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 Defenders Of The Wild, Tharns and Wolves, and lastly Sticks And Stones. Defenders of the Wild is considered the weakest style at the moment, you use Wolves of Orboros, Reeves and infantry warlocks to push your horde forward and jam up your the open spaces on the board with models to force your opponent into terrain where you can freely use your mobility to kite them out. Tharns and Wolves is a bit similar to Defenders but is more competitive by going heavy on the Tharn, a race of primitives that sort of shapeshift into fucked up beastpeople when they get mad, it also means using lots of the Warpwolves to back them with serious hitting power units. SAS on the otherhand tends to look like a very grindy list but is actually a quite a good control and scenario archetype compared to the other two. 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 - 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. Is the goto guy when starting Sticks And Stone lists because he can heal Constructs, doesn't have to always run constructs but they get more with him. He has the ability to teleport through forests and is very notorious for assassinating warlocks/warcasters with it and a few bits of created terrain.

• Baldur the Stonesoul - After his resurrection, Baldur went from being the level-headed sensible uncle/grandpa of the circle to a crazed eyes-wide-open-but-nothing-behind-them fanatic... You know like every other fucker who puts on the black cloak of this Druidic order. He is very similar to his original self, but trades defensive healing for acquiring a token each turn that does 1 damage to him and gives him +1 Str, meaning he just ends up burning life to hit like a rock. Megalith is practically mandatory so you can survive enough turns to build up a major stack of wurm tokens and then one-shot a light warnoun or cripple a heavy and use his special ability to purge them off before it kills him.

• 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. Not a warlock for newbies, he has a lot of offensive spells and his feat can bog down whole armies, but its tied to the tree, which describes this guy perfectly. He is limited by the tree and it getting hit fucks your warlock up instead.

• Kaya the Wildborne - The starter kit Warlock, she's a plucky newby who looks up to Baldur as the father figure who doesn't think she's a pagan witch. She has 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. Does a bit of everything but can run a larger battlegroup than most warlocks/warcasters thanks to better beast support spells and her Feat is incredibly good for fury management.

• Kaya the Moonhunter and Laris - After maturing, turning into a fanatical bitch, turning her back on Baldur and getting tips on fucking over men from Morvahna, we get an updated Kaya. She comes with her companion warbeast which is pretty decent, they can yo-yo like before but for less of a cost. Kaya2 can't run as a large a hunting pack of warbeasts as Kaya1 but she gets a lot out of her companion warbeast that it makes up for it.

• Krueger the Stormwrath - Growing up in a Protectorate area means his only grasp of religion is the kind where its fucking batshit insane and so fits right in with this druicdic sect. 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 Because the cold uncompromising fanatic of a whole order of fanatical assholes can in fact become more of a cunt when he partakes in eating human hearts with his Tharn friends. 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 Defenders or Tharn list.

• Mohsar the Desertwalker - An interesting bloke, taught Baldur about fucking about with stone and is the old man who keeps saying "I'm too old for this shit." and yet continues to do said shit without being asked. He can dick people around in scenarios, turning an ally into sand and stepping out of said sand so he's always where you want him. His signature dick-trick is spam summoning pillars of salt that due to rule wording can't be shot at with 90% of all ranged attacks and can't be charged at, using them to pretty much lock your opponent out of doing anything you don't want them to do. Gallows Groves are pretty much mandatory and between them and his teleport ability you can reach a lot of the board with your spells without ever being in your opponent's reach, cue trollface.

• 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, with lots of healing both for them and her 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. She really likes to play infantry vs infantry games as she gets benefits for both sides dying, and can heal/resurrect her own while getting free terrain and aoe damage on enemies near someone she or someone on her side kills. Because of this, she does dislike some of the infantry hose builds like Kruger with 2 Woldwardens.

• Morvahna the Dawnshadow - Now she literally looks down on men to the men she sends to their death instead of metaphorically, very similar to her non-epic form, she overtook her previous incarnation as our go-to infantry commander. Fog of War is a cheat spell in this faction especially with anything packing Prowl, cast it, upkeep it and move as many infantry units under its cover as you can while being smug in the huge amount of protection your horde gets to his horde. She is one of our Big 3.

• Grayle the Farstrider - This guy exists to rationalize the existence of Wolves of Orboros and Reeves of Orboros. An infantry general who can fight as good as a berserk Kromac in combat and comes with Stealth. Not bad per se but sort of upfront and direct, which is completely alien to this faction where being a dick who refuses to fight fair is the defining characteristic. He tends to take Defenders of the Wild hordes along with Morvahna.

• 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 - Isn't great, nor is good something you use to describe him. The model has its uses, it can paralyse a larger beast with its Doppler Bark, buying time for you to get something lined up to beat it and its Animus is useful for other living warbeasts. The standard battlebox gives you two, but paint one white and use it as a Winter Argus.

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

• Gorax - If you're running Living warbeasts, you take this guy first. His Animus is fucking amazing on Warpwolves and Satyrs and he himself can use it to rape any other light warbeasts. He's mostly used for his animus, but when battlegroups collide send him after any utility lights while your heavies focus on the harder stuff.

• Scarsfell Griffon - Has the Long Leash ability which means your Warlock's control area is calculated as double its size for the purpose of controlling this beast, this means that Kaya1 can pretty much cross the battlefield to wherever she wants, while Mohsar can reach anywhere from near the centre of the table.

• 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 - The most niche of the Woldnouns, a specialised anti-magic warbeast, usually taken when you have issues with Druids of Orboros but want to fuck over magic heavy lists

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. Hits very hard and has bark that is arguably as bad as its bite.

• 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. His Pathfinder and Animus let him move in, trash something and then back into the cover of nearby trees, sort of like a lurking predator... because you know its a werewolf with a sword trying to be a ninja.

• 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 flipped off the druids, specifically Morvahna. He was pounded into submission by Kromac, at Morvahna's request, because she needs to see men fighting for her to get off and then was force fed bong water the Warpwolf Elixir because Morvahna can't go a day without being a massive fucking bitch. If you want to run 4 Dogs, then this guy is the 4th instead of a second Feral. Hits like a truck etc.. Really just a stronger Warpwolf.

• 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. Is sort of a mixed bag, some warlocks find him a straight upgrade to the mainline Wolds, while others can't really do much due to his Construct nature.

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.
  • Overseer He can make the unit immune to most elemental effects and throws spells much better.

• Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers - a druid with his pet laser-shooting golems. A good ranged unit. With Concentrate Fire they hit harder for every member of the unit who hit the same target previously, this means that they start at POW 12 and get to POW 16. The unit is fucked if caught in melee so use Zephyr to GTFO as PP didn't give these guys gunfighter. These are your workhorse shooting unit

• Reeves of Orboros - Hunters with double-shot crossbows. Considered poor for their cost. Only likely to be seen in Grayle's tier list or a Morvahna horde where you're running them to bulk out numbers or take advantage of specific warlock abilities. These guys are not your workhorse shooting unit.
  • Chieftan & Standard Bearer generally considered the most useless unit attachment in the whole game because it attaches to Reeves.

• Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Wooden golems and their control tower. The unit is sort of a really awkward artillery piece that acts as an area denial weapon. The mannikins are hilariously crappy, but you can create terrain with them, lock things in melee and block/screen more important units. Its not a unit that pays for itself, but its a usable unit with regards to scenario play in construct lists.

• Shifting Stones - Magical stones that heal or teleport things. One of the best support pieces in both games. With several spaced apart properly you can chain teleport things across the board to deliver them anywhere.
  • Stone Keeper Hides the stones to protect them, allows them to spread more. Often used for the forward set of stones while you leave a set without the Keeper in your deployment zone to start the teleport chain.

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

• Tharn Bloodtrackers - Women who are really good at throwing javelins on people. This is our other main ranged unit, it can hold up better in combat than Reeves or Woldstalkers but it brings very mobile shooting and coupled with terrain generation they can dance out of combat range throwing their Weaponmaster Javelins.
  • Nuala the Huntress Tharn queen, allows the Bloodtrackers to hit and run, makes a great unit fucking amazing.

• 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. Our heavy infantry, and true to form, softer and more mobile than the next leading competitors. Have an advantage if they can alpha strike a light infantry unit and get a bunch of hearts before hitting their main targets and using the hearts to boost.

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. Most Circle players swear by them when they have their Alpha.
  • Warpborn Alpha Makes the skinwalkers be able to attack twice and eat their enemies to regenerate. No point taking the Skinwalkers without him thanks to the sheer damage boost.

• 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. His main trick is using Hunter's Mark and terrain to setup unexpected charging lanes to deliver Tharn Ravagers or Skinwalkers into your opponent's face.

• Druid Wilder - Druid apprentice learning the job. Helps micromanage your beasts, this guy can take the stress of keeping things in check, but is usually unnecessary with Constructs as they don't Frenzy.

• Reeve Hunter - Reeve boss, teaches the others reaves to use camouflage. Can theoretically kill 6 things before breakfast each turn thanks to Quick Work and Snap Fire.

• 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 - Barknodes and a big middle finger to Toughness/Healing. Gallows Groves are mandatory for the control heavy casters as its giving them so much reach and the ability to just flatout deny areas of the board because even though you're not near there, your warlock can still fuck things up there. Tends to get targeted by players who've experienced them before because trees mean your warlock is going to stay back and poke them until the trees are lopped. Their cost and FA means that you will always see two of them unless your opponent is going to just go for your throat.

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.