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Looking to maybe start Circle, but I'm the type of player that can't field models that I don't like the look of. So I basically went on the PP website and BattleCollege and chose a bunch of models that I like, but I know this game is big on combos and synergy, which means I don't want to buy all the models I like and then find out that I'm losing every game because they suck together.

So, I was hoping I could list the models that I'm looking at and some more experienced players can help me with purchase suggestions. Here goes:

My favorite model for warlocks is Cassius, with the Tree. Sadly, BattleCollege has almost nothing but bad things to say about this model.

My second-favorite would probably be Kromac.

Other than those casters, the models I like are:

Lord of the Feast
Druid unit
Nuala the Huntress
Tharn Bloodweavers
Tharn Ravagers
Reeves of Orboros
Tharn Blood Pack
Blackclad Wayfarer.

As for warbeasts, I'm less a fan of the constructs and the models with wings. I like the Satyrs and the Wolves, though, and I probably prefer the Satyrs.

And I really like the Battle Engine!

So, any suggestions here? Do any of these models work well together? Any suggestions of other models that might work with some of these?

Nuala is a unit attachment for Bloodtrackers, you can´t use her on her won.
Cassius is hard to play and maybe not a tourney winner but certainly not bad per se.
I prefer wolves over satyrs but both are all viable picks. I´d pick a Warpwolf Stalker for it´s high damge and utility animus,
The rest of your "list" has some synergy and would work ok with both of your mentioned casters.

Cassius can win games (particularly with his spell hellmouth) but I would not recommend him to start with. The finesse needed to protect both the warlock and his tree is more for advanced players. Start with Kromac and work your way through 2-3 casters before you try Cassius.

Lord of the Feast is awesome and underused by most circle players. You will get great use from him. He can shred half a unit on his own and is just durable enough.

Druids are one of the best units in the army, especially with their officer. They are a staple unit that adds much utility to any list.

Nuala attaches to the tharn bloodtrackers rather than bloodweavers but the models are very similar. Bloodtrackers are one of the other best units in the faction. Unless you like daggers much more than javelins you should be happy with with bloodtrackers over bloodweavers.

The weavers themselves are not bad but tend to be compared to the bloodtrackers too often and don't see as much table time. They specialize in killing infantry in melee where bloodtrackers kill everything with short-range shooting attacks. You can make them work if you set your mind to it and build around them.

Ravagers have been out-shined by their warpborn skinwalker rivals. They are melee glass cannons that rely on terrain to cross no-man's-land to engage the enemy. If you can get them to do their thing they are astoundingly brutal, but it is difficult. Of everything you listed, these guys are probably the hardest to play effectively.

Circle doesn't have bad heavys so whatever you pick will be solid if you use it right. The shadowhorn is the weakest of the bunch but also the cheapest and specialized for power attacks. The warpwolf stalker has the highest power so it might be wise to get one just to crack armor. A plastic 3-in-1 satyr kit is coming in June or July with the new riphorn, who will have the second best power in the faction.

The battle engine is pretty darn good. It adds a versatile gun platform to a faction with very few guns. It won't be quite as strong as a warbeast but many people have used it as a supplementary model with great success.

Of the 2 warlocks you mentioned, Kromac would be the easiest for a beginner to figure out.

Like most circle warlocks, he prefers living beasts. So Warpwolves mostly(goats are ok but very situational. The griffons are also situational)


If you like the constructs and the battle engine you should look at Baulder. Both his versions like the Wolds and he's the only warlock that can heal them.

pBaulder, Megalith, Woldwarden, Woldguardian, and Woldwatchers are pretty standard for him. But outside of him the Wolds are not fielded regularly.


If you run living beasts you'll need a Gorax. One of the best light beasts in the game because of his awesome animus(he's easily worth 5-6 points) which basically ensures that whatever it's cast on will kill what it attacks.


As mentioned, Nuala is a Unit Attachment for Tharn Bloodtrackers so you'll need to run them to use her.

Bloodweavers are good. They're more of a toolbox unit than something you'll use as a front line melee unit. Use them to go after specific targets.

Ravagers are ok, but not as good as Skinwalkers. Skinwalkers are just bonkers amazing.

Adding a bit to things:

Firstly, don't, I repeat, don't depend on Battle College for qualitative evaluation of models. The page is good for rules summary stuff, but historically is actually pretty terrible for anything regarding advice or tactica.

As stated, Cassius is not actually bad. The issue is that he's super high-finesse and kind of terrible to learn the game on. He had about half a dozen weird interactions unique to him, and he can be ludicrously fragile if you don't do your positioning right. That said, he is (like the general stable of Circle warlocks) at least good, but also hard.

Kromac is very easy to learn the Faction with and as noted, runs warbeasts very well. His most common battlegroup setup is three Warpwolves and a Gorax, with the rest being utility really. He often runs a unit, which can be Bloodtrackers (if you want to run Nuala).

The Lord of the Feast is an interesting but expensive. He is prone to very bad dice (a single bad Raven and he's done). He does bring good infnatry-sweeping and backline-messing-up capability though. He does find use in lists but isn't something reached for all the time. Still not a bad thing to have about when building-up.

Druids of Orboros are an expensive utility unit. They don't show up in all lists and don't actually go great with Kromac or Cassius. With Kromac, they don't give him what he really ever needs (he has anti-magic himself and they are expensive for something that doesn't often trigger his big spell of Warpath). Cassius can make use of them, but historically does better with more bodies-per point than they are. The warlocks they do best with I find are the Kruegers, the Baldurs, the Kayas and Morvahna1. A good swath of warlocks, just not these two.

Nuala, as noted, is a Unit Attachment. She adds to a unit of Tharn Bloodtrackers and can't be taken on her own. That said, the Bloodtrackers are a staple unit for Circle and generally good with nearly any warlock.

Bloodweavers are kind of like the Lord. Not bad but hard to find room in lists. They have some neat tricks with Cassius or Kromac, but aren't really a go-to for either I find.

Tharn Ravagers are something weird in that they have a kind of perceived niche competition with Skinwalkers. They trade Skinwalker survivablity usually in speed, accuracy and hitting power. They hit much more accurately than Skinwalkers do, and with the UA, get to the frontline and hit much harder per-Ravager than Skinwalkers do. You also get more bodies with them. Skinwalkers fit more lists, but the Ravagers do have some places. They do very well with Cassius due to synergy with his feat, Curse of Shadows and their softness meaning you at least get thier souls when they die. They also do well with Morvahna2 and Krueger2 for their ability to be kept going long enough to keep doing harm. Kromac, despite being the Tharn warlock, probably does better if he's going to take a unit with Skinwalkers, Bloodtrackers or what's most popular, Stonward & Woldstalkers.

The Celestial Fulcrum is again kind of one of those niche pieces. It doesn't really help Kromac a lot (he doens' tneed what it brings and he can't do much with it besides buff its armor). It's actually a trap with Cassius, since there are times when it's the only thing on the table to kill and he has nothing on his card to protect it, so it'll often be a huge beacon for bullets or stabbing during his feat.

And stuff.

Is there a unit attachment for the Bloodweavers?

Also, I'd like to include in my OP question the Reeves of Orboros, the Tharn Blood Pack, and the Blackclad Wayfarer.

Bloodweavers currently have no UA.

Reeves do best with Morvahna the Dawnshadow (the lady on a goat). They actually were often considered one of Circle's two most maligned units, but she has done a lot to put htem on the table.

Tharn Blood Pack are a newer release. They find palyw ith some other list builds of Morvahna2, as well as with warlocks who can keep them alive longer for their ability to run and gun.

Blackclad Wayfarer is a really good Circle option and hsow sup a lot in lists. Lots of utility and good offensive output, along wiht good countering to some enemy rules due to his immunity to most elemental damage types.

And stuff.

The solos who look like they're kind-of unit attachments (like the Blackclad Wayfarer for Druids)... do you have to take those as unit attachments? Do they replace the normal unit attachment for a given unit?

UAs are optional models you can add to a unit. They often become the leader model of that unit and add rules to the unit as well as provide other beneifts while in play.

Solos are independent models which activate on their won and do their own thing. They are not affiliated iwth a unit save any bonuses they may gain or grant. The Blackclad Wafyarer happens to be a Druid solo, but is not part of the Druids of Orboros unit. What a model is is typically listed in its second header, along with any additional keywords not in its name (such as Kromac being a Tharn model, for instance).

And stuff.

What does "p" in front of a warlock's name mean? Like, pBaldur?

 Tangent wrote:
What does "p" in front of a warlock's name mean? Like, pBaldur?

"Prime" this has no in-game meaning, it's community shorthand for "The first/original version of a character model". Since Warmachine/Hordes has a live setting with a timeline that advances characters often go through changes. This will take the form of their being a new version of the same character with a different (but often thematically similar), set of abilities. These are called "Epic" characters. They aren't upgrades in the sense that epic isn't strictly better as they're just meant as alternates to represent character growth. That said in some cases the an epic character might be much stronger than their prime incarnation, or much weaker.

This is why you'll see

pCharacter_Name and eCharacter_Name, it's to differenate between two models that have very different abilities but are the same character. Simply saying "Baldur" would be ambiguous and "Baldur the Stonecleaver" is a lot of text, hence the shorthand.

It's worth knowing that other ways of saying this would be Character_Name1 and Character_Name2 which would be pCharacter_Name and eCharacter_Name respectively, it's just a different form of shorthand. Some characters may have more than one epic verison as such you may see things like Character_Name3, lCharacter_Name (PP discourages this one for reasons beyond the scope of this post), or any number of other nicknames.


Please note there are no restrictions on when and how you can take epic vs prime characters, just that they can't be in the same list together.