Retribution vs Khador, 35pts MK2

eSorcha Winterguard 35pt MK2 list:

Khador Winterguard eSorcha

As you can see in the pic, 2 Mortars, Beast 09, eSorcha, Widowmakers, Yuri the Axe + Henchmen, and the whole shebang of Winterguard. Basic Strategy here was to support the Winterguard and Beast 09 as they moved towards the enemy to get the caster kill. Manhunters running up through the forest, Mortars and Widowmakers taking care of enemy infantry, while eSorcha gives out buffs and support.

Advance of the poor bloody infantry

First turn movement - and here I can mention the Retribution army I was fighting against. Toby took along Adeptis Rahn, a battlemage Warcaster, with a unit of Battlemages, 2 Hydra heavy Warjacks, a Mage Hunter Assassin, a House Shyeel Magister, a Ghost Sniper and a unit of Housegaurd Riflemen. My movement in the first turn was pretty simple - Winterguard surged forward with Desperate Pace, Tough, Fearless and Iron Flesh stacked on them. Fired a few rockets that did nothing. Manhunters advanced through the forest, and Widowmakers took over the trenches. The Mortars advanced to get more range on the battlefield.

Toby advanced forward on his turn, and tried to shoot my Widowmakers with his riflemen. Pfft, RAT5 trying to hit DEF20. (By the way, the Riflemen spent the entire game trying to kill the Widowmakers, not touching even one of them but the Widowmakers and the Mortars killed almost the whole unit.)

Spread out! Although I probably didnt have to, it took up much more table space.

Turn 3 for me - I charged a Hydra with Beast 09 with Boundless Charge, and was totally out of range. Feeling vulnerable now, I scattered forward the Winterguard who were out of range with their Blunderbusses but were in range of the Rocketeers! Unfortunately, what I hadnt taken into account was that all Battlemages are immune to Blast Damage. I ended up firing them into the ARM18 Hydras, and doing a few boxes of damage to its force field. The Widowmakers and the Mortar take their toll on the riflemen, one of the Mortars deviated off to splat the Ghost Sniper perfectly. I ran all three Manhunters, one of them into combat with the Mage Hunter Assassin, one into combat with the Magister, and one next to Beast 09.

Endgame - and the Winterguard have Adeptis Rahn in their sights.

Toby responded, rather impotently as it turns out, and tried to Force Blast or whatever the Battlemages do after moving them forward as a screen for the Hydras. ARM20 on Beast 09 and the DEF18 Winterguard were impossible to hit or damage and they were not hurt. The Riflemen advanced again, and still failed to hit with any attacks. The Hydras and Rahn used their range attacks to damage Beast 09, and Rahn FORCEHAMMERED Beast away, knocking him down and out of melee with the Battlemages (he had advanced after being damaged by a Hydra).

On my turn, I moved forward Beast after shaking off KD, and Threshered the Battlemages. This then caused them to flee, and the free-strikes killed another 2, leaving one guy left. The my Manhunter killed the MHA, Yuri killed the Magister, and the third Manhuntress charged Rahn, taking off 15 of his 16 health! Sorcha then activated, and popped her feat (which I should have done before the MH charge, but oh well) and the Winterguard advanced and CRA away - almost killing both Hydras. I had a brain fart and didnt concentrate my fire, but I took out most of their systems on both of them so it was fine. Rahn decided to go all for nothing, and charged Beast 09, doing no damage but Forcehammering him into my non-tough WG (I had used the boost attack roll speech instead - when I didnt need to) and killing a few. The Hydras advanced, killing one Winterguard and the other dying to a freestrike from the Manhuntress. The remaining Winterguard (10 of them that were in range) did an aimed CRA with boost to hit and a reroll, and landed a POW22 hit on Rahn, killing him.

Which was game.

MVP: The Manhuntress who almost killed Rahn then destroyed a Hydra with a free strike did very well, but the Widowmakers singlehandedly taking out a 10 PC unit with a bit of support from the Mortars did well too. The Winterguard are extremely effective now, hard to hit, hard to kill (tough) and have extreme amounts of firepower which is very accurate - if short ranged. Oh, if only Khador had access to Snipe.....

This is a great flexible army, with minimal Warcaster risk since it is the units and Jack that does most of the work. If worst came to worst, eSorcha could get in there herself, but this is not generally needed I think. The massive group of Winterguard have a huge footprint, and can control the board with just their presence. Plus the threat range 20" rocketeers. Battlemages are a good counter to this type of army however, with the main anti-infantry threats being Mortars and Rockets, however thats what Beast 09 with Thresher is for!! Beast is still a Beast, and plays almost exactly the same as he did in MK1, for a neglible increae in cost.

Manhunters and Widowmakers compliment the Winterguard immensely, as these provide the Sniper and pure melee beatdown support that covers up the Winterguards weaknesses.