics of the Pikemen; how to keep them alive, getting them to the enemy, and getting them to kill stuff. I'll also go through what our different 'casters can do for them.

The basics of the Shock Trooper Pikemen

Shock Trooper Pikemen comes in units of three, all on 40 mm bases. They come with build in Resistance to fire, cold and blast (roll one less die when damaged, also immune to Fire continuous effect); which is nice. They have a base ARM of 16 and Shield Wall (+2 ARM when base to base, and no knockdown); and five boxes. This is pretty OK. Although, anyone with POW 15 in melee or shooting will take a model out (POW 13 on the charge). Their DEF of 12 is not really helping here. So, keeping them alive before they can engage is a challenge (see 'Keeping them alive' below).

Offensively, the Shock Troopers come with a range 2" Blasting Pike at POW 15 and Critical Armor Piercing, and a range 1" Shield at POW 10; both delivered at MAT 7. They will hit DEF 14 on the average and do 22 points of damage from the Pike and 17 points of damage from the Shield. They do have Combined Melee Attack (CMA), which gives interesting options.

Weapon	MAT	Avg. DEF	POW	Avg. dam.	Avg. dam. charge
Pike	7	14	15	22	26
Shield	7	14	10	17	21
CMA (2)	9	16	17	24	N/A
CMA (3)	10	17	18	25	N/A

Properties of different attack modes for the Pikemen

A very normal straight forward charge would be charging with the Pike and then hitting with the Shield. Assuming that they can hit, that would give an average damage of 26 + 17 (we are ignoring Critical Armor Piercing as there is only a 14% chance on two dice).

They clock in at 7 points per unit, which is OK, I guess. However, their biggest handicap is their speed of 5". This gives them a charge range of a mere 8" and a pike-poking-distance of 10". It is a very static charge distance that we really can't do anything about (except for Yana and the Sky Raider, which is covered below).

Keeping them alive

The main issue with the Shock Troopers is actually keeping them alive until they can wreck havoc. Having only DEF 12 (which is actually high for Khador) isn't going to help them a lot. Most people, and their grandma can hit them. On the average only a MAT/RAT of 5 is required.

First and foremost, we can screen them against shooting. The Man-O-War Suppressors quite nicely fill the role here. They are 50 mm bases, pretty robust and like to shoot stuff. So advancing behind a line of Suppressors could do the trick.

Another interesting option is the AC-2 Bison. It is really robust and offers cover (+4 DEF against ranged and arcane attacks, and +2 DEF against melee for being an obstacle). That is a respectable DEF 16 against shooting (we are looking at RAT 9 or boosting to hit), and DEF 14 against melee. Two units fits nicely behind a Bison and the troopers are Blast Resistant. The only main annoyance to this is Sprays, which ignores cover.

Finally, the Winter Korps Officer can hand out Stand Your Ground, giving them Set Defence. That is DEF 14 against charges and slams.

With respect to using Command Cards, there are a few option: Defences, could give then a Barrier to hide out behind, giving them Cover: Infiltration would give one unit Stealth for one round; High Alert could give somebody nearby Shield Guard; and finally, True Inspiration could give them Tough. 

The main problem here is obviously that cards can only do something for one unit for one round. This is of course better than nothing, yet not a pretty sustainable way of keeping them alive. 

Other options can be found in our Rack Spells: Fog of War is the first, and most universal. Everybody gets Concealment (+2 DEF against shooting and arcane attacks). This would bring the Pikemen to DEF 14 against shooting (RAT 7 needed to hit them on the average), which is ok; the second option is Iron Flesh (+2 ARM), which would bring them to ARM 20 in Shield Wall. It would then require POW 18 to kill them on the average; finally, Weald Secrets is an option. Stealth is nice for one unit. Finally, there is, of course the card True Inspiration for giving one unit Tough for one round. 

My choice would be either advancing behind a wall of Suppressors, potentially in combination with Fog of War; or advancing behind a Bison (the latter is clearly the coolest).

Getting them into the fray

Not only do they need to survive until they can actually hit the lines, they also need to get there as fast as possible. Unfortunately, we currently haven't got any sure way of speeding them up (except for Yara below). There are basically only two way of helping them. Either be enlisting the assistance of a Winter Korps Officer giving them March (Pathfinder). Then at least they won't be too much hindered by terrain.

The second one is through playing cards: Hit & Run card, which will give one model Reposition 3"; Duck and Cover! gives a unit Cover for one round (DEF 16 against shooting); Careful Reconnaissance for Pathfinder for one unit, one round; Infiltration for Stealth for one unit, one round; and obviously Defence to have things to hide behind. The problem with cards is that there are typically a lot of cool cards that you want for some other reason, and that is it typically one unit, one round.

Making them kill stuff

The Pikemen are obviously capable of killing stuff (see also the basics above). However, it is always nice to make them kill more or harder stuff. Killing stuff boils down to hitting it and then inflicting as much damage as possible.

They are already, out of box equipped with MAT 7, which will hit DEF 14 on the average. That is pretty OK in itself. Unfortunately, we don't really have any good way of fixing MAT, except for what specific Warcasters can do for them. The only thing we can do is to either knock models down or make them stationary; and we do have the arsenal for that.

Model	Knockdown	Knockdown (crit)	Stationary	Stationary (crit)
AC-2 Bison	Momentum
Dire Wolf		Cannon		Ice Hammer
Great Bear	Slammer Head	Battle Mace		Deep Freezer
	Heavy Cannon	Blasting Fist
Kontroller			Freeze spray
Mastodon	Heavy Cannon			Deep Freezer
Medveditsa	Grab & Smash
Volkova				Hoarfrost
Wrecking Crew		Smite

Who can help the Pikemen hit stuff

As the table above shows, we do have quite a lot of options to either knock things down or make them stationary. As always, one should not base a plan around Critical Effect, since there is only roughly a 14% chance of that happening. However, non-critical effects are quite likeable. The most consistent way is of course getting help from 'jacks as they can boost to hit (and with a bit of luck Aim). Unfortunately, they tend to cap out at RAT 5, which of course is RAT 7 boosted if aiming (hitting DEF 17 on the average). 

Spell wise, we only have two rack spells that can help: Freezing Grip for Stationary (at a hefty price of 4 Focus) and Tempest for Knockdown (also at 4 Focus). Not a terrible viable solution in my mind, as our 'casters often can't spare 4 Focus. 

So, once we have hit the opponent, either through our own effort alone or be enlisting help, we would like to deal as much damage as possible. The first solution here is obviously to charge! That is 26 points of damage on the average. Again, there really isn't any general, army wide solution for increasing this. The only general approach is the Rack Spells: Puissance. This gives a +2 to damage rolls and Beatback. That would be an average of 28 points of damage on the charge and a Beatback.

What can the Warcasters do for them?

Pikemen unassisted by specific Warcaster will be somewhere between ARM 16 and 20; between DEF 12 and 18; moving at SPD 5, potentially with Pathfinder; hitting at anywhere between MAT 7 and 10, with anywhere between POW 10 and POW 28. The six, currently available Warcaster can help them in different ways.

Kapitan Ekaterina Baranova

Baranova doesn't do a lot to keep them alive. She can to a certain degree help them with getting near the enemy; or rather getting the enemy near them as she has Gallows to pull models in. She is, first and foremost, a Invocation of Wrath bot. Having an extra dice on to hit, whilst dropping the lowest move a MAT 7 Pikeman from hitting DEF 14 on the average to hitting DEF 15 (rounded down). Finally, Banishing Ward might come in handy if somebody has cast a nasty spell on the Pikemen.

Her feat is also pretty good for both keeping them alive, and to a certain degree getting them delivered. Storm of Ages stop enemy models activating in her control range (14") from charging, slamming and trampeling, and gives enemy models -2 SPD. Finally, if the opponent tries to shoot somebody or cast spells on them, they will have -4 RNG. This is really good for protecting Pikemen (and everybody else) on the way to the frontline.

Baranova is so-so in helping the Pikemen.

Kapitan Ilari Borisyuk

Illari is also not the born Pikemen 'caster. He doesn't really do anything for the Pikemen. Boris is not particularly helpful.

Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy

Kapitan Yana actually does offer a couple of very interesting things to the Pikemen. She doesn't really do anything to keep the alive. However, quite importantly she helps them getting there fastish. She can (and will) cast Dash! A whole extra inch on SPD suddenly allows a pike-poking-distance of a mighty 11".

Once within pike-poking-distance, she does offer quite a lot. Her spell Spirit Fang can lower an opponents DEF with 2, making the Pikemen effectively base MAT 9. He feat gives them Cleave and Overtake, which offers more attacks and more manoeuvrability once engaged (assuming that the Pikemen kill something). Finally, the gold: Battle Lust. I have missed that spell. An additional die on melee damage roll, whilst loosing 2 DEF. 

Battle Lust really cranks up the damage output. Additional dice is golden. That is four dice on a charge. See the table below for a summary of the average damage output under Battle Lust.

Weapon	MAT	Avg. DEF	POW	Avg. dam.	Avg. dam. charge
Pike	7	14	15	26	29
Shield	7	14	10	21	24
CMA (2)	9	16	17	28	N/A
CMA (3)	10	17	18	29	N/A

Damage output of Pikemen under Battle Lust 

Combining Battle Lust and her feat really makes for a lot of fun. The dream scenario is obviously charging in, doing 3 pike attacks at 29 points of damage, followed by 3 shield attacks at 21 points of damage, and the additional 3 Cleave attacks with the pike for an additional three times 26 points of damage. Obviously, it could also be any combination of CMA attacks, plus Cleave. Unfortunately, it is impossible to combine Battle Lust and Puissance, since they are both upkeeps. That would have been fun! She can, of course have Battle Lust on one unit and Puissance on another. Making two pretty dangerous Pikemen units. 

Yana is for sure a helpful lady.

Kapitan Zahara Vilkul

The newest addition to the Warcaster stable is Zahara. Out of the box, she doesn't really do much for the Pikemen. The only thing she do is her feat, Pall of Ashes. It opens up many interesting options. However, it requires skill, the right terrain and a bit of luck to really do something consistently for the Pikemen.

The feat can help, both getting the Pikemen into the fray and killing stuff. It produces d3+3 cloud effect, which can help getting there. These clouds allow for friendly models to move through obstructions (kind of a poor mans Ghostwalk). It also gives Pathfinder. In addition, if put on an enemy, they get -2 DEF, -2 to hit and looses tough. One only has to be within the template for friendly and enemy effects to work.

Zahara doesn't really do a lot for the Pikemen.

Kommander Tatiana Sikora

The cadre caster, Tatiana Sikora can do quite a few things for the Pikemen. She can help keeping them alive, getting into the fray and making them kill stuff. 

Tatiana's feat improves the probability of keeping the Pikemen alive. It does, however require that they are in melee. Her feat gives Unyielding (+2 ARM against melee attacks) in her control range (14"). This will bring them to ARM 20, which is pretty OK. With 5 boxes, an enemy needs a POW 18 to kill them on the average, or a POW 15 on the charge. So, once they have dug into the enemy's lines, it will help.

Tatiana comes with Tactical Supremacy on her spell list, which helps getting them into the fray. This gives Reposition [3"] for one unit. Reposition is nice and can help one unit to advance more. However, there is a tradeoff. Spreading out a unit with Reposition allows them to cover much more real estate for the next round. However, Spreading out Pikemen removes their Shield Wall, which makes them quite soft and squishy.

Where Tatiana shines is in making Pikemen Kill stuff. First off, is the second half of her feat. It gives a reroll on attack rolls, which always help. In addition, she has Positive Charge on the spell list. Put it on a 'jack and park the 'jack within 3" of Pikemen and they get +2 to hit and +2 POW, bringing them to MAT 9, POW 17 before more fun. Bring Damien Korovik and do it with two 'jacks.

Tatiana can make one unit pretty dangerous. If she picks Puissance (+2 to damage) for the rack, cast it on a unit of Pikemen, park a 'jack nearby with Positive Charge, the damage potential really adds up. It is quite similar to the damage output under Battle Lust with Yana, just a teeny bit better; and better MAT. 

Weapon	MAT	Avg. DEF	POW	Avg. dam.	Avg. dam. charge
Pike	9	16	19	26	30
Shield	9	16	14	21	25
CMA (2)	11	18	21	28	N/A
CMA (3)	12	19	22	29	N/A

Damage output of Pikemen under Puissance and Positive Charge 

Tatiana can also be a rather helpful lady. 

Kommanders Valerii Savaryn

The final Warcaster, so far, is the poster boy Savaryn. To keep them alive, he does two things: the spell Rock Wall gives a nice Obstacle to get cover from and the Battle Plan - At All Cost give another unit Shield Guard to divert shots from ht Pikemen.

The only thing he does for getting them into the fray is another Battle Plan - Precision Strike, which allows models to move through other models. Pretty neat for not getting in way of each other. 

Finally, once they are at the battle line, the Battle Plan - Kill order is pretty good as it is not tied to a friendly unit, but the enemy model/unit exposed to it. It gives +2 to hit and +2 damage. This gives him the ability to make Pikemen as brutal as Tatiana above. In particular, if he racks Puissance (see table under Tatiana, above). 

Savaryn does a bit for the Pikemen. 

How I like to run the Pikemen

I have had some success running four pikemen units under Baranova with two Bisons and a Mastodon. However, I don't think it is the best configuration. I'm suggesting two different configurations: Tatiana or Yana.

Tatiana is the slow lady, at least of these two. She relies on slow and steady, and once her armies get there, they'll beat the crap out of the opponent. It should not be any surprise that she really likes Man-O-Wars. Perhaps even so much that she would actually prefer them over Pikemen. Nevertheless, she can run them quite well.

Below (to the left) is the core model that would make up a Tatiana Pikemen list. Obviously, all the pikemen she can bring. A couple of officers to help out and work with objectives. Damien is there to, primarily cast an extra Positive Charge on a 'jack. Finally, two units of Suppressors to march in front of the Pikemen. This clocks in at 57 points, leaving 43 points to play around with. 

My suggestions for the additional 43 points can be see to the right below. In addition to the core list, Sergei is there to support the Man-O-wars. There are two of the inexpensive, yet very versatile Dire Wolfs (my favourite configuration). The have Shield Guard and Anchor; and take Positive Charge really well. Finally, a Great Bear to hang around Tatiana as a bodyguard, shoot something and knock it down. In the late game it is also a pretty good hard hitter.

Kommander Tatiana Sikora    - Fog of War    - Puissance Winter Korps Officer [2] Winter Korps Officer [2] Koldun Lord Damien Korovnik [3] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Man-O-War Suppressors [11] Man-O-War Suppressors [11] Command cards     - High Alert     - Hit & Run     - True Inspiration Total Points   57/100

Kommander Tatiana Sikora    - Fog of War    - Puissance    - Dire Wolf [9]      HEAD - Shield Guard      RIGHT ARM - Ice Hammer      LEFT ARM - Plow-Shield    - Dire Wolf [9]      HEAD - Shield Guard      RIGHT ARM - Ice Hammer      LEFT ARM - Plow-Shield    - Dire Wolf [10]    - Great Bear [16]      HEAD - Aggressive      RIGHT ARM - Heavy Cannon      LEFT ARM - Heavy Cannon Shield Winter Korps Officer [2] Winter Korps Officer [2] Koldun Lord Damien Korovnik [3] Sergeant Sergei Krol [5] Arkanists [4] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Man-O-War Suppressors [11] Man-O-War Suppressors [11] Command cards     - High Alert     - Hit & Run     - Old Faithful     - Power Swell     - True Inspiration Total Points   100/100

The second option, and perhaps the one I prefer is Yana. She is fast, so she needs a fast army. Below (to the left) is the core list, consisting of: Two Bisons can keep up and the Pikemen can tag along behind them for the sweet cover; and two officers are there to do what they do best. This leaves us with 48 points to play around with.

My suggestion for filling the 48 points can be seen below, to the right. I like the Mastodon. Inspired by the experiences with Baranova running a Mastodon, that module fits nicely to Yana. The standard Mastodon-module consists of: the Mastodon, a Mechanik, Volkova, a unit of Arkanists, Blessing of the Gods, Old Faithful, and Superiority. She will also bring a unit of snipers to ba annoying. 

Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy    - Fog of War    - Puissance AC-2 Bison [10] AC-2 Bison [10] Winter Korps Officer [2] Winter Korps Officer [2] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Command cards     - High Alert     - Hit & Run     - True Inspiration Total Points   52/100

Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy    - Superiority    - Puissance    - Mastodon [34]      HEAD - Fire Support      RIGHT SHOULDER - Heavy Cannon      LEFT SHOULDER - Heavy Cannon      RIGHT ARM - Great Axe      LEFT ARM - Grinder Fist AC-2 Bison [10] AC-2 Bison [10] Battle Mechanik [2] Magziev Zariyah Volkova [4] Winter Korps Officer [2] Winter Korps Officer [2] Arkanists [4] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Winter Korps Snipers [4] Command cards     - Blessing of the Gods     - High Alert     - Hit & Run     - Old Faithful     - True Inspiration Total Points   100/100

These are currently my two favourite list for the Pikemen. They are still quite a lot therorycrafting. However, they will be heavily tested shortly.

Exotic tricks

In addition to the polishing tools offered within the friendly Faction models, there are some slightly more exotic options when employing mercenaries, which might, or might not be good. The current available mercenaries can help in the following ways

Alexia, Queen of the Damned can, in some strange way help keeping them alive. She has Death Toll on her sword, which returns a grunt nearby when killing something. She can do the same thing using Grim Returns as a Star Action. This is obviously nice if somebody manages to kill one of the Pikemen.

Krueger, Wrath of Blighterghast has Burning Blight, which can help them kill stuff. It gives +1 to attack rolls within 5" (also for the enemy), and Ashen Veil (-2 to attack rolls), which the Pikemen are immun to, but will benefit from.

Final remarks and wishes for the future

If you made it here, I'm impressed. I really think that the Pikemen are really underrated.

I would really like to see a Shock Trooper Officer or something like that. Some way of speeding up the Pikemen would be golden. Whether that is a solo or unit attachment, I think is unimportant. Another, less reliable option would be one giving the Tough, which would be very nice as they already are immune to knockdown when in a Shield Wall.

Let's see if they can bring pain to our enemies. Until next time.

For the Motherland!