Today was the first time I've tested out my growing Legion of Everblight collection, and the first time I've operated a Warlock and the Fury mechanic. I've only played about one game against Hordes as well.
My goal, then, is to give readers a first impression of the Fury mechanic coming from someone accustomed to Focus.
Context: The Army
35 Points of Everlight
Battlegroup
Lylyth, Herald of Everblight
Carnivean
Seraph
Seraph
Shredder
Infantry
Striders w/ Unit Attachment
Solos
Strider Deathstalker
Shepherd
What are the important parts?
1) Lylyth has a Fury of 5, so she can leach 5 and spend up to 5 herself
2) Carnivean capacity: 4 Fury; Animus costs 2
3) Seraph Capacity: 4 Fury; Animus costs 1
3) Shredder Capaicty: 2 Fury, Animus costs 1
What's the Context mean?
At the beginning of my turn, Lylth can leech fury from any beasts her her mighty 10" radius, and reave it from anything that gets killed during the turn (barring any of the effects that stop it).
Lylth can cast the animus of her beasts, and they can cast their own. So, if I'm aiming for a zero-sum turn (like my first) I can have Lylth spend 5 fury and make sure her beasts don't force for more than 5 fury.
OR, I can force my beasts to the max, and generate a total of 14 Fury. Ok, so I could clean off ONE beast, remove one fury from another, and use the Shepherd's ability to remove all the fury from a third beast. Then, I'd be taking threshold checks to avoid them berserking.
An in-game example
Here's what it looked like: since aggression is rewarded in this game, my buddy playing epic Stryker (along with Old Rowdy, a Storm-something heavy jack, jack-killing infantry and some gun mages) runs up in the mosh pit, and on his turn two he's feated, hit me with two heavy jacks, and has a decent grip on the middle. Note that in this game, turn three generally starts the check for objectives and a scenario win.
I have two choices: try to assassinate his caster, or try to put a full unit into the mosh pit to contest. Everblight specializes in speed, mobility, stupid LOS tricks and hitting power. I've already used this and my Striders ripped up his melee infantry, denying him use of them in the feat.
So, I pop my own feat (gaining an additional dice on attacks) and decided that I'm going to kill his caster. I spend some time thinking before I realize I can't position my Carnivean for the charge, and I was hoping to tear it up. Anyway, I've already de-buffed his caster. Now, I eventually realized I could put a Seraph into it on the charge, and boosted the hit, smacks it for a chunk, and after spending a total of 3 fury I'd turned his caster into a gooey paste.
I'd ALSO run my Carnivean through it's full 4 fury to reduce Ol' Rowdy to two damage boxes, and then the Shredder went rabid and beat it down with both ITS fury.
So, by the end of the turn, I've spent:
5 Fury from Lylyth (one to heal a beat-up Seraph to repair its Spirit, the rest to shoot Stryker and Parasite him)
4 on Carnivean
4 on Seraph
4 on Seraph
2 on Shredder
Total: 17 Fury expended
Compared to casters who MAX at 10 focus and usually have 6-7, that's a huge output. Now, the problem? Even with a Shepherd (who can remove all the Fury from one beast) I ended up:
Shepherd to the Carny
4 Fury from Seraph closest to me (rendering it safe)
1 Fury from the Shredder (I can deal with it punching the Carny; I'd rather not watch the carny one-shot the Shredder into oblivion...)
Seraph closest to the enemy sits on four fury.
That means the Shredder needs to roll 6 or less on 2d6, and the Teraph downrange needs to get a 5 or lower on 2d6.
Of course, you don't HAVE to make a check if you won the game.
Overall
Frankly, at first glance I'm impressed by the 'alpha strike' capabilities of warbeasts. I mean, the Carnivean has four base attacks (spray for assault, bite, two claws) and cranked a full compliment of them into Old Rowdy (...freaking durable heavy jack...) while another beast ripped into his caster with well-boosted melee attacks.
On the flip side, if you DON'T accomplish what you want, you will have to be careful about running beasts full of fury. Gone crazy, they'll tag the closest thing, which is asking your opponent to abuse the fact that you won't be able to control the beast.
Overall, I'd have to warn people that a list full of beasts can throw out a STUPID amount of abuse in a turn, but that gets close to make-or-break, because their next turn will be much, much less impressive.
Also, I dig Eyeless Sight and the ability to ignore a bunch of pesky LOS restrictions, and SPD 6 guys with reach rolling 3-4d6 to attack are friggin' sweet.
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