Oos a good boy!? Oos a good wikkle puppy!? - Circle on a Budget (Month 4)

OK, I finally broke this month and got me...

Warpwolf Stalker (£23)

...I love this little puppy.  In the first game against Chris' Cryx, it took out five Mechanithrall, five Bane Thralls, a Deathripper, a Slayer and eleven points of damage to Asphixious.  Berserk on a P+S 16 large based monster with reach is beautiful, and Prowl on something that big is, quite frankly, insane.

With Kaya the Moonhunter, the Stalker becomes even better.  Advance Deployment means he can be set up to counter the biggest concentration of infantry, and Forced Evolution makes him P+S 18 (20!!! with Warp Strength) and DEF 16.  I've yet to get a shot off with Dog Pile, but a 13" Threat Range has gotta be fun, too.  In the list as it currently stands, the Stalker blitzes up the middle, flanked by the Ferals and protected by the Druids' Counter Magic and Shadow Pack and, the second the lines connect, Kaya moves back and Feats to regroup and give myself a turn to redeploy to hit again.

This works a lot better if you fight things that can't heal.  Trainee's goddamn mechaniks can happily repair a near-totalled 'jack in a single round which necessitates actually wrecking the thing.  Warmachine is so broke...  But hey, at least the Stalker's mini is great.

Next month...  The litter!

Circle so far, a story in pictures...

I feel I owe you guys an explanation, what with the posts being a few weeks late.  Due to some unforseen complications, our order was delayed slightly, and we like to have at least one night's gaming before we claim to be experts.  And so, both to put SOMETHING up and as I've been playing with my phone's camera (and I need some distraction from my Stalker, who insists on falling apart, what with the ridiculous joint on the right ankle of the top heavy mini...), I hereby present...  Kaya's battlegroup!

Kaya the Moonhunter
Beautiful model, truly beautiful.  She sports the classic druid brown, brown and brown with hints of brown and blue warpaint.  I'm not a fan of oddly bright minis that many people seem to like - the multiple dull shades work for me.

 Laris
What the pictures don't show is that Laris is actually much paler than the Warpwolves.  He's also the best example of the warpaint thing I've got going on.

I spent far too much time on this little puppy.  He never gets enough table time, what with everyone else inexplicably wanting to kill the arc node that gives Kaya +2DEF.

 Convel
The first of my Feral Warpwolves, this was the test for the drybrush-heavy colour scheme.  Personally, I think it works!

 Weylyn
To distinguish Weylyn from Convel, I spent ages smoothing over the shoulder joint so the left arm looked different from a distance.  After three weeks of his tail falling off (a problem I've never had with Convel, go figure), I eventually sculpted over the hole and now he's obviously different!


The lesson here, kids, is never try.  Something will always happen that'll be better than your feeble attempts.

Finally, after this tirade of negativity and hate, I present you with the blurry battlegroup photo!

I did try taking pictures of the Blackclads, but alliteration demands that I refer to the pictures I got by the fitting title of bullshit balls of blurry brown bollocks.  This is primarily because, well, they are.  I hate painting small-based units, and this shows in the overall quality of the poor druids.  Their recent performance may warrant a better paint job.

Anyway, that's enough of a distraction, and my Stalker's just fallen apart again and his massive sword is just...  Taunting me to actually stay on.  As of this week, I hope the blog will return to it's regularly scheduled programming, so long!

Born survivaaaaaaaaaah!!! - Circle on a Budget (Month 3)

Last time on this blog,I said it was either a Stalker or the Druids and, as Trainee ranted yesterday, this month's purchases were...

Druids of Orboros Box (£20)
Druids of Orboros Overseer (£8)

Oh yes.  The paragon unit of denial, the Druids make the Choir of Menoth look like pathetic man-children.  Delivering army-wide (more or less) immunity to spells, a wall of LOS blockage AND Force Bolt, which on it's own made me pick up a unit of Battle Mages for my Ret.  The Overseer's extra abilities on top of that are just amazing.

I've only just remembered they have Medicate too.  Holy shit these dudes are awesome.

Now that I've got the gushing torrents of praise out of the way, onto the lessons I've learnt in the last...  7-8 weeks?

1 - Kaya the Moonhunter is a scenario 'caster trapped in an assassination 'caster's body.  With combat stats that rival the Butcher when she's with Laris and in the thick of things, she LOOKS like she should be able to teleport in and trash face, but I've had very limited success with that.  What I HAVE had success with is using the frankly disgusting speed she can grant her battlegroup at near enough no cost - Warpwolves, warping for speed and on the Advance Deployment line can get 32" (that's running, which is free with Alpha!) across the board on turn one.  This means they can grab objectives to fortify before other forces can get near them, which is nice.  Don't get me started on her Feat, which is a counter attack/refortification in a bag.

2 - Fury is more adaptable than Focus, but it'll bite you in the arse if you fuck up.  It's commonly said that Fury is better than Focus, but all it takes is one turn of slightly misjudging the attacks you'll need, an extra transfer you didn't account for...  You're stuck with either too much Fury on a beast, or you're cutting like a little emo for Fury.  I've left the self harm wagon behind - no more cutting for Fury.  I'll either learn to manage Fury better or Kaya will die, out of transfers and with a pile of dead 'beasts.

3 - Druids are awesome.  Yeah, I said this up above, but it bears repeating!

I'm loving the Circle right now, the speed they can reach and the obscene damage they can throw out are great fun (current record is one Warpwolf totalling two undamaged Cryx Heavies in a single round...).  We also get to use phrases to "so these werewolves are fighting the giant robots..." when explaining the game to interested passers by.  Which is a bonus.

NOMINATIONS!

The Faceman Award - Trainee.  Just after we switched to scenarios, we set up for a Mosh Pit.  After slaughtering the stuff in the middle and trying to work out why he'd left a bunch of stuff on the outside, he revealed his plan...  He'd set the goddamn terrain up an inch smaller than the Mosh Pit.  I'd overextended and he mangled me.  (Un)fair play to him, it worked!

The Alex Murphy Award - Chris.  Once again, a Mosh Pit.  Once again, it involved slightly misjudging the distance.  I think Chris may have still been a full foot out of the Mosh Pit by turn three.  Pain was received.

Next month...  S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : Call of Orboros.

EDIT - Also, a quick plug for Trainee's band (really), this month's blog title is from their song, Born Survivor, which I will inflic...  Grace you with now!

Blood, Sweat and (lots and lots of) tears - Circle on a Budget (Month 2)

First things first, the new purchases!

Kaya the Moonhunter and Laris (£13)
Feral Warpwolf (£17)

This gives me a solid 15 point list - Kaya the Moonhunter and 2 Warpwolves - but due to the fact Kaya still hasn't showed up, I've been using the two Warpwolves with basic Kaya with...  Well, it's loathed in our group!  This is due to the new uses of Spirit Door I've had to find after the terrifying discovery that I can't use it to just teleport in with Kaya, hit the offending Warcaster, pop the feat and hit the offending Warcaster some more.  Still, using it on Warpwolves to perform an evac after they've charged is hilarious (and is referred to on the forums as the "Warpwolf Yoyo".  It's on page one of 'How to be a Druid'.) and was used to great effect to smash apart a Mangler and a Talon in a single turn without fear of retribution.

Still, Kaya is actually quite a boring 'caster to play, and I'm hoping that epic Kaya's more in-your-face beatstick nature will make her more fun for both me and my opponents.

Next month...  Either a Stalker or the Druids of Orboros, depending on how much the rest of the group piss me off!

A Little Nature Ramble - Circle on a Budget (Month 1)

Before I start my segment of the Tour properly, I have a confession to make.  While everyone else is playing new armies, Circle was actually my first army in MkI Hordes, but over the years I've played every army in the game, so this is more of a revisit for me than a complete new adventure.  That said, the blackclads have got a lot of new toys since I started playing with them, and there's nothing quite like some good woodland tech to pound face with!

This month, I've been playing with the Battlebox and I've learnt a few good things about the Circle, as well as a few of their weaknesses;

Strength 1 - Manoeuvrability.  Not only are Circle beasts insanely fast, their buffs to movement are a huge part of their combat ability.  Kaya's Spirit Door has saved her life, at least temporarily, and I've been near-drooling with anticipation of the potential of her epic form's (see next month...) Feat for a safe extraction after a first strike.  If you spend thirty seconds on the PP forums, or even reading the book, you'll get this, but it's worth repeating.

Strength 2 - Debuffs.  Sure, I can give a Warpwolf Stalker a 13" threat range, MAT 8 and P+S 22 by laying on the buffs, but I've personally found that Paralysis and Spirit Fang will do miles more damage in the long run - if you can hit a high DEF 'caster with a good Doppler Bark, they're suddenly helpless and you've saved a ton of Fury by not having to pile on the buffs.

Strength 3 - Diversity.  While this is more theorymachine than the rest of my list, my initial view is that the Circle has a certain strength in the difference of models it can field, with fast, hard-hitting living Warbeasts marching alongside the slow, hard to kill Wold Constructs.  This is further improved by the Warpwolves' Controlled Warping and the Woldwarden's Geomancy, giving both types further adaptability on top of their basic roles.

Weakness 1 - Low Armour.  If it hits, an Ice Axe will obliterate an Argus Hound.  As I found out on Wednesday, all it takes is a good roll to utterly negate defence, and then whatever's hit is totally screwed.  Also, Knock Down and Stationary make me die lots.  In fact, I hate them so much they're going to get their own sub-weakness.

Weakness 1a - Knock Down and Stationary.  My best defence is a good DEF.  I've played against Sorscha enough to loathe Stationary with a passion, and Magnus enough (once is enough...) to be...  Uncomfortable around Knockdown.  Not only do these things screw with my DEF, they cost me Fury to shake off and, despite what Trainee will claim to the end of time, that's a finite resource.

Weakness 2 - Low base damage output.  While a Feral Warpwolf, or even an Argus Hound, can do a lot of damage to most things, it takes a lot of Fury to get the kill.  Lots of spent Fury means maxed out Warbeasts than can't be transferred to, more Fury than I can leach in a turn, and more risk of Frenzy than I'd ideally like.  I can mitigate the damage by leaching from the biggest hitters, but a fully boosted P+S 14 attack from an Argus will still do some serious damage if it hits something on my side.

Anyway, it's not like you guys actually care about that!  Here's some minis!  Next month on the Tour...  Kaya goes epic and gets another Warpwolf buddy!