Posts Tagged ‘circle orboros’
Uncle Von Asks: What To Do With The Werewolves of Thornwood?
It’s been so long since I did one of these that I’ve had to go archive trawling to remember how I do them…
System: Hordes
Faction: Circle Orboros
Casters: 1/1
Points: 35/35
Tiers: 0Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
This ‘ere’s my go-to Circle Orboros list, which was built out of the stuff Mr. Bandwagon swapped me for my Skorne back when. It’s very much a ‘do the best you can with what you’ve got’ list that I’ve been slowly adding more bits and bobs to in order to try and do better with (vis. Gorax and Stones). However, I have as yet only won one game with it despite having been playing it or variants on it for a while now, so I thought that breaking it down and seeing what does what and talking about it might help me think about it and work out what I’m doing wrong.
Warmahordes: It’s Been A While
What with actually running the Dark Ages Vampire game (it’s going well, thanks, although there’s no interesting meta as yet and so I’m observing the First Rule of RPG Club), painting up Lizardmen and trying out Lord of the Rings, I haven’t been talking much about Warmahordes – or playing that much either, as tight financial circumstances and am-dram commitments have kept me out of the loop for October and most of November. Doesn’t help that The Von Show takes most of a day to script, film, edit, pretend-to-transcribe, upload and format for posting either. However, I managed to sneak in a couple of games recently and, well, I’m coming to terms with the possibility that I’m a bit crap with the Circle.
While I’m not especially demoralised by having won one game with them since I started playing them, it does appear that the amount of tech available to the faction is baffling my brains a bit. I keep over- or under-buffing key pieces, or buffing the wrong stuff altogether. Target priority is a labyrinth that I’m having to negotiate all over again (and frequently find myself lost in). There often seems to be a crucial element missing from my lists, too. I’m a great believer that a list needs to deliver damage to a single point, damage across a wide frontage, chaff into the enemy’s grill, additional moves to key pieces and probability control through buffs in order to be a good one, and most of my Circle lists seem to be missing one or two of those key elements, or spoiling me for choice with pieces that perform two or three roles.
This is what I’ve been (mostly) running of late. I did try out Mr. Krueger the other day and he was a bit fun. I lost to Nik’s smelly Trolls, admittedly, but it was down to an error of judgement regarding Krueger’s feat and pretty much that alone. One brain fart isn’t quite the same as a whole series of fatal misplays, which is what the following eKaya build has been inflicting on me…
Points: 35/35
Tiers: 0
Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
There are many good components there, perhaps too many – the Stones are helping me keep Laris alive and I’m wreaking modest havoc with Primal, but honestly those things just give me more choices to make and thus more opportunities for misplays. Thoreau says ‘simplify, simplify’… so how do I simplify this? Other than by saying “sod this, let’s take Krueger instead?” – because I do like eKaya and I can see her potential and what she can do. I just seem to be giving myself too much to process in order to make it happen, and I want to take some tech OUT of the list (for the first time ever) in order to refine it and let me focus more.
Also, as I move my shelves around to make room for the new toys (Bloodgorgers, Rengrave, pSkarre and, at last, a proper Raider Captain), I’ve noticed that my Cryx are gathering dust. DUST! Shows how long it’s been since I last disturbed the dead from their slumbers. They’ll have to get an outing in the new year. I keep looking at SmogCon and thinking “if there are any tickets left after the December work lull is over, and if I actually have any money to commit to hotels and food and such, I should take some Cryx down there.” Current plan is to take a variety of pAsphyxious Tier lists and just play SmogPit games until my eyes bleed. Nik reckons I’ll get bored and he may be right, so perhaps eSkarre and her Shooty Solo Spam should do the rounds in one of the tournaments too? I haven’t really tested that list in any sort of ‘les affaires seriuse’ context yet, after all…
Reinforcements!
A wee bit later than anticipated or ideal, but here they are: two more warlocks, two more beasts, and the much-needed Shifting Stones. I also snuck in a Fate Deck so I can maybe try out the Goblins! characters in their native rules environment.
In other Druid news, I won a game with my Circle last night! Took me long enough, and it was one of those 15 point games that I’d wanted to start with, but a win’s a win! I’m beginning to wonder if the Units Make Me Play Like A Moose effect is actually due to the number of complex activations involved in a game. I do very well in battle box games – four to six complex models, with some interactions at ‘squad’ level like fury management or focus allocation – but less well when I have multiple squads of complex models to deal with. That might explain why my favourite units and solos are relatively simple ones like the Pistol Wraith – by keeping the individual activations simple, I can manage a greater number of them. Large, complex units, like the Nyss with Valachev, overwhelm me by providing the mental-effort equivalent of another battlegroup to handle.
Fun, Quick and Dirty II – The Great Von Hunt
So, it’s that time of year again – the 20 point, three lists (dump one at lunchtime), no tiers, one Field Allowance to split event, with food by Mrs Flash and the prospect of some serious shenanigans. I am, at this point, in Doubt. Not about going – I know I want to go. About what I’m going to take with me.
Option One: Bog Druids.
If – and at this stage it’s still if, but wish me luck for Friday’s interview – I have sufficient disposable income to inflate my Circle collection during August then I could take the faction I’m currently most interested in playing. I’m starting to get a handle on epic Kaya (I almost won a game with her last night!) and think that a Gorax handing out its animus could come in rather handy here to provide yet more STR buffs (slapping it on the Feral so he can use Warp Speed with less of an opportunity cost, for instance). Or I could always slot in the Shifting Stones and Stonekeeper, which I will be buying this week (guess who has a painting commission!); I suspect their teleporty shenanigans and beast-healing will come in very handy to help with some of the activation order issues I’m having.
Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)
Feralgeist (1pts)
Krueger interests me largely because I’ve seen him do very well for himself at this scale, scooping up infantry like you wouldn’t believe. The two realistic options for him are the Wolf Riders (I theorise that Lightning Tendrils addresses a major weakness by giving them Reach like real cavalry, and horrible potential on a turn when they Assault a unit and trigger Electro Leap with two melee attacks) or the Nyss Hunters (Weapon Masters! Reach! Lightning! CRA!). The Nyss wouldn’t benefit from Deflection but that’s about all they wouldn’t benefit from.
Krueger the Stormwrath (*5pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Woldwarden (9pts)
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 4 Grunts) OR Nyss Hunters (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
However, I’m stuck for a third list, since I can’t double up on Kruegers in this event. I’m tempted by a Kromac list using Wolf Rider attacks to trigger Warpath, but Kromac himself has that odd ‘Hulk out’ thing going on and I suspect that’ll take some learnin’. Morvahna tempts me too, but again, she looks fiddly and there’s only a month ’til the event.
Option Two: Armour is Red, Targets are Blue; in Imperial Khador, ‘JACK MARSHALS YOU!
The wild card. I have no idea how to play Khador but I have three warcasters and a broad enough spread of stuff to do some potentially interesting lists with them. The first involves making Nyss Hunters into Faction models so they can benefit from Vlad’s buffs, and using his feat to slingshot a Devastator either into the enemy lines or into a scenario control area.
Vladimir, The Dark Prince (*5pts)
* Devastator (9pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
* Koldun Kapitan Valachev (2pts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
The next one uses the Butcher’s spell list to make Widowmakers stupidly hard to hit and Iron Fangs stupidly hard hitting. It also uses his feat to make Kossites scary for a turn, Widowmakers unnervingly good, and the Marauder because I like Marauders to slam things so I can knock them down and hit them with everything I can bally well muster. Tempted to swap the Iron Fangs for a Juggernaut so I have the option of using the Butcher’s battlegroup spell for something worthwhile; not sure.
The Butcher of Khardov (*6pts)
* Marauder (7pts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
The last one is the “use once and dump” list – having run out of Field Allowance on Widowmakers and Iron Fang Standard Bearers it uses the other models I have to cobble together something I’m sort of interested in. If I tossed the Kovnik and Devastator I could fit the Iron Fangs in here, but I’m buggered if I know what I’d spend the other five points on.
Kommander Sorscha (*5pts)
* Destroyer (9pts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
Man-o-war Kovnik (3pts)
* Devastator (9pts)
Option Three: Epic Cryx
Reluctant as I am to indulge this side of my nature (half the Darklords play Cryx these days, it’s beginning to bore me), I could just take the ruddy Cryx again. Having run them at last year’s FQD I have an idea of how the restrictions affect them – I’m also aware that I haven’t yet fielded an Epic Skarre Shooty Solos list at an event and, given that it’s the variant I’ve done the most damage with in casual play, I should probably at least give it a go. Tempting as it is to mash the Deathjack in, I think I’m going to be wanting that brute with another caster, so the Reaper and Ripjaw tag-team will make their appearance again. The Captain’s in to protect Skarre from knockdown and provide another gun.
Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast (*6pts)
* Ripjaw (5pts)
* Reaper (7pts)
* Skarlock Thrall (2pts)
Bloat Thrall (2pts)
Bloat Thrall (2pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Satyxis Raider Captain (2pts)
I’ll be giving the Iron Lich a rest this time. We’re spending some time apart following recent incidents. Let’s get the Lich Lord out instead – the Deathjack to project force on his behalf (because he likes to throw his weapon away) and two units of feat fodder; one to knock things down, one to hit things hard. Even the Siren could potentially stage a comeback and provide a crucial DEF debuff on feat turn.
Lich Lord Asphyxious (*6pts)
* Deathjack (12pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Satyxis Raiders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Satyxis Raider Sea Witch (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)
And finally, just to complete the hat-trick, Epic Deneghra again. Haven’t used her in a while. Or the Nyss Hunters. Lots of Weapon Masters here.
Wraith Witch Deneghra (*6pts)
* Nightwretch (4pts)
* Nightwretch (4pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
I just don’t know what to do with myself.
