Warlock Round up -- Kaya1 Part 2

As my last Kaya post I mentioned I wanted to try her non tier. It worked out a lot better, but unfortunately I don't remember everything that was in the list. I almost wonder if I played down 9 points. Which would be very amusing!

Kaya the Wildborne (*6pts)
* Gnarlhorn Satyr (8pts)
* Shadowhorn Satyr (7pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
* Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Tharn Wolfriders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)
Druid Wilder (2pts)

Kaya1 is a very interesting warlock. My second game I basically forgot about pack hunters for the first two turns which was exceedingly brutal since I was fighting defense 16 temple flame guard. I must say, obnoxious! A very solid little menoth block from my friend Greg. I don't remember if this is 100% correct  list, but I'm sure its near accurate.

Hierarch Severius (*6pts)
* Blessing of Vengeance (7pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Hierophant (2pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard (2pts)
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & 2 Honor Guard (4pts)
The Covenant of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

With the threat of eye of menoth and ignoring stealth he brought some very solid counters too my list. I proeceeded to make massive mistakes left and right this game slamming into his forces as hard as possible without much success. To keep this part short as I don't remember everything very well (definitely a mental note on write the blog the day of the game!). I pressured old man Severius to the right corner of his killbox with the tharn wolf riders. Then proceeded to land a few key pushes with the druids of orboros and through a bounding on the stalker and flung him 11 inches giving him 13 inches of threat. *Psst I love you reach* And proceeded to eat the old man.

Things I've learned of Kaya1. Spirit door can be very crafty. You can use it to pull some very odd shennaigans, including spirit fangs then retreat, throw stalkers at people then yo-yo (yes I know very standard) or spell assassination run with spirit dooring next to a beast that ran near the enemy warnoun. This only works well if you can teleport behind for a back arc. Then boost a spirit fang on him and lowering his defense by 2 giving you an effective 10+2d6 to hit on the next 2-3 spirit fangs. Once you hit you should pop your feat and fill up on 6 fury again and throw 2 more spirit fangs. This isn't a give me to hard to kill casters, but more forces weak casters to camp.

Kaya1 1 - 1.

Up next - Cassius

Warlock Round up -- Kaya1 Part 1

Prime Kaya is a very interesting warlock. Her signature spell is spirit door, allowing you to teleport models in your battle group around the battlefield, though they can not attack or move once teleported. This allows for a lot of yo-yo style strategies with her. She also has a fury management spell, a very solid nuke in spirit fang, and occultation. The main thing that makes spirit fang a solid nuke is the ability too lower a targets defense with a boosted attack so the rest of your army can hit it easier.

To start out trying Kaya1 I decided to try and make her tier list work. My first list I brought to the table was.

Kaya the Wildborne (*6pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (9pts)
* Shadowhorn Satyr (7pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
Reeves of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Reeves of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Wolves of Orboros (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Wolf of Orboros Officer & Standard (2pts)
Reeve Hunter (2pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
War Wolf (1pts)
Wolflord Morraig (5pts)

I enjoyed playing this list. One of the key strategies was to position my Shadowhorn Satyr in a position where he can bounding leap next to heavies toss them at my army then remove them from the table with my warpwolves. All the while keeping my heavies safe from counter attacks with spirit door. I believe this to be an effective strategy for heavy removal, but I find the list isn't capable of dealing with elite infantry or very heavy swarms. This was a bit surprising and can be due to my lack of experience with it. Or maybe due to the fact my opponent was Kallus, who I've decided can be a real nightmare. His feat when properly executed makes his army very powerful at jamming you.

Turn 1 after Kallus moved up.

I lost the game vs. Kallus due to over extending on an assassination run when I thought the situation was too desperate to fight out normally. In hindsight I do think I would've done a better job fighting him then I had originally thought. The stalker's berserk and the fact my Shadowhorn Satyr tossed me a Carnivean early on to gobble up means I should've been able to effectively weather his feat though it was going to hurt.

I did play another game vs. a Retribution player, but I'm not counting it as 1 of my 2 games due to it being a 35 point game. Though I did learn how to move my army along and that the Gnarlhorn Satyr is very effective with Kaya. In the end I was able to kill Kaelyssa, but the game was very well fought by one our newest members of our gaming group, Roman.

So far with Kaya1
0-1 50 pts.
1-0 35 pts.

One more game to go! I wanted to post this now though before I forgot everything. The next list I plan on trying won't be a tier list. I feel the reeves just aren't worth their points. Snap fire and cra aren't very synergistic abilities and a base rat 5 makes it hard to reposition and still hit valuable targets.

I should be able to rap up Kaya1 this weekend and hopefully start on a new warcaster, who I'm hoping to be Cassius due to having the battle engine, which I'm hoping can hide his tree well.

Warlock Round up -- Kaya2

As I had stated in the last blog I'm playing 2 games with every Warlock and trying to decide on which ones I really wanna prepare for Lock and Load, so I decided to write a blog for each Warlock experience. Sorry previously done Warlocks I won't be going back for you.

With Kaya2 my list for the 2 games was...

Tiers: 4
Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (8pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (8pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (9pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
* Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)
Warpborn Skinwalkers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)

To start off my 2 games were vs. Nicole's Skorne. First game was first Hexeris's tier 4 list.  We both were very under whelmed by the list but as the game progressed it turned out to be a very tricky and solid list. The praetorian swordsman died relatively easily to the druids and stalker, but this fueled the 2 ancestral guardians, Hakkar and Marketh. The game still went in my favor but it was mainly after a ghostly feral warpwolf with primal and forced evolution got onto Hexeris.

Game 2 was vs. Xerxis. This list I was also under whelmed by which was my downfall. Nilihiators with fury on them are a very destructive force, not to mention hard to kill when they pass 5 tough checks vs my Stalker! The amazing moment of the game was when the Bronzeback had fury and enrage on him ping ponged through my army with train wreck killing 2 skinwalkers, pureblood warpwolf, and gnarlhorn saytr.   A truely impressive show of destructive force. That makes it in my top 5 of most destructive uses of a beast/jack that I've witnessed.

Kaya2 1-1

Things I've learned about Kaya2

• That the Druids of Orboros with vortex next to beasts making them defense 16 is really amazing. Even more amazing when your opponent continuously hits!
• Gnarlhorn doesn't really have a place in the list. I am leaning toward some more infantry clearing help. The real finishing moves have come from ghostly warpwolves or just beast trading since the list has 6.
• I'm thinking of a unit of shifting stones, ua and an Argus. The argus is really tempting with a stalker who goes berserk with 360 + it gives me a 4 point pow 20 bullet to throw away.

Next list to try for Kaya2...

Tiers: 4
Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (*3pts)
* Argus (4pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (8pts)
* Pureblood Warpwolf (8pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (9pts)
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)

Next up is hopefully Cassius, as I've been dying to try a few ideas with him.