Herdhome

So, say I make my Herdstone a doughnut shape, and then deploy it within my deployment zone as per the rules. Could I deploy stuff in the open ground inside of the impassable terrain to keep it safe from receiving charges?

Could I take Fozzrik's Folding Fortress and deploy the building within the open space within the Herdstone then deploy a unit of Gors with joined wizards into it? Would this mean that my enemy would have to shoot/magic them out of the building and be unable to declare a charge against it because of the impassable terrain of the Herdstone?

This post has been edited by Jackbedead on Jun 27 2012, 03:27 PM

I'm going to go with 'no' on the donut shape idea overall. I'm sure you could throw together a justification for it, but the rules say "an appropriate" piece of terrain, and everything we've heard and seen about herdstones points to a bit obelisk type piece of terrain.

Why the push to abuse the herdstone rules more than they already allow you to without being underhanded? They're already incredibly powerful.

For fun!

If you pull this off, then be prepared for people saying your name (on this forum) repeatedly

Since, from what I have heard, the ETC rules have led to people actually considering making the herdstone into a line(which, according to ETC rules block LOS) and then putting it in an angle at the corner of the table, with the shamans behind it, I donīt think this is way off.

Itīs still 150 points of magic items which forces your most expensive stuff to stay in the deployment zone....

I think it can be argued that all of these herdstone tricks are perfectly legal, because none of the rules sections of the book define what constitutes a herdstone. But anyone familiar with beastmen fluff knows what a herdstone looks like, and knows what "appropriate terrain piece" refers to. So it just depends on whether you want to maximize your profit from the haziness of the rules, or just play nice.

Personally, I think the herdstone is already a powerful enough item that we don't we need to use these tricks. Mine is big enough for shamans to hide behind, but cannot prevent them being charged. I've never found this to be underpowered, and I've certainly never lost a game and thought "things would have been so different if my shamans had been hiding inside a donut...". In fact, oftentimes the forces my opponent devotes to tackling the shamans allow me to be more successful elsewhere on the field.

This post has been edited by Billy Ocean on Jun 27 2012, 08:08 PM

The big thing here is that not only are we allowed a piece of terrain we can model to be whatever we want and fulfill whatever purpose we see fit, but we can also field an additional building using the common magic items list. This means we could basically build a cute little village in our deployment zone.

Now how can we make that viable tactically?

Also, the Herdstone being impassable or a hill could be a decision that's totally up to the player, since there's no mention that Beastmen were never able to stand on top of their herdstones.

I don't believe that what you are suggesting is a reasonable interpretation of the rules.

There may be nothing in the rules that precludes you from making a herdstone that renders your shaman battery impervious to harm but is this a reasonable thing to do?

As has been mentioned already, the herdstone is a fairly powerful item that allows you to boost your magic phase quite significantly. The trade off for this when using a conventional herdstone terrain piece is that you're investing lots of points into a potentially vulnerable set of models. In my opinion this is a reasonable trade off.

Were you to create a terrain piece that gave you the ability to have the powerful magic phase while also making it very difficult for your opponent to counteract this then I don't believe that would be reasonable.

In casual gaming this could be seen as rather a slap in the face for your local gaming group. In competetive tournament gaming, this could work in the first tournament that you attend since, as mentioned, the rules don't preclude you doing so. However in subsequent tournaments you may find that there are very specific descriptions about what they will allow as a herdstone terrain piece. You may also find that the tournament organisers have blanket banned the herdstone as a magical item.

As has been mentioned previously, it is already difficult to target shaman around a conventional herdstone terrain piece and the resources your opponent assigns to doing so could often be better used elsewhere. So making your shaman impervious to damage has little real benefit yet also has the potential to create bad feeling and adveresly effect your ability to use the item.

I wont be doing what you are suggesting and I would advice you not to.

If you were able to do the donut shape, then put 5 wizards in a 500 model Gor unit and deploy them into the tower, then you could effectively win through point denial while shooting out enough spell damage to win. It's like, an insta-win.

This post has been edited by Jackbedead on Jun 28 2012, 08:56 PM

jack, you crack me up. i love your: 'im going to beat you with the cheapest-cheesiest exploitation of vague rules possible!' donut shaped herdstone, good grief..

Lore of death is perfect against such an "army". If they fail a panic test then they have to flee from the building and through the donut. No way back.

This army is like "the naked man" from How I met your mother, it will work in 1 out of 3 times, I predict.

What are you going to shoot? Itīs to early over here, but can Beasts really put out so much magic damage with range over 24"?

If you tried to pull this one on me, i'd most likely laugh hystericaly for about quarter of an hour, then beat you over the head with my own sizable block of a herdstone.

Not a huge fan of overexplotation, hence why my two armies are Beastmen and Wood Elves. Guess there are no definite RULES that prevent you from doing this, but in my book its down there with people who look away when you roll good, and then force you to reroll since they werenīt looking.

And you think that -he- is taking it to seriously trying to find loopholes?

Its not to bad in dimensions. Perhaps a bit bigger than a large coffeymug. The issue is its weight, since its actually a real rock.

And I feel that getting a herdstone with a large hole in the middle is the definition of trying to find a loopHOLE in the rules.