A WISE CONTRADICTION - Khawarijs in RTF
In the Unit Focus series I take a look at the different units that
make up the Ramah Taskforce, and try to answer why, not if, you should
include them in your lists.
The First of the Supersoldiers
In the Infinity backstory the Khawarijs are the first unit of supersoldiers to have been created and used by the nation of Haqqislam. The newer units like the Mukhtar, the Namurr, and the Nahab are more or less based on the advances made during the development and implementation of the Runihura program that results in the biomodifications required by the Khawarijs. This is as well, because the Red Turbans have the feel of a first generation supersoldier about their profile - they have plenty of powerful advantages, but their skillset seems at a first glance to be all over the place, and the Khawarijs most definately pay for every ability they have when it comes to points costs.
In my opinion, there really is no point to look at the Khawarijs' statlines and Special Rules as separate entities, as they depend on one another so much; we'll just have to bite the bullet, and try and take everything in at once! When it comes to actual fighting ability, the Red Turbans are quite powerful. They boast BS 13 (which is elite in Haqqislam), and their shooting is further augmented by BS Attack (+1 Dam). When it comes to melee, the Khawarijs are also surprisingly dangerous, with their CC 22 and Natural Born Warrior, which denies their opponents' the use of Martial Arts, and thus forces them to engage the Haqqislamite on more or less equal terms. As far as combat goes, the Khawarijs seems to be hybrids between a dedicated gunfighters and a dedicated melee brawlers, while being not quite spectacular as either.
As for the mobility side of things, not only are the Red Turbans quite fast with a 6-2 MOV, these supersoldiers can keep agency in the reactive turn by Dodging around when the enemy forces attempt to maneuver around them, as they've got an excellent PH score of 13 and the Dodge (+1'') skill. Don't forget that you can also dodge on the active turn after a Move, while still avoiding AROs and gaining an extra inch of movement!
The Khawarijs' special movement skill is Super-Jump (or as Tom on Mayacast so expertly put it - very athletic jump). This skill truly isn't the rocket jumping Line of Fire extender it once was, but it can still help these elite soldiers catch enemies out of position with a 3'' vertical Jump up and down for quick peeks at exposed targets. When it comes to maneuvering around the battlefield, Superjump can be used to perform heroic Jump + Short Skill interactions, but it's very important to keep a couple of things in mind. First, the Khawarijs can never gain cover when Jumping, which makes attacking with them mid-air very, very dangerous. The other thing is that you will need to be weary of the terrain (= buildings) you're about to jump to or from: a 4'' tall building with a 1'' parapet is in practice a too much for a Short Skill Jump to cover, even if you're touching the edge (because you'll need to move 1'' up the parapet, 1''+it's width to get across and then 4'' to get down!), and you're effectively capped at 5'' tall building when no parapets are involved! Then again, you could resort to an 8'' Long Skill Jump to get to your destination, but there better not be any Hidden Deployed foes ready to take free shots at you! In practise the benefit of Super-Jump often comes from a Red Turban firing from the second (or even third!) storey of a building to gun down their targets, before Jumping down and pressing the advantage, where a lesser soldier would have had to find a set of stairs or ladders to keep the attack going!
On the more-fluffy-than-good side of things the Red Turbans are also packing Terrain (Desert), which to be honest doesn't come up too often. I had to custom build a piece Desert Terrain for my Haqqislam themed table to allow for this skill to have any relevance! Religious Troop means that these supersoldiers aren't affected by the Retreat! (I don't think I've ever gotten use out of that part), while the disadvantage on the reactive turn is somewhat mitigated by their high WIP of 14. Also don't forget; you can use a Command Token to force your Khawarij to fail their Guts Roll even if the valiant warrior is unwilling to give ground!
While the Khawarijs are technically Light Infrantry, they are rather sturdy with
their Immunity (Shock) and Bioimmunity, the latter of which allows them to use their
BTS 3 against all non-Comms Attacks coming their way (even ignoring the
AP trait of weapons that would force ARM rolls and allowing you to use BTS 3 against the dreaded Monofilament CC Weapons)! I can't tell you how good it feels to save Rifle/Redfury/SMG shots on 8s while in Cover, especially in a Faction known for it's paper armor...
Being Light Infantry Doesn't Have To Mean Travelling Light!
Out of all the supersoldiers in RTF, the Khawarijs have by far the widest range of weapon options available to them. A commonality between all the profiles is the AP+Shock CC Weapon, which means that if the Red Turban gets to whack something with theirr sword, the Opponent will be rolling to save at half ARM agaist DMG 13 (and passing straight to Dead if they fail and aren't immune to Shock) - not too bad for a unit whose primary role is gunfighting! And now to what the rest of the profiles offer!
Rifle, Light Shotgun, Grenades; 28pts
The standard Haqqislamite soldier loadout of Rifle + Light Shotgun on the Khawarij makes for a dangerous close range fighter. The Grenades further enhance the aggressive nature of this profile - PH 13 means that you'll be lobbing out pineapples on a reasonable score, even when Speculative Attacking! A trick that the grenade armed Khawarijs can utilize, is to Jump on top a building where they are hard to get to, and then start dropping Grenades on hapless nearby targets. In all honesty though, RTF does have stronger gunfighters and melee brawlers at this price point, and for a few points more you can upgrade your Red Turban to do more, so I don't see myself fielding the standard version too much!
Rifle, Light Shotgun, Grenades, Chain of Command; 33pts
For five points more than the standard loadout, you get a WIP 14 Specialist who can cover a number of ITS13 Classified Cards that the other Khawarijs cannot, and also act as an insurance against the Loss of Lietenant. This profile however faces tough competition from the point cheaper(!) Hortlak Janissary Chain of Command. Then again, if you're wielding an aggressive LT and want to keep your list basically unhackable (a thing quite easy to accomplish with RTF), he can be a viable option.
Rifle, Light Shotgun, Grenades, Forward Observer (Lieutenant Option Available); 29pts
One point gets your Rifle Khawarij promoted to a Forward Observer for Specialist duty. He is rather expensive, but if you really want to bring the gorgeous model, then you might as well find the point to allow him to interact with Mission objectives and to mark targets! The jury is still very much out on the usefulness of the Lieutenant option...
Mk12, NCO, Multispectral Visor L2; 38pts
The Khawarij with all the tools! This loadout combines a strong gun, MSV L2 (quite a rarity in RTF) and the ever useful NCO skill into quite a nice package. Yeah, you pay for everything you get, but getting to shoot stuff regardless of Mimetism or Smoke is great, and potentially getting to do that for "free" with the Lieutenant Order is even better! I usually build my Khawarij Haris around this profile. If you can get this guy into a nice spot for Suppressive Fire, he could prove very troublesome to remove!
Heavy Rocker Launcher, Light Shotgun; 30pts/1SWC
This lovely profile features the longest range weapon at the Khawarijs' disposal: the Heavy Rocket Launcher. Getting to fire Continous Damage Impact Templates at DMG 15 is really strong - I've bagged myself TAGs with this Red Turban! It's also great that this guy isn't afraid of getting up close and personal either, carrying as he is a Light Shotgun to boot! This profile can also be pressed into service as an ARO piece, if you find a nice (diagonal) firelane that doesn't give your Opponent an easy chance to bring their biggest guns to bear!
Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, Medikit, Doctor (+3); 33pts
Spitfire, BS Attack (Shock), (Lieutenant Option Available); 34/1,5SWC
The highest Burst weapon available to the Red Turbans is the Spitfire. In the Khawarij's capable hands this weapon reaches respectable Damage 15 and applies Shock, and there's even further deadliness to be achieved by having a Fireteam accompany the gunner for that sweet, sweet Burst Bonus... You could even field him as the Lieutenant and take advantage of his personal Order to run about the field gunning things down; just remember to bring Chain of Command along, lest your heroic Lieutenant goes down and leaves the rest of your force in trouble!
That's Nice and All, But What Do They Do?
To me, the Khawarijs are the quintessential supersoldier unit of RTF. They aren't as good gunfighters as the Mukhtars, but they have the joint highest BS and they're packing the heaviest weapons out of the bunch. They can't match the Nahabs in melee, but they can still give even the best Martial Artists a run for their money. When they get hit by most attacks, they have highter than average chance of passing their saves, where the rest of the genetically enhanced soldiers are relying on low armor values. The Khawarijs truly are the jacks-of-all-trades, and if this makes them the masters of none, I'm for one fine with that.
In a way, I actually liken the Red Turbans to the Hakim. If you break down the individual things these units can accomplish, you can most certainly find pieces in RTF that do that exact job better or for cheaper, but you can't find a piece that can do all the things that the Khawarij (or the Hakim) has the capability of doing! And at the end of the day, that's what you're paying for with these guys - tactical versatility that allows for you to change your approach on how to solve a situation at a drop of a hat!
Leading the Assault
The Khawarijs have the ability to take part in Core and Haris Fireteams together with units such as Ghulams. Naffatûns, Zhayedans, Namurrs and a whole bunch of Characters. Unfortunately for the Red Turbans, they don't "count as" Ghulams or other cheaper units for Fireteam construction, so you lose the full Bonuses if you choose to build a Team which is only partially made up of Khawarijs.
Khawarijs as a Part of a Fireteam Core
I feel confident in saying that in the post N4 Fireteam Update world you shouldn't be seeing a whole lot of Khawarijs in Core Fireteams - not only are the Zhayedans far more capable leaders for your mostly Line Infantry squads due to them counting as Ghulams for calculating the Fireteam Bonuses, but the latter's operational profile also matches that of the Faction's basic troopers more closely. A 6-2 moving, Super-Jumping gunfighter-melee brawler hybrid does stick out in a Fireteam of MOV 4-4 Riflemen!
On the other hand, a full Core of these elite soldiers seems a bit excessive to me, and
threatens to leave you pretty weak on board control and support. Then again, if
you want to go all in and try and smash your Opponent decisively on turn one,
go ahead and enjoy the look on your Opponent's face as you array all your Red Turbans on the starting line!
Khawarijs as a Part of a Fireteam Haris
A Pure Khawarij Haris not only offers you decive fighting prowess and excellent mobility, but also the ability to quickly shift a hefty amount of points to a particular area of the battlefield - a tactical boon that really comes to it's own when controlling Zones of Operations is a crucial part of the Mission Scoring parameters. One of my fondest memories involves my Red Turban Haris quite literally swordfighting my friend's surviving Asawiras to secure the Panic Room (and thus the victory!) for me in a past league game's last turn!
If you're ready to compromise on your Haris' mobility and fighting ability (as well as give up the +3 mod to Discover Rolls) in the name of a points discount, there's also the possibility of fielding a single Khawarij together with a couple of cheaper support models. By having your say Khawarij Heavy Rocker Launcher be accompanied by a Ghulam Doctor and Yara Haddad, you can to a somewhat lesser extend mimic the tactical capabilities of the Pure Haris above at a drastically cheaper pricepoint! Losing three Khawarijis? Potentially crippling! Losing a Khawarij and a couple of cheap supporting models? A neccessary sacrifice, no doubt!
The Perfect Haqqislamite Balance?
When I first saw the Khawarij profiles for N4 (they were the first ones I checked out!), I was both happy and disappointed at the same time. On one hand, the Red Turbans had gained a nice boost to their durability (a long lasting dream of mine) and picked up some CC capability to boot. Then again, I felt that at their price point, they just wouldn't be able to compete with the other RTF options available. For my first half a dozen games of N4, I barely fielded the Khawarijs, thinking as I was that there was no way they'd be worth their points. Then I deciced to bite the bullet, and made a "subpar list" into which I put not one, not two, but five Khawarijs! As I played the list, I was dumbfounded - the Khawarijs were working like a charm! The five Red Turbans spread around the table gave me good attack vectors and advancing paths turn in, turn out, and I came to understand the value of these supersoldiers as the Ramah's allrounders.
At the end of the day, the Khawarijs do epitomize Ramah Taskforce. They aren't the best at anything, yet they can do almost everything. They aren't easy to play, but they reward a decicated commander. They aren't straight up powerhouses, but they almost always offer you a way out. So don't be discouraged when you read a forum post bashing the Red Turbans, or run the numbers in your head and feel that they don't match up to other strong units. Play the Khawarijs and see what they can do for you, and if you decide that they aren't the prime choice for you, that's okay too - actually that's the beauty of Infinity! I will still set up my Red (Orange?) Turbans against you on the table any day! And there you have it, a wise contradiction and the perfect Haqqislamite balance!
Until the next time - I wish you the very best in leading the Swift and Deadly Spear of the Haqqislamite Army to Victory!
20/11/2020 Edit. Added the fact that Bioimmunity allows for you to save with BTS 3 against Monofilament weapons to the relevant part of the text.
11/3/2021 Edit. Replaced a couple of the worse photos with updated versions.
18/4/2021 Edit. Corrected several spelling mistakes and rewrote some lines that could come off as convoluted.
11/4/2022 Edit. Updated the article to incorporate the changes brought about by the Fireteam and Unit Profile Updates.
The aesthetic of the first Khawarij sculpt was what drew me to Haqqislam (and the first Fiday too, with his badass pose...), and I always feel a pang of guilt whenever I don't field them!
ReplyDeleteI love the modern day look of the Khawarijs too! I'm trying to figure out a way to use the new Forward Observer Lieutenant profile to get an excuse to use the Rifle armed model!
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