Overview
In this series, we will give you a quick breakdown of each champion. This is geared mostly towards people who have not played with this champion much, so it’s not an in-depth tactical treatise. This is more of a quick breakdown and assessment of the champion.
We will grade each champion’s offense, defense, support, mobility, and control. We’ll explain each grade and then give you a quick vision of a dream activation for that champion.
In a separate series, Grumpy has written about how champions match up with each other. Here are the matchup evaluations for Guardians, Maelstroms, Slayers, and Shapers.
Here is the grading scale for each category:
Awful
Bad
Average
Good
Outstanding
Intro
Rangosh is lethal and versatile, in some ways the quintessential Slayer. The big fella has very few weaknesses. Rangosh is fast, hard-hitting, and blessed with one of the most flexible follower units in the game. Because he has few bad matchups, Rangosh is often a tempting choice when for tournaments with a fixed roster of four as per the Steamforged tournament document. With only four champions to a list, highly impactful all-arounders like Rangosh can help you face all comers. Although he is not exactly subtle, playing Rangosh well requires careful positioning and timing. Here is a more in-depth tactics article about Rangosh that I wrote a while back.
Here are Rangosh's Cards:
Offense - Outstanding
The defining text on Rangosh's card is his trait, Brutal Master. Before every roll to hit or damage, Rangosh has the option of removing a follower to add a die to the roll. This is enormously powerful and flexible. If you think you have a shot to slay, you should gobble up your followers without shame or restraint. You can just recruit more.
Rangosh has very few rivals for the title of top single-target damage dealer. His two attacks are easily boosted to 4/8 and 6/6 with just a bit of low-key human sacrifice. For a sense of how scary that is, this combination of attacks would average roughly 4.6 damage against a 3/3 target. This is not enough to completely take out most champions by itself (though that can easily happen), but it is enough to cut most champions down to their last few wounds or to finish them off if they have already been softened up a bit.
Only Keera can match Rangosh in terms of maximum possible damage to a single target in a single phase. Rangosh also has access to a damage boon because of course he does. Ideally, Rangosh will activate within two hexes of someone, pull them in with an accuracy 6 Whiplash, and deliver the Jawbreaker. At accuracy 4, Jawbreaker is on 72% odds to hit dodge 3. This drops to gloomy 45% against dodge 4. This makes Rangosh very hungry for accuracy boons and dodge blights. He can generate a dodge blight with Break Spirit, but this potentially comes at the cost of claiming in the plot phase.
The Red Bandits are some of the most lethal followers out there because they are the only follower unit which can attack three times per turn. Ambush is a wonderfully useful skill that the bandits can employ in both phases which automatically wounds the target. This incredible for grinding down enemy followers, no matter how armored they might be. Dwarves tell ghost stories about these guys to their children. The ability to clear a model out in the plot phase really helps Rangosh get where he needs to go. The Red Bandits also bring a range 3 attack which tops out at 5/5, which can soften up distant targets.
Defense - Good
Rangosh is only armor 2. Other than that, Rangosh's is a tough model to bring down. Dodge 4 isn't everything, but it will often frustrate opponents. Combined with an above average health pool of 7, Rangosh can survive longer than most non-guardians. He will eventually go down, though, especially when targeted by high accuracy attacks. However, in nearly all matchups, Rangosh will be the favorite to KO the opponent faster than they can KO him back.
The Red Bandits are pretty soft. Often, they will hang back and use their ranged attacks while they wait for their boss to eat them. They can at least use their Stolen Treasure trait to earn defensive boons. Make sure Rangosh gets to enemy maelstroms before they get to the bandits. If all else fails, Rangosh can take his own followers off the table to deny opponents a scoring opportunity.
Support - Awful
This crew has a few ways to generate boons, but only for themselves. This only becomes a support resource when you have allies who can copy or transfer boons, though. At least the dodge blight form Break Spirit is usable by friendly models? There are almost no avenues for this crew to offer support to others. Whatever. This is an output crew, not a support crew.
Mobility - Good
Rangosh has above average overall mobility. His plot phase speed of 3 makes him faster than a typical human. On top of that, Rangosh can use his ultimate, Beastly Charge, to get an extra burst of movement at just the right time.
The Red Bandits move at the normal 2/2 pace of humans. They can gain a speed boon when they do damage, though. This allows them to speed up a bit more than average as needed.
Control - Good
This might surprise some people, but Rangosh is actually a powerful control piece. His two attacks have hit effects which push and pull the enemy around. This can absolutely be the difference between a banner staying up or not. Rangosh also generates KOs, which are certainly a form of control in this game since they come with positioning control and the the loss of an enemy action.
Finally, Rangosh brings a lot of board presence in the form of a five model follower unit. Although bloodlust is hard to resist with this champion, Rangosh can choose to be more conservative with his followers in order to protect more of the board. The Red Bandits' Induct skill allows them to bring back a well-placed second model in the plot phase, so you can keep their numbers up as needed.
Dream Activation
It's very simple, but oh so satisfying. Raith'Marid, the wet reptile of sorrow himself, is on 4 health and all set to crush your banner. Fortunately, you get to go first. Rangosh executes a simple Beastly Charge/Jawbreaker combo to crush the banner and wreck face. Even though Raith has armor 3 and five health, there's a 80% chance the two automatic wounds from Beastly Charge and the 4/8 Jawbreaker will be enough to KO Raith and push him back a total of three hexes.
