Battle Report....sort of

"I got 2 turntables and a microphone..."

I played my latest list against Adam and his Khador.

50 points, Incursion
Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador (*3pts)
* Behemoth (13pts)
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Winter Guard Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Winter Guard Infantry Officer & Standard (2pts)
* 3 Winter Guard Infantry Rocketeers (3pts)
Iron Fang Kovnik (2pts)
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich (2pts)

I won the roll and went 2nd.
I decided to run everything forward on turn 1 and feat. It did mitigate my losses quite a bit.
Instances of note:
The Nihilators tied up the Winter Guard all game, contesting the objective on the left. Each turn, Mordikaar would cast Revive and bring back at least 2 Nihilators.
I played more aggressive with Despoiler. I enraged him with a beast handler and charged him into a MOW, killing it and thus spawning a void spirit. The void spirit then ran over to the widowmakers, hoping for a failed CMD check. No luck. Next turn Despoiler killed a battle mechanik, spawning yet another void spirit. This one charged into the Old Witch, tagging her for 7 damage. Despoiler cast his Arcane Suppression animus on himself as he was slowly creeping up to Old Witch.
Damaging Witch sent Scrap Jack into a flailing bundle of rage as he proceeded to charge Despoiler and knock out 2/3 of his health boxes. Behemoth moved in and finished the job.
During Witch's feat turn, those inside her control area stayed put and took no damage, only 3 Nihilators were out.
Archidon charged Behemoth hoping for a lucky critical pitch. No dice.

It became an attrition battle; Khador's high DEF and ARM vs. Mordikaar's ability to cast Revive and spawn void spirits. The score was tied 0/0, both sides contesting. It was a close game and it got cut short because we lost track of time and the store was closing.

Overall I'm happy with the way things went. I learned a lot.

50 Point Mordikaar

After a short break, I'm upping my list to 50 points.

Void Seer Mordikaar (*5pts)
* Archidon (7pts)
* Despoiler (10pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Cataphract Incindiarii (Leader and 5 Grunts) (9pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Praetorian Karax (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer (3pts)
Void Spirit (2pts)

My biggest problem is that I tend to forget shit. Feating is a big one. Many a game where I slapped my forehead and exclaimed that I should have feated that turn. Turn 2 seems to be the optimal feat turn, allowing my units that extra bit of DEF to stay alive once battle has been joined.

I'll be playing this list today, I have high hopes. 

Remember: Aggression pays off. 

Tracking my weight: as of 8/2/14: 232

Mordikaar vs. Midas

I got yet another game with the void seer, this time against one of my favorite warlocks - Midas. Adam and I played the Incursion scenario at 35 points. I played the same list as last time. I deployed as a brick in the center with karax on the left the nihilators on the right, each unit ready to grab or at least contest the objectives nearest to them.
Adam moved his slaughterhausers to engage my front ranks and tied me up for a turn or two. My void spirit moved to contest the objective on the right. Adam was up in points by 1 by turn 4 but by that time most of his army was gone. He did pop his feat and bring back his dead warbeasts. I made the mistake of forgetting that after they came back, they were undead and had the krea shoot the war hog with spiritual paralysis. (Laughter did indeed ensue.) Last turn of the game I had Mordikaar cast the gladiator's animus on the gladiator and slammed the war/road hog, knocking down the gunboar and Midas. The gladiator was unable to do a full follow up because of the gun boar was in its path but was able to kill it. At which time, having only about 3 models left on the board, Adam conceded.
I don't consider this a full on victory as this was Adam's first game with Midas and there is a bit of a learning curve with him.
As far as my army, the gladiator was the star of the show yet again. I may consider a 2nd gladiator in future lists. I am becoming accustomed to not having beast handlers, odd because they were such a staple in my other lists. I'm getting better at fury management and didn't have to take any threshold checks. In a 50 point game, I may replace the karax with cetratii and include a gatorman witch doctor.

Mordikaar Update

Archidon!!!

I went with the soulward for my last game instead of the second void spirit. I played against my usual opponent, Adam, and his Dr. Arkadius list. We played a 35 point Incursion SR2014 scenario.
He won the roll and went first. I tried something a little different, a denied flank maneuver. I set up the nihilators in the center, the void spirit on the left and everything else on the right side of my deployment zone. It worked out for the most part, I didn't end up with an infantry clump in the middle of the field. My tyrant commander got himself capped on turn 2. I should have expected no less; he's a medium based model in a sea of small based models. As per usual, I threw the niliators forward, used the karax as a bodyguard for Mordikaar and held back the warbeasts until turn 3. I actually remembered to feat this game, on turn 3. Despite my +3 DEF Adam still rolled like a champ but did miss a couple of attacks. We had ground each others armies down pretty well, I think I came out on top only because I had more models on the table from the start.
I have the unfortunate tenancy when playing Warmachine to go directly for the assassination, bypassing the scenario completely. In the past, I did the opposite and only went for the assassination only if winning by scenario was impossible. I think it makes for a more exciting game to use your army to kill stuff rather than hold objectives, however I do not wish for this game to devolve into a simple game of chess.

Late in the game, turn 4 I think, I saw no viable assassination options and was about to concede. Adam pointed out that I could dominate the right side objective and score 2 points. I did so and won due to the face that the center objective had become uncontested. I really don't count that as a win as I was going to concede and had Adam not said anything, the game would have ended.

I am very much enjoying this list, Mordikaar is a fun caster and I want to get more games under my belt before I move on to another. I am considering bringing this list from 35 to 50 points by dropping the gladiator and adding a mammoth, a min unit of beast handlers and a feralgiest.

Keeping track of my weight: as of 6/9/14: 246

Continuing with the Void Seer

"You got the touch..."

Today I will be playing Mordikaar yet again, this time with a non-tier list.

Mordikaar
Gladiator
Archidon
Krea
Full Nihilators
Full Karax
Tyrant Commander and standard
Void Spirit
Void Spirit

I am debating on whether to replace one void spirit with a soulward. I may play one game with and one game without just to see if there's a difference.

I think I need to have a whiteboard with the word "FEAT" just so I don't forget it. In all my games with Mordikaar, I think I only feated once. Why? I think maybe on some subconscious level, I believe that the feat is some game winning ability only to be used at the precise moment to turn the tide of battle, like the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Silly, I know. The best time to use the feat would probably be around turn 3 when actual battle is joined, allowing my army to stick around for another turn.

Void Seer Mordikaar - UPDATE

My first 2 games with Mordikaar didn't go so well. I played against Dr. Arkadius and pIrusk and lost or conceded both games. I was beginning to think that maybe Mordikaar wasn't my caster, but I wanted to play him again to make sure. I played against Rob's infantry heavy Grale list...and won. Had he played his usual eKaya list, I'm sure he would have defeated me and I could have put this silly notion to rest and get on with a caster that I'm good with, like Hexeris. Our game played out better than the first 2; I had a better idea what to do and what no to do and I was a bit more aggressive with my army in general. It wasn't just the win that convinced me to continue playing this list; some very interesting things happened during the game.
Despolier killed an already damaged warpwolf.
An entire unit of Wolves of Oberos failed a CMD check after I ran a void spirit at them.
The archidon charged Grale and got a CRIT, throwing him into a unit of karax that finished him off.
Mordikaar cast Revive twice to bring back dead troopers.
A single nihilator killed 3 enemy models and then proceeded to butcher 3 (or 4?) of his own unit.

There was more than meets the eye with this army, I wanted to continue playing to unlock more hidden potential. I am often criticized for my caster ADD I seem to have, it's hard for me to focus on any one caster for too long. I see potential in a caster and tend to get fixated in it but when my expectations come crashing down, I start looking elsewhere. I knew that if I wanted to continue with Mordikaar, I would have to make a few changes. First, get rid of Despoiler, for now. He's a great toolbox warbeast, but I was having difficulty figuring out where he fit into the army. His ability to upkeep a spell for free was great (when I remembered to use it) but that was his main function for my first 2 games. His ability to create void spirits out of dead enemy troopers was great, but by the time the nihilators were through, there wasn't much left.
So I dropped Despolier and added a gladiator, hands down my favorite warbeast and with the 2 points left over I decided to bring the list to Tier 4 and add 2 feralgeists.

I played the new list in 2 separate games today, first against Dr. Arkadius and the second against eIrusk. The first I lost due to scenario, the second I conceded.
Despite my losses, I am undaunted and want to continue with Mordikaar. I may have to break tier in order to fix some of the holes in the list. First off: no eyeless sight. I felt lost without the extoller soulward but I may have to add her in next game. Second: no arch node. Aptimus Marketh can cast all but one of Mordikaar's spells, some of which only have a range of 6". Marketh can put himself in harm's way without risking Mordikaar. Being incorporeal for the first turn does nothing for me, but the free void spirit is indeed a boon. AD for the incorporeal models is nice, getting into the control zone first helps but being able to stay in is the problem. I also need to look into a shooty unit, venators maybe. And replacing the raider with a shaman.
We shall see.....

Void Seer Mordikaar - 35 points, Tier 2

Having been disappointed with Midas, I dove into the Skorne pool again. This time I am looking at Void Seer Mordikaar. He possesses some interesting abilities, a nice feat and some solid spells. I wrote up the following list to capitalize on his strengths:

Legions of the Abyss: 35pts., Tier 2
Tier 1: Models in the army are Incorporeal for the first turn of the game
Tier 2: 1 free Void Spirit for every 2 units

Void Seer Mordikaar +5
Despoiler 10
Cyclops Raider 5
Archidon 7
Max Nihilators 8
Max Praetorian Karax 6
Void Spirit 2
Void Spirit 2
Void Spirit FREE

Everything is just TheoryMachine at this point. Being Incorporeal for the first turn will help getting around terrain, a problem I always seem to have. The free Void Spirit is a nice benefit, not only can I create more within 2" of Despoiler but Mordikaar boosts their MAT. Having no beathandlers will be a challenge, as they have been my crutch for most of my past armies. This will force me to really think about the amount of FURY I want to squeeze out of my warbeasts without having the beasthandlers around to make all the excess go away.

I plan on getting some games in with this army this weekend and posting the results.