Cogs in the TheoryMachine

Hi all, and welcome back to the latest installation of Cogs in the TheoryMachine! Following the Valentines Massacre results from a week ago, I decided I needed to get more practice with some of the more traditionally tournament viable casters for the faction. I'm pretty ok with my eFeora play, and I got a decent run through with both pSeverius and pKreoss when I started playing Menoth. The caster I really wanted to get to grips with, though, was Harbinger.

I don't think that there would be any argument that she's one of the best casters in Menoth, and probably the game as a whole. Having said that she can be tricky to play, and I have very limited experience playing with her. In fact if you skim back through the archives I took her to a Tournament at the Outpost last year with a single practice game and got fairly consistently schooled using her against more experienced oppenents. To overcome this I've decided that now is the time to get a handle on her starting by playing her for the next few weeks until I feel confident enough with her. 

The list

The Harbinger of Menoth +5

-Heirophant -2

-Reckoner -8

-Devout -5

Minimum Choir -2

Wracks -1

Vassal of Menoth -2

Maximum Exemplar Errants with UA -10

Exemplar Errant Seneschal -2

Rhupert Carvolo -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Minimum Holy Zealots with UA -6

Maximum Exemplar Bastions -8

Dartan Vilmon -3

Paladin of the Order of the Wall -2

Objective: Fuel Cache

The idea with this list is all control and denial. The Errant package (Max Errants with UA, Seneschal, Rhupert and Covenant) is designed to be a massive pain for my opponent to get rid of while also dishing out a reasonable amount of damage to clear zones etc. with Hunter Quick Work shots from charging weaponmasters. The Zealots are also in the list for zone control, jamming and obviously super-fun bomb throwing japes. The Bastions form a second wave to counter attack whatever's left from the rest of the grind in the list, adding in a hard to shift force that can polish off any troublemakers. The Devout is in the list to offer squishy Harbinger some protection from ranged, while the Reckoner is there to handle any heavy ARM that comes up. The support package is the deluxe edition with choir, wracks, vassal and a Heirophant. Then finally Dartan and his little brother are in the list to offer an immovable object to sit on flags and in zones and simply not die. Add in all of Harbingers cool native abilities (Awe for the pseudo DEF buff, FOCUS 10 for... being awesome, and obviously martyrdom) and the list becomes hard to kill and pretty heavy hitting on the retaliation. 

Test Game 

Ok. Full disclosure: I did actually already use this list and I was going to write it up as a bat rep... but the game went long and the store was literally closing around us at the time, so it didn't end properly and I didn't feel like it reflected how the game was going. I played against a Legion list that included pThagrosh with a Carnivean, Angelius and Scythean, along with a max unit of Legionnaires, a max Spawning vessel, the Black Frost Shard, a Foresaken, a shepherd and a Throne. We played Two Fronts from the 2015 Steamroller. 

My list out attritioned throughout the game, wiping out swathes of Legion models, including killing all the heavies (and one twice). The Reckoner in particular was very effective, using Enliven and Assault to dodge charges from a heavy and then one round it in the next turn. The Errants did a great job of making a nuisance of themselves while also whittling down the Legionaries. I wiped out the majority of the force and survived a couple of long shot assassination attempts along the way. By the last real turn his force was a Harrier with one box, a shredder, the Throne, Thagrosh, a mostly dead Carnivean and the Blackfrost Shard, while I had only lost about half the Errants along with all the Zealots, and only had a single model (the Harrier) stopping me from controlling the opposing zone.

I was in a commanding position and could easily have gotten Harby to a safe position from which I could continue to attrition and ultimately win on scenario, which is what I would have done normally, but as the store was closing and we had to get finished, I instead went for the cool option of charging the Throne with Harbinger to remove the last big threat. I used a boosted Cataclysm and a couple of melee attacks to hurt it and then poured damage onto it, and the Reckoner killed the Carnivean. The Throne was left on 1 box when I was done, and so I allowed him to take his turn, and he managed to kill Harbinger using every model he had left on the table to pull it off. It's a shame that we didn't have more time to be able to play the game out properly as I feel if I played it safe I was in a strong position to win the game within a couple more turns. More importantly I felt that this game gave me a good chance to play around with her abilities and use them effectively in a real game. 

I'm really looking forward to having a another practice with her to hone my experience a little further. I'll be sure to tell you all about it as it happens!

Stay tuned for more, and don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for more updates!

-M

Cogs in the TheoryMachine - List Developments

Hi everyone, this week is a new segment called 'Cogs in the TheoryMachine' where I'll be discussing list building, tactical ideas and other miscellaneous meta gaming I'm doing. This first week will be focusing on my latest list ideas and tactical concepts I'm developing for the Menoth lists I'm planning to bring to the local Hull Warmachine monthly tournament in February. 

The first list I'll be using is the Intercessor Kreoss list I've been developing over the last few weeks, which has undergone a much bigger shift following my last game against Nick. This started out as quite a heavy list that mashed armour but struggled against infantry swarms. I like a good skew list as much as the next guy but in a more competitive setting versatility is always the heart of the game. Luckily I felt that the two games I've had (both of which were very infantry heavy) the list didn't perform too badly and so isn't exactly auto-lose as is. Having said that I'm hoping that with a few changes it'll be much more well rounded. What I've got so far is:

Intercessor Kreoss +5

-Vanquisher -8

-Reckoner -8

Min Choir -2

Vassal of Menoth -2

Nicia, Tear of Vengence -3

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Wracks -1

Vassal Mechanic -1

Daughters of Menoth -5

Max Exemplar Vengers -11

Max Exemplar Errants with UA -10

This list has sacrificed the quality of the Avatar for the quantity of Errants. The Errants are in the list for two reasons, firstly to tag with Rhupert to create a Tough unit that's hard to shift from contesting, and also to pump out attacks between weaponmaster melee and quick work, hopefully balancing the list more vs infantry. To further throw a spanner in the works the Covenant of Menoth can also stop the Errants that do tough from being knocked down, making them a real pain for my opponent. Maintaining the Menoth Jam the Daughters with Holy Ward are very hard for anyone who can't boost, and even then they've got a decent chance of dodging a hit. With the Errants in the list the Vengers are freed up to be able to move around to be wherever they're most needed, keeping them in reserve. Hopefully this means they can hit where they can do most damage. Nicia is in the list to help deal with troublesome solos. The two jacks along with the vassals and choir are an obvious choice, both having good ranged attacks as well as decent melee options, and both can make good use of Warpath. 

The really interesting question in 2015 is which of the objectives goes best with the list? Arcane Wonder seems like a good option, but I find that Kreoss is either up keeping or allocating and even though he has lots of upkeeps he doesn't need the focus assist much anyway. Effigy of Valour and Armoury aren't much use to this list. Stockpile is nice but Covenant covers most of that functionality. Fuel Cashe is a nice ability that the list can use well but I'd prefer it in my second list and don't want to repeat myself where possible. So that leaves Bunker. This one has Impervious Flesh, making it more difficult to destroy at range, forcing the enemy to move towards my force, potentially giving me a greater chance for a strong first strike. Also this objective has the Girded ability, making this a nice out for my Daughters:- by jamming this objective it removes one of their biggest weaknesses in blast damage making their DEF 17 daunting to overcome. So I think Bunker's the way to go. 

Now the second list I'm planning to use has changed a couple of times too, without being played, mainly because of character restrictions having an effect when I made changes to my Kreoss list. List two is an eFeora list:

eFeora +6

-Bonded Judicator -18

-Reckoner -8

Vassal of Menoth -2

Wracks -1

Vassal Mechanic -1

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution -3

Dartan Vilmon -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

Min Choir -2 

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

This list is a very different build to the Kreoss list, but is based on more solid principles, and a playstyle that I've had more practice with. The TFG and Zealots are in the list with a dual purpose, firstly they jam the board and generally make a nuisance of themselves, being hard to shift out of zones or away from flags (Dartan is in the list to compound this further). Secondly on their mini-feat turns the TFG can poke each other with flame pikes with little chance of killing and the zealots can bathe in Judicator flamethrower to get a whole bunch of cont. fire on the board for Feora to play with using her own feat. Saxon Orrik is in the list to dole out pathfinder to the TFG who are slow enough without getting trapped in difficult terrain. Gorman and Eiryss are in the list to generally cause my opponent issues. The choir, wrack and vassal options are all fairly standard to support the jack load out. In this list I opted for the Judicator as a collosal is always fun to put on the table, and Feora's warjack bond only cranks that all the way up to 11. I've heard stories of casters being set on fire in turn one of a game with running and an ancilliary attack from a vassal. The Reckoner is in the list as a secondary jack, and is more than capable of using the flare on its gun to offer an assist to the Judicator before a charge against a higher DEF enemy. On top of that the Reckoner is a powerful and versatile option in its own right. 

Unlike the Kreoss list I had a good idea which objective I was planning to use with this list as soon as SR2015 hit. Fuel Cashe. This gives jacks starting their activation within 4" a free run or charge, helping with focus efficiency for Feora, who sometimes feels starved on key turns. But the real reason, if I'm honest is that I couldn't resist the thematic benefits of making a list where even the objective can set my enemy on fire! 

These are the lists as they stand at the moment, though they are, of course, subject to change when they hit the board. My biggest concern at the moment is that the Feora list will be too large to get through on timed turns (that and the fact that I don't actually have a Saxon Orrik model yet). At the moment though these are two lists that I feel relatively confident with and am looking forward to using on the table. Hopefully I'll be able to report some success come February!

-M