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

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

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

Khador – Winter Korps Kapitan Yana Kovoskiy    – Fog of War    – Puissance    – Mastodon [32]      HEAD – Shock Assault      RIGHT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer      LEFT SHOULDER – Deep Freezer      RIGHT ARM – Great Axe      LEFT ARM – Grinder Fist AC-2 Bison [10] AC-2 Bison [10] Battle Mechanik [2] Battle Mechanik [2] Magziev Zarivah Volkova [4] Mortar Team [2] Winter Korps Officer [3] Winter Korps Officer [3] Arkanists [4] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Shock Trooper Pikemen [7] Command cards     – Blessing of the Gods     – Duck and Cover!     – Lucky Penny     – Old Faithful     – Put the Fires Out Total Points   100/100

Khador – Winter Korps Kommander Valerii Savaryn    – Puissance    – Superiority    – Avalanche [15]      HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive      RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance      LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield    – Avalanche [15]      HEAD – Hyper-Aggressive      RIGHT ARM – Pneumatic Lance      LEFT ARM – Wedge Shield Battle Mechanik [2] Battle Mechanik [2] Kontroller [4]    – Dire Wolf [10]      HEAD – Shield Guard      RIGHT ARM – Long Axe      LEFT ARM – Plow-Shield Sergeant Sergie Krol [5] Winter Korps Officer [3] Winter Korps Officer [3] Arkanists [4] Man-O-War Suppressors [11] Man-O-War Suppressors [11] Man-O-War Wrecking Crew [10] Winter Korps Snipers [4]    – Winter Korps Hunting Dog [1] Command cards     – Blessing of the Gods     – Lucky Penny     – Old Faithful     – Put the Fires Out     – Sapper Total Points   100/100

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

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

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

Crucible Guard – Crucible Guard Major Aline Bennet – Toro [10] Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc [5] Crucible Guard Mechanik [1] Crucible Guard Mechanik [1] Crucible Guard Mechanik [1] Crucible Guard Mechanik [1] Prospero [4] – Vulcan [28] – Vulcan [28] Rocketman Stinger [3] Rocketman Stinger [3] Trancer [2] Trancer [2] Crucible Guard Assault Troopers [7] Dragon’s Breath Rocket [4] Defenses – Defence 1 – Barrier – Defence 1 – Barrier – Defence 1 – Barrier Command Cards – Blessing of the Gods – Careful Reconnaissance – Defenses – Lucky Penny – Sapper Total Points   99/100

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Protectorate of Menoth – Final Interdiction High Exemplar Cyrenia – Fire of Salvation [13] – Redeemer [8] – Redeemer [8] Exemplar Errant Seneschal [3] Exemplar Warder [3] Exemplar Warder [3] High Exemplar Gravus [7] Vassal of Menoth [1] Vassal of Menoth [1] Choir of Menoth [3] Exemplar Cinerators [7] – Exemplar Cinerator Officer [3] Exemplar Errants [8] – Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard [3] Exemplar Errants [8] – Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard [3] Exemplar Vengers [9] Exemplar Vengers [9] Defenses – Defense 1 – Barrier – Defense 1 – Fire Pit – Defense 1 – Fire Pit Command Cards – Break Through – Careful Reconnaissance – Defenses – Lucky Penny – Old Faithful Total Points   99/100

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

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

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

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

The picture below the silence before the storm.

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

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

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

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

The picture below depicts the end of the boring round.

Now onto the bloody one…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mercenaries – Rhul Guard General Ossrum – Ghordson Earthbreaker [27] – Grundback Blaster [5] – Grundback Blaster [5] Carver Ultimus [20] – War Boar MMD47 Ogrun Bokur [3] Ogrun Bokur [3] Stone Lord Guvul Godor [4] Horgenhold Artillery Corps [4] Horgenhold Artillery Corps [4] Horgenhold Forge Guard [7] Horgenhold Forge Guard [7] Horgenhold Forge Guard [7] Tactical Arcanist Corps [4] Command Cards – Blessing of the Gods – Careful Reconnaissance – Lucky Penny – Old Faithful – Put the Fires Out Total Points   99/100

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

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

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

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

The picture below shows the deployment.

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

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

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

The picture below shows the quite befor the storm.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, onwards to the last game today.

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

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

Dusk – House Kallyss Scyrafael, Nis-Issyr of Desolations – Eidolon [16] – HEAD – True Sight – RIGHT ARM – Dawn Blade – LEFT ARM – Force Shield – BACK – Vortex Cannon – Eidolon [15] – HEAD – Arcane Stasis – RIGHT ARM – Dawn Blade – LEFT ARM – Force Shield – BACK – Vortex Cannon – Ghast [9] – HEAD – Arc Node – RIGHT ARM – Blaster Fist – LEFT ARM – Force Lash – Israfyl [17] – HEAD – Israfyl – LEFT ARM – Serpentine Blade – RIGHT ARM – Serpentine Blade – BACK – Death Whisper – Specter [10] – Specter [10] Vaelyss, The Hand of Mourning [4] Void Engine [8] – Wight Seeker Adepts [4] Soulless Guardians [8] Command Cards – Careful Reconnaissance – Duck and Cover! – Hit & Run – Lucky Penny – Old Faithful Total Points   99/100

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oy! I’m just lying around here…

This was an intense game.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway. Tomorrow is another day.

For the Motherland!

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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


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


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


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

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

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

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

The round where nothing happens, or is it…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

The Harbinger is back again with her Faithful Masses. This is the third time I am up against her, but the first time post-Oblivion. The first time Irusk2 brought his Winter Guards Kommand (for battle report, see here), the second time Vlad1 was dispatched, also bringing his Winter Guard Kommand (for battle report, see here). This time Vlad1 is dispatched once more, bringing a 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).

Protectorate [Theme] The Faithful Masses [Harbinger 1] The Harbinger of Menoth [+27] – Indictor [14] – Indictor [14] – Judicator [35] Allegiant of the Order of the Fist [3] Allegiant of the Order of the Fist [3] Champion of the Order of the Wall [8]        Champion of the Order of the Wall [8] Hand of Silence [7] The Covenant of Menoth [4] Vassal Mechanik [1] Vassal Mechanik [1] Choir of Menoth (min) [4] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)]

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

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

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

The two Indictors are heavy ‘jacks with a shield (P+S 13) and a Blessed sword (P+S 17). We can’t target them with spells (Sacred Ward), neither cast spells when within 6″ of one (Consecration). In this battle, they are basically just half decent beat-stick. All the spell stuff doesn’t really do anything here. Despite being heavily armed, in this case they have no arms (see pictures below).

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

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

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

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

To supplement the Choir in keeping the ‘jacks running, Harbinger also brought two Vassal Mechaniks. They are basically what it says on the tin.

The final solo is the Hand of Silence, aka the guy on my little pony. He is yet another soul manipulator. He can collect souls from dead Protectorate models or route them to somebody else within 10″. When he uses them himself, he can either give a focus to a nearby ‘jack, buy additional attacks, or boost. He has a 2″ POW 14 weapon, but perhaps even more important he can spray fire 8″ at POW 12, and have Assault. Finally he has build in Ashen Veil and the obligatory 3″ Reposition. All in all, he is a pretty annoying support and infantry remover.

We are playing post-Oblivion Steamroller 2019 Anarchy. Harbinger picked the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″), Vlad finally remembered to pick Observatory (one friendly model gets Eyeless Sight within 4″). Protectorate wants to go first, so Vlad chooses side. There is a tasty trench where Vlad can spend the afternoon, so he chooses that side.

Harbinger deploys a Champion, an Indicator (the two ‘jacks who can’t have cookies), and a unit of Initiates. Harbinger goes slightly to the left along with the book, my little pony, a unit of Initiates, and the Choir. The Judicator goes in the middle, with the Vassals hiding behind it. The two monks deploy in front, ready to contest the two zones.

Vlad deploys more or less in the standard manner. A Carriage and a Field Gun on each flank. The two Rifle Corps in the middle, with Vlad smack in the middle. As a new approach, the Marauders deploy behind the Rifle Corps. Based on earlier experiences with, in particular Harbinger, the Marauders need to stay alive a lure the Judicator within charge range. The picture above depicts the end of deployment. 

Turn one of round one is always a bit boring. 

Harbinger advances everything. The two flanks run towards the zones, and a monk stands in the left zone and goes into Shifting Sands Stand — inside a cloud! That is DEF 20 against shooting and DEF 18 against melee. They are annoying. All the rest basically just advance. Harbinger hides behind the Judicator and the Hand of Silence. The picture above shows the end of Harbinger’s turn.

End of round 1

Vlad starts by looking at the trench, and goes: “that objective looks much more promising“. He moves up behind the objective. Admiring the view of the battle field from behind an objective is always very nice. He then casts S&P, and Wind Wall. On the left flank everything moves forward. The Carriage fires a cannon at the Initiates, but misses. The AOE drifts towards Vlad’s line; which is fine. The Protectorate doesn’t really have any good ways of dealing with rough terrain. Same procedure on the right flank. The Carriage takes a shot at the Champion and dismounts him. Unfortunately, the monk is immune to blast when base to base with the Champion. Another cannon shot misses the monk and drifts to the left. The Rifle Corps makes a slightly fast advance to get into the zone. The Champion has been dismounted, so it is somewhat safer on this flank. The picture above depicts the end of round 1.

So far, so good. Nothing really new here. The classic contest move on both flank from Harbinger. We are getting close to actually hurting each other.

On the left flank the Champion charges the Carriage, not so much to hurt it, but rather to lock it in place. The Initiates move into the zone to start scoring, and the monk moves along, does his little dance and moves base-to-base with the Initiates. The Indictor moves into the cloud.

On the right flank, the Initiates also move into the zone along with the monk. As the Champion has already been dismounted he just stands there. The Indictor moves in behind.

In the middle, the Judicator moves up and shoots a few rockets. It manages to take out six Winter Guards and one of the grunts from both Field Guns. Not too bad. Winter Guards expect to die. Unfortunately one of them was a Rocketeer, and it also manages to remove the rightmost Kapitan. The book moves up and goes “no knockdown”. The Choir moves up and goes “you can’t shoot the ‘jacks”. Harbinger actually makes an advance! The picture above shows the end of Harbinger’s turn. 

So, red ones go faster. Vlad allocates one focus to the middle ‘jack. He activates, casts S&P and Boundless Charge on the allocated ‘jack. He then feats. This is a gamble. There is no way a single Marauder with only two focus can deal with a judicator. But to keep pressure on Harbinger and the scenario I think a quick feat might do the trick.

On the left flank, the Carriage moves around the Champion and hits it, two Initiates and the monk with its Impact Attacks. It only manages to dismount the Champion as Harbinger really likes to Martyr. It does, however manage to hoof the zone. It shoots it cannons at the middle Initiates and the Objective. One Initiate goes down along with a choirboy.

In the middle, the last Kapitan says Fire & Displace to the Mortar, which then proceeds to do a bit of book shooting. The Field gun follows up. Joe shouts For the Motherland to the Rifle Corps on the right, and moves forward. The Rifle Corps moves up and finish off the book. Grenades goes into the Initiates in the middle, whom Harbinger martyrs. Finally, the Marauder charges and put a few dents into the Judicator.

On the right flank, the Carriage charges the Initiates and kills two of them. It the proceeds to shoot the Champion to death and drop two Mechaniks and a choirboy behind the Judicator. The two last Marauders runs forward. The picture above shows the end of round two.

So, this is where the fanatics hit the fan. The main question is whether my early feat is a gamble I ‘m going to loose.

The Harbinger allocates to the ‘jacks. She then does a classic Cygnar-advance and moves behind the objective. She then feats. On the left flank, the Initiates and the Champion grinds away at the Carriage with no crucial effect. The two remaining Initiates in the middle and the Indictor charges the Marauder. Fortunately, Initiates doesn’t really do a lot of damage, and a single Indictor is not enough to takeout anything serious.

On the right flank, the Indictor charges the Carriage and is supported by the remaining Initiate. Same story as on the left. The Carriage is still fit for fight. The monk moves left to score the flag. In the middle, the Judicator dispatches the Marauder without any real effort. The Hand of Faith moves in front and does something with two souls. That was it. The picture above depicts the end of a  surprisingly non-lethal turn. 

Vlad starts by allocating to the rightmost Marauder. Under Boundless Charge it can reach the Judicator. He activates and casts Boundless Charge on the rightmost Marauder and S&P.

On the left flank, the Carriage wiggles about a bit a does some Impacts. Most importantly, it knocks down the Indictor. All available artillery shoots moves in and shoots and the downed Indictor. The leftmost Marauder them Tramples over the two Initiates, removes them and is now in a beautiful position to charge either the objective or Harbinger next turn.

That’s all folks. The rightmost Marauder can now charge the Judicator and trivially remove it. That leaves Harbinger with one Indictor on the right flank, which is tied down by the Carriage. The second Indictor is damaged so the armless model actually is a faithfully depiction of reality. She is staring at two Marauders with clear charge paths. She surrenders. The picture above shows the situation as she surrenders.

This went pretty well. I think Vlad now has honed his Harbinger-removal abilities. This WGK list is surprisingly strong against Harbinger. It is not a blindfolded win, but I think he is in a good shape. Also, the early feat gamble payed off.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

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

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

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

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

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

The Initiates of the Wall are highly annoying; in particular when they can be brought for free. They are all Shield Guards, they have Set Defence, have five boxes, and Unbreakable Wall. The lattes makes them immune to knockdown and all sorts of moves. All of this basically make them ARM 21 (effective ARM 23 against charge attacks), they can Shield Guard each other, and if everything else fails, Harbinger can martyr them. They can really mess up a Gun Carriage’s day.

In addition to the units, Harbinger brings five solos: two Champions, two monks, and the guy on my little pony. The two Champion of the Order of the Wall are some pretty hefty Dragoons comparable to our own Man-O-War Dragoons. They are Steady and Sturdy, so no Field Gun fun, and have Retaliatory Strike. Actually, they are quite dangerous, and somewhat difficult to remove. They can also charge stuff 15″ away (assuming Crusader’s call). Two fighting monk, or Allegiant of the Order of the Fist, are also present. These monks are annoying, flag capturing, tough, and hard to remove speed bumps. The will most likely be at DEF 18, and move about if an attack misses them.

The final solo is the Hand of Silence, aka the guy on my little pony. He is yet another soul manipulator. He can collect souls from dead Protectorate models or route them to somebody else within 10″. When he uses them himself, he can either give a focus to a nearby ‘jack, buy additional attacks, or boost. He has a 2″ POW 14 weapon, but perhaps even more important he can spray fire 8″ at POW 12, and have Assault. Finally he has build in Ashen Veil and the obligatory 3″ Reposition. All in all, he is a pretty annoying support and infantry remover.

Deployment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

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

The religious fanatics from the Protectorate have decided to push the Northern Crusade even further into Khador territory. This time the push is lead by Vindictus and heavy Exemplar infantry; and they are bringing a bloody church! Sorscha is dispatched to hand out the Empress justice to the invaders. This becomes a long meat grinding game of attrition. At the very last moment Sorscha pulls out a win on scenario.

There is generally a lot of Protectorate on the tables near by. Most are the High Reclaimer or the Harbinger, and always with a Judicator. So seeing Vindictus across the tabel is a refreshing change. The last two times I have faced Protectorate have both been with Irusk2 (for battle report against Harbinger, see here; and against the High Reclaimer, see here). I always find Protectorate difficult. In general, they seem to be able to play a Khador-style game, just better than us. Nevertheless, this time I will face them as Khadoran as it get. Running Armored Corps under Sorscha3 (for list description, see here). The two lists facing of are as follows:

This theme is as often Exemplar Interdiction (post Oblivion). This normally means a lot of Exemplars with Cinerators and Errants. However, this time there are Bastions and lo a behold a Shrine. The benefits offered from the theme are Blessed weapons on the Warjacks and Exemplars are immune to continuous effects. Not a big problem.

Vice Scrutator Vindictus is completely new to me. His build-in abilities seems to favour Holy Zealots. However, he is not brining any this time around (I assume they have all be sacrificed). He does pack a pretty good defensive feat, where his models can’t be targeted by charges, slams, enemy spells or non-magical ranged attacks. In addition, he brings five spells to the table: Admonition, which is a good “get away” spell, allowing a 3″ move if an enemy ends within 6″; Defender’s Ward, which adds +2 to DEF and ARM of a unit (which can bring Cinerators to Shocktrooper-like ARM); Immolation, a POW 12 damage spell; Penitence, where an enemy attacker suffers 1 point of damage if it damages an opponent; and True Path, which gives +2 movement and Pathfinder in Vindictus’ control area.

The Scrutator brings three ‘jacks and an attachment. The latter is the Hierophant, who extends the range of Vindictus’ spells by 2″, allows for Harmonious Exaltation (reduce cost of spells cast by 1 focus), and can heal others a bit. The ‘jacks are two Dervish and a Templar.

The Templar, is a heavy beat-stick with Shield Guard. One important detail is that it carries a Flail which ignores our glorious Shocktroopers’ Shield Wall, and does Beat Back. It is also ARM 21 with 32 boxes. But, all in all not too scary.

The two Dervish are small nimble machines with Side Step and Parry. They can basically surf through light infantry. Luckily, I did not bring any light infantry.

In addition to the Warjacks, Vindictus brought a lot of heavy infantry. Two units of Cinerators and one unit of Bastions. Also the ubiquitous Choir. The latter is, as always there to boost the ‘jacks. They can sing their songs to either stop ‘jacks from being targeted by spells, or not being targeted by non-magical ranged attacks; neither of which abilities changes a lot here; the last ability, Hymn of Battle gives ‘jacks +2 to their damage rolls, which brings the Templar into Juggernaut land, and the Dervis up to P+S 15 – making them pseudo-dangerous for non-Shocktrooper Man-O-Wars.

The two heavy infantry units are difficult to get rid of but not too dangerous as such. What makes them difficult is the risk of loosing an attrition war against them. The Bastions are heavy infantry that hit at P+S 13 and are Weapon Masters (there are so many Weapon Masters in the Protectorate. Haven’t they got better things to do that practice?). This puts them into danger area for most Man-O-Wars, in particular on a charge (average damage of 27, easily enough to take our anything but Shocktroopers in Shield Wall and under Iron Flesh). They also have Sanguine Bond, which allows them to spread out damage. The addition of Exampler Bastion Seneschal adds to the attrition benefit as he makes Bastions in his command range remove one point of damage when they activate. Combined with the Shrine of the Lawgiver (yes, they did indeed bring a bloody church), which can return up to three grunts per turn (assuming it has souls) Bastions are difficult to get rid of.

The other two heavy Exemplar units are Cinerators. They are not as robust as the Bastions, although they can go to ARM 21 in Shield Wall. Where the Bastions are steadfast, the Cinerators are deceptively mobile. Despite their Khador standard base speed, they do have Vengeance and High Exemplar Gravus can give them Desperate Pace. In addition, they have a mini-feat giving them Reposition 5″. Assuming that Vindictus has True Path up, and Defender’s Ward on them, they can move 13″ in Shield Wall and be at DEF 13 and ARM 23. They only thing keeping them out of Man-O-War territory is that they only have five boxes each.

To spice up the army Exemplar Bastion Seneschal, Exemplar Warder, High Exemplar Gravus, and the Shrine of the Lawgiver are on the field as well. Exemplar Bastion Seneschal has already been covered, but it is worth noticing that he also gives Tactician to the Exemplars. The Warder is a tremendous robust Shield Guard (he resembles our own Kapitan Sofya Skirova). In addition to the aforementioned abilities of High Exemplar Gravus it is also worth mentioning that he can do stuff with souls (if the Shrine haven’t got them). This actually makes him a rather dangerous solo. Finally, the Shrine has quite a few abilities. Perhaps most importantly it can shoot (through clouds) with a POW 14 range 14″ ray (boostable), and perhaps even more important if the target is boxed it get to do a range 6″ spray from the dead model, also POW 14 (boostable). This can catch all sorts of models who really don’t want to be sprayed.

All in all, counting killing power I’m not too worried about this list. However, combined with Protectorate doing attrition better that Khador, there might be trouble.

We are playing the Steamroller 2019 scenario King of the Hill and Khador goes first. We both opt for the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4″).

King of the Hill gives us two zones for ‘jacks at the edge of each flank, and one for troops in the middle. I’m committing the Shocktroopers and the Bombardiers to the middle zone, where the Shocktroopers can advance in their Shield Wall whilst the Bombardiers can lob grenades over their heads. Beast and a Tanker will go on the right flank. The Demolition Crew and the last tanker will go on the left flank and try to use the hut in the middle to hide from the Shrine’s shooting. The Kodiak will tag along. 

The Protectorate deploys a unit of Cinerators on each flank along with a Dervish. The Shrine goes smack in the middle, and everything else behind it. The picture above depicts deployment after Advance Modes. Note that the two green blobs near the camera are forests (I forgot). 

The only way if forward. This is a “race” for the middle between two armies consisting of lumbering heavy infantry. 

In the middle, the Kovnik wanders aimlessly into the invisible forest and uses Desperate Pace on the Shocktroopers, who then advances forward in Shield Wall. The Bombardiers run after. Sorscha casts Stoke the Fires on both ‘jacks, moves forward and casts Iron Flesh on the Shocktroopers. All the rest basically goes forward. The picture above shows the situation after Khador have advanced. 

Not surprisingly, each of the Cinerator units and their pet Dervish moves towards each of the rectangular zones, whilst the Bastions moves into the center zone. It seems that the Protectorate are aiming to score at the zone on the left flank as the Templar and Choir are moving in that direction. The remaining models are moving forward in the centre. The picture above depicts the end of round 1.

Round one is most often uneventful, so here comes round two. I need to get into the zones, start the attrition, and hope to ride it out. It seems most likely that Khador can score in the right zone, whereas contesting the left zone seems to be the best idea. Who know what will happen in the middle?

Sorscha upkeeps Iron Flesh and allocates nothing. On the left flank the Demolition Corps moves into position. They need to survive the alpha from the Cinerators. So they mini-feat to spread out the expected damage. Atanas also moves up and gives them Unstoppable Fury for Retaliation Strike. The tanker moves up and puts down Covering Fire in front of them. Finally, one of the Mechaniks units moves up and ready their repair tools. This should be a sufficiently difficult problem for the Cinerators and the Dervish.

The Kovnik continues his stubling through the woods and gives Desperate Pace to the Shocktroopers again. They move forward in Shield Wall, and shoots a bit at the Bastions. The Bombardiers follow suit. So far shooting haven’t done a lot. On the right the Tanker moves up sufficiently close to the obstacle and puts down covering fire.

Sorscha move to the right, casts Wind Rush on herself and Stoke the Fires on Beast. She then feats and puts down a a wall of icy clouds to stop too much charging. Finally, Beast runs up into the zone. The picture above shows how the battle er progressing after Sorscha and her army have done their part.  

Here comes the religious fanatics. On the right flank, the Cinerators are apparently a bit uneasy about the whole covering fire and clouds, so they just move forward into a Shield Wall. The Dervish, on the other hand has to toe the zone and does so. Beast really doesn’t like this, counter charges and puts a dent into the Dervish. I think Vindictus might have feated.

On the left flank, the Cinerators go in for what they expect to be the kill. However, the preparations worked. Not a single Demolition guy goes down (everybody are left on five boxes). Some did, however catch fire. Unfortunately, the hitting back was not as efficient as I hoped for. In the centre, the Bastions start swinging and takes down one of the Shocktroopers. All in all, a round favouring Khador. The picture above shows the end of the Empress’ round.

So far I think the game is going in Sorscha’s direction. Now the grinding can begin.

Sorscha starts by upkeeping Iron Flesh and allocates two focus to Beast. Meanwhile one Demolition guy dies from fire. Finally, the objective removes the little damage that the Dervish did to Beast.

On the left flank it is charge time. Just before Dragos shouts “CHARGE!”, the Mechaniks move in and do their repair thing. Thanks to Atanas’ Tactician there is more wiggling room for charging. Most get a charge bonus. The Demolition Corps take out all but one of the Cinerators (Shrine and Vengeance will come back to haut them) and together with the Tanker does 12 points of damage to the Objective.

On the right flank, Beast takes out the Dervish with focus to spare. The Tanker moves in between the Cinerators and Beast, just in case. It shoots a bit. The Kodiak also moves up to screen Sorscha.

In the meat grinder the Shocktroopers start hitting the Bastions. The Bastions really prove their worth. The Shocktroopers manage to kill a whooping none. Meanwhile, the Bombardiers shoots at the Cinerators (well aware that it will trigger Vengeance). They are much more successful, leaving only two alive. Finally, the Mechaniks do their thing, Atanas gives Unstoppable Fury to the Shocktroopers, and Sorscha camps focus. The picture above shows the progress of the Empress’ might. Scenario score is now 1-0 in Sorscha’s favour. This was an expensive round time wise. Khador has only 13 minutes left on the clock.

The fanatics are now pissed and want to get even. Not surprisingly the Shrine brings back three Cinerators on my left flank. Together with the Dervish they start hacking away at the Demolition Corps, reducing them to three. On the right flank, the Cinerators take out the Tanker on their Vengeance move and proceeds to charge Beast (whom I forgot to put Stoke the Fire on). It takes more than two Cinerators to take him out. They do, however contest. Finally, in the meat grinder the Cinerators, The Templar, and Gravus takes on the Shocktroopers, and remove all but one. Finally, the Shrine shoots at my objective. The picture above shows the end of round three. Scenario score stays at 1-0 in Sorscha’s favour. 

Attrition takes it toll on the clock. 13 minutes left is less than desirable as it seems that scenario victory is the way to go. I think I’m in control on both flanks. However, the middle is more uncertain.  

Sorscha drops Iron Flesh. She allocates to both ‘jacks. Meanwhile yet another Demolition Corps goes down to fire. Finally, the objective removes a bit of damage from Beast.

On the left flank, Vengeance triggers, which makes Cinerators and Objective go down. Mechaniks does their thing. The Demolition Corps take out the remaining Cinerators, but can’t kill the Dervish. The Tanker follows up and takes out three quarters of the Choir. Finally, Atanas moves up, just in case.

On the right flank, Beast cleans up, and the Kodiak moves into position to start going behind the enemy lines. Sorscha moves in behind the objective and puts Stoke the Fires on the Kodiak.

In the middle, the grinding continues as the Bombardiers charges in. They manage to dismount Gravus and put even more dents into the Bastions (they are really robust). The Kovnik moves up behind them to be ready to lend a hand. This leaves the scenario score at 3-0 in Sorscha’s favour, and not a lot of time left on her clock. The picture above depicts the end of the Khador turn.

So, the right flank is lost to the Protectorate. The left is still in play though. The Dervish manage to clean out the remaining Demolition Corps. However, the Mechaniks and the Tanker are still there. In the middle, everything commits. The Bastions, the Templar, and Gravus remove all but one of the Bombardiers. At some point the Kodiak counter charges, which then exposes it to a charge from Seneschal. That was basically it. One more point for Sorscha, leaving the scenario score at 4-0. The picture above shoes the end of round four.

Slightly less that two minutes left of the clock, and it is ticking. There is only one thing to do.

Warjacks power up. Sorscha does nothing. Everybody activates in sequence and does nothing. One more scenario point for Sorscha, leaving her at 5-0, and 43 seconds left on the clock. She wins the game. The picture above depicts the glorious victory.

It turns out that the Protectorate does attrition almost as good as Khador; perhaps even better. Exemplar heavy infantry is pretty hard to chew through. They do a lot of armour, spreading damage out, and recursion. The troops are pretty good. I should perhaps have noted what Vindictus did throughout the game. However, I can’t remember, so apparently it wasn’t a lot. He basically just handed out True Path, which doesn’t do a lot once the lines clash; and Defender’s Ward, which did a lot. One notable annoyance was the Warder, who is a real pain.

Most important lesson learned is to speed up the game. If Vindictus has managed to kill my objective, I would have lost on time instead of winning on scenario.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

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

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

The Harbinger of Menoth has a tremendous amount of focus, 10 to be precise! This also means that she has a huge Control Area, 20″ to be precise. This is not good, as she packs the spell Purification, which is bad news for Irusk and his favourite upkeeps. Also, she can cast Crusader’s call, which give +2″ move to her models charging in the Control Area. She also has a Command range of 12″. Again, a very large area. Inside this area she automatically give a -2 to hit to enemy models through Awe; she can also use Martyrdom, where she can remove 1 hp of damage from a disabled model. Thus, she does suffer 1d3 damage. Finally, her feat deals a POW 14 damage roll and continuous fire to enemy models that end their movement within 12″ of her. Oh, and she can’t be blinded, knockdown or be affected by back strike.  The theme, The Faithful Masses, allows for one wall (for her to hide behind, I assume), and give her ‘jacks +2 to attack and damage, if a friendly warrior model is killed within 5″ of the ‘jack in question. So, basically she is quite hard to kill, but she might kill herself through Martyrdom.

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

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

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

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

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

The two Champion of the Order of the Wall are some pretty hefty Dragoons comparable to our own Man-O-War Dragoons. They are Steady and Sturdy, so no Field Gun fun, and have Retaliatory Strike. Actually, they are quite dangerous, and somewhat difficult to remove. They can also charge stuff 15″ away (assuming Crusader’s call). 

The final solos are the two fighting monk, or Allegiant of the Order of the Fist. These monks are annoying, flag capturing, tough, and hard to remove speed bumps. The will most likely be at DEF 18, and move about if an attack misses them. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

Initial Analysis 

This analysis is what I probably should have done before the match. However, the time is rarely for that. So, it is a post-analysis; yet, ready for the next time I’ll face the Protectorate.

The Judicator in combination with the High Reclaimer is mildly speaking annoying, in particular in the Exemplar Interdiction theme. It can have Hand of Fate (roll an extra die, drop the lowest); Reliquary, same as Hand of Fate; it is Blessed from the theme; and can even have a +2 damage from a Vassal Mechanik.

Average DEF hit by RAT 1 / RAT 5 under Hand of Fate and Reliquary

A brave winter guard has a standard DEF of 12. This means that the Rocket Pods, with their RAT 1 remain unimportant (given that our winter guard most likely are immune to blast). There is only a 32% chance of hitting a winter guard.

However, the 10″ sprays becomes really obnoxious. With their RAT of 5 and all the bells and whistles actually have a 91% of hitting a winter guard. The table details the probability of hitting things under Hand of Fate and Reliquary.

To further hamper my plans, the Choir can put Hymn of Passage on the Judicator, which stops the winter guards’ shooting for tageting it.

The Exemplar Errants are probably there to be the vanguard and pick off Winter Guards with their crossbows. They can easily hit and kill a Winter Guard, the only thing saving them are tough, from either Irusk og Joe (neither of which are spells, thus they are not affected by the Blessed crossbows).

Exemplar Cinerators are comparable to our own Shocktroopers. At ARM 21 (in Shield Wall), they will be hard to take down by Winter guards. They should probably also be shot at with some care, as their Vengeance move actually makes them fast.

High Exemplar Gravus and the Exemplar Vengers are somewhat hard hitting cavalry and Gravus has all sorts of soul-based tricks. 

The two latter Exemplars both have some annoying trick, if they are not killed in one wave (Vengeance and Battle-Driven)

I suspect that the combination of Scrutator Potentate Severius and the Dervish is primarily there to ensure som scenarios presence. I guess the Dervish also could be a potential assassin, with the combination of Side Step and Parry.

Except for the Shield Guards offered by this unit, it is unclear what Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard will do in this match.

To sum up, the Judicator is going to be hell on one flank, and presumedly on the other flank the Cinerators and Vengers are going to need blocking.

We are playing Recon II, and I am using the Stockpile objective, which removes d3 damage points within 4″.

I go first, opted for my “standard” deployment with a Rifle Corps and a Field Gun on each flank. In the middle, I have the Infantry, the Mortar, the Artillerist, Irusk, and Aiyana and Holt. The two ‘jacks are also in the middle. There is an annoying rock in the middle. The only positive thing about that is that I can hide Irusk behind it.

The Protectorate deployed as expected. The Judicator and Errants on one flank; the rest of the Exemplars on the other flank; and the rest in the middle. He also selects the Stockpile objective.

I managed deployment and Advanced Moves in three minutes, which is pretty ok.

The two zones in Recon II can only be scored by ‘jacks or Warcasters. My opponent can lock down my right zone with the Judicator, and have the Dervish for the other one. I really want to take down the Judicator (on principle). To that I need both of my ‘jacks. So my only option is to make sure that my trusted Winter Guards contest every round. Thus I run the Rifle Corps on my left. 

There is very crowded in the middle, with all the troops and the big rock. A bit of a traffic jam is unavoidable. Irusk obviously brings up Solid Ground and Fire for Effect on the Mortar. Joe makes the Rifle Corps on my right flank tough.

The Protectorate basically just advances the lot, and places the Judicator just outside the threat range of my Spriggan. Besides that, not a lot happens.

First round is done in four minutes, which I am quite happy about.

I need to get up the field to, not only make sure that my opponent can’t score (except for the flag, which is very difficult to contest). So, I basically advance everything. The Rifle Corps on my right flank takes a few pot shots at the Errants, with limited success. 

I also bring up the Marauder to threaten the Judicator. For some reason I move the Spriggan to the left of the second rock in the middle. The idea is to threaten the Dervish. However, this was probably a mistake, as I clearly need both ‘jacks to have a chance on the Judicator. 

Irusk upkeeps both spells. He moves up close enough to the objective, and with enough sacrificial pawn targets around. 

The Protectorate moves his units further up the field. On my right flank he moves some of the Errants, a member of the Choir, and a Vengers up to block for my Marauder. His Errants kills off a few of the Rifle Corps on my right. The Judicator does a lot of shooting, without a lot of success. Somehow, he manages to get the Dervis far up my left flank and engage one of the Field Guns. This is kind of annoying. 

He manages to score one point on his flag. I forget to moved a solo up to score on my flag. One down on points. However, I am nine minutes ahead on the clock. 

This is the turn where is goes completely down hill. I’m in trouble on my left flank with all the Exemplar and the Dervish on my door step. Most of this turn is used shooting at Exemplars to thin out. Irusk empowers the Rifle Corp with Battle Lust to try to get rid of the Dervish. Unfortunately, they couldn’t hit anything. So the Dervish stays, which is bad. 

On my right flank. the Rifle Corp attempts to clean up some of the Errants, and other suff that is in the way of the Marauder. I do manage to make a hole, so the Marauder can charge. It does make a significant dent in the Judicator, but not enough.  

On my right, the Judicator takes the Marauder of the table, and sprays the pants of quite a lot of the Winter Guards. The different Exemplars also manage to jam my Spriggan in the middle. 

On the positive side, I do manage to contest both zones and remember to score my own flag. 

I got carried away and forgot to take more pictures. So from here it is just a short summary of me having a certain bodypart handed to me. 

In general, the Protectorate can basically just mop up. I do get a small chance of an assassin-run, using the Spriggan. This fails, as expected. 

After two more rounds Irusk gets killed.

On the bright side, I do manage to keep a single trooper alive in every unit. So my opponents only manages to score 15 army points (so did I, by the way). I’m also good on control points, as the match ends 5-3 (in his favour). 

I could also have gotten out of the problem with the Dervish engaging my Field Gun, if I have thought about it (a friend of mine pointed out a simple and elegant solution to getting Field Guns out of trouble). That would have been nice, as I could have knocked it down, and the battled lusted Winter Guards would have done some serious damage to it.

It would probably have been a good idea to actually chose the other side of the table. There was a nice trench and fewer traffic jam problems.

However, my biggest mistake was probably getting confused in turn two, where I split my two ‘jacks. I think I should just have focused both on the Judicator and just flooded the zone to the left with Winter Guards – or perhaps have ignored it, and gone for the left side…

So, Irusk lost to the High Reclaimer and his pet. This is not the first time, but it might be the last.

For the Motherland!