Feast of Blades List Discussion Morvahna2

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.

Feast of Blades Prep Blog

6/29/13

October 11th to the 13th is Feast of Blades.  Although filled with lots of gaming action, my focus will be on the Warmachine/Hordes tournament and gaming scene.  I am traveling to the site with two of my best friends and we are staying at the site.  This will be the first major tournament for me, and I am very excited.  I decided to write a continuing blog to document my preparation for the tournament.  This will include list preparation and decisions, painting efforts, and anything else I might want to write about before this happens.  I do want to thank my wife for giving my the opportunity to be gone for three days while she takes care of the kids.

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

2012 Journeyman Tournament Results

There are in reverse order with the newest matches on top.  These are just summaries and not fully detailed battle reports.

Round 2 - Game 1 (Circle vs Cygnar)

The addition to make my round 2 army was a Gorax.  My opponent added a Sentinal.  Cygnar is the army that scares me the most in this tournament, and this battle proved to me that it was not by chance.  The layout had two forests with an open area in the center.  This made it tough trying to corner my opponent while still providing some protection by the forests.  I was able to get an angle and the distance to get close to his group with a charge by an Argus on his Lancer and then Spirit Door'd in.  But having done very little damage to the Lancer, the turn just got me in close but not close enough.  My opponent proceeded to Earthquake my group at the beginning of his turn, stood his guys up, and proceeded to woop up on me.  I was able to get my other argus next to his caster as well as my caster, but I left too much room and he was able to kill me with his heavy that he squeezed in behind her.  Overall my opponent played very well and left me with a huge need to strategize better to face him next round.


Round 1 - Game 4 (Circle vs Cygnar)

This was a really tough game.  The ending was a little goofy as my opponent forgot for the third turn in a row to use his feat.  I offered to let him do it each time, and he turned it down each time.  After killing my Feral and one of my Argus, I was able to directly attack pStryker with pKaya (got there with Spirit Door again before that Argus died) and was able to get him to about 6 damage boxes left.  Knowing I would die next turn, I took my last Argus and had him move from combat with one of the Impalers to attack pStryker with a boosted Combo Strike, and was able to finish pStryker off.  It also helped that pKaya rolled a crit on one of her attack allowing me to not have to boost the attack roll for the combo strike.  Another challenging game.


Round 1 - Game 3 (Circle vs Trolls)

Another really close game.  I was able to do a couple of new things against this army since it was the first Hordes army that I have faced.  I was able to use Baying of Chaos once with the Feral and twice with pKaya to cause my opponent to only have 1 fury for his second turn.  This allowed me to get my beasts into a decent position.  Everything went to hell two turns later as he killed one of my Argus and my Feral. With one Argus left, I stepped out to in view of pMadrak and casted Spirit Fang a couple of times to kill him. Next turn, he was sure to kill my last Argus or just kill pKaya, so I felt this was just the luck of the dice again.

Round 1 - Game 2 (Circle vs Khador)

I was really afraid of this battle.  Although the Khador battlebox does not really have much synergy, the pSorscha is an assassin and the with 2 heavy jacks, easily out-powers my army.  I definitely won by the luck of the dice.  I was able to get one of my Argus behind his jacks and near the warcaster.  I brought pKaya and the Feral over to him with Spirit Door.  Knowing that Kaya would have a hard time killing pSorscha, he came in and tried to kill the Feral with her.  He was 1 dmg away from killing him.  I believe he had also killed both of my Argus, or very close that turn.  The Feral survived and I rolled really well and killed her.  Although it took all of my possible attacks as boosting to do it.  It was a fun and exciting game and was the first real time I was able to execute the Spirit Door assassination somewhat correctly.

Round 1 - Game 1 (Circle vs Menoth)

This was my first battle of the tournament and it was a very good learning experience for me.  Although I have played a few battle box matches, this one felt different since it was part of the journeyman tournament.  It has been a little bit of a while since this match, just over a week, but I remember I was trying to get into position to Spirit Door.  One the turn before, I was able to get off a few casts of Spirit Fang.  I then used pKaya's feat to reload.  I learned from this that I have to make sure I leave enough fury on my beasts to be sure I can get them next turn.  I only left myself with three fury for the next turn.  After  casting I then Spirit Door'd to the caster.  I then was able to spirit door the Feral over and kill the caster the next turn.  The Feral had almost died as well as one of the Argus.  I got lucky with being able to get rid of the fire damage before it did too much to my force.  A well played game by my opponent and I got lucky with dice rolls to win.

Warmachine/Circle Order Received

So after months of frustration having to proxy my Circle army with Retribution models, I finally ordered most of the models I needed.  I spent $450 dollars and purchased the models from Miniature Market (http://www.miniaturemarket.com/).  I have started to put the models together and I will post WIP and complete articles as I work through the models. Due to the sheer number of models I purchased, it will take me a while to get through them, and even thinking of painting them seems a huge mountain to climb, but it will be a fun climb.  I also purchased a Battle Foam (http://www.battlefoam.com/) Privateer Press bag that will eventually work for each army, but I got enough custom trays to hold both armies.  Here is the list of what I ordered.  Happy Modeling!!!

Hordes Domination (Softcover) (NewArrival)	PIP1047	1
Mercenaries #41055 Lady Aiyana & Master Holt	PIP41055	1
Retribution #35007 Heavy Myrmidon Plastic Kit	PIP35007	1
Retribution #35008 Dawnguard Invictor Unit Box (10)	PIP35008	1
Retribution #35027 Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard Bearer	PIP35027	1
Circle of Orboros #72001 Warpack	PIP72001	1
Circle of Orboros #72006 Gorax Light Warbeast	PIP72006	1
Circle of Orboros #72015 Druids of Orboros (6)	PIP72015	1
Circle of Orboros #72016 Shifting Stones (3)	PIP72016	1
Circle of Orboros #72018 Lord of the Feast	PIP72018	1
Circle of Orboros #72020 Warlock Kromac the Ravenous	PIP72020	1
Circle of Orboros #72021 Pureblood Warpwolf Warbeast	PIP72021	1
Circle of Orboros #72022 Gnarlhorn Satyr Heavy Warbeast	PIP72022	1
Circle of Orboros #72032 Epic Warlock Kaya the Moonhunter	PIP72032	1
Circle of Orboros #72024 Tharn Wolf Riders Unit Box	PIP72024	1
Circle of Orboros #72034 Warlock Moshar the Desertwalker	PIP72034	1
Circle of Orboros #72035 Megalith	PIP72035	1
Circle of Orboros #72042 Druids of Oboros Overseer	PIP72042	1
Circle of Orboros #72046 Warpborn Skinwalkers Box (3)	PIP72046	1
Circle of Orboros #72049 Druid Wilder	PIP72049	1
Circle of Orboros #72059 Warlock Baldur Stonesoul (NewArrival)	PIP72059	1
Circle of Orboros #72019 Warlock Morvahna the Autumnblade	PIP72019	1
Circle of Orboros #72058 Grayle the Farstrider	PIP72058	1

As you can see, I have my Circle Warpack as well as a good mix of models for fielding most 35 pt lists.  When I get some more money together, I will pick up some Wolves and Tharn, but when trying to get the most bang for my initial buck, it seems better to get what you see above.  I also got a unit for Retribution I have been using lately in the Invictors, and my third Retribution heavy warjack so that I can fully model Discordia.  I am really happy with the purchase and everything arrived within 3 days.  Here is a few pictures of the purchase.