Naturally, the first question that arose was which warlock I should use for my Satyr list. I wanted to limit myself to only the models I have (I'm not crazy) which meant limiting myself to a mere 35 point list. So which Circle warlocks would be best? Well for that, let's take a look at what the strengths and weaknesses are for the Satyrs, since I'll need to take advantage of the former and be able to mitigate the latter.
GnarlhornThis has always been one of my favorite warbeasts. The sculpt is awesome, his rules make so much sense, and he has a lot of utility. These guys are slam machines and do it so well! They naturally slam for free with an extra 2" and Follow-Up. They slam with their horns (so P+S 15) and on the turns you don't want to slam, they have 3 initial attacks. Counter-slam is more effective as a deterrent for your opponent and I've only had it trigger probably about a half-dozen times, but it's still useful. If I have two Gnarlhorns, this might actually be even more likely to trigger since the "engage the Gnarlhorn" trick won't be nearly as successful.
The problems with the Gnarlhorn are its unimpressive MAT, it's relatively low P+S on its melee attacks, and the fact that it's relatively easy to kill. Granted, Primal from a Gorax will help a bunch here, improving both MAT and the pillow-fisted problem, but the downside of course is that Primal means you have to frenzy the following turn, so you'll basically need to sacrifice the Gnarlhorn on that turn. At least Bounding can help solve the accuracy problem and give you some extra threat range, but then you're still pretty pillow-fisted, and in either case, the Gnarlhorn is still easy to kill.
I've admittedly never used the Shadowhorn before and have often only considered it as a reinforcement due to it's really unimpressive stats. While it does have a pretty above-average DEF, it's still not as great as a warpwolf and any Circle player will tell you that warpwolves are far from difficult to kill. What does the Shadowhorn do? Two-handed throws. This thing has a really great native threat range since it can Leap and it has some fantastic ability to get where your opponent doesn't want it. While it does sport 3 initial attacks like the Gnarlhorn, the P+S is as low as light warjacks/warbeasts so you're really only interested in using his position to probably throw a key model towards the rest of your force so they can beat up on it.
Again though, the Shadowhorn dies pretty easily and if you're going for a suicide run, you'd better hope you don't fail or else this guy is guaranteed to die. Granted, the Shadowhorn does sport Reversal and Set Defense (which combine well together), but those are far from guarantees for its safety on your front lines. My hope is that by putting him slightly behind the two flanking Gnarlhorns my opponent will have a hard time engaging me thanks to Counter-Slam, ensuring that the Shadowhorn doesn't die before he does his trick.
So now I need to consider which warlock I want to run with these guys - preferably one who will make the greatest use of their combined abilities. I've come up with two options and interestingly, both options have very similar lists. Let me discuss the lists one at a time:
- Gorax (4)
- Gnarlhorn (8)
- Gnarlhorn (8)
- Shadowhorn (7)
Druids of Orboros (7)
Druid Wilder (2)
Lord of the Feast (4)
Gallows Grove (1)
For my first warlock choice, I decided to take a look at pKaya. She doesn't get a lot of love but there are two huge advantages for the Satyrs with her. First is Pack Hunters, a passive ability which will give them a +2 MAT which will ensure that they hit even the most difficult of targets with their less-than-stellar MAT. I have the Gorax, of course, in case they really need something dead, but the +2 MAT benefit will be huge all around so I wont need Primal until the proper time. This also means that the Shadowhorn will be even better at throwing an opposing warcaster/warlock since they always seem to sport higher DEF. With Primal, that Shadowhorn is MAT 10 and since he can still boost to hit you, even the highest of DEF warcasters/warlocks will be able to be thrown towards Gnarlhorns for them to smash around.
The second reason why pKaya offers a lot to the Satyrs is the spell Spirit Door. While many will laud eKaya for her feat, Spirit Door does the same thing (more or less) but on one model and you can cast it every turn as long as you have the fury to do so. This is huge because it pretty much means that every turn you can use one of your Gnarlhorns to charge out and slam a target around as much as you want and then return to a safe distance while your opponent shouts expletives at you. This means that you can keep your Satyrs alive for even longer than you might otherwise since your opponent will not want to charge them if they can just Counter-Slam them away. Truly, pKaya makes Satyrs really obnoxious - especially since the Druids can take it even farther by shielding your force with clouds if you're worried about ranged attacks. Toss in the Lord of the Feast for some anti-infantry shenanigans and you're good to go!
The second list I considered builds even more on the strengths of the Satyrs but this time you sacrifice survivability with your warbeasts for raw damage output.
- Gorax (4)
- Gnarlhorn (8)
- Gnarlhorn (8)
- Shadowhorn (7)
Druids of Orboros (7)
Druid Wilder (2)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2)
Gallows Grove (1)
Gallows Grove (1)
I really like this list too and it's oddly nearly identical to the last list, yet will play very differently. This list takes advantage of the slam and throw mechanics to abusive levels. While Mohsar doesn't do anything for the raw accuracy of the Satyrs here, he does offer them access to a damage boost in the form of the Curse of Shadows debuff and Pillars of Salt to slam/throw enemy models into. With Primal on a Gnarlhorn, Curse of Shadows on a target, and a Pillar of Salt behind them, a Gnarlhorn can hit at an effective P+S 19 with 4d6 damage (since you can boost damage here if you want)! Personally, I'd rather just beat up on them with my regular attacks in most cases, but slams to have the benefit of knocking targets down as well as pushing them away from your lines, keeping you relatively safe from reprisal.
Mohsar also offers a bit more infantry-clearing ability with Crevasse, Mirage can be quite flexible on either the Shadowhorn or the Druids, and Sunhammer is a fun spell I like to use to ping some damage on warbeasts/warjacks as the forces move to engage each other. Since the pair of Gnarlhorns will already discourage my opponent from running to engage, this means I could potentially get a lot of life out of Sunhammer as my opponent tries to find an appropriate assault vector. The biggest differences between the Kaya list is the loss of the LotF and the differences in feats. Mohsar's feat is hugely situational - doing virtually nothing against Warmachine - but he does offer better infantry-clearing ability so the loss of the LotF is not as noticeable. Also, Mohsar can usually easily starve himself of fury but the Satyrs offer him lots of fury to keep him running for the whole game and so they work with him really well. With two Gallows Groves we can keep Mohsar more towards the back while still able to sling out the spells that he needs to keep guys safe and the Blackclad and Wilder will be important for keeping everything fury efficient.
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| This is my Gnarlhorn. There are many like it, but this one is mine. |