Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Mercenaries vs Khador (75 points); 23Jul2020

Allan and I got together via Wartable for another round of Warmachine. I did ask if he wanted to avoid yet another game into Fiona but he was happy this time.

Game 7 – King of the Hill (scenario 1) vs Allan’s Khador

https://conflictchamber.com/?c6201b_-24oHnV9vpb7jplfi7AnvnvnsnsiBiB62

Mercenaries
[Theme] Soldiers of Fortune

[Fiona 1] Fiona the Black [+27]
– Blockader [33]
– Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [4]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [0(7)]
Anastasia di Bray [3]
Dez [4]
Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye [4]
Stannis Brocker [0(7)]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Cannon Crew [0(6)]
Steelhead Cannon Crew [6]
Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11]
Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11]
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (max) [18]

This is more of the same; I’m very happy with the way that the list plays together despite a few missing options (mainly I seem to miss repair) so I’ve not changed anything. I’m tinkering with an Ossrum list in Soldiers of Fortune but I can’t get it to line up quite right and I’m not really sure that it answers any different match-ups anyway. Also, I’m not really good enough at the game to assess what is or isn’t a good match-up yet. Note that I accidentally clicked Volley Guns instead of Cannons when we played so the pictures are slightly wrong. It’s kind of embarrassing to have proxied models in a browser version of the game.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c3201b_-1m7akTkTkTkTkTkT8fhFhFlOkZoM6ichch

Khador
[Theme] Jaws of the Wolf

[Karchev 1] Karchev the Terrible [+30]
– Marauder [11]
– Marauder [11]
– Marauder [11]
– Marauder [11]
– Marauder [11]
– Marauder [11]
– War Dog [3]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Greylord Forge Seer [4]
Kovnik Apprentice Kratikoff [4]
– Rager [10]
Thamarite Archon [8]
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen [10]
Kayazy Eliminators [0(5)]
Kayazy Eliminators [0(5)]

This, or at least some variation on it, is Allan’s list to pair with a swarm of Doom Reavers. It certainly asks very different questions, specifically ‘can you chew through all these boxes at ARM20?’ I was really interested to see how this game would go.

I win the roll-off but decide that I prefer to lumber Allan the side with all the annoying terrain; he takes the first move. My vague plan is to gum up his Warjacks on Halberdiers for as long as possible and score scenario until I win. Looking at the right side of the board I reckon that I can jam up his Warjacks with that house and keep them out of the zone to hopefully rack up a decent score elsewhere. The Halberdiers on the right are Cultists.

Turn 1: Khador
Everyone runs! Slightly to my surprise, Sorscha also runs instead of casting any spells. Karchev casts Battle Charged and makes sure to stay close to the Rager, though I doubt I can get anywhere near him.

Turn 1: Mercenaries
All my stuff also runs. Allan’s limited threat ranges mean that I can just go full speed ahead with the Halberdiers as long as I don’t trigger Counter-Charge; even if any Marauders can get into a Halberdier I don’t really care. Fiona puts Roth’s Mercy on the Halberdiers on the right and eventually I end up putting Occultation on the Cavalry as the only things in range are spell-immune Risen.

Turn 2: Khador
Karchev upkeeps Battle Charged but nothing is allocated. The Risen run and the Thamarite Archon shoots them in the back to create a cloud wall on the left. Over on the far left the Eliminators kill a couple of Steelheads, but they’ll be back. I forgot to take a screenshot.

Turn 2: Mercenaries
The Cavalry and Halberdiers on the right kill off one Eliminator; annoyingly, I roll triple 1 on a damage roll for the other to leave her alive. The Cannon on the left takes a shot at Karchev which of course is Shield Guarded onto the Rager; Dez and the other Cannon knock down a couple of Marauders. The Blockader gets powered up by the Arcanists and immolates both Eliminators on that side and takes out the objective. Fiona uses her Feat but I forgot to note if she did anything else of interest. I score both the left zone and the objective for 2 – 0, but if I’d been playing a bit more cleverly I could have had the central zone (with one of the Cannon crews) and the flag (with Sylys or Dez). Annoyingly my screenshot didn’t save properly so I can’t upload it.

Turn 3: Khador
Battle Charged is dropped and three Focus are allocated between Marauders 2 and 3. The Thamarite Archon kills a few of the blocking Halberdiers on the left and Karchev picks off another but not enough to prevent anything going into the Blockader from having to sit in Fiona’s Feat. Karchev uses his own Feat and casts Jump Start to sort out those Warjacks that I knocked down last turn. The Marauder that can get into the Blockader cripples its right arm. Alexia creates a Thrall that rather helpfully misses it’s attack in the centre and most of the Warjacks on the right have to run to contest. No scoring so we stay at 2 – 0.

Turn 3: Mercenaries
The Blockader clears the left zone. All my firepower goes into the Marauder sitting by the flag but I can’t finish it. I was hoping to kill it and sit something on the flag, then run Fiona to the right zone and just win the game there and then which is why I didn’t Befuddle or Curse of Veils the big lump. In the end, the Steelheads on the right mess about and still fail to deal with the Eliminator and then Fiona just runs to the zone camping 7. I’m hoping that between that and the sea of Halberdiers that she’ll be safe from the Warjacks over there. I score the left and right zones; 4 – 0.

Turn 4: Khador
Allan’s in a tricky position here because he needs to get enough work done on my army without just ceding the scenario entirely. In the end, he allocates two focus to Marauder #6 and one to #1. The Thamarite Archon kills one of my Arcanists and a hatful of Halberdiers on the left. Sorscha puts Boundless Charge on Marauder #1 and it tramples into the Blockader killing three Halberdiers in the process. A second Marauder leaves my colossal on two boxes and the Forge Seer finishes the job with Hoarfrost. In the centre the last Risen and Thrall fail to kill the Halberdier, then various Marauders kill a bunch of Halberdiers but Roth’s Mercy ensures that the ones I need to stay alive are indeed alive. Karchev moves to the zone and tries to kill Dez but misses. We both score the outside zones; 5 – 1.

Turn 4: Mercenaries
I just move to contest the left zone and score the right again; 6 – 1. Mercenaries win by scenario.

That was a very fun game, and it was nice to have a game where it felt like I really had the tools to do everything needed. I think that I’m quite advantaged against this kind of list as I can snarl up the Marauders for ages with recurring Halberdiers and having a small number of quality melee attacks is exactly what I want to have stuck on Fiona’s Feat.

Things I learned:

• I spent a lot of time messing about on the left in turn 2 deciding how to get around the cloud wall before eventually giving up. I forgot that I could have just used the Steelhead Arcanist to cast Wind Thrower to make them all go away.
• Also in my turn 2 I missed a gifted chance to get up to 4 – 0 at the cost of only Sylys (who wasn’t really doing a great deal) and maybe a Cannon crew. I think that would have made the game unplayable for Allan as he would have had to spend much more effort stopping me from just winning outright on scenario.
• This list is really going to struggle against high armour as I just don’t have the hitting power outside the Blockader. On the other hand, I do have some good control in the Cannons, Dez and Befuddle, although Karchev’s Jump Start rather negates some of that.

Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Mercenaries vs Khador (75 points); 15Jul2020

I found another free evening (funny how clear my social calendar seems to be at the moment) to get in a game of Warmachine with Allan over Wartable. I was planning to put down a list with General Ossrum but got side-tracked and didn’t want to delay further so I stuck with the same Fiona list in Soldiers of Fortune since there is still a lot to learn with it.

Game 5 – Anarchy (scenario 5) vs Allan’s ‘Khador’

https://conflictchamber.com/?c6201b_-24oHnV9vpb7jplfi7AnvnvnsnsiBiB62

Mercenaries
[Theme] Soldiers of Fortune

[Fiona 1] Fiona the Black [+27]
– Blockader [33]
– Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [4]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [0(7)]
Anastasia di Bray [3]
Dez [4]
Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye [4]
Stannis Brocker [0(7)]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Cannon Crew [0(6)]
Steelhead Cannon Crew [6]
Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11]
Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11]
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (max) [18]

No change to the list for the last few games. I’m really enjoying it; there are choices to make every game, and opportunities for me to get order-of-activation wrong.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c3201b_-1Gp9lVjCjCoR3E8p8poLoL3z3z3B2_nini

Khador
[Theme] Warriors of the Old Faith

[Reznik 2] Servath Reznik, Wrath of Ages [+29]
– Judicator [35]
Champion of the Order of the Wall [8]
Champion of the Order of the Wall [8]
Hermit of Henge Hold [0(5)]
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon [0(6)]
Man-O-War Drakhun [9]
Man-O-War Drakhun [9]
Menite Archon [8]
Menite Archon [8]
Vassal of Menoth [0(3)]
Vassal of Menoth [0(3)]
Wrack [1]
Choir of Menoth (min) [4]
Initiates of the Wall [7]
Initiates of the Wall [7]

Allan is using ‘Khador’ this time, by which I mean Protectorate with a pair of actual Khador cavalry in it. It would in theory be paired with a proper Khador list but it amuses me that it could also be paired with another Warriors list and therefore be categorised as either Khador or the Protectorate depending on what the player wanted to call them.

I get to go first and Allan gives me the bottom side so that I have to work with that house in the middle of where I want my army to go. I put one unit of Halberdiers on that side and figure that I’m pretty much going to abandon them to their fate. Everything else goes on the left of the house with the Cavalry on the very far left in the hope that I can push through and take the centre if the game goes on for a long time. I pick the Eyeless Sight objective so that I can shoot through the big central cloud if needed. The Halberdiers on the left are my Cultists.

Turn 1: Mercenaries
I run forward to set the line of the game as high as I can. Fiona casts Roth’s Mercy on the left Halberdiers and Occultation on the Cavalry.

Turn 1: Khador
The Vassals Empower the Judicator and the Choir sing Passage on it. It strides forward and explodes a couple of Halberdiers. This is fine for me as it gives Alexia a couple of Souls for next turn and Sgt Nick can just bring them back anyway. Reznik casts Lamentation and puts Death March on the Initiates on the right.

Turn 2: Mercenaries
The Halberdiers on both sides run and spread out to block off as much space as possible. The Cannon on the right dismounts the Drakhun on that side. Alexia creates a pair of Thrall Warriors that run to apply Mark Target in the centre, then the Blockader walks up and knocks both Champions off their horses (the Hermit prevents one attack but I had enough to bring them both down anyway). Fiona misses an Arcane Secrets Soulfire into Reznik. I was hoping to keep him a bit on the back foot by sticking some early damage onto him, plus I didn’t want to trigger all the various forms of Vengeance attacks in case I actually did kill something. She puts Curse of Veils onto the Judicator, also in the hope that it will keep it a bit further back so that I can bully more effectively with the Blockader, then she uses her Feat. I took the screenshot before I moved the Halberdiers on the right.

Turn 2: Khador
Reznik upkeeps both spells and the Vassals and Choir do their thing. The Hermit runs to get in the way of my Blockader. Reznik applies his Curse to the left Halberdiers but otherwise stays well back. The solos in the middle kill a few of my disposable infantry though the Menite Archon knocks Roth’s Mercy off the Halberdiers. The Judicator rains fire and rockets across the battlefield, killing a good number of Halberdiers, then the Drakhun and Initiates move to make it hard to get into effectively. On the right, the Menite Archon kills another couple of Halberdiers. Allan scores his flag; 1 – 0.

Turn 3: Mercenaries
Anastasia comes in on the right. The Steelheads over there make a couple of good CMAs into the Menite Archon, leaving it on only a single box. Anastasia follows up with a back-strike and then fails to break armour. I am sad, but this is going to make for an epic Thresher attack next turn. After a lot of wangling I get Dez to shoot the Hermit, slamming him clear of the Blockader. It walks forward and shoots Reznik by targeting the Menite Archon but between low rolls and the many Focus Reznik had available I don’t end up doing a great deal. The Halberdiers and Cannon put a little damage onto the Judicator; I really want to get the Cavalry in there with the Flank bonus but Allan has played well to block landing spots. I do use them to take out a couple of the Initiates on that side. Alexia creates some more Thrall Warriors and they run to take up as much space as possible. I score my flag with Dez; 1 – 1.

Turn 3: Khador
Various Vengeance attacks kill some the lead Thralls and Halberdiers. Reznik upkeeps Lamentation but drops Death March. The Vassal and Choir power-up the Judicator again, and the Hermit stands up and uses his -2 ARM aura. The Menite Archon and the Initiates put some tasty damage into my Blockader. Reznik Feats, Curses the Halberdiers, charges into the Blockader and scraps it easily. He then hilariously misses a couple of swings into Halberdier, wasting his Focus. The Menite Archon on the right gets the world’s greatest Thresher, killing Anastasia and all of the Halberdiers bar 1; one of them was killed by a Feat explosion. The Drakhun saunters over and stabs the survivor. The other Drakhun clears some space for the Judicator and it walks up and immolates Alexia to the box and then kills the Cannon crew on the left with a perfect shot of the rocket pods. Neither of us score.

Turn 4: Mercenaries
Reznik is definitely killable this turn. The surviving Cannon gets Eyeless sight and shoots Reznik but I forgot that Vilmon is also a Shield Guard so he gets exploded instead. Dez shoots Reznik and my dice roll crazy high. Fiona backs out of Lamentation Range and channels a couple of Soulfires into Reznik, and Stannis contributes with his handcannon now that Reznik has used up his Focus. The last couple of Halberdiers go in and finish the job; even if that failed I had a Cavalry who could probably have made it, and also a surviving Thrall Warrior. Mercenaries win by assassination.

That was a highly satisfying game. I would almost have liked to have ‘saved the game’ at the start of my turn 3 as I really wonder if a better move with the Blockader would have been just to shuffle around and immolate the Hermit, Drakhun and Initiates instead of putting some fairly unexciting damage onto Reznik.

Things I learned:

• Arcanists handing out magical weapons to Steelheads in their command range is really nice if you have Cannons that you want to shoot into Reznik. Admittedly, that feels like a rather specific niche but it’s rather nice for plenty of other cases too; being able to keep Incorporeal models in check is good on a model that I’m mainly just taking to Empower the Blockader anyway.
• I still don’t have a good way to deal with Menite Archons. Their defensive stats are really high and even once I get through those they have a lot of boxes. This is hardly new news but I really had it brought home to me after the Archon on my right took a full Steelhead unit and Anastasia, survived and then wiped the lot out next turn.
• I’m really finding it hard to get work out of the Blockader. Perhaps unsurprisingly, other players are keen to box it in with chaff and then when I do move it up I almost always lose it. I guess that this is probably OK if, as here, it forces something big to come in to do the job and let’s me get them in return. But I’m always left with the feeling that I could have had it do more.

Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Mercenaries vs Khador (75 points); 13Jul2020

Allan and I got together again via the magic of Wartable for another Warmachine match-up. We use a group Discord channel for the voice which is quite fun as we sometimes get other friends joining in to heckle and/or change the names of our objectives to something amusing.

Game 4 – Bunkers (scenario 2) vs Allan’s Khador

https://conflictchamber.com/?c6201b_-24oHnV9vpb7jplfi7AnvnvnsnsiBiB62

Mercenaries
[Theme] Soldiers of Fortune

[Fiona 1] Fiona the Black [+27]
– Blockader [33]
– Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [4]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [0(7)]
Anastasia di Bray [3]
Dez [4]
Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye [4]
Stannis Brocker [0(7)]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Cannon Crew [0(6)]
Steelhead Cannon Crew [6]
Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11]
Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11]
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (max) [18]

This is the same list as before and I’m really enjoying it. Not everything plays well in each game but I do feel that all the pieces have their place. For example, Dez could easily be one of the numerous other good Merc solos but there are times when being able to reach out and slam someone around has been very handy.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c3201b_-1S787p7phFhF8h8hoMpipinfnfnfnfnn
Khador
[Theme] Wolves of Winter

[Irusk 1] Kommandant Irusk [+27]
– Destroyer [14]
– Destroyer [14]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [4]
Koldun Lord [4]
Thamarite Archon [8]
Void Archon [8]
Void Archon [8]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Greylord Ternion [0(7)]

Allan is back on the Doom Reavers in his endless quest to apparently play them with every Warcaster apart from the one that they are famous for being good with. This time I’m up against Irusk1.
Despite Anastasia’s assistance I once again lose the roll-off and Allan chooses to go first. I give him the side with the houses in the hope that it’ll cluster up his onrushing swarms of Doom Reavers enough that I can actually do something to them on the way to me. I go for a somewhat symmetrical deployment with the Blockader near the objective so that it can get Eyeless Sight and attack through those clouds and the Cavalry on the right to take advantage of the slightly wider spaces. I end up with a cluster of solos in the centre which is probably not ideal but I’ll aim to spread them out a bit as I unpack on turn 1. The right unit of Halberdiers are Fiona’s Cultists.

Turn 1: Khador
Everything runs right at me, probably screaming in the case of the Doom Reavers. Irusk puts Superiority on the left Destroyer.

Turn 1: Mercenaries
I run up too; I’m tempted to try to stay out of ‘walk and stab’ range of the Doom Reavers but that will cede far too much board space to Allan so I just spread out with the Halberdiers as much as possible to limit the number that can go down to a single Berserk chain. Between the various shots I can send downrange I do drop a few Doom Reavers though more than I’m comfortable with pass Tough checks and hence require a second attack. The Cannon on the left takes Eyeless Sight from the Objective and shoots the Destroyer on that side but I sadly am informed that Superiority prevents knock down. Oh well, the damage is quite good. Fiona uses her Feat to blunt the incoming Doom Reaver avalanche and badly hurts the right Void Archon with a channelled Soulfire. The blast damage helpfully kills the Koldun Lord on that side, then she finishes by putting Roth’s Mercy on the Cultist Halberdiers.

Turn 2: Khador
Superiority is dropped and the Objective gives Irusk Eyeless Sight, though I am not really sure why. The Forge Seers Empower both Warjacks, then Irusk moves forward (just outside of Fiona’s Feat, in fact) and uses his Feat. He shoots a Steelhead, casts Inhospitable Ground and then uses Airburst to get another couple of Halberdiers. The right Destroyer lobs a shot forward and kills Dez to the box. The Void Archon sprays to kill more Halberdiers on the right, then teleports to safety behind the building. The Thamarite Archon kills some Steelheads on the left, turning two of them into clouds of ash, and the other Void Archon strolls up to sit on the left flag. Doom Reavers come forward to take out what is left of my front line of Halberdiers, leaving them looking rather depleted. Finally, the Koldun Lord moves up to just catch the Blockader under Wind Ravager.

Turn 2: Mercenaries
Clearing out a substantial number of Doom Reavers will be needed here and that could be dicey under Irusk’s Feat. On the other hand, Irusk is within range to be barbecued by the Blockader if I can make a bit of space so it gets Eyeless Sight. The Halberdiers and Cavalry on the right strip back most of the front line of Doom Reavers, though this is made harder when Allan passes the first 8 Tough checks in a row. Ironically, it’s completely unnecessary since I was only doing it to get a clear path for some Thralls to Irusk for Mark Target but because of Inhospitable Ground they can’t get remotely near him. The Cannon on the left shoots the Koldun Lord to remove Wind Ravager. The Cannon on the right takes an opportunistic shot at Irusk and it’s my turn to be lucky, getting the hit and rolling like crazy for damage; sadly Irusk is Steady due to his Feat. Fiona hears Arcane Secrets from Sylys and the Arcanists Empower the Blockader. I might as well use Fiona so she slings a fully boosted Soulfire into Irusk for some very tasty damage and follows up with a Curse of Veil just because by this point I was all-in on the assassination. The Blockader strolls over and immolates Irusk with the first flamethrower; it turned out that he was only on a single box by that point. He does not pass his Tough roll. Mercenaries win by assassination.

Many thanks to Allan for being a fun opponent. We were having a good chat during the game and I was a bit sorry in that sense to bring the game to an end with an assassination that, had it not worked, would have surely had me counter-assassinated the following turn. Still, it was quite gratifying to find that my list had a lot of tools for putting damage onto a Warcaster. I got rather lucky with the dice to shoot Irusk with my cannon but even with that missing I had plenty of things that could put more damage around. If I’d gone for attrition, I’m not sure how well I might have fared. The Doom Reavers need a lot of attacks to handle under 4+ Tough and Steady and even without them there is the small matter of three Archons and two Destroyers.

Things I learned:

• Fiona has a lot of tools that I’m not really using well. I struggled to work around Inhospitable Ground and only realised this morning that I could have used Chasten to get it off Irusk. That alone would probably have given me more tools to deal with the Doom Reavers by applying more Halberdiers to the problem.
• Thinking back on it, I wonder if it was right to use Fiona’s Feat in turn one. In the end, Allan killed everything he went for and I think that most of what survived was out of reach anyway. So possibly I would be better to save it for one more turn where the lines really clash. On the other hand, perhaps the fear of the impact of the Feat kept Allan from committing into my second line and did save some of my models.
• Having to choose between shooting Dez’s bazooka and using Dig In is really hard. This time I managed to slam two Doom Reavers into each other which was probably worth it but almost every game I have a moment when I wish I had chosen the other option.

Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Mercenaries vs Khador (75 points); 09Jul2020

I’ve really been enjoying getting in games a lot more than normal thanks to Wartable. Normally family life makes it awkward to do face to face gaming but now we’re all stuck at home so everyone else is available for gaming. In this case, Allan asked for another Warmachine match-up.

Game 3 – Anarchy (scenario 5) vs Allan’s Khador

https://conflictchamber.com/?c6201b_-24oHnV9vpb7jplfi7AnvnvnsnsiBiB62

Mercenaries
[Theme] Soldiers of Fortune

[Fiona 1] Fiona the Black [+27]
– Blockader [33]
– Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [4]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [0(7)]
Anastasia di Bray [3]
Dez [4]
Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye [4]
Stannis Brocker [0(7)]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Arcanist [4]
Steelhead Cannon Crew [0(6)]
Steelhead Cannon Crew [6]
Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11]
Steelhead Halberdiers (max) [11]
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (max) [18]

I’m really enjoying playing the Soldiers of Fortune list; it feels strong and thematic with a lot of options but without getting too many of the things that I find overtuned in the game right now… specifically the Archons.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c3201b_-1QhDf8didijyoM8xbR7H7I7H7I

Khador
[Theme] Legion of Steel

[Strakhov 2] Assault Kommander Strakhov [+22]
– Victor [34]
Iron Fang Kovnik [0(4)]
Iron Fang Kovnik [0(4)]
Kapitan Sofya Skirova [0(5)]
Thamarite Archon [8]
Uhlan Kovnik Markov [7]
Great Bears of the Gallowswood [9]
Iron Fang Pikemen (max) [15]
– Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard [4]
Iron Fang Pikemen (max) [15]
– Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard [4]

Allan seems to be making the most of Wartable allowing him to use any model in the game and is really mixing things up. He felt at the start of this game that the Iron Fang list was just going to be a weaker version of Doom Reavers in Wolves of Winter so we’ll see if that turns out to be true.
Allan wins the roll-off and chooses to go first so I pick the side with the houses right in the way. I put the Blockader behind the forest so that it can ignore the trees as it crashes through, then if it lives long enough my Arcanists can Empower it while cowering on the safe side of the forest The right unit of Halberdiers are Fiona’s Cultists.

Turn 1: Khador
A cloud of Iron Fang Pikemen run at me. Everything else is a bit more restrained and makes sure to stay out of Cannon range at least. Strakhov puts Inviolable Resolve on the Victor and Quicken on the left unit of Iron Fangs.

Turn 1: Mercenaries
I run up too. I can’t keep out of range of the Iron Fangs if I think I’m going to be able to stay in the game on scenario so I lead with a couple of hapless Halberdiers on each side and then try to keep the second line safe. There’s no point trying to stay out of the way of Victor’s main gun so I just accept that will shoot whatever it likes. The Cannon on the left kills a few Iron Fangs. Fiona takes Arcane Secrets from Sylys and channels a fully boosted Soul Fire at the Thamarite Archon, sadly leaving it on a single box. She also cases Roth’s Mercy on the right unit of Halberdiers.

Turn 2: Khador
Strakhov drops Quicken but upkeeps Inviolable Resolve; he allocates nothing. His unit chooses to reposition with Battle Manoeuvres, shoots at the Blockader (amusingly Strakhov himself manages to miss on 1,1) then fails to break armour with Lock The Target. He Feats to cheer up a rather sad activation. The Iron Fangs on the left get the front few into the Blockader for some nice damage and then use their mini-feat to reposition into Shield Wall in an annoying position. Victor shoots a bit more damage into my colossal but misses with the main gun and lights up most of the jamming Iron Fangs. Over on the right the Thamarite Archon shoots a couple of Halberdiers and the Iron Fangs kills some more and mini-feat into Shield Wall; I use Roth’s Mercy to make sure that the most annoying ones die while some at the back feed Alexia with their souls.

Turn 2: Mercenaries
The Halberdiers on the right don’t get a lot done under Shield Wall plus Strakhov’s Feat and I manage to lose one of the Cavalry to a counter-charge from the Drakhun. Alexia creates some Thralls that run to gum up the centre. The Blockader doesn’t get too much done (mainly because I forgot that I could heal its crippled left arm with my objective) but does at least remedy the situation of having some Iron Fangs on that side of the board who were not on fire. Fiona manages to kill one of the Great Bears with a channelled Soulfire and then Feats as far forward as I dare. Neither of us score; 0 – 0.

Turn 3: Khador
Lots of the burning Iron Fangs succumb to the flames, including the Drakhun which will make things a lot simpler. Strakhov drops Inviolable Resolve and Allocates two to Victor. We start off with the last Great Bear cutting up the Blockader a little. The Iron Fangs on the left kill a Halberdier to give Victor a landing zone and Strakhov puts Quicken on the giant robot. It comes in and smites my Blockader but leaves it on 8 boxes thanks to Fiona’s Feat. A few shots from the Thamarite Archon aren’t enough to finish the job. The Iron Fangs on the right shuffle back into Shield Wall and stab a couple more Halberdiers. Everything is still contested; 0 – 0.

Turn 3: Mercenaries
I heal both crippled arms on the Blockader with my Objective and Anastasia runs in from the left. Actually that was a bit pointless as Strakhov is within 4” of the flag so even if she could reach it I can’t clear it without killing Strakhov and thereby winning the game anyway. Instead she lurks behind the burning cloud in case this becomes relevant next turn. The Arcanist Empower the Blockader and it beats up Victor in a highly satisfying manner. Eventually both Cannons, Dez (who has strolled onto my flag) and one of the Halberdiers bring Victor down. The Halberdiers also finish off the left Iron Fangs and the Thralls from last turn take out the last Great Bear and Kommando. In the mess on the right I kill a few more Iron Fangs and make sure to drop Sofya last so she doesn’t heal up, though of course she won’t actually die until she has contested my flag for one last time. Fiona kills the Archon with a channelled Soulfire [but we forgot to remove the hapless Halberdier who gave her life for that until after I took a screenshot] and then retreats as fast as her little legs will carry her. Alexia makes some more Thralls and they run to get in the way as well as I can manage. Still no scoring but surely I can get something next turn; 0 – 0.

Turn 4: Khador
Allan looks at the board state for ages and theorises that he could possibly kill the blocking Halberdier with Lock The Target then charge in and Overtake his way into Fiona. We play it out and it doesn’t work (amusingly by missing the Halberdier on the first shot), we put the Thamarite Archon back into play and it still doesn’t work. In the end we decided that he probably would need to roll nothing but sixes to pull this off so I guess I’m quite happy with that result. Mercenaries win by concession.

That was a fun and interesting game. I especially enjoyed having the giant robot slugging-match in the centre on turn 2 and was quite pleased that I was lucky enough to have my giant robot be the one still standing at the end. I felt like our forces were quite similar in the sense that we had a time-walk feat, one Colossal, a couple of units and some support solos. But the Soldiers of Fortune recursion engine is quite good and being able to throw disposable Thralls around the place was probably the difference in the end. I will note that Allan’s dice were quite awful at the start when attacking the Blockader so probably I got a bit lucky.

Things I learned:

• I hardly ever make an attempt to attack enemy Colossals early in the game and am constantly surprised when random charges strip off a few boxes on mine which eventually ends up being relevant. I think that I need to be a bit more proactive in dealing with them.
• Also on the subject of the Blockader, I deliberately tried to be as aggressive as possible with its turn 1 positioning this time. I think that I need to screen it a bit better, but this felt more useful than my more cautious approach in previous games where I couldn’t get into the targets I needed. As usual, more practice is needed.
• Not really a learning but I realised that I haven’t been mentioning in detail the impact of the combination of Roth’s Mercy, Sgt Nick and Alexia on attritional play. Being able to choose which Halberdier dies then turning the dead ones into Thralls and bringing back live ones each turn has been both effective and satisfying.

Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Circle Orboros vs Khador (75 points); 26Jun2020

Last week was quite the busy week of Warmachine / Hordes. I finished up with a game against Allan who is one of the heroes organising tournaments in central Scotland… at least when there is no global pandemic.

Game 8 – Bunkers (scenario 2; but note that we removed the central flag as this seems to be intended for SR2020) vs Allan’s Khador

https://conflictchamber.com/?c8201b_-2acGmOoP54mUmj5wmj5wmHmT

Circle
[Theme] The Devourer’s Host

[Morvahna 2] Morvahna the Dawnshadow [+27]
– Storm Raptor [34]
Dhunian Archon [6]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [4]
Tharn Wolf Rider Champion [0(7)]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [15]
– Tharn Ravager Chieftain [0(5)]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [15]
– Tharn Ravager Chieftain [0(5)]
Tharn Wolf Riders (max) [18]
Well of Orboros [10]

No change to my list; I feel like it is good enough and that the issue is really around my capabilities.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c3201b_-1S7b7p7p8fno8h8hoMpipinfnfnfnfnn

Khador
[Theme] Wolves of Winter

[Zerkova 1] Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova [+28]
– Destroyer [14]
– Destroyer [14]
– War Dog [3]
Fenris [8]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Thamarite Archon [8]
Void Archon [8]
Void Archon [8]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Greylord Ternion [0(7)]

Allan is actually playing Khador with Khador models (or at least, Khador sprites on Wartable). I think that the idea here is to deliver the Doom Reavers with a cloud wall, then get Zerkova’s Feat to more or less skip my turn and have them spend two activations carving up my stuff.

I get lucky again and win the roll-off which feels like it could be quite important with the long threat ranges of the Doom Reavers. I put the Wold Riders out on the right where they’re a bit more open for javelin-throwing. The Ravagers go up the middle and on my left, accompanied by the Dhunian Archon. Allan puts his Doom Reavers out in a line across his whole force and keep the rest tightly bunched in the centre.

Turn 1: Circle
To no-one’s surprise, I run up with my whole army. The Wolf Riders can get hilariously far with their run move. The Well gets a lucky scatter onto three Doom Reavers on the right but my luck balances out as I don’t break armour on two of them; it creates a Ravager Shaman to accompany the second unit. Morvahna puts out Carnivore onto the Ravagers and casts Fog of War.

Turn 1: Khador
Zerkova uses her cool magical toys and puts four clouds out; the Doom Reavers pace up behind them, being careful to stay out of walking threat from my Ravagers. One of the Destroyers gets revenge for my lucky shot with the Well by scattering a shot directly onto one of my Wolf Riders, killing her to the box. The Koldun Lords do various things to stop shooting.

Turn 2: Circle
Morvahna upkeeps Carnivore and drops Fog of War. The Well has a target rich environment so I deliberately shoot something out of range in the hope of getting better blast damage. I luck out spectactularly getting a couple of Doom Reavers but more importantly rolling like a champion to dismount Fenris. The Wolf Riders take out most of the right and unit of Doom Reavers. My Storm Raptor wastes a load of Fury and Morvahna’s hitpoints by repeatedly missing the Void Archon on the right. Finally, the Ravagers run to jam a bit and Morvahna recasts Fog of War.

Turn 2: Khador
The central Doom Reavers use Apparition for a better threat range. One unit of Doom Reavers gets hung up on the central jamming Ravager; I use the Dhunian Archon to make the last attack miss too. Fenris walks up and smashes the poor chap, taking out a pair of Doom Reavers in the process. Zerkova walks up and zaps a Ravager to turn him into an Arc Node; she kills another Ravager with channelled Frost Hammers and then uses her Feat. The left Void Archon vapourises half of my left unit of Ravagers including the Chieftain, leaving me wondering yet again how the Archons made it out of playtesting. The other one, along with the few remaining Doom Reavers on the right, kills a couple of Wolf Riders. The Thamarite Archon guns down a pair of Ravagers in the centre. We both score our zones; 1 – 1.

Turn 3: Circle
Morvahna drops both her spells. One Ravager in the centre Vengeances forward and is torn apart by a counter-charge from the War Dog (Kommader Barkevich, the Iron Woof) so I guess I’m glad that I didn’t bother to upkeep Carnivore. I hatch a cunning plan to shoot Zerkova with the Storm Raptor until I realise that, surprisingly, being with 14” range of the its gun will also mean being within 14” of Zerkova and therefore not allowed to shoot due to her Feat. Thinking are hard. Instead Morvahna puts Carnivore on the slightly larger left unit of Ravagers, recasts Fog of War (I might as well have upkept this but I made a big error with my activation order) and bring back some Ravagers and Wolf Riders with her Feat. The Storm Raptor kills the Void Archon on the right at last, the Wolf Riders clear the Flag over there and the Champion sits on it to score. The Ravagers on the right get stuck into the Doom Reavers over there but Allan’s poor luck earlier with Tough rolls evens out and I end up only killing one of them. We both score our zones in addition to me getting the right Flag; 3 – 2 to me.

Turn 3: Khador
Nothing is Allocated. The Doom Reavers kils a few more Ravagers and both Koldun Lords casts their ‘no shooting’ spell, which is fittingly called Wind Ravager. The Dhunian Archon cancels the one spell from the Greylord Ternion that hits the surviving Chieftain; the Thamarite Archon guns him down instead. Fenris kills a Wolf Rider on the right and one of the Destroyers lumbers over to stop me scoring the Flag. The Void Archon and Doom Reavers on the left wipe out my Ravagers over there, though the Doom Reavers do helpfully thin their own numbers a little with Berserk attacks. The War Dog carries on its reign of terror by killing another Ravager and Zerkova kills the last one herself while heading back away from my few remaining pieces. We score our zones again; 4 – 3 to me.

Turn 4: Circle
Zerkova is standing in the open, and I have lost far too much to contemplate any kind of attrition play now, so it is definitely assassination time. The Dhunian Archon kills the nearer Koldun Lord, allowing the Well to shoot again. It drops the other Lord and a couple of fools standing near him at the wrong time. The Wolf Rider Champion fails to kill the War Dog, who is certainly earning her pay today. The Wolf Riders sneak into Zerkova’s back arc and throw javelins; I get lucky and hit twice which forces Zerkova to use her remaining Focus. Morvahna casts Skyfire and moves to within range of Zerkova, being careful to stay away from that counter-charging War Dog as it has done enough damage for the day. The Storm Raptor comes in and electrocutes Zerkova on the second shot. Circle win by assassination.

It was lovely to get a game of WarmaHordes with Allan; despite him being so involved with the community here I think I’ve only ever played him at Malifaux many years ago. If I’m being honest with myself, the game was Allan’s to lose at the end of his turn 3 as he had pretty much eliminated my forces and he just needed to move Zerkova to somewhere that I could have shot her. That said, I was pleased with the way that the assassination came together at the end, with all my remaining pieces having a role to play.

Things I learned:

• Once again my positioning behind the front line was too clumped, allowing the teleport / dual shot / entropic force combination on the Void Archon to wreak havoc on the left.
• The Wolf Riders are good for dealing with light foes but were outmatched when the Destroyer came over. In retrospect I should have been less worried about keeping them with the Fog of War / Scales of Fate aura and just sent them as deep as possible to kite Allan’s army from the rear.
• Although the attrition ended up going against me quite badly, I did feel that Morvahna’s Feat bought me enough time to enable the Skyfire / Storm Raptor assassination. I was also pleased to play the Storm Raptor such that it contributed without getting destroyed (notwithstanding the poor run of dice shooting the Void Archon on turn 2).

Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Circle Orboros vs Khador (75 points); 25Jun2020

Last night’s game of Warmachine / Hordes was against Lewis, another local player that I’ve never previously faced. I had the impression that, despite his modest protestations to the contrary, he might be quite good at the game.

Game 7 – Bunkers (scenario 2) vs Lewis’s ‘Khador’

https://conflictchamber.com/?c8201b_-2acGmOoP54mUmj5wmj5wmHmT

Circle
[Theme] The Devourer’s Host

[Morvahna 2] Morvahna the Dawnshadow [+27]
– Storm Raptor [34]
Dhunian Archon [6]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [4]
Tharn Wolf Rider Champion [0(7)]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [15]
– Tharn Ravager Chieftain [0(5)]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [15]
– Tharn Ravager Chieftain [0(5)]
Tharn Wolf Riders (max) [18]
Well of Orboros [10]

The exact same list as last time. I feel that this could do good work if I can just find the right balance between attrition and not getting assassinated.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c3201b_-1GbWlVjCjCoR3EoLoL3z3z2_2vdR

Khador
[Theme] Warriors of the Old Faith

[Vladimir 3] Vladimir Tzepesci, Great Prince of Umbrey [+27]
– Judicator [35]
Champion of the Order of the Wall [8]
Champion of the Order of the Wall [8]
Hermit of Henge Hold [0(5)]
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon [0(6)]
Menite Archon [8]
Menite Archon [8]
Vassal of Menoth [0(3)]
Vassal of Menoth [0(3)]
Choir of Menoth (min) [4]
Exemplar Vengers (max) [20]
Flame Bringers (min) [11]

I’m listing this as a Khador force since it has a Khador Warcaster, but due to rules oddities and cross-faction themes it could easily be part of a Protectorate pair. I’ve never played against Vlad3 before but I know that Hand of Fate on Judicators is a bad sign. Double Menite Archons is also likely to cause me a problem as they’re so hard to remove.
I win the roll-off and choose to go first. I put the Ravagers in the centre and right with the Wolf Riders and Storm Raptor on the left. The unit on the right can hopefully abuse that forest and I prefer the Wolf Riders to be the ones out in the open on the left so that I can worry about the cloud only with some Ravagers.

Turn 1: Circle
My first turn is the same as usual. Everything runs up about as far as possible; I stay out of melee threat range but there’s no point worrying about the Judicator as it can get just about anything with its guns. Morvahna casts Fog of War and puts Carnivore on the central unit of Ravagers. The Well magics a second Ravager Shaman into existence.

Turn 1: Khador
Vlad puts Hand of Fate on the Judicator (surprise!) and casts both Dash and Windwall. The Vassal and Choir power up the Judicator and it strolls forward. Despite me cancelling one damage roll with the Archon, the Judicator rolls like a champion, killing one of the Ravagers and knocking down two more.

Turn 2: Circle
Morvahna upkeeps Carnivore and drops Fog of War. The Storm Raptor uses its animus and zaps a couple of Vengers (granting various forms of Vengeance to just about every solo in Lewis’s army) and backs up to be mostly out of range of the Judicator. The Wolf Riders go in and hurt a couple more and jam lightly on the left. The Ravagers all rush up as deep as I dare. On the one hand, I don’t want to just get them all killed but on the other hand Lewis’s threat range is rather higher than mine so I feel like I need to try to get some board position and hope to pin the Khador army out of scenario.

Turn 2: Khador
Hand of Fate gets upkept and Vengeance attacks kill a Ravager in the centre. The support team power the Judicator up to maximum, then Vlad uses his Feat and casts Dash and Windwall again. The Champion on the right kills a Ravager and sprints away so that the Judicator has a landing spot. The Judicator stride forward and unleashes its firepower at the Storm Raptor, leaving it on a dozen or so boxes (I didn’t know that Flying High was among the many things ignored by spray attacks). The Archon on the left rushes in and kills my Archon, the Ravager Chieftain and a regular Ravager and applies Grievous Wounds to the Storm Raptor and the Champion on that side goes in too and leaves it on 6 boxes. The Vengers finish the job and take out a pair of Wolf Riders; Vilmon gets another. Back on the right, the other Archon does a lovely Thresher attack to finish the last member of my central Ravager unit and gets another and the Flamebringers kill one each. At the end of each activation the cavalry all make use of Dash, Parry and Sprint to get way back out of retaliation range. We both score our zones; 1 – 1.

Turn 3: Circle
That hurt a lot more than expected. Vengeance attacks kill the only Flamebringer in range. The Wolf Riders kill most of the Vengers and the Champion gets one and repositions to the left flag. On the right the remaining Ravagers kill all the Flamebringers and put a few wounds on the Archon. The Well, a few Wolf Rider javelins and finally Morvahna kill the central Archon and dismount the Champion; Morvahna then Feats back three Wolf Riders and four Ravagers and repositions back to the zone and hopes for the best behind the cloud. The Ravager Shamans both sit on flags; the central one uses a re-roll from Morvahna to finish the dismounted Champion. I score all three flags and we both score our zones; 5 – 2 to me. But Morvahna is left on 1hp and no transfers.

Turn 3: Khador
The Judicator gets cleared off, walks up to within 10” of Morvahna and immolates her with its flamethrowers. Circle lose by assassination.

Many thanks to Lewis for being a great fun opponent. I wasn’t really prepared here for the sheer impact of Menite Archons – high melee impact models with Flight, Parry (from Vlad’s Feat), Thresher and Grievous Wounds are very bad for me. That said, I got too greedy with the Storm Raptor and could have done the same kind of damage in turn two from much further back simply by boosting damage instead of using the animus. Losing it for a couple of Vengers was not much help and once it went down I was pretty much out of the game.

Things I learned:

• My positioning was poor here, allowing lots of spots for Menite Archon landing zones to remove swathes of my stuff at a time. They’re so hard to kill (for example, compared to light Warjacks of the same point cost) that unless I commit heavily into them then I will end up letting them do it again.
• I still don’t have a plan to deal with a Judicator.
• I have to work on the right balance of offense and defense. Here, I went ‘all in’ with my units in turn two to keep board space and ended up losing just about all of them. Thinking about this, I do wonder if it could have been a broadly successful strategy if I hadn’t also let the Storm Raptor die so easily. With the Gargantuan alive, I would at least have been able to transfer some damage in turn three. Oh well: ‘could have, would have, should have’. I’ll be back.

Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Minions vs Khador (75 points); 21Nov2019

Joe has bought yet another faction so our game of Warmachine / Hordes for this week featured a Khador list. I haven’t played Jaga Jaga for a while so, since I just painted her, I decided it was time to roll her out. I think that this might have impacted Joe’s list selection a bit, but I don’t recall what his other one was going to be anyway; for my part I was going with Jaga Jaga regardless of what he played.

Game 15, Scenario: Spread The Net

https://conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-2njP4cjNjNjWbM7y7F4njD7g

Minions
[Theme] Will Work For Food

[Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27]
– Blackhide Wrastler [16]
– Swamp Horror [15]
– Swamp Horror [15]
– Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)]
Brun Cragback [16]
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor [0(5)]
Rorsh [15]
Totem Hunter [0(6)]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (max) [17]

No changes to the Jaga Jaga list since the Scottish GT back in July. I have got a few things in mind that I might move around but gaming time is limited and I preferred to go into the next tournament with a list that I’m at least slightly familiar with.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c3201b_-1R76dZkTpb8t7Z7Z7-7-7X7W7X7W7X7Wi6

Khador
[Theme] Winter Guard Kommand

[Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28]
– Grolar [18]
– Marauder [11]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [7]
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [0(4)]
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4]
Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [4]
Winter Guard Mortar Crew [0(5)]
Winter Guard Mortar Crew [0(5)]
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8]
– Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6]
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8]
– Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6]
Winter Guard Rifle Corps (min) [8]
– Winter Guard Rocketeer (3) [6]
Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17]

I assume that the basic idea here is to sit back and explode all my stuff via Signs and Portents enable rockets, while occasionally contesting scenario elements with cheap infantry.

Joe wins the roll and picks his side; this is partly because he set up the terrain before I arrived and was already sitting there. We are tactical geniuses. The Totem Hunter picks the right-most unit of Winter Guard as Prey. There didn’t seem to be many good targets that he might be able to get remotely near; I would have liked to pick off Alexia but assumed that she would be hiding right at the back of the gun line.

Turn 1: Minions
Everything races forward trying to keep as much cover as possible so I don’t loose too much to shooting early. Jaga Jaga casts Grave Wind on the Totem Hunter and Battle Host on herself. Both the lesser Warlocks put out their upkeeps since they’re free anyway thanks to Will Work For Food’s theme bonus. Orin Midwinter realises that there isn’t much point staying near Jaga Jaga to deter spell (since Joe doesn’t have any available) and moves over to the left for Flag duty.

Turn 1: Khador
Vlad casts Blood Of Kings and walks up rather aggressively. The Gun Carriage drops some rough terrain right in the middle of the board and the rest of the army moves up to set up good shooting positions for next turn.

Turn 2: Minions
I upkeep all my spells. Looking at the board state I don’t think that I can get any real work done here so I back off a little and try to stay in places where I’m not going to get shot too much. If we were playing on the clock (which we aren’t) this would be useful to save me a bit of time. In the end I don’t actually make a single attack, which has the odd side effect of denying Alexia any souls to make Thralls which I think were planned for scoring flags next turn.

Turn 2: Khador
Vlad casts Signs and Portents and walks back a bit to make sure I can’t get any janky assassination runs on him. The Gun Carriage attacks the Totem Hunter (eating a Lug counter charge / return in the process) and rolls the hard 10 to flatten him. I’m sure the Predator wasn’t this easy to deal with in the films. It also repositions to contest the right zone. Everyone else pumps bullets into my infantry, which really thins out the Boomhowlers in particular. Joe scores the left zones and score my flag; 1 – 1.

Turn 3: Minions
I think that I can get some good work done on the scenario here. Jaga Jaga casts Sign and Portents then Rages Lug; I was thinking of doing it with the Wrastler but wanted to have him available for a follow-up attack if needed. Lug wrecks the Gun Carriage with a couple of attacks to spare, though I was annoyed that he couldn’t headbutt the battle engine since I almost never manage to trigger the chain attack. Orin Stealths himself and strolls to my flag. The surviving Boomhowlers shuffle around to contest things again. One Swamp Horror gets Ghost Walk from the Soul Slave and goes on a highly amusing rampage through the central Winter Guard unit, clearing the zone and pulling the first few victims out of range for Alexia’s soul collection (she gets filled up anyway though). I looked at ways to get Brine onto the Marauder but I think that without Rage he just doesn’t have the hitting power to actually do anything useful; in the end I decide to keep both Rorsh and Brine safely behind their cloud. I score the right and central zones plus my flag; 4 – 1 to me.

Turn 3: Khador
Vlad loads up the Grolar, then shuffles around a bit before using his Feat and casting Signs and Portents. The Grolar casually saunters through the forest and smites Lug and a Valkyrie, then nearly drops Brun too. The Marauder clears the Trollblood to clear the left zone, then massed shooting from the rest of the list wipes out all the rest apart from Boomhowler himself as well as dropping the Swamp Horror. Alexia creates three Thrall Warriors; one runs to my flag to contest, one runs to Joe’s flag to score it and the last one Toughs a Valkyrie. The mortars shell Orin who survives with a couple of boxes left. Joe scores for the flag and left zone; 4 – 3 to me.

Turn 4: Minions
Jaga Jaga puts Signs and Portents back up (I love that spell!) and casts Rage on the Wrastler; the big chap wrecks the Grolar with plenty of attacks to spare. The Valkyrie stands up and removes the Thrall that just attacked her, Brun walks through the forest and kills another Thrall as well as making good headway into the infantry hanging around that side of the board. Rorsh annoyingly fails to kill the last Thrall with Diversionary tactics so Boomhowler has to do the job instead. The second Swamp Horror repeats the antics of the first, clearing the zone thanks to Ghost Walk cast from the Soul Slave and also helpfully killing a Field Gun by dragging it clear of Take Up range. Brine rolls terribly even with the help of Signs and Portents and ends up doing not much more than eating a couple of Winter Guard and contesting the zone. I again score the right and central zones plus my flag; 7 – 3 to me.

Turn 4: Khador
Vlad puts two Focus on the Marauder then casts Signs and Portents. After measuring where the Signs and Portents aura needed to be, while also not allowing me to somehow kill Vlad, he walks left to hide more heroically behind the house. The Winter Guard on the right make short work of Brun, then more shooting plus a fresh batch of Thrall Warriors put paid to the second Swamp Horror. The Marauder goes to sort out Brine but I get a super lucky critical knock down on the Retaliatory Strike and the remaining shooting on that side isn’t enough to finish the big pig. Joe noted afterwards that he would have been better served to just go for the push from the Marauder to ensure that the zone was clear, then worry about whether Brine could be shot to death or not from the safety of an extra scenario point. Somewhere in here, optimistic shelling from the mortars gets Orin. Joe does score his own flag though, bringing us to 7 – 4 in my favour.

Turn 5: Minions
I start to look at ways to leverage my unexpected advantage in having a heavy Warbeast available on the left when Joe points out that I only need to score two points to win the game. Rorsh saunters casually to my flag and stand on the remains of Orin. The last Valkyrie runs over to the WinterGuard who is contesting my zone and then Jaga Jaga moves across to kill both of them with her Feat. Survival of the fittest, baby. The Wrastler runs to contest Joe’s flag. Minions win on scenario by 9 – 4, though it seems that I forgot to take a photo of the (admittedly not very different) board state.

As ever, thanks to Joe for a fun game and for talking through options at various times. As is probably obvious from these battle reports, he has significantly more experience (and time to play) than I do so I try to learn as much as I can from him; I assume that he goes easy on me by trying lists he rarely uses. For example, I probably wouldn’t have noticed how close I was to a scenario victory until Joe mentioned it. Things I learned:

• Always be aware of what you need to do to win. If you can be sure to get the needed scenario points it is fine not to leave your pieces safe because the game will be over before they can get killed.
• The Totem Hunter got killed again without achieving anything of note apart from wasting some of my Fury. Perhaps I should be generous this time and state that it forced the Gun Carriage to commit to killing it which started a piece trade somewhat in my favour (though I was trading Swamp Horrors for Winter Guard in the centre so maybe I shouldn’t be so pleased with myself). I wonder if I should think about replacing the Totem Hunter with a utility solo instead. Any suggestions that could work well?
• I need to find a way to scalpel out solos hiding in the back. There was no way that I was going to trouble Alexia or the Kovnik with this list and that let them do their thing with impunity. Ironically after having little success with Hutchuk in my Dr Arkadius list I think that he could actually have been quite handy here. In the past I’ve used Jaga Jaga’s Feat plus Ghost Walk to deal with troublesome solos but that would not have been an option here as she would need to sit in the middle of the zone getting shot at by everything available.

Warmachine / Hordes battle report: Minions vs Khador (75 points); 03Mar2019

Following on from the game against Colin, I got the chance to face Paul’s Khador. I think I’ve never played a Khador force in either Mk2 or Mk3 so I was really interested to see what they did.

Spread The Net (scenario 3) vs Paul’s Khador

https://conflictchamber.com/?cb201b_-0PjP4cjNjNjWbM7y7F4njD7g

Minion Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Will Work for Food

[Jaga-Jaga 1] Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27]
– Blackhide Wrastler [16]
– Swamp Horror [15]
– Swamp Horror [15]
– Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)]
Brun Cragback [16]
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor [0(5)]
Rorsh [15]
Totem Hunter [0(6)]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (max) [17]

No change to my list from the last few times. Once again, the Troll warbeasts are Swamp Horrors and Lanyssa is Orin.

https://conflictchamber.com/?c3201b76kWkWkUjy8t8y87fS8e7S7V

Khador Army – 74 / 75 points

[Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28]
– Juggernaut [13]
– Juggernaut [13]
– Spriggan [17]
Kapitan Sofya Skirova [5]
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [4]
Yuri the Axe [6]
Battle Mechaniks (max) [5]
Black Dragons (max) [17]
Widowmaker Scouts [8]
Winter Guard Infantry (max) [10]
– Winter Guard Rocketeer (2) [4]

Paul mentioned that this was intentionally an army of things he either owns or finds interesting. It’s not in Theme so no freebies for him (and either I’ve made a mistake with my notes or he’s also playing 1 point down). Still, there seem to be quite a lot of Khadorans facing me.

Paul wins the roll off and again makes me move first which is totally fine with me. I put Brun and Lug on the left hoping that Brun could camp on the flag while Lug abused the forest to threaten Pathfinder charges at whatever ended up on the other side. The Totem Hunter selects Yuri as his Prey, mainly on the grounds that with his bigger threat range he’d be able to drop one of the larger threats to him that Paul was fielding (apart from the Warjacks and Vlad himself, of course).

Turn 1: Minions
My whole list runs forward as fast as their feet, hooves or tentacles will carry them. Brun casts Stonehold, Jaga Jaga casts Battle Host on herself and Grave Wind on the Totem Hunter. The Soul Slave puts Ghost Walk on the Boomhowlers so that they can clear the rough terrain.

Turn 1: Khador
Everything runs forward, staying out of my threat ranges apart from a couple of Black Dragons on the right. Kovnik Joe tells the Winter Guard to be Tough and Vlad casts nothing.

Turn 2: Minions
I Upkeep all my spells. Brun saunters onto the flag. Jaga Jaga casts Signs and Portents and moves forward to cover where the Totem Hunter is about to go. He goes through the rough terrain, shanks a Winter Guard and then Sprints back to hide in the rough ground again. Rorsh caps a couple of Black Dragons and the Valkyries all make sure that they’re in the centre zone.

Turn 2: Khador
Paul realises that I’ve put both Swamp Horrors and Lug in range of his Warjacks if he Feats, so Vlad allocates 2 Focus to each of the Warjacks on the right. The Winter Guard move forward and those close enough to the Totem Hunter put a big CRA into him and leave him on a single box. The Rocketeers shoot the nearer Swamp Horror for some impressive damage and the Widowmakers gun down a couple of Boomhowlers. Vlad Feats and camps the rest of his Focus. The Spriggan goes into kill one Swamp Horror and the Juggernaut gets the other. Ouch. The left Juggernaut goes into Lug and leaves him on a few boxes. I score the right zone and Paul scores his flag; 1 – 1.

Turn 3: Minions
Jaga Jaga and Brun upkeep all their spells (I’m not sure if that was the right move for Brun since the only things likely to attack him were the Juggernaut and the Widowmakers). The Totem Hunter charges into Yuri and one-shots him to proclaim himself King of the Woods then Sprints off to engage the Widowmakers. The Soul Slave casts Ghost Walk on the Boomhowlers who kill a few Winter Guard. Then Jaga Jaga casts Signs and Portents and Feats, using only a single Boomhowler to kill Kovnik Joe. The Valkyries chip some boxes off the Spriggan, then the Wrastler Rages itself and kills it off. Sadly it can’t get the Juggernaut too; this is not helped by missing a bite even under Signs and Portents. Brun heals Lug and opts to stay on the flag; Lug maxes out on Fury and leaves the Juggernaut on two boxes; one each for Cortex and right arm… oh dear. Orin misses a Chain Lightning into the Black Dragons so Rorsh shoots a couple of them. I send Brine in for entertainment and he Overtakes through a few more. The store is closing and we’re out of time. I’m pretty sure I lose this on Assassination (or scenario if I want my defeat to last longer) as I’ll be out of things to hurt the Warjacks once the Juggernauts kill the Wrastler and Lug. Minions lose by Assassination (probably).

It was really nice to play Paul again after such a long time and we had a really fun game. I made a lot of mistakes though. Overall, I think that the game was very playable but perhaps I need to make sure that a list pair has an answer for anything packing very heavy armour.

• The most important was giving him a chance to take out three Warbeasts on Feat turn. I should have either only offered up one and make him spend his Feat for it, or use the Boomhowlers as a screen in front of my Battlegroup.
• On the left, once Lug and the Juggernaut were engaged I should have used Lug’s Chain Attack to throw the Juggernaut out of Vlad’s control as that would have given me more time to score that flag. Alternatively, I should have abandoned the idea of scoring the flag that turn and charged Brun into the Juggernaut as well.
• After I lost the Swamp Horrors, I should have spent Jaga Jaga’s last two Fury of turn 3 to put Rage on the Wrastler. It was clear that I would need to fill the Wrastler up on Fury if I was going to have any chance to clear those Warjacks so I wouldn’t have been able to transfer anything anyway. Two extra attacks might have made the difference.
• I should have continued to keep Brine in the right zone since he was the one that was scoring it. On the other hand, perhaps denying Paul the flag was at least as effective (I could possibly have eaten Sofia too if we had the time).