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I'm entering my first Hordes tournament soon, and I have been fooling around with Doomshaper for a while but decided he's a bit too frail for my liking, so I switched to Kegslayer. I then built this list out of miniatures I have painted or want to paint pretty soon, as I don't feel like painting up a lot of stuff I don't like for the tournament. The result is a slightly odd list I think...

Borka Kegslayer and his sidekick

Dire Troll Mauler (Everyone has to have one. It's just too awesome)

Pyre Troll (Would prefer an axer but points are hard to fit)

7 Scattergunners (If I drop number 7 I can take the Axer, or an Impaler, but it leaves me a few short of the total. Do you think it would be worth doing? I have all three beasts painted and can see pros and cons for all of them.)

6 Kriel Warriors

Stone Scribe Chronicler (He'll tag close to the Warriors and buff them)

3 Long Riders

So my main question is whether to swap the scattergunner+pyre for one of the (I think) better fullbloods. And if so, which one.
I'm going to try a test game tonight against my friend's skorne, I'll let you know how I get on. From what I read online, I'm probably insane for not owning champions, but I hate the models. I'd like to have a Krielstone bearer but it's been out of stock at the FLGS for months. I dunno how this list will work, since most of my games have been casual noob vs noob battles with Skorne, Circle, Khador and Everblight. I got a couple of small games in against Pirate Mercs and Cygnar too.
What do you guys think?

It looks like it'll do alright. I'd drop the 7th scattergunner for the axer though, scattergunners aren't terribly great, certainly not amazing enough to justify playing a beast you don't want to.

I usually want more than one heavy and one light in a hordes list, just because it bites if somebody kills your beasts and thereby neuters your caster. Its a possibility in a list where they are both melee beasts. Can you get an impaler in there?

Borka can run with the single heavy/light, but he needs more protection than
Scattergunners can provide if that's what you want to field.

Scattergunners aren't a good unit. And they're even worse without a Fell Caller in the list to boost them. Borka doesn't need an Impaler or Axer, but they are nice. The Mauler and Pyre aren't bad, because either of them could throw a Liquid Courage'd Borka. I'd look into adding a the Trollblood Hero solo, since he's another good target for Liquid Courage.

Cool, thanks. I've limited cash to fix the problem of my model selection, but I can stretch to that Hero. He looks awesome too.

Last night was an interesting game. I need more experience with Borka, I kept forgetting all the things the Pyg can do for him. Still, he rocked out and killed a Rhinodon and a Totem Hunter and beat up on some praetorians. The Scattergunners did really well also, but that was mostly down to me jamming out on Tough rolls and staying alive a lot longer than they reasonably should have. They pwned the praetorians and paingivers in my enemies army with little help though. The Kriel Warriors were disappointing, but the Long Riders were awesome. The game went right down to the wire, until my opponent's Gladiator managed to throw my Stone Scribe Chronicler into Borka and Xerxes got the charge and laid down some smack.
I did find the lack of beasts to be really scary after playing beast heavy with Doomie. Where do you transfer? What the hell do you do for fury! All fun to figure out. I think the champs would probably be useful in the list, but..man I hate those minis.
I'd love to fit in the fell caller also, he's far more useful than the Chronicler. I'll fiddle a bit and see what I can do. I have a fell caller so it's not a price issue. (Competative play on a budget is harsh )
Thanks for the comments guys! I'm really happy with the way Borka plays, so I think I'll stick to him for a while. Love having a nails warlock.

I was the opponent from last night.

It was good game, very close. I made some rookie mistakes (due to it being my first game in about 5 months or so) like forgetting to pop Xerxes' feat at the start of a turn, which would have had a fair bit of an impact on the combat between the longriders and my Cataphracts. Also, i kinda threw away my Rhinodon by charging him in to the scattergunners, close to Borka, and out of Xerxes control area, and also, rolling too many 1s in that combat.

Borka is pretty rockin though, that guy is hard, especially considering i'm used to facing off against Doomshaper when i play Da Boss.

In the end i won through no small amount of jam, throwing the Chronicler at Borka was a gamble, but it paid off.

My 500pt list is;

Xerxes

7 Praetorians

4 Cataphract Arcuarii

4 Paingivers

Titan Gladiator

Rhinodon

Totem Hunter

Where do you transfer? I use ranged beasts with Borka so that
they're useful from a distance. I jam the charge lanes to them and
Borka with Champions and Heroes.

What do you do for fury? Again, I'm usually pretty good about keeping
my beasts alive, but the real problem is keeping them from frenzying
after they spend a turn doing their thing. Because I use backline
warbeasts, when they frenzy they tend to frenzy onto...my own trolls.

Xerxis vs. Borka? Sounds like a beatdown matchup. Do you find
the totem hunter adds much to your list, or is it just filler?

malfred wrote:

Xerxis vs. Borka? Sounds like a beatdown matchup. Do you find
the totem hunter adds much to your list, or is it just filler?

Xerxis Vs. Borka;

Basically Borka advanced, started calling Xerxis out, but was so busy shouting at him he didn't notice the Chronicler flying towards his noggin, then Xerxis ran in and caved in his skull while he was on the ground. Some may say that's a cheap win, personally, i prefer to think of it as efficiency.

Totem Hunter is kinda tricky to use, i have good games and bad with him, sometimes he does something brilliant like use his howl thing to make an annoying unit of widowmakers gak themselves and run away, then charge a khador mortar. Other times, not so much. I bought him because on paper he's great, his fluff his cool, and the model is deadly, but in practice he's tricky to make useful. What he does add i think is some pathfinder, and some speed, and when he works, some quick kills.

Right, made some changes.

Borka

Trollkin Hero

Fell Caller

Dire Troll Mauler

Troll Axer

6 Scattergunners

3 Long Riders

I think this will work better, and the hero is probably about as killy as the Warriors anyway, and better for Liquid Courage, as was pointed out. I'm keeping the Scattergunners because so far they've worked. We'll see how they do in the tourney...

Tried the list out today. Won, but by the skin of my teeth.
I was playing a Butcher list with Beast 09, a Jugger, Saxon Orik, Widowmakers, 2 Mortars and a unit of 3 Man 'o Wars.
I tried the Liquid Courage on the Hero and lobbed him into the widowmakers, which was fun. In the end, it came down to a Liquid Courage'd Borka charging the butcher and smacking him down to 4, and then surviving the counter attack (2 successful Tough rolls) and finishing him off.

I still have a lot to learn, but I'm really enjoying Borka. I've yet to pop his feat though- it seems the moment hasn't been right so far...

Wouldn't Butcher have gotten to swing at Borka before he got to swing because of
Liquid Courage? It's one of the drawbacks of the effect.

Indeed he did. Did a massive chunk of damage to him too, and nearly killed my Dire Troll when I transfered. Also cost me that fury that could have been used for a final attack to finish him off, so that I wouldn't have had to last the beating on Tough rolls alone.

That was my first time fighting the Butcher, and man, he is nails.

Well, that tourney was an education!

Game 1: Vs my friend's Butcher led Khador. Won by caster kill, by Rushing a boozed up, Raged Kegslayer with 5 fury into the Butcher.

Game 2: Vs. Irusk led Khador. He had Beast 09, widowmakers, Yuri the Axe and two Manhunters, and the assassins with underboss and greylords. Really fun game, I was doing pretty good until the assassins popped their mini-feat and disengaged and mobbed poor Borka. Lesson: Read the cards of units you are unfamiliar with

Game 3: Vs. Lylyth lead Seraph spam. 4 Seraphs, 2 Forsaken, Shepard and Helion Sorceress. Well, I looked at the list, and figured "I am going to die" and I was not wrong. He didn't miss a single ranged attack in the entire game. It ended with Keglsayer surrounded by 4 Seraphs and 2 forsaken, like a really scaly version of The Birds. That one really made me see the point of the second list idea.

Game 4:Vs. Cryx pirate nastyness lead by Terminus. He had the dude that promotes a quatermaster, the ghost pirates, and Blighted Trolls and the Deathjack that has to pass command or go mental. I wiped his whole army but Terminus and a couple of pirates to the loss of 2 Long Riders and a Fell Caller, then ran my boozed up, raged max fury beatstick in, who proceeded to fluff his damage rolls and leave Termi on 5 boxes. Troll hero tried to finish him off, alas, his arm was too high. Scattergunners couldn't hurt him, Dire Troll didn't have charge arc...Borka was doomed!
Really fun games, nice opponents, and I am raring to go for the next one. I've got Grim to make a second list for use against the more tricksy opponents.

Ugh! Kayazy Assassins!

Sounds like a brutal tournament. Glad you had a good time!

Hope they nerf the hell out of Seraph and equivalents. Well, not really, but at least level them out so it's worthwhile to take something other than seraphs.

Da Boss wrote:Right, made some changes.

Borka

Trollkin Hero

Fell Caller

Dire Troll Mauler

Troll Axer

6 Scattergunners

3 Long Riders

I think this will work better, and the hero is probably about as killy as the Warriors anyway, and better for Liquid Courage, as was pointed out. I'm keeping the Scattergunners because so far they've worked. We'll see how they do in the tourney...

Thats not a bad list - I like it.

The only thing i'd do is when you get the cash is drop the scatter gunners and go for Champions, they are UBER!!!

champions borkas best freind