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Alright guys, i'm a complete noob to hordes/warmachine so be gentle. I havent even played my first game yet. I friend of mine played a demo game and loved it, so i bought what i thought looked cool to me and started reading the rulebook. not finished yet. What should i be looking for in this list as far as weaknesses, strong combos ect... any input would be great guys. thanks!

Master Tormentor Morghoul +7Beast Points
x2 Cyclops Savages +10pts
Titan Gladiator +8pts
Cataphract Arcuari (L+3G) +6pts
Preatorian Karax (L+5G) +4pts

Total: 21pts

first off welcome to warmahordes. i hope you enjoy your time with the game.

skorne is a toolbox faction which focuses on melee beating with a touch of ranged support if you want it. Skorne ranged options are usually seen as "subpar" by the veterans of the community both inside the skorne faction and those looking through the glass.

Morghoul lovves him some beasts, and speaking of beasts it is often a good idea to stock up on them since they are your sole source of fury without hurting yourself. usually you want to have the fury stats of all your beasts combine to equal roughly your warlocks fury stat DOUBLED. so lets say at a 35 point game you take a gladiator (fury 4) and 2 brutes (fury 3 each) that would be 10 fury and would generally coover your needs for fury even if one dies. if you fel your beasts are gonna be melee beaters a 4th beast isnt a bad option.

skorne troops are solid, i personally think the centrati are better than acuarii, but thats just me. they are both slow, and the centrati have more survivability while slogging up the field. Karax are almost universally reviled, but if you like the models then go for it.

some models you want to get quick are:

beasthandlers: these guys help manage fury as well as buff your beasts to make them better in combat.

Molik Karn: most players will tell you he is an auto include, and honestly i can see the logic. he is GREAT. he is fast, he hits hard and is hard to kill in return. Most of your warlocks have buffs to make him better as well.

Bronzeback: i like the bronzeback more then molik karn, but again, thats just me. he hits like a ton of mack trucks, has a decent animus and loads of health.

some skorne players talk about the "trinity" in skorne, which usually means Molik Karn, a bronzeback and a gladiator. This combo of beasts usually forms a solid backbone of beasts for your forces.

nihilators are a top notch troop choice. they can clear out A LOT of infantry and have a very nice threat range. just do not pack them too close to each other or they will cut eachother down in the bloodbath.

the tyrant commander is also a solid buffer that can help out a lot of your forces.

as far as solos go, i feel skorne is spoiled for choice. a lot of players really like adeptus marketh and the extoller, which both provide tricks that are rare for skorne.

a shout out also for saxon orrik, a minion that can grant your guys pathfinder, which is always nice to have. he also has a gun which is always welcome in the skorne forces.

hoped i helped. i do not play skorne but i play against them on a regular basis.

I play skorne I agree with the bronze back and gladiator. I would incude either the titan sentry as the third heavy or a cannoner over molik karn for two reasons. A molik karn is good but really only will benefit the most if you us makeda epic and he is a paint to build i have him and emakeda and they are both extremely hard to build. the centrati are definitely a unit that should be included I personally would max the unit out. But Malik Karn is still good so i suggest you try him out and see how he plays with the other models and warlock you use. Kind of off topic but m goal is to actually build up my molik Karn this winter and try him out.I also play legion and am going to start a trollbloods so if you have any questions you can always shoot me a pm or just post it here and if i can help i will and if not i will try

I disagree strongly with the above posters about the Cetrati! Arcuarri are great and the better option with Morghoul.
Reasoning: Morghouls army is rather fast and the Cetrati will not be able to keep up with them. Cetrati cost 2 points more than Arcuarri, but gain shieldwall for this. Shieldwall only works if they advance ( max 5 inches) and are in b2b. Therefore they will form a slow wall somewhere on the field. The Arcuarri on the other hand are cheaper, hit harder and are more flexible overall. They also are free to run without losing any benefit ( well expect for the shooting attack). Cetrati only really shine with casters that are able to buff their speed and/or defense/ armor. ( like Xerxis and pmakeda) So if your planing on getting Makeda or Xerxis next, i would say get some Cetrati, in any other situation, i would recommend Arcuarri.
On Karax: They are said to be the worst unit Skorne have. While i dont think that they are as terrible, as some guys suggest, i have to admit that there are in most cases better options. Karax suffer from the same problem as the Cetrati, mainly they got shieldwall and are either really slow or really squishy. On top of that they got a worse MAT stat then any other Skorne unit,expect for beast handlers( and they are a support unit) and Venators ( they are a shooting unit). Even worse, they also got a slightly worse DEF stat, which is rather important. ( Note: They are also more expensive money wise. A minimum unit costs nearly as much, as a maximum Unit of Nihilators for some reason) If you like the models and want to try them, get them, otherwise i would suggest swordsman or nihilators

Some general advice and suggestions of stuff that will work well with pretty much anything:
Heavy Beasts: Bronzeback, Titan Cannoneer
Light Beasts: Cyclops Brute, Basilisk Drake
Units: Paingiver Beast handler, Nihilator, Swordsman( with Unit Attachment), Arcuarri, Gatorman( Minions that work for the Skorne), Tyrant Commander
Solos: Agonizer, Saxon Orrik, Void Spirit, Orin Midwinter, Tyrant Radhiem

If you have any idea which Casters you would like to get next, i could make some more specialized suggestions.

Another good caster in my opinion is fatty. and modikarr seems like a good caster as well as zeal. I personally did not like hexeris. But i will be getting his epic model version since i like the model and will test him out to see how he does

All our casters are good to be honest ( well some more than others).While Fatty ( Dominar Rasheth) is strong and has a lot of tricks, i wouldn't recommend to him to a beginner, since it is rather hard to keep him alive when your new to the game. Also he has no means to defend himself.

Casters that are easier to use are imho : pMorghoul, p/e
Makeda, Hexeris and Xerxis( propably Zaal, but he requires Ancestral Guardians, or loses 3 of his abilities )

I do agree with that about fatty. Also Hexeris is really good. At least I think so. but if you do not pop his feat at the right time his feat is useless. I am looking forward to eHexeris though. I think he will be a good caster and will also be a good caster to start with if you wanted to

Since the only think we know about ehexeris is the miniature, i would not claim such a thing.

Hexeris feat has 2 big problems:
1: Timing. Use it to soon or use it to late and you wont get much use out of it, but the proper timing comes with experience.
2: Matchup. Depending on the enemies army the feat can be a) completly pointless or b) the most awesome feat ever! Infantry heavy lists, bane thrall, nights exemplar, they all fear hexeris feat. On the other hand a Kharchev list will laugh as his feat does exactly nothing against any of them.

But all in all Hexeris is a good and easy to use caster, even tough is seldomly play him ( mostly due to the fact that my main enemys use lists, that make his feat totally pointless)

Alright guys so i've played a few games and come to terms with a few things. I hate the karax, you are right, they suck. too slow and squishy for me. so i just got my student loan and snagged some more models. here is my revised list.

Lord Assassin Morghoul +7 Beast Points
Cyclops Savage +5 Pts
Cyclops Savage +5 Pts
Titin Gladiator +8Pts
Bronzeback +10Pts
Full Arcuarii +9Pts
L+3G BeastH +2Pts

That Sits me at 32 pts

for a 35pt list i would like to drop the 2 cyclops, and throw in another Bronzeback and throw in an ansestral gaurdian just to add a magical weapon body guard for Morghoul. thoughts?

The Thunder Child wrote:Alright guys, i'm a complete noob to hordes/warmachine so be gentle. I havent even played my first game yet. I friend of mine played a demo game and loved it, so i bought what i thought looked cool to me and started reading the rulebook. not finished yet. What should i be looking for in this list as far as weaknesses, strong combos ect... any input would be great guys. thanks!

Master Tormentor Morghoul +7Beast Points
x2 Cyclops Savages +10pts
Titan Gladiator +8pts
Cataphract Arcuari (L+3G) +6pts
Preatorian Karax (L+5G) +4pts

Total: 21pts

I'm in an escalation league with morghoul. My 25pt list looks like:

Morghoul
Drake +4
Krea +4
gladiator +8
rhinodon +7
min beasthandlers +2
min beast handlers +2
Wurm +4

Now that list is 24 points, but subsitute a cyclops for the wurm brings it up to 25pts. eMorghoul is a more selfish caster, he really doesnt do anything for units. Further you NEED a krea. Her amnimus is crucial to keeping everything alive. I cant count the number of times its saved beasts from getting hurt.

@the thunder child You do not want to run two bronzebacks one is plenty, and i would use only one cyclops savage, definitely use tyrant rhodium and if possible the pretorian ferox unit

@carmachu I would max a unit of beast handlers f you are going to run that many beasts. if you are running emorghoul you definitely want to run either 1 or two units of max bloodrunners and drop the gladiator or rhinodon then you can drop to just one unit of with 4 or 6 beast handlers

The Thunder Child wrote:for a 35pt list i would like to drop the 2 cyclops, and throw in another Bronzeback and throw in an ansestral gaurdian just to add a magical weapon body guard for Morghoul. thoughts?

I would not go with two bronzebacks, one is enough and adding a second one doesn't bring the utility the list wants. Ancestral guardian is worth 3 points when it is collecting souls of dead infantry (which you don't have) and gives a speed boost to immortals (which you don't have) => you don't need ancestral guardian.

What you could add in place of the Cyclops savage(s) is one cyclops Shaman, which is able to cast friendly animus to ease the fury burden on Morghoul and he has magical ranged attack to boot. Another great ranged attacker with magical attack is basilisk drake, I don't leave home without one. I would also look into Cyclops Brute, which would grant you one nice defensive beast with shield guard to protect the important models on the way to melee.

Edit. The wall of text was made more easily digestible

i personally would take a titan sentry over a cyclops brute

The Thunder Child wrote:Alright guys so i've played a few games and come to terms with a few things. I hate the karax, you are right, they suck. too slow and squishy for me. so i just got my student loan and snagged some more models. here is my revised list.

Lord Assassin Morghoul +7 Beast Points
Cyclops Savage +5 Pts
Cyclops Savage +5 Pts
Titin Gladiator +8Pts
Bronzeback +10Pts
Full Arcuarii +9Pts
L+3G BeastH +2Pts

That Sits me at 32 pts

for a 35pt list i would like to drop the 2 cyclops, and throw in another Bronzeback and throw in an ansestral gaurdian just to add a magical weapon body guard for Morghoul. thoughts?

Go get Zaal and your Karax won't suck as much...

As for the list its a bit beast heavy. Sure you have beast handlers to help with that but at 35 you really only need 2 titians and then 1 light (Cyclopse Shaman/Brute work as they are furry efficient). The Titan Sentry is good at 50 but Morgoul with 3 heavies at 35 has problems.

Arcuarii have never worked for me, no matter the situation, I would put my money into nihilators or something to help you deal with infantry, heavies shouldn't be a problem for you.

ernshmagl wrote:

@carmachu I would max a unit of beast handlers f you are going to run that many beasts. if you are running emorghoul you definitely want to run either 1 or two units of max bloodrunners and drop the gladiator or rhinodon then you can drop to just one unit of with 4 or 6 beast handlers

Never yet. I run two minium units so far. They do well enough. And if not, well rampaging beasts are fun