Hordes/Tactics/Circle Orboros

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Why Play Circle Orboros

Druids, furries, animals, sticks and stones.

The Circle's playstyle is quite trolly, run up through terrain, strip off your defensive buffs, smack you really hard, then run back through terrain while creating more to pin you down. Circle frequently causes headaches for armies like Skorne and Searforge who already struggle against terrain, have issues with armies with lots of Pathfinder and then the Circle which has near universal Pathfinder and can create terrain and cloud cover because its important you can totally justify our trollface than letting them play a game with their models. That said Legion of Everblight and to a lesser extent Cryx can shrug off your terrain and cloud creation as well as some of your other tricks making those 2 factions demand a different playstyle.

Circle warbeasts come in 2 distinct flavours, Living and Construct. You can run a mix, in fact its quite useful as they cover each other's weaknesses, but its often a case where you will see Circle lists being either Howl Of The Wild or Sticks And Stones. Howl means running Warpwolves, Griffons, doggies and other beasts, it plays very rampagey, running up fast and going nuts, it does have a tendency to frenzy a lot and Living Circle beasts lack Pathfinder, both issues being non-existent with Constructs. It requires certain choices like the Warpworlf Stalker and the Gorax to cover things. SAS on the otherhand tends to look like a very grindy list but is actually a quite a good control and scenario archetype. SAS uses Druid units, Waystones, Sentry Stones, the Woldnoun warbeasts and a few druid solos. Its got a lot of options and can deal with a lot of list types quite easily, its also very shooty which catches a lot of opponents off-guard because the main shooting unit for the Circle is one of the few genuine fucking garbage units in this game.

General Strategy

Run through terrain on their flanks and make them wish they too could just ignore the trees.

Unit Analysis

Warlocks

• Baldur the Stonecleaver (Epic version: Baldur the Stonesoul) - Cool old dude that is about the only level headed member of the circle and is more worried about what sneaky old everblight is up to then getting promoted. Can swing a big ass sword like it's nothing.

• Cassius the Oathkeeper & Wurmwood, Tree of Fate - The latest in a long line of druids bound to the oldest and creepiest tree in the world. If he hits you, you die and turn into a tree.

• Kaya the Wildborne - The starter kit Warlock, she's a hardass fanatic with no patience for the Circle's politicking and a tight bond with her warbeasts. Uses a staff and has a spell list loaded down with movement shenanigans. Her Epic version comes with a wolf sidekick.

• Kaya the Moonhunter and Laris -

• Krueger the Stormwrath - A pretty mobile warlock who has a nice diversity of spells and good but not great combat potential. Early on he was frequently taken with Woldbeasts but its now common to see him run a more diverse battlegroup with a Woldwarden. He's a magician too, take him to the table and watch infantry disappear with his lightning spell, take him with Woldwardens and watch as infantry will disappear from your local meta as you abuse geomancy to throw more lightning than even Cygnar can.

• Krueger the Stormlord More complicated but also streamlined, comes with flying instead of needing to buff himself to fly. Is able to push and pull things around like Rahn but without being a smug faggotty elf about it, instead being smug religious fanatic. Is one of the Big 3 for this faction. Tends to be one of the stronger Sticks And Stones warlocks as his spell list feeds their control powers but equally good in a Howl list or hybrid.

• Mohsar the Desertwalker - An interesting bloke, can

• Morvahna the Autumnblade - Once the premier infantry warlock of the Circle, like all women, she delights in having men and fight and die for her because of absolute bitchiness. She supports infantry well and can turn their deaths into a benefit for her so that when a stalemate occurs, she can leverage a slight advantage out of it, or if an infantry stalemate starts turning in the other side's favour, she still has some ability to comeback.

• Morvahna the Dawnshadow - Now she literally looks down on men instead of metaphorically, very similar to her non-epic form, she overtook her previous incarnation as our go-to infantry commander.

• Grayle the Farstrider - This guy exists to rationalize the existence of Wolves of Orboros and Reeves of Orboros. An infantry general like the last two entries but subpar to them. Not bad per se but coming out after Morvahna and just before epic Morvahna pretty much means he's going to be overlooked until PP gives him a character beast and a strong Tier list.

• Kromac the Ravenous - He transforms and can be either melee butcher with no abilities other than to kill things or a decent supporting warlock with good melee stats. When he's in rape mode he can't upkeep spells or cast anything new, so choose carefully when to transform back and forth as he loses a lot of his ability to manage his beasts when he himself becomes a rapebeast.

• Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver - Circle's latest warlock. He builds golems and can use landslides to move around.

Warbeasts

Light Warbeasts

• Argus - Bascially a two headed dog who's alternating barks give you a headache.

• Argus Moonhound - Basically a two headed hunting dog. He will help your dudes see and hit their targets at range.

• Gorax - Your worst furry nightmare. Also, the only Light Warbeast with 4 Fury in the game.

• Scarsfell Griffon - The Griffon meant to work alone, either flanking or far ahead.

• Razorwing Griffon - He got blades on his wings and can use them to trample everything, vector strike-like.

• Rotterhorn Griffon - This bird screams loud enough to hurt. He can also make people do things at the end of their activation.

• Winter Argus - Basically a two headed dog that barks ice breath.

• Woldwatcher - Bodyguard golem, can shield people from arrows and bullets and harden itself.

• Woldwyrd - Floating golem that shoots lasers. Does his stuff better against enemies loaded with magic.

Heavy Warbeasts

• Feral Warpwolf - You will learn to love this guy, or play pure construct, definitely the workhorse heavy beast of the Circle

• Gnarlhorn Satyr - He's a ram, so he loves to charge things headfirst to slam them away. So much in fact he can do it during your opponent's turn.

• Pureblood Warpwolf - Usually run with a Feral at the least, a very common sight.

• Riphorn Satyr - The bodybuilder Satyr. Tough and strong, he can push people around.

• Shadowhorn Satyr - Light Satyr, he knocks down people who miss him in melee and can jump around.

• Warpwolf Stalker - Usually taken with a Pureblood, a Feral or complementing a Gorax and Argus. This werewolf uses a bigass sword and can go berserk on people with it, or hide really well in the woods. Considered the best non-character heavy currently.

• Wold Guardian - The big brother golem bodyguard. Slow, but hits hard, immune to explosions and can become impervious to ranged attacks.

• Woldwarden - One of the more infamous beasts in Circle, Geomancy is a very strong ability and was responsible for Mk1 Kruger's reputation for evaporating infantry from whole metas. He's good in normal lists and the goddamned backbone of Sticks And Stones lists. Also something that is frequently overlooked is that Geomancy functionally makes this guy a shooty beast and having 2-3 of him means you have a shooting phase better than many Warmachine lists.

Character Heavies

• Ghetorix - Boss Werewolf. He used to be one of the half-furry people but became so angry he turned full-time werewolf on their ass. He was pounded into submission by Kromac.

• Megalith - Very good and often the second or first construct purchase for Circle players, subs for a Woldwarden. Baldur always takes him because of their synergy, Baldur1 and Megalith become a solid pair of unkillable badassness, while Baldur2 benefits from being able to run hot on wurm tokens with Megalith's healing mitigating the burn, late game Baldur2 can swing for stupid amounts of damage thanks to Megalith's assistance.

Gargantuan

• Woldwrath - Huge golem that shoots lightning from his eyes. One punch knocks everyone around on their ass.

Units

• Druids of Orboros - Magical tricksters: they heal warbeasts use magical smoke grenades, push or pull things around and their boss can stop enemy magic around them. People either love them of hate them.

Potential attachment - Overseer: can make the unit immune to most elemental effects.

• Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers - a druid with his pet laser-shooting golems. A good ranged unit.

• Reeves of Orboros - Hunters with double-shot crossbows. Considered poor for their cost.

Potential attachment - Chieftan & Standard Bearer: generally considered the most useless unit attachment in the whole game.

• Sentry Stone & Mannikins - wood golems and their control tower.

• Shifting Stones - Magical stones that heal or teleport things

Potential attachment - Stone Keeper: hide the stones to protect them, allows them to spread more.

• Tharn Blood Pack - Furry lovers who decided bows are cool.

• Tharn Bloodtrackers - Women who are really good at throwing javelins on people.

Potential attachment - Nuala the Huntress: Tharn queen, allows the Bloodtrackers to hit and run.

• Tharn Bloodweavers - the Tharn priestesses, they gut people to do magic.

• Tharn Ravagers - Furry lovers who took things too far. Now look like monster movie rejects.

Potential attachment - Tharn Ravager Chieftain Potential attachment - Tharn Ravager Shaman

• Tharn Wolf Riders - Bloodtrackers on wolves to go faster.

• Warpborn Skinwalkers - Man-sized werewolves. They are tough and go faster when you hurt them.

Potential attachment - Warpborn Alpha: makes the skinwalkers be able to attack twice and eat their enemies to regenerate.

• Wolves of Orboros - Basic grunts and all around expendable troops. Cheapest infantry in the faction.

Potential attachment - Chieftain & Standard: can make the Wolves of Orboros very effective in melee one turn per game.

Solos

• Blackclad Wayfarer - This dude can warp to shifting stones anywhere on the board, or make your dude charge from further away. Immune to most elemental effects.

• Druid Wilder - Druid apprentice learning the job.

• Reeve Hunter - Reeve boss, teaches the others reaves to use camouflage.

• Tharn Ravager White Mane - Old tharn man who fought a lot of battles and lived to tell stories about them.

• War Wolf - Trained wolf. Can charge things Reeves put bolts in.

• Gallows Grove - teleporting trees that prevent healing around them. Warlocks can channel their spells through them.

Character Solos

• Lord of the Feast - The manifestation of an old, angry god. Called that because he feasts on enemy infantry.

• Wolf Lord Morraig - A general for Wolves and Reeves of Orboros. Mounted on a big wolf, he hits fast and hard.

• Una the Falconeer - A lesser Warlock who can only take Griffins, though at a discount.

Battle Engines

• Celestial Fulcrum - Giant weather machine able to cause floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Do not leave on.