Preferred Enemies: Beastmen Gors

Preferred Enemies: Beastmen Gors

This installment of the Preferred Enemies will deal with the Core choice for the Beastmen army, the Gors.  Feral and unruly, the Gor herd makes up the meat of almost any Beastmen army.  The Gor herd is perhaps one of my favorite Core choices of all the armies I play.  This unit fully encompasses what a Beastman army should be, ruthless and cunning.  As I mentioned in the article here, Primal Fury and the Beastman Ambush make this selection not only deadly but versatile in their deployment. 

Let us examine the base statline for the Beastman Gor:
M:5 – This unit moves just as fast as your standard elf which means that our speed has now been compromised as an advantage.

WS: 4 – Half the Wood Elf units will hit on 4’s rather than 3’s.

BS: 3 – not an issue

S: 3 – Basic Strength is 3 but using the synergy listed available to Beastmen this can become problematic.

T: 4 – Toughness of 4 means that at long range our arrows need 5’s and at 4’s at short range.  This again becomes problematic when augments and synergy are included.

I: 3 – This does not affect Wood Elf generals too greatly.

A: 1 – It may only say one attack but Beastmen can wield two weapons (most do).

LD: 7 – slightly higher than average LD, good chance to cause panic tests.

Save: - they are naked goatmen with axes, what kind of armor were you expecting?

The Gor by itself is not an impressive model but when put into a large unit and properly synergized, the Gor Herd becomes an incredible blender that can wipe out just about any unit it runs into. 

The standardized formation and synergies for Beastmen Gors are as followed:

1.       40 Gors w/ additional hand weapons, full command, and a Battle Standard Bearer w/ the Beast Banner.  Without any additional augments this units can be fielded 10 wide by 4 deep and unleash up to 31 Strength 4 attacks at Weapon Skill 4 and Initiative 3 and if they pass the Primal Fury test then they have Hatred. 

2.       Same as above only you have the unit enhanced further with Wyssan’s Wildform making the unit Strength 5/Toughness 5 and then the unit they are attacking has been hexed with the Miasma spell from Lore of Shadow.

-          In order to deal with this unit configuration, a Wood Elf General needs to avoid close combat until the unit has been reduced appropriately by ranged and magic missiles.  It only takes 10ish wounds to cause a panic test in this unit on LD8 but ideally you will want to hit the unit on it’s flank or rear to ensure that the horde formation and additional attacks are minimized.  This is a difficult unit to avoid due to its ability to march 10” just like many of the Wood Elf units.  Especially if you have been hexed with Miasma.

3.       20 Gors w/ additional hand weapons that are ambushing.

-          Ambushing Gors can be the deciding factor in many combats.  Especially if they arrive from your table edge and are able to get a rear charge off on your archer units.  The recommendation is to immediately fire upon the unit as soon as they come on the table edge.   These smaller units of Gors can be charged by the Wood Elf close combat units such as Dryads or Treekin with a reasonable chance of success.  The issue that many Generals run into is that they attempt to ignore the ambushing unit and deal with the perceived “bigger” threat and suddenly one of their key units is rear or flanked charged. 

4.       Multiple units of 25 Gors with additional hand weapons fielded 5x5 with a Wargor in the unit.

-          This configuration is very problematic because of the sheer amount of attacks and bodies that a Wood Elf will have to face.  It is recommended that a Wood Elf maneuvers to a flank as much as possible and attempt to shoot and destroy the closest unit in order to cause panic tests and therefore open up the enemy line. 

5.       You will rarely see units the same as above only with shields that grant them a 6+ armor and parry save but at the cost of an additional attack.

-          This configuration is handled much like the other only their offensive power has been lessened in favor of a slight armor save.

The Beastman Gor Herd properly synergized can prove more than a match for any of the Wood Elf units therefore it is imperative that the Wood Elf General disrupts the Gor Herd as much as possible.  By disallowing the Gor Herd to take advantage of Primal Fury, it’s Toughness and its strength in close combat; the Wood Elf General should easily be able to dismantle and destroy the unit.