Steamroller Prep: The Lists

As I posted yesterday, there's an upcoming "Steamroller" tournament coming up at my LGS and I've begun preparation mode.  While I haven't played any games with my Circle for some time, I'm eager to take them out of the case and try them out.  Fortunately, there will also be a prize for the "best fully painted" and since most of my models fit the category, I'm crossing my fingers that I can compete for that prize as well.  Anyway, yesterday I discussed the scenarios that will be played in the tournament, although they will be randomly determined.  I'm perfectly fine with the scenarios and they have encouraged me to stick with pKrueger (who I love more and more as I play him) and pBaldur.  I originally intended to try eBaldur but I simply don't like his theme force at 35 points.  I could change my mind, but for now I think pBaldur has a much stronger list at 35 points, given the scenarios.  Plus, both of these lists are fully-painted, so that's nice too :-)  So what are the lists that I'm thinking about taking?

pKrueger (+5)
- Feral Warpwolf (9)
- Woldwarden (9)
- Woldwarden (9)
Druids of Orboros (7)
- Overseer (2)
Shifting Stones (2)
Shifting Stones (2)

This is a fairly straight-foward list with a lot of potential, methinks.  The Druids are just such a great tarpit for most infantry and are wonderful for so many reasons.  Countermagic is an amazing spell and while I initially had 2 free points, I decided that the Overseer would be good to extend the range of such a great spell, plus Elemental Immunity will be invaluable with so much lightning being thrown around.  My particular meta seems to have a lot of Cryx and so this list is necessary for dealing with the Cryxian hordes than I will inevitably face.  The Feral can potentially eat off Deathjack's face or at least severely cripple him, Countermagic with keep me safe from their prevalence of debuffs, and the Woldwardens can spam Chain Lightning to thin the hordes of mechanithralls, bane thralls (even POW 10 can threaten them), or even satyxis with the help of some shifting stones for bouncing.

The Feral Warpwolf is there to keep my opponent honest and can be quite threatening with Lightning Tendrils on him, with a potential 13" threat range and electro-leap.  When I play this list, I tend to keep the Feral back until I really need him, instead of firing him forward, and instead I play a more ranged/magic game by throwing out tons of Chain Lightning to thin out the enemy lines or potentially even peg the warcaster/warlock for a few points of damage each turn.  The Feral sits back protecting me until I really need him and with pKrueger throwing up Deflection and Skyborne, it's really easy to keep myself protected from most threats until I decide to pounce.  Also, with Skyborne, Krueger himself has been known to assassinate a careless warcaster/warlock since he also sports a 13" threat range and sustained attack on his spear!

While this list appears to struggle with high ARM models, Woldwardens are no slouches in melee with Chain Attack: Smite if I need them to be, and if I fear some ranged threats to knocking out my spirit, I can just keep them close to the shifting stones for a healing field if I need it.  Their chain attack is also useful in assisting the Feral if I fear a higher DEF heavy (like Deathjack) since the smite is a slam and knocks down the target too.  If I think that I'll see higher ARM, however, I think I'll just end up taking my pBaldur list anyway:

pBaldur (+6)
- Megalith (10*)
- Woldwarden (8*)
- Woldwyrd (5)
Sentry Stone + Mannikins (3)
Shifting Stones (2)
Shifting Stones (2)
- Stone Keeper (1)
Stoneward + Woldstalkers (5)
Stoneward + Woldstalkers (5)

I'm very comfortable with this list, although admittedly, I've been spoiled with eBaldur at 50 points.  Even still, I think this list will be very good at the chosen scenarios.  Having the Sentry Stone and Mannikins deploy 20" from my board edge gives me a huge edge on threatening my opponent and they often dismiss the effectiveness of such a cheap unit.  Additionally, this unit is great against Hordes because I can sometimes get close enough to strip some fury off of warbeasts!

Even still, this list can really deal with heavy threats thanks to Stone Skin cycling, thanks to Megalith and a Woldwarden.  I'm tempted to take the Woldguardian instead of the Woldwarden, but being able to have an extra model with geomancy can be fairly significant to be able to charge for free, follow up with putting up Stone Skin, then pulping a target.  While the Woldguardian is also great for this, I think at 35 points the Warden gives me more flexibility (including potential for assassination).

Lastly, the Woldstalkers are my bread and butter.  I love these guys and pBaldur makes them shine with his feat, boosting their DEF against ranged/magic and slowing down the enemy trying to get to them.  Even if they get engaged, they can still Zephyr out of combat and shoot their targets in the face.  Finally, they sport a whopping POW 12 magical ranged shot, which is great for dealing with all kinds of targets.  In a pinch, they can even put some damage onto ARM 18 targets thanks to Concentrate Fire.  They're a pretty solid choice, even if I'm a little worried that this list won't have Druid support for Countermagic.

So here's the general breakdown of which list I'll take against various factions (depending on the list, of course):

Cygnar - pKrueger
Khador - pKrueger
Cryx - pKrueger (for countermagic) except if I see Terminus
Menoth - Depends, mostly pBaldur
Retribution - pKrueger
Mercenaries - pKrueger

Trollbloods - Depends, mostly pBaldur
Circle - pBaldur 
Legion - Depends, mostly pBaldur
Skorne - Depends, mostly pBaldur
Minions - pBaldur