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!

Warmachine Battle Report - Circle (Krueger 2) vs. Khador (Zerkova 2) - Steamroller 2016

Krueger 2 was the reigning champion from the last game, eeking out an assassination vs. Vlad 2. Today he fights Zerkova 2 and her army of magic slingers. Normally vs. a shooty army, Krueger 2 would be safe with Windstorm but now he has to deal with magical spray army which is a great counter for it. Let's see how it goes!

Deployment - Circle wins the die roll and decides to go first. The amount of Advanced Deploy allows him to counter deploy the druids vs. the Greylord Outriders since their UA can protect them from their Cold Magical Sprays.

Khador notices that Krueger 2 is deployed towards his friendly flag in hopes of some early domination and sets up their magical assassins accordingly.

Turn 1 Top: Circle Orboros - Circle runs up and prepares to dominate their friendly flag next round. The Druids get some protection in the forest and wait for the advancing Greylord Outriders which they will be immune to next turn.

Krueger 2 casts Windstorm to protect from short ranged shots but it seems he is too far back for it to apply to anything that matters since most of Khador's attacks will be sprays.

Turn 1 Bottom: Khador - Khador gets their magical units in position to run into Krueger 2's range next turn. The Greylord Outriders run up against the Druids in a tiered formation in hopes that a few survive next round.

Behemoth moves in and launches 2x shots at the Druids in the forest which are about 1" out of range but gets lucky with the deviations and kills 3 Druids.

Eiryss moves in to try and kill the Blackclad Wayfarer and needs an 8 to kill him but rolls a 4. She is in trouble.

Zerkova 2 activates and gets Telgesh Mark on the Kayazy Eliminators and moves up the field. The Kayazys are now Arc Nodes and run up behind Aiyana & Holt who have also safely advanced up.

Turn 1 Overview- It was pretty dumb for Eiryss to move up so close to the Blackclad Wayfarer. It's a bad trade. The Behemoth's deviating 4" AOEs really helped open up the battlefield for the Outriders.

Turn 2 Top: Circle Orboros - The Druids activate first and see how much damage they can do to the Greylord Outriders. The UA casts his Elemental Protection so the Druids are immune to their cold damage spells while the other Druids plink away at them. There were a few bad rolls but with the help of the Stone Keeper, they are able to remove an Outrider.

Behemoth is still too far up to charge with the Warpwolf Stalker, even with Gallows and Telekinesis so he just runs up just out of his charge range. The Blackclad Wayfarer is pissed at Eiryss and unleashes a spray which annihilates her. The Wold Guardian is able to Geomancy and kill a Ternion with a Gallows.

Krueger 2 is able to set up and dominates his friendly flag and will score a point as long as no one contests next turn.

Turn 2 Bottom: Khador - Zerkova 2 sees an opening and plans out her assassination attempt. The order of activation has to be just right for it to work. She allocates 1 to the Behemoth and upkeeps Telgesh Mark and prepares for battle.

The Greylord Outriders are in a great position as they can be in melee and still cast their spells. They activate and take out 1 of the Gallows Groves and plink at Krueger 2 doing 3 damage to him after he transfers a 7 pointer to the War Argus. The Greylord Ternions run into position. The rough terrain gives them a little bit of a hard time.

Aiyana and Holt then activate and Holt is able to hit Krueger for a couple damage but Aiyana misses Kiss of Lyliss. The Kayazy Eliminators run through models and get into place just out of melee range of any Circle units.

Zerkova now activates. She casts Occult Whispers giving all Friendly Faction models an extra die on attacks and moves up. She has 2 Focus left and pops feat which allows all Friendly Faction models in her control area to cast a spell for free. She casts Hoarfrost through the Kayazy Eliminator Arc Nodes and boosts it giving her 4 dice to hit because of Occult Whispers. Zerkova 2 lands a critical which makes Krueger 2 Stationary. She hits him for 6 damage with boosted dice.

Next, Aiyana & Holt activate. She casts Kiss of Lylsiss and it sticks. Holt then shoots Krueger 2 for a couple damage leaving him with only a few. The Greylord Outriders activate and shatter Krueger 2 into tiny bits of blood and ice.

Turn 2 Overview - Behemoth and the two remaining Ternions didn't even activate yet which would have added a POW 12 shot and 2x Boosted POW 14s. Krueger was not surviving that barrage.

Final Shot - This seemed like a bad match up for Krueger to begin with. The fact that Windstorm only works vs. ranged attacks really made it so he had no defenses. He couldn't block LOS because most of the shots were sprays and Behemoth would have just arced over whoever was in front of him. Krueger 2's feat didn't really play that much of a part in it since most of the models were outside of 14" when they began their turns.

The only way for Krueger 2 to survive that assassination turn would be to camp 7 fury and ride it out. It would probably really hurt his battlegroup but he would be able to heal them and hopefully take out most of the threats next turn.

Zerkova 2's feat and spell list are amazing against high DEF low ARM casters. You have decent odds of getting Crit Stationary on Hoarfrost with 4 dice. I think I might pick up a Koldun Lord even through he's pretty lame otherwise. A second unit of Outriders would be amazing but just expensive monetarily and I wouldn't use 2x in any other list.

Zerkova 2 is really fun and I plan to get her on the battlefield more often. Stayed tuned for her next match up!

Khador vs. Khador Battler Report - Sorscha 1 vs. Vlad 3

I didn't get a chance to play Warmachine this week because our friend cancelled on us so I decided to set up a game vs. myself: Khador vs. Khador - Sorcha 1 vs. Vlad 3. I've never played Vlad 3 but he looked fun and I wanted to try him out.

Sorscha 1 List (75 Points)

Warcaster: Sorscha

Warcaster Attachment: Goblin Speculator

Warjack: Behemoth

Warjack: Destroyer

Battle Engine: War Wagon

Unit: Man-O-War Bombardiers

Unit: Winter Guard Rifle Corps

Unit Attachment: Rocketeer x3

Solo: Kovnik Joe

vs.

Vlad 3 List (75 Points)

Warcaster: Vlad 3
Warcaster Attachment: Madelyn Corebeau
Warjack: Ruin
Warjack: Juggernaut
Unit: Doomreavers
Unit: Doomreavers
Unit: Greylord Outriders

Solo: Fenris

Solo: Man-O-War Drakhun

Solo: Orin Midwinter

End of Turn 2: Sorscha Feats and takes out many Doomreavers and wipes out the Greylord Outriders with the Rifle Corps. Vlad 3 and his army try and get into position for nex turn. Vlad 3 Scores 1 victory point and leads 1-0.

End of Turn 3: Battle Engine Contests Vlad 3's zone and the Riflemen + Rocketeers are able to finish off Ruin. Vlad 3's Juggernaut is able to contest. Still 1-0 Vlad 3

End of Turn 4: Sorscha's army is able to bring down Fenris and all but 1 Doomreaver which Toughs. They also take out the Dragoon. Vlad 3's Army is able to take out the objective bringing them to 2 points for a 2-0 lead.

End of Turn 5: Sorcha clears almost eveything off the left side  (including that Juggernaut) except for 1 pesky Doomreaver which is contesting. Vlad 3 is able to kill the Battle Engine and with Madelyn Corbeau and Wind Wall, he is very safe from assassination. Orin Midwinter takes out 2 Riflemen. Score is 3-0 Vlad 3.

End of Turn 6: After clearing Orin Midwinter and Corebeau with some good deviations, Sorcha sends all of her Riflemen to the corners of the zone to give Vlad 3 a hard time clearing it for the win. She is also able to clear out her friendly zone on her turn to put the score at 3-1. Vlad 3 is able to kill a bunch of Rifleman and 2 Rocketeers which boosts his ARM for the round. He is unable to clear the zone and contest the other so the score is now 3-2 Vlad 3.

End of Turn 7: Sorcha moves up and starts to collect points. She's now at 4 which makes it almost unwinnable for Vlad 3. Vlad's only chance was to clear the zone or run into the enemy zone and score 2 for the win but it was just too far away.

End of Turn 8: Sorcha moves in for the kill, gets a crit stationary but still fails to finish of Vlad. It doesn't matter since Warcasters can't contest zones. Sorscha goes up 6-3 to win.