KGB - Lord Kozlov, Viscount of Scarsgard

I love this dude (shocking, I know)!

Since Mark 3 battle boxes dropped, Kozlov has been my go to man o war dude. my list was (and still is):

Kozlov
Juggernaut
Juggernaut
Juggernaut
Decimator
Mow w CA x2
Mow Kovnik x2

I dropped this list into everything short of Cryx, and I always had a fun game that never felt outmatched. I dropped it into ret double colossal and almost won during a team tourney. The only issue was my placing. Heck, I dropped it into Haley 2 and it slapped her around like crazy! Between the speed, armour, and hitting power it's one of my favourite mk3 lists to play.

Kolesaw!

I hated him in the beginning but he starts to grow on me...but I think he is relativly boring to play himself which makes him kinda meh for me

Pikemen and ulhan with fury isn't enough for you to deal with armor, the free charge is where you put your foot down?
I haven't used Kozlov much yet, but legion of steel does seem like a good theme for him. And like any all melee army, don't drop it into ghost fleet, you're going to have a bad time.

Ah, that makes so much more sense. And yeah you're right.
That's why I plan on running him with ranged jacks, chosen ground allows you to sit comfortably in terrain and wait for your opponent to come and get you, maybe buying you one more turn of shooting and if you need to go in melee, a destroyer or decimator with fury can probably get the job done.

Kozlov works well with a range of options.

Tactical Supremacy is a great spell. It can be a simple speed buff (on shield wall units). But it has tricksier uses too. An attacking melee unit can use the reform to push deeper into enemy lines. Kayazy can combine it with parry to get into very threatening positions. You can use it to charge in, remove an inconveniently placed model then reform out of the newly cleared charge lane. I like Tactical Supremacy on Widowmakers in the later game. Reform from Tactical Supremacy can be combined with Swift Hunter from the Marksman, so Widowmakers can shoot and (provided they kill their target) then move 5", not only keeping them safer, but potentially setting them up for aimed shots the next turn too.

Chosen Ground is great for steady. Having MoW Shocktroopers and a Chosen Ground battlegroup gives a large portion of the army which cannot be knocked down. That really hinders some casters/tech/combos and can be amazing. I've played him with MoW ST and Uhlans, making almost the entire army immune to knockdown. It's very Khadoran to have a solid wall of metal implacably advancing at the enemy.

The pathfinder part of Chosen Ground is incredibly useful. Originally I thought it meant I could forego Kodiaks and just run Marauders instead. I sometimes still do. But Kodiaks are still useful, as a jack which can get into terrain and vent steam against infantry. Many pathfinder models are low-ARM, so vent steam is still of considerable value in contested terrain.

What pathfinder on the battlegroup does mean is that Kozlov is a bit odd - Khador typically relies on its units to deal with terrain, jacks having to take the clear routes. In a Kozlov army that can be turned on its head - jacks through terrain and non-pathfinder warriors. It's another reason he works so well with MoW heavy armies, as terrain is something MoW struggle with.

In smaller games, he's one of Khador's better casters for getting work done himself. He can be a P+S15 weapon master. Only Butcher and Karchev hit harder. It's not your primary plan, but he can do more than many casters if he has to.

Disadvantages

A big downside is that he is focus strapped. In some games you will want Chosen Ground up all game. You might also want Tac Supremacy and Fury up too (not always, often they are either/or on a key unit). Leaving a couple of focus for his power field, and he can't run too many jacks that require additional focus. Two or three tops. 

His feat doesn't simply give an ARM bonus, but gives unyielding. Unyielding requires that your model is engaging an enemy model. This is a particular problem with Uhlans - they can charge in using their lances, but once the charge is over their melee range drops to 1". This can lead to Uhlans not having the ARM bonus on your opponent's turn (try to use their reform move to address this). If it is really important, your opponent can also move their models out of your engagement range/kill the model you are engaging to deny the ARM bonus. That's a bit cornercase, but it could be relevant against a shooting heavy opponent prioritising a particular target.

As a Battlebox caster
I tried Kozlov in a Journeyman format, so had to play him + battlebox for a bit. He works well. All of his spells (except Avalanche) got use in smaller games.

Tac Supremacy - quite good on the Decimater for moving in (even better, aiming), shooting and then retreating, hopefully out of charge range. It feels very weird to have a Khador jack moving around that much, but it's a useful option.

Fury - overkill against some factions (Cryx, Circle), especially on the Juggernaut. Casting Fury on the turn you plan to attack can use too much of your stack. You might be better simply fully loading both jacks, rather than casting Fury. But if you cast it and upkeep, Fury is better.

Suprisingly often Fury was a good choice on Kozlov himself, letting him threaten light jacks/beasts or finish off already damaged heavies. Kozlov might in fact be the best target for Fury in battlebox games.

Chosen Ground - more situational in the battlebox games than in larger ones I think. But there is a tendency to use more power attacks in battlebox games, and power attacks often cause knockdown, which this prevents.

A big issue for newer players here is that some of these lessons don't really translate well to larger games. A reforming Decimator is neat at lower points levels, but you probably want Tac Supremacy on a unit as the list grows. Chosen Ground becomes more valuable as the table becomes more complicated. Kozlov becomes a worse target for Fury as games get larger.

        Note: Adding to this thread, here is my original Kozlov review, lightly edited for recent changes and experience. Standard disclosure, this is just my experience—salt to taste.

Basics:

Kozlov is a beefed-up iron fang Kovnik. Tuff, defense 15, and Arm 17 render him bullet resistant. MAT 7, precision strike, and P+S 12 weapon master on his axe give him enough punch to threaten all but the most durable heavies. Sidestep and SPD 6 leave him surprisingly mobile. His feat gives friendly faction models within his control range +2 move and unyielding. He features average focus and warjack points.

Spells:

• Avalanche—gives AOE attack with critical knockdown.

• Raiser wind—standard Pow 12 magical zap.

• Fury—Upkeep that gives +3 melee damage and -1 defense to a friendly faction model or unit.

• Tactical supremacy—Upkeep that gives reposition to a friendly faction model or unit.

• Chosen ground—Upkeep that gives Kozlov’s battlegroup pathfinder and steady.



Role:

Kozlov is a tempo caster. He tunes up a couple quality units with fury and tactical supremacy. At the critical moment, his feat sends his army sprinting into battle where unyielding helps them weather counterattacks from whatever survives his charge. While Lord Goat can get his hands dirty, he prefers to work the mid field—enabling the rest of his army rather than personally leading the charge.



Effectiveness/value:

When Kozlov was first announced a lot of us compared him to Butcher 1. It made sense—weapon master, durable stat line, big freaking axe, fury, feat that turns his army up to 11. So, when I started building old goat lists for my journeyman league, my first reaction was to make a face wrecking train of doom. It turns out Kozlov is a far better support caster than front line combatant. Once he has 2 upkeeps running and one of his jacks loaded for bear, he does not have the resources to take on heavies single-handed. So, getting him to work well required a change in perspective.

The key to getting the most out of Kozlov is understanding that everything revolves around his feat. All of his abilities are geared toward powering up models/units/his battlegroup in order to maximize his list’s output when he goes all in. The optimal play is to charge everything forward end of turn 2 and remove 25-50% of the enemy force outright. If your opponent has anything left to threaten you after that, unyielding should throw the attrition game even further in your favor. If the alpha is out of reach, your army can always run forward and jam—setting up for a turn 3 assassination.



Downsides:

I like everything on a caster’s card to have a purpose. Unfortunately, a third to a half of Kozlov’s spell list is dead weight. Avalanche is too expensive on a caster that will be upkeeping at least 2 spells and loading a jack—especially since hitting and fishing for crits requires him to boost to hit. Raiser wind and avalanche are two redundant “I can do magical damage” spells on a caster who ends up farming out most of his stack each turn. Chosen ground—his signature spell—should be amazing. In practice, I found it to be useful but far from game warping. Do not get me wrong, battlegroup wide pathfinder is nothing to sneeze at. The catch is that it only comes into play 25% of my games. Steady looks good on paper but did not do anything for me. Even if I had steady active, I still had to sacrifice a movement or action if hit by a knock down affect back when you could throw your own models.  I do not have much KD in my meta though..so my opinion may be off for your area.  It does not help that pathfinder and steady are natively available on the Kodiak and devastator chassis. For a signature spell, chosen ground left me unimpressed. Replacing steady with sturdy would make Kozlov into a scenario monster but sadly such is not the case.

Kozlov “helps” lots of models. What he does not do is offer much strategic flexibility. His game is won or lost on feat turn. Beyond that turn, all he has is fury and tactical supremacy. This left me feeling as if I was a spell short or an extra ability shy of a full caster. I have heard it said that Khador plays a fair game well. Kozlov exemplifies this perception—and in my opinion, this leaves him somewhat wanting in the larger competitive environment.



Notable strategies:

Warmachine is all about the signs and portents rule. Everyone can benefit from signs and portents but there are some models that gain a lot more than others with S&P on the board. Put another way, warmachine is about magnifying great models, not papering over the weaknesses of lesser offerings. So, Kozlov loves two types of models. His feat adds movement and armor to engaged friendly faction models. Movement benefits everyone but especially high threat range pieces. armor tends to help higher armor models with multiple wounds. So, we are looking for fast high armor multiple wound models—cavalry. My preference would be for Uhlans and Drakhun but outriders certainly wouldn’t mind the help. Malakov 1 with redline on a jack also benefits heavily—you have not lived till you have thrown a fully loaded juggernaut 11 inches on a free charge ending its turn with arm 22. Eliminators? Heck yes! I would even look at manhunters and Uri. Demolition corps are excellent in smaller games where P+S 19 under fury gives them a disproportionate offensive output and the jack saturation does not leave them too far behind the mobility curve.

Second, Kozlov loves some solid ranged support. Widowmaker scouts and marksmen are the obvious choice but do not overlook mortars and field guns. Since ranged options probably won’t be mixing it up in hand-to-hand, the usual mercenary shooters are also great additions. Grab Behemoth or a gun carriage to cover both options. Kozlov needs his targets taken down a peg to set up his charges and insure successful one-round-removals. Anything that can threaten heavies and infantry turn 2 is worth consideration



Fury’s musings:

Kozlov is one of the best battle box casters to learn the game with owing to his simple order of activations (turn 1 cast fury on the juggernaut and tactical supremacy on the decimator. Run forward. Turn 2 charge if going second, or wait just out of charge range to bate your opponent out if going first.) Other than allocating focus and picking when to feat, you do not have to make many decisions. This leaves fewer opportunities for strategic blunders than with other casters. At high skill levels the game becomes more competitive—I would even say bad for Khador once Cryx learns to maximize the reaper and parasite for example.

As the game gets bigger and bigger Kozlov starts to look a little tattered around the edges. The original prime casters have great feats that enable their strategies. However, they all have strong toolboxes outside their feats too. Kozlov has no such depth. Even at 75 points he comes down to who is getting my 2 upkeeps and when will I pop feat? This consistency is handy if you are just learning the game but if you have some experience under your belt I think his small toolbox holds him back. He asks a single question—a great one mind—but just the one and he only gets to ask it once.

As previously stated Kozlov also does not have a lot of juice to offer a large battlegroup. Even at 50 points I was glad Malakov was there to pump up my third heavy. The ease of turn movement kept my clock down but that was a result of his simple style, not my experience. In a game that favors larger battlegroups Kozlov feels like he wants 2 quality jacks at most—probably Behemoth and a juggernaut or Kodiak. That smaller battle group and straight forward approach is a feature in the beginning but started to feel like more of a bug the farther I got down the rabbit hole.

As a relatively new player I love_playing_Kozlov. Outside the field of honor, I keep comparing him to other casters. He is not as aggressive as the butchers. He does not have the flexibility of Malakov 2 and the Irusks. His feat is not as ball-busting as Sorscha 1. Unlike many of our casters, his fiction leaves me with a definite feeling of “meh.” Whenever I read his back story I expect the author to include something to the effect of “and he is good with children too.” I feel like he should swap out a little nice-guy for a little more bad-ass. Lacking that, He falls firmly in my list of second tier choices.



Conclusion:

Kozlov is a solid stepping stone for new players. He offers a strong simple game that easily expands beyond the battle box. He does not challenge Khador’s design space much. He works the fundamentals.

Agreed. You seem to have misread the steady rule.

What it does, is prevent you from tossing your own models.

For example, you can't put up Chosen ground. 2 handed throw your own Jack (not that you can anymore.) and then have him not be knocked down and then charge.

It's very good. But again he wants a large battlegroup, and he starts to run out of focus quickly.