Introduction
I'm hoping to catch next month's local Age of Sigmar tournament, so here's a practice game with 2000 points of Legion of the First Prince (taking only battleline this time along with the 3 big monsters) versus the new Beasts of Chaos using White Dwarf rules.
Deployment in... the Veins of Ghur
53 models on my side... and I'm still vastly outnumbered. I don't know how to feel about that...
The Ungors cautiously move forward before the first battle round.
Battle round 1
I let the Beasts take first turn, and they obediently surged forward. However, I discounted the Daemon Prince of Khorne and his annoying command ability.
Also, Gors ambushing on the sides made not one, but 2 long charges: into the Daemonettes on the right flank, and the Plaguebearers on the left.
Interestingly enough, the Gors did very poorly in combat, and died in droves to morale. I had just 1 Gor left in between the Daemonettes, and a couple on the other side. On the other hand, Be'lakor restored all but 1 of my killed models. Nice.
On my turn, I surged forward as well (as much as possible), concerned about the future placement of the objective. The Daemonettes retreated, allowing the Bloodthirster to do Broken Ranks on the one remaining Gor.
On the other flank, the Pink Horror shooting and Daemonette charge cleared the Ungors, while setting up a screen to keep the Ghorgons back. I summoned a group of 6 Furies to help with board control in case the objectives come down this side.
Battle round 2
The Beasts took the initiative, and the objective landed on the right side... right in between all their forces.
I selected the Daemon Prince as the target of Be'lakor's ability, so no 'Blood slick ground' this turn. But he did move forward, along with everything else. Summoned Bestigors on the left.
Charge! The Ghorgons eliminated the Daemonettes for Broken Ranks. The Daemon Prince stood still. The Wardogs crashed into the Pink Horrors to little effect.
But the hero of the fight phase was the Great Unclean One. This is his second game and the first time he did something useful since the new Maggotkin battletome. He directed his monstrous rampage as well as all his attacks on the Bullgors, and killed all 6 of them before they got to attack. I was amazed.
Time to move in. I summoned Bloodletters to help Be'lakor reroll, which I then forgot about, but he killed a Ghorgon anyway.
I managed to clear out the right flank, getting rid of the Doombull, Cockatrice and some chaff. However, I made no headway towards the objective. So I killed a lot, but the Beasts were already getting ahead in points.
Battle round 3
The Beasts consolidated around the objective, with every other objective coming down this side of the board as well.
Their only intent was to bog down everything on the left, so they could not go and help.
However, Be'lakor was able to cut himself free on their turn, and At the double! himself right into their territory for a turn 4 play. Everything else closed in on the objectives, but failed all their charges due to 'Blood slick ground'. I summoned a group of Daemonettes to charge the Shaman and take the Beasts' objective, but they failed their rerollable charge. Sigh.
Battle round 4
Again, the Beasts took the turn. More bodies to hold the objective! And they killed my summoned Daemonettes for a battle tactic. At this point they were at a ridiculous points advantage due to the progressive scoring...
However, Be'lakor made his charge (with a Forward to victory!, making me sweat) along with nearly everything else. We quickly math'ed out the victory points, and even if the Beasts took the initiative on turn 5, I would have won, albeit by a small margin. We called the game and shook hands there.
Conclusion
The Beasts have greatly improved due to the new rules and can now dish out damage like there's no tomorrow with all their extra rend. However, they lack durability and die in droves. Their only way to compensate is to summon more bodies each turn, and their summoning is very good indeed.
On my end, I think I miss the extra mobility that the Plague Drones would grant me, although the battleline daemons do have the extra durability thanks to Cursed Skies. I'm still on the fence about it all.
Be'lakor does what the does very well, although this game he was not targeted at all.
The Great Unclean One was the real MVP. The Host of Nurglings did very well with the Fourfold Blade, and his other attacks have greatly improved overall.
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