Beastmen are an extremely difficult opponent to defeat using the Chaos Dwarf list because of the variety of troop they bring to the table, not to mention they can actually match toughness and in most cases weapon skill with Chaos Dwarfs.
I haven’t played Beastmen a lot myself and I haven’t had the chance to face off against MORGHUR but from what you’ve said It sounds like he’s a very dangerous character in close combat. The best way to deal with him may be to challenge him with an equally powerful character that gets the charge in. A BC lord who’s fully equipped for example or a CD Lord on great Taurus should be able to knock him down a peg or two… Big Grin
As far as the large skirmishing herds go, I’d still advice you to use your blunderbusses ranks of 3x6 so you have a wider firing zone. Id also suggest that you play a large unit of 25 FCMD CD warriors supported by a close combat character or even 20 Black Orcs beside the unit for support and a charge reaction…I’ve also seen some people using hobgoblin heroes on foot in blunderbuss regiments so increase their hand to hand combat potential. Wink
Oh! Id also suggest using alot of long ranged weapons, In this case 6 hobgoblin bolt throwers and a earthshaker cannon might work wonders!
ross_lionheart
Blunderbusses are the key
and always remember that dragon ogres have a 14" charge distance and dont let them flank you. With good static combat res and a hero in the front rank you can beat them, but you’re dead if they flank you (roll up)
Beastherds are fairly weak, but be careful to space your units properly so that they don’t end up clipping the very edges of units and drawing them into a combat where they could have otherwise flank charged (as skirmishers they will maximise when they form up, drawing other units into combat)
ES are good as always
Lord Zarkov
Fear. The biggest weakness of the BoC list IMO is psychology. the best Ld they get without Minataur lord is 8, so use that! stick a flying terror causing creature out towards the edges of his line (out of his generals 12"). Herds will suffer from this. Also - remember that Herd champs provide decent Ld within a heroless unit. If you see a herd and no hero then steed of shadows a gobbo hero in, or charge with wolves. Put all attacks on the champ until he is dead. This will leave the rest of the herd at Ld 6, and mean they are much more dealable. Another anti herd tactic - remember that under new rules a rank needs 5 and the beasts book states herds only rank up to a minimum of 4. Gav has stated this has not changed (he thinks they are strong enough in current ed). So - Stick something with a base width of less than 75mm. He will have to rank up 4 wide and thus not get his 2+ CR for ranks. For this job perhaps the aforementioned flying creature - or if you find yourself with 2 BC remember that they could just do a job on a big herd - charge them in. If you have a champ and a standard then you are only losing by 1 (outnumber).
For MORGHUR:P, Use your earthshaker to prevent him from getting close. If your Big juicy Lord o/ GT gets turned into a chaos spawn it’ll set you back a lot.
Blunderbusses will munch through skirmishers like napalm and the Earthshakers will slow them down and thus negate one of the main advantage of beastmen - manoeuvrability.
I would shoot the bolt throwers at minotaurs or bestigors if he has any.
Given how seventh edition effects ranking up for beastmen, lone Bull centaur heroes should work well against beastmen.
I would think shadow or fire magic would be the lores to use against beastmen.
Tauruses should also be an excellent choice since beastmen will have little or nothing in the way of long range firepower, but watch out the 100 degree line of sight from the skirmishing units. Remember that he needs to have a quarter of his unit in range to charge, and also that Terror will work well against Beastmen.
I would think Orcs units for the special slot would be a good choice against beastmen as well (choppas would be mighty useful against Gors).
Minotaurs, dragon ogres and the kind are cut down easily with typical combination of earthshaker+bolt throwers.
The key when fighting against beastmen is deployment. A perfect one is a hill defence (hobbo-BB-machines-BB-hobbo), so that beastherds can’t ambush mashines and are blasted to hell by blunderbusses. Bullcentaur BSB is a great option here. Beasts tend to avoid shooting, so he can move freely, and is a killer against herds (they haven’t their ranks when fighting him). Taurus does the same, and even better. Position them where are you expecting ambushes (i.e. when it would hurt you most) - and then opponent won’t place his ambushers there, cause they’d be dead in seconds!
You can use magic also, as beasts haven’t got the best leadership skills.
- Ambush: beastherds, hounds, and beast characters can be held in reserve and brought in on the turn of your choosing, though a leadership test is required to get them where you want them.
- Diversity: beasts have by far the most diverse list of all armies.��They can be anything from a horde army to a monster army.��They can take demons, mortals, monsters… the whole shibang.
- Good combat stats: your basic Gor has WS4 T4 and A2 (likely).��And it only goes up from there.
- Magic Items:��They have an excellent magic item selection, with the two books to choose from.
- Speed: The minimum M of models is 5", meaning these guys can come to grips quickly.
- Morghur:��I think he deserves special mention.��All units within 12" take a Ld test at the start of the turn and if they fail take d6 S4 hits creating a chaos spawn with that many wounds.��Surround him with multiple units of hounds and just stand in cover for a while.��
WEAKNESSES
- Low leadership: Leadership is what hurts the most. Your general will only have Ld8.��You can get around this by taking a daemon prince with the “Living Idol” gift to lead the army, but thats a huge point investment (300+).
- Bad armour saves: 6+ is around the best you can hope for and you’ll pay through the nose.
- No Shooting: The only shooting you can get in the army (barring DoW) are centigors with throwing axes.��And those will cost you around 18 points per model.
- Points Heavy: The core units (beast herds, bestigors, hounds and chariots) may be fairly reasonable in cost, but almost every other unit is very costly.��Special choices average about 45 points per model, and Rare choices vary from 87 points for dragon ogres to 300 for a shaggoth.
First go at [[Chaos Dwarfs vs Beasts of Chaos]]. I decided not to dwell on Dragon Ogres and Shaggoths as they’re basically just big monsters, no different from most others as far as Chaos Dwarfs are concerned. The hardest part was how to address the compatibility with the Hordes of Chaos and forthcoming Daemons of Chaos lists, which might necessitate some changes.