So the fury mechanic, sounds pretty simple, and it certainly can be. Just make sure that the total fury on the table at the end of the turn is equal to your fury stat. This is a very basic strategy that will be used in the opening turn(s) of a game but is also the mark of a bad player oftentimes when used in later turns.
Let's start by recognizing the difference between the Fury mechanic as opposed to the Focus mechanic. The true difference between the two mechanics is that in Warmachine you are given a certain amount of a scarce resource and need to properly manage that limited supply. It's an economists game. In Hordes one can generate as much fury as their beasts and casters allow, typically double or more their fury stat. The problem is you get punished twice for exceeding your basic limitations. First you get penalized by a frenzy check, (no matter how much you think frenzy isn't always bad it is) unless you have a way of choosing your frenzy target or your opponent is stupid you will waste a warbeast activation killing either a dumb pud trooper that your clever opponent moved to engage as a sacrifice or even worse you frenzy on your own army because your clever opponent stepped away from the angry guy. The second penalty goes to all the beasts who passed their threshold check, if a heavy passes it's check while loaded up to the max it becomes as useful as a jack without focus - limited to say the least. On top of that the fury sticks around to continue punishing you until you take a turn to cool off by underforcing your beasts. Even if it wasn't maxed out it now has less available forces this turn. So fury is all about managing acceptable risks and penalties. It's a gamblers game and a probability monkey's playground.
Despite these penalties there are some strong arguments for fury being the more powerful mechanic.
The second differerence involves focus or fury camping. I'm assuming you all know how this works, a warlock can spend a fury to transfer damage to a beast that is not ful on fury or frenzied. One thing to look for when setting up assassination runs on a warlock is not only how much fury they have but where they can transfer to. If you have a way of killing all of your opponents transfer targets first then it doesn't matter how much fury they've camped. They can also on transfer to beasts within their CTRL so if you have a clever way of slamming or throwing either the beasts or the caster out of each others range you can prevent transfers.
There is also a common misconception about fury and CTRL is that Hordes beasts have a lower threat range because they must remain in CTRL in order to force for boosts/attacks etc. to be honest I find this is simply a problem for beginners. WM players can allocate focus and then activate their entire armies, sending jacks out of CTRL while still spending focus. However at the end of the turn doesn't just about every caster move forward far enough to ensure that their jacks are in CTRL for next round? The idea is the same in Hordes only with beasts you must forecast where your beasts will be striking and move your caster first to make sure your CTRL reaches your expected targets. Also with the total lack of arc nodes in Hordes most warlocks are closer to the ront to use spells and animi anyways. You may find it frustrating when you first make the switch between games but it's really just a problem when beginning. Hordes beasts if anything typically have longer threat ranges so long as their warlock is where it should be.
Let's look into some of the deeper strategies for managing Fury.
Strategy 1 - Acceptable Loss - So you've decided to send your beast in to attack an enemy heavy with little chance of it surviving the opponents retribution. This is not a problem at all. Any time you have accepted the loss of a beast you should consider maxing out on fury and NOT reaving it. For example a Warpwolf charges in and kills its opponent after spending two fury, spend the other two on its animus on the off chance you force a failed CMD check. Now when you look at the table to count your fury you ignore the 4 on Warpie, write him off as a loss and don't reave. This allows you to have "overforced" by 4 without suffering any of the penalties. Sure I could have counted the warpwolf's fury and then reaved off of it when it died and there may be occasions where this is preferable but I'll get to that next. The important thing to remember is that just because you can reave doesn't mean you should. Don't be afraid to overforce the turn before your opponent punches you in the face, take the loss and thank the enemy for straightening out your Fury "problem".
Strategy 2 - Extra Transfers - This is a way to lure an opponent into overextending on an assassination run that looks like it should work. The key to this one is to leave your warlock with only one (maybe two) transfers. Enough to pull of the trick but also few enough to encourage the opponent to try and kill you. The next step involves one of the following two setups.
First setup - Have two or more beasts available for transfer and make sure that at least one is near death with fury on it (preferably max -1) and at least one is healthy. When your warlock takes the hit calculate if transferring would kill an injured beast. So long as it does you transfer to it, take a few points of overage and reave all its fury for extra transfers. You can rinse and repeat as necessary throughout the turn. The real trick is that while the first beasts needs to be close to death the next one doesn't need to be as close as you've most likely picked up multiple transfers from your reaving.
Second setup - Works best against melee assassin runs such as EVlad or any run that involves your opponent needing to clear a path. Leave a slightly blocked assassination run, block it with a beast that needs to be killed and reave its fury when it dies. The more steps into the run you can get the better as your opponent will now have to change tactics halfway through and should have overextended somewhere.
Strategy 3 - "Last round" also known as the "Power Turn" - This can apply to both timed and non timed games in different contexts. In a non timed or timed game this is the kill turn, once you've resigned yourself to a caster run you should feel a weight lifted from your back as Fury management no longer has meaning. Force to your hearts content as there will be no next turn, if there is then you failed in your run and will likely get beaten upon mercilessly in which case the acceptable losses strategy comes into play. Reave selectively. In a timed format however this is an equally valid tactic for player 1 to keep in mind. Hordes vs. Warmachine doesn't suffer as badly from going first so long as you're keeping track of time. As soon as you're pretty sure you aren't getting another turn start forcing like mad. Leave one beast available for transfer if you think you'll need it otherwise rip into the enemy and try to cripple the forces they were hoping to use for their last push with an overforced "power turn"
Strategy 4 - Playing the odds - No so much a trick or strategy as much as calculating your risks. So the beast you sent in didn't kill its target and you have enough fury to fill yourself for the next turn. Big deal keep forcing and go for the kill, most beasts will frenzy on a 7 if they're full (with some exceptions). This means that if you can put only one or two extra fury on a beast it won't frenzy unless you rolling in the 9+ to 10+ range depending on the size of the beast. How often would you rely on a CMD 10 model pulling off its check. I would, especially if forcing that check on myself was gaining me an important kill.
Strategy 5 - Expected damage - One thing about warlocks is that tend not to be as tough as a warcaster. Not being able to raise ARM but squatting on Fury is a drawback, not that I'd trade transfers for it. A clever opponent may try to damage your beasts indirectly by hitting the caster, heck some boosted AOE's hurt warlocks. Thats OK you say to yourself I sat on one Fury just in case. Great so you spend it to transfer and now when you count your fury you're one short. Hmm looks like combining Playing the odds with Expected Damage can be kinda helpful. It's usually a good idea to sit on one fury just in case cause locks are weak and sometimes its a good idea to transfer a hit that did minimal damage just because it will allow you to leach one more on your next turn. That is of course unless you played with exactly the "right" amount of fury on the table. Basically if you're expecting to use up two transfers you can ignore two fury on yourself when counting it up.
That's a basic rundown of fury management. It covers all the bases without getting into specific factions, units or casters where things get a lot more complicated. In fact with the exception of trolls the other factions really have ways to minimize risk while taking multiple, sometimes consecutive, "power turns".
What tricks do you use as a Hordes! Player to come out on top of those mean giant robots? Llet us know Here.
