Model Spotlight: Torch

Here's my finished Torch with a little bits added to the flame thrower to give it a more menacing look.

He seems fun with Strakhov but I'm not sure how much work he'll do just yet. He's got 2 lame guns but they can be used to remove stealth. He also has a Spray 8 POW 12 and assault which could get interesting but it's rough with RAT 5. His melee is low but he's got Sprint so he might get some weird angles set up for next turn or move back into safety.

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!

Model Spotlight: Karchev

I hated Karchev's old pose and wanted to give him a more aggressive look. He's super fun to play and I really enjoy running a ton of Warjacks with him.

I recently played Karchev in a Journeyman League at GMI Games. He does such amazing work with the help of Widowmaker Scouts after they trigger Road to War giving a Warjack a 3" advance.
He has a surprisingly effective Knockdown Spray which can really help with annoying models with high DEF.

His other spell is Battle Charged which gives Warjacks Counter-Charge. With the right positioning you get a 2-3 Counter-Charges off on an enemy model charging in hopefully crippling a system or maybe even destroying it.

His Feat gives boosted Attack and Damage rolls for your Battlegroup and is devastating when you get close enough to use it. A Juggernaut swinging with 4x Boosted MAT 7's with Boosted POW 19 and a Boosted POW 15 is ridiculous. Behemoth with Armor Piercing can easily solo an ARM 20 Colossal with average dice on Karchev's Feat turn.

He's definitely not the most tricky caster to play but it's sure fun to ram some jacks down your opponent's throat.

Model Spotlight: Harkevich

Harkevich is pretty awesome in MK3. Mobility is so great with a Jack spam and his Reposition 3" for all Warjacks comes in handy. There are two really strong list builds for Harkevich, abuse Mobility and the Feat or abuse his Reposition + Broadsides. I've found that Broadsides is pretty weak with RAT 4 guns but is pretty good vs. Infantry as most Khador Jacks have AOE 4. I prefer a Melee centered list and getting Warjacks as far and as fast up the field as possible.

Model Spotlight: Fenris

I got Fenris off of Bartertown.com and he was already converted in a pose which I didn't like. I ended up cutting off his body and repositioning him to the more original pose. He was really hard to paint because off all the detail. The model itself was a little beat up because of the conversion but I do like the final outcome.
Play wise, I've never really had much success with Fenris. I own 2x Doom Reaver units and try to have him with them to be thematic but everyone usually gets shot off the table before they can do anything. There might be a better way to use him. I'm going to see if I can get work done with him with a Vlad 3 Cavalry list.

Model Spotlight: Uhlan Kovnik Markov

I'm not sure how good Markov is right now but he's a fun solo to play. It might be kind of nice to charge over some Black Dragons with your Uhlans. I do like the model and it plays nice in my Vlad 3 list.

Model Spotlight: Iron Fang Uhlans

Iron Fang Uhlans

I finally finished painting my Iron Fang Uhlans and I was really happy playing them with an all Cav/Jack list with Vlad 3. I really want to try them out with Butcher 1 + Fury + Feat. On a charge, they would be hitting boosted attack and POW 19 with 4 dice for damage. The problem is delivering them. They have ARM 19 when base to base which helps vs. infantry but not vs. a strong gunline.

Warmachine Battle Reports - Khador (Harkevich) vs. Khador (Vlad 3) - Steamroller 2016 Incursion

Here's today's Lists:

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

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

Harkevich is on 2 game win streak (Win vs. Drake MacBain / Win vs. Lord Koslov) and is looking to crush some Cavalry this battle report. He's bringing his 6 heavies and relying on Mobility (+2 SPD & Pathfinder) to get him up the field and tank his way to a victory.

He faces off against Vlad 3 with his Calvalry army ready to Alpha Strike his way to a victory. I'm really happy to get my Iron Fang Uhlans and Markov off or BarterTown.com. I found someone who gave me such a good deal that I couldn't pass it up.

Deployment: Harkevich (right side) wins the roll and chooses to go second because he wants to hide behind the center obstruction. Vlad 3 (left side) deploys with the Greylord Outriders and Fenris on top while the Iron Fang Uhlans and the Man-O-War Drakhun hold the bottom. Conquest and Vlad 3 hold the center.

Top of Turn 1: Vlad 3 - Vlad 3 activates first and casts Dash which gives all Warrior models (including Cavalry) +1 SPD. He then casts Infernal Machine on the Conquest which gives him +2 SPD and Murderous which gives an additional die to attacks vs. Warrior models. He then casts Hand of Fate on the Iron Fang Uhlans which gives them an extra die when rolling attacks and damage, dropping the lowest one. He moves up along with the Uhlans who run 18".

The Greylord Outriders run their 20" and set up to flank behind Harkevich next turn to possibly get some sprays. Fenris joins them. Conquest runs his 12" and the Drakhun runs his 14".

Bottom of Turn 1: Harkevich - Since the Cavalry is so far up, Harkevich decides to put up some shots to see if he can take a few out. He gives 1 Focus to the Behemoth and one to the Destroyer and then casts Mobility which gives all his Battlegroup +2 SPD and Pathfinder. He moves up to get behind the center obstruction.

The Juggernaut, Demolisher, and Decimator run up to block charge lanes to the shooty jacks.

Behemoth activates first and dose some damage to Markov. He tries again and fails to kill him but does 3 damage to another Uhlan with the blast. Black Ivan is able to finish off Markov and do some more damage on another Uhaln. The Destroyer activates and fails to kill anything after missing his shot.

Top of Turn 2: Vlad 3 - Vlad 3 Upkeeps Hand of Fate on the Iron Fang Uhlans and Infernal Machine on the Conquest. The Iron Fang Uhlans charge into the Juggernaut knocking it down and severely cripple it. They also do a couple damage to Black Ivan. The Conquest moves up and is able to finish the job and remove the Juggernaut. The Man-O-War Drakhun looks to tie down Behemoth and runs up next to him hopefully trying to survive with his dismount in the following turn.

The Greylord Outriders ditch the Demolisher and Decimator and run their 18" into enemy lines hoping to get some back-arc sprays next turn against Harkevich.

Fenris charges in on the Decimator and is able to do a few boxes of damage.

Bottom of Turn 2: Harkevich - Harkevich allocates 2 to the Behemoth and 1 to Black Ivan. He camps 3 because he fears the Outriders coming to spray him with their magic. Behemoth activates first and easily dispatches of the Man-O-War Drakhun and his Dismount. He repositions up 3" so the Iron Fang Uhlans can't charge him next turn. The Decimator moves up and tries to kill the lone Greylord Outrider but fails so it makes it difficult for them to score. The Demolisher easily kills Fenris and his dismount and repositions back to the flag.

Harkevich moves base to base with Black Ivan and pops his feat giving his Battlegroup +3 ARM for a round to help weather the storm of Cavalry.

The round ends with the score 0/0.

Top of Turn 3: Vlad 3 - Vlad 3 upkeeps Infernal Machine on the Conquest and Hand of Fate on the Iron Fang Uhlans. He gives Conquest 2 Focus. The Iron Fang Uhlans activate first and since they are further than 1" away from Behemoth two of them charge away from him and into the Destroyer, knocking him down. They other just moves slightly to make room for Conquest. The Uhlans do some damage to the Destroyer but don't cripple anything.

The Greylord Outriders run deep behind Harkevich threatening an assassination next turn, one takes a Free Strike and dies to the Decimator. They just don't have the firepower to do it this turn vs. Harkevich's feat which makes him DEF 16 - ARM 21.

Conquest activates and gets base to base with Behemoth and the center flag. He unloads 5 melee attacks but rolls snake eyes on 2 of them leaving the Behemoth on a few boxes. Vlad 3 ends the round by running and Dominating the bottom flag.

Score: Vlad; 1 - Harkevich: 0.

Bottom of Turn 3: Harkevich - Harkevich gives Behemoth 2 focus and Behemoth unleashes 5 deadly armor piercing shots against the Conquest. It cripples his left side but leaves him with his right side.

The rest of his Battlgroup fails to do much damage to the Cavalry. The Demolisher is able to move base to base with the flag and scores a point. Harkevich turns around and hides behind the rock hoping to withstand the deadly cold sprays next turn.

Score: Vlad: 2 - Harkevich: 1

Top of Turn 4: Vlad 3 - Conquest is quite beat up and probably won't last much longer so Vlad decides to play a positioning game vs. Harkevich. He upkeeps Infernal Machine on Conquest and Hand of Fate on the remaining Uhlans. He loads up Conquest with 2 Focus and unleashes him on the Behemoth easily destroying him. The Iron Fang Uhlans charge into Decimator and takes out more of his systems.

Vlad 3 then decides that instead of ordering an assassination attempt with the Greylord Outriders, he tells them to run back to the flag with the Demolisher so that they can contest it.

Score: Vlad: 3 - Harkevich 1

Bottom of Turn 4: Harkevich - There's not much hope for Harkevich now. He is can't contest flags and his Battlegroup is too far away from the bottom flag to do anything about it. They are able to kill a few of the Cavalry and Harkevich himself moves up as close to the flag as he can and ends the round Vlad: 4 - Harkevic 1. Vlad quickly ends his turn for a Turn 5 victory.

Over View: It was really fun to play the Cavalry, especially with Vlad 3 because he gave them all +1 Speed. Have the Alpha Strike was very important and setting the line of battle in enemy territory gave Vlad 3 a huge advantage.

Vlad 3's feat was kind of wasted because he didn't really need it. It should have been popped on the 2nd turn when they had their Alpha Strike. This would have allowed them to push up a little bit further and gotten into Harkevich's face. Sprint wasn't very effective because there weren't any small models to kill.

Harkevich maybe could have also popped his feat on turn 2 and took the chance that the Juggernaut would survive the Uhlans and Conquest (not likely) but I don't think it would have made much difference.

Vlad 3 is very fun and his spell list is great. I think I need to work on his feat timing. I think I usually sit on it too long waiting for the perfect moment when I should just do it earlier and get some attrition swing.

Next Battle Report we'll see how Vlad 3 does vs. a Butcher!

Austin fairly upset playing against Zerkova 2

I brought Zerkova 2 for game day this week which was a swing in the other direction from the list of Armor Skew I brought last week but never got a chance to play because Austin and Ryan had a 5 hour game. I figured it'd be nice to play an assassination list since it's not normally my play style and it would be something new.

Here's today's Lists:

Warcaster: Zerkova 2
Warcaster Unit: Doomreaver Guards
Warjack: Behemoth
Unit: Greylord Outriders
Unit: Greylord Ternions
Unit: Kayazy Eliminators
Unit: Winter Guard Rifle Corp
Unit Attachments: 3x Rocketeers

Unit: Aiyanna & Holt
Unit Attachments: Valachev

Solo: Kovnik Joe
Solo: Eiryss 1 (accidentally brought Eiryss 2)

Warcaster: Siege
Warcaster Attachment: Squire
Warjack: Stormclad
Warjack: Defender
Warjack: Defender
Warjack: Hunter
Warjack: Hunter
Warjack: Charger
Unit: Storm Knights
Unit Attachment: Storm Knight Officer

Austin and his Cygnar won the roll and chose to go second.

Turn 1: Khador: I move up with Zerkova 2 and cast Telgesh Mark on a Kayazy Eliminator which makes her an Arc Node. I run up my first turn and get into position to pop and feat on turn 2. Austin's Warjacks are densely packed to the left side I move Eiryss 1 to the right flag in case the assassination goes wrong. The Winter Guard Rifle Corps try to the same with center flag but they're mainly a road block for right flag.

Turn 1: Cygnar: Austin moves in on my army. First thing he does is to take both Hunters and uses them to try and kill my Greylord Outriders. He kills 1. He runs up his Sword Knights to try and set the line of battle and then makes a wall of Warjacks to block LOS to Siege when he advances. Siege moves up and boosts a Ground Pounder on the Greylord Outriders and kills another. I'm down to 3.

Turn 2: Khador: I run my 3 Greylord Outriders and Greylord Ternions in position base to base with his guys. I then move Aiyanna & Holt up to see if she can get a Kiss of Lylss on Siege but she's too far. Eiryss claims a flag and the Rifle Corps block a path to her and contest the center flag.

The Kayazy Eliminators run up within 8" and LOS of Siege.

Zerkova 2 activates and casts Occult Whispers which gives all her Friendly Faction Models boosted Magical Attack rolls. She then pops her feat and arcs a Hoarfrost into Siege, boosting it giving her 4 dice to hit. She crits which makes him Stationary (around 72% chance). She cranks the damage roll and he has to use a focus to negate damage. The Greylord Outriders cast their spells next and 2 of them crank it as well and are able to easily kill a stationary Siege. I still had 3x Greylord Ternions that would have casted 3x Pow 12s at him.

Overall Austin was pissed and rightfully so except I have no pity for man who played Kara Sloan his last 8 games. Zerkova is fun but if you know her assassination is coming you can plan for it and she's pretty much a one trick pony.

I think having a Reinholdt would be a good inclusion for the reroll to her Hoarfrost. You're most likely going to connect with 4x D6 but you might want a reroll to shoot for the crit stationary. Unfortunately I do not have any more magic slingers or I would replace the Rifle Corp and Joe and make the list totally super jank.

Austin did not have fun but I sure did.

Khador - Man-O-War Drakhun Painted

Just finished painting my Man-O-War Drakhun. I'm trying to finish up all my Cavalry for my All Cav/Jack list with Vlad 3. I still have to paint his dismounted version. I've also got a list for an All Man-O-War army. I'm just waiting to get 2x of the Shocktrooper UAs.

Model Spotlight - Khador Greylord Outriders

Khador Greylord Outriders are super fun to play. They've got the super speed, re-position and the 8" spray. They make great Hand of Fate and Signs & Portents targets for Vlad, does some awesome work with Sorscha and Freezing Grip, and is crazy amazing with Zerkova 2. They are some of my favorite sculpted models.

Khador (eSorscha) vs. Circle (eMorvahna) - Steamroller 2015 Destruction

We haven't played Warmachine at our local store for 3 months now because we started playing a little Infinity and when we got back into Warmachine, Austin and Ryan didn't feel comfortable in their play to get some games in at the store. 

I have a little table set up at my house and sometimes I'll just play little practice games against myself to get the feel of the movements and ranges of units I don't play so often.

Ronan is tall enough to reach the table now

Today I wanted to practice one of my Steamroller 2015 list for Khador against Cirlce of Orboros.

The list for Khador was; eSorscha with a bonded Conquest, Sylys Wyshnaylr, full Winter Guard Death Star with Joe, a full unit of Nyss Hunters, Lady Aiyana and Master Holt (which I forgot to deploy) and eEiyrss.

The Circle list was eMorvahna, Ghetorix, Warpwolf Stalker, Gorax, a Druid Wilder, full unit of Bloodtrackers with Nuala, a full unit of Skinwalkers with UA, Shifting Stones with UA, and Lord of the Feast.

Deployment

All the terrain that I have is at the office so I had to make do with a bunch of rocks and left over stuff. The scenario was Destruction. Khador deployed with the Winter Guard on the right side and Nyss on the left. Circle deployed the Bloodtracks who Preyed on the Winter Guard on the left along with the warbeasts, and the Skinwalkers on the right.

End of Round 1

On the first turn everyone ran up. The Bloodtrackers tried to spread out while the Winter Guard didn't really care because they had Iron Flesh and Courage of the Forefathers.

End of Round 2

Circle was able to do some damage up top with the Lord of the Feast but he was still engaged after his first "thresher" and couldn't shoot his raven to move deeper into the Nyss line because he was still in melee and couldn't perform a ranged attack. He did end up buying more attacks with souls and was able to take out the 3 Nyss in the front.

The Bloodtrackers moved in and killed 5 Winter Guard but were left sitting ducks. The Skinwalkers moved up behind them along with Ghetorix and the Stalker. eMorvahna casted Fog of War and Carnivore on the Skinwalkers.

Khador was able to make up a lot of ground. The Nyss took out the Lord of the Feast by doing a 6 man combined attack and finished him off with good dice.

The Winter Guard wiped out the entire Bloodtracker unit and made it so they couldn't be brought back by eMorv's feat. The Conquest tried to crit devastate on Ghetorix but didn't get it off. The Conquest ended up doing 6 damage to Ghetorix. It's hard to see but the Great Bears are behind the Conquest.

Circle Top of Turn 4

Circle changed its strategy up a little and decided to jam the Conquest with the Skinwalkers. One Skinwalker was able to get a charge off on eSorscha and did 10 damage bringing her down to 7. Ghetorix then took out the objective and eMorvahna toed the zone for a total of 3 points at the end of Circle's turn.

Khador Bottom of Turn 4

Khador retaliated with eSorscha popping her feat and using Quadiron to take out most of the Skinwalkers that were stationary because of her bond with the Conquest. The Winter Guard Deathstar positioned themselves to block Ghetorix from charging eSorscha. I forgot that the Skinwalker Alpha was in the back and that eMorvahna could bring them all back on her turn.

Conquest charged and oneshotted both the Skinwalker and the Gorax. The Great Bears were still trapped behind him but they were able to charge in and kill the Stone so they couldn't port in Ghetorix. I positioned the Winter Guard incorrectly and blocked the Conquest from charging Ghetorix. I should have been able to kill Ghetorix and the Stalker or at least one and tie up the other.

Circle Top of Turn 5

Circle was able to use the Stone Keeper's Rock Hammer and eMorvahna's Death Knell to make enough room for Ghetorix to trample in and finish off eSorscha who only had 7 life left.

Ghetorix Kills eSorscha

There was some bad placement with Khador. I really don't like playing with a Colossal because of how much room it takes. The Nyss Hunters were ok but I might swap them out for Kayazy Assassins that can move through people once per game. It would help with some jamming. I figured the Nyss could get a good combined POW 20 on eSorscha's feat from 19" away. (12 range 7 move) 

I also forgot Aiyana and Holt because I left them at the office. I don't know if they would do that much more against this list. Conquest pretty much one shotted all the beasts he touched. Holt could have possibly taken out the Skinwalkers instead of eSorscha leaving her with some focus to cast Iron Flesh on herself. Ghetorix would still be hitting at bosted MAT 7 so he would need 12's. That would have changed a lot since he would spend 1 to trample, 1 to buy an attack, 1 to boost. It would only leave him with 1 good boosted shot at 37.5% which if he failed, would have cost Circle the game.

Overall it was fun and I learned some good lessons with both factions. I would normally play Butcher 3 into eMorv but I wanted to get some more practice with eSorscha which I really needed.

Cygnar vs. Khador - Company of Iron - Bunker

Last week we played some more Company of Iron scenarios. I hadn't played pVlad for a while so I decided to bring him. I forgot how nasty Signs & Portents was and how adding a die and dropping the lowest number swings your percentages so much to your favor.

It worked out really well for the Behemoth and the Winter Guard Deathstar but not so much for the Greylord Outriders which tried to flank outside pVlad's control area and went up against the Gun Mages and got owned.

 Setting the line of battle

 My pVlad list included a Behmoth, Winter Guard Deathstar, Great Bears, Greylord Outriders and a battle engine. I was actually hoping to play Ryan's Cryx and murderize him but he had car trouble and couldn't make it that day. Austin brought Siege (again) along with a Stormwall and a Defender that was controlled buy a JWC. He also brought a full unit of Gun Mages.

 The game went pretty according to plan for me. I was able to use my Outriders to flank his Gun Mages but I didn't get the rolls so they just kept each other busy. I was ab to get the Great Bears in with some protection and they took out the JWC and the defender. I messed something up and Austin was able to get a Stormwall shot on pVlad on Siege's feat which hurt bad but I survived.

 After that there wasn't much he could do with S&P Winter Guard Deathstar with Kovnik Joe's For The Motherland. Siege was assassinated. Austin totally ignored the bunker and went for an assassination which was probably a mistake. With Defender and Stormwall he would have been able to possibly take out the DEF 5, ARM 20, 100 HP Bunker in a couple turns.

New Khador Unfinished Models

It's been a really really long time since I played any Warmahordes since I caught the plague over the holidays. My friends have also gotten really into Infinity which is not my cup of tea. I have a small Yu Jing army which I had to get because I'm Asian.

There's some interesting aspects to the game that I like and much I do not which I will save for another post.

The picture above are a few of the new Khador pieces that I've acquired. There's Fenris, Spriggan (old model), Man-O-War Drakhun, Vlad 3 (half way painted), Kodiak, and a Gun Carriage that has a base coat.

Hopefully I'll have these done by the time my friends are done with Infinity. I'm really itching to play Warmachine again.

Warmachine Battle Report - Khador eSorscha vs. Khador eZerkova - 50 Points Steamroller

This is a straight up Khador vs. Khador civil war battle between two of coldest and sexiest Warcasters in the game. They're probably fighting over who ate the last Yoplait in the fridge.

In this game, Scott plays the brand new super magic assassin Warcaster eZerkova vs. my new to me but old to everyone else armor cracking Warcaster, eSorscha.

eSosrcha - Cold as Ice (50 Points)

Warcaster: eSosrcha (-6)
Warcaster Attachment: Sylys Wyshnaylrr (+2)
Warjack: Conquest (Bonded) (+19)
Unit: Winter Guard Infantry (+6)
Unit Attachment: Winter Guard Officer & Standard (+2)
Unit Weapon Attachment: Rocketeer (+3)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Underboss (+2)
Unit: Battle Mechaniks (Min) (+2)
Unit: Great Bears of Gallowswood (+5)
Solo: Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Objective: Effigy of Valour

List building: This is the paring to my Butcher 3 list in the last battle report. It seems to cover the bad Cryx match ups I have with old Butch with its Grape Shot Sprays, high DEF Kayazy with Iron Flesh and the ability to crack armor. The Bonded Conquest is my favorite because if you fail to kill it in melee you will become stationary at the end of your activation. Everything is highly accurate which is what I love. You've got Winter Guard rolling either 3 dice on Attack or combining shots, the Kayazy Assassins are MAT 9 with Gang, the Great Bears are 8, and Conquest... is Conquest at MAT 6/RAT 4.

The thought is to put Conquest out there and shoot a bunch forcing your opponent to charge him with jacks/beast killing it. Then eSorscha pops her feat and the Great Bears charge through the Wreck Marker with Relentless Charge and smash everything. The Kayazy are there to jam and soften up important models and the Winter Guard handle large groups of infantry.

VS.

Scott's eZerkova List (50 Points)

Warcaster: eZerkova (-4)
Warcaster Unit: Reaver Guard x2
Warcaster Attachment: Sylys Wyshnaylrr (+2)
Warjack: Behemoth (+13)
Unit: Greylord Outriders (+9)
Unit: Greylord Ternion (+4)
Unit: Greylord Ternion (+4)
Unit: Kayazy Eliminators (+3)
Unit: Great Bears of Gallowswood (+5)
Unit: Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (+2)
Unit Attachment: Koldun Kaptain Valachev (+2)
Solo: Koldun Lord (+2)
Solo: pEiryss (+3)
Solo: Harlan Versh, Illuminated One (+2)
Solo: Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (+1)
Objective: Bunker

List Building: Scott's army can put out 15 boosted Magic Spray Attacks in one round and on his feat turn can shoot 30 of them. Crazy, right? It looks like the Behemoth and the Great Bears are there to take out high ARM targets that get close to Zerkova and everything else is just going to spray everything to death.

I had never played against eZerkova but I felt that that Conquest could dominate the board if I did two things:

1. Take out the Great Bears early
2. Kill or jam up the Behemoth.

It seemed easy enough with the Kayazy, my own unit of Great Bears and eSorscha's feat. My plan was to position myself to dominate my opponent's zone on turn 2. I positioned Conquest, the Mechaniks, Sosrcha, Bokur, Sylys, and the Kayazy Assassins to the right and left zone for the Winter Guard Infantry to handle.

I then ran up my Winter Guard Infantry with Desperate Pace and figured that they could they could easily outlast the Outriders with Tough and Bob & Weave. Twas not the best of ideas.

  

On Scott's turn he positioned his Behemoth and Great Bears in the center of the battlefield and waited for me to come into his threat range. He lobby a few Behemoth shots into my Winter Guard but they came out unscathed. He then runs his Outriders on my left flank along with pEyriss who is able to kill one Winter Guard Infantry. 

On my second turn I continue pushing forward on the right side with my Conquest and I am able to land a crit Devastation on his Great Bears killing two. My Winter Guard were able to do some work and kill two Outriders which I thought was pretty good. The Kayazy ran up my right flank and I try to position them for an assassination run next turn. I played Sorscha far back in fear of his feat but it was my first time playing with her and I didn't realize that she was pretty much immune to most of Scott's army. This is something that Scott reminded me after the game was over, lol.

At this moment I feel I'm in a pretty good position to win the game... until Scott started spraying...

Scott let loose his super boosted sprays and wiped out almost my entire unit of Kayazy Assassins on the right side. His Outriders then used ride by attacks and sprayed down about 8 of my Winter Guard Infantry. He then positioned the Outriders to take out my Mechaniks behind Conquest the next turn with his Light Calvary move. The Eliminators charge in and kill a couple of Mechaniks.

He gets 1 good charge off with his last Great Bear and really hurts my Conquest. Things totally flipped to Scott's favor and he hadn't even popped his feat yet.

The scenario pressure is on me so on my third turn I kill his objective with my Great Bears and try to clear the Greylord Ternions with Conquest but fail and leave 1 in the zone. I do remember the Bond on Conquest and I'm easily able to kill his stationary Eliminators with my Bokur and the last Great Bear that charged in. The rest of the Mechaniks repair the Conquest. At the end of my turn I tried to hide Sorscha behind Conquest and await Zerkova's feat.

Scott continues his rampage and wipes out my entire Winter Guard unit with more crazy boosted sprays. He also is able to Hoarfrost a Great Bear and charge the Conquest with his Reaver Guard which does a bit of damage. His Ternions wipe out my Kayazy and he positions his Behemoth to charge Conquest next turn.

He does make a slight error and positions Zerkova in the center of the map. This could be my big opportunity to swing the game.

If Scott decides to play super cautiously he will win on Scenario so I realize that the only way I can win is by assassination. I try to position Sorscha to Freezing Grip Zerkova but realize she is immune to Cold just like me. Scott was nice enough and let me take my move back which made up for one I let him take back earlier in the game. I just end up taking a shot with Sosrcha at Zerkova and missed. I pop my feat but also realize that it is cold based and does not effect her or the Outriders. 

At this point I'm all in because Scott can easily win on Scenario. My only out is if I use Conquest to clear out the Greylords blocking Zerkova and clear a path for my last remaining Great Bear. I get a good deviation and I am able to clear the path early. I use my remaining Conquest shots and do a little bit of damage to her. I actually did not want the crit Devastation because it would have pushed her just far enough that my Great Bear wouldn't be able to reach her. I had to shoot her though because I needed every last bit of damage.

I then activate my Great Bear and charge into her with Backswing. I need 7's to hit and I am able to make the charge attack. Zerkova is only camping 2 and is fairly hurt so a POW 12 with 4x dice is able to take her down.

Final Thoughts - Even though I won totally messed up and forgot about everyone being immune to cold. I didn't ever need eSorscha's feat anyway because Scott kept his Behemoth out of ranged and I was so scared of the Outriders and Ternions which I didn't need to be because they had cold attacks.

If I had known about the immunity I would have been far more aggressive and just dominated the right side instead of playing so cautiously. If I had focused on the Behemoth and Great Bears as originally planned I would have dominated with Conquest.

Scott most likely would have won the game if he had played more cautiously. He had cleared my zone of Winter Guard Infantry and could have moved his army to Dominate a turn earlier than me forcing me to run to horrible positions just to contest.  He told me that his mistake was declaring a charge order on his Reaver Guard against the Conquest. This forced him to play Zerkova more to the center.

As far as my list goes, I do like it but would make a few changes. I don't particularly need the Freezing Grip on Sosrcha because all my models except the Conquest are quite accurate. I could probably drop Sylys  and maybe 2 Rocketeers for Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt. This would really pack a punch on feat turn with Kiss of Lyliss. They Kayazy could probably take out anything that was -2 ARM and I wouldn't have to put my Conquest in danger. It would be really great on Trolls which are prevalent in our Meta but I most likely would drop Butcher 3 against them.

Either way, it was a great learning game and I am now more comfortable with eSosrcha and eZerkova.

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!