Sorscha 1 vs. Butcher 3 - Steamroller 2016 Khador vs. Khador

I needed a little more practice with my Steamroller 2 list pairing so I decided to pit the sweetest MK3 casters in Khador against each other in an all out bare knuckled brawl to see who would come out on top.

Sorcha 1 

Warcaster: Sorcha 1
Warcaster Attachment: Reinholdt
Warjack: Behemoth
Warjack: Destroyer
Battle Engine: War Wagon
Unit: Rifle Corps
Unit Weapon Attachment: Rocketeer x3
Unit: Widowmakers
Solo: Marksman
Solo: Kovnik Joe
Solo: Eiyriss 1

Butcher 3

Warcaster: Butcher 3
Warcaster Attachment: Reinholdt
Warjack: Ruin
Warjack: Kodiak
Warjack: Juggernaut
Unit: Kayazy Assassins
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Underboss
Unit: Nyss Hunters
Unit Attachment: Valachev
Solo: Orin Midwinter

This game went a lot faster than I thought. I got greedy with Butcher 3 and tried to dominate the zone on the bottom of 2 and tank it out but he just can't hang vs. Sorscha's assassination threat.

On the top of 3, Sorscha had LOS to Butcher 3 and popped feat. Behemoth, a Destroyer, and some Winter Guard Rocketeers unleashed a barrage of shots and took him out.

I usually run a Bokur with Butcher 3 but thought the 3 Heavies would be enough to screen vs. most lists. Arching Fire bypassed all the Jacks and was able to seal the deal.

My First Games with Vladimir, the Dark Champion

I've been thinking about adding eVlad to my Steamroller paring but I don't have the model yet so I proxied him with pVlad for a couple games.

I've been running a list with eVlad, War Dog, Behemoth, Greylord Outriders, Kayazy Assassins + UA, Kayazy Elimators, 2x units of Doom Reavers, Man-O-War Drakhun, and eEiyriss.

The first game I played was vs. Phinneus Shae and the Pirate Boat and I was able to use the Greylord Outriders with Hand of Fate to clear a lot of units except there was some massive Tough-ing going on and made it really hard. I also has Assail on the Behemoth so he could trample for free and lob shots at the infantry. The Behemoth eventually got to the Galleon and destroyed it. The Galleon couldn't drag Behemoth in with his Trident because the Kayazy Eliminators stood in front of him and were very hard to kill.

Shae was able to get to the flag and they quickly rose to 3 points. The Mercenaries had two choices: Try and kill eVlad who had 6 health which means he was DEF 17 - ARM 23 with Might of Kings or Kill the Objective (Bunker) and see if they could hold out for 1 more turn.

The Mercs chose to try and kill the Objective with the Press Gangers who the only units close enough and alive enough to try. They failed after eVlad stepped up and made sure that if they wanted to kill the objective, they'd have to take a eVlad free strike.

The Greylords and Behemoth were able to clear a path and a 7 Fury eVlad with +2 stats from Might of Kigns was able to decimate Captain Phinneus Shae.

The next match up vs Butcher 3 did't work so well as you can see above. Butcher and his Warjcks (Spriggan, Beast 09, and Ruin) were way too much to handle. The sniper package of Widowmakers, Marksman, and Kell Bailoch kept the Doom Reaver rush to a minimum and the Iron Fang Pikeman were able to hold off the Kayazy and contest the zone.

In the end some bad dice were rolled vs the Beast 09 and Ruin which swung the tide of battle. I don't think it would have mattered much anyway. Butcher 3 out threatens eVlad 16" vs. 11" and would have put axe to face even with Might of Kings and a full camp. In the end Beast 09 and Ruin finished of eVlad for a Khador vs. Khador victory.

Warmachine Battle Reports - Khador vs. Trollbloods - 50 Point Steamroller

Last night I was able to play Scott again at GMI games but this time he brought out his super Trollbloods. His list was not something I've played before and it had a lot of unique stuff including 2 units of Minions that did fancy things.

Butcher 3/3 + Snipers (50 Points)

Warcaster: Butcher Unleashed (Butcher 3) (-4)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Devastator (+9)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Nyss Hunters (+8)
Unit Attachment: Valachev (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (+3)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)
Solo: Kell Bailoch (+2)
Solo: Marksman (+2)
Objective: Fuel Cache

List building: I've been toying with this list for a while as I love Butcher 3 and I'm pretty good with him. Butcher 3's major problems are things that hinder his Flashing Blade and Impending Doom. (The Book, Orin Midwinter, Mulg, Druids, etc) I have the Widowmakers and Marksman to take out Orin and the Book and I have eEiryss for Mulg's animus. I wanted this list to have a large focus of highly accurate long ranged snipers to soften up my opponent while Butcher 3 and his 3 Warjacks come in and clean up the big stuff. The Nyss are there to be accurate, high defense guys who can contest on the opposite side of the map.

VS.

Scott's Trollbloods (50 Points)

Warlock: Grim Angus (-6)
Warbeast: Mountain King (+20)
Warbeast: Slag Troll (+6)
Warbeast: Troll Impaler (+5)
Unit: Pyg Burrowers (+6)
Unit: Bog Trog Ambushers (+8)
Unit: Farrow Bone Grinders (+2)
Unit: Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew (+1)
Solo: Fell Caller Hero (+3)
Solo: Totem Hunter (+3)
Solo: Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorrceress (+2)
Objective: Bunker

List Building: I hadn't played a list like his before. The Burrow is definitely something interesting that countered my snipers and the Ambushing Bog Trogs make his positioning unpredictable.

Round 1

Khador Turn 1 - Scott chose Butcher as his Prey target for the Totem Hunter which got me worried. On my turn I simply ran everything up and got it ready for the incoming advance. I was kind of worried about his Bog Trog Ambushers because he mentioned something to Andrew, another player at GMI, about how he was going to try to assassinate Butcher 3 with them. I ran my army up and then Advanced Butcher and used Energizer to give my battlegroup an extra 3" move. My plan was to hold the Left flag and use my high DEF models to contests the other.  I was able to get a couple snipes off on to his Burrowers and boxed his Officer which he toughed.

Trollbloods Turn 1 - Scott favored the right side of the board a little by advancing his Mountain King to that side. He then used the Fell Caller to stand up his Officer of the Burrowers and burrowed them 5" up from his advanced deploy. This made it so I could not target them on my turn. He them moved the rest of his army up the center leaning a little towards the right side. He then ran his Totem Hunter up the left flank.

Round 2

Khador Turn 2 - When I saw his Burrow marker I figured it'd be a perfect time to set my Devastator up for an awesome Rein of Death turn. I ran him into place next to the marker hoping that when he popped up, I would just destroy his entire unit.  I saw that the Totem Hunter was just in Ruin's threat ranged and since I was not familiar with his army, I thought he was trying to bait me to get close to the side of the board for his Ambush. I decided to take out the Totem Hunter anyway and easily dispatched him with Ruin and 3 focus.

I then set up Juggernaut and one of the dogs to block a charge lane to Butcher from the Left side of the board in case he decided to Ambush. I also was very cautious and popped my feat defensively to get Butcher back up to 6 focus. I debated on this because I wanted to save the feat to deal with the Mountain King but I figured Scott has something tricky up with the Bog Trogs and the Burrowers that I couldn't take any chances.

My Widowmakers, Marksman, eEiryss, and Kell Bailoch were able to take out his Fell Caller under the smoke of the Swamp Gobbers. The Nyss were able to charge the Mountain King and did a good chunk of damage on him. I didn't realize that he spawned Whelps each time I hit him and there was no limit to how many came out. It was probably a bad idea. I should have just stayed back and did a combined attack.

Trollbloods Turn 2 - This is the turn I feared. Scott debated a while and came to the conclusion that he probably would not kill Butcher at 14/24. He decided to do as much damage to my Warjacks as possible. His Burrowers came up and charged Ruin and did a small amount of damage. He then Ambushed me and charged Bog Trogs into Ruin, Juggernaut, and Madelyn Corbeau. His rolls were below average but he was able to do minor damage to the Warjack and take out the Cortex of Ruin. He definitely gummed up that side of the board with 20 infantry.

He then activated Grim and popped his feat catching the Devastator, my sniper crew, and some Nyss Hunters. He then cast Marked for Death on the Nyss reducing their DEF to a 13. After that he activated the Mountain King right side he ate all his Whelps and healed him almost to full health. Grim was able to kill Valechev with a shot as I positioned him too close. With Marked for Death Scott was able to Power Sweep and kill the 4 Nyss that were surrounding him and luckily I passed a command check.

I was ok with this as I figured the Nyss were there to just contest and be annoying. Marked for Death really made the Nyss suffer. I didn't know the Mountain King spawned unlimited Whelps so I probably should have just done a combined ranged attack and hit the Mountain King for 1 shot.

Round 3 

Khador Turn 3 -  I didn't get a good picture of it but Ruin and the Juggernaut were completely surrounded by a combination of 20 Bog Trogs and Burrowers. My goal was to wipe them out using Ruin and Butcher and pick off the stragglers with my snipers.

My first move was with Ruin. I started with his little first and missed and then moved on to my big weapon and began decimating his Bog Trogs. Even with his Cortex out, Ruin was able to kill all the Bog Trogs except for the 2 that were behind the Juggernaut by using the souls he collected to buy attacks. He can wipe out entire units that way.

Madelyn Corbeau tries to do some seducing but the Bog Trogs fail to hit each other. The Devastator uses his Rein of Death and smashes 3 Burrowers that surrounded him. He was debuffed under Grim's feat along withe the snipers. My sniper crew takes some shots and they are able to kill one Swamp Gobber who has DEF 19 and a couple of Burrowers who end up Toughing. The Bokur is able to kill 1 Bog Trog with his spear.

Butcher and his Wardogs Activate in hopes to kill all the remaining Bog Trogs and Burrowers. The dogs easily dispatch of the last Bog Trog and Butcher goes in for the remaining 7 Burrowers with Flashing Blade. After Toughing multiple times, Butcher is able to finish everyone off with 2 Focus to spare. He uses 1 to Energize back 1" so he is touching the flag and moves the rest of his battlegroup up 1".

Trollbloods Turn 3 - Scott is in an interesting position because now I've put some scenario pressure on him. Butcher is pretty safe at the moment because of distance so he decides to return some scenario pressure to me. The first thing he does is upkeep Mark of Death on the Nyss and then uses Hunters Mark on my Fuel Cache objective with Lanyssa. He then uses Bait the Line on the objective as well giving models +4 to Charge on it. He then uses the Mountain King and assaulted the objective easily killing it for 1 point. He then shot a spray into my sniper crew but was only able to kill 1 Widowmaker. He then uses the rest of his focus to wipe out 2 of the Widowmakers closest to him.

With his Farrow Bone Grinders, Scott tries to finish off my Marked for Death-ed Nyss but fails to kill them due to some below average dice rolls. His Slag Troll tries to wipe out my ARM 17 Devastator with his Acid with Erosion but also rolls below average and leaves the vulnerable Devastator with all his systems.

The Impaler then shoots a spear at the Devastator failing to crit and does a few points of damage. He ends his turn by running his last remaining Swamp Gobber to contest the left most flag.

The Game is tied 1 - 1.

Round 4

Khador Turn 4 - I was quite lucky that Scott was not able to finish off my Nyss because it gave me a good shot at retaliation. Without Cylena I was not able to combine but I easily shot off the Farrow Bone Griders and Lanyssa which freed up the right side of the board for me. I then used the remaining snipers to do a couple damage points to the Slag.

All I needed to do now was set up my Warjacks to block line of sight to Butcher and position them so that I can kill his Bunker objective next round, oh, and kill that stinking Swamp Gobber contesting my flag which I failed to do with an aiming eEiryss but was able to do with my Ogrun Bokur.

This gave me my much needed 2nd point and put in position to win next turn.

Score: Khador - 2 vs. Trollbloods - 1

Trollbloods Turn 4 - Scott was in a little trouble with his fury leeching and had to make Frenzy checks for all his Warbeasts. He passes both the Impaler and the Slag but fails on the Mountain King which Frenzies and kills a Widowmaker. This is a huge turning point in the game as the Mountain King would have probably been able to clear the center zone putting him up 3 points vs my 2 if he manages to contest the right flag with his Impaler or Slag which would require them to run.

Scott then uses his slag to try to clear Kell Bailoch and the Winterguard but fail to do so even with boosted rolls. He ends his turn with the Impaler and is able to land a crit on the Devastator which pushes him back 1" but fails to do damage.

Score: Khador - 3 vs. Trollbloods - 1

Finishing Move

Khador Turn 5 - If I can manage to kill the Objective with Ruin (minus Cortex), Ogrun Bokur, eEiryss, Kell Bailoch, and 1 Widowmaker I can win the game. The first thing I do is activate Butcher and Energize everyone up 3". I then charge with Ruin at the objective doing only about 5 damage to it. I use my offhand and do 8 more damage putting it at 2 Life. The Ogrun Bokur leaves his client and is able to finish off the Bunker for the win.

Final Score: Khador - 5 vs. Trollbloods - 1

After Game Thoughts - I really enjoyed playing against Scott's Trollblood list. I had never fought against Bog Trogs, Farrow Bone Grinders, Burrowers, Lanyssa, or a Mountain King before so it was a good model learning game for me. It was really cool how how much flexibility he had with his Ambush and Burrowers. The match up was probably not the best for him because of my Warjacks and 14/24 Warcaster but it was interesting.

This was the first time I played with Madelyn Corbeau and I didn't feel like I got a ton of use out of her. Butcher is normally behind a wall of Warjacks so getting that 3" move in my maintenance phase wasn't all that useful. I almost always play very cautiously with him, trying to camp as much as I can and keep my distance while moving towards a flag or zone. Opponents also play very cautiously against him so I rarely have a chance to assassinate making Corbeau not as effective.

I might switch up and replace her after I try her a few more times. I might go for the whole sniper package and put in Alten Ashely. I was also thinking of swapping out the Devastator and Juggernaut for Beast 09, a War Dog, Alten, and Goreman. It would definitely help me against the Domination spell which the Haleys have and give me a fairly accurate high POW Thresher Reach weapon with a threat range of 12" with Energizer. It also saves me a focus because Beast 09 runs for free.

I would be losing an ARM 25 Bulldozer and a 7 point Warjack to piece trade though. I also lose a large base blocking LOS.

I'll have to do some testing to see which is better. I'll most likely be playing Circle of Orboros for the next 3 weeks because of the Devastation Event we are having at GMI. I look forward to winning another coin!

My First Warmachine Tournament - Butcher 3 vs. pKreuger

GMI Warmachine Steamroller 2015 Tournament

Part 1: My List Pairing for 35 point Steamroller 2015

Part 2: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Menoth - Harbinger

Part 3: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Circle - pKreuger

Part 4: Khador - Old Witch vs. Skorne - eMakeda

Part 5: Final Thoughts for the Tournament

I learned that Steamroller Tournament strength of schedule is determined by 3 factors. The first factor is your Win/Loss record. The next factor is how many control points you scored during your matches. The final is how many points of enemy models you killed.

Since Andrew and I were the only players that won on scenario and scored 5 control points, we were the #1 and #2 seed and faced each other in the next match. Andrew is a very experienced player but mentioned that he hasn't played competitively in a while. He brought a very strong control army with eKreuger and another hit and run style anti-infantry army with pKreuger.

After everyone submitted lists I saw what Andrew brought and I knew that was going to be the toughest match up for me and I did not want to play against him unless I had to.

Before our match, Andrew and I talked about our lists and not wanting to get List Locked. (You must play both your lists at some point during the tournament) Knowing that he was going to be the hardest match up for me in the tournament I decided to go with my stronger list and play Butcher 3 while Andrew gambled and played pKreuger hoping to save eKreuger for the finals.

Kill Stroked (35 Points)
Warcaster: Butcher 3 (-4)
Warcaster Unit: War Argus x2 (+2)
Warcaster Attachment: War Dog (+1)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Assassin Underboss (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman (+2)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)

VS.

pKreuger (35 Points)
Warcaster: pKreuger (-5)
Warbeast: Warpwolf Stalker (+10)
Warbeast: Feral Warpwolf (+9)
Warbeast: Gorax (+4)
Unit: Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers (+5)
Unit: Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers (+5)
Unit: Shifting Stones (+2)
Unit Attachment: Stone Keeper (+1)
Solo: Blackclad Wayfarer (+2)
Solo: Gallows Groves (+1)
Solo: Gallows Groves (+1)

He beats me on threat range and has answers for my high DEF Stealth infantry but I beat him on big bald fat guys that hit hard.

End of Round 1 

Andrew won the roll and went first and set up on the side with the linear obstructions. He moved both his units of Woldstlakers in a straight gun line and set up for my advance. The double Gallows groves move into position for Arc Noding while the Stones set up to use Shifting. His Stalker and Feral Warpwolf stay back and wait to be Shifted.

What I didn't realize was that Shifting says "within" and not "completely within" so the actual distance of placement is not 8" but more like 9.5" which is much scarier.

On my turn I move my army, cast Energizer so my battlegroup moves 3 extra inches and get ready to dominate the flag on turn 2. I keep Ruin behind Juggernaut and hope that the Warpwolf Stalker will take the bait. I know once I can trade for one of his Warbeasts, I'm in a really good spot to attrition.

I position my Kayazy and Widowmakers in a way that I feel would best protect them from pKreugers feat but I was sorely mistaken. The Widowmakers do some work and killed 4 Woldstalkers.

Round 2

On Turn 2, Andrew moves his unit of Woldstalkers on the right side of the picture so they can pop shots at Ruin. With Concentrated Fire they are all able to hit and do quite a bit of damage to him. He then casts Primal from the Gorax on the Warpwolf Stalker and ports him 9.5" into Reach range with Ruin. He makes quick work of him and also cripples both of Juggernaut's arms. I'm a bad spot but I still feel like if I can take out the Warpwolf Stalker I have a shot.

Andrew then pops pKreuger's feat and decimates my Kayazy. As you can see from the picture above, I spread my Kayazy out and feel like they're safe but I didn't realize that the 3" AOE templates didn't have to be centered on models but instead placed anywhere he wanted. He was able to wipe out 7 Kayazy and all 4 Widowmakers. Luckily the Kayazy passed their command check.

I suffered mass casualties so I had to shift gears. I charged Butcher into the center of the pile of Woldstalkers and Feral Warpwolf and cast Impending Doom and pulled everything in. I then used Flashing Blade and wiped out 4 Wold Shrimp, a Blackclad Wayfarer, and the Warpwolf Stalker. I popped my feat and got back to camping 6 focus bringing his defensive stats to DEF 14 ARM 24.

I then decide to use Energizer to place Butcher base to base with the flag but unfortunately the action was challenged because Butcher was inside a wreck maker that counted as rough terrain. A judge was called over to mediate. Energizer states that he gets Pathfinder on activation he charges. I felt that, since he charged, he had Pathfinder for his entire activation but it was ruled that he did not. It's ok though, I was still able to get a War Argus next to the flag to get 1 point.

I gave up the safety of Butcher and sent out the Ogrun Bokur and the War Dog to contest my friendly flag in future turns. I knew that I was down in attrition with my Juggernaut's crippled arms and if I could just play 1 step ahead of Andrew I could pull away with a scenario win.

MARK: 1 - ANDREW: 0

Round 3

Andrew was successful with Electro Leap attacks from the Feral Warpwolf attacks that had Lightning Tendrils and focused on clearing out the Kayazy's threat and killed all but 2. He used then used his Gallows Grove and moved it based to base with my flag and gained a point. I didn't think this was legal because the Gallows Grove shouldn't be able to control a flag but couldn't specifically find the rules. Andrew said it could and confirmed with the Press Ganger and was able to get a point. I was fine with it.

Later I found out that Immobile models cannot control zones and that Gallows Groves were in fact Immobile. It was my fault because I used the word "Construct" when asking Joe, the Press Ganger, instead of the word "Immobile" which he confirmed that Constructs could control flags.

It was all good. Andrew had to move pKreuger out of the way because the 2 Kayazy had a shot at assassinating him. This made it so that he couldn't dominate on his turn. He also used the Gallows Grove as an Arc Node and used Tornado to Throw the Juggernaut into Butcher knocking both of them down. The Juggernaut took some more damage but luckily Butcher did not.

MARK: 1 - ANDREW: 1

On my turn I played it safe and just moved everyone to guard Butcher. I felt that killing him would be the only way Andrew had a chance to win now that I controlled the board. I put my crippled Juggernaut in front of my army with the War Argi behind him and finally positioned Butcher behind everything camping 6 focus.

I used the remaining Kayazy to kill the Gallows Grove that was controlling the flag and positioned the Ogrun Bokur and War Dog on opposite sides of the flag in hopes that Andrew wouldn't be able to kill both in one turn.

At the end of the round I killed 1 shrimp and leader and dominated my zone for another 2 points.

MARK: 3 - ANDREW: 1

End of the Game

There was a ruin terrain that separated the Feral Warpwolf and Butcher which meant it was almost impossible for the Feral to reach him even with Lightning Tendrils. He was able to easily wipe out the Ogrun Bokur but the War Dog miraculously toughed.

There was nothing much left for him to do. He positioned pKreuger safely and toed the zone instead of Dominating his flag. It would have given him 1 more point but ultimately there was nothing he could do to contest his friendly flag.

MARK: 3 - ANDREW: 2

My resilient War Dog was able to get up and contest my friendly flag and the War Argi, with Gang were able to wipe out the Gallows Grove that was contesting my enemy flag.

I ended my turn with Butcher dominating which put me up to 5 control points for the scenario win. Khador Victory!

MARK: 5 - ANDREW: 2

Final Thoughts

This was definitely a very stressful match for me. There seemed to be a lot of things that didn't go my way which was ok because they didn't change the outcome of the game.

The Charge/Energizer/Pathfinder ruling was my fault because I didn't do everything in the proper order. I would have been able to do it if but just needed to do it before my initial attack. I would have had to change the order of my activation to make it work. I would have needed to Charge first, kill everything with the Flashing Blade spell, then Energizered because technically I would have still been in my charge activation and had Pathfinder. It didn't change much because I was still able to get 1 control point with the War Argi which was all that mattered.

The second rules that went wrong was the Gallows Grove that controlled a flag. It was my fault again because I asked the Press Ganger if constructs could control and he said yes when I should have asked if Immobile models could control. Again, this didn't change the game outcome but it did change the tempo and forced me to play more offensively instead of defensively.

I learned a lot during this game because I was able to play an experienced and fierce competitor which I really enjoyed. It was stressful and I was exhausted after it but I think it helped me become a better Warmachine player.

 

My First Warmachine Tournament - Butcher 3 vs. Harbinger of Menoth

GMI Warmachine Steamroller 2015 Tournament

Part 1: My List Pairing for 35 point Steamroller 2015

Part 2: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Menoth - Harbinger

Part 3: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Circle - pKreuger

Part 4: Khador - Old Witch vs. Skorne - eMakeda

Part 5: Final Thoughts for the Tournament

My first match of the day was actually the one I've been dreading all week. I was matched up with Justin, someone who I saw play Harbinger the last time I was at GMI. His list was quite scary. Justin is a really good player and is experienced in tournaments. He won the last event at GMI.

Justin Deploying his sweet winged Harbinger

Knowing this I practiced a solo game against myself with both my lists vs. Harbinger the morning of the tournament so I would know what to expect. Turns out it's a waste of time to kill any of her units :P

The list I chose to play against her was my Butcher 3 list because I figured that I can solve the Martyrdom problem (When warrior model is disabled take D3 damage and heal them 1) with Silence of Death (No Tough, No Heal, No Transfer on damage) I did learn that Sanguine Bond was not effected by SoD.

Kill Stroked (35 Points)
Warcaster: Butcher 3 (-4)
Warcaster Unit: War Argus x2 (+2)
Warcaster Attachment: War Dog (+1)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Assassin Underboss (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman (+2)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)

Harbinger of Menoth List (35 Points)
Warcaster: Harbinger of Menoth (-5)
Warjack: Devout (+5)
Unit: Exemplar Errants (+8)
Unit Attachment: Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard (+2)
Unit: Exemplar Bastions (+8)
Unit: Exemplar Bastions (+8)
Solo: Paladin of the Order of the Wall (+2)
Solo: Covenant of Menoth (+2)
Solo: Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (+3)
Solo: High Paladin Dartan Vilmon (+3)

The double Bastions really worried me as they could soak up tons of damage and spread it around. Even if I managed to dent them they still had Martyrdom to stay alive. They also could potentially take out my Warjacks or even worse, Butcher. The Covenant of Menoth also really worried me too and I specifically brought 4 Widowmakers and 1 Marksman just to deal with it. Again, I would still have to find a way to get past Martyrdom.

End of Round 1

Justin ended up going first which means I'm in a whole heap of trouble. He popped feat on the top of Turn 1, locking my Kayazy and Widowmakers in place. He advances his unit as far forward as he can toward and leaves only 1 Paladin to contest my zone. This surprised me and I decided to capitalize on it.

When I saw Justin's placement I quickly used run/charges and Energizer to shift my entire battlegroup toward my friendly zone so I can hopefully start scoring on Turn 2. I test to see how far 20" is from Harbinger's feat by moving the Widowmakers and I end up losing 2 to auto hit POW 14. Luckily I make the command check. 

The Kayazy's know better and just move up 1-2" and are safe from Harby's feat but are not able to threaten alpha strike. I kind of thought Justin was going to pop his feat on Turn 2 instead of Turn 1 but I guess it didn't matter because it basically made me skip a turn with my units either way.

Ruin and Juggernaut actually take a POW 14 from the feat when moving but only took small damage.

End of Round 2

By the end of Round 2 I was feeling confident about winning on scenario. Justin He shifts his army to his friendly zone and leaves nothing but an Impervious Wall'ed Paladin (Only can be damaged by Magical Weapons and Spells) to contest my zone.

On my turn I am able to use Butcher and his magical axe, Lola, to kill the Paladin and then position the jacks with Energizer to set them up to block the zone from the Bastions.

Mark 1 point - Justin 0 points

The game continues on and Justin's takes a long turn. The pressure of Deathclock is weighing down on him and he starts to make minor mistakes. On his last turn he sets up the Juggernaut to be charged by Bastions but in the middle of their activation, decides to switch gears and try to take out the Kayazy Assassins in his zone. He did this because he realized that the Kayazys have Kill Stoke which gives them acrobatics (lets them move through other models once per game) and are threatening assassinating Harbinger. He takes quite a while to finish which puts him down to about 5 minutes on the clock to my 20 min.

In the crunch he forgets to contest my zone bumping me up to 2 points at the end of his turn. If he had contested, it would have bought him another round.

On my turn I use Kill Stroke and use my Parry skilled Kayazy Assassins to move through other models and position myself to contest the zone. I position it so i can also it's hard to kill the entire unit so I can plan to contest again the next round. I forget about the 5" AOE auto-hit Cataclysm Harby has with her 10 focus.

I am able to kill the Bastion that was close to contesting the zone and end my turn scoring another control point.

Mark 3 point - Justin 2 points

End of the game

Justin focuses on contesting my zone and starts to move both units of Bastions into my zone. With the Rough Terrain he is only able to get one in and I have to figure out a way to deal with it. Normally you can just kill him but there are 2 problems. One is Sanguine Bond which allows the Bastions to spread damage among the unit which is basically 40 boxes of ARM 16 and then on top of that the second problem is Harbinger's Martyrdom which can keep other warrior models alive and kicking as long as she has boxes to transfer damage to.

Harby was able to to deal with all the Kayazy using Cataclysm which is a 5" AOE auto hit and causes them to fail their command check bumping him up to 2 points.

On my turn I end up allocating 3 focus to Juggernaut and 3 to Ruin. With the two problems posed above I decide that instead of killing the Bastion, I need to throw him out of the zone. I've never done a throw in a game ever so this was pretty new to me. I end up boosting to hit with a MAT 8 vs. DEF 11 and then using my STR 12 vs. his STR 7 I was able to chuck him 6" away.

I then charged my opponent's objective with the Juggernaut with 3 focus and at POW 19 I was able to 1 shot the objective with a roll of 15 Damage bringing me to a total of 5 control points.

Mark 5 point - Justin 2 points

This was a really stressful match for me because it was my first tournament game and also my first timed match ever. I only ended up killing 1 Bastion and 1 Paladin but I figured that's how it would go down because of Harbinger's model protection tricks. I had to rely on adaptation and positioning well to win the game instead of a slugfest which he would have won.

This allows me to move into the next round of games!

Final Thoughts

Practicing vs Harbinger before the tournament really helped me understand that I could not beat her traditionally. I didn't attack once with my Kayazy the entire game and just used them to contest his zone to swing the point favor to me which a lot of people don't really expect. Justin did a real great job of taking them out with Cataclysm. Fortunately, he was under pressure with the Deathclock and had to make quick decisions which I was able to capitalize on.

It was a great game and I'm excited/nervous to play my next one!

My First Tournament - Khador List Discussion - Butcher 3 & Old Witch

GMI Warmachine Steamroller 2015 Tournament

Part 1: My List Pairing for 35 point Steamroller 2015

Part 2: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Menoth - Harbinger

Part 3: Khador - Butcher 3 vs. Circle - pKreuger

Part 4: Khador - Old Witch vs. Skorne - eMakeda

Part 5: Final Thoughts for the Tournament

In front of GMI Games. Getting ready for the tournament!

Hey guys! I just got back from my very first local Warmachine Tournament held at GMI Games in Riverside CA. I was pretty nervous because I didn't know what to expect since I only started playing in public 2 weeks ago but I was really excited to battle against some new opponents. 

I debated on taking Circle but ended up bringing Khador because I wanted to represent The Motherland and smash things with with shiny axes. In this post I will talk about the two list I brought and my thoughts on them.

The two lists I brought for the 35 point 2015 Steamroller were:

Kill Stroked (35 Points)
Warcaster: Butcher 3 (-4)
Warcaster Unit: War Argus x2 (+2)
Warcaster Attachment: War Dog (+1)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Assassin Underboss (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman (+2)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)

The anchor piece is definitely Butcher 3. If I can piece trade and take out the threats to Butcher, there will be nothing to kill him and I will control the game. Ruin is so awesome with any Butcher because he charges for free with +2 movement and Pathfinder. He can also wipe out large chunk of infantry because of Soul Taker and the Dispel on his Black Iron Mace.

Juggernaut is just a cheap beefy jack that I can threaten with.

The backbone of this list are the Kayazy Assassins. They do so much work! Once per game they will make your opponent think super hard when positioning because they can use Kill Stroke and move through models. Saxon gets them through rough terrain.

Widowmakers and Marksman are there to clear lanes for Ruin and Butcher. while the Ogrun Boker is there in case I have to deal with something with a huge cannon.

The list has high armor and high defense mixed in. It poses a lot of questions for my opponents:

Can I handle Stealth?
Can I handle DEF 14 ARM 24?
Will Dispel ruin my entire plan?
Can I handle fast Pathfinder Units?
Can I handle Shield Guard?

My second list is more of a control list. I debated on taking pVlad/Conquest but decided to settle for Old Witch.

Into The Woods (35 Points)
Warcaster: Old Witch (-3)
Warcaster Warjack: Scrapjack
Warjack: Behemoth (+13)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Assassin Underboss (+2)
Unit: Winter Guard Infantry (+6)
Unit Attachment: Winter Guard Officer & Standard (+2)
Unit Weapon Attachment: Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer x2 (+2)

Solo: Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (+3)

Solo: Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (+2)

This list is more of a block your opponent out of the zone and slow them down kind of list. I like utilizing Unseen Path and have the Old Witch jump across the map to score points. I also have the Winter Guard Death Star in case I ran into Cryx

Behemoth is there to drop bombs on infantry and possibly get shots into the opposing caster.

I am not too comfortable in playing this list but I thought it would be tricky for my opponents.

So those are my two lists! I will write a battle report of the games I had during the tournament :)

FOR THE MOTHERLAND!

Khador vs. Mercs - Butcher 3 vs. Drake MacBain (35 Points)

Tonight was the second time I delved deep into the world of miniature table top wargaming, or as normal people call it, playing with my little plastic friends. Rob, the owner of Table Ready Terrain (tablereadyterrain.com) found me on Facebook and challenged me to a 35 point Steamroller 2015 match up.

For this game we played Outflank which has 2x circular zones that can be controlled for 1 point or dominated for 2.

Rob from Table Ready Terrain getting ready to deploy after winning the starting roll.

For my list I decided to bring Khador and flex my Butcher 3 muscles. He is definitely a fun caster to play but has his share of bad anti magic match ups.

Khador - Butcher 3 - Butcher Unleashed

Warcaster: Butcher 3  (-4)
Warcaster Unit: War Argus
Warcaster Unit: War Argus
Warcaster Attachment: War Dog (+1)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Underboss (+2)
Unit: Aiyana & Holt (+4)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)

Butcher is the driving force in this list. He won't start the fight but he sure will end it. The goal is to use the Juggernaut to initiate a piece trade and end that transaction with Butcher smashing face. The Kayazy are MAT 9 with Gang and DEF 16 in melee. They are there to jam while Aiyana & Holt are there to assist them against higher ARM. The Ogrun is just for security because Butcher sometimes gets shot off the table. Shield Guard allows him to dodge a silver bullet.

Mercenaries - Drake Macbain

Warcaster: Drake MacBain  (-4)

Collosal: Galleon (+18)

Unit: Press Gangers (+6)

Solo: Bosun Grogspar (+2)

Solo: Wrong Eye(+9)

Warbeast Snapjaw(+9)

Warbeast: Bullsnapper (+3)

Solo: Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile (+2)

Rob brought a Galleon ARM skew list. MacBain's Fail Safe (+2 Armor, Warjack doesn't suffer crippled effects) and the Bullsnapper's Spiny Growth (+2 Arm) brings the ARM total of the Galleon to an impressive 23. The Press Gangers are there to jam and buy time while the Galleon drags heavies to their scrap metal death.

Rob wins the roll and elects to go first

Rob casts Fail Safe on the Galleon and runs everyone up. He ends his turn with casting Spiny Growth on the Galleon making his ARM total 23.

On my turn I run most of my units up but I cast Energize with Butcher 3 to get my battlegroup and Warjacks up 3 more inches. I almost screw everything up because I forgot that Ruin had Abomination instead of Terror which forced command checks on my Kayazy and Ogrun Bokur. Lucky for me they both passed. 

After that debacle I offer up the Juggernaut to the Galleon hoping he'll spend a turn killing it while I set up Ruin and Butcher for a counter attack. I tried to block the Juggernaut from being dragged by some Kayazy and the War Argus but forgot the Galleon had blast damage on his rapid fire guns.

End of Turn 1

Rob upkeeps Fail Safe on the Galleon and allocates it 3 focus. He then charges in with his Press Gangers but unfortunately isn't able to kill any Kayazy. He then activates Galleon and after a 3rd party confirmation and a laser line check, he is able to drag the Juggernaut to his death. He ends the turn casting Spiny Growth on the Galleon.

Yes! He took the bait! Now I just have to close the deal... but wait... am I too far? Uhh... I think I'm just a hair shy from Ruin and Butcher wreaking havoc on him! I activate Aiyana & Holt and cast Kiss of Lyliss on the Galleon but I'm about a half inch too far and miss. I am able to kill the Bullsnapper with Holt though which really helps. My plan was to get the -2 ARM Debuff on Galleon and charge in Ruin to remove Fail Safe, then finish him off with the Butcher. Unfortunately, I have to activate Butcher first and cast Energizer to make sure I am in charge range for everyone.

Butcher then charges and I roll incredibly bad on 6 hits, not damaging any systems. I have 3 focus left after popping my feat and I have a decision to make. Should I spend the 3 and take a shot at killing the Galleon and then set myself up to be Ganged by MacBain? No. I decide to camp the last 3 focus. 

I activate Ruin and he charges in with 3 focus. I almost forgot about Dispel on his weapon but that was crucial to remove Fail Safe. After Ruin's activation, Galleon has a crippled Left Side but still has his massive Trident.

I pop the Kayazy mini feat and charge them through the Press Gangers and get a couple shots at the Galleon only doing about 5-6 damage to him. I run the War Dog and Ogrun Bokur to help the Butcher against his final stand and end my turn. 

I do end up moving into position and scoring 1 point for controlling one of the zones.

Mark 1 - Rob 0

Mercenary Turn 3

Rob goes in the think tank for quite a while. He's trying to decide the best way to handle the situation. The War Dog is a huge problem for him as it bumps Butcher's defense to 16. In the end he decides to allocate 3 to Galleon and smash away. He boosts to hit on all of his shots and hits 2 out of 3 leaving Butcher on 6 health. He then buys 3 Jackhammer shots needing hard 10s to hit and misses them all.

He moves his Press Gangers in and try to take out the Kayazy but fail. He also tries to charge Bosun Grogspar at Butcher but eats 2 free strikes from the Kayazy and dies. Wrong Eye and Snapjaw are able to handle Ruin and leave him a steaming pile of wreck marker. MacBain, sensing impending doom, moves back since the scenario is not Killbox and ends his turn.

Mark 2 - Rob 0

On my turn, instead of risking being left wide open after killing the Galleon I decided to wipe out the Press Gangers instead. Those nasty pirates tough the hell out of their rolls and force me to use everything I've got. In anti-climactic fashion I am able to kill over half his unit forcing him to make a tough check. They fail and there's no one to contest the zone. I simply toe the zone with Butcher and dominate for 2 points and have Aiyana & Holt with the Widowmaker Marksman control the other bringing my total to a game winning 5 points.

Mark 5 - Rob 0

End of the Game - Khador Victory by Scenario

Overall a very good game. It could have gone either way with just a simple dice spike. Rob did a hell of a job almost killing Butcher. I got pretty lucky on making the call to camp the 3 focus instead of trying to finish off the Galleon because without it, Rob would have had exactly enough to kill Butcher.

Final Thoughts

I made a couple of huge mistakes this game. My first mistake was thinking Ruin had Terror instead of Abomination and forcing myself to make command checks on both my own Kayazy and Ogrun Bokur.

The second mistake is that I placed 2 Kayazy base to base with the Juggernaut trying to stop the drag, forgetting that the Galleon had AOE which wiped them out like nothing when the attack targeted my easy to hit Juggernaut.

I wouldn't change too much of the list at 35 points. If I were playing this in a two list pairing for Steamroller I might take out Aiyana & Holt so I can get better use out of them in another list. I'm pretty comfortable with the Kayazy and their mini feat really catches a lot of people off guard and is hard to plan for. I could try Iron Fang Black Dragons but that isn't my play style. I could also switch for some Nyss Hunters but lately I haven't had too much luck with them other than just being a contesting jam unit. I might put in the Widowmakers instead to help clear a path for Butcher and his Jacks.

I do love Butcher 3 and his pups. There's a tournament at GMI Games on Saturday and if I go I'll most likely play him with either pVlad, pSorcha, or Old Witch. There's a lot of Trolls in the Inland Empire meta though so I need heavy hitters.

Till next week!

Butcher 3 - The Butcher Unleashed and his War Arguses

Butcher doing his best Caesar Millan Impression

Oh man do I love me some Butcher 3. I'm going to try and get a couple games with him this week and I'll post some battle reports and specific tips. Come back soon!

Warmachine Battle Report Analyisis- Khador Butcher 3 vs. Menoth pKreoss (35 Points)

Mark - There's a 35 point Steamroller coming up at our local game store in November and I'm trying to figure out what I want to play. I've narrowed it down to Khador or Menoth. The winner of the battles will decide which faction I bring!

Khador - Butcher 3 (35 Points)

Warcaster: Butcher 3 (-4)
Warcaster Unit: War Argus
Warcaster Unit: War Argus
Warcaster Attachment: War Dog (+1)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit: Kayazy Underboss (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman (+2)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur - Client Butcher 3 (+3)

Butcher 3 is hands down the deadliest model in the entire game. He's a MAT 9 Weapon Master with a POW 16 Magical Weapon with Reach that can Flashing Blade and hit everything within 2" of his front arc. Not only that, he's got Impending Doom which pulls everything within 5" all the way towards him, Vengeance with his War Arguses which allows him 3" of movement and a free melee attack, and Energizer to get him that extra 3" advance. If you do the math his threat range is:

+5" for Speed
+3" for Charge
+2" for Reach
+3" for Vengeance (if your opponent happens to kill your War Argus)
+3" if you can trigger Madelyn Corbeau's Intrigue.
+5" Impending Doom
+ Pathfinder when he charges
-----------------------------------------------------
Total: 21" Threat Range

He can easily suck everyone in with Impending Doom and wipe out 3 of your opponent's best heavies. Not to mention his feat which allows him to utilize 12 focus that turn.

The goal of this list is to find a way to deliver Butcher safe and sound within a reliable distance so he can start his murderous rampage. The trick is to get him into a place where he's close enough to the enemy Warcaster or anchor pieces and set him up so he doesn't have to feat defensively.

To do this you can use his War Arguses to screen him while Juggernaut and Ruin either clear him a murderous path or take the brunt of the first wave onslaught. The Ogrun Bokur is perfect to save you from one large ranged shot the opponent might get on Butcher. Once you're close, the +2 Defense from the War Dog will most likely force your opponent to boost to hit him in melee, if they ever get the chance.

The Kayazy Assassins and Saxon Orrik are used as the jamming unit because they can get up field quickly, ignore terrain, and stay relatively protected with their high defense and stealth. Once they're close enough you can pop their mini feat which allows them to move through other models and take no free strikes and use them to either scalpel out troublesome solos with their Gang MAT 9 POW 12s or just cause general disruption.

The Widowmakers and Widowmaker Marksman usually can soften up most single wound infantry units and snipe out The Covenant of Menoth and Orin Midwinter, both which shut down Butcher 3 with their anti spell tactics.

Ruin can charge for free with Pathfinder, wipe out entire units with his Soul Taker ability, and can kill heavies with his POW 18 Magical weapon with Reach. He also has Dispel on his main which can remove Defenders Ward, Iron Flesh, and Arcane Shield.

Juggernaut is just a cost effective beat stick that can absorb damage.

It's a fun list to play and gives you plenty of options.

To counter this list I wanted to see how pKreoss' anti-magic tactics + Pop & Drop would stand up against Butcher 3.

Menoth - pKroess (35 Points)

Warcaster: High Exemplar Kreoss (-5)
Warjack: Reckoner (+8)
Warjack: Redeemer (+6)
Unit: Exemplar Errants (+8)
Unit: Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard (+2)
Solo: Exemplar Errant Seneschal (+2)
Solo: The Covenant of Menoth (+2)
Solo: High Paladin Dartan Vilmon (+3)
Solo: Vassal of Menoth (+2)
Solo: Vassal of Menoth (+2)
Solo: Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (+3)

This list focuses heavily on the Pop & Drop feat of pKreoss where he knocks down everyone in his control area and brings down the wrath of Menoth on his targets. To do this you need to have sufficient firepower and range to make the best use of his feat.

With the Choir's battle buff the Reckoner can launch a boosted POW 15 shot and one umboosted ancillary POW 15 shot. The Redeemer can shoot 2 Boosted POW 14 shots and one unboosted ancillary shot. If you're close enough with Kreoss you can also shoot an unboosted Cleansing Fire for a POW 14. Don't forget about the Errants and Errant Seneschal. That's 12 unbosted POW 10s. To top it off you've got Eiryss who will do 1 Snipe damage and remove all upkeeps and focus on your target.

So if you do the math:
POW 15 Boosted
POW 15 Unboosted
POW 14 Boosted
POW 14 Boosted
POW 14 Unboosted
POW 14 Unboosted
POW 10 Unboosted (12 times)
Snipe 1 Damage

All this on a knocked down target that's most likely going to be stripped of buffs and focus.

The trick is protecting pKreoss till he can get within 14" of the enemy Warcaster while also making sure nothing AOE's Eiryss. The Covenant of Menoth and Lamentation will help control any fancy tricks your opponent might have in his spell book.

Game Result

• Menoth Turn 1 - Menoth goes first and runs up to position well for pKreoss' feat. The Exemplar Errant's Hunter ability helps the Errants move and see through the dense forest on their side of the map. pKreoss casts Lamentation and gives Defender's Ward to the Reckoner.
• Khador Turn 1 - Khador moves up and uses Juggernaut and Ruin to shield Butcher. Butcher uses a patch of forest to block LOS so he can safely use Energizer and move his battlegroup up 3".Kayazy Assassins run up the Flank while the Widowmakers are able to take out 3 Errants but are just outside of 5" to do anything to Eiryss.
• Menoth Turn 2 - Lamentation and Defenders Ward are upkept. The forest blocks the Pop & Drop so the Reckoner and Redeemer move up and take out 6 Kayazy with their AOEs which pass their command check. The Errants are able to kill all 4 of the Widowmakers leaving only the Widowmaker Marksman. The Covenant of Menoth casts Lawgivers Creed and blocks spell casting within 10" of it.
• Khador Turn 2 - Khador moves up in position and sets up their next turn to charge into Menoth's Warjacks. In a crucial turn, the Widowmaker Marksman is able to move in and roll a hard 8 killing Eiryss. Butcher senses that the Pop & Drop is coming and camps 5. The remaining Kayazy charge and kill Vilmon and jam up the Redeemer.
• Menoth Turn 3 - Here it is. The Pop & Drop. pKreoss activates and pops his feat knocking everyone except the Widowmaker Marksman and 2 Kayazy down. The Choir sings Battle and the shots begin to rain down on an ARM 23 Butcher 3 with 20 boxes. With average rolls, the entire army is only able to do 15 damage to the Butcher leaving him on 5 boxes. 
• Khador Turn 3 - Butcher has survived but is still hampered by The Covenant of Menoth + Lamentation so he decides to allocate 3 to each Warjack and feat defensively. The remaining Kayazy finish off the Covenant of Menoth and move in to get back strikes to the Menoth army on the next turn. Ruin takes out both of the Reckoner's arms and has the Redeemer in melee. The Juggernaut reduces the Errants to 2 models, and the Ogrun Bokur kills the Errant Seneshal that was working to flank Butcher.
• Menoth Turn 4 - With the army suffering severe casualties, Kreoss decides to make a last ditch effort to kill Ruin with 7 focus. Unfortunately he barely scratches him with his POW 14 Reach weapon and is left out in the open like a sitting duck.
• Khador Turn 4 - Butcher smells blood and charges into pKreoss and destroys him with 2 shots. 

Khador wins by Assassination Turn 4

Butcher 3 Murdering pKreoss who failed a pop and drop against him

Analysis

It was a huge mistake for Menoth to put Eiryss out so far. She got greedy and wanted to kill the Widowmaker Marksman and it backfired and cost her army the game. If she had stayed back behind the Errants she would have been able to snipe Butcher removing his focus and allow the Menoth Warjacks to assassinate him. Other than terrain, there would be nothing to stop the Pop & Drop assassination.

I definitely have to try this match up again because I think if Eiryss can stay safe till the Pop & Drop, there's nothing Butcher can do to stop it other than keep the Ogrun Bokur 14" away from pKreoss but 2" away from Butcher.