First, I am saying that this is a list discussion, but it only becomes that if others participate, so please feel free to provide feedback, opinion, or hate if you feel the need.
Disclaimer: I do not believe that I am an expert at this game or at this faction. These are my opinions after 2+ years of playing, and lots of games. I did not build these after other people's lists, but with most Warmachine/Hordes lists, some things work and some don't, so there the similarity is only coincidental and the lists are designed based on the way I enjoy playing.
Enough of that.
Let's start with my Morvahna2 list. Morvahna2 has been played pretty consistently as a Circle tournament warlock since her release. This isn't due to her being the shiny new tow for the army either. Pound for pound, she brings one of the best spell list/ability/feat combinations in the Circle army. I won't go into her details here, but I will talk about how they work with the list I have picked. 50pt list first:
Warbeasts:
Warpwolf Stalker
Warpwolf Stalker
Gorax
The stalkers are my heavy hitters. There are others in the army, but between the points available, and the need to be able to do high damage, these were my best choices. The Gorax is support for giving the Stalkers Primal, and increase in strength and MAT. It also gives me a throwing option for medium and small bases if the situation arises. EDIT: Additionally, the Stalkers can pick Prowl as their Controlled Warping for a turn. This combined with Morvahna's Fog of War spell give the Stalkers, as well as the Gallows Groves stealth. Stealth is very handy when running up to ranged armies that cannot counter it.
Units:
Wolves of Orboros Max
Wolves of Orboros Chieftan/Standard
Warpborn Skinwalkers Max
Warpborn Alpha
Shifting Stones (x2)
Stone Keeper
The two units of stones is somewhat standard for a Circle 50 point list. Double teleport is a very useful option, plus the additional Fury management and healing comes in handy.
The Wolves of Orboros serve 2 main purposes for me. 1. 4d6 + 9 on the charge and a MAT of 10 (charge plus Carni will do a lot of damage. Gets even better if I use the CMR as well. 2. They are also good for bringing back with Morvahna's feat. They are not that tough once the get engaged, but they can do a considerable amount of damage for an 8 point unit and provide a small based model set for the feat.
Warpborn Skinwalkers are now a viable unit with the UA. Enough power to do some good damage, especially on the charge, 2 attacks with the UA, and a decent amount of damage boxes. They serve as a good jamming unit as well as a multi-wave killing machine. I usually play them on the opposite side from the Wolves, but have been testing out a front line multi-wave mix. This unit also gives me medium base options for the feat, which can be handy for blocking charge lanes, blocking enemy model movement, or for a scenario shift if they need to be in a zone or on a control point.
5 points left and this is where I am still deciding what to do. I have been testing using a unit of Tharn Bloodweavers. This is a handy unit with 8 MAT on the charge, and can be the equivalent of weapon masters against living models. They also serve as a debuff unit against upkeep spells when using Purification might not be a good idea. My second option is Wolf Lord Morraig. WLM has great synergy with the Wolves, getting +2 on the attack and an additional die on the damage roll when flanking with one of the Wolves. This means his initial attack is 13 P&S plus 5d6 on the charge, 4d6 on a cleave, and 12 P&S plus 3d6 on the mount attacks. His decent defense, great movement, and decent armor also make him valuable. As a light cav model, he also gets some good movement shenanigans that help keep him alive. I should have a decision on this in the next couple of games.
Overall I like how this list plays. It gives me good troop options, enough beasts to take down a Colossal or Gargantuan if I play it right, and good synergy with Carnivore, units with lots of attacks, and models to bring back on the feat. This is a fun list for me to play and I hope to get a good number of games in before Feast of Blades to be competitive in tournament play.
Thanks to Sam Hake for providing feedback on the initial post.
Showing posts with label Gaming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaming. Show all posts
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Feast of Blades Prep Blog
6/29/13
Here is a link to the event: http://www.feastofblades.com/
I plan on participating in two of the Master's qualification tournaments. They are the 42 pt, 2 list tournament and the 50pt, 2 list Divide and Conquer tournament. More to come later this weekend, but thought I would get this started.
Spacejunky
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Video Game Review: Skyrim
This is my first written video game review. I am not sure how often I might do this since I very rarely get new games, but I thought I would give it a try. I purchased the game on Friday and have about 6 hours played so far, so this will be my initial thoughts on the game.
First I want to say that I was impressed that my first generation XBox 360 was able to handle the game. I have heard that if you have not received the "red ring of death" yet, the newer games will almost guarantee that it will happen. So far so good. Let's just hope I did not jinx it when I try to play again later today.
The game began much as I expected. There was some good story telling and dialog at the beginning of the game setting up the story. Within 5 minutes, one NPC had an arrow in the back and another had his head cut off. I could tell that it was a good thing I was not playing this game in front of my kids. Then came the reason I knew I was going to love this game. DRAGONS!! The first dragon attack was exciting and I was even more impressed with my 360 because the performance was seamless. I will try to not go into to much detail as I do not want to spoil some of the key game elements. I will instead go over the aesthetics and human-machine interaction pieces.
Graphics:
This game is definitely beautiful. Although I do not see many improvements from Oblivion, that was also a great looking game. There was general color scheme of gray that washes over the entire game. I would like to see some more contrasting in colors, but overall it is still impressive. The fire elements of the game really shine and the spell casting graphics seem improved over Oblivion. Combat graphics seem a little better with a nice graphical flow between non-combat and combat activities.
Controls:
The game controls seemed very similar to Oblivion with just a few minor changes. This is where my one gripe of this game would occur. In Oblivion, you would be able to preload spells so that you could seamlessly switch between spells while in combat. If this feature exists in Skyrim, I have not found it. What I did find is a "Favorite" system where you can press up on the game pad to bring up a list of items that you have designated. Doing this stops combat and makes it difficult to really enjoy the combat if you are like me and want to switch spells often during combat. I would rather be limited to a few spells I can use in combat, but switch easily, than a system that allows unlimited options, but stops the game each time you want to use it. I will say that it has a lot of utility since you can use it to switch spells, weapons, and probably almost every usable item in the game. I just do not like having combat stop 3 or 4 times just to I can switch spells. Movement control is pretty smooth throughout the game, with only a little practice at horse riding being needed. The biggest help I would recommend is getting the spell Clairvoyance. This will help guide you in the right direction to your destination and can be a huge help if you get out into the wilderness and lost. It also helps when you have to go around or up mountains and cannot seem to find the right path.
Combat:
The combat system is very smooth. I had not problems casting or hitting my targets. I have two complaints in this area. First, archery is still only a minor use skill and at least so far does not seem like a viable combat method. The hit are usually too weak to take out a target on one or even two shots, and hitting a moving target is still a little tough. I would have liked to see a little more viability for this to be a primary combat technique. Casting in combat works well, as well as the normal hack and slash. Time for my rant.... My biggest complaint with Oblivion has not been fixed here. The tendency to accidentally hit a friendly NPC while in combat is very annoying. I am pretty sure my horse has no hair left after I have burned him while trying to cast a fire spell on wolves we are fighting. It is even worst when it is character NPCs where your faction can accidentally drop or they will flat out come and kill you if you kill one of them. My suggestion is to save right before every combat, and just be careful.
These are just my initial thoughts on the game. So far I am really enjoying the game, especially fighting giants, dragons, and trolls. BTW, trolls hit hard. The game has no problem giving you quests that will be impossible to complete if you are too low of level, so be careful out there. Have a great time. I will post another review as I get farther into the game. Happy Holidays and Happy Hunting...
First I want to say that I was impressed that my first generation XBox 360 was able to handle the game. I have heard that if you have not received the "red ring of death" yet, the newer games will almost guarantee that it will happen. So far so good. Let's just hope I did not jinx it when I try to play again later today.
The game began much as I expected. There was some good story telling and dialog at the beginning of the game setting up the story. Within 5 minutes, one NPC had an arrow in the back and another had his head cut off. I could tell that it was a good thing I was not playing this game in front of my kids. Then came the reason I knew I was going to love this game. DRAGONS!! The first dragon attack was exciting and I was even more impressed with my 360 because the performance was seamless. I will try to not go into to much detail as I do not want to spoil some of the key game elements. I will instead go over the aesthetics and human-machine interaction pieces.
Graphics:
This game is definitely beautiful. Although I do not see many improvements from Oblivion, that was also a great looking game. There was general color scheme of gray that washes over the entire game. I would like to see some more contrasting in colors, but overall it is still impressive. The fire elements of the game really shine and the spell casting graphics seem improved over Oblivion. Combat graphics seem a little better with a nice graphical flow between non-combat and combat activities.
Controls:
The game controls seemed very similar to Oblivion with just a few minor changes. This is where my one gripe of this game would occur. In Oblivion, you would be able to preload spells so that you could seamlessly switch between spells while in combat. If this feature exists in Skyrim, I have not found it. What I did find is a "Favorite" system where you can press up on the game pad to bring up a list of items that you have designated. Doing this stops combat and makes it difficult to really enjoy the combat if you are like me and want to switch spells often during combat. I would rather be limited to a few spells I can use in combat, but switch easily, than a system that allows unlimited options, but stops the game each time you want to use it. I will say that it has a lot of utility since you can use it to switch spells, weapons, and probably almost every usable item in the game. I just do not like having combat stop 3 or 4 times just to I can switch spells. Movement control is pretty smooth throughout the game, with only a little practice at horse riding being needed. The biggest help I would recommend is getting the spell Clairvoyance. This will help guide you in the right direction to your destination and can be a huge help if you get out into the wilderness and lost. It also helps when you have to go around or up mountains and cannot seem to find the right path.
Combat:
The combat system is very smooth. I had not problems casting or hitting my targets. I have two complaints in this area. First, archery is still only a minor use skill and at least so far does not seem like a viable combat method. The hit are usually too weak to take out a target on one or even two shots, and hitting a moving target is still a little tough. I would have liked to see a little more viability for this to be a primary combat technique. Casting in combat works well, as well as the normal hack and slash. Time for my rant.... My biggest complaint with Oblivion has not been fixed here. The tendency to accidentally hit a friendly NPC while in combat is very annoying. I am pretty sure my horse has no hair left after I have burned him while trying to cast a fire spell on wolves we are fighting. It is even worst when it is character NPCs where your faction can accidentally drop or they will flat out come and kill you if you kill one of them. My suggestion is to save right before every combat, and just be careful.
These are just my initial thoughts on the game. So far I am really enjoying the game, especially fighting giants, dragons, and trolls. BTW, trolls hit hard. The game has no problem giving you quests that will be impossible to complete if you are too low of level, so be careful out there. Have a great time. I will post another review as I get farther into the game. Happy Holidays and Happy Hunting...
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