Interview by Peter Atkinson

Let’s hear it for Nate!  Banging out W after W at this year’s Cancon, which was a massive 180+ player event, culminating in taking home the choccies. This year’s format was 5 games on Days 1 and 2 followed by a Top 8 elimination bracket, so there really was nowhere to hide and no easy path to victory (unless you’d describe banging everyone off the table with KO as an easy path to victory, which many would, and that’s something we’ll put to Nathan. We don’t bowl underarm).

Today we throw Six Questions at Nathan to find out a bit more about his list and how it goes about winning games.  6Q4 is usually about going off-Broadway to celebrate cool achievements with cool lists for what they are, but this time we’ve said fuck it, let’s book a star and make ’em play the hits. 

The Questions

This is what we’ll be tackling today:

1. Some people* will think you can summarise any KO victory as “Lol I shot them off”.  Was it that simple, or was there more nuance to it than that?  
2. KO are doing really well, but not “Wins literally every event” well.  Plenty of people go 4-1 with them, whereas you win events – what separates you from the pack?**
3. KO will never be a straightforward combat army, but when the current book came out, it seemed to steer you in a Special Forces direction: slide down a rope, kick in the windows and eliminate everyone in the room at close quarters before they know what’s happening.  Was that direction a swing and a miss, or is there still something there?
4. Have you got any spicy Allies tech for us?  Either something else being used in KO, or KO units in a different army.
5. Are KO OP?  And if so, how would you nerf them into the dirt correct them?***
6. 180+ players is a massive event, and there’s no chance for a bunny run when Day 3 is an 8-player Finals series against the best of the best. Which move from one of your opponents at this event really made you take notice and say “Wow”?

* Yeah, I’m some people

** One might argue this one is bowling underarm, but it’s a relevant question. Regularly taking a skew list one step further is a useful case study.

*** I reckon he’s gonna say they’re perfectly fine and should be left largely as they are, what do you reckon?

The List

Note the 2x 20 Arkanauts:

Allegiance: Kharadron Overlords

– Sky Port: Barak Nar

– Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies

– Triumphs: Inspired

Kharadron Code

– Artycle: Honour Is Everything

– Amendment: Always Take What You Are Owed

– Footnote: Without Our Ships We Are Naught

Leaders

Arkanaut Admiral (140)*

– General

– Command Trait: Stormcaller

Aether-Khemist (100)*

– Nullstone Adornment: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon 

Aetheric Navigator (100)*

– Artefact: Voidstone Orb

Battleline

20 x Arkanaut Company (180)*

– 1x Company Captain: Aetherflare Pistol

– 2x Light Skyhooks

– 2x Aethermatic Volley Guns

– 2x Skypikes

– Reinforced x 2

20 x Arkanaut Company (180)*

– 1x Company Captain: Aetherflare Pistol

– 2x Light Skyhooks

– 2x Aethermatic Volley Guns

– 2x Skypikes

– Reinforced x 2

15 x Grundstok Thunderers (480)*

– 1x Gunnery Sergeant

– 3x Honour Bearer

– 3x Aetheric Fumigators

– 3x Decksweepers

– 3x Aethercannons

– 3x Grundstok Mortars

– Reinforced x 2

Units

1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*

– Main Gun: Sky Cannon

– Gunhauler Modifications: Coalbeard’s Collapsible Compartments

3 x Endrinriggers (120)*

– 1x Mizzenmaster

Behemoths

Arkanaut Ironclad (500)*

– Main Gun: Great Sky Cannon

– The Admiral’s Flagship 

Core Battalions

*Battle Regiment

Total: 1970 / 2000

Reinforced Units: 4 / 4

Allies: 0 / 400

Wounds: 122

Drops: 1

Lost Legion Geelong

Question 1: Are KO basically a zero-skill army?

In a recent article you got in Clarkey who went off on a tangent to rant about KO. I am 99% sure that was bait, and it was aimed right at me.* He doesn’t reckon I have a leg to stand on when defending KO. I disagree.**

There are a lot of nuances to KO, and while yeah sure, you do get the odd game that’s a straight up shooting gallery, you need to pick your moment with KO, and a lot of the nuance is in setting that moment up. Making sure you do your battle tactics and stand on circles in the meantime to keep pressure up. Often when an opponent hits me with that classic “I just got shot off” line, what I have seen is a mistake in deployment or in a T1 movement phase.

KO might be one of the most brutal armies in punishing a deployment or T1 movement error due to how they play. If you’re up against KO, have a chat after the game and ask them what they saw, the next KO game might be a lot less “I just got shot off”.***

* Can confirm this was bait and aimed directly at Nathan

** You do surprise me

*** At the end of this article, there is an appendix where we discuss my recent massacre at the hands of game against Nate and his KO

Question 2: What gets you the 5-0s instead of the 4-1s?

There is such a wide variety of lists with KO, so many different playstyles. I think almost every sub-faction has a 4-1 to its name since launch. Doing well with KO I think you need to find your preferred style and lean into. I’ve tried Barack Zon builds, but it wasn’t for me, yet plenty have done well with them.

Don’t force it because it’s the “meta” build. I think it all flows from there, practise plenty with your chosen style, tweak it and play again, understand what works, what doesn’t, and flexible game plans start to get easier.

Go play a bad matchup deliberately. I often have mid game epiphanies about what I should have done differently; it’s better to do that before you roll into an event than it is mid event!

A KO gameplan is always going to be remove all your toys as first preference, and as I mention in Q1, recognizing a deployment mistake that can be punished is a big part of this, which comes with practice. But Plan B is scoring points: knowing how to do both and when to switch comes from just smashing games when you can. It’s a very versatile army.

Question 3: Should more people be playing SWAT Team-style KO?

I think at launch it was a bit of a miss, but after the first round of nerfs it’s absolutely a hit! Frigates loaded up with combat KO units are popular and are a great way to play (although I do wish there was a bit more play for Sky-wardens) and have won events as much as any shooting heavy lists have.

Even a shooting heavy list still needs to get close to do its thing. Close enough that if I flub it, you’re going to be able to get in combat with me on your turn. I think if there’s going to be shooting, then that’s the way it should be, risk/reward. None of this sniping from 30” away BS.

So many ways you can play KO, I think its one of the best internally balanced books out there, it’s all pretty viable.

Question 4: Give me some Ally spice

Nothing too spicy, sadly we have a tight Ally range. Only City dwarves, Slayers and Stormcast. I think Stormcast gives you some spice: I ran a Knight Incantor at the event in Geelong a few months back which was nice, especially if you know Power Flux is in the pack. An auto unbind, a crack at Mystic Shield, even the warscroll spell plays into your gameplan.

Vigilors are often thrown around as a good pick for a +1 to hit buff, but I am not sure they are worth it. Same goes with Ionus. But anything that can teleport around is probably a good shout, Questor Soulsworn for example. 

Gotrek seems to be a good Ally: I have run him, and he can mix up the playstyle quite a bit, so always a good option.

As far as KO into other lists, I think the Gunhauler always has, and always will be a solid pick there. Fast, good save, flying with some nice shooting to chip a screen away. A unit of Riggers or Wardens might also do in a pinch if points are a bit tighter, but they are far more fragile.

Pete: How about Krohn’s pick of the Lordinator, yay or nay? And old faithful Celly Prime?

Yeah, sorry to Krohn who seems to love the Lord Ordinator, but not worth it. It takes a super skew list and I think that is not where I want to be. Fast boats buffed by Slowcast? No thanks!

In the old book I quite liked the Celly Prime in a KO army, and while I could see him having some play in KO now, I am not sure. The points in KO are pretty tight is the biggest issue, but might be worth having a play around with…..

Question 5: OK then, how are we gonna nerf ’em?

Nah not at all! I think before this current GHB, and the expedition force nonsense, KO was sitting in that sweet spot we always talk about for win rates (45-55%). This GHB did hand us a lot of gifts despite it being the “magic” meta. A lot less one drops, a free artefact for an unbind, missions all about mobility, and a few sweet battle tactics about mobility and not interacting…. yeah, those were great for KO. We already had solid book BT’s and a good grand strat. So, I think the GHB is as much to blame as our battletome!

As much as I hate to say it, the humble Arkanaut is great at 90pts, and given the wide variety of lists, it might be the only unit that is consistent across them all. So, a 10pt hike would have a big impact, and see how that shakes out. The other answer would be lift up some of the armies at the bottom of the pile, if they are all winning a bit more, then the top might come down a bit when facing them.

Pete: Ah, the old “my army is fine” routine. Eh I’m not gonna get high and mighty about it, we’ve all been there.

Question 6: The biggest BDE move from an opponent at the event

I don’t think the old bunny run isn’t much of a thing these days, there’s so much content out there for players to learn from. I’ve felt the overall skill in a the Aussie scene has really become high, the community is loaded with top notch players. But over the weekend there was one play that stood out, a real “oh fuck” moment, and it was round 5 VS Dave Kerr*.

Dave’s Ogors were a rough match up, a ton of neg 1 to wound VS shooting, so I had to control the board. The mission was Nexus Collapse, and I sat 1 VP under to keep burning objectives, until we were left with the two no man’s land objectives in T3.

I had the top, Dave had the bottom, and when I took the top, I only managed to squeeze about 7 bodies onto it. Didn’t think much of it until bottom of round 3, an auto-run Frostlord came and toed onto it to snag a few extra points, putting me down 3 VPs instead of 1.

He still had Finest Hour up his sleeve and the neg 1 to wound Mount Trait, so he could take a punch back and now I had to not stuff anything at all up and fight to stay in the game. It was a bloody solid play. In the end we finished a dead draw on an absolutely cracking 5 round game.

* Fella can play a bit

Thanks for the interview mate, and congrats on the Big W. Anyone you want to give a shout or mention?

Shoutouts go to my local club mates at Lost Legion most of all, it is an amazing crew and I would not be here without them.  And everyone playing AoS in Geelong, it’s such a great place to play, and it’s never been more popular. It’s an incredible community.  Hell, VIC in general is really. So shoutout to everyone in Vic, keep it up!

Also a quick plug for Rich at TTD who is back running an event for the first time in a few years, it would be great if we can get the numbers up a bit. It’s on the Melbourne side of Geelong so easy to get to, so check out Summer Smash 2024 start of March. In November, our big event of the year Lost Legion GT will not be one to miss, so all you interstate players, keep it in mind!

If you’re still hungry for more, keep scrolling to the Appendix where Nathan gets deep into some technical aspects of how he plays the army in general, and how he recently handed my arse to me in particular.

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Appendix: Telling it like it is

Marge, you’re getting a little fat around the old thighs! You too, Bart!

Oh, knock it off, Homer; you’re the fattest one in the car!

Re: Question 1. One thing I would like to explore is what mistakes you saw me make with my Bonesplitterz a few weeks ago?  Very different list to what you’re running now, but it might be good to put some meat on the bones there.  Let the readers learn from my stuff ups, cos I’m sure there were plenty.

For sure!  I was running a Zon list, a couple of Frigates filled with Riggers and Wardens. I remember you were spread out across the board due to the map (Power Flux), and the flank I was deployed on you triple screened, but you had pushed out a good way into the centre of the board to do so.  Zon tends to be an aggressive army, often running and charging, giving up all the shooting inside the boat for a big charge and by pushing out so far I was able to just move up normally and bring every gun to bear on the screens, while leaving enough to still have small charges.  The rest of your army was far enough away so I did not have to sweat a big counter charge if you got the prio*.

I got stuck in, the guns clearing off a big chunk of wounds and I got into the Wurrgog, although he lived due to your 2+ ward from the Waaagh, but he was a) in combat couldn’t heroic recover and b) had a few wounds so any laser eyes could potentially be a lot less devastating if you also whiffed the Wardokk roll (you did). 

I had the auto unbind in my pocket for Blizzard, and you primal miscast trying to get the endless spell out, a risk I’m not sure you would feel pressured to take if I was not up in your business like that.  In the end I had expected to take a bit of a punch back but figured I could take the hit and come out on top. Without the shooting that probably would have been a lot worse for me, and I would have to wait to hit the go button.

* I wouldn’t worry too much, Bonesplitterz are a combat army that can’t fight for shit.

I also wouldn’t mind seeing something very technical from your side on Question 2.  A learning point from a game you played or just an idea you had about how close / far away you set up certain units in a certain matchup.  Something specific and detailed to illustrate the kind of thing you’re doing and thinking about that others maybe aren’t.

Sure thing. 

There’s probably three main things with the list I’m running currently that I think about. First is what side do the Ironclad and Thunderers go.  Is there an objective they might push onto where I can just lumber forward without needing to fly high t1, saving my “Without our ships, we are naught” ability for later in the game? Or do I just want to sit in the corner somewhere, waiting?

The second is where do I want the Gunhauler to go t1?  Do I need it to leg it up the board to support the Ironclad or can it go off and be a solo operator?  This tends to be the most open question and is pretty map and opponent dependent. You can only Fly High with one boat each turn now so you need to have some thoughts as to what you want it doing.

The third and most important though is the Arks.  Do they have a t1 alpha threat? Better screen the boat! But also, I want to be sure I can reach the objectives first turn, so measure out the distances, make sure one unit is in auto run range if needed.  And stick the Navigator up behind them, with his auto unbind, so your T1 Magical Dominance is harder, and I’m in range to try for a few 1s on his ability and halve some movements.  

Being a 1 drop I will usually give away T1, unless my opponent has made a particularly bad error in deployment (such as spreading out all across the board in deployment with a key unit, or placing a unit on a far flank that I can hop over and pick off with little worry of the crackback), or if there is just an opportunity to cripple them from the get-go. Then see what they do T1. 

The missions come into it a lot here, so on Power Flux I want to go second to pick the side objectives and make you spread out.  In Lines of Communication, I want to pick the battleshock or combat phase to maybe run your CP out. In Nexus Collapse I go second so I can sit just under your VP score and burn objectives in a way that forces you to spread.   

In my first turn I will look for an easy Opening Salvo battle tactic target, maybe a screen or two and look to clear those out, and then push the Arks to take back objectives but keep the screens in place. With one unit being worth double on objectives (some great secret sauce that’s often overlooked imo) it can force you to push further on to get an objective back T2, or maybe overextend a charge to clear them, or else fall behind in scoring.  And with 20 of them, they can be tough: leave a few alive and throw in a 4+ rally I can often get a bunch back to be a real pain in the arse.   

The key is patience and try and engineer a bad situation for your opponent and then go in.  All this detailed explanation will hopefully convince “some people” (yeah you Pete) that it’s not just point and click.  And also, I may spend WAY too much time thinking about this game!