8th Ed. The Best Monstrous Infantry unit in all of Warhammer

With my contest achieving such popularity in the eyes of the masses, it's time for another fight!

This time, a coven of vile Vargheists swoops down to prey upon a migrating pack of savage Yhetees...

Key Rules in Play:
Yhetees: Aura of Frost
Vargheists: Frenzy, Unbreakable, Unstable



This was easily the closest matchup we've had so far in this contest. With the Yhetees' Aura of Frost special rule reducing the Vargheists' Weapon Skill to match their own, both units were even-Stevens except for one special rule - Frenzy. That extra attack for each of the four models in the front rank allowed the Vargheists to inflict one extra wound, enough to swing the combat their way and break the Yhetees whose average Leadership let them down once more. This is quite fitting I would say given that the Vargheist unit costs 14 points more than the Yhetee unit.

With this result I'm most interested to see if the Rat Ogres can beat the Vargheists, having the same Initative as both the Vargheists and Yhetees, being cheaper per model, having Frenzy and Packmasters to inflict additional attacks. That, however, is another story, for another time...

Upon updating the Scoreboard, we have another unit vying for First Place with the Maneaters and Chaos Trolls (though it is still early days), while the Yhetees, despite their loss, sit at a score of 0 alongside the Skin Wolves, which isn't too bad given a lot of units currently have negative scores.

Thoughts? Concerns? Discussion!!!

 

As do I - I was disappointed that the Yhetees lost, but it was only due to that one special rule and the Vargheists did cost a bit more to cover that. If the Yhetees were given the Unbreakable special rule for the purposes of the contest the fight would be extremely close.

 

In my heart of hearts I'm rooting for the Fireborn, Chaos Trolls, Kroxigors and the Ushabti. Not saying that all of those will do great (though a couple of them will), but that's who I'm cheering for!

 

I genuinely think that the Maneaters have a good chance of winning.

 

I'm on a roll, here's another bout!]

This time, it's wood vs water, it's the Tree Kin limbering up to fight the River Trolls!

Key Rules in Play:
Tree Kin: Scaly Skin (4+), Forest Spirit (6+ Ward Save)
River Trolls: Regeneration (4+), River Troll



And it's a biggie today! After so many fights being decided during the first round, we are rewarded with this mega-slug! The River Trolls inflicting a -1 to Hit Penalty upon their foe plus their superior save after armour save penalties gave them the edge over the Tree Kin, but never quite enough of an edge to break them, meaning the entombed Wood Elves were able to fight their sludge-ridden opponents to the bitter end and deny them the vitally-important Massive Victory. However, as the rounds progressed the Trolls got better and better at out-tanking their woody foes, meaning they still end up with a respectable Victory and the Tree-Kin have to pay The Troll TollTM.

Time to update the table:


@Mrs. NIGHTBRINGER will doubtless not be impressed to see her Tree-Kin lose that brawl, but their quick win against the Minotaurs meant they are still in the green with a mighty score of 1. The River Trolls on the other hand progress up the ranking to 3 points, just below the current leaders that are the Chaos Trolls, Vargheists and Maneaters, and a good way above everyone else.

Thoughts? Concerns? Discussion!!!

 

I think so too. They are definitely one of the heavy favorites. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they took the overall win.

A valiant effort by the tree folk!

 

Crypt Horrors might do pretty well too.

I think Maneaters, Fireborn, Trolls and Crypt Horrors all have a good shot of finishing towards the top of the table.

 

And it's that time again - time for your next daily dose of Monstrous Infantry-themed bloodshed!

Today there's something rather pungent in the air, as a pack of revolting Crypt Horrors is ambushed by Fenbeasts in a lonely marsh in the middle of nowhere...

Key Rules in Play:
Crypt Horrors: Poisoned Attacks, Regeneration (5+), Unbreakable, Unstable
Fenbeasts: Always Strikes Last, Frenzy (through Born of Bloodmarsh), Regeneration (4+), Unbreakable, Unstable



Sadly, the way-too-cheap points cost of the Crypt Horrors combined with the Fenbeasts having to strike last meant that they were dragged down simply by weight of numbers and combat resolution, only managing to kill one of the oversized Ghouls. Losing their Frenzy didn't help one bit after the first round, if that hadn't happened they may well have been able to kill another one, but funnily enough they still managed to achieve slightly more (1 wound more to be precise) than the Skin Wolves, despite the latter being significantly superior combatants and affording greater numbers, due to their refusal to run away, but it still counts for naught given they suffer a Massive Loss, while their Ghoulish opponents gain another Massive Victory.

Time to update the scores once more:


With that the Crypt Horrors join their Vampiric Allies, the Vargheists, alongside the Maneaters and Chaos Trolls at the top of the tree, while the Fenbeasts join the Ogre Bulls and the Bile Trolls at the bottom of the pile on -4 points.

Thoughts? Concerns? Discussion!!!

 

Crypt Horrors are damn good! Think of them as "Beasts of Nurgle Lite". Not quite as good as the mighty Beasts of Nurgle, but similar in many ways and extremely potent in their own right. Very effective for their points cost. I expect good things from them.

 

Looks like there are only 2 matches left for this round. Exciting stuff!

 

+1

Appreciate the effort you're making here on this @Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl

It's nice 8th(ish) edition action to watch!

 

I've been enjoying it. It's nice to just sit back and go for the ride.

Why "ish"?

 

It isn't 'ish' @Lizards of Renown, it is pure 8th - the Monstrous Infantry units that are not featured in the army books still come from Storm of Magic and Monstrous Arcanum, both of which were released in the 8th Edition era for use in 8th Edition.

Indeed there are, and I'm in such a generous mood* that I'm going to treat you to them both, right here, right now!

First, two races both in thrall to Chaos have had a disagreement, with the only resolution being to have a dirty great punch-up to determine once and for all who's more deserving of the Chaos Gods' favour - the Chaos Ogres are taking on the Fimir Warriors!

Key Rules in Play:
Chaos Ogres: Mark of Khorne (Frenzy), Additional Hand Weapons
Fimir Warriors: Scaly Skin (6+), Heavy Armour, Always Strikes Last (Great Weapons), Cold Blooded, From the Mists, Tail Attack (S5)



And it's a crushing win for the Fimir! I must admit I didn't expect that as, just as in their previous match, they were hugely outnumbered, but their combination of Weapon Skill 4, Toughness 5, a 4+ base armour save (which still remains at 5+ after the Ogres' Strength 4 is taken into account) and the -1 to Hit penalty through From the Mists meant the rogue Ogres' impressive storm of attacks bounces off the one-eyed amphibians, before the marsh-dwelling monsters proceed to beat two Ogres soundly into a pulp and maul a third to within an inch of his life. As per my note on 'From the Mists', I shall now resolve the combat without the help of the Bound Spell, and see if the result is any different:


And it clearly isn't! While the absence of the spell does result in one Fimir biting the dust, they still manage to maul the Ogres so badly that two of them also perish, which is enough to send the rest of them packing. It's true that if the Ogres stayed around, they might be able to overwhelm the Fimir, but that's the price they pay for having an average Leadership that is easily made harder to test against by Combat Resolution.

As the Fimir have won a Massive Victory on both versions of their match, it's a no-brainer that they receive one on the scoreboard!


And last but by no means least, the creations of the two biggest advocates of slavery in the Warhammer World (don't tell BLM), the Chaos Dwarfs' K'daai Fireborn and the Rat Ogres of the Skaven, face off in a fire-ringed arena of death!

Key Rules in Play:
K'daai Fireborn: Blazing Body, Bound Fire Daemon, Flaming Attacks, Unbreakable, Unstable
Rat Ogres: Frenzy, Beast Pack



And certainly another result I didn't expect! Blazing Body and the higher Weapon Skill of the K'daai allowed them to burn two Rat Ogres alive despite bringing half the number of attacks to the table, and though the mutated rat-beasts managed to kill a K'daai in return, the Fire Daemons' impressive Ward Save and their ability to force the enemy to re-roll successful to Wound rolls if their attacks aren't magical blunted the brute force attacks of the Clan Moulder creations, spooking them and scattering them and their Packmasters to the four fiery winds of Hashut.

The Rat Ogres, after their impressive start, now have to join the Fimir and others with their Massive Victory having been cancelled out by that loss, while the Fireborn go from strength to strength with a second Massive Victory added to their tally.


And thus does Round 2 conclude. Here are the scores on the doors:


Even though it's early days yet, already we can see that there are some clear favourites to win and some clear duff entries that are struggling to make a good show against the rest of the competition. It isn't looking particularly rosy for my favourite units (Kroxigors, Ushabti, Minotaurs, Rat Ogres and Fimir), who are all either in the middle of the pack or hanging precariously just above the very bottom of the list, but things could still change. There are plenty of matchups left to go - who knows?

I also personally find it interesting that though they easily claim the prize of having the most Monstrous Infantry in the contest, the Ogre Kingdoms only have one that is currently proving to be a real success. But again, perhaps the fortunes of the Ironguts and Yhetees can change. I imagine @Lizards of Renown will be hoping so!

As always, thoughts? Concerns? Expressions of jubilation/anger at the success/demise of a favourite unit? Discussion!!!

*And it has no relevance to the fact I managed to get them both pretty much done yesterday because of having time on my hands. Or that they were pretty darn short rounds. Honest.

 

I think you may have forgotten to include the Fireborn's Blazing Body rule that forces the re-roll of all successful non-magical To Wound rolls. Unless the Rat Ogres have magical attacks. That would drop the Rat Ogres wounding chance from 0.67 to 0.44 and the Packmasters from 0.33 to 0.11 (although I'm guessing they aren't in b2b which is why you have them at 0 attacks, so it makes no difference)

 

Thanks for pointing that out pal, I know I can rely upon you as a Dawi-Zharr player to remind me of anything from the Tamurkhan list I've missed

I've updated that bout, not that it matters much - it's still a stomping victory for the Fireborn, and all it does is make it even more of a stomping!

Indeed it has, because Rat Ogres don't have magical attacks. Stormfiends with Warpstone Gauntlets would, but not standard Rat Ogres (I did contemplate including Stormfiends, but given a fair few people here are anti-End Times, for reasons I can understand, I avoided including them, Morghasts, Blightkings, Wrathmongers and whatever their alternative build are called - I could always include them in some Bonus Matches once this contest has finished, as you've done with adding more Chaos Dwarf units into your Best Close Combat Unit thread).

And you guessed correctly, the Packmasters couldn't fight this round because they can only attack from behind one rank of Rat Ogres, and by the time a large enough space appeared behind the first rank to allow them to squeeze in, the unit had already failed its Break Test and legged it.

 

The extra stomping pleases Hashut!

 

First off, there's no intent to do any put-down on this. As I said, I'm enjoying the battle royale a lot.

My understanding was that Storm of Magic and Monstrous Arcanum had to be agreed upon beforehand between both players for them to be used, which is why I said "ish". If I got that wrong, I will gladly eat the crow

COME ON YOU FIREBORN!!!!

HOORAY!

DOUBLE HOORAY! (I'm quite attached to these little sparks as I've just finished painting a bunch of them)

Well, I have to say that Yhetees are bad choice for an OK army. They don't have great WS, they have zero armour or ward save. They are fast, but they're in the same category as the Gorgers: great in theory, but not in practice. Yhetees with I4 are at least not ALWAYS striking last and Gorgers at least have Ambushers. I think I'd only field Yhetees where I knew that they would have a high chance of striking first. Flammable is also a problem and they're going to die horribly up against the Fireborn.

The Ironguts are okay. Combining their WS3 with their GW's with ASL make them a bit naff in a lot of circumstances and their 5+ save isn't really much to write home about. They can't even take a different loadout and thus can't take the Ironfist so against a higher initiaitive enemy they won't do that well.

If they can get the charge off, then this changes things (as with a lot of OKs troops). But the key point here is that they are Core, while most of the rest of the line-up above are Special or Rare, giving you a higher quality of troops.

I predict (unfortunately) Yhetees and Ironguts being at the bottom end of the table .

 

You are not wrong.

Of course, once you add in their character support to form the infamous Gutstar, they become one of the most potent and feared units in all of warhammer.