Some 50 Point Circle Lists

Here are some of my 50 point Circle Armies currently in rotation

Benchwarmers: Lists I'm Not Playing

For a variety of reasons, these three lists have been sitting the bench since I returned to Circle this year. Mainly, eMorvahna is just THAT GOOD that these two lists have been sat aside for the time being. Both are beast heavy and built to trash heavies and colossals. I could see them sliding into my second list spot if I knew the meta was going to be stacked with heavy armor, or if our team needs an army crack list.

-Kromac
   -Ghettorix
   -2x Warpwolf Stalkers
   -Wold Watcher

-Min Bloodtrackers + Nuala
-Min. Tharn Wolf Riders
-Tharn Ravager Whitemane
-Shifting Stones

-eKaya
 -Stalker
 -Feral
 -Pureblood
 -Gorax
 -Wilder
-Full Skinwalkers+ Alpha
-Full Druids +UA
-Stones


My poor Grayle list isn't even pictured. I tried really hard to make Grayle work, and he is fun to play. But it seems like he just falls apart in almost any top tier match up.

Next up on the painting table: Joey Baltimore's Exemplar Errants

Circle Orboros 50 Point Lists

These are my current "In Play" Circle lists.

-eMorvahna
   -Wold Wrath
   -Gorax
-Full Skinwalkers + UA
-Full Reeves
-2x Gallows Grove
-3x War Wolves
-1 x Reeve Hunter
-1 x Tharn Ravager Whitemane

-pKrueger
   -Megalith
   -Wold Warden
   -Gorax
   -Feral Warpwolf
-Druids + UA
-Shifting Stones +UA
-Shifting Stones
-Tharn Bloodweavers
-Blackclad Wayfarer
-Feralgiest

-eBaldur
   -Megalith
   -Wold Warden
   -3xWold Watchers
-Celestial Fulcrum
-Druids +UA
-Stones +UA
-Stones

All three present very different games. Kreuger and Morvahna are my go to pairing right now as they seem to compliment each other. Both are attrition style lists, but Krueger tends to do better against swarm infantry, while Morvahna presents a much more balanced face against other foes.

The Baldur list is an armor skew that an opponent can either handle easily or just flat out loses to. The amount of arm 21+ in this army can be scary, especially when it is healing every turn.

Tomorrow, I'll post a few of my lesser played Circle lists and discuss why they fell out of favor.

eKaya Tier 4

Just a couple quick army shots of eKaya at tier 4.

Circle Orboros Updates: Lots and lots of pics

Other than two diversions into Cygnar land (ahem... Stormwall...) My painting has been focused entirely on my Circle Orboros. Here's a sample of the latest stuff.

My forseeable future of painting is still going to be wrapped up in Circle as well. I'm enjoying everything about the faction right now, from painting to playing, so look for some more stuff shortly.

A Couple of Victories With the Circle

Pulled off two wins last night to help break the screaming slide of losses lately. In the first game Grayle danced around the far flank against the old Witch. Using awareness and the Satyr's animus, the Stalker was able to blast through the woods and smash up the behemoth. The satyr countercharged a juggernaut slamming it 5" back and then wrecking it pretty well. In the end, the stalker put an end to the Old Witch. The true hero of the game was the feralgiest, who singlehandedly kept me from losing simply by being ethereal. Joey B had one magic attack left and that was Valchev attached to boomhowlers trolls. The woldwyrd under awareness sniped Valchev ensuring that I simply couldn't lose on objective.

Game 2 was against Vindictus and didn't look good for a large portion of the game. When it finally started to go my way I charged Vindictus with Grayle and a Stormraged Moraig... and didn't kill him. I then stood there and watched a fully loaded Vindictus whiff almost all of his attacks and ended it with a big hit from Moraig next turn.

Two good games. Very excited about the feralgiest. It may be time to add a second Circle caster into the mix... either eKaya or pKrueger. We shall see...

Updated Circle Painting

Well hello interwebs. Sorry I've been so silent, lots going on. My Circle army is coming a long nicely, can't say I'm winning a lot of games, but I'm having fun. In non Circle related news I went to a tournament last weekend and took my Cryx that I haven't really played in a bout a year... I lost all three games... it wasn't pretty. The moral of the story is stick to what you're playing... anyway... picture time!

First up, my Black Clad wayfarer. I wanted him to still fit in with the army but to look a little different from everyone else. The patchwork cloak was my attempt at this little idea.

The gnarlhorn is added to the stable of beasts. This is one awesome model and he took quite a bit of work to blend and shade. I'm really happy with this one.

Moraig off his wolf. Is it sad that he is a cooler model than Grayle?

And last but not least, a non slow grow, Wold Warden.

The Wolves of Orboros now number 10 as well, didn't take a pic of the four new guys. Next up are the skinwalkers and a feralgiest.

Circle Orboros Painting Update

Lots of pictures for everyone tonight. This represents about one month's worth of work on my slow grow list. I'm very happy with the progress thus far. Next on the list is Moraig's unmounted model followed by a Woldwarden and a Blackclad Wayfarer. After that it will be time to max out the WoO and then add in a set of Shifting Stones and the UA. Enjoy!

Slow Grow League Painting Update

Today was one of the ugliest days that has hit Baltimore in a long time. The weather itsself seemed to be in a crappy mood following the Ravens' loss, and it mirrored pretty much every single person's mood who I ran into anywhere I went today.

I guess now that football season is over it's time to focus on hobby news. Still a few more months before my bike takes over my free time again, and those months jive perfectly with our slow grow league.

The goal (for anyone who just dropped in here for the first time) is to paint an entire 50 pt army as we move through our slow grow league from January to May. There is prize support for our group, but since I'm providing prizes I'm not too excited.

This month was going to be a heavy paint month for me. 15 points of my Grayle list included two warbeasts, Grayle, and 8 wolves of orboros. So with the month winding down...

excuse the crappy photography.

Two warbeasts? CHECK
Warlock? CHECK
Wolves of Orboros? almost...

still have two more infantry plus both models of the UA on my painting table. Hopefully I'll finish them off by the end of the month. The two rank and file guys are already 60% or so finished, so there's a good chance I'll make my goals this month.

Painting up the Circle has been a nice change from all the Cygnar work I was doing. The enameled gold effect is relatively easy to pull off and I like the cohesive look it's bringing to the army. The various greys that I've been blending on cloaks and beasts have been a lot of fun too. Hopefully I'll do a little tutorial for everyone one of the last four Wolves of Oroboros when I bump the list up to 35 points.

The other slow grow member who's going to make his mark this month is Joey Baltimore. A little shout out for his foray into model painting, which I think is going quite good. I'm sure he'll regale everyone with his trials and tribulations in the comments. Hopefully I'll get some pics of J.B's Retribution for everyone... the only problem is they die so easily to Grayle...

I'm an elf killin' ninja!

Slow Grow Week 3 Update

Waiting for the Ravens to take the field... figured I'd type up a quick update!

The slow grow league moved over to 15 points this week and set up some changes in people's armies. I added a min unit of Wolves of Oroboros and UA just to have a bit of a tarpit and some objective holding capability. I feel like with Grayle's relatively limited spell list I'm ok on Fury management at this point.

My first 15 point game was against Vyros and the elves. Joey B. brought along the lesser warlock and her snake which was surprisinly effective at this point level. The game went back and forth until Joe went for broke and wasn't successful in an assaination run. Grayle sliced the elf down in short order.

Game two went against Arkadius and his warhogs. I had this game, but my dice let me down in the end. Grayle was able to cut down two warhogs on his own (with a little help from his wolf... just a little) A final warhog brought the game to an end.

In the painting front, I have finished Grayle, the stalker, the woldwyrd, and 4 wolves of oroboros. 4 more infantry models and I'm done my 15 points in time. Look for pictures soon!

Slow Grow Week 2 Update

Since week three's gaming night is tomorrow night, I guess I should toss a quick update for last week.

After a strong week one, Grayle was a little slow out of the gate. Utter failure in dropping Baldur's VERY hard to kill beasts left me wide open for sudden death and while I don't remember the merc. game I think it had much the same outcome, with me at an inability to finish off two heavies in one turn.

Game 1: Circle vs. Circle (Baldur) LOSS
Game 2: vs. Daimanio LOSS

Then I decided it was time to set Grayle loose and see what he could do. I tried to play him a little more front line so his damage output was finishing off things that the wyrd and the stalker were crashing into.

Game 3: vs. pMadrak: WIN

Ninja Grayle charged through the lines and pounded Madrak into the turf.

Game 4: vs. Vyros: WIN
This time ninja Grayle jumped out of the woods and scrapped Vyros' last jack (a heavy) for the win.

Game 5: vs. Shae: WIN
I had had quite a few drinks by this point, but I'm pretty sure the warpwolf ate Shae. I could be wrong though...

Tomorrow night we move up to 15 points. Grayle and his warpack are getting a min unit of Wolves of Oroboros with UA to give me some tarpit ability and to set up the addition of Moraig later in the league. I figure the UA and CMA will give me another big punch to help drop heavy targets.

On the painting front, Grayle is done as are two Wolves. More to come.

Slow Grow Painting Updates!

Just some pics of my painting progress tonight. The Stalker and the Wyrd are 100% done. Grayle is about 60% done, but man is he a frustrating model. More on him later...

Have a great week!

Grayle the Farstrider: Pt. 1

Welcome back! At each of the point totals for our slow grow league I plan to write a few quick analyses of Grayle and the things I'm learning. Tonight is based on our first night of "quasi battlebox" games. For the sake of completeness, I was running Grayle with a warpwolf stalker and a wold wyrd. The stalker has a fury stat of 4 while the wyrd runs at 3. This gives me enough fury generation to easily cover Grayle in the beginning of the game with his standard fury stat of 6.

In the battlebox format, I had to rely on Grayle to kill things and manage to stay safe. I didn't want to exchange my beasts early on, so I took some risks with Grayle that I probably won't use later on in the league. So in our first Grayle series, let's look at his hitting power and mobility.

Grayle's swords are POW 10 to start, which is unimpressive, however he has two of them and he is a weapon master. This means rolling four damage dice on the charge. Still, un buffed, I found that Grayle could demolish a light, but still struggled going up against heavies of all factions. Once Grayle was toting Storm Rager he was a little more effective. With Storm Rager up, Grayle is an effective MAT 9, meaning I very rarely felt the need to boost to hit. Grayle usually only spent one fury a turn (upkeeping Storm Rager) so when he hit the line with five focus he was getting 2 initial attacks + 5 purchased attacks. On average rolls; Grayle's looking at 19 damage per unboosted attack x6 with the charge attack at 21 damage. Against the heavies I saw on the table, I usually went for good rolling instead of the extra dice and bought attacks instead of a 4th damage dice.

Grayle is fast ( spd 7) combined with pathfinder and stealth (which he has both of) Grayle was able to move around the battle field surprisingly well. Adding to his mobility is sidestep, which allows you to move Grayle along the front of his foes as he takes his (initial only) attacks. The final addition to Grayle's mobility is sprint. Sprint was of limited use when facing Beasts and Jacks only, but I can really see Grayle pulling the hit and run routine once he sees some infantry across the field, especially with sidestep allowing him to duck away from free strikes.

Well that's it for tonight. Next time, Spells and the Feat!

Slow Grow League: Night One

Happy New Year once again from the frozen tundra of Maryland... minus the work removing snow...

Our gaming group is starting 2012 with a Warmachine/ Hordes slow-grow league. We're starting with a rough battle box equivilent (your army has to match the point total of your "official battle box") then moving to 15 points, then 25, then 35 and finally 50. The idea is to get to know one caster very well with the bonus of hopefully getting another 50 point army painted up throughout the duration. (see above warpwolf for my progress painting wise...) Each point level gets a month except for the the BB/ 15 points which get two weeks a piece.

I decided to take Circle for this event and chose Grayle as my warlock of choice. I wanted to get to know him from the ground up so I figured he would be a lot of fun to play in this format. Before tonight, I had never put Grayle on the table.

Tonight started the event with battle box armies. I fielded Grayle, a Warpwolf Stalker, and a Woldwyrd. I was concerned about fury generation, but it ended up not being a big deal at all in the long run. In bigger games, that may change, but we shall see.

Tomorrow I'll write a bit about Grayle and my early perceptions, but here's tonight's standings:

vs. Shae and the Pirates: WIN!
vs. The Old Witch: WIN!
vs. Daimano: WIN!
vs: Vyros: Loss
vs. Arkadius: Loss
vs. The Old Witch (again) WIN!

4-2
not a bad way to start. I still haven't played Madrak and Baldur.

Updates

No the storm strider isn't done yet. Closer than the last pictures show, but still not done. Life has hit the holiday/ midterm of semester accelerated season and my hobbying has taken a hit. But fear not oh gentle purveyors of the internetz, D-9 has some vacation coming and hopefully a few surprise days off thanks to weather.

of course there's a small snag to that logic.

It's called Old Republic and it's coming very, very soon...

www.swtor.com

Look for a new series of articles starting here soon as our group is about to begin a slow grow league. I'm playing Circle with Grayle as my caster of choice. Hopefully I'll figure out to play the little guy and keep you up to date on my exploits. Part of the league is to paint a new army up, so if all goes as planned I should have another 50 point army done sometime in the spring.

I made a few Black Friday purchases to fill out my Circle collection, including a preorder of the Battle Engine. I picked up the Warpborn Skinwalkers finally and they are some of the coolest looking models I've ever seen.

Hopefully the next update will consist of a completed Storm Strider! Til then!

Tharn Wolf Rider: 1 Down, 2 to Go!

Nothing much to report tonight. Had a great Thanksgiving with friends, family, football and food. Got some nice bike rides in due to the mild weather we've been having. Ordered some stuff from the various webstores' BF deals. The Circle Battle Engine is probably the high point of those orders. Played some D&D last night, but no miniatures gaming action to report. Wednesday night will get our weekly matches back on schedule though. In the meantime, here's some shots of the Circle stuff I'm working on.

When I get to the Bloodtrackers I'll do a step by step how to for painting these girls. I did the wolf riders on a black undercoat, which I probably won't use for the 'trackers. I'm still fairly happy with the final product with this model. I decided that all the Tharn in the army will be relatively healthy looking with skin tones built up from browns and tans to flesh colors. The women will favor red and blond hair. I'll probably work in some celtic tatoo motifs on the trackers when they aren't so bunched up.

Domination Thoughts

Finally finished a full read of Domination this afternoon and thought I'd throw up some initial impressions. For anyone who doesn't read my words of self adoration in blog form often, let me preface this pointless pontification with the fact that I'm a Circle player. (not in the dirty hippy druid way either, but in the eat your face, grr I'm a werewolf, way... but I digress....) Be aware: spoilers abound.

FLUFF: Wow, wow and wow again. I really enjoyed the story woven through the book. Circle seemed to get more than enough face time and Grayle came off as a very likeable and interesting character. I wanted more of the Kromac vs. Skorne subplot, but now Kromac will definitely want some revenge on Jarl, no good troll git... the last portion of the storyline puts the Skorne on the doorstep of Ios and sets up some very interesting plot twists in the ol' Iron Kingdoms. I wonder how close to the Warmahordes storyline the new IK RPG will be?

CIRCLE ADDITIONS: In my order from best to meh...
1: Gallows Grove: truly a game changer. At 1 point, these little arc nodes are going to be a lot of fun to experiment with.
2: Grayle: I like him, enough that he is going to be my caster in our club's slow grow league this winter. I think there's a lot going on with him, and he's different from everyone else Circle has to bring to the field.
3: Ghettorix: The fluff, the art, the abilities... this guy is pure win. He's a little pricy at 11 points, but should prove to be a very hard to kill beatstick for Kromac.
4: Scarsfell Griffon: Coming in at 5 pts, this guy has a lot of competition. Either way, his extended control and two handed throws could be a lot of fun, especially in a Kaya list.
5: Celestial Fulcrum: I think I might get one of these to try out. If nothing else the model is awesome. I don't know how survivable it will be though.
6: Winter Argus: again, 5 point bracket. Nice animus, cool sprays, doubt I'll ever get one.
7: eBaldur: just meh for me. No need for another new caster.

Overall, I really liked the book. I think PP continues to put awesome stuff together on all fronts and two years into their game, I'm still really enjoying it. Next on my reading list is the new Necron book, expect more there soon. Have some Tharn on my painting table right now and two more boomy trolls to finish before my Siege 35 pt list is done. Some pics later this week.

Triumph and Siege

My Siege army is almost done. Reinholdt is being dullcoated and I have two Boomhowler trolls to finish. Here's the bad mamajama himself and his 'jack, Triumph.

Triumph has gotten a pretty rotten rap in the forums since his release, but I've enjoyed playing him. The extra point of RAT makes him pretty accurate even without boosting and arcane precision just goes another step towards making my Siege list my premier anti stealth foil. On top of all that, the model is one of my favorite jack sculpts.

In other Warmahordes news, my 50 pt. Circle game ended with a win over Joey Baltimore's angry elves. Kromac ran way back as a support lock while his army hit, ran, and claimed objectives. Looking forward for more circle fun this Wednesday!

Kromac is watching!