Kaya the Wildborne

Template:Circlebox This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

Wild and untamed, Kaya the Wildborne prowls the forests of western Immoren stalking the enemies of the Circle Orboros like a savage predator. Kaya revels in the deep connection she shares with her warbeasts, guiding their actions with unerring skill and the feral wisdom of a pack leader.

Basic Info

This model is a Warlock.

Warlock Rules A warlock is an Independent Model. a Leader model. a Battlegroup Controller controls warbeasts. Warlocks use Fury Manipulation Uses ARC to determine how many fury points it gains each turn. Begins the game with a number of fury points equal to its ARC. Cannot exceed its ARC stat in fury points as a result of leeching. Can spend fury points only during its activation (unless a special rule states otherwise) for the following: Buy additional attacks Boost attack rolls Boost damage rolls Shake some effects Can leach fury points from warbeasts in its battlegroup in its control range. Spirit Bond allows the warlock to gain a fury for each of its dead battlegroup warbeasts. Reaving allows the warlock to pull fury points from a warbeast in its battlegroup when it dies.

Feat: Wild Mastery

Place any number of fury points on each friendly Faction warbeast in Kaya's battlegroup currently in her Template:CTRL range. She can immediately leech fury points from warbeasts in her battlegroup in her Template:CTRL range.

Abilities

• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Pack Hunters
• Template:Soothing Song

Weapons

Splinter
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				6				12
Template:Magical Weapon Template:Critical Knockdown

Spells

{{Category: Template:JumpstartTemplate:OccultationTemplate:Spirit DoorTemplate:Spirit Fang }}[[Category: Template:JumpstartTemplate:OccultationTemplate:Spirit DoorTemplate:Spirit Fang ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Secret Masters. In this theme, she gains Sacrificial Pawn [Minion Warrior].
• Template:The Bones of Orboros. She can start the game with friendly upkeeps in play in this theme.
• Template:The Devourer's Host
• Template:The Wild Hunt

Thoughts on Kaya1

Kaya1 in a nutshell

She's an expert at manipulating warbeasts and, of the three original Circle warlocks from Primal 2006, she's the "Beast Buddy" and can run a force of nothing but warbeasts. Using her teaches a new player a lot about Circle's trademark movement shenanigans, and the need to protect your glass cannons. While she's more difficult to run at larger point levels due to her squishiness and need to play relatively far forward, she has game there as well.

Maximising her feat & spells

• Soothing Song is best used after most (if not all) of your warbeasts have activated for maximum effect.
• Occultation is often best used on Kaya if you're worried about high-quality shooting from your opponent; 16/14 aren't stats to depend on. If you can keep her safe, put it on whatever you think will draw your opponent's attention, like Warpwolves. If you're using units, this can also be useful on them; nothing hurts more than losing a Shifting Stone to stray shooting, and Death Wolves with Stealth can be aggravating to kill.
• Spirit Door is Kaya's most useful spell. You can use it to get her out of trouble if an opponent is trying to corner her, and do the same for her warbeasts. You can also use it to reposition her battlegroup, such as putting a warbeast inside the triangle of Shifting Stones, or within walk and Medicate range of the Druid Wilder. Just be sure that you're done with the warbeast you intend to teleport before you use Spirit Door; it won't be able to do much after you do so.
• Spirit Fang is Kaya's nuke spell. It has decent range and POW, and a good debuff, but Kaya isn't a spell slinger. Since you need to damage the target to affect it with a debuff, and seeing as how she's only Fury 6, you'll probably spend at least half her Fury using it. Still, if you absolutely need to debuff a target, this spell is worth considering if you can't get a Wild Argus over to Doppler Bark the enemy.
• Kaya's feat provides excellent Fury management, especially in combination with Soothing Song. Run her down to 0 Fury after all your warbeasts have activated, use the feat to cool them off, and use the Fury for more Spirit Doors, Spirit Fangs, healing, or whatever. Remember that you can choose to take 0 Fury from a warbeast via the feat.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Kaya the Wildborne was the warlock included in the Mk2 battlegroup starter set and Mk2 two-player army box set, and as such many players have played with her or against her and are aware of her tricks.
• Kaya needs to play pretty far forward, and she's pretty squishy.
• It's hard to leverage Pack Hunters and Spirit Door without putting her at serious risk.
• She can be difficult to play at medium to high point levels, meaning that newbies may want to rapidly swap to a different warlock.
• Using Spirit Door more than once tends to leave her without Stealth and with no transfers.

Tricks & Tips

• The "Yo-Yo": charge your heavy in (possibly Ghetorix or a Warpwolf Stalker), beat up on the enemy, and Spirit Door them back to Kaya so the enemy is fuming and unable to hit back.
• Use Spirit Door to teleport Kaya over to one of her warbeasts, use her feat and teleport two more warbeasts over to her.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Kaya 1 is the archetypical example of hit-and-run tactics in Circle. Her warbeasts go in, hit/kill their target, and she teleports them back to keep them safe from enemy reprisal, cooling them off with Soothing Song if needed. She does nothing for Circle infantry outside of Occultation, but she'll usually want some kind of unit for scoring purposes and to jam up the enemy or take the heat off her warbeasts; she can only teleport two warbeasts per turn, four if she feated.

Kaya the Wildborne is fundamentally a warbeast warlock; more specifically she's a LIVING warbeast warlock. Her spells assist beasts and troops to close or maneuver, and Pack Hunters means that her beasts will rarely have to boost melee to-hit rolls, leaving them plenty of fury to boost damage or buy additional attacks. Between Soothing Song, Shifting Stones (for Serenity and healing, as much as teleportation), and a Druid Wilder, Kaya can manage fury like a champ, letting her beast run hot for longer, certainly during the game's critical rounds. Kaya can run an army with six or seven warbeasts and comfortably manage a few heavies and a few lights. At higher points levels, she can unleash and manage far more warbeasts than any other warlock in the game.

Pack Hunters is an amazing power, and is as much or more of a reason to take her as fury management potential.

Theme thoughts

This is the best theme to take her in because Kaya makes the best use of cheap living beasts.

While not an obvious first choice, she has some utility, at least, in the Circle's three infantry themes, where her battlegroup can help mitigate a lack of heavy hitters.

In theory, she could also run a beast-heavy Bones of Orboros list, but her Pack Hunters ability is wasted. Also, you would need a pretty compelling reason not to be playing a beast-heavy Bradigus in Bones instead.

Battlegroup

• Warpwolf Stalkers become particularly impressive with Pack Hunters and Berserk when unleashed on enemy warriors.
• Pack Hunters means you really don't need a Gorax for the MAT bonus, unless you want a MAT 9 Warpwolf Stalker, of course.

Starting a 25 point Brawl list

In 2021.06 Jaden Iwaasa, one of the LOS authors, put together this list for the Brawlmachine format. He even wrote about its playstyle and expanded it beyond 25 points, which you can read here.

Theme - The Wild Hunt

Kaya the Wildborne: [+32 WBP]

• Feral Warpwolf: [14 pts]
• Pureblood Warpwolf: [15 pts]
• Warpwolf Stalker: [15 pts]

Blackclad Wayfarer: [Free] Template:Grey

Bog Trog Mist Speaker: [3 pts]

Shifting Stones: [3 pts]

Total RRP: USD $161 (based on PP's online store prices 2021.06)

Other

Trivia

• Released way back in Primal Mk1 (2006)
• Kaya was the battlebox caster in Mk1 and Mk2

Video Battle Reports

• 2019.07 Feat Fetish, vs Hexeris2
• 2019.06 Feat Fetish, vs Hexeris2
• 2019.04 Feat Fetish, vs Jalaam1
• Template:VBR