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I am entering a tournament soon and I have very little experience with this game. The tournament is 50 points and so far I have just the circle starter set. What should I buy to take my self to 50 points? I am doing a werewolf theme and want as much werewolf type units as I can

how many games do you have under your belt? and what casters have you played/proxied/like the look of?

0. I heard there was some kind of werewolf list though involving the caster from the starter set, but I am fuzzy on the details I think the version of that caster gives a bonus to skin walkers or something, I don't know.

okay well, a few things.

1. it depends on the tourney and local guys, but talk to whoever runs the tourney and see if this is a good idea, i'm not saying you won't learn a ton, but many tourneys have timed turns and other restrictions, and as a tourney-based game, you may not have the best experience playing your first few games at a tourney.

2. i highly, HIGHLY, suggest you get some games in between now and then, most of warmachine/hordes is the basics, and getting clever with your armies abilities and very clearly stated rules, warmachine isn't like 40k in the whole "move, shoot, assault, some guys do such special" thing, if you dont know the basics of how fury work, you are going to have difficulty even playing. Circle in general is harder to play.

3. the starting box caster is Kaya, she /does/ run great with a bunch of warpwolves, and she's a fairly good caster, spirit door is an AMAZINGLY good spell when used properly

Note: I dont play circle, but some pretty healthy choices are:
Gorax: great animus, and supprisingly beatsticky
Feral warpwolf: pretty basic, fast, can be very strong
Warpwolf stalker: everything the feral is, but better, not as defensive, has reach and bezerk so if can kill your own guys if you aren't careful
shifting stones: pretty standard for circle, everyone should use them all the time

Getting all the way up to 50 points from the starter set is going to be tricky without knowing what you like, and you won't really know what you like without some experimentation.

Do you just have the one-player starter set? If so, it sounds like Warpborn Skinwalkers will be a unit you like - they are werewolf kinda guys with axes who are pretty good at holding the line. The Warpborn Alpha is extremely good with them as well, giving them a second attack and letting them drink the blood of enemies they kill to heal. They are 11 points together.

The Warpwolf Stalker is a popular choice for a lot of lists. It's similar to the Feral but has slightly different warping options, including Berserk (which makes you attack someone else for free after you kill an enemy) and a sword with reach. It runs 10 points.

Shifting Stones are a good choice with a lot of tactical flexibility, but require some foresight and planning to use well. Their unit attachment, the Stone Keeper, gives them stealth (so ranged attacks further than 5" away automatically miss them) and lets them stand further apart. Many players take a second set of Shifting Stones, though only one can have a Stone Keeper as Stone Keepers are Force Allowance 1. Two sets of Shifting Stones and one Stone Keeper would cost you 5 points.

So far, you'd have what - the Feral, two Argus? So that's 43 points so far with a target of 56. Grundz mentioned the Gorax - that's a popular choice in a lot of Circle lists. It's like a little fury battery at a chunky 4 fury for just 4 points and allows you to cast Primal on beasts (+2 STR, +2 MAT, but frenzies next round) for when something really, really has to die. I'm not sure you want it with Kaya, but let's say you take it anyway and have 47 points.

I'm not sure what you could do with those last 9 points. You have so many beasts that you probably couldn't go far wrong with a Druid Wilder, a sort of apprentice warlock who can cast animi, assist with fury management and possibly let you run your beasts a bit further away. She runs two points. You could also get some Wolves of Orboros - at six points for ten of the little guys (who I should mention are not actual wolves, just people) their specialty is in dying in droves at the best possible time. With their unit attachment they can Power Swell once per game to get an additional dice of damage, which can make them surprisingly mighty, but you'd only have one point left if you took the Wilder so you can't afford it.

For one point, you could get a Gallows Grove, which can be nice for Kaya, not least because she can get spell assassinations with her feat from time to time.

So unless I've made an error in addition somewhere, that's exactly 56 points including the battlebox you have already (unless it's the 2p battlebox, which is slightly different) and all of those units are very solidly useful and should form a good core for you to branch out from later. I can't warrant that they'll be particularly competitive together, but if it's your first time playing at a tournament then you're probably going to get massacred anyway.

What Grundz says is totally right. You really need to get some games in - tournaments are usually time-restricted and that takes some getting used to even if you know the rules already! Practice! That said, the main way you'll run into a good variety of tournament-style lists is to play in a tournament, so it'll probably be good experience even if you get smashed.

Er, and if anyone disagrees with my assessment of the units, please feel free to say so! I'm still relatively new to the game myself.

Ok it is the 1 person circle wtarter set. I for sure want to use the skin walkers and warp born alpha with them. That fits my theme, i also will add the stalker as that sounds great but I don't like the wolves of orboros because I don't want to use many cheap units of small guys. And i dont think think shifting stones would benefit me at this time. I guess more skin wolves or more big wolf guys would be ideal. And I will be using the argus as winter argus. Would it be crazy to get a 2nd skin walker unit? What would you suggest?

So things to buy so far,:
Skin wolves x5
Warp born alpha x 1
Warp wolf stalker x 1

If you're proxying the argues, make sure you're converting and painting it appropriately. TOs tend to be sticklers for WYSIWYG.

 Laughing Man wrote:
If you're proxying the argues, make sure you're converting and painting it appropriately. TOs tend to be sticklers for WYSIWYG.

The argus and the winter argus is the same model right? Mine are the ones from the starter set, they are painted with white fur and on a snow base.

haroon wrote:

 Laughing Man wrote:
If you're proxying the argues, make sure you're converting and painting it appropriately. TOs tend to be sticklers for WYSIWYG.

The argus and the winter argus is the same model right? Mine are the ones from the starter set, they are painted with white fur and on a snow base.

Nope, different sculpts. The winter argus has a thicker pelt and a different pose.

haroon wrote:

 Laughing Man wrote:
If you're proxying the argues, make sure you're converting and painting it appropriately. TOs tend to be sticklers for WYSIWYG.

The argus and the winter argus is the same model right? Mine are the ones from the starter set, they are painted with white fur and on a snow base.

No, they're different. The winter argus looks like a wolf. The argus looks like a dog and has armour over its heads.

Anyway, I'm not sure that taking two units of Skinwalkers is legitimate. They don't hit all that hard, especially without the UA, for their points cost.

The shifting stones will benefit you a lot. They have a range of abilities that are excellent for supporting warbeasts and creating potential threats for your opponent to deal with. They are also a mainstay of Circle to the extent that an opponent will be slightly confused if they don't see at least one unit of them in an army. They're hard to use to full effect, but they are a core unit that is perfectly tailored to an "I want ALL THE WEREWOLVES" style of play.

You could consider druids, too. They let you place clouds to increase your defense and block sight lanes, as well as pull enemy units out of position to where you can kill them more safely, as well as make things immune to magic, which can be super nice. They also have a unit attachment who is nice and can let you force beasts from further away, potentially. They are a very popular unit.

Do you know about battlecollege or the War Room app for iOS/android? War Room is great for window shopping units, and battlecollege might let you do the same thing to an extent.

The winter argus has different head sculpts than the standard version. They also have different attacks and animus, so you will need the card or domination book to play it at all.

I'm not sure a 50 point tourney will be the best move for you as a new player but if you practice some and go in looking at it as a learning experience you could get something out of it. If you were going to enter an event within the next week I don't know that I would recommend it but you could be a quick learner with enough time to get in the practice needed.

If you are looking a list with some models you could use for your collection in general try something like this:
Points: 50/50
Kaya the Wildborne (*6pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
* Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Warpborn Skinwalkers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
* Warpborn Alpha (3pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)

If you want the argus in your list you can drop the pureblood and gallows grove to shuffle the points around.

Here are some general tournament tips:
1- Know your army. Your first tournament with timed turns will be stressful enough. If you don't know your own rules or have a plan of attack it will only end up frustrating you. Practice is the best way to accomplish this.
2- Get enough sleep and eat breakfast. Friday night before the event can be great for last-minute practice, but it is not worth it if you only get four hours of sleep before the event the next day and you go in with no energy.
3- Bring a snack and a drink. This is presumably at least a three round event with 1hour rounds or longer. You're going to get hungry and thirsty so a bottle of water and a bag of trail mix will go a long way in making it a much more pleasant time.
4- Practice the scenarios and timed turns if you are able. This can be a lot for you since you are just learning, but don't lose in a way you didn't know existed. At least force them to roll the dice rather than hand them the win.