Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince (Vlad1) vs. vs. Lord Ghyrrshyld, the Forgiven (Goreshade4)

Goreshade is back with the elves. This should be a battle well suited for Vlad and his fantastic Winter Guards. However, Vlad (or rather the man behind the lines) has a really crappy day. The battle quickly boils down to an excellent demonstration of “what not to do”, “how to use the clock most inefficient”, and “consequences of no planning”. This is not the proudest day in the Winter Guards annals. Vlad will have a discussion with the man behind the lines. 

It’s been a while since I have seen Goreshade on the table. I guess he went out of fashion. Vlad has faced him once before, and came out victorious (for battle report see here). The opponent’s list is more or less the same, with just a few changes. So, once again Vlad steps up to face the Legion of Dawn led by Goreshade. 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.

I have played against a very similar list before, and I won. This time the biggest difference is the lack of Dawnguard Trident (hurrah), which has been exchanged for an extra unit of Sentinels. The theme, Legion of Dawn, gives their ‘jacks the ability to ignore friendly Dawnguard models for LOS and they can advance through them. ‘Jacks being marshaled also gains flank, which is irrelevant here.

Lord Ghyrrshyld, the Forgiven is very much a debuff caster. He can lower ARM by 2 through Hand of Ice, lower DEF by 2 through Light of Wrath, and cast Freezing Mist, which can make it even more difficult for the trusted Winter Guards to hit anything. -2 to attack rolls makes Winter Guards very sad. I guess this is also one of Goresade’s trademarks: the unreasonable amount of clouds he can put out, given enough souls in his feat turn.

However, this is actually not so bad for a WGK list. This list does not rely on high DEF or high ARM, rather partly on strength in number. Also, Arcane Vortes doesn’t do a lot against the WGK list, as Vlad doesn’t really have any spells to negate. Goreshade’s feat can potentially be a problem for the Triple Marauders. However, the Gun Carriages are immune, and the Winter Guards just want to shoot stuff.

The two main annoying bits are Dauntless Resolve, which offers +3 ARM and tough to a model or unit. This can make Sentinels a proper pain to deal with. Finally, Revive is always annoying – dead elves should stay dead!

Goreshade has two ‘jacks in his battle group: Imperatus and a Chimera. The latter’s two most annoying things are Apparition and being an Arc Node. This little fellow is probably there to be a mostly annoying Arc Node (mostly for Hand of Ice and Light of Wrath in particular), and for scoring zones. Imperatus, on the other hand, is a hand hitting monster.

Imperatus is almost Colossal-robust as it has what amount to 51 boxes (including Phoenix Protocol), and this is assuming more than 12 points of damage per round against it (to remove the Force Field and thus the d6 healing). It has one POW 14 gun at range 10″. But most importantly it has two P+S 17 range 2″ weapons. To add insult to injury, it has Side Step and can ignore friendly Dawnguard models for LOS and advancement (theme benefit). If he has an Arcanist Mechanik nearby to give it Concentrated Power, it can on the average one-round a Khador Warjack. This is clearly a force to be reckoned with.

Dawnguard Sentinels are really annoying. They are reach 2″ P+S 12 weapon masters (which is surprisingly hard hitting, just think Doom Reavers). They do Vengeance for a bit of movement and an extra attack in the maintenance phase (assuming a model has been damaged). They also have Relentless Charge from their Officer. What really makes them annoying is their really high ARM. They do a base ARM of 15, which goes to 17 if they are base to base. When they are running along Goreshade4, he can raise it with an additional 3 under Dauntless Resolve; and just to add to it, they do an Iron Zeal mini-feat, which adds another 3 to their ARM. All in all it can bring them to ARM 23! Oh, and there are two full units. Each of these units also has a Soulless Escort attached. Fighting Vlad, they don’t really do anything expect being sacrificed to force triggering Vengeance.

Dawnguard Destors are Retribution’s heavy cavalry. Here they come in a standard package with the Dawnguard Destor Thane, who is basically a super charged version also giving all the cavalry Unyielding (landing them at ARM 19 in close combat). A charging Destor will do the following damage: Impact POW 12 (avg. 19); Charge P+S 14 (avg. 25); and Cannon POW 14 (avg. 21). A single Destor is not really scary for our ‘jacks nor the carriage (even under Hand of Ice, which would be 11 points of damage to a ‘jack). However, a full unit is a completely different story. Also with (sub)optimal placement of the Winter Guards a single Destor can easily take out three guards. Finally, if they can’t be bothered to charge, they can shoot our poor Winter Guards, and reposition after.


There are also two Lys Healers. They are less annoying here than against other lists. They do however offer no knockdown in a 5″ bubble, which really makes both the Field Guns and Gun Carriage sad. They can also heal living models.

There is a single Arcanist Mechanik in the list. They are basically super mechanics, somewhere between our Mechaniks and the Choir. They can Empower, Repair, and do Concentrated Power (see the part on Imperatus).

As a change, this list includes two Ghost Snipers, which are basically the Retribution version of our own Widomaker Marksman. Finally, Eiryss1 has also joined her kin. She is always very annoying to see across the table, in particular when she is for free. She does Disruption on a stick, has stealth and can stay very far away due to her 3″ Reposition.

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller Invasion scenario. Goreshade wins the rolloff and deceides to got first. Irusk eyes a linear obstacle, and he really likes obstacles. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″).

Goreshade deploys the Destors on the left flank, along with the Thane. Next comes the Chimera, then a unit of Sentinels on each flank, along with a Lys Healer. Goreshade, Ghost Snipers and Eiryss go smack in the middle. Imperatus goes slightly on the right flank.

Vlad deploys more or less in the standard patter. A Gun Carriage on each flank, which can move up and scree the rest of the army when being “base to base” with the two houses. One Rifle Corps on each flank, along with a Field Gun. Two of the Marauders goes slightly to the right, to be ready for Imperatus, and the last one slightly to the left. Vlad goes in the middle. The picture above depicts the deployment.

The famous move into position round. Vlad primary worry is to minimise the damage from the Destors in the second round.

The short version is: everybody moves forward. Destors go somewhat deep on the left flank, followed by the unit of Sentinels. They stay behind the forest (the green blob on the picture above). On the right flank, the Sentinels advance. Goreshade advance and casts Dauntless Resolve on the right unit of Sentinels. That was more or less it. The picture above shows the end of Goreshade’s first turn. 

Due to the cautious advance of the elves there is need for some careful positioning. On the left flank, the Gun Carriage moves up to screen the Winter Guards by being “base to base” with the house. It then fires its cannons left and right, well aware that it is not going to hit anything, but to place two rough terrain templates somewhere (elves don’t like rough terrain). It is rather lucky and manages to place one on each side of the forest. The Gun Carriage on the right side follows suit, moves forward and places two rough terrain in front of the Sentinels. Since the sentinels can’t shoot it leaves room for the Winter guards near the house.

Everybody else just move forward. Vald moves to the Objective and casts Wind Wall. Joe shouts Courage of the Forefathers on the Rifle Corps on the left. The picture above shoes the end of round 1.

So far, so good. Here comes the elves. Probably a bunch of Destors first. 

Incoming Destors! They move towards the Gun Carriage and shoots at it. Luckily, without too much damage done. It seems the screening manoeuvre did indeed work. The Winter Guards are safe. The Sentinels on both sides move forward. On the right flank, they also mini-feat. Both Lys Healers go Power of Faith to avoid knockdown within 5″. Everything else moves forward. Goreshade feats. A really uneventful turn. The picture above depicts the end of turn 1. 

So, Vlad is ready for the Alpha (more or less). Vlad allocates some focus to the leftmost Marauder, and the rightmost Marauder. He then moves in behind the objects, casts S&P, and feats. On the left flank, the Gun Carriage starts chewing through Destors, and is actually pretty good at it. It takes out two, ties the other two up, kills a Sentinel, and drops a cannon shot on two more. Finally, the guy in the hatch takes out the Lys Healer. Now enter the leftmost Marauder. The Marauder takes on two more Destors by trampling into to forest. It is surprisingly effective and is left with focus to spare. Clearly a bad allocation-calculation.

On the right flank, the Gun Carriage charges into the Sentinels screening Imperatus. It only manages to kill one, and take a chip out of the objective. It then repositions into the middle of the rightmost zone. This was probably a bad move. Nevertheless, the idea was to make room for the Marauder.

Joe shouts For the Motherland to the Rifle Corps on the right flank. All the Winter Guards move forward and starts shooting like crazy. This really wasn’t a huge success. I can’t really remember the target priorities, but it seems that I did not have one. I did manage to take the objective out and score one scenario point. Besides that, the only thing I did get out of this was spending far too much time on the clock. Finally, the Marauder charges Imperatus and clearly did not do enough damage. Yet another example of poor odds estimation. The round ends by me realising that I spend a whooping 31 minutes on the turn. How on earth is that possible? I did score one point, leaving the scenario score at 1-0 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the end of Vlad’s slow motion turn.

Vlad is in so much trouble. Just shy of 19 minutes left on the clock; and Goreshade is in a pretty good position.

This should be an easy run for Goreshade. He drops Dauntless Resolve from the Sentinels on the right flank and cast it on the Sentinels on the left flank. They charge everything. As the Marauder on the left flank i stationary due to Goreshade’s feat in the last round, they can easily navigate around it.  They are surprisingly inefficient. They manage to take out the middle Marauder, but somehow the left one survives. As does the Gun Carriage. However, Vlad’s objective “dies”.

On the right flank, Imperator trivially removes the Marauder, and the Sentinels there kills the Gun Carriages, as well as a few Winter Guards. All in all, the Winter Guards manage to contest both the middle zone and the right zone. The Gun Carriage and Marauder is solidly placed in the left zone. So, Goreshade manages to only score a single point for the objective. This leaves the scenario score at 1-1. The picture above shows the end of Goreshades turn.

Actually, Vlad is not so bad off. He have lost two Marauders and a Gun Carriage. Yet, most of the Winter Guards are alive, as is the leftmost Gun Carriage and Marauder. If only he hadn’t been fiddling around in the last round, there might be a theoretical chance. There is 18 minutes left on the clock.

The first thing is for the Rifle Corps on the right flank to move out of the way. They move about a bit and shoot at the Sentinels, who no longer are under, neither mini-feat nor Dauntless Resolve. This makes a guardsman happy. All but four are taken out. Vlad can now activate. He casts S&P and charges a Sentinel tying up the Field Gun. The Sentinel dies. The only marginally sensible spell to cast from Blood Boon is Wind Wall.

Now Joe can say Bear’s Strength to the leftmost Rifle Corps. They charge the Sentinels in front of them. One should never under estimate charging Winter Guards. They proceed to kill four Sentinels! The Gun Carriage and Marauder attempts to clean up the zone, but are not too successful. The elvens managed to tie up the Gun Carriage pretty well, and the Marauder is not in the best shape.

That is more or less it. Nobody scores, so scenario score is still 1-1. However, Vlad has only 1 minute and 7 seconds left on the clock. We decide that end of round 3 is also end of game. So the picture above depicts the end of the game.

This battle was a long string of bad decisions and inefficient playing. Vlad should have a pretty good chance against this line up. Despite Sentinels, potentially being tough, no knockdown and a ridiculous ARM, they should be easy food for the Gun Carriages. In particular if the mini-feat can be provoked by the Rifle Corps. However, I spend far too long in round 2, where I should just have played laid back and weathered the feat and mini-feats. I sacrificed one of the Marauders for no apparent reason. The same for one of the Gun Carriages.

I had a pretty good first round. But from there on… This is what happens where there is no plan.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!