MK IV is here! To celebrate this and to get to grips with the new changes, the Motherland is attending a small one day tournament. I have yet to play a single MK IV game. I have read to rules, but…

There are 13 players attending with an array of different armies. The following factions are present:

• Retribution of Scyrah (1)
• Rhul Guard (1)
• Cygnar (1)
• Khador (3)
• Cryx (2)
• Circle Orboros (2)
• Protectora of Menoth (1)
• Crucible Guard (1)
• Thornfall Alliance  (1)

We are playing 75 points prime Steamroller 2023. We are allowed two lists, but it is not a requirement. We are using the rules finally available in the Warmachine App or free from the Privateer Press store here. 

Prime allows us to play Armored Korps, using the classic models; and Winter Korps, using the new models. Unfortunately, the new models are not available at the time of playing. So, for me it is Armored Korps all the way.

Kommandant Sorscha Kratikoff – Beast 09 [15] – Kodiak [10] Man-O-War Kovnik [4] Man-O-War Kovnik [4] Man-O-War Suppression Tanker [5] Man-O-War Suppression Tanker [5] Battle Mechaniks [2] – Battle Mechanik Officer [2] Kommandant Atanas Arconovich & Standard [6] Man-O-War Demolition Korps [7] – Sergeant Dragos Dragadovich [4] Man-O-War Shocktroopers [8] – Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer [3] Break Through [0] Hit & Run [0] Old Faithful [0] Power Swell [0] True Inspiration [0]

Kommander Harkevich – Black Ivan [15] – Destroyer [13] – Destroyer [13] – Destroyer [13] Greylord Forge Seer [3] Greylord Forge Seer [3] Battle Mechaniks [2] Man-O-War Bombardiers [9] – Man-O-War Bombardiers Officer [4] Infiltration [0] Old Faithful [0] Power Swell [0] Put the Fires Out [0] True Inspiration [0]

Sorscha’s Man-o-War heavy list is in many ways a MK IV version of my standard Armored Korps MK II list. It has clearly gone down in number of dudes as the new unit size is smaller. It has also lost the Bombariers since we are playing fewer points. It is going to be interesting to see how it plays in MK IV.

The Harkevich list is primarily here to exploit the new AOW rules; which apparently should be amazing. Destroyers and Bombardiers for blasting. Forge Seers to help Harkevich with focus and Mechaniks to keep the show running. 

This is going to be fun. On to the first battle. 

First list is Protectorate of Menoth. Here is was thinking that they had all run off to the south. Yet here they are. 

There is a lot of little dudes with swords or crossbows. I’m just assuming that the new blast rules are cool. So, Harkevich and all the guns are going to have a blast. 

Grand Exemplar Kreoss – Redeemer 1 – Redeemer 2 High Exemplar Gravus Reclaimer Gatekeeper Vassal of Menoth 1 Vassal of Menoth 2 Choir of Menoth Exemplar Errants 1 Exemplar Errants 2 Knights Exemplar 1 Knights Exemplar 2 Knights Exemplar 3 Knights Exemplar 4 Break Through Careful Reconnaissance Infiltration Old Faithful Take Cover!

We are playing the scenario Invasion. Kreoss wins the roll of and deceides to go first. He deploys in the middle and distributes all the small dudes across the line; with the Errants on the left and more Exemplars on the right.

Harkevich puts two Destroyers on the right to blast the Examplars, the Bombardiers and one Destroyer on the left for the Errants, and the rest in the middle.

The picture below depicts the situation after deployment. 

The first round in Mark IV is just as eventfull as in Mark III. Kreoss basically runs his stuff forward. 

Harkevich counters by … running his stuff forward. Pathfinder on the ‘jacks from Harkevich casting Mobility is really nice; as is the Granted ability on the Bombardiers from the Officer. 

Unfortunately, the relaxed approach to the first round is not always good. The Bombariers should probably not have moved so much forward. 

The battle field at the end of the first round is shown below.

Kreoss puts up Inviolable Resolve giving his models +2 ARM and immunity to knockdown, slam and push. Together with Gravus’ build in 10″ bubble of no knowdown all are steady. As sugar on the top, Kreoss also has a 10″ tough bubble; making the Examplars a pain.

The Errants on the left flank begins. They charge the Bombardiers. This is my first interaction with the new Unit Movement rules. They make for very agile units. Basically only one model needs Line of Sight (LOS) and complete a charge; and suddenly one is swamped with little dudes. This requires som unlearning to get use to.

POW 9, weapon master swords still hurt a lot (23 points of damage on the average, against the 17 points of ARM on the Bombardiers). I should have payed more attention the in first round. What is left alive is cleaned up by a swarm of Exemplars (POW 11, weapon masters). After the dust settles, only one Bombardiere is left standing.

On the right flank, the Examplars run to jam the two Destroyers. That is probably OK, as one of them, on purpose is in the zone. The Redeemers take a few pot shots at stuff.

Harkevich needs to counter the horde of small and heavily armed men. The left flank, in particular is weak. He hands out focus and casts Guided Fire (boosted attack rolls to the battle group). He also feats (+3 ARM for the battle group, free charge or slam, and free ranged attack before a charge). He then shoots an Exampler for good measure.

On the left flank, the last Bombardier tries his saw on an Errant, and misses. The Destroyer starts shooting at Examplars and removes a hand full. I should probably have used the shoot, charge, kill, shoot sequence under the feat (all ‘jacks now have dual attack!). Black Ivan goes Gravus hunting but can’t kill him — not even knock him of his horse.

On the right flank, the Destroyers start by hitting stuff with their axes, and then when not engaged anymore, shoot more small men. Again, I should probably have used the feat better. Besides cleaning out some (to few) Examplars it also gives them Battle Driven (+2 ARM and +2 to attack rolls).

A note on AOE. These attacks have changed. I’m pretty sure for the better. No more drifting and holding templates to figure out how has been hit. Now, if the AOE hits the target obviously suffers damage; also the number of models equal to the AOE number and within the AOE number of inches suffer damage. So, a AOE 3 hitting its target will hit the target and 3 other models, if they are within 3″. If the AOE misses, the target is still hit but only suffers the blast damage. Very neat. I makes the Destroyers much more effective.

That is it. Harkevich did manage to remove some Examplers. I pretty sure it isn’t enough though.

  

The picture below depicts the end of round 2. 

Round 3 is where things go down. Kreoss goes in for the kill. 

Kreoss moves up and feats. So, now his models auto hit and can make an additional attack. The Redeemers starts out by shooting and killing my objective, leaving Harkevich exposed. If would have been beneficial if I had read up on Black Ivan. He is Evasive. So, he could have moved 2″ in front of Harkevich after being hit by the blast that killed the Objective. Note to self: do read and remember your models’ cards. 

Anyway, as the objective is gone, the Examplers can now do some funky unit movement. Purely by chance, one Exampler could actually draw line of sight from behind the cloud to Harkevic. So, he can charge and the rest of the unit is the placed neatly in a circle around Harkevich. That is 4 guys putting out 4 charge attacks and 4 (free) normal attacks at MAT 9 (+2 from battle driven) at POW 11, weapon master. Harkevich is only DEF 14 and ARM 19 (+3 from feat). This is an 83% of hitting, and an average damage of 6 points per attack. Harkevich has 18 boxes and is naked. This is going to be painfull. 

The picture below shows the result of too many Examplars and too little Harkevich. 

First of all, I think I’m going to like MK IV. This was a fun game with a capable opponent. 

I’m still not sure about Harkevich. He has never been particularly good. He is still starved for focus, despite the fact that we have more access to Empower. Mobility is great; Guided Fire is pricy; Jumpstart situational; and Bombshell I can never see being cast. His feat is actually pretty good now since ‘jack have dual attack. I need more practice. 

Two things I definitely need to learn is: i) don’t play sloppy in the first turn; and ii) read and remember the cards. I don’t think that it would have helped here. Yet, it is a prudent recommendation. 

Unit movement is funky. Being the moving unit is fun. They are extremely mobile as only one model needs line of sight and the rest just appears. It is really difficult to screen models now. 

Finally, cheap weapon master spam is still a thing; perhaps even more a thing with the new funky movement. Low DEF and high ARM (aka Khador) is not in a better place from that perspective. I personally think that DEF has become even more important. Anything above 14 (defending against MAT 7 on “normal” cheap weapon master spam) is really good, or perhaps even required.

Onwards to the next opponent. 

Next up are pigs. Pigs are cool. I love them! There is already a smell of bacon in the air.

This list has Dr. Arkadius, who used to be able to run a very dangerous beast heavy list. The opponent tells me that it is still true, although not so dangerous as in “the old days”. 

This list calls for Sorscha and her trusted Man-o-Wars. Getting the pigs to chew through all that armour is probably going to be quite difficult.

Dr. Arkadius – Battle Boar – Gun Boar 1 – Gun Boar 2 – Road Hog 1 – Road Hog 2 – War Hog Agata, Queen of Carnage Gobber Tinker Farrow Valkyries Arcane Forces Blessing of the Gods Break Through Careful Reconnaissance Sentry Duty

We are playing the scenario Spread the net. Sorscha wins the rolloff and deceides to go first. 

Sorscha deploys the Kodiak and a Suppression Tanker on the left to score that zone and contest the flank. The right flank also gets a Suppression Tanker to score that flag. She goes in the middle with Atanas and the Mechaniks. Beast goes near by for the Shield Guard and finally, the two units with a Kovnik on either side. The Shocktroopers are there to screen Sorscha.

Dr. Arkadius puts a Road Hog + Gun Boar on each flank and the rest in a box in the middle. The War Hog is slightly to the right. 

The picture below shows the situation after deployment. 

Hey-Ho, here we go. The blindingly fast Man-o-Wars must up the table to grab some real estate. Sorscha puts Iron Flesh on the Shocktroopers and Red Line on the Kodiak. She then Wind Rush and runs (yes, you can do that now).

The Shocktroopers do what they do. After receiving a Desperate Pace they leg it up in front of Sorscha. Being in Shield Wall (which is no longer an order) and Iron Flesh, they are now ARM 22 and Sturdy (they lost Steady, which I can’t see any reason for). 

On the right flank, the Demolition Corps follow suits and moves up the board in Shield Wall (yes, Dragos now gives them that). Everybody else basically tag along. 

Dr. Arkadius complains a lot about heavy armour and then casts Watcher. On the right flank, the Gun Boar, Road Hog duo moves into the zone. On the left flank, a Gun Boar and Agata homes in on the flag. Everybody else just move forward. 

The picture below depicts the end of round 1.

Let me just start by saying that Man-o-Wars are fast. They run 11″ in Shield Wall using Desperate Pace. The can charge 9″ and touch something 11″ away, still using Desperate Pace (and remain in Shield Wall). 

On the easy side, the Suppression Tanker on the right flank lumber up and parks next to the flag. The one of the left runs to be able to contest the other flag. The Kodiak just move forward and stays in the zone, ready to score. 

On the funky movement side, the Demolition Corps is having a blast. They get a Desperate Pace, Atanas moves towards them and says ‘Fight to the Last’ to give them Tough. Now they are ready to run the 11″ into the right most zone. They do this in Shield Wall and Dragos calls upon the ‘Band of Brotherhood’. Congo line and all, they are a fair bit into the zone. Funky unit movement is fun, at least when you are the one moving. 

In the middle, the Shocktroopers just lumbers forward. Beast moves up to be near Sorscha. She then moves in behind the Shocktroopers, casts Wind Rush and feats. 

The doctor complains a lot about being able to chew through armour and formulates a plan that requires everybody but the War Hog to get rid of three Shocktroopers, so the War Hog under feat can get next to Sorscha and chew her up. Not a bad plan, actually. The white Man-o-War armour is actually getting slightly moist (on the inside). 

Dr. Arkadius moves forward and feasts. The two Road Hogs goes in and sprays away. Luckily they are. only POW 12 (although boosted due to feat). The Gun Boar on the left also moves and shoots. The Road Hog just moves forward to get into a cloud so it can see something to charge. 

This operation is clearly not enough to remove Shocktroopers so, everybody does it again. This is followed up by the Valkyries moving up an shooting; and finally the Battle Board charging in. As a hail Mary, even the Gobber moves in and shoots (who knew it can shoot?). All of this removes two of the Shocktroopers, still not leaving room for the Road Hog to get to Sorscha.

The plan fails, and the Road Hog is so annoyed that it kills to two remaining Shocktroopers. Calling end of round. The result of this “carnage” can be see in the picture below (note the pretty feat token. The opponent used to play Protectorate).

Dr. Arkadius has spend everything and has left himself in the zone, close to the valiant army from the Motherland. I’m guessing he is done for. 

There are so many things that can be done. On the right flank, the Demolition Corps can remove the Gun Boar. On the right flank the Suppression Tanker can kill Agata and score the flag. Beast 09s can probably kill at least one of the pig in front of it. So many choices. 

Yet, the easiest thing is to just send the Kodiak along the nice opening behing the big pigs and shake hands with the doctor. 

Just to be on the safe side, the Suppression Tanker runs to engage Arkadius to trigger Flank. Sorscha has fully loaded the Kodiak, which can now charge for free (thanks to Red Line). Being Unstoppable it can ignore charging through the pigs’ engagement zone.

The Kodiak arrives in front of the doctor. It will arrive fully loaded, which is 5 attacks (6, if Grab & Smash trigger) at MAT 9 and POW 18 on three dice. Despite missing the first initial, this could only go one way. Just look at the pretty picture above.

The picture below shows the overview of the battle field when the doctor folded. 

This game was probably in Sorscha’s favour before the first die was rolled. The pretty pigs have a hard time to put out enough damage to chew through Khador armour. Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure that both sides of the table had fun. 

Sorscha is actually better in her MK IV incarnation. Red Line is an improvement over Stoke the Fires. It seems that as a general rule most counter charge is gone, Red Line is a sensible choice. 

On the down side, Winter’s Wrath has lost Stationary, which is only critical now; is only AOE 3 (not 4), yet cost the same. Without Stationary and focus starved as she is, this spell is never going to be cast. 

I can see, with the new unit organisation, that straight up Stationary is very powerful, but at a cost of 3. Nope, never, cost of 2 we can talk about. She is probably going to upkeep both Iron Flesh and Red Line. Casting Winter’s Wrath will then leave her at 1 focus. Not enough to do Wind Rush. She might be in a Man-o-War armour, but she is quite brittle. It basically need to drop to a cost of 2 points. 

Anyway, from bacon onto the final battle.

Finally, Cryx. I have never been happy with facing Cryx. Too many tricks and not a straight up fair fight to be had. 

Interestingly, Gorshade the Bastard is there. I have seen many incarnations of Goreshade, but I have naver faced this one. There are two ‘jacks with harpoons that can pull stuff. So, I’m thinking Sorscha; she at least has some models that can’t be pushed. 

Goreshade the Bastard – Deathwalker – Defiler – Reaper 1 – Reaper 2 – Seether – Stalker Bane Lord Tartarus Darragh Wrathe Necrotech Pistol Wraith Soul Trapper 1 Soul Trapper 2 Bane Warriors – Bane Warrior Officer & Standard Blessing of the Gods Break Through Hit & Run Old Faithful Power Swell

We are playing the scenario Split Decision. Goreshade goes first and Sorscha picks side. Goreshade deploys most of the stuff on the right side of the table, which clearly makes sense since the zone is there. On the left side, two Soul Trappers, the Pistol Wraith and a Reaper are taking care of the objectives and flags. The beat stick, Seether goes in the middle. 

Sorcha counter deploys by putting a Suppression Tanker and the Kodiak on the left. All units go on the right, and Sorscha in the middle with Beast 09 nearby. Sorscha is a bit behind before the battle commences. The only magical weapon is her hammer. This could be a problem as there are several incorporeal models among the Cryx. 

The picture below shows the theater before kick off. 

Goreshade does a classic first round. Everything just moves up. On the interesting side, the Stalker moves behind the cloud on the right, probably to do a wide flanking manoeuvre. The two Soul Trappers and the Pistol Wraith do more or less the same. That is basically it.

Sorscha needs to get up the field. The Shocktroopers do the classic: Iron Flesh, Desperate Pace, run, Shield Wall into the zone. The Demolition Corps thinks it looks fun and do the same, minus Iron Flesh. Everybody else follows up behind the Shield Walls.

One point where everything goes haywire is on the left flank. Here is a clear case of too relaxed approach to the first round or just plain stupidity. The Kodiak runs up without a care in the world. I should obviously have measured the distance a Reaper can move, shoot and drag. Alternatively, I could just start the game with the Kodiak off the table. Oh, and I forgot to feat.

The picture below shows the end of the first round. 

Goreshade is surprisingly cautious. He starts the round by doing a classic ‘Cygnar advance’ with the Bane Warriors. Apparently they are a bit scared of the Man-o-Wars in front of them. 

The Stalker does as it is suppose to do. It moves wide on the flank. Same thing on the left flank where the Pistol Wraith moves to contest the flag. Goreshade shuffles to the left and the rest also do a bit of shuffling.

Now on to punishing stupidity. The Reaper stares with disbelief at the Kodiak thinking ‘this must be a trap’. It then moves, shoots, drags and kills the Kodiak (the Seether might have assisted in the actual killing); without springing a trap… Inspired by the success, the second Reaper tries the same trick on the Shocktroopers only to discover that they are Sturdy. 

Finally, the annoying little attachment to Goreshade moves up behind the house to do its -2 DEF and -2 to damage roll.

Luckily, Sorscha is in a Man-o-War armour and can’t move too fast. If she was faster she would probably have slammed me in a sensible part of my body with her hammer for loosing her favourite Kodiak. 

When life’s a drag, find a friend

Speaking of not getting dragged. Beast 09 have learned the lesson. During this second round it moves forward but not more than a Suppression Tanker can park right in front of it. A tanker is can’t be pushed. So, no dragging with harpoons; and Beast 09 will move zero as it will be dragged directly into the Tanker. Cleaver Beast 09.

In addition, Atanas has improve quite a lot in MK IV. His Tactician has lost the term [Man-o-War]. So, it is now for all friendly models. This is actually huge. In the example shown in the picture to the left; Beast 09 can happily be parked behind the Tanker. Yet, he can move over it if needed. Most likely to charge something. Yet, he can also make his Hyper-agressive move (easier is he is under Red Line, though). Obviously, the Kodiak could have done the same thing, if the player had just been awake. 

Anyway, back to the show. I should really remove the Deathwalker and Darragh Wrathe. Combined they give -2 DEF, -2 MAT and -2 POW to my models. If the Cryx heavies are to die, these support models need to go.

Sorscha starts by charging the Deathwalker, who she can just see around the corner of the house. She then feats and Wind Walk back, leaving her naked thanks to Goreshade’s annoying Lamentation spell. The Shocktroopers can now do funky charge and surround the Seether, whilst still also reach Darragh and even Goreshade. They are in Shield Wall and under Iron Flesh, as well as Unstoppable Fury from Atanas. 

The Shocktroopers starts hacking away. Three attacks each. They do manage to kick Darragh of the horse but only very little damage to the Seether. I was hoping for more. But, at least there is now a unit smack in the middle of enemy lines that they need to deal with.

On the right flank, the Demolition Corps need to deal with the Stalker. They charge and manage to do absolutely nothing. Apparently Man-o-Wars can’t hit in MK IV. 

Besides the two important things, the rest more or less just shuffles around. The picture below depicts the end of Round 2. 

Goreshade is getting a bit worried. There are Shocktroopers in his face that he really needs to deal with. He start by charging with the Bane Warriors. Again, cheap weapon master spam is dangerous. One Bane Warrior will do 3 points of damage per attack even against ARM 22. They do what is expected, and what is left is cleaned up by the Seether and Goreshade himself; which also brings back the Deathwalker. 

The Stalker walks away from the Demolition Corps. Here I’m really missing free strike. In addition, the Reaper moves into the zone a shoots a bit on Beast 09. Interestingly, the Reaper can’t drag it. However, Beast 09 deceides to actually do Hyper Aggressive and move a bit towards the Reaper.

On to Sorscha’s turn. At this point, the game is in Goreshade’s favour. Let’s see if something can be done. The right Suppression Tanker moves to the right at pushes the Reaper out of the way. It the sprays down the line and removes two Bane Warriors, but most importantly Darragh is killed. The left Suppression Tanker runs next to the Seether. 

Sorcha casts Red Line on Beast 09 and lets it loose. It charges the Seether and does a Thresher attack removing all but one (it did a tough roll) of the Bane Warriors and damaging the Seether. One more attack om the Seether and it is gone. Finally, killing the last Bane Warrior and Beast 09 is happy.

The Demolition Corps get a second chance of killing the Stalker, and makes it. Some of them are also engaging the Defiler and kill it.

This has been a pretty good round for Sorscha. The picture below shows the result of Beast doing its thing.

Goreshade needs to pull something out of his hat. Beast 09 is looking at him and it just waiting to have a go. Also, there is less than 2 minutes left on his clock. 

Out of the hat comes a unit of Bane Warriors through the feat. The rightmost Reaper moves a bit, shoots at Sorscha and drags her a bit to the right. Goreshade moves up between the Suppression Tanker and Beast 09, and feats. Out of the hat comes a unit of Bane Warriors. Due to funky unit movement four out of five make it to Sorscha and surrounds her. There is only one outcome. Sorscha goes down; Goreshade has 20 seconds left on the clock. 

The picture below shows the result of funky Bane Warriors poking Sorscha with their axes. 

This was a cool game. It could easily have gone both ways. Yet, when the dust settles Sorscha was left with the shortest straw. 

Sorscha is doing pretty good at 75 points MK IV. Atanas has and improved Tactician and Man-o-Wars are in a pretty good place. Beast 09 is a, well a beast. Perhaps still 1 point too expensive. 

This was fun. All in all, I’m a fan of MK IV. It is fast and the rules are easier. There is, however something that needs to be unlearned for an old player. In particular with respect to funky unit movement. Screening is difficult. 

I think that 75 point might be a good size. It forces us to think about what we really want and how our models interact. Most importantly it keeps support bloat down. I think it is a good spot. Obviously, Armored Korps has a rather limited number of models. Yet, even here choosing between a Kovnik and a Forge Seer forces us to think; not to mention a Dragoon or Bulkhead.  

AOEs have changed to get rid of drifting and holding templates to figure out who has been hit. Now, if the AOE hits the target obviously suffers damage; also the number of models equal to the AOE number and within the AOE number of inches suffer blast damage. So, a AOE 3 hitting its target will hit the target and 3 other models, if they are within 3″. If the AOE misses, the target is still hit but only suffers the blast damage. I like this change. Although, I can see why low ARM stealth solos are complaining. 

Unit movement has changed and gone into funky mode. Despite that units have been halved in size, I think they are even more powerful. Only requiring one model to be able to complete a charge and then place the rest is, not only fast but also really difficult to screen against. It is going to be interesting to see how this evolves. 

Cheap weapon master spam is still an issue. Even though the units have become smaller, due to the new funky movement rules, they have become must more efficient. Thus, I’m still unsure whether ARM 20 is sufficient. Also, high DEF is now even more important than before. 

I want physical cards. The new app is clearly an improvement. It’s still not impressive, but its better. I do, however still like physical cards. It faster and I can look at more than one at a time. I’m so much looking forward to this. 

Speaking of cards, I think the new command cards are cool. They offer some flexibility and perhaps a compensation for less support if we stick to 75 points. 

All in all, I’m happy and can’t wait for my next game. 

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

This blog has been a bit quite lately, however Warmachine MKIV is here! So is the new incarnation of Khador. Now as Khador Winter Korps. I am excited. The sun is setting on Mark III. I’ll still manage to have the chance to get a few more games in — and I will. Yet, I am really looking forward to the “new” Khador. As you might know, I’m a huge fan of Winter Guards, so this can only be good. Let’s have a look at the new Khador stuff, soon to be available. 

Winter Korps is arriving. It seems that the Orgoth invasion has moved the Khador army more into the future by adopting newer weapons and building more ‘jacks. This is my first impression on what is in stall for us. I’ll try to build in upon what is actually know and as little speculations as possible, and see if there is enough information to make heads and tails of the new and bright future for the Motherland. I’m excited.

We have two new ‘casters — and what ‘casters they are. We seem to have received a spell slinger (with as many Arc Nodes as you like! and a gun slinger). Both seems to be squishy backline ‘caster. So no classic axe-to-face caster her. Interesting selection. 

Ekaterina Baranova

Our new Warcaster, Kapitan Baranova is a cool addition to our arsenal. Her basic stats are SPD 6, which is normal; MAT 6, which is on the low end, so she is clearly not a frontline ‘caster; RAT 6 is ok; DEF 15 is OK, as it requires boosting to consistently hit for an elite MAT (which is around 7); ARM 15 and 16 boxes means she is dead if stuff hits her. She har 7 Focus, which is nice. So a squishy backline support ‘caster who doesn’t really wants to get into melee?

The backfield ‘caster is further exaggerated by the fact that she is an answer to the age old question: “Why can’t Khador have Arc Nodes?” She gives out Arc Nodes galore to all her ‘jacks as a Field Marchall ability! This fits with some of her spells (see below), which would be nice to arc. However, she is not overwhelming. 

She is probably a control ‘caster since her feat gives enemies -2 SPD, they cannot charge, slam, trample or power attacks, and enemies suffer -4 RNG on ranged or arcane attacks with 14″ of her. Combined with her other build in ability that gives her a focus when an enemy model is destroyed by an arcane attack; this could also suggest assassination by spells, freezing and cannons. 

Finally, she has a small gun and a sword. If she is in sword range, she is dead. It might, however come in handy for removing upkeeps on friendly models or units.

Ekaterina has three personal spells as well as three rack options (so, six spells all in all from a potential of 720 spell combinations). Her personal spells are: Banishing Ward (remove enemy upkeeps on model/units), Gallows (RNG 10″, POW 13, push model d6″ towards caster), and a new one Invocation of Wrath, which give friendly faction models in control an additional die on attack rolls, and discards the lowest.

In addition, she can choose three spells from the Khador rack, which are the following: Avenging Force (if a friendly Faction warrior model is damaged within command, a battlegroup ‘jack can advance in the Maintenance Phase), Fog of War (Concealment in a 14″ bubble), Freezing Grip (RNG 8″, target becomes stationary), Iron Flesh (+2 ARM and Blast Resistance), Puissance (gains +2 melee attack rolls and weapons gain Beat Back), Razor Wind (RNG 10″, POW 12 spell, on a critical hit fill last column or branch damaged), Return Fire (when the model is targeted by an enemy ranged attack, it can make a basic melee or ranged attack), Superiority (target ‘jack gains +2 SPD, MAT and DEF and immunity to knockdown), Tempest (RNG 8″, AOE 3″, POW 12/12, models hit are knocked down), and Weald Secrets (target gets Pathfinder and Prowl).

She kind of looks like some combination of Zerkova and perhaps Old Witch. I’m pretty sure she will be fun, yet challenging to play. I’m thinking fast nimble (yes, Khador nimble, see below) ‘jacks, Superiority, Avenging Force Freezing Grip and/or perhaps Razor Wind.  

Ilari Borisyuk

Kapitan Borisyuk is our second new Warcaster. I think he is Yuri’s long lost love child with a Widowmaker. He is actually SPD 7 (and Pathfinder), which is pretty good. Has an average MAT of 6. But, he has a mighty RAT 8 to go with his very large gun. DEF 16 is pretty good (he also has Prowl). But as with Ekaterina, ARM 14 and 16 boxes means that he is dead if something hits him. He is a FOCUS 6 ‘caster with access to only four spells. So he is clearly more a gun slinger than a spell slinger.

Ilari has a pretty cool feat. When a model in his battlegroup destroys an enemy model another battlegroup model can advance a do a basic attack. unfortunately a model can advance only once. Combined with his Field Marshal Pathfinder, this could make for an interesting ripple effect. 

He carries two weapons. A knife, which if is needed he is dead. The other one is his rather large gun. It is a RNG 14, ROF 1, Reload [1], POW 10 gun that has three different types of attack: Critical Armor Piercing, Flare or Grievous Wounds. Given the size of the gun it is not very impressive. I’m guessing Flare and Grievous Wounds as the most commonly used shots. 

Ilari has a much more manageable combination of spells that Ekaterina, only 90. His two personal spells are: Dark Unravelling (his battlegroup gets Magical weapons and Blessed (ignores bonuses from spells adding to DEF or ARM), and Unnatural Darkness (center a Cloud effect on a friendly model). The former is pretty nice, whereas the latter sound really crap for 2 focus. It is of course Stealth on a stick for him self. But still. He can also pick two spells from the Khador rack (see above).

He seems a bit lackluster (at least in the vacuum of not having looked at the other armies). His feat is cool and Dark Unravelling is a nice spell. Pathfinder on his ‘jacks are cool. However, not as important anymore since alle our Dire Wolfs can have Pathfinder build in (see below). He might be an anti-hordes ‘caster.

Warjacks have change in an interesting way. In the old days, we typically needed 9 ‘jacks to cover the most usual use of our standard chassis (3 Juggernauts, 3 Destroyers, and 3 Marauders). Now we can in principle get by with just 3

The chassis are fixed, however, we can now change both arms and the head giving us 64 different combinations per ‘jack (4 left arms x 4 right arms x 4 heads). The models come with magnets, which is nice. From a model owner perspective, this is nice as we do not need to purchase and paint as many models. Whether or not it is nice for the opponent is a bit unclear. I’m not sure it is easy to distinguish the different heads, and thus the different models. Yet, time will tell.

As a huge thing is that we are actually getting two different heavy Warjacks chassis: a heavy and a not so heavy (yet, faster!)

The new, not so heavy chassis

This is our new not so heavy chassis. It is in a way a new and improved version of the Berserker/Rager/Mad Dog chassis. It has SPD 5! 25% faster than normal Khador speed. This is fast! It has MAT 6, which is OK. It also has RAT 5, which again is a 25% improvement. It comes with an impressive DEF of 11 (which typically doesn’t really matter), and only ARM 19. So it is a bit squishy.

It has the basic rules of being a Construct, it can Headbutt, Slam, Trample. However, as something new it now has Dual attack (can use both melee and ranged initial attacks when engaged; although only against engaged models), it also has Anchor (Friendly warrior models B2B cannot be knocked down. It is not Unstoppable (see Great Bear below). This could be a problem.

All in all, I think it is a nice upgrade. We lost the cartoonish Unstable (which is fun but dumb). We gained speed.

Like all ‘jacks, the Dire Wolf comes with 4 head options, 4 options for the right arm and 4 options for the left arm; leaving us with 64 different ‘jack configurations. The options are as follows:

Dire Wolf Head		Abilities
A	Overtake	When the Dire Wolf destroys a model with a basic melee attack it can advance up to 1″
B	Pathfinder	Pathfinder
C	Shield Guard	Shield Guard (Can be hit by non-spray ranged attacks within 3″ instead of the original target)
D	Evasive	When this model is his by an enemy ranged attack it can advance up to 2″

Dire Wolf Right Arm		Abilities
A	Long Axe	RNG 2″, POW 16
B	Ice Hammer	RNG 1″, POW 17, Critical Freeze (Stationary for one round)
C	Cannon	RNG 12″, ROF 1, POW 15, Beat Back (Enemy model can be pushed 1″ and the Dire Wolf can move 1″), Critical knockdown (Models hit becomes knocked down)
D	Bombard	RNG 12″ ROF 1, AOE 2″ POW 14/8, Arcing Fire (can ignore intervening models when attacking)

Dire Wolf Left Arm		Abilities
A	Plow Shield	RNG 1″, POW 14,  +2 ARM, Resistance: Blast (remove one die from the damage roll when suffering blast damage), Girded (While B2B the others also get Resistance: Blast)
B	Flame Fist	Flamethrower is RNG SP8″, ROF 1, POW 12, Continuous effect: Fire, Pistol (ignores the +4 DEF from target in its melee). Open fist is RNG 1″, POW 14, Throw Power Attack
C	Scrap Saw	RNG 1, POW 15, Critical Shred (Make one additional attack)
D	Heavy Chain Gun	RNG 10″, ROF d3+1, POW 12, Volume Fire (POW 13 vs. medium-based models and POW 14 vs. larger-based models)

The classic Rager was basically the only ‘jack used regular in MKII. We can build something similar using the new chassis by constructing a CAA (Shield Guard, Long Axe, Plow Shield). This one will clock in at 10 points, which is just one more that the classic Rager. This gets us a slightly better Shield guard (remember Anchor), with a better melee weapon, yet no ranged weapon.

Another option could be a ranged classic Ranger by building a CDA (Shield Guard, Bombard, Plow Shield) that clocks in at 11 points. It is a kind of crossover between the classic Rager and the classic Destroyer. I could see that getting played.

We can’t really do neither the Berserker nor the Mad Dog. Surprisingly, we can do something akin the to classic Decimator by building a BCC (Pathfinder, Cannon, Scrap Saw) that clocks in at 10 points.

In general, I think that the lack of unstoppable could be an issue. However, several interesting gun platforms can be build rather inexpensively. I think the Shield Guard head will be popular. There might also be an interesting build in something like AAB for a dancing berserker style troop remover at only 13 points.

The new heavy chassis

Our new nice heavy chassis. It is comparable to our old classic Juggernaut/Destroyer/Marauder/Decimator chassis with the same basic stats. It has SPD 4, MAT 7, RAT 5 (which is a 25% improvement over the old one), DEF 10,  and ARM 20. 

It also has the same basic rules, as it is a Construct, it can Headbutt, Slam, Trample. However, as something new it now has Dual attack (can use both melee and ranged initial attacks when engaged; although only against engaged models), it is Unstoppable (do not have to forfeit its combat action when moving out of an enemy models melee range), and it can Bulldoze (When B2B with an enemy model during Normal Movement, the enemy model can be pushed 2″).

All in all, it is a nice upgrade, yet still true to the classic Khador approach. You can hit it blind folded, yet you have to bring the big hammer to damage it; and you need to do it a lot. I am just curious to see if the ARM 20 actually means something in MKIV. It did not in MKIII. 

Like all ‘jacks, the Great Bear comes with 4 head options, 4 options for the right arm and 4 options for the left arm; leaving us with 64 different ‘jack configurations. The options are as follows: 

Great Bear Head		Abilities
A	Agressive	Run and charge without spending focus and Heavy Boiler (+2 SPD when running)
B	Reposition	Reposition [2″]
C	Slammer	Follow up on slam and Grand slam (slam for free and add 2″ to slam distance)
D	Mage Static	Spells cast by enemy model within 10″ suffer +1 COST and -3 RNG.

Great Bear Right Arm		Abilities
A	Battle Mace	RNG 2″, POW 19, Beat Back (Enemy model can be pushed 1″ and the Great Bear can move 1″) and Critical Smite (The model hit is slammed d6″)
B	Heavy Cannon	RNG 15″, ROF 1, POW 16, Momentum (small- and medium-based models are slammed d3″ directly away. Large-based models are knocked down)
C	Deep Freezer	RNG 12″, ROF 1, AOE 3, POW 14/8, Critical Freeze (Stationary for one round)
D	Quad Chain Gun	RNG 10″, ROF 2d3, POW 12, Volume Fire (POW 13 vs. medium-based models and POW 14 vs. larger-based models)

Great Bear Left Arm		Abilities
A	Heavy Cannon Shield	Cannon is RNG 6″, ROF 1″, POW 14,  Shield is RNG 1″, POW 14 and +2 ARM
B	Blasting Fist	RNG 1, POW 17, Critical knockdown (Models hit becomes knocked down), Throw Power Attack
C	Battle Axe	RNG 1, POW 18, Critical amputate (Fill the unmarked boxes on the last column or branch damaged)
D	Dozer	RNG 10″, ROF 2, POW 15, Beat Back (Enemy model can be pushed 1″ and the Great Bear can move 1″) and Critical Smite (The model hit is slammed d6″)

The closest we get to the classic Juggernaut is AAB (Aggressive, Battle Mace, and Blasting Fist). This one clocks in at 13 points (2 + 7 + 4), which is exactly the same cost as the classic one. Yet, it is a huge improvement. It has the same DEF, ARM and MAT, and number of boxes. Yet, it can run and charge for free and gets a +2 SPD when running from the Agressive head, Beat back and Critical Smite on the Mace (and POW 19), and Critical Knockdown on the Fist (and POW 17, two better that the Juggernaut). 

Disregarding the chance of knockdown, push and smite on the Great Bear (AAB) and stationary on the Juggernaut, the output of AAB is pretty good. On average a fully loaded Juggernaut will make 118 points of damage when charging; whereas AAB will make 139 (it charges for free). This means that against a standard Khador ‘jack the Juggernaut will on average make 31 points of damage (just shy of one rounding a ‘jack); whereas AAB will make 39 points of damage (leaving damage to spare after one rounding a ‘jack). What a lovely beatstick.

Making a classic Destroyer is a bit more difficult. It will have to be a BCC (Reposition, Deep Freezer, Battle Axe). This one clocks in at 14 points, which is one point more than the classic Destroyer. It also has the same DEF, ARM and MAT, and number of boxes. It does, however has a RAT of 5! This is a 25% improvement over the classic one. On the other had it has lost Arcing Fire. Only the Dire Wolfs can have that now. This is a great loss.

Giving is the Reposition head clearly improves its usability as it can Aim, shoot and then move forward 2″. The heavy cannon has to be the Deep freezer. It has lost 2″ of range and 1″ of AOE. Yet, is has gained Critical Freeze. I would say a downgrade all in all since critical effects are random in nature. The Battle Axe is a no brainer since it is the exact same as it used to be (except that it has gained 1 POW). The question is whether we should go for a Heavy Cannon or the Deep Freezer. 

We can’t really make neither a classic Decimator nor a classic Marauder. The former is missing the Rip Saw (which is is only available to the Dire Wolf) and the latter is missing the Ram Pistons. The Marauder will be sorely missed, as it was arguably the best ‘jack in the game.

There are three new units in MKIV. Not a lot of information is available at the time of writing. So, I might have to venture into the realm of speculations. A new version of the Winter Guards have arrived, now known as the Winter Korps, Shock Troopers are presumedly a new version of the Assault Kommandos, and finally an elusive Arkanist Unit.

The new Winter Korps

The new and improved light infantry, the Winter Korps Infantry now comes in units of only five Riflemen. This is the new standard. They can, however include a Standard Bearer. 

The seem to have a military rifle, which looks like a newer version that even the one that the Rifle Corps carried. I am assuming that the range then still will be 14″. They have also exchanged their axes for sword (this is an unfortunate trend. Sword to face do not have the same ring to it as Axe to face). Apparently, they come with Combined Ranged attack. Also,  two of the models can be exchanged for two heavy support troopers. It seems that we can mix and match as we feel like.

The heavy support troopers are either Grenade Porters, which allows all models to shoot some sort of high-explosive fragmentation grenades; Machine Guns, which are good against other troopers; and Rocketeers are of course back with a vengeance. Apparently, two of them can cripple Warjack systems. So, they should be high POW.

It is going to be interesting to see how the Winter Korps can be mixed, how useful they are, and if there is pick up.

The second unit seems to be a development of the Assault Kommandoes. The Shock Troopers are only a small unit, that is three models. They seem to be dressed in protective gear. So, I’m suspecting them to be immune to all sorts of stuff like their precursors. Besides that, not a lot is known.

Finally, a nice surprise. An Arkanist Unit. Some sort of spell slinging unit. Perhaps akin to the Greylord Ternions. Like the Shock Troopers also a small three person unit. 

The only solo, thus far is an officer. Who looks remarkable like Kommander Andrei Malakov. I think it is his sister. I’m assuming some sort of Veteran Leader, perhaps Sacrificial Pawn, and. if we are lucky some sort of Joe light speech giving. 

While we are at it, Ol’ Grim is still around at Cryx. I wonder if he still remembers his days as a Widowmaker?

Everybody get two Prime armies (that is, the old models in MKIV)^†. We get two: Man-O-War Army and Winter Guard Army.

The former is no surprise, as Man-o-Wars are very much Khador defining. I hope this means that we can use all the ones that are in the existing theme Armored Corps. I’m wondering about the Riot Quest solos (in this case Bulkhead). Yet, Ol’ Grim appears in Cryx, so I am hopefull. I am also wondering about the two Battle Engines. 

The latter is a bit weird. The new Khador Army is basically Winter Guards in a new and improved version. So, why not Wolves of Winter where the Doom Reavers and pointy hat guys reside? However, Winter Guards are cool, so why not. Again, I’m wondering about the Battle Engine. I love the Winter Guard Gun Carriage. 

I’m excited. 

I think Ekaterina looks like an interesting ‘caster. I’m not so sure about Ilari. New Winter Korps is so cool. Finally, there are so many combinations of heads and arms on the Warjack that it might be difficult. I’m expecting just a few standard build will be used.

We are still stuck at ARM 20, unless we shield up. We can then get to ARM 21/22 native. We only have one spell to increase ARM to 23/24. Also, we are still stuck at a static threat range of 11″ for the Great Bears and 12″ for the Dire Wolf. We have no Vlad1 or K2D2 to speed the army up. Boundless Charge is also gone.

So, I’m so much hoping that ARM 20 is actually going to matter. We have to do things the old fashion way. Weather the alpha and bring axe (or mace, hammer, fist, axe or what ever to face). I like that style. It has just not been in fashion for a long time.

That’s it. If you made it here, I’m impressed. 

With a bit of luck, I can hopefully soon get painting and playing. Battle reports will surly follow.

Until then.

For the Motherland!

In the local meta there is a lot of Khador. Not surprisingly as the Empress is the only true leader of Immoren. Currently, Jaws of the Wolf is very popular, and most often with the shiny new Karchev2. However, this time two untraditional versions of Jaws of the Wolf are facing off. Sorscha’s experimental “ask two half questions” list (see here for a description of the list) vs. Malakov with trimmings. I am still learning how to pilot this list. So it can go both ways. Luckily, Malakov’s pilot is know to die to the clock. So, I might gamble on that. The two lists facing off are: 

Khador [Theme] Jaws of the Wolf [Sorscha 3] Kommandant Sorscha Kratikoff [+28] – Devastator [14] – Devastator [14] – Greylord Adjunct [3] Man-O-War Kovnik [3] Man-O-War Demolition Corps (max) [12] – Sergeant Dragos Dragadovich [4] Man-O-War (max) [15] – Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer [3] Kayazy Assassins (max) [13] – Kayazy Assassin Underboss [4] Kayazy Eliminators [0(4)] Kayazy Eliminators [0(4)] Kossite Woodsmen (min) [7] Manhunter [2] Manhunter [2] Yuri the Axe [4] Bulkhead [0(5)] Battle Mechaniks (min) [2] – Battle Mechanik Officer [1]

Khador [Theme] Jaws of the Wolf [Malakov 2] Kommander Andrei Malakov [+28] – Behemoth [20] – Kodiak [12] – Greylord Adjunct [3] Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)] Kovnik Apprentice Kratikoff [0(4)] – Beast 09 [16] Manhunter [2] Manhunter [2] Thamarite Archon [9] Underboss Vizkoya [0(4)] Widowmaker Marksman [3] Yuri the Axe [4] Kayazy Assassins (max) [13] – Kayazy Assassin Underboss [4] Kayazy Eliminators [4] Kayazy Eliminators [4] Kossite Woodsmen (min) [7]

So, Jaws of the Wolf. I’m guessing that we should be familiar with this now.  Most importantly it gives our ‘jacks a much desired Pathfinder. It also allows us to Bring Your Own Forest (BYOF), a 5″ AOE that ca be placed anywhere completely within 18″ of the back table edge. So, here we will se two BYOFs. 

The opposing list is piloted by Malakov2 who is a bit of an odd (Khador) ‘caster. He has recently received a rather cool update in the Quality of Life Update. He has received the spell Discombobulate. When it hits  an enemy unit or model. They spend so much time trying to pronounce Discombobulate that both front and back arc is back arc for one turn. This has quite a few very nice effects. Not only does it remove everything that only works in the front arc (e.g. Shield Wall, Free Strikes and Counter Charge), it also works wonders for things with Backstab. 

Malakov brings a lot of backstabbing. The Kossites have it as a build-in function; the Assassins have as their minifeat, and finally Malakov also has his Battle Plan Throat Cutter, which gives a friendly unit or model Backstab. The only drawback is that he needs to be a bit closer to the front than he would prefer. He can cast Discombobulate 12″ (the extra 2″ from the Greylord Adjunct), and if he has Tactical Supremacy on himself he can Cygnar Advance 3″ away from the front. This will bring him 15″ away from revenge, and combined with Sucker to take care of incoming fire, he should be pretty safe.

Clearly Throat Cutter is cool on paper. On Behemoth, as an example, it can lead to a ridiculous amount of damage damage. Any melee attack is Armor-Piercing and can roll 4 dice. That is 14 points of damage on a closed devastator pr. attack. At the end of the day, any application of Discombobulate spells trouble for Sorscha’s Shocktroopers. Luckily, not so much for the Devastators as they no longer have shields, just a shell. 

In addition to the mighty Behemoth, Malakov is also brining a Kodiak. This is a very versatile ‘jack with a Heavy Boiler (+2″ movement when running) that allows it to go places fast (at least Khador-fast); it can also Vent Steam, which centres a 4″ AOE cloud on it where living and undead suffers a POW 12 damage roll; finally, it has Chain Attack: Grab and Smash, which allows it to make a head-butt or throw attack if it hits with both its initial attacks (for free). This is a fantastic ‘jack, in particular for cleaning out zones. In this match-up all the light infantry really doesn’t like POW 12. 

Malakov actually makes his battlegroup somewhat mobile. He can cast and upkeep (for free due to the Greylord Adjunct) Escort, which gives his ‘jack a +2″ movement. Also, Tactical Supremacy potentially gives a ‘jack Reposition [3″]. Finally, his feat Poison Pill allows models in his control to make a full advance is it is damaged by an enemy attack; and doing so with Parry and immunity to Knockdown. 

Since Jaws of the Wolf is a ‘jack heavy theme, there is obviously one more. The hyper violent Beast 09 under the control of Sorscha0 (the false one, obviously, as the real Sorscha is on my side of the table). Sorscha is basically Boundless Charge on a stick (+2″ movement when the targeted ‘jack charges). She can do two in an activation, if she doesn’t want to use focus on anything else. She can target any ‘jack in the list. This further improves an already deceptively mobile ‘jack list. 

Sorscha’s pet ‘jack, Beast 09 is obviously tagging along his (false) master. Beast 09 is a Juggernaut on steroids. It has one higher MAT (8) and a cooler Ice Axe with which it can do a Thresher attack. It is also Murderous, which gives an additional attack dice against warrior models. He can really kill Shocktroopers, in particular if Malakov have managed to get Discombobulate on them, Oh, and he is Hyper-aggressive, which allows it to advance directly towards an enemy model if it has damaged it. Finally, when he is under Sorscha’s control he is also a Shield Guard (to all models, not only Sorscha). As the only model, besides the Greylord Forge Seer, it is immune to cold. 

The units and solos is pretty much standard Jaws of the Wolf: one min unit of ambushing Kossites,  a max unit of Kayazy Assassins with the Underboss, two units of Kayazy Eliminators, and Yuri and his two Manhunters, The “variation” is: a Widomaker Marksman, a Greylord Forge Seer, Underboss Vizkoya, and a Thamarite Archon. 

The Widomaker Marksman is good at taking out solos and other smaller models, as he guarantees 3 points of damage and no tough (at RAT 10 if aiming). With Stealth and Swift Hunter (move 2″ if he destroys a model) he is also really good at holding flags and contesting zones.

The Greylord Forge Seer is probably here to fuel the Behemoth. With power-up and the Forge Seer, the Behemoth can fire twice under Powerfull Attack. 

Finally, Underboss Vizkoya is a new addition to the arsenal (he is a Riot Quest model). He is probably there as, primarily a solo hunter. He has Parry to get out of sticky situation, Stealth and is tough. He is equipped with a crowbar and a grapple gun. With dual attack he is probably going to try to shoot something with his gun, then pull the target in (if same size) and then place himself base-to-base with the target. The then crowbar comes into play. Hitting somebody with it is a 3d6 is the target is a character model, as is the damage. So, Yuri, Bulkhead and Sorscha watch out.

I think this is a manageable list. The Behemoth is nasty, even against Assassins with Iron Flesh; Beast 09 is brutal; and the Archon has also improved. However, I have trust in my master plan.

We are playing the Steamroller 2021 scenario Spread the Net. Sorscha picks the objective Cargo Nets and Malakov picks the Observatory. Sorscha wins the dice off and opts to go first.

Sorscha deploys according to Empress’ standard deployment 11 (see here for details and tactical discussion). The BYOF (Bring Your Own Forest) goes on the left side with the two Manhunters behind, ready to enter it. Yuri deploys behind the existing forest on the right, also ready to move into it. The Kossites stay at the camp fire. 

Malakov also has a BYOF, which goes on the right side diagonal to Sorscha’s. A unit of Eliminators on each flank, and the advance deployed more or less in the middle. Beast and the Kodiak (today dressed as a Marauder) go to the left. Behemoth and its pet Forge Seer on the right in the shooting part of the deployment along with the Archon. Everything else kind of goes into the middle

The picture above depicts the end of deployment.

The famous positioning round. Not a lot is going to happe. Stuff will most likely just move forward at blazing Khador speed. 

Both the Eliminator units make wide advances on the flanks, attempting to force the opponent to clump together; and staring down their counter parts. The Manhunters and Yuri move into their forests. Besides the rightmost Devastator parking in the zone, everything else basically moves forward. There is no way of staying out of Behemoth’s long shooting distance, so the Assassins just have to live with it (they do have Iron Flesh on them, so there is a chance).

The picture above shows how Sorscha unpacks from deployment 11. She spent 7 minutes on the clock, including deploy, which is a bit on the slow side. This could be done better.

Malakov decides to advance more cautiously. On the left flank, the Kodiak parks in the zone, along with the Eliminators. On the right side, the Forge Seer empowers Behemoth, which then fires its guns and take out an Assassin in the middle, and more troublesome an Eliminator on the right. 

That’s it. A comparable action packed first round. The picture above shows the result after the dust have settled.   

Round two for Sorscha, also know as R2F (Remember to Feat). So far not a lot have happened. However, we are getting closer to axe to face – or in the case of the assassins: small pointy object between ribs.

On the right, the Eliminators go wide and around the line to be ready to sneak up behind the enemy. The Eliminator on the left moves in to hide behind the BYOF. 

The Assassins do what they are suppose to. They advance as much as possible to tie down the enemy, whilst waiting for the Man-o-Wars to get there. Once they have advanced, Sorscha moves up and feats. She gets five clouds and makes a wall between the Assassins and Man-o-Wars. A few on the Assassins are caught in the cloud. But that doesn’t matter as they have activated and won’t be damaged. 

The Man-o-Wars move up in tight formation. The rightmost Devastator shuffles forward and the leftmost one just hangs up in the trench. Finally, the Battle Mechanik Officer remembers to move into base contact with Sorscha to give her Girded. 

That is it. Sorscha is ready for Malakov’s next move; and a small course in why careful measuring is underrated. The picture above shows the end of Sorscha’s turn. Oh yes, I also forgot to call the Kossites. I should have had them coming in on the right flank.

First of all, why careful measuring should be learned and eyeing it is not to be trusted. On the right flank, Sorscha’s Eliminators had a brilliant plan of sneaking behind the enemy. This is brilliant, if it wasn’t for the fact that I couldn’t be bothered to measure the distance to Malakov’s Eliminators. They were left in walking distance, which means that one of them died. Same problem on the right flank, where Sorscha’s Eliminator was hiding behind the forest, which agains was a brilliant plan if she had not been within walking distance of Malakov’s Eliminators. I really should remember to position correctly.

More action on the right flank from the Kodiak, which moves up, farts a could (that also kills an Assassin) and then Reposition out of the could again thanks to Tactical Supremacy, which Malakov had cast on it earlier. Vizkoya also moves in and hides behind the cloud.

In the middle the Assassins moves out of the way. One gets killed from a free strike, another one sprints up to tie down the Devastator. Everybody else just make room for the ‘jacks. Beast charges forward and kills four Assassins with a swing of its mighty axe. Behemoth and the Archon moves forward, the latter shoots at something in the middle, which leaves a 3″ hazard (the green paper circle). Malakov and fake-Sorscha hides out in the back. 

The picture above demonstrates the result of not measuring and forgetting the boys scouts at the camp fire. Scenario score is 1-1 (Sorscha scores a flag, Malakov a zone).

I won’t say that Sorscha’s plan is coming together. Conversely, I wouldn’t say it is completely ruined either. So, let’s see what happens. 

Sorscha’s feast ends and everybody can see again. This also means that the Kossites finally can be bothered to show up. Something they do on the right flank.

On the left flank, the lonely Eliminator runs away from her two sisters and moves in behind Malakov and fake-Sorscha. On the right flank, the Kossites kills the Forge Seer and the two Eliminators. Spurred on by their success, they also shoot at the Archon. However, that misses and it dodges out of range. Yuri kills the annoying Assassin. 

It is in the middle the party is. The Assassins charges their counter part and takes out a few. This leaves room for the Shocktroopers. They move forward. I’m a bit unsure why they did not charge Beast. In stead they just Shield Wall forward. This leaves room for the Demolition Corps, who charge Vizkoya. The rest just runs forward. In hindsight, Dragos should have activated the mini-feat here. 

Every thing else move forward. The Devastator moves in behind the Demolition Corps to be ready for next round. The Kovnik and Adjunct hang around near Yuri, as they suspect that the opposing Kossites might arrive soon. 

That is basically it. Sorscha is kind of happy. She is a bit worried about Beast. The scenario score is now 3-3. The picture above shows the end of the first turn in round 3.

Malakov is potentially under a bit of pressure. Yet, his ‘jacks are still around and at full health. So, everything is on the table still. His Kossites decides to join the battle and arrive at the right flank.

On the left flank, the two Eliminators turn around and moves into the zone. The Kodiak easily kills the two Demo Corps, then farts a could and Reposition out. The Marksman moves in behind the big rock. 

On the right flank, the Archon shoots and kills all the Kossites. Behemoth moves to the right and its guns pounds Sorscha’s objective until it evaporates. Finally, the Assassins again contest the rightmost zone. They also try to kill Sorscha’s Assassins; luckily without a lot of luck. 

In the middle, Beast is finally on the move. He moves in a thresher away. He only manage to take out one Shocktrooper and one Demo Corps. Sorscha is happy. Fake-Yuri tries to copy the thresher move, without a lot of luck. One of the Manhunters also kills the remaining Eliminator. 

Finally, the Kossites activate and kill the Manhunter and the Kovnik. That was more damaging that expected. It also removes the scoring on the flag. 

Malakov also feats in this turn.

So far, so good. Not as bad as I had feared. However, the scenario score is now 6-3 in Malakov’s favour. On the bright side, Malakov only has 2:37 left on the clock, whereas Sorscha has 24:00. The picture above depicts the end of round 3. 

With plenty of time left on the clock, Sorscha is to a certain degree in a happy place. She just nees to make sure that she doesn’t loose on scenario. If nothing happens in this turn, Malakov will score 3 points and Sorscha none. So, scenario is on the table. 

Sorscha allocates the rightmost Devastor fully. She activates and casts Stoke the Fire on the leftmost Devastator. She then moves into the right zone to score. 

On the left side, the Adjunct moves to the flag and sprays the Kossites. Unfortunately, not enough to remove the contesting Kossites. The means that Bulkhead runs over there, if another round happens. 

In the middle, the Assassins runs to the Behemoth and surround it to make sure that it can’t get out of the way due to Malakov’s feat. The Man-o-Wars move forward. Malakov feated in the last round, so Beast 09 gets out of the way. But it was not possible to kill it. Yet, one swings at Behemoth and chips it. The Devastator runs and toes the zone. 

On the right side, the Devastator can now charge Behemoth. It spends all of its attacks and almost kills it. That would have been nice to kill. Yuri agrees, charges Behemoth and kills it.  

This is the end of the round. It was not as good as I have hoped for. Malakov’s feat is pretty good. I also spend a bit too much time. The clock now says 7:20. Luckily, Malakov’s clock still only says is even worse. The scenario score is 6-4 in Malakov’s favour. 

The clock is flipped and Malakov thinks about it. There really isn’t anything to do. Conceivably the Kodiak could throw the Devastator out of the zone, scoring one point. The Kossites can kill the Adjunct and then the Marksman could run to the flag, scoring another point. However, there is no way to score the centre zone. Also, the rightmost Devastator contests the rightmost flag and can’t really be removed. Sorscha’s zone could be contested. All of this would leave the scenario score at 8-4. As the winning condition is 5 points more than the opponent, Malakov can’t win on scenario. 

All in all, Malakov clocks out and looses. The picture above shows the end of Sorscha’s turn, which is basically the same as then end of the game. Sorscha wins with a scenario score of 4-6 or 4-8 depending on what happened if we played it out. 

It was a good and fun game. Yet, in isolation Sorscha is still not completely on top of this list. She probably won this game primarily be the opponent being too slow. I do, however, still think that this list is viable. It just needs more playing. I’m hoping that it is the same case as when I exclusively played Winter Guard Kommand for a year. It took many games before I managed to pilot it respectively. 

Nevertheless, we had fun. 

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

Sorscha and her Man-o-War irregulars are back. This is the second try at getting this list to work. Baldur and his Blackclads are stirring in the woods. There is a lot of sticks and stones on the table. Sorscha is going to approach it in the Empress improved manner. Send the mercenaries into the fray to die (and save some money) whilst the Man-o-Wars move forward to clean up. The battle is bloody. However, Sorscha comes out victorious. 

Circle is a common foe across the table. I have traditionally struggled with the druids, and in particular the chief druid pulling Baldur’s strings. Sorscha is still learning to pilot her new Jaws of the Wolf list (see here for a description of the list). It is going to be interesting to see how this list deals with Circle, and in particular this player that I have a long history of loosing to. The two lists facing off are: 

Khador [Theme] Jaws of the Wolf [Sorscha 3] Kommandant Sorscha Kratikoff [+28] – Devastator [14] – Devastator [14] – Greylord Adjunct [3] Man-O-War Kovnik [3] Man-O-War Demolition Corps (max) [12] – Sergeant Dragos Dragadovich [4] Man-O-War (max) [15] – Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer [3] Kayazy Assassins (max) [13] – Kayazy Assassin Underboss [4] Kayazy Eliminators [0(4)] Kayazy Eliminators [0(4)] Kossite Woodsmen (min) [7] Manhunter [2] Manhunter [2] Yuri the Axe [4] Bulkhead [0(5)] Battle Mechaniks (min) [2] – Battle Mechanik Officer [1]

Circle [Theme] Bones of Orboros [Baldur 2] Baldur the Stonecleaver [+31] – Megalith [17] – Wold Guardian [16] – Woldwarden [13] – Woldwarden [13] – Woldwyrd [8] – Woldwyrd [8] Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(2)] Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(2)] Blackclad Wayfarer [3] Blackclad Wayfarer [3] Chuck Dogwood [0(4)] Shifting Stones [0(3)] – Stone Keeper [1] Shifting Stones [0(3)] Stoneward & Woldstalkers [8] Celestial Fulcrum [16]

The theme, Bones of Orboros is for sticks and stones, and men in black. It allows a ‘caster to run the ‘beasts hot as one fury can be removed from each ‘beast in the Control Phase. This is pretty good. It also allows for units and models to start with upkeep spells, which are three from Baldur (more on this later). 

Baldur the Stonecleaver is leading this list. He is an oldie but goldie most famously know for his jump forest and assassinate trick (a trick that Sorscha has been on the receiving end of before). In short, the assassination involves him placing an AOE 4″ forest anywhere within 12″ (through his spell Rapid Growth), and assuming he is already in a forest, he can Forest Walk a kill the opposing ‘caster. I’m so not going to fall for that again. 

He does pack two additional powerful spells: Solid Ground, which we are familiar with through Irusk2 (no knockdown and immune to blast within 12″); and Stone Skin, which gives a unit +2 ARM and STR, and -1 SPD and DEF. Finally, he has Earth Spike, which does damage in a 3″ AOE and knockdown. His feat is primarily there to get his troops to the enemy, whilst hindering the enemy. It gives Cover and Pathfinder to to his models, whilst enemy model can never have Pathfinder. All of this within 12″.

As a final bonus, he offers the build in Elemental Mastery, which allows ‘beasts within 12″ to charge and make power attacks without being forced. He can also heal friendly constructs within 12″.

Baldur’s batttlegroup consists of six warbeasts (despite being constructs): two Woldwardens, two Woldwyrds, a Wold Guardian, and his pet Woldwarden Megalith. Megalith is a Woldwarden on steroids (except the surprising fact that it has one less STR). It has two fist at P+S 17 at MAT 7 and with Weight of Stone, which lowers the SPD and DEF by 3 of a model damaged. Megalith’s Animus is Undergrowth, which makes rough terrain for enemy models within 5″ and reduces their DEF by 2. It can also cast Earth Spikes from Baldur once per activation (at Magical Ability 7). 

The two Woldwardens are basic, two open fist brutes. They are a bit pillow fisted at P+S 16. However, the Stoneshapers help here by casting Earth’s Power on them for an additional two points of STR. In addition to the two fists, they can also do a Chain Attack: Smite, which allows them to do an extra attack that slams the opponent d6″, if both initial attack hits. They have the same Animus as the bigger brother, Megalith (except for 1″ area) and Geomancy. 

Megalith and the Woldwardens are probably going to be used for slamming stuff and just generally beat things up. Perhaps the occasional Earth Spikes. 

Speaking about beating things up, enter the Wold Guarding. It is basically a Khador ‘jack disguised as sticks and stones. ARM 20 and 35 boxes, and two Battering Rams at P+S 18 (20 if the Stoneshapers have done their thing). If a model is hit by a Ram it becomes knocked down and pushed 1″, which the Wold Guardian then can follow up on. Finally, it is a Shield Guard, is Steady and can get Bulldoze by using its Animus. This is a bit dangerous. On the average it will one-round a Khador heavy. Luckily, Sorscha brought Devastators that at least have a chance of surviving; and then hope for a Mechanik to be nearby.

Finally, the two Woldwyrds are light shooting ‘beasts. Their claim for fame is Purgation that gives them an additional die on attack and damage rolls against models with an upkeep on them. So, anybody with Iron Flesh on them will be targeted. The additional to hit die is not that important for the Shocktroopes, whereas the additional damage die actually is slightly more damage than the extra 2 armour from Iron Flesh. It is quite the opposite for the Assassins, where extra damage it irrelevant but the extra to hit die matters. So, all in all annoying. 

Baldur brings a Celestial Fulcrum, which is kind of cool. As passive abilities it helps Baldur running his ‘beasts hot. It can leach fury and function as a fury bank for him. In addition, it is Veteran Leader [Blackclads] (giving them +1 to attack rolls). Besides the support features it can also shoot a lot.

The Fulcrum has three shots all at RAT 7 (base 6 + 1 from Veteran Leader): an AOE 4″ continuous fire at range 11″ and POW 15; an electric leaping (one leap within 4″ at POW 10) shot at range 13″ and POW 14; and a range 10″ spray with critical freeze. A quite versatile shooting platform. It is not that dangerous against the heavy armoured part of Sorscha’s army. The assassins is a completely different story. They have to hope for Stealth (except against the spray).

Among the solos are two Stoneshapers. They are primarily there to increase the strength of the Wolds; secondly to repair them and manipulate fury. In a twist, they have a 8″ POW 12 spray. There are also two Wayfarers, who are there to put Hunters Mark (+2″ movement when charging and charging for free) on what ever a Wold would like to charge. The combination of these two solos makes the Wolds rather dangerous. All in all, Baldur’s heavies can now reach out and touch something 11″ away and hurting it at between P+S 18 and 20; and ready to spend all fury on attacking. This brings the heavies into one rounding Khador heavies territory. Finally, Chuck gives all constructs +1 to hit; which is not too important, given the impressive Khador DEF. 

As units, Baldur is brining two units of Shifting Stones and one unit of Stoneward & shrimps (not to be confused with the Woldwyrd prawns). The former can do what they do. They can heal, leach and teleport Warbeasts. The shrimps are quite mobile due to Zephyr and can shoot 10″.

In general, I think Sorscha should be OK. Baldur is going to struggle with the heavy armour part of her list; as long as she can control the heavy Wolds. Her Kossites should ambush and try to get rid of the support solos. Something that will really diminish the threats from the heavies.  

We are playing the Steamroller 2021 scenario Recon II. Sorscha picked the Cargo Nets objective (one model becomes Steady and stands up if knocked down). Baldur chose the Observatory objective (one model gets True Sight). Sorscha won the roll-off and decides to go first. 

Sorscha deploys almost in accordance with the Empress’ standard deployment 11 (see here for details and tactical discussion). The BYOF (Bring Your Own Forest from Sorscha’s theme) is placed on the left flank next to the zone, for Yuri to hide in. The two Manhunters deploy behind the forest on the right. The Kossites stay at the camp fire for now. 

Baldur deploys the Fulcrum, a Woldwarden, a Woldwyrd and Chuck on the left. Everything else goes in a big pile on the right. The stones Advance Deploys in front. The picture above depicts the situation after deployment. 

First round. As always this is just going to be the boring move forward fast round. Two, rather slow armies just need to get closer. 

The Eliminators move forward at almost full speed. The leftmost unit position behind the linear obstacle for an extra good defence, if something unexpected should happen. The rightmost unit just runs around the forest to be ready to put pressure on that flank. The Assassins do their thing runs.

All the Man-o-Wars move forward: the Shocktroopers in Shield Wall (under Desperate Pace from the Kovnik) and the Demolishers running. Sorscha moves forward, drops Iron Flesh on the Assassins and Stoke the Fires on each of the ‘jacks. The two Devastators then run forward. Everybody else follows suit. The Mechanik Officer practice his Girded ability by being base to base with Sorscha. Finally, Yuri and the Manhunters move into their forests. 

The picture above shows the result of Sorscha’s first turn.

Baldur’s army starts with the upkeeps in place. Solid Ground on himself, Rapid Growth in the middle between the impassable terrain and the field. Finally, Stone Skin on the Wold Guardian. 

Not a lot of interesting things happens. Everybody basically moves forward. Megalith hides behind the  impassable terrain. In accordance with Sorscha’s plan, Baldur’s army clump up in the middle. However, the Fulcrum faces the left edge and a Wayfarer moves a bit out on the right flank; both ready to receive the Kossites.

The picture above depicts the end of the first round. 

The round where stuff can actually happen. Sorscha has the initiative. I think it might be the feat turn. 

Since Baldur has a feat the seriously will slow down Sorscha’s advance it is important to go forward and apply scenario pressure. So, first step is to jam with the Assassins. They run forward and try to tie up as much as possible. However, the big impassable terrain in the middle is difficult to navigate around.

Following up behind the Assassins, the Man-o-Wars lumber along. Again, the Shocktroopers under Shield Wall and the Demolishers running. Sorscha moves up and feats. She rolls six clouds and produces a cloud wall in the middle. She also drops Stoke the Fires on the Devastators. 

The Assassins have arrived on the left flank (in hindsight, this might have been to early). They take out one of the Wayfarers and attempts to hurt a Shifting Stone. But stones are hard. 

The Eliminators run up both flanks to apply more flanking pressure. Finally, the Adjunct moves to the flag to be ready to score and casts a cloud on the rightmost Devastator; just because he can. 

The picture above shows the result of Sorscha’s feat turn. 

On the left flank, the Fulcrum takes advantage of a potential too early arrival of the Kossites and a reckless move by the Eliminators. It shoots with everything. When the smoke and lightning dissipates the Eliminators are gone and only two Kossites remain.

Then the shrimps and prawns take over. They shoot a lot at the poor Assassins everybody on the left side. Iron Flesh was definitively not beneficial. Perhaps it should have been cycled to the Shocktroopers? 

The Shifting Stones move around. Most importantly, one teleports to the middle of the board, blocking potentially charges against the Wold Guardian. Chuck also moves forward to score the Circle flag. On the right flank, the Wayfarer moves out and attempts to spray the Eliminators. Luckily to no avail. Finally, Baldur moves in and hides behind the objective.

This round ends with a scenario score of 1-1. The picture above depicts the end of the second round. 

I guess this is the crunch round. The two armies are now getting sufficiently close to start beating each other. Unfortunately, for Sorscha, Baldur has feated. 

For all practical reasons, Sorscha’s army stationary. Under Baldur’s feat, the Pathfinder from Jaws of the Wolf doesn’t even help. So, speed is around 2″. Hurrah! 

First of all, the Assassins do their Shadow Dance and mini-feats. It takes out the Shifting Stone in the middle and brings two Assassins into Baldur’s vicinity. The Shocktroopers do what they can. Under Desperate Pace and Shield Wall they storm forward the best they can under Bladur’s feat. This brings them almost to the enemy. Two of them engage the Wold Guardian.

Sorscha moves up and casts Stoke the Fire on the first Devastator, she then Wind Rush to the Objective and casts Stoke the Fire on the second Devastator. 

The Eliminators are outside Baldur’s feat, so they are free to charge and kill the last Wayfarer. One of the Manhunters runs forward to keep the pressure on the right flank. The right Devastator shuffles a bit backwards. There was probably some sort of reason. 

On the right flank, the Devastator moves up as far as possible. A lot of measuring did take place to stay out of the Woldwarden’s charge range; and then all that was ignored. For some reason Yuri decides to run in behind the Shocktroopers (and magically turns into a proxy base. That big cape of his really messes with his balance). The Mechaniks then moves up as well. 

The Shocktroopers manage to get within 4″ of Baldur’s flag. So, the scenario score is now 2-1 in Sorscha’s favour. The picture above shows the end of the slow turn. 

This is Baldur’s murder round. The right flank is easy – nothing happens. It is another story on the left flank. Here the Fulcrum, and shrimps and prawns move about a do a lot of shooting. Again, perhaps Iron Flesh was not such a bright idea. They hurt the Shocktropers quite a lot. The Wold Guardian moves up and cleans up. Four Shocktroopers, an Assassin and a Mechanik is killed. 

Now the result of ignoring all the measuring in the previous turn really comes back to hurt Sorscha. The leftmost Woldwarden can now charge the Devastator. It manages to hit twice and trigger the Chain Attack. The poor Devastator is slammed far sway. Luckily, it is Steady; but now out of the fray.  

Somebody kills the two Assassins near Baldur. That is fine, as they have served their purpose. Finally, the Shifting Stones do their teleportations, and once again they try to block charge lanes.

Scenario score is now 3-2 in Sorscha’s favour. The picture above shows the situation at the end of round 3.

OK, things are heating up. I guess it is time for Sorscha and her troops to get back and the sticks and stones (and shrimps and prawns). 

On the right flank, the Devastator moves sideways to get into a slightly better position for later. The front Manhunter charges Megalith and does a not insignificant amount of damage. The two ladies run across the table to threaten models from the back. The last Manhunter moves up behind the big rock. The Adjunct is happy where he is. Scoring flags is nice.

On the left flank, the damaged Devastator moves out of the BYOF to get near a Mechanik. Sorscha moves a bit forward so she can see one of the Wolds and drops Winter’s Wrath on it. She manages to make the Wold Guardian, the Woldwarden and one of the prawns stationary. 

The Demolition Corps charge the Wold Guardian and almost take it out. It is surprisingly robust. Bulkhead finally leaves bodyguard duty and charges the Woldearden, slams it into the objective and sprays twice. The Woldwarden, the objective and Baldur is caught in the sprays. A bit of damage is dealt. But nothing too impressive.

The Mechaniks move forward. One repairs the damaged Devastor. The offices flamboyantly moves infront of Sorscha to protect her. 

That is it. An OK turn, but not too impressive. This time a Demolition Corps grunt manage to contest Baldur’s flag. So, the scenario score is now 4-2 in Sorscha’s favour. The picture above depicts the end of Sorscha’s turn.

Baldur strikes back. As I didn’t manage to actually kill the two heavies they are quickly brought back to full power. This is the true power of Hordes. 

The Fulcrum moves forward and does it shooting, which deals a lot of damage to the front line. The Wold Guardian and Woldwarden them mow up the sorry remains of the front line Man-o-wars. Even Yuri is killed in the mayhem. A prawn the moves forward on the left and shoots something. 

In the back, the shrimps kill the two nice Kayazy ladies. Luckily, Baldur is running out of time and has to end the turn quickly. He flips the clock with 3 secondes left. The scenario score is now 5-3 in Sorscha’s favour.

The picture above shows the end of round four; and for all practical purposes the end of the game. Sorscha activates one more time. She has two minutes on the clock, So she simply runs the last Kossite to contest Baldur’s flag, flips the clock and wins the game. The final scenario score is then 6-3 in her favour. 

Glory to the Motherland!

I haven’t completely mastered this list yet. On the good side Sorscha remembered to feat, and even on the right round. I also managed to bring in the Kossites (last time I completely forgot them). However, I suspect that I should have waited a round. 

On the bad side, I should be more precise with my measurements. I almost lost a Devastator due to poor play. I also over extended the Eliminators. I think the Assassins did their job. The Man-o-Wars were subpar. Iron Flesh is probably a trap against things with Purgation or similar. ‘

At then end of the day I won the grind. However, I’m still not completely convinced that the list is as it should be; or I just need more training. 

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deployment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is probably the round where maniacs will meet discipline. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Tale of Two Lovers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

Luckily, civil war is a rare sight in well ordered Khador. Unluckily, Butcher sometimes gos into mayhem mode on his own. This is the first time I face Butcher3. I have a somewhat good idea about his capabilities, but have never actually played him myself. Vlad brings his trusted Winter Guards to face off Butcher3 and his robots. Vlad1 dispatches his new post-Oblivion version of his Winter Guard Kommand list. Actually, not a lot have changed. There is one more Artillery Kapitan (for free). That’s it (for a list description, see here).

Khador [Theme] Jaws of the Wolf [Butcher 3] Kommander Zoktavir, the Butcher Unleashed [+22] – Juggernaut [13] – Kodiak [13] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] – Marauder [11] – Ruin [17] – Greylord Adjunct [0(4)] Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [7] Kovnik Apprentice Kratikoff [0(4)] – Rager [10] Battle Mechaniks (min) [3] Kayazy Eliminators [0(5)]

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

Butcher3 (and his two pet dogs) is an army on his own. So, Vlad is actually facing two armies: Butcher and the rest. Butcher is a monster, and he brings his two pet dogs. On his own he is a P+S 16, Weapon Master and 2″ reach. Stacking 6 focus allows him to put out a whooping 189 points of damage in a single round, and an extra 159 points if he also feats, which gives him up to six more focus. With his MAT 9 he has a 72% chance of hitting Vlad. This melee monster can put in 56 point of damage on Vlad in one round (without feating). Basically, he only needs to charge and do one more attack to kill Vlad. He can also take out a Juggernaut in five attacks (assuming a charge). To really piss people off, he can cast his spell Impending Doom, which will Push enemy models within 5″ towards him a whole 5″; and then Flashing Blade which basically gives him a Thresher attack. Just to add insult he can reach somebody 15″ away (Energizer, Charge, Impending Doom). If one accidentally damage him or one of his dogs he can reach out and touch you at 18″ (with Pathfinder)! So if you are within 15/18″ you (and a not insignificant part of your army) are dead. It turns out that “your are dead” distance is 20″! 5 (base) + 2 (Energizer) + 2 (Boundless Charge) + 3 (charge) + 3 (Vengeance) + 5 (Impending Doom).

Since one cannot play a Warmachine game without actually spending all army points, except for 4, Butcher have to bring at least 93 points of list fillings. Since he is playing Jaws of the Wolf, he brings six ‘jacks as his battlegroup. We all know and love the Triple Marauder goodness for their knockdowns and huge-base problem solving (I’m already feeling sorry for Vlad’s Carriages). The Juggernaut is the best beat-stick around. The Kodiak do clouds, and Grab & Smash. Finally, Ruin is an auto-include when playing Butcher. Ruin is very much a self-contained ‘jack, which Butcher likes as he really don’t want to handover focus. It collects souls that can be exchanged for focus, he has Boundless Charge, and a huge mace. He can do all sorts of other neat tricks. But they do not really do anything against Vlad and his list. Oh, and remember the theme gives all of his ‘jacks Pathfinder. So, all the nice rough terrain from the Carriages are worthless. To round off his group he is also brining an Adjunct. I’m assuming he is primarily there to give Butcher Eyeless Sight.

There are two units in the list: a unit of Eliminators and a units of Mechaniks. The former is two crazy girls who excel at surgical strikes, and are almost impossible to hit (Stealth, and DEF 17 in close combat). The latter are basically what it says on the tin.

As if there weren’t enough heavy warjacks and Boundless Charge, Sorscha0 is also there along with the standard Rager. She is there to handout more Boundless Charge, and the Rager is there to protect her and contest.

Finally, Eiryss1 is also at the party. She can really ruin any hopes of manipulating focus. If she shoots Vlad he can’t replenish focus. If she shoots a ‘jack it is Disrupted. She is very often a prioritised target. Unfortunately, she has Stealth, DEF 16 and a range of 12″.

This is probably going to be a rough match. A few simple rules to remember:

1. Keep Carriages away from Marauders; 
2. Kill Eiryss; 
3. Keep Vlad at least 15″ away from Butcher; and 
4. Rely on knockdown. There are two knockdown on a stick (Field Guns), two Gun Carriages, and three Marauders. A lot of knockdown possibilities, and we all know that the only thing Butcher really fears is to be knocked down.

We are playing post-Obilivion Steamroller 2019 Spread the Net. Vlad wins the roll of and opts to choosing side. There is a lovely wall on one side, which Butcher can’t drag him over using Impending Doom. He places the AOE 5″ forest from the theme on the right flank (the Privateer Press template on the picture below).

Butcher deploys his wall of steel in a straight line with him and his dogs in the middle. The Eliminators go on the left flank, and Eiryss Advance Deploys behind a building. 

Vlad deploys pretty much in his standard manner. A Carriage on each flank. Vlad in the middle surrounded on each side by his Winter Guards. The ‘jacks are up front. The picture above shows the end of deployment.

The first round is going to be particular slow this time. Too many slow Khador ‘jacks to count “advancing at full speed”.

Everything “runs” forward. There is a lot of shuffling around with all the slow large bases. Most notable, the Eliminators runs into the left zone. The Kodiak sprints into the middle zone. Ruin and a Marauder moves into the forest that Butcher brought. All the rest just moves forward. The picture above shows the end of Butcher’s first turn.

My initial thoughts are that Vlad can use Butcher’s army’s lack of speed as a good think; as long as Vlad stays away from Butcher’s assassin runs. There is still a lot of turns before scenario scores, so no worries.

Vlad starts by moving up behind the wonderful wall. I’m pretty sure this is where he will spend his afternoon. It is a bit tricky to position in such a way that Butcher can’t reach him over the wall (remember Butcher has a 2″ reach”). He casts Wind Wall, just because he can.

Both Carriages run forward. The ‘jacks follow suit. All Winter Guards also moves up. The leftmost Rifle Corps is being told by Joe to be tough. They move up and stays out of the Kodiak’s threat range. That was basically it. The picture above depicts the end of round 1.

Normally, first turn in round two is when the killing begins. However, as we are all waiting for the Khador ‘jacks to get there, Vlad might have a first kill advantage.

Butcher is for some reason playing it safe. He just advances all of his ‘jacks. The Koidak puts down a cloud for Butcher to hide behind. The Adjunct also put a cloud on him. I think he is afraid of Vlad’s feat. On the left flank a lonely Marauder sits down in the zone to begin scoring in the next turn. For some reason Eiryss is ignoring Butcher’s flag and the Eliminators move to the middle (probably to be ready to score). All in all, a rather uneventful turn. The picture above shows the end of Butcher’s turn.

It is party time. Vlad will have the alpha. He beings by allocating one focus to the leftmost Marauders. That leaves him enough to cast S&P and Boundless Charge if required. He then activates, feats and cast S&P. He then spend the rest of the round writing “Vlad was here” on the wall.

On the left flank, the Carriage charges the Marauder and makes sure to stay within Vlad’s S&P bubble. It deals some damage to the Marauder, slams it away, and knocks it down. Some shooting happes agains Sorscha0, which damages the Rager and her a bit. It then repositions into the zone, which is rather important, as it can now contest the zone. The Kapitan runs to the flag to start scoring.

On the right flank the other Carriage is so inspired by its colleague that it does the same. It charges the Marauder, damages, knocks down, and slams. The slam also hits the Argus and Ruin. It starts shooting at the Argus (yes, I know that it triggers Vengeance but the middle is really crowded) and kills one of them. The Winter Guard on top shoots a Mechanik. It then repositions to stay in the zone.

The Marauders charge in and starts slamming. The left most charges the last hostile Marauder at an angle and uses Combo Smite to slam and knockdown. It then hits the Kodiak. The middle Marauder charges the Kodiak and does the same. Finally, the rightmost Marauder charges the Juggernaut and applies the same procedure. It slams into Ruin to ruin him a bit more.

All Winter Guards ahead. Since Ruin is on the floor the Mortar lobs a grenade into it. Both Field Guns and Rocketeers do the same. Once Ruin is killed the rockets goes into other ‘jacks. All of this is topped off with a bit of CRA into the ‘jacks. All os this cannon shooting and slamming also takes out Eyriss, the two Eliminators, and the last Argus.

This was a glorious turn. Five ‘jacks damaged and knocked down. Eliminators and Eiryss gone. No clear charge path for Butcher, despite killing both Argus. Scenario score is 1-0 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above shows the mayhem at the end of round 2.

All in all Vlad is on top. Butcher is staring at all of his ‘jack on the ground. Let’s see what he can do.

All Butcher’s ‘jacks power up and I seem to remember that he did not spend their focus to shake knockdown. This is probably a major mistake. He does not allocate to his ‘jacks. On the left flank, the Marauder stands up, walks over to the Carriage and starts hitting. The Carriage survives. The other Marauder moves into place to be able to charge the Carriage later and to be able to score the zone.

On the right flank the Marauder walks through the acid hazard and hits the Carriage. It also survives.

In the middle the two ‘jacks and Butcher gangs up on Vlad’s Marauders. They remove two of them, and leaves the last one damaged. Sorscha and her pet Rager spend a lot of time getting out of the rough terrain. The Adjunct puts a cloud on Sorscha.

In general, this was a very easy round for Vlad. Only two ‘jacks went down. I think Butcher made a terrible mistake not shaking knockdown, and not allocating. Personally I think that he was too focused on getting Butcher forward to do an assassin run. Nevertheless, the scenario score is now 2-0 in Vlad’s favour. The picture above depicts the situation at the end of turn 1.

Vlad is a happy camper. He was fearing loosing all ‘jacks and at least one Carriage. However, through the combination of a whole lot of knockdown, and perhaps not optimal playing by the opponent, the future now looks bright.

Vlad starts by casting S&P. He then steps back from the wall. Partly to make sure that Butcher can’t reach him across the wall, and partly to admire his graffiti. This turns out to be a really stupid mistake. For some reason I thought that kill box is 10″. It is not. It is 12″. So my opponent just got two scenario points.

On the left flank, the Carriage charges the rightmost Marauder, impact both Marauders and knocks them down. The charge attack really damages the receiving Marauder. It then shoots the leftmost Marauder and Sorscha0. It misses the latter. It then repositions into the circular zone. The last move was not too clever. I assumed that the leftmost Winter Guards could walk into the left zone to contest. They could not.

On the right flank, the Carriage moves a little and knocks the Marauder down. It then shoots it with one cannon. The other cannon takes out two Mechaniks. It then repositions forward and turns to survey the battle field.

In the middle, the Marauder assisted by artillery takes out the Kodiak and the Juggernaut. All other shoots at the rightmost Marauder to remove it. A few moves into place to block a potential charge lane for Butcher.

So far, so good. Vlad has more or less eradicated one of the opposing armies, only leaving Butcher. Another four or five knockdowns. Unfortunately the story is quite different when it comes to scenario. Vlad is silly and gives two points away. I can’t think and measure at the same time, so another point goes away in a zone. This leaves the scenario score at 3-3. The picture above demonstrates how ‘jack-cleaning really brightens the place.

This is probably going to be the last round. Not only is Butcher running out of one of his armies. More worrying, Vlad is getting quite low on the clock. 

Butcher remembers to power up and use that focus to shake knockdown. I think he also allocated a bit to his ‘jacks. Although, I’m not quite sure. He then moves a bit and takes out the Marauder. He is in a bit of a hurry as the clock is ticking fast on his side. All the ‘jacks concentrate on the leftmost Carriage. However, all but Sorscha’s Rager is really in bad shape. Thus, the Carriage survies with one or two boxes.

That was more or less it. He has 25 seconds left on the clock (I have 7 minutes). Both make a scenario point, leaving the score at 4-4. The picture above show the end of the first turn.

Disclaimer first: I the heat of the battle I forgot to take a picture at the end of round four. Thus, the picture above is the same as at the end of the first turn in round 4, just with arrows depicting the most important events.

Vlad starts by moving back out of the kill zone. He then casts S&P, and spends the rest of the round grumbling about silly kill zones and the lack of appreciation of tagging.

The leftmost Carriage does a bit of wiggling about knocks down the two ‘jacks and Butcher. It also kills a Winter Guard in the process. But they know they make sacrifices for the Motherland. It then shoots everything at Butcher. He is still standing (metaphorical speaking, that is).

The rightmost Carriage then proceeds to charge Butcher, whilst he is laying on the floor. Impact and charge attack does a lot of damage. I think Butcher might have made a defensive feat in first turn of this round. Could have been in another round. I’m not sure. I do however remember that he did one at some point. Nevertheless, Butcher has been assassinated by Carriage.

If I was an adult I should of course also have focused on scenario points. I should have attempted to take out the ‘jacks scoring the left zone. But time was against me, so I focused on the grand prize; which was sensible as I had less that 10 seconds left on the clock when Butcher went down. Scenario score ended at 5-5. For once the picture above does not show the end of the match.

All in all this went OK. I had kind of a plan to being with. It was basically:

1. Keep Carriages away from Marauders;
2. Kill Eiryss;
3. Keep Vlad at least 15″ away from Butcher; and
4. Rely on knockdown.

Except for the first point, I pretty much stuck to it. Vlad’s ‘jacks, Carriages, and Field Guns did at least 11 knockdowns on Butcher’s jacks – and one on him. I’m pretty sure that I would not have survived if all of these knockdowns weren’t available.

Also, I think there was an element of luck in the beginning of round 3. Here my opponent either plainly forgot to shake knockdown or had a really bad plan involving not shaking. I’m not convinced it was game breaking. But at least the left most Carriage would probably not have survived.

Finally, KEEP EYES ON SCENARIO. How I managed to move into the kill zone is beyond me.

Most importantly, we both had fun. Vlad has also recovered from people’s lack of appreciation of tagging.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!