Warmachine Battle Reports: Khador (Harkevich) vs. Khardor (Lord Koslov) - Steamroller 2016 Entrenched

Harkevich and his steam powered army has come to wreck some face! He's just finished wiping the blood of Drake MacBain off of his shoes (View his battle report vs Drake MacBain) and is ready to take on Lord Koslov and his band of Man-O-Wars.

Here's today's Lists:

Warcaster: Lord Koslov
Warjack: Ruin
Warjack: Beast 09
Unit: Man-O-War Shocktroopers
Unit: Man-O-War Shocktroopers
Unit: Man-O-War Bombardieers
Unit: Widowmaker Scouts
Solo: Widowmaker Markman
Solo: Man-O-War Kovnik

Warcaster: Harkevich
Warjack: Behemoth
Warjack: Black Ivan
Warjack: Destroyer
Warjack: Devastator
Warjack: Decimator
Warjack: Juggernaut

Top of Turn 1: Harkevich - Harkevich smells dirty Man-O-War blood and casts Mobility which gives his Battlegroup +2 SPD and Pathfinder and moves up the field. His wall of metal runs up as far as they can.

Bottom of Turn 1: Lord Koslov - Koslov activates and casts Tactical Supremacy which gives Reposition 3 on the Man-O-War Shocktroopers at the top of the battlefield and Fury which gives +3 to POW to the Shocktrooper unit on the bottom. He then moves up. Ruin and Beast 09 run up to give him some cover and the Widowmakers + Marksman set up and snipe 7 damage on the Juggernaut.

The Man-O-War Kovnik activates and gives the Shocktroopers on the top Desperate Pace which gives them +2 Movement. The Shocktroopers run up the battlefield 10" and pile in as best as they can. The Bomardiers move up and the bottom Shocktroopers run to try and contest their friendly zone.

Picture is of End of Round 2 

Top of Turn 2: Harkevich - The goal for this turn was to take out a threat with the massive firepower of the Behemoth, Black Ivan, Decimator, and the Destroyer. Harkevich uses Mobility again and moves behind the forest. His Battlegroup moves up and unleashes a barrage of Boosted POW 14s and with some good dice, they are able to kill Ruin.

The Devastator runs up and engages the unit of Man-O-War Shocktroopers and the Juggernaut does the same at the top of the battlefield.

Bottom of Turn 2: Lord Koslov - For some reason I'm missing a picture of this turn but it was quite uneventful. Koslov upkeeps Fury and Tactical Supremacy on the two units of Man-O-War Shocktroopers. The bottom unit of Shocktroopers plink away at an ARM 23 Devastator and do 5 damage. The top unit of Shocktroopers put some more hurt on the Juggernaut. The Bombardiers do a Combined Ranged Attack and finish off the remaining boxes on the Juggernaut.

The Widowmaker Scouts and Widowmaker Marksman block a charge lane from Behemoth to Beast 09 and put 7 damage in his column 4. Beast 09 sets up to charge Behemoth next turn.

Top of Turn 3: Harkevich - If Behemoth can hold his own for a round then it's looking like an easy Scenario win for Harkevich. Harkevich moves towards the enemy zone and pops his feat giving his battlegroup +3 ARM and free charges.

The Devastator is able to push and kill one of the Man-O-War Shocktroopers while the Destroyer just barely finishes off the Objective giving Harkevich 1 point. The Decimator charges in and kills another Man-O-War Shocktrooper which allows them to Control the enemy zone for another point.

Black Ivan drops his bomb on Beast 09 doing a few damage to it. Behemoth decides to go for the grouped up Widowmaker Scouts and Marksman because they'll be much harder to deal with since they are fast and can easily contest. He drops his first shot killing the Marksman and 1 Widowmaker and decides to switch strategies and takes a shot on Beast 09 which hurts him pretty good.

Bottom of Turn 3: Lord Koslov - This was a rough round for Koslov because of Harkevich's feat. Koslov upkeeps Fury on the bottom Shocktrooper Unit which is down to 3 models. He lets Tactical Supremacy drop off the top Shocktrooper unit and they charge into the objective easily taking it out. They are also able to put a few damage on Behemoth.

Koslov pops his feat and charges at Behemoth doing some more damage on him and Sidesteps backwards. A fully loaded Beast 09 charges Behemoth and gets him down to 4 boxes. ARM 23 is a tough nut to crack. The Bombardiers launch a CRA at the Decimater and do some damage on him but nothing significant.

At the end of the round the score is Harkevich 2 and Koslov 1.

Top of Turn 4: Harkevich - Harkevich does the math and sees a chance to win. He needs to allocate just enough so that his Battlegroup can finish off the remaining Man-O-War Shocktroopers at the bottom and then run into the zone. The Battlegroup does their job easily and at the end of the turn the score is Harkevich 3 / Koslov 1. If he can clear the zone next turn he'll have a Scenario win.

Bottom of Turn 3: Lord Koslov - It's looking pretty bad for Koslov but he might be able to pull off a Scenario win if he can just contest for 2 turns. Koslov has no Warjacks to allocate to so he camps his full 6. The Bombardiers perform a Run/Charge order and get one charge off on the Decimator which does no damage. The rest of the Bombardiers run to hopefully contest.

Beast 09 is quite far away so he just runs up toward his friendly zone. The Widowmakers Activate and run their 12" in to strategic spots that hopefully will make it tough for Harkevich to clear the zone. One of them runs and engages Harkevich, another engages Black Ivan and the Decimator and the last one runs towards the corner.

The turn ends at Harkevich 3 / Koslov 3.

Top of Turn 4: Harkevich - This is a do or die round for Harkevich. If he can clear the 3 Widowmakers he wins by Scenario. If he fails to do so, Koslov wins. A fully loaded Destroyer turns around to take out a Widowmaker and fails to roll a 7 on Boosted dice twice. Black Ivan turns around and takes out the other Widowmaker. The Decimator takes a free strike to try and get a shot on the furthest Widowmaker but loses his left arm when he tries to move away.

It's all up to Harkevich. He's got to kill 2 Widowmakers with 2 boosted MAT 7 shots. He moves in position between them with his 1" melee range but takes a free strike which does 4 damage. He then boosts both shots and kills both Widowmakers ending the game with a scenario win Harkevich 5 / Koslov 4.

Final Shot - This was an interesting game. Any other Scenario and I think Koslov is at a huge disadvantage for attrition. Man-O-Wars just don't do enough work vs. ARM 20.  The scenario was just spread out enough that it gave him a shot.

Koslov would have a better chance if he had popped his feat on turn 2 and charged Beast 09 into Behemoth. He also would have probably won if he had spread out his Widowmakers on the very last turn. Harkevich's bad dice would have made it very hard to kill an out of reach Widowmaker.

The best move of the game was when Behemoth decided to shoot an AOE into the Widowmakers instead of taking a shot at Beast 09. It cost him his life but he made it harder for Koslov to contest with the Widowmakers.

Harkevich needs a good solo killer and contester. It might be worth it to swap a Decimator for another Juggernaut and take a 4 point solo. Harkevich is on a 2 game win streak. Who will he fight next? Stay tuned!