Battle Report: Morghoul1 v Kromac1

Hey guys and I'm back with a battle report and this time it was played over Vassal, I'm around there a lot with my tag being Aaron.W(UK50PTS)-Skorne- if you see me around drop me a message and say hi, or challenge me to a game and I'll battle report it!

This game featured Morghoul1 facing Kromac1 in the Outflank scenario. It was a interesting list decision from my opponent, he had Kreuger2 double croaks and Kromac1 /w una boat and stalker / gheto. I elected to play Morghoul1, I felt Kromac1 would go through my Mordikaar infantry under Wild aggression and would do the whole sprint warpath thing Kromac1 does to infantry masses. Outflank also allows to him to skirt the edges off the table with no real need to force the issue. I'm always innately scared of seeing Kreuger2 across the table having played about 150 games with him my self, I know what guy can do so I was relieved to see Kromac1.

You guys know my Morghoul1 list, here is the opponents Kromac1 list - (Credit to Sentinel for the list)

Kromac1
Druid Wilder
Ghetorix
Warpwolf Stalker
Gorax
Blackclad Wayfarer
Blackclad Wayfarer
Una the Falconer
Rotterhorn Griffin
Rotterhorn Griffin
Druid Stoneward + Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward + Woldstakers
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Shifting Stones
Stone Keeper

Who would take it? The master tormenter or the to be champion of the wurm!

I won the roll for first and I elected to go second which I like doing a LOT with Morghoul1. I also knew that if his stones moved forward I could shoot them with a Sentinel and at dice off 5 I should remove one, he only had the one unit with UA so if I could snipe my turn 1 I would be in a strong position. If they shifted backwards they wouldn't be hugely relevant to me turn 2. Another reason I enjoy going turn 2 is I get a free round of shooting, far striked sentinels can remove key solo pieces or drop early damage into units / beasts at the bottom of 1. Contesting turn 2 is never normally much of a issue, I can either feat to ensure safe contesting with tiberion / croaks, or the feat is often not needed in the match ups he plays into. Often the shooting just can't shift the bugs, or admo can keep me safe etc. Or maybe just running the agonizer and calling for no allocation is enough to ensure my contest is safe. 

I took the bottom side of the table, there was a hill which was going to be great for my croak raiders, as well as the forests on the top of the table I could negate with a soulward when necessary but I couldn't counteract the hill if needed. The wall on the top of the table was also considered concealment, if it was cover I may have taken top.





Turn 1 for Circle was pretty simple, Warpath on Kromac, Inviolable Resolve on Ghetorix, Wild Agression on Stalker and a small advance for Kromac1, he couldn't advance more then 6 or he could be in range of an abused, far striked sentinel. The rest of the turn the models ran to get into position for the next turn.

Skorne turn 1 was pretty simple, the sentinels got far striked and managed to kill 1 blackclad and I think 1 prawn of doom from each wold unit, this includes there auxilarry attacks also. One of my sentinels got admo from Morghoul1 who popped out one of the far strikes, the raider did the other. The croaks got tempered flesh and they all hugged the hill to hopefully help there defense against the little world shrimps. My krea popped his aura and the beast handlers removed some fury. I was tempted to feat turn 1, I know between a warpath and a charge ghetorix could probably get to my left sentinel (right one has admonition) but I felt like if he made that play he would lose ghetorix for sure and I'm happy to trade a sentinel for ghetorix. Tiberion is a key piece in the match up and with Ghetorix gone he can really force the issue.

Here's what the table looked like at the bottom of turn 1.





Turn 2 and Circle came in hot, all 3 spells were upkept. The prawns were advanced and shot at the croaks (needing 9s) he managed to make me a tough roll which I passed, but then hit another one and I failed the tough. Warpath triggered and ghetorix moved 3" in a diagonal way towards to the left sentinel. The left griffon then accelerated the blackclad who walked up, hunters marked my left sent and phase shifted back. The wilder then sprinted ghetorix and he came in and killed the left sentinel and sprinted back to be in the forest. The rest of the turn consisted of the army advancing in a position to threaten me next turn, with the stones moving up and the stalker being ran into the triangle.

My turn 2 and removing ghetorix was the key to the turn, I was also hoping to clear the majority of the prawns out but well, we rolled poorly. The start of my turn saw me upkeep admo and my 1 of my willbreakers hand out puppet strings to the Krea, he then walked 6" through the gap where my left sentinel was just once, into the left zone and boosted a shot into Ghetorix needing a 10 (eyeless sight negating the +2 defence) and landed it. I didn't aura for my Krea which was a mistake, as I should because the beast handlers would of been fine to remove all the fury. With ghetorix now being DEF 7, croaks (All 9) walked up, one oiled and the rest threw darts. I think between them they only did like.. 15 maybe 16 damage. I then had my raider stand still and did something like 2 more. My soulward advanced, took a shot and boosted at dice off 2 and did something like 6. Morghoul1 advanced and with a puppet strings threw a torment into him, finally killing him. I was a bit sad as I had to waaay over commit to killing Ghetorix, meaning there were a lot of prawns alive. Morghoul1 called his feat here and stole 1 fury back to via maltreatment to sit on 2. I was also very aware to stay more then 13" away from Kromac1 as that was an easy win condition for Sentinel. The right sentinel killed the right Stonewald and advanced into the right zone. Tiberion took a run, croaks were toughed and that was turn.

Here's the photo bottom of turn 2, I was feeling pretty comfortable at where the game was right now.


 


Turn 3 and I think sentinel could see the board and the game wasn't going to go his way if we kept playing the long game. He upkept both warpath and Wild agression, he called concentrated fire with the left prawn unit did a massive amount of damage to my Krea and sentinel even rolled poorly here (as said earlier, should of popped paralytic aura here for sure). The right unit killed some croaks and stayed contesting the right zone. Now the Krea was banged up he had his left griffon accelerate the left blackclad who advanced, landed a hunters mark on my krea and then hopped off again. The right griffon then flew into the right zone to contest. The wilder then sprinted Kromac1, Who sprinted the left stalker and then charged the central croak raider, he dropped a rift on tiberion for 3 leaving him on 0 fury. He then called his feat for 5, killed the 2 croaks he was engaged with and sprinted back into the left zone. The stalker then charged the krea (charges for free on under hunters mark as well as wild aggression) who cleared up the krea and the croak on the left of it. He the sprinted the stalker in front Kromac1. Una advanced and shot 1 croak who died, the gorax advanced to stay in Kromac1 control and riled outside of my feat. The gobbers put a cloud on una and the stones shifted up. That was turn for Circle and they got 2 CPS for dominating the left side.

Skorne turn 3 and I saw this is a pretty straight forward kill, Morghol1 could quite easily advance and get LoS to throw a fully boosted torment into Kromac1 (who had already taken 5 damage from the feat). Following that up I had my soulward, my raider, and my sentinel to plow shots into him with no transfers. Morghoul1 received puppet strings, advanced and landed the torment needing 10s to hit, and at dice off 5 did 9 damage (puppet strings used on the damage roll). My soulward stood still, shot Kromac1 and rolled a 15 for damage at dice off 2 and Kromac1 was very dead at this point.

Here's a photo of the board state when I landed the kill. Both the raider and sentinel had yet still to move and shoot.


 


I was pretty happy with how I played the game, I don't feel I made any huge Mistakes outside of not popping the paraltyic aura. Why it wasn't a game changer the Krea took way more damage then it needed to from shooting and was a mistake. Sentinel was a great opponent as always and the match just reinforced my confidence oh Morghoul1 into the hordes matchup.

While we don't have a direct control warlock, i'm finding Morghoul1 is very close to it. If you decide to force the issue under feat either on a colossal or a heavy warbeast army you have a lot of say in what the opponent does, or well can't do. This paired with the agonizer saying you can't allocate the turn after, or having the insurance of -2 STR on warbeasts is solid. You're often ahead on / after the feat turn and that can be the insurance you need to stop dice spikes or just seal the deal.

As always, follow me on twitter @PG_SadPander. Thanks a ton for reading and tune in next time for more Skorne action from me Aaron Wilson.

The last Hurrah

My first post for some time and I thought I'd sum up my Smogcon experience.

For the past few months I have felt a bit bored by my beloved Legion. It's not that I don't love them anymore I really do but bearing in mind I have played them since they came into existence and now our local meta has seen an influx of Legionnaires of late I thought its time for a break.

I decided Smogcon was going to be my last hurrah with them for a year and stopped buying anything new (including the awesome Blight Bringer) at the end of 2015. I didn't enter any events at Smogcon as free time is limited at the moment and I have very little time for practice games so decided to just rock out the Iron arena all weekend . I packed almost all the Legion I own with the exception of the huge based stuff and some bits that were unbuilt/ partially built into my trusty Kaiser 3 bag and off I went.

Arriving later than planned Friday thanks to the British public forgetting how to use roundabouts my lift share buddy Phil and I decided to play each other 1st game. Phil is a fairly new player and he was using PKreos, I asked him who would he like to face and his Reply was Lylyth2 my list was.

Lylyth Shadow of everblight
succubus
Ravagore
Ravagore
Ravagore
Naga
Shredder
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Rangers +UA
Shepherd
Forsaken.

Now I have not played Lylyth 2 for 2 or 3 years and the game went how you would expect and I shot him off the board by the end of turn 2. The game reminded me why I don't play her too much any more it was very linear but it was an experience for phil.

The rest of the Friday I decided to play 2 lists Abby2 and Vayl2.
The Abby2 list was:
Absylonia Daughter of Everblight
Nephilim Bloodseer
Scythean
Scythean
Raek
Raek
Seraph
Zuriel
Shredder
Forsaken
Forsaken

I really like The Bloodseer in this list it allows me to really abuse slipstream whilst Zuriel is there for some serious infantry clearing .

The Vayl2 list was a fairly Vanilla Tier 4 Machinations of Shadow
Vayl Consul of Everblight
Angelius
Angelius
Angelius
Ravagore
Ravagore
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires
Spawning vessel
Shephers
Shepherd
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr

I played these 2 lists into a variey of opponents including Kruger2 twice,  H-Bombs Sorcha 2 tier list, Madrak 2 and Ravyn (these are the memorable games) I didn't lose a game all day. I battered my good friend Dave Munro (who had travelled from Sweden where he is based now for the event) who had underestimated the threat range of Abby 2 and felt safe with Madrak in a trench on 3 transfers not expecting a slipstreamed flying leaping Raek to get in it with him and headbutting him before having 2 flying Scytheans applied to his face.

Saturday Bought 2 new lists Vayl1 and Kallus. Kallus is one of my favourite warlocks to play and my twist on him is to take a fair bit of high def infantry mixed with Legos with Farilor to jam zones (defensive line + iron zeal + unconquerable is a thing) whilst any casualties feed the pot just behind before feating.
My lists were:
Kallus Wrath of Everblight
Nephilim Protector
Nephilim Bolt thrower
Max Hex hunters
Max Legionnaires +  Farilor and standard
Max Gatorman posse
Max spawning vessel
Strider Rangers + UA
Deathstalker
Deathstalker
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr

Vayl list was
Vayl Disciple of Everblight
Scythean
Scythean
Typhon
Ravagore
Raek
Raek
Forsaken
Forsaken
Shepherd
Sherpherd
Spawning vessel.

I only lost 2 games with these 2 lists both with Pvayl one in a mirror match and 1 into Runes of war. I had the most fun playing Kallus one game of note was vs fellow blogger Matt Best who was using EMorvanna. It was a game of real attrition where I felt I only won due to Matts inexperience with EMorv.


Sunday soon came round and I was feeling the burn by now I decided to play eThags and the twins then call it a day mid afternoon.

I've not played either of these 2 a great deal but felt most at home playing eThagrosh so played most of my games with him. I got lucky into beating a Cygnar player with Kraye (I cast manifest destiny and forgot to use it twice), Smashing poor Daves Trolls again this time with pGrimm. Only playing the twins once into a Fellew bunker member Luke's Bloody Barnabus list.

 My 2 lists were:
Thagrosh the Messsiah
Typhon
Scythean
Scythean
Seraph
Legionnaires + Farilor and standard
Spawning vessel
Forsaken
Shapherd

Saeryn and Rhyas Talons of Everblight
Zuriel
Scythean
Seraph
max Hex Hunters
max Raptors
Deathstalker
Deathstalker
Min Spawning vessel.



All in all it was a great weekend but that's it. The Legion are packed away in my man cave not to be opened until March 2017.

 For the next year I am going to be on a Khador adventure starting with playing Harkevich in the Bunkers escalation league.

Get Out Of Jail Free Card?- Musings On Shifting Stones

Grandad here, playing Circle again and just thinking about this key piece. Game last night against a 50 point jack heavy Anson Durst list and the discussion had afterwards has prompted this blog post. The game was going badly for me, I was using a tier 4 Kromac 2 beast heavy list. I just had forgotten about boundless charge, and lost Gehtorix to a buffed Reckoner, Durst feated which meant even under Kromac's feat my retaliation only got one and half heavy Jack's back. The following Menoth turn saw my army disappear and left me in a precarious position. Quite rightly my opponent was confident of victory, he played well and I had played poorly, I deserved to loose. During my next turn I measured eight inches from my caster, saw Durst was in reach range, then teleported a fury 7 'Mac 2 into an ARM 20 Durst and killed him quite comfortably, with 2 fury to spare. Get out of jail free card played? This left a sour taste in my opponents mouth and I don't blame him.

So even after the recent no double port nerf, the Shifting Stones are still one of the most dangerous units Circle has, possibly one of the most dangerous in the game. The ability to place a piece, circumventing the battle line is very dangerous. The two things I would advise new players about Shifting Stone Teleportation is that firstly, it's always more than eight inches the model moves, account for this. A canny player will have the back of their models base just barely breaking the invisible plane of the Stones triangle. They then can be placed within eight inches, which means the model can be placed measuring from front of base to back of base, effectively adding the base size of the model to the distance moved. A large based model with reach like a Warpwolf Stalker can be placed and still engage a model nearly twelve inches away. Don't be caught out.

Secondly, kill a Stone, always. The above tale should illustrate clearly you must take away this ability, don't give the Circle player a get out of jail free card. I have played veterans who will gladly throw a ten point unit into certain death just to remove the ability to teleport. There is not much a buffed Circle heavy can't kill.

So can Shifting Stones do anything else besides teleport death into the enemy lines? Yes they have a multitude of uses besides teleportation. Beast management is one use. Serenity is useful for taking fury of beasts preventing frenzy checks whilst healing beasts (even constructs) can help with order of activation. In this capacity you will have your Stones following your beasts around like a gaggle of goslings.

Objective/zone contesting. Shifting Stones are a great little unit for holding a zone, once placed, they can keep using healing field to go back to full health and the opponent will not be able to remove them with pot shots, they will have to dedicate resources to removing them.

Road block, my favourite use. I often put Stones in front of models to block charge lanes but they are also great at blocking enemies in, especially annoying jacks with enliven or models with admonition. Positioning Stones around a heavy also means they cant charge until the annoyance is removed and ARM 18 is a quite annoying.

So is there a point to all this rambling? Probably not, but I do not think Shifting Stones are somehow broke or overpowered, their most powerful ability can be neutered by removing one stone, the double port nerf was fair (even if it did remove the eBaldur Lord of the Feast in your deployment zone turn 1 hi-jinx). Every faction has their powerful support pieces, Krielstone,Choir,beastmasters, squire etc. Shifting Stones are just another unit in this mould. I think in a strategy game like warmahordes, dealing with powerful enemy pieces is a central part of the game.

Kromac, Champion of the Wurm - Now with added play experience!

Hey all, It's Aaron Wilson here / PGSadPander on the forums! I'm back with another post about Kromac2. My last blog broke him down, his spells, his feat and what I thought my list might look going forward. Well I'm now 7 games in with this guy and I thought I'd share my experience with him so far and what I've learned.

I've paired Kromac2 with Kreuger2. The list I've been running for Kromac2 is as follows -

Kromac, Champion of the Wurm
Druid Wilder
Ghetorix
Warpwolf Stalker
Pureblood Warpwolf
Lord of the Feast
Blackclad Wayfarer
Blackclad Wayfarer
Shifting Stones
Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Druids of Orobos
Druids of Orobos Overseer.

Out of the 7 games I've played I have l won 4 and lost 3, the best thing about the losses is I know why I've lost each time. I may have been too cautious with the feat and held it for too long, or like in my first game with Kromac2 popped it way too early and didn't quite hold it until it was relevant. I'll break down the list for you guys so hopefully you get an idea why each model is in it.

Lets start with Kromac2, well boy this guy is baller to play, our first proper front line warlock and he does it well. I find my self having the choice each turn of casting Carnage or Primal Howl after I've upkept Awakened Spirit. Generally if I'm feating and going in deep primal howl is what I'll look for here. The feat negates a little of the need for Carnage and on the feat turn you're not looking to drop high defense targets, rather the low defense meatier ones. Primal howl will keep Kromac2 alive in isolation in most instances under feat turn against living model melee assassinations. If you're pressuring scenario by keeping Kromac2 in the zone primal howl is normal high on the priority list to cast. If you're not in any immediate danger and you're not pressuring quite so hard, carnage is never a bad spell to throw down.

The wilder is pretty key to the list to help the fury management and I've found best run as a module with the Pureblood Warpwolf. If you're playing a spread out scenario having these two waddle around as a pair is ace, a fully boosted spray each turn for 0 fury is a amazing piece of kit. If you're not spreading out, she's still amazing and the best fury management outside of stones. I often find my self either stripping fury off a beast, or throwing a lightning strike onto ghetorix.

Ghetorix, do we need to say more?

Warpwolf stalker is amazing (Durr, who knew eh?) give him awakened spirit and let him berserk under carnage until his heart is content only to sprint, so far spending 0 fury! This guy under what Kromac2 offers is just the ticket.

Pureblood, well the more I play him the more I love him. As you will notice I have no gorax in my list so I have no primal. The Pureblood animus therefore is double important as in some cases (Fortify, Arcane shield, ect ect) Wraithbane is as good (Or better) then a primal. Not only that but the spray is so solid, warp ghostly, walk out spray that Eiryss, Gorman, Anastasia ect in the back lines. In a list where it's hard to get those annoying solo pieces this guy shines. That's on top of his solid animus, and the ability to bring serious pain under the feat also.

Lord of the Feast, well I'm being quite greedy here. This guy is essentially the gorax slot, but I've playing greedy and taking LotF instead and I'm really glad I am! This guy is a machine, which we all knew. He will either buy you a whole turn by engaging a unit and forcing them to take him out (An example being I charged two Dawnguard Sentinels, cleared up both, shot another and killed 3 more and the unit then had to vengeance to remove him). He's other primary role is getting to the real back support pieces (Looking at choir, beast handlers, ect) or at the very least run to engage a unit (Gun mages, Stryder Rangers) force a CMD test and engage the unit. Overall I'm always glad this guy is in my list.

The double blackclads, I think we all know why we love the blackclad. A 2" threat extension, a solid spray or rapid deployment.

Double stones, again no surprise here. Fury management, in a list where you want to brick more often then not they let you break from the brick turn after without worrying about charge vectors, ect.

Druids with UA. I know druids are 50/50 with circle players, some people dislike them and think they don't do enough, some people adore. I adore them, counter magic, elemental protection, people ALWAYS having to worry about me going fishing with force bolts for free trades as well as the clouds to finish the brick off. Under a druid cloudwall and primal howl Kromac2 can be looking at 18/18, or under feat 18/20 with 19, that's ludicrous stats. Oh and to top that all of, you can't cast spells at me. 

Over all I love how the list plays, though a lot of this comes down to Kromac2. He is an amazing warlock and a real breath of fresh air to the faction, never have I been able to feat, charge and one shot a raek, just with my warlock! He's play a solid scnenario game in a non control way, mroe in a "I'm probably going to eat if you're close" way?. Drop him in a scenario zone and your opponent has the question of feeding him, or not contesting. Under the brick the assassination attempts should look very bad for the opponent. With the stones and druids you still have circle movement shenanigans paired with models to get to the back line / remove key solo and support pieces.

Well, that's my run down of Kromac2 so far. How are you finding him so far, whether it be playing against or with him?

SYNERGY DANCE OFF

Its Grandad here with an Imperishable Dominion battle report. Myself and Dan from this blog decided to bring eVyros and Bradigus together to have a synergy battle. We both decided to take it to tier four for both casters.
Dans force was pretty straight forward, Imperatus, a unit of Sentinals, a Destor Thane, couple of arcanists, an Aspis and a load of Griffon's.
      

No Dan, its Incursion

My force was a straightforward tier four wold war list the only thing I tried out different was putting in the Woldwrath.

Turn one: Retribution ran everything forward, Vyros cast Synergy and then popped feat. Circle ran forward mostly, took a few pot shots with Woldwatchers and the Woldwrath which mostly missed and the Manikin line went forward and exploded into forests (yes, I know birds eye and pathfinder made this largely ineffective but it would slow the Sentinals). Bradigus cast synergy and the Woldwatchers hunkered down, the dance off was on.

The thin, green, useless, line

Turn two: Dan was expecting a bit more from the Circle shooting (which was mostly misses) so the feat was (when a friendly model dies and friendly model moves) a non-event. Vyros cast deflection, a couple of Sentinels and a couple of Griffon's ganged up to nearly kill a Woldwatcher. Tired of dancing round each other Bradigus feated and went in, also casting mystic wards. The Wolds started to build up a synergy chain, taking out a few more Sentinels and three Griffon's. Sadly for Bradigus the move back on the feat just moved him back 1/2" to far which left the stoneformed Woldwatcher who was 5" from Vyros out of control, meaning mystic wards would not work.

Turn three: Dan started sweating at the thought of not being able to upkeep synergy, but he had gotten away with it. The Retribution launched their counter strike, the Thane galloping around to try and get involved (Dan had forgotten about him and left him on the extreme flank) Vyros went to hide his giant armoured horse behind a small wall (that's right, you cant see me) and Imperatus and the Griffon's built up enough synergy to smash two Woldwatchers to pieces. In response the Woldguardians pounded the rest of the Sentinels and two more Griffon's to dust.

Your on a warhorse son, get involved

Turn four: Vyros had to move and recast synergy due to mystic wards, killing a Sentry Stone in the process, the other Sentry Stone was taken out by the Destor Thane.Imperatus bagged himself a Woldguardian and an Arcanist ran to score a control point (Dan could see his army buckling and had to try and apply some pressure).The second Woldguardian cleared the way forward, taking out the Aspis.The Woldwrath charged Imperitus, having a + 4 from synergy, I was confident that even with the stupid Phoenix protocol, my MAT 10 P+S 23 gargantuan should be able to remove the Retribution heavy from table. Stupid distances, the Woldwrath failed the charge by millimetres. Imperatus lived and Dan could stop holding his breath.

Stupid distances....

Turn five: Vyros gave out all is focus to the lone Griffon and Imperatus before claiming the far right control point. The Griffon charged Bradigus for little effect whilst Imperatus killed the second Woldguardian. A Woldwatcher takes out the Thane whilst the Woldwrath makes a meal of taking out Imperatus, running out of fury, allowing the Retribution heavy to come back to life after being pulled apart. Sensing the dance is over and being on + 2 synergy and 5 fury whilst Vyros has no focus, Bradigus gets ready to end it himself. I measured control and Vyros is just millimetres out of Bradigus 10" threat, damn distances, again! To rub salt in the wounds, the three rocks he chucks at Imperatus fails to finish the Jack of.

Imperatus is still there, why wont you die?

Turn six: Vyros fills up Imperatus, casts easy rider so Imperatus can skip over the left overs of all the light jacks and goes to dance with Bradigus himself (here I have made a cardinal sin, I left my warlock without a transfer target) and Imperatus ends the game.

Bye Brad....

Conclusions: Dan  is a pretty decent player and well experienced with his Retribution. He followed his battle plan, which was swarm the enemy with Sentinels and Griffon's, build up synergy and employ Imperatus (easily the man....jack? of the match) as his finisher. I felt that I had control of the tempo of the dance and felt comfortable going towards the endgame, just a couple of bad manoeuvring errors and then getting carried away and failing to leave a transfer target sealed my doom, against experienced players that is just a gift. Great game.

Kromac round two, with added cursed axe!

Hello all! Today I am going to breakdown Circle Orobos new metal head, and go over my thoughts and opinions on our newest warlock, Kromac, Champion of the wurm. Kromac has always been the tharn king, and a bit mental. He is the closest we had to a front line warlock, though many games you would go without a feat and his yoyo game was carried him through. Rifts could slow down your opponent why you scalpel models with stalkers, and ghetorix and via lightning strike and warpath retreat to safe distances to rinse and repeat. Wild aggression and warpath made that game very viable and often very focus efficient, who knew a warbeast who charges for free, can warp for berserk and has boosted attack rolls was any good eh? The permanent 13'5" threat was always really a side gimmick that never would normally land a kill, unless a mistake was made.

He newest incarnation is a lot less, finesse and much more axe - face, in a literal sense. Lets take a look at his raw stat line and his feat before moving onto his spells and innate abilities.


A point worth mentioning straight off the bat is, this guy is HUGE. He stands at all as Ghetorix and has been put on a large base which is one bigger then his prior incarnation. He has terror, which is fairly standard on a guy looking as he does. I mean, if he told me he is now champion of the wurm with blood dripping off Rahtrok, I would be inclined to agree. Pathfinder is a great rule to have so we can hide behind walls, and then charge over them!

So lets start with the speed, SPD 6 is pretty much what we all expected, so nothing to mull over here.

A base strength of ten, paired the mighty axe Rathrok makes for a base P+S 17. This is very, very good for circle. 17 Threatens most warbeasts, and most warjacks to a extent.

Mat 8, the same as his Mat in his prior beast form but can cast spells? Sign me up. 

Rat 4, well we have no ranged weapon so again, nothing much too speak about.

Defense of 14,  considering the big K went to a large base over a medium base this is very fair, we went up a base size and dropped one defense, but in turn we gained some armor.

Armor of 18, again this is pretty darn good for a circle warlock, and our highest base armor so far. It means those pesky pow 10/11 guns won't bother us without a boost, and low pow charges of 10-11 should not threaten him in a huge way.


Now lets move onto the feat, BLOOD LUST! A primal, without frenzying! This feat is pretty damn tasty. Why writing that statement; Please appreciate i realize this is no Kreuger2 feat, ect ect but we only take models on the merits, never on what they do not supply. Okay, this feat does not supply board control, it does supply any help in scenario play and neither will it stop our paper thin armor on infantry being melted.

But, it does a hell of a lot and we should appreciate what it does do. +2 STR and +2 ARM on our living warbeasts, this is fantastic! Ghetorix stands at ARM 21 when being engaged, a riphorn stands at ARM 21 all the time and kromac gets thrown up to ARM 20. Okay this ARM won't stop you from being one rounded by 2-3 warbeasts, or a raged mulg ect. However it does help you stand there a little longer, and it will hurt a scythean, suddenly -4 rather then -2 is a big deal on ghetorix for example. Throwing Kromac up to ARM 20 is getting to be very tanky, so this should allow for some aggressive scenario play for dominating a zone turn 2 and being able to survive the round after. If you pair this with the winter argus winter coat (+2 armor and immunity: cold) we go up to 22, which is pretty sweet. +2 STR on all living warbeasts is fantastic, and may be a list (I will be trying for sure) that allows us to run 2-3 heavies without a gorax. The feat puts all our warbeasts which crack armor pretty well upto higher standards, and if necessary paired with a gorax to ludicrous amounts of STR. It also puts Kromac up to P+S 19, this is very good. This paired with his base high MAT means he will threaten anything within his 11" threat range, and may stand there next to turn to well.. kill some more!

The last part of the feat affects all living friendly models, and it grants your charge attack rolls to auto hit. This is also, pretty good! Auto hitting blood trackers? They will do some quick work (The puns) indeed! Skin walkers damn why are you mat 6? Boom, auto hit. Tharn ravagers are going to charge at mat 9 and kill a model and get a token and kill and ohhhh.. I missed. BOOM! not anymore. The feat is a great tool to use on those low MAT units that always epically fail, well not any more boys!


With his feat, and raw stats looked at, lets take a look at his spells and innate abilities.


Heart eater? Pretty fitting for tharn king. The cool thing for kromac is we can use the tokens to boost magic attack / damage rolls. All in all, as expected.

Life drinker is pretty neat. If post feat turn, we have taken some damage, we have a way too heal up the damage we have taken. Not game changing, but for the aggressive play style I think we're going to have to play to make most out of Kromac, it's neat.

Spells! Spells, spells oh spells. Kromac has a long list of spells, and it seems one for every occasion!

Lets start with aggravator, Hyper aggressive for your battle group. When i first read hyper agrssive on a bronzerback, I was like - OMG THIS IS CRAZY! People shoot me, and i go closer? How do you kill this thing! Then, i had a few games with ghetorix, and now I've had a lot. The rule is neat, however far from practical. The full advance, directly towards the source of damage is hindered by a lot of things.

A) You bump into models, a lot!
B) People will shoot you, wanting you to hyper agressive to lure you into a charge lane, ect
C) You might just get shot, and die by shooting anyway!

With that being said, it has some use. You may gain a few inches of movement which doesn't lead to your demise, you may be able to advance and engage a enemy model to protect your self from shooting. All in all, not a bad spell to cast and fail charge turn one, but not hugely game breaking.

Awakened spirit, a free animus each turn. This is pretty neat and we have plenty of good targets for it, namely lightning strike and bulldoze. By up keeping you effectively save two fury somewhere else on the board. Useful, but maybe on the turn Kromac2 wants to go in worth dropping for another attack.

Carnage? How about yes! With fury 7 it's very viable to drop down carnage, which is amazing for stalkers, ghetorix, riphorns, anything that uses MAT as it's primary mechanism. Kromac being mat 10 isn't so shabby. All in all, very good.

Primal Howl, a bit of a corner case spell. Giving this guy has a CMD of 4, it won''t be cast every turn. I can see it being used the turn you go in with kromac, if playing against living threats. The -2 CMD is great if you can make a key unit run away, but the spell won't be used every turn that's for sure.

Primal shock! This spell is good, a great spell to snipe out a solo post charge with a warbeast? Neat spell but not a huge amount to say about it. A reason to play a worldwrath maybe?


With that being said, what sort of list can we expect to see? Well i have wrote my own and here it is:

Kromac, Champion of the Wurm
Druid Wilder
Winter Argus
Warpwolf Stalker
Warpwolf Stalker
Riphorn Satyr
Blakclad Wayfarer
Tharn Bloodtrackers (6)
Nuala
Druids of Orobos
Druids of Orobos Overseer

So here it is. The plan is to throw awakened spirit on my winter argus, use my druids for force bolts and or potential clouds to protect kromac after going in. The trackers under feat will deal well with any infantry and will help my list play any scenario which requires a splitting of forces.

Sadly ghetorix will be in my other list pairing, but the stalkers being mat 8 will instantly solve one of there problems, and the feat allows to crack some real armor without auto frenzying. The wilder will help fury management, and the black clad will allow free charges out side of my fuel cache and extend my threat ranges.

Very excited to test the big guy, will keep you all updated!

Intro

Grandad here, mostly an Omnipotent but I have dabbled in everything. Working on my second faction at the moment which is Trollbloods, so I guess I will be talking about 'dem Trolls. Working on a Borka 2 Tier list, building tuffalo and finding out that painting a polar bear is hard......

Dirt mystics, werewolves and movement shenanigans!

Hey all! My name is Aaron, and I have played warmachine for about four years now and have been a pressganger for about three. I started with Cryx, then rotated to trolls and have settled on circle orobos. I have played only circle Orobos for about 3 years and have literally just purchased (this month) a Haley1/2, Brisbaine and Caine2 list for my self. Just to see if guns are any good or not eh? My Circle Orobos range is fully painted with the help of Fanplastic Little Men, a fantastic painting service! My cygnar will be painted by myself and I'll keep you all updated with how that goes!

In regards to the game of warmachine the reason I play more so then anything else is the amazing friends I have gained (and writing this blog with) throughout playing it. We have the best banter, trash talk and very late nights in the bar at all events we go to and without them I wouldn't bother traveling for over night events. That being said as I do go far and wide for events, I am there to play tight competitive games. This year I have been practicing a lot, I have won some local events and most recently went 4-1 on the first steamroller at the UK Games expo and qualified for the masters. Next year I plan to attend smogcon (I will be running events here) UK, Irish and Welsh nationals as well lots of local events and hope to get podium spots!

I'll be speaking about the events we attend, Circle Orobos as a faction, Hobby and the current tournament meta: how and when it changes!

Cheese for reading my little part, hope to see you all back soon.