Hordes Wishlisting: Goats!

My regular gaming group has been playing a bunch of Warmachine, and a couple people are starting to dip their toes into Hordes. Two people are starting up Circle of Orboros armies. One is going straight Wolves with eKaya leading the charge. The other has made a completely different army using Baldur and Woldwardens.

It's intriguing to me that two armies drawn from the same list can play and look so different. 40K suffers a bit in this respect. The endless procession of power armor armies and mechanized guard gets a little boring after a while. True, there are exceptions.

I actually own some Legion of Everblight models that I've never put together. But the focus by my group on Orboros got me looking at what they had to offer. That's when I discovered this grumpy looking fellow. I love that sculpt.

Turns out there are quite a few goat looking models in the Orboros line. I thought I'd try to put together a goat-themed army. The idea is to have a shepherd(ess) and her flock of goats. No wolves, no rocks tied to stones, just a simple shepherd tending his flock. I figured I'd see what a 15 point force would look like. I pointed it up trying to make an army that's tactically flexible (has more than just three units in it), cheap (won't break the bank to purchase) and easy to paint (the fewer models to paint the better).

• Kaya, the Wildborne - My warlock. A simple shepherdess character. She's an unassuming model, but her spells, powers and feats support a force with lots of warbeasts, which will make expanding the army fun. An all goat army could have been led by Kromac, but he's harder to use, doesn't offer as many warbeast points, and his spells don't synergize as well with the Satyr's abilities. Also his models are expensive and I would have to paint two models for one unit in my force.
• Gnarlhorn Satyr - Heavy warbeast. That's my boy! Great looking model. Heavy hitter. As long as he's in Kaya's control group her Pack Hunter ability gives him a bonus to attack rolls, making his slams and fists hit more often, leaving more fury for buying extra attacks.
• Argus - Light warbeast. Every shepherdess needs a dog to help guide the herd. He's got a nice debuff, a medium sized base to block charge and trample lanes and most importantly he has a good fury stat to help keep Kaya's spellcasting and other abilities constantly running. I could have added another Gnarlhorn Satyr here, but that would leave me with few leftover points and a very low model count. In small point games its important to have some extra models on the table to grab objectives and tie up the enemie's heavy hitters.
• Tharn Ravagers - 4 man unit. Goat men! Medium bases mean they can't be trampled. Reach, Pathfinder and Treewalker mean they have a great threat range. Standard warrior defense and eight damage boxes mean most things will have to boost attack rolls to guarantee a hit, and everything but a heavy will have to boost damage rolls to guarantee a kill. This is a unit to support tactical play.
• Tharn Ravager White Mane - Solo Goat - All the benefits of the Tharn Ravagers and then some. He can tear through any infantry your opponent throws at you and he boosts the Tharn Ravagers. This guy and the regular Ravagers can be used to choke up charge lanes or they can operate independently to wrap come in on a flank.

So that would be 8 models to paint. From The War Store you would spend about $115 for the models if you bought the epic version of Kaya. This would give you some flexibility to change your play style by switching out your warlock. Alternatively you could get the warpack with the non-epic version of Kaya for just ten dollars more. This has the benefit of giving you an extra Argus and Warpwolf for when you want to make the jump to the next points level. I'd probably try to sell or trade the wolf to get another goat.