Nicodemus:
Week 14: Bull Centaur Taur’ruk
Welcome to the Fourteenth chapter in the Daemonsmith’s Handbook! Please post your tips and tactics for the Bull Centaur Taur’ruk here.
Some suggested topics for discussion:
- Tactics & Strategy
- How to equip the Bull Centaur Taur’ruk
- Most effective use as a lone character or within a unit
- Which items and equipment combinations work best
Blackspine:
I’ve only used him once, but there’s some great strengths to this guy.
Decent base strength, more wounds, can’t be stomped.
The blackshard armor should be an auto-purchase. Couple that with the Dragon helm (or any cheap helm) and you’re looking at an armor save that can’t be beat.
* Dawnstone is quite good on him if you want him to survive.
* Other trickster’s shard is great as a killer.
* Great weapon is almost too good to pass up. Though Sword of anti heroes is keen for assassination.
He (or she) can hold up entire units by his/her lonesomeself. Can kill monsters flat. (dragon helm makes him a hydra killer)
In a unit he adds a LOT of punch. The unit gives him a nice LOS and static resoultion.
The problem I see with running him in a unit is that it’s a lot of eggs in one basket. Let’s say it’s 5 BCs w GW, no command. That’s 300 points right there…then the Taruk? Yikes.
You can run him in the unit and charge him out.
My one game he served at flanking empire knights and shredding them to a pulp.
Conversion (as I’ve proxied): Juggernaut body and Shaggoth torso/head.
Goltor Lintrepide:
Conversion (as I've proxied): Juggernaut body and Shaggoth torso/head.Shaggoth is a bit too pricy$$$. Just convert an ogre torso/head.
Blackspine
Grimbold Blackhammer:
Despite my misgivings, I’ve forced myself to try him out and over all I haven’t been disappointed. I generally run mine wearing Blackshard Armour, the Charmed Shield, the Dawnstone, the Other Trickster’s Shard, and wielding a Great Weapon in a unit of 3-5 other Centaurs.
My Centaurs are always in combat on turn 2 because that’s where they are safest. Centaurs are so durable that they seem to take less wounds from whatever they’re beating down than missile weapons. But on turn 1, if there is a cannon or cannon-like spell on the table, it seems to invariably drift towards him; hence the charmed shield. He only has to survive one round of shooting and the charmed shield is 5 points of easy love that has saved him more times than I can count!
Blackshard armour and the Dawnstone gives my hero a 1+ rerollable save. Combined with his T5 and W4, he’s pretty tough to get rid of.
And of course the Other Trickster’s Shard - when he hits at ST7, it is really irritating to have that saved by something. It helps make him a much more efficient character killer.
When I run my centaur hero, I always run them 3-wide with full command. And when I charge my enemy, I try and line them up like this…
And unless there is a character in the left-most corner of the enemy unit (or a character my hero wants to kill), my Champion will challenge. Ideally this will take a few models out of the fight which is less combat resolution against me. That leaves the majority of the enemy to swing on my very durable (and hopefully giving up no combat resolution!) hero while all my rank and file still gets to swing. Or in the case of a really deadly enemy, they can only do a maximum of three wounds to the champion and mitigate some of the damage to the unit. Lastly thanks to the Other Trickster’s Shard, for those irritating units that have ward saves, they’ll have to reroll all of them because the entire unit can swing on the models touching the hero - very handy!
Definitely not the only way to run him but I can attest to the effectiveness of this character/unit setup!
Grimbold Blackhammer
propervillanz:
My favorite build to date is the following:
Bull Centaur Taur’ruk
Blackshard Armor, Great Weapon
The Crown of Command, Charmed Shield, Seed of Rebirth
I like to use these guys in conjunction with K’daai of anytype. Firstly, to keep them from unnecessary Frenzy Checks. Secondly, to hold up or clear chaff from re-directing them. Lastly, to hold up a juicy target long enough for my K’daai to get into a flank.
These guys are pricey, but add a good deal of punch to any army. With one of these guys and a unit of Bull Centaurs running around it will make target priority a bit harder for your opponents.
In a unit of Bull Centaurs with Great Weapons and the BoEF you could effectively send them monster and tank hunting and wreck just about anything your opponent can throw at you.
Geist:
My current build idea with him which so far has worked well.
Shield, black shard armour, dawnstone and the ASF sword. Shove him into a unit of bulls with the AP banner and he does the lions share of damage. Also with a very good Inv of 4, he will get those rerolls almost all the time.
frogbear:
Any reason why anyone would not run the Taur’ruk by himself if you are only buying 3 or 4 BC?
I know it lessens the BC unit a bit, but does it open better opportunities for the Taur’ruk to be running around himself?
Da Crusha:
I would use him if buying the BCs wasn’t a requirement. I hate that rule.
frogbear:
My question was more in relation to running him by himself outside of the BC unit.
If he does not get a ‘Look out Sir’ roll due to the rank and file being less than 5, do people find him best outside of the unit or does he offer the punch needed for the BC unit to be effective?
Kyte:
I’m going to run mine with Blackshard armour, Great Weapon, Crown of Command and Dragonhelm.
He has a 1+ Armour save, 4 S7 attacks, is practically immune to fire and makes his unit stubborn.
I am going to run him in a unit of 5 Renders with Banner, Musician, Great Weapons and gleaming pennant making for a unit that hits extremely hard and is very difficult to destroy both save wise and by combat resolution.
I went for dragonhelm over Charmed shield, for the 1+ save in combat and because an enemy has to be inexperienced in a kind word, not to direct all artillery fire at my Destroyer and Magma Cannon.
Dawnstone could also be a really good option, but I’d rather have the crown of command so I’m sure they’re not gonna run.
These guys will on good days be hunting enemy cavalry, and hopefully make short work of them.
gashnag:
I take mine with like several have said but with one alteration
Great Weapon
Blackshard Armour
Crown of Command
Dragon Helm
Luck Stone (a one shot armour re-roll)
I’ve had him and a unit of 5 renders kill an Arachnarok Spider in one turn of combat then charge a horde of black orcs in the rear and kill his black orc warboss and over half the unit before they were taken out
tangoraven:
I take mine with like several have said but with one alterationI field my Taur'ruk with this set-up -
Great Weapon
Blackshard Armour
Crown of Command
Dragon Helm
Luck Stone (a one shot armour re-roll)
I've had him and a unit of 5 renders kill an Arachnarok Spider in one turn of combat then charge a horde of black orcs in the rear and kill his black orc warboss and over half the unit before they were taken out
gashnag