Road to Hardcore: Initial Thoughts

Road to Hardcore

Initial Thoughts


"To. Many. Decisions."

I recently made the fateful choice to exchange my Adepticon 40k Championships Registration for the Warmachine Hardcore tournament that Friday.

The reasons where many, but the bottom line is, that I feel that Warmachine and Hordes makes a better competitive system, and I am more likely to lose by my own poor decisions then dice. Also, I felt that with the current state of 40k, I would probably be facing the same armies over and over again.

I am really into my Skorne right now, and we do well in this format anyways. I don't expect to win, my opponent pool is far to shallow, but I figure, if I win more of my games then I lose, it is a success on my part. This is my first major event anyways. I am sure the player pool will see better players then myself.

Since painting is a requirement for this event, I better get playtesting. But first I have to settle on a list.

The Format and Scenario:

First, lets look at the Format.

Hardcore is a single list format centered around playing the same scenario in every match up. In addition to this, Deathclock is also in effect.

Deathclock gives each player a certain amount of time for the game, in this case 37 minutes. The first person to run down their Deathclock loses, so it is another victory condition to consider.

The Scenario is close quarters. You can get it from the SR2012 rules here.

Essentially, it is a scenario with two conditions to consider. One, I have to get across the board quickly enough to threaten taking my zone, and contest heavily my opponents so I don't lose on Scenario. Second, Kill Box is also in play, meaning if I end my Warlock's activation within 12" of my or any table edge I automatically lose.

My feelings on this, is that I want a caster who can handle spending 37 minutes in the middle of the table. I want an army durable enough to be able to take an alpha strike if necessary, and I want an army with an extremely small model count so I can push through my activations quickly and not run my death clock out.

The Usual Suspects:

The casters I feel best fit this format are: pMorghoul, Xerxis, Raseth, and Naaresh.

pMorghoul - Lord Tyrant Watt recently one Hardcore at Templecon with this caster, and I can see why. He is one of the top beast casters in our faction with Admonition and a fantastic denial feat. He most definitely will be making my play test rotation.

Xerxis - As much as I love this guy, I don't know if I have it in me to take him in this format. In order to minimize my actual play time, I would have to take an Elite Infantry heavy army to try and grind it out. I am afraid of eSkarre and Saeryn bombs out attritioning that army. Granted, he will eat beast and jack heavy lists if he comes to bear. But I am just not feeling him.

Raseth - His tier list won Hardcore at Lock and Load, though that was without the close quarters scenario. He is a tempting caster. His feat plus the gluttony of Agonizers can make him very durable to other hordes armies. He also has a little bit of board denial with Breath of Corruption, which would be useful if I actually do come across an infantry horde. Camping transfers plus Blood Mark could make him very hard to put down. He will make the rotation as well.

Naaresh - This is a very interesting choice. He can also run very beast heavy, and even though his feat isn't as much denial as pMorghoul, it is a very rough feat to come to grips with. With Iron Flesh on himself, the Brutes Animus, and tough, he can be very hard to put down, especially if I camp transfers. He is the caster I am leaning towards the most right now, namely because he is a personal favorite. Iron Flesh Gatormen with a Task Master, heavy ARM beasts that are incredibly hard to put down, and a caster that you will not assassinate.

The Initial Lists:

So leaving Xerxis out of it, because I don't feel comfortable with him in this format, I have settled on 3 different lists to try out.

"I likes the pain"

Master Ascetic Naaresh +6 points
* Bronzeback Titan 10 points
* Cyclops Brute 5 points
* 2x Titan Gladiator 8 points each
* Titan Sentry 9 points
* Aptimus Marketh 3 points

Agonizer 2 points
3 Gatorman Posse 6 points
6 Paingiver Beast Handlers 3 points
Paingiver Task Master 2 points

The basic idea is to rush the zone my opponent needs and pop my feat as soon as I feel like I am about to be hit. With the Heavy Arm of the feat, plus the denial aspect of the agonizer, I feel that I can survive with most of my beasts still in play. Also, I won't be dumb and offer all my beasts to my opponent on a silver platter. I went with 2 Gladiators in this list because they are overall a solid beast and it is nice to have some redundancy with rush, as Naaresh has no real way to buff speed outside that animus. The Gators with Dirge of Mists, Iron Flesh, and tough can provide a pretty good screen. And I always have a desperation assassination run with Cyclone and Blood Tokens.

Dominar Rasheth +5 points
* Basilisk Krea 4 points
* 2x Bronzeback Titan 9 points each
* Titan Gladiator 7 points
* Titan Sentry 8 points

2x Agonizer 2 points each
5 Gatorman Posse 9 points
6 Paingiver Beast Handlers 3 points
Paingiver Task Master 2 points

This is the list I feel it overall the most solid of the three. However, I am scared to death of a solid Warmachine army. If somebody does take a solid amount of infantry, I do have Breath of Corruption clouds to toss out to play a little bit of denial. However, having to juggle animi and Blood Mark, I probably won't have the fury available to do so, not if I want to camp on a bunch for transfers.

Master Tormentor Morghoul +7 points
* 2x Bronzeback Titan 10 points each
* Cyclops Brute 5 points
* Cyclops Shaman 5 points
* Titan Gladiator 8 points
* Titan Sentry 9 points
* Aptimus Marketh 3 points

Agonizer 2 points
Extoller Soulward 2 points
6 Paingiver Beast Handlers 3 points

I feel he might be my strongest choice. Marketh can get another casting of abuse out there without pulling from Morghoul's Fury. The Shaman can also get another Rush out there without having to pull from Morghoul or totally spending the Gladiator's activation. Admonition is better then Naaresh's feat to keep things safe, but can only effect a single beast. Morghoul comes to the table with the best feat of the three for straight denial. I can always defensively pop my feat to mess with the two casters I am most concerned with, eSkarre and Saeryn. The biggest appeal is the threat ranges. Of the three, Morghoul offers much more impressive threat ranges, and may even give me the opportunity to alpha strike myself. The Soulward can give me eyeless sight for terrain or denial for Morghoul or one of my beasts.



I have a metric crap ton of testing ahead of me. Don't be surprised if the battle reports posted are Hardcore matches, as this is now my top Warmachine concern. I am more then happy to receive advice or comments on my thoughts so far.