The Craptacularity

Craptacularity is what I have named my Vindictus list. Thanks to the magic of modern medicine I've been back and playing warmachine again. For some reason I took Amon to the monthly tournament that I run. I've discovered that I don't like him. One shield guard was not enough to keep him alive, I think he might work with Devout spam but I am not sure I want to play that list. 

One of the biggest things I have been working on is rounding out my Vindictus list. I made a list and when through all the choices available and I am going to summarise my thoughts here.

Idrians

I was actually incredibly tempted to take Idrians in the list. With the UA you have go to ground and you have camoflage. That makes the unit DEF 19 and immune to blast damage from shooting. It would wonderfully fit the theme of the list, unfortunately Mage Hunter Strike Force with the commander ignore cover and therefore ignore camoflage. 

Bastions

The biggest problem with Bastions is that if I spread the damage it doesn't trigger the feat. Also being 12/16 and the only things that can be shot is probably not a great thing during the not feat turn. 

Croes Cutthroats

There are three ways to do something, the right way, the wrong way and the Max Power way. It's the wrong way but faster! If you add the attendant priest these become Max Power Cutthroats, still wrong, but FASTER! 

They were considered at all because they are stealth and AD so I could counter deploy away from the riflemen if playing against Ossyan. The problem is that I'm starting to think Ret players are dumb and won't play that guy. The bad news for me is that Issyria is still a problem for Harbinger and Feora2.

Press Gangers or Boomhowlers

Add in the Attendant Priest and on feat turn there is a 50% chance (assuming Doc) that the shooting model dies and my model is still on the table. I ended up discarding this option because I'm worried about seeing Hyperion with Issyria and they make it three units that don't help with that. Also because MHSF means I can't block LOS to the attendant priest and he's 13/13 with 5 boxes. On Issyria's feat turn there is a good chance I only need one shot to take the unit out of the feat. 

Daughters

They run 16" and AD. They would be there to jam the enemy shooting. I don't see it happening though. DEF 15 is not enough DEF and I expect there to be a unit of Halberdiers or something around to clear things out. Against not Retribution I actually think they are an amazing choice and I'd be tempted to put them in anyway but I'm worried about heavies at the moment

Flamebringers

Like super daughters without AD. The unit threats 14.5" on the initial attack and then has up to three side steps. Another unit I think has promise with Vindictus that I can't put in a list targeted to Ret. 

Double Knights Exemplar

This one I played. I thought it had promise but I was worried about the shitty defensive stats of the unit and the rest of the list funneling shooting towards them. There are other problems. SPD 5 and no reach is a big one. Sure True Path brings them up to SPD 7 whereas the rest of the list goes bonkers with true path the knights just move into playable. The smaller unit sizes also make it more difficult to try and get true path off on the unit and they just don't do enough offensively. Considering how hard it is to deliver any of them I was kind of hoping that when they got there they would blow up whatever they hit but the math is kind of shitty. I don't know why it didn't click until I put them on the table because I'm a math person but it turns out that you still lose damage for everyone that dies. and you can't get a lot of them on a heavy because they don't have reach and missing is devastating... I've written too much on what I am convinced is a shitty choice.

Avatar of Menoth

I've left the one I decided on until last. Thinking more about him and having a little play experience with Vindictus (still not enough) I've realised that I should be able to keep him back against Ossyan and wait out the feat. He can be a late game beater and unless Ossyan is willing to be engaged by my infantry he isn't going to get him in the feat. Issyria I think really struggles to kill him, she certainly can't shoot him to death and that's basically enough. If by some miracle I make it to the final 4 having the Avatar is a big thing too since I can put him straight into my Harbinger list (I can even switch out a Reckoner if I want more Martyrdom).

So the list is currently:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus - WJ: +6

 - Reckoner - PC: 8 

 Avatar of Menoth - PC: 11 

 Vassal of Menoth - PC: 2 

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3 

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2 

Initiate Tristan Durant - PC: 3 

- Redeemer - PC: 6 

Vassal of Menoth - PC: 2 

Wrack - PC: 1 

Choir of Menoth - Leader & 3 Grunts PC: 2 

Holy Zealots - Leader and 9 Grunts PC: 6 

- Monolith Bearer - Monolith Bearer PC: 2 

Temple Flameguard - Leader and 9 Grunts PC: 6 

- Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard - Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard PC: 2

I also built this list which I call Max Power

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*6pts)* Devout (5pts)Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts) (10pts)* Attendant Priest (2pts)Deliverers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)Exemplar Cinerators (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)Exemplar Cinerators (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)Flameguard Cleansers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)* Flameguard Cleanser Officer (2pts)Allegiant of the Order of the Fist (2pts)Allegiant of the Order of the Fist (2pts)

Menoth Lists

Wanted to commit to internet paper the lists that I have been playing and the changes so far. 

Harbinger
I started playing the Harbinger with my 2012 list.

Harbinger of Menoth (*5pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Hierophant (2pts)
Vessel of Judgement (9pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Exemplar Errant Seneschal (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
The Covenant of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

This was a really strong list in 2012 but the meta has shifted. I quickly found that the Vessel was not doing enough. I needed something that wanted to get further forwards, something that could sit in a second zone. I looked at a number of options to fill the gap but the problem is that this list is meant to be an all comers list. Putting in the Avatar for example makes the list a lot stronger against Skorne and Trolls but much weaker against Cryx. Daughters have the opposite effect on the list. Right now the list is:

Harbinger of Menoth (*5pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Hierophant (2pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Attendant Priest (2pts)
Exemplar Errant Seneschal (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
The Covenant of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

I am incredibly happy with it as it stands. Some features of the list - this list can be almost completely immune to spells without even using the spell immunity from the book. You are able to attack in waves, first no knock down martyrdom toughing the errants and then shifting focus to the dwarves. Both the errants and the dwarves are able to gain magical weapons and the book can hand that out as well and both the errants and the dwarves are able to get pathfinder without using rhupert. Also the dwarves can take advantage of crusaders call for 11" of charge threat which is also pretty good.

Kreoss3
I liked the theme force for Kreoss right off the bat and I have two units of Vengers for reasons that make no sense to anyone who isn't me. I started off playing this list:

Intercessor Kreoss (*5pts)
* Revenger (6pts)
* Crusader (5pts)
* Crusader (5pts)
* Fire of Salvation (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Vengers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Exemplar Vengers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Reclaimer (2pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

 5 point Crusaders are insane but the list has a massive weakness in the lack of ranged attacks. Also I felt like most turns I wanted to cycle ignite from Venger unit to Venger unit or onto one of the jacks so he didn't have a lot of focus left over. The Revenger just wasn't doing anything (other than looking threatening and baiting in heavies, which I suppose is something but not 1 point more than a crusader something). That left me with two options. 1. Bugger it, live without ranged attacks, add in another crusader and call it a day. 2. Abandon Tier 4 for a tier 2 and bring in some trusty Reckoners. I went for option 2. 

Intercessor Kreoss - WJ: +5
- Reckoner - PC: 8
- Reckoner - PC: 8
Vassal of Menoth - PC: 2
Vassal of Menoth - PC: 2
Vassal Mechanik - PC: 1
Knights Exemplar Seneschal - PC: 3
Knights Exemplar Seneschal - PC: 3
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 3 Grunts: 2
Exemplar Vengers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Exemplar Vengers - Leader & 4 Grunts: 11
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard - Rhoven, Gius, and Cassian: 4

Again I feel like I've hit a winner. The Seneschal I feel is one of the most undervalued models in Menoth. It just does so much stuff. I really prefer it with a threat extender like Crusaders Call or True Path but it's job in this list is to sit in scenario zones because the cav sure as hell don't want to all cram together to fit in a box 6" across (I feel like there's a your mother joke in that sentence). I had a crap ton of fun playing this list and I highly recommend it. I'm not sure how competitive it is, you should probably not drop it against Lylyth2 but I love the crap out of it.

Feora2

Feora, Priestess of the Flame (*6pts)
* Judicator (18pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard (2pts)
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & 2 Honor Guard (4pts)
Reclaimer (2pts)
The Wrack (3 wracks) (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

The one list I have not changed. The only change I can see being made to this list is to drop the wracks (which I find I don't need in some games) for a mechanic. This list is my circle drop and it is great against circle. It's also designed to be a generalist list. The flameguard are amazing in this list, you can charge your opponent and set everything alight or you can shield wall, iron zeal and they can stab each other and then you can feat the fire onto whatever needs to die. The judicator is amazing and it helps with Feora's low focus and reckoners are just amazing in general. Especially against circle where flare on a warpwolf generally means that warpwolf is leaving the table. It's not quite as fun as Kreoss3 but I think it is more strongly competitive. 

Vindictus

Looking at my Menoth lists I was noticing a weakness vs Ossyan. This is an issue because I am considering taking Menoth to IG and if I was a Ret player my first pic for IG would be Ossyan (I assume a lot of players will be looking to take a colossal to 75 points). After testing Kreoss3 and Thyra and rejecting them I have settled on Vindictus. The list has been:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*6pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard (2pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Initiate Tristan Durant (3pts)
* Redeemer (6pts)
The Wrack (3 wracks) (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*6pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard (2pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Initiate Tristan Durant (3pts)
* Redeemer (6pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

and is currently

Vice Scrutator Vindictus (*6pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard (2pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Initiate Tristan Durant (3pts)
* Redeemer (6pts)
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (3pts)
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (3pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)
Taryn di la Rovissi (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Of all the lists that I have been playing since coming back to Menoth this one is the least settled. No idea where I am going to end up going with this one. I know the core of the list but there are a lot of floating points that I just don't know what to do with. 

Protectorate Stats for New Players

NOTE: Every player has two lists but may only take one of each character across both lists so give extra weight to anything marked as a character.

(From WTC 2013)

Warcaster Attachment	Count	Percent
Hierophant	14	36.84%
Warjacks
Blessing of Vengeance	1	2.63%	Character
Blood of Martyrs	1	2.63%	Character
Castigator	0	0.00%
Crusader	1	2.63%
Dervish	0	0.00%
Devout	10	26.32%
Fire of Salvation	2	5.26%	Character
Guardian	0	0.00%
Judicator	7	18.42%
Reckoner	41	107.89%
Redeemer	6	15.79%
Repenter	2	5.26%
Revenger	2	5.26%
Sanctifier	0	0.00%
Scourge of Heresy	0	0.00%	Character
Templar	4	10.53%
Vanquisher	14	36.84%
Vigilant	1	2.63%
Avatar of Menoth	12	31.58%	Character
Battle Engines
Vessel of Judgment	9	23.68%
Solos
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist	1	2.63%
Exemplar Bastion Seneschal	0	0.00%
Exemplar Errant Seneschal	9	23.68%
High Exemplar Gravus	0	0.00%	Character
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon	2	5.26%
Knights Exemplar Seneschal	0	0.00%
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance	6	15.79%	Character
Paladin of the Order of the Wall	3	7.89%
Reclaimer	6	15.79%
The Covenant of Menoth	15	39.47%	Character
Vassal Mechanik	15	39.47%
Vassal of Menoth	48	126.32%
Wracks	22	57.89%
Units
Choir of Menoth	38	100.00%
Daughters of the Flame	9	23.68%
Deliverer Sunburst Crew	1	2.63%
Deliverers	1	2.63%
Exemplar Bastions	6	15.79%
Exemplar Cinerators	0	0.00%
Exemplar Errants	14	36.84%
Exemplar Errant Officer and Standard	14	36.84%
Exemplar Vengers	5	13.16%
Flameguard Cleansers	1	2.63%
Flameguard Cleanser Officer	0	0.00%
Holy Zealots	24	63.16%
Monolith Bearer	24	63.16%
Idrian Skirmishers	1	2.63%
Idrian Skirmishers Chieftain and Guide	1	2.63%
Knights Exemplar	2	5.26%
Temple Flameguard	11	28.95%
Temple Flameguard Officer and Standard	11	28.95%
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven and Honor Guard	14	36.84%	Character
Attendant Priest	3	7.89%

Kill Me, Also Continuing the Flu Streak

Still sick so I'm going to try to continue my crazy list streak. Today it's Amon Ad Raza. I still don't know if I'm going to look back on this and wonder if I had gone nuts.

Thoughts - Mobility in Menoth has to be good. He man only have 6 focus but I can bring reclaimers and some dudes and focus efficient jacks. Also Wracks and a Heirophant and he casts Mobility for free.

Dervishes - SPD 5 and no reach. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the people spamming dervishes are wrong.

Theme force - two unit of Idrians, 3 monks and no heavies. Also wrong (I assume these two incorrect points form one list of wrongness)

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
34 models

[00] High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Hierophant
[09]  >> Scourge of Heresy
[08]  >> Reckoner
[08]  >> Reckoner
[04]  >> Repenter
[04]  >> Repenter
[02] Reclaimer
[02] Reclaimer
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[01] The Wrack (3)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[06] Temple Flameguard (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard

Here is my thinking. Two choir let me battle some jacks (say the two spray bots) and still passage the other jacks to keep them safe from shooting. Also I had two points left over. Recalimers sit behind the Flamegaurd collecting souls. Two so one will be alive on the important turn (when I need my heavies to wreck face in melee). I can build up a small synergy chain but I'm not relying on it, all the jacks can do work without Synergy. Scourge is the one I'm not sure about. Mostly because he doesn't have reach. SPD 4 and no reach is an issue. With mobility and charging his threat is decent but I'm still not 100% sold. He is however a spectacular beater, gives me some defence and some offence against spells

Survivorship Bias

Up until the super series I was having a lot of success in skewing my lists towards assassination, in fact I had hit 15+ assassinations in a row (out of attempted assassinations not out of games won and lost) and the only games I had lost were games I had tried to play attrition in. I was starting to feel like assassinating was the way to go and that I was more likely to win that way than playing attrition. What I was overlooking was that I was playing smart and only assassinating when I had a very high percentage chance of the assassination succeeding. Vayl2 in particular encourages that type of smart play. Skewing my lists, in particular my Lylyth lists more towards assassination and going for assassinations in situations where attrition play was probably a greater percentage chance for success for me hurt me a great deal in the super series. That's what surivorship bias is by the way, it's looking only at those things that "survived" some process or thing. In this case I was judging the strength of assassination play by looking at how good the assassinations were that had "survived" my judgement process that the assassination was a good idea.

So I'm trying to learn from that and in that vein I think I will change my Kreoss list. The one I put up yesterday was:

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
26 models

[00] High Exemplar Kreoss (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[08]  >> Reckoner
[06]  >> Redeemer
[06]  >> Redeemer
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[01] The Wrack (3)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Errants (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard
[03] Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

The problem with this list is that the only thing that kills heavies in it is the Reckoner. The Redeemers need the feat in order to shoot most heavies or need the Reckoner to tag it first and then still miss 1-2 of their 4 boosted damage shots. That said it kills infantry dead and has a really strong assassination threat. Almost nothing can survive purification, knock down, Boosted POW 15, unboosted 15, 7 x POW 14s. (Or a boosted 15, two boosted 14s and unboosted 15 and three unboosted 14s).

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
27 models

[00] High Exemplar Kreoss (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[08]  >> Reckoner
[08]  >> Reckoner
[02] Exemplar Errant Seneschal
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[01] The Wrack (3)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Errants (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard
[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
[03] Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

This list has a much less vicious assassination threat. At best there are two boosted POW 15s and two unboosted POW 15s (as well as errant shots if needed). That's still a decent assassination threat. It also relies a lot less on the feat.

That or there is my old Kreoss list from before I bought errants:

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
26 models

[00] High Exemplar Kreoss (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[08]  >> Reckoner
[08]  >> Reckoner
[06]  >> Redeemer
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[01] The Wrack (3)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[06] Temple Flameguard (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard
[03] Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

This list relies a lot less on the feat turn than the above lists. Temple flameguard with defenders ward are ridiculous. Particularly if they are sitting just behind a Reckoner. That's quite possibly the most ludicrous thing ever. (DEF 13, +2 for defenders ward, +2 for set defence, +2 for Ashen Veil, it's like playing Kayazy except that your ARM is also ridiculously good and the unit costs less points and has reach). 

I don't know. I have to make a decision before Sunday. The last list is fully painted so that may win me over. That will also leave me with two lists with very little pathfinder (as in none really). 

In the Dojo - High Reclaimer

Been having a look at the lesser used casters in my factions of late, trying to see if I can put together a strong list with them. In Menoth one of the casters I'm looking at is the High Reclaimer. I think he has a lot of potential, clouds are really painful and he makes more clouds than anyone else in the game, I can screen the entire army with clouds without difficulty. His feat brings back trooper models at full health so I want some 8 wound trooper models. I prefer Bastions over Cinerators because of reach and Bastions if delivered will kill the world, the clouds ensure that they are delivered. The clouds also help once delivered because living enemy models suffer -2 to hit while in the clouds so high DEF models. I can stack that with Ashen Veil from a Reckoner as well.

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
29 models

[00] The High Reclaimer (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Hierophant
[08]  >> Reckoner
[03] Bastion Seneschal
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[01] The Wrack (3)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Bastions (4 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Bastions (4 grunts)
[05] Daughters of the Flame
[02] Anastasia Di Bray

The other benefit is that I can Battle every turn. Since you can't shoot the reckoner as it is behind a cloud wall it can shoot at POW 15 every turn. Also using enliven to move back behind clouds if it fails to kill its charge target is particularly obnoxious. The main reason Anastasia is in this list is because she becomes very difficult to kill. She can hide behind clouds until it is time to strike and then she can use her own move after espionage to get back behind the clouds. 

I like the high reclaimers feat at 35 points too as it is always a fixed value. At 50 points a unit of Bastions can be a problem at 35 points it can be particularly brutal. I am planning on playing this list at a tournament next weekend but I don't know what I will do if I can't get a hold of a Bastion Seneschal. They are supposed to be released but no one seems to have them. 

Templecon Masters Winning Lists

From endgamgegaming. Mike Puryear was the winner (came second at warmachine weekend). My comments after the lists.

The Harbinger of Menoth
    * Devout
    * Reckoner
    * Redeemer
    * Repenter
Choir of Menoth Min
Exemplar Errants Max
    * Exemplar Errant Officer and Standard
Visigoth Juviah Rhoven and Honor Guard
Vessel of Judgement
The Covenant of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Wracks

The devout is something I think Menoth will see more of in 2013. It brings shield gaurd, spell ward and defensive strike to protect its warcaster. With Harbinger in particular it can't be slammed through her or knock otherwise be use to knock her down so that removes its biggest drawback. Errents, Covenant, Rhupert with Harbinger I have talked about before. Vessel also helps with that and it brings some boosted shooting that doesn't use Harbinger's focus. Rhoven brings some help against stealth/clouds.

Feora, Protector of the Flame
    * Reckoner
    * Reckoner
    * Judicator
Choir of Menoth Min
Holy Zealots Max
    * Monolith Bearer
Temple Flameguard Max
Vassal Mechanik
Vassal of Menoth
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Epic Feora with a Judicator. All the Judicators AOEs cause fire, and it can be allocated 4 focus and she speeds it up and she can ignite it. Reckoners help it hit (if you need direct hits with the AOE guns). Reckoners are also just awesome. Temple Flameguard can hopefully set more things on fire before she feats.

Intercessor Kreoss
    * Fires of Salvation
    * Crusader
    * Redeemer
Exemplar Errants Max
    * Exemplar Errant Officer and Standard
Exemplar Vengers Max
Exemplar Vengers Max
Choir of Menoth Min
Vassal of Menoth

This one is interesting. Double Vengers will scrap any colossal. It's also incredibly fast and has shenanigans. It's also very magic resistant. The thing I especially like about this list in the current meta is fast, blessed, weaponmasters. They even get a 5th dice and drop the lowest. They do not care about ARM stacking.

Comments in general - At Warmachine Weekend both of Mike Puryear's lists were Menoth gunlines. Now only the Harbinger list is a true gunline. I think SR2013 has gone part of the way to beating the gunline out of the Meta and I think people are starting to expect it as well. Hopefully this year will be different than last year and won't see the total gunline domination that last year brought.

Reinventing the Wheel - Building a Harbinger list

I thought I'd take a break from the general list building posts that I've been doing (I'm still a little iffy about how well they apply, they feel too general to me) and do a specific caster. In this case its the Harbinger of Menoth. I will admit that I am at least partially writing this to put off assembling the model as it looks really tricky.

What does she do?
Her feat hits anything moving towards her with a POW 14 fire damage roll which will kill pretty much all single wound infantry in the game and quite a few multiple wound infantry as well. It will also put the hurt on beasts and jacks, a lot of people write it off against those models but an already damaged beast/jack is likely to lose a spiral and a little bit of damage can be the difference between a fully functional beast and one in the dirt.

Next she has crusaders call increasing the distance you can charge, guided hand which is an additional dice on melee attack rolls (attack not damage rolls). Purification (on a 20" control area), Awe - living models are -2 on attack rolls when within 10" of her) and Martyrdom - she can take some damage to stop a model (freindly faction, warrior, non warcaster) from dying again within 10" of her. She also has Cataclysm which is a nuke spell that automatically hits and the POW is determined by the distance from Harbinger. In a pinch she can assassinate.

What do I want the list to do?
So I can see a few different ways to build a list for her. You can alpha strike, use the feat to stop your opponent coming towards you, get some extra SPD with Crusaders Call and use Guided Hand to hit (and purification to remove any defensive upkeeps). You can build a skew list, abuse awe and martyrdom (and the feat), heal Harbinger with her focus (and a Heirophant) and pick models that are already difficult to kill. I want to start her out as a counter-punch combined arms gunline. Use the feat to gain an extra turn of shooting and then charge in and kill everything with her melee buffs.

Along those lines what are models that are great at both melee and shooting:
Errants
Reckoners
Vessel of Judgement

I can also throw in some Martyrdom abuse, I already have that with the errants. Standard gunline stuff applies (stealth and magical weapons mainly since this is a combined arms gunline).

First Draft List


Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 35 / 35
28 models

[00] The Harbinger of Menoth (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[02]  >> Hierophant
[08]  >> Reckoner
[06]  >> Redeemer
[02] The Covenant of Menoth
[02] Exemplar Errant Seneschal
[03] Knights Exemplar Seneschal
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[01] The Wrack (3)
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Errants (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Alright so lets start off with Rhupert and the Covenant with errants in a harbinger list. I can tough the errants and give them no knock down. If you kill an errant I tough roll, if I fail that I can martyrdom or self sacrifice. It's two extra layers of bullshit on a unit that was already annoying. Reckoner is pretty standard, it shoots and it fights really well. I'd really like to have two but didn't have the points (it's 10 points because then I need a second Vassal). The redeemer is in there for it's dual role, it can just drop down 3-4 AOEs on stealth or high DEF units or if I battle I can have the Reckoner shoot a heavy first and then have the Redeemer plough 2 boosted damage rolls into the heavy, when you combine the choir bonus, aiming and the Reckoner bonus you're back up to effective RAT 7 even though it's innacurate (-4 to hit) and RAT 5. Boosted POW 14s are good against heavies especially when you purify away all their defensive shenanigans. Wracks and the Hierophant give me even more focus, and some healing. She'll need it if she wants to feed both jacks, cast spells and heal Martyrdom damage. That leaves me with exactly 3 points left and a little wary of cracking high ARM. The Knight Exemplar Seneschal is a great high POW 3 point beatstick and he's super hard to kill so in he goes and the list is done. 

Finding Someone Willing to Play Against the Harbinger

:) I'll be nice, I promise. 

The Arc Node Dillema

The arc node dillema is a problem that Cygnar and Menoth have. Khador cannot pay points for an arc node and Cryx and Retribution do not suffer from the dillema. Here is the problem in a nut shell:

Arc nodes cost points, their combat abilities are much less than similarly priced models and if you choose to use those combat abilities they can no longer arc spells. Arcing spells through an arcnode also uses up focus that you could be giving to jacks or casting buff spells on your own troops. That means that when you are playing an arcnode you need to get so much out of your offensive spells that the difference between casting those spells and buffing/feeding jacks is big enough that it pays for your arc node.

Kreoss1

Early in MkII Kreoss1 enjoyed great success as one of Menoth's best casters. This success came largely from the pop and drop tactic. It was pretty simple. You brought Kreoss, Eiryss and 3 Redeemers. Once you had your opponent's caster in your control area you purified (if they had a defensive spell that could hamper your assassination, like sure foot) feated and then shot the knocked down caster to death (first with Eiryss then the redeemers). If you did not need to purify you could give all 7 focus to your redeemers otherwise 4 focus would also get the job done. With 7 focus you could then hit the knocked down caster with 11 POW 14s (with 16 inch range too, 3 from each redeemer and two from ancilliary attack from your vassals, you could even boost one of the damage rolls). With 4 focus (purification) you could still hit the caster with 9 POW 14s. The enemy caster would not be able to camp any focus as Eiryss would remove it. And of course if you had any other shooting in the army you could pound the unfortunate caster with that as well, though even an ARM 19 caster was unlikely to survive even the 4 focus assassination attempt.

Kreoss3

Nearly a week after he was released Kreoss3 is finally up on the PP site
http://privateerpress.com/warmachine/gallery/the-protectorate-of-menoth/warcasters/intercessor-kreoss
I have it on good authority that he is a lot of fun to play.
The Galleons release date has been pushed back to February. I think you may see me playing with a Galleon that looks suspiciously like a Stormwall before then.

Warmachine Weekend - Menoth (2nd Place lists)

So these were very nearly the winning lists. In the final (Severius1 v Caine2) the menoth player went for a slightly dodgy assassination against Caine. At one stage he was shooting at Caine with a Redeemer needing 14 to hit decided not to boost and rolled a double 6 hitting automatically. He then needed to roll a 14 on the damage roll to kill Caine, boosted and rolled exactly 14. However it was then that the other player noticed that the choir bonus had been used on 3 jacks and there were only 2 choir members left alive. The game was being filmed so they checked the tape and found that the choir had not been activated. Caine was restored 4 health (he had been hit twice by menoth jacks) and the game continued with Cygnar winning.

I wanted to put up these lists because they are almost exactly what I would play if I played Menoth.

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 50 / 50
Reinforcements: 10 / 10
36 models

[00] The Harbinger of Menoth (0 / 5 WJ remaining)
[08]  >> Reckoner
[08]  >> Reckoner
[06]  >> Redeemer
[02] The Covenant of Menoth
[01] Vassal Mechanik
[01] Vassal Mechanik
[02] Vassal of Menoth
[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)
[08] Exemplar Errants (9 grunts)
[02]  >> Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard
[09] Vessel of Judgement
[02] Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
[04] Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

[03] (R) High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
[02] (R) Paladin of the Order of the Wall

[05] (R) Daughters of the Flame

Protectorate of Menoth

Standard Army

PCs: 50 / 50

Reinforcements: 10 / 10

37 models

[00] Grand Scrutator Severius (0 / 6 WJ remaining)

[08]  >> Reckoner

[06]  >> Redeemer

[06]  >> Redeemer

[01] Vassal Mechanik

[02] Choir of Menoth (3 grunts)

[08] Exemplar Errants (9 grunts)

[02]  >> Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard

[09] Vessel of Judgement

[09] Vessel of Judgement

[02] Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

[03] Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

[05] (R) Daughters of the Flame

[05] (R) Daughters of the Flame

The fourth place player (Jason Watt) was also playing Menoth but though I have seen what purports to be his lists they don't add up to enough points so I won't post them. I will say that what I have seen is the same two casters with marginally different lists. It's Sev1 in theme force and Harbinger has slightly more of a melee focus. Both lists contain reckoners, both lists contain the choir, both lists contain vassals.

The idea behind these style of Menoth lists is to shoot the living crap out of your opponent and then smash whatever is left over in melee. One point I do want to make first is that both lists are very similar, though that might be intentional. I believe this tournament was divide and conquer format which requires you to take each list twice, that means you may be forced into using the list that would normally be your second choice for a key match up or the final so you want to make sure that both of your lists can take anything. Both of these lists are very generalised, they can take jacks and infantry and have very few bad match ups. I'll note that both Cygnar lists had the ability to deal with a variety of lists as well. 

I wanted to go into a bit more detail on a couple of things.

Reckoners - Easily the best jack in the game for its points. It always has Ashen Veil (concealment and -2 to hit for living models within 2" - basically 12 DEF). It has assault. It has a Range 12 gun with high POW (with choir anyway) that also lowers you DEF when hit and has critical fire. It has reach, and it has a melee weapon with good P+S. It's faster than most menoth jacks at SPD 5 and somehow is only worth 8 points. When you add in things like Vassals enabling you to move away from attacks and Menoth spells like Eye of Menoth or Defenders Ward then you can really get it to sing.

Rhupert Carvolo - he does two things. He takes your menoth units which are already loaded with special rules to make them more painful to kill and gives them tough. Also he has pathfinder which is an issue for Menoth. He can also give +1 DEF to your unit with holy/defenders ward so they get +3 DEF total.

Aiyana and Holt - so with shooting becoming more important in the game with the advent of Colossals Aiyana and Holt are also becoming more prevalent. They do two things; they can give you a damage bonus against a single enemy or they can give something magical weapons. This is quite important in a ranged heavy list as there are a lot of things that shut down non-magical shooting. The choir for example. Also things like wind wall, impervious wall and incorporeal also require magical shooting.

Severius - I want to play this caster for a few reasons. Firstly I want to see what it's like to play a caster that does not have a feat. Alright technically there is a feat on his card but it's much more of a trap than a useful tool. It seems like it has the ability to stop your opponent from replenishing focus but in order to do that you need to have Severius within 16" of your opponents caster and that is way too close. He has almost no defensive tricks and some of the worst stats in the game. While this sounds like it would be bad he has a very very strong spell list. Eye of Menoth (how is that an upkeep?) Defenders ward, Vision, Ashes to Ashes (at POW 12 if you take his personal character jack) and he has 8 focus.

Harbinger - Purification breaks the game a little bit and Harbinger has 20" of it. From your deployment zone she can purify across the other half of the table (and really that's where she should be). She can also allocate to jacks 20" away and you need to be using most of those 20". Her army is fast and she can martyr important models and allocate a lot of focus to her jacks. 

Menoth

Going to put down my thoughts on Menoth while they are buzzing around up here as well.

EDIT: http://museonminis.com/which-bloody-unit-the-menoth-tarpits/ Chunky (Australian player, came down for the super series I played against him though he brought Skorne not Menoth) has written an article on the main Menoth units. It's worth a read, it hits all the important points.

Menoth - the basics

A lot of the abilities of jacks and casters that really make this faction are defensive in nature. Menoth is easily the most defensive faction in the game but not in a purely ARM or DEF buffing way, rather in a way that allows you to dictate to your opponent. It also has some of the best shooting in the game and is able to shoot without sacrificing the ability to fight in melee which is a dangerous combination. It has far and away the best jack support in the game making it one of the few warmachine factions that generally looks to base its lists around warjacks.

Things that make Menoth as a faction

Choir - Battle allows you to give all your jacks +2 to hit and +2 damage, in general Menoth jacks are not worse or at least not significantly worse than the jacks of other factions so this makes them spectacular. They can also prevent your opponent from targeting your jacks with spells or non-magical shooting.

Vassal of Menoth - Enliven and Ancilliary attack. You can have a jack walk away if it gets damaged or make an extra melee or ranged attack. The can also use arcane bolt but unless all your jacks are dead this should never even be a consideration.

Purification - Purification may not be the best spell in the game but it's certainly the one that breaks the game the most. Three factions have purification but Menoth has it in two of it's better casters and a third has purification light as a feat.

Eye of Menoth - pSeverius' spell. +1 to hit and +1 damage to all attacks from your army. Even blast damage. It's an upkeep too.

Exemplar Errants - POW 9 weapon masters who shoot really well and have blessed on their shots, and have self sacrifice so you can break up attacks and deny abilities that require destroying a model and pathfinder and quick work and advance deployment and can't be targeted by enemy spells and only costs 10 points. 

Martyrdom - The harbinger should probably get her own entry here but I'll focus on one of her more pain in the arse abilities. She is able to prevent you from killing key models, she brings them back to life for d3 damage and is able to heal that damage pretty easily as she has 10 focus.

The jacks - Reckoners can shoot and fight better than most specialist melee or ranged jacks. Redeemers can put out a ridiculous number of AOEs which hit at a pretty high POW (POW 9 with pSev is pretty silly). The other jacks are good too but these two are the best, most undercosted (feeling a bit weird calling a 6 point light undercosted but it is). 

Daughters - Menoths version of Kayazy, and the faction is full of defensive buffs. 

Zealots - A unit with battle from the choir built in. Hooray. Also can become invincible for a turn and have grenades. 

The book - Covenent of Menoth. It's such a pain to kill and can cause so many problems. 

Vessel of Judgement - Menoths battle engine. Has a great ranged attack, always has access to boosts, and has three great miracles it can do including one on your opponents turn.

Defenders Ward - Menoth's signiture spell (like arcane shield with cygnar or iron flesh with Khador). Half the menoth casters have it and it's a really good defensive buff. 

Menoth is better at higher points. Something not talked about very often is the way points values affect the strength of factions. Mercs for example are 35 point specialists or at least they were before Galleon. 35 points is enough for Mercs to get in all their powerful solos but not so high that large chunks of the army need to go without their abilities. Menoth and Circle and to a lesser extent Trolls (and Skorne?) rely on support staff, with Menoth in particular you start off with the choir and two vassals. You probably are also looking at the book, reclaimers,  Heirophant, wracks, Rhoven, a second choir... It's not unusual for a Menoth army to contain 10 points or more of support staff. At lower points you just can't fit in all the support you want and an army for them to support. 

Playing Against Menoth

First and foremost avoid a caster that is reliant on defensive upkeeps. Iron flesh is a great spell but it's just going to be purified off you. Shooting is a great counter to Menoth but only if it is magical shooting, otherwise you'll end up with the choir singing no non-magical ranged attacks and be stuffed. You need to be ready for enliven, that means you need open fists (to weapon-lock, being mindful of the reduction in threat range as you cannot charge and weapon lock), quick cheap troops to surround a jack or knockdown/stationary effects or force lock to hold them in place. 

You are going to have to be ready to both be shot at and face high MAT high P+S melee attacks. Unless you are immune to blast damage you can expect to be hit with high POW blasts as well high enough that even high ARM infantry are not immune. You need to be able to take down multiple heavies. Menoth can easily run quite a few heavies if they want, the Avatar in particular uses no focus from your caster

What about the off casters? I didn't really talk about the Khador casters without iron flesh but I will spend a bit of time talking about Menoths infantry casters. I'll start by saying that Harbinger is not one of them. Though she clearly is an infantry caster she also has 10 focus and all her spells also work on jacks. You still expect to see 3 or 4 jacks with her. Kreoss2 has a really good tier list which has a crapload of infantry in it. His spells and feat are better for infantry. Expect to have a whole bunch of exemplars up in your face very quickly. Vindictus is quite tanky and can sit inside a unit of zealots with defenders ward and be near invincible. He also makes infantry faster but not jacks. 

Judicator

Fully assembled this time. It might be as pretty as the conquest.

I thought I'd elaborate a little on what I think of it. It's got 60 damage boxes, ARM 19 and Menoth have some ARM buffing spells (defenders ward, inviolable resolve) so it can get up to ARM 21. Menoth have the choir (so you can stop your opponent either shooting at it (no Gorman black oil) or casting spells at it (no crippling grasp) or give it +2 to attack and damage. That gives it two RAT 7 sprays (that ignore nearly all defensive bonuses and allow you to shoot screened models) at POW 14, it puts the blast damage of the 4 AOEs this thing puts out a turn at POW 9, it picks up a focus for free and perhaps most importantly when it starts swinging its fists in close combat the choir takes it to MAT 8 P+S 22. With a Vassal of Menoth it can take an extra swing with those fists or drop two more AOEs or another flame thrower burst. I don't think you can argue that the thing is bad, even if it's main guns the POW 14 (16 with choir) which scatter an additional AOE have inaccurate (-4 on attack rolls). With the choir it's back to -2 (or RAT 3) and Dougal MacNaile it's back to even (RAT 5) and he lets you reroll the secondary scatter if it isn't hitting anything.

That said it can't use enliven, if you haven't played much against Menoth you may not have had the chance to grow to hate enliven. First time you damage a jack it can make a full advance and not be targeted by free strikes, if you don't arm lock it or something along those lines it will simply walk away from the thing that charged it after the first hit (not as good as Admonition). If you shoot it with something to damage it and take away enliven it can often walk out of range or behind other models/obstacles. It comes from the Vassal of Menoth so there are two in pretty much every list. The flame throwers and fists mean it has to get forwards but it is trivially easy to slow down a colossal. Put a cheap model or two in front of it and you have to task shooting from the rest of you army to destroy it and the colossal base blocks off a lot of shooting. Cheap tarpit units can hold up a colossal very easily (trampling is hard with a large base). This is not an issue for the Stormwall which wants to stand and shoot but makes life difficult for the more melee centric colossals. While they can do this to a heavy jack as well due to the base size you need less models to block in the colossal and it's worth twice as many points. Lastly Menoth jacks are really good. The Reckoner is probably the best non-character heavy jack in the game and the rest of their jacks are not far behind. Considering you get 4 choir in a min unit (so that's 4 jacks you can effect) you can often get more out of taking two heavies than taking a Judicator. Menoth don't generally have a big focus problem either, with wracks and reclaimers getting extra focus is not especially difficult.

To summarise my opinion is that it is good but that I think you can do better in most lists (in particular outside of epic Feora) by taking smaller warjacks.

Super Series Final

The super series was an Australia wide tournament. There were 8 qualifying rounds giving 16 players for the final last Sunday. Though each tournament was an average steamroller event the final had four rounds, four different lists and characters were restricted across all lists (so only one Mulg or Deathjack). I like to follow tournaments like these as it gives you an idea of what the top players are doing and new tactics people have been using. Back to the Super Series the 16 finalists by faction and rank were:

Pos	Player	Army
1	James Kerr-Reeve	Protectorate of Menoth
2	Evan Ferris	Trollbloods
3	James Moorhouse	Legion of Everblight
4	Trent Denison	Cryx
5	Kieren Moore	Cryx
6	Lachlan Macwhirter	Legion of Everblight
7	Michael Blyth	Cryx
8	Jeff Galea	Retribution of Scyrah
9	Tobias Ford	Retribution of Scyrah
10	Andrew Galea	Cygnar
11	Jeff Traish	Trollbloods
12	Simon Hall	Khador
13	Dave Lancaster	Khador
14	Dru Moore	Protectorate of Menoth
15	Marcelo Rouco	Cygnar
16	Nathan Frawley	Cygnar

No circle which is odd, circle have been doing very well internationally of late but that trend doesn't seem to have reached Australia yet. No Mercs or minions was expected, Mercs are very reliant on characters, though it's easy to do two merc lists with character restrictions 4 lists would leave Mercs at a very distinct disadvantage. With minions there is no cross over between Blindwater (crocs) and Thornfall (pigs) so people tend to play one or the other however there are only 3 casters in each so it is impossible to field 4 different lists. There were some very good Skorne players who just missed out on qualifying but top lists in that faction tend to have a reliance on Molik Karn and he is character restricted and would only be able to appear in one list. It's quite possible that a player or two who normally play skorne switched faction.

The winner's lists (with my comments):
[also comments from the winner who unlike me knows what he is talking about]

Grand Scrutator Severius

- Blessing of Vengeance

- Reckoner

- Reckoner

- Redeemer

- Repenter

Choir of Menoth (6)

Exemplar Errants (10)

- Exemplar Errant Officer and Standard Bearer (2)

Reclaimer

Reclaimer

Vassal Mechanik

Vassal of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

Wracks (3)

(character restrictions mean either prime or epic not both, this is also the caster I lost to in the Wollongong tournament final. Feat is brutal against warmachine but even without the feat he has a devastating spell list. pSevvy needs most of his focus for his spells but his spells in conjunction with the choir and the Vassals make jacks spectacular and the reclaimers can gather souls and allocate them as focus, also the wracks will provide at least 3 additional focus.)

Vice Scrutator Vindictus

- Castigator

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Anastasia di Bray

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

High Exemplar Gravus

High Paladin Dartan Vilmon

Holy Zealots (10)

- Monolith Bearer

Knights Exemplar (6)

Knights Exemplar (6)

Knights Exemplar Seneschal

Knights Exemplar Seneschal

Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan

Paladin of the Wall

Wracks (3)

(Vindictus with only one jack rules out sacrificial lamb which I think is a pretty good spell but obviously I don't play Menoth so I'm going to have to defer to the wisdom of the super series champion here.  True path makes warrior models (so not jacks) lightning fast. I'm assuming Madelyn Corbeau is there to make Anastasia di Bray even more devastating, if she gets close enough to your warcaster everything within 8" (9 with MC) gets to move and attack again. A troop based army without Menoths signature jack support. I would have liked to see this army play).

Harbinger of Menoth

- Reckoner

- Hierophant

Avatar of Menoth

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Allegiant of the Order of the Fist

Choir of Menoth (4)

Daughters of the Flame (6)

Daughters of the Flame (6)

Knights Exemplar Seneschal

Knights Exemplar Seneschal

Reclaimer

3 Wracks

Vassal Mechanic

The Covenant of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

Visgoth Rhoven and Honour Guard

(If you don't hate the Harbinger of Menoth you are a Menoth Player. Not surprised to see the covenant in a list with Harbinger, or two Knights Exemplat Seneschals, or Rhoven + honour gaurd. I cringed just reading this list. Not exactly sure what I'd do against this list aside from walking around the table and kicking my opponent in the balls.)

High Exemplar Kreoss

- Reckoner

- Reckoner

Choir of Menoth  (4)

Flameguard Cleansers (6)

Holy Zealots (10)

- Monolith Bearer

Idrian Skirmishers  (10)

- Idrian Skirmisher Chieftain & Guide

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Reclaimer

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Vassal of Menoth 

Wracks  (3)

(pKreoss the battlebox caster, lots of anti-magic, great feat guarantees auto hits for one round, with Aiyana and Holt to boost damage on a key target. Lots of things with assault to make that feat round even more brutal and some protection to keep the army alive until that point. This army looks reliant on doing a lot of damage on one key turn. This is the army that won the final game against eMadrak.)

Battle Report - Battle for Thirroul

Legion of Everblight
Standard Army
PCs: 25 / 25
15 models

[00] Bethayne, Voice of Everblight (0 / 3 WB)
[00]  >> Belphagor (Companion)
[09]  >> Scythean
[08]  >> Seraph
[08] Blighted Nyss Hex Hunter (9 grunts)
[03]  >> Bayal, Hound of Everblight

vs

Protectorate of Menoth
Standard Army
PCs: 25 / 25
15 models

[00] Thyra, Flame of Sorrow (0 / 6 WJ remaining)
[06]  >> Crusader
[08]  >> Vanquisher
[04]  >> Repenter
[08] Exemplar Cinerators (4 grunts)
[05] Daughters of the Flame

Scenario: Gaining Ground

Turn 1:
Everblight
Scythean and hex hunters advanced to the end of the second box.

Menoth
Daughters charged the scythean and ran into the second box. Failed to damage the scythean.

Turn 2
Everblight
Hex hunters charged the daughters, killed all but two and almost opened a charge lane for the scythean. Seraph advanced, slipstreamed the scythean into that charge lane and sprayed the vanquisher scratching the paint. Bethaine killed a daughter with gallows and Belphagore through up it's animus around Bethaine to stop the remaining daughter from charging her. Scythean charged the vanquisher also getting the repenter in it's melee range. Trashed the Vanquisher and almost trashed the Repenter again.

Menoth
Thrya gave 3 focus to the Crusader, advanced, feated and cast carnage. The Repenter used her feat to move into position to spray the hex hunters while forfeiting movement; killed two. Crusader charged the Scythean (already wounded), rolling straight damage with average rolls enough to kill it with ease but managed to roll terribly and leave it alive with one damage box. Cinerators charged in and carved up the hex hunters. Carnage cancelling out Ashen Veil. Managed to take out half the unit including Bayal.

Turn 3
Bethaine healed the Scythean twice to bring it to full battle effectiveness. She then feated and charged the last daughter killing it. Remaining hex hunters killed two Cinerators. Scythean trashed the Crusader and left the repenter on only a few wounds. Seraph managed to get into position to get some shots on Thyra. Rolled a hit and a critical (for critical poison) and then 15 damage to kill her with one shot.