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.