Confessions of a Doombull

This last weekend I took a 2400 Beastmen list to #Archenemy in Auckland.  It was my first tournament with them due to borrowing the army and possibly my last for a while.  I took a solid list but by no means optimum, no L4, a unit of mino’s and no bestigor.  I ended up coming 4^th and with a bit more luck and removal of one bad decision game 6 would have taken out 3^rd.  A large part of that came down to the Doombull and what he gave the list.  So here are a few thoughts on how he worked and what he got up too! 

I had him kitted out – Doombull, heavy armour, charmed shield, flying carpet, talisman of preservation –

The terrain rules in this tournament were systematic line of sight with hills blocking line of sight to everything but large targets and buildings blocking line of sight to everything.  I did take advantage of that where I could but at other times he ran within 3 of the minos for the 4+ look out sir and 2+/4+ to stop him getting cannoned before he was sent barreling into things!  Depending on match up depended on his role.  At times he was mage or war machine hunter at others he would run down a flank or in others I would just throw him into ranked S3/4 troops and he would slowly eat through them gaining attacks.  He was an all-round utility piece that people generally played really poorly vs. at the weekend.        

Game 1 – Ogre Kingdoms

In this game I faced an ogre army with no Ironblasters (happy days) but also three big blocks (Ironguts, Bulls, Maneaters) and a thudertusk.  With no shooting and only 2 combat blocks the rush was on and the doombull needed to step up.  I placed him on a flank and he ended up facing off v. the maneater block with the Bsb in it.  Not ideal but I managed to get the charge with the doombull and two chariots into the unit.  Happy days until I rolled 3 for impact hits on 2D6.  Both chariots died doing nothing but over the next 4/5 rounds of combat the doombull (aided by savage beasts or wildform) killed 8 maneaters and the bsb single handed.  At one point he was up to 10 S9 attacks and just hewed through the unit.  He was reduced to 1W over that combat but going first he just racked up the kills with no armour saves for the maneaters.  He then went it to the thundertusk and killed it in a round risking the attacks first due to the aura of cold… Overall just a combat monster that did the job and allowed my gor to smash the other two units.

Game 2 – Daemons

This was probably the game where he didn't do as much for me.  I was facing a kipper with Siren Song so it was going to be touch and go.  He picked up some furies early on and then was siren songed by the kipper as due to the daemonic instability I got stuck and couldn't overrun… He failed the charge but was out of the game for a turn.  He did get the opportunity to go into 3 bloodcrushers including a herald and over a couple of rounds he deleted those. The kipper at this point was down to three wounds so he was wisely moved out of arc and he was left to rage in frustration when he was up to 10 attacks! 

Game 3 – WE’s

I was looking forward to this one with the Doombull as he had the potential to do pretty well.  He did have double treeman though so I was probably a little cautious with him when I should have just ran him straight down a flank and got him into things early.  When he finally got in due to poor dice it took me three rounds to eat through 15 WE archers which was not ideal!  He really could have swung the game further my way had been free a turn earlier.  I did however get the satisfaction of charging a treeman last turn getting wildform off and unleashing 10 S7 attacks and turning him into lumber!  He more than picked up his points and again held them so it wasn't a bad outing.

Game 4 – O&G’s

Failed an 8 inch charge with swiftstride… got stuck in a swamp and charged by 8 trolls and a block of night goblins… had manglers, fanatics and other things bounced through him and finally ended up losing his last 2 wounds to two failed wards last turn.. sad panda!  The first time I’d lost him for little gain.  Had I made the charge into the rock lobber I would have been right in the thick of things behind his lines and gone mage hunting… as it was he just got pinned. 

Game 5 – TK’s

This game was his coming out party v the TK’s – not a game I really liked given he had Arkan the Black (L5 Death) a casket and two screaming skull catapults v my L2… I just went fairly balls out with him.  Stuck him on my extreme right flank and pushed him up 20 first chance I got.  He attracted a fair bit of magic which probably cost me my bsb as I had to stop the spells on the doombull and let caress go off which killed him!  He dodged a catapult and then his turn to charge.  I got into one of the catapults and wrecked that and got the overrun into the bunker containing his Bsb, Arkan and L4 Nek. This was fantastic for me as he chewed through the champ, bsb, and L4 Nek in challenges and crumbled the unit picking me up a huge number of points while killing his magic.  Then game the time for Arkan in the TK’s magic phase, he had nothing to lose as he was dead by combat… 6 dice purple sun.. .goes off… misfires!  Right on the doombull and Arkan.. I of course roll a 6… and Arkan drags the doombull down with him into the underworld…

Still he probably picked up a 1000 points and won me the game big. 

Game 6 HE’s

Again I ran him right up a flank!  Mage hunting… this tactic really just seemed to phase people and instead of bailing the characters tried to shoot/magic the doombull.  1 bolt thrower and 2 fury of khaines later I was into his L4 and spearmen bunker.. over 4 turns (I first up killed the L4) I then just ate 30 spearmen while giving me magic dominance.  It allowed me to get double wildform off in the key combat in the centre and gave me the massive win.  Again the doombull picked up more than his points and was key winning the game.

Final Thoughts      

I have to say I loved using the doombull, the list overall was probably a little weak and given what I know now and if I had the models I would have dropped the beastlord to a stubborn, L4 death wizard and dropped the minos for a +1 leadership banner bestigor unit.  The doombull was a really problem for people and with the charmed shield/4+ ward was very survivable overall.  He killed 2 Bsb’s 3 L4 wizards and a number of other useful things over the weekend and only died twice.  Once to purplesun and the other to a combat he shouldn't have been in.