Awesome Armies ~ Borka by Goris

To kick off our newest Series, Awesome Armies, Goris has given us a write up on Borka and the successes, strategies, strengths and weaknesses with the army he has chosen to go with it.  


Now, I am a huge fan of the eDoomy beast trifecta. However, that being such a popular list of late, I decided during nightfall to branch out and try our lower fury Melee centric casters. So I tailored a Borka list that has been working very well for me and provides a good number of troops, a few beasts and some great speed.

Points: 50
Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* 1 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (1pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (7pts)
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter (2pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Champion (5pts)

This list works in tiers with the faster Kriel warriors leading the way to tie things up and bide time for me to setup the charge with the Long Riders, Fennblades and even Borka himself. Alten Ashley provides some very good solo removal as well as a small ranged threat. The dual Fell Callers provide some much needed sprays for infantry clearing when needed and easy access on both flanks to pathfinder or MAT buffs when needed.

Strengths:

This list can hit like a truck. Not to mention with Mosh Pit and Iron Flesh your first wave of Kriels can be extremely hard to remove at Def 15 Arm 17 while still providing a Knock Down threat to everything you’ve managed to canvas with them.

This list is fast.

Kriels: Run – 12” Charge – 10” + 2” w/ Feat = 12” Threat

Fenns: Run – 12” + Reach Charge – 9” + Reach + 2” w/ Feat = 13” Threat

Long Riders/Horthol: Run – 14” Charge – 10 + Reach w/Feat = 14” Threat

Earthborn: Charge – 5 + 2 + 3 + 2 = 12” Threat

Axer: Charge – 12” Threat

At this point, you get the picture. You can run things to tie stuff up and just sit back leisurely with your reach units to charge next turn.

The cliché “Strength in Numbers” is even more exemplified by the infantry spam list. The more bodies on the table, the better odds you have of getting there with enough to affect your opponents army, even gun lines like Cygnar or Legion. In addition, with almost entirely medium bases, it prevents all those nasty tramples you see when our beasts get down and dirty.

Borka. He’s a one man army and a good general to boot. He now has a fantastic spell list, good melee capability, a little ranged threat and the only caster attachment in Trolls or Hordes at the moment that essentially makes him a 7 Fury warlock. If only those extra Fury affected his Ctrl Range as well, he would be just about perfect as a warlock. That said he has strengths that make him a very good choice to lead this type of army. Most notably, his survivability stats with unyielding. At any rate, he is definitely capable in this role.

Weaknesses:

This list really suffers against spray heavy armies like eThag Legion Beast spam. That list will take nearly any infantry spam list apart. When faced with that list, you pray for tough rolls and hope the Iron Flesh defends you enough from the onslaught of raned attack you’ll face before finally engaging. The most effective wayt to deal with that list, after engaging is simply to try and move his key beasts around and open up lanes to Thag. Borka is very strong on his own that it’s going to take more then a little concentrated range fire to bring him down, so playing him close it’s going to be to dangerous against anything but a buffed Carni, which should generally be KD’d, tied up or otherwise not let alone to rampage. With Borka up front you provide a strong melee threat as well as good spell support against his heavies in cooperation with your own beasts. This is an uphill battle but concentrating Fire on Thag is really the best way to deal with it as trying to kill all his beasts dead fast enough to remove their threat is simply not going to happen. That list aside, I can’t say I have faced many other like it, so your mileage may very.

Tactics with him are fairly strait forward as was vaguely detailed below, but I have provided vassal screen shots to help illustrate them better.

DEPLOYMENT

This may vary based on terrain placement and generally you want to have the Earthborn taking full advantage of the terrain as well as utilizing your fell callers to help defend your other units with terrain if possible so you can reduce your casualties from shooting upon your advance. This is just theory since I can’t give you every single terrain option or army layout.

 
TURN 1 ADVANCE

Run your ass off with your Kriels and get them as far up field strait at what you are perceiving to be the biggest threat or the juiciest target for charges. Collapse your second wave forces behind them, move Borka up, dumping everything on the stone and use Keggy to top him off, just in case.

TURN 2 ADVANCE

By this time you should be impacting your opponents forces. Run the Kriels up farther, spreading them out along your opponents lines. To try and lock up as much as possible. Make sure you are able to put Iron Flesh on the Kriels to help with their survivability. Once engaged your opponent is forced to deal with the Kriels before they can move on as you have thrown quite a number of models in their face. Further collapse your forces and position to explode into their lines on the next turn. Make sure you have your stone positioned for maximum coverage of your troops in case he tries to shoot what’s beyond the Kriels, also to defend the Kriels from attacks that can’t break 17 ARM.

TURN 3 ADVANCE

No things really should have hit the fan. Your Kriels should be almost all dead with your opponents army ripe for the picking. Any leftover Kriels can swing away or simply die to free strikes to avoid clogging lanes. Tough rolls may make this fail, but really, only a few Kriels left over shouldn’t be too much of a hindrance for your charge considering you can always slam them with your Long Riders and Follow Up, or simply use reach to your advantage and attack past them through the gaps. Here, a diagram won’t help much simply because the battle is likely to hectic at this point for me really tell you exactly what should happen, but at this point you should get the jist of this strategy.

If the game last longer then this, which is may, it should simply be you mopping up the rest of his forces and clearing the way to his caster.

CONCLUSION:

I hope this was informative as this strat and list have served me well. Feel free to talk to me on the forums or in PM’s about anything I have written here. GOOD LUCK!