Evilcow's Beastly Blog, Starting the herd

[EvilCow]

With an army full of daemonically possessed Beastmen, it's time to start a battle report blog!

First game with Beastmen EVER:

2000pts vs VC

My list:
Lvl 4 shaman w/ steel claws, talisman of preservation, dagger (in Bestigors)
Wargor w/ Beast banner, heavy armor (in Gors)
Lvl 1 shaman, shadow
Lvl 1 shaman, shadow, shard
Lvl 2 shaman, beasts, dispel scroll
40 Gors w/ FC
Tuskgor chariot
Tuskgor chariot
5 Raiders
5 Raiders
5 Harpies
30 Bestigor w/ FC, standard of discipline
Razorgor
Razorgor

His list:
Vlad von Carstein (in Grave Guard)
Tomb Banshee (with Ghouls)
Necromancer on Corpse Cart w/ 3 powers (magic phase charge, other stuff), dispel
Wight w/ BSB
20 Skeletons w/ FC
20 Zombies
Vargulf
30 Ghouls
20 Grave Guard w/ FC, +1 hit banner


I win 1st turn.

Turn 1: Just move up, successfully cast pit on necromancer and he dies. His turn, nothing special but he Curse of Years the Gors.

Turn 2 Beasts: I charge 1 chariot and 1 razorgor into the skeleton unit, while switching both combat blocks to horde formation. The 2nd razorgor stands pretty in front of the zombies, and the harpies fly in front of the ghouls. I get Wyssan's on the Gors and Miasma (-2 WS) on the Grave Guard. However I forget about Curse of Years and lose 9+ more Gors! Damn you spell! The chariot kills many while the Razorgor takes a nap and fails.

Turn 2 VC: Zombies charge Razorgor, Grave Guard charge Gors, and Ghouls charge Harpies. I dispell Curse. In combat the Razorgor whiffs, flees and is killed by the Zombies, more Skeletons are killed. The Ghouls kill the Harpies and overrun into the Bestigors. The Gors, with Wyssan's and Beast Banner manage to kill many of the Grave Guard, with only Vlad, the Wight, and 4 GG left. Wooooooo Beasts!!!

Turn 3 Beasts: The 2nd chariot charges in to kill off the rest of the skellys! In combat the skeletons die, GG unit dies, but Vlad winks and teleports to the Ghoul unit, where he restores his wounds and acts like nothing happened. Both Bestigors/Ghouls having hatred/frenzy means a massive slaughter. (The units were by the terrain feature that makes units within 6" frenzied and have hatred.) I win by a bit, but lose 13ish Bestigor in the process. The shaman rips apart the Banshee in a challenge.

Turn 3 VC: He resurrects many Ghouls, and my Bestigor moo nervously. Zombies charge into the Bestigors as well. The Vargulf, silent most of the game aims towards the Herdstone gang and kills off a Raider squad. Despite an epic duel between Vlad and the Shaman (shaman took 1 wound), the Shaman flees with 1 Bestigor left alive from the smashing.

We had to end it there due to time, but if it had continued:
- I would have charged the zombies head on with the Gors, 2 chariots and 1 Razorgor, killing them and leaving just the Ghoul squad + Vargulf left.
- Shaman would have rallied, cast big Pit on the Ghouls and killed them ALL

WIN FOR THE BEASTMEN!

[Myrdin]

i dont understand why you play with him on named chars. Vlad is like nothing we can ever field on the battlefield. Sigh, .... but lets utilize on what you got here.

It was a stupid thing to to hope your GBS can even do something serious on Vlad. Get a Beastlord, gear him up, and there might be a chance, (if Wyssan goes off succesfully).

You should use the harpies to get a flank, or even rare charge - woo Combat Resollution wins the day

Technically thats what its about, you need use your units which have better M then those of his, to get flank charge or two for the important combat, while the chaffs hold off another unit. Sacrifice one pig, or charriot, to do this, and let the other two get the flanks, +2 to CR is not to be underestimated.

[Irenicus]

I agree with what Gojiragor said in your "New player Beastmen questions!"
the jagged dagger is good in theory but i just dont think its worth bothering with. your GBS may become formidable with a few successful spells but its not a good idea to have to rely on them. hes just not well enough protected. i generally just use GBS for Magic

you can then use him in a larger range of ways when hes not restricted to having to be in CC

[BeastsBookorNot]

Hey guys, go easy on him! Its his first frickin game and pulled a W against vampire counts led by Vlad!

I say Gratz on the win and props for having the stones to put your GBS up against Vlad, he's nasty. Probably not the best idea but hey, you live and learn. Sounds like you used the switching to horde formation idea-a smart move indeed. Looking forward to the next tale! Speaking of your next tale, what do youthink you will change before the next battle?

[EvilCow]

I challenged Vlad because it was the last turn and for laughs, I would never do that in a serious game! I agree on the dagger though, it was pretty pointless and makes me want to get the shaman in more dangerous positions than needed. I'm going to switch him to pure magic, and try to fit in a Beastlord.

CR is how I crumbled the GG unit completely, but I have much to learn about flank charges. I'm starting a campaign on sunday, with the following restrictions:

No special characters, and no more than 5 magic items (including Gifts of Chaos), max 10% of army points.

I haven't made any lists yet; I'm planning on running a Shard list, so out of the 5 magic items allowed:

1. Shard
2. Beast banner
3. Gnarled hide on wargor
4. Talisman of preservation
5. ???

Nothing concrete yet though! Any ideas on what to use with these restrictions?

This post has been edited by EvilCow on Oct 8 2011, 01:13 AM

[Myrdin]

Well gl on that.
otherwise, i wouldnt handicpe yourself with limitng the gifts of chaos. Other races have other things, GoC is something special to the forces of chaos, and denying yourself the full access to it its kinda pointless as we do need them. Also the fact, that you newer ever will use all of them at the same time, as some of them are rather situationall.
Consider my words.
Otherwise the no name is good choice (i never play with named ones, just not fun with chars like archaon, vlad, settra, etc when the best we got is Gorthor. Malagor is nice but still no competition. The magic item limit is good as well, makes the game more controllable then random skrimish where over geared char. shreds everyone to pieces.

For the items, you might wanna wish to get Armor of Destiny, its in the main rulebook, and can offer some rather good protection, if combined with a shield and/or gnarled hide normal S3 and even S4 units wont be able to lay even a finger on you

To BeastsN: And Beast, no one s beying harsh on him. Soo what ? i had my games hard as well, and learned most of the important things after i lost, from this forum, and from talking to other players. We are not harsh on him, its the same attitude he will recieve as a Beastmen player from many oncoming games of his, soo he should get used to it. Life is not nice to us Beastmen. The sooner he gets used to it, the sooner he gets stronger.

This post has been edited by Myrdin on Oct 8 2011, 08:55 AM

[EvilCow]

Got my 2nd game in today against Ogres, 1750 points. My list:

GBS lvl 4 (shadow)
Beastlord w/ Armor of Destiny, shield

Lvl 1 BS (shadow), shard
Lvl 2 BS (beasts)
Wargor w/ BB, Heavy armor, shield

40 Gors w/ FC (wargor/BL here)
5 Raiders
5 Raiders
Tuskgor chariot
Tuskgor chariot

Razorgor
Razorgor
5 Harpies
Razorgor chariot

What I can remember that he had:
Tyrant w/ big name(?)
Lvl 2 Butcher w/ Hellheart *screams*
Slave giant
3 Leadbelchers
5 Ironguts (tyrant here)
4-5 Ironguts (butcher here)
3 Ogres w/ ironfists
3 Ogres w/ ironfists
3 Ogres w/ ironfists
3 Ogres w/ ironfists
Cannon chariot thing


DEPLOYMENT:


-----------------------------(Giant)----(Butcher + guts)---(Tyrant + guts)------------ (Cannon)
-------------------------------- (Leadbelchers)------- (3 ogres)(3 Ogres)-(3 ogres)------ (3 ogres)





------------(Razorchariot)--(razor)--(razor)- (Raiders)---- (Tusk)--(Tusk)--(Blood forest)----- (Raiders)
------------------------------------------------ (Gors, Herstone w/ 3 shamans right behind)

He goes first

Turn 1 Ogres: The ogres move up, leadbelchers do 2 wounds to the Rchariot, cannon misses

Turn 1 Beasts: The Razors and Rchariot move straight towards the belchers/giant,
Everything else moves up. The harpies jump over and join the shamans for a skirmish group. He unleashes hellheart, thinking it's infinite range. We look it up, and being D6 x 5 I feel safe, my shamans are 26 inches away.

He rolls a 6.

My lvl 4 loses 3 levels and only knows pit, and my other 2 try blowing up the unit. I elect to put a few wounds on the shamans to save harpies incase something goes awry.

Turn 2 Ogres: Fail charges my razorgor with the leadbelchers, and charges my rightmost raiders with 3 ogres. Everything else moves up a bit. The cannon kills 4 gors. My angry shamans stop all magic. The ogres slaughter the ungors and reform towards the herdstone.

Turn 2 Beasts: I charge his giant with both razors and Rchariot, miasma his I and kill him in one turn. All 3 overrun behind his army, ready to turn around next turn for rear charges. Both Tchariots charge 1 unit of 3 ogres, wiping them out and overrunning into separate units of ironguts.

Turn 3 Ogres: He flanks the chariot w/ 3 ogres. The raider killer ogres march straight towards my herdstone, 8 inches away from my shaman group! The leadbelchers shoot my harpy shamans, killing a few harpies. With impact hits I put 1 wound on his tyrant, and because I can't put all impact hits on the tyrant, think I can't attack him as well! (dumb mistake) Both chariots die, but take an irongut from each squad with them. All squads reform to face the Gors.


Turn 3 Beasts: I move the shamans away from the ogres, while flying the 2 harpies right in front of them. My razors/Rchariot turn to face the rear/flank of the Ogre army, while the other raider unit moves infront of an Ogre unit. I upgrade amber spear the leadbelchers, kill 2 and cause the other to flee.

Turn 4 Ogres: Belcher keeps fleeing, 1 inch from table edge. He charges raiders w/ 1 unit of ogres, and another 3 man ogre unit charges the Gors. He flanks with the cannon. 3 man ogres charge harpies, I flee and he overruns PAST the herdstone, saving it. My plan worked! The ogres butcher the raiders and overrun into the Gor unit, after his butcher casts a buffed regen aura...

My Gors (horde) win, but take many casualties. The chariot runs, along with 1 ogre unit (1 guy with a wound left). The other unit stays.

Turn 4 Beasts: My Rchariot moves back towards the herdstone, knowing the ogres will reform to face herdstone and giving me a rear charge. Otherwise, nothing. All magic stopped or fails...

Turn 5 Ogres: Death. Both irongut squads charge the Gors, and all 3 fleeing units rally. The Herdstone ogres face the Herdstone. In combat, I learn he has the ASL banner w/ S3 breath weapon. YUCK! He challenges me with the Tyrant, and I accept with my Beastlord. In the challenge I put 3 wounds on him, wounds me once and gets a wound back (some item or Ogre thing). Combat is bloody, I'm left with 1 rank of Gors but have managed to thin out the Ironguts quite a bit. I lose but hold.

Turn 5 Beasts: I charge the rear of the Irongut battle w/ both Razors, and rear of the Herdstone Ogres w/ my Rchariot. I get off Wyssan's on the Gors. With no ASL and rerolls, I slaughter all Ironguts before they strike, as my Beastlord kills the Tyrant. The butcher runs and is caught. The Rchariot demolishes the Ogres.

Turn 6 Ogres: With little left, he advances the lone Belcher and Ogre. However, the cannon aims a cannonball through my single line of 10 Gors, and rolls perfect! My beastlord is pulped, along with all Gors minus 1, leaving a lonely BSB and standard bearer! The leadbelcher misses the remaining Gor squad, laughing too much at the conga line death.

Turn 6 Beasts: The Wargor and friend charge the 1 wound Ogre who rallied, killing him as another buffed Amber Spear shatters the cannon chariot. With a one wound leadbelcher left, the game ends.


Victory for the Beastmen!

Great game, full of laughs! Some things I learned:

I really, really suck at using Raiders. I can see their role, I love them, but I just utterly suck at using them. 1 unit did good, keeping a 3 man Ogre unit out of the game for a little bit. The other one hurt me, letting him hit the Gors w/ 2 units. I did good with the Harpies though, ablative wounds and saving the Herdstone.

The beastlord was great and took pressure off the GBS. With AoD, he can even go up against the bigger guys. Thanks Myrdin!

I really like the Rchariot, but it's not my time to use it. It's too many points not being used very effectively yet, so once I'm a better player with chariots I'll pop 1 or 2 of them in.

[EvilCow]

Played my 3rd game against Empire a few days ago. He had:

Lvl 2 (fire)
Lord
BSB
20 Swordsmen
20 Swordsmen
20ish Greatswords
30 Spearmen
Cannon
Mortar

I had:
Lvl 3 Shadow
BL
BSB (standard of discipline)
Lvl 1 shadow (shard)
Lvl 2 Beasts
40 Gors
2 x 5 Raiders
2 Razorgors
3 Tchariots
7 furies


The chariots were great, with a razorgor keeping a unit of 20 spearmen out of the game for many turns. Ambushing raiders killed cannon after harpies were fireballed. Gors + flanking chariot killed the greatswords w/ the help of Wyssan's, and in a few more turns the Beasts emerged victorious!


I have a 2000 pt game against Lizardmen tomorrow, anyone have any tips on fighting them? I have no idea what they can do, but I believe he won't have a Slaan in the battle.