40K Tactics: Space Marine Heroes – Kor’sarro Khan
Hey guys, I am Learn2Eel and this is my Codex: Space Marines Tactica! Today, I will be looking at Kor’sarro Khan – Master of the Hunt! I hope you enjoy this article!
Space Marine players have access to the most extensive roster of unique characters in the game, providing so many diverse play-styles and inherent advantages that encourage players to experiment with a wealth of differing army lists. Unlike some other codices, few of these characters are solely based around damage potential; instead, they provide ground-breaking support abilities and potential for thematic army creation that you simply can’t find anywhere else. Though they are restricted to their own Chapter Tactics now, the advice given in the previous Space Marines codex very much rings true to this day; these are templates for mighty heroes to lead your forces, built to give you something you simply cannot find from a kitted out regular character. Where Marneus Calgar allows you to control the morale aspect of Warhammer 40000, Kor’sarro Khan provides free early movement to an entire force, allowing them to dominate positioning and deployment. As Helbrecht is the lynchpin for an army-wide massed and devastating assault, Vulkan He’stan gives you the means to make a Salamanders army the true masters of anti-vehicular warfare. It is such that you cannot judge these characters on the merits of combat or martial prowess alone, but on how they allow for incredible strategic flexibility in the army list creation phase, and in tactical adaptability through their considerable, palpable aura on the field of battle. These Space Marines count themselves amongst the finest heroes in all of the Imperium, and each has their own mark to leave on your army.
Kor’sarro Khan, the Master of the Hunt
Overview – When you need a grim and viscious super soldier, few fit the description more than the great man himself, a Captain among the White Scars. Infamous for his name – which is also a catchphrase – few can escape the wrath of KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! I’m sorry, I don’t know what brought that on. Anyway, Khan (cough) is one of the best special characters available to a Space Marines player for a wide number of reasons, the first of which being that he makes an all-biker White Scars army – feared enough at a competitive level as it is – so much better. Added to some pretty nifty melee capabilities and being the only special character that unlocks Bikers as Troops, Khan is a great choice at quite the low price. This arguably makes him the most valuable and points-efficient character in the codex just behind Tigurius.
When taking a White Scars army, one tends towards a fast style of play; all non-bulky models get Hit and Run, while the bikes themselves get an improved version of Skilled Rider. This generally leads towards Rhino or Bike based forces due implicitly to the benefits each force gets, even though points-efficient assault-based units can be hard to come by for Space Marines. When you add Khan into the mix, every unit mounted on a Bike, or any unit that can take a dedicated transport – from Terminators in Land Raiders to Tactical Squads in Rhinos – gains the Scout special rule. This is pretty insane for a number of reasons; you get a better version of the Raven Guard scout ability as it actually applies to units like Bikers and Centurions, and then your basic Rhinos and even Land Raiders get a free twelve inches of movement to start the game. Given the mostly medium to short range of Space Marines, this is an invaluable ability that allows you to close with the longer-ranged forces – such as Tau and Eldar – to deny them their usual advantage at range. It also allows your dedicated assault units to get into combat a turn earlier generally, and there are some truly nasty tricks you can play with this; in larger games, scout two or more Assault Terminator units in Land Raider Crusaders into advanced positions alongside your Rhino-mounted Troops. Press the red button. Win!
Truly though, this is most deadly when paired with the already incredibly strong White Scars Bikers. Bikes combine the best of all three worlds in terms of damage output, mobility and durability; Toughness 5 wounds with good armour saves, strong 4+ Jink saves, twin-linked bolters and 12″ movement. One of the nasty new tricks that Bikers have is the option to take one or two grav guns and potentially a combi-grav on a Sergeant; grav guns are very powerful against deadly units like Riptides and Wave Serpents who dominate the meta, but are handicapped by their short range. Combine them with the already fast Bikes and Khan’s free Scout moves, giving your Troops a 42″ effective range with their grav guns on the first turn. This is easily the most devastating use of Scout that can be found in the codex, and perhaps even the game, as it allows you to deliver incredibly damaging special weapons right where you need them while relying on the boosted version of Skilled Rider that White Scars enjoy. It allows you to deliver precision strikes at key enemy targets that would otherwise give your forces a lot of pause, such as those pesky Riptides paired up with Support Commanders or even Pathfinders. Wraithknights, Paladinstars and so many other units will flee in terror from a hailstorm of Scouting grav guns! This is before even mentioning the applications of delivering a kitted out combat Chapter Master with the Shield Eternal into combat so much earlier.
Khan’s Master of the Hunt ability makes him a worthwhile choice alone, but he also happens to be a very appropriately equipped Captain as well. He has a slightly boosted version of a power sword that inflicts instant death on to wound rolls of a six, and has access to a slightly more expensive bike that brings his cost up to a reasonable one and a half centuries. He has a stock standard stat-line as well as a default Warlord Trait that awards D3+1 victory points if he slays the enemy warlord instead of the usual one. Between Furious Charge and two combat weapons for five Strength 5 AP3 attacks on the charge, in addition to D3 Strength 5 Hammer of Wrath hits if he takes Moondrakken, Khan has a pretty decent chance to kill enemy Warlords; hilariously, if he rolls a six against those Iyanden Wraithknight Warlords, he gets the goods and a lucky wound through at the same time! He can cleave through 3+ armoured and worse units pretty reliably, though he should definitely stay the heck away from 2+ armoured opponents or monstrous creatures who can laugh his attacks off and Smash him (literally) in the face. He’s a pretty nifty combat character but nothing to write home about; still, that he costs so little and also gives you the almost army-wide Scout – specifically in a White Scars army – is nothing short of ludicrous. He’s also fairly hard to kill between Hit and Run, Toughness 5 if you take him on Moondrakken – which you should as he gets so many benefits from it – a 3+ armour save and a 4+ invulnerable save. On that last point, though Moondrakken is an option rather than included in his base wargear – which may have something to do with the fact that he only has a model on foot – you really should always take him on one unless you have a specific strategy in mind regarding foot-based Command Squads or a Rhino list. Between the boost to Toughness, the addition of a twin-linked bolter, the boosted Hammer of Wrath and unlocking those nasty White Scars Bikers as Troops, I would always recommend taking Khan on Moondrakken to make the most of his Chapter Tactics.
Maximising their Abilities – When it comes to choosing between going on foot or taking Moondrakken, I would almost always take the latter provided you are taking at least a few squads of White Scars Bikers. Given that you really should be taking those Bikes, it makes a lot of sense to put Khan with them; he gets a lot out of the extra points, most importantly that he becomes a lot tougher to kill which, if he is your Warlord, can be absolutely pivotal. When taking Khan, you use him primarily because he provides Scout to a lot of units; if you want a super combat character, you should really look into a Chapter Master instead. In that sense, you need to design your army around Khan so that all or most of the force gets the most benefit from Scout; Bikers are the obvious choice, as are bike-mounted Command Squads, especially when armed with grav guns that usually suffer a range handicap. If you don’t want to use an entirely bike-mounted army, then Tactical Squads with a plasma gun and perhaps a combi plasma work really well in squads of ten with Rhinos; use them en masse for a white flash of the classic Rhino Rush lists. Taking Assault Terminators in a Land Raider Crusader is also really cool to add to the force for larger games, particularly if you can fit a Chapter Master – or Khan himself – in with them. The idea with White Scars is to get up close to the enemy where Marines really come into their own and do so as fast as possible; Khan allows you to do this like no other, at least outside of Drop Pods anyway. Maximise on shorter ranged weapons – such as grav guns and meltaguns – or the popular medium range choices like plasma guns so as to really boost their effectiveness and maximise your damage up close.
Thanks for reading everybody and by all means chime in down in the comments. How have you been running the Great Khan?
