The Kithguard are expanding their ranks once again, and this time they’re bringing some serious heavy metal and firepower with them.

In this spotlight, Fraser from the Warmachine development team walks through what the Kithguard Auxiliary Expansion adds to your force, from hard-hitting new units to one of the most aggressive leaders the army has seen grace the jungles of Alchiere so far.

AdeptiCon exclusive: Major Abraham Stormcraw

But first, if you’re heading to AdeptiCon, we’ve got something special lined up for you.

A show-exclusive variant sculpt of Kithguard’s new Warlock: Major Abraham Stormcraw will be available at the event, capturing the Kithguard’s hard-hitting officer in a unique pose that stands out on the battlefield. 

If you can’t make it to AdeptiCon in person, don’t worry — you’ll be able to get your hands on Stormcraw on the Steamforged store for the duration of the event.

A Storm Emerges

Major Abraham Stormcraw leads the Kithguard from the front, delivering precision and brutality in equal measure to any invaders that dare step foot in Alchiere.

Fraser from the Warmachine development team here to take a look at Kithguard’s Auxiliary Expansion reinforcements.

Getting stuck in with Stormcraw

Stormcraw is all about getting close to the action and brings with him a plethora of tools to push hard into the frontlines.

Bringing his impressive statline to bear, and further protected by his Guard Posts (more on these later), Stormcraw has little issue shrugging off enemy fire while coordinating his underground forces. His warbeasts are fully ready to enact their vengeance on anyone who does attempt a shot.

Like his predecessors, Stormcraw brings his own unique flavour of ambushing to the table. There’s a few key factors that make his feat both unique and powerful.

First of all, it’s the only way a unit can take its action and go into the tunnels in the same turn. His forces will frequently find themselves ambushing from the tunnels, taking their shots, then immediately jumping back into them. Don’t underestimate how potent this can be, particularly when combined with Scrappers or Throatcutters, as you’ll see shortly.

The next part really stands out. His feat has a time delay. I’m sure I don’t need to go into too much detail on how potent units ambushing with both their movement and action intact can be (Scrappers assaulting with Sneak Attack can be a bit of a thing). So, the opponent gets a full turn’s warning that this blitz from models that aren’t even on the table yet is coming.

And we’re not done. Let’s take a look at this spell list.

Those familiar with Positive Charge will know how amazingly potent it can be at reducing whole sections of enemy lines to nothing, especially when combined with a vengeance move from Butcher’s Bill and multiple units blitzing out of ambush with his feat.

Deceleration provides his forces with strong ranged defence as they stake their claim in the centre of the table.

And finally, Morale Boost — Stormcraw’s signature spell. Some of you may have noticed that while Positive Charge and Deceleration are powerful, they’re also expensive 3-cost spells. With Stormcraw’s ARC stat of 6, he can run out of fury pretty quickly.

This is where Morale Boost comes in. With this, and his impressive ability to operate on the frontlines, Stormcraw quickly recoups a significant amount of the fury he spends on his spells. This often lets him spend down to zero, cast multiple spells, kill a few enemy models, and still sit on enough fury to transfer any damage that gets through.

A good cut of meat

Joining Stormcraw are the deadly Throatcutters, a unit with serious ambushing potential.

With each model potentially making two MAT 8 POW 15 melee attacks or RAT 7 POW 16 ranged attacks, ambushing Throatcutters are a truly terrifying prospect. And that’s before considering Positive Charge from Stormcraw, +2 damage and perfect positioning from Craghorn’s feat, or Blessed and Magical weapons from Wroughtmourn’s Eye of Dhunia spell.

Back to back

Steelbacks round off the new auxiliary units with a bang.

With each Steelback bringing two sprays, they have nearly unmatched potential for burning infantry to death. That’s before we consider a certain cadre warlock…

And we’re not even close to being finished talking about what this unit is capable of. You may remember Logan Grindstone from the Kithguard Core Expansion, who can give these carapaced bastions Shield Guard, allowing them to absorb a significant amount of enemy fire that might otherwise be quite worrying to their compatriots.

That’s not all — he can also give them Swift Hunter, letting them reposition after their first spray to line up the second.

All of this combines into a very potent unit. Speaking of solos that work well with Steelbacks…

The arsenal

Lieutenant Frag Thornbane is the very definition of a super-solo.

I’ll briefly mention the accuracy buff he brings for Steelbacks. It’s pretty good, agreed? Good. Now, let’s look at something I’ve personally had a lot of fun with when using this model.

First off, a quick reminder that any non-leader Kithguard warrior model can gain Ambush and Tunnel Ambush by running into a Trapdoor marker.

Now imagine this guy ambushing from the tunnels and having two attempts to drag a heavy 6” across the table thanks to his large base, then smashing it with two POW 14 Weapon Master attacks.

Guard duty

In addition to their extensive tunnel network, the Kithguard quickly construct Guard Posts throughout their territory to fortify their positions.

From laying down covering fire to providing defensive positions for the Kithguard to stage their assaults from, Guard Posts can be a vital part of any force.

Of course, these hastily constructed structures don’t have the best statlines, so they often need to be defended themselves. When they go down, so does the protection they provide.

Build your Kithguard

If Fraser’s breakdown has you thinking about your next list, you can start building your Kithguard army list right now in the Warmachine app, and with Auxiliary Expansion rules arriving next week, there's never been a better time to get started.

We can’t wait to see what you put on the table. Share your Kithguard with us on Discord, Facebook, and Instagram, and don’t forget to tag #warmachine and #paintmachine.