Karax

Defensive Spearmen are a fairly classic archetype.  In WM/H they are usually represented by shieldwall, reach and set defense.  This is tied to a solid DEF, and lower MAT.  Set defense in combination with their DEF is what saves these units on the charge.  Shieldwall is far more important vs. shooting thanks to the boosted damage on the charge.

Karax are the worst Defensive Spearmen unit in the game.  Compared to every other model type in Mk2 they don't gain a point of ARM by carrying a shield.  Instead the brain trust at PP decided they should lose a point of SPD, MAT, and DEF.  Karax also don't gain Set Defense because a faction that is supposed to represent a well trained military somehow can't teach its infantry to set their spears.  The end result is a unit far too easy to hit(read kill) that fulfills no real battlefield roll.  Iosian Halberds are the ultimate version of this archetype with superior traits, stats, and a incredible UA.  Temple Flame Guard aren't as OP but are still a solid unit with some strong synergy in faction.

Karax as such are awful defensive spearmen, but they at least fulfill a role in the skorne arsenal, right?  Not really.  Compare what happens when the Karax and Praetorians are both charged by a average unit, lets say MAT 6 P+S 12.  To make things simpler its going to be assumed that deaths don't knock Karax out of shieldwall either.  Praetorians are hit 58% of the time, and killed all the time on the charge.  Karax are hit 72% of the time on the charge but only killed about 91% of the time.  This mean receiving this charge each Praet will only die 58% of the time will a Karax will die 65% of the time.  MAT 7 or P+S11 both reduce this gap.  Taken further the Karax actually become slightly more survivable but how often do you encounter P+S 10 troops?

So what are the Karax honestly better at?  They do hold up slightly better then Praetorians at range mostly because shooting from infantry doesn't tend to be boosted.  Girded protects them from blast damage, and also protects other models in B2B.  This does have some potential uses but it doesn't protect from secondary effects of the blast damage.  Fire and Corrosion both still take effect which hinders its effectiveness. 

So the real question about Karax is how often will being slightly protected from shooting and blast damage make a greater impact then HtH survivability and offensive potential?  What is saddening about the Karax as well is how they did not change once over the field test.  They started awful and after all the feedback stayed awful.

First

Before I get started it should be mentioned that I really do enjoy PP miniature games.  They burst on the market with great models, a fresh new world and most importantly really innovative game mechanics.  What is best about their systems is how there are interesting decisions to make every turn.

That being said Mk1 Skorne was a failure of design compounded by the Mk2 fieldtest.  Its always been an eclectic mix of synergy that either doesn't work, or works against itself.  Hence the title of this blog.

Instead of continuing to bother my local community about this I've broken down to make this blog.  Its going to be used to detail the issues with Skorne, along with other random thoughts about WM/H or game design.