35pt Theme Army: Old Witch vs Kaya the Wildborne

Just had a New Years game with my wife - using my 35pt Theme lists against a list I prepared for her using the MK2 rules.

I used this Old Witch Army while Emma used this Kaya army:

Kaya1
>Feral Warpwolf
>Feral Warpwolf
>Argus
>Argus
>Gorax
>Woldwyrd
Wolves of Orboros (full unit)


Deployment:

Winning the roll I set up first - IFP in the trench, Widows out front, and the Behemoth on the flank.

Emmas Deployment - a swarm of beasts in front of Kaya and the Wolves off to the flank.

Turn 1:

Pretty standard advance - Shield Wall + Murder of Crows, everyone else just walks forward.

Emmas advance - Im worried about the Woldwyrd with Hunter at this point :S

Turn 2:

My Widowmakers take hits, while everyone else just advances forward - Bombards blazing.

My Kossites have messed with Emmas plans - doing some damage to Kaya and being a pain in the butt.

Turn 3:

I advance the IFP up further, staying out of charge range, while firing the Bombards to cover the advance. I make a mistake with Scrappy, and waste 3 Focus :(

Emma finishes off the Kossites - the leader who made a shot at 9 to hit, 7 to kill the Gorax. Her Wolves square off vs the IFP.

Turn 4:

I protect the IFP with a Murder of Crows, while the Behemoth takes fire from the Woldwyrd. I forget to deploy my max unit of Kossites. Emma advances the Wolves to protect her other models.

Turn 5: Final Turn

The IFP charge, killing a few of the Wolves, and Defensive Formation back to safety. Behemoth misses with the majority of his Bombards. Scrapjack charges and Unseen Paths back to safety. I forget about Old Witchs safety. She pops her feat, and I assume im safe. Emma advances an Argus, and successfully Paralyses Old Witch. The Woldwyrd shoots her, doing some damage. Kaya Spirit Doors in and slams Old Witch in the face, killing her.

Conclusion:

Well, not a great start for my 35 point lists, a loss with OW against the forces of the Circle of Orboros. Still, the Old Witch was a caster I have been doubting about her effectiveness. While playing I realised what it is that is unimpressive about her. She has no real talents for helping out a Khador army. She does give some extra flexibility to ranged Warjacks by shooting through Forests and Clouds, but thats about it. Everything else, is either not very relevant for Khadoran troops (like Pathfinder and Camo, this just isnt as good as, say Battle Lust) or something others have as well - Iron Flesh. Her feat wasnt very effective, I rolled multiple POW14s on Emmas beasts and they werent signifacant. Especially since she had the option of walking out of OW's control range and it doing nothing.

Also - I forgot to bring in my next unit of Kossites at the appropriate time. They may have made a difference... I think I might have to swap some things out - the full unit of Kossites is unwieldy and annoying to use. I think its actually too big. If I reduce it to another minimum unit of Kossites I would hopefully be able to get a few extra points for some other options. I think I will need to swap some stuff around.

35pt Old Witch Army Mk2:

Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador

>Behemoth

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

>Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Harlan Versh

Manhunter

Manhunter

Hopefully with this configuration, dropping to the min unit of IFP and Kossites, losing the Wardog, and adding in two Manhunters and Versh for some anti-magic. This will probably suit Old Witchs style of Guerilla warfare. The large units just did not work for her.

Special Guest Conclusion!!

So I thought during this game that I was definitely going to get my arse kicked by Toshi especially when he said it was going to be over in his next move at move 4. Thankfully my argus was just in range for an assassination run with Kaya as the old witch had been moved too far forward. So after doppler barking to reduce the old witch's defense to 7 I spirit doored in Kaya, hit the old witch and popped Kaya's feat, had hitting the old witch not sufficiently reduced her health I intended on spirit dooring in one of the warpwolves to finish the job. To conclude I totally kicked Toshi's butt in our first game of the year! :D

Most common model choices for me...

So looking back on my theme lists, i can see that there are a few models that i heavily favor. Just as an intellectual exercise, im going to figure out what these are:

Wardog x 9
Beast-09 x 5

Juggernaut x 5

Behemoth x 3
Drago x 3
Destroyer x 2
Kodiak
Berzerker

Winter Guard Mortar Crew x 12
Manhunter x 8
Doom Reavers x 5

Widowmakers x 4

Ogrun Bokur x 3

Great Bears of Gallowswood x 3

Greylord Ternion x 3

Koldun Lord x 3

Iron Fang Pikemen x 2

>Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard x 2

Winter Guard Field Gun Crew x 2

Man-o-war Shocktroopers x 2

Battle Mechaniks x 2

Kossite Woodsmen x 2

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios x 2

Winter Guard Infantry

>3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer

>Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Kayazy Assassins

>Kayazy Assassin Underboss
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Iron Fang Uhlans

Man-o-war Demolition Corps

Kovnik Markov
Yuri the Axe

So - looks like im in love with Beast 09 - and at 1 point, the Wardog makes a lot of my lists. Im not really using anything other than the battlebox Jacks and the characters, except for a Zerker and a Kodiak in a list. Im also besotted with Mortars, but hey, what true son of the motherland isnt? Manhunters and Doomreavers are next, probably because everyone needs some hardhitting Weaponmasters to really bulk out a list. The Widowmakers feature regularly, as dedicated troop killers they combine with Weaponmasters for a good combined arms strategem. The Ogrun Bokur is a must for defence with certain casters, and the Great Bears are just a brutal unit that can tango with elite troops or Warjacks/Beasts with equal ease. Im not using many units, and even though Yuri is awesome I cant seem to fit him in many lists.

Now - most importantly - what models am i not using??

Ill see if i can figure them out - and why I might not be using them for my armies:

Decimator - well, the rules havent been properly released for him yet, and i dont own one. So im going to give this one a "?" until i can get a feel for it. Personally, i dont find him that appealling. Beat Back on a 10" RNG gun is lame. Maybe if the gun was 12"? Id like it more.

Devastator - this guy is an enigma. I think its a really cool concept, probably worth the points, but it just doesnt have a place in my lists. I have a feeling that i dont need an ARM25 jack. I have lots of ARM20 jacks. They are pretty damn tough anyway. Rain of Death is nice, if i didnt have Beast 09 and Thresher. And apart from ARM25 and RoD theres nothing else interesting about the Devastator. Maybe Karchev could use him, but then he'd RoD and get killed the next turn.

Marauder - comboslam is really cool, and he was made cheaper in MK2. When I compare it to the sheer ruggedness and damage potential of a Juggernaut, i cant help feeling jipped. Maybe in my Butcher lists i could swap it out with one Juggernaut, collateral damage with extra damage dice would be awesome. Assuming that works....

Spriggan - Ive always liked the look and feel of this model, but i dont like the price and relative vulnerability of the Spriggan. It has a nice Reach weapon, but Beasts is nicer. It can shoot grenades, that I will rarely do. Probably the best synergy the Spriggan has is with Irusk, but I just prefer bringing Beast 09 over the Spriggan if im only going to be using one Jack. And Irusk with 2 jacks defeats the purpose of Superiority, his bond and Fire for Effect - which would only be useful if I lost my Mortar crews. (Of course, positioned correctly, i could use Superiority on 2 Warjacks a turn, but this is going pretty overboard.)

Ill go into Solos and Infantry another time, but this has given me something to think about.

35pt Themes: Butcher1/Butcher2

The Butcher is a force of nature. Practically unstoppable, and incredibly lethal to anyone within 10" of him. He can generally single-handedly take down any target in the game, bar terrible rolls. With high ARM, high P+S and weaponmaster he is basically a Jack in himself. Not quite like Karchev, but pretty close.

Epic Butcher loses what little control he had as normal Butcher, and now becomes a maelstrom of destruction. He buffs his Warjacks nicely though, giving free charges, and bonus MAT and SPD. This is pretty much his strength though, with little else in the way of unit or Warjack buffs except for Ravager. Which would be pretty good with Beast 09 (Berzerk + Beasts Imprint with Reach... oh yeah. Goodbye multi-wound infantry.)

Things to think about with Butcher:

1) Awesome feat. Makes some ordinarily not so good stuff really quite excellent. Assault Kommandos have 3 attacks each, and a unit of 10 of them all rolling Weaponmaster damage with that is pretty impressive. However, its always good to make decent things better - Doom Reavers on the charge are rolling 5d6!!

2) Mostly benefits Warjacks, with Full Throttle (his signature spell it seems). Fury would be good on a unit, or himself. Same with Iron Flesh.

3) Medium based makes him somewhat vulnerable. Could be a good idea to hide him behind something...

Things to think about with Epic Butcher:

1) Dont stand your units close to him! Or your Jacks. In fact, stay the hell away from him. As few models as possible close to him is a good idea, unless they are enemy models.

2) Conferred Rage is good for models that dont charge for free already. Juggernauts look like a great candidate!!

3) Spells are lackluster. Fury on himself gets the job done that much sweeter. However, he does need to make rage tokens for his feat. So maybe some Widowmakers would make that easier...

Butcher1 35pt Army:

The Butcher of Khardov

>Beast-09

>Juggernaut

>Juggernaut

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 5 Grunts)

>Kayazy Assassin Underboss

Ogrun Bokur

The plan here is to have the Butcher Full Throttle the three Jacks to get them absolutely pummeling faces, which is a lot of high POW attacks landing. Full Throttle + Beasts Imprint is potentially 4d6 to hit on a Thresher and 2 more POW19's after that. That equals 1 dead caster/lock. The Doomreavers are there for the feat turn charge, rolling crazy amounts of dice to kill things dead. Hopefully they survive the advance. The Assassins, while im not a big fan of them, are good targets for both Fury and Iron Flesh. Also they have Stealth, so could be a good distraction for the opponent to worry about. The Bokur simply Shield Guards Butcher so he doesnt get owned by Eiryss etc.

Butcher2 35pt Army:

Kommander Orsus Zaktavir

>Beast-09

>Juggernaut

>Juggernaut

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Manhunter

Manhunter

Yuri the Axe

What ive done here is get Orsus his basic strike force - the three Jacks, and then grab a bunch of elite solos/units in order to try and capitalise on the feat as much as possible. Fury is probably a good candidate for either Beast 09 or the Great Bears, Ravager on either Orsus or Yuri the Axe, and then just run and try and kill as much stuff as possible!! And hope it works!

35pt Themes: Irusk1/Irusk2

Irusk is the military genius responsible for some of the biggest events in Warmachine so far. His stats and abilities reflect this, in both his forms. Even with MK2, hes still an effective infantrymachine caster. However, his spell, Superiority, is probably the best jack spell in the game. (Grants Steady, +2 MAT and SPD) So he definitely wants at least one Warjack to make use of this.

Epic Irusk takes this theme and pushes it further - he now makes all troops within 10" of him Tough. This is just great, especially with already difficult to kill Khador troops. Along with Iron Flesh, he can make IFP incredibly awesome. DEF16/ARM18 and Tough is going to be very difficult to take down. Winterguard are similar - you can bring Joe and as long as you have the Winterguard close enough the entire unit can remain Tough and get boosted to hit attack rolls all game long! While they are still all DEF17 from Bob and Weave to boot.

Things to think about with normal Irusk:

1) He loves one Warjack. Pick a good one to make the most of +MAT and SPD!

2) His feat is super effective when combined with a lot of Infantry models. Max them out if you can, with at least one giant unit.

3) He benefits from support, and bodyguards since his own stats arent high. Bring Mortars and Wardogs!

Things to think about with Epic Irusk:

1) Fire for Effect is awesome for Mortars. Take two!

2) He has an almost-superiority for free, and permanent! Take a big, personal jack.

3) Tough and Martial Discipline is great for meat shields with dangerous models behind them. Think MoW with Doomreavers hiding behind them. Or IFP with 2 Manhunters and Yuri the Axe waiting to charge through them...

Irusk1 35pt List:

Kommandant Irusk

>Beast-09

>War dog

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard

Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Here what ive done is given Irusk Beast 09 for Superiority, making him a ridiculous MAT9 and SPD6 - with no way of slowing him down with slams or headbutts. Beast is my main caster killer - with backups in the form of the Great Bears, Doom Reavers and maybe the pikemen if they survive. When Irusk pops his feat, it will make the Pikemen, Great Bears and Doomreavers super accurate on the charge turn, and hopefully tough enough to survive the retaliation. Unfortunately Tough no longer stacks with his feat, but the Great Bears get 4+ Tough now instead. The Mortars and field guns are there for fire support - Mortars are always good for clearing infantry and the Field gun is long range and a nice crit!

Irusk2 35pt List:

Supreme Kommandant Irusk

>Kodiak

>War dog

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Manhunter

Manhunter

The idea here was an impenetrable wall - Shocktroopers with Tough and maybe Tactical Supremacy - advancing in Shield Wall, with a scary force of Doomreavers and 2 Manhunters waiting behind them, while the 2 Mortars under Fire for effect bomb the living bejeezus out of the rest of the enemy army. The Kodiak is Irusks go-to Jack, very versatile for its point cost. Possibly I could add Beast 09 instead of the Kodiak by dropping a Mortar, or a Manhunter+Dog. But we will see. The Kodiak should be able to perform in this list, especially with extra DEF and Steady. On a turn they can charge, the big unit of Shocktroopers would get Battle Lust and hopefully hit, rolling 14+4d6 for damage. The kill condition here is going to rely on either Doom Reavers, Manhunters, or the Kodiak to connect with the enemy caster, while the elements of the Shocktroopers and Mortar crew keep them safe.

35pt Themes: Zerkova

Zerkova is an interesting character - the only true magic orientated Khadoran caster, she is terrible in melee, but has to be close to the front lines for all her spells to be of the most effect. To make matters worse, she is reeeally squishy, 15/15 being rather easy to kill for most heavy jacks with boosts. Even deviated AOEs can hurt her badly.

However, her spell list combined with Arcane Artifacts are quite versatile, powerful and interesting. Highlights are, of course, Watcher, Twister, Razor Wind and Banishing Ward. Watcher wants you to take at least one, if not two powerful Warjacks to make the most of it. You would generally want one Melee bodyguard, and one Ranged or Melee killer. This way you have the most options available to you. A regular Juggernaut or Beast would be good for the bodyguard, and a Destroyer or Decimator would be good for the killer. Banishing Ward can make a unit very good vs certain army builds, like a Cryx magic assassination army. Also prevents stuff like Crippling Grasp ruining your day. I always feel the lack of Iron Flesh really doesnt help Zerkova though.

Twister is cool, Zerkova can produce 4 3" AOEs from between 11.5" - 14.5" away, which scatter if you miss the initial attacks. Although they are low power, they can interrupt enemy movement and attacks. Razor Wind is her staple, and that plus her artifacts should be her main killing attack.

Things to think about with Zerkova:

1) Need good Watcher jacks!

2) Needs a kill condition - she may not be able to perform the kill herself, so needs some backups to get the job done for her.

3) Is not very good with large units, several smaller units is probably a good idea. She requires a toolbox/versatile army.

Zerkova 35pt Army:

Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova

>Destroyer

>Juggernaut

>War dog

Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Great Bears of Gallowswood

Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Koldun Lord

Manhunter

Manhunter

Basically Ive got some general purpose Jacks to take advantage of Watcher, while bringing along some support in the way of Mortars, Greylords and Mechaniks. My alternate kill conditions (if Zerkova or her Jacks cant get to the enemy) is the Great Bears (with Banishing Ward on them for protection against magic) and the two Manhunters. The Widowmakers job is to harass enemy troops, and the Koldun Lord follows Zerkova and boosts the Jacks with focus, to lessen the load on the caster.

Zerkova advances behind the Jacks, protected by clouds, Twisters and the Wardog, while the support lobs bombs overhead while advancing, and the Great Bears + Manhunters attempt to flank and draw a bead on either enemy Warjacks/Beasts or their caster.

35pt Themes: Old Witch

The Old Witch was one of the most flavourful and interesting Khadoran caster. Through MK2, her feat and her signature spell, Unseen Path, were toned down. This basically put her at the bottom of the pile of useful casters, as without these two abilities she has a very lackluster game.

Things that remain powerful in her spell/ability list are Augury, giving Khador jacks the equivalent of Hunter for ranged and melee attacks (good for long range jacks, like Behemoth, Destroyer, and possibly Decimator.) and Murder of Crows (placing that big a template is always good, especially if the enemy has no way around it!)

Things to think about with Old Witch:

1) Needs ranged jacks to properly take advantage of Augury - Behemoth is the first consideration.

2) Has Iron Flesh - possibly the best Khador defense spell. So a nice big unit of infantry is a good idea, either IFP or Assault Kommandos. Winterguard are another option.

3) The only caster with an arc node - good at playing Guerilla Warfare with high threat range spells. Other Guerilla units are a bonus.

Old Witch 35pt list:

Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador

>Scrapjack
>Behemoth

>War dog

Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

What ive done here is add the Behemoth for some decent ranged threat, against both infantry and heavies, the Wardog to keep OW safe, a maxed out unit of IFP - these will be my primary force, with the UA, IF and shield wall it should keep them on high DEF and ARM and survivable.

The Widowmakers and Kossites are the Guerilla warfare part of the army, and will serve a harrassment and support killing role. The Kossites will attempt to get behind the enemy and force them to protect artillery/choir etc. The Widowmakers do what they do best, and sniper the enemy.

35pt Themes: Karchev

Karchev is a powerhouse. He is the epitome of the Jack Caster - he is IN a Jack! His feat is lackluster, but one of his spells is better than most other Casters feats! Personally, I find Karchev a lot of fun. His ability to Tow and then Powerslide his Warjacks into position is unique in that you can practically cover the entire board by the time youve completed the manouver, and also almost guarantee the alpha-strike.

Sidenote: Alpha-strike. This is a military term (see Wikipedia) which means a large air attack, ie from an Aircraft carrier. I use it to mean the first decisive strike made by one side in Warmachine against the enemy player. It doesnt mean the first strike, because, well, I could pop a Bile Thrall with a lucky Bombard deviation. Thats not exactly decisive. Having 3 Warjacks Trample your entire infantry line and then buy attacks on your Warcaster however, is.

Things to remember about Karchev:

1) Hes a Jack Caster. I like to bring the biggest, baddest Jacks to make full use of this part of Karchevs Character.

2) Bring Mechaniks. They are the only way Karchev can heal. And sometimes, you reeeally need to heal. Also they can repair any broken Warjacks during the fight as well.

3) Troops that dont act on their own are not useful for Karchev. He has absolutely no way to buff Troops (except for obvious things like Knockdowns) so most units are a waste of time with Big K. Hes also very fast. So leave the slow guys behind. (Im looking at you, MoW STs!)

Karchev 35pt List:

Karchev the Terrible

>Beast-09

>Behemoth

>Drago

>War dog

Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Koldun Lord

Like I mentioned earlier - the biggest and baddest. The combination of the four character jacks in Khador is brutal. (Yes, I counted Karchev as a character jack just then.) With the cost of 3 focus for Unearthly Rage, you get a hell of a lot of high MAT, high POW attacks. With the remaining 3 Focus, you can allocate to these Jacks, you can either have extra POW19 Ice Axes, POW12 Armour Piercing fists, POW19 Sunder attacks or POW16 Executioner axes. You will almost always be in range of these attacks as well, leaving Karchev the enviable position of being able to pick and choose exactly where to catapult these deadly machines during battle. The mechaniks can heal, and they normally hide at the back till they are needed. With the amount of heavy artillery you have, the enemy will very rarely devote energy to the support troops (gorman, koldun, mechaniks) until at least some of the threat has dissipated.

Karchev is like a lightsaber. Gets exactly where he wants to go with extreme precision, and then proceeds to totally obliterate whatever is there.

I almost forgot to mention - one of the main reasons to bring the Behemoth is that he keeps the aiming bonus while being Towed by Karchev. This means most turns you can allocate 3 focus to the Bombards, 1 to upkeep Tow, and then run Karchev all over the damn place while your Behemoth is moving 12" a turn, firing 14" RNG boosted RAT5 Bombards. Oh hell yeah. This is what you do while waiting for them to give you a Powerslide on their caster.

35pt Themes: Vlad1/Vlad2

Vlad is one of my favourite casters, in his MK1 version he was almost considered cheap, by all those non-patriotic Khadorans anyway!

.. ok maybe he was a little too good.

Anyway, both forms of Vlad took a small beating in the "awesomeness" department, but he is still one of the best casters in Khador!

Things to think about with Normal Vlad:

1) The feat just screams "JACKS!". SPD8 Khador jacks are just crazy, with a threat range of 11.5" without reach. This is better than pretty much any other heavy in the game, and it comes with free charges!

2) Signs and portents is an amazing army wide buff. Probably up there with the most effective in the game. Giving approximately +2 to all attack and damage rolls army wide is so good, you can take normally ineffective models and excel with them. Assault Kommandos missing? No longer! Kossite Woodsmen pinging off medium armour? Not with S+P!

3) Blood of Kings. The bane of many an army, this makes Vlad practically untouchable. Camping focus, it turns him into a DEF18 ARM22 high HP monster. In fact, theres only a few things that can reliably kill him like this. This lowers the need for defensive models, like the Wardog.

Things to think about with Epic Vlad:

1) His feat is still very important - although no longer the most important thing about him. You want some reeeeally good targets for the feat, and you want them to live to be able to use it. Uhlans, Manhunters, Demo Corp are all fantastic.

2) Without Blood of Kings he is much more at risk of getting assassinated. Some defensive measures probably wouldnt go amiss.

3) Not really a focus on Jacks. Drago would be ok, and maaaybe one other, but probably not. Might as well keep the focus on the troops.

Vlad1 35pt List:

Vladimir, The Dark Prince

>Behemoth

>Berserker

>Drago

>War dog

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Vlad does bring his Wardog, giving him some very nice defensive options. I like doing this for 2 reasons - I can cast S+P instead of BoK and still be DEF17 in melee and no back arc, and with BoK hes DEF20 in melee!! Behemoth, Zerker and Drago make a good jack combo, all of them charging 11" on the feat turn, and each one of them capable (with some S+P help, and maybe a little focus) of ripping apart a heavy Warjack/Warbeast. Hell, the Behemoth can probably do two a turn! It may be worth at a later stage dropping the Wardog and the Zerker for a Juggernaut, but ill have to see how it goes. The Doomreavers can create the unstoppable wall - Vlad Windwall surrounded by Doomreavers means no magic and no ranged attacks can hit any of them. Just be careful of those deviations... The Mortars are there for "persuasion" purposes - to make the enemy come to you instead of the other way around. Also, good crowd control with S+P (about POW10 blast damage with 2 dice).

Vlad2 35pt List:

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion

>Drago

>War dog

Iron Fang Uhlans (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Man-o-war Demolition Corps (Leader and 4 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Kovnik Markov

Manhunter

Manhunter

Epic Vlad likes his powerful trooper models. Ive maxed out the Uhlans and Demo Corp to give me the largest amount of feat targets as possible. 5 Uhlans, 5 Demo Corps and the 2 Manhunters are my possible options, and it is unlikely that I will lose all of them before I want to pop my feat!! If the Uhlans get into a good position, they have an insane threat range - through small based models as well - and +3 to MAT and STR gives them a powerful blow at the end of it. My end goal would be to get the Uhlans into the right position for a feat, charge and caster kill. If this fails for whatever reason, or the Uhlans dont make it, the Demo Corp get the feat and try to do the same thing. Even Demo Corp have a 12" threat range with his feat, and hit at P+S17 when they get there!!! They could even be rolling 4 dice on a hit if they use the "Weapon Master" attack. Thats an average total damage roll of 31, or 33 with Hand of Fate up. With 5 of them and Reach you could wipe out most heavies with just half the unit!

35pt Themes: Sorcha1/Sorcha2

To begin this, Ill think about a 35 pt list for both Sorcha1 and Sorcha2.

Things to think about with normal Sorcha:

1) Powerful feat - models that can abuse this will be a great help, ie models that have low Accuracy/high POW weapons. Oh, and arcing fire.

2) No real troop support spells. Only self-sufficient troops will be effective.

3) Relatively squishy (when not Windrushed), needs some kind of caster defence.

Things to think about with Epic Sorcha:

1) Excellent combination with Winterguard - a definite must.

2) Good jack bond combined with the best Khador jack in the game - pure win.

3) Relatively squishy, needs some kind of caster defence.

Sorcha1 35pt List:

Kommander Sorscha

>Destroyer

>War dog

Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Winter Guard Field Gun Crew (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Koldun Lord

Ogrun Bokur

Here we have a good mixture of long ranged combat, fast units and a nice kill condition. At an oppurtune moment Sorcha can Windrush forward, charge + feat to catch the enemy caster/lock to make them Stationary. The Koldun Lord gives the Destroyer a Focus point to boost damage, the two Mortars will be practically gauranteed to hit, Eiryss drops any Focus camping shenanigans, while the Greylords, Bokur and Wardog try to keep Sorcha safe before, during and after this.

Sorcha2 35pt List:

Forward Kommander Sorscha

>Beast-09

>War dog

Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)

Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts)

3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeer

Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Winter Guard Mortar Crew (Leader and Grunt)

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Ogrun Bokur

This is my favourite Epic Sorcha list, with the whole shebang of Winterguard. This gives you the incredible synergy of the Bob + Weave, Iron Fleshed, Tough, Greylord Clouded, rerolled CRA Winterguard blob. They also have access to Sprays, 3" AOEs and being able to boost to hit with their attacks instead of Tough. Sorcha makes them faster as well! The Mortars help with support, the Bokur + Wardog keep eSorcha alive, Eiryss takes care of any tricky kill conditions, and the Greylords toolbox - but will probably end up Blizzarding either eSorcha or the Winterguard.

Ideas for Themed Armies - without knowing any of the proper themes!

Ive been thinking about all the different casters. Each one has strengths and weaknesses (especially Old Witch and Zerkova!) but with the right army composition can be awesome!! Ill take the time to put together a 35 pt list with each caster to see if i can figure out how to make the best use from them, and then from there play them in MK2 vs Hordes and Warmachine armies and see how well they do!

Caster list to be done:

Sorcha1/Sorcha2 - Done
Vlad1/Vlad2 - Done
Irusk1/Irusk2 - Done
Butcher1/Butcher2 - Done
Old Witch - Done
Karchev the Terrible - Done
Zerkova - Done
Strahkov

Epic 3 Way!

After a few days of hard eating, drinking and sleeping over christmas, im ready to comment on these photos!!

... on second thoughts im still feeling queasy. I think ill just put captions down here.

What basically happened was a 1v1v1 Tobys Khador, Raymonds Everblight and my Khador playing "Capture the Flag". Was a lot of fun, ill probably write up our custom scenario rules later on.

Warning: Photos not in chronological order :P

Beast 09 just ripped 3 Raptors to shreds in one hit!

Raymonds Deathstalker grabbed a flag and ran all the way back to his base, being chased by Epic Butcher.

Beast 09 had just Threshered practically an entire unit of Doom Reavers. Good times!

Raymonds Everblight sneak around the place, trying to avoid the angry gaze of Epic Butcher.

A terse stand-off: Karchev + Jacks, meet Doom Reavers and Fenris.

The boys in RED!

Raymonds Strike Team - The MoW are actually Nephilim Protectors.

Karchev and the team are ready to go!

The game didnt quite end, but it was a lot of fun. Raymond almost capped his flags and called in reinforcements - Toby lost pretty much everything and Karchev was pumping his Arcane Turbine, ready to pick up his flags.

40pc Tournament Army

This is going to be the first "proper" post for a while - an epic 3 person battle we had this week.

The armies were all MK2 armies, due to the release of Hordes MK2.

I brought my 40pc eSorcha Tournament army (see below for pics and details) and my 2 opponents were Richard and 20pc of Circle of Orboros and Raymond with 20pc of Legion of Everblight.

Richard brought Baldur and a small retinue of light Warbeasts - including the buffed up Argus, Woldwatcher and Woldwyrd. He also brought in the Druids, Lord of the Pwnage, and a Sentry Stone.

Raymond brought Thagrosh - with his usual assortment of greebles - a Carnivean, a couple of Harriers, a couple of Shredders, a couple of Forsaken and a Strider Deathstalker.

I was a little worried to begin with fighting off two Warlocks with no extra points to make up for it, but I thought id give it a go anyway - I had a few tricks up my sleeve that I was waiting to pull out.

Deployment:

The armies stand ready for combat...

Our armies were placed on the field - with a couple of large rocks, some cover and three forests spread around we had a pretty even area to fight on. My Winterguard were positioned on the right of Sorcha, with Beast on the left and Mortars in the middle. Note Yuri the Axe hiding in a forest off to the left as well...

Richard had thrown his advance deployment far forward and lined up against Yuri (poor guy) while the rest of his army hunkered in a forest. One important note was the Druids are not fearless - and half of the Everblight army are Abominations!

Raymond hid most of his support units behind the large rock - safe from an early ambush of Kossites. The Deathstalker was hiding in a forest, but I wasnt too worried about it. The Carnivean was positioned to kill the Winterguard, and this was one thing I WAS worried about - Carniveans are just nasty. I wanted Beast 09 to engage and destroy it as soon as possible.

Turn 1:

The loyal Winterguard bob and weave forwards.

I advanced my Winterguard forwards, Iron Fleshing and Bob and Weaving to hit DEF17, while Kovnik Joe gave them Tough and Fearless. The Mortars advanced 4, to get in range for the rest of the game. Beast ran up the left flank, wanting to tempt the Carnivean into charge range. Yuri was hanging out in the trees.

The Hordes advance - causing Chaos in their own lines!

The enemy forces advanced, under cover of Fog of War (Thaggy) and some quick growing trees (Baldur). They spent the turn buffing up their own troops - until the Druids advanced within 3" of the Forsaken, failing their Leadership test and running off. Ha, ha! The Deathstalker advanced and popped a shot off at the Winterguard, failing to hit them as they duck and dodge all over the place. The Woldwatcher Stoneformed - getting to ARM21. /sigh.

Turn 2:

The Winterguard show their effectiveness!

The Winterguard advance forwards, and fire a concentrated volley of Blunderbuss fire - taking out the Deathstalker (even DEF17 in concealment can be shot by these Winterguard!) while remaining Tough and Fearless thanks for Joe. Beast 09 advanced slightly, trying to stay out of threat ranges. The Mortars shoot - and hit nothing. Yuri grimaces at the ARM21 Woldwatcher, and doesnt advance. The Kossites are biding their time...

Argh! Alpha Strike by the Woldwatcher and Carnivean!

On their turn, the Woldwatcher comes out of Stoneform to charge and murder Yuri the Axe. Oh well, he tried. (There goes 3 points) The Carnivean assaulted, but missed with his 10" spray against the DEF17 Winterguard. Thagrosh moves up, and fires a massive 4" AOE - called Super Rock Bomb Attack or something, and kills 3 or so Winterguard. They are really not happy with Thagrosh. A Harrier cleverly runs 14" into Beast 09, while Baldur pops a forest in front of him in an attempt to slow him down. Unfortunately for the Harrier, eSorchas bond freezes it solid.

Turn 3, or Incoming Kossites!:

Thaggy goes down to a feat and concentrated Winterguard firepower.

In come the Kossite Woodsmen! I decide to deploy 2 of my 3 units of Kossites, the 6 man groups. One comes in at the back on the left, and one in the middle on the right. eSorcha advances, and pops her feat - catching practically everything except Baldur and a few of his beasts on the far left. She then attempts to shoot the Carnivean - to no effect, and camps her remaining focus. Beast 09 activates, and even though he rolls double 1's on his damage roll, one-shots the Harrier in his way. The back Kossites kill 4 out of 6 of the Druids of Orboros - who had run away from the Forsaken in the previous turn. The front Kossites fire multiple shots at the Harrier, Forsaken and Thagrosh, but their pitiful RAT (even when aiming) means I only land 2 shots - one of those shots outright killing the Forsaken due to Sorchas feat. The Harrier survives however, and Thagrosh is untouched. Mortar fire does nothing this turn. At this point im feeling desperate - I only have Joe and the Winterguard left to activate, and eSorcha is facing attacks from a Carnivean, Thagrosh, Baldur, Lord of the Feast, Shredders, Forsaken, plus whatever else.

Joe shouts his auto-boost to hit speech - and the Winterguard let loose. Two rockets fly overhead, directly hitting Thagrosh and doing some high damage rolls (doubled with eSorchas feat) - and then the rest of the Winterguard (a good 8 or 9 of them) all get LOS and fire their Blunderbusses. Under a hail of fire, Thagrosh transfers twice and then goes down!!

Final Turns:

The Kossites advance in, and close around Baldur - who tried valiantly to take out Sorcha

In the last stages of the game, we decide to keep the Legion Warbeasts in (since we werent sure what would happen to them), class them as enemy models and the all frenzy. The Carniveans munches out on some Winterguard while the Shredders cause havoc in the backrow of the Hordes forces - killing a Forsaken, damaging Lord of the Feast, and other stuff. An Argus peels off towards the other Kossites, killing them easily, and the Druids take their revenge, almost wiping out the unit. Baldur fires an Earthspikes and knocks down Sorcha, and the Woldwatcher pummels her with an elemental blast - doing 3 damage. Lord of the Feast is unsure of what to do, and attempts to pull off a crazy chain move - and ends up killing a Harrier and thats about it. He is shot by the Winterguard next turn and finished. The Carnivean eats some more Winterguard, and Baldur attempts to kill eSorcha. Beast 09 doesnt appreciate this - and annihilates him with a few choice axe swings.

End Game:

Beast 09 delivers the killing blow, and the field is *almost* clear of enemy models. Damn Carniveans.

So - thoughts on this battle. MVP - definitely the Winterguard. This unit really shines in MK2, much better than their MK1 counterparts in terms of efficiency, damage, and cost. The Winterguard are capable of taking down Warlocks and Warcasters, Warbeasts, Units and Solos with the same amount of efficiency. DEF17 + Tough is great for survivability, and being able to boost to hit easily with Joe means an Aiming Winterguard will hit on average DEF17.

Kossites are fantastic - when taken in huge bunches. I might be able to do just as well with the two 6 man units as i did with all three - since the third unit didnt do alot, plus, maxed out units are hard to deploy :S I like them in MK2 because they are damn cheap and keep your opponent honest. I found out the hard way - they cant do squat to Warlocks or Warbeasts, but they rip apart weak units like Druids and support solos like Forsaken.

Beast 09 + Sorcha = Win. I even forgot about the Affinity, not that I ever needed it. eSorcha is good - but she is very very much a support caster. No where near the killing potential of most of Khadors other Warcasters.

Overall I love this list, but I can never take it to a Steamroller 4 tourny. Why, you may ask? There is no way in hell that I can get 12 minute turns when activating 37 Infantry models. Its just not feasible.

So - I will test Karchev out next time I do a 40pc tourny list, and this one will remain a staple 40pt list next time I need to whip one out... with perhaps a slight change. (I might drop the full unit of Kossites for some utility solos - a Bokur, War Dog, etc.)