Warmachine Battle Report: Khador (Vlad 3) vs. Khador (Old Witch) - Steamroller 2016: The Pit

Here's today's Lists:

Warcaster: Old Witch
Warjack: Scrapjack
Warjack: Behemoth
Unit: Kayazy Assassins
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Underboss
Unit: Winter Guard Rifle Corps
Unit Attachment: Rocketeers x3
Unit: Widowmaker Scouts
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman
Solo: Kell Bailoch
Solo: Alten Ashley
Solo: Eiryiss 1

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

Old Witch - The Old Witch has some unique abilities, first being Field Marshall: Apparition. This is going to allow Warjacks in her Battlegroup to reposition 2" during the Maintenance phase. The goal would be to use Apparition along with Gallows to give Behemoth some extended threat ranges while shooting and charging.

She can also pull off some fun tricks herself with her Unseen Path spell which allows her to be placed completely within 2" of Scrapjack.  You can use her to take out some infantry and collect souls and Yo-Yo her back to Scrapjack.

The other significant spell is Iron Flesh. We're going to try this on the Kayazy Assassins and hope that with Stealth and no blast damage, that they'll get behind enemy lines and push the line of battle up on the opponent's side and when the time comes she can give them Battle Lust so they can wreck face.

Wield Secrets is kind of interesting and we may put it on the Rifle Corps to allow them to ignore Cover. It also might help a little against tables with lots of terrain since it gives Pathfinder.

Her Feat seems fairly useless as it got nerfed into the ground from MK2. This Feat will keep some infantry back for a turn but she normally has no problem with dealing with them anyway. We'll see how it plays out.

Vlad 3 - Vlad 3's army is my current fun favorite list to play but I just can't seem to get any real work done on his Feat turn.  Now that he'll have a ton of Infantry to fight against we might get to see some good Sprint positioning. The Sniper line might give his Cavalry a hard time but I think the Conquest will help close out the game once the Behemoth has been dealt with.

Deployment - Vlad 3 wins the die roll and opts to go 2nd. Old witch deploys her Rifle Corp to the bottom and the Kayazy in the Center. The Old Witch and Behemoth deploy toward the middle as well. Eiryiss, Kell Bailoch, Widowmaker Scouts, Marksman, and Alten Ashley advance deploy to try to stop the Greylord Outriders from spraying all their infantry to death.

Vlad 3 deploys toward his friendly flag in hopes to score first. He puts the Uhlans toward the bottom to help protect it and the Greylord Outriders towards the top to spray down on the Kayazy. Conquest holds the center.

Top of Turn 1: Old Witch - The Old Witch activates and casts Iron Flesh on the Kayazy Assassins giving them +2 ARM and immunity to Blast Damage. She casts Avatar of Slaughter on Scrapjack which makes +2 MAT and +2 STR along with giving him Berserk and Overtake. Then she casts Wield Secrets on the Rifle Corp which gives them Pathfinder and allows them to ignore Cover & Concealment.

Everyone moves up but not too far up because some of the Cavalry can run 20" up the board and engage them.

Bottom of Turn 1: Vlad 3 - Vlad 3 activates and casts Dash giving all his Warrior models +1 SPD. He gives Infernal Machine to Conquest which gives him +2 SPD and Murderous (Extra die to attack vs. living models) and Hand of Fate on the Greylord Outriders which gives them an extra die, dropping the lowest on attacks and damages.

The Uhlans run up and get base to base so they get their +2 ARM bonuses. Vlad moves behind his friendly flag and the Greylord Outriders set up just so they are out of range of the Kayazy Assassins. Conquest runs up 12" and tries to get into the center zone.

Top of Turn 2: Old Witch - The Old Witch upkeeps Iron Flesh for free on the Kayazy Assassins because of her Great Power ability, Wield Secrets on the Rifle Corps, and Avatar of Slaughter on Scrapjack. She also allocates 1 to Behemoth. The Kayazy Assassins charge in and easily destroy an Uhlan and position themselves outside of the Greylord Outrider's sprays.

Kovnik Joe gives the For the Motherland speech which gives the Rifle Corps boosted attacks. The Rifle Corps then make a 7 man CRA on one Uhlan hoping to kill it but leave it on 2 boxes. The other 3 take their CRA and damage another. The Rocketeers finish off the remaining boxes and end up kill 2 Uhlans.

Behemoth moves in and launches 2x shots against Conquest softening him up. The Widowmakers, Marksmen, Kell Bailoch, and Eiryiss also take shots at Conquest further weakening him.

The Old Witch moves up next to her friendly flag and pops her feat making it so if anyone ends their movement within 14" of her they take an unboostable POW 14 and if any Warrior models take damage, they become knocked down.

Bottom of Turn 2: Vlad 3 - This is going to be a rough round for Vlad and his Cavalry because of the Old Witch's Feat. Vlad upkeeps Hand of Fate on the Greylord Outriders and Infernal Machine on Conquest. He then allocates 2 to Conquest and moves up next to his friendly flag and casts Wind Wall which makes non-magical ranged attacks automatically miss him. He pops his Feat which gives Warjacks and Cavalry Side Step and Sprint and ends his activation.

Conquest moves up and clears out 3 Kayazy Assassins and Side Steps up. He's pretty banged up from the snipers and Behemoth so Vlad 3's goal is to use him as a road block so he can win on Scenario.

Most of the Cavalry can't do anything because of the Feat. If they try and move up to spray or charge they will take a POW 14 and become knocked down. It's definitely much harder to deal with than the Harbinger's MK3 Feat. The Man-O-War Drakhun however can handle that so he runs towards Old Witch's flag and contests it. Fenris is also outside of her Control area and he moves in to kill 3 Rifle Corps.

Score: Vlad 1 - Old Witch 0

Top of Turn 3: Old Witch - Vlad 3 has the points advantage so the Old Witch has to get aggressive. She lets Wield Secrets drop on the Rifle Corp and Iron Flesh on the Kayazy Assassins but keeps Avatar of Slaughter on Scrapjack.

Her goal this turn is to take out Conquest and push to get a point on her friendly flag and hopefully set up to dominate the center in future rounds.

The Rifle Corp activate and CRA on Fenris, easily dismounting him. The Rocketeers finish him off. Scrapjack activates next and kills off a Greylord Outrider. They Kayazy Assassins put some hurt on an Uhlan, killing it and also dismounting the Drakhun. The Drakhun dismount is just outside of contesting the flag.

Behemoth then activates and along with help from the snipers, they are able to take out Conquest.

Score: Vlad 2 - Old Witch 1

Bottom of Turn 3: Vlad 3 - Unfortunately I'm missing a picture for this turn. Vlad 3 upkeeps Hand of Fate on the Greylord Outriders and activates. He casts Wind Wall again protecting himself from the Rifle Corp and Behemoth. Two of the Uhlans charge into Behemoth and cripple his right arm. The Greylord Outriders activate and put some heavy casualties on the Kayazy Assassins and also kill Eiryiss 1 in the process. The dismounted Man-O-War Drakhun is able to kill a single Kayazy Assassin but moves a little closer to contest.

The Turn ends with Vlad 3 dominating his friendly flag

Score: Vlad 3 - Old Witch 1

Top of Turn 4: Old Witch - The battle for scenario is becoming very tight. The Old Witch can win if she can figure out how to contest her enemy flag while also dominating the center zone twice.

The Old witch lets all of her upkeeps drop except Avatar of Slaughter on Scrapjack. The plan is to use Scrapjack to take out the two Greylord Outriders that are contesting the center zone, use Behemoth to take out 2x Uhlans and have the Rifle Corp CRA on the last contesting Uhlan so she can Dominate for 2.

Everything goes according to plan and her army is able to clear the zone. The Widowmakers, Marksman, Kell Bailoch, and Alten Ashley stay put as backup for next round when they need to clear out the remaining Outriders to win the game. The remaining Kayazy Assassins run toward Vlad 3 and contest their enemy flag.

Score: Vlad 3 - Old Witch 3

Bottom of Turn 4: Vlad 3 - Vlad 3 is too far from the Old Witch to attempt an assassination so his only option is to hope that the Old Witch won't be able to take out the two contesting Greylord Outriders. He casts Hand of Fate on himself and Flashing Blades the Kayazy Assassins blocking his path. He then charges into Behemoth and Kell Bailoch just to take away some potential weapons. He is able to easily kill Kell and really hurts Behemoth but is unable to take him out.

The Greylord Outriders move into the zone and miss two shots on the Marksman.

Score: Vlad 3 - Old Witch 3

Top of Turn 5: Old Witch - The Old Witch allocates 2 focus to Behemoth and Scrapjack and upkeeps Avatar of Slaughter on Scrapjack. She then tries to kill Vlad 3 who has +3 ARM from Blood-Quenched but he tanks it like a boss. Behemoth with no arms is also unable to kill him. It's all up to Scrapjack.

Scrapjack moves in is easily able to kill both Greylord Outriders with no issue and The Old Witch wins on Scenario.

Final Score: Vlad 3 - Old Witch 5

Final Shot - If Vlad 3 had sat on his Feat he would have had a shot at killing the Old Witch. All he needed was that Side Step and he'd be in her face. Unfortunately, he popped it earlier just because in the previous two matches, he waited too long for it to be relevant. It's a fairly weak feat but if he had saved it he would been able to easily kill the Old Witch on average dice.

Old Witch's MK3 feat is still actually great vs. Infantry and Cavalry. The problem is that you won't see so much of them in MK3. I'm not sure how well it plays into Thexus and his 60 Drudge spam but it might be a good counter.

She's got a cool toolbox and a great scenario game. I look forward to playing her more often.

My First Warmachine Tournament - Khador The Old Witch vs. Skorne eMakeda

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

This is the last round of the tournament and I made it to the finals table undefeated along with Jose who was also undefeated and playing Skorne. I had never played against Skorne before and I was frantically trying to add his list to War Room so I could at least figure out what his Warlocks' feats were.

I was torn because I wanted Jose to win his last match because I really wanted to experience a Skorne army but I also didn't because I had no clue what they did. I would have been much more comfortable against Zoe, the person he beat, because she brought Legion which I am fairly familiar with.

Oh, I'm also list locked because I hadn't found a favorable match up for my Old Witch list. Jose on the other hand was not list locked. He brought eMakeda and Xerxis' Fist of Halaak Tier list. I've heard a lot about this Tier list so I knew it was something to be feared.

After looking at my locked list, Jose decides to take eMakeda.

Into the Woods (35 Points)

Warcaster: The Old Witch of Khador (-3)
Warjack Attachment: 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)
Weapon Attachment: Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer x2 (+2)
Solo: Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (+3)
Solo: Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (+2)
Objective: Effigy of Valour

VS.

Supreme Archdomina Makeda (35 Points)

Warlock: Supreme Archdomina Makeda (-5)
Warbeast: Molik Karn (+11)
Warbeast: Titan Gladiator (+8)
Unit: Paingiver Bloodrunners (+5)
Unit: Praetorian Swordsman (+6)
Unit: Paingiver Beast Handlers (+3)
Unit Attachment: Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard (+2)
Solo: Hakaar the Destroyer (+4)
Solo: Feralgeist (+1)
Objective: Fuel Cache

I didn't get a lot of good pictures because I was really busy trying to read what all his stuff did so I didn't get caught in a gotcha move.

Initial Deployment

I deploy Old Witch in the center of the battlefield behind my objective that gives cover and place Scrapjack on the far right side so I can hopefully run with him and cast a surprise Unseen Path and place the Old Witch next to the flag to score a point.

In not surprising fashion I lose the roll to go first. Jose activates eMakeda and casts Leash on Molik Karn which allows him to advance directly towards her when she moves. She advances up and Molik Karn follows her like a one eyed pup. She then casts Road to War which gives +2 movement to any non-warlock faction models in her control area. She then has Molik Karn, Titan Gladiator, Hakaar, the Bloodrunners, the Swordsman, and Beast Handlers run up as far as they can.

On my turn I allocate 1 to each jack and I basically just run all my guys up except for The Old Witch. I cast Iron Flesh on my Winter Guard Infantry and then cast a 5" Murder of Crows cloud in front of them hopefully to deter the Bloodrunners.

Turn 2 End of Round

I forget to take a picture in between rounds because I'm still trying to figure out what to do. Jose runs his Bloodrunners up to get some of my Winter Guard in melee. He positions the rest to block me from controlling the flag. The Bloodrunners have an ability called Shadow Play which says if they damage one or more enemy models with a melee attack, at the end of the combat action you can place one model in the unit in formation anywhere within 1" of another model in their unit. This gives them some extreme mobility that I did not plan for.

He then runs his Praetorian Swordsman to try and jam my Kayazy Assassins. Molik Karn and Titan Gladiator position themselves to kill next turn and after doing the math I realize that Molik Karn can possibly get +2 movement from the Titan Gladiator, +2 Movement from Road to War, +3 movement for Charge, and +2" for Reach. With speed 6 he's got a threat range of 15" which is extremely deadly especially with eMakeda's affinity of +1 fury, her feat which gives him boosted melee attacks with no Free Strikes, and Future Sight which allows him to boost after the fact.

He then moves up eMakeda and for some reason casts Engine of Destruction. I'm not 100% sure why he did that because he didn't attack and it doesn't give any bonuses to defense. He might have done it to free up some fury on her but there was no point because he wasn't running his beasts hot. It might have been better to keep the fury as transfers.

On my turn I allocate 3 to the Behemoth and hold 4 on The Old Witch. I let Iron Flesh drop on the Winter Guard. I then activate Kovnik Joe to give the Winter Guard his For the Motherland speech which gives them boosted ranged attack rolls. He takes a pot shot and misses. Half the Winter Guard Infantry move up with Bob & Weave (+2 DEF) and spray the Bloodrunners down to 3 models which pass their command check. I am also able to get Hakaar down to 4 life but he loads up on Souls which gives him an armor boost and tokens to buy/boost attacks. I use 2 of the Winter Guard Infantry and spray into the Beast Handlers that are surrounding eMakeda to clear some room for my Kayazy Assassins. I use the other two Winter Guard Infantry and do a combined shot on eMakeda which takes off only a few life.

Next I activate Behemoth and move him up 4" so he can see eMakeda. He lobs 2 arcing fire bombard shots and doesn't hit. The AOE's do minor damage to her which she transfers to the Titan Gladiator. She is now sitting on 0 Fury.

After that I activate Eiyrss and take a shot at her and just do 1 damage bringing her down to 12 boxes.

I then activate my Kayazy Assassins who pop their min-feat, Kill Stroke, which gives them acrobatics and allows them to move through models. I am able to get 4 charges on eMakeda and the rest run to get behind her in case I fail and need a second shot next turn.

With Gang, Kayazy Assassins are MAT 9 which is pretty insane. They also are POW 12 which isn't very good but I've got 4 boosted shots at her.

I hit with the first Kayazy and do minor damage to her bringing her down to 7 life. The second Kayazy whiffs with snake eyes and I'm getting worried because I have only two more shots on her and I already rolled double ones. Fortunately one of the Kayazy attacks and connects needing a 6. I need a 12 on damage which is a 37.5% shot and I manage to roll a 14 which ends up killing her.

Khador Victory!

Close up of Assassination

Those tricky bastards did it! Jose said he didn't know that they had that once per game Acrobatics or he wouldn't have left her out in the open so much. He smiled and said it won't ever happen again and that sometimes it's better to lose and learn a good lesson.

I don't particularly like winning when someone doesn't know what a model does but I really wanted this bad. I definitely would have told him about the Kill Stroke ability after he moved eMakeda in their threat range if it was a casual game. We both had about 30+ minutes on our Deathclocks so we did have time to inspect each other's cards and figure out what everything did.

After the match
Jose was very nice about the game and we chatted about what we would have done differently.

He mentioned that he should have brought his Fist of Halaak list which had Incindiarii that would have murdered my Kayazy Assassins with AOE 3 continuous fire shots.

I might have been more likely to win on scenario though because of the lower model count of Fist of Halaak.

If Jose didn't leave me that opening on eMakeda it would have most likely been a long drawn out scenario match. I would have been able to deny him with Old Witch's feat which says that enemy models in her control area can't run or charge and if they end their movement in it, they take a POW 14. I would have controlled the right flag and then tried to slowly win on scenario.

It was definitely a great tournament and I really enjoyed myself and the people I played against.

For the Motherland!