Kogan

Race: Minotaur
Class: Aggressor
Survivability: Med-High (he rewards conservative play so his survivability increases rapidly with good play)
Damage Output: High
Threat Range: High (10"+ is a high rating for charging or moving and making a ranged attack)

Profile: He has minotaur stats - MOV 4, AGI 3, lots of boxes (18) and regeneration 2. His MEL is 7 and his RNG is 6 despite this he is still mainly a ranged aggressor, if used as a melee aggressor his output is lower than all the other melee aggressors. His melee attack is range 2" and does 2|3|5 damage and his ranged attack is range 6" and does 3|4|5 damage with armour piercing (ignores 1 RES).

What does he do?: Kogan wants to be a second line hero. He wants to sit behind what are preferably defenders and shoot his gun. The main reasons he wants to do this are that the gun has better damage than the melee attack, the gun has armour piercing, and the gun has the better combat manoeuvre (knock down). Just quickly on the Sustained Attack combat manoeuvre - it's not very good. It's a 2S + damage combat manoeuvre which means it is hard to get it going and 50% of the time it does absolutely nothing. If you need to be making a melee attack anyway (this will often be the case as Kogan needs to sit quite close to your front line) then it's a nice bonus but you shouldn't be looking for it.

Aside from shooting his gun the other reason Kogan wants to sit just behind your front line is his excellent level 2 ability - Stand and Shoot. If charged he is able to make a ranged attack targeting the model charging him. If he manages to trigger his 2S + damage combat manoeuvre Power Shot the model will be knocked down outside of his melee range and therefore unable to attack him. Even if you don't you can add some damage to the model and of course if you have a model in front of him the charging model may also have to take a free strike making charging Kogan a daunting prospect.

Lastly he has very strong fate abilities - Battle Cry is an ability he wants to use every turn if he can. An ideal turn for Kogan involves aiming at a knocked down model, using Battle Cry and then shooting three times. He comes very close to guaranteeing crits. He can do this to a regular standing model too and will still do a great amount of damage. His other fate ability is Buck Shot you need to get to level 3 to use it but it is bonkers. You make ranged attacks against the target and up to 2 enemy models within 2" of the target. This means that Kogan can make up to 9 attacks on three different models and use Battle Cry on all of them. In practice this will not happen - it's hard to get Kogan to level 3 and usually you will only get one other model. Remember all three models also have to be in Kogan's 6" range. It's limiting although you can use the manoeuvre symbols you roll to move Kogan forwards to get more models in range - he only needs LOS to the original target which helps if he is hiding behind a defender.

A note on Kogan related to including him in a warband - Kogan is strongest in 5v5 games. He is quite good in 3v3 games where you can use him as a hybrid melee and ranged aggressor but you will struggle to create a proper second line with 3 models, your opponent won't generally leave their entire warband within 2" for you to get Buck Shot working and he will spend a lot more of the game engaged and forced to use his melee attack. He can still do a lot with his melee attack but it is not what he ideally wants to do.

Fate Appetite: Med. He wants to use Battle Cry every turn and if he is making 3 attacks you will get a very high benefit from Battle Cry (even with 2 attacks it's a good option) but he's still quite good without it.

Level Appetite: Med-High. Kogan is an odd one because you won't generally get to use either of his level up abilities. Your opponent will generally try to walk up to Kogan rather than charging and risking the knockdown and your opponent will try to keep some distance between models to avoid you getting a really good buckshot turn. That said they are both bonkers good abilities that you really want to have available.

Magic Items: Heartseeker (High). Kogan's biggest weakness is his RNG of 6 the Heartseeker makes him really sing. He doesn't generally need defensive items - if you can level him up and play him behind a defender your opponent will generally opt for less difficult targets.

Combinations: Thrommel is his best friend. Get Thrommel to level 2 first then use him to knock down targets for Kogan. Thrommel is difficult to kill and can't be pushed out of the way to clear a charge lane to Kogan. Your opponent will not charge Kogan if they have to take a free strike from Thrommel and a Stand and Shoot reaction from Kogan. Forcing your opponent to fight Thrommel instead really lets Kogan sing as a second line hero. Marcus also does this job nicely although his free strikes are much less scary and he can be pushed away to open up lanes. I also quite like Istariel or Victor with him - Those models are able to sit even further back than Kogan allowing Kogan to help protect them and they can help pile on to models knocked down by your front line defenders also they doesn't use Heartseeker. Istariel has Armour Piercing allowing you to get great value from your second line against Defenders or models with RES and Victor adds Algarath to your front line to increase the protection of models sitting in behind. Saiyin's healing is nice and she likes to sit behind defenders, Skye's ability to teleport back and engage a model attacking Kogan even after making a parting blow is amazing. Haksa brings good healing and his Voodoo Idol allows you to make it even harder to go after your second line.

Ban Targets: Kogan doesn't like the long ranged aggressors, Allandir in particular is mobile and able to strike well at range especially if he can get Camouflage. Istariel for the same reason. Both of these aggressors also have the ability to set him on fire which takes away his Regeneration and any other healing you have in your warband. Styx and Kvarto are able to pull him out of the back line - it's less of an issue for Kogan than it is for squishier heroes like Victor, Istariel, Zaffen and Allandir but they will often be in the warband together.

Judy's Judgement: