House Kallyss – The Greylord Archives

The Motherland going to Rhein Con (day 1)

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

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

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

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

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

Khador – Winter Korps
Kapitan Zahana Vilkul

   – Fog of War

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Great Bear [15]

     HEAD – Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Deep Freezer

     LEFT ARM – Battle Axe

   – Razor [18]
AC-2 Bison [10]

AC-2 Bison [10]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Sergeant Goran Lazarenko, the Jackal [2]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Ths Hounds [8]

Winter Korps Infantry [6]

   – Auto Cannon

   – Auto Cannon

   – Winter Korps Standard [1]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Valerii Savaryn

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield
Kontroller [4]

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

Sergeant Sergie Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]
Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Hit & Run

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

Winter Korps under Kommander Valerii Savaryn

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

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

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

Winter Korps under Kapitan Zahara Vilkul

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

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

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

Battle 1 — Brineblood Marauders

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

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

Southern Kriels – Brineblood Marauders

        Admiral Boomhowler

        – SPELL – Rough Seas

        – SPELL – Fortify

        – SPELL – Fury’s Strength

        – Great Old One [16]

        – Reef Troll [8]

        	– HEAD – Matey

        	– BOOZE – Ale Tankard

        	– RIGHT ARM – Ship’s Gun

        	– LEFT ARM – Boarding Axe

        – Vorogger [12] 
        Booty Boss [2]

        Booty Boss [2]

        Fire Guardian [1]

        Fire Guardian [1]

        First Mate Hargor Stormjaw [4]

        Fugue Walker [4]

        Fugue Walker [4]

        Greygore Boomhowler [4]

        Madame Moriarty [3]
        Lochabash Brothers [9]

        Marauder Crew [6]

        – Marauder Crew Bosun [3]

        Marauder Crew [6]

        – Marauder Crew Tapper [1]

        Marauder Crew [6]

        – Marauder Crew Tapper [1]

        Pyg Boarding Party [6]

        – Pyg Coxswain [1]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Break Through

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Defenses

        	– Barrier

        	– Barrier

        	– Fire Pit

        – Lucky Penny
        Total Points   100/100

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

Deployment

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

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

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

End of deployment

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

Round 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

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

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

Let’s do the maths:

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

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

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

End of Valerii’s turn

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

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

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

End of game

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

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

Battle 2 — Storm Legion

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

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

Cygnar – Storm Legion

        Major Allistr Caine

        – Arcane Shield

       	– Calamity

       	– Deflection

       	– Heightened Reflexes

       	– Teleport
       	– Courser

			– Storm Thrower

        	– Voltaic Punching Spike

        – Courser

			– Storm Thrower

			– Voltaic Punching Spike

        – Courser

			– Storm Thrower

			– Voltaic Punching Spike

        – Courser

			– Storm Thrower

			– Voltaic Punching Spike
        Legionnaire Officer

        Lieutenant Sara Brisbane

        – Deuce

        Zephyr
        Arcane Mechanics

        Storm Lance Legionnaires

        Storm Lance Legionnaires

        Storm Vanes

        Black 13
        Command Cards

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Defenses

        	– Barrier

        	– Barrier

        	– Barrier

        – Hit & Run

        – Lucky Penny

        – Sapper
        Total Points   100/100

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

Deployment

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

End of deployment

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

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

Round 1

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

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

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

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

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

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

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

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

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

End of round 3

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

Round 4

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

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

End of game

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

Anyway, onwards to the next battle.

Battle 3 — Shadowflame Shard

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

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

Khymaera – Shadowflame Shard

        Kyrrax, the Unrelenting Night

        – Skylla, The Abyssal Fury [16]

        – Vypex [13]

        	– HEAD – Viper

        	– TAIL – Hunter’s Mark

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

        Pythia [3]

        Ryvyn, the Onyx Rampant [6]

        Wraithwing Paragon [5]

        Wraithwing Paragon [5]
        Incarnate Knights [11]

        Quick Fang Stalkers [7]

        Shades [9]

        Talon Death Dealers [7]

        Talon Lashers [7]

        Talon Lashers [7]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Defenses

        	– Barrier

        	– Barrier

        	– Brrrier

        – Duck and Cover!

        – Lucky Penny

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points   100/100

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

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

Deployment

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

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

End of deployment

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

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

Round 1

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

End of round 1

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

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

Round 2

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

End of round 3

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

Round 4

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 4

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

Round 5

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

End of round 5, end of game

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

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

Battle 4 — House Kallyss

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

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

Dusk – House Kallyss

        Morayne, The Blade of Twilight

        – Ghast[8]

        	– HEAD – Arc Node

        	– RIGHT ARM – Heavy Blade Fist

        	– LEFT ARM – Battle Shield

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

        Krueger, Wrath of Blighterghast [7]

        Mage Hunter Commander [4]

        Mage Hunter Commander [4]

        Mage Hunter Sniper Team [3]

        Mage Hunter Sniper Team [3]

        Void Shaper [2]
        Dreadguard Archers [9]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Mage Hunter Rangers [7]

        Seeker Adepts [4]

        Soulless Blademasters [6]
        Command Cards

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Duck and Cover!

        – Hit & Run

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful
        Total Points   100/100

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

Deployment

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

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

End of Deployment

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

The picture above shows the end of deployment.

Round 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 3

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

Round 4

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 4

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

Round 5

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

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

End of turn 1, round 5. End of game

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

Summary & Lessons Learned

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

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

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

For the Motherland!

The Motherland goes to Conquest (day 3)

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

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

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

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

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

Khador – Winter Korps
Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy

   – Fog of War

   – Puissance

   – Mastodon [32]

     HEAD – Shock Assault

     RIGHT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     LEFT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     RIGHT ARM – Great Axe

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

AC-2 Bison [10]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Magziev Zarivah Volkova [4]

Mortar Team [2]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Duck and Cover!

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Valerii Savaryn

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield
Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Kontroller [4]

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

Sergeant Sergie Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

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

Battle 1 — House Kallyss

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

Dusk – House Kallyss
        Tyrus, Nis-Arsyr of Spiders

        	– Eidolon [17]

        		– HEAD – True Sight

        		– RIGHT ARM – Dawn Blade

        		– LEFT ARM – Force Shield

        		– BACK – Force Cannon

        	– Ghast [7]

        		– HEAD – Arc Node

        		– RIGHT ARM – Heavy Blade Fist

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

        Void Engine [8]

        	– Wight
        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Slayers [8]

        Mage Hunter Assassins [6]

        Mage Hunter Assassins [6]

        Seeker Adepts [4]

        Soulless Blademasters [6]

        Soulless Guardians [6]

        Soulless Guardians [6]
        Total points  100/100

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

Deployment

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

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

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

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

End of deployment

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

Round 1

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

End of round 1

Boring round done. Let’s start cracking skulls.

Round 2

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 3, end of game

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

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

Battle 2 — Necrofactorium

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

Cryx – Necrofactorium

        Lich Lord Dekathus

        – Hades

        	– HEAD – Hades [16]

        	– RIGHT ARM – Soul Cannon

        	– LEFT ARM – Death Claw

        – Malefactor [15]

        	– HEAD – Dark Shroud

        	– RIGHT ARM – Fell Axe

        	– LEFT ARM – Spiked Shield

        – Raptor [6]

        	– HEAD – Doomspitter

        	– BACK – Arc Node

        – Raptor [6]

        	– HEAD – Venom Blaster

        	– BACK – Arc Node
        Machine Wraith Dominator [4]

        Magnus the Unstoppable [20]

        – Invictus

        Master Necrotech Chatterbane [4]

        Night Terrors [10]

        Sludge Thralls [8]

        The Furies [10]
        Total Points 99/100

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

Deployment

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

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

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

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

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

End of deplpoyment

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

Round 1

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 2, end of game

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

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

Battle 3 — Winter Korps

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

Khador – Winter Korps

        Kapitan Zahara Vilkul

         – Avalanche [15]

        	– HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

        	– RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

        	– LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

        – Great Bear [15]

        	– HEAD – Aggressive

        	– RIGHT ARM – Deep Freezer

        	– LEFT ARM – Battle Axe

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

        Sergeant Goran Lazarenko, the Jackal [4]

        Winter Korps Officer [3]

        Arkanists [4]

        Arkanists [4]

        The Hounds [8]

        Winter Korps Infantry [6]

        – WEAPON SUPPORT TROOPERS – Auto Cannon

        – WEAPON SUPPORT TROOPERS – Auto Cannon

        – Winter Korps Standard [1]

        Winter Korps Infantry [6]

        – WEAPON SUPPORT TROOPERS – Auto Cannon

        – WEAPON SUPPORT TROOPERS – Auto Cannon

        – Winter Korps Standard [1]

        Winter Korps Snipers [4]

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

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

Deployment

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

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

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

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

End of deployment

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

Round 1

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

Round 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

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

End of round 4

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

Round 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Summary & Lessons Learned

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

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

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

For the Motherland!

The Motherland goes to Conquest (day 2)

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

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

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

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

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

Khador – Winter Korps
Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy

   – Fog of War

   – Puissance

   – Mastodon [32]

     HEAD – Shock Assault

     RIGHT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     LEFT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     RIGHT ARM – Great Axe

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

AC-2 Bison [10]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Magziev Zarivah Volkova [4]

Mortar Team [2]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Duck and Cover!

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Valerii Savaryn

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield
Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Kontroller [4]

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

Sergeant Sergie Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

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

Battle 1 — Crucible Guard

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

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

Crucible Guard – Crucible Guard

        Major Aline Bennet

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

        Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

        Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

        Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

        Crucible Guard Mechanik [1]

        Prospero [4]

        – Vulcan [28]

        – Vulcan [28]

        Rocketman Stinger [3]

        Rocketman Stinger [3]

        Trancer [2]

        Trancer [2]

        Crucible Guard Assault Troopers [7]

        Dragon’s Breath Rocket [4]
        Defenses

        – Defence 1 – Barrier

        – Defence 1 – Barrier

        – Defence 1 – Barrier
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Defenses

        – Lucky Penny

        – Sapper
        Total Points   99/100

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

Deployment

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

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

End of deployment

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

Round 1

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

End of turn 1

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

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

End of round 2, end of game

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

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

Battle 2 — Protectorate of Menoth

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

Protectorate of Menoth – Final Interdiction

        High Exemplar Cyrenia

        – Fire of Salvation [13]

        – Redeemer [8]

        – Redeemer [8]
        Exemplar Errant Seneschal [3]

        Exemplar Warder [3]

        Exemplar Warder [3]

        High Exemplar Gravus [7]

        Vassal of Menoth [1]

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

        Exemplar Cinerators [7]

        – Exemplar Cinerator Officer [3]

        Exemplar Errants [8]

        – Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard [3]

        Exemplar Errants [8]

        – Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard [3]

        Exemplar Vengers [9]

        Exemplar Vengers [9]
        Defenses

        – Defense 1 – Barrier

        – Defense 1 – Fire Pit

        – Defense 1 – Fire Pit
        Command Cards

        – Break Through

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Defenses

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful
        Total Points   99/100

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

Deployment

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

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

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

The picture below the silence before the storm.

End of deployment

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

Round 1

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

End of turn 1

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

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

The picture below depicts the end of the boring round.

End of round 1

Now onto the bloody one…

Round 2

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 3, end of game

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

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

Battle 3 — Rhul Guard

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

Mercenaries – Rhul Guard

        General Ossrum

        – Ghordson Earthbreaker [27]

        – Grundback Blaster [5]

        – Grundback Blaster [5]
        Carver Ultimus [20]

        – War Boar MMD47
        Ogrun Bokur [3]

        Ogrun Bokur [3]

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

        Horgenhold Artillery Corps [4]

        Horgenhold Forge Guard [7]

        Horgenhold Forge Guard [7]

        Horgenhold Forge Guard [7]

        Tactical Arcanist Corps [4]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points   99/100

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

Deployment

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

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

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

The picture below shows the deployment.

End of deployment

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

Round 1

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

End of turn 1

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

The picture below shows the quite befor the storm.

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 3

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

Round 4

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 4

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

Round 5

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

End of turn 1, end of game

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, onwards to the last game today.

Battle 4 — House Kallyss

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

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

Dusk – House Kallyss
        Scyrafael, Nis-Issyr of Desolations

        – Eidolon [16]

        	– HEAD – True Sight

        	– RIGHT ARM – Dawn Blade

        	– LEFT ARM – Force Shield

        	– BACK – Vortex Cannon

        – Eidolon [15]

        	– HEAD – Arcane Stasis

        	– RIGHT ARM – Dawn Blade

        	– LEFT ARM – Force Shield

        	– BACK – Vortex Cannon

        – Ghast [9]

        	– HEAD – Arc Node

        	– RIGHT ARM – Blaster Fist

        	– LEFT ARM – Force Lash

        – Israfyl [17]

        	– HEAD – Israfyl

        	– LEFT ARM – Serpentine Blade

        	– RIGHT ARM – Serpentine Blade

        	– BACK – Death Whisper

        – Specter [10]

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

        Void Engine [8]

        – Wight

        Seeker Adepts [4]

        Soulless Guardians [8]
        Command Cards

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Duck and Cover!

        – Hit & Run

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful
        Total Points   99/100

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

Deployment

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

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

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

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

End of deployment

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

Round 1

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

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

End of turn 1

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

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 3

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

Round 4

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

End of round 4

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

Oy! I’m just lying around here…

This was an intense game.

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

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

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

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

Summary & Lessons Learned

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

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

Anyway. Tomorrow is another day.

For the Motherland!

The Motherland goes to Conquest (day 1)

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

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

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

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

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

Khador – Winter Korps
Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy

   – Fog of War

   – Puissance

   – Mastodon [32]

     HEAD – Shock Assault

     RIGHT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     LEFT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer

     RIGHT ARM – Great Axe

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

AC-2 Bison [10]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Battle Mechanik [2]

Magziev Zarivah Volkova [4]

Mortar Team [2]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]

Shock Trooper Pikemen [7]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Duck and Cover!

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out
Total Points   100/100

Khador – Winter Korps
Kommander Valerii Savaryn

   – Puissance

   – Superiority

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

     LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield

   – Avalanche [15]

     HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive

     RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance

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

Kontroller [4]

   – Dire Wolf [10]

     HEAD – Shield Guard

     RIGHT ARM – Long Axe

     LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield

Sergeant Sergie Krol [5]

Winter Korps Officer [3]

Winter Korps Officer [3]
Arkanists [4]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Suppressors [11]

Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10]

Winter Korps Snipers [4]

   – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1]
Command cards

    – Blessing of the Gods

    – Lucky Penny

    – Old Faithful

    – Put the Fires Out

    – Sapper
Total Points   100/100

Winter Korps under Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy

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

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

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

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

Winter Korps under Kommander Valerii Savaryn

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

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

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

Battle 1 — Dark Operations

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

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

Mercenaries – Dark Operations

        Exulon Thexus

        – Subduer [10]

        – Subduer [10]
        Carver Ultimus [20]

        – War Boar MMD47
        Cephalyx Agitator [2]

        Cephalyx Agitator [2]

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

        Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges [6]

        Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges [6]

        Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges [6]

        Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges [6]

        Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges [6]

        Dominated Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps [6]

        Dominated Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps [6]

        Dominated Horgenhold Artillery Corps [5]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points   99/100

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

Deployment

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

End of Deployment

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

Round 1

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

End of turn 1

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

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 3

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

Round 4

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

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1, end of game

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

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

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

Battle 2 — Shadowflame Shard

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

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

Khymaera – Shadowflame Shard

        Rassyk, Spawn of Shadows

        – SPELL – Carnivore

        – SPELL – Curse of Shadows
        – Drakyon [11]

        – Drakyon [11]

        – Hydrix [13]

        	– CENTRAL HEAD – Toothy Maw

	        – SMALLER HEAD – Blockhead

        	– SMALLER HEAD – Blockhead

	        – DORSAL FEATURE – Bladeback

        – Skylla, The Abyssal Fury [16]

        	– CENTRAL HEAD – Skylla

        	– SMALLER HEAD 1 – Horned Piercer

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

        Ryvyn, the Onyx Rampant [6]

        Wraithwing Paragon [5]

        Incarnate Knights [11]

        Incarnate Knights [11]

        Talon Lashers [7]

        Wyrmspine Shadowmancers [4]
        Defenses

        – Defense 1 – Barrier

        – Defense 1 – Barrier

        – Defense 1 – Barrier
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Defenses

        – Hit & Run

        – Lucky Penny

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points 99/100

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

Deployment

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

End of deployment

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

Round 1

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 1

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

Round 2

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

End of round 2

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

Round 3

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

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 3

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

Round 4

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

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

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

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

End of round 4, end of game

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

Battle 3 — House Kallyss

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

Dusk – House Kallyss

        Hazaroth, Narcissar of Ruin

        – Ghast [9]

        	– HEAD – Fleet

        	– RIGHT ARM – Heavy Blade Fist

        	– LEFT ARM – Battle Shield

        – Ghast [9]

        	– HEAD – Fleet

        	– RIGHT ARM – Heavy Blade Fist

        	– LEFT ARM – Battle Shield

        – Israfyl [17]

        	– HEAD – Israfyl

        	– LEFT ARM – Serpentine Blade

        	– RIGHT ARM – Serpentine Blade

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

        Eiryss, Shadow of Retribution [5]

        Mage Hunter Sniper Team [3]

        Void Shaper [2]

        Dreadguard Archers [9]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Cavalry [11]

        Dreadguard Slayers [8]

        Seeker Adepts [4]

        Soulless Guardians [6]

        Seeker Warden [2]
        Command Cards

        – Blessing of the Gods

        – Careful Reconnaissance

        – Lucky Penny

        – Old Faithful

        – Put the Fires Out
        Total Points 100/100

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

Deployment

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

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

End of turn 1

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

Round 1

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

End of round 1

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

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

End of turn 1

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

Round 2

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

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

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

End of round 2

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

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

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

End of turn 1

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

Round 3

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

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

End of round 3

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

End of round 4, end of game

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

Summary & Lessons Learned

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

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

Onwards till tomorrow. For the Motherland!