rothgar13's Battle Reports, I'm making this a regular thing now

[Billy Ocean]

I agree. The wailing banner seems to be working out really nicely for you, because of both its defensive and offensive capabilities. But the mask only works offensively, and forcing your opponent to roll a few extra Ld tests is not worth compromising the survivability of your GBS. Its one of those items I'd consider throwing in it at much larger games when I have plenty characters to caddy bonus items, and when there will be more units outside of Ld bubbles. In a min-maxed 2500pt list I think you're right to drop it.

This post has been edited by Billy Ocean on May 18 2012, 07:36 PM

[Solegga]

Thanks for posting these!
I read the WoC Battle Report, if I may, a question...

You wrote "Both units of Warriors charged my Bestigors.... and land an IF Miasma on my unit of Bestigors. This makes the fight very much in his favor, but Stubborn sees me through to the next round"

How many numbers did you go down to if I may...? I mean, what was left on the 2nd round of combat to make them die? They are WoC, not dwarf warriors...

[rothgar13]

My Beastlord was responsible for a great deal of that killing, to be honest with you. My Bestigors were pretty much untouched before entering that combat, so while he did get a fair number of kills, they were still in their 20s after Round 1.

[Solegga]

Thanks for clearing that!

[rothgar13]

No problem.

Anyway, guys, time for another batrep! This was another game against WoC, but this time he brought a list that figured to give me a lot more trouble. Anyway, here's my list:

Rothgar's Ramhorns - 2500 points

Core - 658 points:
38 Gors, AHW's, Full Command [BSB and Great Bray-Shaman go here]
40 Ungors, Musician, Standard-Bearer
4 x 5 Ungor Raiders

Special - 713 points:
39 Bestigors, Full Command, Wailing Banner [Beastlord goes here]
2 x Razorgor
5 Harpies

Heroes - 546 points:
Bray-Shaman, Chalice of Dark Rain [Lore of Shadows - Miasma]
Bray-Shaman, Dispel Scroll [Lore of Shadows - Miasma]
Bray-Shaman, Shard of the Herdstone [Lore of Shadows - Miasma]
Wargor, BSB, The Beast Banner, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Shield

Lords - 583 points:
Beastlord, Armor of Destiny, Crown of Command, Shield, Sword of Battle
Great Bray-Shaman, Fencer's Blades, Jagged Dagger, L4 Wizard, Talisman of Preservation, Uncanny Instincts [Lore of Beasts - Amber Spear, Curse of Anraheir, Savage Beast of Horros, Wyssan's Wildform]

Grand Total: 2500 points

Here's the list my opponent played with:

Warriors of Chaos - 2500 points

Core:
40 Chaos Marauders, Great Weapons, Mark of Khorne, Musician, Standard-Bearer
2 x 5 Chaos Warhounds
20 Chaos Warriors, Mark of Nurgle, Musician, Standard-Bearer, Banner of Rage
20 Chaos Warriors, Mark of Tzeentch, Musician, Shields, Standard-Bearer [BSB goes here]

Special:
5 Chaos Knights, Mark of Nurgle, Musician, Standard-Bearer, Standard of Discipline

Rare:
2 x Hellcannon

Heroes:
Exalted Hero, BSB, Doom Totem, Mark of Tzeentch, Shield

Lords:
Sorcerer Lord, Charmed Shield, Disc of Tzeentch, Infernal Puppet, Mark of Tzeentch, ? [Lore of Tzeentch - Baleful Transmogrification, Flickering Fire of Tzeentch, Pandaemonium, Treason of Tzeentch]

As you can tell, this is a Leadership-bomb army, which picks at our greatest weakness. I roll well on the initial roll, though, so I go first. Here's what the initial setup looked like:



Beastmen Turn 1:

A lot of moving up. I layer on some Miasmas on the Marauders (who have a good matchup against my Bestigors, and as such I want to delay them). Shooting whiffs badly.



Warriors Turn 1:

His Marauder Horsemen charge a squad of Raiders, and most everything else moves up a bit. The Magic Phase was a big one - he throw Pandaemonium out there, and I whiff on my dispel attempt. That combined with Hellcannon blasts on my Ungors and Gors sends two of my big blocks running. The Marauder Horsemen make short work of one squad of Raiders, and overrun into another. Not the best start.



Beastmen Turn 2:

It's a bit close, but both my Gors and my Ungors manage to rally. One Razorgor charges a unit of Dogs, and I place the other in front of the Marauders. Magic sees me layer on a Miasma on the Marauder Horsemen, and that's about it. The Marauder Horsemen-Ungor Raider combat is uneventful, and the Razorgor beats on the Hounds (but they hold). Things otherwise stay as they are, but I unfortunately forget to take a picture of this turn (sorry).

Warriors Turn 2:

His Marauders charge the Razorgor in front of them, the Marauder Horsemen charge my Ungor block, and the Knights get right behind the Dogs fighting the Razorgor. In the Magic phase, he casts Pandaemonium, and my dispel roll fails again (sigh). Another Hellcannon blast sends my Bestigors running, and the Ungor Raiders lose to the Marauder Horsemen and run (the Horsemen run into the Ungor block in the process of riding them down).



Beastmen Turn 3:

Not a good start to my turn - the Bestigors fail to rally (on Ld8 with a re-roll!) and end up about 2" from skipping through the Gors and running off the board, and I fail to make a 4 on 2 dice to dispel Pandaemonium, and my L4 caster loses concentration becasue of it (at this point, I'm like "you have to be kidding me...") - magic is uneventful for this reason. The Marauder Horsemen lose the fight, break, and run - the Ungors run into the Knights. The Hounds also run away, and the Razorgor run into the Knights as well.



Warriors Turn 3:

Marauders turn around to support the Knights, and the Warriors advance a bit. I manage to keep his magic (sort of) under control, though my Razorgor gets killed and my Ungor get beat and run (though they are not caught). Let's see if we can turn this game around...



Beastmen Turn 4:

Ungors and Bestigors both rally (about bloody time), I advance the Gors up a bit, and I layer on a Miasma on the Marauders to try and make the charge a bit tougher.



Warriors Turn 4:

Despite my best efforts, the Marauders nailed the charge (sigh...), but I manage to stuff his magic. The Nurgle Warriors advance, and the Knights turn to face the blocks. A Hellcannon shot takes a bite out of my Bestigors, and my Ungors get predictably thumped, but once again refuse to get caught. On the bright side, this exposes the Marauders' flank to my Gors.



Beastmen Turn 5:

My Gors charge the Marauders, and my Bestigors try a 13" charge to come to grips with the Chaos Warriors (and of course, I roll a 7). My Ungors rally one more time, and I get a Miasma/Wildform/Savage Beast cocktail off on the Gors/Marauders combat, so I crush them and then run them down.



Warriors Turn 5:

My Bestigors get combo-charged by the Nurgle Warriors and the Knights. Treason of Tzeentch takes a bite off my Gor unit, and the ensuing fight (predictably) doesn't go very well, though Stubborn sees me hang on.



Beastmen Turn 6:

My Gors turn around and walk toward the Bestigor fight, which gives me the range to rain buffs and debuffs on the Bestigors and Warriors, respectively - I get 2 Miasmas and a Curse of Anraheir off on the Warriors, and a Wildform and Savage Beast off on the Bestigors. Savage Beast pays off big time, as the Beastlord runs through the entire Knight unit like a hot knife through butter. Finally, things are looking up...



Warriors Turn 6:

Not much to be done but to walk up a bit and stare at the fight. The Sorcerer Lord gets another Treason of Tzeentch off on my Gors, but they manage to pass their Panic test. While my roided-up Beastlord beats up on his Warriors, a snake-eyes on his Break test sees him hang on to the end.

That said, once the points were tallied up, it turns out I won - and the reason why was because I only lost chaff units. While my blocks got the holy hell beaten out of them, they hung on and didn't cough up their points.

Final picture:



RESULT: MINOR VICTORY FOR THE BEASTMEN!

Some notes on this game:

As you can probably tell, this game was pretty tough for me, so I have to get a couple more reps in how to beat the double-Hellcannon Ld-bomb - I played another game against it, and one of the blasts sent my Bestigors running, and while they did rally right away, that lost turn cost me the game. That said, my rolling in general was pretty brutal today, so it may have just been a function of my being unable to roll decently (just one of those days).

I did have a bit of a brainlock moment in that I didn't pop my Chalice of Dark Rain - I have to be more proactive about throwing that out there to try and negate any early salvos from those Hellcannons.

This post has been edited by rothgar13 on Aug 17 2012, 04:12 AM

[Ralin Givens]

My problem with his list is it is not very take all comers at all. But still against us it really is disgusting

[rothgar13]

Yeah, that BSB isn't going to do jack against the VC guys around here. But hey, I'll take a split against a Ld-bomb list on a day when I'm rolling like arse.

[Toe Cutter]

Thanks for the report - most interesting. Think you need to melt a few dice down as an example to the rest of them. Don't think they could have gone much more wrong and still allowed you to pull off a win. Having said that you got all the good beasts spells and getting wyssans and horros off a couple of times in a row did rather help.

Just out of curiosity, why did his one unit of warriors sit at the back not doing very much for the whole game? Twenty warriors is a rather expensive baby sitting unit. Also while he did seem to get good mileage in the early turns out of dropping double rocks onto your units, do you think he'd have been better served in the later turns by running one forward to try and get it into combat? Can't help but think those things are better monsters than they are war machines.

[rothgar13]

The reason the Shield Warriors were kept back were because they were a bunker unit - the BSB only has a 3+/5++ defense line (no magic items because he has a magic banner) which means that he's relatively easy prey for my blocks, and if he goes down, it's a normal Beastmen v. WoC fight, which is advantage Beastmen. He also wanted to keep his BSB within 12" of the Hellcannons, so they wouldn't rush forward and cost him a turn of shooting.

The Hellcannons as a shooting unit are actually devastating against armies like Beastmen with the Doom Totem mixed in - let me tell you, testing for Panic at -2 Ld with a possibility of Pandaemonium mixed in (so that big scary block of Bestigors is testing at Ld7 at best, Ld5 at worst) is not the most thrilling experience. He maybe could have sent one in on a later turn, but there were no guarantees he was going to make that charge, and in the meantime there were still units to be shot at that could have possibly panicked and ran off the board.

Another note is that in 2 games of double-shooting, he did not roll a single Misfire, and rolled more direct hits (1/3 chance) than deviations (2/3 chance). As I said, just one of those days...

This post has been edited by rothgar13 on May 21 2012, 01:29 PM

[BeastsBookorNot]

Grats on the W roth. He played a realy broken list - it still mystifies me that they dont even need to wound to cause a panic test. Im suprised he went for pandemonium and not D @g D - testing on rerollabe LD 5 will have your most expensive unit off the board turn 1.

WoC is one of the armies i play against frequently and struggle against. Stupid lord on disc that i can never frigging catch and he swats amber spears away like they are nothing. Makes me want a flying doombull just so i can punch him in the face

[rothgar13]

The reasons he went for Pandaemonium over Doom & Darkness are the following:

1. It's Lore of Tzeentch, so he can have his Sorcerer Lord on a Disc. This is a big deal, because outside of Harpies (who can't do anything to him unless I Wildform them), and Amber Spears (which he can swat away with his Ward save and the Charmed Shield), he's untouchable against my army. Having your L4 being tucked away nice and safe is a good thing.

2. It induces more miscasts while still providing a similar Leadership debuff. That means that if I don't dispel it, my army simply ceases to function, because I could be blowing myself up as I cast.

This post has been edited by rothgar13 on May 21 2012, 05:52 PM

[Toe Cutter]

I'll agree on the pandemonium assessment. As a person (read chronically stupid) who habitually forgets about remains in play spells, I've found that pandemonium can play merry hell with the beasts magic phase. And the warrior lists I face have the decency to not use leadership bomb tactics.

Right I see about the BSB and warriors. Just seems an awful waste to be keeping such an expensive unit out of the battle line just to babysit a BSB. In a 2500pts list, what with two cannons in already, thats a fair chunk of his points that are not in the battle line when warriors are supposed to be primarily a chop your face off with axes sort of an army.

[brother_maynard]

awesome game rothgar, always good to see the beasts come out on top, especially vs a build that seems tailored to our most glaring weaknesses.

[rothgar13]

Yeah, I was pretty happy I got that win. It sure was tough sledding, though I've learned a thing or two that I think will help me a lot if my opponent decides to bring it again. And I'm pretty sure I can't roll that badly two weeks in a row.

This post has been edited by rothgar13 on May 22 2012, 02:02 PM

[TobiasRathein]

I am disappointed that I haven't had the chance to play this WoC player.

I do believe you have what was one of the best games I've ever witnessed to report, sir! A game that literally came down to the flee vs. pursuit roll? I want to see how the pictures came out at least!