Now by the time you read this, the tournament will be over. For all the difference it would make, I decided not to advertise my list or my tactics until afterwards, and it has been a true test of my patience to restrain from doing so. But it is that time of the week again, and it seemed only fitting to show you both my list and my army. So here goes...
Army lists for this tournament didn't follow a strict guide or scoring system. It was simply a yes or no to each list by the Tournament Organiser. This is tricky to gauge as it's sometimes hard to tell what you can and can't get away with. This was made clear after my first three list submissions (two for warriors of chaos and one for skaven, to be precise) were turned down. Now, to be fair, they were strong lists, but by no means optimised.
Ok, maybe one of the Chaos lists was pretty crazy...
And maybe, just maybe, the Skaven one got a tad out of control...
This is a problem.
So in light of my three denials, and with a determination to run a force that can crush all before it, deal with all threats opposing it and to secure convincing wins, I turned to the army I knew could handle business. Then, instead of taking that army, I took Beastmen.
Despite the army book being widely considered to be terrible, I look at it from the perspective of "playing warhammer with difficulty cranked up past Hell Mode". They are definitely a tricky army to use. Discipline, armour and personal hygiene are all foreign concepts to these feral, half-naked, half-deranged mutant forest critters who all seem to have pretty significant anger management problems. Their overall leadership is pretty abysmal, and if there are two things Beastmen do well, it's running away and dying. So why would I put myself through the horrendous ordeal of playing a whole tournament with such a bad army. My reasons are as follows.
1: My Beastmen are painted.
2: My Beastmen are fun to play, and this is a game after all.
2: My Beastmen are something of a challenge to play.
4: There is not much more satisfying in this game of ours than winning a game with Beastmen, because you know you've had to use every trick and tactic to get the upper hand.
So here is my list.
Slug tongue (General)
27 Gors with Mark of Slannesh, full command, and additional hand weapons
5 war hounds with vanguard
5 war hounds with vanguard
Chaos chariot of Slannesh (using my converted tuskgor chariot model)
2 Razorgors of Slannesh (using converted werewolf models)
3 chaos trolls with additional hand weapons (using minotaurs as proxy)
3 chaos trolls with additional hand weapons (using minotaurs as proxy)
You may notice I've opted to use the Glottkin list, not to run disgusting units of disgusting power, but to fill some significant holes in the Beastman list. Small things like being able to take vanguard on hounds can make a difference to the game, but the biggest game changer that Glottkin gave me was marks. I can finally make my army immune to panic for a single point per model. Sold.
I also wanted to try trolls out. I've seen them used well and used poorly, but have never used them myself. They are a two edged sword in this list however, as they have stupidity, I have a generals leadership bubble of a measly 8, and there is a distinct lack of a battle standard bearer (only 25% lords and heroes allowed). It's quite likely they could spend all four games stumbling about in a forest investigating a wart on their elbow that they've never noticed before. I do have plans for some chaotic trickery by using the "Summon Infernal Legion" boosted to its second stage to summon a level one Herald of Nurgle with a battle standard on turn one, to bypass this dilemma, but as is always the way with the magic phase, nothing can be relied on.
The X-factor in this list comes in my character, Slugtongue, a hidden gem in the Beastmen book, and literally the only named character worth his points. To put it in perspective, I can take a 200pt Ungor named character that has a 12" stupidity bubble. That affects friendly units as well as enemies...In a list with notoriously low leadership... And that's his (and I use the most exaggerated inverted commas) "draw card". Just horrendous. But I digress. Slugtongue.
At first glance, this guy looks like an overpriced level two death wizard. Regeneration is good, but not "80 points extra" good. Poison attacks are nice but combat bonuses for a squishy wizard? Pass.
Then your eyes scan over a rule called Curse of the Famine Fiend. Take a breath and sit down for a moment. This aura of super-pre-game death is hilarious. Unreliable, and it doesn't always fire, but when it does!! When it does!! After deployment but before vanguards, enemy units within 36" of Sluggo must roll a dice. 1-3 does nothing. 4-5 causes d3 wounds on that unit which ignore armour. On a 6, it suffers d6 wounds, no armour. And there is nothing your opponent can do to stop it! Chaos Knights getting you down? War machines causing you problems? A character running around by himself? Send in the walking virus bomb, and watch him work his magic. Some armies will shrug it off or it will fail to impact past a couple of wounds off the back of regiments, but I have used him in a Blood and Glory game to take second place at a tournament, when Sluggo's curse killed a demon prince worth two fortitude, essentially winning the game before the game had even started.
Some people don't rate him, but I do. And my regular gaming friends have a healthy and deep-seated dislike for the guy. This Sunday will tell whether he was a good choice.
I'll be trying out Battle Reports this weekend too, and hopefully some great gaming moments come out of it.
Well, it is getting far too late of an evening, and I am in dire need of sleep, so thanks for reading and I look forward to posting soon!
Thanks for reading
Gabriel
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