Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed

Khador Warcaster Unit

Orsus Zoktavir is a living legend, having earned a place in the company of other almost-mythical heroes from the frozen north. A brutal warrior capable of unbridled savagery, he is feared by his soldiers as much as by his foes. His only companions are his two war argus—two-headed hounds that are a living embodiment of the untamable darkness inside the Butcher.

Basic Info

Butcher

Butcher3
	SPD	5
	MAT	9
	RAT	5
	DEF	14
	ARM	18
	FOCUS	6
	HP	20
	WJP	+22
	See also How to Read the statblock

Weapons and Attacks

• Blunderbusss - 8" range, POW 12 gun
• Lola - 2" reach, P+S 16 melee weapon
  • Weapon Master - When attacking with this weapon, add an additional die to its damage rolls.
  • Damage Type: Magical - This weapon can damage incorporeal models.

Special Abilities

• Warcaster Unit - All warcasters come with a stack of standard special rules - most notably being awesome. Furthermore, this warcaster comes with some troopers that can be ordered around. Butcher3's unit includes two War Argus.
• Officer - This model is the unit commander even if the unit has a Leader model.
• Tough - When this model is disabled, roll a d6. On a 5 or 6, remove 1 damage point from this model; it is no longer disabled and becomes knocked down. While knocked down this model loses Tough.
• Granted: Vengeance - While this model is still alive and in formation all of the unit gains Vengeance. (Vengeance - During your Maintenance Phase, if one or more models in a unit with Vengeance were damaged by enemy attacks during the last round, each model in the unit can advance 3" and make one basic melee attack.)

Feat - Red Haze

This feat has two effects:

1. Butcher immediately gains 6 focus points. He cannot have more focus points that his current FOCUS as a result of Red Haze.
2. Living enemy models cannot charge Butcher.

Red Haze lasts for one round.

Spells

• Energizer - COST 2, RNG SELF
  Each model in the spellcaster's battlegroup that is currently in its control range can immediately advance up to 2". Energizer can be cast only once per activation.
• Flashing Blade - Cost 1, Range Self

The caster immediately makes one basic attack with one of its melee weapons against each enemy model in its LOS that is in the weapon's melee range. These attacks are simultaneous.

• Impending Doom - Nearby enemy models are pushed towards this model in the order of your choosing.
• Obliteration - Cost 4, 10" range, 5" AOE, POW 15

This spell has no special effects. Pure offense.

• Silence of Death - Upkeep that grants a faction model/unit a STR bonus and Take Down. (Take Down - Models killed in melee by this model cannot use Tough and are RFP'd.)

War Argi

Argi
SPD	6
MAT	5
DEF	14
ARM	14
HP	8 each

Weapons and Attacks

• Bite (x2) - "0.5" reach, P+S 11 melee weapons
  • Combo Strike (★ Attack) - Make a melee attack. Instead of making a normal damage roll, the POW of the damage roll is equal to this model's STR plus twice the POW of this weapon.

Special Abilities

• Gang - When making a melee attack targeting an enemy model in the melee range of another model in this unit, this model gains +2 to melee attack and melee damage rolls.
• Granted: Relentless Charge - While this model is still alive and in formation all of the unit gains Relentless Charge. (Relentless Charge - This model gains Pathfinder while it is charging.)
• Sprint - If this model destroys or RFPs an enemy in melee during its activation, at the end of its activation it can make a full advance, then its activation ends.

Thoughts on Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed

Comparison to Mk2

Butcher lost a couple inches of his threat range, due to a slight nerf to Energizer as well as the rule change in regards to charging friendly units (butcher would charge his own units to gain threat range, which is no longer allowed). The changes to Silence of Death have also made him less effective against targets with transfers, as it now buffs STR instead of stopping transfers. Butcher also lost some of his resiliency, as he can no longer camp more armor than most Colossals. That being said, Butcher was an almost unbeatable caster in Mk2, and is still very good after all the changes. It can be noted he has a high amount of Warjack points with the new rules, and still does just as much damage as before. Assassinations are just a little more difficult and dangerous to pull off with him as of Mk3.

That being said, the changes to his feat allow him to fulfill a different role. Now that he can't be targeted by living models you can take out a large section of their army and sit him there with focus to spare, against hordes he's completely safe, whist against warmachine he's just mostly safe based on what you target. His assassination got worse, but his army clear got much better. (Note that Living can still advance and attack him)

Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed in a nutshell

The Butcher wants to kill his enemies in one of two ways: to smash a hole through their lines early in the game and assassinate their warcaster before the battle can really begin, or to wage a war of attrition, leaving the enemy army too weak to protect its warcaster from his superior stats and incredibly deadly axe, Lola.

Thoughts on when & how to best use his feat and spells

The Butcher's feat is very useful before, or after, an assassination attempt. Butcher can use Energizer and Impending Doom to get into combat with an enemy Warcaster or Warlock and then feat to have many uses of Flashing Blade for an assassination. He can also use his feat to recover from a failed assassination attempt, as no living models can charge him on his feat turn, and he will have full focus to negate incoming damage.

Typical Army & Strategy

Strategy

Note to Editors If you're looking for inspiration for content to add to this page, you can always copy-paste (& update as necessary) info from the old mk2 entry: Mk2 Battle College: Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed .

His main win condition is Placeholder.
For example: "using her feat turn to get a melee/ranged/spell assassination" "attrition then win on scenario" "board control then win on scenario" "sending a jack in, to beat the enemy warcaster's face into pulp" "etc"

Army

Butcher still benefits from Ragman, which can bring his P&S up. With the new power up rules, he can do well with several jacks. Bring along a War Dog to make him harder to hit in melee, or Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator for utility. Ruin gains a special benefit if taken with the Butcher, as it is his character jack. The main purpose of the Butcher's army is to distract the enemy from himself. Most things big, scary, or just plain annoying are acceptable, whether it be jacks, MenOWar, or a Winter Guard Death Star or Iron Fang Pikemen. Kovnik Andrei Malakov is also a consideration, as he can run a large jack like Behemoth or even one of Khador's colossals, Victor and Conquest.

Drawbacks, Downsides & Bad Match-Ups

He is easy to hit. His defense is low for a Warcaster and he must be aware of things that can knock him down.

Tricks & Tips

Utilizing the Argii as an offensive tool can be helpful, and, due to their speed being slightly faster then the Butcher himself, they make an excellent screening unit or a great jam for stopping someone from landing a model's base somewhere you don't want it. Placing them base to base in front of him can block some lines of sight, and can even be bolstered further with a blizzard from the Greylord Ternions, which places them in a cloud for concealment, and, so long as Butcher is sitting slightly behind them, leaves him sitting safely from (most) shooting.

Other

Trivia

• This model was introduced in Warmachine: Vengeance (2014)

Theme Forces

Themes for generic casters (Edit)

• Winter Guard Kommand - (Article) (Category)
• Jaws of the Wolf - (Article) (Category)
• Legion of Steel - (Article) (Category)

Other faction models

(Edit)
	Battlegroups
	Warcasters	Butcher1 - Butcher2 - Butcher3 - Harkevich - Irusk1 - Irusk2 - Karchev - Kozlov - Malakov2 - Old Witch1 - Old Witch2 - Sorscha1 - Sorscha2 - Strakhov1 - Strakhov2 - Vlad1 - Vlad2 - Vlad3 - Zerkova1 - Zerkova2
K H A D O R
	Warcaster attachments	War Dog (Khador) - Madelyn Corbeau (Mercenary) - Reinholdt (Mercenary) - Wyshnalyrr (Mercenary)
	Other Controllers	Malakov1 (BGC) - Man-o-War Kovnik (Marshal) - Greylord Forge Seer (Marshal)
	Heavy warjacks	Berserker - Decimator - Demolisher - Destroyer - Devastator - Grolar - Juggernaut - Kodiak - Mad Dog - Marauder - Rager - Spriggan Beast-09 - Behemoth - Black Ivan - Drago - Ruin - Torch
	Colossal	Conquest - Victor
	Units, Solos, & Battle Engines
	Units	Assault Kommandos - Battle Mechaniks - Black Dragons - Doom Reaver Swordsmen - Greylord Outriders - Greylord Ternion - Iron Fang Pikemen - Iron Fang Uhlans - Kayazy Assassins - Kayazy Eliminators - Kossite Woodsmen - MOW Bombardiers - MOW Demolition Corps - MOW Shocktroopers - Widowmaker Scouts - WG Field Gun - WG Infantry - WG Mortar Crew - WG Rifle Corps Great Bears of the Gallowswood Ranking Officer CA : Koldun Kapitan Valachev
	Solos	Greylord Forge Seer - Iron Fang Kovnik - Koldun Lord - MOW Drakhun - MOW Kovnik - Manhunter - War Dog - Widowmaker Marksman - WG Artillery Kapitan Fenris - Jozef - Malakov1 - Markov - Yuri
	Battle Engines	Gun Carriage
	Theme Forces
	Winter Guard Kommand - Legion of Steel - Jaws of the Wolf

(Edit)
		Mercenary Battlegroups
		Warcasters	Bartolo - Damiano - MacBain - Durgen - Fiona - Ossrum - Gorten - Magnus1 - Magnus2 Requires a 2+ caster game
K H A D O R	M E R C E N A R I E S
		Other Controllers	Mini-casters	Brun Cragback & Lug - Rorsh & Brine
			Marshals	Colbie Sterling - Dirty Meg - Raluk Moorclaw - Rutger Shaw - Thor Steinhammer
		Warjacks & Warbeasts	The mercenary battlegroup members you can include in a Khador army depends entirely on which mercenary is commanding them. There are too many permutations to list here, please refer to one of the model entries above for full details of what it can take.
		Mercenary Units, Solos, & Battle Engines
		Units	High Shields - Press Gangers - Sea Dog Deck Gun - Sea Dog Pirates - Steelhead Halberdiers - Steelhead Cavalry - Steelhead Riflemen - Tactical Arcanist Corps Alexia1 - Croe's Cutthroats - Nyss Hunters - Blythe & Bull - Boomhowlers - Herne & Jonne - Aiyana & Holt - Lynus & Edrea
		Solos	Gobber Tinker - Ogrun Bokur Alexia2 - Alten Ashley - Bradigan - Grogspar - Brun Cragback & Lug - Colbie Sterling - Dirty Meg - Doc Killingsworth - Eiryss1 - Eiryss2 - Hawk - Gorman - Gudran - Harlan - Hutchuk - Bailoch - Rockbottom - Dougal - Orin - Ragman - Raluk - Rorsh & Brine - Rutger - Saxon - Sergeant Nicolas - Stannis - Thor
		Battle Engines	Hammerfall Siege Crawler
		Warcaster attachments	Madelyn Corbeau - Reinholdt - Wyshnalyrr

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Magical Damage      (Edit) The "Damage Type: Magical" is not inherited by "secondary" damage from a weapon. That is, stuff like arcs (Electro Leap) or hazards (Scather). (Infernal Ruling) All spells have "Damage Type: Magical" (refer errata). This is inherited by "immediate" secondary damage (such as Eruption of Spines). (Infernal Ruling) ... but not by "lingering" secondary damage (such as the cloud left by Breath of Corruption). In this case the hazard is damaging the model, not the spell that put the hazard into play. If a weapon/spell includes Magic Damage and another kind of elemental damage it can still damage Incorporeal models. Incorporeal models are not affected by the rule "if an attack does multiple types of damage and a model is immune to at least one it is immune to the entire attack." The phrase "immune to non-magical damage" should be interpreted as "immune to damage that doesn't include Damage Type: Magical" (not interpreted as "has immunity to Corrosion and Electricity and Cold and etc.")

Rules Clarification : Weapon Master - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Combo Strike - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Warcaster Unit or Warlock Unit     (Edit) This summary is specific to Warcaster/Warlock units. You may also want to check the Warcasters & Warlocks page for the 'regular' rules clarifications. If you're giving an order, it must be done first, before casting any spells or using your feat. All models in the unit count as part of the battlegroup. So, for instance, Butcher3's argii can be moved via his Energizer spell. Only the warcaster/warlock model can dominate a Steam Roller scenario. They can do that regardless of where the grunts are. The grunt models can contest Steam Roller scenarios, but not control them. Warcaster units can have attachments. They can even attach units (such as the WSC). (Infernal Ruling) Units Buying Attacks (Edit) If you make attacks with model [A], then start making attacks with model [B], you cannot 'go back' and buy more attacks with [A]. Because: A model can only buy additional attacks during its Combat Action. A model in a unit must complete its Combat Action before the next model starts theirs (with some exceptions, like CMA).

Rules Clarification : Officer      (Edit) Even if they're not on the Officer's card, an Officer can give (and benefit from) any non-standard orders that are on the unit's card (such as Shield Wall). Refer main rulebook. A Ranking Officer can't do this, though. When the Officer dies, the Leader model becomes the new Unit Commander (you don't get to choose). But if your unit doesn't include a Leader model, then you do get to choose any of the remaining models to be the new Unit Commander. You don't swap the model, but it may be worth putting a token down so you can tell that grunt apart.

Rules Clarification : Tough - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Gang and/or Gang Fighter     (Edit) You can gain the Gang bonus vs knocked down/stationary models (refer to the latest Errata). You can gain the Gang bonus on free strikes, but generally only the first "Ganger" will get it. For example, if a target is engaged by two models with Gang, when it leaves the melee range of the first Ganger it suffers a free strike with the Gang bonus. Then it leaves the melee range of the second and suffers a normal free strike.

Rules Clarification : Tactics vs Granted     (Edit) Granted = The unit loses the ability as soon as the model that grants it is taken off the table. Tactics = The unit keeps the ability for the entire game, regardless of who dies.

Rules Clarification : Vengeance and/or Righteous Vengeance and/or Retaliation and/or Swift Vengeance     (Edit) Vengeance moves do not have to be towards an enemy model. You can choose to not move, but still get the attack. One is not conditional on the other. In this case, you will not count as advancing and thus will not trigger stuff like Countercharge. (Infernal Ruling) When resolving Vengeance, move all models in the unit before making any attacks. (Infernal Ruling) If you have more than one unit with Vengeance, move all of unit A then complete all of unit A's attacks, before starting to move unit B. Vengeance is not an activation. It does not prevent the unit from activating and acting normally later in the turn. Stationary and knocked down models may not perform Vengeance moves nor attacks. Only enemy attacks trigger Vengeance. There are plenty of ways enemies can damage you without attacking you (such as Electro Leap) and these will not trigger Vengeance. Due to the way it is worded Vengeance can be "inherited" by unit attachments that do not actually have the Vengeance ability themselves. For instance, a Soulless Escort attached to the Spears of Scyrah. If anyone is damaged, including the attachment, everyone in the unit gets to trigger Vengeance. But if everyone is killed except the attachment, then he doesn't get to trigger Vengeance because the rule is "no longer on the table".

Rules Clarification : Relentless Charge      (Edit) Pathfinder (Edit) - Pathfinder does not apply to involuntary movement (pushes & slams). (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Sprint and/or Run & Gun     (Edit) You cannot use this ability after an out-of-activation attack (such as Countercharge), only during real activations. (Locked thread) You can't purchase additional attacks after the move, because you can only buy attacks during your Combat Action and by definition "the end of your activation" happens after "your Combat Action". Differences With Sprint, you cannot trigger other abilities that also occur "at the end of activation" (such as Reposition), because Sprint includes the phrase "and then its activation ends". Click here for a detailed explanation Run & Gun doesn't have this restriction. Run & Gun won't trigger if you RFP the model, but Sprint will.

Rules Clarification : Energizer      (Edit) The models affected are determined when you cast the spell. If you then use the Energizer move to move the caster forward and try and get more models into their control range, it makes no difference.

Rules Clarification:  : Thresher and/or Flashing Blade and/or Cyclone     (Edit) Warning: This is a long one.

Resolving the attack Under this heading, the word "Thresher" is used interchangeably for "Flashing Blade" and "Cyclone" too Thresher makes an attack against every model, and as such it targets every model. Thus if a model "may not be targeted by melee attacks", you have to 'skip' it when you resolve the attack. (Infernal Ruling) All attacks made by a Thresher attack are simultaneous. If a model is out of LOS when you start the Thresh, then you may not attack it as part of the Thresh (even if the Thresh kills what is blocking your LOS) This means you need to target everything, then resolve all effects that trigger on "target" before starting any attack rolls. Then complete all attack rolls and do everything that triggers on "hit" before starting any damage rolls, and etc. In practice and to save time though, if neither player has effects that trigger on "being targetted, hit, damaged, etc" then they'll normally do the hit and damage rolls on a model-by-model basis. If a model collects tokens (for instance the Cryx Harrower that collects souls), it cannot collect them until all Thresh attacks are resolved. Thresher only All attacks made by a Thresher are special melee attacks, and as such won't trigger stuff like Grim Salvation or Rhyas's feat. (Infernal Ruling) No matter how many enemy you kill, Thresher only counts as a single attack for the purposes of triggering Berserk, Quick Work, Black Spot, etc You can do a Thresher on a charge (it's a special melee attack). If you charge & Thresher, only the damage roll against your charge target is automatically boosted - other models caught in the thresh suffer an unboosted damage roll (although you can spend focus/fury to boost it) You can't buy additional Thresher attacks, because they're (★ Attack). You can buy additional normal melee attacks, though. Thresher will hit friendly models. Flashing Blade only You can cast it after your charge movement but before your charge attack. This will essentially interrupt your charge attack, so no damage roll is boosted while resolving the spell's attacks (unless you pay to boost it). If your charge target survives the spell , then you'll get your boosted charge attack against it. Flashing Blade doesn't hit friendly models Cyclone only You can cast it after your charge movement but before your charge attack. This will essentially interrupt your charge attack, so no damage roll is boosted while resolving the spell's attacks (unless you pay to boost it). If your charge target survives the spell , then you'll get your boosted charge attack against it. If you used the advance to move out of range of your charge target, it was sitll as successful charge so it won't cause your activation to end. However, you are still limited to making melee attacks only. Cyclone will hit friendly models.

Rules Clarification : Impending Doom      (Edit) Push (Edit) Pushed models do not change their facing. Pushed models move at half rate through difficult terrain. Also, Pathfinder doesn't apply during pushes. Pushed models stop if they contact anything - a model of any size, or any obstacles or obstructions. You don't get free strikes against pushed models, because it is "involuntary movement" and therefore does not count as an advance. Pushed models suffer the effects of anything they move through (such as acid clouds If you use a Push vs a charging model (via a free strike for example), this will stop the charge movement (refer core rulebook). However, if the pushed model is in melee range of its charge target after the push, then it is considered a successful charge. (Infernal Ruling) In that scenario, you measure whether the charging model moved 3" or less excluding the push distance. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Obliteration      (Edit) The text description has no in-game effect. It's just for flavour.

Rules Clarification : Silence of Death      (Edit) Rules Clarification : Take Down - None yet. (Edit)

Note to Editors To edit the Argii's tagged abilities, Click here