The Glorious Victories of Khazbar the Magnificent (Beastmen)

Definitely. I’ve bought all my scenery up from my folks so really all we need to do is arrange a night!

Opening Gambits

Khazbar seethed with anger. Once again men were interfering with his best laid plans! He hastily brayed commands and the herd moved into a semblance of order as the hated Empire troops advanced on the village.

He shivered with revulsion as he felt the tendrils of life magic emanating from his opposite number. He crushed the attempt of the enemy wizard to toughen the great weapon wielding men but then realised that nothing else the mage could cast would affect his opening gambits so showing his distain didn’t even worry about dispelling the shield of thorns that grew round the same unit or the prayer of the embedded priest.

The roar of the Hellblaster opening up caused him to flinch, he had seen what it could do but he settled quickly as just 4 of the Gor fell to the shots. The roar of the nearby Ghorgon was harder to ignore as one of its arms was torn off by the steamtanks cannon! (5 of the 6 wounds lost)














Khazbar could barely believe it as Cattleclysm lost all control and flew straight into the approaching knights. The demented bull laid into them in an uncontrolled frenzy but his wild swings failed to get through the metal plate. The enemy general waited for his opening and casually thrust his sword into the back of the frothing minotaur. The runefang cleaved through the armour and the bloodrage cleared from his eyes as he bellowed in pain and fear. His wings flapped as he started to try and break free but the knights allowed no escape and rode him down, crashing into the startled ungors who had been using the distraction of the great bull to sneak closer.

Khazbar grew even angrier as despite drawing on the power of the stone effigy they had raised, neither him nor his lackwit apprentices, were able to cast any spells. The vortex he has summoned faded away as the opposing wizard read desperately from a papyrus scroll.

He let out a loud bray and the forces surrounding him ran towards the hated enemy.


(Greg managed to dispel both a small miasma and spirit leech on the stank. A miasma on the knights and scrolled purple sun).














Prepared for another turn of empire shooting and knowing that at such close range, it could be devastating to his kin, Khazbar invoked the Chalice he had concealed within his cloak. The sky immediately darkened and an unnaturally rain fell, impeding the shots of the empire men.

The engineer in charge of the steam tank failed to get the great cannon to fire under the deluge of water.

The other engineer manning the hellblaster ignored the rain and it again opened up with an almighty roar, this time felling 9 of the gor.

The use of the chalice appeared to also weaken the winds of magic and the wizard was unable to cast anything

On the other side of the village, the knights of the stag made short work of the retched ungor and swiftly overran, this time connecting with one of the razorgor on that flank.

Closing Gambits


The Demigryphs finally made it into combat with something, destroying the remaining harpies that were blocking their way and in the process avenging the death of their wizard.

The Greatswords hit the Razorgor, cleaving it apart for the loss of two of their number and then removed to face the horde of Gor.

(I initially almost fled with the Razorgor but realised that in doing so, I would probably have allowed the Greatswords to escape from the Gor)

The Unit of Knights continued their move around the village, almost getting into striking distance.













One chariot moved to again block the Demi’s, ensuring they wouldn’t be able to interfere for another turn.

Khazbar’s horde, crunched into the Greatswords and absolutely decimated them before they had a chance to strike back. They then turned to face the enemy general.

The surviving Ghorgon and second chariot moved up to threaten the block of knights and the remaining Ungor moved to ensure that if the Knights charged and chose to overrun, it would have to be towards the Gor, leaving their flank open to the Ghorgon and chariot to counter.

At this point we had to finish due to the club closing.









Results

We didn’t realise at the time but Greg losing the Greatswords, would have reduced his army’s fortitude to 3 and thus given me the win. We had thought it was a draw (in regards to the scenario objectives).

If we looked at the VP’s, then Greg had killed 1,105pts and I had killed around 1,600pts. I also gained 150pts for standards seized. As no side had scored double the VP’s of the opponent, in this comparison it would also have been a draw.



After match thoughts.

It was fantastic to finally get in a game after so long and it’s always fun playing Greg as he’s not a power gamer and it means I can try out different lists without worry that I’ll be brutally punished for it!

Myself making the mistake with the reforms for the Halberdier/Ghorgon combat, could have made a difference. Maybe not to the overall combat result, I still think the Ghorgon would have won but it would have meant he could have bought a lot more attacks into play and even with 6’s to wound they likely would have gotten some through.

I also noted that we completely forgot about the vortex after the initial cast. I’m sure there were other mistakes due to the rustiness!

I did love using the double Ghorgon (despite forgetting the chalice in my first turn!). I’d definitely run them again. I'm not sure about the herdstone though. It definitely helps make phases more reliable but in general i'm not a heavy magic kind of player.

I’ll also ignore the terrible initial placement of the doombull, actually looking at the enemy rather than my own board edge and combined with being outside of the BSB range was just asking for him to fail the frenzy test (which he did). He then utterly failed to wound the general (pesky high Empire saves!). I really am a bit crap using him and always seem to think he’ll destroy enemy units by himself (he never does and inevitably loses combat and is run down). That said I’ll obviously continue to take him lol.

I've also decided that I really dislike the lore of death. Purple sun really is quite a BS spell. The lore does work quite well with Beasts though as it helps to level them up.

If we’d have continued, how do I think it would have played out? It’s a tricky one.



Empire turn 5 - would have seen the Demi’s kill the Chariot but having to combat reform again to face back towards the centre of the board. The knights would have destroyed the raiders and if I was Greg, I would have tried to overrun into the Gor (doable though risky with the distance), looking to have the advantage of the lances in the Beastmen next turn. It would also mean that there was a good chance of the Demi’s rear charging them in the final turn, and that would likely be curtains for the unit. It would be an all or nothing play as in Beasts Turn 5, if the Knights had managed to charge the Gor, then the chariot and Ghorgon would have effectively been out of action due to poor positioning and would need to reform to threaten the rear of the Knights. Combat would be a close thing. The beasts would definitely struggle to kill the knights as they would only fail saves on a 2+. But the Gor ‘should’ remain steadfast and hold.



Ignoring the fact that the Empire had already lost on the scenario (as we hadn’t realised), I think this is the only way that he would have won and it is risky as if the overrun had failed then the remaining beasts would have all charged. This would probably spell the end of the Knight unit.

I will add that he could have retreated with the knights, rather than charging the Ungor but then the Gor would definitely move up and try and purple sun them and everything moving up should mean that the Demi’s would not be able to make combat in the final turn either and thus would likely mean the game was a draw.



Next time we play and if he brings Empire again, he definitely needs to bring at least one unit of missile troops, in order to take out my chaff. He definitely dislikes my use of chaff and may even consider their use gamey. I try not to be gamey in playing and this is one area I won’t modify my play, so fair warning for the next time Greg! (In fairness he has some Skaven on route to the table and has already threatened Rat darts – I think that is all fair!).

Hi Knoffles!

Long time browser but just started posting! I’ve just started gathering the herd for a beastmen army of my own and have really liked reading your reports. Did you ever get around to painting and fielding the Zealot minotaurs? I looked them up and they are so cool, but unfortunate sold out. Would still be very interested in seeing a rep with a big unit of Minotaurs!

Understandable, we are quite lucky in Sweden and our group manages to get a few games in per week.

Looking forwards to it once you are back playing!

Outside of Gothenburg, we try to get two games a week in split on 5 people, and have had a few visitors as well now with the battlereps being posted are you close?

Beasts vs Greg F’s VC – 1800pts – 27/08/2021


Khazbar smiled inwardly. As his influence had started to grow again and with it his powerbase, who should come slinking back into the fold but his old rival, Bashor. With his grip over the herds, he could have made an example of the Beastlord but Bashor was powerful and more importantly, he had the measure of the brawler and it would be better to have the devil he knew than some unpredictable upstart potentially challenge his position as the voice of the dark gods.

Greg is one of my DnD group (and also a word press aficionado and his write up of the game can be found here). It had been a while since I’d last played Greg at fantasy and at that point he had been using Dark Elves, so when he proposed a game I jumped at the chance. He’d also been playing 1500 point games recently but I convinced him to bump it to 1800 as that is what tended to be played at Riotville and so any practice at that level is always welcome.

As ever, I gave my opponent the choice of what they wanted to face (a combination of saving me the back and forth decision of what army to choose and it sometimes gives them a chance to face something they hadn’t done before.) In this case Greg had never faced Beastmen, so that’s what I bought.

The list I went with was fairly tried and tested with a Beastlord embedded in the Bestigor to maximise the leadership bubble (and thus the chance of re-rolling failed melee hits with their Primal Fury role). The Battle Standard and Shaman would go in the large block of Gor.

Normally I would have then loaded the list with chaff to block any units I didn’t want to face but with the reduction in points and it being a friendly, I opted instead to bring a unit of Centigor. I’d never gotten around to fielding them before (mainly as they are a prime example of a unit, in the army book, that is over costed for what they bring). Still I was eager to give them a try and worst came to the worst, I could use them and the chariots as sudo chaff.

Greg was still in the process of learning his new army and was trying out a number of faster elements, which he hadn’t used before, as after playing Dark Elves he had struggled in previous games with the shambling undead and their lack of speed.


Lists

We had played closed lists, in so far as no magic items were revealed until used.


Beastmen

Bashor the Bloody (General) – Beastlord, Steel Claws, Ramhorn Helm, Dawnstone, Gnarled Hide, Uncanny Senses – 251pts
Zurrock the Mighty (BSB) – Wargor, Beast Banner – 191pts
Khazbar the Magnificent – Great Bray Shaman, Level 4 Beasts, Jagger Dagger, Talisman of Preservation, Ruby Ring of Ruin – 319pts


39 Gor, FC, AHW – 337pts
Tuskgor Chariot – 80pts
Tuskgor Chariot – 80pts
5 Centigor, Champion, musician, spears, shields – 146pts
29 Bestigor – FC, Standard of Discipline – 393pts

Total 1797pts


Vampire Counts

Vampire Lord – level 4 Lore of Vampires, Biting Blade, Nightshroud, Talisman of Preservation – 420
Necromancer – level 2 – 100pts

5 Dire Wolves – 40pts
5 Dire Wolves – 40pts
39 Skeleton Warriors – FC, Standard of Discipline – 240pts
40 Zombies, Musician, Standard – 130pts
6 Crypt Horrors – 228pts
3 Vargheists – 138pts
3 Vargheists – 138pts
5 Hexwraiths – 150pts
1 Vargulf – 175pts

Total 1799pts


Pre-game rolls

Scenario – To keep things simple we chose to just play Battleline.

The Centigors rolled ‘Stubborn’ on their ‘Drunken Bravado’ result.


Spells

Khazbar – Wyssans (swopped from flock of doom), Pann’s Impenetrable Pelt, The Amber Spear & Savage Beast of Horros.

Vampire Lord –Invocation, Vanhels, Raise Dead, Curse of Years

Necromancer – Invocation, Gaze of Nagash


Terrain

As normal we just grabbed some bits from the club boxes and put it down on the table.




Deployment

With terrain being a big factor in the centre of the table, the Gor had to be placed in the only spot that would allow them to move through it. This pretty much dictated where the Bestigor would go, as they had to go next to them to ensure both units had General and BSB coverage.

Greg chose to set up opposite with his fast elements on each flank.