News! Plus 15pt Escalation League lists

News!

So, anyone who reads this may have noticed that the address/title changed -- instead of "Sticks, Stones, and Warpwolf Bones: Tactics for a Circle Orboros Army", it is now 'Tormented Equilibrium: a Warmachine/Hordes blog'.  The reason for this, you ask?  Why, my good friend (and regular opponent) pGrexy (or Tyrant Grexeris, in the posts below) is going to join me as co-author of the blog!

Plan on more regular posts in the future, and the added perspectives of a very good Skorne player in addition to Circle Orboros content. Between the two of us, we're hoping to have updates at least once or twice a week, and more posts on tactics and battle reports.

So, next bit - our FLGS, Tower Games (owned by the lovely people over at Focus and Fury) started up a Warmachine/Hordes Escalation league this month, and we're in the swing of it right now. The league has an interesting "win" condition -- you get 3 points for playing a game, 1 for winning, and 1 for having a fully painted army.  At the end of the league, for every 5 points in your record, you get one ticket entered into the raffle for a brand spanking new Battle Engine of your choice. 

For the 15pt level, I've started with pBaldur, and have a Win-Loss-Draw record of 7-3-1 (not bad). We go up to 25pts in May, so I'm preparing for that and getting all my lists in a row.  Here are some of the lists I've been using, plus a rough breakdown of how they've done.

Circle Orboros 15pts

Baldur the Stonecleaver (*6pts)

* Megalith (11pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldwyrd (5pts)

I started out with this list, and boy did I come out swinging. The Woldwatcher is not generally considered a great light beast, but between the ability to charge for free and his Stone Form ability, he proved to be a surprisingly tenacious little bugger that can tie enemy models up in combat very well until Megalith or Baldur can get around to killing them. However, despite that he was still the weak point of this list, and having 3 beasts meant pBaldur had a hard time pulling all the fury, instead leaving the woldwatcher with 2 un-leeched fury for a turn or two every game.

Circle Orboros 15pts
Baldur the Stonecleaver (*6pts)

* Megalith (11pts) 
* Woldwyrd (5pts)
Stoneward and 5 Woldstalkers (5pts)

The added ranged support was immediately obvious, and having one less beast meant pBaldur had a much easier time keeping the other two empty every turn. The Stonekeeper's abilities allowed them a much wider range of target selection than I'd first thought, either ganging up on a heavy for surprisingly good damage, or taking down enemy infantry (Paingivers... hehehe) while still keeping juuuust out of reach of reprisals with Zephyr.

Circle Orboros 15pts

Baldur the Stonecleaver (*6pts)
* Megalith (11pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)

This list only saw a few games, and came about as a counter to a particularly beast-heavy pMorghoul list from Tyrant Grexeris, and my own interest in using a Woldguardian. Most view the Woldguardian as a lackluster beast - it's abilities are strong, with P+S 17 fists, ARM 20, Ram (auto-knockdown and followup), Girded, Steady, and the ability to transfer to it even when it's full on fury, however all of this is countered by SPD 4. Normally I don't think this would be an issue, however in such a small point game, without the benefit of the usual Circle movement shenanigans (Druids, Blackclad, Gnarlhorn, etc.) it was more noticeable than I expected.

The 25pt starts up next month, and in preparation I've been trying to find a 25pt Baldur list that I like -- unfortunately, to little success. More on that later.