Hardcore & Adepticon

With winter rolling around the Warmachine events are pretty quiet.  The first big convention is TempleCon, but I'm not flying out to Rhode Island or Connecticut so that one doesn't matter for me directly.  So the first big convention for me is going to be Adepticon here in Chicago.  I'm currently signed up for 2 events.  Hardcore and the Team Event.  Team Event is more or less decided that its going to be Krueger2 and Nemo3 and more on that later.  The other thing is that the Masters is 8 people, top 8 of Hardcore and top 8 of the theme force event.  Masters is 3-list divide and conquer, 50-points.  So we'll need to explore that more too.

So leading into this event I think that I need to narrow down my lists to see what I can get the right amount of practice in for.  I had originally narrowed it down to Kromac, Cassius, Krueger2, Baldur1, Kaya2 and Mohsar for Hardcore.  I've been thinking about it and I don't like the bad matchups for Kaya2 and Mohsar, so they're off the Hardcore consideration.  Also, for purposes of SR2013 I'm going to be playing Morvahna.  Only thing that might throw a wrench into this would be the imminent release of Epic Morvahna, but presently there's no timetable for that.

So, with that in mind lets investigate some lists.  First, Kromac is a pretty straight forward one for me.  Will Pagani's Kromac list just seems too good to ignore honestly.  I've looked at it, and I like everything  about it.  Here it is...

Kromac the Ravenous
- Ghetorix
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Feral Warpwolf
- Gorax
- Druid Wilder
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Gallows Groves x2
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Kromac has the tools to handle a TON of stuff.  He can play an attrition game with some hit & run, he's got a lot of assassination potential too.  I don't think he's the strongest at scenario, but I don't actually care for Hardcore.  He's got the tools to deal with almost every faction in different ways.  I'd say his weaknesses would be against shooting and Purification is not a good time for Kromac either.

So then we move on to someone who's got a lot of game against shooting and doesn't have any upkeeps ... Krueger2.  Krueger2 with Storm Wall is quite possibly at his strongest with how much the environment is now focused on shooting and with Menoth being all over the place.  The biggest thing I'm not super sure about with him just yet is the ability to crack heavy ARM.  That said I think he's still got a solid amount of game.  Here's the list I'm going to be playing

Krueger the Stormlord
- Woldwrath
- Pureblood Warpwolf
Celestial Fulcrum
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Gallows Groves x2
Druids of Orboros
- Druids Overseer
Totem Hunter

I'd say that spot with the Totem Hunter is definitely up for some debate, as are a few of the things in that list, but by and large its something like that I would go with.  If a 2nd Fulcrum were to get painted in time, it'd likely make its way into the list as well.

So from there we move on and we've got tried-and-true Baldur to look at.  He's just so good in his theme force that I can't imaging not putting that on the table.  There are a few different versions that I'd play around with, but here are the lists.

Baldur the Stonecleaver
- Megalith
- Wold Guardian
- Woldwarden
Shifting Stones x2 + UA
Druids of Orboros
- Druid Overseer
Blackclad Wayfarer
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers

I've played this list a decent amount as well, not 100% its the final product I'd throw down for hardcore, but its a list that's been around for a long time.  I'd say its also entirely possible that I'd play it with 2 Woldwardens or 2 Wold Guardians instead of one and one.  A second Guardian or Warden in place of the Druids unit is a distinct possibility as well.  The list does a decent job at a lot of things.  I sort of worry about its ability to handle a colossal.  I might be able to work out a list with Woldwrath and Baldur1 as well but since he can't benefit from Stone Skin either I'm hesitant.  He also does rely on a couple of upkeeps, animi and spells quite a bit for me to feel great about his Protectorate matchup.  I've been seeing some are still having success with him though, so I can't ignore his potential.

That brings us to a "dark horse" of consideration for Hardcore: Cassius.  Cassius has a lot of things that don't work like how people think of when they think Hardcore, especially for Circle.  He's putting infantry on the table, he's got some specific bad matchups namely looking at Siege, and a decent portion of Legion.  I think he's got decent matchups otherwise though.  Purification doesn't really hurt, and most of the things that seem like a bad match can be mitigated.  Here's the list as I'm seeing it presently.

Cassius the Oathkeeper
- Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax
- Woldwarden
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Tharn Ravagers (max)
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain
Wolves of Orboros (max)
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain and Standard
Wolf Lord Morraig
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Gallows Groves x3

Cassius' spell list is absolutely bonkers.  Hellmouth does a ton of things and if you thought the spell was good with Epic Deneghra you haven't seen anything after you see him throw it out there.  Stranglehold is great at holding off a heavy target while other things are dealing with it.  Curse of Shadows kind of speaks for itself too.  He's not an easy warlock to pilot obviously because he's all about positioning Wurmwood to get souls and also not die.  Another big issue with him for Hardcore (and lesser extent for Adepticon in general) is that much of this is not done being painted.  I love the work my fiancé does painting my stuff, but takes time and April could likely sneak up pretty fast.  Only possible adjustment to this list would be that Farrow Bonegrinders might be a better fit than the Gallows Groves.

Then finally, my last list.  This one isn't for Hardcore at all, but likely will be one of my SR2013 lists that I'd want to be bringing to Masters should I manage to get in, and that's Morvahna!  I've got a couple of possible lists I'm going to give a go, here's the first

Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Woldwrath
- Pureblood Warpwolf
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Gallows Groves x3
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
- Warpborn Alpha

This is a variation on what I had been playing.  First change you'll notice is the Woldwrath.  He's got a great gun, he hits like a truck, has auto knockdown.  Nothing bad I can say about him at all.  The Pureblood gets the nod to start with because I think providing Wraithbane to Woldwrath is going to be very useful.  Not 100% on this list yet, but I do like it in principle.  Another variation on this list has the Gnarlhorn Satyr and then the ability to cut a Grove to get in another 2 points (probably a Blackclad).

Another variation looks something like this


Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Wold Guardian
- Wold Guardian
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Gallows Groves x2
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
- Warpborn Alpha
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Tharn Bloodweavers

The last 4-5 points of this list is up for debate, but being able to add in the Witch Doctor I think would be a massive boon to Morvahna's list.  Bloodweavers, Lord of the Feast, Thrullg, Totem Hunter and Scarsfell Griffon all have potential in that last spot.  There's also a possibility of dropping the 2 Guardians for a more "traditional" battle group of Stalker, Feral, Gorax and playing it that way.  She doesn't like Purification at all, but damn is she just too much of a monster not to be putting on the table IMO.

Triple Threat - 35 point SR2012 at Dice Dojo

I would do some write ups about Warmachine Weekend, but basically suffice it to say that even though I didn't do very well in the win/loss way, I had a blast.  That said, this past weekend, following Warmachine Weekend, we had a 35-point 3-list divide and conquer tournament at the Dojo.  I had the time that day, so I figured I'd go ahead and throw down.  Here are the lists that I brought

Morvahna the Autumnblade

- Wold Guardian

- Wold Guardian

Shifting Stones

- Stone Keeper

Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)

- Nuala the Huntress

Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)

Gallows Groves x2

Grayle the Farstrider

- Ghetorix

- Pureblood Warpwolf

- Winter Argus

Tharn Ravagers (max)

- Tharn Ravager Chieftain

Lord of the Feast

Gallows Grove

Krueger the Stormwrath

- Warpwolf Stalker

- Feral Warpwolf

- Gorax

Shifting Stones

- Stone Keeper

Blackclad Wayfarer

Tharn Wolf Riders (max)

I used a Blackclad and Scarsfell Griffon as my reinforcements for all of the lists.  I'm glad for the change that I've heard coming from the beta for SR2013 that all scenarios will be able to handle reinforcements and they'll be an option for the entire tournament or not.  I like the change.

Round 1 vs Cryx

My opponent of course had all of his lists available to him.  I believe he was running Deneghra1, Skarre2 and Gaspy3.  He decided to run with Gaspy3 I guess because he thought that the feat would be powerful against Circle.  I think this was the list that he threw down.

Asphyxious the Hellbringer

- Vociferon

- Cankerworm

- Nightmare

Mechanithralls (min)

- Brute Thrall x2

Mechanithralls (min)

- Brute Thrall x2

Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls

Withershadow Combine

Warwitch Siren

Pistol Wraith x2

I'm not going to break it down by each turn, just a brief over view.  The scenario was Close Quarters so a scenario win was unlikely to happen here.  I played Morvahna here thinking no matter which of his lists that I could deal with his infantry and the Wold Guardians deal well with anything else.  My opponent hadn't played this list much from the looks of things, so he was asking a lot of questions and I'd say using up a lot of clock time.  He had a point in one of the turns where his Pistol Wraiths both missed my Wold Guardian needing anything but snakeeyes.  Morvahna was attritioning the hell out of Gaspy's army here.  Eventually my opponent ran out of time and I still was in a good position.

Round 2 vs Trollbloods

The scenario was Bunkers, so we have reinforcements for this.  My opponent is running Doomy1, Doomy2 and I think Grissel1.  Looking at the lists I would probably have preferred to play Morvahna, but definitely didn't want to be locked into a list later on.  He's already played Doomy1 who'd be a bad matchup for her.  Looking at it I decide to drop the Grayle list.  He goes with Doomy2, who I've never faced.  List looks like this I think...

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia

- Dire Troll Mauler

- Earthborn Dire Troll

- Mulg the Ancient

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max)

- Stone Scribe Elder

Janissa Stonetide

Whelps

Reinforcements:

Trollkin Champion Hero

Trollkin Runeshapers

This game was honestly over very quickly mostly because I didn't take Goad into account nor in general the speed with which Doomy was going to deal with me.  I charged my Ravagers at his beasts behind the wall Janissa made, putting 2 of them right there and the rest in charge range.  This didn't work out at all because of Goad.  Also cleared a path and Ghetorix bit the dust to Mulg.  After that some stuff happened, but not of much consequence.  I get tabled.  Definitely need more time playing against more trolls.  Also, I think after this bad streak with Grayle that he's going on the bench again for a while.

Round 3 vs Retribution of Scryah

The scenario is Restoration for this round.  My opponent is not locked out of a list, and has Rahn, Rayvn and Kaelyssa I think (Rayvn might have been Ossyan).  He's played everyone but Rahn.  At this point I haven't played Krueger1 so I'm looking and against either Ossyan/Rayvn I definitely want Morvahna.  In general Kaelyssa doesn't worry me a ton, but he hasn't played Rahn so I'm banking on the fact that Rahn will be the pic, so Krueger1 is the right call.  He does in fact pick Rahn

Adeptis Rahn

- Phoenix

- Chimera

- Sylys Wyshnalyrr

House Shyeel Battle Mages x2

Dawnguard Sentinels (max)

House Shyeel Magister

Artificer

That may not be 100% accurate, but its something like that.  I win the die roll, Wolf Riders prey one of the units of battle mages.  Terrain helps me out quite a bit here.  Standard move up, throw up Lightning Tendrils on the Wolf Riders, Deflection, Skyborne, and we're off.  He moves everything up, runs his Chimera close, starts throwing out Chain Blasts, one of which takes out my blackclad and just misses Krueger.  Another puts a little damage on the Feral.  This was also the turn that he feated, so those were putting up some pretty solid damage and hitting accurately.  Battle mages put a little damage on my wolf riders, but ARM 16 helped keep them alive.  Everything else moved up, and most importantly the only thing in the zone was the Chimera.

At this point I'm going first, I evaluate the chances that I can get a scenario point on his turn to be pretty high, and I know for certain that I could get it on my turn.  Wolf Riders deal with the unit of Battle Mages they prey'd, they use their cav movement to tie up the Phoenix.  Shifting Stones move the Feral, its going to need reach.  Gorax Primals him up.  Krueger goes, feats and puts the templates between the Sentinels and the zone, being that they take more damage moving through than while they're in DLine. Casts Lightning Tendrils on the Feral, puts up Lightning Strike on the Stalker, and here we go.  Stalker takes out the Chimera, runs back.  Feral takes out the objective without too much problem.

After this basically he was trapped by the templates and decided not to try to run the sentinels anywhere, the Phoenix combusted and then couldn't move.  The other unit of battle mages couldn't get through some of the terrain that was there.  So he gives up a point on his turn, I only need 2 to win, so that's it.

Round 4 vs Cryx

Yup, Cryx again.  This time I think I'm looking at Gaspy3, Denny1 and Goreshade1 though I'm honestly not 100% on that.  He has all of his options available, as do I.  Worked in round one, so I opted to go with Morvahna again, he chooses Denny.  The scenario is Incursion, so the fact that I won the die roll seems pretty huge.  Here's what I remember of his list...

Warwitch Deneghra

- Deathripper x2

- Nightmare

- Skarlock Thrall

Bane Thralls (max)

- Bane Thrall Officer and Standard

Pistol Wraith

Gorman di Wulfe

Darragh Wrath

Game starts as you'd think.  Bloodtrackers fill up the middle of the table, Regrowth and Harvest go up. Everything else mosey's on up the table.  His turn was more or less the same on his side with things getting into position.  One thing to note, and we didn't realize it until about turn 3 was that he forgot to put the Skarlock on the table.  Obviously once so much stuff is moved around can't go back, so that sucked for him (though not sure it ultimately decided the outcome).  Middle flag disappears.

Now it gets interesting.  I camped a Gallows Grove on each flag on the outside, Bloodtrackers are killing stuff, other things are moving up.  More Banes die, eventually the bloodtrackers become crip grasped which of course sucks, but fortunately aiming they're still killing banes.  He leaves me an opening though to teleport my Guardian to the node that was contesting the flag on the right, I smash it into the ground with impunity and have the guardian camp the flag.  I get a point.  His next turn a bunch of stuff happens, a couple of Skinwalkers died, bloodtrackers were decimated.

This is when I look at the table though.  I've got 3 skin walkers, like 2 bloodtrackers, both beasts, full stones, and that grove is still camping the flag on the left.  He also had to reposition the node over there, so it was easily in teleport range of the other guardian.  On my right I need to kill a Pistol Wraith and i think one bane thrall.  Guardian, manuevers around the flag so he's still touching it and pounds the Pistol Wraith dead.  Skinwalkers aren't engaged, so 2 of them charge the bane on the hill, 3rd one goes and stands right in front of Denny1.  They kill the bane (first one).  So then I teleport the guardian, he pushes the node out of 4" (and scraps it in 2 hits).  Three control points, so I win.

Conclusion

So after the dust settled, I ended up getting 2nd place due to winning on scenario in both of those games, so that was pretty clutch.  The only loss was to the guy who won the event, so I believe that gave me favorable strength of schedule and then control points gave me 2nd over the guy who didn't lose until the last round.  Felt pretty good as I've been on sort of a losing streak lately.

There are some other things this has made me think more about too.  First and foremost being that Morvahna is still a powerhouse caster.  Yes, she definitely hates Purification and is going to have a bitch of a time (if its even possible) against that, but there are still only 4 casters in the game that do that.  She's going to be back to seeing more table time with me.  Grayle as I mentioned is going to get benched again for a while, I just haven't had the luck with him that I want to.  Krueger1 isn't a warlock I've played a ton, but I do really like what he brings to the table.  Lightning Tendrils is an amazing spell, and his ability to just wipe infantry off the table allows for me to worry less about that in list construction.  Playing for 2-lists I'm not 100% that pairing him with Morvahna is the right call, but it could happen.  Krueger2 also has a ton of promise because the Storm Wall spell hasn't ever been better than it is now.

Circle Orboros Theme Forces

There's a tournament coming up in a couple of weeks out this way where it requires theme forces.  When I started playing the game I looked at theme forces and saw them as a great way to get an army together.  I'd say like many new players that I saw them as a great way to build armies.  Now that I've been playing a lot more though, I am actually feeling more hemmed in than normal with respect to them.  This isn't to say that Circle has "bad" theme forces, in fact we have a few that are actually really pretty decent, I'm just having a hard time getting a build together with more than one 'caster that I'm liking.  That said, lets see if I can try!

First, the most solid theme forces, in my opinion, are both of the Baldur theme forces.  In fact, I've pretty much exclusively played Baldur1 as a theme force.  Here's my build for that...

Baldur the Stonecleaver
- Megalith
- Wold Guardian
- Woldwarden
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druids of Orboros
- Druid Overseer
Blackclad Wayfarer

Reinforcements:
Wold Guardian
Blackclad Wayfarer

Benefits:
- Sentry Stone & Mannikin units can be placed up to 20" from the back edge of the deployment zone
- 1 warbeast per Shifting Stone unit or Sentry Stone unit gains advance deployment
- Druid Stoneward & Woldstalker units gain Advance Move
- Heavy Warbeasts cost 1 point less

This theme force is great, you get up the table quick, lots of movement shenanigans, many ways to play it differently.  One modification I might consider is swapping out a 'warden in the main list for another Guardian and then having 2x Woldwyrds as the reinforcements since I don't own a 3rd Guardian.  Anyway, on to the other Baldur...

Baldur the Stonesoul
- Megalith
- Wold Guardian
- Woldwatcher
- Woldwatcher
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Druids of Orboros
- Druid Overseer
Celestial Fulcrum
Lord of the Feast

Reinforcements:
Woldwyrd
Woldwyrd
Blackclad Wayfarer

Benefits
- Shifting Stone units and Gallows Grove solos can be placed up to 20" from the back of the deployment
- For each Druids of Orboros unit in the army a Celestial Fulcrum gains Advanced Move
- Heavy Warbeasts gain +2 SPD during the first turn
- Light Warbeasts with Construct cost one less point.

This army is a brick.  Baldur2's feat definitely allows things to have a massive amount of ARM to survive an attack.  Woldwatchers get to ARM 21 on their on, the Fulcrum brings a healthy amount of anti-infantry.  The biggest "problem" here is that you have to play either epic or regular Baldur because they both want Megalith.  Also, there are some tweaks available, mostly that Lord of the Feast can become 2x Gallows Grove and a Blackclad.  Lord has been good to me though, so unless I have another list that he might be better in, I'm giving him the nod.

After this things start to get a bit dicey, not to say that there are bad themes, just that building them isn't as easy or I'm not enjoying the trade offs.  Lets look at the Forces of Circle Orboros book themes first and what we're restricted to...

Cassius the Oathkeeper - Widower's Wood
- Circle construct warbeasts and heavy warbeasts
- Druids of Orboros, Reeves of Orboros, Sentry Stone & Mannikins, Shifting Stones, Skinwalkers
- Feralgeist, Reeve Hunters, War Wolves, Lord of the Feast

The benefits in this army aren't strong either.  All of the access to souls in this list are pretty expensive, so any of these builds are going to rely on the enemy bringing living troops to kill.  Not feeling it at present.

Kaya the Wildborne - The Wild Hunt
- Living non-character warbeasts
- Reeves of Orboros, Bloodtrackers, Wolf Riders, Wolves of Orboros
- Druid Wilder, Reeve Hunter, War Wolf, Wolf Lord Morraig

If you want to play a lot of Reeves this list isn't too bad.  Also, Kaya can support living warbeasts pretty solidly.  Wolf Riders are a GREAT target to put Occultation up on IMO, and I have access to Bloodtrackers.  She can bring any of the living beasts.  Only loss here really is Shifting Stones aren't here.  That said, Tier 2 requires Morraig, which then makes you want to have the 13 point investment of a unit of WoO and Morraig, when I kind of also want to play 18 points of Reeves to really get the benefits.  I also don't own 2 units of Reeves, so at present not likely to happen.  Tier 1 is an option though, even though I get no benefits basically.

Kaya the Moonhunter - Call of the Wild
- Living non-character warbeasts
- Druids of Orboros, Shifting Stones, Skinwalkers
- Druid Wilder, War Wolf

This tends to be a theme force that people have a lot of good things to say about.  I've played it and I don't hate it.  Tier 1 is BIG really, all heavy beasts getting advanced deploy is pretty big.  The thing here is that you have to play Skinwalkers and Druids to get to tier 4, once you do though heavy warbeasts are -1 point.  Its still not a bad theme at all, but playing Druids and Skinwalkers isn't really what I'm looking for with her.  Tier 1 is an option, maybe Tier 4, it might be the list that's played.

Krueger the Stormwrath - Storm Front
- non-character warbeasts
- Druids of Orboros, Shifting Stones, Wolves of Orboros
- Blackclad Wayfarer, Druid Wilder, Wolf Lord Morraig

The big advantages to this theme are that you can play unlimited druids and attachments, also you get the ability to bring extra blackclads to the list if needs be.  Has most of the pieces that are wanted, that said tier 2 requires me to bring Morraig to the table again, and this is just not the list that I think he nor a unit of Wolves makes much sense.  I know, I know that a lot of people think you can play Morraig without flank, and you can, but since he's a character I want to maximize his potential.  To get to tier 4 then I'm going to have 33 points in infantry.  Might be do-able, nothing special jumping out to me.

Krueger the Stormlord - The Devourer's Host
- Living non-character warbeasts
- Tharn Ravagers, Skinwalkers
- Ravager solos, Lord of the Feast

First thing is that the army requires 2 units of ravagers, and I'm not buying more ravagers until they get released in plastic sometime next year.  Tier 2 gives Lord of the Feast a corpse token to start with, getting to tier 4 gives warpwolves advance move which is solid.  Krueger actually does have the ability to help Ravagers up the table so that I don't mind, but I don't think this is the theme force that I like with Krueger.

Kromac the Ravenous - Heart Eaters
- Living non-character warbeasts
- Tharn units
- Tharn solos, Lord of the Feast

Again, need mulitple Ravager units, lots of Whitemanes and lord of the feast.  Can get some advanced move, but as far as the rest its just too many points in infantry for Kromac to like.  I just don't see this as being a build that I'm interested in.

Mohsar the Desertwalker - Sandstorm
- non-character Warbeasts
- Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers, Reeves of Orboros, Sentry Stone & Mannikins, Shifting Stones, Druids units
- Blackclad Wayfarer, Reeve Hunters, War Wolves, Lord of the Feast

This theme force is just weird.  It wants you to play 2 units of Druids, at least one unit of Woldstalkers and 2 heavy warbeasts.  You CAN get some free pillars out of the deal, which in the right match up would be pretty big, but to make it work you need a minimum of 19 points of infantry and that's before even adding in any support of heavies.  It could work adding in the 2nd unit of Woldstalkers and then working out the right build of 31 points in beasts.  That said, I don't know that Mohsar wants or needs 2 units of Druids.  Not impossible to play I suppose in any case.

Morvahna the Autumnblade - Harvest of Blood
- non-character Light Warbeasts
- Druids of Orboros, Bloodtrackers, Bloodweavers, Wolf Riders, Shifting Stones
- Blackclad Wayfarer, Druid Wilder, War Wolves

The benefits in this theme are fantastic, free nuala, upkeeps to begin, +2 inches of deploy.  There is a glaringly big problem here though, and that's no heavy warbeasts.  Circle begins to have a problem when they need to try to crack ARM 19+.  In this list, there are a lot of 'casters who are going to be able to camp.  I've considered playing the list, just because it'll be something a lot of people don't have a lot of answers too, but it has a TON of bad matchups.

To mention the other Domination warlock, here's Grayle...

Grayle the Farstrider - Claw & Fang
- non-character Argus and Warpwolf warbeasts
- Wolves of Orboros, Reeves or Orboros, Skinwalker units
- War Wolves, Wolves of Orboros solos, Reeves of Orboros solos, Skinwalker solos, Wolf Lord Morraig

I have a soft spot for this theme force to be honest.  I wish that I owned a 2nd unit of Wolves of Orboros because I think 2 is the right build for him since they can both get a UA.  This is actually the list where Morraig fits the best, with Grayle.  He also gives WoO Hunter, which can be good.  I like Grayle with Winter Argus, he's great with warpwolves and really the only things for this list that I want to have are Shifting Stones, Druid Wilder and Lord of the Feast.  I think it could be worked out.

I'm not going to go over the NQ themes at this point.  I don't like the Cassius one all that much at present, and probably won't play it until Woldwrath is legal and/or I have 75 points to work with.  The Krueger one is the better one, and I do think it also is begging for a Woldwrath to be honest.  Additionally, the list I want with Krueger is a double Fulcrum list ...

Lord of the Feast!!

I've been pretty lazy about writing here, probably because I realized that I don't need to type stuff out to be essentially talking to myself, but whatever.  This write up isn't going to take very long either, but I felt like it was needed to highlight one of the most awesome solos in Warmachine / Hordes!

So I decided I wanted to do a few things differently than I had been playing.  First, I wanted to play a game without a Gorax as I don't think its the ultimate in necessary for every list.  Also, I've been wanting to get some more time with a few other pieces in my collection.  So, I assembled this list

Grayle the Farstrider
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Winter Argus
- Woldwyrd
- Druid Wilder
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Lord of the Feast
Tharn Wolf Riders (max)
Reeve Hunter
Reeve Hunter
War Wolf
War Wolf

One thing of note with this list, is that it contains a lot of models with Hunter, which can always come in handy.  It also has access to a lot of movement shenanigans, a warlock who plays a bit of a different game for Circle, Wolf Riders that I've been wanting to play more with and Reeve Hunters that I've basically just wanted to get on the table more.  As far as the somewhat unique beast load out, first having access to Sprint for anything is always good for us, and the Stalker does a lot of good, so not much to explain there.  Without a Gorax in the list, I felt that the Pureblood was a good pick to hand out Blessed weapons.  Winter Argus is there because the sprays are decent, and Grayle likes having access to Winter Coat to give him +2 ARM.  Woldwyrd is another include because it can make some pretty solid use out of Awareness in some clutch situations, and is just good at being able to scalpel out some pieces.

Anyway, that's a lot of explanation for a night that turned out to be Lord of the Feast and the guys who help him do his job.

Game 1 vs Protectorate of Menoth - Reznik

I honestly don't remember the entire composition of the list.  It had choir, vassals, mechanics, 'jacks, covenant and some other stuff.  I opted to go 2nd I believe (or maybe I lost the roll and just had to go 2nd).  First, I was eye balling a situation where I thought that I could use the good Lord to cause a bunch of havok and put him up behind his choir and a few other things.  So Grayle Storm Rager'd him up (which was always the plan) and he tried to Raven, short by about an inch.  Do some other stuff, pass the turn.

On his turn, he failed to Perdition his Reckoner forward, so it had to settle on I think just killing one of my Shifting Stones and being a pain with where it was sitting.  He does some other stuff that was of very little consequence because I don't remember it, and passes the turn.

I upkeep Storm Rager.  Then I start to look, he's got the covenant in a spot that I can probably get Lord to, with some tricky moving and a good bird shot, and if i get behind there I have 2 choir and his 'caster that will take shots (and the book, but I'm not getting 5 attacks).  I figure, its going to kill some choir and be something he'll have to deal with.  So I do that, slip around, shoot the bird, hit the book, go behind it, do my thresher.  I have LOS to his 'caster because Reznik is on a medium base, otherwise I'd probably be blocked by his choir boy.  So at MAT 10, POW 15 i go ahead and thresher.  I kill the choir guys, 1 damage on the book, hit Reznik for like 6 (he's on either 1 or 0 focus).  I look, and figure I can hit, for some reason I decided to boost damage, I should have just bought 2 attacks, but my boosted damage exactly kills his 'caster.

Holy shit, that just happened.  Told me basically nothing about my list, and had his perdition gone off or my initial plan happened, none of this was likely to play out this way.  That said, it was pretty awesome that it worked like it did.

Game 2 vs Khador - Old Witch's Theme Force

My opponent and I will be the first to point out that her theme force is not the greatest in the world.  However, there is a theme force tournament coming up, so you have to try out a few things and see if they work.  This list had a bunch of Greylords, Kossites, Destroyers (I think), Man Hunters and so forth.  Kossites ambush, he gets to start with Old Witch's upkeeps out there.  Important to note is that Iron Flesh goes on the Old Witch.

I think he went first, but we both basically do the standard move up the board, only exception to this is that my Wolf Riders assault some Widowmakers that are in a trench, and I think killed 3 out of the 4 (which were the only shots I had).

On his turn 2, more moving up, Kossites jump out, I learned I needed to have been farther into the middle of the table.  He got charges with backstrikes on my Wolf Riders on my right, and 1 of the 2 Reeve Hunters and 1 of the 2 War Wolves that killed.  The rest of his army didn't do a whole lot that turn.

On my turn, first I want to highlight how Kossites being really bad allowed me to live out my dream with the Reeve Hunter.  Reeve Hunters can, in theory, kill 6 models in an activation.  Goes like this...
Melee initial attack #1, kill model, quick work generates a ranged attack, kill model #2, Swift Hunter allows a 2" move and Snap Fire goes off to take another shot, kill model #3, Swift Hunter into melee, kill model #4 with the 2nd melee initial attack, Quick Work triggers again shoot #5 kill, Swift Hunter another 2" Snap Fire model #6 and kill.  Mouth full.  Now, the reason its the "dream" is because Reeve Hunters are MAT 6 (MAT 8 on the charge) RAT 7, which is respectable, but a far cry from guaranteed hits and the melee weapons are POW 11 and 9, and the crossbow is POW 10, so again, chances of not breaking ARM can happen too.  Fortunately for me Kossites are DEF 12 ARM 10 ... so I did that entire sequence.  It was sexy.

Anyway, on pertinent matters, I'm looking at the table and I see that I can probably get to the Old Witch with Lord of the Feast, and probably blast her with the Woldwyrd.  The Pureblood puts Wraithbane on the already Storm Rager'd Lord and sprays some models.  Grayle goes, moves into a position, feats because I'm going to need more movement for the Wyrd and Lord maybe too (don't remember).  Winter Argus kills something to get which ever one needed to move to the right spot.  Problem here is that I had ALSO intended to get Wraithbane on the Wyrd, but I forgot to and then he got too far away. So it took some shots, but they didn't do anything.  Then I go ahead and move Lord up, he shoots I think a Greylord, gets behind it, putting him in melee with 2 Greylords and Old Witch.  He easily dispatches the Greylords, and needing only 5s to hit the old lady I put a pretty solid amount of damage on.  Buy another attack, some damage goes on, buy another attack, dead.

So, not sure how I feel about this list, but I at least do like Lord of the Feast and a Pureblood with the list.  I think I could do some manipulation with him and Sprint too.

GenCon!!!

Oh boy GenCon!  Yea, I skipped over the local tournament that I played the weekend before, I think it'll be alright though.  Lots happened at GenCon though with regards to Warmachine/Hordes.  Starting on Thursday when I stood in line for 2.5 hours to make sure that I was able to get ahold of a Woldwrath and the promo Druid Gone Wilder.  Picked up an IK RPG after sitting in line that long too, and those things might have been gold the way people talked about it.  That said, I'm glad I have it now, its a great book, lots of material, and the game was a lot of fun (more later on that perhaps).

Anyway, I played in Last Rites on Friday to get in a tournament and also maybe see if I could qualify for Masters.  I did not, but I did have some fun in the tournament and I did learn some more about the game as always.  Things of note, this was a 50-point SR2012, 2 lists and you're required to play each at least once.  Only other thing to note was that it was artifice killbox for ALL scenarios (this would be relevant later).

Here's the lists that I brought...

Baldur the Stonecleaver
- Megalith
- Woldwarden
- Wold Guardian
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone and Mannikins
Druids of Orboros
- Druid Overseer
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Blackclad Wayfarer

Reinforcements:
Wold Guardian
Blackclad Wayfarer

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Ghetorix
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Woldwarden
- Gorax
- Druid Wilder
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove

Reinforcements:
Feral Warpwolf
Gallows Grove

Round 1 vs Cryx
Scenario: Incursion

Opponent's List:

Witch Coven of Gharlgast
- Deathjack
- Reaper
- Deathripper
- Skarlock Thrall
Soulhunters (max)
Soulhunters (min)
Darragh Wrathe
Withershadow Combine
Warwitch Siren

Not 100% that I have that right, but its close enough.  I chose to go with Baldur for this one thinking (wrongly) that I'd have an edge on the scenario.  I probably should have gone with Mohsar and made him deal with Pillars (and shut down arcnodes for a turn).  Anyway, much of the problem here, which I've been having in general, is that the Coven was back on the last millimeter of space at the edge of the kill box and I had no chance of getting to them.  My dice were also pretty terrible in this game if I remember correctly.  I had a pretty decent grip on the game for a bit, but eventually the soulhunters were able to kill off more than I wanted, and the amount of Ghostly and Incorporeal just made Baldur's feat not effective enough.  Either way, didn't get a win here.

Round 2 vs Khador
Scenario: Bunkers

Opponent's List:
Harkavich
- Conquest
- Conquest
Greygore Boomhowlers & Co (max)
Mechaniks
Mechaniks
Reinforcements:
Kayazy + UA

Seeing that his other list was Sorcha + Winterguard deathstar I figured my best bet was to go with Mohsar here to have a chance to take out the Conquests.  I don't remember a ton of this game either.  I did manage to scrap one of the Conquests with Ghetorix + WW Stalker, but somewhere along the way I was just eating a ton of time (I need to remember to flip the clock for Tough rolls) AND at some point my opponent was playing on my clock either because I didn't hit it or we missed something, or the clock messed up.  It ended when Mohsar went for a super long shot assassination with seconds left and didn't get it.  Deathclocked.

Round 3 vs Cygnar
Scenario: Restoration

Opponents List:
Lieutenant Allister Caine
- Sentinel
- Centurion
Gun Mages + UA
- Hunter
Stormblades + UA
- Stormclad

Another list I'm not sure if I got completely right, I should just stop saying that though because I know I'm never going to remember any of them 100% at this point.  I don't remember what his other list was either, he announced before I showed him anything that he was playing Caine.  Looking at it I realized that Mohsar's pillars would wreck havoc with this list because its nothing but low pow ranged attacks and melee.  I put prey up on the Stormblades (should have been the Gun Mages probably but I was kind of panicked from some outside information I got and nearly forgot).  He went first, pressed forward.  I went, moved up to wear my Tharn were going to do a number on the stormblades, and put the pillars out to block the rest.

After this, he did something I didn't expect, he basically completely backed up his army on the side that I pressed, and teleported Caine back quite a ways.  I looked at it, and I realized that I would be able to easily kill his objective with Ghetorix and he had nothing in the zone.  So I did that, jammed the zone with pillars and models so he couldn't get back in.  Then I looked up when he started his turn and remembered everything is kill box and thought that Caine was back quite a ways.  He was, about 8" from the back.  So I win via Killbox, kind of a hollow victory, but thems the breaks.

Round 4 vs Retribution
Scenario: Guantlet

Opponents List:
Kaelyssa
- Phoenix
- Banshee
- MHSF + UA
- Mage Hunter Assassin
- Eiryss1
- Dawnguard Sentinels + UA

He told me he was locked into this list, but gave me the impression its what he'd have preferred to play. I decided to put Baldur down because I wanted to play him again and I figured with the scenario in the middle the rough terrain would be good on the feat.  Lots of back and forth, but on about the 3rd turn I noticed he moved Kaelyssa up to within 2" of a forest that was just naturally on the table already.  I still had Megalith inside of some unbroken Shifting Stones, so he got into melee with her, animus, hits her twice, dead.  He acknowledged that he forgot to hit the other shifting stone's unit and I think he'd planned to and just forgot.  Anyway, dead elf chick.

Not enough (obviously) to get into Masters.  Not a big deal, I had a good time, learned a lot.  I got in some Iron Arena games that were fun, all theme forces that day for extra skulls.  Saw some of Hardcore and Masters.  I have to say that one of the big things that I like is that people were not just playing the things the forums tell them to play.  The more and more I look at this game, the more I think there's only so much wisdom on the forums.  I'm willing to read and hear stuff, but when I see top players like Flanzer playing the Mountain King, or Kaya1 being one of 2 lists that was doing a great job, I get pretty excited that this game is really more about knowing the rules available to you than about playing the "best" models.

Cassius vs Old Witch - 75 Points

Well, first time I ever played a game above 50 points.  I'm not going to get completely into it, but basically he brought Kayazy, Doom Reavers, Conquest, Spriggan, Mechanics, Greylords and a few other things.  I had this list in tow...

Cassius the Oathkeeper
- Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Feral Warpwolf
- Woldwarden
- Gorax
- Druid Wilder
Tharn Wolf Riders (max)
Tharn Ravagers (max)
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain
- Tharn Ravager Shaman
Wolves of Orboros (max)
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain and Standard
Wolf Lord Morraig
Gallows Groves x3
Farrow Bonegrinders (min)
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones

I think I'm just going to bullet point some highlights and observations on this one

• Got the win on assassination after the Old Witch was way on my side of the table after killing 11 of my 12 Wolves of Orboros.  She got too close though, as I was able to cycle Prey to her, got 2 throws on her from my cav and then moved a Gallows Grove close enough to double Stranglehold (had enough fury to do 3 of them).  Morraig would have gotten one more shot at her potentially.
• Tharn Ravagers survived decently well against the Doom Reavers that jammed them.  Happily surprised by this.
• I feated on turn one to try to get the stuff safely up the table, this will need to be evaluated going forward to see if its the right play
• At 75 points there was a LOT of models on the table, to the point that things were ridiculously bunched up and I felt like I couldn't maneuver.
• Wurmwood gets stealth pretty easily, and gets souls pretty easily, so I'm definitely starting to see that the horror stories of having to babysit the tree are a little unfounded
• I really, really want to get some time in to practice more with the Circle cavalry.  Its got all of the things to make it good, I just need to put them together.
• My warbeasts did basically nothing in this game.
• Conquest wasn't too scary really, the game didn't really go long enough to see if it'd have earned its steep points back or not.
• It'd probably be good to have some better hellmouth targets available.  WoO, Bonegrinders aren't bad.  Shifting Stones can be used in some cases too I suppose.  I may have to see if I can find room for a Sentry Stone in the list though, that might be a good move.
• Doom Reavers are a pain in the ass to deal with.  Yes that gets its own line.
• Whatever the Conquest's version of covering fire is called, it seems to be fine against things with decent ARM and/or extra hit boxes.  I'm glad I didn't have to try to sneak some Bloodtrackers or the like through them though

League ends, and on to GenCon

I've missed several games in here for the league due to forgetfulness I guess, or maybe laziness.  I ended up losing 3 games in the league.  One because I went for FAR too aggressive of an assassination vs Absylonia and basically just threw Baldur out there to die when I would have just won on scenario had I looked for that win first.  So I learned something there.

Another game was Morvahna against Thyra.  Basically made a poor choice on Prey with the Bloodtrackers, and probably should have played Baldur given A) that it was Menoth and B) that the scenario was more winnable if Baldur went and feated turn 1.

The last game was Baldur1 vs Denegrah1.  The game wasn't that interesting, but I should have more aggressively moved up the table, and I should have feated turn 1.  I still got the win with a charge on a KD'd Denny.

So, the league is wrapped up.  I'm not going to place due to the 2 losses at the end, and the top guy only having lost one match.  Bummer.  Now we look forward to GenCon though...

GenCon


Ok, so I've been playing a lot of Morvahna and Baldur1 obviously.  The problem I'm "seeing" is that there are colossals out there.  People are going to be definitely dropping Stormwalls at GenCon, and I'm expecting that I'll see Conquest at least here and there as well as Hyperion, Kraken, Mountain King, and possibly Galleon or Woldwrath if they're released at GenCon.  Baldur1 doesn't have a great game against a colossal depending on the scenario and a few other criteria.  Morvahna has even less of a game against Colossals for the most part.


With that in mind, I'm going to be testing out 2 more lists in the coming weeks I think.  One of them should DEFINITELY have a good game against Colossals, and the other will have game against them and also a great scenario game to compliment Baldur.  Here are the lists I'm going to go with...


Krueger the Stormlord
- Ghetorix
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax
- Druid Wilder


Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Celestial Fulcrum
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove x2


This list originally had Feral WW, Swamp Gobbers and a Feralgeist instead of Ghetorix.  However, I think that since I won't have Ghetorix in another list that he's the stronger play here.  Really excited to try out this list, but definitely not sure how it'll go.  Reinforcements will have to be considered here as well too.  That said, here's the other list...


Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Ghetorix
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Woldwarden
- Gorax
- Druid Wilder
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove x2


The one ideal difference would be that I'd prefer to have Megalith over the Woldwarden, but I think the Warden will suffice for its purposes here.  There are several other options that cost ~9 points that are considerations here in that spot too ... Wolf Riders, Gnarlhorn, Druids, Fulcrum, Feral, Pureblood and so on.  The big thing here is that mathematically, Ghetorix + Primal + Curse of Shadows can kill a Stormwall w/out Arcane Shield on average dice.


These lists both share plenty in common, they have the ability to put out some heavy damage to heavy targets.  Bloodtrackers to clean up infantry, along with a few other things.  I'd say I'm looking at Wolf Riders, Feral + Grove, or 2x Woldstalkers as my reinforcements for most of these lists.  The only other things that would be nice is finding room to put in Bloodweavers so that I can guarantee to knock Arcane Shield off of Stormwall.  I suppose that a Thrullg might fit that niche if I need it to as well for a couple less points.


 We'll see how things go, fortunately we have a 50point SR2012 right before GenCon too!

Morvahna vs Haley2

Rolled up a scenario, and it was Incursion.  Asked our friendly Press Ganger to generate us some terrain.  My opponent had Nemo3 and Haley2 as his 'casters that I might have been facing.  Looking at the lists it seems like I'm going to be playing Morvahna.  I could probably do pretty good against 3mo with Baldur, but he's a little low on the model count for my taste going up against Haley.  He ended up choosing Haley, and it looked like this:

Major Victoria Haley
- Centurion (bonded)
- Thorn
- Squire
Greygore Boomhowler & Co (max)
Horgenhold Forgeguard (max)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Journeyman Warcaster
Gorman di Wulfe
Ragman
Anastasia di Bray
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

He won the die roll and opted to go first.  He deployed with Booms on one side and forgeguard on the other.  Beyond that everything was pretty much business as usual, other than that he had planned to ambush Anastasia who I am literally just NOW realizing that he didn't ever deploy.

I go ahead and deploy as well.  Wolves of Orboros on the right, Bloodtrackers end up just a bit left of center.  Everything else goes in the middle and I split the Groves out across the table like normal.  Not a lot of great choices for Prey as I look out there, but I opted for Boomhowlers mostly due to their placement.

He goes ahead, basically just advances up the table, his Boomhowlers on a path mostly towards the flag my left (toward the Blood Trackers).  His solos and 'jack are heading towards the middle and slowly the Forgeguard are making their way around the giant obstruction towards the flag on my right.  Jr puts Arcane Shield on the Boom's and Haley throws Deceleration out there.

I go ahead and advance up the table, pretty standard stuff really.  The Bloodtrackers try to take a couple throws at the Booms, I think I might have killed one, not sure.  Morvahna throws Regrowth and Harvest out there like she tends to do.  Wolves hid in a forest, everything else just advances up the table.  Its at the end of my turn that we go ahead and do the roll for the disappearing flag.  The one on my left goes away, which is the one the Boomhowlers and Bloodtrackers were all set to fight over.

So now it gets interesting.  Boomhowlers do manage to kill a few of the BTs, Forgeguard move to contest the flag to my right, along with Thorn sort of making his way that way.  The solos move into base with the flag in the middle, with the Centurion working its way over.  Haley feats, which is a ballbuster to say the least, and throws out a Time Bomb which is also not fun for me.

Ok, now is where I nearly fucked up the whole game.  First, he gets to choose my activation, and based on the positioning it looks like he's going to score a point in the middle.  I can't let that happen because he'll easily score 2 on his turn if I do and that'd be it.  I look and I realize I should be able to blink one of my groves close enough.  Activate in all the wrong order of course, so he did good there.  BTs get to do a lot of killing of Booms (there was a grove there to turn Tough off which helped a ton).  I think they even reformed, but I don't remember.  Then somewhere my brain turned off because I was thinking I wanted to save my grove and didn't teleport it.  He's like "Umm... I win", so I'm looking and feeling fucked and just dumb for forgetting that.  I then looked at one of the BTs that was contesting by maybe a couple mm, so we continued.

Now, he goes hard for the scenario win.  Moves the whole unit of Forgeguard to the flag on the right, along with Thorn.  The solos in the middle try to do some stuff, Centurion gets arcane and polarity shielded and moves near the flag in the middle.  The booms don't do a whole lot at this point.  I think the Gun Mages did some shooting too.  Either way, he manages to score 2 points.

This turn is where things finally turned in my favor.  Regrow some Bloodtrackers, use them to start killing off Booms, then they kill off Gorman, and Prey goes to the Gun Mages.  That allowed Morvahna to Harvest plenty of Fury, so she starts killing off things in the backfield with Eruption of Life, followed by feating.  Then the WoO get a charge, and basically wipe out the whole unit of forgeguard.  I move a Grove, and one of the Skinwalkers over there to contest too.  The shifting stones end up sending Ghetorix and the Guardian at his Centurion, and had I been paying attention I would have been able to kill Jr and then dropped AS allowing me to actually KILL the centurion.  As it is, didn't get it done.

So I kept him from scoring a point.  This next turn will be brief, basically he wanted to get the win on scenario and though that Telekinesis would get it done.  Unfortunately he wasn't going to be able to move anything enough for that to happen, which he realized after trying.  He ended up with Haley pretty much directly in charge range and direction of Ghetorix.  We all know how tasty Haley is to Ghetorix.

The big things in this game were, first REMEMBER THE DAMN SCENARIO!! And then after that probably how awesome Entropic Force on the Gallows Groves were.

Tactica - Morvahna the Autumnblade

I've been playing Morvahna for quite a while now, and I think its about time for me to write down some of my thoughts on tactics for playing her.  I'm not professing to be an expert with her just yet, but I think I've got some good advice for people looking to play.  I'm also intending that this document will
grow, change, adapt, etc based on more findings as I go along.  Lets get started shall we?

Morvahna the Autumnblade


Stats

SPD 6 STR 5 MAT 6 RAT 4 DEF 15 ARM 13 CMD 9 FURY 7 Damage 14 Warbeast Points +6

The first thing here that should stick out is should probably be how squishy she is.  DEF 15 isn't really going to be enough to keep most warlocks alive if anything that can boost gets to her.  Overall, you want to keep her out of melee unless there are a couple of things that you can rely on that I'll get to later on.  ARM 13 is basically wearing paper as far as survivability goes.  The rest of her stats are pretty standard for a Circle warlock though, so I won't spend much time on them.

One of the big things that she does have going for her that is worth mentioning is FURY 7.  This is probably a little above average for Circle, but it definitely means she can spit out quite a few spells, support beasts without much trouble and upkeep several spells.

Attacks

Equinox - P+S = 12, Magical Weapon, Reach, Harrow

Not going to go over the values that don't matter, you all know how reach, magical weapons and POW 12 works.  Harrow on the other hand is not something that most of you would be familiar with, and for good reason ... its specific to Morvahna.  What it does is any enemy model damaged by the weapon suffers Harrow for one round.  Once per turn Morvahna can transfer damage from an enemy attack to an enemy model with Harrow.  What this means is that with Morvahna's low ARM value you could really be transferring quite a bit of damage to an enemy.  I wouldn't rely on it most of the time, but it will make people hesitate and/or will facilitate you taking out something that you wouldn't otherwise think you cool.  Don't rely on it, but don't forget it.

Special Abilities


Pathfinder, Sacrificial Pawn [Faction warrior]

Every Circle warrior model that can walk has Pathfinder, its what we do.  No exception here of course. Sacrificial Pawn is actually a HUGE aspect of Morvahna though.  Basically, if you play this correctly it can make Morvahna virtually immune to any kind of ranged assassination.  I'll suggest some good targets for this later on, but this ability really is what can make her great for making some matchups heavily in your favor.

Spells

Eruption of Life

COST 3 RNG 10 POW 13 UP YES OFF NO

This spell definitely has potential to be awesome.  If it destroys a living or undead enemy model a few different things happen.  First, a 3" AOE gets centered on the model before its removed from the table, please note that it is still destroyed, which is important when we talk about Harvest later.  First thing is that the AOE stays in play for a round and is a Forest.  So right off of the bat its a spell that can be great for denying your enemy movement, line of sight, etc.  Also, all enemy models in the AOE suffer an unboostable POW 13 blast damage roll.  If you have an enemy that's clumping models up even a little bit, this spell is a GREAT way to wipe them off the table.

Harvest

COST 3 RNG SELF AOE CTRL UP YES OFF NO

There is a lot of debate over which of Morvahna's spells are more important, this one or Regrowth, so that might tell you something about this spell already.  Anytime an enemy living or undead model is destroyed in her control area she gets a fury, and she can't ever go over her 7 fury.  This spell enables ALL of her shenanigans.  Its what enables Influence to actually be a spell that matters.  Eruption of Life can be a free spell sometimes.  And it lets you pay for Regrowth'ing warrior models during your control phase and have the ability to still do stuff after that.

Influence

COST 1 RNG 10 UP NO OFF YES

Simple spell, take control of an enemy warrior that isn't their caster, make one melee attack, then it expires.  With Harvest this can become a free spell basically, which is fantastic.  Look for reach models with a decent MAT and POW, especially if you can see to the back line of some formations.  Its still situational because they have to position for you to use it, but again, for 1 fury, don't forget its there

Regrowth

COST 4 RNG 6 UP YES OFF NO

This spell is what makes Morvahna dangerous.  Its not a simple spell though, but you can target a friendly living Faction small-based unit with it.  During your control phase you can spend 1+ fury.  For each fury you can put a destroyed grunt back into the unit, within 3" of another unit member, in formation and in Morvahna's control area, and it has one unmarked damage box.   There are only 2 ways this spell goes away outside of Morvahna deciding to let it happen.  One, the entire unit is killed, so its a good argument for putting out a unit that can be 10+ models strong.  The other is if the upkeep is removed, which can be a problem naturally.

Restoration

COST 2 RNG 6 UP YES OFF NO

Target friendly faction model/unit gets +2 ARM and when Morvahna upkeeps the spell she can heal 1 point for each model affected within an inch.  This is great for helping really make some stuff tougher to kill, especially those sac pawn targets you're looking to use.  Its also great with some of the warbeasts that are already pretty tough to take out.  The healing will sometimes help her to be able to cut for some fury if she needs to.

Feat

Seeds of Destruction

To keep this simple, in her control area an Eruption of Life happens anytime an enemy model is destoyed by a friendly faction model.  The Eruption is centered on the model that was destroyed the POW 13 happens.  There are some games where this feat won't ever seem like it makes any sense, and others where you'll be happy it was there.  Often you'll be slowly grinding down their infantry with your infantry that you're regrowing, and the stuff with higher ARM due to Restoration.  It can also be awkward because of how order of operations works out frequently.  I wouldn't build her with the idea that she'll be using her feat a lot, but don't forget its there either.

Models/Units

Light Warbeasts

Argus

The Argus gets a lot of bad press too, which is unfortunate.  Its probably about average for a 4 costed Light Warbeast to be honest.  The biggest reason I can think to include it is to throw Pathfinder onto Ghetorix so that pesky wall isn't really an issue any more.  The real reason I'd give him a try would be the theme force if you're looking to give that a try.  Throwing Primal on an Argus will give you the potential to accurately hit with combo strike at POW 18 on the charge, and then they have a DEF 15 roadbump to figure out a solution to.

Winter Argus

I'm not sure what I think of this guy yet.  If his animus was anything but SELF he'd be an autoinclude in a LOT of lists, sadly that didn't happen.  RAT 4 makes me a bit sad, but there are still 2 sprays and boosting can work.  Until he's out I think I'm going to wait to pass judgement.

Gorax

The Gorax sees a lot of play for Circle for a reason.  Its FURY 4 and it has Primal.  These are important things.  That said, I haven't been playing the list with him, mostly because it hasn't been the list intended to destroy things with a Primal'd Stalker/Ghetorix/Feral, because this list shouldn't need to.  I'd say if the list starts playing a Feral and/or Stalker rather than Wolds/Ghetorix, then this guy gets the nod.  Also, if we're talking about a theme force, you'll definitely have at least one of these along for the ride.

Scarsfell Griffon

This isn't out yet, but I think it has maybe some potential with Morvahna.  The biggest reason being that it has Hunter and Stealth.  It can get pretty much anywhere, and its really not going to get shot.  If I need to not get attacks, then its animus will help.  The animus could also help Morvahna at times, so that's worth noting.  I think it gets special attention if you're willing to put her theme force to the test too.

Woldwyrd

This is an interesting choice.  I've tried it in one game, and it didn't perform all that well.  It does have the potential to mess with the opponents spell plan.  It also can certainly make them think twice about putting a buff on something and/or will put a hurt on anything that does.  I don't think I've managed to figure out how to use this the best way though.  If you want something to hunt down some support, or make havoc, try it out.  Theme force is also not a bad place to consider it.

Woldwatcher

While I don't think this guy is ever bad, even if I always sort of wish he had +1 FURY, but I don't see Morvahna as being the list for him.  His animus is always helpful to prevent assassinations, but that's about it.  He's not going to help you take out a heavy target, Morvahna isn't going to do a whole lot to support him, and Shield Guard is sort of lost on him given that she has Sac Pawn.

Heavy Warbeasts

Shadowhorn Satyr

I haven't played nearly enough with this guy, he seems like he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve though.  I think there is some potential for him to work with Morvahna, but without having spent any time testing that, I'm going to refrain from much additional comment.  The only thing I will add is that with Colossals/Gargantuans coming out, this guy is going to be harder to justify since he's not going to put much of a dent into one of those.

Gnarlhorn Satyr

This guy suffers from much the same problems as the Shadowhorn, mostly that I haven't played him in the list.  Counter Charge could be useful for helping to protect Morvahna though, so there is that.

Feral Warpwolf

Want stuff dead?  Play a Feral.  Since I've been playing this list mostly to deal with a lot of ranged situations, I haven't been playing him.  If you want a more standard beast approach though, this should be one of your first stops I'd say.

Pureblood Warpwolf

I like the spray, I like the animus.  I have played him a little in her list, and he's great at helping with the infantry, he'll hit some stuff with a bit more ARM.  Stops spells from hitting him.  And can be a great way to soften something up with the spray.  That said, max'ing out at POW 16, the spray is nice, but those 9 points are probably better spent else where in this list, or at least not first here.

Warpwolf Stalker

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here.  Stalkers are amazing.  If you want to play the list with a lot of yo-yo and killing power, then this is your guy.  He's got basically all of the tools to get it done.  

Woldwarden

As always, the reason you take this guy is to utilize Geomancy.  The problem with that is that he still only has 2 POW 15 attacks, which isn't going to get much done in that department.  A big advantage he does have though is being able to get all of your upkeeps out there early on, and then later he'll be able to toss out a free Eruption of Life too, which could prove useful.  His animus never really hurts to have access to, but isn't ultimately that necessary either.

Wold Guardian

Want to play an attrition game, then an ARM 20 Wold is probably where its at.  He has a supurb animus in Flesh of Clay that helps him (and to a lesser extent Morvahna) survive a heavy ranged game. Coming in with POW 17 on his knockdown arm is good too.  I highly recommend this guy with Morvahna's attrition game.

Megalith

Everything good about the Woldwarden, along with a better animus, better POW on the attacks, +1 FURY, +1 ARM and auto healing.  If you don't have him in another list, I'd make it a serious consideration to have him in this list.  That said, I think Baldur, Mohsar, Krueger and Cassius would all make better use out of him at minimum.

Ghetorix

If Ghetorix isn't in another list, Morvahna is a good place to consider him.  It means you have some heavier hitting without having to bring a Gorax along.  It also can survive VERY well with unyielding and restoration if you need to.  Add in that when you warp Hyper Aggressive that a lot of people will hesitate to shoot him.  Additionally, his animus can really make people think about attacking Morvahna because she's going to be able to hit you back with it and then you'll have Harrow to deal with.

Units

Druids of Orboros

Druids have always been a fantastic toolbox unit.  Counter Magic can definitely swing a bunch of matchups in your favor.  They can sometimes heal a beast.  Mostly they can throw up clouds to block LOS and they can do their push pull stuff.  The UA bringing elemental protection and a decently powerful AOE is good too.  If you have room for them, I'd say they'll perform well for her, but I don't think they're an auto-include at all.

Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers

This is a fantastic unit for Circle under most circumstances, just not Morvahna.  They do bring some ranged attacks to the table, but her inability to give them Regrowth tends to make me shy away from them as an option.  Also, there is at least one better option with ranged attacks that we have access to that DOES benefit from Regrowth.

Sentry Stone & Mannikins

This is a unit that doesn't get a lot of press time unless your name is Baldur, but unfortunately that isn't going to change here either.  Morvahna already can make forests with her feat and Eruption of Life, so that aspect of the Mannikins is pretty much taken care of.  The Mannikins regrow themselves, so no need for Regrowth even if it could target them (it can't).  They aren't bringing enough damage or longevity to the table really to justify the points.

Shifting Stones

This is a Circle Orboros army, that means Shifting Stones are probably a good thing to put in your list.  I do think that Morvahna can benefit from Shifting Stones quite a bit.  First off, you're far less likely to need them for fury management, so I'm sure some might be less tempted to take them because of that.  However, teleporting, healing and being ARM 18 is what they're fantastic at.  I'm not going to go over how their threat ranges are great, that's pretty much Circle 101.  The things you should keep in mind though, first is that putting them behind say Restoration'd Skinwalkers that are ARM 20 will make for a vary annoying force to deal with.  The other thing they're great for is Sac Pawns, because yes they're still Warrior models.  I wouldn't even be afraid at times to put Restoration on them either.  I would put these very high on the include list.

Reeves of Orboros

This is a unit that is much maligned for Circle, but to be perfectly honest I'm not ready to say this unit would be garbage with Morvahna.  The Bloodtrackers being perfectly suited for her list though makes them a tougher sell.  I haven't played them with her, but if I do expect a better answer for this one.

Tharn Bloodtrackers

Morvahna turns these girls all the way up to 11.  They're already the best unit in the game possibly for skirmishing in the middle of the table, and now they end up just coming back turn after turn with Regrowth.  You want to make sure you're taking a max unit, and in my opinion Nuala goes here too.  They largely should never be in melee unless they have to be though, they should be moving around and skirmishing.

Tharn Bloodweavers

These are present in her theme force, and are definitely a unit that has some strengths.  If they were a unit that you could have 10 members of, we probably wouldn't ever talk about Wolves of Orboros in her list.  That said, they're far superior when there are living models on the table, which can make something of a difference.  I've tried them as another unit and as reinforcements.  I think since they have Stealth that there is definitely some promise here, I just haven't yet found their niche.

Tharn Wolf Riders

Wolf Riders first off are great as reinforcements.  Next though, I still just haven't quite figured out the best way to use them.  Fortunately they operate on their own pretty well, which is good because Morvahna doesn't have much support to give them.  The thing they tend to have a problem with is that you have to A) pick the right prey and B) don't think they'll live through much, and plan that accordingly.

Tharn Ravagers

They hit hard, they move fast, but they also die pretty easily.  They do syngergize well with her feat, and with Restoration up they actually have a chance of really mucking up a lot of table space.  With the Chieftain giving them advanced deploy and brutal charge they can definitely put a hurt out there.  Not sure.  I don't know that they're a bad choice here, but for now I haven't played them with her enough to say a whole lot.

Warpborn Skinwalkers

If you want a unit that is going to never go away, these guys are where you should look!  They are fantastic at getting into melee and then being ARM 20 with Restoration.  They pretty much make it, along with Shifting Stones, so that Morvahna isn't getting murdered at range.  Perfect Sac Pawn targets, and with some Shifting Stones healing them, they aren't too likely to be disappearing without some targetted attacks.  Definitely recommended.

Wolves of Orboros

This is the other unit that can have 10 members of note that Circle has (and it'll actually be 12 because it  generally wants the UA).  If you want go bring another unit to take up a pretty big chunk of table, these are your guys.  They can also hit pretty damn accurately at MAT 8 on the charge with the ability to do a CMA on top of that.  They certainly can act as another great target for Regrowth should the Bloodtrackers somehow all die and/or should they be ok for a turn and you want to bring back some more stuff to attrition with.

Solos

Blackclad Wayfarer

The reason you take the Blackclad is because he is a warrior model with elemental immunity.  You can Sac Pawn to him against like Legion and a few other match ups, and he'll take no damage nor will Morvahna.  Everything else he does is just gravy after that, but he does have some great SP8 magic 7 as well as potentially getting to use Hunter's Mark.

Druid Wilder

Whether you take this, in my opinion has to do with your warbeast load out.  If you go with the lists I'm going to suggest below, then there isn't really a good place for this model.  If you're playing models with good animi (Gorax, Stalker, Gnarlhorn, or Pureblood) then this model definitely can make a lot of sense.  Otherwise, there are better places for your 2 points

Reeve Hunter

This is a model I've been looking at giving some trial time with Morvahna, but haven't yet been able to find the spot to give this a try.  More on this in the future.

Tharn Ravager White Mane

If you want someone who's going to be able to take out some infantry on his own in Circle, he's your guy.  Should synergize well with Morvahna's feat, and is a great solo hunter since he's MAT 10 on a charge with a pretty powerful P+S to back it up.  Built-in Sprint will be a good thing as well.  Have to be careful to not get him shot ahead of time though, as his defense is not the greatest after Sprint.

War Wolf

Without a Reeve Hunter or a unit of Reeves in the army, Gallows Groves are just a better 1 point filler model.  With those things though, I would be revisiting this particular model.

Lord of the Feast

Four points is a lot to spend on a solo, but this one is pretty powerful.  The games I've played with him I haven't quite been able to get him to work out the way I'd like for him to.  He's got stealth, which is a good start since you don't want something as powerful as he is to just be sitting out there in the wind, because he'll get shot for sure!  That said, with the other options for dealing with infantry, I'd say that he's not a necessity for the list, but could be powerful if played properly.

Wolf Lord Morraig

I would say this guy is pretty powerful, and can hit pretty damn hard.  I don't see myself including him in a list without the Wolves of Orboros though.  I know, people frequently say that he's powerful even without them in the list, and sure.  But with character restrictions in place I just can't see not putting him in a list where he'd be fully optimal.  If you have 5 points to spare after you put in a unit of Wolves, this guy is ALWAYS worth it.

Gallows Groves

I have been glad of these being out.  Definitely has allowed Morvahna to sling more spells into the thick of it, without exposing herself like she used to have to do.  Also, helps to get around a lot of stealth because the tree can get closer.  Will once in a while turn off Tough too if I remember it can do that!

Totem Hunter

I've had him in a list before, and he definitely does well what he does, and that's hunt solos.  If Eiryss is a big problem, this guy will hunt her down.  Same with anything else.  That said, I'm not so sure that the Tharn Ravager White Mane or like 3-4 Wolves of Orboros aren't better suited for the job.

Gatorman Witch Doctor

I've been chomping at the bit for this guy.  Thought it was hard to kill off a unit of Bloodtrackers before?  Well now they're Tough and Fearless every turn.  That's going to be a big deal for sure.  Until I get him on the table, that's about all to say there.

Battle Engines

Celestial Fulcrum

This is a piece that I haven't tried out with Morvahna yet.  The only spell that she might have for it is Restoration, but I'm not sure if that's the best use.  Its a BIG target when you have a lot of other targets in your build that seems like its going to get a lot of attention.  I'd say I'm on the fence about it at best.

Theme Force - Harvest of Blood


Warbeasts: Circle non-character light warbeasts 
Units: Druids of Orboros, Tharn Bloodtrackers, Tharn Bloodweavers, Tharn Wolf Riders, Shifting Stones

Solos: Blackclad Wayfarer, Druid Wilder, War Wolves

Tier 1

Requirements: The army can include only the models listed above

Benefit: Tharn Bloodtracker and Tharn Bloodweaver units become FA 3

Tier 2

Requirements: The army includes one or more Tharn Bloodtracker units

Benefit: Add Nuala the Huntress to one Tharn Bloodtracker unit free of cost

Tier 3

Requirements: The army includes two or more Tharn Bloodweaver units

Benefit: Friendly models/units can begin the game affected by Morvahna's upkeep spells.  These spells and their targets must be declared before either player sets up models.  Morvahna does not pay fury to upkeep these spells during your first turn.

Tier 4

Requirements: The army includes one Tharn Wolf Rider unit

Benefit: Your deployment zone is extended 2" forward

Lists


35 points

Morvahna the Autumnblade

- Ghetorix

- Wold Guardian

Shifting Stones

- Stone Keeper

Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)

- Nuala the Huntress

Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)

50 points

Morvahna the Autumnblade

- Ghetorix

- Wold Guardian

Shifting Stones

- Stone Keeper

Shifting Stonies

Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)

- Nuala the Huntress

Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)

Blackclad Wayfarer

Gallows Groves x3

Wolves of Orboros (max)

- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain and Standard

75 points

Morvahna the Autumnblade

- Ghetorix

- Wold Guardian

- Woldwarden

Shifting Stones

- Stone Keeper

Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)

- Nuala the Huntress

Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)

Blackclad Wayfarer

Gallows Groves x3

Wolves of Orboros (max)

- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain and Standard

Wolf Lord Morraig

Gatorman Witch Doctor x2

Tharn Ravager White Mane

Baldur1 vs Makeda2

So we rolled up a scenario and its Envolpment , which is a flank scenario.  So we bust out our reinforcements this means.  He let me know that he only has one list because his other list has Tiberion in it and therefore it isn't legal yet.  Here's the list he's got...

Supreme Archdomina Makeda
- Molik Karn
- Bronzeback Titan
- Titan Gladiator
- Cyclops Shaman
Paingiver Beast Handlers
Praetorian Swordsman
- Praetorian Swordsman Officer and Standard
Tyrant Commander and Standard
Extoller Stoneward
Tyrant Rhadeim

Reinforcements:
Praetorian Ferox (min)
Tyrant Commander and Standard

So with the list, the scenario and so on ... just like the title suggests, I went with Baldur1.  The biggest reason for doing this I think was that I was bringing the beef in from the side of the table in a 2nd Wold Guardian and a Blackclad.  Terrain was thrown out there by our friendly press ganger and we're off.

I won the roll, and I opted to go first.  I tried to do as close to my typical deployment here, but I learned in the process that deploying for flank scenarios is tricky.  I think I should have deployed to try to take my zone and use my reinforcements to contest the zone I need to defend.  Alas, I didn't realize that until later.  Oh well!

Turn 1 is full of advancing.  Baldur moves to the center, casts his upkeeps, etc.  He did some stuff I forget, but he did kill off my Mannikins with Molik before he Fate Walker'd away.

The next turn things got interesting.  Reinforcements hit the table, mine just ran to get them into Baldur's control area.  My guys did a little bit of shooting at some of his things.  Baldur feated.  He realized he wasn't going to get very close, and his whole army retreated, while he sent in his cav from the reinforcements.  He managed to kill off about 1/2 of the wold shrimp.

In return I wiped his cav off the board, took out some swordsman I think.  Pretty sure my main Wold Guardian moved up to take out Something, honestly not completely sure what it was.  He tried later to kill that Guardian and realized it wasn't going to happen and threw it at Baldur.  That didn't do a whole lot though, since nothing could be knocked down.

This game has been long enough that I'm forgetting the details.  What happened though was the Molik missile went after Baldur, who was camping on 4 fury.  I don't think he had a lot of chance to kill unless the dice were really in his favor.  Both units of Shifting Stones were active though, so I teleported the Guardian into base with Makeda, hit, knocked her down, dealt some damage.  Baldur got teleported in from the other set of stones, and had 7 attacks to kill her, which he did.

The only thing of review here for myself I think is that I should have tried to go harder for my zone to threaten the scenario win.  Baldur gets up the table fast, so that should have been a consideration.

Morvahna vs Captain Damiano

On Sunday I got to play in the 2nd of my league games!  This time I was paired up with our Mercs player and faced with 2 lists, one with Magnus and the other with Damiano.  Both lists seemed like they had a pretty solid amount of infantry, and I wasn't feeling good about Baldur's chances.  Turned out he didn't like having the Renegades shut off by Baldur upkeeping a spell every turn, so he opted for Damiano against my Morvahna list

Captain Damiano
- Rocinante
- Vanguard
Stannis Brocker
Steelhead Halberdiers (max)
Steelhead Halberdiers (max)
Steelhead Riflemen (max)
Steelhead Riflemen (max)
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (min)

For those of you keeping track at home, that's 45 steelheads, Morvahna is going to have her work cut out for her.  Bloodtracker's put Prey on the unit of Riflemen to my right.  I opted to go 2nd.  Turn 1 is like always, move up, put upkeeps up, pass.  I do much the same.

Turn 2 it starts to get interesting.  My Wolves of Orboros are sitting in a forest, Skinwalkers in front of Morvahna, my heavies bringing it in behind.  Bloodtrackers are taking some shots at some Riflemen.  Things are getting shot, the Wolves are engaged more or less on the other side of the table.  After I get back some Fury with Harvest, I go ahead and have Morvahna throw Restoration on the Skinwalkers and then feat.  I used this to get some evil trees out there, though not as much as I'd like, but it did take out some more infantry.

Turns after this he goes ahead and pops his feat, which didn't seem to really slow me down much at all. Probably kept me from killing Rocinante is about all with my Wold Guardian.  I cycled Restoration over to Ghetorix, and moved him up to take out Stannis.  I also took out more infantry this turn, most of it slowly disappearing.

Next he tries to kill of my Guardian with Rocinante, and doesn't get it done.  Also, I need to remember to mention to him that only Bonded warjacks can get 4 focus, not just character warjacks ... but I don't think it made a big difference here.  On my next turn after I wiped out Rocinante with my Guardian he conceded.

This was a fun game for me, but probably not for my opponent.  He misread my feat, which was a big deal of course.  I don't think he'd have been able to spread out that many guys much farther, but its still something he could have factored in.  His dice were also pretty bad.  At one point he rolled a 4 on 3 dice to try to kill off the last Gallows Grove for instance.

Morvahna was definitely the right choice for this matchup.  Baldur would have very likely had a lot of trouble unless I was able to get the quick assassination out there, but most people know that's coming.

Morvahna vs Kara Sloan

I'm not going to get too far into this honestly because too much time has passed, but I recently played 2 different Kara Sloan lists, piloted by 2 different opponents.  I was also trying to figure out what 9 points to play in the list.  The first game I played were these 2 lists

Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Ghetorix
- Wold Guardian
- Wold Wyrd
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Gallows Groves x2
Lord of the Feast

vs

Kara Sloan
- Defender
- Hunter
- Squire
Journeyman Warcaster
- Hunter
Trencher Commandos (min)
- Trencher Commando Scattergunner x3
Storm Lances (max)
Rangers
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

I ended up pulling out a win with this one.  The scenario we rolled was Demolition, which meant that if Kara Sloan didn't come up to contest the objective, Morvahna was going to have control over it and would end up winning.  Ghetorix, Lord of the Feast both died way too easily here.  The Bloodtrackers all got wiped off of the table because of me forgetting the scattergunners have sprays.  After that, a combination of Sloan coming closer, and it turning into a lot of attrition.  I also got amazingly lucky and  my Stone Keeper rolled box cars to hit Sloan with Rock Hammer, so down she went.  Morvahna threw Eruption of Life at her, and that was it.

Things I learned here are:

• Trencher Commandos have grenades, and those weapon attachments have sprays ... these are both important things as infantry will disappear quickly if you aren't careful.
• Gallows Groves are fantastic at helping kill stuff that has stealth and/or allowing Morvahna to hide better
• Woldwyrd didn't help me at all
• Remember to use the animus on the Guardian more

Then I made some changes for the league, mostly because I wasn't happy with how the final 9 points of the list was performing.  I have been very happy with how the Gallows Groves have performed though.  So I made some more smaller-ish changes there too.  Ended up playing another Kara Sloan list in the first game I played for the league and the matchup worked this way.

Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Ghetorix
- Wold Guardian
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Gallows Groves x3
Wolves of Orboros (max)
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain and Standard

Reinforcements:
Tharn Wolf Riders (max)

vs

Kara Sloan
- Defender
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
- Arcane Gun Mage Officer
-- Hunter
-- Cyclone
Black 13th
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Precursor Knights
- Precursor Knights Officer and Standard
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Captain Arlan Strangeways

Reinforcements:
Charger
Lady Aiyana and Master Holt
Stormsmith Stormcallers x1 (was supposed to be 2 but he was missing one)

This one was a LOOOOOOONG grind fest, this game went way longer than I had anticipated.  I made a few mistakes which I'll outline below, but basically we got to a point where it was I think both units of Shifting Stones, Morvahna and a single Skinwalker, and he still had stuff.  I conceded at that point, and we called it a night.  That said I learned quite a few things here too...

• Remember that Gallows Groves have Entropic Force, even though its only 3" that's still going to hit more things that you'd realize.  This might have made a difference because Morvahna needed one more fury off of Harvest to win that she didn't get.
• My initial prey for both my reinforcements was the Hunter.  It should have been the Precursors (for at least he Bloodtrackers) as I thought I'd be able to quickly kill the Hunter and then cycle it. Instead, he ran the Hunter basically behind his deployment and I never was able to get to it.
• Just because reinforcements come out on Turn 2 doesn't mean they SHOULD come out on turn 2.  The Wolf Riders were still too far away to be able to Assault anything on turn 2, and then basically got wiped out by a bunch of shooting.  Huge waste, and they didn't even jam the zone like I'd hoped.
• I should probably try to think of a better plan with Ghetorix in this match up, both games he got blasted before he did anything at all.
• Playing a scenario without a killbox or some other way to force Kara Sloan out of her deployment zone helps a TON.
• Finally, damnit does Gorman piss me off, that model is stupid

In hindsight, I actually am thinking my Baldur1 list would have been a better choice here since I don't think they have much that can ignore cover, and I would have had basically the entirety of my army up the table even faster with all the Advanced Deploy and Advance Move.

GenCon Masters - 75 Points - Part 2

So, in part one I talked a little bit about how I might upgrade my 2 lists to 75 points.  A friend commented on the Morvahna list pointing out that its a LOT of infantry in the list as I built it, and I'm currently doing some investigating of that in my head to see if that makes sense.  The more I think though, the more infantry at this point level I expect to see from my opponents.  Warmachine casters can still only support so many points worth in Warjacks, and even in Hordes there is only going to be so much room for Warbeasts.  I think we can eventually expect to see Colossals/Gargantuans as well as Battle Engines at this point level in higher numbers as well.

With that in mind, I think that Cassius might actually be a good candidate for Warlock at this point level.  The tree loves some souls quite a bit, and at this point level I expect them to be pretty prevalent.  Anyway, first the list, then I'll break down my thoughts

Cassius, the Oathkeeper +6
- Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Warpwolf Stalker 10
- Gorax 4
- Megalith 11
- Feral Warpwolf 9
- Druid Wilder 2
Shifting Stones 2
- Stone Keeper 1
Shifting Stones 2
Gallows Groves x3 3
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew 1
Wolves of Orboros (max) 6
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain and Standard 2
Wolf Lord Morraig 5
Tharn Ravagers (max) 9
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain 2
Tharn Wolf Riders (max) 10
Blackclad Wayfarer 2

First off, the battlegroup is a pretty typical selection of all stars.  Stalker and Gorax speak for themselves, as does Megalith.  Feral would be included for some more melee power, Pureblood would bring some more utility.  Druid Wilder is there to pass out an animus or to help with fury management, always a decent 2 point solo when Gorax and a Stalker are in a list (good with a Gnarlhorn and Pureblood of course too).

The rest of the army is where things get interesting.  My pairing here would likely be with Morvahna as most of the matchups that are awful for Cassius are great for her.  The one potential problem with that would be that both lists currently have Morraig in them, so one list would likely be getting a Scarsfell Griffon, unit of Bloodweavers, or a few other options that fit nicely into the points.  Ravagers often tend to be a little bit squishy even being heavy infantry, but here if they die its ok because I get souls.  Wolves will die, again souls.  Wolf Riders are great at harassing, and if they can ride through the front line unit that can really mess some stuff up.  Gallows Groves make Cassius a HUGE spellslinging threat given that any turn he could be sitting on 11 Fury.

We'll see how this list plays out, its one I'm pretty interested in.  Cassius has spells that are big for a big game like this.  Curse of Shadows to help take out targets, Stranglehold will stop even the biggest threat generally and Hellmouth is disgustingly awesome.