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War Mammoth!


kzimm72

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
21 hours ago, Lord Krungharr said:

With the new Slaves to Darkness tome, is it time to bring out the War Mammoths?  Or should I just run Skarbrand instead?  I see ups and downs to both, if I had to pick one that is.  Maybe use both in a Khorne army?!?!

The mammoth works great in S2D with a Khorne Mark.

It looks pretty dope too

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  • 3 weeks later...

The new base size is so huge, like a sheet of standard printer paper huge , I was doubtful of how great the mammoth would be on some tables now, easily blocked by gravetide or palisade spells.   But no doubt it’s a big stompy crushinator if it can get there and be buffed  by a bloodstoker and Chaos lord to attack twice.    

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  • 2 weeks later...

For those asking, the official base size printed in the base size reference from GW is 280mm x 210mm which is a VERY big base. GW does NOT make bases that big. For my mammoth I had the base custom cut out of wood. It cost me about $5. I have a blog post on how I built the base for mine which may be helpful.  Dark Fantastic mills also sells a 3D printed 280mm which I didn't discover until after I built mine. It won't be as strong as wood but features the GW style slanted edge which a wood cut doesn't. 

That said, my thoughts on playing it:

The model is huge, impractically huge for most games. If you regularly play on a board that has very little terrain on it, he will be fine but if you are on a more filled board (what the game is designed for), the mammoth will be very severely limited in where he can go. It is not like there are rules for him to smash through walls, he has to CLIMB them which means on a huge model with a relatively low movement speed he is more or less stuck to very limited locations. 

This becomes even more of a problem in regards to the fact that when he dies there is a 50/50 chance that he will fall on your stuff which means you kind of want him away from your army doing his own thing. 

Some have mentioned using Sayl or other teleport abilities to move him around the battlefield but I have found in practice that this is a lot easier said than done. Finding a spot to drop down a 280x210mm base that that has to be 9" away from enemy models is not an easy thing in most games. 

On top of that there are some practicality issues of using him that I never even considered until I bought him. He is very big, very heavy, and since he is resin, he is very fragile. Transporting him to and from games is not an easy task. Personally, I only use mine at games at home so he can either be in my display cabinet or on the table, no reason to ever try to transport him in a car. 

That said war mammoths are awesome and even though he doesn't see much play, mine always draws a lot of attention on the shelf and I love looking at him. He is the heart and soul of my collection.

Side note: It really bothers me that that kit specially has a chaos lord on a big throne riding the mammoth, but the rules for the mammoth don't actually take that lord into account for anything. It as if the lord isn't even there.

Game Performance:

For, in game performance, I have mixed feelings, aside from the mobility issues mentioned above, the mammoth isn't great. 22 wounds is sweet but he isn't as tanky as other options. For example, my Nurgle Daemon prince with her Ethereal Amulet, Despoilers Save, and self healing tends to take a lot more punches for less points. This exasperates when you consider that massive base size making it very easy for your opponent to get a big surround on the mammoth so it tends to have a lot more punches swinging at it than a smaller tank like the aforementioned DP.  He can plug a big hole, but he isn't as hard to move as he looks like he should be.


Damage output, is ok, but isn't overly powerful, if you simulate one with no other buffs you get the following. Which is respectable but nothing to write home about on a 320pt model. Also, due to how its tusks work, the mammoth benefits much less than other things from buffs as a big chunk of its damage comes from an attack that makes neither a hit roll or a wound roll. (Though to be fair it is also punished less by debuffs)

relic-wargaming-attack-simulator-report.jpg.c8b7065da9c6365baad31afa308e50fa.jpg

In terms of getting a mammoth for yourself:

Getting a legit mammoth is very difficult. They sometimes pop up on Ebay, expect to pay in the $1000 USD range at this point. alternatively, there are lots of recasters out there selling them for about $200 if this is something you are ok with.

Alternatively, some have mentioned the Mierce mammoth, which is also very expensive and much smaller than the FW mammoth. The nice bit, though, is that they recently released a new version of him with the howdah on the back. (presumably because they specifically want to sell him to AoS players). Here is a picture of one below on the correct base size. I also included a picture of mine on the same size base. Note how the FW one fills out the base fairly well, where as for the Mierce one, the foot print of the mammoth is much smaller. 

84765263_1246829785518869_4121581978816348160_o.jpg.59b17c76572239e655afa9a29b86fbfa.jpg

DSC4453-_-154802322563596568.jpg.1558bcbd912da5b1ba0ae35a35812273.jpgimage.png.c820487ac6f7ca0f49a6847cca937c3d.png.e859df4dde639c9fd028a40e11201b2b.png
 

 

mrm_dkl_fmr_thl_mbs_815_800_01_large.png

Edited by themortalgod
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  • 2 weeks later...

About the movement issues:

I usually play with a lot of terrain. If it hits Two terrain pieces we play it out as if it only has to climb those once since the base would already be at that height. Usually I end up losing about 4“ of movement which isn‘t too tragic.

I‘ve played the Mammoth in two ways so far (not competetive):

- Slaanesh: I made it fight twice and rolled about average which resulted in stomping 36 damage into Ardboys and making the rest of them flee.

- Khorne: It oneshot Alarielle. It oneshot a Spirit of Durthu (different game) and afterwards was killed by Alarielle‘s shooting after two phases of Sylvaneth focus fire.

all of the times I had my General around to get the buff bonus and it only died once. I am pretty happy with it and I guess it will be a lot stronger if I buff it with daemonic Power etc.

About the price:

mierce often has a 50% sale or a 2 Monsters for the price of one. So if you find a friend you can split the costs (that‘s the way I did it).

I also bought the one without Howdah since the crew has such low stats that you can actually ignore them - I usually call the shooting attack „shaking ground“ :D
 

transport: was never an issue, I have a magnetic transport bag and it fits nicely.
 

Edit: I need to add: The Mammoth is SO much fun to play. You are happy if it crushes something and your opponent cheers if it goes down ^_^

The one image was taken a turn before it was shot down.

1408DC1F-300F-4875-ABB4-9BDA0B8DB828.jpeg.befac895ef06206224d3a0556c5b81d3.jpegFDE282FD-B32E-42B8-A2B0-6351177935A3.jpeg.37c93e5224f614822ac8485f91f3b0e9.jpeg

Edited by JackStreicher
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