Warherd Army Review

[Shoe]

If you have been wondering about what it's like to actually play a Warherd, this thread is for you. 

I ran my Warherd for the entire summer campaign. I played 15 games at 1,000 points. 

...and I only won about 3 of them. But! That's mostly because I'm terrible at AOS and constantly forget stuff.  

I did learn quite a bit and now I'm winning probably 40% of the games I play, unless someone tailors a list for me. I think this changed because I'm getting better at learning how to use the army effectively. 

This is my analysis!

Pros: 

• Minimum requirements for the army & formation are exactly 1k. 
• Eats Stormcast, Ogor and Beastclaw alive and laughs about it so hard, milk comes out their nose.
• Low model count gives you plenty of opportunity to paint them creatively.
• Burst damage can be insane if you roll well, I wiped a unit of 40 zombies in a single round.
• Properly buffed, they hit on 3+, wound on 2+ and get 2 extra swings on 4+ to wound.
• Best matched against Ironjawz - my best fight left us with 2 Brutes and 1 minotaur at the end of the game competing for an objective at turn 6. Clearly the most fun match of the summer by far. 

Cons: 

• Pathetic armor saves. Even with shields, it only gives you 4+ in the combat phase, not against shooting.
• Wood elves tie humiliating notes to their arrows as your cows turn into fat pincushions. Weak against any shooting army. 
• The Ghorgon is a pussycat. It's only job is to look scary and draw fire away from the minotaurs and it works. 3 minotaurs will get more work done than the Ghorgon every single time, so swing him around blindly and paint it vibrantly.
• The Ghorgon's "Slavering maw" ability has never hit in the history of warhammer. People will tell you it has, but they are lying. I think it's a joke among the GW designers. They sit at bugman's and announce they will drink from their "huge slavering maw" and then while everyone watches, they pour their entire pint in their lap and then everyone laughs and laughs
• If you have to split up your forces, you will lose.
• If you fight khorne bloodbound, you will probably lose.

 

Tactics: 

• Stay in a 16" bubble. 
• Don't accept charges. Always take advantage of pre measuring to hedge your bets against being charged. A strong wind will damage your fragile minotaurs and losing even one out of the group of 3 before it can do it's 6 wounds (average) is huge. 
• Only send in one unit at a time if you can. Even if you are able to charge everything in at once. Avoid giving your opponent a free swing at your bulls. Unless you are trying to force your opponent to make a tough tactical choice. If you have to sacrifice something, sacrifice the Ghorgon. 
• Remember all the little bonuses. Like how your banner gives you +1 bravery for every enemy unit within 12" - this saves you from bravery based mortal wound generators like Drycha and Flesh Eater Courts.
• Always remember to roll unpredictable destruction. 
• Get your Doombull into combat in turn 2. His damage is incredible and he's fairly tanky with 8 wounds. 
• Applying wound order is always Musician, Banner, Bloodkine. 
• Try to force your opponent into scenery bottlenecks, like the door to the ophidian archway, or some other tight squeeze. This will help when fighting armies that can pile in and attack when they die. If there's no reach, there's no damage. 

 

General Advice:

• I run my army with the Runeblade(?) (don't have the book on me at the moment) on the Doombull (4 damage!) and Lord of War giving him the ability to grant +1 to hit to another unit, which has a surprisingly huge impact in controlling the tide of the battle. 
• Get used to winning embarrassingly easily or losing with grace and a smile. Some of your games might not be much fun for you or your opponent unless you bring a ton of banter and keep a good attitude. I painted cow jokes to the bottom of all my bases, so whenever one gets pulled off the table: I tell a terrible cow joke. The saddest win I earned was against gutbusters. I lost one minotaur. My opponent was a prince about it. The saddest loss I suffered was against Flesh Eaters, who beat me by one model on the objective. Super close game though! 
• If you are playing 1000 point games, play on a 4x4 table. It's recommended in the book for a good reason. The main reason being that it makes armies like this viable in about half of the scenarios. 
• For most scenarios you will rely on a tabling victory. 

 

Stampede in other armies: 

1000 points for a single Bullgor Stampede means that, to fit it into a 2k list, you have to be super clever with "fixing" their shortcomings with 1k worth of chaos units, and your doombull still has to be your general - or get access to his command ability from another buff like from the Archaeon on steed's "Warlord without Equal" or similar ability. 

 

I wouldn't recommend having more than 1000 points of bulls on the table because they have to be within 16" of the Doombull to get their synergy and if he gets iced, your house of cards falls pretty hard.


Is it fun?

YES. It's my favorite army to play. Even if I lose, I am peeling enemy models off the table in droves and most people who beat me feel like they really had to work for it. It's usually when they total up the victory points and say "Wait... I won?"

In my experience, the best games are the ones we almost win, or almost lose. 

 

I'm probably forgetting something. I had a ton of fun painting mine, I snagged a silver in my first AOP with them! 

Here are some photos! 

 

 

[Broken Netcode]

I wouldnt even care about the game if I played you because those models are beautiful! 

[Mohojoe]

Really entertaining read, cheers for the time and effort put into that. 

Great models, love the unique schemes and the basing. 

[Malakithe]

What sort of 2k list would include them? There was a time when I was looking to make a herd combo list 

[Budda]

Yeah I run a very similar list to this and when I go to 2k I throw on the smallest Wildstalker battalion. This gives you a super fast mass of models that the stampede does not have. I have to say that was a great read, I hope you throw some other army reviews up, and the paint job is cracking too.

[Goodwin]

I was really excited to give this another try, until I saw your bullgor.

Now that I realize mine will never achieve the level of badassery.  They are BANISHED to the basement!

Thanks a lot for the information and for the pictures!

[Tasman]

Nice looking army. I have started to slowly add some beast men into my lists as shock troops. Love the minotaurs. They mess s**t up!

Too bad that they can't be marked. The bulls with nurgle, backed by a Harbinger would be a terrible thing indeed for your opponents to face.

[Shoe]

13 hours ago, Tasman said:

Nice looking army. I have started to slowly add some beast men into my lists as shock troops. Love the minotaurs. They mess s**t up!

Too bad that they can't be marked. The bulls with nurgle, backed by a Harbinger would be a terrible thing indeed for your opponents to face.

There is a Khorne mintoar formation! It's called the bloodscorch bulltribe I think? They have the Mark of Khorne! Stack some bloodsecrators in there for extra bananas. I am not sure if this formation is pointed in the GHB though, it might just be an open play thing. Dice for days! 

On 11/5/2016 at 7:51 PM, Goodwin said:

I was really excited to give this another try, until I saw your bullgor.

Now that I realize mine will never achieve the level of badassery.  They are BANISHED to the basement!

Thanks a lot for the information and for the pictures!

Nooo! Not my intention! You should certainly paint your beef! Though banishing them to the basement makes your basement sound like a fun place...

On 11/5/2016 at 8:58 AM, Budda said:

Yeah I run a very similar list to this and when I go to 2k I throw on the smallest Wildstalker battalion. This gives you a super fast mass of models that the stampede does not have. I have to say that was a great read, I hope you throw some other army reviews up, and the paint job is cracking too.

Thanks I'm glad you enjoyed it. Cool idea! 

On 11/5/2016 at 4:15 AM, Malakithe said:

What sort of 2k list would include them? There was a time when I was looking to make a herd combo list 

If you were going fluffy, then fill up the other 1k with beastmen of your choosing. The shortcomings you are trying to cover for are lack of armor, no "surprise" deployment and no range or mortal wound generators. They could pair nicely with Tzeentch Daemons, Nurgle Rotbringers, Slaves to Darkness (like, 1000 points of Chaos Warriors maybe?) or my personal favorite, Chaos Warriors as battle line and then Skaven toys like Warpligtning Cannon and Stormfiends. 

On 11/5/2016 at 2:47 AM, Mohojoe said:

Really entertaining read, cheers for the time and effort put into that. 

Great models, love the unique schemes and the basing. 

Thank you! 

On 11/4/2016 at 9:34 PM, Broken Netcode said:

I wouldnt even care about the game if I played you because those models are beautiful! 

Thanks bud! And your netcode isn't that bad.

[Tasman]

Those bulls are awesome. Put my paltry attempt to shame....

[Bowlzee]

I have a Warherd army ready to go, (all models from Mierce Miniatures) I'm just waiting for a more concrete battletime. 

Also the  bloodscorch bulltribe  doesn't have points in the GHB sadly.

[Tasman]

Must mean that it's free, then.....

[cranect]

I have played the majority of my sigmar games with the warherds. The ghorgons are great for mauling units of infantry because they get the extra attacks more easily than the bullgors. The whole thing is fairly fragile and so far hordes have been the hardest to fight for me. At 2000 points in going to try dropping 6 bullgors and adding in 40 gors to be meatshields. My win rate I have to say I much higher though. I think I have lost 5/40+ games with the warherds. My opponents here are sylvanteh, high elves, stormcast, ironjawz, and assorted chaos armies. The stormcast and high elves players are both very young though. Ironjawz fights are always a ton of fun and our extra speed is very useful against them since whoever hits first is likely to win in this matchup. The oddest battle was when I lost everything in the stampede except the ghorgon against durthu, a treelord, some dryads, and some spite revenants. This was at 1000 points and he ignored the ghorgon because it normally doesn't do very much. Then the ghorgon wiped out his whole army in 2.5 turns. Killed durthu in his turn, killed the treelord in mine and then killed the dryads and the revenants in the next game turn. It was nuts. I have fought some bloodbound but not much since the only one I know is the store owner so he is normally busy. Maybe ill add in a jabber instead of the 3rd ghorgon for hurting things that pile in and attack when they die. I also tend to keep the doombull out of combat and use him to just buff everyone else since he normally seems to whiff and then get demolished against anything when he tries to fight. Also the drummer giving +1 to charge is great since people like to bunch up for the buffs. Its fairly easy to garuntee a charge or main if you roll high go around the screening unit and hit the more valuable ones. My record is currently a 22 inch charge. That ended the game there. Against the wood elves most of their stuff is between 18-24 inch range so turn one you want to be just out of 6+ their range. You want to go second and hope for the double turn. If not get to cover and pray that turn two you win initiative and can make your charges. It can be difficult but definitely winnable. It is also not the most competitive around here and when there is a multiplayer battle the warherd has a reputation and is certainly hanged up on because of it but its all in good fun. The gors and such would definitely help at 2000 so that you can screen the more valuable stuff.

[kozokus]

From my testings, the formation lives and die by the presence of the general. What is your overall strategy and model positionement?

How do you fight stormcast tellyporta lists, frostlords and other nasty tricks?

[cranect]

Therein lies the problem. Normally the general just hangs in some terrain near the front lines. The reason the gors and such aee being added is to deal with stormcast telleporting or skaven popping up next to you. The beastclaw raiders the guy doesn't have them built yet. For the most part people have yet to really build anything nasty. The closest to nasty is a wlc. Just a single one.... So ya it hasn't been a super competitive scene here yet. I thought I had mentioned that but I may have forgotten.

[Furious]

Oh my gosh I love the labyrinth bases you did! How clever!

[Arathorn]

I am literally about to buy a warherd army. I was wondering  how you get blood greed down to 4+ though? the doombull ability make gives +1 on eound roles, so  that makes the extra attacks trigger on 5+ , but  where does the bounus to get +4  come  from please? very well painted models too, awesome work! 

[kozokus]

I guess tats only work for the Ghorgon.

[Tasman]

It's possible to get a +1 or +2 on your hit rolls with the alliance abilities in the GHB. Dark Avenger and Lord of War both add 1 to the roll, and unpredictable destruction adds another, if you're lucky enough to roll  a 6. (And remember to actually make the roll, something I seem to forget more often than not ). That gives you blood greed on a 4+. 

[kozokus]

2 hours ago, Tasman said:

It's possible to get a +1 or +2 on your hit rolls with the alliance abilities in the GHB. Dark Avenger and Lord of War both add 1 to the roll, and unpredictable destruction adds another, if you're lucky enough to roll  a 6. (And remember to actually make the roll, something I seem to forget more often than not ). That gives you blood greed on a 4+. 

Nope it is the "to wound" roll that triggers bloodgreed. That is why the Doombull is so important.

[Tasman]

My bad.... then I have no idea how to buff that to a 4+. Maybe some battalion formation that I'm unaware of. I've only recently started dabbling with beasts.

[cranect]

as far as I know only the ghorgon will get the extra attacks on a 4+ since his is a 5+ base.

[Goodwin]

Plague Priest can throw a +1 to Wound against a particular unit, if you were interested in breaking Allegiance.

[Shoe]

On 11/8/2016 at 11:32 PM, kozokus said:

From my testings, the formation lives and die by the presence of the general. What is your overall strategy and model positionement?

How do you fight stormcast tellyporta lists, frostlords and other nasty tricks?

Stormcast still need to be in melee range to be effective unless they bring a ton of judicators. Stormcast are great in melee, but they aren't good at rubbing elbows with -2 rend and 3 damage. 15 to 23 wounds per turn is really hard for their elite numbers to sustain. I went up against a hammerstrike formation and it was comically vaporized the turn after it plunked down. Now, this is a dice game and that can always change your perception. 

As for the frostlords, they nearly always go for the doombull & ghorgon first with their range. Even unbuffed, the Minotaurs get a ton of work done. I beat them in melee with my batttle line. I haven't played them a ton though. 

[Shoe]

7 hours ago, cranect said:

as far as I know only the ghorgon will get the extra attacks on a 4+ since his is a 5+ base.

This. It's a typo, I should have specified. Doombull buffs the Minotaurs so their blood greed kicks off on a 5+. 

Ghorgon is the 4+ when it is in range of the command ability. 

[Shoe]

On 11/8/2016 at 6:42 PM, cranect said:

I have played the majority of my sigmar games with the warherds. The ghorgons are great for mauling units of infantry because they get the extra attacks more easily than the bullgors. The whole thing is fairly fragile and so far hordes have been the hardest to fight for me. At 2000 points in going to try dropping 6 bullgors and adding in 40 gors to be meatshields. My win rate I have to say I much higher though. I think I have lost 5/40+ games with the warherds. My opponents here are sylvanteh, high elves, stormcast, ironjawz, and assorted chaos armies. The stormcast and high elves players are both very young though. Ironjawz fights are always a ton of fun and our extra speed is very useful against them since whoever hits first is likely to win in this matchup. The oddest battle was when I lost everything in the stampede except the ghorgon against durthu, a treelord, some dryads, and some spite revenants. This was at 1000 points and he ignored the ghorgon because it normally doesn't do very much. Then the ghorgon wiped out his whole army in 2.5 turns. Killed durthu in his turn, killed the treelord in mine and then killed the dryads and the revenants in the next game turn. It was nuts. I have fought some bloodbound but not much since the only one I know is the store owner so he is normally busy. Maybe ill add in a jabber instead of the 3rd ghorgon for hurting things that pile in and attack when they die. I also tend to keep the doombull out of combat and use him to just buff everyone else since he normally seems to whiff and then get demolished against anything when he tries to fight. Also the drummer giving +1 to charge is great since people like to bunch up for the buffs. Its fairly easy to garuntee a charge or main if you roll high go around the screening unit and hit the more valuable ones. My record is currently a 22 inch charge. That ended the game there. Against the wood elves most of their stuff is between 18-24 inch range so turn one you want to be just out of 6+ their range. You want to go second and hope for the double turn. If not get to cover and pray that turn two you win initiative and can make your charges. It can be difficult but definitely winnable. It is also not the most competitive around here and when there is a multiplayer battle the warherd has a reputation and is certainly hanged up on because of it but its all in good fun. The gors and such would definitely help at 2000 so that you can screen the more valuable stuff.

Excellent points and advice! I will take it into consideration. It's worth noting that I nearly exclusively play 1,000 point games, or stick with open play using matched play army comp. 

As for the doombull, I make a point of getting him into combat, either in BR2 or just after. In my experience, I have taken enough casualties by that point that his buff isn't as meaningful as his 4 damage is, and the game is usually half over by the end of BR2.