Beast

Well it has been a while since either of us have updated. The main reason for the is the installation of K's new HVAC system. I decided to take the few minutes I have here to do a quick up date to let everyone know i got stomped by K's Dino's. My Beastmen had been having ok games vs his Empire, so I guess it was a good test. It has really brought around some changes to my army. No longer do I feel safe trying to hide my 4 low level shamans alone. they are now accompanied with 10 Raiders. I dropped the level 3 infavor for another killy Lord. Other then that not much has changed.

Beastmen List

BeastLord: XHW, Armor of Fortune 5+,5+
49 Bestigors Full CMD: Gleaming Pendant

Wargor: BSB, HA, Shield, Ramhorn Helm, Talisman of Endurance, 3+,5+
49 Gors: Full CMD

2 Tuskgor Chariots

10 Ungor Raiders

15 Gors: M

Bray-Shaman: Herdstone, Lvl 2, Beast
Bray-Shaman: Lvl 2, Beast
Bray-Shaman: Lvl1, Shadow

Great Bray-Shaman:, Lvl3, Wild, Brass Cleaver, Jagged Dagger, Crown of Command, Gnarled Hide, Razigor Chariot, 4+

Gor-lish-ess-ness

After some deliberating with arnie, We have coordinated an update on the Beastmen Army. Below you will see the updated list. After facing the weaknesses of the Beastmen they faced a more competitive army, the empire. The extra magic support combined with double beast magic proved to be very helpful. The ability to utilize wildform from two casters helps the success of the game changing spell. Splitting up the big unit of minotaurs helped maintain the army composition but changed the role of the minotaurs. Now they are pure wreaking ball units. If they are targeted and destroyed, no biggie. If they smash into a unit, all the better. Flank support and charge deflectors are the new role for the epic fantasy figures. Dropping all of the ungor combat units has taken an adjustment but not have a unit flee do to their crappy ld 6 helped keep the battle line stout. Adding the ungor raiders gives a mage a bunker plus manoverabilty to help out where needed most. A unit of 50 Gors on the table top is impressive and fearful to field on the tabletop. I hope in the near future we will start adding pics and one day bye next years end, video.

2500 Beastmen

Killer Chariot Beastlord Razorgor chariot Brass Clever Slug Skin Charmed Shield Ironcurse Icon

Great Bray Shaman lvl 3 Beast magic xtra wpn

Bray Shaman lvl 2 Beast magic xtra wpn

BSB Wargor HA shield Scaly Skin (total 2+AS, 6+ward hth) Std of Discipline

Core:
48 Gors full cmd xtra wpn BSB and lvl 2 bunker

2 tuskigor chariots

10 ungor raiders shorbows

Special:
3 Minotaurs xtra wpn

3 Minotaurs xtra wpn

32 (8x4) Bestigors full cmd

Rare:
Jabberslythe or Ghorgon - the only decision need to be made (ran the Jab with decent success)

Merry Christmas All!

Who gives a flock of doom!

Fail. I tried the Beastmen army against arnie's new HE list. Magic Heavy and Shooty Heavy. 60 shots and 2 bolters. Ouch. Then on top of that Curse of Arrow Attraction spell goin off on the minotaurs. Lots of dead minotaurs. Basically I went against the biggest weaknesses to the Beastmen a strong ranged attack. Everything got shot to pieces. Giant, Minotaurs, Bestigors, Tuskigor chariot, Ungors, all took massive casualties or out right wiped out before finding combat.

I did learn some tactics for the Beastmen. Keep the BSB near the main battle line. Do not keep the BSB on the flank and leave other units out of its range in the beginning. I place the unit of 20 ungors on the right flank near Bestigors, Tuskigor chariot, and Minotaurs. After failing a panic test with the ungors, out of range of BSB. The Bestigor unit decided to run from the panic. Epic Fail. Not keeping the BSB close to Bestigor and ungor unit really hurt on turn one. ungors off the table and thanks to a kind friend, the bestigors were barely on the table top. Only 2 minotaurs managed to stagger into combat before getting hacked and speared to death. only 3 Bestigors, a single wound left on tuskigor chariot, and a single wound on the giant managed to get into combat before being finished off by the High Elves.

There was only one "real" close combat engagement. After running my Killer Chariot Beastlord from a Block of 30 Phoenix Guard with BSB, the Beastlord rallied. The Phoenix Guard pursued into my block of Gors with BSB with Beast Banner. Good Fight! Primal Fury really pays off for the Beastmen when they finally make it into combat. After losing combat by 2 and actually passing a leadership test, with a re roll. The Beastlord Chariot smashed into the flank of the Phoenix Guard. I issued a challenge with the Beastlord and the HE BSB excepted. I was burned by awful dice rolling. I did not cause a single wound to the BSB, even though all I needed was one more wound to kill off the BSB. Fail again. After taking over 650 points to break and overrun the Phoenix Guard the game was over at turn 6. Major Victory to the lofty High Elves.

What I learned from the my first game of Beastmen:

Primal Fury Rocks - I guess its the reason to play Beastmen
Minotaurs are only good in small units of 3 or otherwise they become HIGH value targets
Beastlord Charoit is great for taking on a single infantry unit
Beast Magic for Wildform is great
Flock of Doom is fun to say when you say "who gives a flock of doom"
Running a lvl 3 and lvl 2 is almost a must two chances at Wildform
Giants are only good if you have two otherwise go with a Ghorgon
Ungors suck T3 and no armor take chariots instead and more gors

Here is some of the things I want to try with the Beastmen. The magic item to make -1 to hit and 4+ for artillery for one shooting phase. Maybe try the bound item for Beastial Surge spell to get into combat quicker. Horde of Bestigors and drop to two unit of Minotaurs or one unit of 4 with shields. Back to the drawing board.

Beastmen War Host

Short and sweet here is the list for our Wednesday night gaming. Im going to general, for the first time, a Beastmen Army. I believe this is a well rounded list to try out everything from Killer Chariot to Minotaurs and Giants. I am most curious about Bestigors. I can see them being a waste or a game winner unit.

2500 point limit

Unit Killer Chariot - Beastlord on Razorgor Chariot - Brass Clever, Slug Skin, Ramhorn Helm, HE, Shield - see arnies post for more details

Great Bray Shaman Lvl 4 - Beast Magic

Wargor BSB HA Shield Scaly Skin gift - Magic Banner Beast Banner +1 Str

Core:

39 Gors Extra hand weapon full cmd - BSB in unit

20 ungors S and M

18 ungor AMBUSH unit S and M

1 tuskigor chariot

Special:

9 Minotaurs

24 Bestigors full cmd Banner of Discpline

Rare:

1 Giant

I may at last minute drop a minotaur but add a musician to the minotaurs (run 4x2 and reform to 3x2 if casualties). and increase the Bestigors to 28 and run it 7x4. 15 WS4 S6 attacks with chance of re-rolls. Or I may try to squeeze a lvl 1 shaman with beast for wildform to help survivability and combat prowess. Other than that my battle plan is to march and get into combat as soon as possible. Simple plan but only plan with Beastmen.

Biten by Beastmen

After reading some forum junk, the consensus that Beastmen is a low 3rd tier army has got me stumped. I know arnie and I's favorite memory filled games have been Beastmen vs. Empire. All the games were decided turn 6 and then it still came down to victory points which lead to draws. After some thought I have decided to try my hand at the stout Beastmen. I dont know if I can except them being portrayed as a crappy army. I believe besides a slim few that you can screw up any army if played correctly or if the army design is not there. Are some armies better than others? Yes. GW clearly does not care about balance shown through the different army books and lack of updates for some races. cough cough Tomb Kings.

Taking from what we have learned from past games I am developing a new list. I am going to try out a unit of Bestigors and also incorporate a Great Bray Shaman lvl 4 with Beast magic. Beast magic has a lot of synergy with the army. Besides reducing 1 to the casting cost for being beasts, the lore seems to buff and also help with ranged damage. Those two abilities seem that it should help the heavily close combat oriented Beastmen. Minotaurs are awesome. Minotaurs is part of the reason Fantasy is Fantasy. From Mythology to Movies they have been a highlight into the genre of Fantasy. Not fielding a unit of them would be a disgrace in my opinion.

I am not sure how this list will hold up against HE's surgical close combat units, but what the heck this game is to played for fun! Remember wargaming community that this is a game and entertainment, so winning every game is not my or arnie's top priority. We enjoy have a great time rolling dice, relaxing, and having those epic moments on a table top setting. Warhammer is a nice escape from reality and having the ability to play again is a much need relief of the daily stresses we all encounter through life. Ok enough sappy stuff, but just wanted to administer a dose of reality into the fantasy realm. Hopefully by Tuesday I will have the list completed and posted before we play on Wednesday. If you have any suggestions or experience with Beastmen we are all ears, just leave in the comment box.

Killer charriot

Fighting K's Empire army I got to test a lot of ideas out with the Beastmen. The main test I wanted to do is see what happened when my Lord on chariot got into combat. It may cost a lot of points but my plan is to run it in again large units to deal massive casualties. The basic idea is to give him a large base size and try to use that to gain as many attacks as possible.

Beastlord on Razorgor Chariot - 374
Brass Cleaver
Ramhorn Helm
Slug-Skin

This guy can get crazy when fighting a unit of infantry. Even if it gets charged by a single model it will have 9 S 5 and 2 S 3 attacks. If it charges a unit that is at least 4 models wide it will get at the minimum 4 S 6 attacks, 9 S 5 attacks, 1 S 4 attack and 4 S 3 attacks for a total of 18 attacks. If i role max on impact hits it will have 5 more strength 5 attacks. If I get frenzy on Primal Fury i will get 1 more strength 5 and 1 more strength 3 attacks. Now I know that is a lot of numbers so let me break it down this way. The total max attacks is 25. If i am fighting a Horde unit of say great-swords(full cmd) or Dark Elf spearmen(full cmd), they will have 13 or 17 attacks respectively. Even if i only role 1 for impact hits i will have more attacks then them at 18. Most at higher strength.

While you could try and kill the chariot(T5, W5, AS4+) out from under him, the impact hits and slug skin happen at the beginning of combat. So i would lose the Razorgor's attacks(4 S 6) and the Ungor driver's attack(1 S 4) , but it would still leave me with lots of attacks(D6 Impact, 4 Slug-Skin, 8 Beastlord). While this build may seem expensive, think of it this way. It has as much, if not more, killing power then a dragon, but cost less*. You lose the flying and breath weapon, but it is a smaller target and unless someone knows the Beastmen really well, they will under value it.

*A Prince on Sun Dragon with NOTHING else is 380. Add a 2+ AS and GW puts it 417 and it has less of an armor save and only a strength 2 breath weapon. The same build with a Star is 557. I can field 2 Tuskgor Chariots or 1 more Razorgor Chariot for the price difference. Heck, it's 42 points away from adding a Giant to your list!!