Licking my wounds...

Well well well, welcome back my ghouls and gals how are we all? Sorry for no new posts in a while but I've been busy with Christmas and New Years and what not. Did you all enjoy your festive seasons? Santa bring you any Warhammer? My lovely girlfriend got me an Xbox so I've been smashing some Skyrim. It's been positively wonderful. I've also managed a to squeeze in a couple of battles that have been not so wonderful...

So lets have a look then. The first battle was against Prince Mantor and his High Elves. He used a different list this time. The force was still led by Mantor himself (a High Elf Prince) riding atop Pinky (his Dragon). He used some Lorthern Seaguard, Swordmasters, some Archers, Dragon Princes, Silver Helms, 2 bloody Bolt Throwers, a couple of Mages, a Lion Chariot, a Tirinoc Chariot and some Reavers. I used the same list I used last time we played partly because I liked it and partly because I'm lazy. Well if you read my battle report about the last time these armies met you'd know it was a close and bitter fight but the Vampires came out on top. Jimzan Ghoul King and leader of the Dead Host personally cut down Prince Mantor and sealed the win. This time the Elves were hell bent on revenge, and boy, did they get it! This was one of those battles that (for me) just got worse and worse. My deployment wasn't great. I tried a similar thing as last time, heavy blocks of Skellies and Zombies on the right and my fast hard hitting stuff to the left. The trouble was the terrain was stopping me from keeping all my blocks of infantry next to each other. Mantor played really well. I made a few errors and he totally capitalized. My left left flank got smoked. His Lion Chariot caught my Black Knights and his Swordmasters charged my Varghulf, killed it, and over charged into my Varghiests. The Varghiests wound up winning the fight in the end but it took most of the game. Damn. My blocks of infantry (though my Zombies managed to charge his Dragon Princes in the front and flank) slowly got smashed down and I just couldn't summon enough back. As I said one of those games were I couldn't get a foot hold. There was one spectacular high light though. An epic clash between both generals. It was Hook battling Rufio all over again. Jimzan the Everliving V.S Prince Mantor. This time it's personal! Mantor charged Jimzan and issued a challenge. Now both of these guys have ASF and Initiative 8 so they strike simultaneously. The two mighty warriors ran at each and swung, instantly slaying one another! So that was kind of nice. Apart from that little gem it was all pain for me. Still it was fun and Mantor played really well so it's gonna be a great clash next time.

"Looky, looky I got Hooky"

Okay so my other doomed encounter involved more stupid Elves. This time at the hands of my mate Will and his Wood Elves. He'd put together 2000 points of combat dudes. It was a pretty cool list. No Way Watchers or Glade Guard. He had blocks of Spearmen (Eternal Guard?), some War Dancers, a Spell Singer, two units of Wild riders and two more blocks of fighty guys (I have no idea what they are). I had decided to use a Vampire Lord instead of my Ghoul King. Well that was a mistake. The game started off well, I got some lucky magic off and Gazed some of his expensive guys, the Terrorghiest and Banshee were screaming around and causing loads of damage and then I decided to charge this Vamp Lord into combat. I'd given him the Sword of Striking, Red Fury, a 4+ ward save and the Night Shroud. So his build was okay, but the dice told a different story. He couldn't do anything. It was like hitting a brick wall with a wet fish. Anyway he eventually got wiped through combat res. And the rest of my stuff got owned. So yeah............. Oh well, Will did a really good job and I actually really like his army. He played it well and completely destroyed me (well except the Terrorghiest which actually survived both battles. Yay!) The whole combat Wood Elf list was surprisingly tough and I think it's pretty fluffy, if not traditional, and cool. So good job Will.

Anyway all these beatings have left me bloody and bruised but also thirsty for revenge. I'll pop the Vamp Lord back on the shelf and stick with the Ghoul King. An Undead reckoning is upon us and the Elves will pay. Oh yes they will!

So in other hobbying news I painted the first unit for my Warrior list, 5 Marauder Horsemen and I think they look good. Also I just bought a buttload (a battalion, Doombull and a Ghorgon) of Beastmen so there's gonna be a tonne of modelling coming up. It's going to be great to get some different flavors onto the battlefield. Speaking of, my mate Dan has just about got his Ogres ready for war! So plenty of blood to be shed then blogged about! So stay tuned guys tonnes of stuff coming up. Don't cry for me, the Dead will rise again.

Hoof and Horn - A Beastmen Rundown

Howdy Howdy Howdy everyone. So today I'm going to chat a little bit about Beastmen. They're one of the armies I'm seriously considering playing next and I'd like to share some thoughts on these furry little guys. And maybe get some feedback and your thoughts on them too. First off, let me indulge you with a little of their fluff. So basically Beastmen came into existence after the great catastrophe. Those silly Old Ones' super power gates (or whatever) collapsed and Chaos spills into the world. Huge chunks of physical Chaos comes crashing down to the ground and those unfortunate to be near them get caught up in a lot of bad joo-joo. There's lots of death and all that, but more importantly there are lots of mutations. People and animals are spliced into hideous forms filled with vile intent. Limbs bend backwards like that of goats. Minds are filled with hatred and suffering. Fangs sprout, muscles split, and the world is for ever tainted as the true children of Chaos are born. I like to picture it as, at one moment the world is like Farmville, then the next it is a vision from Hell. This is the beginning of the Beastmen.

Okay, so for a long time these terrible creatures multiply and rule the forests of the old world. They live violent uncivilized lives and feed on the puny prey known as man. As far as the Beastmen are concerned their pretty much living in Heaven. Which to us would be Hell. Anyway one day some uppety young man with a big golden warhammer (I wonder who that could be?) shows up and unites the tribes of men. Suddenly man is no longer prey and in fact re-takes much of the old world. They start building walls and cities and prosper like never before. The great golden age of man begins and everyone is pretty happy about it. Except of course the Beastmen. They despise man more then ever now. They see his walls and buildings as an insult to anarchy. They see man as a creature who has cheated his way into the world. The Beastmen want nothing more then to restore the "true" order of the universe, and thus prepare their armies and champions of anarchy for war...

Cool. So as you can tell these guys are pretty bad ass. Their fluff is a major draw for me. I love the idea of "the thing in the woods" and I feel like their latest edition (which is still super old) has turned "the thing in the woods" from being a scary monster to an entire civilization of monsters, waiting to come get us. I like the flavor of such hatred for man and lust for violence. The sheer menace of them seems so obvious and terrifying. So I think their concept is pretty darn cool but what about in game? Let's have a look at what these guys bring to the table.

So I know the Beasts don't get a lot of love out there on the net. And I will admit I definitely think there are some problems with them. But I'll get to that later because I think they have some awesome rules and abilities and could make a very decent list. First off is their speed. Your entire army has at least movement 5. This is good because you want to get these guys into combat as fast as you can. Combat is the key with the Beastmen. They have next to nothing in terms of shooting and I'd use lore of Beasts or Shadows for magic to get them into/buff their combats. They are quick. Their base troops, Gors, are moving at 5", the Minotaurs are at 6" and the Tusker Chariots and Chaos Warhounds are 7". The Gors, Tusker Chariots and Warhounds all count as core so there are going to be a fair few of them on the table and moving fast. So that's good.

Pretty much all Beastmen (though not Minotauurs unfortunately) have a bloody awesome rule called Primal Fury. What it allows you to do is each round of combat your in, your unit takes a Leadership test and if it's passed you gain hatred to whatever your fighting until the end of the combat round. You can re-roll missed hits even if it's not the first round of combat too. And if you roll snake eyes the unit gains hatred AND frenzy. For me, this is what makes Beastmen very viable. Now I know Beastmen have terrible Leadership and that's one of their biggest problems. But, if your General is around and a Battle Standard Bearer then you have a damn good chance of making these rolls. You won't get it every time but you will get it most of the time. And every now and then you'll roll a double 1 too and that will be a very pleasant surprise. To you anyway...

So the other major army special rule is Beastmen Ambush. Honestly I don't know how I feel about this.I remember how brutal it used to be. Huge units of Gors popping up behind me. It used to be intense, but now it's not so much. The way it works now is if you have a unit of Gors, Ungors or Raiders deployed on the table you can then put a smaller unit of the same type in ambush. Then each turn (including Turn 1 which is pretty cool) you roll a dice for each unit to see what happens.

1. The enemy chooses which side of the board they come out on.
2,3. Nothing happens, roll again next turn.
4. They enter play from the Beastmen players left
5. They enter from the right.
6. Beastmen player chooses where they enter (including behind the enemy!).

So it's kind of quite random where they come out. My problem with it is that they may well be out of range from your General or BSB especially if the enemy chooses where they come out and then if they need to make a panic check and fail they're straight off the table again. So I might have to tinker with it a little bit to see how well it works or not.

Gor Herd. (Gamesworkshops)

Alright lets have a look at some troops and characters. So there a 3 types of lords you can take. Beastlord, Doombull or Great Bray Shamans. The Beastlords are pretty good. Nice and hitty with pretty descent stats and a lovely Leadership of 9 (remember Primal Fury). Once their tooled up with 100pts of items and Chaos Gifts (oh yeah Beastmen get gifts!) they become pretty damn good. Not all that survivable but they can certainly dish it out. A fine choice for the General. Next up is the Doombull. A Minotaur lord! This guy is tough. He weighs in a little expensive for points but that's okay. His stat line is lovely. He has Blood Greed (so everytime he wins combat he gains another attack for the rest of the game "WOO WOO"). Plus he gets D3 impact hits and a stomp attack. However there are some issues with these big boys. Their Leadership is only 8, they can only over run D6" and they don't get Primal Fury. Still if you want a hard hitting, flesh eating, enemy shitting their pants lord, the Doombull could be a good choice. Finally there are the Bray Shamans. These are your casters and their not too bad either. Look the Lore of the Wild is honestly pretty rubbish but they can use Death, Shadow or Beasts and any of these seem to work well with Beastmen. Again these guys are only Leadership 8 but for a caster they have a surprising amount of punch. So they could do well in a unit. There are Hero versions of all 3 lords with exactly the same special rules just with slightly crappier stats.

Now in terms of troops you have a bunch of fast, lightly armored combat goats. Gors are pretty descent. Weapon Skill 4 and Toughness 4 is pretty good for core troops. You can give them an extra hand weapon too giving them 2 attacks re-rolling (if you Primal Fury). Coming in at 8 pts a piece with the extra attack their pretty solid. I'd suggest big blocks of them as they have NO armor. Ungors are crap versions of Gors and at a starting price of 5 points each I'd give them a pass. Although Ungor Raiders are half descent. They are skirmished Ungors with short bows. These guys could make a real nuisance of themselves as they can Ambush. Although watch out cause there only Leadership 6. Tusker Chariots are good. Their fast, hitty and core. Could be used well in supporting combats with ambushing Gors. Chaos Warhounds certainly aren't the best unit in Warhammer but they are bloody quick and as I said earlier speed is you ally. I'm sure I could find a use for them. Then things start to get bigger. I quite like Bestigors. Heavy armor and Great Weapons so their punching at Strength 6. And their Despoilers rule means when they capture enemy standards they can use them for combat resolution. Units of Minotaurs seem scary, they get the impact hit, Blood Greed and stomps. They're Strength 5 with 3 Attacks. Nice and brutal. Razorgors seem nice too (although they have the worst models of all time). Again fast, tough and hitty. Plus they can pull chariots. Stick a Hero in that chariot and he'll make a dent alright. Centigors, for me they're too expensive and their models are way too shit. Sorry but pass. Harpies are cheap and fast = good and good. Also they have 2 attacks which is handy for a flying unit. Try to get them up against war machine crew or archers on the flanks to allow your ambushers a clear passage.
Then things get bigger again...

The Cygor has an awesome model but unless your going up against an extremely magic army (like Grey Knights or something) I think they're a bit crap. True you get essentially a Stone Thrower with them and they have some strange abilities but if you want a big scary brute go with either a Giant or a Ghorgon. The Giants are fun to play with their random attack styles and the Ghorgon? Let's just say it puts the Beast in Beastmen. The Chaos Spawn is too expensive for something so random. Which is a shame cause they're unbreakable and (I think) really cool. Then there's the good old Jabberslythe. This thing is tough, it flies, it has a shooting attack, it's poisonous , causes Terror and it makes peeps turn insane. Awesome.

So I won't go through the named characters cause I never use them and I won't go through the items cause I can't be fucked (sorry). But I will say this. There are 2 items I can see real potential with. First is the Beast Banner. It cost 75 points so it needs to go with a BSB but you want one of those any way for your Primal Fury. Basically it gives the unit it's in +1 Strength. This is great. Get it on a big block of Gors who are now Weapon Skill 4, Strength 4, Toughness 4, 2 Attacks and re-rolling missed hits (with your Primal Fury). That's going to hurt somebody. Then we have the Shard of the Herdstone. It's sick. At the start of the Magic Phase all friendly wizards within 6" of it generate a Power Dice? Yes fucking Please. If you ever play as Beastmen please promise me you'll use this. It's only 50 points so a Hero Bray Shaman can take it. Having 1 or 2 little wizards hanging around the shard, casting normally AND creating 1 or 2 more Power Dice is brilliant. Do it, Do it, DO IT.......

And to finish up I guess the only real tactic with these guys is to hit hard and hit fast. They have minimal armor and all their strength is in combat. So you need to make sure when you hit them, they can't hit back hard. Try to out number, try to out maneuver and surround, and try to do it fast. This is where your Beastmen Ambush could be really effective but be careful! You want to out number, you don't want a unit of Gors just popping up all by itself in front of like ten thousand orcs or something. Their Leadership isn't great so you really don't want to get locked into a combat you could lose. Shooting will be a real issue against the Beasts so use your speed. Learn to keep your units out of each others way whilst close enough for them to double charge. Charge, win combat, run down, repeat. Keep your troops within range to use the Generals Leadership and BSB to get your Primal Fury happening. Tear down their walls, destroy their icons, break their spirits and kill, kill, KILL. Return man to his true position in the world........

Well that's it from me. As I said I'm considering collecting Beasts so let me know what you think of the article and point out what I've missed/completely got wrong. I'm tossing up between Beasts, Dark Elves and Warriors of Chaos, so expect a run down for each. Until then good luck on the battlefield and beware the thing in the woods...

Jimzan.