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 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!