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Hi,

Just thinking of getting into hordes, was hoping to get a little bit of advice, mainly because I don't want to purchase things that turn out to be useless. What I was hoping to do was post some of the units that I like the looks of below, and have people tell me yay or nay on if they are worthwhile or if they have synergy with each other. btw the army I am interested in is Circle Orboros. (I am also a long time warhammer player, if anyone is interested in that.)

I will organize them from my favourite down.

Warlocks:

Cassius the oathkeeper (basically this guy is my favourite and I want to buy him first)
Kromac
Mohsar
Baldur

Units:

Warpborn skinwalkers
Druids of orboros(and overseer)
shifting stones and keeper
all the Tharn units look pretty cool too.

Warbeasts:
Ghetorix
Wold Guardian(dont really like the other wolds)
Pureblood warpwolf

solos:
Gallows grove

I think this is a good enough list to start with. I appreciate any and all advice on these selections. Most of my choices are based off of aesthetics because I don't know how to play or build a list yet. My main opponents right now will be Cryx and Legions.

Thanks everyone, I look forward to reading your replies.

Mohsar is considered a little weak, against Warmachine in particular. Maybe he would annoy Cryx a bit by stopping them from channeling on the feat turn.

Kromac is a good warlock. He can do some slightly tricky assassinations due to his Warpath spell allowing his beasts to move.

Baldur is also fine. Note that in Warmachine certain models (warcasters and warlocks in particular) have "epic" versions that represent the same character further along in the story. Baldur, for instance, has "Baldur 1" / "Baldur Prime" and "Epic Baldur" / "eBaldur", who are different models with different rules. His epic version is often run in a particular theme force, which gives him bonuses in return for accepting particular restrictions on the army list. It allows him to build a list that doesn't hit very hard but is very, very tough.

I think you might have trouble with Cassius against Legion. He is a good warlock, but he is tied to Wurmwood, the Tree of Fate, and Legion is pretty good at shooting the tree - they ignore many defensive anti-shooting abilities with their warbeasts and some warlocks. You will probably want to take a bunch of Farrow Bone Grinders, who help him out by extending his spellcasting range and by killing each other at the start of the game to load Wurmwood with souls, which increases its toughness. Perhaps if you do that then Wurmwood will be tough enough to survive Legion shooting at it.

Warpborn Skinwalkers are a solid unit, but they really need the Warpborn Alpha unit attachment to be strong. It allows them to attack twice instead of once, which you can probably imagine is very good.

The Druids of Orboros unit is very good. Its leader has a powerful anti-magic ability and all of them can push enemy models around the table. I enjoy them thoroughly. You will feel very cheeky when you pull an enemy heavy across the table and kill it with no possibility of losing your own heavy in return.

The Shifting Stones are a core circle unit and you will use them in almost every list. You will want one unit with the stone keeper and one unit without the stone keeper (because you can only run one stone keeper in your army). They let you do a number of cool things, but the most noticeable is they let you teleport units around the battlefield, which is very powerful.

Ghetorix is very powerful. He also pays a bit for that power. He is a strong model.

The Wold Guardian is okay, but somewhat niche. Both the Baldurs probably like it to some extent. It's the hardest-hitting Wold and the Ram ability on its weapons is very good.

The Pureblood Warpwolf has its place, but in my experience it is less common than the ubiquitous Warpwolf Stalker and maybe even the Feral Warpwolf (though the Feral is in the battlebox, which probably helps its popularity a bit). It is not a bad model, but I think it's a little more support-oriented.

One warbeast you will want to look at is the Gorax. It is an incredibly strong support model and ends up in most Circle lists. Its animus is extremely powerful and its high fury stat makes it a neat little fury battery.

The Gallows Grove is a great little arc node. I'm not sure how many you want, but IIRC they come two to a pack and I'm sure they'll do well with some of those casters.

I forgot to talk about the Tharn! The Tharn Ravagers are a bit niche, but they sometimes see play with Cassius in particular because his feat puts a very large forest in play and they receive bonuses from and are unencumbered by forests. I have not really been able to find a good use for the Tharn Blood Pack. The Tharn Bloodtrackers are a very solid unit that see a bunch of play, though I don't know how they are holding up with the popularity of high armour. The Tharn Bloodweavers are an interesting utility unit that I haven't seen around much but can remove upkeeps. The Wolf Riders are pretty neat but don't seem to make a lot of lists.

I hope that answers some of your questions!

Thank you for the detailed reply, it indeed does answer a lot of my questions.

I will try cassius and see how it goes, I will probably buy just a few models (mostly the core like cassius, druids, ghetorix, and some others) and get some introduction games in with my friend who plays, and then build from there when I understand the synergy of units and if I think I can make all the units work.

I appreciate the advice, I will likely look back on this a few times when I first decide what I want to start with.

Thank you.

You're welcome! And welcome to Dakka! I'm sure other people will pop in with things to say too.

So, i've learned a bit more about hordes/warmachine. I have done some reading through the rulebook, and the circle book, and I have come with a list that I am interested in trying out. Let me know what you think.

eKaya
warpwolf stalker
feral warpwolf
Gorax
Druids w/ overseer attachment
Warporn skinwalkers (leader and 4 grunts)

Tier 4 theme list.

comes exactly to 35 points. Would this be effective at all? is it okay to play against legion and cryx?

I like that list but I highly suggest you do everything you can to find the points for the skinwalker UA. He gives the unit seven more attacks.

The eKaya theme force is a great learning tool for new players since you get effective infantry that work well with the big battlegroup. Legion and Cryx are not the matchups you want to see since they both threaten you in ways most factions cant but it will help you not crutch on your tricks.

So what makes Legion and Cryx a bad match up? Is it the list itself? is it eKaya? or are Legion and Cryx always a tough match up?

Pretty much every legion beast has pathfinder & eyeless sight. Since a lot of circle tricks involve using terrain and / or LoS/Stealth this circumvents some of your tactics.

I can't speak too directly on cryx but they do have a LOT of annoying debuffs.

As Dorian says, the abundance of eyeless sight and pathfinder makes every legion beasts ignore your strongest and sneakiest advantages. It is not quite a silver bullet but it limits the power of some of your more tactical options. You won't get to use Kaya's shadow pack spell to full effect.

Cryx have nothing to counter circle in particular -and in fact the druids counter some of their plays- but their infantry hit so hard that you could lose a warpwolf to as few as 2-3 charging bane thralls. Cryx require almost every faction to have a special plan.

Thanks again guys, I appreciate it. I guess I need to get my hands dirty and play a few more games now. Dakkadakka seems like a friendly place