Editorial - My first game with beastmen

"Seriously, was that the best you could do against welves?"

So, on sunday I finally got to play with my beastmen in what seems like an eternity collecting and painting them.

I played my friend Nightwolf, whose High elves you may remember were at warhammer world against my daemonic legion. Well, he brought with him the wood elf book this time for a bit of 2,000 point action on my living room floor.

So, I threw together a quick list, and I lost...just! It was an entertaining game which was littered with forgetfulness ("Oh yeah, wissan's gives plus+1toughness as well as +1 strength", "Forgot primal fury again", "Don't forget your unit has that s2 auto hit on any unit in base contact" "Oh I forgot my unit has that s2 auto hit on any unit in base contact" and so on).

I attempted a magic heavy list, going for a Lv4 great bray with lore of shadow and stubborn hat (crown of command), Swagger Jagger Dagger and Steel Claws. I brought two level 1s with lore of beasts and a shard of the herdstone. In theory - I librally cast miasma (and wissans) and hop around the board using smoke and mirrors bringing my stubborn hat with me, whilst each turn I overpower my foe with extra power dice from the herdstone.

Well, Nightwolf brought some trinket which allowed his level 4 to reroll failed dispels so very little got through. Bah! Damn opponants having their own schemes!

His wardancers mullered both my razorgor (they really need a 5+ scaly skin save) and my centigors (who I put on the flank thinking they were light cavalry...they aren't...no vanguard move for them. They also rolled +2 initiative on their drunken rolls - excellent! I4 vs and army full of I5 minimum!). My chariot ran straight into a walking chestnut tree, who insisted on passing all his armour saves with contemptuous ease before picking apart my best painted model on the table. I finally offed the treeman in turn 6, after he dropped death conkers on exactly half of my 46 strong gor unit and withered him to T3 and Mindrazored said Gor herd - he still survived two damn turns of being wounded on 2s!

I took 30 Bestigors with banner of swiftness (In an attempt to try and avoid what the internet tells me!) who made a charge on exactly the 14 required. They also passed every primal fury rolled asked of them, making two on double ones! Rawr!

I kept making stupid errors, like falling under 40K mode and attempting to "escort" units off table edges when they ran thinking they couldn't rally within 6inch of an enemy. D'oh! Infact my gor herd spent half the game practising their reforming.

But yes, a good game which helped me clear the cobwebs from my non beastly mind. I know for a fact I'm going to struggle against most lists...but hey, beastmen are cool! Also, they tend to have good games against those classed as lower tier, who I'll be getting to know quite intimately when I haunt the bottom tables of any tournaments.

Also, something quite sneaky is putting your Wargor BSB with uncanny senses and GBS with many limbed fiend in the same unit and going after multiwound monstrous infantry - My wargor did the donkey work taking off wounds on a treekin, before my GBS finished him off in the next initiative step and got a cheeky model for use with jagged dagger.