The Great Devourer is stirring. Baldur is bringing his Tharn out of the woods and into Khador territory. I have seen a lot of Tharn, but recently only Baldur a few times. Iona has been quite popular for some time. I have faced Tharn once before under Iona’s command. That time Irusk brought his Winter Guards. That was a really bad idea (for battle report see here). This time Sorscha is called upon to bring her fellow Man-O-Wars. A description of Sorscha’s list can be found here. These are the two opposing forces (pre-Oblivion): 

Devourer’s Host with a huge bunch of Tharns is the new black for Circle. Recently, Iona has been the choice of warlock. But Baldur the Stonecleaver (Baldur1) is also popular on and off. The theme gives all models that can gain Corpses one Corpse to begin with. It also give a unit of Bloodweavers Ambush. But that is not relevant here.

Baldur1 is one of the old stable warlocks in Circle. On paper he is a Construct’s best friend. However, this time he only brought living beasts. He is perhaps best know for his forest walking assassination. It combines his ability to place a forest anywhere within 12″ through the spell Rapid Growth, and his build in ability to Forest Walk between two forests. He does pack to additional powerful spells: Solid Ground, which we are familiar with through Irusk2 (no knockdown and immune to blast within 12″); and Stone Skin, which gives a unit +2 ARM and STR, and -1 SPD and DEF. That will probably go on one of the Ravagers. Finally, he has Earth Spike, which does damage in a 3″ AOE and knockdown. His feat is primarily there to get his troops to the enemy, whilst hindering the enemy. It gives Cover and Pathfinder to to his models, whilst enemy model can never have Pathfinder. All of this within 12″.

The battlegroup consists of Ghetorix and Loki, and Baldur also has a Tharn Blood Shaman attached. The latter is there primarily for Harmonious Exaltation (allows the warlock to cast one spell at a COST reduction of 1), and Spell Slave, which allows the Shaman to cast Earth Spikes.

Ghetorix is hardest hitting warbeast available. As all Warpwolves, he can warp in each round. He can choose between Murderous (same a Beast ’09), Snacking to heal when he kills stuff, and Strength for +2 to STR. His Animus is Spiny Growth that give +2 ARM. Finally, he has Rapid Healing giving him d3 boxes back whenever damage. All in all he could be ARM 19 (effectively 21 due to rapid healing), 30 boxes, one P+S 19 and one P+S 16 , MAT 7 and can touch things 11″ away. All of this without any help from the outside.

The second warbeast is Loki. He is a slightly better, at least different Warpwolf than the Feral. He can warp for +2 STR, ignore Cover and Concealment when shooting, and can’t be targeted by CRA, CMA and no back strike bonus. What he has going for him is being a Shield Guard and being able to shoot and drag things from 8″ away.

Baldur is obviously bringing two units of Tharn Ravagers, including UA. They are really a steal for just 15 point for six of them (20 including the CA). Add all the bells and whistles, and they become quite fearsome. They naturally have Pathfinder and Treewalker (ignore forest for LOS and DEF 15 against melee), they are Circle after all. They also have Heart Eater allowing them to collect Corpse Tokens, which then can be used to buy or boost. They can gain and use in the same activation (I generally think gaining and using in the same activation is too good). The Theme gives them one token each to begin with. The main game breaker is the combination of Tough and Rapid Healing, combined with the Solid Ground spell from Baldur for no knockdown. They are then very close to impossible to get rid of. The Tharns heal after every single attack! Finally, they also have Vengeance and the mini-feat giving them overtake. They can basically surf through almost anything, in particular under feat. I just hope they can’t do Man-O-War surfing.

One can’t go to a party and only bring beefy men. So Baldur is also bringing a unit of Tharn Bloodtrackers, including Nuala. The Bloodtrackers are fast and stealthy. They have Advance Deployment to get them near the enemy, Reposition to get away again, and  they can clear out their enemies due to Weapon Master on their Spears and Prey. When they throw their spears at their prey there is basically no chance of missing (in a list of DEF 10 stuff). The will hit at an average damage of 22 points. This makes them rather dangerous against e,g. the Bombardiers and Demolition Corps (only ARM 16). Two can kill one Man-O-War. There are 11 of them. So, they can clear an entire unit in one round!

The final unit is ubiquitous Boil Master and Cauldron. The crocodile and his pot generally does two things: makes corpses and gives them away (within 5″). On rare occasions it might do a Puppet Master just to allow a reroll.

Baldur brings three solos: Lord of the Feast, a White Mane, and a single Wolf Rider Champion. The former still shouldn’t be free. He basically just kills a lot. The combination of the Lord threatening at least 16″ in weird direction (please note that this match is before he had his reach reduced to a much more sensible 1″, and the raven’s range went down to 8″) and being able to take out most things with Corpes Tokens, which he can be filled up with by the Cauldron. He needs to die, quickly – but of course has Stealth. The White Mane is a much more pleasant solo (but again, compared to LotF everything is more pleasant). He gives Ravagers +1 to their attack rolls (which doesn’t really matter here). Besides that he is medium hard hitting solo, which does have Countercharge. Finally, a single Wolf Rider Champion has arrived. These are really fast jumping cavalry. They can reach something 13″ away through charging. They will probably always end up in the back arc, as they can make a 5″ jump before attacking. Being in the back arc really hurts. Despite having only a P+S 9 weapon, they can manage to roll five dice. 3 for a charge, 1 for Weapon Master, and one for Backstab. It translates into 27 points of damage on the average. Just for fun they can also do three attacks (72 points of damage on a charge run). With a bit of clever jumping one Champion should be able to kill two Man-O-Wars. After all the killing it can Reposition for 5″.

All in all, I have never really be able to handle Tharn in Devourer’s Host. My best guess is still Sorscha3 and Armored Corps. Nevertheless, this is not going to be easy.

We are playing pre-Oblivion Steamroller 2018 Standoff. Sorscha won the roll-off and opted to go first. We both chose the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″).

Sorscha deployed the Demolitions Corps on the left flank (first error, it should have been the Bombardiers, as they can do Pathfinder), along with one of the Suppression Tankers. On the right flank the Bombardiers and a Suppression Tanker deploys in a similar pattern. The Shocktroopers goes in the middle in Shield Wall screening Sorscha who is right behind them. All the rest goes in the back.

Circle deploys in a very traditional way. A unit of Ravagers goes on each flank. All the rest in the middle. The Bloodtrackers goes on the left flank, putting pray on the Demolition Corps. Finally, Lord of the Feast goes in the middle. The two latter use the Advance Deployment. The picture above depicts the end of deployment, including the Advance Move by the Man-O-Wars. 

Sorscha needs to get her troops forward to have a chance of actually charging some of the Ravagers. She starts by moving forward behind the Shocktroopers. She then casts Iron Flesh on the Shocktroopers and Stoke the Fires on the Kodiak. The Kodiak moves up and the Demolition Corps falls in behind it. The leftmost Tanker runs into the woods. Sorscha now assumes that the Kodiak and Tanker will offer some protection to the Demolition Corps against the Bloodtrackers.

The Konvik moves up and gives Desperate pace to the Shocktroopers, who then moves forward in Shield Wall. The rightmost Tanker moves in between to Shocktroopers and the house, closely followed by Beast. On the right flank the Bombardiers move forward. Hoping that Lord of the Feast won’t kill them all. Mechaniks tag along the front line.

Baldur begins by casting Solid Ground. He then moves forward, put a forest in continuation of the existing forest, casts Stone Skin on the Bloodtrackers and feats. The pot does it corpse thing and fills Lord of the Feast up. On the left flank the Bloodtrackers just move forward and spread us, with a unit of Ravagers close behind. The other unit of Ravagers move up on the other flank. Everybody else just move forward. Lord of the Feast does his feasting and through a combination of charging, raven, teleporting, thresher and corpses removes all the Bombardiers save one. I don’t like whining, but Lord of the Feast in his current incarnation is simply a negative game experience. The picture above depicts the end of round 1.

So far Sorscha is already in trouble. Lord of the Feast once again does his think and takes out a whole unit of Man-O-Wars. Besides that, it is actually not as bad as I had feared. Let’s see if the mighty Man-O-Wars can do anything in round 2.

Luckily, most of Sorscha’s army is outside Baldur’s feat area. Sorscha upkeeps Iron Flesh and allocates nothing. In the middle, the Shocktroopers continue their slow and steady advance in Shield Wall. Sorscha moves up behind the objective, casts Stoke the Fire on the Kodiak and feats. 6 clouds appear, which she puts in front of her army to keep the evil Tharn at bay.

On the left flank, the Kodiak moves forward slightly in front of the Shocktroopers, primarily to threaten anything getting too close with a counter charge. Atanas moves up and puts Unstoppable Fury on the Demolition Corps, who then divides and moves up behind the Kodiak and the Shocktroopers. The tanker moves to the front of the forest. For some obscure reason it does not put down Covering Fire. 

On the right flank, the remaining Bombardier and the Tanker gangs up on Lord of the Feast and removes him. All the rest basically just moves forward. The Bombardier gets a little TLC from one of the Mechaniks. The picture above depicts the end of Sorscha’s turn.

Baldur upkeeps Solid Ground. On the left flank, the Bloodtrackers advances and throw spears at the Tanker until it goes down. The Ravagers just advance. Baldur then activates and cycles Stone Skin onto Ghetorix. Who then proceeds to walk up and wrecks the Kodiak. The Wolf Champion somehow ends up in the middle of the Man-O-Wars, where it damages one of the Demolition Corps, triggering Vengeance.

On the right flank the Ravagers move up, partly into the zone and partly in front of the Shocktroopers whom they ding a little. I’m so happy that Sorscha’s clouds denied them a charge. All the rest just moves forward. Baldur manages to score one point for his zone, whilst the Wolf Champion is contesting Sorscha’s. This leaves scenario score at 1-0 in Baldur’s favour. The picture above depicts the end of the second round.

Round 3 and Sorscha is actually managing far better than I had hoped for. The feat did pretty well, and for some reason Baldur is playing somewhat defensive. 

The objective starts by repairing one of the Shocktroopers. Then the Vengeance move for the Demolition Corps allows them to take out the Wolf Rider, put a dent in Ghetorix, and kill one of the Bloodtrackers who were in the way. Sorscha upkeeps Iron Flesh and allocates one to Beast. She then activates, puts Stoke the Fire on Beast, casts Winter’s Wrath on two Ravagers and remains behind the objective.

On the left flank, the Mechaniks move up and do a bit of repairing of the Demolition Corps. Felling fresh and well oiled they issue a Press Forward. Most of them goes into Ghetorix, whilst one of them hits the Ravagers. They proceed to kill Ghetorix but none of the Ravagers. Dragos Bond of Brotherhood.

On the right flank, the Shocktroopers remove two Ravagers, and the Bombardiere Tanker combo also take out one. Beast moves into position. Atanas puts Unstoppable Fury on the Demolition Corps. All others just move forward.

One of the Demolition guys manage to toe Baldu’s zone to contest. This means that Sorscha scores one point and Baldur none. Scenario score is now 1-1. The picture above shows the end of Sorscha’s turn.

Baldur is now in revenge mood. He upkeeps Solid Ground. He then activates and cycle Stone Skin onto Loki. On the left side, the Bloodtrackers move in a half circle behind the Demolition Corps and shoots some of them to death. Loki moves forward and cleans up the rest. On the right flank, the Ravagers charge everything and take out half the Shocktroopers, the last Bombardier, and the Tanker. Beast would have liked to couter charge, but Baldur is clever and engages him with the first Ravager charge. That was a serious clean up. Baldur scores two points and Sorscha scores one. This leaves the scenario score at 3-2 in Baldur’s favour. The picture above shows the end of round 3.

I think Sorscha is in trouble. Not as much as I feared, but still. The left flank is completely lost. However, there might be hope for the right flank.

The objective heals one of the Shocktroopers. Sorscha upkeeps Iron Flesh. It is axe to face time. Beast charges into the rightmost Ravangers and manages to kill two of them. The Shocktroopers also charge and remove one more Ravager. Rapid Healing, Tough and no knockdown is a bitch. Atanas and his Standard needs to get into the fray as well. Atanas charges the Ravagers, and the Standard charges Loki to keep him occupied. He also puts Heroic Call on Sorscha. There are still Ravagers. The Kovnik charges in. Still the same. Sorscha needs to assist and also charges in. Finally, there are no more Ravagers on the right flank. The left most Mechaniks just stay put. The rightmost moves into the right zone. This turn Baldur scores two points and Sorscha only one. Scenario is now 5-3 in Baldur’s favour. The picture above shows the end of Sorscha’s turn.

Sorscha might have made a small error. She stepped into a forest. Before Baldur notices this, the Bloodtrackers remove a few Mechaniks. Then he notices. Baldur does his forest walking assassination. He casts Rapid Growth where he is. He then Forest Walks to the forest Sorscha is in. He then smashes her in the head with Tritus and knocks her down. From there it is an easy run. Sorscha is history. With her dying breath she actually manages to score two more scenario point, and Baldur none. The game ends at a scenario score of 5-5. That is a kind of consolation. The picture above depicts the end of the game.

All in all, the game actually went better than I had expected. I think I only made two and a half major errors. I should have put the Bombardiers on the left flank to take advantages of the forest there, and I should not have put Sorscha in a wood. If I hadn’t there might theoretically been a chance of using the right flank to get to Baldur. The half error was to sacrifice the Bombardiers to Lord of the Feast. However, in his current incarnation I can’t seen how to get around that.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

Once again, the Harbinger is bringing her deranged religious fanatics into Khador territory. This time Vlad is called upon to bring his trusted Winter Guards. The game is fast and brutal. Vlad is on top of it most of the way, and after the traditional kill Judy intermezzo, he is set to win. However, out of the blue Harbinger pulls the biggest hail Mary win I have ever seen.

The Harbinger of Menoth is back with her Faithful Masses. Last time I faced her it was Irusk2 who was called up on (battle report here). The last time Irusk ran out of time and had to face defeat. This time Vlad1 is sendt to intercept Harbinger. He brings his trusted Winter Guards (for list description see here). 

The Harbinger of Menoth has a tremendous amount of focus, 10 to be precise! This also means that she has a huge Control Area, 20″ to be precise. 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 very large 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. Thus, 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. In addition, in the pre-Oblivion version it allows for one wall to be placed (for her to hide behind, I assume).

She brings the ubiquitous Judicator as her only ‘jack. 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 propper 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 better 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.

There are six units in this list: the Choir, some Idrians, and three units of the highly annoying Initiates of the Wall. The ubiquitous Choir of Menoth is obviously present. They are there to boost ‘jacks, either by give out +2 to damage rolls, immunity to targeting by non-magical ranged attacks, or immunity to targeting by spells. This is bad news for a list full of shooty stuff. The Idrian Skirmishers, and Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide kind of looks like a Circle unit partisaning for the Protectorate. The have Advance Deployment, Pathfinder, Reposition, CRA, and Prey. They shoot at POW 11 (13 including Prey) for 10″ at RAT 5. They could easily become burdensome for the poor Winter Guards. That’s why we bring carriages!

The Initiates of the Wall are highly annoying; in particular when they can be brought 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.

In addition to the units, Harbinger brings five solos: two Champions, two monks, and the guy on my little pony. 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). Two fighting monk, or Allegiant of the Order of the Fist, are also present. 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 final solo is the Hand of Silence, aka the guy on my little pony. He is yet another soul manipulator. He can collect souls from dead Protectorate models or route them to somebody else within 10″. When he uses them himself, he can either give a focus to a nearby ‘jack, buy additional attacks, or boost. He has a 2″ POW 14 weapon, but perhaps even more important he can spray fire 8″ at POW 12, and have Assault. Finally he has build in Ashen Veil and the obligatory 3″ Reposition. All in all, he is a pretty annoying support and infantry remover.

Deployment

We are playing pre-Oblivion, Steamroller 2018 Mirage. Both players pick the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). The Protectorate win the roll-off and opt to pick side. So, Khador goes first.

Vlad deploys his forces in the standard manner. One Carriage on each flank, all the infantry in the middle to protect Vlad, and the Marauders out front due to Advance Move. I should learn to pick the Armory objective, which gives a model within 4″ Magical attacks, so I can hit stuff under the Choir’s Hymn of Passage. 

The Protectorate follows the usual deployment for this style of list. One Champion goes on each flank, along with one Advance Deployed monk each, The Idrians spread out in the middle in front of the main force. All the rest go in the middle, with Harbinger in the centre. The Judicator deploys on my right flank. The picture above depicts the end of deployment. 

Round 1 is most often rather uneventful. This is also true this time. 

Vlad doesn’t allocate anything, why would he? He casts Wind Wall, just in case, and moves up behind the very nice wall. This looks like a super place to be. I do not expect him to move a lot for the remaining match. He is quite happy standing at DEF 19 against shooting. All the rest just moves up the board. Everybody is being very carefull about staying out of the Idrians’ and the Judicator’s threat ranges. Joe shouts For the Motherland to the Field Gun on the right flank – just to practice his voice. The picture above shows the carefull advance carried out to perfection by the Empress’ finest.  

Harbinger starts by spreading the Idrians out thinly across the board. Each of the units pick one of Vlad’s Rifle Corps as their prey. On each flank, the Champion-monk combo moves up, and of the left flank the monk is already at the flank, where he does his Shifting Sands Stance, making him close to impossible to get rid off by shooting. Monks are fantastic scenario pieces. After the Choir sings their Hymn of Passage, the Judicator moves up next to the wall on the right flank. Harbinger moves behind the wall she brought herself, putting her at DEF 18 against shooting. 

In this round the two lines will have to meet. I’m not sure it is beneficial to be the first one in. However, I can’t just sit back and wait. 

Vlad is quite happy behind his wall. If offers the comforts of very good protection against enemy fire. He doesn’t allocate anything but casts Sighs & Portents. It is always a good priority to get rid of the Choir, so the Carriage on the right flank moves forward and shoots one of its cannons at the Choir trying to hide behind the Judicator. Two of them goes down. Unfortunately, it can’t see the other two, so it just takes a pot shot at the Champion of the right flank, which doesn’t have Pathfinder. Finally, the rifle guy takes out an Idrian. The Carriage on the left flank also tries to tie up the Champion and Monk over there. Albright, not as effective as its colleague.

The Rifle Corps on the right side move in behind the Carriage and hides in the forrest. On the left side, the Rifle Corps receives the inspiring speech For the Motherland, moves forward and shoots at the Idrians. Harbinger uses Martyrdom on all but one. My little pony now has two souls.

Finally, the three ‘jacks lumber forward to tease the Judicator, and all artillery also moves up and shoots, to no real effect (Martyrdom is annoying). The picture above show the underwhelming first turn of round 2.

Here comes the mad religious fanatics. Harbinger starts by allocating one focus to the Judicator, and executing, for her an extremely bold move: she moves all the way to the other side of the wall! She then casts Crusaders Call, feats and casts Guided Hand on one of the Idrian units. The Idrians receive a Press Forward and floods all of the ‘jacks and both Carriages. They actually do a surprising about of damage. Nothing dangerous, but nevertheless (3 point of damage on the charge attack and 1 point on the second, and 6 points versus 4 points for the unit under Guiding Hand; against a standard Khador ‘jack). It could have been worse, all ‘jacks survived. However, the rightmost one is severely crippled. Having moved the Idrians, Harbinger now have room to manoeuvre the rest of the army.

On the right flank, the Champion spends his time getting his horse out of the rough terrain. The Judicator, on the other hand, is having a party. It charges the Gun Carriage and promptly removes it; even with focus to spare. On the left flank, the Champion attempts the same feat, but the Carriage is more sturdy than that. Finally, the Initiates and Hand of Fate move forward. Harbinger manages to score two scenario points (one flag and one zone), leaving the score at 2-0 in her favour. The picture above shows the flood at the end of round 2.

So, I think my attempt to lure the Judicator forward into range of a Marauder worked. Unfortunately, the three Marauders have also been flooded with obstacles that needs to be removed. If all goes well, this round will be feat, cleanup, and killing Judicators (my favourite passtime). 

This takes carefull planning. The rightmost Marauder is crippled, so the middle one is on Judicator service. One Marauder can on the average remove 49 points of damage from a Judicator when it is fully loaded, under S&P and feat, and charges. So it needs help (a Judicator has 60 boxes). Anyway, the objective heals the leftmost Marauder. Vlad allocates two to the middle Marauder and one to the leftmost. He then activates, cast S&P, feats, and keeps on hugging the wall.

The crippled Marauder hits a few Idrians, who Harbinger then uses her Martyrdom on. The Rifle Corps on the right flank starts by offering a helping hand to the (hopefully) incoming Marauder. They pepper the Judicator with their rockets, while the rifles tries to remove Idrians in the way. The Field Gun also join the party. All in all, they leave a few dents in the Judicator. Joe says For the Motherland to the Mortar, and the Kapitan also gives it Artillerist. It then proceeds to bombard more Idrians in front of the designated Judicator-killer.

The leftmost Marauder tramples in front of the Gun Carriages. Harbinger has given up using Martyrdom. It then dismounts the Champion (unfortunately he is still contesting my zone). So far, so good. Now the last Marauder can charge the Judicator. I could potentially just have trampled up there. But I assumed that the extra dice from the charge attack could come in handy. It did. The judicator dies.

Finally, on the left flank, the Rifle Corps need a Press Forward order to primarily contest the monk’s flag. The Carriage takes a few pot shots at the Initiates. But they all survive. All in all, not too shabby. One Judicator down. Meaning the main threat is gone. Vlad still scores nothing. Harbinger scores one point, leaving her at 3-0 in scenario. The picture above shows the end of Judy-round.

Harbinger thought that the game was lost. However, I argued that there was a minuscule chance to win on scenario, if the Winter Guard contesting the flag as well as the Marauder on the left flank could be removed. For future reference, perhaps I should just accept surrender when people are offering to do it. To cut a long story short. It took two units of Initiates to get rid of the two Winter Guards (never underestimate a determined Winter Guard). Everything else was thrown at the Marauder, including Harbinger herself. She did the final attack using her final focus and killed the Marauder. Harbinger wins on scenario 5-0. In my humble opinion I claim the moral victory. The picture above shows the result of Khador fairness. 

This was a hail Mary victory if there ever was one! Vlad was doing so well. After a lot of combined work the Judicator trap worked. He was on top of the game. At the end of the first turn in round three, Harbinger had basically lost the game. There was only mopping up to do. Yet, never underestimate the power of dice. We did the math after, and on average the Maraduer would have been alive.

Nevertheless, it was a very fun game. The only real problem was that I need to be more aggressive on the scenario play. I should have moved a solo to the rightmost flag early on. That would at some point have given me the one point I needed to win the game.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

(As a funny side remark: this battle report has been written while being 32,000 feet above Russia)

The Crucible Guards are at it again. Apparently they can’t seem to accept finally begin part of the Motherland. I have faced them several times before. Three times with Irusk2 (battle reports here, here, and here). This time it falls to Vlad1 to exert the Empress’ justice. The Vlad1 list is the new version of Winter Guard Kommand, which is detailed here. The two lists are as follows:

Crucible Guard Army – 74 / 75 points [Theme] Magnum Opus [Gearhart 1] Marshal General Baldwin Gearhart [+27] – Vindicator [15] – Vulcan [35] – Aurum Legate Alyce Marc [5] Crucible Guard Mechanik [2] Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist [0(4)] Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter [6] Combat Alchemists [7] Crucible Guard Infantry (max) [15] – Crucible Guard Infantry Officer & Standard [0(4)] Dragon’s Breath Rocket [5] Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11] – Doctor Alejandro Mosby [0(4)]

Khador Army – 74 / 75 points [Theme] Winter Guard Kommand [Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [4] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [3] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [0(4)] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [0(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 faced Crucible Guards too many times. They are always difficult. They all seem to have at least one rule on their card that just counters anything Khador can throw at them. There is a new kid on the block, at least for me. This time it is Baldwin Gearhart and his sidekick mr. Clogg, whom I have never faced before. They are running Magnus Opus in the pre-Oblivion version, where Weapon Crews get Reposition 3″ and +1 on the starting roll.

Gearhart is new to me, it’s usually Mackay facing me. He has a build in ability that gives +1 to attack rolls to faction warriors within his command. He can also do Battle plans, which are either an additional dice on friendly faction’s model/unit first non-spray attack; or if a friendly faction model is missed by a ranged attack it can shoot back; or friendly faction models can ignore each other for LOS and movement, within command.

Mr. Clogg is his little sidekick who can change Gearhart’s gun into four different types: 12″ range, AOE 4, POW 14, continuous corrosion, arcing fire; 8″ range, POW 15, d3 slam; 10″ spray, POW 13 critical stationary (cold); or 13″ range, POW 10, magical, models hit suffer -3 DEF and can’t advance. Mr. Clogg can also make Gearhart do an additional melee or ranged attack.

Gearhart is equipped with four spells. He does Boundless Charge (+2″ movement and Pathfinder); Deceleration (+2 ARM to models in his control); Hot-Shot (boosted range attack rolls for model in battlegroup); and Snipe (+4″ range for model/unit range attack).

Finally, his feat make a kind of chain Prey (+2 to attack and damage rolls), where everybody gets pray agains a model/unit, and when that is killed a new model/unit gets it.

Gearhart is running the Vulcan colossal, a Vindicator, and has Alyce as an attachment. Aurum Legate Alyce Marc is a classic Warcaster attachment – with a twist. She offers Empower, Guidance, and Harmonious Exaltation to Mackay. In addition, she can transform into Big Alyce (she will automatically if Little Alyce dies). Big Alyce is a Tough, Hyper-Regeneration, Countercharging and Jumping monster. “She” has two P+S 14 claws. I still have to see Big Alyce in action.

The Vulcan is the colossal from Crucible Guard. It is Winter Guard doom incarnated. Its Alchemical Vents can remove tough within 5″, or give rust (-2 ARM for our ‘jacks). Combining this with its main gun, which can bring a 4″ no tough bubble 14″ inches away from it, and 20″ if it moves. So, basically anything within 24″ of it could potentially loose tough. Using focus, it can do it twice. To add insult, it has two 10″ sprays, POW 14. It can really remove Winter Guards as a pro.

Finally, the Vindicator is a heavy that hits pretty ok, with a reach 2″ P+S 17 maul. As with most Crucible Guard stuff, it can obviously also shoot with a huge gun. The range 12″ (range 16″ if it aims) 4″ AOE, POW 14 gun can really hurt. One might think: “POW 14, ok, that’s no so bad”. But clearly there is yet another a rule: Decrepitation, giving it an addition die agains our ‘jacks. So an average of 28 points of damage on the charge is not to be frown upon.

Gearhart has also solicited the assistance of Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter and the mad Alchemist Gorman di Wolf. The former is famous for his ability to ambush from the side. He can throw a variety of grenades and hit people on their head with his mace. He is very often a nuisance, in particular when his enemy is shooting heavy. So the Winter Guards better watch their flanks. Gorman is well know for the variety of grenades he can throw. Luckily, he has never pushed a lot of iron so he can only thrown them 6″.

The Dragon Breath Rocket is also a steady addition to all the Crucible Guards lists I see. It is basically their version of our Mortars. Personally, I think they got a super deal for just a cost of one point more. The are good at removing infantry, and as they get a 3″ Reposition from the theme they are even more dangerous.

As an interesting surprise, Gearhart has payed out for a unit of Steelhead Halberdiers. They are cheap infantry removers and road block. They do not really pose any significant threat to Khador’s ‘jacks or carriages. The mercenaries have Doctor Alejandro Mosby attached to them, which first and foremost make them friendly faction. He can also juice them up with either The Good Stuff (making them tough) or Fortemorphic Elixir (giving the +2 STR and Overtake). Finally, he has a mini-feat making friendly Crucible Guards warriors tough (on a 4+) within 7″.

The only “proper” unit is a unit of Crucible Guard Infantry with trimmings. They are potentially a threat to be taken serious. They can shoot 12″ and 16″ under Gearhart’s Snipe spell. So they do out-range the Winter Guards. They can also do CRA and has a 3″ Reposition. They also have the mini-feat Support Fire (which we know of from our own Bombardiers) that allows to shoot twice if they aim.

Finally, he brings a Crucible Guard Mechaniks and a unit of Combat Alchemists. The former is just a better Mechanik; whereas the latter are grenade throwing could-walls. The most important attacks they can do are probably Continuous Corrosion, and remove upkeeps.

We are playing the Steamroller 2018 scenario Standoff, pre-Oblivion. We both chose the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). Crucible Guards goes first. I managed to forget to take a picture of the deployment, so it has to be by memory.

The Guards deploy with the Infantry on my right flank, and the Halberdiers supported by the Vulcan on the left flank. Every thing else goes in the middle, except for Hutchuk who decides to Ambush.

Vlad deploys with a Gun Carriage on each flank (this time a Trollblood Warwagon is stand-in for a carriage), each with a Field Gun on their side. The triple Marauder deploy side by side, slightly to the left staring at the Vulcan. All the rest goes into the middle (in the picture below, the Khador deployment can still be seen).

Round 1 is seldom too eventful, but I have been taken by surprise by the Crucible Guards before. So let’ see how it goes. I have to admit I’m not too scared. I think the carriages can easily handle the infantry, and the triple Marauder should allow at least one to get to the Vulcan; and one is sufficient.

End of turn 1

As usually everything goes forward as fast as possible to get into favourable positions. Gearhart helps as best he can, by casting Snipe on the Crucible Guard Infantry and Deceleration on himself. On the right flank the Infantry get into position on the edge of the zone. On the left side the Vulcan goes up then hill, the Halberdiers spread out in front, and the Alchemists make a wall of clouds. All the rest just moves forward. The picture above depicts the end of the Crucible Guards movement.

Forward onto glory. There really isn’t that much more to say. Vlad moves up and cast Signs & Portents, and Wind Wall. The two Gun Carriages each moves forward and take potshots at the enemies, well aware that they are outside range. This results in two 4″ rough terrain AOEs nicely placed in front of the Infantry on the right flank. On the left flank, the Carriage manage to take out on Halberdier and one Alchemist, whilst leaving two rough terrains. The Marauders run forward toward the Vulcan. All Winter Guards also moves forward; some of them nicely spreading out in a circle around Vlad in case they need to sacrifice themselves. The picture above shows the end of Khador’s advancement.

So far, so good. I think it can go both ways. However, I’m in a good mood. Yet, the Vulcan will arrive. 

Gearhart starts this round by feating. and designates one of the Marauders as the first prey. Everybody starts shooting at the poor Marauders (from memory at least the Vulcan, Dragon’s Breath, and Vindicator contributed to the mayhem). Once the smoke settles, and prey has been moved to the second Marauder, both have crumbled. There is only one Marauder left. The Halberdiers contributes primarily by moving in to become road bumps. My left flank took a heavy toll. On the right flank, it is another story. The Infantry mini-feats and shoots at the Gun Carriage. It survives. Finally, Hutchuk arrives on the right flank and ties up a Winter Guard unit.

That was basically it. The picture above shows the result of the Crucible Guard slaughter. It took a heavy toll on my left flank and once again I seem to have lost my ‘jacks too fast. On the other hand, not all is lost. Both Gun Carriages are still alive and I have one Marauder left (and most of the Winter Guards of course). I’m only slightly worried.

End of round 2 – end of game

So the only way is to get even. I have one Marauder left. If I can get it to the Vulcan it should (on a good day) be able to remove it. The two Gun Carriages should be able to deal with the infantry.

Vlad allocates focus to the Marauder. The Objective also heals it a bit. Vlad then activates, casts S&P, and feats. On the right flank, Joe says Courage of the Forefathers to the Rifle Corps who then charges Hutchuk. Alas, to no avail. The Gun Carriage charges one of the Crucible Guard Infantry and does a lot of impacts on the way. It then shoots a lot and takes out some more, and leaves only five troopers alive.

On the left flank, the Rifle Corps move forward and peppers the Halberdiers with rifle shots. All grenades goes into the Vulcan. This cleans up the path for the Marauder. The Field Gun and the Mortar (under Artillerist) also contributes. The Gun Carriage wants to charge the Vulcan but forgets that the Halberdiers are Tough. So, the charge is cut short. Silly me.

But here comes the Marauder. Under Vlad’s feat it can charge 11″ and threat 12″, which is sufficient. A charge attack agains a colossal gives an average of 32 points of damage. That leaves four attacks at an average of 29 points of damage per attack. All in all, it should do an average of 53 points of damage to the Vulcan (it only has 58 boxes). Luckily, It have already been shot a bit, and it goes off the table.

The picture above shows the glorious result of the Empress’ finest. Gearhart and his Crucible Guards are broken. The Marauder will probably not survive next round, as the Vindicator is within charge range. However, both Gun Carriages are alive and well. There are plenty of Winter Guards around. Gearhart concedes defeat.

There isn’t much to say. Unfortunately, I don’t think this victory was purely down to brilliant play from my side. I actually think that Gearhart et al. had lost before the got on the table. The matchup fitted Vlad’s liste really well.

The only real issue I had was the usual problem of loosing my ‘jack too fast (that is why I have a backup, and a backup to the backup). I have to learn to anticipate shooting. 

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

Legion is not a faction I see too often. I have only faced them once before, but that was against Absylonia1 using Irusk2’s WGK list (list detailed here, and battle report here). That time Irusk was victorious. However, this Legion list is a completely different beast, and I’m opting for my AC list (list detailed here), which I’m quite happy about as I’m pretty sure that Winter Guards would die like flies against this Legion list. The two lists facing of are as follows:

This Legion list is the theme Children of the Dragon, which is apparently primarily a Blighted Nyss theme. The theme gives the Nephilim Bolt Thrower Unyielding, and the player a +1 to the starting roll. This list is controlled by Kallus2, and only has two heavy Warbeasts (Characters, though) and one light. However, there is a lot of Blighted Nyss on evil Rudolfs.

Kallus, Devastation of Everblight is all about fire. His Warbeasts gain continuous fire, his sword can give Continuous fire to nearby models if he boxes one. He even has two fire spells: Blazing Path, which gives friendly faction models in his control Fire Immunity, and opponents suffer Continuous Fire is they end their activation with 2″ of one of his models and in his Control Range; and Brand of Fire, which deals Fire damage and models with 5″ of the target hit suffers Continuous Fire. All of this fire leads up to his Feat, where everybody already on fire suffers a POW 12, and his beast can charge for free with a +3″ to their movement.

He can do some other suff besides being a pyromaniac. He has Hyper-regeneration (d3 per turn) and Reposition 3″. He also has an OK sword (2″ reach P+S 15, with fiery extras); being his own Cavalry he can also do Critical Knockdown. He has our old friend Battle Lust (model/unit gets addition dice on damage roll), and Overrun (if the target model kills something, a model in the Battlegroup can make an advance).

Kallus is accompanied by three Warbeasts and an attachment: Azrael, a Nephilim Bolt Thrower, and Zuriel; and a Succubus. The latter can upkeep one of Kallus’ spells for free, and cast three of her own. She can produce a 3″ cloud, cast Hex Bolt (no Special Attacks or Actions, or Power Attacks for one round); and can Influence. She is basically just an annoyance.

The Nephilim Bolt Thrower is basically just a light Warbeast that can shoot stuff up to 16″ away (6″ move and 10″ shot) at POW 14, and push the victim 3″ (Knockdown on Critical). The most annoying bit is probably that it can see through Sorscha’s clouds.

The two real beasts are Azrael and Zuriel. The former is not surprisingly another fire lover. To begin with it, like most other Legion stuff, ignore clouds; so Sorscha’s feat it somewhat hampered. The main thread from Azreal is its ability to shoot really hard. It can throw two spears (via Reload), with a base POW 17, range 10″. Of course it causes fire, and it has a Critical Smite. Not too shabby. The same spear is used in close combat. So, Azreal can put out five POW 17 attacks per round; that is 20 points of one of our Warjacks. If Kallus has put Battle Lust on it, it will kill a Warjack.

Zuriel is a highly mobile beat-stick, with a spray to Assault with. It has two P+S 16 swords, with a twist: they have Precision Strike so it gets to choose which column to affect. This is always bad news for our ‘jacks. Luckily, Sorscha brought Mechaniks.

In addition to the Warbeast, Kallus brought three units: one unit of Ice Witches, and two units of Blighted Nyss on evil Rudolfs with their support solo Annyssa Ryvaal. The Ice Witches are there for two reasons: to manipulate dice through Puppet Master; and to lower DEF through our own friend Ice Cage. The latter doesn’t really do a lot against Armored Corps (I mean anything that lowers DEF 10 is really not going to anything spectacular), except perhaps stationary.

The Blighted Nyss Raptors is some of the annoyingly fast cavalry that can both shoot and Reposition. Always a difficult one for the slow Man-O-Wars. They can move 9″, shoot 12″, and then Reposition 5″. So there is basically no way of catching them if they are in shooting mode. They do an average of 21 points of damage with their bow (extra dice due to Poison). If they opt for charging, they can on the average do 19 points on Impact, and then 24 points of damage on the charge attack. Easily enough to take out a Man-O-War, except for the Shocktroopers. However, they are only DEF 14 and ARM 15, with 5 boxes; so, this sounds like work for the Bombardiers. A two-man CRA should be able to take one Raptor out per shot. Unfortunately, the Raptors can shoot and reposition, and stay just outside the threat range of the Bombardiers, unless they have Desperate Pace.

The Raptors are accompanied by their solo Annyssa Ryvaal.  She is basically an assassin that can gallop around and shoot poisonous arrows at the poor Man-O-Wars.

Finally, Kallus bring the ubiquitous Blighted Nyss Shepherds, who are there for fury controle and healing; and Craelix, Fang of Everblight, who is another shooting annoyance. Despite being able to shoot a lot, and do some damage, I don’t think she is too dangerous for heavy armoured Man-O-Wars.

We are playing the 2018 Steamroller scenario Recon II, and Legion goes first. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). 

Kallus deploys Raptors on each flak. The left one also with Annyssa, and the right one also with Craelix. Kallus himself goes in the middle with his attachment and his beasts around him. Ice Witches and Shepherds in the back.

Sorscha deploys the Bombardiers and the Kodiak on the left flank. They both have Pathfinder and can get through the forest. They are supported by a unit of Mechaniks. On the right flank goes the Demolition Corps along with Beast, also supported by a unit of Mechaniks. In the middle is the ambolt of Shocktroopers along with the two Suppression tankers. In the back goes Sorscha, Atanas and the Kovnik. The picture above shows the deployment after Advance Moves.

Kallus begins by moving everything forward. On the right flank, the Raptors move far ahead along with Crealix, Zuriel, and the Nephilim. They clearly look like they want to eat Demolition Man-O-Wars. On the left, the Raptors are a bit more hesitant, as they are probably a bit afraid of the Bombardiers’ granades. All the rest just moves forward. So far uneventful. 

I forgot to take a picture at the end of the round. So the picture above depicts the situation at the very beginning of turn 2 in the first round. Just before Sorscha has started the show.

On the right flank, the Demolition Corps runs into the zone and activates Band of Brotherhood. Beast also runs op towards the zone. Finally, the Mechaniks follow suit. On the left flank, the Bombardiers run into the zone. The Kodiak runs along side of them, and the Mechaniks follow up behind. In the middle, the Kovnik moves up and gives Desperate Pace to the Shocktroopers, who them move up into a Shield Wall. They split up into two walls to protect Sorscha and to bait Zuriel. Both tankers just move forward, the rightmost up to the flag. Just before Sorscha activates, Atanas move forward and puts Heroic Call on the Demolitions Corps, as they are probably going to be shot a lot. Finally, Sorscha moves up casts Stoke the Fires on both ‘jacks, Iron Flesh on the Shocktroopers, Wind Rush on herself, and feats. She gets five clouds that she puts between the forest to the left and the house, and to the right of the house. She is now nice and cozy next to the healing objective, and behind a wall of clouds and Shocktroopers. 

It is now time for the lines to crash. 

Kind of surprisingly, the Raptors on the right flank decides to charge the Demolition Corps instead of shooting them (only three though). Had I known that, I would have put Unstoppable Fury on them instead. They do manage to take out two of the proud Man-O-Wars. I think they might have been sprayed first by Zuriel and/or the Raptors spiked their dice. Just three Raptors should not make more than 33 points of damage on the unit, which should leave roughly two remaining boxes on each model. Anyway, two goes down. Craelix also moves up and takes out the whole Mechaniks unit through shooting and Blight Spasm.

On the left flank, the other unit of Raptors move up and and shoots at the Bombardiers. Somehow the manage to take out two. They then Reposition away again. Azrael throws two spears at the leftmost Tanker, and thanks to Eyesless Sight can ignore Sorscha’s pretty clouds. This kills the Tanker. That was it. I think it was more than enough. The picture above shows the end of Kallus’ turn.

End of turn 2, end of round

I’m in a good place I think. There is sufficient pressure far up the board. I’m ahead on scenario points with no clear opening for Kallus to score any. 

Kallus commits the remaining Raptors on the left flank, along with Zuriel to removing the Shocktroopers at his doorstep. They are surprisingly inefficient, and manage to remove precisely none. It is a different story on the right flank, where the Demolition Corps is already heavily damaged. The combined forces of the last Raptor, the Nephilim Bolt Thrower, and Azrael manage to remove the remaining troops. Azrael also throws a spear at Beast, which then advances a bit towards the its attacker. Something, which I can’t remember what was also managed to remove the Kodiak. Sorscha scores another scenario point, Kallus does not. The picture above shows the situation at the end of Kallus’ turn.

End of turn 2, round 3

We are a Kallus last stand. The scenario score is 4-0 in Sorscha’s favour. Something drastic has to happen to stop a loss on scenario.

Kallus starts by finally committing himself to battle. He charges in, and together with Zuriel cleans up some the of Man-O-Wars on the left flank. They manage to remove three Shocktroopers and Azrael chips in by removing the officer by throwing spears at him. On the right falk, the Nephilim runs within 4″ of my flank, and the Succubus toes into the zone. A Shepherd also runs into each of the zones. That was basically it. Not a lot happened. The scenario score remains at 4-0. The picture above depicts Kallus last stand.

End of turn 5

Final thoughts

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

Goreshade is making trouble again. Last time he managed to get the better of Irusk and his Winter Guards. This time the responsibility falls to Vlad. He brings the new hard hitting Winter Guard Kommand list, including two of the wonderful Gun Carriages. However, he is not the only one bringing Battle Engines. Goreshade is bringing a Trident, which turns out to be quite dangerous. However, the crazy elves are no match for Vlad and a Marauders in assassination mood.

I kind of like to play against Retribution. It is normally not too bad against the Winter Guards, yet still a challenge. I have faced them once before. This was using the Winter Guard Kommand list under Irusk2 (for battle report see here). Once again the trusted Winter Guards are facing Goreshade4 in a Legion of Dawn list. This time under Vlad1 (for a rationale behind this WGK list, see here). The two lists are:

I general, I think that quite many Retribution lists are manageable for WGK lists. This one, I guess should be fine. There are plenty of nice targets for Winter Guards to shoot at. Not to mention the Gun Carriages love for hostile infantry. The only thing that worries me is the Dawnguard Trident, which I haven’t faced before but heard a lot about.

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). 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!

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 bortherd to charge, they can shoot our poor Winter Guards, and reposition after.

The two House Shyeel Artificers is a bit of a thorn in the eyes on trigger happy Winter Guards. It can add two to the DEF of themselves or units, forcing the Rifle Corps to do at least two-man CRA to hit stuff. They are also really good for zone contesting, as they are kind of difficult to remove and can slam stuff.

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.

Three Arcanist Mechaniks are also to be found 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).

Finally, the huge (but in this specific case invisible) Dawnguard Trident. I have heard quite a lot about it but never actually seen one (I still haven’t). This is a battle engine with a lot of rules, almost so many that it looks like cheating. It can generate Power Tokens, which can be used to increase its DEF or place friendly models within 2″ of it. Most of all, it is a shooting platform. It has three cannons, which can deliver between three and nine attacks. They are range 10″ and POW 13. I already dislike it.

We are playing one of the new 2019 Steamroller scenarios: Recon II (which is exactly the same as the 2018 version). We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). Vlad and his trusted troops goes first.

Vlad deploys, more or less in the Empress standard deployment pattern 2. That is: a Gun Carriage on each flank; A Rifle Corps and a Field gun on either side; and ‘jacks, Vlad, solos and Mortar in the middle.

Goreshade deploys his Destors and the Trident on my left flank (note that apparently the Trident is flying so high that only the base is visible). He put a House Shyeel Artificer on my right flank, ready to contest the rightmost zone. The rest goes more or less in the middle. The deployment is quite left skewed. So he is probably going for the leftmost zone, whilst just contesting the rightmost.

Turn one is as often uneventful. This is, however an exception to this rule, as the Destors and Trident shows off their tricks.

Vlad is basically just advancing everything forward as fast as possible. A Gun Carriage goes into each of the zone to be ready for the crazy elves. The three ‘jack move up to be ready as the anvil. All the Winter Guards just moves forward. Vlad casts Wind Wall to cover him and the two solos. The picture above shows the situation after Vlad’s move.

The Chimera moves forward, which allows Goreshade to cast Hand of Ice on the leftmost Gun Carriage. He then moves up and hides behind his ‘jacks, and put out two clouds to “block” the rightmost Gun Carriage. The Destors move up the left flank and they shoot everything at the leftmost Gun Carriage. This is followed by the Trident, which proceeds to roll 5, 5, and 6! Everything goes into the Gun Carriage, which is killed. This came as a very unpleasant surprise. The Sentinels spread out and move forward. That was it. I strongly feel that is was more than enough. One Gun Carriage already gone. The picture above depicts the scary and annoying situation at the end of turn 1.

Turn 2

I think I might be in trouble. The Trident is really good. I need to controle the left flank somehow. There is an annoying forest in the middel of the field. I think this is not a game to be won on scenario. To get at Goreshade I have to go through the right flank.

Vlad starts by casing Signs & Portens, and moves up behind the Objective (this is a very cozy spot to be). Winter Guards are cheap, so I move up the left flank and spread out. I’m assuming that they will be shot or charged to death shortly. They shoot a bit and take out one of the Destors. Joe shouts Courage of the Forefathers at them to make them Tough. A combination of the Rifle Corps and the Field Gun also removes the Thane; at least that removes Unyielding from the Destors. On the right flank, the Gun Carriage moves around the wall of clouds and starts shooting at the Sentinels (well aware of trigering Vengeance). It takes out two Sentinels and the Soulless Escort. The rightmost Rifle Corps spread out and moves up, knowing that some of them are going to die a glorious death. Two of the ‘jacks moves up on the right flank. One to take the hit, and one behind to get even. The last Marauder moves into the forest. The picture above shows the end of the Khador round.

Goreshade allocates focus to Imperator. The Chimera moves to the right so Goreshade can cast Hand of Ice on the Gun Carriage. He then moves over to the flag. Through a combination of Vengeance and charging the Sentinels removes the baiting Marauder, kills a few Winter Guards, and heavily damages the Gun Carriage. They also mini-feat. However the Gun Carriage is still alive! Imperatus moves into the woods and beats up the Marauder. The Marauder is left at just a few boxes (which is sufficient as it is within 4″ of the objective). Finally, the Trident and Destors move forward and to the right to screen Goreshade, while they shoot a lot at the Winter Guards. They are grateful to Joe for Courage of the Forefathers. That was it. Actually less damaging than I would have though. The picture above depicts the end of turn 2 (please note that the two clouds on the right flank are not actually there. They were just too difficult to remove). 

Turn 3

So, I think that Vlad is a bit on his heels. Not panic-style, but nevertheless. It is time to be creative. I think that there might be a possible assassin run for the rightmost Marauder. The plan is a simple two step plan: 1) get rid of the Sentinels (they are only ARM 23); and 2) get Marauder to Goreshade and kill him. How hard can it be?

So the important bit is to get rid of the Sentinels. This requires Vlad to get his hands dirty. He starts by allocating two focus to the designated assassin. He the casts Signs & Portents and feats. He charges the Sentinels and kills two of them. Blood Boon allows him to then cast Boundless Charge on the assassin. He is left exposed. But it is a case of kill or be killed. The Rifle Corps CRA and picks of Sentinels to make sure that as few as possible are base-to-base (bringing down their ARM by two points); and some of the artillery kills the rest. The Gun Carriage takes over and charges the objective. It Impacts the Sentinels in front of it, and tries to shoot Goreshade. The objective goes away. The road is now clear for the Marauder. So it charges Goreshade partly through the forest (thanks to both feat and Boundless Charge). A fully loaded Marauder against Goreshade is almost unfair. Goreshade dies. The picture above show the glorious victory of the Empress’ finest.

Final thoughts

This is promising. Vlad, two Gun Carriages, Winter Guards, and Triple Marauder is fun. I have to admit that it was getting worried already in turn one, when the flying lawnmower took out a Gun Carriage and then proceeded to decimate a Rifle Corps. It is dangerous. The player was taking about getting another one (or actually two). I’m not sure that WGK can deal with that.

Goreshade was the victim of a well carried out assassin run. I don’t think that there was any doubt that it could work. The Gun Carriage did not even contribute to clean a charge lane. Even if Goreshade had feated, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Speaking of charge lane: feat and boundless charge is just wonderful.

Main take away is that Tridents are dangerous, Gun Carriages are not as robust as they look, and Hand of Ice tips the scale more that expected.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

The Harbinger of Menoth, a completely unknown lady to me. Normally, I only see the High Reclaimer and, well basically only the High Reclaimer. Also, there is no Judicator. I’m at a loss. What should I do to this completely unknown foe. She does, however have a huge flag, so she must be awesome. Well. Irusk steps up and brings his trusted Winter Guards list, which is detailed here.

This analysis is as always post-battle. I would so wish that I have had the time to do it before. It could have saved me from some of the most silly mistakes.

The Harbinger of Menoth has a tremendous amount of focus, 10 to be precise! This also means that she has a huge Control Area, 20″ to be precise. This is not good, as she packs the spell Purification, which is bad news for Irusk and his favourite upkeeps. Also, she can cast Crusader’s call, which give +2″ move to her models charging in the Control Area. She also has a Command range of 12″. Again, a very large area. Inside this area she automatically give a -2 to hit to enemy models through Awe; she can also use Martyrdom, where she can remove 1 hp of damage from a disabled model. Thus, 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, allows for one wall (for her to hide behind, I assume), and give her ‘jacks +2 to attack and damage, if a friendly warrior model is killed within 5″ of the ‘jack in question. So, basically she is quite hard to kill, but she might kill herself through Martyrdom.

She brings two Crusaders a Devout, and a Hierophant. The latter is there to keep her alive as he can heal her d3+1 each turn, and is that is not required he can basically add one focus through Harmonious Exaltation. He also adds 2″ to the range of her spells.

The two Crusaders are, is guess the cheaper, and slightly worse Protectorate version of our glorious Juggernaut. A Crusader packs a P+S 14 open fist, and a P+S 18 Mace, which also has critical Continuous Fire. At MAT 6 and Khador speed it does not look impressive. But, they will probably have +2″ to their charge range from Crusader’s call, and +2 to their damage roll from the Choir of Menoth (see below), and they can be repaired by the Vassal Mechanik. So. all in all, not too shabby, in particular at 10 point. 

The Devout is a light ‘jack that adds extra layers to the Harbinger’s protection. It has a Shield Guard, Defensive Strike, and Spell Barrier, which stops targeting Harbinger by spells if it is B2B with her. Pretty OK, but not dangerous as such,

There is an impressive number of solos in this list, 11 to be precise. In addition to those already mentioned, there are two Allegiant of the Order of the Fist, two Champion of the Order of the Wall, three Paladin of the Order of the Wall, and High Paladin Dartan Vilmon.

High Paladin Dartan Vilmon and the three Paladin of the Order of the Wall seems to be kind of a party pack. Primarily because he give Righteous Vengeance (3″ move and an attack if a friendly model dies within 5″ of the model) to the Paladins. Dartan himself is an OK solo at P+S 14 Weapon Master attack and Shield Guard. I guess the latter is the main reason to have him. Shield Guard combined with his ability to reach ARM 21 at 8 boxes if he forfeits his movement makes him a good one. The normal paladins are basically the same, just without Shield Guard, but with Critical Fire. 

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). 

The final solos are the two 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. 

Among the three units the Harbinger is bringing, is the ubiquitous Choir of Menoth. They are there to boost ‘jacks, either by give out +2 to damage rolls, immunity to targeting by non-magical ranged attacks, or immunity to targeting by spells. Again, bad news for a list full of shooty stuff. 

She also brings and full unit of The Holy Zealots and a Monolith Bearer. This is a cannon fodder unit, which unfortunately can mini feat and bring back models. They are probably also quite adept at killing Winter Guards by fire bombs. 

We are playing The Pit II. Khador goes first. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″).

Irusk deploys, more or less in the Empress’ standard deployment pattern number one: Rifle Corps on each flank, and Infantry in the middle along with the solos. The Marauders are more distributed than normal, as there are two rectangular zones. Finally, the artillery is packed together in the middle. 

The Harbinger deploys with the Idrians on my left flank, and the Zealots on my right flank. There is also a monk and Champion on each flank. The rest is, more or less cluttered around Harbinger in the middle. The picture above shows the status just before the Advance Move by the Triple Marauders.

As always, the first turn is not terrible interesting. Irusk starts by casting Solid Ground, and Fire for Effect on the Field Gun on the right flank. He then moves up behind the small piece of rubble just in front of the circular zone. On the left flank, the Rifle Corps moves up in a very orderly manner, ready to shoot some Idrians. The right flank is more disorderly. The Rifle Corps moves forward ready to shoot at the Zealots. The Marauders move up on both flanks to be ready to score on the zones. They do keep back a bit – just in case. The rest of the troops just advance in the middle. The first round took eight minutes. That is about five minutes too much!

Harbinger moves in behind the wall she brought tot he party. She also cast Crusader’s Call. The Idrian and the Zealots both move up on each flank and toe in to each of the rectangular zones. The Choir sings Hymn of Passage (cannot be targeted by non-magical ranged attacks) to all the ‘jacks. The Devout does it thing by moving base to base with Harbinger. All the rest, just moves up. The picture above depicts the situation at the end of turn 1.

So, the Choir will most likely keep on singing Hymn of Passage to the ‘jacks. This is clearly annoying, as shooting them makes no sense. I have to admit that at this point I’m not completely sure about the capabilities of the Protectorate models, so I tread with caution. I have to lure everybody closer.

Irusk upkeeps both spells, casts Artifice of Deviation on the left flank between the rubble and the zone (more on this later). On the left flank I carry out an experiment (never experiment when all premisses are not known! More on this later). I move all, but one of the Rifle Corps into the Artifice of Deviation circle, giving them an effective DEF of 16. The Marauder moves into the rubble. The adjunct uses Guidance on the left most Field Gun, which proceeds to aim at knockdown the enemy Crusader in the middle. On the right flank, the Rifle Corps moves forward partly into the zone. They the proceed to shoot at the Zealots. This is not particular effective – Harbinger takes a lot of heat through Martyrdom. Only three models disappear. Not a lot more happens. Most stuff just move forward. The picture above shows the situation after the first round.

This round is still very much a positioning game. Harbinger stays behind her little wall. She recasts Crusader’s call, and then Purification. This completely ruined my clever plan about the high DEF Rifle Corps on my left flank (I should of course have known this). Solid Ground and Fire for Effect also go away. Damn it, Purification is annoying. The Hierophant moves in and heals Harbinger. Everybody else moves forward. My left flank get peppered by the Idrians, and the right flank by the Zealots. The choir then again sings Hymn of Passage. I loose six Rifle Corps on both flanks, and two infantry in the middle. Harbinger scores one point on the left zone by toeing in a Crusader. Scenario score is now 1-0 i Harbingers favour. The picture above is the end of the turn. 

Hey ho, let’s go. The two armies are now sufficiently close for the super fast Khador ‘jacks to join the fray. Irusk gives up on the whole upkeep thing since Harbinger trivially removes upkeep. He allocates focus to the ‘jacks, so they are all filled up. He then feats. On the right flak, the Rifle Corps moves two troopers up to kill one of the Zealots, and the rest aims and shoots. This removes quite a few Zealots, except for the one in melee. The Marauder moves up and assists. This leaves the zone almost clean, except for one Zealot, the monk, and the Paladin – almost a success. The Field Gun knocks down the Crusader, and the Marauder continues to charge it. It attempts a Combo Smite with only a limited success. The remaining attacks are used on the Champion. It is surprisingly inefficient. On the left flank, the Rifle Corps get shouted at by Joe, and charge into the zone. The left Marauder charges the Crusader and tries the same trick as its brother on the right flank – with about as much success.  The picture below depicts the situation at the end of the first round in turn 3.

I forgot to take a picture at the end of the second round. However, Harbinger’s round was surprisingly bad (for her). On the left flank she manages to remove almost all of the Rifle Corps from a combination of the Idrians and the Champion. On the right flank, she attempts to use the other Champion, the munk, and the Paladin to clean out the zone – she fails. All in all, it was a pretty good turn for Irusk, despite not killing a lot. 

Turn 4, Irusk is in an OK shape. Harbinger has 9:57 on the clock. Irusk has 13:19. It is now or never.

On the left flank, cleaning up consists of shooting the Objective to kingdom come, also using the Marauder to get rid of the Crusader. On the right flank, the Marauder is in a somewhat bad shape, and can’t really manage to do anything. The middle zone get almost cleaned out, except for one Champion (They are pretty difficult to remove), and Dartan, who just toes the zone. I was hoping for more. The scenario score is no 1-1, and I have a whooping 45 seconds left on the clock. The picture below shows the situation before Harbinger’s round.

Harbinger moves her forces in to clean out the zones. She is very well aware that Irusk is loosing on time, and claiming points is always nice. On the left flank, the Champion cleans out some of the Winter Guards, and gangs up with everybody else to take out the Marauder. However, the Marauder digs in and stays alive. The story is the same on the right flank. The other Champion and what remains attempts to take out the Marauder. However, it is as stedfast as the its brother. Finally, in the middle, everything but Harbinger herself moves in – and doesn’t really do a lot. So she ends the turn with 5 minutes on the clock and no more scenario points. 

45 seconds left on the clock. I’ll just go through the motions: 33 seconds left on the clock. The picture below shows the huge impact these 10 seconds had on the game.

Harbinger is just looking for point now. She does what she can to remove models. However, she only manages to remove the middle Marauder. 

End of game. Irusk is out of time. Nothing her to see move along. Surprisingly, the scenario score stands at 1-1.

This was unfortunate. Irusk was actually on top of this for quite a while. I was simply too slow. If I had had five to ten more minutes, I would have broken through Harbinger’s line, and she would have been in trouble. I think I overestimated her feat. It will clearly kill Winter Guards. However, the Marauders would be mostly untouched. I think I did not read the feat correctly. It states that: “…end their movement inside Harbinger’s command closer than they started…” (my emphasis). So it should be easy to keep the Winter Guards alive. Just don’t move them closer. I forgot about the whole closer thing. I should have played even more aggressively.

Harbinger’s build in ability Awe really hurts with the -2 to hit. There were several turns where the damage output was nowhere as expected. It could probably have been mitigated a bit by more combined attacks from the Winter Guards, but the Marauders doesn’t really like having an effective MAT of 5 (it has been pointed out to me that Awe only works on living models. So either we made a cockup or I just can’t roll dice). Awe combined with Martyrdom makes it really difficult to remove key models.

Finally, having immunity to shooting on the ‘jacks (from the Choir) removes quite a lot of the punch from this list. There is hardly any knockdown on a stick, and the Rocketeers never really get to shine.

In hindsight, perhaps Sorscha and her Armored Corps would have been a better bet.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

General Ossrum and too many bunnies is a huge problem. I have never really cracked the nut. Normally, I would have played my second list, Sorscha3 in Armored Corps into this. However, Ossrum tends to beat this. So, I decided to continue my process of exposing Irusk2 in WGK to everything and anything. So Irusk will try his luck again, using the standard WGK list detailed here. Ossrums’s Mercenaries is as follows:

Seeing Ossrum and a bunch of Rhulic Drillers and bunnies are never fun. Actually, it is perhaps the matchup I enjoy the least (I find it really boring to play against). I have earlier played Sorscha3 and Armored Corps into this type of list, with no luck. I’m well aware that Irusk and his trusted Winter Guards will have a hard time. Nevertheless, it’s worth a try; and, I have a chance of getting a nap, while the opponent plays with himself.

General Ossrum is a good Rhulic ‘jack focused support warcaster. Alone, he is not really dangerous. He gives Tactician to all Rhulic models in command. His ‘jacks, in his rather large Battle Group benefit from the spell Energizer (2″ advance), and Unstoppable Force (giving them Bulldoze). For more general purpose, he brings Snipe (+4″ range), Stranglehold (target must forfeit either movement or action), Fire for Effect, and Bullet Dodger (+2 DEF and Dodge). However, it is his feat that really stops the party: Perfect Plan, giving +3 ARM and SPD, and Parthfinder in control range. The theme, the Irregulars, gives three free solos. In this case Eiryss2, Hutchuk, and Kell; and two Advance Moves on heavy warjacks. Ossrum brings a significant number of ‘jacks to the party: five Drillers!, three Blasters, and three Gunners.

The Ghordson Driller is in many ways the Rhulic equivalent of our Juggernaut. It has two weapons: a P+S 18 drill (with Sustained Attack), and a P+S 16 fist. It is just a quick as our Juggernaut, has about the same DEF, ARM, and number of boxes. I think it is a bargain at three points less. It should really not be allowed to hit any of Irusk’s Maraduers, which might be problematic, as they can achieve a 13″ threat range under Energizer and feat.

The Grundback Blaster is the Rhulic spray bunny. It is a small, very cheap spray machine, which makes even Crucible Guards envious. With the build-in ability Powerful Attack, and the free focus from Power UP it hits DEF 16 on the average, and does 20 points of damage under the 8″ spray template. This really requires the Winter Guards to toughen up.

Finally, the Gundback Gunner is the sister bunny of the Blaster. It just have a gun instead of a spray. Besides that, it is really cheap and can also do Powerfull Attack, which allows it to hit DEF 16 on the average, for an average of 22 points of damage. So, this is actually the least worrisome of the two.

As if all these ‘jacks are not enough, Ossrum also brings two units, and four solos. The two units are the Horgenhold Artillery Corps, the equivalent to our Mortar Crew, just slightly more expensive and better at hitting – luckily the Winter Guards are most likely immune to blast damage; and the treacherous Kayazy Eliminators, whom we all know and love.

The four solos are: Eiryss1, Hutchuk, Kell, and Orin Midwinter. Eiryss1 is always very annoying to see across the table, in particular when she is free. She does Disruption on a stick, has stealth and can stay very far away due to her 3″ Reposition; Hutchuk, is the mace wheeling, grenade throwing brute that has a tendency to appear out of nowhere due to Ambush; Kell is the master of picking Winter Guards and solos off from a distance; and Orin doesn’t really do much in this context, except for perhaps a Chain Lightning now and again.

We are playing The Pit II. Mercenaries goes first. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″).

Ossrum deploys all the Drillers in the middle, hiding himself behind them. Gunners and Blasters go on the flanks. On my left flank the Kayazy lines up. All the rest are in the back somewhere, except for the solos who either Advance Deploy in the middle or waits for an Ambush.

Irusk deploys in the Empress’ standard pattern number one. That is, a Rifle Corps on each flank, the artillery and infantry in the middle along with Irusk, and the triple Marauder in the middle. Irusk is in so much trouble. The picture above shows the deployment post Advance Moves.

Ossrum starts by using Energizer on himself and the rest of the battle group. He also drops Snipe on Kell. making him able to shoot 18″. Besides that, everything just moves forward at breath taking Khadoran speed. 

Irusk starts off by casting Fire For Effect on the rightmost Field Gun, he also casts Solid Grund. He then moves into the forest in front of him. As usually, nothing much more happens, except for everything moving forward. The picture above depicts the situation and the end for turn 1. 

Here comes the scenario pressure. Ossrum does a combination of ‘jack movements and Energizer. I can’t really remember the exact order of things, but the consequences are clear. On the right flank, three Rifle Corps are taken out to spraying, yet some survives the appearance of Hutchuk. In the middle, four infantrists are lost to a combination of sprays, shooting, and a single sacrifice. On the left flank, three Rifle Corps are lost to another spray bunny. In addition, the left most Marauder gets Disrupted. There are also Drillers at Iruk’s doorstep. It could have bee worse. The picture below shows the situation after Ossrum’s round.

Irusk upkeeps Fire for Effect on the Field Gun and Solid Ground; ha also casts Battle Lust on the Winter Guard infantry, and the Rifle Corps on the right flank; he then feats and moves out of the forest to “hide” from sprays. I need to clean up and get forward to not loose too fast to scenario. The Field Gun on the right takes a chance, aims, and shoots at Hutchuk. He is DEF 17, so I need 10 to hit on three dice. It hits! Now only only an eight is required to kill him. He dies. The frees up the Rifle Corps so they can charge the two bunnies in the zone, and the rightmost Driller. They hurt the bunnies a bit, but they stay alive. On the left flank the Rifle Corps moves forward and shoot the objective. In the middle, the Disrupted Marauder shuffles left and forward to engage both the bunny and the Driller. It the hits the Driller. The leftmost Field Gun aims and shoots one of the bunnies in the middle zone. This is followed-up by the Mortar who lands a shot on the knocked down bunny. The Winter Guard Infantry then charges the two Drillers and does some damage. Finally, the Adjunct drops a cloud on Irusk.

So far it could have been worse. I would have like to take out at least on of the Drillers, but unfortunately not. Should I have charge on the right flank? I don’t know. I could just have shot at the bunnies, but I did have to get into the zone, so Ossrum can’t score. I actually score one point for Ossrum’s objective, so scenario score is 1-0 in Irusk’s favour. The picture above shows the end of Turn 2.

Ossrum starts by feating and hiding behind a wall of Drillers. On my left flank the two bunnies bulldoze all the Rifle Corps out of the zone, and mange to kill two of them. The Driller swamped with Winter Guards and a Marauder is hurt and only manages to kill a single Rifle Corps. The left flank, on the other hand, is in trouble. The Driller and the Kayazy take out the Marauder, and the Kayazy proceeds to surf through a not insignificant part of the Rifle Corps. They are assisted by the two bunnies, so the Rifle Corps is almost exterminated. Eyriss also manages to Disrupt the middle Marauder. Ossrum now scores one point for the leftmost zone. Scenario score is now 1-1. The picture below depicts the situation at the end of round one.

It is time to be creative. Alas, there isn’t much to be creative with. Irusk upkeeps Solid Ground. He then remembers his new Adjunct and moves Fire for Effect to the other Field Gun. The Artillery Kapitan uses Artillerist on the Mortar, and Joe seems to have fallen asleep (he is getting older). The Adjunct remembers that he can do Guidance and gives it to the Field Gun on the left. It then proceeds to get into range of Eyriss and shoots at her. Unfortunately, it misses. On the left flank, the Rifle Corps has to get into the zone to avoid more scoring. The same for the right side. The right most Field Gun knocks down the leftmost Driller, and the Mortar follows up. I’m flabbergasted that it isn’t dead yet. That’s it.

End of turn 3

So, more trouble. At least there is no scoring in this round, so scenario score stands at 1-1. The picture above depicts the horrible situation at the end of turn three.

Ossrum can just clean up now. On the left flank, the Rifle Corps is almost cleaned out (all but one) by the combined forces of two bunnies and the Kayazy. The latter also removes the Field Gun. On the right flank, two other bunnies clean out the remaining Rifle Corps and my objective. The Marauder is also killed by a immortal Driller.  Ossrum can now score one point for the objective, and two for the zones; leaving the score at 1-4 in his favour.

It would be suitable to quote the two first verses of The Doors’ “The End”. There is nothing left to do. I can’t stop him from scoring, I can’t really score, and no assassin run is possible.

This went as expected. Irusk and his Winter Guards is no match for Ossrum in easter mode. Nothing more here to see, move along.

Until next time

For the Motherland! 

Skorne seems to be having an increased presence on the tables. This is nice, since they for a very long time has been missing. This, however means that I am not too familiar with them. This list is one of the many versions of “how many Immortals can we bring to the table?”. In general that should not be too bad for Irusk and his happy Winter Guards (list described here). The Skorne list is as follows:

Hordes of Immortals seems to be the new black. I have only faced them a few times, without actually getting too much wiser. All I know is that I get confused by all the fiddling around with souls. This version is led by Makeda & the Exalted Court, who is apparently tough as a nail. She is running in The Exalted theme, which makes all Constructs imune to knockdown; so much for our knockdown on a stick artillery.

Makeda & the Exalted Court can do a lot of work on her own, in particular against Winter Guards. She can basically surf through an entire unit of Winter Guards through a combination of Overtake and her Feat. Besides that, she actually has a set of spells that makes Irusk and his WGK sad. Her battle group within 12″ can gain Grievous Wounds (so no more tough) through Deathbringer; she can give models within 10″ +2 to attack and damage rolls, through Incite, and she has Blood Boon allowing her to cast most of her spells if she kills an enemy. Her feat is not to be frown upon. She immediately casts Incite for free, and when one of her models kills one of Irusk’s models she gain a fury. Presumedly, this could set her up for a very nice assassin run in the next turn.

Makeda brings an Agonizer (“Never leave home without an Agonizer” – old Skorne proverb); a Cyclops Brute, Molik Karn, and Aptimus Marketh as an attachment. The latter is probably there primarily for Harmonious Exaltation, which allows for a discount of 1 focus on the first spell Makeda casts. He can also shoot stuff and ignore LOS, concealment and cover 8″ away. So no hiding behind stuff for e.g. Irusk. However, Sacrificial Pawn still works.

The Agonizer is apparently a required part of any Skorne list. Agains Khador it has two anytime abilities that matter (it can only use one at a time): Gnawing Pain, which gives -2 STR within 8″; and Spiritual Affliction, which hinders spell casting within 8″. There former is obviously annoying, yet the latter is not too worrisome, as Irusk probably only wants to cast Battle Lust when there is a risk of being within 8″ of this one.

A Cyclops Brute is one of the many different cyclops that Skorne can muster. It is probably in this list to primarily supply Makeda with a Shield Guard.

Molik Karn is another well known, and often seen model in a Skorne army. Molik Karn has a few build in abilities that are worth noticing: he has Future Sight, which allows him to boost after a dice roll; he can also force an enemy model to reroll attack rolls; Finally, he has Side Step when working with Makeda. In addition, he has two P+S 12 Weapon Master attacks with Reach 2″. So, all in all he is a force to be reckoned with.

There is also a huge battle engine present, the Supreme Guardian. It can shoot Continuous Fire shots 10″ away, Hit with a Thresher P+S 18 sword; both under something similar to Sign & Potents. It can also do weird stuff with soul, and has Defensive Strike. Luckily, it is huge-based and one fully loaded Marauder not charging it should take it out on average rolls.

The troops of this army are the two standard Immortal party packs, consisting of a max unit of Immortals with an Extoller Advocate, and an Ancestral Guardian and an Extoller Novitiate near by. Immortals on their own are just 2″ reach P+S 14 one wound infantry with Vengeance (and immune to knockdown from the Theme). However, attaching an Extoller Advocate allows the unit to become Incorporeal (bad news for shooting Winter Guards); or give them +2 DEF, or when spending souls allowing a model to reroll. Now add an Extoller Novitiate and the Immortals become Tough. Add the Ancestral Guardian and add +2 movement. If Hakaar (see below) is nearby they also get a +1 to attack rolls. Finally, a Supreme Guardian nearby can resurrects up to three Immortals per turn (assuming it has souls).

This results in a unit of Tough Immortals that are immune to knockdown, with a base movement of 4+2, that are potentially Incorporeal; and can potentially be resurrected. So first order of the day is to kill the Extoller Advocate (who of course have Sacrificial Pawn) and the Extoller Novitiate.

The remaining army consists of a rowdy band of solos: Abidan the Keeper, Extoller Soulward, and Hakaar the Destroyer. The former is a medium hard hitting Shield Guard, who can be returned to play after he has been killed. An Extoller Soulward is yet another soul battery, who can shoot. Finally, Hakaar the Destroyer is another medium hard hitting solo that can fiddle around with souls.

We are playing Spread the Net, Skorne goes first.

Makeda deploys an Immortal party pack on each flank. On my left flank the Supreme Guardian is placed next to the party pack. It is scary looking, I have to admit. Makeda deploys in the middle with the beasts and places her two Exalted Guardians just on the edge of her command range. 

Irusk does his standard deployment, just a little wider than normal to have a Rifle Corps ready to contest each of the rectangular zones. Irusk takes the centre along with the Mortar, the Infantry, the solos, and one of the Field Guns. The Marauders advance move forward. Two to the left, scowling at the Supreme Guardian, and one slightly to the right looking at houses. Again, I manage to deploy in three minutes. It would appear as if it is impossible to do faster. The picture above depicts the end of deployment.

Every Skorne model moves forward, except for the Extoller Soulward who apparently was taking a nap. Makeda casts Bulwark. That was it. Nothing more to see here, move along.

Irusk casts Solid Ground, drops Fire for Effect on the Field Gun on the left flank, and positions Artifice of deviation between the rough terrain on the left flank and the house in the middle (in has been pointed out to me that I should think heavily about dropping Fire for Effect on the Mortar instead. I agree and will try to remember it in the future). Joe moves towards the flag on the left. The two Marauders who have the Supreme Guarding in the sight moves closer, and the last one steps into the rectangular zone to the right. All the rest just moves forward. I manage to do this turn in three minuets as well. I’m pretty happy about that. The picture above shows the situation at the end of deployment.

This Skorne round looks scarily similar to the first one. Everything moves forward. An Ancestral Guardian is placed next to the flag on the right flank. That was it. Nothing more to see here, move along. The picture below shows the end of round 1.

I know that the Immortal party packs have all sorts of weird issues. But Irusk needs to start chewing through them anyway. He drops Artifice of Destruction, but upkeeps Solid Ground and Fire fo Effect. He then casts Battle Lust on the Rifle Corps on the ruíght flank. This is perhaps not the best plan, but there is reason behind it. He then moves up behind the middle house and feats. Joe moves up to the flag to the left and inspires the Rifle Corps through For the Motherland. Most of the Rifle Corps aim and shoots as many Immortals as possible. On the right side, the Rifle Corps charge the Immortals. In hindsight they should probably just have shot them, but the plan was to bug them down, thus avoiding that they could contest that zone (I forgot or ignored Vengeance, either way it is a mistake). The rest of the army just shuffles forward.

I spend 22 minutes on this round. This is far too much. I do however score two scenario points, Skorne scores zero, leaving the scenario score at 2-0 in Irusk’s favour. The picture above depicts the end of turn 2.

So far Irusk is in control. However, this can change fast.

The Immortal party packs retaliate. On the right flank they, all but completely remove the Rifle Corps and one of the Marauders, through a combination of Vengeance and normal attacks. I should probably have shot them instead. I might have avoided some of the Vengeance hits. The left flank is a different story. The Immortals chop a bit at the Marauder, but mostly they just move to get in the way; except for the fact that one of them manages to kill Joe. Molik Karn and the Cyclops move to the left to score in that zone. Makeda turns out to be not hard as a nail, rather scared as a chicken and hides behind a house. She does however score two scenario points, whilst Irusk scores none, leaving the Scenario score at 2-2. The picture above depicts the end of round 1.

This is not good. I’m pretty sure that I made huge mistake by involving the Rifle Corps on the right in a fist fight with the Immortals. The only good thing now is that Skorne only has 15 minutes left on the clock, and I’m running out of models, which significantly speeds up my rounds.

Irusk upkeeps both spells, and allocates two focus to the nearest Marauder. My right flank is lost, so the only thing to do is to move some Infantry over there to block any attempts to roll up my flank. They also manage to remove the annoying Immortal blocking my Marauder. The artillery shoot at whatever they can see, and think they can harm. The left flank is currently the only sunshine story. The rifle Corps remove the remaining Immortals. Leaving room to breathe. The right most Marauder moves up and might participate in Immortal slaying. The last one charges the Cyclops, and manages to stay outside the Defensive Strike range of the Supreme Guardian. It does a remarkable nothing of importance.

Skorne scores one point, and Khador nothing, leaving the scenario score at 3-2 in Makeda’s favour. The picture above shows the miserable state after turn 3.

The heat is on Irusk. Skorne should be able to bring the victory home.

Makeda feast. She is thinking that she could charge the Infantry to the right and surf through them to get to Irusk. After a lot of thinking and measuring she chickens out, and just stands there in the round zone looking at the house hiding Irusk. On my right flank the Immortals continue the mopping up procedure. On the left the Cyclops moves further into the zone to make room for Molik Karn, who then changes the Infantry next to Irusk. I guess he is hoping to surf through them and get to Irusk. But when Winter Guards are tough, they are though, leaving Irusk just outside of Molik Karn’s reach. Skorne does, however manage to score two more points, leaving the scenario score at 5-2 in Makeda’s favour.

OK, Irusk is in trouble. Molik Karn is staring at him from just slightly more than two inches away, he is about to lose on scenario, and he is quickly running out of army. He upkeeps his two spells, fills up the Marauder and casts Battle Lust on the remaining Rifle Corps. He then proceeds to move closer to Molik Karn in an attempt to kill him. He fails. The Rifle Corps proceeds to charge Molik Karn with as many troops as they can fit in. The rest runs into the Skorne rectangular zone. Obviously, they can’t kill him, but they could give it a try. The Infantry also charges Molik Karn and a few Immortals. No a lot happens. The Marauder, on the other hand is more effective when it charges and kills the Cyclops. Artillery just shoots at whatever they can hit. This last stand actually results in scoring one point, and Skorne doing the same, leaving the scenario score at 6-3 in Makeda’s favour. All hope is not lost. The picture above shows the hopeless situation and the end of turn 4.

I’m left with 45 seconds on the clock. Skorne could easily have settled the game here. However, my opponent has a pair and opt for assassination. My hat goes off to him.

Molik Karn cannot have all of his fury removed, and in a moment of the Empress’ intervention he fails his dice roll. Molik Karn goes berserk and Irusk draws a breath of relief. Karn kills a single Winter Guard. Next assassin attempt is to come from the Supreme Guarding. That just requires the disposal of a few Winter Guard purposely put in the way. A combination of all Skorne models that can either reach them in melee or shoot them they are killed. The Supreme Guardian then charges a Winter Guard and uses Thresher to remove the remaining Winter Guards, Molik Karn and puts a dent in Irusk. Makeda’s clock is then out of time. Talk about being saved by the bell (or rather the beep, in this case). Irusk emerges “victorious”! At the end there is one more point to each of us, leaving the scenario score at 7-4 in Makeda’s favour. The picture above shows the state of the game after we played out the Supreme Guardians remaining attacks. Everybody died.

Ok, so Irusk won. He shouldn’t have. It was purely down to my opponents, either greed or sizeable pair – depending on your perspective. There is a lot of respect from my side for choosing the assassination option, rather than just clocking me.

I’m a bit doubtful as to whether or not I stand by my initial thought that this is an OK matchup for Irusk and his WGK. I think I made one huge error in turn 2, when I charged with the Rifle Corps. I should probably just have shot the Immortals instead. This is what I did on my left flank with a far better result.

I also think that I did not use the Marauders to their fullest. The one on the right flank got killed by some Immortals. I should not have put it in a situation where that was possible. Loosing that one meant that I could no longer score on that flank. The two on the right could probably have been played a bit more aggressive with support from the Infantry to lure out som of the beasts earlier.

Finally, I should probably heed the advice of using Fire for Effect on the Mortar instead of on a Field Gun. It is purely down to reflex, rather than a well thought through tactic.

Nevertheless, despite being a bit hollow, I did win.

Until next time

For the Motherland!

The new hotness for Circle is Iona in the Devourer’s Host with Tharn Ravagers. It is in general not an impossible list to play against, but it is quite close. I am not convinced that Irusk2 and WGK is the correct choice here. My other choice is Sorscha3 in Armored Corps. But I’m on a quest to put the Irusk2 list through its paces (list can be found here). The Circle list is as follows:

Devourer’s Host with a huge bunch of Tharns is the new black for Circle. I have normally seen them led by Baldur the Stonecleaver (Baldur1). However, with the recent arrival of Iona the Unseen (Iona1) she is now the new hotness.

Iona the Unseen is a new warlock who is build to run Devourer’s Host and Tharns. Her feat alone is enough to make a Tharn smile (or whatever they call it). It offers +3 STR and +3 ARM to Tharn models, and the ability of warrior models to reroll failed attack rolls. She also gives Dodge (model can advance 2″ is missed by an attack and ignore free strike) to all Tharns within 9″ from her.

She also brings five spells to the table: Abbatoir, where models in the battlegroup immediately can make one melee attack. In this list that is probably not that important; Hunter’s Mark, which is an offensive spell that allows her models to charge for free and get +2″ to their movement (even faster Tharn); Phantasm, enforces a -5″ RNG on shots at the affected unit or model. This is not nice for all the Winter Guards that really want to shoot stuff; Pursuit, can make a model in the battle group move if target unit moves; and Sure Foot, which gives a unit/mode +2 DEF and immunity to knockdown. Another finger flipped at the Winter Guards.

Iona herself is a small annoying lady. She is pseudo-dangerous as an assassin, but a pain to remove. Despite having only ARM 14 and 16 boxes, somebody actually needs to hit her to remove boxes. She has a native DEF 16, but also Stealth, Dodge, Prenatural Reflexes (no CRA or CRM against her). She could even cast Sure Foot or herself or Earth’s Blessing (see below), and see her (shooting) enemies weep.

She brings a Gnarlhorn Satyr, and a Warpwolf Stalker. The Gnarlhorn Satyr is a grumpy goat that likes to (counter) slam stuff. Besides that it is a bit pillow fisted. However, he brings an Animus that is gold for Iona: Earth’s Blessing, which makes the caster immune to knockdown, stationary, can’t be slammed or pushed. This is fantastic for a high DEF, low ARM lady like Iona. The Warpwolf Stalker is a steady participant in Circle lists. It can hit pretty hard, but can also wipe infantry out by a combination of Berserk and a very long sword. This could spell trouble for both the Marauders and the infantry.

There is also a unit Tharn Wolf Riders and two Tharn Wolf Rider Champion. The Wolf Riders are super mobile cavalry, with a speed 9″, jump 5″, and Reposition 5″ can be almost everywhere at anytime (and not forgetting Dodge from Iona). Their favourite tactics is to charge something and then jump to the back of it, hitting it with three attacks and then moving 5″ away. They are highly annoying. The Champions are just better and gives the whole lot Prowl. They should probably be shoot at sight. However, at least a CRA 4 from the Rifle Corps is required to just get a 50/50 shot at killing one; and they threat longer than the Rifle Corps.

The Tharn Ravagers party packs are is where the money is for Iona. They are really a steal for just 15 point for six of them (20 including the CA). Add all the bells and whistles, and they become quite fearsome. They naturally have Pathfinder and Treewalker (ignore forest for LOS and DEF 15 against melee), they are Circle after all. They also have Heart Eater allowing them to collect Corpse Tokens, which then can be used to buy or boost. They can gain and use in the same activation. The Theme gives them one token each to begin with. The main game breaker is the combination of Tough and Rapid Healing, combined with the Sure Foot spell from Iona for no knockdown, or the Tharn Shaman that can fix the knockdown issue. They are then very close to impossible to get rid of. The Tharns heal after every single attack! To shoot them to death, it is either a five Rifle Corps CRA or a three Infantry CRA; but that is still only with a slightly better than a 50% chance. Finally, they also have Vengeance and the mini-feat giving them overtake. They can basically surf through almost anything, in particular under feat.

She is also brining Bríghid & Caul, which is a very hard hitting unit, that can probably easily take out a Marauder in one round. For the grand finale, Lord of the Feast, and Boil Master & Spirit Cauldron, the former is for free in this theme. This is just a ridiculous combination of the Lord threatening at least 16″ in weird direction and being able to take out most things with Corpes Tokens, which he can be filled up with by the Cauldron. He needs to die, quickly – but of course has Stealth.

This is going to be an incredible hard match. Iona and friends are fast and hard hitting.

We are playing Mirage. Playing agains Circle, we of course got the forest table. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). Khador goes first.

Irusk deploys in his standard manner. Each flank has a Rifle Corps and a Field Gun. In the middle goes Irusk and his Infantry. The Morter and Solos also stay in the middle. The three Marauders Advance Move in front of the centre.

Iona deploys a unit of Tharn Ravagers on each flank, along with a Tharn Wolf Rider Champion. Iona goes in the centre along with her beasts and the Cauldron. Bríghid & Caul, and Lord of the Feast Advance Deploy in the middle. The Wolf Riders deploy on the right flank. The picture above depicts the situation at the end of deployment.

Since the Tharn list is fast and hard hitting, Irusk would rally like to avoid being on the receiving end of the alpha strike. Irusk casts Solid Ground and Fire for Effect on the right most Field Gun (this time, he has a plan…). He moves his troops forward enough to present a threat, but not enough to leaving him with no manoeuvring room in the next turn. So basically an eventful round for him.  

Iona moves the two Ravager units forward hiding behind forest. The same goes for Bríghid & Caul, and Lord of the Feast. It turns out Iona is not completely aware of Irusk2’s feat- she will be shortly. The rest of her army doesn’t do much. The picture above shows the end of turn 1.

It is time for Irusk to spring the trap. It might be his only chance to even the odds.

Irusk upkeeps both spells (one for free from the Adjunct). He moves forward and camps the rest of the focus. Those Tharns are pretty fast. He then feat. The Greylord Adjunct moves up a bit and casts Guidance on the Field Gun with Fire for Effect on it. It now has a 98% chance of hitting Lord of the Feast (it can now ignore Stealth). It aims and fires. It only has a 25% chance of actually killing him when he is filled up with corpse tokens. But he only has one on him, giving the Field Gun a 57% chance of killing him. It does not kill him. However, the Rifle Corps on the right flank moves up, close enough to actually see him, and finish him off. It’s a good day to be a Winter Guard. The rest of the Rifle Corps shoots at the Ravagers on my right flank, and kills one. This was the plan, and it worked (it might come back and haunt me, though).

Joe gives the inspiring speech For the Motherland to the Rifle Corps on my left flank. They move up and, in combination with the other Field Gun and Mortar (assisted by the Artillery Kapitan), takes out three Ravagers and the Tharn Wolf Rider Champion. The Marauders move up to be ready for the next wave of Tharn. The Infantry runs to try and get in the way. The picture above depicts the situation at the end of the heroic round 1.

After much shaking of head and general grief of loosing Lord of the Feast, the Circle player gets his act together and retaliates. Iona feat! She also casts Earth’s Blessing on herself and moves closer to the action. The Ravagers on my right flank, now powered up with corpse tokens and the feat charge my Rifle Corps and the Marauder. I basically loose most of that unit, and the Marauder looses 15 boxes, but nothing important. It is worse for the other two. I did manage to put them too far forward. A combination of Caul, the Stalker, and a Ravager takes out the other two. This was not the best tactical approach from my side. Half the Rifle Corps on my left flank, and a good third of the Infantry also disappear to a combination of Ravagers and Wolf Riders. The picture above shows the situation after the Tharn revenge at the end of the turn.

From heaven to hell in just one round. It might even be hubris. Irusk got Lord of the Feast, but he lost about half the army to the retaliation. I can work on my positioning.

Not all is lost. Irusk upkeeps his spells and fills up the Marauder. He then casts Battle Lust on the Infantry and moves behind the wall. I think I might be overestimating the effect of Battle Lust. Perhaps shooting is just better. Anyway, the artillery fires and manage to put some serious hurt into the Stalker. The Maraduer kills Caul and does a bit of damage to a Ravager, who the flips the finger and heals. The Rifle Corps and Infantry then charges. They remove the Stalker and a Wolf Rider. One of them also contest Circle’s flag. I was hoping to remove the Ravager contesting my zone, but Rapid Healing, Tough and no knockdown is simply overwhelming. So we are now looking at a scenario score of 3-0 in Iona’s favour. The picture above shows the situation after round 1.

More Tharn chopping and chewing through my unlucky Winter Guards. Iona casts Earth’s Blessing and surfs through a few Winter Guards before doing a Cygnar shuffle (retreating). The Ravagers on my right and the Wolf Riders swarms my last Marauder, but he miraculous survives. The Ravagers on the left flank have an evil plan of surfing through the remaining Rifle Corps. But they demonstrate how tough rolls should be made. This actually leaves my zone empty of contesting models. So scenario score is now 5-1 in Iona’s favour. I could have lost here. The picture above shows the sorry state of the game at the end of round 3.

So, it is now or never. Iona has to die. I have a cunning scheme.

Irusk upkeeps his spells, charges and kills a Wolf Rider. In hindsight he should perhaps have cast Airbust on Iona or cycled Fire for Effect. But I was under time pressure. The Adjunct casts Guidance on the Field Gun on the Left, It proceeds to shoot Iona and leaves her at 4 boxes. One of the remaining Winter Guards runs next to her (she is outside charge range). The Artillery Kapitan gives Artillerist to the Mortar, who then wants to shoot the Winter Guard in the back and kill Iona through blast damage. Unfortunately I am out of time before it can make its attack. It only had a 28% chance of actually hitting him. But if it did I “only” needed to roll 8 to kill her. Stranger things have happened.

Nevertheless, I loose to the clock. Scenario score ends at 6-2 in Iona’s favour.

I knew from the beginning that this was not a matchup for Irusk2, in particular not with all the forest around. It ended as expected. I do, however think that there are lessons to be learned here. For one, I should be better at positioning. I lost two Marauders, basically to crappy measuring. They should have been kept back as a second wave. In general, I have to learn to sacrifice Winter Guards to keep the ‘jacks alive. I think I also (unnecessarily) sacrificed my Rifle Corps on the right flank. But I really wanted to get rid of Lord of the Feast; and the expression on the Circle player’s face when he died was worth it all.

This might sound like whining, but despite me liking the whole CID idea, Iona + Devourer’s Host + Ravagers reminds me of the power creep that got me out of GW games. Anyway, it was an enjoyable game for both of us. Next time, I’ll try Sorscha3 and Armored Corps against Tharn.

Until next time

For the Motherland!

Legion is not a faction I’m too familiar with. I generally think they look scary. This list consists of three hugebase models and a few bits and bobs. This looks like it should be just the kind of thing the new version of Irusk2’s WGK list is made for. Irusk is packing three Marauders and Winter Guards, all capable of taking hugebase models down. The Legion list is as follows:

I really haven’t got a great idea about what to expect from an Oracles of Annihilation list. This version is led by Absylonia1, who packs an interesting combination of innate abilities and spells, and a feat that can really ruin the day for Irusk2, who doesn’t pack any Grievous Wounds capabilities – which incidentally doesn’t matter against huge-based models.

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight is helping her warbeasts perform even better. Her innate ability Spontaneous Mutation is clearly nice for her, but it is really nice when it is applied to a warbeasts through her spell Playing God. It can give one or more of the following abilities: Ashen Veil (concealment and -2 to attack rolls within 2″); Warp Strength (+2 STR); or Wings (+1 SPD and Flight). She can also cast Refuge (allowing the target model a super Reposition, whilst being immune to free strike, if it hits something). Finally, Wild Aggression is not to be frown upon. It give boosted melee attack rolls and free charge, etc. As a bonus, she has Resourcefulness so she can upkeep them for free.

Her feat, if applied at the right time, is really good. It heals all damage from her beasts within her control range, and gives them Rapid Healing. So killing her beasts will be a pain.

Absylonia1 brings two gargantuan to the party: the Archangel and the Blightbringer. The former is the scary classic looking dragon, and the latter is the even more scary looking monster.

The Archangel is a high flying very mobile infantry slayer, which also packs three potent melee attacks. It is the only gargantuan in the game that can do the equivalent to Reposition for 3″. It also hampers shooting at it by applying a -3 RNG modifier on who ever is shooting at it. Its d3+1 AOE 3″ dragon breath threatens a potential 17″ (in addition to the 1.5″ extra from the AOE), whilst keeping the dragon 13″ away from the point of impact (due to the reposition-style Flying High). Combined with its Animus, Draconic Aura it does 2d6+16 (average of 23) points of damage on the impact and 2d6+9 (average of 16) in the blast area (within 10″). Luckily, Irusk’s trusted Winter Guards are very likely immune to blast, and tough when near this abomination. Also, with its low DEF and ARM 19, two fully loaded Marauders should quite easily one-round it (they should do in the vicinity of 70 points of damage to it). So no worries here (unless it is on Absylonia’s feat turn).

The Blightbringer is a huge scary looking crab-like monster. It is, to my mind an odd choice in this list, as it appears to be better in a list where supporting infantry would play an important role; but, then again, I’m not a Legion player. In this list, it seems to be a beat stick. If Absylonia casts Playing God on it, it will be a flying monster hitting once for POW 20 and twice for POW 19 as its initial. That could hurt. It can also deal with tough within 2″. Finally, its animus gives it sprays when hit, so this model should clearly be Marauder food. As with the Archangel, its low DEF and ARM 19 means that two fully loaded Marauders should quite easily one-round it (they should do in the vicinity of 70 points of damage to it). So no worries here (as long as Irusk can keep his Marauders alive and functioning).

The final huge-based model is the Throne of Everblight, which perhaps should be known as the Throne of EverSpray. It has one initial 8″ POW 12 Spray, and then one more for each time it kills one or more enemy models, which is four if it hits with all of its tentacles. Winter Guards do really not like sprays, irregardless of how tough they are.  Once again, two fully loaded Marauders should quite easily one-round it.

In addition to the three huge-based models, Absylonia brings a small group of infantry. Some of them are kind of inconsequential. These are: the Blighted Nyss Shepherd that can heal, force and remove one fury form nearby beasts; the Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion has the nasty ability of being able to put a 5″ AOE that makes models suffer one point of damage, if an attack against it fails to exceed the ARM (as a small note, my opponent forgot to put this one on the table, and we didn’t discover until end of turn 2. So it never arrived); and the Bog Trog Mist Speaker, which doesn’t really matter too much.

Finally, Absylonia has brought some stuff that is important to avoid for the Marauders in particular: The Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters and Bayal, Hound of Everblight are a real annoyance to the Marauders. They can Hex Blast (Marauders can’t do Power Attacks) and Shadow Bind (Marauders can’t advance); and the Ice Witches are capable of throwing Ice Cages around, which again could spell trouble for the poor Marauders.

We are playing Recon II. Legion won the roll-off and opted to go first. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″).

Legion deploys a wall of huge-based models in the middle, along with Absylonia; and with the support pieces scattered loosely around in the back. Finally, the Hex Hunters are Advanced Deployed in the middle. The Theme Force allows for upkeep spells to be on models from the beginning. So Playing God goes on the Blightbringer; Refuge goes on the Throne of Everblight; and Wild Aggression on the Archangel.

Irusk deploys in more or less the standard pattern. That is, one Rifle Corps on each flank, having a Field Gun on the inner side. Himself in the middle with the Winter Guard Infantry, the Mortar, the solos, and the Marauders in from of him, behind the forreste in the middle (yes, the two green areas that look like hills are forrest). The picture above depicts the situation at the end of deployment.

First turn is almost alway uneventful.

The Legion basically just runs everything forward. The Archangel has its eyes (or not, it does have eyeless sight) on the rectangular zone to my right. The Blightbringer moves towards the left zone, and the Throne shambles up the middle. All the small models just shuffles along. The picture above shows the end of round 1.

Irusk casts Solid Ground and Fire for Effect on the left most Field Gun. He still haven’t thought about casting this on a Mortar. Tradition is a hard thing to break. He also casts Artifice of Deviation on the right flank, for a Rifle Corps to move into. It will bring them up to DEF 16 against the dragon breath from the Archangel. The Marauders move in behind the forest hoping to hide from the Hex Hunters until Irusk is going to feat. On the right flank, most of the Rifle Corps move into the Artifice of Deviation. On the left flank, Joe gives the inspirational speech of Courage of the Forefathers to the Rifle Corps, who then takes a wide left swing around the house. In the middle, the remaining models just move forward. The Mortar and the Field Gun goes into the trench for better protection. As usual, a not very eventful round. Somehow I did manage to use 11 minutes on deployment and the first turn. That is far too much. The picture above depicts the end of turn 1.

The two lines crashes and the Winter Guards will finally get to be tested against the dragon spawn.

Absylonia upkeeps her spells for free. She also hurts herself for all three bonuses due to Spontaneous Mutation, which the Blightbringer also will benefit from. She then promptly heals using fury. Somehow she manages to also cast Blight Burst on the leftmost Marauder, making it very close to an inanimate lump of iron. The Blightbringer then moves up and proceeds to remove the other Marauder. On my right flank the Throne and Archangel moves into the zone. On the right flank, one of the solos moves next to the flag, and the Hex Hunters move forward.

OK, one Marauder down, that is to be expected. There is a reason I have three. One should never underestimate the power of backups. Irusk upkeeps his spells, assigns focus to the functioning Marauder, and remains where he is. He is not particularly interested in getting near all the sprays. As an afterthought, he should perhaps have moved up a bit more to protect the advancing Rifle Corps on the right flank. The Artillery Kapitan moves up to the flag to score and give the Mortar Artillerist on the way. The Adjunct drops his cloud on Irusk, just in case. Next up is the artillery, which shoots  and kills the objective and shoots the rest at the Blightbringer. The two Maraduers finish it of. One huge monster down, two to go. On the left flank, Joe gives the speech For the Motherland to the Rifle Corps. They then move up and starts shooting at Hex Hunters, and removes two. On the right flank, the Rifle Corps runs forward and spreads out to block the two remaining mosters and contest the zone. The Infantry shuffles forward. This leaves us at 2-1 for scenario score, in Irusk’s favour. The picture above shows the end of turn two (I’m not completely sure what the AOE to the left of the Marauder is).

Legion fight back, but learns what really mad Winter Guards can do.

So, Absylonia is a bit shocked to discover that her Blightbringer went down so easily. I can see revenge spelled all over her face. She upkeeps her spells, save Playing God and moves to hide behind her gargantuan. The Hex Hunters moves up and manage to put Shadow Bind on the same unlucky Marauder. The Throne then activates and removes a huge chuck of Winter Guards through the application of tentacles and sprays. Next up is the Archangel that moves forward and kills some more. She also back off from her flag. This enables Irusk to score another point, leaving the scenario score at 3-1 in Irusk’s favour. The picture above shows the state of affairs at the end of round 1.  

Absylonia has spend a tremendous amount of time so far, which is nice. Irusk feels kind of confident. He upkeeps Solid Ground and Fire for Effect, fils up the functioning Marauder, the other one shakes Shadowbind. He then activates and feat, and cast Battle Lust on the Infantry. He is quite happy where he is so he just leans back at watches the battle unfold. The functioning Marauder moves up and hammers away at the Archangel. This is followed up by Joe shouting Bear’s Strength to the Infantry, and runs towards Absylonia’s flag. The Infantry the proceeds to charge to Archangel and removes it with out too much effort. Two monster down, one to go. The Rifle Corps on the left just moves forward, and in the interest of time forgoes any actions. The Rifle Corps on the right, and the artillery shoots at the Throne. The scenario score is now 4-1 in Irusk’s favour. The picture above depicts the glorious battle field at the end of turn 3.

Absylonia is in serious trouble in so many ways. Here comes her last stand

There really isn’t much to do for Absylonia. She has lost her beasts, is really behind on scenario score, and is quickly running out of time. In short: the Throne moves in and removes a lot of Winter Guards along with one of the Marauders. A few Winter Guards also drop of on my left flank. That’s about it. She looses to scenario. 

This was a strange match. I did expect more from all those scary looking monsters. However, I think that Irusk performed marvellous this time. Hiding Marauders behind the forest and striking under feat. Also, finally the Infantry got good use out of Bear’s Strength and Battle Lust. The lesson here is that it is not sufficient with just one of them. To really perform, they need both.

Until the next time:

For the Motherland!