Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince (Vlad1) vs. The Harbinger of Menoth (Harbinger1)

Once again, the Harbinger is bringing her deranged religious fanatics into Khador territory. This time Vlad is called upon to bring his trusted Winter Guards. The game is fast and brutal. Vlad is on top of it most of the way, and after the traditional kill Judy intermezzo, he is set to win. However, out of the blue Harbinger pulls the biggest hail Mary win I have ever seen.

The Harbinger of Menoth is back with her Faithful Masses. Last time I faced her it was Irusk2 who was called up on (battle report here). The last time Irusk ran out of time and had to face defeat. This time Vlad1 is sendt to intercept Harbinger. He brings his trusted Winter Guards (for list description see here). 

Protectorate Army - 75 / 75 points [Theme] The Faithfull Masses [Harbinger 1] The Harbinger of Menoth [+27] - Judicator [34] Allegiant of the Order of the Fist [3] Allegiant of the Order of the Fist [3] Champion of the Order of the Wall [8] Champion of the Order of the Wall [8] Hand of Silence [7] Choir of Menoth (min) [4] Idrian Skirmishers (max) [15] - Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide [5]    Idrian Skirmishers (max) [15] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)]

Khador Army - 74 / 75 points [Theme] Winter Guard Kommand [Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28] - Marauder [11] - Marauder [11] - Marauder [11] Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich [4] Winter Guard Artillery Kapitan [3] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [0(4)] Winter Guard Field Gun Crew [0(4)] 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 Gun Carriage [17] Winter Guard Gun Carriage [17]

Initial thoughts

The Harbinger of Menoth has a tremendous amount of focus, 10 to be precise! This also means that she has a huge Control Area, 20" to be precise. She packs the spell Purification, which normally is to be feared. However, Vlad does not have any upkeep spells, so he is not bothered. She can cast Crusader's call, which give +2" move to her models charging in her Control Area. She also has a Command range of 12". Again, a very large area. Inside this area she automatically give a -2 to hit to enemy models through Awe (living that is, so 'jacks and Carriages are OK); she can also use Martyrdom, where she can remove 1 hp of damage from a disabled model. Thus, she does suffer 1d3 damage. Finally, her feat deals a POW 14 damage roll and continuous fire to enemy models that end their movement within 12" of her. Oh, and she can't be blinded, knockdown or be affected by back strike. The theme The Faithful Masses, makes 'jacks angry. If a friendly warrior is killed within 5" the 'jack gets +2 to melee attack and damage rolls. In addition, in the pre-Oblivion version it allows for one wall to be placed (for her to hide behind, I assume).

She brings the ubiquitous Judicator as her only 'jack. The Judicator brings, besides the standard colossal POW 21 fists, a lot of shooting. It has two 10" POW 12 sprays and two 14" POW 14 AOE 3" rockets, which are inaccurate. Both of these weapons are propper infantry killers. Since it is equipped with Reliquary (which is basically Hand of Fate: roll one extra dice, drop the lowest), it is rather accurate with the sprays. It can hit DEF 14 on the average, which gives it a 80% probability to hit a Winter Guard. It is better with the rockets, they only have a 20% probability to hit a Winter Guard. They do however kill them even under the AOE 3" blast. On the bright side, two Marauders can trivially kill it. Actually, one Marauder can kill it if something else can remove 11 points from it first.

There are six units in this list: the Choir, some Idrians, and three units of the highly annoying Initiates of the Wall. The ubiquitous Choir of Menoth is obviously present. They are there to boost 'jacks, either by give out +2 to damage rolls, immunity to targeting by non-magical ranged attacks, or immunity to targeting by spells. This is bad news for a list full of shooty stuff. The Idrian Skirmishers, and Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide kind of looks like a Circle unit partisaning for the Protectorate. The have Advance Deployment, Pathfinder, Reposition, CRA, and Prey. They shoot at POW 11 (13 including Prey) for 10" at RAT 5. They could easily become burdensome for the poor Winter Guards. That's why we bring carriages!

The Initiates of the Wall are highly annoying; in particular when they can be brought for free. They are all Shield Guards, they have Set Defence, have five boxes, and Unbreakable Wall. The lattes makes them immune to knockdown and all sorts of moves. All of this basically make them ARM 21 (effective ARM 23 against charge attacks), they can Shield Guard each other, and if everything else fails, Harbinger can martyr them. They can really mess up a Gun Carriage's day.

In addition to the units, Harbinger brings five solos: two Champions, two monks, and the guy on my little pony. The two Champion of the Order of the Wall are some pretty hefty Dragoons comparable to our own Man-O-War Dragoons. They are Steady and Sturdy, so no Field Gun fun, and have Retaliatory Strike. Actually, they are quite dangerous, and somewhat difficult to remove. They can also charge stuff 15" away (assuming Crusader's call). Two fighting monk, or Allegiant of the Order of the Fist, are also present. These monks are annoying, flag capturing, tough, and hard to remove speed bumps. The will most likely be at DEF 18, and move about if an attack misses them.

The final solo is the Hand of Silence, aka the guy on my little pony. He is yet another soul manipulator. He can collect souls from dead Protectorate models or route them to somebody else within 10". When he uses them himself, he can either give a focus to a nearby 'jack, buy additional attacks, or boost. He has a 2" POW 14 weapon, but perhaps even more important he can spray fire 8" at POW 12, and have Assault. Finally he has build in Ashen Veil and the obligatory 3" Reposition. All in all, he is a pretty annoying support and infantry remover.

Deployment

We are playing pre-Oblivion, Steamroller 2018 Mirage. Both players pick the Stockpile objective (remove d3 point of damage within 4"). The Protectorate win the roll-off and opt to pick side. So, Khador goes first.

Vlad deploys his forces in the standard manner. One Carriage on each flank, all the infantry in the middle to protect Vlad, and the Marauders out front due to Advance Move. I should learn to pick the Armory objective, which gives a model within 4" Magical attacks, so I can hit stuff under the Choir's Hymn of Passage. 

End of deployment

The Protectorate follows the usual deployment for this style of list. One Champion goes on each flank, along with one Advance Deployed monk each, The Idrians spread out in the middle in front of the main force. All the rest go in the middle, with Harbinger in the centre. The Judicator deploys on my right flank. The picture above depicts the end of deployment. 

Round 1

Round 1 is most often rather uneventful. This is also true this time. 

End of turn 1

Vlad doesn't allocate anything, why would he? He casts Wind Wall, just in case, and moves up behind the very nice wall. This looks like a super place to be. I do not expect him to move a lot for the remaining match. He is quite happy standing at DEF 19 against shooting. All the rest just moves up the board. Everybody is being very carefull about staying out of the Idrians' and the Judicator's threat ranges. Joe shouts For the Motherland to the Field Gun on the right flank - just to practice his voice. The picture above shows the carefull advance carried out to perfection by the Empress' finest.  

End of round 1

Harbinger starts by spreading the Idrians out thinly across the board. Each of the units pick one of Vlad's Rifle Corps as their prey. On each flank, the Champion-monk combo moves up, and of the left flank the monk is already at the flank, where he does his Shifting Sands Stance, making him close to impossible to get rid off by shooting. Monks are fantastic scenario pieces. After the Choir sings their Hymn of Passage, the Judicator moves up next to the wall on the right flank. Harbinger moves behind the wall she brought herself, putting her at DEF 18 against shooting. 

Round 2

In this round the two lines will have to meet. I'm not sure it is beneficial to be the first one in. However, I can't just sit back and wait. 

End of turn 1

Vlad is quite happy behind his wall. If offers the comforts of very good protection against enemy fire. He doesn't allocate anything but casts Sighs & Portents. It is always a good priority to get rid of the Choir, so the Carriage on the right flank moves forward and shoots one of its cannons at the Choir trying to hide behind the Judicator. Two of them goes down. Unfortunately, it can't see the other two, so it just takes a pot shot at the Champion of the right flank, which doesn't have Pathfinder. Finally, the rifle guy takes out an Idrian. The Carriage on the left flank also tries to tie up the Champion and Monk over there. Albright, not as effective as its colleague.

The Rifle Corps on the right side move in behind the Carriage and hides in the forrest. On the left side, the Rifle Corps receives the inspiring speech For the Motherland, moves forward and shoots at the Idrians. Harbinger uses Martyrdom on all but one. My little pony now has two souls.

Finally, the three 'jacks lumber forward to tease the Judicator, and all artillery also moves up and shoots, to no real effect (Martyrdom is annoying). The picture above show the underwhelming first turn of round 2.

End of round 2

Here comes the mad religious fanatics. Harbinger starts by allocating one focus to the Judicator, and executing, for her an extremely bold move: she moves all the way to the other side of the wall! She then casts Crusaders Call, feats and casts Guided Hand on one of the Idrian units. The Idrians receive a Press Forward and floods all of the 'jacks and both Carriages. They actually do a surprising about of damage. Nothing dangerous, but nevertheless (3 point of damage on the charge attack and 1 point on the second, and 6 points versus 4 points for the unit under Guiding Hand; against a standard Khador 'jack). It could have been worse, all 'jacks survived. However, the rightmost one is severely crippled. Having moved the Idrians, Harbinger now have room to manoeuvre the rest of the army.

On the right flank, the Champion spends his time getting his horse out of the rough terrain. The Judicator, on the other hand, is having a party. It charges the Gun Carriage and promptly removes it; even with focus to spare. On the left flank, the Champion attempts the same feat, but the Carriage is more sturdy than that. Finally, the Initiates and Hand of Fate move forward. Harbinger manages to score two scenario points (one flag and one zone), leaving the score at 2-0 in her favour. The picture above shows the flood at the end of round 2.

Round 3

So, I think my attempt to lure the Judicator forward into range of a Marauder worked. Unfortunately, the three Marauders have also been flooded with obstacles that needs to be removed. If all goes well, this round will be feat, cleanup, and killing Judicators (my favourite passtime). 

End of turn 1

This takes carefull planning. The rightmost Marauder is crippled, so the middle one is on Judicator service. One Marauder can on the average remove 49 points of damage from a Judicator when it is fully loaded, under S&P and feat, and charges. So it needs help (a Judicator has 60 boxes). Anyway, the objective heals the leftmost Marauder. Vlad allocates two to the middle Marauder and one to the leftmost. He then activates, cast S&P, feats, and keeps on hugging the wall.

The crippled Marauder hits a few Idrians, who Harbinger then uses her Martyrdom on. The Rifle Corps on the right flank starts by offering a helping hand to the (hopefully) incoming Marauder. They pepper the Judicator with their rockets, while the rifles tries to remove Idrians in the way. The Field Gun also join the party. All in all, they leave a few dents in the Judicator. Joe says For the Motherland to the Mortar, and the Kapitan also gives it Artillerist. It then proceeds to bombard more Idrians in front of the designated Judicator-killer.

The leftmost Marauder tramples in front of the Gun Carriages. Harbinger has given up using Martyrdom. It then dismounts the Champion (unfortunately he is still contesting my zone). So far, so good. Now the last Marauder can charge the Judicator. I could potentially just have trampled up there. But I assumed that the extra dice from the charge attack could come in handy. It did. The judicator dies.

Finally, on the left flank, the Rifle Corps need a Press Forward order to primarily contest the monk's flag. The Carriage takes a few pot shots at the Initiates. But they all survive. All in all, not too shabby. One Judicator down. Meaning the main threat is gone. Vlad still scores nothing. Harbinger scores one point, leaving her at 3-0 in scenario. The picture above shows the end of Judy-round.

End of round 3

Harbinger thought that the game was lost. However, I argued that there was a minuscule chance to win on scenario, if the Winter Guard contesting the flag as well as the Marauder on the left flank could be removed. For future reference, perhaps I should just accept surrender when people are offering to do it. To cut a long story short. It took two units of Initiates to get rid of the two Winter Guards (never underestimate a determined Winter Guard). Everything else was thrown at the Marauder, including Harbinger herself. She did the final attack using her final focus and killed the Marauder. Harbinger wins on scenario 5-0. In my humble opinion I claim the moral victory. The picture above shows the result of Khador fairness. 

Final thought

This was a hail Mary victory if there ever was one! Vlad was doing so well. After a lot of combined work the Judicator trap worked. He was on top of the game. At the end of the first turn in round three, Harbinger had basically lost the game. There was only mopping up to do. Yet, never underestimate the power of dice. We did the math after, and on average the Maraduer would have been alive.

Nevertheless, it was a very fun game. The only real problem was that I need to be more aggressive on the scenario play. I should have moved a solo to the rightmost flag early on. That would at some point have given me the one point I needed to win the game.

Until next time.

For the Motherland!

(As a funny side remark: this battle report has been written while being 32,000 feet above Russia)