Die Manthings! Die!

Friday I had the chance to throw down with my Beastmen against my friend Roy's Empire army.  It was a fun game and my Beastmen did a lot better than I had hoped.  I've documented the battle but due to time constraints I'll only post a few turns.  Perhaps next game I'll remember to post the battle the next day and make more time to do so.

The Empire army that Roy was using was fairly basic but effective.
Arch Lector
5 Warrior Priests
6 Units of 24 Swordsmen
1 Hellblaster Volley Gun
2 Great Cannons

This battle report will be a bit truncated since the first few turns were primarily moving into position and I am short on time to post this due to being really tired after my 1500 point tournament for 40k today.

Deployment:

Battle Summary:

Turn 1 - Empire and Beastmen move into positions.  I'm wary of Roy's Hellblaster Volley gun so I maintain a 25" distance from it until the second turn.
Turn 2 - Harpies get destroyed after they fly behind the Empire units to marchblock by the Hellblaster and both Great Cannons misfire doing nothing.  Beastmen manage to Ambush behind Great Cannons and I cast Pit of Shades on his units killing several models.
Turn 3 - Empire set's up to attack and prevents flanks while Beastmen Ambushing Gor unit kills a Great Cannon.

Turn 4 - Empire General unit charges and kills Ambushing Gors.  Great Cannon kills a minotaur. Beastmen fail several charges and only manage to get a single unit of Gors into close combat with a unit of Swordsmen.  Swordsmen fail and flee but winning Beastman unit is now open to flank charges.
Turn 5 - this was a fairly brutal round - remaining Cannon kills a Minotaur and a Gor unit suffers massive casualties and flees, Bestigor unit is charged from behind but manages to win the combat becauese of the River of Blood and the charging Swordsmen flee.  Beastman Turn 5 - Fleeing Gor unit rallies but ends up blocking Minotaurs from being able to charge.  Bestigors charge a unit of Swordsmen and Roy elects to flee but Bestigors catch the unit and wipe it out providing excellent positioning to charge next turn.

Turn 6 - This was a crazy round - Empire General unit charges and gets locked into combat with newly rallied Gor unit and Bestigor unit is charged by Empire.  Cannon kills yet another Minotaur.  Beastmen turn - Minotaur BSB charges out of unit and makes contact with Swordsmen along with the Great Bray Shaman Gor unit and wipes them out.  Bestigors kill their unit of Swordsmen.

Game ends with Beastmen winning by 403 Victory Points.

Funny things that happened during game:
1. 5 Misfires from Roy's warmachines resulting in his Hellblaster exploding.
2. 2 Tragic irresistible force rolls from the Great Bray Shaman resulting in him losing all his magic levels and not being able to cast anything after Turn 3.
3.  Roy's warrior priests being more effective at casting spells this game due to Beastman GBS neutering himself magically. =)
4. Minotaurs not getting into combat the entire game at all with exception of BSB charging out of unit on Turn 6.

Reflections for next game on Wed.
1. Don't worry about taking casualties - just barrel forward. Warmachines be damned.
2. Get Minotaurs into combat - having a 400 point unit sniffing their fingers every turn is dumb.
3. Deploy better, this was terrible deployment on my behalf.
4. Do not forget Spell Cards so that you don't have to ask your opponent what you had during the first turn.
5. Roy and I really need to paint our damn armies!


Wednesday I will use Battle Chronicler to detail my game against Eric and actually provide a worthwhile battle report.

Black Templar Command Squad Assembled.

With the release of the new FAQ update for the Black Templars, I've decided to finally assemble a Command Squad to accompany my Marshal in larger point games.  Also, I've had a Black Templar Upgrade Pack sitting around in my closet for over a year and I felt it was a good time to go ahead and use it.  I still need to assemble a Rhino for the unit but that is low on the priority list at the moment.

Also, I would like to blame the book Helsreach for making the desire to field a Command Squad with the army almost feel as if it was mandatory!  If you have not read this novel I really recommend it.  Aaron Demski-Bowden does an amazing job of portraying the mentality and overall feel for the Black Templar army.  Subtle things like always referring to them as knights or other chapters as "Lesser chapters" really makes you feel that the Black Templars are the greatest chapter of them all.
There is also an passage in the book that sums up the army perfectly  "My tabard, the white of sun-bleached bone, offers a stark contrast to the blacker than black plate beneath.  The heraldic cross stands proud on my chest, where Astartes of lesser Chapters wear the Emperor's aquilla.  We do not wear His symbol.  We are his symbol."

I should have this squad painted probably in the next few months, I've got 2000 points of Beastmen to churn through first =).

So in closing, "For Dorn and the Emperor!"

Magnetizing your army for less than 10 dollars.

Ah, the convenience of having all your models stay on a troop tray without having to individually pack them up every game.  The stuff that gamers yearn for in order to not spend half their time at the game store unpacking their army.

There are various ways to magnetize your army.  Some are ridiculously expensive and some are ridiculously unnecessary - I have done them all and will share with you the pain and save you the money!

1. Gale Force 9 Magnetic Bases - (http://www.gf9.com) You can get a set of 36 20mm or 25 25mm bases for about 10 bucks.  I will actually stand by these bases since my entire Wood Elf army uses them.
Pros:  Excellent bases, good texture on them, pretty decent magnetic pull.
Cons: 10 bucks for roughly a unit - my Wood Elf army cost me about $90.00 to magnetize with their bases.  Superglue also takes forever to cure on the bases.

2. Rare Earth Magnets - Depending on the size you can get anywhere from 50-250 for various prices.  The issue is that they are really, really strong.  Using these to magnetize arms on Dreadnaughts, or ensure your Valkyrie's wings will snap on - they are great.  Using them to glue to the bottom of a plastic base will result in
a. Model comes and base stays on metal tray.
b. Most of model comes and rest stays on metal tray
c. Model and base come, magnet stays on tray.
d. Model and tray come and it looks awkward for everyone involved.

3. Strip Magnets - This will be the method I used to base my Beastman army tonight which took absolutely no time and only cost me about 10 bucks.

Option number three brings us to the meat of my post.  How to Magnetize your army for 10 dollars.

Disclaimer: This works very well with PLASTIC models.  Metal models will work just fine but they will not have the adhesion strength that your plastic models will. (In other words don't turn a unit of metal models on it's side or upside down. It will not end well.) Some of the bigger metal models I had to place a square block rare earth magnet underneath in order to form a super bond.  With that said let us move on with the post!


Things you will need:
1. Pair of Metal Snips
2. Several sheets of metal roofing tiles - $.89 each.  4 may cost you just under 4 bucks - essentially it's one sheet per unit for 25mm models, sometimes you can get away with 1 sheet for 2 units of 20mm based models.
3. A roll of Strip Magnets - These are obtainable from Home Depot - they cost $5.36 for a 10' roll that is half an inch wide. I used up half a roll on the army.
4. Superglue
5. Movement Trays - You can make your own or use the modular GW trays - I'm not including the price since most folks just put strips of balsa wood around the edges of the metal roofing tiles.
6. Scissors
7. Models!

Magnetizing your army!

Step 1 - Gather your Materials:

As you can see I have grabbed everything I need in order to fully magnetize my entire Beastman army.









Step 2 - Prepare your movement trays.
Using your metal sheets, measure out the dimensions you need in order to cover the movement tray's surface with the metal sheet.  Cut with Metal Snips and super glue into place.

Step 3 - Cut the strip magnet to match the space under the base.  Really you can get away with about 3/4th's an inch or less under each model.  Just put a dab of superglue on the underside of the model and press the cut length of strip magnet under the model.  Bam - entire process should take you about 10-15 seconds.  I literally took an hour to do the entire army and their movement trays.

Step 4 - Put the newly magnetized models on a tray and admire your handiwork!

 2000 points of Beastmen magnetized in 1 hour!  

In case you were wondering what the package looked like for the Strip Magnets:

I have had a lot of success using various methods to customize and make transporting my armies easier.  I have to say that this method while not as good as using the Gale Force 9 magnetic bases, is pretty solid.  I encourage many of you to try this method out or if you have found an even easier and more effective way please feel free to comment - I'm always looking for something new to try out when it comes to making game set up faster.  Also, the models will stay on the tray well enough for moving them around the board, charging down a hill (we all know how much it sucks having your general that you spend hours painting have the entire front go from painted to silver in the course of a game because he kept falling face first the entire game).  Anyway, good luck!

Culling the Warherd - Beastmen Reflections

So for the last few months I have been posting about my new Beastman army and saying how I feel the army should be run and throwing up lists full of theoryhammer awesomeness.  I've managed to almost sound like I know what I am talking about without having actually played the army against an opponent.  Massive props right??  I am happy, well not happy, but we'll use the term satisfied to say that I was completely wrong.  

The common mistake most gamers make when they make a new army is that they attempt to play it like they did their old one.  In some instances this isn't a big deal such as going from Space Marine army A to Space Marine army B.  However, in the realm of Fantasy this is a drastic mistake.  I have learned that in Fantasy every army is played differently, very differently.  While game mechanics stay the same the method in which units are used changes. Forgetting this very important detail can lead to massive incorrect theoryhammering and generally result in you getting your ass handed to you seven ways from sundown.  

You see there is a huge difference between knowing how to play against and army and actually playing an army. I've gotten to the point where I feel comfortable playing against any army using my Wood Elves and I can expect  a reasonable amount of success (sans completely sacking out on every single dice roll - die Neil die).  Assuming that you know how an army should work based on how you play them with your army generally will lead to some rather amusing mistakes when you attempt to play your new army for the first time.

I should have played a few smaller point games before collecting and assembling a 2000 point force - that type of thinking would have been rational and you know....intelligent.  However, in typical Sylvos fashion I decided I knew better and went full throttle.  We all know how well this always ends up ( the 5000 points of Eldar in my closet of which I only use 1500 points of should be an example).

Anyway - so I had the opportunity to cut my teeth with my Beastmen last night.  Once a month or so I go to a buddies house and hang out in his Warhammer Mancave.  It's rather impressive and I should bring a camera sometime to photograph it.  He's got 2 tables that are ready to play upon with room for a 3rd if need be and shelves upon shelves of various armies from different game systems.  Oddly enough, most of the guys I play with have a similar set up at their homes as well.  Anyway, his gaming group and I had yet to play or play against the Beastman army since the new book had come out and we were rather excited to see how it would work.  I ended up playing 4 games in 5 hours.  The first three games combined lasted an hour and a half.  

I'm going to pause the post right here and mention one important detail:

My list did not work at all.

I played primarily against a standard Warriors of Chaos list and also against an Empire army.  The issues that I was running into were:

1.  Lack of models for prolonged combat.

2.  Lack of capable shooting - this is very bad since this was one of the focal points of the list.

3.  Lack of understanding of how some units actually perform in close combat.

The first two games resulted in my army being decimated by turn 2 - either by massed combat or shooting.  The third game I began to get the hang of the army and lasted until turn 3.  I would post battle reports of these  fights but honestly, there was nothing spectacular to post.  It was Sylvos running up and dieing over and over again.  The fourth game I'll discuss later in the post since I actually won that game by a super slim margin.

Now let's go ahead and make one thing known - I had no expectation of winning my first few games with this army.  I did however expect to at least last longer than 2 turns.  I made the mistake of trying to play an army like it was something else.  You can not play a Beastman army as if it were Wood Elves.  It just will not work.  This was painfully obvious when I started to fail leadership tests and attempted to perform the same tactics I use with my Wood Elves.  I've never played a low leadership army before - Wood Elves 8-10, Eldar 8-10, and Black Templars 8-10.  Having the Beastmen be 5-8 was pretty brutal, even with a battle standard bearer.  Also having a lower initiative was something I definitely was not used to, my elves almost always are going first or at the same time as my opponent.  Going last was not something I was used to or had really thought about and that caused some issues.  

So after the first three games I sat down and had a few bites of pizza.  I asked the guys what they thought was the issue and what we could do to at least make the army feasible to play with.  Nick mentioned that it felt like I was playing with my Wood Elves and when he said that things began to click.  Aaron also mentioned that when his Empire guys were engaged in combat I did not have the bodies to really support the attacks I was trying to pull off - namely the Bestigors.  So we sat down, had a beer or two and I used his laptop to hammer out a new list which was totally different from my previously posted one.  I used a Beastlord as general, a Great Bray Shaman that was level 4 who used Lore of Shadows (huge difference btw I'll detail it later) and I used a Gorebull as the BSB.  I ditched the Cygor and all remnants of shooting and went for close combat devastation.  The 4th game against Warriors of Chaos resulted in the Beastmen winning by 103 VPs baby!

I'm going to take a few minutes to post some reflections on the experience on a per unit basis.  

Beastman Army Analysis.

1. Doombull - the Doombull performed absolutely amazingly in every game I used him.  The strength, toughness, movement and incredible amount of attacks he can dish out are something that I had known would be effective but actually seeing it in action was amazing.  Giving the Doombull an always strike first weapon ensured that he was going to perform to his full potential every combat.  Frenzy turned out to be both a bane and a boon since I was able to get more attacks but in 2 of the 3 games I ended up being led around by my opponent until I could pass a leadership test.  The success of the Doombull lead me to use a Gorebull as the Battle Standard Bearer in my 4th game and honestly, the results were very similar. 

2. Gorebull - the Gorebull is the hero version of the Doombull and at first glance he looks like a glorified Bloodkine.  The Gorebull however is an excellent candidate for the Battle Standard Bearer position.  While he isn't as God of War brutal as the Doombull, he definitely can perform as a wrecking ball.

3.  Minotaurs - when I first put this unit down on paper I thought to myself - "these look awesome and should dish out a truckton of damage!".  I was right!  Give them a Doombull or a Gorebull and you have a mobile wrecking ball of destruction.  This unit performed successfully in every game last night.  At first glance you ask "Why are they using shields and not extra hand weapons? They don't get a parry save cause of Frenzy".  You are correct they do not get the parry save but the 1 point of armor they do get gave them the longevity I was hoping.  Why the 2 ranks?  The frenzy and bloodgreed abilities are amazing and being limited to 3 attacks from the back does suck but having that extra rank there made the difference in all 4 games and it will be the standard method in which I will deploy them moving forward.  Minotaurs have proven to be my favorite unit in the entire Beastman army.  

4. Primal Fury - this ability is amazing.  Having a free chance at Hatred every round of combat is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.  I know I count on the ability to reroll close combat attack heavily with my Black Templars and so I really, really like this ability for the Beastmen.

5. Bestigors - they are amazing.  They have a 5+ armor save and hit (generally with rerolls) a ton.  The fact that they will be strength 6 when they wound is awesome.  However, fielding 15 is not enough you need at least 4 ranks of 5 for them to have the survivability and be able to endure prolonged combat.  These guys are definitely a flank charge unit since they can devastate anything they touch.  I used them very successfully in game 4 with my minotaurs and managed to obliterate a unit of 25 Warriors of Chaos in a single round (granted the general and bsb and minotaurs were also there but that's still a big feat).

6. Bray Shaman and Great Bray Shamans - my level 2 was suffering in every game.  I think I managed to get 1 spell off the entire time.  The Great Bray Shaman however was much more effective and I was able to get most of my spells to go off in game 4.  I would also like to point out that while Lore of Beasts is amazing for Beastmen, Lore of Shadows is utterly amazing period.  I switched to Shadows in game 4 and the debuffing that you can perform upon your opponents army is game changing.  The GBS is also no slouch in close combat, the ward save I gave him allowed him to kill quite a few models. Lore of Shadows can also affect Initiative - this was a serious game changer for the initiative 3 Beastmen.  HUGE.

7. Gors and Ambush - Ambush is awesome.  I will be making heavy use of it in my future games.  Gors however, need to have ranks to survive in close combat. I had thought of using the 6x4 method which is fine but I found the 5x5 deployment also works very well.  Unless you are rear charging a unit, you need to have at least 24 Gors, 30 preferably but 24 is the bare minimum unless you are Ambushing with them.  They also really, really need to be in range of the General. Their low leadership hurts especially in Panic tests.

8. Ungor Raiders - I won't be using these in the future.  In 3 games they scored 1 wound and really they were just wasted points.  I don't need shooting nor a free panic test that they cause when my opponent kills them too close to my other units.  They can still be good, of this I have no doubt but for me I will be hesitant to add them in the future.

9. Cygor - man, I really really wanted this guy to be awesome in my games.  He just wasn't.  I think you really should only field one of these in 2500+ games where you have a target rich environment.  Due to the fact that you want to get your army into close combat as soon as possible, you kind of cut down on who he can lob rocks on and even then he is an expensive stone thrower.

10.  Harpies - these girls were awesome.  Scout enabled me to get 1st turn charges on warmachines.  If I had the points I'd field more than 5.  

11.  Beastlord - I ended up using a Beastlord in my 4th game because I desperately needed the leadership 9. While no where near as destructive as the Doombull, he is still no slouch when it comes to carnage.  Twice he managed to score 7 attacks in CC which is pretty awesome imho.  

12. The Hunting Spear - this 50 point magic item killed 1 model in 3 games.  The BS of 3 in the Beastmen army really makes it difficult to justify the 50 points for the Bolt thrower.  It's not bad but I just didn't get my points back on it in any of the games I used it in.

So there is a brief analysis of my experience so far with these units.  I will be hopefully getting a few more games in in the next few weeks and will being to actually paint the army soon as well =).

The changes I made to my gameplay and army list were pretty simple in game 4.  I boosted my leadership and magic performance while abandoning shooting.  I increased unit sizes in some of the important units and made some changes to the command structure.  I kept most of the units together and was able to pull off multi-unit charges and the Leadership 9 bubble was such a huge difference.  I could not believe that 1 point made that much of a difference in the performance.  Also, instead of trying to finesse my way around the bigger units for flank charges, I just flat out hammered into them with the Bestigors and Minotaurs and let the Gors flank.  It worked out so much better.  Anyway, I'll do a battle report next game I have with them and we'll see how this army works out!

Oh here is the list I used in game 4:

2000 Pts - Beastmen Roster

Beastlord (1#, 215 pts)

1 Beastlord, 215 pts (General; Primal Fury; Hand Weapon)

1 The Steel-Claws

1 Armour of Fortune

Great Bray-Shaman (1#, 269 pts)

1 Great Bray-Shaman, 269 pts (Primal Fury; Level 4 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

1 Talisman of Endurance

Gorebull (1#, 247 pts)

1 Gorebull (Battle Standard Bearer), 247 pts (Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Battle Standard Bearer; Causes Fear; Frenzy)

1 Sword of Swift Slaying

1 Uncanny Senses

1 Gnarled Hide

Bestigor Herd (19#, 268 pts)

18 Bestigor Herd, 268 pts (Always Strikes Last; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)

1 Gouge-Horn (Always Strikes Last; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)

1 Banner of Eternal Flame

Harpies (5#, 70 pts)

5 Harpies, 70 pts (Flyer; Scouts)

Minotaurs (5#, 325 pts)

5 Minotaurs, 325 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield; Stomp)

Gor Herd (24#, 217 pts)

23 Gor Herd, 217 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Gor Herd (25#, 225 pts)

24 Gor Herd, 225 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Gor Herd (20#, 160 pts)

20 Gor Herd, 160 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Composition Report:

Points of Lords: 484 (0 - 500)

Points of Heroes: 247 (0 - 500)

Points of Core: 602 (500 - Unlimited)

Points of Special: 663 (0 - 1000)

Points of Rare: 0 (0 - 500)

Total Roster Cost: 1996

The Wild Hunt, Warherd of the Drakwald - 2000 point Beastman Army List. v.1.0

The Wild Hunt, Warherd of the Drakwald  - 2000 point Beastman Army List v.1.0

After much deliberation and thought, I have decided to run with a list that I felt was somewhat balanced and encompasses what I want to field in a 2000 point list with Beastmen.  Sadly, I did not have room for things such as Chaos Hounds, Tuskgor Chariots or 100 Gors but that's alright.  I wanted to accomplish three objectives when constructing this list and I have no doubt that it will be more fun to play than it is effective.

1. Use the models I enjoyed out of the army -  I love the limited edition Battle Standard Bearer, the Doombull, the Morghur model (based on a 25mm and being used as a Bray-shaman), the Gors and the Bestigor models.

2. Have a reasonably balanced army that could perform in every phase that also utilizes the Beastman army features such as Ambush.

3. Fit the theme of a roving warherd that has been terrorizing the Drakwald Forest and has set it's sights on Athel Loren, home of their hated rivals the Wood Elves.  The minotaur general has now taken the reins of the army after a catastrophic set back when the Great Hunt of Athel Loren ambushed the previous Beastlord's warherd and scattered the beasts to the far corners of the forest.  (The former Beastlord is now crucified on one of the Wood elf standards in my army)

The army is not big unfortunately, I had originally hoped that the army would exceed 100 models but due to the fact that I changed my mind during the list creation and added in a Monster that changed.  I expanded the list to 2500 points and suddenly the army grew to over 120 models so I am not overly worried about expansion.  

                                 

Rorg, the Horned King of the Drakwald. (image by Dan Scott)

I present you the 1.0 version of the Warherd of the Drakwald.

2000 Pts - Beastmen Roster

Doombull (1#, 298 pts)

1 Doombull, 298 pts (General; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Causes Fear; Frenzy; Stomp)

1 Sword of Swift Slaying

1 Dragonhelm

1 Uncanny Senses

Bray-Shaman (1#, 160 pts)

1 Bray-Shaman, 160 pts (Primal Fury; Level 2 Upgrade; Hand Weapon)

1 Hunting Spear

1 Wildheart

1 0. Wyssan's Wildform

1 1. The Flock of Doom

1 2. Pann's Impenetrable Pelt

1 3. The Amber Spear

1 4. The Curse of Anraheir

1 5. The Savage Beast of Horrors

1 6. Transformation of Kadon

Wargor (1#, 164 pts)

1 Wargor (Battle Standard Bearer), 164 pts (Primal Fury; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Battle Standard Bearer)

1 The Steel-Claws

1 Gnarled Hide

Cygor (1#, 275 pts)

1 Cygor, 275 pts (Causes Terror; Immune to Psychology; Large Target; Magic Resistance (2); Stubborn; Thunder Stomp)

Harpies (5#, 70 pts)

5 Harpies, 70 pts (Flyer; Scouts)

Bestigor Herd (14#, 208 pts)

13 Bestigor Herd, 208 pts (Always Strikes Last; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)

1 Gouge-Horn (Always Strikes Last; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)

1 Banner of Eternal Flame

Minotaurs (5#, 325 pts)

5 Minotaurs, 325 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield; Stomp)

Gor Herd (24#, 217 pts)

23 Gor Herd, 217 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Gor Herd (24#, 217 pts)

23 Gor Herd, 217 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Ungor Raiders (5#, 33 pts)

5 Ungor Raiders, 33 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Hand Weapon; Short Bow; Skirmishers)

Ungor Raiders (5#, 33 pts)

5 Ungor Raiders, 33 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Hand Weapon; Short Bow; Skirmishers)

Composition Report:

Points of Lords: 298 (0 - 500)

Points of Heroes: 324 (0 - 500)

Points of Core: 500 (500 - Unlimited)

Points of Special: 603 (0 - 1000)

Points of Rare: 275 (0 - 500)

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Three things you'll immediately notice:

1. Not a lot of models - I am aware of that but I seem to get by with less than 70 Wood elves so =).  Also I'm right at the 500 point mark for Core which I really wanted to be as high as my Special but I had to devote 275 points to Rare for this list.

2. No ward saves - I couldn't justify the point costs on them sadly, I figure 3+ armor save is good enough and if you manage to cut down a character more power to you.

3. Cygor in a 2000 point list - generally you want to avoid using a monster with a 275 point price tag in a 2k list but I wanted to throw it in and see how it works.  I also wanted to augment my shooting phase with something other than 10 ungor raiders and a bray-shaman hurling a hunting spear.

I'm going to really try to capitalize on Ambush and brute force without having to throw a ton of models at my opponent.  I'm hoping that the Minotaurs and Bestigors can form a good hammer and anvil combination while the Gors serve to protect their flanks.  Once again we'll have to see how this works out.

I'm sure this list will change slightly but for now I'm happy with it.  I would have preferred to have more Gors but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.  Should I drop the Cygor then I would also dump the Hunting Spear (that item is still under fierce evaluation at this point and time) and fill that void with more Bestigors and a LOT more Gors.  Either way I'll hopefully be finished assembling this list in a week and be ready to get some Battle Reports flowing! 

Beastman Dilemma - How to build a herd?

So for the last few months I have been completing and playing my Wood Elf army - The Great Hunt.  Upon their completion (and the subsequent modification of the point level we play at - grumble, grumble), I decided to turn my attention to another army that had sparked my interest, The Beastmen.

In previous posts I have provided readers my thought process behind tactics, army composition and overall playstyle.  The Wood Elf army as well as the Eldar army provide me with the perfect selection of units to fit how I like to play.  Both armies possess fast and hard hitting units that require you to capitalize on outmaneuvering and surgically striking your opponents army.  So when I look for a second army in a game I attempt to look at the opposite spectrum in order to become a better player.
Example:
Ulthwe` Eldar - fast, fragile, precision - balanced army for both melee and shooting.
vs.
Black Templars - durable, strong, blunt - primarily a close combat army that punches you in the face.

It took me a while to figure out how to properly build a Black Templar army and even longer to learn to play it properly.  I couldn't use the same tactics that my Eldar used because the Black Templar army just didn't function that way.  I had to adapt and as a result I became a better player.

Now that I am fully vested into Fantasy, I find myself in the same dilemma again.  I have "mastered" how I like to play my Wood Elves and have developed tactics and a completely balanced list to be able to handle just about every army effectively.  So now that I am completely comfortable with my primary army, I felt it was time to branch out and learn another.

Enter the Beastmen.

The Beastmen army is rather interesting at first glance.  I really liked the Minotaurs and immediately wanted to field a lot of them.  I also liked the Gors, I felt they were perfect Core selections since they embodied a ruthless savagery that really communicated the overall theme for the army.  The Beastmen also were a close combat army, much like the Black Templars in 40k and so the theme continues.

Here are the major issues I am having and the reason for this post:
1.  Balanced army - I am having a real problem trying to actually build a balanced Beastman army.  Now when I say balanced, I mean strong in every phase of the game - Magic, Shooting and Close Combat.  My Wood Elves have managed to hit that perfect balance where they are effective in every phase.  I still have not managed to mentally make that shift for the Beastmen.  I have a feeling that I may have to concentrate primarily on ONE phase and pray that I am better at it than my opponent.

2. Themed army - I am currently juggling around several themes at the moment.  Each theme radically changes the entire composition of the army and as a result alters the playstyle.

3. Obvious weaknesses that I can not overcome - Beastmen suck at shooting.  No matter if you field 5 units of Ungor Raiders, they still suck.  Lack of armor is also a concern, while my Wood Elves compensate for it by skirmishing the Beastmen really have to get in there and smash so that isn't an option.

4. Avoiding the character heavy lists - I am trying to avoid spending more than 1/4 of the points on the Lord/Hero selections yet I keep ending up with about 750ish total for both.

5. Really awesome units that are not feasible to use in lower point games.  Rare selections for one, most of the chariots, Centigors, etc..

6. School of thought on number of models in army - Do I need to exceed 100 models in a 2000 point game? Do I need to horde up my Gors?  Should I bother Ambushing?

7. Lastly, how the hell am I supposed to play these guys?  My head tells me - rush forward and engage in close combat as soon as possible yet their special ability to ambush makes me wonder if I need to make 2 smaller units of Core to Ambush behind my opponent.


So as you can see I have several issues to hammer out and decide what to do.  I have not been idle however in this process.  So far I have managed to collect/assemble/buy the following units for my Beastmen.

2 Beastlord/Wargor Models
2 Out of Print Special Edition Wargor BSB models
Morghur
2 Bray Shaman
88 Gors (46 of them are older generation Gors, rest are the new ones)
44 Ungors (all have spears and are on 25mm bases so they need to be rebased)
4 Tuskgor Chariots
45 Bestigors (25 older metal models, 20 new plastic ones)
10 kit-bashed harpies (Daemonettes + gargoyles)
6 Minotaurs
1 Doombull model
1 Partially assembled Cygor (Giant)
3 Jabberslythe counts as (McFarlane dragons)
20 Chaos Hounds (10 metal, 10 plastic)
10 Centigors
1 Razorgor

So as you can see I have managed to amass a large collection because I thought I wanted to use this or that then after a while decided ...naw....

I will go ahead and post three lists that I have made over the last few weeks and I really welcome comments on them.  While I will not bore you with listing the thoughts and reasons behind making each list, I will just say that every list is themed in one way or another.  I will be doing follow up posts to these lists later on in the month after assembly has finished and I start actually playing them.

List 1

2000 Pts - Beastlord General Army Roster

Gorebull (1#, 247 pts)
1 Gorebull (Battle Standard Bearer), 247 pts (Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Battle Standard Bearer; Causes Fear; Frenzy)
1 Sword of Swift Slaying
1 Talisman of Protection
1 Uncanny Senses

Great Bray-Shaman (1#, 284 pts)
1 Great Bray-Shaman, 284 pts (Primal Fury; Level 4 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Talisman of Endurance
1 Gnarled Hide
1 Smoke and Mirrors
1 0. Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma
1 1. Steed of Shadows
1 2. The Enfeebling Foe
1 3. The Withering
1 4. The Penumbral Pendulum
1 5. Pit of Shades
1 6. Okkam's Mindrazor

Beastlord (1#, 215 pts)
1 Beastlord, 215 pts (General; Primal Fury; Hand Weapon)
1 The Steel-Claws
1 Armour of Fortune

Gor Herd (24#, 217 pts)
23 Gor Herd, 217 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Gor Herd (24#, 217 pts)
23 Gor Herd, 217 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Gor Herd (20#, 185 pts)
19 Gor Herd, 185 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Minotaurs (5#, 325 pts)
5 Minotaurs, 325 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield)

Bestigor Herd (20#, 280 pts)
19 Bestigor Herd, 280 pts (Always Strikes Last; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)
1 Gouge-Horn (Always Strikes Last; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)
1 Banner of Eternal Flame

Chaos Warhounds (5#, 30 pts)
5 Chaos Warhounds, 30 pts

Composition Report:
Points of Lords: 499 (0 - 500)
Points of Heroes: 247 (0 - 500)
Points of Core: 619 (500 - Unlimited)
Points of Special: 605 (0 - 1000)
Points of Rare: 0 (0 - 500)

Total Roster Cost: 2000


List 2 

2000 Pts - Doombull #1 General Army Roster

Doombull (1#, 326 pts)
1 Doombull, 326 pts (General; Hand Weapon; Shield; Causes Fear; Frenzy)
1 Sword of Swift Slaying
1 Armour of Fortune
1 Uncanny Senses
1 Gnarled Hide

Bray-Shaman (1#, 112 pts)
1 Bray-Shaman, 112 pts (Primal Fury; Level 2 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Smoke and Mirrors
1 0. Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma
1 1. Steed of Shadows
1 2. The Enfeebling Foe
1 3. The Withering
1 4. The Penumbral Pendulum
1 5. Pit of Shades
1 6. Okkam's Mindrazor

Wargor (1#, 166 pts)
1 ×Wargor (Battle Standard Bearer), 166 pts (Primal Fury; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Shield; Battle Standard Bearer)
1 The Steel-Claws
1 Talisman of Protection

Harpies (5#, 70 pts)
5 Harpies, 70 pts (Flyer; Scouts)

Ungor Raiders (7#, 42 pts)
7 Ungor Raiders, 42 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Hand Weapon; Short Bow; Skirmishers)

Ungor Raiders (7#, 42 pts)
7 Ungor Raiders, 42 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Hand Weapon; Short Bow; Skirmishers)

Gor Herd (24#, 217 pts)
23 Gor Herd, 217 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Gor Herd (24#, 217 pts)
23 Gor Herd, 217 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Gor Herd (20#, 185 pts)
19 Gor Herd, 185 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Bestigor Herd (19#, 268 pts)
18 Bestigor Herd, 268 pts (Always Strikes Last; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)
1 Gouge-Horn (Always Strikes Last; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)
1 Banner of Eternal Flame

Chaos Warhounds (5#, 30 pts)
5 Chaos Warhounds, 30 pts

Minotaurs (5#, 325 pts)
5 Minotaurs, 325 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield)

Composition Report:
Points of Lords: 326 (0 - 500)
Points of Heroes: 278 (0 - 500)
Points of Core: 703 (500 - Unlimited)
Points of Special: 663 (0 - 1000)
Points of Rare: 0 (0 - 500)

Total Roster Cost: 2000

List 3 

2000 Pts - Minotaur Heavy Army Roster

Bestigor Herd (19#, 268 pts)
18 Bestigor Herd, 268 pts (Always Strikes Last; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)
1 Gouge-Horn (Always Strikes Last; Hand Weapon; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour)
1 Banner of Eternal Flame

Minotaurs (5#, 325 pts)
5 Minotaurs, 325 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield)

Minotaurs (6#, 384 pts)
6 Minotaurs, 384 pts (Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Light Armour; Shield)

Gor Herd (30#, 265 pts)
29 Gor Herd, 265 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Gor Herd (30#, 265 pts)
29 Gor Herd, 265 pts (Ambush; Primal Fury; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)
1 Foe-Render (Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Extra Attack)

Doombull (1#, 326 pts)
1 Doombull, 326 pts (General; Hand Weapon; Shield; Causes Fear; Frenzy)
1 Sword of Swift Slaying
1 Armour of Fortune
1 Gnarled Hide
1 Uncanny Senses

Wargor (1#, 164 pts)
1 Wargor (Battle Standard Bearer), 164 pts (Primal Fury; Hand Weapon; Heavy Armour; Battle Standard Bearer)
1 The Steel-Claws
1 Talisman of Protection

Composition Report:
Points of Lords: 326 (0 - 500)
Points of Heroes: 164 (0 - 500)
Points of Core: 530 (500 - Unlimited)
Points of Special: 977 (0 - 1000)
Points of Rare: 0 (0 - 500)

Total Roster Cost: 1997



So there we have it.  Once again I throw up three lists for appraisal and comments and we'll see how things work out.  I'm fairly certain I will end up not using any of those and make yet another "perfect" list after a few weeks.

Thanks!