Karax vs Preats, an unfair fight

Comparing to other factions is never really unambiguous. The have other casters, other support and other play styles. The whole point for me is that with the current rules I (and IMHO a lot of other people) will prefer the swordsmen of the karax for the same role. If you sum up their differences, I think the swordsmen will be more usable in the speed bump/low damage dealing unit. I have kept the UA out of consideration, because it will even help the swordsmen more, but a good speed bump should be cheap and adding it in, will make this post even longer.

Let's split that out. Which unit is the best speed-bump:
Swordsmen have one more speed, one more defense. Karax have shield wall and girded (no blash damage). The big problem with the Karax is, that they are slow, especially if you want them to shield wall. It is no good to have a speed bump unit which can not follow a dynamic playing style (static playing style is so mark 1 ). I also think that the point of defense is almost as good as the 4 points of armor, why? It is one point in the sweet spot of most MAT (5 to 8) which will reduce the chance of getting hit by 10% or more in most cases. While the increased ARM is only in the sweet spot of low pow attacks. To get the ARM attack they do not only have to sacrifice speed, but also have to be in base to base contact, which will make them a "smaller" speed bump. It is also more situational and I like my speed bump to be reliable. Speaking of situational, girded only comes in to play rarely. And swordsmen are not as vulnerable to blast damage as the karax because they tend to be spread out a little more.

Now concerning damage dealing:
Karax have a point of P+S more, reach, do not block line of sight for friends and ranked attack, but swordsmen have an extra attack and can combo to get more P+S. They also do one point of auto damage versus 'jacks and beasts. And a speed point of speed of course.

The swordsmen are again more maneuverable, although the karax have a slighly longer charge range (half an inch). But when they charge they leave shield wall and get softer. In the advance the Karax are also a little bit faster, but this is countered by the fact you probably want them to shield wall after the advance, because they have to end in base to base contact. Ranked attack will get you some extra attacks in sometimes, but the number of attacks will always be lower then the when using two attacks. Not blocking line of sight for friends can be useful, but you have to build your army to use it. The auto point of damage of 'jacks and beasts can be nice, to put some small dents in them while keeping them engaged and the combo-ing will allow you to hurt some harder targets. The extra point of P+S for the karax does not counter this, since it is more based on luck and is less flexible.

Conclusion:
The swordsmen win on both prime usages for the units and for an unit with the same costs it will result on them being on the table a lot more. The only place I can see for the karax is with units which can attack over them: e.g.: deploy venators behind it, but on that take you can also take another unit of venators instead, because they are not that much softer. Or maybe with the expensive arcuarri and leave them behind the karax, but those are still vulnerable to shooting attacks.

How I would to see them fixed?
Give the karax a little boost, so that they will win the speed bump department compared with the swordsmen (an extra point of ARM and/or DEF and/or SPD, or maybe something else, like immunity to KD, an UA which will help them staying alive, etc)