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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dawnguard Sentinels are really annoying. They are reach 2″ P+S 12 weapon masters (which is surprisingly hard hitting). They do Vengeance for a bit of movement and an extra attack in the maintenance phase (assuming a model has been damaged). They also have Relentless Charge from their Officer. What really makes them annoying is their really high ARM. They do a base ARM of 15, which goes to 17 if they are base to base. When they are running along Goreshade4, he can raise it with an additional 3 under Dauntless Resolve; and just to add to it, they do an Iron Zeal mini-feat, which adds another 3 to their ARM. All in all it can bring them to ARM 23!

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

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

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

Three Arcanist Mechaniks are also to be found in the list. They are basically super mechanics, somewhere between our Mechaniks and the Choir. They can Empower, Repair, and do Concentrated Power (see the part on Imperatus).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Turn 2

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

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

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

Turn 3

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

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

Final thoughts

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

I general, I think that quite many Retribution lists are manageable for Irusk’s standard list. This one, in particular should be fine, as there is a lot of infantry, and Winter Guards like to shoot at infantry.

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

However, this is actually not so bad for a WGK list. This list does not rely on high DEF or high ARM, rather on strength in number (as well as tough and no knockdown). Also, Arcane Vortes doesn’t do a lot against the WGK list, as Irusk doesn’t really have any spells to negate. Even his feat is not that bad. Becoming Stationary after a melee attack; so what, I really what to shoot stuff.

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

Goreshade is flanked by one of the Retribution colossal, the Helios, and a Gorgon. The latter is really not interesting. In some sense, I am quite happy to see this colossal and not the Hyperion. The Hyperion is a Winter Guard killer pay excellence. A Helios is basically a beast stick, which is tremendously difficult to remove. Is has a Tractor Beam, which can push a model up to 3″, and Repulsor Field, which pushes a model hitting it 1″ away. As the only way to kill it for this WGK list is to hit it with the ‘jacks or a Battle Lust’ed and Bear Strength Winter Guard unit. The latter is actually the most probable.

The Dawnguard Invictors are an infantry unit that are comparable to our own Winter Guard Rifle Corps. Slightly higher damage output, and slightly more ARM, and Reposition. Nothing to worry about.

It is a different story with the Dawnguard Sentinels. They are reach 2″ P+S 12 weapon masters. They do Vengeance for a bit of movement and an extra attack in the maintenance phase (assuming a model has been damaged). They also have Relentless Charge from their Officer, making Irusk’s Artifice of Deviation void. What really makes them annoying is there really high ARM. They do a base ARM of 15, which goes to 17 if they are base to base. When they are running along Goreshade4, he can raise it with an additional 3 under Dauntless Resolve; and just to add to it, they do an Iron Zeal mini-feat, which adds another 3 to their ARM. All in all it can bring them to ARM 23!

The final additions to the Goresade4 list are three Arcanist Mechanik and a Lys Healer. The former are basically just super mechanics that can, in addition to repair also give a focus or add 2 to the damage roll of a ‘jack. The latter, can heal stuff and make them immune to knockdown or stationary.

All in all, I’m not too worried about this list. Despite the Sentinels having a very good ARM, the trusted Winter Guards should have no problem shoot the infantry of the field. Also, the tricks that Goreshade4 has are, despite being not completely unimportant, most does not really have any significant impact on this WGK list. The only worry is the Helios, which is not really too dangerous, but quite difficult to remove.

We are playing Mirage. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″). Retribution goes first.

Goreshade deploys his Helios on my right flank with most of the support solos near it. On the left flank, the Invictors are lining up. Goreshade goes in the middle with a unit of Sentinels on each side. 

Irusk deploys in the standard manner. The only change is that I deploy a Field Gun to my far left opposing the Gorgon, and both ‘jacks on my right to counter the Helios. The picture above depicts the state and the end of deployment.

Turn 1 is basically uneventful. Goreshade just pushes forward. He puts both of his Sentinels into Wall of Steel and casts Dauntless Resolve on the unit to my right. The Gorgon follow the left most Sentinel unit, and the Helios moves into the right most zone. So far nothing more to see here.

I run the Winter Guards and moves the artillery forward. The two ‘jacks advances slowly among the Winter Guards. Irusk2 casts Solid Ground, Fire for Effect on the Field Gun to the right, and Artifice of Deviation – forgetting that the Sentinels have Relentless Charge. So far nothing interesting. The only main question is how to put pressure on the right most zone. Goreshade just parked a huge ‘jack there. The picture above shows the field at the end of turn 1.

Turn 2 starts with the Invictors moving forward and taking a few pot shots at my Rifle Corps on my left flank. The Sentinels move forward and both units activates their mini-feat, leaving the unit on my left at ARM 22 and the other one at ARM 25! 

Irusk upkeeps Solid Ground and Fire for Effect, and drops Artifice of Deviation. I need to take out as many Sentinels as possible before they can get a charge off at the Winter Guards. So all Winter Guards hold the line and aims.

Never underestimate focused Winter Guards. They manage to clean out an over average number of Sentinels, actually so many that the Goreshade player needs a hug. Still not remembering that Sentinels have Relentless Charge, Irusk recasts Artifice of Deviation. My ‘jacks are kind of scared of the colossal and moves (too little) forward. Irusk feats to hinder the Sentinels reaching my line.

At the end of turn 2, Goreshade manages to score one point in his zone, and I also score one (the Mortar Crew is a unit, I sometimes forget that). The picture above depicts the end of turn 2.

I think I manage to ruin Goreshade’s plan. Thanks to Irusk marvellous feat he can really get too much out of an alpha strike. He just shuffles his Sentinels forward instead for charging. He mange to score one point in his round, and so do I.

The Winter guards hold the line. I have no idea why. Common sense would dictate that the Winter Guards should advance and gain some momentum. However, they do not. What ever happened in this round, I mange to score one point, and he does not. This leaves us at 2-2 on scenario points. The picture above is end of turn 3.

It is charge time. The Sentinels charge the Winter Guards thick red line. It is not an impressive charge. He manage to remove only three models on my left flank. When Winter Guards are tough – they are tough. Nevertheless, Sentinels are now at the front door. He also moves Goreshade into his zone, the Nys Healer next to the left most flag, and an Arcanist Mechanik to the middle flag. This is not good, as he manage to score three points in this round, and I score none! The picture below shows the situation after Goreshade’s round

The Winter Guards are potentially in trouble. The Retribution player is currently leading the scenario score with 5-2. I have to do something or the game is over. Let the clean up commence.

Irusk upkeeps his spells and starts on the left flank by ordering the artillery to remove the Nys Healer, so no more scoring that flag. The Rifle Corps attempt to remove as many Sentinels as possible, but apparently killing “low” ARM sentinels is far more difficult than killing high ARM sentinels.

Joe encourages the Winter Guard Infantry by using Bear Strength, giving them +4 STR. Irusk enhances this by casting Battle Lust on the same unit. The unit charges the Sentinel unit in front of them and almost wipe them out. Never underestimate Winter Guards charging P+S 12 axes rolling 4 dice! One Winter Guard also kills the Arcanist Mechanik who was scoring the middle flag. The Rifle Corps on the left follows up with less success that the infantry. To further hinder scoring the Spriggan tramples into the right most zone.

This ends turn 4 with nobody scoring, leaving us at 5-2 in Gorshade’s favour. Not too shabby I think. The picture above shows the end of turn 4.

The Retribution player is quite clever. He can easily see that if he can score two more points, he wins on scenario. This is unfortunately easily done. The sentinels on my left flank charges the objective and kills it, score is now 6-2. On the right flank, the Helios uses all sorts dirty tricks. It moves up to the Spriggan, uses Tractor Beam on the only Winter Guard in the zone, picks up the Spriggan and throws it out of the zone, leaving the score at 7-2 – game over. The picture below depicts the end of the game.

It was all going so well and then not.

I think I was correct with most of my initial thoughts about this Goreshade4 list. It is not really that dangerous. All in all, I think Iruk’s feat was well placed. I do, however, think I lost the game in turn 3, when I did not press the scenario. I also think that I overestimated how dangerous the Helios is.

Basically, I should just have put much more pressure on the scenario, and I think the game would have been won.

Until next time:

For the Motherland!