beastclaw raiders Donal's Mixed List - 15 Brutes or 6 Ironguts

[Donal]

Hi All,

So I have finally started assemmbling my beastclaw raider faction. I will be working towards a 2k list (by Christmas), but my first target is 1k. It's somewhat monster/character heavy because I have struggled in the past to get motivation to get an army built, but will add more frost sabres & yhettees as I go along.

For my basing I'm going with an Ice Theme 

 

 

I test painted some ogors, they have a blue skin which highlights towards pallid wych flesh. Will keep the same general theme with the models in the beastclaw list. As I develop the army into a full destruction I will use these guys and have a similar paintjob for grots.

 

Next up will be 4 sabretusks and a hunter to get at least a basic & (matched play) legal beastclaw list, then I will add a stonehorn for some monster goodness. 

I'm using fenrisian wolves for sabretusks and for the hunter I have started a base with a dead white lion model with a hunting spear through his body!

Hope this forum provides me the motivation to keep going

[Braggoth]

Care to share your 1k and 2k lists with us? I've been playing Beastclaw for a few months now, and I'm still not settled on my list haha.

[thediceabide]

Your image links don't seem to be working, did you try to use the URL's from images in your email?

[Donal]

19 minutes ago, thediceabide said:

Your image links don't seem to be working, did you try to use the URL's from images in your email?

@thediceabideHave reuploaded as jpgs, let me know if that works better

4 hours ago, Braggoth said:

Care to share your 1k and 2k lists with us? I've been playing Beastclaw for a few months now, and I'm still not settled on my list haha.

@Braggoth

1k List is going to be:

• Icebrow Hunter (General)
• Huskard on Stonehorn (Pelt of Changar)
• Huskard on Thundertusk
• 2 units of 2 sabretusks

I think I will drop the thundertusk for a unit of yhettees and mournfang once I finish paint stripping them.

 

Not sure where to go for the 2k list. Will probably add run something along the lines of:

• Huskard on Thundertusk
• Skal
  • Icebrow Hunter
  • unit of 6 frost sabre
  • units of 2 frost sabre
• Eurlbad -
  • Huskard on Stonehorn (Pelt of Changar)
  • 2 units of Mournfang with 2 handed weapons
  • Stonehorn
• 2 units of 2 sabretusks

 

Frost sabre with the Skal offer some flexibility for late turn objective grabbing and can be pretty fast, plus all my characters will get an artefact.

 

 

[MightyQwan]

Sounds awesome at 2k I use 2 stonehorn (frost lord and beastrider) and a huskard on Thundertusk for extra healing. The rest I fill with 4 mournfang and as many cats as I can get for objective capuring

[Braggoth]

I've just started using Braggoth's Beast Hammer battalion at 2k points, and so far I've been enjoying it. I feel I've had more success with it than full Beastclaw. But who knows, I've just had a few games with it. I can't bring myself to buy more of the sabertusks haha.

[Donal]

@Braggoth Yeah im not a fan of the sabretusk models (I don't know who is?). Really like the fenrisian wolves though, and they will tie in terms of colours scheme with the stone horns and mourfang much easier. I definitely want to play with gore gruntas at some point. the models are so good. I will probably buy some whenever I have a hobby wobble and want to move away from the raiders.  That said, I want to focus on the 1k list for now.

@MightyQwan How do you find the Frostlord vs Huskard? If you are running 4 mournfang the huskard ability becomes really strong, though rerolling charges is pretty awesome. 

Will get my first 4 sabretusks finished by Sunday and share then (hopefully!)

[Braggoth]

If I may butt in, the frostlords are totally worth it. I feel the huskards abilities look cool on paper, but they are just cute compared to the frostlords spear and 3+ save.

The line breaker ability looks sick, but I found myself with the Stonehorn at the front and the Mournfang unable to keep up during the first battleround (sometimes even second).

[MightyQwan]

I agree with @Braggoth.  Because of the low model counts I often find myself at 2k having to split my army on the 6x4 so I can secure objective so often my stonehorns stick together to go beat face supported by my Thundertusk and the kitties and cavalry run to get objectives. As for my Frost lord, the frost spear combined with the artifact thst can add 1 to you damage profile is awesome. A 3+ 3+ weapon causing 4 wounds is devastating. Combine with a 3+ save taking half wound that can be healed every turn, he is a thorn in my enemies side. Give the Crimson yhetees pelt to the Thundertusk so he can heal.himself and stay alive and you have you self a unit that can take some damage and deal it as well. 

I have just recently received my staryed collecting ironjaws box so my next step will be to try Bragg other beast. I think that will be fun. 

[Malakithe]

How effective are mournfang in units of 2? One is the leader and one the horn blower?

[Donal]

35 minutes ago, Malakithe said:

How effective are mournfang in units of 2? One is the leader and one the horn blower?

It's dependent on the huskard combo, otherwise they die fairly easily. Plan would be to be to hold back with one and push forward with another (that can be healed later game by the thundertusk if needed). That said, I'm definitely not sold on the 2k list yet, and @Braggoth made some good points about the frostlord on Stonehorn. Thankfully I can use my models interchangably when I finally get towards that point size and play whatever I enjoy.

Will definitely consider running the Frostlord on Stonehorn and dropping the Huskard after the comments above.

Has anyone tried out the Eurlbad with destruction allegiance, giving the huskard Might is Right (+1 Wound) Command Trait and Battle Brew (+1 Hit/Wound or +2 Hit/Wound). I know you lost the synergies with the Beastclaw raiders allegiance, but the huskard will almost always be wounding on a 2+, will cause an extra mortal wound on a 3/4+ roll to wound and have Damage 4 on the horn attack.

 

[MightyQwan]

The Eurlbad is a good battalion. But for 40 pts less you can get Jorlbad. With that formation you get to run and charge in the same turn. This skill is invaluable. Beastclaws are shock troops. Devastating on the charge but with low model counts can get swamped and stopped easily. I keep my army together as much as possible and focus on small units and monster with stone horns and bigger units with the mournfang in an attempt to get my Stonehorn to charge as often as possible. 

The ability to run and charge means you can give your opponent first turn and most likely charge on your turn and maybe get a second turn right away. This can be devastating for your opponent. 

Eurlbad is a good battalion. The extra mortal wound on a 6 is great and the extra attackis on your huskard is nice as well. I, however, think the 40 extra points can be put to better use. Like upgrading to a frost lord on a stonehorn. 

[Donal]

The Jorlbad run and charge is definitely useful for the Mournfang keeping up supporting the Stonehorn. I'm sure I'll give it a go at some point.

For now my 2k list is much less decided on, i do like the idea of doing a extra mortal wound on a 3/4 with the destruction combo I mentioned above, think it actually could make the huskard powerful. I have a 2k tournament at the end of the next month so definitely need to get cracking with the army.

I'm definitely happy with how my 1k army stands (i'm not allowed a behemoth general in the comp i'm playing with), hence the hunter.

[Donal]

So I have been ramping up on my painting ahead of clash next week. All my mounts have been basecoated and now just working on the various details. Good news though, the sabre tusks are done, just waiting on superglue so I can add ice effects to the base. Will take a better photo when I have more to show. 

Stonehorns and Thundertusks should be done by the end of the week!

 

For those interested my Clash 2.5k list looks like this, (2k selected each game):

Frostlord on Stonehorn (460)
Huskard on Stonehorn (380)
Huskard on Thundertusk (340)
Mournfang Pack x 6 (600)
Icefall Yhetees x 3 (120)
Frost Sabres x 6 (180)
Stonehorn Beastriders (360)
Eurlbad (60)

I will be playing clash comp so not generals handbook scenarios. I can also split the mournfang into 3 units of 2 or unit of 4 and unit of 2 (depending on the scenario).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Donal]

So I finished the first stonehorn (have another one to finish with a thundertusk by clash next week)

 

I'm fairly happy with the paint scheme but wish I had more time to blend the horns a bit more. Will frost up the base and use GW snow later next week.

 

 

 

 

[Donal]

Army Status 

 

So I managed to finish my army ahead of Clash this weekend. While the technique is far from perfect, I am pretty happy with the overall scheme and how it looks on the table. I don't have many good photos of the army, but will take some today or later this week. I will need to go back to tidy them up at some point and finish off the basing (adding snow). 

 

Results: 

 

Big shout out to @Chris Tomlin who took out 3rd Best in Painting & Best Destruction (both very well deserved) and I'm looking forward to seeing more army in his forum.

I finished 3rd and took top destruction which I was really happy about. Though another shout out to @Total Fanboy who was the leading destruction player for most of the tournament and also could be found on Table 1 during most games.

 

I mentioned on twitter, but a big thanks to my 5 opponents, had 5 great games and learnt alot throughout each game. 

 

Next Hobby Plans

Following the weekend, I am going to take a bit of a break from the hobby (painting 1.5-2k in last 3 weeks nearly killed me), but I will be looking to add some yhetees to my 2k list at Paddy's Age of Santa event in December.

 

At christmas I will be adding moonclan and savage orruks to make it more of a destruction force.

 

List

Each game was 2k, though we had a 500 pool. I ran the same list every time:

Huskard on Stonehorn (380)

Huskard on Thundertusk (340)
Mournfang Pack x 6 (600)

Icefall Yhetees x 3 (120)

Frost Sabres x 4 (120)

Stonehorn Beastriders (360)

Eurlbad (60)

Total: 1980/2000

 

Alternative List Options

 

My other option was to run the frostlord on stonehorn instead of huskard/formation. However I liked the option of dropping at once if  I need to and the overal damage output of the army is better with the Eurlbad formation. I think huskard beats frostlord given his mortal wound output and his plus 1 damage. I know I sacrifice a 3+ and an extra wound, but it's a trade-off I am happy to take.

 

I also had the option to run the Mournfang as a unit of 4 & 2 or 3 units of 2. Given the clash scenarios I ran 3 units of 2 each time.

 

Practice: 

 

Given the largely rush job on this army I only had 1 practice game vs Owyn's Bloodbound list (10 days before - no model was finished...) which ended up in a very cagey stand off and draw (think he won 11-9). After that I will add some Savage Orruks and Moonclan Grots so that I can start running a destruction force.

 

Clash Comp: For more details on Clash Comp:  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88222296/1 AoS Comp/Clash Comp v2.2.pdf

 

Clash Thursday / Friday: 

 

Clash is all about the social scene, so it was awesome  to head down with Paddy on Thursday and catch up with people (even if it was relatively brief). Friday saw football, go karting, walkabout and Metro's, 4 words that define clash. 

 

General Performance of the List: 

 

I don't know how this list will do under generals handbook (I suspect it will struggle with some of the scenarios) but it seemed to do well under Clash. These were my first games playing Clash comp and my first games with the army. I got super lucky with match ups (4 death, in generally increasing level of difficulty listwise), and had some very lucky rolls which won me games on vs Kris & the two Jon's.

 

Overall, death is a great match up for this army, and had I face Stormcast flying death I would have struggled. 

 

The results don't really demonstrate how close many of those games were, and a priority roll here or there would have made all the difference.

 

I will write a few more posts going over my games, but my 5 opponents (and lists) were: 

 

Table 1: Game 1: @Paddy O'Sullivan - Death - Scenario 2 Refused Flank:

Vampire on blood dragon (extra move artefact), 440

Wight king (5+ command trait), 120

Banshee, 80

40 Skeletons, 320

20 Skeletons, 160

3 Spirit hosts, 120

Mortis engine, 180

Mortis engine, 180

Mourngul, 400

Result: 11-9 Loss 

 

Table 14 (?) Game 2: Jon Jones - Death Scenario 4 - Balance of Power:

Abhorrent Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon (ring, 5+) 400

Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster 160

Vampire Lord on Abyssal Terror 220

Crypt Ghast Courier 80

20 Crypt Ghouls 200 

20 Crypt Ghouls 200 

6 Necropolis Knights 320

Mourngul 400

Result: 18-2 Win (or 17-3, i dont have the results on hand)

 

Table 6 Game 3: Ian Carse - Death - Scenario 1 Divide and Conquer:

1 x Vampire Lord On Zombie Dragon (440)

1 x Vampire Lord (140)

1 x Necromancer (120)

1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King (100)

20 x Skeleton Warriors (160)

5 x Dire Wolves (60)
3 x Spirit Hosts (120)
5 x Black Knights (120)
20 x Crypt Ghouls (200)
3 x Crypt Horrors (140)
Mourngul (400)

 

Result:19 -1 Win

 

Table 3 Game 4: Kristian Robertson - Destruction - Scenario 6 Drawn & Quartered:

1 savage big boss 100

10 savage orruks 100

6 savage big stabbas 300

20 savage orruks arrowboys 200

kunnin rukk 60

20 grots gitmob (spears) 100

20 grots gitmob (spears) 100

20 grots gitmob (bows) 100

1 grot shaman 80

12 nasty skulkers 160

20 moonclan grots 120

5 grot fanatics 150

1 grot fanatic 30

6 fellwater troggoths 400

 

Result: 15-5 Win (or 16-4?)

 

Table 3 Game 5: @jonwarmington - Death - Points of Interest

Abhorrant Ghoul King (100)

Crypt Haunter Courtier (120)

Varghulf Courtier (320)

Dire Wolves (120)

3x Fell Bats (80)

30x Crypt Ghouls (300) (unit of 20 and unit of 10)

9x Crypt Horrors (420) 

9x Crypt Horrors (420) 

 

Result: 15-5 Win

 

 

 

 

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey @Donal,

Great to catch up over the weekend, although we didn't talk about your army too much. I didn't realise you weren't running the Frostlord. That's super interesting as I think he seems to be considered the more common option? Tbh I'm not that well versed in Beastclaw (being the Ironjawz Megaboss! ), but I do like the look of your list.

Also it's probably the nicest painted and presented army I've seen from you, so kudos on that, especially with your time restraints. We'll have to have a bit more of a catch up at Age of Santa. I'll be assisting @Paddy O'Sullivan with the running of the event so will have time for things like that I hope.

I also love you got 3rd Place and Best Destruction, goes nicely alongside my 3rd Place Painting and Best Painted Destruction!

Once again congrats and be sure to keep this thread updated. Good to have these sort of topics as whilst the "Competitive Ironjawz/Beastclaw" style threads are good for theorising and new ideas etc, having tournament players posting reports, results, opinions and experiences like this is very useful for the forum IMO.

Chris

[Donal]

19 hours ago, Chris Tomlin said:

Great to catch up over the weekend, although we didn't talk about your army too much. I didn't realise you weren't running the Frostlord. That's super interesting as I think he seems to be considered the more common option? Tbh I'm not that well versed in Beastclaw (being the Ironjawz Megaboss! ), but I do like the look of your list.

Also it's probably the nicest painted and presented army I've seen from you, so kudos on that, especially with your time restraints. We'll have to have a bit more of a catch up at Age of Santa. I'll be assisting @Paddy O'Sullivan with the running of the event so will have time for things like that I hope.

I also love you got 3rd Place and Best Destruction, goes nicely alongside my 3rd Place Painting and Best Painted Destruction!

Once again congrats and be sure to keep this thread updated. Good to have these sort of topics as whilst the "Competitive Ironjawz/Beastclaw" style threads are good for theorising and new ideas etc, having tournament players posting reports, results, opinions and experiences like this is very useful for the forum IMO.

Chris

Thanks, i really like the huskard. Causing a mortal wound on a 6+ to wound for all the formation, then the general with BattleBrew and Might is right means that he is almost always hitting & wounding on 2+ (mortal wound on a 3 or 4+ to wound). He also gets +1 damage on his attacks, though Mo ruled before that it only applies to his punches and kicks. When I spoke to Paddy he said he thinks it should apply to all his attacks (which is how most tournaments will rule it I expect).

Thanks for the comment on the army, its the only one I have actually painted myself  Will definitely be working on it more going forward. 

 

Game 1: vs @Paddy O'Sullivan - Death - Scenario 2 Refused Flank - Table 1:

Vampire on blood dragon (extra move artefact), 440

Wight king (5+ command trait), 120

Banshee, 80

30 Skeletons, 240

30 Skeletons, 240

3 Spirit hosts, 120

Mortis engine, 180

Mortis engine, 180

Mourngul, 400

 

 

 

Deployment: I deployed relatively centrally, with most of my forces skewed on the left. While the yhettes held on the right to collect that objective if need be. Paddy deployed his mortis engines and dragon in the centre, with skellies on either side. The left hand side had the mourngul and white king. 

Plan: I was worried about the mourngul, while also realised that mortis engines has some decent healing potential. My plan was to kill the skellies on the left then sweep right, taking out the Vampire lord and mortis engines with my shooting . The sabretusks would hang back until the last turn to pick up the objective. 

Game: I gave paddy turn 1, BCR are devasting on the charge and I find death units need to be killed entirely otherwise they come back which makes the double turn even more important. He pushed the skellies forward, deciding against putting the vampire lord in reach of my units. My turn 1 saw my stonehorn roll high and get into the skellies on my right hand flank. I killed the banshee wiht the thundertusk shot. While I knew this would put me in range of the mourngul I was happy with to risk it because taking the unit of skellies out would help secure the scenario. I got the skellies down to less then 5, but it wasn't enough to kill them off.  (I should have devoted more shooting to them, or through my yhetees in...).  The huskard on stonehorn on the left charged in with mournfang to the skellies on the left and wiped them out in 1 turn.

I think he won the second turn which allowed him to move the mourngul and mortis engine into the stonehorn who was locked in combat with the skellies. Then he fled the skellies out of combat and started bringing them back. This was a huge error on my part, by not committing, I had just given him the opportunity to secure/contest that objective.  

Next few turns saw his vampire lord die in the centre, due to the huskards and mournfang. My stonehorn on the right fell due to the mourngul. In turn 3/4 my huskard got vengence for his fallen brother by killing the mourngul (though it depleted his wounds). He managed to reduce the mourfang to non-scoring units using the mortis engines. I should have kept a unit of mournfang on the left hand side because he swung round and was able to contest the objective on the left hand side with his spirit hosts. 

We finished up in turn 4 due to running out of time. At the end of the turn, the left hand objective was contested (i think by the sabretusks and spirit hosts), while the yhettees had claimed the right. The only reason the yhettees had been able to do that was cause we rushed, so in the spirit of the game we agreed that the skellies would have contested it. Which left our game on a draw. 

I can't remember which scenarios we got, but paddy beat me by one, which meant he beat me 11-9.  

It was a great game and me up for a great weekend.

Learnings: 

• Think further ahead: I made plenty of errors on this, I wasn't thinking far enough ahead.
• Committing vs Death: I should have commited to killing both units of skellies instead of holding the yhetteees back on the right hand flank, next time I played death I would do more to kill whole units at once
• Mourngul: The Mourngul was very difficult to kill (took my huskard 3 turns of combat). Next time I came against it I should take the double battlebrew. We realised later that we played it wrong it should have only been -1 to hit for the stonehorn & huskard (not -2 as it is bravery 8), also the 5++ only applies to within 10" of general...
• Contingency planning - I should have moved a unit of mournfang to the left to hold the primary objective.
• Huskard and mourfang charge together is incredible!

[Donal]

I have been busy in RL so not had time to add my other games (will do this week hopefully). I'm looking at what direction I should take for my next list. I will be adding 3 yhettees and taking out the sabretusks from the above list. 

Going forward though I see two lists as my next evolution of the army:

Leaders
Huskard on Stonehorn (380)
Huskard on Thundertusk (340)
Bruiser Standard Bearer (140)

Units
Mournfang Pack x 2 (200)
Mournfang Pack x 2 (200)
Ogors x 3 (120)
Savage Orruks x 10 (100)
Savage Orruks x 10 (100)

Behemoths
Stonehorn Beastriders (360)

Batallions
Eurlbad (60)

Total: 2000/2000

Leaders
Huskard on Stonehorn (380)
Savage Big Boss (100)

Units
Mournfang Pack x 2 (200)
Mournfang Pack x 2 (200)
Savage Orruks x 10 (100)
Savage Orruks x 10 (100)
Savage Orruks x 10 (100)
Savage Orruk Arrowboys x 30 (300)

Behemoths
Stonehorn Beastriders (360)
 

Batallions
Eurlbad (60)
Kunnin' Rukk (60)

Total: 1960/2000

I want to keep the Eurlbad formation because I really liked it at Clash. Going down the Kunnin' Ruk route feels like it will be better for Matched Play (more bodies on the table), but it's feels a bit netlisty...

The BSB isn't something I have seen many people play. I would run the huskard on stonehorn with battlebrew and might is right. If the BSB plants the banner with the Huskard in range then the huskard puts out 26 normal wounds and 13 mortal wounds on the charge (on the 1 sip battlebrew). If he takes 2 sips it could be 29 normal wounds and 17 mortal wounds (all pre-saves...). The bsb also means that mournfang and stonehorns become a bit more reliable, putting out 2 mortal wounds on 6's if in range of the banner. 

Regardless which way it goes, i think im going to be adding some savage orruks to the army soon!

 

 

[Total Fanboy]

Thanks for the shout out @Donal. Congrats on your result, well deserved!!!

[Donal]

I really should try and update this more (I don't have as much motivation or strength as the Megaboss @Chris Tomlin)

Will try and do a brief update to finish off my clash experience (from what I can remember) and my Age of Santa experience (took a BCR & mixed list and finished  2nd).

So I am interested in doing more of a mixed destruction list that avoids the monsters / grot combo. So far I have the below list: 

 

Leaders
Moonclan Grot Shaman (60)

Units
Moonclan Grots x 20 (120)
Moonclan Grots x 20 (120)
Moonclan Grots x 20 (120)
Grot Fanatics x 1 (30)
Grot Fanatics x 1 (30)
Grot Fanatics x 1 (30)
Ironguts x 6 (440)

War Machines
Doom Diver Catapult (120)
Doom Diver Catapult (120)

Total: 1190/2000
 

 

Any suggestions on what I can fill out the last 800 points with? The obvious choice Stonelord and Thuskard (takes list to 1990). Am interested in some other ideas though. I definitely need some more characters for three places of power (and that is where the stonelord and thuskard become very interesting options). I could try double thuskard and then some more points somewhere else.

I like the range of the double doom diver, and i think that is important in where the UK meta will probably go. I also have the grots painted (hence choosing them over kunning rukk for my battleline).

 

[Donal]

So currently planning my next 2k list and trying to expand my list from the Eurlbad formation to more mixed destruction list. 

I like the doomdivers for the range they provide (in early game). That said, I am unsure if I want the 45 wounds (but no wizard) of 15 brutes or the 18 wounds & damage output potential of 6 ironguts.
 

Leaders
Huskard on Thundertusk (340)
Frostlord on Stonehorn (460)
- Artefact: Battle Brew
Moonclan Grot Shaman (60)

Battleline
20 x Moonclan Grots (120)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
20 x Moonclan Grots (120)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
20 x Moonclan Grots (120)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields

Units
6 x Ironguts (440)
- General
- Trait: Bellowing Tyrant
1 x Grot Fanatics (30)
1 x Grot Fanatics (30)
1 x Grot Fanatics (30)

War Machines
Doom Diver Catapult (120)
Doom Diver Catapult (120)

Total: 1990/2000

 

Leaders
Huskard on Thundertusk (340)
Frostlord on Stonehorn (460)
- Artefact: Battle Brew

Battleline
20 x Moonclan Grots (120)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
20 x Moonclan Grots (120)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
20 x Moonclan Grots (120)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
15 x Orruk Brutes (540)
- General
- Trait: Bellowing Tyrant
- Ironjawz Battleline

Units
1 x Grot Fanatics (30)
1 x Grot Fanatics (30)

War Machines
Doom Diver Catapult (120)
Doom Diver Catapult (120)

Total: 2000/2000

 

 

[Soulsmith]

I think you want the grot shaman just to bubble your monsters.

[Donal]

10 minutes ago, Soulsmith said:

I think you want the grot shaman just to bubble your monsters.

yeah tempted to agree. I could go down to 10 brutes and take a shaman (or double shaman), but then I dont think the unit damage output is high enough.

[Soulsmith]

Just now, Donal said:

yeah tempted to agree. I could go down to 10 brutes and take a shaman (or double shaman), but then I dont think the unit damage output is high enough.

I think you're right. Off the top of my head does the moonclan get synergy with the shaman or the other way around? Otherwise why not a grot shaman on wolf?