Warmachine: ‘Jack Bowling for Fun

The shaking rule in MkII hurt slams and knockdown effects, no question.  But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of good reasons to shove another Warjack around.
Many newer players, and even some vet’s seem to overlook the tactical options slams can open up.  In this article, I’m only going to talk about slamming medium and large based models, which will typically mean light and heavy Warjacks/Beasts, but multi-wound medium based infantry can also make a nice target when the situation is right.

So why are slams ignored?  The reasoning goes that if I slam your Warjack, I’ll probably spend 2 Focus/Fury as part of the slam attack.  1 to declare the slam, 1 to boost the hit, and maybe 1 more to boost the direct damage roll.  The standard result is that I’ll knock it back, do a bit of damage, and then you’ll spend one Focus/Fury in your next turn to stand up (or even use an ability that allows standing up for free), and then come back over to me and end up spending to the same 2-3 Focus punching my ‘Jack/Beast in the face for a LOT more damage.  What’s the trade?  I do a few points of damage to you, you destroy me.  Not good.  Better to use my Focus to simply pound the enemy model into the ground.

Yes, that reasoning is logical, but only if the only thing you’re considering is killing that one model.  But let’s be honest, the Warmachine battlefield tends to be a cluttered place, especially on turns 3-4, and even more so at games of 50pts or more.  It’s pretty common to see an enemy Warjack in front or nearby many other models, often infantry, and often near the opposing ‘Caster.  That’s where slams can be great options.

Take this example:

Two Khadoran ‘Jacks (a Juggernaut on the left and a Berzerker on the right) are facing off against a Carnivean and several Striders.  For this example, we’ll say up front that the Berzerker is out of charge range of the Striders.  Lets also add another layer, the Striders and the Carnivean are in a control area.  So what’s the best move?
Even a fully healthy Carnivean should stand no chance against a charging Juggernaut and Berzerker.  But the Striders are DEF 15, meaning a MAT 6 Warjack like the Juggernaut will need 9’s just to hit them, and that’s assuming it can get into melee range of all 3.  Many newer players might be tempted to charge the Berzerker into the Carnivean, go for the kill there, and then hope that good boosted dice rolls will win the day.  A better move is this- Have the Berzerker slam the Carnivean.  The average 3″ slam distance should carry the big beastie onto the Striders, killing them with collateral damage rolls.  Now, the Juggernaut can charge the knocked down Carnivean, and likely kill it.  The fact that the monster will be knocked down will even remove any chance of bad to-hit rolls ruining the day.

Lets take a slightly more “extreme” example.

In this set-up, we’ve got the same two Warjacks facing off against a Carnivean and the opposing Warlock.  In this case, the Warlock is Epic Lylyth.  She doesn’t have great ARM, but her DEF is 16, making her very tough to hit, and that’s not even counting any DEF buffs she may have up, such as Tenacity.  Lets say she does have Tenacity going.  That makes her DEF 17.  Even if the Juggernaut gets the charge off with 3 Focus on it, it’s a good bet that needing 11’s to hit, it won’t get the kill, especially if she’s able to transfer a damage roll.  Yet again, the best move is to slam the Carnivean over her, knocking her down, and dropping her DEF to 5 versus ranged and making her an auto-hit target in melee.  The odds of the Juggernaut being able to get her go from ‘shot in the dark’ to an almost sure thing.

But those aren’t the only two ways slams can be useful.  Let’s say you’ve got a 100% healthy enemy heavy Warjack sitting on a control point and the only model you have available to attack it is a light Warjack with just a P+S 14 melee attack.  In this case, the odds of the light Warjack being able to take down the heavy are extremely low.  A slam may not kill the heavy, but it will knock it off the control point and give you the CP.

Are slams always the way to go?  No.  But there are times when killing the enemy model isn’t the fastest way to victory.  How have slams won you games?