Awesome Tharnness: Ghetorix

From the Privateer Press website:

Once a proud Tharn king, Ghetorix was bested in combat and captured by Kromac for defying Morvahna the Autumnblade. As penance for his defiance, Morvahna forced the warpwolf elixir upon the defeated king, transforming him into one of the fiercest warpwolves the Circle has ever known.

Ghetorix’s thirst for blood and hunger for violence is legendary. His howled battle cry sets his foes’ hair on end, breaking spirits even before his axe and teeth bite into flesh. Ghetorix’s bloodlust is slaked only when he stands knee-deep in the entrails of the fallen, his jaws dripping with gore.

The Ghetorix character warpwolf upgrade kit comes in a blister (PIP 72062). The Ghetorix character warpwolf upgrade kit is NOT a complete model. Players will need a Circle Orboros Feral/Pureblood/Stalker Warpwolf Kit (PIP 72057) in addition to this kit. A player may field one Ghetorix in a Circle Orboros army.

Again, Privateer Press knows awesome.

RIGHTEOUS WRATH?

So my first outing with Protectorate of Menoth was not the best. But it was a learning experience.

Last week at club night I faced off against a friend of mine and his epic Kaya list. I was amused that I got to play against Circle Orboros for my first PoM game. It was fitting.

Sadly, I wasn’t much of a challenge that night. When I first concocted the notion to actually put together an army using the Protectorate Battle Box, I decided that I’d lean heavily on Kreoss’s Feat ability and use the new Attendant Priests to field my beloved Mercenaries.

The idea was to capitalize on the Feat turn. The Freebooters and Devil Dogs would be trashing the dudes while they were on their backs, and then I could try to get some of those mini-feat 10″ POW 10 sprays up close enough to threaten the Warlock or Warcaster. The Repenter would be there to back up the waves of models, and the Revengers would serve as protection for Kreoss. Sounded good in my head.

The first list I came up with was the following:

High Exemplar Kreoss
Revenger
Revenger
Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs (Sam and 9 Grunts)
Freebooter
Mangler
Attendant Priest x2
Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Bloody Bradigan
Exemplar Errant Seneschal x2
First Mate Hawk
Kell Bailoch
Rhupert Carvolo 
Piper of Ord
Saxon Orrik

But I changed my mind later on in the week. I decided to use this list:

High Exemplar Kreoss
Repenter
Revenger
Revenger
Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs (Sam and 9 Grunts)
Freebooter x2
Attendant Priest
Flameguard Cleansers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Flameguard Cleanser Officer
Knight Exemplar Seneschal x2
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Now I know this is not a “solid” list. But it’s what I ran with for the evening.

The basic idea was to utilize Kreoss’s Feat for a hard hitting round where I could carry out or set up an assassination. I decided that using my units in waves, and then sending in the Warjacks to clean up the mess would work out well. And it might have, had I followed through with my plan.

My first failing was deployment. I had planned on the waves of models, right? Spread them out to avoid sprays and minimize effects of charges. For some reason I decided not to do this. I deployed my units on either side of a building that was in the middle of my side of the table, and planned on converging on the other side of it to pull off the wave of models thing.

However, when you’re facing down four advanced deployed Warpwolves, two Stalkers and two Purebloods, that changes your mind. I started driving the Freebooters forward but failed to keep the Devildogs in step with them.

I also failed to realize how slow my Menoth ‘jacks move. SPD 5 is slow, man. Real slow. Not giving them Focus to run up the board left them way behind. They never even got into the game. The should have been up front, but they lagged behind and I never put them to any good use.

I got antsy on turn two and decided to move Kreoss up and use his Feat. I managed to knock down everything in the Circle army except for eKaya, Laris, and the Wilder. That put four Warpwolves, a Gorax, a unit of druids, and a unit of Skinwalkers on their butts in the dirt. Problem was that at that exact moment I realized that in focusing on maximizing the Feat that I failed to make sure I had enough models in position to capitalize on it. Rookie, move, for sure.

Problem #1: My Devildogs were too far away to get off any charges. They advanced and fired off a few shots with their puny ranged slug guns. Next time, the Devildogs have to be in a decent location for charges on the Feat turn. I mean, that’s why they are there after all …

Problem #2: My Revengers and Repenter were hanging out in the backfield playing patty cake while Kreoss ran off and said, “Hey guys, look at me standing out in the middle of the board with nothing to defend me!” Kreoss was wedged between the building and the Cleansers but there was nothing in front of him of substance to deter a charge from those hungry hungry hippos … I mean Warpwolves.

Problem #3: The Cleansers were in an okay spot, and had the Piper singing them a song of Toughness, but their 10″ sprays were no where near eKaya. They burned a couple of druids to death with their flamethrowers, and singed the fur on a Warpwolf or two, but that was about it. I was pulling off about 3 damage per shot on the Warpwolf when I shot him, but with POW 10 against ARM 18, you’re looking at doing a max of 4 if you’re really lucky. So … duh.

Anyway, in the end the Pureblood Warpwolf sprayd to clean out a clear charge lane for the Warpwolf Stalker who them charged in under eKaya’s feat. Warped for STR and bosted with the Gorax’s animus, the Warpwolf swung its blade and squished Kreoss in one hit.

I had a lot of fun playing my first game with Kreoss. I think I will go into my next game a little less memorized by “oh, cool new models to play with” and more “let’s get a win.”  So for now, my record with Protectorate of Menoth is 0-1.

I declare a rematch!

Menoth wills it.

KAYA CONVERSION

This is a conversion of the “regular” Kaya.

A friend of mine handed me a plastic bag one day and said, “If you can do anything with these, go ahead.” I looked into the bag and saw a jumbled mass of Circle Orboros miniatures in various states of disrepair and abuse.

Using these miniatures, I constructed the model below. I used an arm from the Lord of the Feast, an arm from Kreuger, the body from Kaya, a piece of brass rod, and a ram skull from the GW Zombie sprue.

It’s a work in process, of course. I like how it’s coming along.

The Skeletor staff amuses me.

Kaya Conversion

SLOW PROGRESS: BLACKCLAD WAYFARER

Breaking slightly from Cygnar, I am working on one of my Wayfarer models.  This one missed getting done with my Druids and other Wayfarer because it was hiding in the deep, dark recesses of my Army Transport. All I have done with it right now is the basic basecoats.

 

Wayfarer #2

EXTREME WARPWOLF

The Extreme Warpwolf is one of those models that has as many people who hate it as those who like it. Mine has been sitting on my desk for over a year, looking angry that it hasn’t been put together. So with the help of a Dremel, my Low Powered Drill, and some putty … and plenty of pins … I present “Mister Jumpy.”  He needs a little more putty work to fill the gaps and seams, but at least he’s together now!

♣

CIRCLE ORBOROS

The Argus is a cool model, and I own a few of them … more than I’d like to admit. I would have loved to see this model get something like the Charger to force it for a Fury to boost Attack and Damage rolls. But the Argus is a 4 point model with a nice short ranged attack, and a decent special action attack. With Forced Evolution, it can dish out a 18 P+S bite which can’t be sneezed at assuming it hits. With the Gorax’s animus, it gets a boost to MAT and STR, so that makes it an even better missile to hurl at a Warlock or Warcaster … or use it to hunt solos.

MKII Kaya plays differently now, and I’ve only played her once. Seems like I will have to get used to the hit-and-run tactics that she can use with Spirit Door. However, Pack Hunters does help out the Agrus models that I like to run with her, and it makes Feral Warpwolves just plain ugly with an effective 9 MAT. She seems like she’s really a support Warlock now where she’s just using her spells to tend to her mangy flock while they tear the Hell out of the enemy. I need to try her out a few more times to really get a feel for her.

ROLLING DICE WITH G.O.D.

I’m a Press Ganger in DuBois, PA and my club is G.O.D. – not to be confused with the S.O.B.’s or BAMF. We recently started a new League at the local gaming store. It’s kind of a new start (again) because the store has moved (again) from the DuBois Mall to a nearby location that used to be the home of a pet salon called Doggie Styles.

During League, I have focused directly on eKaya and Warpwolves. My curent list at 35 is:

eKaya + Laris, Feral Warpwolf, Pureblood Warpwolf, Warpwolf Stalker, Druid Wilder, and a max unit of Bloodtrackers.

And when I kick it up to 50, I have been using:

Kaya, Feral Warpwolf, Pureblood Warpwolf, Warpwolf Stalker, Druids of Orboros and Overseer, max Bloodtrackers, Lord of the Feast, a unit of Shifting Stones with Stone Keeper, and 2 Blackclad Wayfarers.

On Tuesday, I played Khador247 in a 35 pointer and am happy to report that I finally won a game against him … and in the oddest way. I managed to use Muzzle to assassinate Sorscha as a last ditch effort. The dice rolled in my favor, and my shot in the dark was successful.

On Thursday, I played LordMaggot at 50 points. He was using Trollbloods, namely Madrak. Dealing with all those Medium based infantry was challenging. The game ended when Mulg executed a one-handed throw on my Pureblood. The Pureblood deviated to land directly on top of Kaya doing enough damage to knock her down to 1 Life. Although she was sitting on plenty Fury to transfer, we had to call the game due to time. I told LordMaggot that such an awesome move demanded that I concede the win to him!

And now, I’m looking forward to (hopefully) heading out to Erie, PA this weekend to attend the Erie Days of Games. One of the guys from Gateway Games is hosting a Steamroller event for the convention and a few of the crew from G.O.D. are going to be heading out to roll some dice.

I’ll be using eKaya and Kaya for Steamroller. I’m still working out the kinks in my lists, but will be ready to go by Saturday. Wish me luck, and I’ll report back here on what goes down at the Erie Day of Games.

Circle vs. Cryx

Tonight I played a 35 point game of WARMACHINE vs. HORDES. My opponent, Charbok, used his Cryx army with Skarre. I gave him a good fight, but I was unprepared for the badness that is Skarre. I’ve read over her stuff in the past, but facing the army on the table with an experienced gamer behind them is a whole different story.

My list was:

Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris, a Gorax, a Pureblood Warpwolf, Warpwolf Stalker, a single unit of Shifting Stones, a min unit of Tharn Bloodtrackers, a pair of Blackclad Wayfarers, and the Lord of the Feast. I chose this army basically because I wanted to try the combination of Waywarers and Shifting Stones with fragments of my former list from the last game. I’m in the “practice and test” phase.

He was using Skarre, a Seether, a pair of bonejacks, Necrosurgeon and Stitchthralls, murderous Bloodgorgers, a sea of Mechanithralls, and The Warwitch. (He might have had something else, but that’s what I remember!)

I chose bonejack A as prey for the Bloodtrackers. I have used the Advanced Deployed Bloodtrackers as a front line infantry unit but I need to stop doing that. They squish way to easy without an ARM boost and die to fast. They will be much more effective as a swift moving clean-up crew. It would also help if I filled out their unit to max to get a few more bodies in their. At 35 points with my 19 points of Warpwolves, it’s tough to devote that many points to Bloodtrackers, but next time that’s what I’m going to do.

The Wayfarer is a cool model. He has a dramatic pose, and can do a lot of dirty stuff. He can Phase Jump like crazy when he’s near a Shifting Stone, and has a 7 for his magic ability when using Stone Spray. And although Hunter’s Mark is nifty, its kind of redundant with eKaya. I really like that he has the chance to pull off Critical Knockdown with his spray. However, he’s pretty squishy when he’s getting a love note from Skarre in the form of Hellfire. But what solo isn’t, right? Oh, and he doesn’t like Corrosion … at all.

The whole game came down to Skarre’s feat turn. She was down 5 already, so that put me ahead of the game a little. I got over zealous with moving my Warbeasts up, and lost both my Pureblood to the dark powers. He also managed to wipe out all but one of my Bloodtrackers. So this left me with very little options to finish the job on the second half of the feat turn. Not to mention that the Gorax failed his threshhold check and frenzied on the Seether, which did nothing to help me take out Skarre.

My Wayfarer advanced and used his spray to target a Mechanithrall which allowed the spray to spill over on Skarre who was pumped with to something like 20 ARM at the time. I pulled off Critical Knockdown but failed to do much damage to Skarre. I was dropping out somthing like 7 from my two dice. Then the Stalker warped for Beserk and used his animus on himself. He killed two bloodgorgers, and sprinted into melee range with bonejack A. Kaya charged bonejack A and after a few hits, managed to wreck it. Laris charged a bloodgorger, and then shifted back to Kaya’s side. With the former prey now gone, the remaining Bloodtracker selected Skarre as her new prey. Advancing a little to the right to get LOS, she took a shot at the knocked down Skarre. The javelin hit, but I didn’t roll high enough on my damage to kill the pirate queen. As a last resort, the Lord of the Feast advanced, and hit a Mechanithrall with the Raven. Teleporting into melee with Skarre, he failed to do enough damage to assassinate her. I completely forgot that the Lord of the Feast only gets tokens for killing living models, so I couldn’t use anything to boost or make attacks even through I had killed a stitchthrall before going after Skarre. At that point, my bag of tricks was empty. Everything else was engaged or too far away to be effective in the sea of undead.

The next turn, he managed to take out everything but Kaya, Laris, a single Shifting Stone, and the Gorax. However, the Gorax was hurt very badly. Since the gaming store was closing, we called the game there giving Cryx the win.

I enjoyed the game, and definitely missed the Druids in my list. I got to try the Wayfarers and their Shifting Stone synergy. I’ll need to keep brushing up on the MKII HORDES rules and keep working on what models I want to use in my standard 35 point Circle list.

Next time, I want to try the Tharn Wolf Riders with the max unit of Bloodtrackers. And at some point I want to run a list of druids that will include Druids of Orboros, Wayfarers, and the Woldstalkers. So what I’m saying is that I have a lot more playtesting and playing around to do. And finally, I would really like to run a pack of Argus with both flavors of Kaya just to try out what she can do with light Warbeasts that have 7 speed.

Oh, and I need to try out Kruger too … but that’s a whole different story.

On The Table

And now on the painting table Autopsy Table … Stoneward and Woldstalkers!  You can see the “test subject” on the right hand side.

Broken Wolves of Orboros

I won an auction on Ebay a few months back that included several Circle models. Two of these were Wolves of Orboros which were broken. The previous owner had tried to glue the hands into place and managed only to break them. So I was going to order replacement parts but decided to mess around and convert them the best I could. I like the fact that I got them to “work” well enough that when they are included on the table within a full unit that they will probably look just fine. The first one (on the left) just needed a few small pins to get the arms and weapon into place. It was annoying drilling such tiny holes in the model but it payed off in the end. The second one (in the middle) required different work. I cut the remaining shaft from the hands and filed them down enough that I could add the hands to the stumps of the arms. Using the head of the spear, I took some necklace tubes and a piece of brass rod and made a new shaft for the spear. I planted the spear in the ground in front of the model. I guess maybe this guy isn’t quite ready to enter the fray yet. He’s thinking about it. Just wait until he picks up his poking stick.

That’s all for now!

Keep Rollin’ Sixes!

- Q