Forward Kommander Sorscha

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Forward Kommander Sorscha

Khador Warcaster

Sorscha's patriotism still drives here, but it is increasingly eclipsed by the darkness growing in her heart. She does not care why the Motherland asks her to fight, only that she can find a few moments of peace in the clarity of action.

Basic Info

Sorscha2
	SPD	6
	MAT	7
	RAT	6
	DEF	16
	ARM	15
	FOCUS	6
	HP	17
	WJP	+27
	See also How to Read the statblock

Weapons and Attacks

• Quad-Iron - 10" range, ROF d3+1, POW 10 gun.
• Frostfang - 2" reach, P+S 13 melee weapon.
  • Damage Type: Magical - This weapon can damage incorporeal models.
  • Critical Freeze - A model critically hit by this weapon is made stationary for one round unless it has Cold Immunity.
  • Shatter - This weapon gains an extra damage die against stationary targets.

Special Abilities

• Warcaster - All warcasters come with a stack of standard special rules - most notably being awesome.
• Immunity: Cold - This model does not suffer cold damage.
• Desperate Pace [Winter Guard] (★ Action) - Target Winter Guard unit. If it is in CMD range, it gains +2" movement during their Normal Movement this turn.
• Freezer - An enemy model that ends its activation within 2" of this model becomes stationary unless it has Cold Immunity.

Feat : Winter's Chill

When an enemy model without Immunity: Cold suffers a damage roll while in Sorscha's control range, double the damage that exceeds their ARM. Winter's Chill lasts for one turn.

Spells

• Boundless Charge - Cost 2, 6" range

Target friendly Faction model can charge for free and gains +2" movement and Pathfinder when it charges for one turn.

• Cyclone - Cost 2

The casters make a full advance, ignoring free strikes, then a simultaneous basic melee attack against every model within their reach and LOS. Can only be cast once per turn.

• Iron Flesh - COST 2, Range 6", Upkeep

Affected warrior model/unit gains +2 ARM and immunity to blast damage.

• Razor Wind - Cost 2, 10" range, POW 12

This spell has no special effects.

• Shatter Storm - Cost 2, 6" range, Upkeep

Target model/unit gains Detonator. (Detonator - When a model with Detonator directly hits and boxes an enemy with a melee or ranged attack, centre a 3" AOE on the hit model and RFP it. Models in the AOE suffer a POW 8 magical damage roll.)

Thoughts on Forward Kommander Sorscha

Forward Kommander Sorscha in a nutshell

Like her previous version, Forward Kommander Sorscha has a very potent assassination run, but she is now more leaned toward support and damage boosting with her feat. She also lost most of her board controlling tools, but instead, gained a massive boost to her personal combat abilities. However in practice, a lot of the things that Sorscha2 does well are high risk/high reward, which makes her a lot trickier to use, especially without any board control spells.

Spell thoughts

• Boundless Charge: a versatile support spell, either for personal use, or for jacks/solos to boost their threat range.
• Iron Flesh: her second support spell, which can boost Khador's already well-armoured models to absurd levels. Iron Fang Uhlans in B2B surpass the ARM of a Juggernaut. Shield walled Man-o-War_Shocktroopers are now walking Demolishers in terms of ARM, and still immune to knockdown, if you spared points on their UA. Averagely protected, single-wound units, like Assault Kommandos or Iron Fang Pikemen will become surprisingly resistant to frontal assaults under this spell. Special mention to Black Dragons; between Shield Wall, their minifeat and IF, there are few guns, that can crack their ARM. Even without Shield-wall, Iron Zeal and Iron Flesh allows you to run up early, and form a solid brick mid-field.
• Cyclone: It is Wind Rush, combined with Thresher and Parry. Use both offensively in an assassination run, or defensively, to fall back from an unwanted engagement.
• Razor Wind: her only offensive spell; and her only way to deal with Incorporeal models at range. You'll probably rarely have the focus for it.
• Shatter Storm: The step-brother of Explosivo, this one affects melee attacks too. Keep that one on ranged models, preferably with multiple attacks. Casting it on a close combat unit can be tricky, as anything without a RNG 2 melee weapon are at risk of getting hurt by the AOE. Girded troops, or warjacks don't have to worry about that, of course, but they are rarely a good recipients of this spell. If you happen to cast it onto a model with Tresher (Yuri, or Beast-09) though, they can clear clustered infantries like few other.

Feat thoughts

An ideal feat for both defensive and offensive use - imagine Rhyas' critical weapon ability on your entire army. Of course, it will be of any use on targets with multiple hit boxes, like heavy infantry, cavalry or jacks/beasts. Targets have to be within Sorscha's CRTL radius (based on her current position), and thus, you can easily end up with her in dangerous positions for counter-punches. If you need to put her Quad Iron, or Frostfang to use, Cyclone can still lets you to advance back to a safer spot. As in the case of other feats like that, don't get too greedy. You might "only" have the opportunity to knock out 1 or 2 heavies in a turn, but it might just be enough to help you win the war of attrition. The feat works best with units that already do moderate damage. It doesn't work with sniper damage.

Strategy

For beginners it is all too tempting to go for assassinations, and use your feat to cause silly amounts of damage onto an enemy warlock/warcaster - preferably by Sorcha herself. Don't get me wrong - if the enemy leaves that door open for you, go for it. However, it is much more likely that you'll win on attrition. Detonator allows you to counter many recursive mechanisms, based on corpse gathering or collecting souls from friends, foes or machines. Iron Flesh keeps your troops on the field for a bit longer, while Winter's Chill allows you "cheap" piece trades, allowing you to punch out heavies with much fewer resources it would normally needed.

Army

• Winter Guard Infantry is a no-brainer with her. Desperate pace can boost their charge range, or let them pick up a good spot for CRA. Under her feat, even two-men CRA from a full unit can be absolutely devastating, dealing an average of 30 damage against an ARM 18 target. They are also good target for Shatter Storm, if you do not need Iron Flesh on them.
• To further emphasise the Winter Guard theme, both the Winter Guard Field Gun Crew and Winter Guard Mortar Crew get a lot of mileage out of her feat. The latter can threaten low-arm warcasters / warlocks with its improved blast damage, while the former can knock targets down for the Winter Guard Rocketeers to tear them apart with their Brutal Damage rockets.

• While Desperate Pace only affects winter guard, they are not the best beneficiaries for Sorscha's spells or feat. Her feat in particular works well with pretty much every unit, even Mercenary units.

Sorscha can buff her army, or release a remarkable amount of attacks with her quad-iron, or Frostfang. That means, she'll have few focus to run a lot of warjacks, even with power-up. A few, trusted piece is still favourable in her list:

• Beast-09 has a nice affinity to her, and an intercepted shot can trigger Hyper Aggressive movement.
• Behemoth under her feat deals an impressive amount of damage at range with its dual Bombard cannons. The damage goes from impressive to absurd with its fists - perfectly capable of gutting a Colossal/Gargantuan, or 2 heavy jack / beast at once.
• Spriggan and Torch are both ideal for removing Stealth and expose usually squishy targets for your army. Victor can do the same with its Flare ammunition, though the shot will be much more inaccurate.

The new Greylord Forge Seer also has a lot of good synergy with Sorscha. Can run a jack for her as well empower it with focus and blessed magical weapons, making sure that warjack can take the best advantage of Sorscha's very powerful feat.

Drawbacks, Downsides, & Bad Match-Ups

• The drawbacks of her prime version: she's fragile, and short on focus to do everything she's capable of. Even though she can deal an impressive amount of damage on her own, don't let her be exposed to retaliation, knockdowns or boostable blast damage.
• Feat is worthless against single wound targets and models with Cold Immunity.
• Freezer can save you only if the enemy ended its activation within 2" of you - and that usually happens after a failed assassination.
• Shatter is largely useless since Sorscha2 has no reliable way to actually make units stationary.
• Strongly contested by Butcher1: his support for battlegroup and his army are usually more useful, and on feat turn the damage output of his army lag only slightly behind Sorcha's.
  • On her feat turn, she can make Behemoth punch out 76+ damage to anything armor 25 or lower with average rolls, which will instantly kill anything in the game. Keep in mind however that Behemoth already could punch out anything that wasn't a colossal in a single round. Butcher1 can get Behemoth to punch 70 damage on his feat turn, which is also more than enough to kill anything.

Tricks & Tips

• According to the current wording, the feat happens, before the power field reinforcement, so the target can decrease only after the damage has been doubled. Warlocks also have to transfer the increased damage.
• With Cyclone you have the possibility to hurt your own troops, if you wish to do so. Situational, but if your infantry screen became stationary, and hinders your assassination run, then cast Cyclone, punch the blocking model out of existence, and there you have a free charge lane.

Other

Trivia

• Originally released in Warmachine: Apotheosis (2005)

Theme Forces

Themes for any-and-all casters (Edit)

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

Other faction models

(Edit)
	Battlegroups
	Warcasters	Butcher1 - Butcher2 - Butcher3 - Harkevich - Irusk1 - Irusk2 - Karchev - Kozlov - Malakov2 - Old Witch1 - Old Witch2 - Sorscha1 - Sorscha2 - Sorscha3 - 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 - MOW Atanas & Standard Ranking Officer CA : Koldun Kapitan Valachev
	Solos	Greylord Forge Seer - Iron Fang Kovnik - Koldun Lord - MOW Drakhun - MOW Kovnik - MOW Strike Tanker - MOW Suppresion Tanker - Manhunter - War Dog - Widowmaker Marksman - WG Artillery Kapitan Fenris - Jozef - Malakov1 - Markov - Sofya - Yuri
	Battle Engines	Gun Carriage - Man-o-War Siege Chariot - Man-o-War Assault Chariot
	Theme Forces
	Armored Korps - Jaws of the Wolf - Legion of Steel - Winter Guard Kommand - Wolves of Winter

(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 - Eilish Garrity - 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) (Click Expand to read)

* 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) and might be inherited by "lingering" secondary damage (see below). If a spell leaves a template in play that does damage to models that walk around in it, then: if it is not described as a hazard it will do magical damage to models that walk around in it. (Example: Razor Wall) if it is a hazard then it will not do magical damage to models that walk around in it. Instead, it does whatever damage type is specified by the spell description. (Example: Breath of Corruption). (Infernal Ruling) If a weapon/spell includes Magic Damage and another kind of elemental damage it will 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 : Freeze      (Edit) Remember Stationary only prevents what it says it does. Refer the page on Stationary for a refresher.

Rules Clarification : Shatter - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification:  : Warcaster      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

General FOCUS (uppercase) is the stat printed on the warcaster's card. Focus (lowercase) refers to focus points a model currently has. Your CTRL area is double your FOCUS stat, not double your focus points. (Infernal Ruling) Casting spells or using feats is an anytime ability with the added restriction that you can't use them on the same turn you run even before you run. See also the clarifications on Any Time abilities (below). Some warcasters are also Battle Engines and thus follow all the Battle Engine special rules. There is no particular interaction between the Battle Engine rules and the Warcaster rules. Work out all damage modifiers (such as Decapitation doubling the damage that exceeds ARM) before reducing it with the Power Field. (Infernal Ruling) Restrictions on "Any Time" abilities     (Edit)       "Any Time" abilities can be used at any time during a model/unit's activation, except: The model with the Any Time ability has had their activation end "prematurely". By this I mean you resolve anything which includes "its activation ends". Examples include: Running, failing a charge, or failing a slam. Abilities that include "then its activation ends" (such as Reposition and Teleport). In between declaring your charge target and making your charge movement. (Infernal Ruling) In between completing your charge movement and determining whether it was a successful charge. (Infernal Ruling) You're in the middle of moving. (Note: Impact Attacks count as being in the middle of movement). You're in the middle of an attack. Note that the attack is not over until you finish step 14 of the attack sequence (Apdx A). Your opponent interrupted your activation to trigger one of their own abilities, such as Countercharge. In general you can use "Any Time" abilities while you're knocked down or stationary (except Spells and Feats which specify you can't). If you have a gun with a random ROF, you can use an "Any Time" ability inbetween rolling the number of shots and actually making the first attack. (Infernal Ruling) Units with "Any Time" abilities Even if the ability says "any time during the unit's activation", a model in a unit can't use an Any Time ability if they run, fail a charge, or use an ability like Reposition. Because that model's activation has ended (even if the unit's activation is still ongoing) and you can't use abilities on models that are not active. So, for example: You cannot use a minifeat after the Officer runs. (Infernal Ruling) You cannot use a minifeat after anyone in the unit has begun a Reposition move. (Infernal Ruling) Warcaster/Warlock Cavalry ( Edit ) Warcasters/Warlocks can't cast spells or use their feat while resolving Impact Attacks. Because Impact Attacks occur during movement - you can use spells or feat before moving, or after moving, but not during movement. Exception: If your Impact target(s) include your charge target, then your movement has ended (refer rulebook, last paragraph of 'Impact Attacks') and thus you're fine to use "any time" abilities before starting the Impact attacks. 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 : Unit of Warcasters or Warlocks     (Edit) Even though they're warcasters, if they're out of formation they suffer the normal penalties (can't make attacks, actions, spells, etc). They can't upkeep each other's spells. They can only dominate one SteamRoller scenario element at a time. Each warlock/warcaster can have different upkeeps on them if those upkeeps are "target SELF" or "target model". If you cast an upkeep that is "target model/unit", that is the only upkeep any of them can have. 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). The Legion Twins Rhyas cannot dominate a zone while out of formation. Rhyas can use the feat while out of formation. Haley3 Only Haley Prime is an 'actual' warcaster model, and as such she is the only one that can dominate a scenario element. The echoes can Control/Contest scenarios like a normal unit. Haley Prime can dominate an element even if the echoes are out of formation.

Rules Clarification : Desperate Pace - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Freezer      (Edit) Despite the odd wording, stuff that happens "at the end of activation" (such as Sprint and Reposition) still occurs during the activation. This means it happens before Freezer triggers. So someone can advance towards you, attack you, then Sprint away and not be affected by Freezer. Freezer won't affect models that move out-of-activation (such as Countercharge and Vengeance). Remember, stationary only prevents what it says it does. Refer the recap on stationary for what models can/can't do.

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

Rules Clarification:  : Thresher and/or Flashing Blade and/or Cyclone     (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

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 and is still in range, 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 still 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. The attack(s) from Cyclone occur simultaneously with "Ends its movement" triggers (such as Admonition). As such, the active player can use the Cyclone attacks before the inactive player uses his Admonition move. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Iron Flesh - None yet. (Edit)

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

Rules Clarification : Shatter Storm      (Edit) Rules Clarification : Detonator      (Edit) Despite being triggered by an attack, the damage from Detonator is not part of the attack. As such it doesn't interact with stuff like Blessed or trigger stuff like Vengeance. The model with Detonator is not immune to the AOE. Be careful how close you stand when making melee attacks!