Warmachine/Hordes: Batrep Nr.3 – Legion vs. Khador

New day, new game, new opportunities. After my lucky win in the Claws & Fangs game the day before, we decided to play a bigger game this time. Since I only had the contents of the 2-Player-Box and a Spawning Vessel, we decided to play a ~25 points match. We also took another scenario from the rulebook, this time the Killing Fields scenario, where you have to conquer and hold 3 objectives on the map for victory points. And we decided to use a chess clock for timing our game, although not counting it as win condition by Deathclock. Just for information how long we use for turns and stuff. Nonetheless we set it to the standard tournament timer of 60 minutes per player.

Khador Epic Kommander Sorsha Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich Juggernaut Kodiak Battlemechaniks Winterguard with Bazookas, Officer and Standard

Legion of Everblight Lylyth, Herald of Everblight Carnivean 2 x Shredder Full Blighted Ogryn Warspears Small Spawning Vessel

My plan was to move one Shredder to the objective on the left, contest the middle one with my Ogryn and fight for the right one with the rest of my army.
In Turn One not too much happens, everything moves forward, my Ogyrns Assault the Winterguard, which is nearly unkillable through Tough, Bob&Weave and Iron Flesh. My left Shredder frenzies and runs to the Winterguard and my Carnivean contests the right objective and kills the Juggernaut. The Spawning Vessel spawns a Stinger but the spray does nothing.
That is already 2 victory points for Khador

Turn Two brings even more death. The Winterguard happily kills all of my Ogryn without me able to do anything against it. My left Shredder advances against the left objective and contesting it. The Spawning Vessel spawns another Stinger, and the Kodiak battles against my Carnivean. Everything pretty tough so far.

In Turn Three I decide to Feat because I see no other possibility to win the game as to go for a caster kill. The Winterguard is at the moment not killable for me and dominates the center of the field.

So I poke Sorscha with Lylyth to get the mark on her, but have not enough Fury to cast Parasite. Nonetheless I have to go all in.
After some rule clarification, I make an Assault with my Carnivean which allows him to spray onto Sorscha. Also my Stingers spray and try to do as much damage as possible. Not enough, but the Carnivean gets into contact and pumps himself up to its maximum fury and kills Sorscha.

If you say now: Uh the charge wasn't possible, that is because the right image is a bit misleading. It was taken AFTER the kill when we discussed who it could have been prevented. NumbDice made the error to move his Mechaniks because he thought his Kodiak needs the support. Otherwise I only could have sprayed which would not have been enough here.

Victory through caster kill (again). If this all or nothing wouldn't have worked, I would have lost the game through scenario. On the left you can see the remaining time (although we played no Deathclock) and the victory points.

Lessons learned this game:
- Again: Time your Feat correctly!
- Fury management -> Couldn't cast an important spell because of missing Fury
- You can wound yourself for Fury in your upkeep!
- Ogryn are no match for the Winterguard deathstar
- Play with enough points! I played with 4 points left as allowed (which I just realized while writing this down)

I also should have played some things differently. First I should have put my Ogryn on the left flank, completely contesting the objective. With no fury management needed, the would have been the much more stable option. Second: The only way in this setup to get the Winterguard is to kill Kovnik Jo. And/Or to bypass the armor (e.g. Spine Explosion on a Shredder).

Hope you enjoyed this battle report. The battle was fought some time ago, some things were only roughly in memory so I could have forgotten something. But in the main it should be OK. If something is unclear, please ask ;)


So long,
Paradox0n