Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince (Vlad1) vs. Supreme Kommandant Irusk (Irusk2)

Khador seems to have become a troubled place lately. Once again two of the Empress’ finest are at it against each other. Irusk is leading a bunch of homicidal maniacs, support by several winged flying creatures against Vlad and his finest Winter Guards. This battle turns into a rather bloody thing. The final clash is between old wisdom (and really big cool flag) and young stamina. Irusk must admit that maniacs are no match for the valour and discipline of Winter Guards.  

More trouble in Khador. Irusk is threatening Vlad and his Winter Guards. I have myself played Irusk2 a lot; though, not in Wolves of Winter. I can see why this is a good combination. Tough, immune to knockdown and immune to blast is a good combination on the Doom Reavers. Nevertheless, Vlad is optimistic. Vlad brings his standard Winter Guard Kommand list. In its current form it has an Adjunct instead of a Mortar, and two Kapitans. Besides that it is the same as described here. 

Wolves of Winter is the new black in Khador. I have never played this theme (yet). It primarily gives Apparition to a Greylord or Doom Reaver unit in the Control Phase. Besides this it gives up to three Ternions units for free. Irusk2 is leading the mad Doom Reavers at al. He brings quite a few good abilities. He gives Tactician in a 10″ bubble, which allows troops to ignore each other for LOS and movement. To expand the natural tough from the Doom Reavers to other units, he also brings Total Obedience, which is a 10″ tough bubble. On top of that, he also normally cast and upkeeps Solid Ground, which gives a 14″ bubble of no knock down and immunity to blast damage. This is of course bad for the Rifle Corps and Rocketeers in particular. He also brings Energizer for extra mobility of the battle group; Artifice of Deviation, which might have interesting applications for the Doom Reavers; Battle Lust, which makes the Ternions into weapon masters; and Fire for Effect for the Destroyer.

Irusk brings an Adjunct, a Juggernaut and a Destroyer. The latter is really just the beat stick that we all love and respect. The Destroyer, which is one of my personal favourites, really shine with Fire of Effect on it. Boosted Rat 4 (hitting DEF 15 on average), with an average damage of 25, and average blast damage of 18. It can clearly remove infantry and actually deal annoying damage to ‘jacks. Finally, the Adjunct brings a free upkeep, a cloud, a spray and eyeless sight (the latter really doesn’t matter in this match).

There are three Doom Reaver units, all of them with unit attachments. The unit attachment solves many of the Doom Reavers issues. They can stop the berserker run, thus stopping them killing each other. They can also give them Pathfinder on the charge, and remove tough from their opponents. A bunch of charging Doom Reavers can be a frightful sight. They arrive with an average of 26 points of damage for killing big stuff, and Berserk for chewing through small stuff. The Doom Reavers are supported by three units of Greylord Terninons. They can return dead Doom Reavers when killing an enemy, put a cloud on e.g. Doom Reavers for making a wall of fog, and cast Ice Cage to lover the DEF of enemy models. 

Irusk has brought a bunch of solos. Two Koldun Lords, two Void Archons, and a single Thamarite Archon. The Koldun Lords are the super Greylords. Their build in abilities gives Battle Wizard to other Greylords (here the Ternions and the Adjunct). They can also cast the spells of other Greylords who are within 9″ of them. This gives them a eight spells: Brittle Frost, POW 10 and -2 DEF; Puppet Master, reroll a die; Wind Ravager, stops enemy ranged attacks within 9″; Blizzard, giving a 3″ cloud on a friendly model; Bonds of Woe, kill an enemy return a Doom Reaver; Ice Cage, -2 DEF on enemy and stationary if hit thrice; Frostbite, POW 12 8″ spray; and finally Guidance, giving eyeless sight. That is an impressive amount of spells to watch out for.

There are three of the new hot flying stuff: Two Void Archons, and a single Thamarite Archon. The former I haven’t seen before. However, the latter I have used my self as a marvellous addition to Sorscha3 in Armored Corps. The Thamarite Archon is a fantastic piece of artillery. It flies, has Parry, can reroll attack rolls, cannot be blinded or knocked down, has Dodge, and True Sight. At RAT 7 with d3 shots it tends to hit stuff. The three shots can either take control of a model and do an attack with it; make a 3″ cloud of POW 12 (note this is not blast, so Irusk doesn’t protect); or really hurt somebody with soul tokens. The latter doesn’t really matter here; whereas the two former spells trouble for the Winter Guards. This is truly a flying dude to watch out for.

The two Void Archons are new to me. They have a host of build in abilities, much like the Thamarite one. They cannot be knocked down or made blind, within 5″ enemy models loose tough, it can be placed within 8″ if it kills something, dual attack, Dark Shroud (-2 ARM within 1″), and it can gain and use Soul Tokens to become incorporeal or boost. That is a lot of build in abilities. In addition, it has a 10″ POW 14 spray and two P+S 13 (actually 15 due to Dark Shroud) attacks. It seems to be able to do a lot of shenanigans with charging and jumping around.

All in all, I’m half way worried. I should probably avoid being charge by all the homicidal maniacs. I also think the Void Archons can be really annoying.

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller Bunkers scenario. Irusk wins the rolloff and goes first. Vlad is happy looking at an objective to hide behind. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″).

Irusk deploys in the middle with his two ‘jacks. The Tharamite Archon goes on the far left flank, eyeing a forest to hide in. A unit of Ternions go on each flank, ready to support the Advance Deployed Doom Reavers, who deploy in front in a formation ready for clouds. All the rest goes in the middle. The two Void Archons are truly in the void. They are represented by empty bases (see picture below).

Vlad deploys, more or less in the standard pattern. A Gun Carriage, supported by a Kapitan on each flank. Then a unit of Rifle Corps and Field Guns. The rest goes in the middle with Vlad. The picture above depicts the end of deployment.

Round one. The boring one. I assume Doom Reavers will rund forward, and Vlad will position in an attempt to avoid too many charging maniacs. 

Irusk begins by casting Fire for Effect on the Destroyer and Solid Ground on himself. He then moves forward into the zone and casts Artifice of Deviation to the left, ready to receive a unit of Doom Reavers. Both the Ternion units move forward and drop clouds on some Doom Reavers. Screaming and flailing they run forward. The left most unit into Irusk’s Artifice of Deviation for an impressive DEF 17 against shooting. The other two units move into a cloud wall on either side of the forest. The Thamarite Archon runs into the woods. Everybody else shuffles forward. The picture above shows the end of Irusk’s turn.

Vlad needs to remove Doom Reavers. He cast Signs & Portens, and moves up behind the Objective. On the left flank, the Kapitan moves forward and goes Artillerist on the Gun Carriage, which then moves forward and shoots at the Doom Reavers in cover and clouds. It is well aware that killing then is difficult. But leaving rough terrain in front of the Doom Reavers forces them to use Death Strider if they wish to charge. It then Reposition far to the left to force a Doom Reaver unit to go far to the left if they wish to deal with it. Not to be bested by the Gun Carriage on the left flank, the one on the right does more or less the samen. Together, they are surprisingly efficient in killing Doom Reavers. The downside of this efficiency is Void Archons full of soul tokens.

The Rifle Corps basically just move forward and pepper the Doom Reavers. The one of the left almost manage to remove a whole unit, except for the Greylord Escort. The one of the right is not efficient at all. ‘jacks and Field Guns move forward. One of the Marauders bait the rightmost Doom Reaver unit. The picture above depicts the end of round 1. 

This is probably the round where maniacs will meet discipline. 

Irusk upkeeps Fire for Effect and Solid Ground, one of them for free from the Adjunct. He drops Artifice of Deviation. On the left flank, the Thamarite Archon moves forward to the flag, ready to score. It then shoots at Vlad’s Field gun and kills it.

The Doom Reavers on the left took the bait and charges the Gun Carriage. On average, the six Doom Reavers will do 35 points of damage against a Gun Carriage, and it has 38. It survives. The Doom Reaver on the right also takes the bait and charges the tempting Marauder. This is just silly. There is not really a chance for them to kill it.

Most other stuff moves forward. A Koldun Lord on the right moves up to the Flag and drops a cloud. He is ready to score. The last “Doom Reaver unit” has one model revived and moves forward to be annoying. The picture above shows the end of Iruk’s turn, which was surprisingly harmless.

Vlad is smiling. This is going well. The objective starts by healing the Marauder damaged by the Doom Reavers. Despite having had a chat about wandering off, Vlad needs to get into action. To maximise the area of Signs & Portens he has to move forward. So he feats, casts Signs & Portents, and charges the Doom Reaver in front of him. He kills it and then uses Blood Boon to cast Boundless Charge on the leftmost Marauder.

On the left flank, the Gun Carriage charges the Koldun Lord and kills him. It then stars shooting and only takes out a single Ternion. The Kapitan runs to the flag to score. Finally, the rightmost Marauder tramples over the Doom Reavers and kills most of them, and takes a single free strike. It the whacks the Void Archon until it is dispatched back to the Void. The final Marauder tramples the last Doom Reaver to the Koldun Lord. But it misses him.

On the left flank, the Rifle Corps moves to the left and shoots at the Doom Reaver unit attachment on the left, killing her. The Gun Carriage can now charge the Tharamite Archon, and on they way impact a unit of Doom Reavers killing them. They are outside Irusk’s bubble. It also kills the Archon. It then Repositions to the flag. The last Marauder charges a Ternion and kills him. Finally, Joe shouts For the Motherland to the rightmost Rifle Corps and moves forward. They then advance a shoots and at stuff, without much success.

This allows Vlad to score two scenario points, and Irusk scores one. This leaves the scenario score at 2-1 Vlad’s favour. The picture above depicts the end of Vlad’s marvellous round. 

Vlad is on a roll. Irusk needs something close to a miracle. The chance is not zero — but close.

So, to take out Vlad, Irusk needs a clever plan. He comes up with one. This plan involves Irusk doing the Vlad killing. The Juggernaut on the right slams the Marauder partly in the forest, primarily to knock it down. It is knocked down with not a lot of damage. The Void Archon can then move in behind Vlad and lower his ARM to 13. It can then spray and hit Vlad, causing him some damage. Luckily, Vlad had two focus to make the worst of the pain go away. The Greylord Escort can now charge, with no apparent effect. Irusk feats, casts Energizer to get into position (and moves the Marauder as well), charges and picks off even more boxes from Vlad. Yet, he is still alive. Here is where it gets interesting.

The final part of the plan involves the Destroyer charging through the forrest (thanks to Iruk’s feat) and brining axe to Vlad’s face. Luckily, we had in the second round been debating the pleasures of Boundless Charge (from Vlad) and done a lot of measuring. Which, had mentally convinced my opponent that the Destroyer could reach 12″, which is about what was between the Destroyer and Vlad. However, Energizer gives 2″, base movement give 4″, charge gives 3″ and reach gives 1″, to a grand total of 10″. After a few seconds of being very baffled. He remember that the extra 2″ were only in his mind. Lucky Vlad.

So, Vlad was left standing with a very old man in front of him (with a very cool flag, though). The games was for all practical purposes over.

I feel Vlad was in control through out the game. He did not wander off and get himself into trouble. Despite a moment of panic in round three when Irusk said something like: “My Destroyer and I will now assassinate Vlad”. I was pretty sure Vald was safe; which he was.

The diversion plan to pull a unit of Doom Reavers to the edge worked. Even if they would have killed the Gun Carriage, which was highly unlikely, they would be out of the way, and inn shooting range of the Rifle Corps.

I might have thrived on a slightly too aggressive opponent. The Doom Reavers charging my Marauder did not stand a chance. Yet, if he had played a bit more passive, Vlad could have brought Marauders and Gun Carriages to his doorstep.

I have learned that Void Archons are really annoying and dangerous. They are now in little black book.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!