Grymloq's Beastmen first outing

[Grymloq]

The forces

Beastmen
Beastlord- armour of glittering scales, the brass cleaver
Bray Shaman- lv 2 Death Hagtree fetish
Bray shamen- lv 2 Shadow Channeling Staff
Gorebull BSB- gnarled hide, heavy armour, sword of swiftness
40 Gor- shields, FC
30 Bestigor- FC and Manbane standard
3 units of 5 ungor- 2 with music
5 scouting harpies
2 Spawn
Razorgor chariot
Tuskgor chariot

Ong
2 x Black Orc Warlords- one on foot in Big uns and one on boar with the trolls
2 NG shamen both level 2 (in big uns)
Orc Bigboss with bsb (in big uns)
40 Big uns with hand weapon and shield
20 Night Goblins with bows and 3 fanatics
2 Mangler squigs
8 River trolls
3 spear chuckers
wolf chariot
3 x 5 spider riders

Beastmen deploy with minotaurs on right flank opposite big uns, bestigor and gor in centre of the park opposite trolls and night gobbos and chariots on left flank. Harpies deploy in front of the orc blocks (17 " away) ready to fly over them and silence the bolt throwers

Ong get first turn, spider riders are forced to charge spawn due to anomosity (even when they had used their fast cav move before deployment). Shooting and magic uneventful other than bad moon getting cast which kills a few ungor (which hold). Spawn vs spider riders results in a a draw.

Beastmen turn 1 sees them hampered by the presence of two manglers in front of the big infantry blocks. Ungor are moved so that next turn they can be silenced. Forgot to roll for the five ambushers to arrive. Magic utter trash. Spawn breaks spider riders but fails to catch them (they ultimately run off table)

Ong turn 2. Wolf chariot gets an enormous charge off (18") and hits an ungor in the flank. Mangler jumps all over minotaurs killing two. Magic sees a spawn killed by vindicative glare. Ungor die horribly and the chariot over runs into side of gor.

Beastmen turn 2. Tuskgor chariot charges wolf chariot. Harpies charge bolt thrower. Bestigor charge 5 spider riders. 4 ungor scarifice themselves and kill a mangler. 5 ungor arrive on the beastmen right flank and move towards side of big un block. Magic- cast Melkoths on trolls. Bestigor kill spider riders but not before shadow wizard dies (stupid positioning on my behalf). Wolf chariot dies. Harpies do no wounds from 20 attacks but beat bolt thrower dues to charging).

onc turn 3- trolls fail charge against bestigor. Units move in to position. Nothing much to report.

Beastmen turn 3-minos finally get to charge against big un block. 5 ungors support them. Minos fail but ungors make it. All other units position themselves. harpies charge another bolt thrower. Magic phase gets shut down. Harpies again fail to wound (seriously 40 attacks and no wounds over two combats). Again win due to combat res. 5 ungor die horribly and don't even cause a wound on the night goblin wizard who was the prime target.

Ong turn 4- Trolls charge bestigor and big un fails to charge minos. Magic is good for the ong with a few hexes being cast on the gors. Lose a mino from shooting. Combat and bestigors lose 11 of their number and only do 6 wounds in return (some absolutely shocking rolling on my behalf). They flee and get run down. Trolls overrun on top of mangler and take 6 wounds.

Beastmen turn 4- razorgor chariot charges the night goblins and weathers the fanatics well. Minos finally charge big uns. Gors turn to face trolls. harpies charge the last bolt thrower (whilst praying they hit something). Magic sees the black orc having the death spell which inflicts 2D6 hits minus his toughness on him (sorry can't remember the name). Typically I roll 4! Combat sees the mino champ get cut turn but the minos amazing win combat. And also break them! (Opponent failed two Ld 9 breaktests). Unfortunately due to blood greed I fail to catch them. Razorgor chariot causes an impressive nine wounds but the gobbos hold (grr). Harpies get into together and wipe out bolt thrower (thats more like it)

Last couple of turns summary- big uns rally and the minos charge again. Last minotaur dies but the gorebull was still going strong. Trolls charge gors and... well... they got mushed because the dice left me.

To sum up the game for me - actually very happy with the army. I need to get the bestigor in to better positions and the minotaurs would work better against Ws3 or lower troops as they don't benefit from primal fury. Need to better protect the general is leadership is doubly important in a beastmen army (glittering scales against a black orc warboss didn't really improve his fighting chances)

Got a game against high elves this wed so I'l let you know if I can improve!

[amabbett]

Thanks for that. Are you rolling for primal fury with the Gors and Bestigors?I would mostly put flamming banner on the Bestigors as it's great for regenerating models like trolls. I'm looking forward to your results against the elves.

[Grymloq]

Yep. I know you might not think it but I only failed one Primal fury test all game, and that was on a tuskgor chariot. Those trolls were River trolls so I was needing 4's to hit with re-rolls. Rolling eight ones to wound didn't help matters. In reality the bestigor should have been reformed to be 5 wide and 6 deep so that they would have been steadfast and therefore hopefully allowing the gors to attack in the flank in the next turn.

I agree with you about the flaming banner but I just wanted to test out some of the beastmen items for the first couple of games (I was hoping for doom and darkness from the Death lore to stack with the Manbane banner). We'll see how it fairs against the High Elves and then it might time for a rethink.

[meowsor]

Nice, unconventional builds on the characters. My only problem is with Arcane Item choices
1. No dispel scroll?? And only L2's?? Risky!
2. Hagtree fetish is suboptimal with only 1 L2 caster with access to 2 spells that *could* benefit from it. See my most recent batrep for a herdstone list built around synergy with Hagtree