Once again, another super fun battle against Zugbart. This time we both fielded different casters. After a long stretch with Amon, I've decided it's time to start learning how to use the Harbinger.
The List:
Building a 500pt list with the Harbinger was rough. Add in my relative inexperience with using her (maybe 2 previous battles total), and I had a really hard time. This first list I decided to leverage my list experience with Amon and go jack and solo heavy. I've also been theorizing about building a "brick" style army, so this was a good opportunity to try both. First was the obligatory Devout, which I decided I'd just accept as necessary. Next, I wanted 2 heavy jacks, so I selected the Castigator and the Crusader, primarily due to cost and flexibility on power attacks. Next up was a chior. The theory here was that the 2 heavies would march side-by-side up the field, blocking LOS to the Harbinger, while the chior chanted no-shoot on the jacks. At this point I was sorely short on remaining points, but had enough to throw in Vilmon, one paladin, one seneschal, and 2 wracks. A core piece of my strategy was to keep Vilmon and the paladin in base-to-base so that when the Harbinger Martyred to keep them alive, they wouldn't be knocked down. The seneschal was mostly meant as a backup to hang out with the brick and provide a specific strike capacity.
The Game:
I gotta say, the brick worked well for me. I felt like a giant steamroller able to just roll up the battlefield methodically (with the exception of Grim's feat stalling me for a round). The brick made it really hard for the trolls to pick out anything in particular to kill. Martyrdom was completely crazy, allowing Vilmon and the paladin to stay alive and by themselves, take out an entire squad of champs. The Harbinger's 20" control area was also completely ridiculous for guestimating ranges to things. Although the Castigator did little more than screen the Harbinger most of the game, the Crusader got to deliver a massive beatdown on a Blitzer. All I got to say there is that Crusader + Infuse + 3 focus for extra attacks = rockin damage output. I spent alot of the game taking down 1 warbeast at a time until finally Grim was at a point he needed to cut himself to get to full fury.
The End Game:
In the end, Zugbart very nearly pulled off a No Quarter Challenge style maneuver on me and came dangerously close to killing the Harbinger. Hats off to Zubbart for pulling out a very clever maneuver in a rather desperate situation. I think the odds were in his favor, but a missed attack roll let the Harbinger live at the very end. At that point it was down to Grim, an Impaler, and Alten, who was tied up in melee with a last chior member.
The Luck:
Zugbart was definately having a bad dice day. There were a number of times when his dice failed him at critical points. I think the game would have been much closer if he'd had average luck. I on the other hand had fairly good rolling, which I am attributing to using my vegas dice more than anything else. Also bad luck was my list was heavily effective at netralizing Zugbart's army. He had primarily a shooty army and I had a ranged-impervious brick. By the time he was able to maneuver and pick off my chior leader, the brick had already deployed.
Star Performers:
The brick definately creates a different dynamic for star performers. Without Martyrdom, the paladin would have been dead 6 times over at least, but as a result he and Vilmon were shockingly effective. The chior also was of key importance in the brick. Overall I'm pretty happy with the Harbinger's performance. Her Martyrdom, Purification, and Word of Law spells were all very useful in this battle, as well as her feat being fairly useful. I think a key to using her is keeping her well back, screened and camping half her focus at all times unless there's a pivotal round to unload with. I'm looking forward to better luck for Zugbart in the next game hopefully.
Damage Report:
The Harbinger model unfortunately had a minor amount of damage due to transport only. Basically her flag arm came off, along with the shoulder armor. It was an easy fix, but I definately need to find a better way to transport her safely.
Overall:
Very fun, and I am looking forward to trying the Harbinger with other list types in order to get a better feel for her. A number of her features seemed to not come into play at all during this game. I had this same issue with Amon, but by the last couple games I was at a point where I was utilizing 50+% of his features/spells every game. I'm sure the Harbinger will be the same way once I can get more refined with her.
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