First go at MK IV

Mark IV has finally arrived and I'm excited. To celebrate this, the Motherland is attending a small tournament. I was hoping to play the "new version" of Winter Korps; unfortunately, the models are not available when the tournament takes place. So, to defend Khador's honour, the trusted Man-O-Wars step up.  We are playing three games. MKIV is fast and fun. Some rules need to be unlearned. Yet, I think it is in a good place and Khador can finally start reclaiming former glory.

MK IV is here! To celebrate this and to get to grips with the new changes, the Motherland is attending a small one day tournament. I have yet to play a single MK IV game. I have read to rules, but...

There are 13 players attending with an array of different armies. The following factions are present:

• Retribution of Scyrah (1)
• Rhul Guard (1)
• Cygnar (1)
• Khador (3)
• Cryx (2)
• Circle Orboros (2)
• Protectora of Menoth (1)
• Crucible Guard (1)
• Thornfall Alliance  (1)

We are playing 75 points prime Steamroller 2023. We are allowed two lists, but it is not a requirement. We are using the rules finally available in the Warmachine App or free from the Privateer Press store here. 

Prime allows us to play Armored Korps, using the classic models; and Winter Korps, using the new models. Unfortunately, the new models are not available at the time of playing. So, for me it is Armored Korps all the way.

Kommandant Sorscha Kratikoff - Beast 09 [15] - Kodiak [10] Man-O-War Kovnik [4] Man-O-War Kovnik [4] Man-O-War Suppression Tanker [5] Man-O-War Suppression Tanker [5] Battle Mechaniks [2] - Battle Mechanik Officer [2] Kommandant Atanas Arconovich & Standard [6] Man-O-War Demolition Korps [7] - Sergeant Dragos Dragadovich [4] Man-O-War Shocktroopers [8] - Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer [3] Break Through [0] Hit & Run [0] Old Faithful [0] Power Swell [0] True Inspiration [0]

Kommander Harkevich - Black Ivan [15] - Destroyer [13] - Destroyer [13] - Destroyer [13] Greylord Forge Seer [3] Greylord Forge Seer [3] Battle Mechaniks [2] Man-O-War Bombardiers [9] - Man-O-War Bombardiers Officer [4] Infiltration [0] Old Faithful [0] Power Swell [0] Put the Fires Out [0] True Inspiration [0]

Sorscha's Man-o-War heavy list is in many ways a MK IV version of my standard Armored Korps MK II list. It has clearly gone down in number of dudes as the new unit size is smaller. It has also lost the Bombariers since we are playing fewer points. It is going to be interesting to see how it plays in MK IV.

The Harkevich list is primarily here to exploit the new AOW rules; which apparently should be amazing. Destroyers and Bombardiers for blasting. Forge Seers to help Harkevich with focus and Mechaniks to keep the show running. 

This is going to be fun. On to the first battle. 

Round 1 — Protectorate of Menoth: Final Interdiction

First list is Protectorate of Menoth. Here is was thinking that they had all run off to the south. Yet here they are. 

There is a lot of little dudes with swords or crossbows. I'm just assuming that the new blast rules are cool. So, Harkevich and all the guns are going to have a blast. 

Grand Exemplar Kreoss - Redeemer 1 - Redeemer 2 High Exemplar Gravus Reclaimer Gatekeeper Vassal of Menoth 1 Vassal of Menoth 2 Choir of Menoth Exemplar Errants 1 Exemplar Errants 2 Knights Exemplar 1 Knights Exemplar 2 Knights Exemplar 3 Knights Exemplar 4 Break Through Careful Reconnaissance Infiltration Old Faithful Take Cover!

We are playing the scenario Invasion. Kreoss wins the roll of and deceides to go first. He deploys in the middle and distributes all the small dudes across the line; with the Errants on the left and more Exemplars on the right.

Harkevich puts two Destroyers on the right to blast the Examplars, the Bombardiers and one Destroyer on the left for the Errants, and the rest in the middle.

The picture below depicts the situation after deployment. 

Ready to do battle

The first round in Mark IV is just as eventfull as in Mark III. Kreoss basically runs his stuff forward. 

Harkevich counters by ... running his stuff forward. Pathfinder on the 'jacks from Harkevich casting Mobility is really nice; as is the Granted ability on the Bombardiers from the Officer. 

Unfortunately, the relaxed approach to the first round is not always good. The Bombariers should probably not have moved so much forward. 

The battle field at the end of the first round is shown below.

End of the first round

Kreoss puts up Inviolable Resolve giving his models +2 ARM and immunity to knockdown, slam and push. Together with Gravus' build in 10" bubble of no knowdown all are steady. As sugar on the top, Kreoss also has a 10" tough bubble; making the Examplars a pain.

The Errants on the left flank begins. They charge the Bombardiers. This is my first interaction with the new Unit Movement rules. They make for very agile units. Basically only one model needs Line of Sight (LOS) and complete a charge; and suddenly one is swamped with little dudes. This requires som unlearning to get use to.

POW 9, weapon master swords still hurt a lot (23 points of damage on the average, against the 17 points of ARM on the Bombardiers). I should have payed more attention the in first round. What is left alive is cleaned up by a swarm of Exemplars (POW 11, weapon masters). After the dust settles, only one Bombardiere is left standing.

On the right flank, the Examplars run to jam the two Destroyers. That is probably OK, as one of them, on purpose is in the zone. The Redeemers take a few pot shots at stuff.

Harkevich needs to counter the horde of small and heavily armed men. The left flank, in particular is weak. He hands out focus and casts Guided Fire (boosted attack rolls to the battle group). He also feats (+3 ARM for the battle group, free charge or slam, and free ranged attack before a charge). He then shoots an Exampler for good measure.

On the left flank, the last Bombardier tries his saw on an Errant, and misses. The Destroyer starts shooting at Examplars and removes a hand full. I should probably have used the shoot, charge, kill, shoot sequence under the feat (all 'jacks now have dual attack!). Black Ivan goes Gravus hunting but can't kill him — not even knock him of his horse.

On the right flank, the Destroyers start by hitting stuff with their axes, and then when not engaged anymore, shoot more small men. Again, I should probably have used the feat better. Besides cleaning out some (to few) Examplars it also gives them Battle Driven (+2 ARM and +2 to attack rolls).

A note on AOE. These attacks have changed. I'm pretty sure for the better. No more drifting and holding templates to figure out how has been hit. Now, if the AOE hits the target obviously suffers damage; also the number of models equal to the AOE number and within the AOE number of inches suffer damage. So, a AOE 3 hitting its target will hit the target and 3 other models, if they are within 3". If the AOE misses, the target is still hit but only suffers the blast damage. Very neat. I makes the Destroyers much more effective.

That is it. Harkevich did manage to remove some Examplers. I pretty sure it isn't enough though.

  

The picture below depicts the end of round 2. 

Situation at the end of round 2

Round 3 is where things go down. Kreoss goes in for the kill. 

Kreoss moves up and feats. So, now his models auto hit and can make an additional attack. The Redeemers starts out by shooting and killing my objective, leaving Harkevich exposed. If would have been beneficial if I had read up on Black Ivan. He is Evasive. So, he could have moved 2" in front of Harkevich after being hit by the blast that killed the Objective. Note to self: do read and remember your models' cards. 

Anyway, as the objective is gone, the Examplers can now do some funky unit movement. Purely by chance, one Exampler could actually draw line of sight from behind the cloud to Harkevic. So, he can charge and the rest of the unit is the placed neatly in a circle around Harkevich. That is 4 guys putting out 4 charge attacks and 4 (free) normal attacks at MAT 9 (+2 from battle driven) at POW 11, weapon master. Harkevich is only DEF 14 and ARM 19 (+3 from feat). This is an 83% of hitting, and an average damage of 6 points per attack. Harkevich has 18 boxes and is naked. This is going to be painfull. 

The picture below shows the result of too many Examplars and too little Harkevich. 

End of round 3, end of game

First of all, I think I'm going to like MK IV. This was a fun game with a capable opponent. 

I'm still not sure about Harkevich. He has never been particularly good. He is still starved for focus, despite the fact that we have more access to Empower. Mobility is great; Guided Fire is pricy; Jumpstart situational; and Bombshell I can never see being cast. His feat is actually pretty good now since 'jack have dual attack. I need more practice. 

Two things I definitely need to learn is: i) don't play sloppy in the first turn; and ii) read and remember the cards. I don't think that it would have helped here. Yet, it is a prudent recommendation. 

Unit movement is funky. Being the moving unit is fun. They are extremely mobile as only one model needs line of sight and the rest just appears. It is really difficult to screen models now. 

Finally, cheap weapon master spam is still a thing; perhaps even more a thing with the new funky movement. Low DEF and high ARM (aka Khador) is not in a better place from that perspective. I personally think that DEF has become even more important. Anything above 14 (defending against MAT 7 on "normal" cheap weapon master spam) is really good, or perhaps even required.

Onwards to the next opponent. 

Round 2 — Thornfall Alliance

Next up are pigs. Pigs are cool. I love them! There is already a smell of bacon in the air.

This list has Dr. Arkadius, who used to be able to run a very dangerous beast heavy list. The opponent tells me that it is still true, although not so dangerous as in "the old days". 

This list calls for Sorscha and her trusted Man-o-Wars. Getting the pigs to chew through all that armour is probably going to be quite difficult.

Dr. Arkadius - Battle Boar - Gun Boar 1 - Gun Boar 2 - Road Hog 1 - Road Hog 2 - War Hog Agata, Queen of Carnage Gobber Tinker Farrow Valkyries Arcane Forces Blessing of the Gods Break Through Careful Reconnaissance Sentry Duty

We are playing the scenario Spread the net. Sorscha wins the rolloff and deceides to go first. 

Sorscha deploys the Kodiak and a Suppression Tanker on the left to score that zone and contest the flank. The right flank also gets a Suppression Tanker to score that flag. She goes in the middle with Atanas and the Mechaniks. Beast goes near by for the Shield Guard and finally, the two units with a Kovnik on either side. The Shocktroopers are there to screen Sorscha.

Dr. Arkadius puts a Road Hog + Gun Boar on each flank and the rest in a box in the middle. The War Hog is slightly to the right. 

The picture below shows the situation after deployment. 

End of deployment

Hey-Ho, here we go. The blindingly fast Man-o-Wars must up the table to grab some real estate. Sorscha puts Iron Flesh on the Shocktroopers and Red Line on the Kodiak. She then Wind Rush and runs (yes, you can do that now).

The Shocktroopers do what they do. After receiving a Desperate Pace they leg it up in front of Sorscha. Being in Shield Wall (which is no longer an order) and Iron Flesh, they are now ARM 22 and Sturdy (they lost Steady, which I can't see any reason for). 

On the right flank, the Demolition Corps follow suits and moves up the board in Shield Wall (yes, Dragos now gives them that). Everybody else basically tag along. 

Dr. Arkadius complains a lot about heavy armour and then casts Watcher. On the right flank, the Gun Boar, Road Hog duo moves into the zone. On the left flank, a Gun Boar and Agata homes in on the flag. Everybody else just move forward. 

The picture below depicts the end of round 1.

End of round 1

Let me just start by saying that Man-o-Wars are fast. They run 11" in Shield Wall using Desperate Pace. The can charge 9" and touch something 11" away, still using Desperate Pace (and remain in Shield Wall). 

On the easy side, the Suppression Tanker on the right flank lumber up and parks next to the flag. The one of the left runs to be able to contest the other flag. The Kodiak just move forward and stays in the zone, ready to score. 

On the funky movement side, the Demolition Corps is having a blast. They get a Desperate Pace, Atanas moves towards them and says 'Fight to the Last' to give them Tough. Now they are ready to run the 11" into the right most zone. They do this in Shield Wall and Dragos calls upon the 'Band of Brotherhood'. Congo line and all, they are a fair bit into the zone. Funky unit movement is fun, at least when you are the one moving. 

In the middle, the Shocktroopers just lumbers forward. Beast moves up to be near Sorscha. She then moves in behind the Shocktroopers, casts Wind Rush and feats. 

The doctor complains a lot about being able to chew through armour and formulates a plan that requires everybody but the War Hog to get rid of three Shocktroopers, so the War Hog under feat can get next to Sorscha and chew her up. Not a bad plan, actually. The white Man-o-War armour is actually getting slightly moist (on the inside). 

Dr. Arkadius moves forward and feasts. The two Road Hogs goes in and sprays away. Luckily they are. only POW 12 (although boosted due to feat). The Gun Boar on the left also moves and shoots. The Road Hog just moves forward to get into a cloud so it can see something to charge. 

This operation is clearly not enough to remove Shocktroopers so, everybody does it again. This is followed up by the Valkyries moving up an shooting; and finally the Battle Board charging in. As a hail Mary, even the Gobber moves in and shoots (who knew it can shoot?). All of this removes two of the Shocktroopers, still not leaving room for the Road Hog to get to Sorscha.

The plan fails, and the Road Hog is so annoyed that it kills to two remaining Shocktroopers. Calling end of round. The result of this "carnage" can be see in the picture below (note the pretty feat token. The opponent used to play Protectorate).

End of round 2

Dr. Arkadius has spend everything and has left himself in the zone, close to the valiant army from the Motherland. I'm guessing he is done for. 

Beast 09 — just what the doctor ordered

There are so many things that can be done. On the right flank, the Demolition Corps can remove the Gun Boar. On the right flank the Suppression Tanker can kill Agata and score the flag. Beast 09s can probably kill at least one of the pig in front of it. So many choices. 

Yet, the easiest thing is to just send the Kodiak along the nice opening behing the big pigs and shake hands with the doctor. 

Just to be on the safe side, the Suppression Tanker runs to engage Arkadius to trigger Flank. Sorscha has fully loaded the Kodiak, which can now charge for free (thanks to Red Line). Being Unstoppable it can ignore charging through the pigs' engagement zone.

The Kodiak arrives in front of the doctor. It will arrive fully loaded, which is 5 attacks (6, if Grab & Smash trigger) at MAT 9 and POW 18 on three dice. Despite missing the first initial, this could only go one way. Just look at the pretty picture above.

The picture below shows the overview of the battle field when the doctor folded. 

End of game!

This game was probably in Sorscha's favour before the first die was rolled. The pretty pigs have a hard time to put out enough damage to chew through Khador armour. Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure that both sides of the table had fun. 

Sorscha is actually better in her MK IV incarnation. Red Line is an improvement over Stoke the Fires. It seems that as a general rule most counter charge is gone, Red Line is a sensible choice. 

On the down side, Winter's Wrath has lost Stationary, which is only critical now; is only AOE 3 (not 4), yet cost the same. Without Stationary and focus starved as she is, this spell is never going to be cast. 

I can see, with the new unit organisation, that straight up Stationary is very powerful, but at a cost of 3. Nope, never, cost of 2 we can talk about. She is probably going to upkeep both Iron Flesh and Red Line. Casting Winter's Wrath will then leave her at 1 focus. Not enough to do Wind Rush. She might be in a Man-o-War armour, but she is quite brittle. It basically need to drop to a cost of 2 points. 

Anyway, from bacon onto the final battle.

Round 3 — Cryx: Dark Host

Finally, Cryx. I have never been happy with facing Cryx. Too many tricks and not a straight up fair fight to be had. 

Interestingly, Gorshade the Bastard is there. I have seen many incarnations of Goreshade, but I have naver faced this one. There are two 'jacks with harpoons that can pull stuff. So, I'm thinking Sorscha; she at least has some models that can't be pushed. 

Goreshade the Bastard - Deathwalker - Defiler - Reaper 1 - Reaper 2 - Seether - Stalker Bane Lord Tartarus Darragh Wrathe Necrotech Pistol Wraith Soul Trapper 1 Soul Trapper 2 Bane Warriors - Bane Warrior Officer & Standard Blessing of the Gods Break Through Hit & Run Old Faithful Power Swell

We are playing the scenario Split Decision. Goreshade goes first and Sorscha picks side. Goreshade deploys most of the stuff on the right side of the table, which clearly makes sense since the zone is there. On the left side, two Soul Trappers, the Pistol Wraith and a Reaper are taking care of the objectives and flags. The beat stick, Seether goes in the middle. 

Sorcha counter deploys by putting a Suppression Tanker and the Kodiak on the left. All units go on the right, and Sorscha in the middle with Beast 09 nearby. Sorscha is a bit behind before the battle commences. The only magical weapon is her hammer. This could be a problem as there are several incorporeal models among the Cryx. 

The picture below shows the theater before kick off. 

End of deployment

Goreshade does a classic first round. Everything just moves up. On the interesting side, the Stalker moves behind the cloud on the right, probably to do a wide flanking manoeuvre. The two Soul Trappers and the Pistol Wraith do more or less the same. That is basically it.

Sorscha needs to get up the field. The Shocktroopers do the classic: Iron Flesh, Desperate Pace, run, Shield Wall into the zone. The Demolition Corps thinks it looks fun and do the same, minus Iron Flesh. Everybody else follows up behind the Shield Walls.

One point where everything goes haywire is on the left flank. Here is a clear case of too relaxed approach to the first round or just plain stupidity. The Kodiak runs up without a care in the world. I should obviously have measured the distance a Reaper can move, shoot and drag. Alternatively, I could just start the game with the Kodiak off the table. Oh, and I forgot to feat.

The picture below shows the end of the first round. 

End of round 1

Goreshade is surprisingly cautious. He starts the round by doing a classic 'Cygnar advance' with the Bane Warriors. Apparently they are a bit scared of the Man-o-Wars in front of them. 

The Stalker does as it is suppose to do. It moves wide on the flank. Same thing on the left flank where the Pistol Wraith moves to contest the flag. Goreshade shuffles to the left and the rest also do a bit of shuffling.

Now on to punishing stupidity. The Reaper stares with disbelief at the Kodiak thinking 'this must be a trap'. It then moves, shoots, drags and kills the Kodiak (the Seether might have assisted in the actual killing); without springing a trap... Inspired by the success, the second Reaper tries the same trick on the Shocktroopers only to discover that they are Sturdy. 

Finally, the annoying little attachment to Goreshade moves up behind the house to do its -2 DEF and -2 to damage roll.

Luckily, Sorscha is in a Man-o-War armour and can't move too fast. If she was faster she would probably have slammed me in a sensible part of my body with her hammer for loosing her favourite Kodiak. 

When life's a drag, find a friend

Speaking of not getting dragged. Beast 09 have learned the lesson. During this second round it moves forward but not more than a Suppression Tanker can park right in front of it. A tanker is can't be pushed. So, no dragging with harpoons; and Beast 09 will move zero as it will be dragged directly into the Tanker. Cleaver Beast 09.

In addition, Atanas has improve quite a lot in MK IV. His Tactician has lost the term [Man-o-War]. So, it is now for all friendly models. This is actually huge. In the example shown in the picture to the left; Beast 09 can happily be parked behind the Tanker. Yet, he can move over it if needed. Most likely to charge something. Yet, he can also make his Hyper-agressive move (easier is he is under Red Line, though). Obviously, the Kodiak could have done the same thing, if the player had just been awake. 

Anyway, back to the show. I should really remove the Deathwalker and Darragh Wrathe. Combined they give -2 DEF, -2 MAT and -2 POW to my models. If the Cryx heavies are to die, these support models need to go.

Sorscha starts by charging the Deathwalker, who she can just see around the corner of the house. She then feats and Wind Walk back, leaving her naked thanks to Goreshade's annoying Lamentation spell. The Shocktroopers can now do funky charge and surround the Seether, whilst still also reach Darragh and even Goreshade. They are in Shield Wall and under Iron Flesh, as well as Unstoppable Fury from Atanas. 

The Shocktroopers starts hacking away. Three attacks each. They do manage to kick Darragh of the horse but only very little damage to the Seether. I was hoping for more. But, at least there is now a unit smack in the middle of enemy lines that they need to deal with.

On the right flank, the Demolition Corps need to deal with the Stalker. They charge and manage to do absolutely nothing. Apparently Man-o-Wars can't hit in MK IV. 

Besides the two important things, the rest more or less just shuffles around. The picture below depicts the end of Round 2. 

End of round 2

Goreshade is getting a bit worried. There are Shocktroopers in his face that he really needs to deal with. He start by charging with the Bane Warriors. Again, cheap weapon master spam is dangerous. One Bane Warrior will do 3 points of damage per attack even against ARM 22. They do what is expected, and what is left is cleaned up by the Seether and Goreshade himself; which also brings back the Deathwalker. 

The Stalker walks away from the Demolition Corps. Here I'm really missing free strike. In addition, the Reaper moves into the zone a shoots a bit on Beast 09. Interestingly, the Reaper can't drag it. However, Beast 09 deceides to actually do Hyper Aggressive and move a bit towards the Reaper.

On to Sorscha's turn. At this point, the game is in Goreshade's favour. Let's see if something can be done. The right Suppression Tanker moves to the right at pushes the Reaper out of the way. It the sprays down the line and removes two Bane Warriors, but most importantly Darragh is killed. The left Suppression Tanker runs next to the Seether. 

Sorcha casts Red Line on Beast 09 and lets it loose. It charges the Seether and does a Thresher attack removing all but one (it did a tough roll) of the Bane Warriors and damaging the Seether. One more attack om the Seether and it is gone. Finally, killing the last Bane Warrior and Beast 09 is happy.

The Demolition Corps get a second chance of killing the Stalker, and makes it. Some of them are also engaging the Defiler and kill it.

This has been a pretty good round for Sorscha. The picture below shows the result of Beast doing its thing.

End of round 3

Goreshade needs to pull something out of his hat. Beast 09 is looking at him and it just waiting to have a go. Also, there is less than 2 minutes left on his clock. 

Out of the hat comes a unit of Bane Warriors through the feat. The rightmost Reaper moves a bit, shoots at Sorscha and drags her a bit to the right. Goreshade moves up between the Suppression Tanker and Beast 09, and feats. Out of the hat comes a unit of Bane Warriors. Due to funky unit movement four out of five make it to Sorscha and surrounds her. There is only one outcome. Sorscha goes down; Goreshade has 20 seconds left on the clock. 

The picture below shows the result of funky Bane Warriors poking Sorscha with their axes. 

End of game

This was a cool game. It could easily have gone both ways. Yet, when the dust settles Sorscha was left with the shortest straw. 

Sorscha is doing pretty good at 75 points MK IV. Atanas has and improved Tactician and Man-o-Wars are in a pretty good place. Beast 09 is a, well a beast. Perhaps still 1 point too expensive. 

Summary

This was fun. All in all, I'm a fan of MK IV. It is fast and the rules are easier. There is, however something that needs to be unlearned for an old player. In particular with respect to funky unit movement. Screening is difficult. 

I think that 75 point might be a good size. It forces us to think about what we really want and how our models interact. Most importantly it keeps support bloat down. I think it is a good spot. Obviously, Armored Korps has a rather limited number of models. Yet, even here choosing between a Kovnik and a Forge Seer forces us to think; not to mention a Dragoon or Bulkhead.  

AOEs have changed to get rid of drifting and holding templates to figure out who has been hit. Now, if the AOE hits the target obviously suffers damage; also the number of models equal to the AOE number and within the AOE number of inches suffer blast damage. So, a AOE 3 hitting its target will hit the target and 3 other models, if they are within 3". If the AOE misses, the target is still hit but only suffers the blast damage. I like this change. Although, I can see why low ARM stealth solos are complaining. 

Unit movement has changed and gone into funky mode. Despite that units have been halved in size, I think they are even more powerful. Only requiring one model to be able to complete a charge and then place the rest is, not only fast but also really difficult to screen against. It is going to be interesting to see how this evolves. 

Cheap weapon master spam is still an issue. Even though the units have become smaller, due to the new funky movement rules, they have become must more efficient. Thus, I'm still unsure whether ARM 20 is sufficient. Also, high DEF is now even more important than before. 

I want physical cards. The new app is clearly an improvement. It's still not impressive, but its better. I do, however still like physical cards. It faster and I can look at more than one at a time. I'm so much looking forward to this. 

Speaking of cards, I think the new command cards are cool. They offer some flexibility and perhaps a compensation for less support if we stick to 75 points. 

All in all, I'm happy and can't wait for my next game. 

Until next time.

For the Motherland!