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Advice for 9th age Beast Herds


Gabado

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I just picked up a good collection of old Beastmen stuff off eBay yesterday and was realizing that save for a few 8th ed battle report videos on youtube, I have no idea what I'm doing with this army, especially with the new edition. I was wondering if one of you savvy fellas could help me work out a list from what I have and recommend what I should get to fill in the cracks. Advice on 9th age beast herd tactics would be much appreciated as well.

 

The auction was for:

85 gors

40 ungors
5 orc boars (to convert into razorgors)
4 beast lords/wargor
3 doombulls 
38 beastigors 
17 minotaurs
8 centigors 
2 chariots
3 chaos spawn
1 morghur master of skulls
1 beastmen BSB wargor 
 
From what I've read about Beastmen, I'll want to get one or two monsters and a few more casters. Are ungors still best as msu chaff units? In the 9th age beast herds rules they have to be taken in squads of 10 at least, which seams like a problem for the whole msu tactic. 
 
Thanks for your help! Now that I'm back in town, I'll hopefully be able to come to Tuesday nights, I'm looking forward to learning how to play this new army, but I'm a little daunted and wondering how to start.
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That's a lot of Beasts!

 

I'd definitely agree that picking up a couple of Monsters would be a good idea. I am a big fan of Gortachs myself, but they all have their uses. As for Ungors, I think the best use of them is indeed as chaff, but they are in tight competition with Feral Hounds who only run 40 points and get faster speed and Vanguard versus the 50 point Mongrel Raiders (Ungors) with Skirmishing, some light shooting, and 5 more wounds going for them. If you're taking the Mongrels, I'd probably recommend spending the extra 10 points for Scout & Ambush to give yourself some additional options. With that, you aren't losing out too much over the dogs in mobility and can probably function as both chaff and chaff clearers. I'm a big fan of running a Beastlord general and taking a couple of ambushing Gor units as well, which helps fill out the Core pretty nicely.

 

After that, Minotaurs, Centaurs, a big block of Longhorns (Bestigor), it sounds like you've got a pretty solid army coming together! I'd also really recommend watching some battle reports by OnceBitten360, he was one of the writers of the Beast Herds book and is probably the best battlereporter out there on the Youtubes. Here's a link to his channel:

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/OnceBitten360

 

Also to give yourself an idea of what a Beast list might look like, here's the list I ran at the OFCC to pretty good success:

 

[357] Beast Lord: ogre sword, dragonscale helm, sprout of rebirth, heavy armor, shield, razortusk chariot, hunting call, hunting horn, general

 

[265] Minotaur Chieftain: bsb, armor of destiny, totem bearer, shield, beast axe

[110] Soothsayer: path of wilderness, dispel scroll, talisman of shielding

 

[225] Wildhorn Herd x 25: ambush, paired weapons, full comand, totem bearer (blooded horn), banner of the wild herd

[200] Wildhorn Herd x 25: ambush, paired weapons, full command, totem bearer (blooded horn)

[75] Raiding Chariot

[75] Raiding Chariot

[75] Raiding Chariot

 

[367] Minotaurs x 7: paired weapons, full command, banner of speed

[90] Gargoyles x 5: scout

[60] Briar Beast

 

[200] Cyclops

[200] Gortach

[200] Gortach

 

TOTAL: 2499

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Excellent! Thank you for your advice, I've started watching OnceBitten360, and really enjoy it!

I was able to find a giant on eBay for cheep, I've always been fond of the giant and now that I finally have an army that can field one, I decided to get it, even though it might not be the best monster on the table. I'll try to track down a Gorgon or two. 

 

As far as ambushing goes, I know in previous editions, gors had a lot of trouble operating outside the ld bubble of the general. Likewise, without steadfast from being in a horde they wouldn't last too long in a prolonged fight. Is this still the case? From your list, I would assume not, but being a 9th age neophyte, there certainly might be some tactical aspect that I am missing.

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I've wouldn't recommend sending the Gors Wildhorns in solo against any main combat blocks, but they are great at joining in a combo charge with a Gortach or some Minotaurs to help break steadfast with a flank or rear charge (that's a thing now). They also excel at killing war machines, support troops, or just grabbing objectives. I like running them as a little more combat oriented with the paired weapons and the '+1 str for one round of combat' banner on one of them, but OnceBitten also seems to have success running them at 20-strong with throwing weapons to take out lightly armored targets on the turn they come in.

 

Also, Giants seem kind of cool now that they can Ambush too.

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Yeah I noticed that, I like the idea of a drunken giant accidentally wondering into the flanks of the army after the battle has begun.

 

I am also wondering about razorgors. In 8th they seemed like a mandatory single model redirection unit. Are razortusks the same in 9th age? It doesn't seem like OnceBitten360 is using them, and from your list and the other beast herd lists I've seen online, they don't seem like a popular unit.

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Yeah, I've never felt a huge need to use them in my lists as I feel like Beast Herds have enough chaff in their Core to not need to spend points on it in Special, but they do definitely pack a nice little punch for only 50 points. If you already have your core allotment filled and want a little extra chaff/chaff clearing power, I could see picking one up.

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weird rules question, can i field an army that is entirely ambushing? It seems like a bit of a gamble, because the hunting call will only work when the general is on the board, so there isn't a strong guarantee that anything will arrive, but tactically speaking, it's an interesting concept. I haven't seen anything saying I can't, though that's not saying much as I've only played one game of 9th age. if I were to keep the unit size down to 25, I could take wild horns, long horns, and raiders as well as dogs, giants, harpies, and briar beasts.

 

Addendum:

sample list, based on stuff I already have:

 

 

Heroes:

 

Centaur Chieftain: 245

-general

-+1 wound

-totem bearer

-ambush

-looted booze

-heavy armor

-hardened shield

-dusk stone 

-throwing weapons

-beast axe

 

beast chieftain: 197

-bsb

-totem bearer

-crown of horns

-shield

-heavy armor

-ambush

-beast axe

-lucky charm

-rending banner

 

soothsayer: 150

-Path of wilderness

-lvl 2

-soothsayer staff

-ambush

-D scroll

-talisman of shielding

 

Core:

 

25 Wildhorn: 185

-paired weapons

-throwing weapons

-ambush

 

25 Wildhorn: 185

-paired weapons

-throwing weapons

-ambush

 

25 Wildhorn: 185

-paired weapons

-throwing weapons

-ambush

 

5 feral hounds: 40

 

5 feral hounds: 40

 

5 feral hounds: 40

 

10 raiders: 60

-ambush/scout

 

10 raiders: 60

-ambush/scout

 
10 raiders: 60

-ambush/scout

 
Special:
 
20 Longhorn: 285
-ambush
-full command
-blooded horn totem
-Icon of the restless company
 
20 Longhorn: 285
-great weapons
-ambush
-full command
-blooded horn totem
-banner of courage
 
7 centaur: 229
-ambush
-throwing weapons
-lances
-full command
-black wing totem
-banner of speed
 
briar beast: 60
 
Rare: 
 
beast giant: 185
-ambush
 
Total: 2491

 

 

 

So, as far as I can tell, barring me messing up on math, it's totally legal to ambush with this entire army. three main problems that arise from this proposition:

1. the beast lord cannot ambush, so i cannot make use of its almost guaranteed auto ambush, meaning that units are likely to not arrive when i would like them to arrive

2. this list has no heavy hitting characters, meaning that with the army's generally low leadership and lack of blenders, tactics will be paramount to success

3. no unit, apart from maybe the centaurs, is at a comfortable volume of bodies, even the relatively killy longhorns will struggle to last more than a few rounds of combat. again tactics will come into play.

From what I figure, this list could either be really really fun, or really really not fun, depending on the army matchup, and the quality of tactics employed.

 

basically I'm wondering if this sort of list is feasible, i toyed with the idea of bringing three giants, though decided not to in the sample list because I do not myself have three giants, and wanted to see if i could keep the list to just things i have in my army case.

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