Khador 2014 Part 03/1 - the new 'Jack in town.

A bit of history for this topic:
   Khador players were given intel at last year's Lock and Load that they'd be getting a new Warjack, and that it would have a machine gun. Another rumour said there'd be a 'Jack with Double Strike. Since that ability was hitherto only found on a melee weapon, I assumed we'd get something Blitzeresque. The math revealed that a Warjack with melee Double Strike would likely PWN Colossals by its lonesome.
   In the meantime, we figured out/were spoiled that said Warjack would be based on the 'Jacks of reknown models, presumably in the advent of another multi-kit box. From that, we deducted Heavy Boiler.
   At Templecon, we heard it'd have "the highest printed RoF to date" (excluding Caine2, of course) and that Double Strike was indeed on the gun. This led to a lot of dismay, ever since Khador does have RAT 4 base, and the fear of another 9pt hybrid (as in "Trash") was voiced.
   All that, however, changed now. We have better intel, it seems, gleamed right from the book. I'll attempt to fit as much into this article as I can while pumping it out as fast as I can, too. I'll split it into two parts, one for the "Breaking News/First thoughts" part, and the "In-depth ponderings" part.
The "Grolar" as it's apparently called, is said to feature the following:
1) Jack: an ability to grant itself +2SPD, likely Jury Rigged[SPD], as found on the freebooter. Also Gunfighter and Virtuoso.
2) Gun: Rng 8", RoF 5, Pow 12, Doublestrike
3) Hammer: Ram, as found on the Woldguardian. (Actually, this one isn't as certain, but sth with KD, nonetheless)

Intriguing. Let's sink it in. Some thoughts:
- It's eight points! Eight! Eight! That's sooo good, I've wanted another 'Jack for that slot for SO long. And it's got a gun, too - but more on that later.
- Innate abilities for SPD boni stack well with others of their kind, and Khador has enough of those. It mainly means the 'Jack will be charging at 4+2+2+3=11" with a majority of our 'Casters, mostly with Pathfinder, too (Boundless Charge/Escort). It gets bananas with Strakhov (4+2+2+6+7=21.5" Pathfinder threat), but what doesn`t?
- The focus allotment works out that three focus will get you a boosted charge attack, which knocks the target down, and then five Pow 12s into the same target - or others. This is considering Boundless Charge or or Superiority on the 'Jack (which probably makes the to-hit-boost unnecessary). I especially like the thought about charging this 'Jack into a Protectorate 'Jack wall under Hymn of Passage, knocking one down and then unloading shells into the nougaty support behind. That'll be worth an 8 point sacrifice!
- Also, nevermind the sheer shredding potential this gun has against low Def single wound targets (Cryx, or anything tagged by Sorscha), or how the application of Ice Cages can really up it's potential.
- That being said, I love how they've included a way to bypass his low RAT (anything higher than 4 is wishlisting to me) in the melee weapon. That being said, I fully expect the Hammer (we know it's a hammer from one of the upcoming Skull Island covers) to be the weak part of this 'Jack. We can't both have our cake and eat, especially not at this price tag. I'm betting on P&S 16, 17 at best, specially when considering Ram. On that note, if it's really Ram? Auto-Kd? Lady Z will have one of these, but I'll elaborate about 'Caster interactions more in the next part, which will... likely be up later today. ;-)