New guy need some guidence

[HellVenom]

New to Circle, planning on taking Grayle or Morvahna as my warlocks. What is the better inital choice for these two warlocks the taking bloodtrackers or taking skinwalkers or mix and match?

[mercury]

Tough call. Judging by the forums, these are probably our two least-played Warlocks. They are certainly not easy to learn and have somewhat unconventional playstyles. The problem you will encounter here is that there is likely to be little cross-compatibility between lists: Morvahna likes infantry units and Grayle likes solos.

My honest opinion is that you should pick up one of our easier-to-learn Warlocks if you are just starting Circle (any of the Primal Warlocks, eKaya). Having said that, my personal model preferences with Grayle and Morvahna are:

Morvahna: Wold Guardian, Ghetorix, max Blood Trackers, Shifting Stones, Skin Walkers, Blackclad Wayfarer.

The idea is to use the Blood Trackers for Harvest + Regrowth, with the Skin Walkers, Ghetorix and Wold Guardian as targets for Restoration. By using the Wold Guardian's animus and Sacrificial Pawn'ing onto Shifting Stones or Blackclad, you can make Morvahna pretty much immune to shooting, particularly from the elemental attacks of Cygnar and Legion (these will do no damage at all when Pawn'd off onto the Blackclad). This is important because her ARM value is pitiful, and still not great when buffed by Restoration and a defensive animus. Similarly, the inclusion of Druids can make her immune to offensive spells, but I'm not sure that they are a particularly good choice with her because they are such an expensive unit and really don't want to be engaged, yet effectively put pressure on your opponent to come and engage you. Outside of this, Morvahna's play style is pretty much all about attrition. She relies entirely upon upkeep spells to do this though, so is hard-countered by anything capable of stripping upkeeps, and also Remove From Play abilities which will prevent you from returning models using Regrowth. For this reason I think that Morvahna will become weaker as the game evolves (possibly to the point where she is considered bottom tier), because it is likely that more upkeep removal or 'remove from play' effects will become available to our enemies.

Grayle: A Geomancer (Megalith or Wold Warden), Warpwolf Stalker, melee solos (Morraig, Lord Of The Feast, Tharn White Mane).

Basically you want to include models to take advantage of Storm Rager (a Geomancer cycles the spell between melee solos) and models which aid a hit-and-run playstyle. Between Grayle, the Stalker and a Druid Wilder (to cast the Stalker's animus), you can have a silly number of models with Sprint on them each turn. Morraig is particularly good here, as Sprint and his light cavalry movement stack. It is important that you select Circle models/units because Minion models are not affected by Grayle's Feat at all. Grayle tends to play quite near the front and wants to be in melee. Anything that helps his survivability is a good thing. With Storm Rager and the Winter Coat animus, Grayle sits at DEF15, ARM20, which is real tough to kill, particularly if he has a Fury or 2 for Transfers. You can access Winter Coat by fielding the (oft-maligned) Winter Argus.

Grayle isn't doing a great deal to support infantry units, though Blood Weavers can do well on Feat turn, using the extra 3" movement to set up Gang attacks. Wolves Of Orboros benefit from his Elite Cadre bonus, and can make Morraig silly good. I guess that Blood Trackers could benefit from the 3" Feat movement as well (to extend the range of their Prey aura), but since they are unlikely to be attacking in melee, they will be relying on other models to generate the kills required for the movement bonus. My main problem with Grayle is that if you choose all of the models with best synergy with him, you will have an army that is rubbish against Cryx: the LotF, White Mane and Blood Weavers all have special abilities which trigger on the destruction of living models.

I'm going to be trialling Grayle with Blood Trackers over the next couple of months because I'm not a fan of Wolves Of Orboros and want to minimise the number of models with abilities which trigger by killing living models. I'm not convinced it will work that well, but I'm gonna give it a try!

Some sample 35-point lists:

Morvahna
- Ghetorix
- Wold Guardian
Blackclad Wayfarer
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones
10 Blood Trackers + Nuala
3 Skin Walkers
Reinforcements: Not decided

Grayle
- Megalith
- Warpwolf Stalker
Tharn Ravager White Mane
Shifting Stones
10 Blood Trackers + Nuala
Wolf Lord Morraig
Reinforcements: Blackclad Wayfarer, Winter Argus