I do not see a lot of Convergence. I have only faced them once before, where Vlad1 nicely demonstrated how to contain the threat (see battle report here). This list is fresh out of CID, which should have improved them a lot. They are led by Locke, who I thought was a Crucible Guard caster. Anyway, I’m opting for Wolves of Winter under Vlad2 (list is described here).

Aurum Lucanum Athanor Locke is new to me, at least in Convergence. I think I might have seen her once or twice in Crucible Guard lists. I have faced the theme, Clockwork Legions before (see here for battle report), yet in another configuration. This time there is an abundance of completely new light ‘jacks (or Vectors): Negators.

The theme is a bit of an odd choice. None of the theme bonuses are used. However, I think it has been chosen to be able to include the ‘caster, Asphyxious4, and Void Archons; and perhaps to be able to include the unhealthy amount of light ‘jacks.

The ‘caster, Locke1 confers only a MAT 5 to her ‘jacks, which on the surface makes her a bit of an odd choice in a melee heavy list. However, her spell Engine of Destruction, which increases her MAT to 9 is why. In addition, she gives them all Precision Strike, which luckily is not that important against Vlad’s list. She is Resourceful, though. So, she can upkeep all spells on her battlegroup for free. Speaking of battlegroup. The whole list has 7 Negators. I have to admit that I can’t remember exactly how many were on Locke herself, and how many were assigned to Asphyxious. I have made a guess. Under this assumption, Lock brings: a Corollary, four Negators, and a Prime Conflux.

Locke is a 7 focus ‘caster, and brings six spells to the table: Engine of Destruction, Jackhammer, Redline, Road to War, Sentry, Bombshell. She actually have a very ‘jack heavy spell list. First and foremost, Engine of Destruction is brilliant for a Convergence list. MAT 9 on all her Vectors is not to be frown upon. Jackhammer basically allows a ‘jack to make a melee attack out of its activation; always handy. Redline is well know from out own junior ‘caster. It gives a ‘jack a turbo charge. Road to War is potentially quite dangerous in this matchup. It allows a ‘jack to move 3″ when, in this case a Khador model is killed. Give the expected death toll on Doom Reavers, the Convergence ‘jacks are going to be really fast. Sentry allows a ‘jack to shoot once in the Maintenance Phase. It will probably go on the Prime Conflux. Finally, Bombshell is a 10″, POW 13, AOE 3″ damage spell, which also has Critical throw. I’m just assuming that all upkeeps will go up in the first turn: Sentry on the Prime Conflux and Redline on one of the Negators. They are upkept for free.

The Corollary is the attachment to Locke, which works as a focus battery. I can potentially improve the focus efficiency of the Vectors. As a bonus, it also extends Locke’s Control range by 2″. Seems to be an auto include for a Convergence army (at least a Vector heavy one). 

The Negators are the new black for Convergence. They can fly and have Reposition, and at speed 7 they are quite mobile (add Road to War to make them extremely mobile). They have a pretty bad P+S at only 10 (with Critical Amputation, though). This is not impressive.  However, it is really cheap at only 6 points, or even free as a Requisition Choice. Those under Asphyxious is slightly better though. They are affected by Dark Shroud, making the effective P+S 12. This is more than enough the kill a doom reaver. So, they are fast and trivially kills Doom Reavers. They spell trouble.

The Prime Conflux is one of Convergence’s two colossal. It is a big stumpy brute. In particular against the Wolves. Against ‘jacks it is capable to deliver two P+S 21 fists, plus a d3 POW 10 damage per hit. If Locke uses Redline on it, it becomes P+S 23, and it is going to hit every time due to MAT from Locke using Engine of Destruction. She can also add more attacks by casting Jackhammer. So, any ‘jack coming within 10-12″ of the Conflux is very very dead. I’ll just have to put my faith the the trusted Marauder and enough Doom Reavers.

Speaking of Doom Reavers, the Conflux is unfortunately also pretty good against infantry. It big gun can potentially kill a whole lot of Reavers, not only by hitting one, but also by damaging all troopers between the model hit and the Conflux in a straight line. It also has two smaller guns. As a bonus if a Reaver hits the Conflux the Reaver will suffer a POW 10 damage roll, which will normally kill a Reaver. A Conflux is really bad news for the Wolves.

Locke is flanked by Junior ‘caster Asphyxious4, probably leading three Negators. The lich gives his Vectors Bloodlust for an extra 2″ movement when charging, and Dark Shroud, which lowers the ARM by two for enemies base to base. Finally, the Negators can also use focus on Asphyxious.    

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller King of the Hill. This is clearly in Locke’s favour, as she has sufficient ‘jacks to score the two outer zones. We are both picking the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″), Lock wins the roll-off and decides to go first. 

Locke deploys, with machine precision everything in a nice line. The two Archons go on each flank; Negators are more or less evenly distributed; Locke hides behind the Conflux; and Asphyxious deploys slightly to the right. Most other things clump around near the middle. 

Vlad deploys in, more or less the standard formation. The Void Archons mirror their opponents and deploy on the flanks. The two ‘jacks deploy around Vlad near the middle. The Ternions are spread out behind the Advanced Deployed Doom Reavers in front. Two units deploy in the middle in two layers: the one without the Escort in front. The picture above shows the situation after deployment. 

Round one is as always the uneventful round, where we go through the motions. We might or might not adjust to counter our opponent. 

Locke does a somewhat cautious advance. She really wants to keep her models outside Doom Reavers’ jamming range, which is completely understandable. She drops Redline on the Conflux (my assumption was wrong) and Road to War on herself. That is about it. A classic uneventful turn. The picture above depicts the end of Convergences’ first turn.

Doom Reavers – hey ho, here we go. I am contemplating using Apparition and then run the middle unit into the enemy as a speed bump. Locke made sure that almost all of her models are outside the 16″ engagement range of the Doom Reavers (running for 12″ + 2″ Apparition + 2″ reach). After a bit back and forth, I decide to go for the wall of clouds instead. So the Ternions move up and put clouds on Doom Reavers. They then proceed to move forward and construct a wall of clouds. All other Doom Reavers spread out behind them. I know there is going to be carnage as the Negators will chew through Doom Reavers and trigger Road to War repeatedly. Yet, this is what Doom Reavers do: they die, and then what remains kill stuff. 

Vlad also places the Archons so that they can collect and deny souls. Ruin, unfortunately got in a slightly bad position on the right flank. He would have liked to be in the middle to have a comprehensive soul cover, together with the two archons. Vlad moves behind the wall – he really likes walls. He drops Assail onto Ruin and Arcane Might on himself. 

This turn is a bit of a gamble. I have no idea how efficient Locke’s models will be at chewing through Doom Reavers. We will find out soon enough. The picture above shows the end of the first Round.

Second round. This is where we will find out just how many Doom Reavers can be killed in one round. 

Locke starts by making sure that Engine of Destruction is up; and thats it for her.

On the left flank the Void Archon flies forward and sprays through a whole lot of Doom Reavers; who were nicely lined up for that exact purpose (bummer 1). This is followed up by two Negators really going to town on the last few Doom Reavers. Finally, the Conflux shoots a bit to get rid of even more. This almost wipes out two units. Only the Escort is left in one of them, and the unit leader in the second one.

On the right flank, the second Void Archon pulls another neat trick. It charges a Doom Reaver, which it easily kills, then it Void Walks to the right most unit of Ternions and sprays them (bummer 2). Kudos to the Locke player for a very well carried out attack. Besides that, the story on this flank is more or less the same. Negators chew through Doom Reavers like nothing. What is left alive is taken care of by Servitators. Asphyxious moves in behind the house and an Conf moves to score the flag on the right flank.

Holy crap. That was really bad positioning from Vlad’s side, and to be fair good playing from Locke’s side. I am basically left without Doom Reavers, and the Ternions Bond of Woe is not going to help a lot, as there are hardly any living models on the other side. Vlad is now in survival mode. Assassination is unlikely, as Locke is quite happy where she is, Scenario is also unlikely. So the only way is to use that fact that Locke spends a lot of clock and go for that “victory”. However, I need to be mindful of not loosing on Scenario before Locke clocks herself. 

So let the clean up begin. Vlad starts by moving Assail to the Marauder and feats. He climbs over the wall to protect himself from the Void Archon now in his back yard. He also drops a Wind Blast on the Conflux to hopefully hinder its shooting. 

On the left flank, the first unit of Ternions move up to engage the Negator and one of them blasts one of the few living models with Bonds of Woe. There by removing the scoring solo from the flag and resurrecting one Doom Reaver. The rest do a bit of damage on the Negator. The second Negator is removed by what remains of the Doom Reavers, with a bit of help from a Koldun Lord. The last Doom Reaver in the middle stands up a kills a Servitator. 

The remaining Doom Reavers and Ruin kills the two Negators on the right side, along with the Servitators. This now allows the Void Archon to fly up and threaten Asphyxious. It sprays the Optifex in the right zone and then chews into Asphyxious. I’m not sure that I expected to do serious damage, so perhaps I’m not too surprised that Asphyxious survives. Finally, an Escort kills the Servitator on the right.

Round 3. I wonder how long Vlad will survive. I’m hoping longer than what is left on Locke’s clock. 

Locke continues her unreasonable killing the Empress’ subjects. On the left flank, the Archon moves in and kills all the Ternions, except one. This releases the damaged Negator, which can then move into the zone to score. On the right flank, three Negators and the Archon move into the vicinity of Vlad. They remove Ruin and a few remaining Doom Reavers; they also put some damage on Vlad. The Conflux moves in and takes out the Marauder; and the remaining Negators clear out more troops. This turn was really bloody. Locke manages to score two scenario points for the left zone and the flag. The picture above shows the sorry remains of Vlad’s forces. 

Vlad is in so much trouble. There is only a slim to no chance of surviving long enough for Locke to clock herself. To do this, he also needs to make sure that he does not loose on scenario. On the left flank, a lone Doom Reaver charges and kills the Negator in the leftmost zone. One Doom Reaver moves forward in the middle zone and hits the Negator there. The main purpose of this is to contest the flag. Vlad and two Doom Reavers do their best to clean out what is in Vlad’s back yard. Two Negators and the Archon goes down. Unfortunately, this leaves Vlad with his back to most of the Convergence army. He does, however camp four, hoping this will be enough to keep him alive. At least, this hinders scenario scoring. Thus, the score is still 2-0 in Locke’s favour. The picture above depicts Vlad’s last stand. 

This is it. Vlad is so much going to die. The only hope is Locke’s clock, which is quickly moving towards zero. 

The Conflux moves into the leftmost zone to score. I think it also took at least one shot at Vlad. The Archon moves in and sprays Vlad for some damage. Finally, the rightmost Negator also starts hitting Vlad in the back. Luckily, this is where Locke’s clock goes bing! Vlad is victorious (here in its widest possible definition). Scenario ends at 3-0 in Locke’s favour. The picture above shows Vlad’s marvellous victory…

OK, 7 Negators and spice is quite difficult. Luckily, my opponent was not super confident with his list. If he hadn’t clocked himself, I would have died horribly. I am not sure that this was actually doable for Vlad. If Vlad should have had a chance a few things should have been done differently. 

First of all, I think both Ruin and the Marauder should have been positioned to go after the Conflux and ignored the Negators, which Doom Reavers should be able to handle. Secondly, I think I should have run at least one (the one that also did Apparition), possible two units of Doom Reavers to begin with. They should only serve the purpose of tying up Locke’s army to get the remaining Doom Reavers into charge range. I have to learn that Doom Reavers are there to die. 

It is also clear that I underestimated Mat 9 Negators. They can really remove Doom Reavers. However, the Conflux did not do a lot. Perhaps it didn’t have to?

Anyway, Vlad did win!

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

I have been playing Vlad1 and his infamous Winter Guards almost exclusively for a bit over a year. It has been fun. Yet, all good things come to an end. The crazy hermit have had weird visions (that are obvious not correct when it comes to Vlad) where Vlad does his last stand (see here for details). It only seems fitting that I also end my Winter Guard Command list with a bang. I took the list to a tournament, where Vlad was allowed to play against anything and everything.

Vlad and his proud Winter Guards

Vlad is again leading the normal list, which has been steady for the last year. For some of the original reasoning behind the list, see here. Compared to the original list, the Mortar Crew has been exchanged for a Greylord Adjunct. The list is as follows:

[Theme] Winter Guard Kommand

[Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28]
 – Marauder [11]
 – Marauder [11]
 – Marauder [11]
 – Greylord Adjunct [0(4)]
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [0(4)]
Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)]
Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)]
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4]
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4]
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8]
 – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6]
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8]
 – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6]
Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17]
Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17]

The tournament is over five games. It was a team tournament where Vlad’s two other team members played Cygnar and Minions. We ended up as number 10 out of 19 teams, so not too shabby. Vlad managed to face Crucible Guards twice, Dwarfs (Mercenaries), Infernals, and Skorne. I am not going to do detailed battle reports for each game; rather, a summary of each.

Crucible Guards is a returning issue. Vlad has faced them once before (see here for battle report), which was also led by Gearhart. They two main obstacles tends to be the Rocketmen and spray trains. Luckily, there are no spray trains here, only a Vulcan. However, a Vulcan is considered lunch for the triple Marauder goodness. The Rocketmen are still an issue, they tend to be really annoying and quite difficult to hit. There are also Trancers here. They are ubiquitous in Crucible Guards lists nowadays. I think I tend to overestimate them. Finally, the Infantry can be really Winter Guard hostile with their shooting. Yet, I’m not too worried. The list is as follows:

[Theme] Magnum Opus

[Gearhart 1] Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart [+27]
– Retaliator [9]
– Vulcan [35]
– Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc [5]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [0(2)]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [0(2)]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [0(2)]
Thamarite Archon [8]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Crucible Guard Infantry (max) [15]
– Crucible Guard Infantry Officer & Standard [4]
Crucible Guard Rocketmen (max) [15]
– Crucible Guard Rocketman Captain [4]
– Rocketman Gunner (1) [2]
Dragon’s Breath Rocket [5]

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller King of the Hill scenario. Gearhart won the roll-off and decided to go first. Vlad pick the side with a linear obstacle. He really likes to stay behind those.

Gearhart deployed with all the shooting on the left flank (Archon, Dragon Breath and Infantty), the Rocketmen go the the right flank, and all the rest in the middle, with the Vulcan slightly to the right. Vlad deploys in the standard formation. The picture below shows the end of the deployment.

Deployment

The first round is like most other first rounds: everybody moves forward. Gearhart moves everything forward and spreads the infantry out a lot. Vlad does more or less the same thing, with the addition of the two carriages taking pot shots and the Archon, with no effect, and the Rocketmen, where it actually manages to take out two.

The second round starts off with the guards doing some of their dirty tricks. The Retaliator sprays Black Humor on one of the Marauders, whilst the Vulcan puts rust on another Marauder. The Rocketmen pushes forward on the right flank and engage a Field Gun and a carriage. All in all, the guards are now in all zones and in a situation to score at all objects and the flag. Vlad needs to be creative to not start loosing on scenario. Creativity equals feat time! This early feat brings one Marauder into the face of the Vulcan and one far into the centre zone to contest both zone and flag. The last one is held back as a backup. The two carriages do what they do best. They move into the rectangular zones, clear out an Archon, an objective, and a few Rocketmen. Suddenly, Vlad is ahead on scenario.

Round three is a cleaning up round for Gearhart. He removes the two Marauders who went upfield – and the reserve! Vlad retaliates by keeping on killing Rocketmen and lopping grenades on the Vulcan. He also keeps on scoring and contesting.

The fourth round starts with the Vulcan removing the remains of one of the Gun Carriages, and thinning out in the Winter Guards. He also sacrifices troops to keep on contesting. But, he is slowly but steadily running out of steam (and clock). As a last attempt, a few Rocketmen attempts to assassinate Vlad. Clearly without success. Vlad takes advantages of these weaknesses and (finally) gets the Gun Carriage to remove the Vulcan, whilst the remaining contesting troops are killed. Vlad returns the clock to Gearhart, who then proceeds to clock himself. The picture below shows the end of the fourth round and the game.

End of game

Victory to the Motherland! We ended with 4 scenario points to Vlad and none to Gearhart. Vlad killed the equivalent of 87 points, whilst he had to hand over 54 points to Gearhart. All in all, a good result. There really isn’t any big comments to be made. It is the perfect scenario for this list. Vlad behaved and no great mistakes were made.

Surprisingly, Vlad is not too familiar with Skorne. I’m aware of the rumour of them being quite difficult. There are two of these Animantarax; they are definitely “good value” for the points. Yet, they are huge bases, so the Marauders will be a natural threat to them. I have never faced Rasheth before. Besides having a natural affinity with well build men, I have no idea what he does (I did, however receive a good description by my very nice opponent). It seems to be a shooting and scenario list. With the two battle engines and the cyclops, along with the many solos, it could be an interesting battle. It also turns out that the opponent is pretty adept (this teams actually comes second in the whole tournament). Nevertheless, Vlad is ready to face the following list:

[Theme] Disciples of Agony

[Rasheth 1] Dominar Rasheth [+28]
– Agonizer [0(6)]
– Basilisk Krea [0(7)]
– Cyclops Raider [9]
– Cyclops Shaman [8]
– Cyclops Shaman [8]
Bog Trog Mist Speaker [4]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor [5]
Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor [0(4)]
Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor [4]
Paingiver Task Master [3]
Void Archon [8]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Siege Animantarax [17]
Siege Animantarax [17]

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller Spread the Net scenario. Vlad wins the rolloff and decides to go first. He deploys in the standard pattern, with two Marauders on the left flank. Rasheth deploys himself on the right flank with all the cyclops. The two battle engines go in the middle, and the rest on the left flank. The picture below depicts the end of the deployment phase.

Deployment

The first round takes off with Vlad pushing forward, more or less as far as possible. That is pretty important in this scenario. This brings the left carriage up to the flag, and the other one into the zone. So far, so good. Rasheth shuffles his tropps around and manages to take down the Gun Carriage on the right flank.

Second round means even more pushing forward. Rasheth and his army doesn’t appear to want to fight. So, Vlad has to bring the fight to him. One Marauder is parked in the zone to the right to start scoring. The last Gun Carriage has to push forward into the Skorne zone on the right. Everybody else go forward, and an Artillery Kapitan on the left flag. Rasheth continues his “I haven’t got a pair” approach with the two battle engines shuffling forward, shooting and then do a “Cygnar-advance”. Unfortunately, this approach is efficient and cost Vlad his second carriage. The Void Archon moves forward to contest the rightmost zone and tie up the Marauder.

The third round starts off with a scenario score of 1-1, Vlad needs to score, as it is unlikely that he will get rid of the two battle engines. The Void Archon is taken care of, and the Marauder moves forward to still score but also contest the flank on the right flank. The left most Marauder moves into the cloud and kills the solo standing there and puts a foot in the left zone. Finally, Vlad moves up behind the last Marauder to score the middle zone. This actually put Vlad at 4-1 in scenario score! Rasheth is feeling the scenario pressure. The two battle engines are finally moving forward. This kills the leftmost Marauder and the Kapitan at the flag. There is now a battle engine in the leftmost zone and two cyclops in the middle zone. All of the Winter Guards have also disappeared. Scenario is now at 5-3 in Vlad’s favour.

Fourth round is finally feat round. Not feating has actually kept everybody from getting too far forward. Defensive (not) use of Vlad’s feat is not to be frown upon. Making three scenario points will win the battle for Vlad. This is doable, as the rightmost Marauder will score automatically, Joe can move to the flag of the left and score. So, cleaning up the middle zone will win the game. Vlad and a Marauder goes into action and kills everything but a Valkyrie, She is taken care of by the rightmost Field gun and Joe. The game should be secure. Herein lies the mistake. The leftmost Field Gun also wants to shoot at stuff and kills the last Valkyrie in the unit. The game is now lost. I completely forgot that a battle engine has a foot in the leftmost zone. So, instead of a scenario score of 8-3, it is 8-4!

Fifth round kills Vlad. The picture below shows the end of the game. The red arrow depicts what the field gun did: it shot a Valkyrie. The green arrow depicts what it should have done: moved into the leftmost zone to contest.

End of game, due to greed!

This was going surprisingly well. Vlad was actually pretty much in control. Pushing hard forward and saving the feat gave him a really strong scenario pressure. He had actually won the game. But, the man behind the line got carried away and went into a killing spree instead of thinking. There is no excuse for this behaviour, and Vlad had words with him after the game. This was really annoying!

Anyway, Rasheth should be happy that Privateer Press removed the guideline: “play like you got a pair”. This game was much more a: “I can shuffle forward and shoot, and then run away and hide again”. Apparently, not having a pair is a winning strategy, at least when it comes to killing the enemy. Vlad could probably have been even more aggressive to get Marauders to the battle engines. However, Vlad was in control until he was led down by the man behind the line.

Ossrum and all of his bunnies are often difficult. Vlad has not faced them before, but Irusk with his Winter Guards have (for battle report see here). The spray bunnies are really Winter Guard hostile. The two Drillers are surprisingly dangerous, given their low cost. The combination of Ossrum and the Hammer Strike theme is deceptively mobile. The combination of Energizer, Bulldoze from the theme and the feat is dangerous. The benefit is that when they move as fast as they can, they are quickly within reach of Vlad’s feat. The extra new feature, which I haven’t seen before is the Siege Crawler. It seems to be pretty good. It is clearly food for Marauders. Vlad is ready and pretty confident facing Ossrum’s list:

[Theme] Hammer Strike

[Ossrum 1] General Ossrum [+28]
 – Ghordson Driller [10]
 – Ghordson Driller [10]
 – Grundback Blaster [6]
 – Grundback Blaster [6]
 – Grundback Blaster [6]
 – Grundback Gunner [6]
 – Grundback Gunner [6]
Harlowe Holdemhigh [0(5)]
Thor Steinhammer [4]
 – Ghordson Avalancher [15]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [0(6)]
Horgenhold Artillery Corps [0(6)]
Horgenhold Forge Guard (max) [16]
Hammerfall Siege Crawler [18]

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller Invasion scenario. Ossrum wins the rolloff and opts to go first. Vlad chooses the side with a trench to stand in. Ossrum deploys many ‘jacks on the left flank, along with Thor and his Avalancher. The Siege Crawler goes on the right flank along with the infantry. Everything else goes in the middle. Vlad deploys in standard formation, with two Marauders on the right to counter the Siege Crawler. The picture below shows the end of deployment.

Deployment

The first round is like most first rounds. Ossrum and his motley crew rush forward, keeping the artillery a bit behind. Vlad does more or less the same. However, the two carriages pull out on the flanks to avoid the extreme charge range of Ossrum’s ‘jacks. The Rifle Corps on the left stay behind, whilst the rightmost spread out to avoid blast. Vlad goes into his trench.

Ossrum feats at the beginning of the second round and hurl his army forward. A Field Gun and half of the rightmost Rifle Corps disappear to a combination of bunnies and Siege Crawler. Personally, I thought it might have been a bit early to feat. But, on the other hand it puts pressure on Vlad. Vlad counter feats. On the left side, there is a knockdown galore. The combination of the last Field Gun, the Gun Carriage and Marauders remove some of the ‘jacks and knockdown a lot, leaving easy targets for the Winter Guards. The right flank is more difficult. Forge Guards under feat is really really difficult to get rid off. So, the Rifle Corps and the Gun Carriage can only try to contain the flank.

The third round begins with Ossrum cleaning up the right flank. The combination of a Siege Crawler and a unit of Forge guards is surprisingly dangerous. On the left flank, nothing happens as Ossrum’s ‘jacks hit the Khador wall of steel. One of the Drillers breaks through and kills the objective. This is an interesting battle. The battle field has kind of flipped 90 degrees. Vlad moves his army around the left flank. The Gun Carriage moves forward and shoots at Ossrum, who is in the middle of the centre zone, behind the forest. Two of the Marauders clear ‘jacks away. The Rifle Corps move into the zone to score. Vlad moves towards the zone, there is a Driller nearby. The last Marauder makes it through the forest and starts hitting Ossum. Unfortunately, it runs out of focus before Ossrum runs out of boxes (he has two left).

Ossum is for all practical reasons dead. There is a completely factory new Marauder in his face. The circle in the picture below shows Ossrum’s nightmare. He needs a Hail Mary in the fourth round. After much deliberation, Ossrum has a plan. He allocates focus to the Driller on Vlad’s part of the battle field. He casts Energizer (see arrow on the picture below). The Driller moves forward close to Vlad. It is touch and go if the Driller can get away with it here. He rolls to hit with the Drill – and rolls double six (see picture to the right). Game over. The Drill has Sustained Attack. Much jubilation and taunting is now going on behind Ossrum’s lines.

A Hail Mary saves the day!

I many ways, this was touch and go. If Ossrum hadn’t pull out a bunny (actually a Driller) of his hat, he would have been dead the following round. Vlad could probably have protected himself better by filling up with troops between himself and the Driller. 

I don’t really enjoy Infernals. I have played them a couple of times, and they are just too much a “got you” faction. Their weird mechanics and the option to keep on bringing Horrors onto the table doesn’t really work well for the game, and give a negative play experience. I would assume that this would also hold for the one playing Infernals, but the faction seems to attract a certain type of players. I could be tempted to just fold and ignore them, as I find Infernal games really boring. However, it is Vlad’s last stand. So, he charges onto the table hell bent on going down in flames. He is eagerly awaiting to face the following list (while the man behind the line rather would be in the bar):

[Theme] Dark Legacy

[Zaateroth 1] Zaateroth, The Weaver of Shadows [+26]
– Foreboder [4]
– Soul Stalker [13]
– Tormentor [12]
– Tormentor [12]
– Lord Roget d’Vyaros [4]
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist [5]
Great Princess Regna Gravnoy [0(6)]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
The Wretch [4]
The Wretch [4]
Umbral Guardian [0(6)]
Umbral Guardian [0(6)]
Cultist Band (max) [7]
– Master Preceptor Orin Midwinter [4]
Cultist Band (max) [7]
Griever Swarm (min) [8]
Infernal Gate [12]

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller Anarchy scenario. Vlad wins the rolloff and thinks if there is to be a chance in hell, he has to go first. He deploys in the standard pattern. The Infernals put some stuff on the table. To be fair, it was a very lovely painted army. The picture below shoes the end of deployment.

First round: Vlad charges ahead. Infernals moves forward.

Second round: The Gun Carriage on the left flank digs deep into the Infernals. Everybody else really wanted to shoot. But clearly there is some Infernal trick against that. The infernals do infernal stuff and kill most of Vlad’s army. Anybody arguing that the heavy horrors are balanced because they are squishy can only be an infernal player.

Third round: Vlad charges a Soul Stalker to go down in flames. He surprisingly misses and it moves away. So much for a heroic final stand. Infernals kill Vlad. See picture below.

What can I say? To be fair, it is clear that playing this Vlad WGK list into Infernals is obviously not a good idea by any measurement. But, Vlad is on a mission. Yet, I find Infernals really really boring. One could argue that the mechanics is new and fun. You can summon horrors at a cost, there is a gamble to be made. One would clearly be wrong. I’m getting a GW 40k feeling when thinking about them… 

Wait a minute, haven’t I seen this army before? It is identical to the one I faced in the first game. This is the last game of the day. So, there is some beauty in the symmetry. It is, however a different player piloting the army this time. Vlad beat the guards in the first game. So, there should be a reasonable chance in this game. Unfortunately, I suspect that this player is better than the first one I faced. Vlad is ready to face (again) the following list:

[Theme] Magnum Opus

[Gearhart 1] Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart [+27]
– Retaliator [9]
– Vulcan [35]
– Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc [5]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [0(2)]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [0(2)]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [0(2)]
Thamarite Archon [8]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Trancer [0(3)]
Crucible Guard Infantry (max) [15]
– Crucible Guard Infantry Officer & Standard [4]
Crucible Guard Rocketmen (max) [15]
– Crucible Guard Rocketman Captain [4]
– Rocketman Gunner (1) [2]
Dragon’s Breath Rocket [5]

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller Recon II scenario. Gearhart wins the rolloff and decides to go first. Vlad picks the side with the lovely wall to lean on. Gearhart deploys with the Vulcan in the middle, the Rocketmen on the right flank, and the infantry on the left. The Archon also goes on the left, whilst everything else go in the middle. Vlad just deploys in standard formation. The picture below shows the end of deployment.

The first round is very much like most other first rounds. Gearhart advances everything. Vlad counters by doing the same. The two Gun Carriages advance and toe each of their zones. They also take pot shots. With no effect, except a few difficult terrain.

Round two starts off with the Vulcan, Infantry and Retaliator removing the Gun Carriage on the right flank. The Archon advances on the left flank and kills a few too many Rifle Corps. Gearhart also uses his Vitriloic Ingression Catapult on the Gun Carriage, so it can’t advance (actually he keeps on doing this for the whole game). Vlad pays back by having the Gun Carriage and Rifle Corps on the left flank kill the Archon back. On the right flank a Marauder, in combination with the Rifle Corps and Field Gun take out the Retaliator. The other Marauders move forward to bring them within charge range (under feat) of the Vulcan. Each player score a flag.

The third round sees the Infantry clear out most of the Rifle Corps on the right flank. The Vulcan moves forward and finish off a Marauder. On the right flank, the Rocketmen fly forward and remove the last of the Rifle Corps. Vlad is slightly annoyed by the progress, or rather lack of. He fills up the Marauders, but keeps his feat. The remaining shooting on the right flank and a Marauder kills the Vulcan. The last Marauder charges forward and puts itself with in easy charge range of Gearhart himself – and Vlad’s feat is still unused. So, Gearhart is in serious trouble. The Adjunct sprays some infantry of the board, and Joe moves to score. On the left flank the carriage and a Kapitan kill half the Rocketmen. They are quite difficult to get rid of. Scenario score is now 4-2 in Gearhart favour.

Fourth round. Gearhart needs to be creative or have a date with a fully loaded Marauder under feat. Unfortunately, he does. He moves the Rocketmen to contest Joe’s flag. Some solo to score his flag whilst contesting the zone, and Gearhart moves into the right zone… and here we go, a scenario score of 7-2. The picture below shows the terrible situation.

This was going pretty well. I really managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! It is the details that makes you loose. If I had been thinking I would have placed the Marauder a fraction of an inch to the right with a toe in the zone (see top circle in the picture above). But, I (once again) got greedy and wanted to kill two Mechaniks instead of just one. Also, why would Joe stand next to a flag, and not have a foot in the zone? That was just sloppy. So, if I haven’t be greedy and watching positioning, and I would have won.

It was a fantastic tournament. I really like team-tournament. Nice opponents and team.

I went 1-4 in this tournament. It should probably have been 3-2 or even 4-1. It turns out that I need to concentrate more. The first game was fine. Not any huge mistakes. In the second game, against Skorne I got carried away when I though I had won. The third game agains Mercenaries, was 50/50. I could probably have won if I had been more cleaver in my last turn. Infernals was lost before I began. Finally, the last game was again an example of greed.

So, in sum: 1) Don’t be greedy; 2) Think positioning; 3) Watch scenario.

Wave goodbye Vlad

This was the end of Vlad and his fantastic Winter Guard Kommand. He almost went out with style. I really enjoy playing this list. It has almost everything it needs. It clearly needs a good second list for tournaments, but I can handle a surprisingly large array of opponents.

I will write-up my experiences with Winter Guard Kommand over a year and a half shortly. Until then:

For the Motherland!

Vlad is threatening Vlad. This should be a battle where there shouldn’t be any unknowns. It is my first time in a proper mirror-match. Even though it is not a complete mirror-match. Imposter-Vlad is brining Jaws of the Wolf against the tried and true Winter Guards. The WGK-list is the usual one. This time with a Mortar instead of the Adjunct. Imposter-Vlad’s and True-Vlad’s lists are as follow:

Khador [Theme] Jaws of the Wolf [Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28] – Behemoth [25] – Berserker [8] – Berserker [8] – Berserker [8] – Berserker [8] – Marauder [11] – Greylord Adjunct [0(4)] Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [7] Greylord Forge Seer [4] Greylord Forge Seer [4] Kovnik Apprentice Kratikoff [4] – Berserker [8] Kayazy Eliminators [0(5)] Kayazy Eliminators [0(5)] Widowmaker Scouts [8]

Khador [Theme] Winter Guard Kommand [Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [0(4)] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4] Winter Guard Mortar Crew [0(5)] Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8] – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6] Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8] – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6] Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17] Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17]

There shouldn’t be any reason to go through Vlad1 and his abilities. It is only worth noticing that he is über-cool and has pretty flamboyant shoulder pads. He runs Jaws of the Wolf, which gives all ‘jacks Pathfinder and allows him to put a 5″ forest on the board. Vlad brings six ‘jacks in his battlegroup: Behemoth, four Berserkers and one Marauder. The Berserkers are the cheapest choice in our arsenal at a mere eight points. This gives two P+S 16 attacks at a slightly worse frame than the standard Juggernaut frame. Only ARM 18 and 27 boxes. It also has Berserk (surprise), which forces it to make another attack if it kills something. Unfortunately, being very old ‘jacks they run the risk of exploding. If it spends more than one point of focus it can explode (resulting in a AOE 3″ POW 14 blast. The Marauder is also well know. It slams stuff and is pretty dangerous to the Gun Carriages due to Siege Weapon (giving an extra die against huge-bases). The new kid on the block (at least for me) is Behemoth. Finally, the Adjunct is also there, which in this matchup doesn’t really matter.

Behemoth is a monster. Despite being extremely expensive (25 points, almost colossal price) it is not more robust than a standard Khador ‘jack, having the standard ARM 20 and 36 boxes. It has two cannons at Range 14″, P+S 14 and 4″ AOE. To augment these it has a sub-cortex, which for 1 focus can boost to hit and damage. Also blast, which is bad news for the Winter Guards. In addition, it has two fists of P+S 12. However, it has Armor Piercing. So, it does die +2 against a standard Khador ‘jack. This is an average of 11 points of damage for each fist under Vlad’s S&P. Thus, when charging it only needs to buy one attack to kill a Khador ‘jack! All in all, it is wise to keep Winter Guards out of shooting range and other stuff out of charging range; which can be difficult with Vlad’s feat and Boundless Charge.

Imposter-Vlad has also brought his Imposter-girlfriend. She is there dragging another Beserker along. Sorscha0 is our very good Junior Warcaster, or as she is colloquial known “Boundless Charge on a stick”. In this list, this is why she is here. The distance a ‘jack can travel using combination of Vlad’s feat and Boundless Charge should be a well known problem (or opportunity depending on which end you are seeing it from).

The units are two units of Eliminators, who are free in this theme; and a unit of Widowmakers. The Eliminators are among the best mercenaries around. The are fast (SPD 7, Acrobatics, Parry and Side Step), hard to hit (DEF 15, Stealth and Duelist) and deadly to Winter Guards in melee (Two attacks, POW 9 (or 13 Combo Strike), Anatomical Precision and Gang. Kind of along the same line is the unit of Widowmakers. They are our nimble, precise and Advance Deployment hunters. RAT 7, Marksman and Sniper is a very nice combination.

There are also two Greylord Forge Seers. They are probably mostly here to give focus, removing some of the focus strain from Vlad. They can also drop a cloud when required.

Finally, Eiryss1 is also here. Personally, I think she is the most annoying version. Most importantly, she can Disrupt ‘jacks from very far away (19″ on a good day). If there is nothing to Disrupt she can easily kill infantry, either by doing 3 points of damage or ignoring LOS, Concealment and Cover.

So, all in all this should be doable. Despite the many ‘jacks and Imposter-Vlad’s bag of trick. The real issue is the enormous threat range of Imposter-Vlad’s ‘jacks.

Deployment

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller Spread the Net. True-Vlad wins the roll-off and decides to go first. Imposter-Vlad picks the side with the lovely wall in the middle.

True-Vlad deploys in, more or less the standard manner. A Gun Carriage goes on each flank, ready to drive into the rectangular zones where they can score. True-Vlad goes in the middle with his trusted Winter Guards on both sides. As a new feature the ‘jacks go in the back where they can be screened by the valiant Winter Guards.

Imposter-Vlad deploys all of his ‘jacks as an iron curtain around the middle. The Greylords go in the back. Himself and Imposter-girlfriend go in between the ‘jacks. Everybody who can Advance Deploys do so, with the Widowmakers going into the forest Imposter-Vlad brought. The picture above shows the end of deployment.

It is worth noticing that the Berserkers are in disguise. Two are dressed as Juggernauts, one pretends to be a Decimator (the one belonging to Imposter-girlfriend), another one appears as a Destroyer. The only one that actually looks a bit like a Berserker is only the top part of a Berserker.

Red ones go faster. True-Vlad must forward in a hurry to put pressure on the scenario. 

There is only one direction and that is forward. Despite Imposter-Vlad the opposing army is slow. Everybody runs. On the left flank, the Winter Guards spread out to avoid too much death by Behemoth. This is not as important on the right flank as the forest in the middle blocks Behemoth’s line of sight. Vlad walks forward and puts up Wind Wall. The rest are details. The picture above depicts the battle field after the dust from True-Vlad’s first turn has settled. 

Imposter-Vlad starts by not allocation, neither does Imposter-girlfriend. All the ‘jacks move forward. On the interesting side, the Widowmakers move forward and take out four Winter Guards on the left flank. One of the Eliminators runs and engages the Gun Carriage, whilst the other one runs to the egde of the battle field. On the right flank, the Eliminators also run and one of them puts a toe into the zone. Eiryss runs to the rightmost flag. The picture above shows the end of Imposter-Vlad’s first turn.

I think we are close enough for Imposter-Vlad to be hit by the first wave. 

True-Vlad moves into the rubble in front of him, and casts S&P and Wind Wall. The Gun Carriage on the left flank takes a free strike form the Eliminator for charging the Widowmakers. This, obviously has no effect on it. Two Widowmakers are killed and the Gun Carriage repositions into contact with the ‘jack on the left flank to avoid being charged.

Joe moves forward a tells a tale of the Courage of the Forefathers to the middle Rifle Corps, who then courageously move forward and kill another Widowmaker. The leftmost Rifle Corps only move a bit forward and the throws rockets at more Widowmakers., one goes down.

On the right flank the Gun Carriage moves forward and pounds the ‘jack in front of it. The ‘jack takes a bit of damage. Everybody else just moves forward. The picture above depicts the end of True-Vlad’s turn.

Imposter-Vlad does what Vlad normally does best. He stays behind the wall. S&P and Wind Wall goes up. Not surprisingly, the Marauder, with a bit of help from the Forge Seer easily removes the Gun Carriage in the right flank. Imposter-Vlad has less luck on the left flank, the Gun Carriage stays alive. Both Eliminator units receive a Press Forward. On the right they just run, on the left one of the charges and kills a grunt from the Field Gun. This actually results in Imposter-Vlad scoring two point: one for the rightmost zone and one for the rightmost flag. This leaves the scenario score at 2-0 in Imposter-Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the end of round two.

This is not going quite as well as I hoped for. The loss of the rightmost Gun Carriage was a miscalculation. I had hoped it would have survived. So Plan B. 

True-Vlad moves forward to ensure that everybody will be inside the S&P aura. He then feast, casts S&P and Boundless Charge on the rightmost Marauder.

On the left flank, the Gun Carriage slams the Berserker back into the Greylord behind it, but narrowly misses the Forge Seer. Nevertheless, the ‘jack is knocked down and outside the zone. It the proceeds to miss the Widowmaker with all shooting, and decides reposition into base contact with her to stop her shooting. The Field Gun tries to kill the Eliminator, but unsurprisingly fails. The Marauder is more adept at killing street smart ladies, though. This opens up space for an Artillery Kapitan to move up and score at the flag.

On the right flank, the Field Gun moves out of the way, and miraculous manage to kill the Eliminator. Unfortunately, the grunts are a bit slow, and one of the forgets to toe the zone. The Marauder charges the Berserker at the flank and deals a not insignificant amount of damage.

In the middle, the Marauder moves through the forrest, and slams the Berserker into the wall in front of Imposter-Vlad. Joe moves forward and continues to instil Courage of the Forefathers into the Rifle Corps. They, then advance and shoots at something I forgot.

So far this is OK. True-Vlad scores two points and Imposter-Vlad scores one. This leaves the scenario score at 3-2 in Imposter-Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the end of True-Vlad’s turn. For the eagle eyed it also demonstrates that True-Vlad still does what he sometimes do. He moves forward. This is generally frowned upon; basically because it tends to kill him (most recently when he aimlessly wandered in front of Beast, as described here). 

Imposter-Vlad has a field day. True-Vlad is sometimes just slightly distracted and wanders of in search of -what do I know, flowers? He is now in range of Behemoth. You can guess the rest. The picture above illustrates why Vlad should really learn how to measure threat distances. In particular when he should know this particular distance by heart. 

It was going OK. The plan was to push hard to keep Imposter-Vlad out of scenario and figure out how to deal with the Eliminators. It kind of worked, a bit. However, as it sometimes happens when the man behind the lines, either become overly confident or distracted I made too many silly mistakes. The Gun Carriage was a gamble. It could have payed off. It did not. Not contesting when I can is just silly; moving Vlad out of hiding is downright idiotic. Even worse, this is the second time.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

Harbinger is a recurrent opponent for Vlad. He has faced her twice before. Once beating her (for battle report see here) and once loosing to her (see here for battle report). It is usually quite fun playing the flammable fanatics. So, she is back with her Faithful Masses. This time in yet another slightly different version. As always, Vlad is bringing his trusted Winter Guards — what better way to teach the lady some manners? 

The Harbinger of Menoth has a tremendous amount of focus, 10 to be precise! This also means that she has a huge Control Area, a massive 20″. She packs the spell Purification, which normally is to be feared. However, Vlad does not have any upkeep spells, so he is not bothered. She can cast Crusader’s call, which give +2″ move to her models charging in her Control Area. She also has a Command range of 12″. Again, a considerable area. Inside this area she automatically give a -2 to hit to enemy models through Awe (living that is, so ‘jacks and Carriages are OK); she can also use Martyrdom, where she can remove 1 hp of damage from a disabled model. Though, she does suffer 1d3 damage. Finally, her feat deals a POW 14 damage roll and continuous fire to enemy models that end their movement within 12″ of her. Oh, and she can’t be blinded, knockdown or be affected by back strike. The theme The Faithful Masses, makes ‘jacks angry. If a friendly warrior is killed within 5″ the ‘jack gets +2 to melee attack and damage rolls.

She brings the ubiquitous Judicator and as something new Avatar of Menoth. The Judicator brings, besides the standard colossal POW 21 fists, a lot of shooting. It has two 10″ POW 12 sprays and two 14″ POW 14 AOE 3″ rockets, which are inaccurate. Both of these weapons are proper infantry killers. Since it is equipped with Reliquary (which is basically Hand of Fate: roll one extra dice, drop the lowest), it is rather accurate with the sprays. It can hit DEF 14 on the average, which gives it a 80% probability to hit a Winter Guard. It is less dangerous with the rockets, they only have a 20% probability to hit a Winter Guard. They do however kill them even under the AOE 3″ blast. On the bright side, two Marauders can trivially kill it. Actually, one Marauder can kill it if something else can remove 11 points from it first.

The Avatar of Menoth is a completely different beast. It is a self contained ‘jack that feed itself focus (d3+1 each of its Control Phase). It is not part of a battle group. It hit Juggernaut-style hard at P+S 19, reach 2″ and P+S 14 at reach 1″. In addition, it can do Menoth’s Gaze, which forces models within 8″ to only advance towards the Avatar. It is 18 points, which actually sounds kind of OK. Even though four free focus is pretty strong.

Harbinger brings only four units, three of which are for free. She brings three units of Initiates of the Wall (for free!). They are all Shield Guards, they have Set Defence, have five boxes, and Unbreakable Wall. The lattes makes them immune to knockdown and all sorts of moves. All of this basically make them ARM 21 (effective ARM 23 against charge attacks), they can Shield Guard each other, and if everything else fails, Harbinger can martyr them. They can really mess up a Gun Carriage’s day. On the bright side, their damage output is surprisingly low. Did I mention they are free?

The ubiquitous Choir of Menoth is obviously present. They are there to boost ‘jacks, either by giving out +2 to damage rolls, immunity to targeting by non-magical ranged attacks, or immunity to be targeting by spells. This is bad news for a list full of shooty stuff.


On the solo-side she brings the standard two munks and two champions on horses. She also brings the book and a Vassal of Method. To round the list off, she bring two shiny new Menite Archons (so new that they haven’t even been painted yet!).


The two Champion of the Order of the Wall are some pretty hefty Dragoons comparable to our own Man-O-War Dragoons. They are Steady and Sturdy, so no Field Gun fun, and have Retaliatory Strike. Actually, they are quite dangerous, and somewhat difficult to remove. They can also charge stuff 15″ away (assuming Crusader’s call). They are really difficult when either claiming a flag or contesting a zone. Speaking of scenario solos, Harbinger also brings two really irritating fighting monk, or Allegiant of the Order of the Fist. These monks are annoying, flag capturing, tough, and hard to remove speed bumps. The will most likely be at DEF 18, and move about if an attack misses them.

The Covenant of Menoth is basically a huge book being dragged around. Despite only having five boxes, it actually takes five attacks to get rid off. It only suffers one point of damage irregardless of how much a roll exceeds its ARM. It can cast three spells: Flames of Wrath, which makes enemy models hit by an attack suffer continuous fire; Lawgiver’s Creed, which hinders enemy models from casting spells within 10″; and Power of Faith, which stops friendly faction models from being knocked down or made stationary within 5″. All of these three abilities are actually bad for Vlad and his troops; the latter probably going to be the most used.


The Vassal of Menoth is new to me. It is a ‘jack booster as it can do Enliven (‘jack can make an advance if it suffers damage), Empower (hey, another free focus), and Arcane Bolt, which we are probably not going to see a lot.


Finally, the two flying Menite Archons. The big flaming Menoth fliers. It, like all other Archons has a lot of build in rules: It gets an local Signs & Portens on its own attack and damages rolls (Divine Inspiration); It cannot be knocked down or made blind (Divine Manifestation); It gets angry if friendly warrior is killed within 10″ (+2 STR and ARM for one round), and it gets Vengeance; and it has Ashen Veil. There are more rules, but none really relevant here. The two weapons are reach 2″ P+S 15 and Dispel, and 2″ reach P+S 13 Thresher and Grievous Wounds. All in all it is kind of dangerous.


This is a tweaked version of Harby and her Faithful Masses, which Vlad has faced quite a few times. He is not super worried, despite heavy odds. 

We are playing the 2019 Steamroller Anarchy. Harbinger chose the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″), Vlad remembered to pick Observatory (one friendly model gets Eyeless Sight within 4″) to counter the singing boys. Harbinger won the dice-off and opted to go first. Vlad likes water.

Harbinger deploys in the middle where the massive areas can cover most of the field. She stock up with two units of shield guards (Initiates). To the right goes the Judicator along with all the choir boys and the book. A Champion on each flank. The Avatar goes on the right along with a unit of shield guards, and both Archons go on the other flank. Not many surprises here; perhaps only that both Archons go on the same flank.

If Harbinger was unsurprising, Vlad is down right boring. He deploys in the standard formation with a Gun Carriage on each flank, followed by a unit of Rifle Corps. Everything else go in the middle. One of these days I will try another deployment with both Gun Carriages on the same flank. The picture above shows the end of deployment.  

The round where nothing happens, or is it…

Harbinger is all about forcing the masses forward at full speed. This is unusual. She tends to be more cautious. Nevertheless, Everything moves a top speed. On the right flank, the three shield guards and the munk hides behind the wall. The Choir stays a little back and sings Passage to the ‘jacks. Well that was it! She clearly has a need for speed. The picture above shows the result of the hasty advance. 

This is fun. It is normally red ones that go faster. Vlad likes people (here used in its absolutely widest definition) coming to him and his Winter Guards. To be within firing range is lovely. Vlad starts by moving into his Shifting Stance, behind the objective. He then casts Signs & Portens and Wind Wall. He is now a happy camper (well, not really, as casting both spells leaves him nothing to camp).

Off goes the two Gun Carriages. On the right flank, the carriage moves forward and shoots at they guys behind the wall. There really isn’t a chance to hit. But it can lay down rough terrain, and the Protectorate is normally quite bad at Pathfinder. Two AOEs are put down and it repositions back. The twin on the left flank basically does the same. Except that it actually manages to hit the Champion. Joe tells a story about the Motherland, and combined with S&P, the rifle corps on the right manage to put three rockets into the shield guards and kill one of them. Everybody else moves forward, with the leftmost Rifle Corps moving to hinder flying stuff to get too close to the two Marauders. The picture above shows the end of the first round.

This is usually where something hits the fan. Let’s just hope it is religious fanatics. It turns out that Harby’s fast and furious first round has been swapped for a much slower second round.

Initially, the Avatar does it super-power-up and receives three focus. Harby doesn’t do a lot. She does a Cygnar-advance and moves in behind the Judicator, where she fires off Crusader’s Call and Guided Hand on the Judicator.

On the left flank, the two fliers are a bit nervous and shuffles around, not wanting to get within range of the Gun Carriage. The Initiates also shuffles a bit to the left to cover for the Archons. The Muck moves forward and does his stance. Finally, the Champion moves in front of the Objective.

The right flank is almost as exciting as the left one. The book moves in front of the flag to be ready to score. The Champion moves closer to the Judicator, and the Avatar mimics a tortoise and moves a bit forward (thinking Pathfinder would be handy). 

Finally, in the middle the Judicator does what it enjoys and shoots a lot. It actually manages to take out a single Rocketeer, and the whole Mortar Crew. Oh, and the Initiates moves to the flag to stop the book from being shot off the table. This concludes a rather uneventful turn. The picture above depicts the end of Harby’s turn.

Harby has just demonstrated how passivity looks. Now Vlad feels the urge to show how it should be done. He keeps all of his focus, activates and does what he do best. Stand behind an objective casting S&P, and Wind Wall. Happy as a litte child at Christmas.

On the right flank, the Gun Carriage charges the Avatar, knocks it down and does some damage. It then proceeds to put Choir Boys out of their misery. The whole unit is now in a better place. Finally, it repositions backwards. The Rifle Corps follow up behind it and shoots rockets at the Avatar, which is fun. Finally, the rightmost Marauder charges the book and removes it.

On the left flank, the Rifle Corps is for some reason in the way of the Gun Carriage. So, they have to move. They move forward and to the right, where the proceed to just shoot at what they can see. There is now room for the Gun Carriage, which moves forward and drops a shell on the Initiates and one on the Champion, and a shot at the Munk. The latter just made the Munk move. It then repositions into the Initiates to engage them and tease the two Archons. The leftmost Marauder follows up behind it, and the Kapitan runs to the flag.

In the middle, the two Field Guns move forward, as does the last Marauder. That is basically it. Not so much killing. Even though taking out the Choir and Book is important. However, the Marauders are now within range of charging the Judicator. Vlad scores one scenario point, leaving the score at 1–0 in his favour. The picture above depicts the end of Vlad’s second round.  

Now even the slow and cautions Harby should be able to reach Vlad’s lines. Let’s see it Vlad has over extended.

So, apparently Harby doesn’t really like Marauders and Gun Carriages. She assign a bit of focus to the Judicator. The central Champion now charges the middle Marauder. Presumedly to be annoying and in the way. It also does a bit of damage. The second Champion can now occupy the empty slot in front of the flag; which it does my charging the Marauder.

The Judicator can noe proceed to move forward and smash away at the Marauder and the Gun Carriage. Something which removes the Marauder and leaves the Gun Carriage in a sorry state. This state is quickly changed into a non-state by the Avatar killing it. Finally, the two remaining Initiates moves in front of the Avatar to block paths to it.

Now Harby can move a bit forward into the forrest and feat. The middle unit of Initiates move to her side to protect her agains shooting.

On the right flank, the two Archons have finally found their guts and moves in to hammer away at the Gun Carriage. They manage to dent to pretty good. But it is still hanging around. Also after the Initiates have a go at it. This annoys Harby. But, I think (without having done the math) that the odds were on my side. Finally, the Munk moves forward to contest the flag.

Harby scores one point, and Vlad scores nothing. This leaves the score at 1-1. The picture above shows the end of Harby’s turn.

Red ones go faster! The Marauder currently being engaged by the Champion can reach Harby under feat and Boundless Charge. So, Vlad fills it up, and drops a focus on the other Marauder. He then activates. He casts Boundless Charge on the rightmost Marauder, moves a bit to the left and casts Boundless Charge on the leftmost Marauder. This leaves him naked. But, hey! If Harby doesn’t die…

Joe starts by saying For the Motherland to the rightmost Rifle Corps, and finally moves out of the water. They start shooting away at the Champion at the flag, which for the most part damages the Initiates. The rightmost Rifle Corps moves a bit to the right and follow suit. They manage to remove the horse.

The rightmost Field Gun moves out of the Champions range to get a shot at it. The free strike is move to one of the grunts. It fires at the Champion but misses. The other Field Gun also fires, and also misses. Sometimes I really miss S&P.

Vlad could do with the points, so the right most Marauder charges, and kills the objective. It is now time for the assassin run. The Marauder must accept two free strikes from both Champions. It should be within the safety margins, but you never know. It charges, and correctly survives the two free strikes. It arrives at Harby fully loaded. Harby is sad.

Vlad manages to score an extra point for the objective. Harby scores nothing. This leaves the scenario score at 2-1 in Vlad’s favour as Harby is is being pistoned to death. The picture above shows the end of the third round, the game, and the latest in dead Protectorate motif. 

Harby really doesn’t like Vlad and his marvellous Winter Guards. She tends to die to the surprisingly long charge range of the ‘jacks. When she has the Judicator, she has to figure out how to stay of out range, and also keep the Judicator out of range of the Marauders.

Despite having a bit of trouble on the right flank, and good attempts to hinder Vlad’s Marauders by engaging them, I think that Vlad was in control for most of the match. If Harby hadn’t move forward, The Marauders could probably taken out the Judicator instead. Albeit, requiring some fancy movement.

All in all. the game went, more or less as expected. 

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

It’s been a while since I have seen Goreshade on the table. I guess he went out of fashion. Vlad has faced him once before, and came out victorious (for battle report see here). The opponent’s list is more or less the same, with just a few changes. So, once again Vlad steps up to face the Legion of Dawn led by Goreshade. Vlad brings his standard Winter Guard Kommand list. In its current form it has an Adjunct instead of a Mortar, and two Kapitans. Besides that it is the same as described here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is probably the round where maniacs will meet discipline. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

Unfortunately, civil unrest is happening in Khador again. Last time it happed, it was the Butcher running amok (battle report here). This time it seems that Strakhov is on the wrong side of the fence. I have an ok idea about his capabilities, yet I have never played him myself. Vlad brings an experimental version of his WGK-list, along with his (ex) girlfriend. (see further down for a walk through of a tale of two lovers).

Strakhov1 brings a handfull of very capable spells, and the ability to upkeep for free; not to mention a feat almost as good as Vlad’s. The least interesting spell is probably Battering Ram, which is a POW 12, range 8″ spell, which also pushes d3″. On the more interesting side, there are three upkeep spells: Occultation, which gives a unit/model stealth. Pretty nifty when facing a lot of shooting; Sentry, which allows a model to shoot an extra shot in the Maintenance Phase. This will probably go on Victor; and Superiority, which gives a ‘jack +2 SPD, MAT and DEF, and immune to knockdown. Finally, he can also cast Overrun, which allows a model to move when the target model kills something.

Finally, his feat is a slightly different and perhaps slightly worse than Vlad’s. ‘jacks can charge and slam for free, and when a friendly faction model targets a model in Strakhov’s control area, they get Pathfinder and +4″ to their normal movement. The most important difference to Vlad’s is that for Strakhov the target has to be within 12″ of Strakhov; whereas, for Vlad only the charging model must be within 14″ of Vlad. This is a pretty big difference. Also, the extra Pathfinder from Strakhov’s feat is of little use as the Jaws of the Wolf theme already gives ‘jacks Pathfinder.

Strakhov’s battle group includes a Victor, a Marauder and he has an Adjunct attached. The latter is a marvellous addition to most ‘casters. The Greylord Adjunct offers two really good passive abilities: Arcane Assist and Spiritual Conduit. The former allows a free upkeep, which is not terrible important for Strakhov since he most likely can upkeep for free. The latter extends Strakhov’s casting range by 2″, which is nice for Strakhov. His most important ability is probably Guidance, which can give Eyeless Sight. He also has a cloud and a spray.

Victor is one of our Colossal. It has a really big gun. Range 20″, AOE 5″, POW 15 with three different modes of attack: leave a crater, drop a flare, or cause continuous fire. This is a good target for Senty and Overrun. It addition, Victor has two smaller guns, which are quite infantry unfriendly, and the obligatory big fists. The Marauder we already know and love.

Strakhov also brings two other guys ordering Warjacks around. Sorscha0 with Beast ’09 and a Greylord Forge Seer with a Marauder. Sorsch0 is our very good Junior Warcaster, or as she is colloquial known “Boundless Charge on a stick”. In this list, this is why she is here. The combination of Strakhov’s feat and Boundless Charge (BC) can propel a standard Khador ‘jack an impressive 13″ when charging (4″ base + 4″ feat + 3″ charge + 2″ BC).  As a bonus she can also give Concealment inside an 8″ bubble. Sorscha brings Beast, which is a rather expensive ‘jack to put on a junior. Yet, it is her pet Juggernaut with Shield Guard, Hyper-aggressive and Murderous (addition dice to hit against warrior model). A 2″ reach P+S 19 axe and a fist. So, with all the trimmings Beast can bring four axe attacks to face from 15″ away (and a fist from 14″)!

The final Warjack is yet another Marauder, this time attached to a Greylord Forge Seer. The Greylord’s Drive gives magical attacks to the Marauder, which in this battle doesn’t really do anything. He can give an extra focus, cast an attack spell, and put Winter’s Wind on either himself or Beast.   

The units are two units of Eliminators, who are free in this theme; and a unit of Widowmakers. The Eliminators are among the best mercenaries around. The are fast (SPD 7, Acrobatics, Parry and Side Step), hard to hit (DEF 15, Stealth and Duelist) and deadly in melee (Two attacks, POW 9 (or 13 Combo Strike), Anatomical Precision and Gang. Kind of along the same line is the unit of Widowmakers. They are our nimble, precise and Advance Deployment hunters. RAT 7, Marksman and Sniper is a very nice combination.

Finally, Strakhov brings three additional solos: the Hermit, Yuri and a Marksman. I have never really understood the Hermit. I personally think he is a fashion statement. In this list, I think he only adds the -2 ARM via Whispers at the Gate, which is neat but still. He is also good at contesting or scoring flags, as he really needs five attacks to die (Ancient Shroud). Yuri, on the other hand is a cruise missile of Winter Guard killing. A reach 2″, P+S 13 weapon master, with thresher really spells trouble for most stuff caught in his track. Finally, the Marksman is a super Widowmaker. Not only does he shoot better, but he also grants Swift Hunter to the Widowmakers (move 2″ when killing a model). 

A Tale of Two Lovers

We are playing Steamroller 2019 Spread the Net. Vlad wins the roll-off and decides to go first. He is a bit disappointed as there is no wall or trench to stand in. Strakhov did naturally select that side of the table.

Vlad deploys very much in the standard manner. A Gun Carriage on each flank. However, since a tale of two lovers apparently is pretty low on artillery, Vlad has to deploy with the infantry unit and a single Marauder. The two other Marauders deploy slightly to the right. Sorscha deploys to the right with her Rager; and since Vlad can’t find a wall, she can, just in front of her.

Strakhov deploys in the middle with basically everything except what can Advance Deploy, the Greylord and one unit of Eliminators. The two latter deploys on the left flank. Whilst, Yuri and the Widowmakers deploy near the forest in the middle or inside the one brought by the theme. The picture above depicts the end of deployment. 

First round is always rather uneventful. Yet, as always, the only way is forward.

The only way is forward. Both of the Gun Carriages thunder forward, one on each flank. The Winter guards also moves forward. They stay in a rather scattered formation, as they really don’t want to be close together when Victor starts firing. The rightmost Marauder moves forward, and the other two moves to the right and foward. Joe says Courrage of the Motherland to the Rifle Corps. This is a nice combination with Sorscha’s No Sleeping on the Job. Sorscha moves towards the fence and casts Fog of War. Her Rager stays put, ready to do its Shield Guard duty. Finally, Vlad moves forward and casts Wind Wall. The picture above depicts the end of Vlad’s uneventful turn. 

Strakhov starts by casting his spells. Overrun goes on Victor, as does Sentry. Superiority goes on Beast. He then moves forward in front of where Victor will be shortly. On the left flank the Eliminators run into the zone to contest. The Forge Seer and his pet Marauder move up behind the fence.

On the right flank, the Widowmakers and Marksman moves about a shoots at a Rocketeer, who dies; they also put a few shots into the Gun Carriage. Victor moves forward and shoots his really big gun at some Winterguards. One of the gets caught in the blast, dies and triggers Overun on the Marauder on the right flank. Everything else move forward. The Marauder runs surprisingly close to the rightmost Gun Carriage. The picture above shows the end of round 1.

OK, so nothing interesting here. Two annoying Eliminators on the left, and Yuri in the woods in the middle. The rest, more or less as expected. 

There is still only one way: forward. Vlad just stays put and casts S&P. On the left flank, the Gun Carriage moves forward into the zone and drops two cannon shots towards Strakhov in the hope of getting rid of something. Nothing really happened. The leftmost Marauder runs around the corner of the building (thus, is currently out of sight on the picture above).

On the right flank, the Gun Carriage charges the Marauder in front of it, and slams it to the left slightly into the forest. It the proceeds to shoot Widowmakers. Sorscha moves up to the fence and casts Boundless Charge on the rightmost Marauder, which the proceeds to charge the enemy Marauder. It combo-smites it into the forest and kills Yuri in the process†. Everybody else move forward. The picture above shows the end of turn 1.

† Here we made a little mistake. Pathfinder does not apply to involuntary moves. So, the Marauder would not have killed Yuri.

Strakhov is a bit pissed. He ordres Victor to charge the leftmost Gun Carriage, which it proceeds to smash to smithereens. The leftmost enemy Marauder moves forward to score the zone. On the right flank, an enemy Marauder charges the Gun Carriage and kills it. Beast moves into the forest. The Widowmakers kill a few Winter Guards, and the Eliminators in the middle does the same.

Strakhov scores one scenario point for the left zone, Vlad scores one for the right zone. This leaves the score at 1-1. The picture above depicts the end of round 2.

So far, it is not too bad. Despite loosing the two Gun Carriages there is hope. There are still three Marauders left. 

It is feat time. Vlad allocates focus to the Marauders on the left. He then activates, feats and cast S&P, He now makes the tactical mistake that will cost the game: he moves. This is what happens when Vlad gets bored. He moves. He should not. More on this later.

The left most Marauder charges the enemy Marauder on the left. It does a fair amount of damage. It would have preferred to charge Victor with his pal. But, due to a combination of positioning and distance it could not get there. However, his fully loaded pal in the middle charges Victor. One Marauder is a bit too little to actually kill Victor, but the Marauder does make a huge dent into it. The rightmost Marauder charges Beast, but manages to do not a lot of damage.

The Winter Guards move about a shoots a bit. Vlad manages to contest on the left zone, and score on the right zone. This leaves the scenario score at 2-1 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows then end of turn 1.

So, Vlad should just learn to stay put. Sorscha starts by filling Beast up; Strakhov fills Victor up. The Victor starts by sliding towards the rightmost Marauder and smashes it with its mighty fists. Sorscha then moves up and drops a Boundless Charge on Beast. Beast then charges Vlad. Guess what, Vlad doesn’t really like Beast. End of game. Sorscha manages to score one point on the flag. Vlad scores on the right zone. This leaves the scenario score at 3-2 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above demonstrates the situation when Vlad can’t stand still. 

It was actually going pretty well. Despite a few cock-ups, Vlad was doing OK. There was a reasonable chance of getting rid of Victor and one, or two more ‘jacks. That would still leave Vlad with his girlfriend and her pet ‘jack, as well as some Winter Guards; and himself, obviously. Finally, Strakhov was getting really low on the clock. So, if he just didn’t move, everything would be fine. This is clearly a lesson learned. Think through the consequences of your action before you do them. I should have seen Beast being able to reach Vlad.  

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

I have never faced Sloan before. I’m told that Sloan gun line is a thing – and boy there are many guns here. Vlad is feeling lucky and moves his Winter Guards into position.  He brings his standard Winter Guard list (detailed here). This is the post-Oblivion version, which only differs in an additional Artillery Kapitan.

Sloan1 is completely new to me. She appears to be a little girl carrying a big gun. Her build in ability is True Sight, which allows her to ignore cloud effects and stealth. I guess this is handy, when carrying a big gun. She also confers this ability to her eight ‘jacks. Luckily, Vlad and his Winter Guards doesn’t really do a lot in the whole cloud business. When in the theme, Gravedigger, the trenchers also gains Rise, which allows knocked down trenchers to stand up in the maintenance phase. There really isn’t a lot of trenchers in this list. So, it is almost inconsequential. Vlad’s knockdown circus will probably focus on the ‘jacks. It also allows Sloan to reroll the starting roll, which might matter as I guess she wants to go first.

Besides the big gun, she also brings five spells to the table. One of them is a damage spell (Dust to Dust); another is Return Fire, which allows a model to shoot back; and one is Refuge, which allows a model hitting something to make a full advance. However, all of her value is in the last two spells in combination with the eight shooty ‘jacks: Fire Group, which gives all her ‘jacks +2 RNG; and Guided Fire, which gives all her ‘jacks boosted attack rolls. She is probably going to cast them all the time, which will consume five of her six focus. She really rounds of her shooting ‘jacks with her feat, which gives her a free Fire Group, and models in her battle group and make an addition ranged attack.

In the feat turn, that is 12, range 16″, POW 6 (Armor Piercing) shots (hitting DEF 17 on average), and 8 (assuming a trencher nearby). range 12. AOE 3″, POW 13 shots (hitting DEF 16 on average). All of this without spending a single focus and not including her own shooting. That is a whole lot of shooting!

She is also in the company of Reinholdt. Two of his three abilities are relevant here (removing Stealth not). He can use Lucky Charm to give Sloan a reroll an attack or damage roll, or Reloader to give her an addition ranged attack. Again, under feat turn she can potentially put out 3 shots (one on her own, one from the feat, and one from Reinholdt’s Reload) at range 16″, POW 12, hitting DEF 18 on the average.

Sloan is brining an impressive eight ‘jacks: two Grenadiers and six Hunters. The Grenadiers are kind of the trencher version of ‘jacks. It can Dig In for an impressive DEF 18. It can also Advance Deploy. Its gun can reach 10″ (12″ under Fire Group), and easily kills Winter Guards inside the 3″ AOE. It can make an impressive 3 attacks, if there are two or more trenchers within 1″ of it. That is a lot of dead Winter Guards. Luckily, there aren’t that many trenchers in the list, so actually having a lot of shots is unlikely.

Where the Grenadiers are there to kill infantry, the Hunters are there to kill ‘jacks. Its range 14″ (16″ under Fire Group) gun is only POW 6, but it is Armor Piercing. So it is 7 points of damage on a Khador ‘jack per shot (assuming boosted damage, by why not?). Six of them is potentially a dead ‘jack or carriage per turn (two on the feat turn). It also has Extended Control Range, allowing it to operate within 24″ of Sloan.

Sloan is also bringing three units: two units Trencher Express Teams and a single unit of Rangers. Trencher Express Team is one more things that might cause trouble. They can reliably hit most of our stuff, removes tough and can push model d3″. Given the rather short threat range of our ‘jacks, a d3″ push can seriously hamper any charge plans. Even using Vlad’s speed tricks. The Rangers are really mostly a nuisance. They can do Mark Target for a +2 to hit. But with all the boosting going on that doesn’t really matter a lot. They can obviously score. However, they are not Trencher models, so they can’t assist a Grenadier. 

Finally, Sloan is brining a Patrol Dog and two Trench Busters. The Patrol Dog is situational annoying, but nothing more. The two Trench Busters, on the other hand are quite annoying. They are primarily Shield Guards, but is also a solo for scoring. They can be somewhat dangerous when charging.

All in all, this is shooting galore. This list can put out an impressive amount of shots and damage. On the bright side, it doesn’t really matter how much damage a shot can do. Only one Winter Guard can die per shot (at least with a bit of clever positioning to avoid the Grenadier). I think this game calls for application of the subtle preferred Khador approach: apply axe to face (or anything you can grab to face) as fast as possible. Slacker will be shot, either by Cygnar og Joe. 

We are playing Steamroller 2019 Bunker. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). After several identical dice rolls, Sloa finally fixes the roll-off using the theme reroll. She decides to go first. Vlad is lazy and just stays on the side of the table where he already is. In hindsight, he should perhaps have chosen the other side. There is one of his favourite walls.

Sloan deploys in the middel with a Shield Guard on both sides, and all the hunters in a neat line. Everything that can Advance Deploy does so in the middle of the field. 

Vlad deploys very much the standard way. A Gun Carriage on each flank. A bit ‘jack heavy on the left flank to protect them a bit behind the two houses. Artillery heavy on the right to not be hampered by the two houses. The picture above show the setup at the end of deployment. 

Round one, the round of not a lot. Yet, having all of these ‘jacks doing Advance Deployment might actually bring them closer to axe to face. 

Sloan casts Guided Fire and then runs all the Hunter spreading a bit out on each flank. This leaves room for the Grenadiers to advance up in the middle and dig in. Most other stuff just advance, except for the dog that moves to the left, and the Rangers who just stay put. The picture above shoes the end of Cygnar’s first round. 

Vlad need to get up the field. However, there is no way that the army can get in the face of Sloan’s army. So, it is probably better to advance pseudo-slow to in such a way that I will hopefully survive the first barrage. On the left flank the Gun Carriage advances and closes the hole between the two house to shelter the Winter Guards behind. The two Marauders move forward and tries to continue the block. Finally, Joe says Courage of the Forefathers to the Rifle Corps. On the right flank, the Gun Carriage moves forward next to the cloud to do the same shelter manoeuvre. The last Marauder also moves up to continue the block. Vlad moves forward, up behind the objective and casts Wind Wall. Everybody else moves forward. The picture above depicts the end of Vlads turn.

So, this is probably the shooting bonanza round. This is going to hurt. I guess it is just a question about how much is left, and whether it will be enough.

Not surprisingly, Sloan start by casting Guided Fire and using her feat starts the hailstorm of bullets. On the left flank, the three Hunters fires all six shots (three of them boosted damage) on the Gun Carriage. Sadly, that is more than sufficient to kill it. A Grenadier then moves forward and lobs a grenade into the Rifle Corps. Thanks to Joes encouraging speech only one dies.

On the right flank, two Hunters do the same trick and removes the second Gun Carriage. A Grenadier moves forward and takes out five Winter Guards. The Express Team hits the Marauder and pushes it. Maxwell runs to the right flag to start scoring soon, and the Rangers move forward to be a general annoyance. The picture above demonstrates the surprisingly little slaughter from Sloan’s feat.

This was not too bad. It is always sad to see two Gun Carriages evaporate in a single turn. Yet, given this armies shooting output under Sloan’s feat, I think I got away cheaply. I don’t think the dice gods were on Sloan’s side. Anyway, the remaining heavy armour need to get up field. The objective heals one of the Marauders. Vlad allocates a single focus to each of the jacks. He then activates, feats and casts Sing & Portents. He is quite happy enjoying the view from behind the Objective. So, he stays there.

On the left flank, the Kapitan runs to the left and hides behind the house. He is then ready to run forward to the flag in the next round. The Rifle Corps advances a bit takes out the dog. One less solo to score. The leftmost Marauders tramples over the Ranger and kills the Spotter in the Express Team. Unfortunately, the troll is just outside the Marauder’s reach.

The second Kapitan moves next to the woods and gives Artillerist to the Mortar. Joe also moves forward and supports the Marauder with For the Motherland. The Mortar then drops a shell at the Ranger standing in front of the Grenadier and Express Team. He dies. This now leaves room for the rightmost Marauder. This Marauder can now charge the Grenadier, which it proceeds to destroy. There is a single attack left, which is used to kill the troll in the Express Team. The right most Rifle Corps can now advance. They move forward and shoots Maxwell to death. Yet another solo gone. The rightmost Field Gun can now aim and kill the middle Ranger.

There is now room fo the middle Marauder, which charges the Hunter behind the wall. It is having a bad day, so the Hunter barely survives. I think this was pretty OK. The Marauders are now in Sloa’s face, all solos have been taken out, and mine are still left. We both score a point, leaving the scenario score at 1-1. The picture above shoes the end of round 2.

So far, so good. The game can still go either way. Let’s see what Sloan can do, now that she have used her feat.

Sloan starts by casting Guided Fire. On the left flank, the Grenadier takes out the three Winter Guards in front. Probably as a revenger over the dead dog (I can sympathise). The three Hunters start shooting at the Marauder standing next to the house. They almost kills it. Sloan also takes a shot, and the troll from the Express Team finishes it off.

The remaining ‘jacks concentrate on the Marauder in front. A lot of shooting takes place, but it actually achieves an acceptable DEF from being engaged and for some behind a wall. The two Trench Busters also have to commit. They charge it, hut it refuses to go down. The remaining Rangers move forward to, once again stand in the way. All in all, a survivable round. We each score another point. Leaving the scenario at 2-2. The picture above depicts the end of Sloan’s turn. 

This battle is still wide open. Vlad probably needs to get to work. I think I need to go for some scenario points. Vlad allocates to focus points to the middle Marauder. He then activates, casts S&P, and charges the Ranger next to the middle flag. He uses one focus to boost to hit as he really needs to cast Boundless Charge. He kills the Ranger and uses Blood Boon to cast Boundless charge on the rightmost Marauder. The two Rifle Corps move up in the middle and shoots the Ranger and the troll from the Express Team next to the house. Joe tags along and says For the Motherland to the Mortar.

The rightmost Marauder can now charge the rightmost Hunter as it is currently contesting the rightmost flag. It will happily take a free strike from the Ranger. It then does a Combo Smite on the Hunter and slams it quite a long distance. This now opens up for the Kapitan to run to the flag to score. The last Marauder moves a bit forward. It the proceeds to kill the two Trench Busters and add more pain to the Hunter.

The rightmost Kapitan moves back to where he originally came from. There is no way he is going near the leftmost flag, where there are three Hunters lined up. He gives Artillerist to the Mortar. The Mortar takes a chance and shoots at the Ranger in front of the wall. It misses. The Field Gun tries the same and is successful! Unfortunately, Vlad has left his zone, so no point there. There is, however two points for flags. Only one point for Sloan. This leaves the scenario score at 4-3 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the end of the third round. 

So, Vlad is in the middle of the fray. This normally spells trouble. Vlad is surprisingly less robust than one thinks.

Sloan is not too happy being within a Marauder’s charge range. She allocates some focus to a few ‘jacks. Two of the Hunters, which have been leisurely hanging around on the left flank finally moves in. Together with last Hunter on the right flank the shoot the Marauder until is perish. They also manage to kill the Kapitan at the right flag. The last Hunter, on the left flank kills the other Kapitan. Vlad is quickly running out of solos.

Sloan and the Grenadier shoots at Vlad. But, he brought Winter Guards. The Empress’ finest always selfishly support their leader by sacrificing them selves. When the gun smoke blows away, Vlad is still standing. This leaves Vlad scoring nothing is this turn. Yet, Sloan still scores one. This leaves the scenario score at 4-4. The picture above shows the end of Sloan’s turn.

This is still wide open. Vlad might have over extended himself a bit. Vlad activates. He then moves back into the home zone, casts S&P and Wind Wall. Joe moves to the middle flag and shouts Courage of the Forefathers on the Rifle Corps, who the gathers around him. They shoot everything at the Grenadier. All the artillery also shoots the Grenadier until it goes sway. This will now allow Joe to score. On the right flank the remaining Marauder turns slightly to the left and the trashes the Hunter. This leaves Vlad scoring two points and Sloan scoring one point, leaving the scenario score at 6-5 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above depicts the end of round four. 

This game seems to be going to either clock or scenario. It still seems that is can go either way. 

Sloan is annoyed. She activates and casts Guided Fire and then proceeds to shoot at Joe. Luckily, he is almost as esteemed as Vlad. So, the Winter Guards are more than happy to sacrifice themselves on his behalf. The Hunters move about a bit, also to contest Joe’s flag. They then pump all lead into him,. Once they run out, Joe has also run out of Winter Guards. However, he is innately tough. So his is still alive. This turn leaves Vlad and Sloan scoring one point each; leaving the scenario score at 7-6 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above demonstrates the heroic and unselfish behaviour of the proud Winter Guards.

Vlad is slowly running out of troops. He really can’t do anything but activate first, cast S&P and Wind Wall once again. As before, all artillery focus on the Hunter contesting the flag. The combined might of two Field Guns and a Mortar leaves the Hunter as scrap. Joe stands up and shouts obscene remarks at Sloan and her forefathers (it is probably unnecessary to mention that courage was not part of it). The remaining Marauder just runs into Sloans zone to contest. This allows Vlad to score two points and Sloan none. Scenario score is now 9-6 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the end of round five.

Sloan is getting impatient and behind on scenario points. Vlad is quite happy. Not overly so, but nevertheless.

Sloan activates and casts Fire Group. Most of the Hunters pound away at Vlad’s objective and manages to kill it. The remaining shots are put into the Mortar, which also dies. Sloan herself, having a magical rifle, shoots at Vlad. There are still Winter Guards around, so he is safe. That was it. Sloan scores one, as do Vlad. This leaves the scenario score at 10-7 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows (almost) the end of round 6. 

Vlad just needs to score two more points, whilst Sloan scores nothing. Vlad just hanging around doing nothing will score one for his zone. Joe can easily run to the rightmost flag, that is another point. Finally, the Marauder can trivially remove the objective. We agree to end the game at scenario score 13-7 in Vlad’s favour.

This was a rough game. It started at a low point, loosing two Gun Carriages in one turn. However, it probably turned out to be a blessing, as Sloan’s feat basically left the three Marauders more or less unhurt. I think Sloan would have been better off focusing on the Marauders.

I think Vlad used his feat at the best time. It did not allow the Marauders to kill a lot. But, it did put a significant part of the army on Sloan’s side of the flags, putting pressure on her.

Once again, Blood Boon proved its value. Vlad simply haven’t got enough focus any other way. It was paramount that the Marauder managed to slam the Hunter away in round 3. Also, Sacrificial Pawn is golden. Many, many Winter Guards can be packed around Vlad to ward of heavy shooting; and boy did Sloan’s list have a lot of heavy shooting.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

I have only faced Siege once before, but that was in his epic version; and Irusk was dispatched for that intermezzo. Irusk was clearly not up for the task. Despite a heroic effort from the Winter Guards, they had to admit defeat on scenario (battle report here). This time, Vlad moves to intercept. He brings his standard Winter Guard list (detailed here). This is the post-Oblivion version, which only differs in an additional Artillery Kapitan.

Cygnar [Theme] Heavy Metal [Brisbane 1] Major Markus “Siege” Brisbane [+28] .    – Hurricane [35] – Triumph [18] – Squire [0(5)] Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine [0(5)] – Ace [10] Journeyman Warcaster [0(4)] – Charger [9] Alexia Ciannor & the Risen [10] Field Mechaniks (min) [3] Storm Strider [18]

Khador [Theme] Winter Guard Kommand [Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [0(4)] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4] Winter Guard Mortar Crew [0(5)] Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8] – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6] Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8] – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6] Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17] Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17]

I have never faced Siege1 before. I have, however had my behind handed to me by his epic incarnation. Siege1 is a 6 focus caster who brings five spells to the table, who carries a really big gun. This gun can place a 4″ AOE anywhere completely within 14″. Everybody within this AOE suffers a POW 14. This makes Winter Guards really sad.

His most famous spell is probably Foxhole, which allows him to place, basically a AOE 5″ trench (almost) anywhere within 14″ (thanks to the Squire). Siege likes to hide in such a hole. A lot of models can hide in a foxhole. This is unfortunate, as Vlad has quite a few models that like to blast stuff. He can also cast Mage Sight, which puts a 5″ AOE completely within 14″ (thanks to the Squire). Siege’s models can ignore forrest, clouds and stealth when attacking. He can also slam stuff using Force Hammer. Rift is a 4″ AOE, which also leaves rough terrain. Explosivo allows a model to gain Magical Weapons and 3″ blast. Finally, his feat allows him to remove all walls in his control and his models basically gets Armor Piercing when damaging a model in Seige’s control area (14″ due to the Squire).

The battlegroup includes the ubiquitous Squire, a Hurricane, and his pet ‘jack Triumph. The Squire does quite a few neat tricks for Siege. First and foremost, it extends his control range to 14″. It also allows him to reroll one magic attack roll per turn. Finally, it has a 5 focus battery, which Siege can user in his control phase.

Siege’s pet ‘jack Triumph has a bond that gives it boosted range attack rolls. Triumph is a surprisingly shooty ‘jack. It carries a range 16″ gun, POW 15 gun, which it can fire both in normal activation, but also in the Maintenance phase. At RAT 7 (automatically boosted), it is going to hit must stuff (DEF 17 on average); also because it has True Sight. As an extra bonus, it is a Shield Guard.

The Hurricane is the largest Arc Node around. It is a standard colossal with ARM 19 (probably 22 under the Journeyman Warcaster’s Arcane Shield), 56 boxes and two massive fists; the latter causes Cortex damage. So, Warjacks beware. It has four guns, two range 12″, POW 16, which slams small- and medium-based models; and two range 14″, POW 13 AOE 4″ guns. The Hurricane is actually not too scary. It will still go down to two Marauders, using just two focus in addition to feat and power up).

Siege brings two junior Warcaster. The ever present Journeyman Warcaster, and Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine. The standard Journeyman Warcaster is basically there for Arcane Shield (+3 ARM to a model). Here he is bringing a Charger as his little friend. The Charger is actually a quite nifty light warjack. It can shoot twice with its range 12″ POW 12 gun, and using Powerfull Attack it can boost all attack and damage rolls. This means hitting DEF 16 for 22 points of damage on average.

Journeyman Lieutenant Allister Caine, carries two POW 10, range 10″ magelock pistols that can either shoot 14″, push stuff D3″, or hit a model within 4″ of the original model hit. In this setup, I do however think his most important role is to bring his pet ‘jack Ace, and the spell Fire for Effect (we all know and love this one. How Cygnar has stolen it from Irusk needs to be investigated). Ace is a small shooty ‘jack. It carries a POW 12, range 14″ gun, which like Caine’s guns also can do three different things: Shadow Fire, which stops the target model from blocking LOS; Thunderbolt, which pushes D3″; and Trick Shot, which hits another model within 4″ of the original model hit.

Siege also bring a Battle Engine, namely the Storm Strider. It has a ROF 2, range 14″, POW 15 gun, which also arcs lightning to D3 nearby models. Not nice behaviour against the Winter Guards. It generates its own power tokens (fake focus). Finally, and quite important it adds +2 to friendly Faction model’s range attack roll targeting an enemy model within 10″ of it. It is probably going to be close to the Hurricane. At ARM 18 and 28 boxes, a single fully powered Marauder can take it out.

There are two units in this army, a minimum unit of Field Mechaniks, and Alexia1. The former basically does what it says on the tin. Yet the Heavy Metal theme allows the Reposition [3″], and that they repair for an addition 1 point.

The final unit is Alexia Ciannor & the Risen, who has been payed, handsomely I hope to assist Cygnar here. Alexia1 can make solos (Thrall Warriors) and is in her self actually pretty dangerous as long as there are Risen around. Unfortunately for her, she needs to restock her supply of Risen to really function, and there are mostly Winter Guards around to do that. Not having an ample supply of bodies on her own side will probably make her less efficient.

All in all, Vald is not too scared. The huge-bases should be manageable. Siege needs to get within charge range (under feat) of the Marauders to really do something. Alexia is probably going to run suboptimal. There is, however and tremendous amount of potential very damaging shooting. In particular when Siege feats.

Deployment

We are playing Steamroller 2019 King of the hill. Probably the best scenario for Vlad and his happy Winter Guards (more on this later). We both picked the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). Siege opted to go first. So, Vlad chose the side with a nice wall in the middle. He has developed a tradition of standing behind walls enjoying the view.

Siege deploys in the middle with all the solos and Alexia around him. The two huge-bases deploy on the left and all the remaining ‘jacks on the right. The Risen and Mechaniks deploy in the back. 

Vlad deploys pretty standard. Him in the middle surrounded by a unit of Winter Guards. All artillery in the middle, along with the ‘jacks. The solos deploy in the back. A Gun Carriage deploys on each flank. King of the hill is really good for this list. Vlad can bring a Gun Carriage into each of the rectangular zones in turn 1! Winter guards can concentrate on the middle zone. The picture above depicts the end of deployment. 

Round 1 is always about positioning. We both really need to get up the field to do some scenario work. Siege in particular as he, in principal has a slower army! 

Siege starts by dropping a Foxhole near the edge of the circular zone. He then moves into it, hiding from all the shooting. The Storm Strider and Hurricane cautiously moves forward on the left flank. Triumph moves into the Foxhole with his best friend, and the two other ‘jacks also moves forward. For some strange reason, all the rest stays at the back. I guess they are scared of the shooting capabilities of Vlad’s forces. The picture above shows the end of Siege’s turn.

We need to get forward, yet without being shot to death by the Hurricane. The two Gun Carriages runs forward into the two rectangular zones. They are now ready to score or contest. The three Marauders advance and spread out. Two to the left to engage the two huge bases. The Winter Guards spread out to avoid Electro Leap from the Hurricane, and just in case, Joe goes Courage of the Motherland on the left most Rifle Corps. The artillery goes behind the wall or stay out of the threat range from the Hurricane.

This is probably the round where Cygnar will go electric.

On the left flank, the Storm Strider and Hurricane advance surprisingly short. They do all the shooting they can, and three Winter Guards. The middle Marauder also gets hit by the Storm Strider, it is pushed backwards, and is disrupted. On the right flank, the ‘jacks move around, and one of Alexia’s new Thralls moves into the zone. The troops in the back move around a bit. A surprisingly uneventful turn. The picture above depicts the end of Cygnar’s turn.

Hey ho, let’s go. Vlad is on a roll. Vlad stays where he is. He casts Signs & Portens, and Wind Wall. The Winter Guards begins. One of the Artillery Kapitans uses Artillerist on the Mortar, and moves to the left. The second one runs to score the flag. Joe moves up near Vlad to stay inside Wind Wall, and says For the Motherland to the Mortar. It drops a shot at the Hurricane and does some damage. The leftmost Field Gun runs forward, the other own moves over the wall a shoots the Cygnar objective. All the remaining Winter Guards move forward, and might have shot at something.

The rightmost Gun Carriage charges the Thrall and takes it out. It the shoots Ace and the Charger. It the repositions into the zone to score. On the left flank, the other Gun Carriage charges the objective and takes it out. It the proceeds to shoot at the Hurricane. The leftmost Marauder moves through the forrest and lines up to charge either the Storm Strider or the Hurricane. The middle one (disrupted) just moves forward. The right one moves between the flag and the house to protect the Artillery Kapitan.

That was it. This makes four scenario points for Vlad: two zones, a flag, and killing the objective. The scenario score is now 4-0 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the end of Vlad’s scenario turn.

Siege is in trouble. Vlad just needs one more scenario point to win (assuming that Siege does not score).

End of round 3, end of game

Siege deceides to go for the assassination. Luckily, Vlad is nicely placed. He is behind a wall, under Wind Wall, and with nine Sacrificial Pawns near by. Nevertheless, that is probably the only choice for Siege.

There is some tricks that Siege can do. He can cast Explosivo to give a model Magical Weapons, Triumph has a Magical gun, Caine has a magical gun, Ace has a magical gun (but can’t reach Vlad), So Siege begins. He feats, casts Explosivo on the Hurricane, moves forward and starts shooting Winter Guards. I think Siege either made an error here, or Vlad is not behind a Wall template. Siege’s feat can remove walls in this control (14″ with the Squire). So he either should have moved, and then feated; or he forgot. All in all, Winter Guards are dying.

Next up is Ace, which shoots the right most Marauder using Shadow Fire to hinder it in blocking LOS. The Hurricane also kills Winter Guards (Vlad is running low). The Charger moves up and shoots Vlad. Triumph follows up with the same procedure. Vlad is left with five boxes!

Siege did not kill Vlad. He did not score any points either. He did manage to contest the circular zone and the flag. Vlad manages to score two more points leaving him at 7-0. Thus, the game is won. The picture above shows Vlad’s victorious moment. 

This was easy. Despite Siege (perhaps) forgetting an effect of his feat. I did not do the calculations, but I do not think that it would have changed so much. As I remember, none of the Cygnar shooting missed (perhaps once or twice).

Vlad is a beast behind a wall (or not) under Wind Wall, and with enough Sacrificial Pawns. There is no way to assassinate him by shooting.

Even if Vlad did not win on scenario, he would probably have won in the next turn. The picture below demonstrates the plan. Vlad would give focus to a sensible number of ‘jacks, feat, and cast S&P. The two leftmost ‘jacks can trivially remove the Hurricane, and the last one can kill Siege. This still leaves the havoc that the two Gun Carriages and the remaining Winter Guards can cause.

The winning plan

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

Convergence of Cyriss is not very common across the table. I think I have only seen them once or twice. They are a bit odd compared to both Warmachine and Hordes factions. The do Focus in a strange way where they can spend one and then pass it on. The army in front of me is a whole lot of smaller floating robots and one huge one. I am opting for Vlad and his trusted Winter Guards (list is described here). This is post-Oblivion, which only changes the WGK list by adding an extra Artillery Kapitan.

Convergence [Theme] Clockwork Legions [Orion 1] Eminent Configurator Orion [+28]        – Corollary [0(6)] – Diffuser [0(6)] – Modulator [10] – Modulator [10] – Modulator [10] – Modulator [10] – Modulator [10] – Modulator [10] – Prime Conflux [33] Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex [2] Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex [2] Hermit of Henge Hold [5] J.A.I.M.s [0(5)]

Khador [Theme] Winter Guard Kommand [Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [0(4)] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [0(3)] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4] Winter Guard Mortar Crew [0(5)] Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8] – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6] Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8] – Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6] Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17] Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17]

The Eminent Configurator Orion is completely new to me, as is the Clockwork Legions theme. To begin with the theme. It is a bit unclear why this theme as it doesn’t seem to add any benefits to this particular army.

The warcaster in this army, Orion brings a standard MAT 6 and RAT 7 to all of his ‘jacks (weird system where the ‘caster defines the MAT and RAT of all ‘jacks). He also give Reposition 3″ to all ‘jacks in his battle group.

Orion is a 7 focus caste who brings five spells to the table. The first one is Avenging Force, which allows a kind of Vengeance move in the Maintenance Phase if either Orin, Optifex, Hermit, or J.A.I.M.s are damaged. Mage Sight allows Orion to drop an AOE 5″ on an enemy and Orion’s army can ignore forest, clouds and stealth when attacking. Magic Bullet allows to make a POW 12 damage roll against a model within 4″ of whatever the targeting model is shooting at. Spellpiercer is an upkeep that gives Blessed weapons within Orion’s control area. Finally, Forced Induction gives a ‘jack 1 focus and gives a POW 10 damage roll (per focus on the ‘jack) against the ‘jack and everybody within 1″. None of theses spells are game breaking in any sense agains Vlad and his Winter Guards.

The feat is quite dangerous. It gives an addition dice on attack against models that don’t have focus on them, and an additional dice damage against models that do have focus on them. So, under feat everything should trivially hit Vlad’s stuff. If the Marauders, and in particular Vlad are left with focus, it can potentially be painful.

Orion brings a huge monster of a Prime Conflux, a Corollary, a Diffuser, and six Modulators! The Prime Conflux is almost as robust as our own Conquest. Doing the classic huge-base Marauder counting, it is a two-Marauder job to finish one off. One Marauder will be 14 points of damage short of killing it (when charging with all the bells and whistles). The Conflux is equipped with standard colossal fists, which also does some electrical damage. It has 3 cannons. The main cannon, which can shoot twice, it a range 15″ POW 13 gun, which can also damage models between the Conflux and the target (POW 10). This only has consequences for the Winter Guards. The two smaller guns can shoot a Beacon, giving charging models basically a Boundless Charge agains the target hit. It is also a POW 11. In general, I think this colossal is kind of underwhelming.

The Corollary is basically a focus battery. It gains one automatically when near the ‘caster, and it doesn’t loose unspent focus. It also extends Orion’s control area by two inches. The Diffuser is a small ‘jack that more or less only brings the same Beacon ability as the Prime Conflux.

Finally, there is a whole swarm of Modulators. Six to be precise.  These will eat infantry for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They can shoot twice at range 11″ POW 10, and do the same thing of hitting model between it and the target. It also has two P+S 14 melee attacks. Finally, if it is hit in melee it will give POW 10 electric damage back. Under Orion’s feat it will shoot all Winter Guard to death, and do potential serious damage to the ‘jacks and Vlad. Luckily, they are a very poor matchup to the Gun Carriages.

Orion is also brining four solos: two Algorithmic Dispersion Optifexes, Jaims, and the Hermit. The Optifexes are just very cheap Arc Nodes, Jaims is a super Eliminator, and Hermit is there to skew dice (and score flags).

In general, this list will probably chew through infantry like there is no tomorrow. The Marauders are more safe, as it is more or less only the Prime Conflux that can really hurt them. Vlad could wasily be shot to death. However, the Gun Carriages should be pretty safe.

We are playing Steamroller 2019 Recon II. We both picked the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). Orion won the roll-off and opted to go first. Vlad thinks it is a good place to be able to stand in rough terrain, so he choses that side. As a first, there are three burning clouds terrain on the table.

Sorry for the blurry pictures throughout this report. I think that there must have been some sort of digital inference from the Convergence models; which is unfortunate, as the Convergence army is completely painted and quite pretty.

Orion deploys in the middel with his Corollary and the Conflux. Four Modulators go on the left flank with an Arc Node. The two remaining goes on the right flank with the Diffuser and the second Arc Node. Jaims hides somewhere on the left flank.

End of deployment

Vlad deploys in the standard manner. A Gun Carriage on each flank. A Rifle Corps on the inside on each Gun Carriage. All artillery in the middle with Vlad, and Marauders, and solos in the back. The picture above shows the end of deployment.

First round is probably as always uneventful.

End of turn 1

Everything advances. On the left flank, all four Modulators advance as a floating wall of steel. The Arc Node tags along. The Hermit shuffles towards the flag. On the right flank, the Diffuser-Modulator trio also advances. In the middle, the Conflux walks through the burning cloud and catches fire. It also ejects an Ionization Servitator just next to the house in the middle. The picture above depicts the end of the first turn.

End of round 1

Vlad is a bit worried about all the Modulators, and their potential ability to shoot a lot. He advances all of his army and makes sure to stay outside of the threat range of the Modulator. He himself ends up in the rubble in the middle escorted the Mortar and one of the Field Guns. The picture above depicts the end of round 1.

Round two could potentially also be a staring contest. Who will blink first, Vlad or Orion? I wonder if Orion actually have blinking-devices?

End of turn 1, round 2

On the left flank, the wall of Modulators advance into the forest. Jaims and the Arc Node tags along. The Hermit places himself next to the flag ready to score. On the right flank, the two Modulators also moves a bit forward. The Conflux moves forward, and I discover I forgot it could shoot further. It drops three Winter Guards, all of them Rocketeers! It also ejects another Servitator near the Winter guards. That was it. The picture above shows the end of Convergence’s turn.

End of round 2

It is time to get into action. Vlad starts by moving a bit forward, yet staying in the rubble. He then casts S&P. On the right flank, the Gun Carriage moves forward, avoiding the burning cloud, and starts shooting the Diffuser who has positioned itself next to the Arc Node. The Carriage gets a bit of help from the Rifle Corps and removes both hostile models.

On the left flank the other Carriage moves forward and puts everything into the rightmost Modulator. Based on the same approach as the Convergence models that moves one focus from one end of the army to the other; I though I could kill the models from one end to the other. The Rifle Corps also assist on this flank (after Joe tells them to be tough), and together they manage to take out the first Modulator and blast the Hermit to kingdom come. The rest basically just moves forward and the artillery take potshots at whatever it can. Finally, one of the Kapitans moves to the flank to score. Vlad scores one for the flag, Convergence scores nothing. The scenario score is now 1-0 i Vlad’s favour. The picture above depicts the end of round two.

Now the match is heating up. I think the second round was pretty good for Vlad. Lets see how bad Orion hits back?

End of turn 1, round 3

Orion seems to be a bit annoyed. On the right flank, one of the Modulators in conjunction with with Conflux shoot a lot on the Carriage. Orion spend a tremendous amount of time making sure that the Conflux is outside the charge lane of the middle Marauder. To finish of the Marauder, the last Modulator moves in and brings the killing shoot. Somewhere in all the shooting, the Kapitan and two Winter Guards are also killed.

On the left flank, two of the three remaining Modulators charge the Gun Carriage. They do some damage, but they basically haven’t got a chance to kill it. The last Modulator shoots at the Winter Guards. But thanks to Joe’s inspiring speech they do manage to roll a few tough rolls. Jaims charges in and takes out two Winter Guards. I think Orion did cast Magic Bullet at some point. He also upkeeps Avenging Force as a general rule. Finally, the Arc Node moves up to the flag to score.

At the end of the first turn, Orion manages to score a single point for the flag. Unfortunately, Vlad doesn’t score. This leaves the scenario score at 1-1. The picture above shows the end of turn 1.

End of round 3

Hey Ho, here we go. Vlad smells a feat turn. It would seem like two Boundless Charge and/or a lot of allocation is required. One for the middle Marauder to take out the objective and the Corollary, and one for the left ‘jack to take out the Prime. That is more focus that Vlad can spare. But if he can kill something he can do Blood Boon and cast Boundless Charge. Jaims is the only available target. Vlad starts by allocating two focus to the rightmost Marauder, and one to the middle Marauder. To get to Jaims, the Field Gun needs to move out of the way. The two Field Gun grunts moves out of the way and the Field Gun Fires at the Prime to do a bit of damage. Vlad can then activate. He cast S&P, feats and charges Jaims, whom he proceeds to kill and, using Blood Boon he casts Boundless Charge on the middle Marauder.

The rightmost Marauder charges the Prime and does around its expected amount of damage. It is not enough to take it down. The second Field Gun takes aim and fires. The Mortar has to chip in. It is still not down. So, the remaining Rocketeers have to move right and lob rockets at it. It is still alive with one box. It seems that it is all down to Joe. So Joe activates, moves towards the flag, pulls out his Hand Cannon, tighten up his uniform, shouts Courage of the Forefathers to the Rifle Corps, and fires at the Prime Conflux. It finally goes down. The rest of the Rifle Corps shoots and kills the last Arc Node.

The remaining Rifle Corps on the right flank moves in to intercept the Modulator. The remaining Carriage charges the Modulator in front of it, does impact to knock the two Modulators down, and shoots the two Modulators in front of it. The leftmost Marauder walks through the fire cloud, catches fire and slams the Modulator away.

Finally, the middle Marauder charges the objective, kills it, and proceeds to kill the Corollary. That was it. A pretty good round. Vlad scores one point for the objective, leaving the scenario score at 2-1 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the result of the Empress’ finest doing their job.

So far Vlad is on top og this. He has put himself a bit forward. But he is currently quite confident. Let us hope that Orion can’t pull a Hail Mary.

End of turn 1, round 4

Orion is formulating a plan involving his feat and the remaining Modulators shooting Vlad to death. It sounds convincing and I’m getting a bit worried. Luckily, the two knocked down Modulators on the left flank is now outside Orion’s control area.

Orion activates (he might have allocated something, it is bit confusing). He feast and charges the Marauder at his doorstep. He does manage to knock it down and do some damage. He might have casted Magic Bullet on on of the Modulators. One of the Modulators in the right flak charges the Marauder to try and take it out. It is really no serious match. Khador steel agains Convergence flying bucket. The other Modulator tries to shoot as many Winter Guards as possible near Vlad to deny him the Sacrificial Pawn.

Kind of the same pattern occurs on the left flank. The two knocked down Modulators take out the Carriage, and the last one shoots Winter Guards. Luckily, the Modulators run out of shoots before the Motherland runs out of Winter Guards. That was it. No scoring, leaving the scenario score at 2-1 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the end of the Convergence turn.

End of round 4, end of game

Vlad is happy. He is on top of this. There is plenty of time left on the clock. There is actually time to think. There is probably no chance of clearing the left zone. Even though the Modulators are pretty beat up. There might be more important thing to do for the left Marauder. The right zone can probably be cleared. The middle Marauder is pretty beat up, so it needs help – just to be sure. So here goes.

Vlad activates, casts S&P and lean back. In hindsight, he should perhaps have contributed to clearing out the left zone. On the right flank, Joe moves up and shouts Bear’s Strength to the remaining Winter Guards. He then parks at the flag. The Rifle Corps charge the rightmost Modulator and does a reasonable amount of damage (Orion did not find i reasonable). The combined fire of the Field Gun and Mortar takes out the second Modulator. Finally, the Marauder walks backwards and pounds the Modulator to the ground. Unfortunately, the last Servitator is still contesting.

The leftmost Marauder charges Orion, takes a few free strikes on the way. It arrives and Orion dies. That was it. End of game. Vlad did not manage to clear the left zone, he did, however unintentional clear the left one. Not of enemy models, but of his own. This means that Vlad scores one point for the flag, and Orion scores one for the zone. This leaves scenario score at 3-2 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above depicts the glorious victory be the Empress and her loyal subjects.

This was a surprisingly easy match. Convergence turns out to be far less of a threat that I had expected. The whole feat plus Boundless Charge is still a game winner. Also with all the huge-bases out there Marauders are just marvellous. Finally, S&P solves so many problems for everybody. Vlad is clearly a bit focus starved. So perhaps it is time to think about bringing his ex-girlfriend onboard. We will see.

Primary thing to remember is to check scenario score. There was really no reason to give up a scenario point. Also activation order might be worth thinking about. I can’t remember why the middle Marauder just did not kill Orion. It might have been too damaged, or I might have worried that it couldn’t.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!