Battle Report – The Greylord Archives

The old motherland goes to RheinCon (day 1)

admin — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 21:29:44 +0000

This is the second time I go to RheinCon. Last year I was bringing Winter Korps (see here for details). This year I’m bringing Old Umbrey. I’m in the process of digging, somewhat methodically into all the warlocks of Old Umbrey.

I went to Conquest of Oslo recently and played eight games using Galina Lissya to try her out against anything and in all scenarios (a write-up might appear at some point). I like this approach on one-listing.

This time I’ll exclusively play Bohdan; again against anything and into all scenarios. It is a way to figure out how he works. My ambition is as always to win at least one in each tournament and not come last.

So, let’s see how Bohdan fares into everything.

This year I’m bringing a Bohdan list and a Galina list. My ambition is to basically play Bohdan throughout the whole event. I need to get some experience with him. I have only played him once or twice and I’m not quite sure I understand him (yet). Also, I tend to one-list tournaments if I’m trying out a new Warlock. It gives me a lot of games in a short period of time and (hopefully) teaches me what a Warlock is good into and what not. The list I’m bringing for day one is as follows.

Bohdan Lesnoi, Apostle of the Witch
– 13 Primeval 1
— 3 HEAD – Bear
— 6 RIGHT ARM – Ancient Staff
— 4 LEFT ARM – Enchanted Claw
– 14 Primeval 2
— 3 HEAD – Bear
— 7 RIGHT ARM – Bone Sword
— 4 LEFT ARM – Enchanted Claw
– 16 Strix

3 Animist
3 Koldun Lord Damien Korovnik
5 Liegemen Ursan Champion
3 Ursine Shifted 1
3 Ursine Shifted 2
4 Vorony

11 Liegemen Ursans 1
11 Liegemen Ursans 2
5 Liegemen Wardens
9 The Hounds

PC COMMAND CARD
– Blessing of the Gods
– Break Through
– Lucky Penny
– Old Faithful
– Sapper

The first day at RheinCon is a 8-person Steamroller. We are looking at three games. In addition to the three tournament games I managed a warm-up game first.

The warm-up game was against Dusk. Old Umbery generally likes to play into Dusk. I might get around to writing it up at some point. Spoiler alert: I won. So, I can enter the tournament being even more happy that normal.

Round one: Old legion is flapping their wings at me

It is fantastic to see old Legion on the table. They are one of the cooler faction of the old days. I haven’t seen them on the table in a long time. This will be fun.

Ny opponent is bringing Vayl, Disciple of Everblight; five warbeasts; a handfull of solos and units. The list looks like this

Legion of Everblight – Ravens of War

Vayl, Disciple of Everblight
14 Angelius
16 Azrael
3 Harrier
10 Neraph
11 Seraph

5 Annyssa Ryvaal
1 Blighted Nyss Shepherd
1 Spell Martyr
6 Blackfrost Shard

6 Blighted Nyss Archers
3 Blighted Nyss Archer Officer & Ammo Porter
10 Blighted Nyss Raptors 1
10 Blighted Nyss Raptors 2
4 Ice Witches

PC COMMAND CARD
Blessing of the Gods
Defenses
Barrier
Barrier
Spike Trap
Hit & Run
Lucky Penny
Sapper

We are playing Trench Warfare. That is two 50s, two 40s, two flags (no scoring of your own flag), and two Caches. I win the roll-off and decide to go second. I like going second.

Deployment

Vayl deploys everything in the middle, save for the to units of Raptors. One unit goes on each flanks. I seem to remember that they can be really annoying and dangerous. So, eyes on them.

End of deployment

I also deploy heavy in the middle, although a bit towards my left. I need to put some pressure on the left 50 mm, which will most likely be under contesting pressure from one of the Raptores. The middle deployment will take care of the 50 mm and Caches. A group is deployed on the right flank, consisting of a unit of Liegemen Ursans, the hounds and the Feral with the staff (to get a Geomancy out where Bohdan can’t reach).

The picture above depicts the situation after deployment. Ready to roll…

Round 1

The first turn of round one is typically uneventful as player one can (re)position to counter whatever clever deployment the second player made. This game is no different. Everything runs forward, taking care of staying outside the charge ranges of Bohdan and his gang. The Raptors go very wide to harass the flanks.

End of round 1

Bohdan carefully moves his troops forward. The flying beasts in front can do quite long charges. He is player two so he scores first. There is no reason to tempt fate by advancing into charge range. On the right flank, the Hounds go into the woods for stealth, the Primeval stands behind a wall and the Liegemen Ursans go into a crater. That should give a bit protection against the Raptors.

The rest of the army just shuffles forward. Bohdan puts Inviolable Resolve on Strix, Murder of Crows to extend the LOS blocking of the forest (yes, quite a lot of stuff has Eyeless Sight), and Earth Blessing on himself. The two Primevals put Earth Blessing on them selves. We are ready for the first round where stuff happens.

The picture above shows the end of the first round.

Round 2

Second round is where things normally happen. This has always been the most difficult round for me; if I’m player one in particular. Do I run stuff to pre-contest the objectives that the second player will score in the next turn? Do I hang back and just take a potential large scenario score to deal with? Difficult. Luckily, my opponents have the same problem in this round.

Vayl still advance cautiously. Azrael manage to get far enough up the board to kill two of the Hounds. That was unfortunate. Besides that the army is basically positioning to contest with models that can be lost and be ready to hit models Bohdan puts forward to score.

End of round 2

On the right flank, The Primeval moves forward to score the 50 mm. The Liegemen Ursans runs forward to project a threat vector from the right flank, potentially score the flag, and also serve as screening for the Primeval. The remaining hound moves backwards to the 40 mm objective to score. This will be her job for the remaining game.

Bohdan needs to get up the board. The best way to do this is to feat and surround himself with a bunch of Liegement to take any incoming hits. He might have feated a round too early. But he is being a bit nervous; he is an old man.

The Primeval on the left goes to score that 50 mm, and the bears do the same trick as on the right. They go to the enemy to primarily be annoying. Strix moves up and hides behind the forest to put some threat through Birds Eye.

This ends the second round with a scenario score of 3-1 in Bohdan’s favour. The picture above shows the end of the second round.

Round 3

Now we are getting to the bloody bit. Round three typically means a lot of dead stuff. Let’s see how this pans out.

Vayl hits hard with all the flying things (I really miss murder rabbit right now to deny flight). Azrael and either the Neraph or Seraph, supported by the Raptors murder Strix and the Primeval on the left. So, I did overextend them. However, they do not manage to remove any of the bears. So they are still being annoying. Also, on the left, Annyssa Ryvaal runs all the way to Bohdan’s flag. Luckily, the Champion is toeing the terrain to deny scoring.

On the right flank, things are perhaps slightly better. The Primeval is there as well as one of the Bears and two Shifters. Those Raptors, along with the archers do get a lot of work done. My flank is not impressive, but better than the left one.

After this mayhem the scenario score is 4-2 in Bohdan’s favour. So, at least that is OK.

End of round 3

Bohdan is in trouble. However, he is playing the scenario game; at least now. The Champion starts by killing Annyssa Ryvaal and reposition forward to keep a toe in the zone and contest the left 50 mm.

On the right flank the remaining Liegeman Ursan and the two Ursine Shifted clear out the zone. The Primeval moves to score the 50 mm.

In the middle, the bear cavalry shifts to the right and forward to put pressure on Vayl, and contest the 40 mm. They can charge him in the next round! Bohan does a Cygnar Advance and run behind the forest along with his bodyguards. Vorony moves forward to contest the Cache. Tererya does her job and score the 40 mm.

This ends round three with a scenario score of 7-2 in Bohdan’s favour. Vayl only has four minutes on the clock. So the pressure is on. The picture above depicts the situation before Vayl’s necessary mad dash.

Round 4

Vayl is in trouble. He needs to score two points more than Bohdan. The theoretical maximum is seven points (two times 50 mm, plus two times 40 mm, plus one flag, plus the cache). So, it is by no means impossible. Yet, it requires some work.

In the short time left, Areal and the Angelius take out the last Primeval. The Raptors might have assisted. That is basically what could be done with the four minutes.

The picture below shows the situation at the end of round four, when Vayl runs out of time. The final scenario score is 10-3 in Bohdan’s favour. So, in many ways a solid win.

End of game

Bohdan was in one sense in trouble. His beasts just died. At least two of them due to me being overly aggressive. However, at the end of the day aggression did win the match by keeping a high scenario pressure that the opponent couldn’t deal with. Nevertheless, it was scary.

First game, first win. I’m happy. This will deal with my ambition: win one and do not come last. So, the rest of the tournament can be played in a more relaxed manner.

Next up is the Necrofactorium…

Round two: The Necrofactorium train has full steam ahead

The dead are back and there is quite a lot of them. Sepsira brings a lot of dudes. Not the maximum number but probably enough. The list looks as follows:

Master Necrosurgeon Sepsira

5 Raptor 1
3 HEAD – Beaked Maw
2 BACK – Arc Node

5 Raptor 2
3 HEAD – Beaked Maw
2 BACK – Arc Node

3 Akulon Thaemestra
8 Necroharvester
3 Skarlock Lieutenant

7 Mechanithrall Brutes 1
7 Mechanithrall Brutes 2
6 Mechanithrall Swarm 1
6 Mechanithrall Swarm 2
4 Necrosurgeon Initiates
10 Night Terrors 1
10 Night Terrors 2
8 Sludge Thralls 1
8 Sludge Thralls 2
10 The Furies

PC COMMAND CARD
Blessing of the Gods
Careful Reconnaissance
Hit & Run
Lucky Penny
Sapper

We are playing Two Fronts. That is two 40s on one side, two 50s on the other side and one flag (belonging to the second player) in the middle. This is the scenario that probably best played orthogonal to the normal. So from left ro right, or right to left. Sepsira won the roll-off and decides to go first. I’m not convinced this is a scenario where going second is the best thing. So good choice by Sepsira.

Deployment

Sepsira classically deploys a unit of Night Terrors on each flank. They are a really good cavalry unit. So, I better watch out. A unit of Sludge Thralls also go on each flank. They are also worth looking out for. Everything else kind of go in the middle. Although perhaps with a bit more heavy to the right.

Deployment

Bohdan has decided that he was to play right to left. This is where there of the five scoring elements are neatly placed next to each other. The two Primevals are put slightly in the middle to counter any shenanigans from the Necroharvester.

The picture above depicts the battle field just before everything kicks off.

Round 1

First round is as expected the sea of dead dudes rush forward at full steam. There really isn’t more to say.

End of round 1

Bohdan can already feel the pressure. That is a lot of dead dudes. I might already have lost here. Bohdan kind of gives up on the idea to play right to left; or rather does not carry through. So one unit of bears and a Primeval moves to the left; the second Primeval stays in the middle; whilst the rest moves to the right. Everything stays out of charge ranges.

The picture above shows the end of round one.

Round 2

Sepsira is somewhat more careful in the second round. He floods the 50 mm on the left. There is a chicken that can score and a ton of other models to make sure that Bohdan can’t. On the left, the unit of Night Terrors are sitting behind a wall and contesting the 40 mm. A chicken toes the flag zone. So, basically pretty good defensive work.

End of round 2

It is possible to score seven points in a turn. That is 3 for both 50s, plus 3 for both 40s, plus 1 for the flag. With all the dudes Bohdan really needs to score something in his turn. The top 50 is outside scoring; it could be contested. The bottom 5o is possible to score. The top 40 is going to be pretty hard to score due to the wall. The bottom 40 should be easy. With a bit of luck the flag is also within reach. So 3-0 should be doable.

The bears on the left run to contest the 50. One of the Primevals move inside 3″ of the home 50. On the right side, Damien is going into the woods. The main thing to fight over is the flag. On paper the Bears should be able to tackle the chicken. They try and fail.

Strix shuffles up behind the forest and Bohdan behind the wall. Finally, the hounds move to the top 40. This ends the second round. Scenario is at 2-1 in Bohdan’s favour.

Round 3

Here comes Sepsira and her horde… On the left flank all the models clear out the bears. However, the final one I change into a Shifter so still contesting the 50. I’m pretty sure Sepsira feats and throw a unit of Mechanithrall at the scoring Primeval. They hit like a truck and the Primeval evaporates.

Most of the army are flodding to the left around the building in the middle. I suspect that Sepsira wants to play left to right. This leaves fewer models on the right flank, which should be in Bohdan’s favour. Nevertheless, they still make a mess. Two of the bears are killed along with one of the hounds. Night Terrors, Brutes and a unit of Sludge Thralls flood the 40s.

It is now Bohdan’s turn to see if there is any chance to hit back.

End of round 3

The plan, to the extend that there is one, is to attempt to clean out the right flank, whilst keeping enough pressure on the left to not loose on scenario.

The combination of the Primeval, Champion and Animist (of all things) clear out the Mechanithralls. It is impossible to also remove the contesting Night Terror. So no scoring here. The Ursine Shifter is just standing there and contesting.

Bohdan moves to the right and cast Incite. This allows the Liegemen to clear out some of the Night Terrors (I might have used the card Blessing of the Gods as they probably were Incorporable). The last bear and Strix clear out the remaining models. Strix Lightning Strikes back behind the forest. Vorony toes the zone to score.

This ends the round. Scenario score is now 4-1. Bohdan is currently over performing. The picture above depicts the end of round 3.

Round 4

Sepsira now puts the thumb screws on Bohdan. On the left flank, something kills the Shifter. The Necroharvester makes it all the way down to the last Primeval and together with the Sludge Thralls the Primeval, the Champion and the Animist is turned to dust.

Everything else is flooding towards the right flank. This means that Strix is taken out by the Furies, Sludge Thralls and Night Terrors in the area. All the Liegemen are also gone. This is not looking good. Somehow the scenario score ended at 9-8 in Sepsira’s favour. I’m pretty sure I have counted incorrect up to this point.

End of round 4

This is going down hill fast. The left flank is completely gone. Bohdan is quickly running out of models. However, it is not over until the fat lady sings (don’t tell Yana’s bear I said that).

Bohdan needs to get work done. He goes all in with Incite and Life Trader; thinking I might as well go down with style. He clears out the Flag. The last bear and Damien least out the top 40. Just to be annoying, Vorony runs to the left flank to contest the bottom 50. So no double scoring this turn.

Round four ends with at scenario score of 10-10. The picture above shows Bohdan’s last stand. I think we can see the end.

Round 5

The flood continues. There really isn’t much to say. With the amount of models on the left flank it is pretty easy to get rid of Vorony. I’m guessing Bohdan will be killed now. Everything is thrown at objectives on the right and to kill Bohdan.

Through some strange working of the gods, Bohdan actually manage not to get killed. This is more than you can say about the rest of the army. After the dust settles, only Bohdan and Damien are left standing. On the bright side, this is the first time in history that Damien actually survives a complete battle that is lost. So, kudos to him.

End of round 5, end of game

The game ends with a scenario score of 15-10 in Sepsira’s favour. For reasons I don’t really understand it got reported as 20-10. Anyway, Bohdan did not fare well into the flooding of dead dudes. Now I know this.

I was playing a really good player. A loss was the most likely outcome anyway. However, I think I did make a mistake in not sticking to my original plan. I should probably just have pushed really hard on the right flank and let Sepsira have the left flank. The two Primevals on the right did no really do a lot and were just being killed (and scoring a bit).

Anyway, it was fun. Onwards to my nemesis…

Round three: My Orgoth nemesis is in the house

Third and last round is against my Orgoth nemesis. I have played him quite a few times. We always have fun (except the Oriax and tripple balloon list) and I’m getting closer and closer every time. So here we are again. The list is as follows.

Kishtaar, The Howling Silence

21 Azdharak, Herald of Immolation

17 Tyrant 1
3 HEAD – Hunter
8 RIGHT ARM – Shredder
6 LEFT ARM – Quad Bolt Thrower

15 Tyrant 2
1 HEAD – Relentless Charge
8 RIGHT ARM – Shredder
6 LEFT ARM – Quad Bolt Thrower

4 Revenant Champion
2 Vulcar Forge Master
6 Assault Reavers 1
6 Assault Reavers 2

9 Rhok Harriers
8 The Execrators
8 Ulkor Barragers
4 Warwitch Coven

Defenses
DEFENSE 1 – Barrier
DEFENSE 1 – Barrier
DEFENSE 1 – Barrier

PC COMMAND CARD
Blessing of the Gods
Defenses
Duck and Cover!
Lucky Penny
Old Faithful

We are playing Wolves at Our Heels. That is the complicated one with tokens on some of the objectives. We are playing at the same table as my last game. In theory that should be a good thing. Kishtaar wins the roll-off and deceides to go first. I pick the same side as the last game, assuming that I have learned this side. Let’s kick off and see what happens.

Deployment

Kishtaar goes in the middle. The big bad Azdharak goes to the left (I have never played that model. So I’m a bit anxious), along with a Tyrant. The birds go to the right. They are typically quite annoying. Both the Assault Reavers Advance Deploy, kind of on the flanks.

Deployment

Bohdan deploys very centre heavy. Basically everything go there except the bears on the sides. The Hounds Advance Deploys to the right, along with Damien.

The picture above depicts the situation before everything kicks off. Hey ho, let’s go.

Round 1

Turn one most of the time is a run as fast as you can for the first player. This is also the case this time. Everything run and stay outside Bohdan’s charge ranges. On the right flank, the two units go behind the wall, and the Reavers move up screening a Tyrant. On the left flank, the Reavers spread out. In the middle, Azdharak moves left around the house in the middle. So far, so good.

End of round 1

It is Bohdan’s difficult turn. He needs to get up the field so the Orgoth do not put on too much scenarios pressure. The hounds go into the woods on the right. Damien thinks it is too dangerous to tag a long so he go behind the Bears, who has moved behind the wall. The bears on the left go on the hill for the defensive bonus.

Bohdan put IR on Strix and Earth’s Blessing on himself. Everybody shuffles forward. Both the Primevals also cast Earth’s Blessing. The picture above shows the end of round 1.

Round 2

My opponent always plays a very careful game. Some might say defensive, but that is not really true. He basically buys his time. Round 2 doesn’t see a lot of action from Kishtaar. The Reavers on the right just shuffles slightly forward and the left tyrant moves to its master behind the house. That is basically it.

End of round 2, end of game

This is the first time scoring is possible. So, on the right the Hounds just moves a bit forward. They stay in the forest and is going to score the flag. Damien has found some courage and move into the woods behind the Hounds.

On the right, the unit of bears rush forward to score the 40 mm objective. The two 50s are out of scoring range. The left one will not be scored by the Orgoth; so that is fine. I think the Tyrant will score the left 50 mm. Enter bears. They rund forward. One gets so far that it can engage Kishtaar and contest the 50, the other two will also contest the 50.

Bohdan goes full throttle. He feats and runs to just behind the house. His bodyguards, the Liegemen tag along. Vorony is also there to pick up corpses from what will inevitable die. Strix and one of the Primevals stays just behind them to act as a deterrent. Finally, the last Primeval moves up behind the bears in the forest. He has now put a lot of assassination pressure on Kisthaar.

This round ends with the scenario score of 2-1 in Bohdan’s favour. The picture above shows the end of the first scoring round

Round 3

Kisthaar is scared. She is afraid of Bohdan doing an assassination run or even Strix coming in and chewing her up. Everything not otherwise occupied are piling in around he to deny any landing spots.

On the left, the unit of Reavers moves into the bears to contest the 40 mm. On the right, the birds fly down and chew up the Hounds. Through some combination of Azdharak, the rightmost unit of Reavers and the Tyrant, the Primeval and bears on the right are killed. This is unfortunate. This means that the scenario score is only 2-2.

End of round 3, end of game

Bohdan would like to do his assassination thing. Unfortunately, almost all the opponent’s models are cluttered around Kisthaar to avoid said assassination thing. Chief among these models is the Revenant Champion. That is an extremely good model at only 4 point. Guard Dog, Impervious Flesh, Inhuman Resolve and Shield Guard. All the rules that can cock up any cool assassination attempts.

However, there is another way. If only Azdharak could be moved out of the way, Strix could charge it, Shift of it and start hitting Kisthaar. If only… Enter Befuddle… Azdharak moves. Bohdan also casts Incite and Strix charges. It is not really a problem getting to Kisthaar. Unfortunately, she is at DEF 17, which is hard even for MAT 9. She does loose quite a lot of boxes. But, alas the maths is not on my side.

On the bright side, it is the first time I have seen my opponent sweat. That is a huge improvement over the other times I have played him. Next time…

We end the game here as everything Old Umbrey is going to die now.

Summary

It has been a wonderful day. As always at Warmachine tournaments the people are lovely and the games are fun. I reached my goals. A it is quite clear that I got beaten by superior opponents. This tournament was a shark tank.

Now I’m off to bed to be ready for day two where a team tournament is happening. Two Vikings and a Thrall will strike again. We just need to find a thrall.

Until next time for the Motherland and the old faith!

The Motherland going to Rhein Con (day 1)

Igor Khador — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:49:00 +0000

This is the first time this part of the Motherland goes to Düsseldorf, Germany and Rhein Con. It is going to be so much fun. I already know the location from WTC last year. It should be slightly less rusty that Conquest in January. Yet, who knows. It seems that every time I go to a major event, I’m taught new ways of playing Warmachine. So, as always I’m aiming for not being last and winning at least one match.

This is my first time at Rhein Con. It is three days of tournament play. Some of them are solo, some of them are teams. It is my first tournament since Conquest in Oslo (for coverage se here, here and here). I already know the venue and hood from WTC last year (see here and here for coverage). It is always nice to meet old and new friends, and being taught how to actually play Warmachine.

My ambitions is as always to win at least one and not come last.

I’m brining my Valerii list, which has been stable since Conquest. The second list is, at least for me the new kid on the block Zahara. I’m quite confident playing Valerii. I just need to figure out how to pick the right opponents. I have next to no idea how to pilot Zahara. This will be interesting.

Khador – Winter Korps
Kapitan Zahana Vilkul

   – Fog of War

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Great Bear [15]

     HEAD – Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Deep Freezer

     LEFT ARM – Battle Axe

   – Razor [18]
AC-2 Bison [10]

AC-2 Bison [10]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Sergeant Goran Lazarenko, the Jackal [2]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Ths Hounds [8]

Winter Korps Infantry [6]

   – Auto Cannon

   – Auto Cannon

   – Winter Korps Standard [1]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Valerii Savaryn

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield
Kontroller [4]

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

Sergeant Sergie Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]
Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Hit & Run

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

Winter Korps under Kommander Valerii Savaryn

The Empress’ best boy is leading the first list. He has been allowed to field, not one, but two of the Motherland’s new toys: the Avalanches. They look so good on paper. They can trivially reach out and touch something between 14″ and and 16″ away. Add a bit of Kill Order and let the mayhem begin. They have, so far been a lot of fun, and a good way of keeping opponents honest. He will also field two units of Suppressors, who are just good. Although in my experience they either kill everything or nothing. There doesn’t seem to be an average day in a Suppressors life.

A Wrecking Crew is also there. They are a good target for At All Cost, due to Vengeance. The Combination of Puissance and Kill Order allows them to actually Wreck stuff. Add a bit of support and a unit of snipers with a dog, and I think the infantry line is good to go.

I’m brining the Kontroller Module. So far it has been working wonders. The Kontroller brings a spray and as a ‘jack Marshal with the Shatter Drive, and Dire Wolf with a Long Axe and Shield Guard seems to be the natural choice. These two BFFs can also baby sit a 50 mm objective in either Color Guard, Trench Warfare or Best Laid Plans; in particular with the support of an Officer and a Mechanik.

Winter Korps under Kapitan Zahara Vilkul

Zahara is the new kid on the block. She can reach out a touch things at ridiculous distances. Most ‘casters being at the end of Zahara’s charge will die. However, she might be a one trick pony. She doesn’t really do a lot for her army and I suspect that the savvy opponent will be able to protect against a Vilkul Whirlwind. Let’s see.

She is brining an Avalanche, because. A Great Bear with a Deep Freezer and Razor. The latter seems odd and too pricey on paper. However, there is a rumour that it over performs. I’m curious to see what it can do.

Finally, there are two Bisons for speed and board presence. The normal support from Arkanists, an Officer and a unit of Snipers. She is also bringing all the other new toys: the Jackal and the Hounds. They will also be interesting to observe on the table. Finally, inspired by my mirror match at Conquest, I’m experimenting with Infantry. So, all in all a lot of new toys that I only have a theoretical understanding of.

Battle 1 — Brineblood Marauders

My first battle is against the drunk pirate trolls. I always seem to be struggling with them. There is always a lot of Marauders, who on paper looks bad. But somehow thy manage to layer all sorts of buff and then kill my models. Also, the Lochabash Brothers are in the list. They are brand new and I haven’t seen them before.

My lovely German opponent is bringing an untraditional list — there are only three units of Marauders. How odd. It is lovely painted. As a small fun fact, he has actually done a battle report from his side of the table. It can be found here.

Southern Kriels – Brineblood Marauders

        Admiral Boomhowler

        – SPELL – Rough Seas

        – SPELL – Fortify

        – SPELL – Fury’s Strength

        – Great Old One [16]

        – Reef Troll [8]

        	– HEAD – Matey

        	– BOOZE – Ale Tankard

        	– RIGHT ARM – Ship’s Gun

        	– LEFT ARM – Boarding Axe

        – Vorogger [12] 
        Booty Boss [2]

        Booty Boss [2]

        Fire Guardian [1]

        Fire Guardian [1]

        First Mate Hargor Stormjaw [4]

        Fugue Walker [4]

        Fugue Walker [4]

        Greygore Boomhowler [4]

        Madame Moriarty [3]
        Lochabash Brothers [9]

        Marauder Crew [6]

        – Marauder Crew Bosun [3]

        Marauder Crew [6]

        – Marauder Crew Tapper [1]

        Marauder Crew [6]

        – Marauder Crew Tapper [1]

        Pyg Boarding Party [6]

        – Pyg Coxswain [1]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Break Through

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Defenses

        	– Barrier

        	– Barrier

        	– Fire Pit

        – Lucky Penny
        Total Points   100/100

We are playing playing Two Fronts. This looks like a job for Valerii. The Kontroller Module can keep an eye on my 50 mm, whilst the rest of the army deals with the opponent. The two Avalanches should keep the opponent honest, if not sober. The should give the Suppressors time to deal with the medium based infantry. Let’s see how it fares.

Deployment

The game is Two Fronts. That is two 50 mm objectives (cohort, battle engine and leader) across from each other on one flank; two 40 mm objectives (unit and leader) across each other on the opposite flank; and a flag (two models) in the middle. Valerii wins the dice roll and deceides to go first.

The Marauders deploy two beasts on the right side of the board, near the 50 mm objective. Also, a unit of Marauders join them, and I think a Fugue Walker. On the opposite of the board, the last two Marauder units deploy. Every else goes in the middle along with the Warlock. The Fire Guardians near their 40 mm and 50 mm objective.

Valerii deploys the Kontroller Module on the right flank to deal with the 50 mm objective. The Snipers advance deploy on the left to put some pressure on the 40 mm objectives. The middle is deployed according to doctrine.

End of deployment

The picture above shows the board after deployment. We shake hands and kicks off into round 1.

Round 1

The exiting round begins with Valerii advancing everything. There isn’t anything to be scared of yet. So, it is full steam ahead to grab as much board as possible and put the pressure on the opponent. As always, he drops Superiority on one of the Avalanches, Escort on himself, and Puissance on the Wrecking Crew.

My opponent is on to the Avalanches. So, despite this round also being full steam (or whatever beast run on) ahead, it is with an eye on the two fast guys. Not to mention a certain respect for the Suppressors as well.

On the left flank, all the Marauders moves forwards and to the left, mostly staying behind the cloud. On the right flank, stuff clumps up around the Great Old One, along with the Admiral. The middle is almost empty with the brothers behind the Vorogger.

The Admiral puts Fortify (+2 ARM) on the Vorogger and Storm Rager (+2 MAT, ARM and melee damage) on the Fugue Walker to the left. Rough Seas (roll three die on ranged attacks, remove the highest) also goes up. And something else I forgot.

End of round 1

The picture above shows the situation at the end of the shuffling round before everything properly starts. Let the second round commence.

Round 2

Now the action can begin. Valerii is attempting to get some shooting done. However, Storm Rager is kind of messing up the plan. I know Marauders can somehow go from not hurting a fly on paper, to kill everything (I have still not understand the mechanism. It must be magic), I’m taking the chance and positioning them to take the alpha. This might be a mistake.

On the left flank, I manage to get rid of on of the pesky Fire Guardians and remove some Marauders. Not too impressive. The two Avalanches position to be a threat in the next round. Either against the two heavies or perhaps against the Admiral herself.

On the right flank, the Dire Wolf attempts to position to score the home objective and contest the enemy objective. However, after quite a lot of converting inches to millimeter (why not just one type of units?) and chatting to the nice judge, it turns out that a 50 mm (or 1.96850394 inch, if you prefer) is too small to do that.

Let’s do the maths:

The board is 4 feet = 48″
The 50 mm, or 1.96850394″ objective is 18″ in. So the front of the objective will be at 19.96850394″.
This is also true for the other objective.
This leaves 8.06299212″ between the two objectives.
You have to be within 3″ to either score or contest. That leaves a required base size of 2.06299212″.
A 50 mm base is 1.96850394″.
That means we are missing 0.09448818″.
or ~2.4 mm in sensible units.
Thus, a 50 mm base cannot score and contest both 50 mm objectives in Two Fronts.

From now on I’m going to refer to the 50 mm objective as a 1.96850394″ objective: “Where are we placing the 50 mm objective in this scenario?“. “What are you talking about?“. “The largest objective“. “Ah, you mean the 1.96850394″ objective. The one with the large base size?“…. I’m going to be so popular.

Anyway, in the middle, the Suppressors prepare to receive the alpha with the Wrecking Crew behind to retaliate. The Avalanche prepares to threat something. Valerii hangs back. The picture below shows the end of Valerii’s turn

End of turn 1

The drunken troll pirates strike back. The Admiral readies her forces and feats (+2 DEF and Rapid Healing inside her 14″ control). On the right flank, the Great Old One walks up and trivially eats the Dire Wolf (the one on the 1.96850494″ base). A Fugue Walker kills the Mechanik. Marauders clean out the Suppressors

On the left flank, more Maraduers pile in. They kill the Snipers, but only one of the Suppressors. In the middle, more Marauders join the frey, along with the three brothers. Two Suppressors and two Wrecking Crew go down. The Vorogger rush through the forrest to be an annoyance. The picture below shows the result of Marauder Mayhem. Scenario score is 3-0 in the drunk trolls favour.

End of round 2

OK! So, that was rough. I did the major error I often do, in particular during my first game in a tournament. I overextended the army and over estimated their resilience. I was actually thinking that during the first round. I get existed and was stuff to happen. As so often, stuff did happen. Let’s see if there is anyway of getting back from this?

Round 3

It is not completely lost yet. There is always an assassination probability where there are two Avalanches on the table. However, that is for all practical purposes zero in this round. So, a bit of cleaning up perhaps.

On the left flank, the two remaining Suppressors in concert with an Avalanche cleans up a bit in the horde of Marauders. Should be sufficient to score my 40 mm and contest the other one. On the right flank, the Kontroller has to contest the opponent’s objective, whilst a Mechanik and an Officer contest my objective.

In the middle, attempts are made to hurt the Vorogger. That turns out to be next to impossible. It has ARM 18 (base 16 + Fortify), Impervious Flesh, and is under Storm Rager. It is like hitting a rock. Despite Valerii feating for a few Kill Orders. Nothing really happens.

That is basically is. I made a single scenario point, so I’m still in the game. The picture below shoes the lack of result.

End of Valerii’s turn

I have basically lost. So, I’m arguing for an assassination. I’m taunting the Vorogger a lot to get it to assassinate Valerii. It is surprisingly difficult to goat a German into anything. But af some name calling and referring to a specific breed of birds, I’m successful. The Vorogger deceides to assassinate Valerii.

Before the assassination run the Pygs on the left flank advance to contest the objective. On the right flank, models are removed so both objectives can be scored. The the Vorogger stares down Valerii.

A Vorogger might be very difficult to kill, but that is nothing compare to how bad it is at killing stuff. Six attacks are made. Valerii is still standing. The Brothers are called into help. Only two of them can reach Valerii. They do an impressive amount of damage. Yet, he remains standing. This does obviously not put an end to the taunting. However, flipping the clock does. I loose on scenario. The picture below shows the loss of Valerii.

End of game

I lost. Not a huge surprise. My opponent was clearly a superior player. Also, I did my usually mistake in my first game. I rush the enemy hoping to get into the action fast. Khador simply does not survive an alpha. It should play better tactical.

Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun and my opponent was lovely.

Battle 2 — Storm Legion

Next up is Storm Legion under Caine 4. I have always found Storm Legion quite boring to play against. I can’t put my finger on why. They just are. Luckily, the Polish player is a very nice guy and have made some really cool tokens.

Despite having had the best Januar update in the history of the game, it is Caine 4 staring at me. He is quite difficult to get rid of and they tend to shoot a lot. We are playing Tench Warfare, which is kind of fitting thinking about the next Cygnar army. It is a bit of a odd Caine list, but just a bit. The list is as follows.

Cygnar – Storm Legion

        Major Allistr Caine

        – Arcane Shield

       	– Calamity

       	– Deflection

       	– Heightened Reflexes

       	– Teleport
       	– Courser

			– Storm Thrower

        	– Voltaic Punching Spike

        – Courser

			– Storm Thrower

			– Voltaic Punching Spike

        – Courser

			– Storm Thrower

			– Voltaic Punching Spike

        – Courser

			– Storm Thrower

			– Voltaic Punching Spike
        Legionnaire Officer

        Lieutenant Sara Brisbane

        – Deuce

        Zephyr
        Arcane Mechanics

        Storm Lance Legionnaires

        Storm Lance Legionnaires

        Storm Vanes

        Black 13
        Command Cards

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Defenses

        	– Barrier

        	– Barrier

        	– Barrier

        – Hit & Run

        – Lucky Penny

        – Sapper
        Total Points   100/100

I should probably play Zahara for the wild assassination run; she will trivially take out Caine if she can get there. However, with all the electric leaping going on, I’m opting for Valerii. More Armour, the Kontroller Module for handling one of the 50 mm objectives, and Avalanches to threat Caine.

Deployment

We are playing Trench Warfare. Caine wins the roll of and decides to go first. He deploys a unit of cavalry on each flank. The Zephyr in the middle with Caine and the Coursers scattered across the line. Brisbane and Deuce go to the left and the Black 13 Advance Deploy in front of them.

End of deployment

Valerii deploys the Kontrolle Module to the left to focus on the enemy 50 mm. A unit of Suppressors tag along eyeing the cavalry. On the far right, the unit of Snipers deploy. Most other stuff goes in the middle, with a slight overweight to the right flank for working the friendly 50 mm objective.

The deployment is shown in the picture above. Onwards to the first round.

Round 1

In general, Cygnar’s first turn is a bit cautious. The cavalry advances, but stays hidden behind buildings or woods to avoid the hail of lead the Suppressors are preparing. Most other stuff advance in the middle to stay behind the Barriers. The Zephyr hangs back.

Valerii does his usual thing. Escort goes up, Superiority on one of the Avalanches, Puissance on the Wrecking Crew along with At All Cost. On the right flank, the Snipes run up behind to house, trying to stay away from any lightning. On the left flank, the Suppressors move up behind the woods, avoiding the cavalry. The middle shuffles forward, attempting to stay of out charge range; shooting range is unavoidable when playing Cygnar.

The picture below depicts the situation before the lightning storm breaks out.

End of round 1

This is the situation. Let’s see how much pain Cygnar can bring when engagement begins.

Round 2

Cain starts by ordering Deuce and a Courser to move in and spray, and shoot the Suppressors on the left flank. I now notice that I manage to line them up perfectly for spraying. The combination of Powerfull Attack and Reload makes Deuce a brute. What remains in the smouldering pile of slag is taken care of by the Black 13. No more Suppressors. The cavalry moves a bit forward, but stays behind the woods.

On the right flank, the cavalry moves around the house and remove the Snipers and dog. Everything else stay nice and cozy behind the Barriers.

Revenge is best served cold. So, the Kontroller moves up and attempts to spray the two ‘jacks on the left. It doesn’t really work. Yet, the Dire Wolf charges. It is a bit risky, yet I’m aiming to put a lot of heavy around into the Cygnar line to give them something to deal with. Both ‘jacks survive.

On the right flank, the Avalanche moves up and kills a guys on a horse. The second Avalanche is fules up, and after removing the Barrier in front of Cain slams it way there. It does manage to get a single attack to land in the face of the gun mage, which is not enough. But enough for Cain to think about getting a new pair of pants. The Wrecking Crew follows suit and one of them connects with the Zephyr. Everybody else moves forward.

The picture below shows the situation after Valerii’s big advance.

End of round 2

This is my plan. Put a lot of heavy armour into the front line of the enemy. I just hope that it is difficult to deal with. I do hear a lot about Khador’s huge armour — I’m usually disappointed.

Round 3

Cain feats. On the left flank, the cavalry moves to my flag and kills the Kontroller. The Officer stands strong. On the right flank, the other cavalry unit attempts to take out the Avalanche, without any luck. All the action is in the middle.

Through some clever order of activation, Cain mange to basically remove everything. An ARM 22 Avalanche evaporates, an ARM 21 Dire Wolf disappears faster that you can say Powerfull Attack, the wrecking crew melts in front of a Zephyr and Courser, Sergei falls to the Zephyr. ARM 20 base doesn’t really do it when the DEF is like an immovable object. I was hoping for less.

Not all is lost, just most of it. There is a chance that I could pull out an Avalanche rabbit again. That is why I have two. The last Avalanche moves around the corner of the house, attempting to take out the Course and line up for slamming into the lines the next round. It does not kill the Courser. The Mechanik moves into the way between the cavalry and the Avalanche. The Suppressors move to the objective to score and attempts to shoot another Courser. Not a lot of luck here either. The Officer to the left moves into the terrain to at least contest for one round.

That is it. The picture below shoes the sorry remains. Scenario score is 6-4 in Cain’s favour.

End of round 3

As predicted, I got disappointed. ARM 20 doesn’t really cut it when DEF is like a welded shut door. It was a gamble that did not payoff. Let’s see how horrible round 4 can be. On the bright side I can’t loose that many more models.

Round 4

Cain and his troops being on the right flank. I’m a bit unsure how it happed, but the cavalry somehow got past the Mechanik or he got killed. Either way, the two Storm Lancers arrive next to the Avalanche. That is not good news. With a bit of help from a fully fuelled Courser, it goes down. Deuce and the Zephyr easily remove the last unit of Suppressors. Finally, the cavalry on the left flank kills the valiant Officer.

Game is done. I loose on scenario 10-5. The picture below shows the sorry state of play.

End of game

Hard match, nice opponent. I still find Storm Legion pretty boring to face. I think it has to do with all the: “This thing can do this“, “OK, not too bad“, “But if this guy is near, and this other one does this, and oh, by the way my weapon has this special ability“, “Ok, that is bad“. I’m reminded why I loved Butcher 1’s card. Not extra rules! I’m old, I dose off from all the rule interactions…

Anyway, onwards to the next battle.

Battle 3 — Shadowflame Shard

Next up is Shadowflame Shard. Traditionally, this can go either way. As long as I don’t get hit by them, it’s ok.

It is Kyrrax staring at me from the other side of the table. I haven’t played that one before. I’m told it is kind of like Shadowflame’s Butcher. There is the usual twin Paragons to mess up shooting. Skylla is manageable. I donøt like Incarnate Knights. They seem to always be better on the tabel than their rules dictate. The list is a follows.

Khymaera – Shadowflame Shard

        Kyrrax, the Unrelenting Night

        – Skylla, The Abyssal Fury [16]

        – Vypex [13]

        	– HEAD – Viper

        	– TAIL – Hunter’s Mark

        	– ARMS – Cleavers
        Bellighul, Master of Pain [4]

        Pythia [3]

        Ryvyn, the Onyx Rampant [6]

        Wraithwing Paragon [5]

        Wraithwing Paragon [5]
        Incarnate Knights [11]

        Quick Fang Stalkers [7]

        Shades [9]

        Talon Death Dealers [7]

        Talon Lashers [7]

        Talon Lashers [7]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Defenses

        	– Barrier

        	– Barrier

        	– Brrrier

        – Duck and Cover!

        – Lucky Penny

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points   100/100

I think this will be a job for Zahara. Her list is not relaying so much on shooting, and her massive charge range might take Kyrrax by surprise. That was at least the thinking untill my lovely opponet says: “There are so many Khador players in my meta, so I know exactly what all of you models do. No need to explain.“. This is my second or third game with Zahara. So, there is a high risk of my opponent knowing my list better than I do.

Anyway, we are playing Best Laid Plans. My opponent wins the roll-off and decides to go first. I pick sides. The two sides are quite alike. The opposite side has the obstacle more in the middle and two on both sides, forcing the enemy to gather between them. This might be an advantage, or not. Let’s see.

Deployment

The game is Best Laid Plans. There are two 50 mm objectives (cohort, battle engine, and leader) in the middle of the board. 40 mm objectives (unit and leaders) to the left, two cashes on the right, and two flags behind their corresponding 50 mm objectives.

As projected, the Khymaera player makes almost a brick in the middle. Kyrrax in the middle, and Lashers on each flank. Besides that, the deployment is infantry heavy to the left, which is no surprise as that is where the 40 mm objectives are. Finally, the Shades advance deploy in the middle.

End of deployment

Zahara deploys her troops in a slightly different manner that before. According to imperial standards, a unit of Snipers go on each flank. One of the Great Bears go to the right to mess with the cashes and the 50 mm. Heavy deployment to the left with both Avalanches and the Bison, supported by the Wrecking Crew. The small figures go in the middle with Zahara.

The picture above shows the situation after deployment, and just before everything kicks off.

Round 1

First round is as most often quite uneventful. Kyrrax moves everything forward in a nice brick, except for the Quick Fang Stalkers who wish to ambush.

End of round 1

Zahara orders both the Snipers to move far ahead. Lorenzo moves into the cloud to get Stealth. Volkova and an Offices moves into the scenario terrain to be ready to score. Everybody else shuffles forward, staying outside charge ranges. The Wrecking Crew moves in front of Zahara to keep her safe.

I forgot to take a picture after the first turn. So, the picture above shows the end of the first round.

Round 2

This is round when stuff normally happen. Let’s see what Kyrrax can come up with.

I did manage to over extend the Snipers on the right flank. A unit of Lashers take advantage of that a kill one of them, whilst tying the rest of the unit up. Something kills Lorenzo. I can’t remember what. A Paragon and the Shades move into the trench for all the bonuses they can get.

On the left flank, there is a much more cautious advance. The forces gather and even Kyrrax moves a bit to the left. Everybody stays out of Avalanche range.

The picture below shows the end of Kyrrax’ turn. Let’s see what Zahara can come up with.

End of turn 1

On the right flank, the Great Bear charges the Lashers and only manage to kill one of them. I’m not sure it was the smartest move. But I think I had a plan. The Hounds move in front of the big rock, whilst Zahara moves behind it.

On the left flank, models just shuffle around to stay out of charge range. I hoping to force Kyrrax to take the first initiative. The Snipers move into the woods to work as bait. Finally, the Wrecking Crew moves just up behind the cloud.

The picture below shows the end of Zahara’s turn.

End of round 2

Now it is getting interessting. We have both be playing rather defensive, except for my right flank. This can not go on forever. On to round 3.

Round 3

This is probably the round where something hits the proverbial fan. Let’s see what Kyrrax can throw at Zhara’s fan.

On the right flank, a clean up takes place after I overextended. The Great Bear is trivially removed. I also learn that the Shades have Fortune Hunter (additional die on attack and damage rolls against character models). The Hounds also learns this. One is left alive.

On the left flank, the Stalkers arrive from ambush. The Lashers, expectedly removes the Snipers. But, that was the Snipers’ job. The Knights move in front of Kyrrax to protect it. That is about it. The left flank was as expected and planned. Whereas, the right flank was poor play from my side.

The picture below depicts the end of Kyrrax’ first really violent round.

End of turn 1

Zahara needs to get stuff done. However, the right flank is lost. So she moves to the trench on the left flank. Everybody else tag along.

On the left flank, the Wrecking Crew clears out the Lashers and an Avalanche moves in behind them for a bit of protection and hitting back in the next round. The second Avalanche backs off a bit to stay away from the Knights. Finally, the Bison attempts to do stuff to the Quick Fangs, without a lot of luck.

End of round 3

The picture above shoes the end of round 3. We somehow managed to end at a scenario score of 6-6. I’m not quite sure how. But it is impressive.

Round 4

The right flank is lost to Zahara and Kyrrax can easily exploit that. I’m pretty sure the left flank will be hit with everything.

On the right flank, everything moves towards the left flank. The only ones hanging around are the Shades. They go after Volkova and the Officer. Not surprisingly, Volkova does not survive. The Officer does, though.

On the left flank everything piles in. A Paragon and the Knight clean out the Wrecking Crew, and the Quick Fangs pile in to score the objective. Luckily, the Avalanche survives. Kyrrax itself plays safe and stays behind the house.

The picture below shows the result on the mayheim on the left flank.

End of turn 1

Zahara is in trouble. The left flank is done for and she can’t bring herself in a position for an assination run. She needs to pull some sort of furry animal out of some sort of apparel.

She is going to feat, however. I can’t remember the exact order of activation. Yet, the combination of her feat, and some killing; the Avalanche and Great Bear in concert; and the Bison; most of the stuff on the right flank goes away. Only two knights are left.

The scenario score is now 10-8 in Kyrrax’ favour. So, Zahara is still in the game — barely. The picture below shows the situation at the bottom of 4.

End of round 4

Kyrrax has 11 minutes on the Clock, Zahara 14. So, we have plenty of time. However, it is not going her way. Let’s see how Kyrrax ends the game.

Round 5

The Knights charge in a does a bit of damage. However, the main purpose was to make room for the Vypex to charge Zahara. The Vypex dispatches Zahara.

End of round 5, end of game

The picture above show the end of Zahara’s attempt at facing the Shadowflame Shard. In some way it was OK. Except for over extending on the right flank. Lovely game and opponent. My initial assumption was right: he knew my models better than me.

One more loss under the belt. Onwards to the next game.

Battle 4 — House Kallyss

Last game of today is against House Kallyss. This could be promising as I have a pretty good track record against them. Nice German guy is piloting the dead elves. Very nicely painted model as well. That is always nice. I have good experience running Valerii against the elves; and I just had Zahara killed, so he is the choice.

The Dusk player is playing Morayne, who can be quite some trouble. There are two units of Cavalry, which rarely is a problem when there are Suppressors on the table. The list is a follows (from memory).

Dusk – House Kallyss

        Morayne, The Blade of Twilight

        – Ghast[8]

        	– HEAD – Arc Node

        	– RIGHT ARM – Heavy Blade Fist

        	– LEFT ARM – Battle Shield

        – Israfyl [17]
        Dyssiss, the Eye of Darkness [4]

        Krueger, Wrath of Blighterghast [7]

        Mage Hunter Commander [4]

        Mage Hunter Commander [4]

        Mage Hunter Sniper Team [3]

        Mage Hunter Sniper Team [3]

        Void Shaper [2]
        Dreadguard Archers [9]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Mage Hunter Rangers [7]

        Seeker Adepts [4]

        Soulless Blademasters [6]
        Command Cards

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Duck and Cover!

        – Hit & Run

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful
        Total Points   100/100

We are playing Wolves at Our Heels. This is where we are supposed to move the 40 mm objective across the middle line. So, aggressivenes is advised.

Deployment

Finally, I win the roll-off and decides to go first. We need some scenario pressure.

Valerii deploys in accordance with empirical standards. Snipers on the left flank. The Kontroller Module on the right flank. Everything else nicely distributed around Valerii in the middle.

End of Deployment

Morayne deploys in a pattern to be expected from dead elves. No straight lines. The Cavalry go on both flanks. Morayne in the middle with all the important stuff around her. The Ghast behind the house, and the Archers on the right flank.

The picture above shows the end of deployment.

Round 1

First round is as always the positioning app or extended deployment, if you prefer. Valerii needs to grab board and be ready to kill some dead elves. Preferably without being charged by them.

He does his standard spell casting sequence: Superiority on an Avalanche, Puissance on the Wrecking Crew, Escort on himself, and the order At All Cost on the Wrecking Crew.

On the left flank the Snipers move up and position around the 40 mm objective. They are probably going to stay there for the entire match. A unit of Suppressors move up behind them ready to control the Dusk cavalry on that flank.

On the right the Kontroller Module moves up along with an Avalance. Same procedure here: a unit of Suppressors move up to control the kittens.

In the middle, everybody else just moves forward. Valerii remains behind the big rock in the middle. It kind of ruins the view. However, probably his safe zone.

The picture below shows the end of The Motherland’s first round.

End of turn 1

The elves move forward. On the right they advance cautiously, just up to the objective. They would like to stay out of threat range from the Suppressors. The kittens prey the Suppressors. The Ghast hides behind the house.

On the left, the unit of Rangers move up and clear out gunnes the Snipers. They kill all the Snipers and the dog! I don’t like Snap Fire. The kittens move just a bit forward and prey the Suppressors.

On the middle stuff just moves a bit forward and towards the middle. The picture below shows the end of Dusk’s first round.

End of round 1

End of round one. Next round the killing can begin (eventhough the Rangers couldn’t wait). Let’s see what happens.

Round 2

Round two is all about baiting the enemy without giving the too many charge options. So, in the left the Suppressors fill the hole left by the Snipers, heat up their gatlings and wait. On the right, the Suppressors advance, attempting to stay out of charge range of the kittens and also spin up the gatlings.

In the middle, the Wrecking Crew moves up behind the cloud to get close, yet stay out of trouble. The Dire Wolf and his BFF moves towards the 50 mm. An Avalanche does the same for the other 50 mm. Everybody else just shuffles forward.

Valerii thinks he is in control. Scenario pressure is on without being in too much danger. The picture below depicts Valerii’s happy moment.

End of turn 1

The initiative is now on Morayne. She is going to use it. On the left flank, the kittens run to the Suppressors and the Blademasters ambush behind them.

On the right flank, it turns out that Morayne has rack’ed Mirage, which enable the kittens to move a bit forward. This brings them in a position to charge the Suppressors, killing two. Nice play from my opponent. Israfyl joins the party and removes the last Suppressor and the Dire Wolf. The later was not in my plan.

Morayne hangs back along with Krueger. The picture below shows the state of play after the elves having been naughty.

End of round 2

That was not in my plan. Loosing the Suppressors is what happens, but also the Dire Wolf was not good. Luckily, the Avalanches have been hanging back for situations exactly like this.

Round 3

It is feat time. Valerii moves up and feats. He goes Precision Strike to make manoeuvring easier, Kill Order on Israfyl and Morayne. He then cast Tides of War to get our of too much trouble. The Avalanche to the left slams Krueger into Morayne, killing him and two Adepts. Morayne is knocked down. It does not follow up to avoid getting out of control. There is not a lot that can threaten it there.

On the left, the Suppressors shoot away on the kittens, managing to kill (only) two of them.

On the right, the second Suppresor can now slam Israfyl into the house and follow up. Somehow it manage to survive but is heavily damaged. The Wrecking Crew can now charge the kittens to the right. They kill the kittens and one of them gets within 3″ of the 40 mm objective to contest. Finally, the Kontrolle charge Israyl but does not manage to kill it.

I think Valerii manage to turn the tide. He is quite happy with himself. The picture below shows Valerii having fun.

End of turn 1

Can Morayne recover from the mighthy blow from the Empress’ hammer? She can deffinitely try.

Having two ARM 22 Avalanches in the middle of your line is not fun and difficult to deal with when only Israfyl can crack armour. She starts on the left. The Archers charge the Wrecking Crew and kills the one contesting. Israfyl get back in the game but can’t really deal with an Avalanche. The second Avalanche needs to be tied up, which becomes a job for Dyssiss.

On the left the remaining kitten and the Blademasters hack away at the Suppressors. They manage to kill one. Finally, the Rangers move into the forreste to score.

The picture below shows the result of attempting to kick back.

End of round 3

So far Valerii is in control. Scenario score is 3-2 in Morayne’s favour. Let’s see if Valerii has more tricks up his sleaves.

Round 4

It would be nice to clean out the 40 mm objective to the left. The Suppressors attempt but only manage to remove the last kitten and one Blademaster. The Officer must step up, charges and kill another Blademaster. Still one left.

The Avalanche in the middle moves to the woods to contest. Good use of 15 points, I think.

On the right, the Wrecking Crew mop up the Archers. The Avalanche removes Israfyl. Everybody else moves up behind them. Valerii moves into the woods and camps a lot. He really would like to survive this. It is looking good. But, I have often snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The picture belows shows Valerii avoiding jaws and having a scenario socre of 5-3 in his favour.

End of turn 1

Morayne is under a lot of pressure. She can basically only drag out the pain and perhaps look for an assassination possibility.

On the right the Ghast finally comes out of hiding to contest the 40 mm objective and kill a single Suppressors. it is joind by Morayne who thinks this is a safe spot. The Void Shaper contests the 50 mm. Dyssiss moves to the other 50 mm.

That is about it. The picture below shows the state of play now.

End of round 4

Scenario score is now 5-4 in Valerii’s favour. He has 17 minutes left of the clock. The dead elves have almost 2 minutes. I think Valerii is going to win. Let’s see.

Round 5

This is basically a clean up turn. The left flank is cleaned up. The two Rangers are killed by the Avalanche. The other Avalanche cleans up what is around it, and the last of the Wrecking crew plus Sergie remove the Ghast. Unfortunately, Morayne is left alive. Vaelyss becomes a ghost.

The picture below depicts Valerii’s de facto victory. The elves only have Morayne and the angry ghost left. With a scenario score of 7-4 in Valerii’s favour and only 1:50 left on the clock the game is over.

End of turn 1, round 5. End of game

Hurrah! I managed to win one game. I’m so happy. Very nice opponent and a fun game. I should not have lost the Dire Wolf, though. However, a win is a win.

Summary & Lessons Learned

Dear reader, if you made it all the way down here, I’m impressed. I was a long day. Four games is a bit hard. Yet, a lot of fun. As with all Warmachine tournaments everybody were lovely and we had a lot of fun.

I met my goals. I won one! Most of the reason I lost three games is clearly that they are better players than me. On my side, It is clear that I still get to impatient and have not lost faith in the old descrition of Khador as being slow, yet able to take to alpha, and then hit back. It hasn’t been true for many years (if ever). Yet, I still think so. More patience is the way to go. Also, I need to know my opponenets bettter.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day with new possibiliets. So, onwards till tomorrow.

For the Motherland!

The Motherland goes to Conquest (day 3)

Igor Khador — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 10:32:00 +0000

Day three and final day of Conquest. I’m thinking two days of warm up. It is now I strike. There is a new day, new opportunities. I’m getting comfortable with the Valerii list. Yet, still not with the Yara list. This final day is going to be tough. I’m sticking to my normal ambition: Win at least one and don’t end up last. Let’s see how the Motherland fares.

Day three and final day of Oslo Conquest (for the day 1 report see here, and day two here). It is three days of tournament play, and I’m getting a bit tired. I think I’m getting to grips with the big January update of 2025.

My ambitions is, as always to win at least one and not end up last.

I’m sticking with Valerii. He was doing pretty well yesterday and I think I’m getting the handle of this list. I’m also still bringing Yana with a Mastodon and all the Pikemen. I still haven’t gotten her to work, despite actually winning one yesterday. I still really want to get the Pikemen to work. I still think they are an unpolished gem. Let’s see.

Khador – Winter Korps
Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy

   – Fog of War

   – Puissance

   – Mastodon [32]

     HEAD – Shock Assault

     RIGHT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     LEFT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     RIGHT ARM – Great Axe

     LEFT ARM – Grinder Fist
AC-2 Bison [10]

AC-2 Bison [10]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Magziev Zarivah Volkova [4]

Mortar Team [2]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Duck and Cover!

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Valerii Savaryn

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield
Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Kontroller [4]

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

Sergeant Sergie Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

A few thoughts on the lists can be found in the report from day 1, which can be found here.

Battle 1 — House Kallyss

The dead elves are back. So far, I have managed to loose one and win one against these guys. So, it can go either way. This time it is a lovely Norwegian guy. He is bringing the following (from memory).

Dusk – House Kallyss
        Tyrus, Nis-Arsyr of Spiders

        	– Eidolon [17]

        		– HEAD – True Sight

        		– RIGHT ARM – Dawn Blade

        		– LEFT ARM – Force Shield

        		– BACK – Force Cannon

        	– Ghast [7]

        		– HEAD – Arc Node

        		– RIGHT ARM – Heavy Blade Fist

        		– LEFT ARM – Light Blade Fist
        Mage Hunter Commander [4]

        Void Engine [8]

        	– Wight
        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Slayers [8]

        Mage Hunter Assassins [6]

        Mage Hunter Assassins [6]

        Seeker Adepts [4]

        Soulless Blademasters [6]

        Soulless Guardians [6]

        Soulless Guardians [6]
        Total points  100/100

This round is Two Fronts. In principle, it is a Mastodon friendly scenario. However, there is a lot of large base fast stuff, and I am getting somewhat comfortable with Valerii. So, he is up.

Deployment

We are playing Two Fronts. I win the roll-off and decides to go first. It is beneficial to get up the board and put some scenario pressure on the opponent as fast as possible; or that is the theory, at least.

Valerii deploys the Kontroller module on the left flank. Ready to move up and park on one, or even two of the 50 mm objectives. On the right flank, a unit of Suppressors and a unit of Snipers line up to deal with the two 40 mm objectives. The flag ends up on the wall in the middle. So, that is most likely going to be contested for ever. Unless the super fast Avalanches can work their magic. Everything else goes, more or less in the middle.

Tyrus deploys a unit of kittens on each flank. Himself in the middle, right in front of the Void Engine. A ‘jack on each flank with a unit of shield guards just on the inside of them. All advance deployment models deploy in some sort of terrain.

That is it. We are ready to rumble. The picture below shows the nice view before it gets ruined by stuff smacking each other around.

End of deployment

That is it. We are both ready and motivated. Let’s see where this goes.

Round 1

Valerii does his standard 1. turn. He casts Escort, Puissance on the Wrecking Crew and Superiority on one of the Avalanches. He then goes At All Cost, giving Shield Guard to the unit with Vengeance. He the runs to the rubble in the middle.

On the right flank, the Snipers run to the water feature ready to be annoying around the 40 mm bases. The Suppressors tag along. On the left flank, the Kontroller modules runs to the wall. Everybody else just go full speed ahead.

The picture below shows the situation after the Motherland’s finest has been sprinting.

End of turn 1

Tyrus sends his kittens up both flanks as far as they can get. A unit of Guardians, along with the Ghast move towards the 40 mm objectives. Everybody else just run up the field headed by the Eidolon and the Swordmasters. The picture below shows the situation just before something hits somebody’s fan.

End of round 1

Boring round done. Let’s start cracking skulls.

Round 2

One can say a lot about the Norwegians but the are polite people. This Norwegian in particular has placed his Eidolon up front within range of the leftmost Avalanche. I can only assume it is in the spirit of Nordic solidarity. Also being polite, I think it would be wrong to disappoint him. So, the Avalanche better slam it. To do this, Valerii has to move Superiority to that ‘jack, which he does after up-keeping the other two spells. He then moves a bit to the left to be able to stand valiantly behind the wall of steel that will move there shortly.

The Arkanists fill up the Avalanche with focus, the Mechanik gives it Pathfinder, and off it goes. It slams directly into the Eidolon and slams it across a unit of Guardians killing four of them. The Eidolon is naturally knocked down and does take som damage. However, the Slam God does not follow up. It rather takes a swing at the Assassins without any luck. Now the party is started.

On the left flank, the Kontroller module stays behind the wall eyeing the kittens and being within 3″ of the home 50 mm objective. On the right flank, the two Suppressor units move up and shoots the other kitten unit to death. The Snipers move in between the two 40 mm objectives to interact with both of them.

In the middle, the Wrecking Crew moves to the flag wall and change into a Speed Bump Crew. The second Avalanche screens Valerii. Hey, Ho, let’s go. The picture below depicts the result of putting stuff “near” the Slam God. ARM 22 ‘jack almost in the opponent’s deployment zone.

End of turn 1

The look on the lovely Norwegian’s face when accepting his slam present was worth a lot. Apparently, I might have misunderstood the gesture. At least everything that can reach the Avalanche charge, move or just hit it. I does not feel appreciated. ARM 22 and 34 boxes is nice. It is still standing after the smoke clears.

On the right flank, the Slayers, a unit of Assassins, the Ghast and some other stuff attempt to chew into the Wrecking Crew. Such a crew is rather robust and decides to hang around.

That is it for the 2. round. Valerii scores one point at the home 50 mm objective. The picture below shows the magnetic effect of an Avalanche.

End of round 2

That was an explosive round. Tyrus is on his heels. Let’s see if Valerii can keep up the momentum.

Round 3

This smells like a feat turn. Valerii does his thing and puts Kill Order on the Slayers and the kittens. He also goes for Precision Strike. The Wrecking Crew charge the kittens and… wreck them. The Dire Wolf can now move up to in between the two 50 mm objectives to score both. This is assuming that the Avalanche and friends can remove whatever contest the opponent’s 50 mm. This is now the focus of the Avalanche, and it is successful.

On the right flank, the Suppressors clean up by removing the Ghast and a bit of the chaff. Everybody else chip in and the combined might of Sergie, an Officer and a Mechanik removes the Slayers. The only things not really removed are the Swordmasters and the Eidolon. But you can’t have it all.

The picture below shows the effect of spring cleaning. Scenario score is now 6-0 in Valerii’s favour. He has 11 minutes on the clock. Tyrus almost the same with 10 minutes.

End of turn 1

Tyrus is in serious trouble. If he can’t score four points and stop Valerii from scoring a single one, he has lost.

Out of spite, I guess, Tyrus takes matter into his own hands and kill the Avalanche with the assistance of the Eidolon. The Swordmasters make a feeble attempt to kill some Wrecking Crew. At least Tyrus’ 50 mm is contested. There is nothing to do on the right flank.

Finally, a Hail Mary is attempted by the two remaining assassins — to assassinate Valerii. It is not a completely ridiculous attempt. However, Valerii is nicely protected so only one assassin makes it into contact. That is not enough.

That is it. Everybody has done their things. The picture below shows the result of dead elves attempting to encroach on Khador territory.

End of round 3, end of game

Game over. Valerii wins on scenario at 11-0. That is a pretty solid win. The game was a blast, for both players. Although I might permanently have damage the Norwegian through excessive slamming. I hope he recovers.

It turns out that placing an ARM 22 ‘jack with 34 boxes and Superiority in the middle of the opponent’s lines forces him to deal with. Despite the fact that it is most likely going to be outside Valerii’s Control Range. I can still see why it must be annoying. This leaves room for the rest of Valerii’s army. I like the Avalanche a lot. It reminds of the old days when Vlad1 did similar stuff with Marauders (there is a very old example here).

Battle 2 — Necrofactorium

Another nice Norwegian and more dead stuff. There seems to be a pattern here. This time it is not dead elves but dead everything else: the Necrofactorium. It is a bit of an odd list. I think it boils down to which models the player has. This is the list he is bringing (from memory).

Cryx – Necrofactorium

        Lich Lord Dekathus

        – Hades

        	– HEAD – Hades [16]

        	– RIGHT ARM – Soul Cannon

        	– LEFT ARM – Death Claw

        – Malefactor [15]

        	– HEAD – Dark Shroud

        	– RIGHT ARM – Fell Axe

        	– LEFT ARM – Spiked Shield

        – Raptor [6]

        	– HEAD – Doomspitter

        	– BACK – Arc Node

        – Raptor [6]

        	– HEAD – Venom Blaster

        	– BACK – Arc Node
        Machine Wraith Dominator [4]

        Magnus the Unstoppable [20]

        – Invictus

        Master Necrotech Chatterbane [4]

        Night Terrors [10]

        Sludge Thralls [8]

        The Furies [10]
        Total Points 99/100

We are playing Colour Guard, which is a scenario for the Valerii list. Also, I’m so much in love with the Avalanches right now. So there really isn’t a question. Valerii it is.

Deployment

Dekathus win the roll-off and decides to go first. I pick the side with the trench. That looks like a wonderful spot for Valerii to hang out.

The Cryx player deploys quite heavily on the left flank with the unit of Night Terrors, probably having their eyes on the cache, Magnus and Invictus and a unit of Sludge Thralls. The right flank is occupied by all the ‘jacks. Dekathus and the rest are in the middle.

Valerii does a quite standard deployment. The Kontroller module goes on the left flank with their eyes on the 50 mm there. The Snipers tag along looking at the cache.

Everything else goes into the middle, except for one unit of Suppressors who deploys far to the left to counter the Night Terrors most likely coming this way around the house.

The picture below shows the deployment of the troops before the Necrofactorium starts the party.

End of deplpoyment

I don’t think I have played Dekathus before. I’m told he can be rather tanky. Let’s see where this takes us.

Round 1

The first turn doesn’t really hold any surprises. All the Cryx and Magnus just runs forward. That is it. Nothing more to see here. The picture below shows the nothing to see.

End of turn 1

Valerii does what he always do. He casts Escort, Superiority on an Avalanche, and Puissance on the Wrecking Crew. He also shouts Precision Strike and moves a bit forward.

The left flank moves up. The snipers attempt to hide behind a house on their way to the cache. The Dire Wolf is more bold with the Kontroller behind it. In the middle, the Wrecking Crew moves in front of the lake. The Mechanik and Officer moves into the lake to be ready to score later. A Suppressor unit move in front of Valerii to screen him. The two Avalanches move forward to be ready for the potential slam party.

On the left, the Suppressors move up behind the house. That is it. The picture below shows the status before the lines meet.

End of round 1

We are ready for axe to face or more likely Avalanche to face.

Round 2

The Night Terrors start by running all the way to the left of the cache. Basically in my deployment zone. That is quite naughty. Invictus moves forward and fires the Obliterator into the Avalanche, I think. The Sludge Thralls move up to the house.

On the right flank, all the ‘jacks advance and start shooting. It turns out that at least one of them can shoot through the house. So, bye bye Snipers.

After some deliberation, Dekathus is being bold, moves into the cloud and feats. If think this brings him to ARM 23 or something like this. He feels invulnerable and taunts Valerii. The picture below shows Dekathus taunting Valerii.

End of turn 1

Valerii takes offence from Dekathus’ obscene remarks and flaunting of souls. After some internal debated, whether to kill Invictus or Dekathus. The result is killing Dekathus. So, Valerii puts focus on one of the Avalanches, feats and shouts Precision Strike, he then moves up and puts a Kill Order on Dekathus. It is Avalanche time.

The first Avalanche slams Dekathus into whomever is standing behind him. Attacks are bought until it runs out of focus. Dekathus is still alive. This situation begs the question: what is better than an Avalanche in your army? Two Avalanches!

The second Avalanche decides not to slam. Charging can also be fun. It charges in and finish off Dekathus. The kodak moment below shows why hybris is a bitch.

End of round 2, end of game

It almost took pity on the poor Norwegian and went for Invictus. However, how often do I get the chance to park two Avalanches in the face of a ‘caster?

I’m not sure what is going on today. I have won two out of two possible games. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it is examples of my superior skills (a bit perhaps). It is worth mentioning that both my opponents today are rather new to the game.

Battle 3 — Winter Korps

Final game for today, and the finals. I don’t think I have ever made it to a final before. Somehow it is fitting that I finish this wonderful time in Norway with a Finnish player. It is even going to be a mirror match. I am going to face somebody pretending to be part of the Motherland. The nice Finn is putting Zahara on the table. This is going to be interesting. The only thing in Khador that actually out-threatens an Avalanche. I have never played, nor played against her before. This is list Zahara is leading (from memory).

Khador – Winter Korps

        Kapitan Zahara Vilkul

         – Avalanche [15]

        	– HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

        	– RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

        	– LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

        – Great Bear [15]

        	– HEAD – Aggressive

        	– RIGHT ARM – Deep Freezer

        	– LEFT ARM – Battle Axe

        – Razor [18]
        AC-2 Bison [10]

        Sergeant Goran Lazarenko, the Jackal [4]

        Winter Korps Officer [3]

        Arkanists [4]

        Arkanists [4]

        The Hounds [8]

        Winter Korps Infantry [6]

        – WEAPON SUPPORT TROOPERS – Auto Cannon

        – WEAPON SUPPORT TROOPERS – Auto Cannon

        – Winter Korps Standard [1]

        Winter Korps Infantry [6]

        – WEAPON SUPPORT TROOPERS – Auto Cannon

        – WEAPON SUPPORT TROOPERS – Auto Cannon

        – Winter Korps Standard [1]

        Winter Korps Snipers [4]

        – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
        Total Points 100/100

The scenario is Payload. That is the prime example of what the Valerii list is build for. So, there really isn’t any question.

Deployment

I win the roll-off an decides to go first. I better get some board presence fast.

Valerii deploys very much in the standard way. The Kontroller module goes on the right flank to grab the 50 mm objective. The snipers go on the left flank to deal with the flag. Everything else deploys around Valerii himself.

Zahara deploys slightly of center towards the left flank. A unit of snipers go on the far right. Everthing else around her. The SKS-6 warriors advance deploys near the opponent’s 50 mm.

The picture below shows the situation before some Khador on Khador action.

End of deployment

As mentioned, I have never played, nor played against Zahara. This will be interesting and most likely educational.

Round 1

Valerii does what he normally do and casts Superiority on an Avalanche. He is picking the one not opposite the opponent’s Avalanche to avoid a Mexican standoff. He also casts Escort and Puissance on the Wrecking Crew. Finally he shouts At All Cost to the Wrecking Crew and moves behind the wall.

The Kontroller module on the right runs to the 50 mm, where I expect them to occupy most of battle. The Snipers to the left runs to the woods. Everybody else moves forward. On the right, they try to stay behind the forest, and on the left they stay out of the Avalanches range.

The picture below shows the situation just before Zahara makes her first move.

End of turn 1

It quickly becomes clear that Zahara has given up on Valerii’s 50 mm home objective. Her whole army moves forward, cautiously eyeing the two Avalanches, whilst extending towards the left flank. Not surprisingly, her Avalanche also gets Superiority.

This is, perhaps an even more uneventful round. Both lines are eyeing each other waiting for somebody to grab the initiative. The picture below depicts the waiting for grabbing initiative.

End of round 1

Something probably needs to happen. We can’t stand here all day. Let’s see where this is going.

Round 2

Something needs to happen. Valerii upkeeps his spells. He then drops a wall between the forest and the enemy’s line by casting Rock Wall. The right most officer moves into the cloud and gives the unit of Suppressors Pathfinder. They can now move through the woods and stand behind the wall, whilst shooting their lovely guns into something big.

The rightmost Avalanche is encouraged by this behaviour and shuffles forward along the forest edge. Not too far though. Better not let the opponent’s Avalanche see me. The Kontroller modules just walks to the other side of the objective. No reason to risk not scoring. Everybody else moves forward.

This is the situation that can be seen in the picture below.

End of turn 1

Valerii might have put his hand in a hornet’s nest. Let’s see how hard they sting. The Bison runs over the Rock Wall and removes it. Thinking about it now, I’m not sure we played this correctly. I can’t find anywhere where it says that the Rock Wall can be removed. It is not a Defense. Anyway, that is probably not going to be paramount for the result of this match.

Anyway, back to the Bison. It then offload its shots into the Suppressors. This is followed up by a unit of Winter Korps Infantry who does a very complicated combination of CRA shots, all originating from an Auto Cannon and all ending up in the Suppressors. We had to stop the clock whilst the nice Finn walked me through how this is. It took a few attempts until I got it. That is really cool and effective. I have never thought about that. So far, consider me educated. It is actually so efficient that the Suppressors go away.

The Avalanche then charges the remaining Suppressors, no longer behind a wall and removes them. It might have been helped by the other unit of infantry doing the same fancy CRA as the first unit. Razor wants to play and charges the rightmost Avalance. It doesn’t do a lot.

Finally, Zahara moves forward and feats. Now I can’t see most of the left flank. This was a brutal, yet educational turn. The picture below shows Valerii thinking about bringing infantry going forward. I think scenario score is 1-1.

End of round 2

This was hard. I lost both units of Suppressors and can’t see the left flank. Let’s see if there are any rabbit in Valerii’s, otherwise very lovely hat.

Round 3

It is time to get creative. Valerii upkeeps everything. The Arkanists fuel up the rightmost Avalanche which the slams the opponent’s Avalanche. Whilst doing this, it Bulldoze away Razor. The opponent’s Avalanche is not completely destroyed, but in really bad shape.

The Wrecking Crew move forward and almost remove the Bison. They get a bit of support from the Avalanche, which moves up, kills the Bison and a few infantry. The two Snipers also abandon the objective terrain, and shoots at the infantry.

On the right flank, the Kontroller fires his spray at Razor and freezes it. It it now both knocked down and stationary. This opens up for the Dire Wolf to bring axe to face. Razor does, expectedly survive.

Finally, Valerii would like to stay away from Zahara. So, he moves to the left and puts up a wall. The picture below shows the result of an attempt at spring cleaning. The scenario score is now 3-1 in Zahara’s favour.

End of turn 1

I can’t completely remember what happened here. It is an intense game, so I even forgot to take a picture. I think that a combination of The Hounds, the last of the infantry and the Great Bear removed the leftmost Avalanche and one of the Wrecking Crew.

In Zahara’s home field, not a lot happened. An ARM 22 Avalanche is difficult to deal with; in particular when your own Avalanche is in really bad shape.

Also, as Zahara has been hiding between the Retribution column to the left, Razor is outside her control area. So he does nothing. I think that was it.

Round 4

There has been a clean up of Valerii’s troops. If I’m not mistaken, he is behind on points and probably not in a position to kill Zahara.

Valerii has to move back to the first wall and drop his own. He feats for two Kill Orders on the stuff on the left flank, and a Precision Strike.

On the right flank, the Dire Wolf moves back to score the objective. This is fine as Razor is still knocked down and I’m pretty sure it will be stationary again shortly. The Kontroller makes sure that Razor is indeed both knocked down and stationary again. So, it is not a threat.

In the middle, the Arkanists are told March by an officer and moves into the woods to give focus to the Avalanche and score the 40 mm objective. Said officer also goes next the that objective. For good measure, he puts a shot into Razor. The Avalanche says thank you to the Arkanists and kill the opponent’s Avalanche.

The Wrecking Crew has to deal with the infantry and can’t kill the Great Bear. The Mechanik moves up to block it. The officer moves into the forest to contest the 50 mm.

That is it. Valerii is slowly running out of models. Luckily, so is Zahara. The picture below shows the quickly emptying battle field. Scenario score is now 4-3 in Zahara’s favour.

End of turn 1

Zahara has 15 minutes left, so does Valerii. She is most likely not going to score the right 50 mm objective, she might contest. She will probably not score the left one either. However, Valerii hasn’t got the models to score that one. With the Avalanche in her home field, she is not going to scor the 40 mm either. She can contest both 40 mm, though.

On the left flank, the Great Bear completely ignores the Mechanik, walks forward and kills the two remaining Wrecking Crew. That seems excessive.

On the right flank, the infantry has work to do. They chip away at the Avalanche. Yet, there is a long way to go. The Snipers charge the Arkanists, kill one and now contest. Something also killed the officer.

The only muscle that can kill the Avlanche is the Great Bear otherwise occupied. So, Zahara needs to have a go. She does not kill it — interesting…

That is it. The picture below depicts the situation at the end of the 4. round. Scenario score is now 4-4.

End of round 4

We are moving into the 5. round. It is not often I survive this long. I wonder is the Avalanche can deal with Zahara. That seems the only viable option.

Round 5

Again, this is an intense game. So, I forgot to take a picture. I have 14 minutes on the clock. The, surprisingly animated Finn has 5 minutes.

The only clear option is for the Avalanche to kill Zahara. So, the two remaining Arkanists give it some focus, and it attempts to kill her. It fails, despite her taking heavy damage. Secondary plan is now to get as many scenario points as possible.

On the right flank, the Kontroller continues to keep Razor frozen. The Dire Wolf can now both hit Razor and score the objective as it has been moving closer to Zahara’s terrain zone. Razor keeps un living. I wonder if I need another unit of Arkanists in this list.

On the left flank, the two remaining models do chip the Great Bear and make sure that they contest.

An attempt to clear out the 40 mm objective in the middle is made. Sergei does an effort and Valerii also has to move up. He stays outside of the forest and keeps it between himself and Zahara. Something also kills Zahara’s Arkanists to deny the Great Bear too much focus.

There are only a few models left. So it is not a lot that happens. I’m left with 3 minutes on the clock and a scenario score of 5-4 in Valerii’s favour.

The lovely Finn is almost in a panic due to the clock. So, things are happening fast. The Great Bear moves to the objective, but can’t remove the contesters. The infantry runs to the 40 mm objective to contest. The Snipers move forward for some reason.

Finally, Zahara decides that with all the tricks in the book she can make it to Valerii. I can’t remember the exact sequence. But the end of the story is that she arrives next to Valerii with focus and proceeds to kill him. That was unfortunate.

The picture below shows the sorry state of Valerii when having Zahara next to him.

End of turn 1, end of round 5, end of game

This was wild! I was on the brink of having Zahara. If she hadn’t been able to make it, which it seriously didn’t think she could, Valerii still had an Avalanche and could being himself in a position to Kill Order Zahara and fuel the Avalanche completely. That would have been a much more fun situation.

Anyway, the game was a blast. Both the Finn and I had a lot of laughs. I learned something about the Winter Korps Infantry that I need to go home and try out. I did make it to the final, which is unheard of. What a fantastic day.

Summary & Lessons Learned

Three days of intensive Warmachine is fantastic. I’m a bit tired, but in a very good mood. It is clear that I’m very rusty. So, I really need to practice more.

I think the Valerii list is pretty good. It still can’t get Yara or the Shock Troopers to work. So, I’ll have to rethink that list.

The venue was fantastic. Lovely large bright rooms and the hosts were impeccable. I’ll return to Oslo for sure.

For the Motherland!

The Motherland goes to Conquest (day 2)

Igor Khador — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 08:18:00 +0000

Day two of Conquest. It is quite clear that I’m quite rusty. However, new day, new opportunities. There is still new hardware on the table, new lists, and new opponents. I still have no idea how this is going to go. This day (of 3) is going to be tough. I’m sticking to my normal ambition: Win at least one and don’t end up last. Let’s see how the Motherland fares.

Day two of Oslo Conquest (for the day 1 report see here). It is three days of tournament play, and I’m already tired. I’m getting to grips with the big January update of 2025. Yet, I’m still trying out things I haven’t tried before.

My ambitions is, as always to win at least one and not end up last.

I’m sticking with Valerii. He was doing pretty well yesterday. However, I’m exchanging Alexia for two Battle Mechaniks. She is supposed to resurrect killed Man-O-Wars, but they died faster than see could keep up, and I would really like the Tune Up and a bit of repairing from the Battle Mechaniks. I’m also still bringing Yana with a Mastodon and all the Pikemen. She has taken over from Baranova in the list I brought to last year’s WTC (for a report on WTC, see here for day 1 and here for day 2). I would still so much like the Pikemen to work. I do think they are an unpolished gem. Let’s see.

Khador – Winter Korps
Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy

   – Fog of War

   – Puissance

   – Mastodon [32]

     HEAD – Shock Assault

     RIGHT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     LEFT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     RIGHT ARM – Great Axe

     LEFT ARM – Grinder Fist
AC-2 Bison [10]

AC-2 Bison [10]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Magziev Zarivah Volkova [4]

Mortar Team [2]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Duck and Cover!

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Valerii Savaryn

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield
Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Kontroller [4]

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

Sergeant Sergie Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

A few thoughts on the lists can be found in the report from yesterday, which can be found here.

Battle 1 — Crucible Guard

Oh no, my nemesis. I have never really managed to crack Crucible Guard. Everything model has more rules on their card, that the entire Winter Korps has combined. Not only, is it Crucible Guard. There are also two Vulcans!

Anyway, my opponent is a very nice Norwegian; who, unfortunately is not new to playing this game. He is bringing the following list.

Crucible Guard – Crucible Guard

        Major Aline Bennet

        – Toro [10]
        Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc [5]

        Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

        Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

        Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

        Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

        Prospero [4]

        – Vulcan [28]

        – Vulcan [28]

        Rocketman Stinger [3]

        Rocketman Stinger [3]

        Trancer [2]

        Trancer [2]

        Crucible Guard Assault Troopers [7]

        Dragon’s Breath Rocket [4]
        Defenses

        – Defence 1 – Barrier

        – Defence 1 – Barrier

        – Defence 1 – Barrier
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Defenses

        – Lucky Penny

        – Sapper
        Total Points   99/100

OK, so this is clearly not a list for Valerii. Yana with the Mastodon might have a remote chance of doing something against the two violent Vulcans. We are also playing Best Laid Plans, which fits the Yana list nicely. Let’s see how hard I get hit.

Deployment

We are playing Best Laid Plans and I win the dice roll. I want to go first. Apparently, it is far too early for me to be vertical. I, for some reason do not think about the fact that one side of the table is objectively absolutely worst side. There is a large quicksand right in front of where the Mastodon is supposed to go! I have no idea what I was doing. My opponent obviously picks the best side.

Anyway, Aline deploys a Rocketman and a Trancer on each flank. Followed by the two Vulcans, and everything else goes into a large group in the middle.

End of deployment

Yana follows the standard deployment scheme. A Bison with two units of Shock Troopers on each flank. The Mastodon in the middle (right in front of the quicksand). The rest around the Mastodon. We are ready to roll.

Round 1

I’m starting. There is only one way: forward and fast. The two flanks do what they are supposed to do. Bisons move forward with Shock Troopers behind for cover. In the middle, the Mastodon moves forward towards the quicksand. Everybody else tag along. Yana casts Fog of War and Puissance on one of the Shock Troopers. That’s it. The picture below shows the end of Yana’s turn.

End of turn 1

Aline has a normal uneventful turn. Everybody moves forward. Force Aura and some spell goes up. The picture below shows the end of Aline’s turn.

End of round 1

Round 1 is as usually quite uneventful. Everybody just moves forward. After the January update, nobody is afraid of the Mastodon in round 1. Let’s see what happens (in addition to quicksand) in round 2.

Round 2

OK. I’m pretty sure that the two Vulcans can do a tremendous amount of damage to the poor Mastodon. So, two units of Shock Troopers run to the enemy to jam them. On the left flank, the Bison and a unit of Shock Troopers move up to be annoying. The same happens on the right flank.

In the middle, The Mastodon moves forward (and into the quicksand) and starts shooting into the Vulcan in front of it. Yana moves up behind the Mastodon and puts Iron Flesh on it. She also upkeeps Fog of War. Everybody else moves forward and tries to stay away from all the shooting. The picture below shows the situation just before all hell breaks loose.

End of turn 1

On the left flank, the Vulcan cleans out most of the models, save for one Shock Trooper. In addition, a Rocketman flies down behind the house and ties up an Officer and a Mechanik. All the Shock Troopers in the middle get removed by Crucible troops, opening up the route for both the Vulcan and the Toro to remove the Mastodon.

Nothing more to see here. Move along. The picture below shows the sorry remains on Yana’s force.

End of round 2, end of game

That’s it. Game over… at least I was demonstrated how this game is actually played.

Note to self: pick the correct side of the board, and do not give away half the army.

Battle 2 — Protectorate of Menoth

The Protectorate is back. I have mixed feelings about the Protectorate. Sometimes they are manageable, often they demonstrate that “Khador is the ARM faction” is completely wrong. I fear that Final Interdiction is an example of the latter. This is what my lovely Polish opponent is bringing.

Protectorate of Menoth – Final Interdiction

        High Exemplar Cyrenia

        – Fire of Salvation [13]

        – Redeemer [8]

        – Redeemer [8]
        Exemplar Errant Seneschal [3]

        Exemplar Warder [3]

        Exemplar Warder [3]

        High Exemplar Gravus [7]

        Vassal of Menoth [1]

        Vassal of Menoth [1]
        Choir of Menoth [3]

        Exemplar Cinerators [7]

        – Exemplar Cinerator Officer [3]

        Exemplar Errants [8]

        – Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard [3]

        Exemplar Errants [8]

        – Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard [3]

        Exemplar Vengers [9]

        Exemplar Vengers [9]
        Defenses

        – Defense 1 – Barrier

        – Defense 1 – Fire Pit

        – Defense 1 – Fire Pit
        Command Cards

        – Break Through

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Defenses

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful
        Total Points   99/100

This looks like a job for Valerii. There is a load of small guys that probably will only spell trouble for the Mastodon. In addition, we are playing Two Fronts, which should be good for the Mastodon. However, somebody has placed a house in between the two 50 mm objectives.

Deployment

We are playing Two Fronts and my opponent wins the dice roll. I pick the side without the Quicksand!

Cyrenia deploys pretty standard. Cavalry on the flanks. A unit of Errants on the left flank. Everybody else goes in a a big clump in the middle.

Valerii places himself in the middle with most of the models. An Avalanche ready to move on both sides of the forest in the middle. The Kontroller goes on the right flank to grab the Objective. For some reason the Snipers also deploys there. They were actually supposed to go on the other flank.

The picture below the silence before the storm.

End of deployment

We are ready. Let’s see what the real ARM faction can do.

Round 1

The Protectorate advances. The Vengers move up the two flanks. One unit of Errants moves partly into the woods in the middle. Everybody else just shuffles forward behind the forest. An uneventful first turn. The picture below shows the Protectorate’s advancement.

End of turn 1

Looking at the board, it has become evident that going first is probably a pretty good thing. There is a forest in the middle and linear obstacles on both sides. It is going to be a killing field. I hope it is killing Protectorate, I fear it is Khador.

Valerii orders the Kontroller and his Dire Wolf to the objective, where I expect them to spend the rest of the battle. An Avalanche dares the Protectorate by moving almost into the forest. All the Man-O-Wars move forward and makes a wall of steel. Valerii drops a wall behind the Man-O-Wars, casts Superiority on the other Avalanche and moves behind the wall. This is going to be a lovely place to hang around. DEF 19 (shooting) and 17 (melee), whilst being behind the wall; yet, sufficiently close to the battle ground.

The picture below depicts the end of the boring round.

End of round 1

Now onto the bloody one…

Round 2

This is were it kicks off. On the right flank, the Vengers begin a, I expect long and tedious: move one guy forward, contest, die, move another one forward. Stupid house… On the left flank, the other unit of Vengers move behind the wall. I wonder if they can get Pathfinder.

In the middle all hell breaks loose. One unit of Errants makes it through quicksand and a forrest, and runs to jam the Wrecking Crew. The Cinerators makes it to the Avalanche and a wall magically appears in front of them. Clever.The Fire of Salvation tags along. All the rest hangs back. The picture below shows the chaos produced by Menoth and his zealots.

End of turn 1

OK. So, Valerii better start chewing through all the highly armoured fanatics. For some reason, he is not happy with his little wall. He drops it a moves to the left. He upkeeps Superiority and Escort, and drops Puissance on the Wrecking Crew. They start chewing though the Errants; yet, only removes three. A units of Suppressors, Sergie and the Kontroller cooperate on removing two of the Cinerators, which makes room for one of the Suppressors on the opposite side of the wall. Cinerators behind a wall are. annoying.

All sorts of other attempts of killing the fanatics take place. But not a lot is a success. On the left side a unit of Suppressors make ready to score both objectives, supported by an Avalanche. On the right flank the Dire Wolf kills the first Venger. The picture below shows the end of a pretty hard turn.

End of round 2

The Battle Machaniks in the lower right corner still haven’t registred that the battle is on. I wonder if he will discover it now? Scenario score is 2-1 in Valerii’s favour.

Round 3

I’m expecting hand of a god being smashed on the Empress’ finest. On the left flank the Vengers move a bit about and contest both objectives. Only one Suppressor dies. On the right flank, the next Venger in the meat grinder appears in the Dire Wolf’s face. So far, so good.

It is a different story in the middle. All the Errants clean up the Wrecking Crew, a Mechanik and two? Arkanists. The Fire of Salvation and Cinerators also take out all but one Suppressor. This is quite a hefty turn. The picture below shows the sorry remains of the Khador force. Scenario score is now 3-2 in the Protectorate’s favour.

End of turn 1

That was pretty hard hitting. Far more that I expected. I was expected the ARM 19/20 guys, with 10 boxes to weather the storm. That was clearly not the case. Stuff needs to happen

This looks like a feat turn for Valerii. He goes Kill Order on the Vengers to the left, a unit of Errants and, I think Precision Strike. On the left, the Avalanche and Suppressors attempt to remove the Vengers. One survive. They are robust.

On the right flank, the Dire Wolf redo the exact same thing as last round. Kill a Venger, wait for the next one. In the middle, the Snipers take out three Errants. And, lo and behold, the last Mechaniks discover that a battle is going on. Joins, and kills the last one.

The picture below depicts the fall of Valerii. Scenario score is 4-4 but Valerii is done for.

End of round 3, end of game

I’m not sure what we did here. I can’t remember. I think we just counted up the losses and decided that the Protectorate won with some scenario score. Anyway, a hurting loss for Valerii.

I actually went into this game thinking that this might go in my favour. I seriously under estimated the Protectorate, and not the least a very clever player. It was fun, though. Despite the fact that the Protectorate trivially get to some obnoxious ARM levels, which makes Khador envious.

Battle 3 — Rhul Guard

The round if formally a ‘bye’. Luckily, one of the locals is looking for a single game. He is bringing dwarfs. This makes me both happy and a bit worried. Happy, because the little guys are still around; and a bit worried because I have lost so many times to, god knows how many of the small ‘jacks. To my great surprise, he is only bringing two. He is, however bringing both the Earthbreaker and Big Pig. This is the list.

Mercenaries – Rhul Guard

        General Ossrum

        – Ghordson Earthbreaker [27]

        – Grundback Blaster [5]

        – Grundback Blaster [5]
        Carver Ultimus [20]

        – War Boar MMD47
        Ogrun Bokur [3]

        Ogrun Bokur [3]

        Stone Lord Guvul Godor [4]
        Horgenhold Artillery Corps [4]

        Horgenhold Artillery Corps [4]

        Horgenhold Forge Guard [7]

        Horgenhold Forge Guard [7]

        Horgenhold Forge Guard [7]

        Tactical Arcanist Corps [4]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points   99/100

This actually looks like a job for Yana. I don’t think the Avalanches can kill both Big Pig and the Colossal. Not to mention all the dwarfs. Despite the fact that we are playing Trench Warfare, which is not Mastodon friendly, this is what I’m going for.

Deployment

We are playing Trench Warfare. Ossrum wins the dice roll and goes first. I pick the side with the two forests. I’m thinking that I would have picked the other side. There is things to be said about having an obstruction. However, I need to learn to appreciate those on my side of the table.

Ossrum deploys the pig and the Earthbreaker next to each other, behind the cloud. All the dwarfs are distributed on both sides.

Yana deploys in the middle with the Mastodon on the right. That is the objective it is going for. The rest is the standard deployment. A bison and two units of Shock Troopers on each flank. The rest, more or less near the Mastodon and Yana.

The picture below shows the deployment.

End of deployment

Two slow armies lumbering into action. I’m foreseeing a lot of rounds.

Round 1

We have an army that actually makes Khador look fast and nimble. This turn can easily be summed up as: the lumber forward — a bit. The picture below shows the little movement there is.

End of turn 1

Yana can now employ her armies superior speed (finally). She brings both flanks forward towards the two objectives. Not too close, though. In the middle, the Mastodon moves forward and attempts to stay outside the range of at least the Earthbreaker and hopefully also Big Pig. Most others move in behind the Mastodon to avoid being shot.

The picture below shows the quite befor the storm.

End of round 1

We are all here, we are all ready. Bring it one, you people of Rhul (and pig).

Round 2

Ossrum is a cautious fellow. He really does all sorts of tricks to stay out of range of my army; the Mastodon in particular. Nevertheless, the Earthbreaker and the two Artillery units manage to take out the Bison on the right and quite a few of the Shock Troopers. The pig just takes out one Shock Trooper on the right, and puts some damage on the Mastodon, I think. The Earthbreaker also drops a crate on it. Crates are annoying.

The picture below shows the devestation brought forward by a surprisingly shooty Rhul army.

End of turn 1

It is clear that I’m going to loose a shootout. I also do not really want to get the Mastodon into charge range of the Earthbreaker. I some sense the crater helps here. I need to deal with the pig and the Earthbreaker. That is clearly not going to happen in this turn. So, I need to attempt to contain them.

Let’s start on the left flank. The two Shock Troopers run to jam the pig. The Bison moves into the woods and shoots at something. The last Shock Trooper unit prepare themselves to charge anything attempting to score the objective. It kind of looks like a Mexican standoff.

On the right flank, the solo Shock Trooper runs to jam the Earthbreaker and contest the flank; which of course doesn’t matter as you can’t score you own terrain in this scenario. The whole units moves forward to screen the Mastodon, which also moves forward and offload all its cannons into the enemy. The Arkanists move to score the home objective and everybody else just tags along the Mastodon.

The picture below shows the end of the first scoring turn. Scenario score is 2-1 in Yana’s favour.

End of round 2

Yana is quite happy. Let’s see if she remains so.

Round 3

On the left flank, Ossrum makes a move to capture the objective. The little ‘jack moves into position and all the men follows up; yet, keep their distance. On the right flank, somebody kills the lone Shock Trooper; the Earthbreaker backs up, as it is still afraid of the Mastodon; and a small ‘jack moves into screen. Finally, a unit of Forge Guards moves down to contest the objective and kill the last Shock Trooper unit.

In the middle, the small pig moves behind the wall (he is clearly squealing of fear). Big Pig and a Bokur screens Ossrum, who is bravely hiding out behind the big rock. Big Pig kills one of the Shock Troopers and fire everything into the Mastodon. The picture below shows the result of Ossrum’s bravery. Scenario score is now 4-2 n Ossrum’s favour.

End of turn 1

Yana thinks she is on top of this. She is behind on scenario but is pressuring Ossrum. How to keep up the pressure and not loose on scenario.

On the right flank, the Arkanists puts focus on the Mastodon, whilst still scoring the home objective. Yana moves forward around the Mastodon and throws a few spears at the Forge Guards. The Mastodon takes over and removes that unit. The rest of the shots go into Big Pig.

On the left flank, the lone Shock Trooper casually moves over and picks up the cache. The Bison shoots at something, probably the Blaster. If that goes away, Ossrum can’t score that objective. This is followed up by the last Shock Trooper unit charging in and removing the Basher and a few dwarfs.

This has been a pretty good round. The objective is now secure, in the sense that nobody is going to score and the cache has been collected. Scenario score is now 6-4 in Yana’s favour. She is going to score forever on the home objective. There is no way Ossrum is going to score the 50 mm or pick up the cache, whilst the Mastodon is alive; and he is only going to score his home objective. The picture below depicts a moment of satisfaction.

End of round 3

All is well. Let’s see if the fourth round can change this.

Round 4

Who would have guessed that stumpy legs can be ridiculously fast? The unit of Forge Guards on the left flank make it all the way to Yana’s terrain objective. That was not polite. Other Forge Guards and Guvul remove all the remaining Shock Troopers.

In the middle, Big Pig moves next to the rock to screen the VIPs and offload all the shots into the Mastodon. A single Forge Guard contest on the right flank.

Scenario score is now 7-7. The picture below shows the fast dwarfs.

End of turn 1

7-7. Yana needs points. It is unlikely that she can kill Ossrum. He is hiding behind a big rock. So, she needs to primarily concentrate on scenario points. On the left flank, the Bison charges into the Forge Guards and kill three. At least this point is now contested. The Arkanists in the middle will just fuel the Mastodon and score the home objective.

On the right flank, Yana needs to do something. She charges up, kills the last Forge Guard, and puts a toe in the quicksand, staying outside the charge range of the Earthbreaker. She then continues to kill one of the artilleries with the spears. The remaining officer runs to the quicksand. They are now two and can score. Finally, the Mastodon (finally) shoots the Big Pig to death and removes two Forge Guards on the left.

Lo and behold. She is now at 11 scenario points to Ossrum’s 8. She is on 7 minutes on the clock. Ossrumm on 27 seconds. The picture below shows the situation at T-27 seconds.

End of round 4

Ossrumm has 27 seconds. Let’s see what he can do with that.

Round 5

It is quite surprising what he can do in 27 seconds. The Bokur on the left charge the Bison and kills it. The last little ‘jack runs to score. On the right flank, the artillery runs to contest both the objective and the terrain. That is it time is up. The picture below depicts the downfall of Ossrum.

End of turn 1, end of game

That was it. It was close. If Ossrum had flipped the clock, Yana might be in trouble. She wasn’t.

I have managed half of my ambition: at least win one. Formally, I had, kind of won as it was a ‘buy’. However, it feels so much better to actually win.

I’m still not convinced about the Shock Troopers. But, I really would like to get them to work. I know they are only 7 points. But, I still feel they die to easily. Since the puny Black 13 got 8 boxes, I think that would be fitting for the Shock Troopers as well.

This is the second encounter with the new Big Pig. I like it. It is still pretty good, but not redicilous as before. I’m not pretty sure that I want one.

It is clear that my habitus has not done anything good for my game. I think I’m getting confterable with the Valerii list. Yet, the Yana list doesn’t work (yet).

Anyway, onwards to the last game today.

Battle 4 — House Kallyss

Last game of the day. I’m paired with another nice Swede. He is bringing dead elves to the table. I my local meta, I tend to destroy dead elves. However, this is not my local meta; I’m a bit skeptical.

He is brining Scyrafael the ubiquitous Israfyl and a whole bunch of ‘jacks. Most ‘jack heavy Dusk list I have seen. To quote the Swedish Chef, I think my opponent said that his list does: “Zees is my duosk leest. It is pretty veurd. I hefe-a a lut ouff jecks und tu Specters. Bork Bork Bork!“¹.

Dusk – House Kallyss
        Scyrafael, Nis-Issyr of Desolations

        – Eidolon [16]

        	– HEAD – True Sight

        	– RIGHT ARM – Dawn Blade

        	– LEFT ARM – Force Shield

        	– BACK – Vortex Cannon

        – Eidolon [15]

        	– HEAD – Arcane Stasis

        	– RIGHT ARM – Dawn Blade

        	– LEFT ARM – Force Shield

        	– BACK – Vortex Cannon

        – Ghast [9]

        	– HEAD – Arc Node

        	– RIGHT ARM – Blaster Fist

        	– LEFT ARM – Force Lash

        – Israfyl [17]

        	– HEAD – Israfyl

        	– LEFT ARM – Serpentine Blade

        	– RIGHT ARM – Serpentine Blade

        	– BACK – Death Whisper

        – Specter [10]

        – Specter [10]
        Vaelyss, The Hand of Mourning [4]

        Void Engine [8]

        – Wight

        Seeker Adepts [4]

        Soulless Guardians [8]
        Command Cards

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Duck and Cover!

        – Hit & Run

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful
        Total Points   99/100

We are playing Wolves at our Heels. Actually a scenario that is quite good for Yana and her pet Mastodon. However, with all the large bases and not being immune to knockdown, I think Valrii might be the option. That is the one I’m going for anyway.

Deployment

We are playing Wolves at our Heels. I win the roll-off and deceides to go first. This time I (also) pick the side with quicksand on. However, I haven’t got a Mastodon to navigate around it. So, it might actually work to my advantage.

Valerii deploys the Kontroller and pet Dire Wolf on the left flank. They are obviously not going to score the 40 mm, but they can be annoying to anybody trying. The Snipers go on the left flank to sit on the flag or move up to the opposite 40 mm. Everything else basically just go in the middle.

The avid reader might notice that the two Battle Mechaniks are attempting an advance deployment. That is obviously wrong and will be called to order before we proceed.

Scyrafael haven’t got a lot of models. So they basically just clump up around herself in the middle. Let’s all enjoy the Kodak moment in the picture. Before all the hostilities commence.

End of deployment

This is going to be interessting. Heavy armour vs. nimble ‘jacks. Let’s see.

Round 1

Valerii begins by pushing everything forward, as much as possible. On the left, the Snipers park them selves on the terrain with the flag. On the right, the Kontroller moves left around the house. In the middle everybody spread out to be ready to react to whatever the dead elves come up with.

Valerii puts Escort into action, Superiority on the Avalanche on the left and Puissance on the Wrecking Crew. He then hangs back to watch the show. The picture below depicts the show.

End of turn 1

Most of Scyrafael’s army advances cautiously. They are a bit worried about the threat range of the Avalanches. A Specter runs behind the big rock on the right. Probably aiming to mess with the objective terrain. The picture below shows the end of the boring round.

End of round 1

Let’s see if the Motherland can kill some elves and not allow them to kill some back.

Round 2

This is, so far a lazy afternoon. So, one unit of Suppressors stroll over to the 40 mm objective on the left to score. The Kontroller and Dire Wolf have made space for them by moving in front of the objective. On the right flank, the Snipers move up to the rough terrain near Scyrafael’s 40 mm. They are relieved by a Mechanik and an Officer holding the flag. An Avalanche lumbers over to protect them against the Specter.

In the middle, a unit of Suppressors take point, with the Wrecking Crew right behind. Valerii put a wall behind them and moves up for a better view of the battlefield. The last Avalanche just moves out from the house, to be ready. The picture below shows a lazy Khador afternoon.

End of turn 1

Scyrafael starts the first scoring turn by moving the Specter into contesting position of the terrain. It is going to rely on its very hig DEF against both shooting and melee to be an annoyance down there. The second Specter takes up the position that the first one left.

On the left flank, something manage to kill all the Snipers; but not the dog! Israfyl moves to the rightmost 50 mm and an Eidolon moves to the leftmost. All the shield guards stand between them. All of these things and the Void Engine kills the front row Suppressors (again I overestimate their resilience), and gives the Wrecking Crew Vengeance. I think the scenario score is 2-1 in Scyrafael’s favour. The picture below shows how a bunch of dead elves ruin a lazy afternoon.

End of round 2

Once again I overextended Suppressors. When will I ever learn. Anyway, there is work to be done.

Round 3

Once again I overextended Suppressors. When will I ever learn. Anyway, there is work to be done. I think it is a feat turn for Valerii. He feats and puts a Kill Order the contesting Specter and Israfyl. He also goes Precision Strike and with Tides of War he moves back into safety of the wall.

On the left, the Avalanche slams the Eidolon, yet does not manage to kill it. The Suppressors, Kontroller and Dire wolf moves forward. They might have killed all the Shield Guards. At least they disappeared. There is now room for the Wrecking Crew to charge Israfyl. Under Puissance and Kill Order they most definitely live up to their name (not so much without these two additions). Israfyl disappears.

The right flank is a problem. A Specter has like DEF 17 with Grave Winds on it. What to do? The Avalanche walks up to the Specter, boost to hit, and simply head butts it to the ground. It is only an 8 on three dice. Quite easy. The look on the lovely Swede’s face was worth everything. Once the Specter is down, dismantling it is like a walk in the park.

This ends Valerii’s feat turn, except for the dog contesting the 40 mm. Scenario score is now 3-3. The picture below depicts the result of Valerii’s feat turn.

End of turn 1

Scyrafael can feel the pressure. The left flank is a lot cause. So, she is consolidating from the middle and to the right. Scyralfel and the Eidolon clear away the Wrecking Crew from the rightmost 50 mm. The Void Engine moves along and might have contributed with some shooting. In the back, the two lazy ‘jacks who have not contributed shuffles right.

The last Specter, on the right flank moves in and sprays the Officer and Mechanik to death. So no more scoring down there. The Seeker Adepts consolidate in the rubble to score the objective.

All in all, it was actually a better turn for Scyrafel that what appears on the surface. She managed to bring the scenario score to 7-4 in her favour and has seriously limited Valerii’s ability to score. The picture below shows Scyrafel leading the brawl.

End of round 3

Valerii needs to do something or he is slowly but steadily loosing on scenario. Both players have around 30 minutes on the clock. So, don’t panic.

Round 4

Valerii unfortunately has to drop the wall. He upkeeps Escort and cast Tides of War. He puts a Kill Order on the Eidolon in front of Scyrafel and shuffles a bit backwards. The Avalanche in the middle contemplates slamming the Eidolon over Scyrafel. Unfortunately, it is not Sturdy and it is not going to be damaged by Scyrafles feet. So it will be pushed. It opts for slamming the other Eidolon over the Ghast instead.

The Suppressors on the left flank give up the scoring and move forward to put a lot of shots into the Eidolon in front of Scyrafel. Unfortunately, it is not enough to kill it. This means that Sergei tries to pull the Eidolon in with his Harpoon to finish it off. It is hard to hit an Eidolo… Oh, and the Dire Wolf decides to kill Vaelyss. That was dumb. Don’t do that. She becomes a highly annoying ghost.

On the right flank, the last Avalanche attempts to do the same trick as before. But without the Kill Order, the order is too tall. The Arkanists move in to score. This leaves the scenario score at 7-8 in Scyrafel’s favour. The picture below shows the trouble of Valerii.

End of turn 1

Scyrafel is apparently slightly annoyed. The Eidolon in front of her and the Ghast goes into Sergei and kill him. This also makes room for Scyrafel to stand in the middle of the board. This, unfortunately also allows the Eidolon to hit Valerii with its Momentum gun, slamming into the kill box.

End of round 4

The Ghast hears ‘kill box’ and moves to Valerii, who is keeled over. The picture below depicts the ballade of Valerii. You can probably guess what happend.

Oy! I’m just lying around here…

This was an intense game.

Valerii actually did pretty well. I really like the double Avalanche. The opponent has to respect a pretty (for Khador, anyway) threat range. Suppressors are always good. I need to work more on Valerii’s spell casting.

Scyralfel’s feat is hard for Khador ‘jacks. There is no way they are going to be damaged, so they are going to be pushed. On the other hand, all sorts for Man-O-Wars just laugh at the damage and the pushing.

Anyway, it was as always fun. My opponent was nice and at the end of the day I did manage to reach my goals.

Now for a short break and onwards to the thrid day of moving toy soldiers around. I can’t wait.

Summary & Lessons Learned

So far it has been fun. I haven’t faced any opponents where it didn’t matter that we actually played. All my losses are purely down to being worse than my opponent. It is clear that I’m really rusty.

I’m happy with the Valerii list. I think it will remain like this for a while. The Yana list, on the other hand. The Mastodon might have seen its hey days. I still can’t get the Shock Troopers to work. I haven’t given up yet.

Anyway. Tomorrow is another day.

For the Motherland!

The Motherland goes to Conquest (day 1)

Igor Khador — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 21:43:00 +0000

This is the first time the Motherland goes to Conquest in Oslo, Norway. It is also my first proper tournament since WTC 2024. There is new hardware on the table, new lists, and new opponents. I have no idea how this is going to go. Except a clear knowledge that I’m rusty. First day (of 3) is going to be tough. I’m sticking to my normal ambition: Win at least one and don’t end up last. Let’s see how the Motherland fares.

This is my first time at Oslo Conquest. It is three days of tournament play. Also, my first time after the big January update of 2025, which did some sad things to Khador (you can see my whining here) and some good. Since it is a new year and a new update, I might as well try things I haven’t tried before.

My ambitions is, as always to win at least one and not end up last.

I’m going for Valerii. I have never actually tried him before. According to “common knowledge” he is now, after the January update, bad. I’m not convinced. So, I’ll give him a try. I’m also bringing Yana with a Mastodon and all the Pikemen. She has taken over from Baranova in the list I brought to last year’s WTC (for a report on WTC, see here for day 1 and here for day 2). I would so much like the Pikemen to work. I do think they are an unpolished gem. Let’s see.

Khador – Winter Korps
Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy

   – Fog of War

   – Puissance

   – Mastodon [32]

     HEAD – Shock Assault

     RIGHT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     LEFT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     RIGHT ARM – Great Axe

     LEFT ARM – Grinder Fist
AC-2 Bison [10]

AC-2 Bison [10]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Magziev Zarivah Volkova [4]

Mortar Team [2]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Duck and Cover!

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Valerii Savaryn

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield
Alexia, Queen of the Damned [4]

Kontroller [4]

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

Sergeant Sergie Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

Winter Korps under Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy

What can I say? A lady on a bear and a huge stumpy robot. How can that not be marvellous? She is fast and somewhat hard hitting. She is probably more brittle than she looks. I think she really wants infantry with more that one attack, due to her Feat. She would also like something to drop Battle Lust on and Dash. All three things could point to the Shock Troopers.

Her main build in ability is Conferred Rage, which on paper might suggest many ‘jacks. However, I think that is a trap. So, she’ll only be equipped with a Mastodon. A Mastodon under Yana is actually slightly better now that if Superiority was available. It is no speed 7 if Conferred Rage triggers. So, that must be the plan.

The plan is speed. Under Dash and Conferred Rage, Yana is SPD 8; Shock Troopers are SPD 6, the Mastodon SPD 7, and the mighty Bisons are SPD 8. Everybody else just have to keep up.

She is most likely going to have to avoid the Scenarios: Color Guard, Trench Warfare and Payload as they kind of expect more than one ‘jack. That leaves her to cover: Wolves at our Heels, Two Fronts, and Best Laid Plans. With respect to opponents, I really haven’t got a clue. I’ll have to stay away from stuff that can trivially remove a Colossal. I just have to figure out what that is.

Winter Korps under Kommander Valerii Savaryn

Yana’s best boy is leading the other list. He has been allowed to field, not one, but two of the Motherland’s new toys; the Avalanches. They look so good on paper. They can trivially reach out and touch something between 14″ and and 16″ away. Add a bit of Kill Order and let the mayhem begin. He will also field two units of Suppressors, who are just good. Although in my experience they either kill everything or nothing. There doesn’t seem to be an average day in a Suppressors life.

After the January update, the Kontroller actually looks promising. He might actually be able to hit something with his spray and as a ‘jack Marshal with the Shatter Drive, and Dire Wolf with a Long Axe and Shield Guard seems to be the natural choice. These two BFFs can also baby sit a 50 mm objective in either Color Guard, Trench Warfare or Best Laid Plans; which are quite bad scenarios for the Yana list.

I have never played Valarii, Avalanches nor a Kontroller before. What could possible go wrong?

Battle 1 — Dark Operations

First battle of the day is agains a nice guy from Poland and all the BDSM guys he could dig up in Poland. I haven’t see the Cephalyx in a very long time. On the one hand, it makes me happy to see them, because they are rather cool; on the other hand they look kind of scary. I haven’t got an intricate knowledge of they capabilities. So, this is going to be interesting.

He is bringing Thexus with a whole horde of little guys — and a huge pig! The list is a follows (base on my memory):

Mercenaries – Dark Operations

        Exulon Thexus

        – Subduer [10]

        – Subduer [10]
        Carver Ultimus [20]

        – War Boar MMD47
        Cephalyx Agitator [2]

        Cephalyx Agitator [2]

        Cephalyx Agitator [2]
        Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges [6]

        Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges [6]

        Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges [6]

        Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges [6]

        Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges [6]

        Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges [6]

        Dominated Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps [6]

        Dominated Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps [6]

        Dominated Horgenhold Artillery Corps [5]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points   99/100

I think the obvious choice here is Yana. Valerii haven’t got the tools to deal with a horde of models. Yana has all the Shock Troopers; and the Bisons and a Mastodon for shooting them. We are playing Trench Warfare, which was not on her list. However, I think the horde outweighs the scenario here. Let’s see how she fares.

Deployment

We are playing Trench Warfare. Exulon won the dice roll and decided to go first. He deployed in the middle of his deployment zone, with a Subduer on each flank and all the little men in a bunch surrounding Exulon.

End of Deployment

Yana also deploys in the middle, next to the Mastodon. The Mastodon is there to focus on the right most 50 mm objective. The left one will only be attempted to be contested by a Bison and two units of Shock Troopers. The second Bison-Shock Trooper module deploys to the right of the Mastodon, to support. Everything else deploys in the middle. The picture above shows the situation at the end of deployment.

Round 1

First turn is as always rather uneventful. Everything shuffles forward, taking great care of staying out of the shooting range of the Mastodon. That is basically it. The picture below shoes the careful advancement.

End of turn 1

Yana also moves up, putting everything into position for the second round. Some attempts are made to stay out of charge ranges of the Subduers and all the little men. She casts Fog of War and Puissance on one of the Shock Troopers. The picture below shows the end of round 1.

End of round 1

That was it. The first round is typically over in a jiffy, without much hassle. Let’s see what the second round brings.

Round 2

This is when is action begins. It turns out that little BDSM guys can really move fast. Somehow, a unit manage to get down and tie up my Mastodon. All the other little guys just move forward. One of them gets Quagmire on them. Also, the big pig moves forward and shoots at the Mastodon. Crippling Grasp is arced through something onto Yana. That’s it. The picture below depicts the end of Exulon’s second round.

End of turn 1

OK. Small men are fast. That is kind of annoying as the Mastodon doesn’t have Gun Fighter. So, no shooting out of combat. A clean up is required. Yana starts off by casting Dash and then makes a Cygnar-advance further into the trench. She drops Fog of War. The Arkanist move to score the home objective and feed the Mastodon some more focus

The Shock Troopers on the right flank is on clean up duty. The charge forward and removes the BDSM guys irritating the Mastodon. The Bison also moves forward a shoots more little guys. This makes room for the Mastodon to advance towards the rightmost objective. It moves there, and starts shooting at the big pig and some of the BDSM guys in front of it. In front of them is the second unit of Shock Troopers, attempting to remove som guys.

On the left flank, a unit of highly motivated Shock Troopers charge towards the big pig. The do some damage. But he is a tough cookie. The Bison moves forward to contest the objective and fires into the big pig. The picture below shows the end of round 2.

End of round 2

Exulon manage to score his home objective. Yana manage to score her home objective and the rightmost 50 mm objective. All the rest are contested. This leaves the score at 2-1 in Yana’s favour. I somehow managed to use 35 minutes on the turn. Leaving my clock at only 19 minuets. That is really not good. Anyway, Yana can now only lean back a wait for the wrath of the Polish BDSM community.

Round 3

Exulon and his band of merry BDSM guys are a bit grumpy (I would have thought that they enjoyed thins kind of behaviour).

On the left flank, the Subduer casually moves forward and subdue the Bison of the board. Big pig is also ushered forward to put some shots into Yana (I think). Two small groups of BDSM guys also moves forward. Somehow in all the mayhem, two Shock Troopers also beats the dust.

On the right flank, the “persuaded” Hammers and a group of BDSM guys removes a unit of Shock Troopers, two Battle Mechaniks and put some hurt into the Mastodon. The last of the litte guys take out the last unit of Shock Troopers and basically swamps the Mastodon.

This leaves the scenario score at 3-3. Luckily, it takes a while to move little men around. So, Exulon only has around 8 minutes left on the clock. Let’s see what Yana can do about this sea of little men. The picture below shows the end of Exulon’s turn.

End of turn 1

OK. Yana is only a bit in trouble. She can conceivable score the home objective; with a bit of cleaning up, she can also score the 50 mm to the right; The 50 mm on the left can be contested; and Exulon’s home objective, and the little box of extra BDSM equipment is out of reach. Let’s go.

The left flank is pretty easy. The last Shock Trooper just needs to go and contest. He does that by charging the Subduer. The Officer shoots something.

On the right flank, the Mastodon are being fuelled up by the Arkanists; who then remain near the objective. The Mastodon can then go to work, chopping and shooting on all the little men in front of it. It cleans up enough to be able to score the objective and gets at least one shot into the big pig.

Yana is not really into this whole BDSM thing and feels a bit exposed where she is. So, she moves in behind the Mastodon. The Bison moves a bot forward and also shoots at the sea of little men. The sea is now slowing becoming more of a pond. The picture below shows the end of Yana’s turn.

End of round 3

This ends what Yana could do in this round. It leaves the scenario score at 5-4 in Yana’s favour. Unfortunately, she only has 2:51 left on her clock.

Round 4

OK. Most likely final round for Exulon. Let’s see what he can pull out from his leather attire.

On the left flank, some small me kills the Officer. This is two scenario points in Exulon’s direction. The Subduer kills the remaining Shock Trooper; that is another point.

In the middle, more little men makes it to the Arkanists and kill them. That is another point.

Finally, on the right flank, the Subduer move to the Mastodon and contests; and a lot of little men ends up behind the Mastodon.

The clock is passed and the scenario score ends at 9-5; which is basically a win in my turn. The picture below shows the end of the turn.

End of turn 1, end of game

That is basically it. Yana has less than three minutes on the clock. She needs to score two points and deny any points to the opponent to just stay in the game. That is simply not possible. On a good day, she can contest two objectives and the terrain. This means that she has to score four. There is nothing to do. Whilst she complains about the world, the clock runs out.

OK. So, what did I learn. First of all, I should perhaps have picked the other side. The two tanks were pretty nice. Also, Big Pig is still rather dangerous. But now he is only good. I like it. I might even get one now. Finally, a sea of little men is difficult.

However, we had a lot of fun. Very nice opponent.

Battle 2 — Shadowflame Shard

Next up are Shadowflame Shard in a Swedish version. I’m always a bit scared when I see these across the table. However, the two ubiquitous Wyverns are not there. That is pretty nice to see something different. I might have a shot. Let’s see.

The nice Swedish guy is bringen Rassyk and his slithering side kicks.

Khymaera – Shadowflame Shard

        Rassyk, Spawn of Shadows

        – SPELL – Carnivore

        – SPELL – Curse of Shadows
        – Drakyon [11]

        – Drakyon [11]

        – Hydrix [13]

        	– CENTRAL HEAD – Toothy Maw

	        – SMALLER HEAD – Blockhead

        	– SMALLER HEAD – Blockhead

	        – DORSAL FEATURE – Bladeback

        – Skylla, The Abyssal Fury [16]

        	– CENTRAL HEAD – Skylla

        	– SMALLER HEAD 1 – Horned Piercer

        	– SMALLER HEAD 2 – Gnashing Fangs
        Bellighul, Master of Pain [4]

        Ryvyn, the Onyx Rampant [6]

        Wraithwing Paragon [5]

        Incarnate Knights [11]

        Incarnate Knights [11]

        Talon Lashers [7]

        Wyrmspine Shadowmancers [4]
        Defenses

        – Defense 1 – Barrier

        – Defense 1 – Barrier

        – Defense 1 – Barrier
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Defenses

        – Hit & Run

        – Lucky Penny

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points 99/100

This could potentially be a game for Yana. Also, Wolves at Our Heels is a scenario for a Mastodon. However, I’m under the impression that the Khymera beasts can easily deal with the Mastodon. So, Valerii will get his first game ever. Let’s see what he can do.

Deployment

We are playing Wolves at Our Heels. Rassyk won the dice roll and opts to go first. Valerii picks the side of the battle ground without the house. Rassyk puts out defences. I really wish I had the Sapper card. A unit of Incarnate Knights goes on each flank. The rest of the army are all in a big group in the middle.

End of deployment

Valerii might have a plan. The Avalanches are to do what they do bedst: threaten quite far. One group of Wrecking Crew have their eye on the right most objective. The Snipers are ready to at least contest the right most objective. Everything else gathers in the middle. This will be interesting. The picture above depicts the quiet before the storm.

Round 1

Rassyk starts by sending his Incarnate Knights to the objective on the right flank. They are probably going to stay there forever. The Incarnate Knights on the left flank move forward and is joined by Drakyon. All the rest moves left around the cloud towards the annoying barriers. The picture below shows the result of Rassyk’s first turn.

End of turn 1

Valerii better adhere to the “plan” decided upon. On the left flank the unit of Suppressors, supported by an Officer moves to the Objective. Thinking the are safe.

On the right flank, the Snipers move up (the dog and and one of the grunts are outside the picture) to be ready to at least contest the objective.

In the middle, everything else moves up. Escort is up and Superiority is on one of the Avalanches. Valerii goes into the trench. I’m not sure that there is any shooting worth mentioning. But it is always cozy in a trench. The is the very exciting first round. The picture below shows the situation before something hits somebody’s fan.

End of round 1

Onwards to the round that matters… Let’s see what Rassyk can come up with.

Round 2

Somewhat surprisingly, the Incarnate Knights and the Drakyon managed to get all the way down to my objective on the left; not to mention the surprised Suppressors. Luckily, it is a run.

On the right flank, the other unit of Incarnate Knights, predictively consolidates around that objective.

In the middle, the Wyrmspine Shadowmancers steps into the swamp to hug the flag. Everything else just eases forward. The picture below shows the end of Rassyk’s “advance”.

End of turn 1

Except for the jamming surprise. The first turn of round 2 was uneventful. It seems the initiative is on Valerii. Let’s start with the boring bits. On the left flank, the surprised Suppressors attempt to shoot their way out of trouble. That is not too impressive. Only one of the Knights goes down. On the right flank, the Snipers move to contest and hopefully a few will survive.

It is in the middle all the action is. The (not surprised) Suppressors move up and shoots the Talon Lashers until they are go. This leaves room for Valerii to move up and gives a Kill Order on the Hydrix. He also moves Superiority to the other Avalanche. He then uses Tides of War to shuffle back into the cozy trench.

The Arkanists fule the Avalanches and the Superiority one slams the Hydrix and pushes it all the way into the flames. It obviously follows up. It does put some hurt on the Hydrix. But not as much as I had hoped for (Hydrix is Steady). The other Avalanche will not be bested and charges Skylla. Some hurt also goes into Skylla. This leaves room for the Wrecking Crew to fill the hole left by Hydrix. The Dire Wolf tags along, and for some reason the Kontroller is enjoying himself and remains put. Finally. Sergei moves up to put his Tough boubble around the Man-O-Wars in the middle. The picture below shows the battlefield after Valerii’s mighty push.

End of round 2

That was fun. I’m pretty sure I have overextended myself. But Avalanches… The scenario score is 2-1 in Valerii’s favour and everything is (too) far up the field. Let’s see what Rassyk can conjure up.

Round 3

Rassyk is pissed — except he is in a Swedish incarnation. So, that comes out as “…slightly upset about the whole situation“. Yet, it is Feat time (everybody now gets Defensive Strike and Reposition [3”]). I wonder if he should have feated a round earlier?

On the left flank, the Incarnate Knights and the Drakyon easily wipe out the Suppressors and the Officer. Only Alexia is left, somewhat nervous. On the right flank, the Snipers did not manage to place themselves cleverly and are removed (except for the dog!). The Drakyn over there thinks it is better to move to the middle of the board to contest the objective. It does kill one of the Suppressors in the process.

All sorts of stuff happens in the middle. Skylla kills the Avalanche and Hydrix put quite a lot of damage into the overextended one. Hydrix and Ryvyn wraps Rassyk in a protective wall against the remaining Avalanche.

That’s it. More than enough if you ask me. Scenario score is now 4-2 in Rassyk’s favour. The picture below shows the situation.

End of turn 1

OK. Perhaps it was not surprising that I lost on of the Avalanches. Yet, it always hurt. What hurt even more was the complete wipe out of the left flank. That is a problem. Some clever manoeuvring must happen now.

The two flanks are easy. On the left one, Alexia just hist a Knight and contests. On the right flank the surviving dog moves to contest. Easy peasy.

The knot that needs to be untangled is in the middle. The Wrecking Crew is Unstoppable. So, they ca, after being told Pathfinder by the Officer move out of engagements with Skylla. They move to contest the Flag and even manage to kill one of the Shadowmancers; just for good measure. Valerii can now move forward. I can’t remember if he Feated or just put a Kill Order on Skylla. This now allows the Kontroller to move up and freeze Skylla. The Dire Wolf should now have killed it — but did not.

The Avalanche moves in a hits Hydrix; whilst receiving some Defensive Strikes (perhaps it was the right round to feat, anyway). Everybody else is more or less focused on killing the Drakyn. Apparently not sufficiently focused.

End of round 3

This ends Valerii’s turn. Scenario score is now at 5-3 in Rassyk’s favour. I only have 8 minutes on the clock. Rassyk has 23. I’m in trouble. The picture above shows the troublesome situation.

Round 4

The initiative is on Rassyk’s court. The easy stuff first. Alexia goes away on the left flank. The poor dog is send to a farm up north on the right flank. The Drakyn removes two of the Suppressors. I would argue that this must be sufficient for one turn. Apparently, I was wrong.

In the middle, Skylla attempts to slide along the Dire Wolf and kill Valerii. Luckily, that is unsuccessful. However, Ryssak and Ryvyn trivially takes out the last Avalanche. The Hydrix moves over the barrier.

This, more or less ends Rassyk’s turn. The scenario score is now 8-3 in Rassyk’s favour. The picture below shows the sorry state of the battle.

End of turn 1

OK. I’m at 7:51 on the clock and there is no way I can win on scenario. There is sufficient problems with just surviving on scenario. So, I just have to kill Rassyk.

Valerii moves up and put a Kill Order on Rassyk (he might actually have feated here. I can’t remember). Superiority goes on the Dire Wolf. The Arkanists move up and puts focus on the Dire Wolf. All is set up for success…

The combined might of the Kontroller and the last Suppressors takes out Skylla. The Dire Wolf takes out Hydrix. Unfortunately, the Wrecking Crew can’t get a charge. So, they just have to walk up to Rassyk and surround him. Unfortunately, he is at DEF 12 and ARM 20 under Battle Formation. Although, he only has 18 boxes. This should be doable when effective MAT is 9 and POW 16. However, Rassyk can transfer. I really dislike transfer. The Wrecking Crew fail.

This ends the game. The final situation can be seen in the picture below. We end 10-3 in scenario score, in Rassyk’s favour.

End of round 4, end of game

This was fun. I’m pretty sure that I over extended in round two. It was hard to resist the lure of very far moving Avalanches. Of course it is an issue when the opponent can’t be knocked down. I was also surprised by the jamming on the left flank. I have no idea what Alexia is doing in the list.

Battle 3 — House Kallyss

Final game today is against House Kallyss. This should be manageable. I have some experience against Dusk, and even though Hazaroth can make the pretty robust and make model return, this is almost what Valerii’s list is made for. Lots of large bases for the Suppressors. The Dusk list is a follows.

Dusk – House Kallyss

        Hazaroth, Narcissar of Ruin

        – Ghast [9]

        	– HEAD – Fleet

        	– RIGHT ARM – Heavy Blade Fist

        	– LEFT ARM – Battle Shield

        – Ghast [9]

        	– HEAD – Fleet

        	– RIGHT ARM – Heavy Blade Fist

        	– LEFT ARM – Battle Shield

        – Israfyl [17]

        	– HEAD – Israfyl

        	– LEFT ARM – Serpentine Blade

        	– RIGHT ARM – Serpentine Blade

        	– BACK – Death Whisper
        Dyssiss, the Eye of Darkness [4]

        Eiryss, Shadow of Retribution [5]

        Mage Hunter Sniper Team [3]

        Void Shaper [2]

        Dreadguard Archers [9]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Slayers [8]

        Seeker Adepts [4]

        Soulless Guardians [6]

        Seeker Warden [2]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points 100/100

This is a game for Valarii. No questions asked. Suppressors against large bases and Payload. If he can’t do this, I would probably have to agree with the “common knowledge”, that he is now unplayable.

Deployment

We are playing Payload. Hazaroth wins the dice roll and wants to go first. I’m lazy and stay on the side where I’m already is.

Hazaroth deploys the kittens on each flank. Himself in the middle with all the shield guards next to him. Everything else is distributed in a nice line. There is one Ghast on the left flank, probably to hug the objective.

End of turn 1

Valerii deploys, more or less in the middle. The Kontroller and his Dire Wolf deploys on the right flank to be ready to hang out near the objective. The snipers are on the left flank to move towards the other 50 mm objective. Everything else goes in the middle. The picture above shows the situation before everything kicks off.

Round 1

Hazaroth kicks off the show. Everything moves forward, more or less towards the left. Partly to avoid the house on the right flank. Escort goes up. That is basically it. Yet another eventful first turn. The picture below shows the state of the game.

End of round 1

Valerii is obviously not going the be worse than Hazaroth. So, he also casts Escort. Puissance goes on the Wrecking Crew as well as At all Costs. Superiority goes on one of the Avalanches. He then moves into the rubble, which is a nice place to be.

On the right flank, the Kontroller and friend moves to the objective and prepares camp. On the left flank, the Snipers move up. Everybody else moves forward, outside the range of the kittens. The picture below shows the situation just before everything goes off.

End of turn 1

The boring round is done. Lets see what Hazaroth can do, and if “common knowledge” is correct.

Round 2

All of Valerii’s troops moved forward and stayed outside the range of the kittens; except the Snipers who was apparently not informed about the manoeuvre. Death by kittens happened (except for one guy).

Everybody else moves forward, cautionary one might argue. Except for the kittens on the right flank, who for some reason decided to attempt to jam some of Valerii’s troops.

The picture below shows the strange kittens and the rest of the dead elves.

End of round 2

Hey ho! Lets go! (Valerii has always been a fan of Blitzkrieg). Valerii upkeeps everything, save Superiority, which he swaps to the other Avalanche. He is quite happy in the rubble. So he’ll just stay there. He will, however put a Kill Order on the jamming kittens. The Kontroller is the rist to hear the Kill Order. He fires up the freezer (if that is a thing) and freezes two kittens. His Dire Wolf then kills the first one. The two others are left to the Suppressors, who remove them.

It is Avalanche time. It slams the Ghast in front of it. It seems that it is vaporised. I would have though that it got slammed across all the shield guards. But, apparently not. The Wrecking Crew follows up and ends up just behind the Avalanche around the 40 mm objective. They take care to stay out of sight of the last unit of kittens.

The Suppressors to the left moves up and spreads out to bait the kittens. Sergei tags along to give them Tough. That’s it. I liked this turn. The scenario score is 3-2 in Valerii’s favour. The picture below shoes the result of Blitzkrieg.

End of turn 1

So far, so good. Pressure is on Hazaroth. I don’t think I have overextended this time. We’ll see.

Round 3

The pressure is on Hazaroth. The kittens charge the Suppressors and manage to kill all of them, and one of the Wrecking Crew. That was more that I had expected. So, measurements were apparently not precise enough. The Archers move along the left flank and kill the last of the Snipers. In the mosh pit everything piles in and tries to kill the Avalanche. However, ARM 22 is a tough nut to crack. It remains alive. I love Avalanches.

That is everything that Hazaroth could muster. Scenario score is 5-4 in Valerii’s favour. The picture below shows the result of Hazaroths effort.

End of round 3

Valerii is absolutely still in the game. I would perhaps even say more than just in the game. This turn is actually kind of fast. Wrecking Crew and Suppressors remove the kittens. The Avalanche is filled up. It tramples the shield guards and kill Hazaroth. Easy peasy. The picture below depicts the Motherland’s glorious victory.

End of round 4, end of game

This was fast, furious and fun. It should be said that my opponent has probably played even less games that I have during a long period. So, I’m basically preying on the weak. We did both have fun, though.

Summary & Lessons Learned

So far, the vision to Oslo has been really nice. The venue is absolutely fantastic. Nice big and bright rooms; smack in the middle of Oslo. The hosts are very nice. So are all the other players. There is something very nice about the Warmachine community.

I still can’t get Yana to work. Valarii on the other hand is a beast. I have no idea what Alexia is doing in the list. I’m pretty sure I’ll exchange her for something useful. Oh, and I might want the Sapper Command Card.

Onwards till tomorrow. For the Motherland!

Kapitan Ekaterina Baranova vs. Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart

Igor Khador — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 14:27:00 +0000

Crucible Guard is on the move again. The Liael radicalised youth is attempting to use the Orgoth invasion to stir unrest in the territories. The Empress has ordered Kapitan Ekatrina Baranova to stop Baldwin Gearhart. Curcible Guards tend to use all sorts of chemical tricks to mess with Khador armour. This battle is bloody, fast and fun.

Historical, I have had issues with Crucible Guard. Not only have every single model more rules that the entire Khador army, they are also quite adept at dealing with heavy armour. Yet, this is MK IV, so things might have improved. This Gerhart list contains a lot of medium based dudes, three Assault Troopers and one Storm Trooper. Thus, Baranova is summoned to deal with the radicalised youth of Liael. The two lists facing off are:

Khador – Winter Korps
Kapitan Ekaterina Baranova

   – Avenging Force

   – Fog of War

   – Puissance 

   – Mastodon [34]

     HEAD – Fire Support

     RIGHT SHOULDER – Heavy Cannon

     LEFT SHOULDER – Heavy Cannon

     RIGHT ARM – Great Axe

     LEFT ARM – Grinder Fist
AC-2 Bison [10]

AC-2 Bison [10]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Magziev Zariyah Volkova [4]

Winter Korps Officer [2]

Winter Korps Officer [2]

Winter Korps Officer [2]
Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Break Through

    – High Alert

    – Old Faithful

    – Power Swell
Total Points   102/100

Crucible Guard – Crucible Guard
Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart

   – Mr. Clogg
Vulcan [28]
Ascendant Mentalist [4]

Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc [5]

Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

Doctor Alejandro Mosby [4]

Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter [5]

Rocketman Ace [3]

Rocketman Ace [3]

Rocketman Stinger [3]

Rocketman Stinger [3]

Trancer [2]
Crucible Guard Assault Troopers [7]

Crucible Guard Assault Troopers [7]

Crucible Guard Assault Troopers [7]

Crucible Guard Storm Troopers [9]

Dragon’s Breath Rocket [4]

Dragon’s Breath Rocket [4]
Command Cards

    – Careful Reconnaissance

    – Hit & Run

    – Old Faithful

    – Power Swell

    – Sapper
TOTAL POINTS 100/100

Please not that I accidentally played this list with 102 points! Goring forward, I’m removing one Officer. krjugamer on the SFG discord has been nice and pointed it out.

Initial Thoughts

In some way, the approach from both lists are similar: only one ‘jack, but a rather large one. Gearhart brings a Vulcan and Baranova brings a Mastodon. I guess that on paper the Mastodon is better. However, Crucible typically has more support spells and weird abilities.

There are also four of the flying men, who tends to be quite mobile and generally a nuisance. The core of the infantry are the Assault Troopers. I remember them as slightly better than old Khador Man-O-Wars. So, this will be interesting. They should probably just be shot, fast. The Rockets does not worry me too much. I seem to remember that they can do some annoying cloud effects. But, I’ll probably manage.

Gearhart and Vulcan is a dangerous partnership. Not only can he cast Deceleration, which is always annoying to face, he can also cast Snipe on a Vulcan and upkeep Hot Shot. That makes for a pretty dangerous rocket and two quite annoying sprays. Mr. Clogg can also helo his master with several different guns, where I find the Catapult most annoying. It has Shadow Bind; and Baranova only has one ‘jack.

I think the plan will be something along the lines of kill as much infantry as possible with the Mastodon and the AC2-Bisons. Kill the Vulcan in close combat with the Mastodon and/or the Wrecking Crew. Snipers of objectives and normal annoyance. What could possible go wrong?

Deployment

We are playing Steamroller 2024 Scenario Battle Lines. Gearhart wins the roll-off and opts to go first. Baranova picks the side with a cloud she can hang out behind.

Gearhart deploys everything in a huge brick in the middle of the board. The Vulcan is to the left of the bulk of the army.

The situation after deployment

Baranova deploys like she always does. The Mastodon, more or less in the middle, with all the support and herself next to it. Each flank is occupied by a unit of Snipers, A Bison, a unit of Wrecking Crew and an Officer. She kind of misses the four units of Shock Troopers. But, the Wrecking Crew must suffice.

The picture above depicts the situation before the battle commences.

Round 1

Round 1 is usually rather boring. However, Baranova has a Mastodon. So it might be fun. Who knows?

End of turn 1

Gearhart advances all of his troops. Snipe goes up on Gearhart along with Deceleration. Deceleration and Assault/Shock Troopers is an unfortunate combination. This gives them +6 ARM against shooting. Boo hiss! That is it.

The picture above shows the result of Gearhart’s advancements.

End of round 1

Baranova is in a good mood. She casts Avenging Force, and with Invocation of Wrath (IoW) and Superiority on the Mastodon, it can walk into shooting distance of the Assault Troopers. So, why waste a present? The combined shooting with a AC-2 Bison and a bit of help from the Arkanists and Volkova, three Assault Troopers, one Shock Trooper and a Dragon Rocket unit disappears. Is is, so far a good day to be a Mastodon.

In addition to the lovely display of fire power, the remaining parts of Baranova’s army just advances. The two units of Snipers spread out. Everybody else just enjoy the show.

The picture above depicts the situation and the end of round 1.

Round 2

Round 2 is where the action typically happens. Gearhart is a bit annoyed that he did not pick up the measuring tape and just eye balled distances. He is now a bit wary of the Mastodon.

End of turn 1

The main event is the movement of Gearhart and some of the Assault Troopers move into the rough terrain in the middle. This obviously makes them somewhat more difficult to shoot. Not only do they get a better DEF but also the +6 to ARM. Quite disappointing, I have to say. Oh, and Gearhart shoots the Bison to the left with Shadow Bind.

A second group of Assault Troopers clutter up to the left. There was some idea behind this, that I forgot. The good doctor does his drug things, probably to make them tough. On the left, a Trancer runs up to the objective.

Finally, on the right, the Vulcan advances outside the charge range of the Mastodon. The remaining Dragon Rockets move up and shoots a rocket and the Wrecking Crew. The main effect is that they get Vengeance. Hutchuck also joins the party on the right side. Along with a dudess on a rocket, they take out the unit of Snipers (and the dog. Nobody likes dogs!)

The picture above shows how the battlefield looks after Gerhart’s response to the Mastodon shock.

End of round 2

OK. Gearhart is getting twitchy. Baranova wants to get stuff moving. She does not like the looks of the Vulcan. So, she moves to the left. Casts IoW and feats. The Mastodon assumes that the Vulcan can’t kill it and moves forward to the middle of the board. It keeps hammering on the unit in the middle hiding Gearhart.

On the left, the Snipers just hang back to score the flag. The Bison can’t move due to Shadow Bind. So it just hangs back and enjoys the view. The Wrecking Crew moves into the woods to be ready for the next turn.

On the right, the second Bison hammes away at the Vulcan, whilst staying near the objective to hopefully score at some point. The Officer charges Hutchuck but can’t manage to kill him. The second Officer runs sideways to be ready to assist. The Wrecking Crew moves forward to be ready for the Vulcan and perhaps be a little in the way.

The picture above depicts the end of round 2. Scenario score is 2-2.

Round 3

Round 3 is typically where battles get decided. Let’s see which way the wind blow. Gearhart needs to put the metal to the pedal.

End of turn 1

On the right flank, Hutchuck attempts to retaliate agains the Officer. Luckily, with out any effect. The two flying men moves towards the objective and the Bison; mostly, to be annoying – like little flies. The Dragon’s Breath moves forward and hits the Bison with Withering Humor (-2 DEF and no tough).

The left flank is rather uneventful. The last flying dude moves to the objective and the Trancer already hanging around there. I assume the Trancer was suppose to move to my Snipes. But apparently, it was napping.

The main action is in the middle, where the Mastodon learns that it is not particularly good at maths. A Vulcan filled up with focus and all the bells and whistles that Gearhart can do, can actually kill a Mastodon. It was not a overkill. But, nevertheless the Mastodon crumbles.

The picture above shows the sorry state of the battle field after the Mastodon has been reduced to scrap. Scenario score is now 4-3.

End of round 3

This is unfortunate. I was assuming that the Vulcan would make a move on the Mastodon. But, I did not expect it to kill it. On the bright side, most of the remaining army is untouched. Nevertheless, Baranova needs to step up and be creative. I do thing she feated at a good time. It is only the Vulcan that is in her battle line.

On the left flank, the Bison haven’t got anything better to do than move to the left and kill the Trancer. Second shot goes into the Vulcan that really needs to go away. The Officer moves behind the Bison for Cover and gives Pathfinder to the Wrecking Crew.

In the middle, the Arkanists lost their ‘jack so it is spray time. They move up and spray the Vulcan. Obviously, Baranova has activated first to cast IoW. Next up is the Mechanik who moves up, shoots and spray the Vulcan. The second Officer gives the other unit of Wrecking Crew Pathfinder as well. It is wrecking time.

The left most Wrecking Crew charges the Vulcan a brings a lot of hurt. We like Puissance. They are followed by the second unit of Wrecking Crew who thinks this looks like fun. They charge, and when the smoke settles the Vulcan is no more.

Nothing significant happens on the right flank. Stuff attempts to hit stuff with no real effect.

The picture above demonstrates the result of Baranova getting her act together. Scenario score is now 6-5 in Gearhart’s favour.

Round 4

Both armies are now left with only the infantry (and tanks in Baranova’s case). Let’s see how Gearhart retaliates.

End of turn 1

Gearhart starts by sending the flying dude on the left down behind the house with the flag to contest the point. Another flying dude move to the middle objective and kills some Arkanists. On the right flank, it is business as usually, people hit each other to no effect.

The real party is in the middle. Obviously, killing the Vulcan did provoke some negative sentiment among the remaining Crucible Guards. They decide to take their anger out on the Wrecking Crews.

The Assault Troopers charge the Wrecking Crew and manage to take out two members of the unit to the right. Some of the other models also attempts to take out the second unit, without any luck. This inspires Gearhart to join the party. He charges the last Wrecking Crew member of the rightmost unit. Luckily, he did not have a full breakfast and is to weak to kill the model.

Gearhart’s revenge was surprisingly weak. No units disappeared. The turn ends with a scenario score of 8-5 in Gearhart’s favour. The picture above depicts the situation and the end of the first turn of round 4.

End of round 4, end of game

Baranova is getting behind on scenario point. So, she really needs to either get some points or just kill Gearhart. Luckily, Gearhart got greedy and manage to place himself in the middle of the board with four annoyed Wrecking Crew members nearby. So, killing Gearhart is the plan.

Kumbaya my lord…

If I was a better player I would probably have played scenario score first and then the assassination run second. But, I’m not. So, all the Wrecking Crew charge in. They roll some dice and to no big surprise Gearhart goes down.

The picture to the left shows Gearhart surrounded by a bunch of Wrecking Crew singing Kumbaya my lord just before Gearhart leaves the party.

This ends the game in round 4. The picture above depicts the end of the game. Scenario score ends at 10-5 in Gearhart’s favour. He would have won if he did not get greedy.

Final Thoughts

Fun game with a lot of cool stuff happening. On the less cool side, I clearly underestimated the robustness of the Mastodon. It does a lot of work. Yet, it is not as survivable as it looks. Also, I still need to be better at scenario. They are very important in Steamroller.

I think I’m getting better at piloting this list. I think that Snipers might have found their place. Park them near a flag and forget them. Bisons are cool. They are quite robust but not really dealing a lot of damage.

Until next time.
For the Motherland!

Kommander Tatiana Sikora vs. Lord Exhumator Scaverous

Igor Khador — Sat, 06 Jul 2024 14:39:00 +0000

Cryx is at it again. After their loss by Skarre, Scaverous is send to the shores of Khador to wreck havoc. The Empress dispatches Kommander Sikor and her Man-O-Wars once againg to deal with the Cryx menace. This Cryx detachment consists of all lot of ghostwalking banes. It is a close one. Yet, all of this ghostwalking becomes troublesome for Tatiana.

This is the second time within a short period of time that I encounter Cryx. The last time was quite a success (see here for details). This list is quite different, except that it in a sense also is dude-spam. I actually think that the Man-O-Wars and Tatiana can make the cut. However, this is still one of my first trial runs with Tatiana and the new Man-O-Wars. So, I’m still learning how to pilot this list. The two lists facing off are:

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Tatiana Sikora

   – Iron Flesh

   – Puissance

   – Dire Wolf [9]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Ice Hammer

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

   – Dire Wolf [9]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Ice Hammer

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield
Koldun Lord Damien Korovnik [3]

Sergeant Sergei Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [2]

Winter Korps Officer [2]
Arkanists [4]

Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]                             

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Careful Reconnaissance

    – Hit & Run

    – Old Faithful

    – Power Swell

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Cryx – Dark Host
Lord Exhumator Scaverous

   – Deathripper [4]

   – Deathripper [4]

   – Erebus [14]
Wraith Engine [11]
Bane Lord Tartarus [5]

Machine Wraith [2]

Necrotech [1]

Necrotech [1]

Necrotech [1]

Pistol Wraith [4]

Pistol Wraith [4]

Soul Trapper [1]
Bane Knights [7]

   – Bane Knight Officer [2]

Bane Knights [7]

   – Bane Knight Officer [2]

Bane Riders [9]

Bane Warriors [7]

Bane Warriors [7]

The Winthershadow Cobine [6]
Command Cards

   – Break Through

   – Duck and Cover! [1]

   – Infiltration

   – Grave Robbing

   – Power Swell
Total Points   100/100

A note to the reader: I’m proxying two units: One of the Wrecking Crews is Shock Trooper Pikemen on large bases. The other one, is one of the Suppressor units that are Shock Trooper Gunners on large bases.

Initial Thoughts

Cryx are back. This time it is in a completely different configuration than the last time (see here for details). There is a whole lot of Banes and a bunch of solos; yet, not many ‘jacks. Quite a lot of Stealth, which is annoying as Tatiana’s list relies on quite a lot of shooting (in particular against larger bases).

The Banes are really mobile. They are all Ghostly. So, except for line of sight, Ghostly basically ignore all obstacles and models. So, hiding and board control is difficult. They can hit pretty hard, in particularly on the charge. The Knights and Riders have Brutal Charge (24 or 25 points of damage on average) and the Warriors are Weapon Masters (25 points of damage on the average). There are many of them and Tartarus can bring Banes back when he kills stuff, so can Scaverous when casting Excarnate.

Scaverous, himself is no slouch in close combat. He is effectively MAT 8 and has a Thresher attack. Luckily it is “only” POW 14. So, the Man-O-Wars are comparatively safe. His feat reduces his cost of spell casting by one and increases Tatiana’s with one (assuming she is wihtin 14″ of him). The latter is not too important as Tatiana is not the big spell caster.

He brings four spells, where Telekinesis is probably the main attraction. Under feat he can cast it 7 times, potentially through his two Arc Nodes. Feast of Worms makes a hazadarous could. I’m guessing that is no the most prominent spell in his arsenal. Excarnate can add grunts to most of the Banes if it kill a dude. Finally, Death Ward gives +2 ARM to a model or unit. This could bring Knights to ARM 20 or Warriors to ARM 17.

There are only three ‘jacks. Two Deathrippers, which probably are there primarily as Arc Nodes. Erebus is the main beatstick. Since it is bonded to Scaverous he is also an Arc Node. He has Overtake and Poltergeist, which doesn’t really matter a lot as the Man-O-Wars are Sturdy. The Dire Wolfs are obviously affect. Erebus is quite dangerous in close combat. He is POW 17, yet he has Freeze on his attack. So, stationary on a stick.

Finally, there is the big guy. The Wraith Engine, which honestly looks a bit scary. It has Dark Shroud (enemies suffers -2 ARM within 2″), which is highly annoying with such a larg footprint. It also has Unhallowed giving +2 ARM within 10″ against ranged and arcane attacks; also annoying.

Tatiana runs the same list as against Skarre (see here for details).

Deployment

We are playing the Steamroller 2024 scenario Payload. Tatiana wins the roll-off and goes first. Scaverous picks the side with the extra objective (Payload is asymmetrical) .

Tatiana deploys with a ‘jack on each flank. There is a Man-O-War module adjacent to each ‘jack towards the middle. Everything else goes in the middle. She deploys quite a lot to the right. This might be a wrong move as the extra objective is in the diagonal corner. However, there is kind of a plan of escorting the moveable objective forward whilst protecting the house from the opponents moveable objective.

End of Deployment

Scaverous deploys a kind of sub-group on the left flank, consisting of a unit of Bane Knights, the Machine Wraith, a Necrotech, a Deathripper, the Soul Trapper, and a Pistol Wraith. That is quite a good group to capture both objectivs and escort the 50 mm one.

On the right side, the Bane Riders on the far flank. There is also a Pistol Wraith and the seond Deathripper. Everything elses goes more or less in the middle. Also the Wraith Engine.

The picture above depicts the situation after deployment.

Round 1

Of we go for round 1. I’ll try to execute my plan and secure the right half of the table whilst having some annoyance ready for the left side.

End of turn 1

On the righ side the Dire Wolf moves up and prepares to hug the obejctive. The Snipers move into the forest of benefit from concealment. The Suppressors moves as far ahead as possible to be ready to shoot stuf, and the Wrecking Crew tags along behind them. Behind it all, the Arkanists prepare themselves for Empowering in the coming turn.

Tatiana casts Avenging Force on herself. Iron Flesh on the Suppressors on the left and Puissanceon the Wrecking Crew on the right. She shouts Desperate Pace to the Suppressors with Iron Flesh and moves up behind the wall.

On the left side, the Dire Wolf moves side ways behind the house to be ready to defend the objective against the moving 50 mm and perhaps at some point harass Scaverous’ left sub-army. The Snipers moves fra ahead behind a big rock to be ready to pick out models. The Suppressors run forward, followed by the Wrecking Crew. The final Dire Wolf moves to Tatiana along with Sergei. The rest just distrubute behind the front line.

The picture above displays the result of Tatiana’s advancement.

End of round 1

Scaverous starts of as expected. The gruop on the left flank moves forward and secures the two objectives.

On the right side, the Bane Riders push very far ahead to harass the flank. The Pistol Wraith also runs wide. Finally, the Deathripper tags along behind teh Bane Riders.

In the middel, the Wraith Engine moves up in the middle as an anker. Banes spread out on both side of it. Tartarus tags along on the right side. Scaverous decides to hang back behind The Winthershadow Cobine. That was it. A whole lot of Banes quite far up the table.

The picture above shows the battlefield after the extended deployment phase.

Round 2

Round 2 — the party can begin. There is a lot of small Banes in the middle of the battlefield. Let’s see if it is possible to get rid of them.

End of turn 1

Tatiana kicks off the party. She upkeeps her spells; moves in behind the well to make sure that her feat can cover enugh area, without getting too much into harms way; and feats.

On the right side, the Suppressors move forward and peppers the Bane Riders until the disappear. A few remaining shots go into the Bane Warriors in the middle. The Snipers can now move forward mostly into the field and take out three Bane Warriors. So far, so good.

In the middle, the Officer shouts Press the Advantage to the Suppressors giving them Swift Hunter. They then aim and starts shooting. Unfortunately, they are shooting a small bases; and despite rerolls they can’t really hit anything. A few Banes die, but nothing amazing. They do, however spread out making room for the Wrecking Crew that charges Banes, after the other Officer have shouted Pathfinder to them.

On the left side, the Dire Wolf runs forward along the wall of the house. It is now ready for the next round. The Snipers move out from behind the rock and pick out some Banes and kill two. They then Reposition to fill up some area.

Back to the right side. There is now room for the second Wrecking Crew to enter the fray. This also opens up the possibility for the Dire Wolf on the rigth to move in front of the Objective and for the Arkanist to follow behind. The few remaining models just move up behind the frontline.

All in all, an OK turn. Not impressive in killing power, but OK. The picture above shows the disarray after Tatiana’s turn.

End of round 2

Scaverous’ troops ready them selfs to hit back. He feats and probably cast some spells. For some reason that is beyond me, I managed to make a very nice Wraith Engine size hole behind my front line. There is just a single Wrecking Crew standing in the way. However, being moved 2″ forward by Telekinese and charging, and with the help of being Incorporeal, it is now in the middle of Tatiana’s army. Luckily, it doesn’t really manage to do any significant damage against Man-O-Wars under feat.

On the right side, the Pistol Wraith runs forward to contest the Objective. Tartarus moves in and kills the dog (why is it always the dog….) and a single Sniper. This means two additional Banes in the unit next to him. The Deathripper kills the Sniper near the forest on Scaverous’ half.

The left flank is plauged the whold group of Banes and a Pitol Wraith, who manage to remove the entire Sniper unit (including the dog!).

The Bane Warriors in the middle removes a Wrecking Crew and cluttes up the centre. This leaves room for Erebus who charges and kill another Wrecking Crew in the same unit. Also a Wrecking Crew from the other unit.

That was it. Except the small and insignificant Wraith Engine that appeared smack in the middle of Tatian’s army, it was actually a pretty good turn for her. I’m pretty sure it could have been much more bloody.

The picture abow shows the chaos at the end of the second round.

Round 3

OK. There is a Wraith Engine in our midst. But besides that, Tatiana and her loyal army is actually in a pretty good state. Let’s see if she can press the advantage.

End of turn 1

First of all, there is the roar of Vengeance from the two Wrecking Crews. One whacks the Wraith Engine, the other one a random Bane. Tatiana uses her move from Avenging force and also hits the Wraith Engine. But it is a hard target. A base ARM of 18 + Death Ward from Scaverous gives it ARM 20. That is rough.

The turn can now begin for real. Tatiana moves back to her well. Hitting Wraith Engines makes you thirsty. She drops Avenging Force, upkeeps the other two and cast Positive Charge on the Dire Wolf to her right. The Supperssors to the left moves around a bit and starts shooting at the Wraith Engine. Despite the effective POW of 14, damaging ARM 20 is difficult. So, one of the Suppressors change target to the unit of Bane Warriors, which improves it’s self esteem a bit. Anyway, it is clear that help is required.

Help arrives from the Dire Wolf to the left. The Arkanists fills it up with focus; and finally, Damien remembers that he can cast Positive Charge. The Dire Wolf walks leisurely up to the Wraith Engine. Being POW 19 helps. The Wraith Engine disappears.

The Wrecking Crew from the right moves in, kills a Bane and Smites Erebus. This makes it easy picking for the Dire Wolf equiped with a Long Axe and Positive Charge. POW 18 against ARM 18 is straight dice. 28 boxes is not a lot; in partiuclar when it has already been damaged. It dissapears.

The field is slowly opening up. The right most Suppressors can now move behind enemy lines. They kill a Necrotech and put a few pot shots into Scaverous. It does not damage him a lot. By the effect of having three Man-O-Wars at your door step has aome effect.

Finally, the Arkanists on the right sprays the Pistol Wraith off the board. The Dire Wolf shuffles left to cover a bit for Tatiana and the two Officers runs in front of her to screen her. The picture above shows how a Cryx army under pressure looks.

End of round 3, end of game

Scaverous is on his heels. He needs to come up with something. He activates first, charges the Suppressors and take out two Suppressors and the contesting Sniper. Tartarus the charges the Officers, take them out and returns two Banes. This now leaves room for the Bane Warriors on the right. After a lot of measuring and measuring and measuring they make the charge on Tatiana. Four Banes arrive. Despite a heoric defence by Tatiana, and some shouting of obscure remarks, she goes down.

The picture above shows the result of a Cryx hail Mary (or whatever the hail). Scenario is at 4 to 3 in Scaverous’ favour and the game is done.

Final Thoughts

Once again I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of vitory. It was very much like the battle against Sparkhamme (see here for details). Screening is quite difficult in MK IV. Nevertheless, this was yet another game where we both had fun.

I’m clearly getting better at piloting this list. I still think that Snipers are a bit lacklusting. The Man-O-Wars are peforming. Suppressors are not good against small bases. Perhaps I should thing about exchanging Snipers for Shock Trooper Gunners. There is an extra RAT, yet worse range and they do have a larger footprint.

On the positive side, Damien remebered that he can cast a spell — hurrah!

Until next time.
For the Motherland!

Kommander Tatiana Sikora vs. Mechanik Adept Sparkhammer

Igor Khador — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 15:39:00 +0000

Cygnar is on the move again. Probably encouraged by Madison Calder’s success at the last crossroad. This time they are sending their Cadre ‘caster Sparkhammer — and what a hammer it is. Tatiana is dispatched again to make up for her past mistakes. She is again bringing her Man-O-Wars. She does a pretty good job until the last second where a ‘jack breaks through and ends the game.

I have a thing with Cygnar. I can’t seem to break them. I’m guessing most of the problem lies with the man behind the scene. He (yes, that is me) is simply not proficient enough with this list. However, practices makes perfect so I’m trying again with the same list as the last time I got beaten (see here for my last loss). So, let’s see what happens. The two lists are as follows:

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Tatiana Sikora

   – Iron Flesh

   – Puissance
   – Dire Wolf [9]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Ice Hammer

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

   – Dire Wolf [9]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Ice Hammer

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield
Koldun Lord Damien Korovnik [3]

Sergeant Sergei Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [2]

Winter Korps Officer [2]
Arkanists [4]

Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Careful Reconnaissance

    – Hit & Run

    – Old Faithful

    – Power Swell

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Cygnar – Storm Legion
Mechanik Adept Sparkhammer

   – Deflection

   – Lighting Pulse
   – Courser [8]

     HEAD – Arc Node

     RIGHT ARM – Heavy Stormthrower

     LEFT ARM – Voltaic Punching Spike

   – Courser [7]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Heavy Stormthrower

     LEFT ARM – Voltaic Punching Spike

   – Stryker [12]

     HEAD – Relentless Charge

     RIGHT ARM – Voltaic Halberd

     LEFT ARM – Stormblazer Cannon

   – Stryker [12]

     HEAD – Relentless Charge

     RIGHT ARM – Voltaic Hammer

     LEFT ARM – Stormblazer Cannon

   – Stryker [12]

     HEAD – Relentless Charge

     RIGHT ARM – Voltaic Javelin

     LEFT ARM – Stormblazer Cannon
Weather Station [3]

Weather Station [3]

Weather Station [3]

Weather Station [3]

Zephyr [7]
Arcane Mechaniks [5]

Arcane Mechaniks [5]

Storm Callers [5]

Storm Callers [5]

Storm Lance Legionnaires [10]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Break Through

    – Careful Reconnaissance

    – High Alert

    – Old Faithful
Total Points   100/100

A note to the reader: I’m proxying two units: One of the Wrecking Crews is Man-O-War Demolition Corps on large bases. The other one, is one of the Suppressor units that are Man-O-War Bombardiers on large bases. Both are painted red.

The Cygnar player is also proxying: Three of the Weather Stations are just blank bases, so is the Zephyr. One of the Storm Callers are a unit of Storm Vanes.

Initial Thoughts

Sparkhammer is very new to me. I have basically no idea what he does. He has a machine on him that allows him to extend his control range to 16″, add 2 to electric damage rolls within his control range, or reduce the cost of each spell he casts by one. Pretty nifty. His feat gives him all three and friendly models can reroll storm call attacks. Seems a bit weak, but there is probably something in the details.

He brings Inhospitable Ground, which I’m not too worried about; Jackhammer, which he can actually cast 7 times when picking the ‘redcue cost’ ability — that is quite a lot of extra attacks on a ‘jack; Mobility for +2 SPD and Pathfinder for his battlegroup — pretty good; Sunhammer, which gives d3 damage om ‘jacks advancing in his control; Deflection for +2 DEF against ranged attacks — for everybody!; and Lighting Pulse, for a kind of POW 10 chain lighting. A pretty good set of spells.

He brings five ‘jacks: two Coursers and three Strykers. The two former brings sprays and one of them is an arc node, which doesn’t really makes any sense in this list. The latter are the normal beatsticks. Three different hand weapons, but all the same POW 14 gun and POW 10 hazard.

In addition to the five ‘jacks, he is bringing a load of stuff that can bring lightning down: four Weather Stations and two Storm Callers. They are annoying. There are two units of the best mechanics in town. A unit of the Storm Lancers, which are normally very annoying. Finally, the new apperance (or in this case not-apperance) of the Zephyr. It is a bit uncelar what this does that is particullary dangerous.

On paper I think Tatiana and the Khadorian wall of steel should be good here. Except for the Strykers and the Lancers it is not a particular hard hitting list; even though Sparkhammer can stack stuff for damage. I’m not going to go through the list i details here. There is some more information here.

I think I’ll just stick to my standard plan for Tatiana and Man-O-Wars: move as fast as Khador possible up the board and grab some real estate. Then feat, survive and kill stuff. No point in making plans to complicated.

Deployment

War are playing the Steamroller 2024 scenario Two Fronts. Sparkhammer wins the roll-off and goes first. Tatiana picks the side with the nice L-shaped wall, which will be very nice to hide behind.

Sparkhammer deploys far to the left with only a unit of Storm Callers on that flank. He is probably going to be hiding behind the houses for the whole game. All the ‘jacks, save for one Courser deploys next to him towards the middel. There are two Weather Stations on each side of the ‘jack brick. The fast stuff goes to the right.

End of deployment

Tatiana deploys a unit of Snipers on each flank (as always). A Man-O-War module (Suppressors, Wrecking Crew and Officer) on each side. The Arkanist of each side to be able to Empower but also spray stuff. Everything else goes in the middle.

This picture above shows the situation after deployment.

Round 1

The first round is probably going to be just as eventful as all other first rounds. Let the extended deployment phase comence.

End of turn 1

Sparkhammer sends his Zephyr up the right flank along with a unit of Strom Callers that move into the forest. A unit of Mechaniks moves in behind thee forest. The Storm Lancers move forward and one of the repositions into the forest. They are making room for two advancing Weather Stations to move though next round.

On the left flank, a unit of Storm Callers, along with a Weather Station moves slowly forward shielding themselves behind the two houses.

Everything else moves up in the middle. The three Strykers line up from the house to block line of sight. Sparkhammer himself moves up and hides behind the house. He casts Deflection and Sunhammer. The remaining Mechaniks also move forward. That was it.

This picture above depitcs the battlefield after the inital Cygnar turn.

End of round 1

It is Tatiana’s turn to do extended deployment. She puts Desperate Pase on unit of Suppressors along with Iron Flesh; Puissance on a unit of Wrecking Crew; and then moves up behind the wall. Finally, she casts Avenging Force on herself.

Both of the two Snipers move up their respective flanks and into the forest. I know the Storm Callers ignor forests. But they like it in the woods.

The two Man-O-War modules move up the board to claim some real estate. Two Dire wolfs tag along for the ride. One of the makes sure to stay within Shield Guard range of Tatiana. The rest of the troops just hag back.

The picture above shows the result of the invigorating first round.

Round 2

The second round is where the action is. Let’s see which way the wind blows.

End of turn 1

This is Sparkhammers feat round. He fires the feat up, and perhaps casts some spells. In claccic Cygnar style he boldly stays hidden behind the house.

On the right flank, the Storm Callers move forward and obviously kill the poor dog and at least one Sniper. The Storm Lancers charge forward and helps clean out the remaing Snipers. The Zephyr moves forward and might get a shot of at something. Finally, one the the Strykers charge a Suppressor and kills him.

On the left flank, the Storm Callers move forward and attempts to reproduce the result on the left flank. Supprisingly, the dog and one Sniper survive!

In the middle, the two Coursers moves a bit forward. The Mechaniks do their thing and a fully tanked Stryker charges the right most unit of Wrecking Crews. It manages to take two our; one from each unit, trickering Vengeance. The second fully tanked Stryker charges the left most Wrecking Crew and manages to kill one of them. Everything else shuffles forward.

The picture above shows the result of the Cygnar drawing first blood.

End of round 2

“Vengenace is mine” shout two units of Wrecking Crew. The left most moves a far forward as possible and whacks a Stryker. This also brings him within charge distance of the Courser. The second Wrecking Crew moves forward a whack the second Stryker. Finally, a Dire Wolf move forward and smashes a Storm Lancer, except that it misses. Now, the turn can really begin.

It is feat turn! Tatiana drop her upkeeps, feats and cast Positive Charge on a Dire Wolf. She has to kill the Storm Lance in front of her to make room for the Dire Wolf behind her. Thus, she is left with only one focus.

Inititally, the Arkanists fill up the ‘jacks and enjoys the view. Damien forgets he can cast Positive Charge and moves next to the objective in the forest on the right. The left Officer says Pathfinder to the unit of Suppressors and the right Officer says it to the unit of Wrecking Crew. Everybody is now ready to rumble.

The remaining Suppressor on the right side backs of and shoots at the Stryke. He does some damage. The Dire Wolf charges the Zephyr and kills it. This accidently exposes Tatians right side, so Sergei moves up to block and shoots at the Stryker. It is still alive.

On the left side, the remaining Sniper actually manage to kill a Storm Caller. This makes room for the Suppressors to move into the swap. They fire up and kills the Weather Station and chips away at the Courser and the left most Stryker. This also makes room for the two remaining Dire Wolfs.

The two Wrecking Crew on the right moves forward and hammer away at the middle Stryker. The middle Dire Wolf charges one of the Strykers and kills both. Nice Dire Wolf. This, of course leaves the last Dire Wolf with no target, yet three fokus. This releases the last of the right Wrecking Crew, which can then charge the Courser.

That is it. A rather brutal round leaving Sparkhammer on his heels. The picture above shoes the beatiful sight of Cygnar under preassure.

Round 3

Sparkhammer is under heavy preassure. Howver, Tatiane has left her right side potentially exposed. Everything can happen.

End of turn 1, end of game

Not only is Sparkhammer under pressure, he is also quite low on time. The only way to go is to attempt to break through on the right and kill Tatiane. This requires some finesse and hefty rereading of the rules for charging and Unstoppable. The plan is to make room for the Stryker to get to Tatiana along the wall and hammer her to a pulp. The requires that Sergei is removed.

The Storm Lancers charge since one of the models are unengaged. Both Storm Lancers can reach Sergei. One with no issues and the other one because it does not leave the engagement with the Dire Wolf. This is more than Sergei can handle and he goes down. A corridor has now been opend for the Stryker.

The Stryker are fully load by the Mechaniks and moves down to Tatiana. It hammers away with surprisingly little damage. For a brief moment Tatiana feels safe. Then Sparkhammer activates. He does Vexing Alignment and 7 Jackhammers later Tatiana is pulp.

Final Thoughts

I managed to snap defeat from the jaws of victory. It was going so well and then I messed up by making it too easy to get to Tatiana.

The list is working better and better as I get to now it better. There are still some issues around focus management. I left a ‘jack with three focus that Tatiana could have used. I’m pretty sure that some simple calculations would have told me that it did not need focus.

I still forge that Damian can cast Postitive Charge and has a spray. The main reason he is there. Snipers still die like flies to attacks that really wouldn’t touch Man-O-Wars.

On the positive side, I getting better at the Man-O-War modules. They are beginning to feel good. Obviously, the main point is to have fun and we did. We did also get to reread a lot of rules around charging, being engaged and Unstoppable. Unstoppable units are really powerful and Man-O-Wars are Unstoppable…

Until next time.
For the Motherland!

Kommander Tatiana Sikora vs. Pirate Queen Skarre

Igor Khador — Fri, 24 May 2024 11:56:00 +0000

The remains of the pirate kingdom of Cryx is still stirring. Skarre, the pirate queen is moving into Khador territory. She is escorted with all the girls with long spiky chains. Obviously, the Empress will not stand for such insolence. Tatiana is sent to defend the coast along with a detachment of the newest Man-O-Wars. The battle is fast and furious. Yet, the rampaging pirates is no match for Khadorian steel.

It has been a long time since I encountered Cryx. I’m pretty sure it is the first time in Mark IV. I kind of like Cryx, at least in the Satyxis version. It is fast, furious and deadly. I just hope that the new Man-O-War and ‘caster can make the cut. This is one of my first trial runs with Tatiana and the new Man-O-Wars. So, I’m still learning how to pilot this list. This can clearly go both ways. The two lists facing off are:

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Tatiana Sikora

   – Iron Flesh

   – Puissance

   – Dire Wolf [9]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Ice Hammer

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

   – Dire Wolf [9]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Ice Hammer

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield
Koldun Lord Damien Korovnik [3]

Sergeant Sergei Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [2]

Winter Korps Officer [2]
Arkanists [4]

Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]                             

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Careful Reconnaissance

    – Hit & Run

    – Old Faithful

    – Power Swell

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Cryx – Blackfleet
Pirate Queen Skarre

   – Deathripper [4]

   – Slayer [9]

   – Slayer [9]

   – Slayer [9]

   – Slayer [9]
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [4]

   – Kharybdis [14]

Axiara Wraithblade [4]

Satyxis Raider Captain [3]
Satyxis Blood Witches [6]

Satyxis Raiders [7]

   – Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [3]

Satyxis Raiders [7]

   – Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [3]

Scharde Dirge Seers [4]

Scharde Dirge Seers [4]
Command Cards

   – Break Through

   – Duck and Cover! [1]

   – Infiltration

   – Old Faithful

   – Power Swell
Total Points   100/100

Initial Thoughts

The Skarre list is kind of daunting. There are a tremendous amount of small horned women with whips and a wall of Slayers. That is basically it.

The Satyxis are really fast. On paper they do not really hit very hard. However, they have build-in Gang; it is a chain weapon, so not shield; they have Feedback (one point of damage to the ‘caster whenever a ‘jack is damaged); under Dark Ritual from Skarre they hit DEF 16 on the average; and if they are feat targets, an additional +5 to damage rolls. This means that they can reach out at touch something 12″ away at MAT 9 on three dice (DEF 19 on average) at POW 16. Pinging Khador ‘jacks with Feedback and Backlash from Skarre makes for a really dead ‘caster.

If that doesn’t work there are four Slayers and Kharybdis (under Aiakos). They can also put a dent in most things. This is going to be interesting.

Tatiana basically runs the same list as against Madison (see here for details). Except that she dropped Defenses for Careful Reconnaissance.

On paper, this could go either way. I have said that before and lost. So, let’s see how it goes.

Deployment

We are playing the Steamroller 2024 scenario Battle Lines. Skarre wins the roll-off and goes first. Tatiana picks the side with easy access to an L-shaped wall, which will be very nice to stand behind. There is a cloud in the middle (the four 3″ circles), which is very nice for the Cryx player, not so much for Tatiana (the opponent can trivially see through it).

Tatiana deploys in a variation of a standard pattern. There is a unit of Snipers on each flank; all the Man-O-Wars are in the middle in two gruops. The ‘jacks evenly spaced; an Officer and a unit of Arkanists on each side close to Tatiana; Tatiana in the middle; and the Slave and Sergei also in the middle.

End of deployment

Skarre deploys a unit of Blood Witches on the right to move up and hug the objective. They have company of the Deathripper, which for some reason is left outside Skarre’s control area. The left flank is assigned to Aiakos and Kharybdis.

Everything else goes in the middle in the order: two Slayes and one unit of Raiders on either side. The other stuff in centre.

The picture above depicts the situation after deployment.

Round 1

Round 1 is always the extended deployment phase. However, the Satyxis are fast, so stuff might happen.

End of turn 1

Hey ho, here we go! The Satyxis blast across the field to almost the midpoint of the board. They are followed up by the Slayers just behind them.

On the right flank, the Blood Witches move into the forest to hug the objective. The lonely Deathripper moves slightly towards the centre to be near it’s master.

On the left flank, Aiakos and his little pet cautiously moves forward. Finally, Skarre stays in the trench.

The picture above shows the result of Skarres advancement.

End of round 1

Tatiana needs to get up the field. As she has recently learned, scenario means a lot in this Steamroller version. Yet, she really doesn’t want to be hit by both the Satyxis and the Slayers at the same time. So, a bit of caution is required.

On both flanks, the Snipers advance to be ready to shoot stuff. Slightly shorter on the left, due to the objective. On the right, they need to get forward to start annoying the Blood Witches. They so much hope that the dogs will make it this time.

The two groups of Suppressors and Wrecking Crew moves forward in two blocks. The Suppressors in fron and the Wrecking Crew just behind. The little people stay behind to avoid the Satyxis. The Officers add Stand your ground to the Suppressors. Not that it will do a huge difference, but sometimes it good to just do things to get into the habit.

Finally, Tatiana casts Iron Flesh on the Suppressors on the right and Avenging Force on herself. After some internal debated she decides not to feat. This is perhaps a mistake. She got greedy wanting both the re-roll to hit and the additional armour.

The picture above shows the battlefield after the extended deployment phase.

Round 2

Round two is where the action is. Most games I play are more or less decided in this round. So, let’s see what happens when the fast women activates.

End of turn 1

As expected the tsunami of Satyxis hit the frontline. However, before that, Skarre has to do stuff. She feats and adds the +5 to hit and +5 damage to all the raiders (that is 12 points of damage to herself). I think that is the most I have ever damaged a ‘caster in one “hit”. She has three boxes left. She also tries to get Backlash off on the ‘jack behind the wall, which is at a mighty DEF 15. So, she fails (luckily). I think she might have done Ritual Sacrifice for more focus and then cast Dark Guidance.

The Satyxis charge in. The long and the short story is that they managed to kill first the ‘jack on the left side, causing quite a lot of damage to Tatiana as well. The second group of Satyxis would not be worse and killed the middle Dire Wolf. I think it left Tatiana on five boxes. In a sense, it might be good that she didn’t feat. The Satyxis do quite a lot of damage thereby killing the ‘jacks pretty fast. This gives less damage via Feedback. Also, Skarre didn’t get Backlash off, which is good or Tatiana would have been dead.

The rest of the models on the Cryx side was more or less inconsequently. The picture above shows the result of the first wave crashing into the wall of steel.

End of round 2

So, I am going to argue that it is luck that Tatiana is still alive. She could probably have improved her odds by playing the ‘jacks slightly less aggressive. They would be happily alive if the Satyxis would have to crash into the Man-O-Wars instead. Anyway, vengeance is her’s.

There is a group of Satyxis right next to Tatiana. They need to disappear. First off are the Vengeance moves from both Wrecking Crews, which the Satyxis managed to damage. After that Tatiana is going to use the Avenging Force move. That cleared out a few Satyxis. Noe she can properly activate. She starts by feating and whack a Satyxis. Now she is happy.

On the left flank, the Snipers run up the board to bring the dog close to Kharybdis (the dog is still alive!). The left unit of Akanists move to the objective to score and sprays the unit of Satyxis of the board. The two remaining Suppressors move forward and peppers Kharybdis (this is a lot of fun under feat and near a dog). Finally, the Wrecking Crew charges and almost destroys it. I think it has 2-3 boxes left.

In the middle, Sergei hits two Satyxis and kills them. The second unit of Arkanists almost cleans up with their sprays. There is only one left standing, which an Officer can kill by shooting it.

On the right flank, the second Wrecking Crew moves to the middle of the board and makes a wall of steel ready to receive any Slayers wandering in this direction. Damien runs up behind them, just because. The second Suppressor unit moves forward and shoots a Slayer to death. Finally, the Snipers charges the Blood Witches to at least contest the objective.

The leaves the scenario score at 2-1 in Tatiana’s favour. My opponent is running out of time. The picture above depicts the end of the second round.

Round 3

Tatiana is in a good place. She has her feat up. There is a wall of steel facing the middle of the board. Kharybdis is almost dead, she is ahead on both scenario score and time. This can only go in her direction.

End of game

Skarre is in trouble. There is only so much she can do in a panic. Aiakos moves in and kills the dog (again!) and a sniper. The Slayers do their thing and take out two Man-O-Wars. The Blood Witches kills the snipers on the right flank. Since there is nothing left, Skarre also charges the Wrecking Crew and really doesn’t do anything. She runs out of time and the game is over.

Just for the fun of it, we do take the Vengeance move on the Wrecking Crew, and yes one trooper kills Skarre.

I think we formally end up at a scenario score of 3-2 in Tatiana’s favour. The picture above shows the sorry remains of the Cryx incursion.

Final Thoughts

First win ever for Tatiana! This is fantastic. However, one should not get too ecstatic. There is probably something to learn.

First and foremost, it was perhaps a blessing in disguise that she forgot to feat. I’m pretty sure she would have died had she. Also, I should have kept the ‘jacks back. If Skarre had managed to cast Backlash Tatiana would most definitely have died.

Snipers still die without doing a lot. They can’t really hit anything important. I need to figure them out or exchange them for something else. I also have to remember that Damien actually can do other stuff than casting Positive Charge. He has a pretty good spray. Speaking of sprays, the Arkanists under Tatiana’s feat are fun.

I still think I’m not sufficiently scenario-aware and Tatiana can probably do some work on her own. I’ll have to try.

Anyway, we had fun. The man of the hour was the Wrecking Crew that killed Skarre on his Vengeance move. That was spectacular.

Until next time.
For the Motherland!

Kommander Tatiana Sikora vs. Captain Madison Calder

Igor Khador — Thu, 23 May 2024 15:38:00 +0000

Apparently, the new shiny version of Cygnar is not sufficiently preoccupied with the Orgoth invasion. They are back to their old tricks of invading the Empress’ rightful domain. Captain Madison Calder is leading the army. For the first time, Kommander Tatiana Sikora is dispatched along the new Man-O-Wars to intercept her. It could have gone both ways. However, Calder comes out on top.

I have always had trouble with Cygnar. It is a long ans proud tradition to loose. So, I’m worried. In addition, it is NuCygnar, which I honestly don’t really know a lot about, except my complains about Cygnar getting the long end of the stick in the army starter boxes. You can read my complaining here. Nevertheless, I’ll do my best. I’m going to try out some version of Tatiana and Man-O-Wars. Probably not the last iteration, though. Let’s see what happens. The two lists facing off are:

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Tatiana Sikora

   – Iron Flesh

   – Puissance

   – Dire Wolf [9]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Ice Hammer

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

   – Dire Wolf [9]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Ice Hammer

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield
Koldun Lord Damien Korovnik [3]

Sergeant Sergei Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [2]

Winter Korps Officer [2]
Arkanists [4]

Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Defenses

   – Barrier

   – Barrier

   – Barrier
Command cards

    – Defenses

    – Hit & Run

    – Old Faithful

    – Power Swell

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Cygnar – Storm Legion

Captain Madison Calder
– Arcane Shield
– Deflection
– Electrify
– Courser [7]
Head – Advance Deployment
Right arm – Heavy Stormthrower
Left arm – Voltaic Punching Spike
– Courser [7]
Head – Advance Deployment
Right arm – Heavy Stormthrower
Left arm – Voltaic Punching Spike
– Courser [7]
Head – Shield Guard
Right arm – Heavy Stormthrower
Left arm – Voltaic Punching Spike
– Stryker [11]
Head – Relentless Charge
Right arm – Voltaic Halberd
Left arm – Power Fist
– Stryker [11]
Head – Relentless Charge
Right arm – Voltaic Hammer
Left arm – Power Fist
– The General [17]
Head – The General
Left arm – Polarity Fist
Right arm – Quicksilver Mk III

Legionnaire Officer [3]
Legionnaire Officer [3]

Arcane Mechaniks [5]
Arcane Mechaniks [5]
Storm Callers [5]
Storm Lance Legionnaires [10]
Storm Vanes [4]
Stormguard Legionnaires [7]
– Legionnaire Standard Bearer [2]

Command cards
– Break Through
– Careful Reconnaissance
– Duck and Cover! [1]
– Old Faithful
– Power Swell

Total points 100/100

Initial Thoughts

Tatiana Sikora is the new shining Cadre ‘caster clad in Man-O-War armour. In an sense that brings back memories of Sorscha3 who was surprisingly brittel give she was in aa huge armour. I wonder if looks also deceive when it comes to Tatiana?

I’m not going to do a very thorough walk through of Tatiana’s list; that will be for a later time. Yet, she is bringing three Dire Wolfs, all with shields (never leave home without them), two with the nice Ice-Hammer and one with a Long Axe for a bit of extra reach. Dire Wolfs in this type of configuration must be among the cheapest beat sticks in the game.

At a mere nine points a Dire Wolf comes with 30 boxes, ARM 21 a POW 17 weapon and a POW 14 Shield. In addition it is a Shield Guard with Anchor and Girded. We get to pay an additional point to exchange the Ice-Hammer with a POW 16, reach two Axe without critical freeze. This is a steal.

The ‘jacks are supported by two units of Arkanists, which might be a bit over the top. However, after power-up, six Arkanists can fill three ‘jacks with focus; and I like duplicating stuf. So, why not?

The main force consists of two units of Man-O-War Wrecking Crew and two units of Man-O-War Suppressors (look, duplication again!). This is a lot of boxes with some armour (I still believe that Khador should have one or two points more of armour).

They are supported by their Sergeant, Sergei Krol. He gives them tough, which us nice; in particular in combination with build in Steady. They can also be helped by Tatiana’s Iron Flesh spell, and clever use of Puissance and Positive Charge. Suppressors can’t hit anything smaller than large base. So, feating at the right time will bring them from large and noisy lumps of metal to killing machines.There are also two Officers that can help with Pathfinder and perhaps Swift Hunter.

To take out small stuff and perhaps assist the Suppressors in hitting, two units of Snipers with dogs are around. They still need an extra point of RAT to be truly useful. Also, the dogs tend to die very fast. Apparently, I’m only playing cat lovers.

Finally, Damien is here. He can only Spell Slave Positive Charge, which can be useful. He also has a nice spray, which I tend to forget. Also, he is a solo so there are probably some objective around he can work with (or against).

Madison Calder is brings the ability to ignore clouds, forrest and intervening models to her battlegroup. That is highly annoying as it remove most options for hiding. She also brings Arcane Shield (+3 ARM). How I wish we could learn that; Crusader’s Call (+2 SPD for everybody); Deflection (+2 DEF against ranged and arcane attacks); Electrify (+2 melee attack for a ‘jack); and Rhythm of War (kind of 3″ reposition for all ‘jacks). Her feat gives her battlegroup +3 DEF, Dodge (advance 2″ if an attack misses this model), and Riposte (if an attack misses a Cygnar battlegroup model, it gets to hit back). This all makes for a pretty mobile force with a decent amount of Armour.

She brings six ‘jacks! The main beat-stick, the General is there; Two Strykers with hammer og halberd; and two Coursers with sprays. Except for the General, the remaining ‘jacks are also quite cheap. So so well protected (without spells) as Khador ‘jacks. Yet, they are full of tricks.

Despite having six ‘jacks there are still room for quite a lot of boots on the group. Primarily, there is a unit of Storm Lancers, Cygnar’s fast, hard hitting and well armoured cavalry. I really don’t like them. A unit of Stormguards who are really dangerous agains ‘jacks. A unit of Storm Callers who are really annoying. The tend to move forward, kill my Snipers, and then make an Cygnar advance (running away). They are also rather hard to shoot. Effective DEF 15, plus any terrain. That means a 9 to hit on the average for Snipers.

All of this is support by the extremely good Mechaniks; they are basically our Mechaniks and Arkanists wrapped into one nice heavy armoured package. There are also two Legionnaire Officers and a unit of Storm Vanes.

I’m not completely sure what to do about this army. I’ll just stick to my standard plan for Tatiana and Man-O-Wars: move as fast as Khador possible up the board and grab some real estate. Then feat, survive and kill stuff. No point in making plans to complicated.

Deployment

War are playing the Steamroller 2024 scenario Battle Lines. Tatiana wins the roll-off and goes first. Madison picks the side with the nice L-shaped wall, which will be very nice to hide behind. Tatiana drops two barriers where the Suppressors should be able to reach them before the opposing force gets there.

Tatiana deploys in a standard pattern. There is a unit of Snipers on each flank; all the Man-O-Wars are in the middle with ‘jacks evenly spaced; an Officer and a unit of Arkanists on each side; and Tatiana with slave in the middle.

End of deployment

Madison deploys herself in the middle, ready to run and hide behind the wall. She packs all of her troops and one of the light ‘jacks, save for the Storm Callers and Storm Lances, to the left where they are protected by the Storm Vanes. The two remaining units goes on the right flank. The five remaining ‘jacks are placed around Madison in the middle.

The picture above shows the end of the deployment phase.

Round 1

Tatiana starts by sticking to the plan. She puts Iron Flesh on the Supressor unit to the right to make it annoying for the Storm Lancers to deal with. She puts Puissance on the Wrecking Crew to the left and finally casts Tactical Supremacy.

Everything with armour then moves forward with the Suppressors attempting to move in and screen everything behind. It quickly turns into a trafic jam. However, the unit movement rules in MK IV actually makes it less messy.

Arkanists and Officers move in behind the wall of steel to be ready to support. The Snipers move forward, hugging a forest on the left where there are no Storm Callers and trying to hide behind stuff on the right.

The picture below shows the result of attempting to navigate 16 large bases in the middle of the board.

End of turn 1

After the eventful first turn it is now Madison’s turn. She casts Deflection to annoy my Suppressors, and I think Arcane Shield on one of the ‘jacks. She feats to speed up the army and basically make it more annoying.

She then basically moves everything up. Though, surprisingly not the Strom Lancers. They normally tend to be in my face before I know it. She also draws first blood and kills the dog on the left flank. My opponent is clearly not a dog person. It gets sprayed from the light ‘jack. Finally, Madison moves up and hides behind the wall. I suspect she will stay there forever.

End of round 1

That is basically it. A rather uneventful round. The picture above depicts the end of the first round. The game is still very much open.

Round 2

Round 2 is normally when the action happens. Games are won and lost here. Let’s see what happens.

End of turn 1

Tatiana starts by upkeeping her spells. Having watch her precursor, Sorscha3 die too many times by standing in the frontline trusting her armour, she decides to hang back and watch the show. She does, however remember to feat. She also says Desperate Pace to the Wrecking Crew on the left to enable them to get into the opposing ‘jacks on the left.

On the right, the Snipers are well aware that there is no chance of them actually hitting the Storm Callers, so they just charge them instead. Not that it actually helps a lot, but it does get the remaining dog near something that the Suppressors wants to shoot.

The Suppressors starts unloading into the the General. Even with the feat they do miss a few times. This activates Dodge and the General moves forward until it is in the Suppressors faces; stopping the barrage. The Suppressors do have Pistol on their weapon (ignores the target in melee bonus). I just think I forgot that. The right most Dire Wolf moves in for the kill but leaves the General at 2-3 boxes.

The right most Wrecking Crew attempts to box in the Stryker in the middle to stop Dodge. But it is too far, leaving room for it to escape. I was fishing for knockdown (actually Smite) from the Ram Piston. But no fish would bite.

The second Suppressor unit opened fire on the dog-killing Courser getting it to Dodge out of range, which is nice as it leaves room for the second Wrecking Crew. This one could actually charge the Stryker (with a bit of help from an Officer, giving them Pathfinder). However, the Stryker survived.

The two remaining ‘jacks were caught in a trafic jam. The picture above depicts the end of Tatiana’s feat turn. I think the damage output was lacking.

End of round 2

Madison strikes back. She now has Rhythm of War up; Electrify on the Styrker to the left and Arcane Shield on the second Styker.

On the right side, the Storm Callers moves out of combat, using the Break Through card and shoots my Snipers to kingdom come; including another dog! The Storm Lancers charge in along the right flank, but does really nothing to write home about. It is followed up by a Courser, also not really doing anything. The General is in a bad shape and can’t really contribute. Finally, a unit of Mechanics also join the fun. All in all, the right flank is solid. Unfortunately, the Storm Callers can score and a Legionnaire Officers runs to the right most objective and can also score.

In the middle, I loose two members of the Wrecking Crew. To something I forgot. This opens up a route for the Stryker to move into the Suppressor unit. But, again without must effect.

On the right, the combined work of a Courser, a unit of Mechanics and a unit of Storm Vanes removes the Wrecking Crew. It really means a lot being outside Tatiana’s feat. This enables the Stryker to move up to the wall.

Finally, the unit of Stormguards now have a free line to the left Dire Wolf. Despite being under feat, five Stormguards are too much.

At the end of this turn Madison manages to score 3 points whilst denying any for the Empress. The picture above shows the sorry state of affairs after the second round.

Round 3

I’m in trouble. Unless something brutal is pulled out of a helmet I’m loosing on Scenario. Assassination is out of the question. Madison is dug in too good. I need to contest and score… a lot.

End of game

On the right flank the Dire Wolf get to work after being Empowered by some Arkanists. It gets rid of the General and the Courser. Freeing the Suppressors to shoot stuff. They remove one Mechanik and makes a decent attempt on the left Stryker.

The Suppressors in the middle moves up to the objective to contest and shoots the Styrker and some Stormguards. The Styrker goes down and as a miracle so does a few of the Stormguards. This leaves room for the Dire Wolf with the axe that takes on the last Stryker, without killing it.

On the left side, Officers, Sergei Krol and Damien cleans out the remaining Stormguards, leaving room for the Snipes to move and contest the objective. They also shoot and kill the Legionnaire Officer.

That is really it. Madison manage to score an additional two points and Tatiana only one. That leaves Madison the three points ahead and the game ends. The picture above shows the end of the pary.

Final Thoughts

This was rough. It is strikingly clear that scenarion is so much more important in this version of Steamroller. Having 3 additional scenario points after scoring in the opponent’s turn is nice in the sense that the opponent gets a chance. However, contesting hard becomes really important. The old approach of just killing enough stuff seems deprecated.

I’m convinced that Tatiana with Man-O-Wars has game. There is a lot of boxes and armour. I still think that Khador needs an extra point of armour. It is basically only under feat that we are somewhat safe.

It is also clear that shooty Khador requires much more finess than I can currently manage. The Suppressors are good when they can use Volley Fire against their opponents. Snipers are still underwhelming. I need to figure out how to keep the dog alive.

Nevertheless, we had fun! More practice with Tatiana is required and perhaps some fine tuning of the list.

Until next time.
For the Motherland!