Monstrous Beasts battle log

I thought I'd finally start a log for my beleagured beasties; here's last nights 1500pt battle with my all-comers list against an Empire army at my local GW store.

Army lists

lvl1 Brayshaman, 2 dispell scrolls (beast-lore) (running wild and free)

Herd (10/10); Full Command, additional hand weapons
Herd (5/5); Foe Render
5 warhounds
5 warhounds
5 warhounds
Chariot
Chariot
Khorne Chariot
Khorne Chariot

3 Minotaurs; Great Weapons
3 Minotaurs; Great Weapons
3 Ogres; Great weapons, heavy armour, shields

3 Dragon Ogres; Great weapons, light armour

His list:

Empire Captain; Sword of Might, full plate, shield (in greatswords)
lvl2 Bright wizard; Two scrolls (in archers1)
lvl2 Bright wizard; One scroll (in archers2)

20 Swordsmen; Full command
20 Spearmen; Full command, shields
10 archers; Marksman
10 archers; Marksman

20 Great Swords; Full command
5 Pistolliers; Champion w/repeater pistol
5 Outriders; Champion w/repeater pistol

Hellblaster volley gun

And there must of been some extra magical bits and pieces as by my calculation that only comes to around 1400. He got pretty unlucky with spells, both wizards ending up with 1(fireball) and 5(conflaguration of doom, which was never used) from the fire lore.

Terrain

Very bare, two one-tier hills on the south edge, a wood northwest corner. We were hopping straight on to the table after another game had finished and just used what they'd placed and both decided not to add more.

Deployment

I won the rolls for table side and initial deployment and hastily snagged the side with the hills to deny them to what I was expecting to be a gun line, turned out it didnt make any difference as he had only brought the one artillery piece and was relying on his magic and static res. I forced him to go first and waited to see where the dread helblaster would end up.

Armies were deployed as Outriders and Archers on the far left as I saw it facing them, with Greatswords and Swordsmen next to them, their general the Captain lurking in the Greatswords. Next up was the dreaded volleyblaster and then the Spear block for protection and finally the remaining archers with their wizard and the pistolliers forming a line to the right hand edge of the table.

I had my heavily armoured Ogres facing off against the Outriders and inside of them the Dragon Ogres and a Minotaur herd, both screened by hounds, then all four of the chariots, again with some hounds frisking about in front and the final Minotaur herd at the far right facing the Pistolliers. My general, the scroll-caddy shaman, was lurking about behind the big guys trying to look inconspicuous. Both of my beast herds started in ambush, I've heard a lot of negatives about ambush but with foe renders its a 50/50 call to get a real advantage and besides, I couldnt actually squeeze them into my main battle line and find a use for them.

Battle report

Turn 1

Empire won the roll and elected to go second, I was happy enough with this and initially thought it a mistake but after pondering it, his Archers and Helblaster would of been out of range anyway, so a pretty fair call but it did allow me to steam forward and seize the early initiative. Everything shot forward with the Hounds angling across the battle line to dance in front of the Helblaster and Greatswords, the first to try and block it's lines of fire and the second to hopefully tempt them out of their secure line.

Empire reacted with a tentative move forward by the Pistolliers to come into range with their Minotaurs ahead of them and a surprisingly swift move by the Outriders to get out of the charge arc of my Ogres and sit on that edge of the battlefield flanking them. The Spearmen also marched forward to prevent my Dogs from attacking the Helblaster next turn.

In the magic phase a fireball took two wounds from one of the Khorne Chariots after the first of my many rolls of three 1's on three dice to dispell which became a running theme for the rest of the game and a scroll cancelled the second one. Shooting began with the Helblaster which could spot one of my Minotaur herds despite the distraction of the dancing dogs and proceeded to roll 10 shots before misfiring and exploding. I think I did a fairly good job of containing my glee. Of those 10 shots we ended up with 3 wounds so I removed a Minotaur while he took off the cannon and considered it a very good trade. The rest of the shooting saw 4 wounds on the other Minotaurs from the Pistolliers, a wound on the Ogres from the Outriders and two dead dogs on the left to the Archers there. The bemused Minotaurs in front of the former Helblaster stuck about but the flank Minotaurs(despite their reroll for undivided) and Hounds turned tail.

Turn 2

Minotaurs rallied but Hounds kept running, all of 3 inches (yes another three 1's on three dice) so stayed on the board. Both Herds arrived in the places elected for them with some very fortunate rolls, the large Herd arriving behind the Greatswords and Swordsmen while the mini-Herd made an appearance behind the Pistolliers eyeing the Archers next to them. Thanks to the Spears and Pistolliers moving forward they had come into range of the Chariots who tore forward, a Khorne and regular one hitting the Spears while a single regular hit the Pistolliers who elected to stand now that the Herd was sitting behind them licking their lips. The rest of the battle line shifted slightly but elected not to charge as I wanted to combine frontal charges with the herd that had arrived at the back next turn.

Combat was brief and brutal, the two Chariots reducing 14 Spearmen to red pulp between them with the frenzied Khorne Chariot running the survivors down in pursuit. The lone Chariot against the Pistolliers managed 7 impact hits and slaughtered the entire unit but then overan only 3 inches(three 1's again!) to stop directly infront of the Archers that were busily backing away from the little beast Herd.

Empire were reeling after seeing the right flank reduced to a unit of Archers in a single turn but were locked with hounds in front of the Greatswords and the Herd behind, the only movement was the left Archers moving to screen the Greatswords rear while the Outriders ran circles around the Ogres. Both wizards left their units to their fates and moved away but the magic phase was over before it began when the left wizard miscast on his first attempt, taking a wound and ending the phase. The Archers at each end of the battlefield both targetted the Herds nearest them and took two ungors from each, not quite enough to inflict a panic test on the mini-Herd. Finally the Outriders took aim at the Ogres backs and inflicted five wounds, leaving just one who failed his test but running away from the Outriders took him closer to the archers he'd been closing on from the start.

Turn 3

The lone Ogre rallied but the Dogs that had been running since turn 1 failed again and this time managed a paltry 4 inches, egding closer to the board edge but sticking around still. My left dogs charged the Greatswords to lock them in combat while the ones on the right charged a Wizard that had been attempting to escape the impending masacre of his Archer bodyguards, he elected to flee but the dogs ran him down. Meanwhile the Chariot that had killed the Pistolliers along with the mini-Herd combined to charge into the Archers and in the centre the two member Minotaur herd, the big beast Herd and the undivided Chariot that had been in the spearman combat, but chosen not to pursue, all jumped on the Swordsmen.

The archers were mauled, the single survivor being run down by the mini-Herd who used the pursuit to bring them closer to the centre of the table while the Chariot was content to watch, it's work done. In the centre over half the Swordsmen were killed by three units hitting them and they broke with the Chariot in hot pursuit which slammed into the flank of the Greatswords who's combat with the hounds hadn't been resolved yet so could fight again. Sadly my run of luck deserted me there and with a sudden rash of feeble dice only two Greatswordsmen went down compared to a wound on the Chariot and 3 dead Dogs, both units fled and the Greatswords overran into my Dragon Ogres who'd been bidding their time waiting for a favourable charge.

Empire now had only a unit of Archers, a 1 wound Wizard, the Outriders and the Greatswords with Captain but stuck at it gamely. The Outriders moving past the charge arc of my fourth Chariot which I'd hoped to catch them with, ready to shoot at it in their own phase. The Magic phase again achieved nothing and shooting saw 3 wounds on the Chariot and another dead ungor from the big Herd(still 17 strong after losses). Moving quickly on to the combat, which saw the first Empire charge of the game, the Greatswords only managed two wounds on the Dragon Ogres who swept away 5 men in return but still lost the combat which was tied due to the musician. My luck was firmly back though as they passed leadership and we both looked at the swirling masses of Beasts ready to throw themselves into the fight.

Turn 4

The Hounds finally exited the board and my general lurking at the back found something useful to do other than cackling manically while stopping everybody elses spells and charged the flank horseman of the Outriders, who responded by fleeing away. Meanwhile back at the centre my lone Ogre and big Herd charged the Archers while the Minotaurs that had pulped the Swordsmen hit the Greatswords rear and everything else closed in on the surviving elements of the Empire, a net forming around the Outriders for when they rallied, from my Shaman, 1w Khorne Chariot, mini-Herd, right flank Minotaurs and the surviving Hound unit.

The Archers were shredded and the pursuing Herd hit the last wizard, while the Minotaurs and Dragon Ogres cut down all but the champion of the Greatswords and the Captain who managed to finish off the wounded Dragon Ogre but even with stubborn they couldn't manage to stand and fled, only to be run down by the blood greedy Minotaurs.

In the Empire turn the Outriders rallied and turned to face their pursuers, trying to decide which was the most threatening. Recalling what happened when the undivided Chariot hit the Pistolliers they nominated the 1w Khorne Chariot as target for shooting and quickly finished it off. In combat the wizard challenged and my Herd's foe render accepted, stepping up and finishing off the wounded caster.

Turn 5

To finish it up my Minotaurs charged the Outriders who, rather than test their luck, elected to flee and managed to escape the battlefield to bare the news.


Empire kills - 5 Hounds, 5 Hounds, Khorne Chariot, Half-strength Ogres
Beasts kills - Everything, General, 3 banners, 4 Quarters

Masacre to beasts


I'm not really sure what my opponent could of done differently to do better, they were just the wrong tools for my monstrous legion but we were both playing all-comer lists. As for me, I once again ended up choking my charges with screening units that never seemed to be in the right place. I need to take more time deploying, those Outriders got behind my lines and then wrecked a Chariot and the Ogres before I could get close to them, tighter deployment would of stopped them slipping around my flank. The other thing I really need to remember is Chariots in pairs, when my undivided bounced off of the Greastswords allowing them to pursue the Hounds into my Dragon Ogres it almost gave the Empire a break through.

Sorry for writing so much, didn't realise how much I'd put till I scrolled back, congratulations to anybody who made it this far

Work's quiet so thought I'd bombard readers with another report.

I got back into Warhammer not too long ago after a pretty sizable gap - last time I played before the game I'm about to report, was in the edition where the standard box contained Goblins and High Elves, not sure what edition that was. Anyway, enough excuses, here is a parable on why you should know your damn rules before playing.

Beasts vs Beasts - 1000pts

Army lists

My army:

Wargor; Great weapon, chaos armour, shield
lvl 2 Bray shaman; Goretooth, power stone (shadow-lore)

Chariot
Chariot
5 Hounds
5 Hounds

3 Ogres; Great weapons, heavy armour, shields
3 Minotaurs; Great weapons

3 Dragon Ogres; Great weapons, light armour

Opposition:

Tzeentch Wargor; Goretooth, great weapon, Chaos armour
lvl 2 Bray shaman; Braystaff, dispell scroll (beast-lore)

7 Hounds
Herd (10/10); Full Command, additional hand weapons
Herd (10/10); Full Command, additional hand weapons
15 Tzaangor; Full Command

3 Ogres; Great weapons, heavy armour, shields

I rolled for my two spells then changed one for the basic spell, Steed of Shadows, and replaced the other with the Goretooth's Bear Anger so he had two useful, cheap to cast abilities that would work quite nicely together. My opponent got Green fire with his Tzeentch Wargor and Bears Anger from his goretooth and Hunter's Spear and Bear's Anger on his shaman.


Terrain

Hill in the top right corner as I looked at the board, two forests running down the left hand side and a small forest in the bottom right hand corner. All clear in the centre.


Deployment

He kept one unit of beasts in ambush, the other one was positioned in the woods at the top left ready to scamper down the table under their cover. Next across was the Ogres and then the Bestigor with the Wargor. On the far right the Hounds were placed to guard the flank and cover the shaman lurking there.

My army opposite was left to right, Hounds to block the Herd with both characters lurking behind, Minotaurs and a Chariot facing his Ogres, Dragon Ogres and Chariot facing Bestigor's and finally Ogres ready to hunt the shaman.


Battle report

Turn 1

I got the roll and chose to go first to get into combat as soon as possible, everything moving up full speed apart from the hounds as I didnt want to invite the charge of the herd yet. Magic was a non-event.

In my opponents turn he advanced to meet me with everything, his shaman marching round to the flank of my Ogres. The magic phase began and with it, my eventual downfall. We misread the effects of Green fire and he cast it with IF on my Dragon Ogres, instead of 1 attack per model as the spell is supposed to work, we rolled all 9 of their attacks... 6 wounds later the unit was looking decidedly the worse for wear. He then cast Hunter's spear on my Ogres and I failed dispell on three dice, again the spell was misinterpreted and it was allowed to do D3 wounds as a bolt thrower and so with a flukey roll killed one Ogre and did 2 wounds on the next.

Fortunately both units passed their panic checks but things were looking a lot grimer already.

Turn 2

The enemy Ogres had lumbered into range of my Minotaurs and their attendant chariot who declared a charge while the surviving Dragon Ogres pounced on the Bestigors to try to stop that Tzeentch magic. My own surviving Ogres launched themselves at the enemy hounds while my war dogs charged the enemy herd and the remaining chariot rumbled over to the Ogres flank to mow down the shaman.

My magic was again shut down so we moved to combat and I finally had something to cheer about as my Minotaurs and Chariot pulped the Ogres. The Minotaurs stayed put thanks to blood greed, feasting on the fallen remains but the chariot over ran, running straight into the combat between the dragon ogres and the bestigors, which we decided to take next. Between them 9 bestigor were mowed down but having forgotten to direct my attacks I'd left the wargor and champion alive to strike back and with his goretooth allowing rerolls he did that with style, between them inflicting enough wounds to polish off both remaining Dragon Ogres, to my horror. I'd still won but it was only by a smaller amount and he managed to pass his break test on a double 1 to rub salt in the wounds.

The two hound fights went predictably, my Ogres killed his hounds and his Herd killed mine and then over-ran into my Wargor who was dithering about at the back, d'oh!

With that my turn was over and my opponent moved his one remaining unengaged unit, his shaman, to get out of the charge arc of my chariot, we both forgot that he was march blocked by the Ogres so happily sprinted 10 inches past the chariots frontal arc. And with that done the magic bombardment began again, a Hunter's spear putting two wounds on the chariot while Green fire caused 4 self-inflicted wounds on the Minotaurs milling about.

In combat my wargor did his best but the sheer weight of numbers did for him and he fled and was run down by the jubilant Herd. My chariot shared a similar fate, fleeing and being run down by the bestigors who were happy to sneak out of the Minotaurs charge arc.

Turn 3

Things had taken a real turn for the worse and I decided to concentrate on eradicating the Bestigors and that Tzeentch caster who was taking a massive toll on my troops, so I sent the Ogres and Minotaurs towards them, one facing either flank of the unit, the chariot moving slightly to bring the shaman into it's charge arc again. Last of all my Bray shaman cast Bears Anger on himself in preparation to face the herd next turn.

Once again march blocking went unacknowledged and the bestigor's scooted 10 inches to escape the Minotaurs and get out of the Ogres arc, the enemies Shaman similarly danced around the chariot that was hunting him. The Herd charged my shaman. Magic this turn saw a Hunter's spear kill one of the Ogres but Green Fire was dispelled. In combat I forgot about the goretooth but the Shaman still managed to kill two of the three Gors in the front rank fighting him but still lost thanks to the Herd's musician, passing his leadership he stuck at it though.

Turn 4

The remaining monsters closed on the Bestigor's, staying out of charge range, whilst keeping inside themselves and leaving no gaps for the unit to run through. I forgot to steed my shaman out but he managed to keep fighting, another two gors falling and him passing leadership.

In the enemy turn however it finally ended, only managing to kill one he lost by one and predictably then failed leadership by just 1. He fled the combat and managed to out run pursuit, heading for the board edge, a direction that sadly remained consistant as he fled off next turn.

Turn 5

My chariot and Ogres finally had those hated Bestigor's in their sights and launched themselves at them while the last Minotaur went for the Beastherd in a an unfortunately short sighted effort at locking them for a while. Combat was brief and bloody, the chariot mauling all of the remaining Bestigor's while the Ogre pummeled the hero. Unfortunately the Minotaur couldn't emmulate his colleagues efforts and failed all three attacks before being killed.

In my opponents turn he ran the Herd towards a wood and shifted the shaman out of range of either of my remaining units. A Hunter's spear felled the last Ogre and with that I conceeded. he'd made it clear he was going to hide the herd in a wood where my chariot couldn't reach them and I had no hope of out pacing the permanantly 10 inch moving shaman in my clumsy 7 inch chariot and he'd just zap it with spear's at his leasure.

Enemy kills; Everything but one chariot, 1 quarter, general
My kills; Bestigors, Wargor, Ogres, War Hounds, 1 quarter, general, 1 banner

Solid loss.

At this point we realised he had never used his second Herd that were still laying in ambush and I felt pretty rotten about being beaten by not even a full army, it wasn't until after I'd gotten home and looked at the rules I realised how wrong we'd been playing some really important things. So I'm declaring a moral victory. Chances are I still would of gotten trounced, some really bad decisions in places, such as wasting the Hounds on the Herd which got my own general killed and forgetting to direct the Dragon Ogres attacks against the Tzeentch Wargor, but if I'd been able to kill that shaman on turn 3 and hadn't taken such heavy losses to those misunderstood spells then maybe it would of been different... maybe... we woz robbed!

It made my mind up about magic though, over-power your enemy or prepare to be over-powered, my own shaman made no impact on the game at all. It's why I left out aggressive magic in my 1500 army that was in report 1, unless your willing to put a lot into it like my opponent did, it just doesnt seem to achieve much.

This post has been edited by Matt1982 on Nov 27 2009, 04:19 PM

Bit of fluff for first two battles, baring in mind second battle occured before the first chronologically...


Ghraal Balehoof, the tribe's albino shaman, glared at the smug wargor preening as he admired the creatures that had emerged from the forest to answer his call. Alongside the two chariots his few gor's had constructed were minotaurs from their dark shrine and ogres drawn to the call of war, but in pride of place, the dragon ogres, tempted down from the mountains that rose from the heart of the forest. Wargor Heartseeker barked out his orders and the small army set off, packs of hounds trained by the charioteers loping along at the edges.

They were heading to the Herdstone to meet with the other tribes from the region to gather for war against the human settlement that had been raised on the edge of the woods, the fools had walked into a danger they had no idea about. This call to the creatures of the forest though, it was a demonstration of strength, a call for leadership of the joined herds and the others were bound to resent it.

Arriving at the stone they were met by an assortment of the lesser tribes, a band of changers with their twisted commander and a rival shaman and his own gors. Heartseekers contingent was a clear threat and as the forces converged the commander of the changers began spreading word that it was betrayal, Heartseeker had over stepped himself and was seeking control of everything!

Anarchy spread with the news and as the Tzaangor's marched out to meet the newly arrived force the others that had arrived already rushed to join them. Ghraal cursed his leader for his recklessness and slunk back as the wargor ordered his own forces to array and join the battlle.

...Battle 1...

It was soon over, howls of pain stiffled as ungors picked through the fallen to slaughter those too wounded to resist them and pick over the bodies for riches to steal away. The changers soldiers had been picked for destruction by Heartseeker once he realised defeat was certain and so both rivals for leadership had fallen, leaving Ghraal and the other shaman to settle matters.

A quick knife secured what heated words could not and Ghraal stood, slicked in his foe's blood to admire the herds gathered about the stone, watching him and knowing the god's had decided the matter in his favour. Time had been lost though, many beasts had been slain. A new call would have to go out, rallying the creatures of Chaos to his banner but soon the raid would set out...

...

The citizen's of Braechaven watched as the force of soldiers that had been sent by their local baron marched through the burdgeoning main street. Since the village had been founded it had grown swiftly in a very short space of time but now fell forces had turned thair gaze on them and anybody entering the woods had never been seen again. The mayor had been quick to call for aid and glad of the chance to exercise his troops the baron had responded, despatching this army to purge the woods of whatever was plaguing the local people.

Leaving the fields and entering into the shadowed realm of the forest the soldiers tightened their grips on their weapons as the canopy abruptly blotted out the sun only a scant few feet from the edge of the woods. Sergeants pressed their men forward as grumblings began, these were green troops freshly recruited and given the mission in the belief that it would be a short chase through the woods to root out some brigands and then a return to the village to enjoy the citizens accolades and gratitude.

Ahead of them the mercenary outriders, hired by the armies captain at his own expense after the baron with held his precious knight, shouted back that the forest cleared ahead and the troops emerged into an area of hacked stumps, at the centre stood a great shard of obsidian stone, heaped with rusted weapons and bloody corpses. The signs of the children of Chaos were increasingly obvious as they'd progressed and the captain now realised this was more than they had ever considered.

From the gloom surrounding the artificial clearing a sharp braying howl erupted, echoed by one, then another and suddenly a mass of gigantic creatures emerged from the tree line across from them, iron shod chariots dragged by enormous boars careening forward. The captain cursed his luck and ordered his men into line to accept the charge and repulse them with good honest steel...

...Battle 2...

Ghraal smirked at the backs of the fleeing Outriders as they spurred their horses and deserted the field, the poor fools had gotten turned around during the battle and now fled deeper into the forest instead of towards civilisation. Motioning to the gors who had joined the hound packs the beastmen unleashed their charges to chase after the horses galloping away. Not that it mattered, a great victory had been won and many survivors would soon be sacrificed at the great stone.

Now though, they would have to take the battle to the men soon before it was realised that their army wouldn't be coming back, still, that was for the future, for now there would be much celebration.

This post has been edited by Matt1982 on Nov 30 2009, 02:42 PM

Report of a match up between my beasts and a Warriors army at the local Games Workshop store.


Army lists

lvl1 Brayshaman, 2 dispell scrolls (beast-lore) (running wild and free)

Herd (8/12); Full Command, additional hand weapons
Herd (5/5); Foe Render
5 warhounds
5 warhounds
5 warhounds
Chariot
Chariot
Khorne Chariot
Khorne Chariot

3 Minotaurs; Great Weapons
3 Minotaurs; Great Weapons
3 Ogres; Great weapons, heavy armour, shields

3 Dragon Ogres; Great weapons, light armour

His list:

Exalted champion of Slaanesh; biting blade, shield
Exalted champion of Nurgle; biting blade, shield
Wulfrik the Wanderer

15 Warriors of Slaanesh; shields, full command
15 Warriors of Nurgle; shields, full command, banner of rage
15 Warriors of Tzeentch; shields, full command
20 Marauders; shields, light armour, full command

I stupidly let slip that I dont use much magic but lock down magic defence and he tailored his list accordingly as he'd previously planned to use 2 lvl2's which I could of handled and ignored quite happily. D'oh!

Terrain

Very bare as both of us wanted to get into combat fast, the only piece that really played any part in the battle was a wood in the centre of his half of the table.

Deployment

I won the roll and he deployed first, I got to see his full army before I'd run out of hounds so deployed accordingly. Wulfrik and the marauders were off the table in their long boat while my herds were in ambush. He had his Tzeentch warriors facing against my Dragon Ogres and a Khorne Chariot. The Nurgle warriors were facing the two undivided chariots and the Slaanesh warriors were against 3 Minotaurs and the second Khorne Chariot. My other mintaurs, shaman and ogres formed a second line behind them.


Battle report

Turn 1

I won the roll and chose to go first, both our turns consisted of moving up directly towards each other as fast as we could. With no shooting or magic that was about it.

Turn 2

Start of turn 2 and the fun was meant to begin here. My herds came on, the little one in his deployment phase to catch runners and the big one misrolled and ended up in my deployment area. The charges all hit as described in deployment, the Dragon Ogres and their chariot smashing through the Tzeentch block after causing 9 casualties between them with the Chariot following in hot pursuit. Unfortunately the other chariots all suffered from rubber weapons and the two undivided bounced off of the Nurgle block thanks to abysmal impact hit rolls followed by many misses thanks to the marks -1 to hit. The Nurgle pursuit ran down one chariot while the other narrowly got away. My terrible dice rolling continued into the Slaanesh combat and they ran down both my minotaurs and khorne chariot in pursuit.

Entering the Warriors turn Wulfrik arrived on the right hand side of the table heading for my shaman and the Nurgle block chased the chariot which managed to outpace them. The Slaanesh block charged towards my the unit of minotaurs that had been in my second line but they elected to flee, leaving the warriors stranded.

Turn 3

My chariot and minotaurs rallied here while the Ogres threw themselves into the flank of the Nurgle block to hold them up, everything else moved to form a new battle line facing the right hand side of the table to meet the three blocks there. Combat was drawn as the Ogres managed to smash down enough Warriors with their weapons to negate the death of one of their number to the exalted champion.

The Marauders charged my rallied chariot here while the Slaanesh block moved round again to get closer to my new line. In combat the chariot was destroyed and the Marauders over ran into the big herd that had appeared in my deployment zone. The Ogres took a few more wounds but managed to pass their leadership thanks to causing a few deaths of their own to make the combat resolution a little closer.

Turn 4

My minotaurs charged into the flank of the Marauders fighting the herd while my shaman stepped in front of the Slaanesh warriors to prevent them from joining that fight. The Dragon Ogres and Khorne chariot moved into position to combination charge the Nurgle warriors once they'd broken through the Ogres which seemed to be imminent now. In combat Wulfrik managed to kill enough of the herd to draw the combat after the minoaturs hacked a bloody path into the marauders flank. Another ogre dropped in the fight in the centre but two casualties from the surviving ogres was enough to keep the fight going as they didnt have any ranks left by this point.

The Slaanesh warriors pounced on the invitation of the shaman and quickly slaughtered him, passing leadership to stay still and remain close to the fights going on. My Foe render stepped up to challenge Wulfrik this turn to keep alive more of the herd and grant me some attacks back and while he died painfully, the other members of the herd and the minotaurs caused enough casualties this turn to break them, over running them in pursuit. Meanwhile the final ogre took two wounds from the exalted he was now in base contact with and fled, only to be run down by the pursuing warriors.

Turn 5

Revenge was in mind and the Dragon Ogres, Khorne chariot and a pack of warhounds all charged the 5 Nurgle warriors and the Exalted leading them. The herd that had killed off the marauders now set off after the Slaaneshii warriors to march block them and keep them close to my line while the Minotaurs turned about, ready to charge next turn. Combat was atrocious, that -1 to hit rolls for mark of Nurgle is a massive buff and meant that after all three of my units had attacked, only two warriors were dead, in return they managed 3 wounds on the Dragon Ogres for a victory by 1, which was enough to break all three of my units and the Dragon Ogres were run down in pursuit. The spectators commiserated but having followed the game thus far it seemed on par for my rolling.

The Nurgle warriors turned to face the fleeing Khorne chariot in case it rallied in my last turn and the Slaanesh warriors turned about face to confront my herd and Minotaurs.

Turn 6

The fleeing chariot bravely/stupidly rallied and turned to face the doom about to descend on it while the herd and minotaurs charged the slaanesh unit to attack before the warriors could. Luck finally turned here and directing two minotaurs against the exalted, I managed just enough wounds to kill him outright! The remaining minotaur and the gors in base to base added two more kills to the pile and the two surviving front rank warriors failed to do any damage back. Having lost by 4 the warriors broke and were run down by the minotaurs who added a second standard to their collection.

Last laugh however now went to the 3 Nurgle warriors and their exaletd leader who charged the rallied chariot and reduced it to kindling, over running off of the boards edge to escape the battle.


Enemy kills; 1 unit of Hounds, Ogres, 1 unit of Minotaurs, Dragon Ogres, 2 Chariots, 2 undivided Chariots, Shaman (general).
My kills; Tzeentch warriors, Slaanesh warriors, Marauders, Wulfrik, Slaanesh exalted (general), 50% Nurgle warriors. 2 banners. 3 table quarters.


Solid Victory


My most valuable unit has to go to the Ogres that took 4 rounds of combat to finally break, holding up the enemy advance and allowing me to rebalance my army after losing three units in a single turn on the right hand side in turn 2. Having something with 3+ armour, T4 and 3 wounds each is a real blessing. The enemy unit of the match though was those nurgle warriors who accounted for 2 chariots, a unit of hounds, the dragon ogres and ogres.

A very bloody battle, but the sheer size of my army allowed me to compensate after initial set backs as by the end while my enemy had 4 models I still had 2 packs of hounds, 2 herds and a unit of 3 untouched minotaurs and it was all these units spread across the field that turned a minor victory into a solid one courtesy of table quarters.

Nice reports, but you were conned in the last 1 - the Nurgle mark reduces WS by 1 in H2H, the -1 to hit is for shooting...

Beat me to the punch beastman bob! Also, I don't believe its legal for him to have two characters with the biting blade, i believe u can take each magic item on once per army, except scrolls and stones of course

It only reduces WS by 1 rather than a straight up -1 to hit?! Bother... I really need to expand my knowledge of the other armies special rules. I asked about the two biting blades thing, he said it was because they were from the common magic items section. I was dubious about it but let it pass rather than make an issue of it, just wanted to get a game in. Ah well, still whipped him but it would of been a pure masacre if those Nurgle troops had obligingly died to any of the three attacks I made into them.

I thought the same on the common magic items, but i remember playing against someone who wanted two staffs of dispel and i believe when we checked its a no no, no exception for common magic items

Something that i noticed throughout your reports is that you like to go first. why? i can understand if you were facing a shooting heavy army , but the second two lists were very combat heavy. Going secon means that you can rally your troops at the end of the game, move with having to worry about charges, and claim board quarters. The other advantage of going second is that you can react to what your opponent does.

IF none of this makes sense to you that is alright. you seem to be doing great. One final thing. your opponent can't have two biting blades in his list.

I also prefer to go second for the very same reasons. Additionally, going first encourages the opponent to advance on you and there is a lot of general magic and shooting that is out of range at 24+".

I can see where your coming from, those are good reasons but when I'm in doubt and it doesn't give either side an obvious advantage then I like to go first because:

- It takes the initiative and makes the enemy react to you rather than the other way around
- Enemy only gets one movement phase before ambushers arrive
- Block enemy movement and lines of sight

Beyond that I'm just pretty impetuous and not too patient

Report of yesterdays battle between 1K of my Beasts allied with my usual doubles partner using 1K of warriors versus 1K each of Skaven and Empire.

Beasts

Bray shaman - 2dispell scrolls

5 hounds (WH2)
5 hounds (WH3)
Chariot (CH1)
Chariot (CH2)

3 Minotaurs w/great weapons (MI1)
3 Minotaurs w/great weapons (MI2)
3 Ogres w/great weapons, shields & heavy armour (OG)

3 Dragon Ogres w/great weapons & light armour (DO)

Warriors

Exalted - chaos runesword
Wulfrik the Wanderer

7 hounds (WH1)
25 Marauders w/shields, light armour & full command
15 Warriors of Nurgle w/shields & full command + banner of rage (CW)
5 Marauder horsemen w/shields, light armour & full command (MH)

VS

Empire

Captain - barded horse, full plate, halberd
Captain - barded horse, full plate, hand gun

10 Handgunners /w marksman with longrifle (HG)
10 Crossbowmen /w marksman (CO)
20 Swordsmen /w full command (SW)
10 Halberdiers (detachment) (HD1)
10 halberdiers (detachment) (HD2)

Mortar (MO1)
Mortar (MO2)
6 Outriders /w champion with blunderbuss (OR)

Hellstorm rocket battery (HR)

Skaven

Chieftain /w weeping blade
Engineer
Engineer

25 Clanrats /w full command (CR1)
Ratling gun (RG1)
25 Clanrats /w full command (CR2)
Ratling gun (RG2)

4 Rat Ogres & 2 handlers (RO)

Doomwheel (DW)


Terrain

Hills in the centre of both deployment zones, small woods around the middle on both sides and a narrow corridor of two small ruined buildings in the centre.

Deployment

The Empire units castled around the hill with skaven blocks on either side for protection, the doomwheel was exiled to the far end of their deployment zone, to keep it's random warp-lightning bolts at a safe distance. Our chaos beasties deployed opposite picking our targets after dropping our three ablative hound units to see where the enemy were going to go.


--------------------MO1-HD1---HD2-MO2------------------------------------------
-OR-CR1-RG1----HG---HR-SW-CO----CR2-RG2-RO-----------------------DW-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------Woods-------------------Ruin---Ruin---------------------Woods-------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-MH-WH1----------WH2------------------CH2-------------OG-DO----------WH3-
-MI1-CW----------MI2-CH1---------------------------------------------------------


Battle report

Turn 1

Empire/Skaven won the roll for first turn and elected to go first to begin the bombardment and predictably enough the only thing to move was the DW, jerking forward. Here began the most unlucky shooting I have ever been fortunate enough to be on the other side of the table from. The first mortar misfired, it's sheel exploding harmlessly in midair, second mortar deviated wildly but managed to clip my chariot1 which happily passed it's saving throw. The rocket battery aimed at the Ogres but ended up in the woods. The only other unit in range was the crossbowmen but between long range and chariot2's armour, no damage was caused.

The Chaos battle line did as chaos battlelines always do and surged forward at maximum speed straight ahead. Warhound3 went off to bait the doomwheel while my dragon ogres positioned themselves for a charge on where I expected it to end up.

Turn 2

Throwing my wicked plans aside the doomwheel now turned 90o and went after the Ogres who had marched towards the centre of the table, everything else remained static and prepared to loose another volley. Once again the mortars and rocket battery diverted wildly, missing everything in sight and coming close to putting a shell on to the doomwheel. The doomwheel let loose at the Ogres and reduced one to charred dust, though the brutes refused to panic, more fortunately it scored one misfire meaning it would move out of control next turn. Next in line the crossbows managed to put two wounds on chariot2 this turn with an impressive display and the handgunners on the other side knocked down two of warhounds1, though the unit stayed around with the general nearby. The marauder horsemen however weren't so fortunate and a volley from the outriders wiped them out.

With the bait trap refused my loyal warhounds3 now charged the rear of the doomwheel after miraculously passing their terror test. Warhounds2 charged the crossbowmen on the hill in the flank, but two shots resulted in two deaths and the pack fled. Everything else kept going forward while the the dragon ogres turned about and tried to catch up with the regular ogres. In combat everybody eagerly watched to see what would happen, sadly the doomwheel managed to grind three hounds into the mud before combat even began so I had no attacks to make but fortunately the doomwheels crew of vermin were insufficient to finish off the two survivors and after failing it's restraint roll it was forced to pursue after them, running them down but taking it a very long way from my lines.

Turn 3

With the Chaos wave about to break in our next turn the Skaven sent forward the Rat Ogres to go meet my Ogres and Dragon Ogres while the doomwheel wobbled 11 inches back towards their deployment zone in out of control movement. The mortars again managed to miss everything they were aimed at but the rocket battery finally landed a hit, knocking down 2 chaos warriors and three of the hounds in front of them, the two survivors turning tail and fleeing through the unit. Next up the much anticipated ratlings let rip... and misfired. Rolling to see where they were going to fire wildly at they ended up gunning down 5 handgunners who panicked and fled, taking the mortar team behind them off of the board as well. In spite of Empire protests however the second one was also fired, but only managed a single wound against the heavily armoured ogres. The crossbowmen took chariot 2 down to a single wound this turn but couldn't finish it off and the outriders on the flank managed to deal four wounds to the Minotaurs who fortunately passed panic.

Both shrunken hound packs rallied and Wulfrik finally turned up, arriving in the top left corner behind the outriders. Lots of charges this turn, the Dragon Ogres went for the Rat Ogres but turned out to be out of range though the regular Ogres and Chariot2 hit clanrat2 containing an engineer and the chieftain. Minotaurs1 charged the outriders and were close enough that there would be no stand and shoot shots first. Wasnt happy to send in Minotaurs2 without support against the swords block and detachment so charged the empire hero standing nearby, who failed his fear test and fled, letting the minotaurs redirect into the rocket battery behind him. Combat all went one way with the Ogres and their chariot causing 8 wounds, including killing the engineer with directed crew attacks from the chariot. One wound back from the chieftain wasn't enough and they were run down with the chariot hitting the mortar behind. Minotaurs2 slaughtered the rocket crew and bloodgreed kept them in place. Minotaurs1 hacked down 4 outriders but the survivors managed to kill one minotaur in return - damn those horses - giving them enough combat resolution to pass the break check.

Turn 4

Rat Ogres charged my Dragon Ogres for a slice of revenge and the doomwheel began making its way back towards the centre. Shooting saw the doomwheel fry ratling2 with its random bolts before killing off the wounded Ogre, leaving just one survivor who again passed leadership. The crossbowmen targetted the rallied 3 dogs that had had the temerity to charge them before and turned them into pin cushions. Ratling1 turned its gun on the nurgle warriors but didnt manage to kill any. In combat the chariot pulped the mortar crew while the last member of Minotaurs1 took two wounds from horses before finishing off the two outriders. Surprise of the turn was the Rat Ogres fluffing their attacks and only putting two wounds on the Dragon Ogres who caused 4 in return, winning the combat by one and over running the survivors in pursuit.

Chaos warriors and Marauders charged clanrats1, Minotaurs2 and chariot1 charged the swordsmen and the Dragon Ogres declared a charge on the Doomwheel, but then failed their fear test, much to the spectators amusement. Everything else shuffled about to get away from the doomwheel on the right or to close on the survivors on the left and centre. The minotaurs and chariot wrecked the swordsmen and over ran into the crossbowmen who paniced and died but this meant that my chariot1's pursuit move had it careening into the hapless chariot2, with its single wound remaining. I removed chariot2. The Chaos blocks made similarly short work of clanrat1 and out ran them in pursuit.

Turn 5

The surviving empire hero charged my one wound minotaur on the left and mopped him up while the doomwheel charged my dragon ogres, who again failed fear, so would be hitting on 6's. The injured Dragon Ogre was ground into the dirt but the survivors managed 2 wounds and with outnumber won the combat but that wheel was going nowhere.

The two surviving members of warhounds1, the last of our dogs on the table, charged the empire hero as they were the only thing that could see him, everything else jumped on the remaining halberdier detachment and the last ratling. My chariot1 passed terror and charged the wheel. The halberdiers and ratling were butchered before getting to attack back but the hounds and empire hero all fluffed their attacks, so the hounds won on the strength of outnumber, he failed and they ran him down, an ignominious end for the enemy general. With all of that done we went back to the doomwheel fight. we decided to do impact and grind hits simultaneously and he managed 3 wounds on a dragon ogre while the chariot did 2 to him. Crew and tuskgors fluffed so the wheel had 2 wounds left and it's vermin crew attacked the dragon ogres to try and finish the injured one off before it could swing the great weapon, no wounds. Dragon Ogres attack back, 2 wounds. Just enough to reduce the wheel to splinters.


Enemy kills: 2 full hound units, 1 minotaur unit, 1 marauder horseman unit, 1 chariot, 50% ogres, 50% dragon ogres, 1 50% hound unit

Our kills: Everything, general, 3 banners, 2 quarters

MASACRE


We won that game on the strength of an improbable number of 5+ and 6+ saving rolls from ogres and chariots who took all the small arms fire the empire had to throw at them and the ability of our enemies to miss with all their guess range artillery. Magic was locked down by my scroll caddy shaman to the point it wasnt worth mentioning in the report. As much as I'll miss the dragon ogres, I'm not going to miss the amount of times I've failed miserably at their ld8. Nothing is nicer than the moment when the wall of monsters arrives at the gun line though, squelch

Old style beasts at 2k against a combat orientated Empire army for a final game before I got my hands on the new book:

Beasts

Shaggoth Champion w/Light armour, Great Weapon
Bray shaman - 2 scrolls

4x5 Hounds
2xTuskgor Chariots
3xTuskgor Chariots w/mark of Khorne
5/5 Beast Herd w/Foe Render
8/12 Beast Herd w/Full Command

2x3 Minoaturs w/Great Weapons
1x4 Ogres w/Heavy Armour, Shields, Great Weapons

3 Dragon Ogres w/Light Armour, Great Weapons

Empire

Templar Grand Master w/armour that gave rerollable armour save & laurels of victory

Lvl 2 Wizard w/some sort of magical armour that doesnt prevent magic
Captain w/sword of might
Warrior Priest w/armour that made me take strength tests & item that made him and unit ITP

20 Swordsmen w/Full command
10 Hand gunners
10 Crossbowmen
10 Knights w/Full command

10 IC Knights w/Full command & banner of ITP
20 Great Swords w/Full command
20 Flagellants w/Prophet of Doom

Just a brief round up of this one as the writing was on the wall from the start and the only thing that put the game in any doubt was the cluttered terrain that slowed down my horde.

Hounds did their duty as ever, marching into the jaws of destruction in order to bait the enemy into range. By the start of my turn 2 I only had one of the three units left, who went off to secure a table quarter.

In return for the dead hounds the non-IC knights and flagellants who'd both been baited out of position were slaughtered in short order allowing me to encircle the three surving blocks. There was a brief moment of dismay when each of the missile blocks managed to pop a full health chariot in a single turn and my Dragon Ogres whiffed against the IC knights with general and were then run down.

Things got back on track though in the next turn when two of the surviving chariots slaughtered the swordsmen and over ran to wipe out the missile troops in the next turn. The Greatswords were sandwiched by the Shaggoth and Minotaurs and failed their stubborn leadership. I lost a unit of Minotaurs after getting them pinned between the IC knights and a building, forgetting that as they are ogre sized infantry I could of actually moved them inside the building, which would of taken them safely out of harms way until reinforcements could arrive.

Shaggoth and my mini herd hit the IC knights in rear and flank to finish it, breaking them and chasing them into the same wall that my minotaurs had been smeared over.

Masacre to the Beasts. It was so complete that we didnt bother totaling the points, he'd brought the wrong tools for the job and by turn 2 he'd come to realise it too. Empire blocks just dont stand a chance against our monsters and cost far too much for what they can achieve. The sight of the two knight blocks was initially worrying but thats what great weapons are there for, 4 units of 5 would of done him much better I think.

As for what I'm taking away from the game, I need new dice. Shaggy was involved in two combats and did a grand total of 2 wounds, if he hadn't been charging in conjunction with other units I'd of lost him. He was very useful in the packed terrain though, threading his way where blocks would be unable to tread. Shame he's going but with the Ghorgon we get a more dangerous creature, but one that has frenzy so more of a hammer than a scalpel. I definately need to better my understanding of the more obscure rules like those surrounding buildings.

Cool reports.

Looking forward to your reports on the new beastmen list.