Hordes: List Building with the Well of Orboros
The latest BAHI (Black Anchor Heavy Industries) model is making its way to Circle Orboros players this week. We’re looking at what it can do, then building some lists using the Well of Orboros!
Let’s jump right into it; take a look at the Well Of Orboros’ rules.
Something For Everyone
The Well offers support for a wide range of models. Casters get an extra 2″ of Control Range, Wolds gain Hyper Aggressive, and the Well has a tremendous boostable gun that generates corpse tokens it can immediately pass out. All of that on top of a once per game ability to bring a 5pt solo into the game, nice!
List Building
While this structure is available in all themes, the two obvious places to start with are Bones of Orboros and Devourer’s Host.
Baldur1 Devourer’s Host
While Iona is all the rage right now in Circle, let’s go back to one of my favorite Dev Host casters, Baldur1. Control Area is a big deal for Baldur, and the Well Of Orboros granting an extra 2″ means several important things. Baldur can now place his 4″ forest in more places, Solid Ground affects a much larger area, and his Feat is even more controlling than before.
- Baldur1
- Tharn Blood Shaman(free)
- Ghetorix
- Shadowhorn Satyr
- Well of Orboros
- Lord of the Feast(free)
- Tharn Wolf Rider Champion
- Tharn Ravagers
- Chieftan(free)
- Tharn Bloodweavers
- Bloodweaver Haruspex
- Brighid & Caul
- Tharn Bloodtrackers
- Nuala
- Spirit Cauldron
This theme force can be built a ton of different ways, so you can easily change out the solos/units to fit your preferred playstyle. An interesting note in this version, the Wolf Rider Champ isn’t one of my free models because of how the points worked out to get the 3rd free solo.
For this list, the Well is almost always going to provide one of two solos, either the Ravager White Mane or Bloodweaver Night Witch. This will depend on whether the +1 to hit from the White Mane, or having the Nightwitch’s Dispel is more critical. A Blackclad Wayfarer is also a worthy consideration if the other two solos aren’t needed.
I tend to favor the female Tharn with Baldur1, with Stealth and Solid Ground these ladies can be a serious pain to remove. Plus if they ever need to hit a bit harder, Stone Skin on Bloodtrackers or Bloodweavers can surprise opponents. Ravagers are an excellent choice with Baldur, and a build with two units of them would also be great. However, with Iona double Ravagers being standard, switching it up a little to keep people guessing seems like a good idea.
Kromac1 Bones Of Orboros
This list came about due to the Well Of Orboros is granting Hyper Aggressive to construct models. To try and exploit that, Kromac1 with Warpath made a compelling argument. I don’t know if Kromac1 will be winning any major events anytime soon, but I do think this makes good use of his toolkit. He also brings an excellent addition to the Bones of Orboros Theme…
Ghetorix!
- Kromac1
- Druid Wilder(free)
- Ghetorix
- Wold Guardian
- Woldwarden
- 2x Woldwyrd
- Well Of Orboros
- 2x Blackclad Stoneshaper (1 free)
- Blackclad Wayfarer (free)
- 2x Sentry Stones
- Shifting Stones
- Farrow Valkyries
There is a variation of this with 3x Woldwyrds and 2x Guardians, dropping the Woldwarden, Valkyries and a Stoneshaper. It’s more vulnerable to shooting, but gives you another Guardian for Shield Guard Hyper-Aggressive opportunities and another Wyrd. You’ll have to decide based on your pairing/meta what the better choice is.
The general idea is Warpath is an awesome spell that lets your beasts get into unexpected places. With Warpath and Hyper Aggressive if your Wolds get shot at, they can get a lot of out of activation movement. Shield Guard on the Guardian can make it hard for your opponent to avoid potentially triggering it.
With 7″ out of activation movement, these guys aren’t so slow
The Well also improves Kromac1’s other big spell, Bestial, which prevents enemy models from casting non-animi spells. In the right matchups this spell is a moneymaker and extending out to 16 inches is fantastic.
In this list, my free solo from the Well is typically a Wayfarer, Stoneshaper or Night Witch, but I can also see a White Mane as a potential option. If you have a juicy shot that will get you a few corpses summoning a White Mane and loading him up is tempting. Make sure to put him somewhere safe so he can survive a turn to use those corpses.
While not related to the Well, it should be noted how great Ghetorix with Warpath is. Remember that a warbeast can trigger Warpath for itself and Ghetorix gets Overtake with Kromac. This means Ghetorix can charge 9 inches, kill something and trigger Warpath to immediately move 4 inches(1 from Overtake and 3 from Warpath) then keep Overtaking by killing other models. With Wild Aggression this can get Ghetorix to enemy casters with plenty of attacks to finish the job.
Wrap Up
Hope you enjoyed reading my ramblings on some lists using the Well Of Orboros. I’m excited to see if this new structure becomes popular in the coming months. At only 10pts and bringing in a free solo, it seems well costed…
What lists are you trying the Well Of Orboros in?
