8 October, 2017
Initial Thoughts:
Wow! That’s a lot of Ghekos! Literally, that was my initial thought as I saw Negator bring out 4 hordes of newly FAQ’d Ghekota warriors. He immediately followed up with 3 lelikodons and a clan lord of flying dragon. Then he brought forth the ancients on rhinos, and a couple of characters that have good shooting. Not quite a gun line, but damn, it’s a lot to contend with.
For my part, I am trying out a significantly revamped Herd list. I’ve decided to set aside my abyssals for a while now that the campaign is over, and start trying out some new things. I’ve really become too predictable, so it’s time. With the new FAQ boosting spirit walker horde attacks to where they’re supposed to be, I just had to include a horde of them. I love my guardian brutes, so a horde of them as well. In the mail right now are some great models for Lycans, thus a horde of lycans is necessary, and to round out my hordes, I’m including a stampede. I need some additional fast attack/chaff, so 2 beast pack troops are in the list, and I love my centaurs, so they’re in too. To flesh out the fast attack flank, I’m including 2 flying chimeras and a foot and a mounted shaman, both with heal 5.
Set Up:
Negator won the roll off for sides, and chose the top. I was actually fine with this, since I have so much pathfinder. I can get through the terrain on the bottom and in the center. My first drop is the spirit walkers, because I want to see how he’ll respond, that is after he drops a ghecko horde. So, the Salamander army, from left to right is: mounted mage priest with healing charm, 2 lelikodons, artakl, 2 gheckota warrior hordes, a third horde followed by herald with the Lute of Insatiable darkness and a rhino horde with blade of sharpness. His right flank consists of a lelikodon, mounted mage priest with inspiring talisman and clan lord on winged fire drake with boots of levitation.
My forces are set to kill as much as I can in the early rounds and then move to claim objectives in the late rounds. The objective in the bottom right, I won’t even make a play for, while the one by the building on the left is equally insignificant. . The 5 in the center are the ones I plan to fight for. My forces, from left to right: beast oack, winged chimera, spirit walker horde, guardian brute horde followed by shaman with healing, stampede, long mane regiment, lycan horde followed by mounted shaman with healing, beast horde, and chimera with wings.
Turn 1:
Negator wins the roll off, and opts to give me the first go. I move the left flank up 11 or so inches, and into the woods. The beast pack takes up a covered position on the side of the house. This means the leks will be shooting at me in cover at least, and the chimera and beast pack will be able to charge the Leks on turn 2 if they choose to ignore one or the other. The right flank moves up less, because of the flying dragon threat. The beast pack forces Neg to dedicate resources againts them, or they will be charging the lek on turn 2. The chimera is also at extreme charge range of the lek. I did screw up just a bit, and not advance the lycans quite far enough to be a threat on turn 2, but this shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Negator is even more cautious than I am. The only thing he actually moves more than just a bit of adjusting is the clan lord, who flies down and lines up a shot on the beast pack. The mage priest on the left moves closer in to also get a covered shot on the beast pack. both leks and the mage priest on the left annihilate the left beast pack. The clan lord, lek and mage priest on the right do the same to the right flank beast pack. Just like that I’m down 2 units, but not overly concerned because now I’m in position to start killing things.
Turn 2:
I commit both chimeras against the leks on the left and right. The center advances to within charge range of the wall of gheckos, but they will all be hindered charges if they go. The right flank takes up a solid stance that will enable them to charge out at gheckos, but the only charge they could take right now is a frontal charge on the lycans from the clan lord. With an inspiring source there beside them, I can very likely survive that charge, and come back fighting. The left chimera eats the lelikodon, and turns to face the flank of his entire army. The right chimera wavers the other lek after doing 4 damage. What I’m expecting now is for the clan lord to rear charge the chimera and the right ide gheckos to flank him. In the center, I am anticipating ghecko charges across the line, with the rhinos taking up a supporting position. The other lek, Artakl, and the mage priest will likely blast my other chimera. This could go good or bad from me.
So, I was wrong on multiple points. The gheckos back up rather than charge into the woods. The clan lord re-positions to use his breath weapon rather than charge the chimera, and the wavered lek backs up then the mage priest charges the chimera accompanied by the ghecko horde in the flank. I was right about the shooting on the left, though. So the shooting is unleashed. The left chimera takes 4 damage, but it is fine. The clan lord doesn’t do the expected again, and uses his breath weapon on the mounted shaman rather than either of the hard hitting units. Despite 7 damage, the shaman comes out able to function (nerve roll of a 3, yay, no waver.) The one combat results in 4 damage to the chimera, who is just fine to fight. I am now in position to charge all 4 ghecko hordes. This could be decisive.
Turn 3:
This battle is about to be fully joined. The Spirit walkers can just reach the flank of the lelikodon, so the chimera takes the flank of the left horde. The stampede charges the middle horde, while the centaurs take the right one. The lycans take the offered flank of the far right horde, while the chimera counter charges the mage priest. I discovered that last turn, I forgot to advance the shaman on foot, so he won’t be able to get all of his units into inspiring range and cast a bane chant. Guess I’m just going to do without this turn. The mounted shaman also demonstrates why they are the superior mages, and charges the clan lord. With 2 attacks on 4/4 I stand a 1 in 4 chance of disrupting the big dude. Just one wound and he won’t be a flying charger or a flame thrower. Yes, I may lose the shaman, but in this case, it’s worth the risk. Order of resolution for combat is an important tactical decision, so I need to think all of this through. The most critical combat is the mounted shaman on the clan lord so I do it first. Sadly, he fails to wound the beast. So now, I am at risk from a rear charge on the right. Thus the next combat is the mage priest which results in a waver. Damn, now the rear of the chimera is hanging out. I do the gheckos next and obliterate them, then reform the lyans to offer the clan lord a frontal charge. I am willing to sacrifice the chimera over the lycans at this point. I move to the left now, and roll the chimera attack on the left horde. Poor rolling leaves the horde un wavered, so the next fight needs to be the spirit walkers. Their rolls result in the lek’s messy, horrible death. The next critical fight is on the center horde. The stampede wavers them after 12 wounds. The centaurs do alright, with 10 damage, but their horde will be fighting back. Well, not nearly as decisive as I was hoping for. I’ll admit, I hadn’t ever faced mage priests before, and was shocked to learn they’re De5+. Had I killed that guy, I could have over run into the lek and probably finished it off as well, then turned to face the clan lord. That was the plan, but hey, it just didn’t happen. Everything else was average rolls, so I can’t complain.
My wavering that middle horde was pretty significant, as the rhinos will have to sit out another turn of combat. The two other hordes counter charge their respective attackers, while the middle one backs up and the herald moves to block the stampede. The clan lord does take the rear charge on the chimera while the lek moves to the right. Shooting is next. Artakl and the left mage priest zap the spirit walkers for 10 wounds, but not enough damage to break them. The right lek shoots at the lycan horde, but flubs, hitting only once, and not causing a wound. oops. The left gheckos do 3 damage to the chimera, but he can still fight. The other gheckos do 7 to the centaurs, who also hold. The clan lord does butcher the chimera, and turns to face my target rich center.
Turn 4:
Well, This fight is still up in the air right now, but the salamander line is in danger of collapsing now. The spirit walkers and chimera take on the left horde. The stampede charges the herald, and the centaurs re-engage the right horde. The right flank is the tougher call now. The lycans move back across the center line, and turn to face the clan lord and the rhinos and hordes. The shaman is torn as to whether he should try to disrupt the clan lord or the lelikodon. In the end, I elect to hit the lek. For my first actual shooting roll of the game, my foot shaman tries to heal the centaurs. He manages a single hit, wow. So it’s on to close combat. The mounted shaman wounds the lek, and wavers it. The centaurs break the right horde, and turn to face the clan lord. The spirit walkers and chimera crush the left horde, and turn towards center as well. The stampede doesn’t even slow down as it tramples the herald and crashes into the final ghecko horde, which it crushes as well, and turns to face the rhinos. There’s still some shooting that can hurt me, but I’d say this turn was pretty decisive for me.
Negator chooses to go for a combined charge on the stampede. He then maneuvers his shooting forces to try for maximum effect. The mage priest blows it and manages 2 wounds on the spirit walkers. He now needs a 10+ to break them, but doesn’t get it. Artakl does a single wound to the chimera, and also fails to waver or break him. The mage priest does bar-b-que the centaurs, though, and they are removed from the fight. Close combat results in 13 wounds, and a waver on the stampede. A quick measure shows the lycans in range for a rear charge on the rhinos, an obvious flank charge from the brutes on the clan lord, and even the chimera can get in on the rhinos. With this knowledge firmly in mind, Negator concedes the match. Victory to the herd.
After Thoughts:
I do roll out the attacks including BC on the lycans. The rhinos and clan lord are deceased, and the remaining lelikodon is wavered. Best case scenario, on the remaining 2 turns, Neg can take down the chimera, spirit walkers and stampede, leaving me still in control of 2 objectives to nil. Odds are the lek dies on turn 6 as well.
I am pretty happy with how this army played today, but Neg made some tactical errors, and had some bad nerve rolls that I can’t always rely on. I made a couple errors as well, and do need to come to grips just a bit more on the capabilities of this list, but I feel it is going to be a lot of fun to use for a while, especially as I assemble and paint it. I have a chimera done, but looking at my models, I discovered that all of my metal beastmen are chipped and scratched pretty bad, so all of them are going into a dot 3 brake fluid bath, and I’ll be starting over on them.
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