Sunday, September 27

Night of Arena SMACKDOWN!

We had an intense night of Arena-ing last night, with many kills had by all. Ill post a new ranking of the table soon, but basically we had me, Toby and Stuart taking each other down. Had a few new appearances, I tried eGaspy but he is not good for this format, not good at all... and I only just scraped in with the win. Tobys Stryker arrived - and was killed by eGaspy. Adeptis Rahn made an appearance, almost killing the Butcher, but again, the Butcher pwns all. My Karchev came in vs Stuarts Butcher and annihilated him, then Toby tried Karchev against his Butcher and got SLAUGHTERED.

We ended it with a 3 player Oddball match - which I won with 10 Oddpoints, Stuart with 3 Oddpoints and Toby coming in last with none.

The Oddball is forgotten as Drago rips Butcher in two!


eGaspy versus Stryker. A close game, but eGaspy pulled out the 6's!


eGaspy practically sitting on Stryker to kill him.


Worst roll of the day - Butcher, Killing Blow, +4 damage to his 4D6 needs a 7 to kill Karchev. Stuart laughs - and promptly rolls a 6 on 4 Dice.


The Butcher + Squishy caster in melee range. Look at those dice roll! (Adeptis Rahn being proxyed by Kaelyssa)



You can almost smell the fear and sweat of Adeptis Rahn...

Saturday, September 26

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.

Friday, September 25

Winterguard MK2 here I come!

Im planning on a game today, using eSorcha and the Winterguard as the main part of it.

I will take some of the new Khador good stuff, and see how it fares:

35pt eSorcha Winterguard Army

eSorcha (+6)
^Beast 09 (11)
Kovnik Joe (Definitely for WG) (2)
Manhunter x 2 + Yuri (7)
Full Winterguard + UA + 3 WA's (11)
2 x Winterguard Mortar (3ea)
Widowmakers (4)

Ill post later to relate how the game went.. assuming it goes :D

Monday, September 21

Khador Solo Analysis for MK2 Final:

All my personal opinions here biggrin.gif

General rule: A+ or higher is overpowered, B- or lower could be improved and i would be happy. Happy medium is B+ to A for all models.

Wardog: Hehe, it got Hunter. Which is a great rule. As well as it is now tough. Apart from that, its a good Warcaster Attachment - it only pales in comparison to stuff like the Squire and the Skarlock. It almost got nerfed into nothingness, but its now slightly cheaper so i think its gotten slightly better - but no autoinclude. Still a B+ solo.

Koldun Lord: Hes cheap for what he does. And what he does is buff stuff. Id take him much more often that the Greylords themselves. He did get Battle Wizard back, which does make Greylords more appealing if you wanted to take them. Power Booster is a big plus, so he can help Warjacks that arent his own. In fact, i probably wouldnt bother giving him a jack, just use him to support his warcasters jacks. Add in the odd Frostbite and Ice Cage, and he could be a big help to your army. and 2 points is a steal. Gone from a B to a B+.

Manhunters: One of my favourite solos, Manhunters are mobile and very strong. Work well with eVlad's feat, and have a vicious charge. They are pretty much unchanged from MK1 (though a little more expensive relatively) Still a solid A solo.

Drakhun: Much shock was had when he first came out, as expensive as the Zerker - and not even as good! Hes gotten a little cheaper and retained Combat rider now, but suffers from no Flying Steel. The blade is POW14 now, with weapon master, but thats 5 PC for one powerful long range attack. Im not convinced yet, but this may be the answer to the <7 PC heavy hitter option. Since Zerkers are meh. Gone from an A+ to a A-.

Kovnik: Totally stole the Koldun Lords thunder with the Drive: Boosted attack rolls. This makes him quite good with such jacks as the Zerker (probably the only time i could justify using one, even though, why wouldnt i just marshal a Juggy for 1 point more?) or Kodiak. Apart from that, he can slam and has a MAT8 P+S15 weapon master axe. This is pretty good, even if it is only one attack. The lack of Assault or Backswing doesnt quite make him A+ material, so i think hes probably a good balanced, heavy model suited to a MoW style army. Boosting his speed is pretty important though, since his melee threat is a pitiful 7.5" Better than he used to be anyway. Gone from a B model to an A- model.

Fenris: Hes as expensive as the Drakhun, and trades survivability for damage potential and speed. He doesnt seem overly different from MK1 - and ill have to use him more, to get a better feel for him. Im going to give an uneducated guess as about as good as the Drakhun. Giving him an A-.

Kovnik Joe: Well, he was totally ridiculous in the FT. double shots to an entire squad of winterguard?? this .. is .. madness! well, hes changed a bit, lost the double shot speech and gained a auto boost to attacks speech. which could actually be better in some cases. Im not really seeing any other differences, the bears strength speech dropped a little (i believe) but i dont see why i would use that over the auto-boost or tough speeches anyway. (i guess against enemy heavies/terminus camping armour?) Was always an auto-include for me with WG, so still an A solo (only with Winterguard)

Markov: Cheaper than the other two Cav solos, Fenris and Drakhun, and i think he is comparable to them. Certainly hes the Kovnik Joe of the Uhlans, if your taking them now you should really have Markov as well due to the Elite Cadre and Inspiration. Since very few things are fearless now, this makes them much better. Does increase the cost of Uhlans QUITE a lot, which are expensive enough as it is. A powerful attack with the Warhead explosion, but risky since it will knock down your models as well. I think hes a good solo, and definitely one to take with Uhlans. A with Uhlans, B+ without.

Yuri the Axe: A great trooper in any normal MK1 game, the main reason he was taken was to bring in the extra manhunter. Treewalker is helpful, but relatively situational. Yuri may or may not make Kossites ok as well. Might have to proxy and see... Thresher replaces Flying steel, which i dont mind too much. Thresher at MAT8 is pretty damn handy, but it does change his role quite significantly - he used to be anti-solo/warjack and now he is more anti troops. Still good, like a more expensive manhunter with about the same damage output. A- (compared to cost of a manhunter)

Current Rankings:

A: Markov (w/ Uhlans), Kovnik Joe (w/WG), Manhunter,
A-: Yuri the Axe, Fenris, MoW Kovnik, Drakhun,
B+: Koldun Lord, Wardog

As you can see, i think the Khador solos are strong, and have a good place in most lists. None of them have been horribly nerfed, and all are effective with support/good oppurtunities and stuff.

NB:

Because i forgot about the Kayazy Assasins in the Unit post, ill just put them in here as a footnote:

Kayazy Assassins + UA: The only stealth unit that Khador has, they do fill a niche role. They are expensive though, and have a low survivability rate compared to similar priced units like the IFP. They lost Ventilate, probably the best anti-troop ability ever, and one that killed many a Thagrosh and Butcher. With Kill Stroke you couldnt really do much about it either. They now have Gang instead, and while not as good does make them MAT9 when doubling up. Which is impressive. Ill probably use them for a little while, to see what i can do with them. I still think they were nerfed, but time will tell... Gone from an A+ to a B+.