Warmachine Battle Report: Khador (Vlad 3) vs. Menoth (Harbinger) - Steamroller 2016: Outflank

Vlad 3 and his Cavalry

Harbinger and her Followers

Here's today's Lists:

Waracaster: Harbinger of Menoth
Warjack: Vanquisher
Warjack: Crusader
Warjack: Redeemer
Warjack: Avatar of Menoth
Unit: Exemplar Errants
Unit Attachment: Officer
Unit: Choir of Menoth (Min)
Solo: Vilmon
Solo: Paladin
Solo: Paladin

Warcaster: Vlad 3
Warjack: Conquest
Unit: Iron Fang Uhlans
Unit: Greylord Outriders
Solo: Iron Fang Markov
Solo: Fenris
Solo: Man-O-War Drakhun

Vlad 3 is coming off a decisive win against a Harkevich Jack Spam. Today he faces Harbinger who was a monster MKII. Can she get the job done?

Khador wins the roll and chooses to go second. Menoth deploys their Warjacks centrally with Vilmon and the Paladins holding the bottom. They also match up the Errants with the Uhlans in hopes that their Sac Pawn will help against Cavalry charges.

Khador deploys with the Outriders at the bottom and the Uhlans and Fenris up top. The Drakhun, Vlad, and Conquest hold the center.

Top of Turn 1: Menoth - Harbinger and her forces run up. The Errants get in a tiered formation to help against the Uhlan charge. Harbinger moves behind the Vanquisher and Crusader.

Bottom of Turn 1: Khador - Vlad 3 activates first and casts Dash giving his Warrior models +1 SPD. He also casts Infernal Machine on the Conquest which gives him +2 SPD and Murderous which gives him an extra die on attack vs. living models. He finally moves up and gives Hand of Fate to the Greylord Outriders which gives them +1 die to their rolls, dropping the lowest one. The rest of his army runs up.

Top of Turn 2: Menoth - The Errants activate first and they are able to kill the Uhlan in the Zone. They position themselves in 3 layers hoping that their Sac Pawn will give them the advantage they need. Uhlans really need to charge to be effective.

The Paladins run up and try to block a charge lane to the Avatar while everyone else gathers around Harbinger to protect her.

The Harbinger casts Purification, removing Hand of Fate from the Greylord Outriders.

Bottom of Turn 2: Khador - Conquest is allocated 2 Focus and Vlad 3 Upkeeps Infermal Machine on him. Vlad 3 activates first and gets Hand of Fate back on the Outriders. He pops his Feat which gives his Cavalry and Warjacks Sidestep (2" movement on initial hit) and Sprint (Make a full advance after killing an enemy model in melee). He then parks himself behind a giant tree waiting to pounce.

The Outriders activate and unleash a devastatingly effective spray killing 3 Errants and both Paladins. Harbinger chooses not to use Martyrdom which would allow her to suffer D3 damage to save them because of the volume of attacks.

The Conquest moves up and unleashes his big cannon into the Vanquisher dealing damage to his left arm. The Uhlans charge up and kill a few more Errants, clearing the zone. Fenris is able to finish the last 2 up with Berserk. Vlad 3's feat was pretty useless because Sac Pawn denied the Uhlan's kills.

Score: Vlad 1 - Harbinger 0

Top of Turn 3: Menoth - The Harbinger allocates 2 focus to the Redeemer, Vanquisher, and Crusader. The Choir sings their Battle Hym and move into position. The Crusader activates and charges into an Outrider, killing it. He purchases attacks and is able to kill another Outrider and an Uhlan.

The Vanquisher aims and boosts and is able to kill an Outrider giving a charge lane for the Avatar to Conquest. The Avatar rolls a D3 for Focus and gets 2 total. He charges into Conquest and after his activation, he has destroyed its right side. The Redeemer takes 3 boosted shots at Fenris and fail to hit him. The Errants attack and move into the zone to contest.

Harbinger moves up and pops her Feat which makes it so anyone that ends their movement within 10" of her takes an unboostable POW 14.

Score: Vlad 1 - Harbinger 0

Bottom of Turn 3: Khador - Vlad 3 lets everything drop and gives Conquest 2 Focus. He also activates and gives him Hand of Fate and moves towards the top zone along with casting Wind Wall to protect himself against any ranged shots. A fully loaded Conquest with a working hand is able to easily destroy the Avatar with attacks to spare.

The Uhlans clear the zone of Errants and are careful not to be within 10" of Harbinger. Fenris moves toward the back of the zone and controls it. The Outrider misses his spray against Vilmon.

Score: Vlad 2 - Harbinger 0

Top of Turn 4: Menoth - Now that the Avatar is gone, there is desperation in the air for Menoth. The Crusader and Redeemer are allocated 2 and tasked with bringing down the Conquest with the help of Vilmon. The Choir sings their Battle Hymn and Crusader charges into the Conquest leaving it with 20+ boxes. Vilmon goes in and gets Conquest down to 15 boxes.

This leaves no room for the Redeemer to charge so he decides to finish off the last Outrider. The Vanquisher launches a shot at the Conquest but fails to do work. The Errants move to contest the zone and block charge lanes for the Uhlans. Finally, Harbinger moves towards the bottom zone to prevent any Cavalry charges against her hopefully to set up a domination when the Conquest goes down.

Score: Vlad 2 - Harbinger - 0

Bottom of Turn 4: Khador - Conquest still has his right side functioning and is allocated 2 focus. Vlad 3 upkeeps Hand of Fate on the Conquest and moves into the top zone with Wind Wall. The Uhlans clear the zone which Khador now dominates.

The Conquest unleashes a Sweep Power Attack damaging the Crusader and killing Vilmon. He purchases more attacks and gets Crusader down to 1 Cortex box.

Score: Vlad 4 - Harbinger 0

Top of Turn 5: Menoth - This is the last ditch effort for Menoth. They need to contest the top zone and take out the Conquest to have any shot at winning the game. The Crusader only has 1 Cortex box and is allocated 2 Focus along with the Redeemer. 

The Vanquisher with 20+ boxes turns around and runs into the top zone so Khador can't dominate. The Choir chooses not to sing and instead spread out in the top zone to help contest. The Crusader activates and does a few damage to the Conquest leaving it with 9 boxes.

The Redeemer charges in and fails to kill the Conquest. This leaves Harbinger and her trusty sword to finish the job. Unfortunately she is unable to kill the Conquest with multiple boosted POW 12s.

Score: Vlad 4 - Harbinger 0

Bottom of Turn 5: Khador - The top zone seems difficult to clear so Vlad 3 decides to work a different strategy. He allocates 2 to the Conquest and upkeeps Hand of Fate. The Conquest then activates and does a Power Sweep, killing the Crusader. He then uses the rest of his Focus to finish off the Redeemer.

This leaves only Harbinger in the zone and since Warcasters can't contest, Vlad 3 runs into the bottom zone and Dominates it.

The Final Score: Vlad 6 - Harbinger 0

Overview: Because of the lack of availability of models for Menoth, there wasn't a lot of synergy in the list. There is a definite difference in how Harbinger plays now that her Feat and Martyrdom are reduced to her Command of 10". The Feat did help deter lots of Cavalry charges but was easily avoided. The Avatar's random focus is hard to plan for and without Power Up, it feels like he didn't scale well in MK3.

The mobility with Khador Cavalry is amazing. With Dash they can run 18-20". Conquest with Infernal Machine can run 12" giving Vlad 3's a strong chance at the alpha strike. Vlad 3's Feat still puzzles me and it might not be the best for the list I'm running. The Feat in the previous match vs. Harkevich was hard because of the Jack spam. This time it was hard because the Errants kept Sac Pawning. I'll have to see if I can better use it in his next match.

Vlad 3 is currently on a 2 game win streak. Stay tuned for his next match up!