Although Mike’s army with its 30 Skink skirmishers, 2 units of 5 Chameleons and two big Skrox units is not the best opponent for monsters with its 50+ poison shots, I decided to use both to see how they would go.
The simple answer is “mixed”.
I positioned both in the middle of my battleline behind the Mournfang Cavalry. As the Mournfang went forward a gap opened up and the Stonehorn went forward. It was then that I noticed a bit of a flaw in my plan. Both monsters are on ginormous 100mm x 150mm bases which means that placement is very important given the Thundertusk’s key attribute – giving enemy ASL – only extends 6”. One thing you don’t want to do is get the Stonehorn in front of the Tusk.
My Stonehorn was charged by a unit of Saurus with two Scar Vets. It broke from combat and was run down. It wasn’t helped by rolling low on both its impact hits and its Thunderstomp, however I think it is probably overpriced in respect to other monsters e.g. HPA, Hydra, Sphinxes.
The Tusk did quite a bit better. It combo-charged the flank of a Skrox unit and then collected a unit of skink skirmishers and a unit of chameleon skinks. Like all monsters, the combo-charge is important against ranked units. With the Tusk you don’t get any impact hits but you do get 6 Str 4 and 4 Str 6 that go first – albeit at WS3 – which equates to just under 3 wounds on T4 (-1/-3 to AS) then potentially adjusted for parry. Not sure that offsets the loss of impact hits – actually I am, it doesn’t
So the Tusk’s role is getting itself into the middle of the battlefield so maximum combats can benefit from the big freeze.
All in all they were fun units to use and I’m keen to get them onto the table. Sure, they are overpriced but when people speak Monsters the Hydra (and HPA to a lesser extent) tend to skew things.
i think when reviewing the new 8th ed monsters you should not even look at the old books and just compare them with the 4 new books monsters. the thundertusk is a pretty pimpin support and a bit of damage, yet to see the stone horn in action but sounds scary
ReplyDeleteYou may loose impact hits, but the thundertusk is much more a support monster with its stone thrower freeze blast and 6" freezing nuts aura. Thats where the points are sunk.
ReplyDeleteAs above I dont think you can compare them to any pre beastmen munsters. Compare the Orge stompys to A-rocks, Cygors etc and necros and they are priced suitably imo
Tim
So from your experiences so far Pete the Thundertusk is the better option of the two if you could only go with one? Personally I like the Stonehorn model the best, but can see the value of the Tusks abilities.
ReplyDeleteBoth are a bit 'meh' but add a nice bit of variety.
ReplyDeleteWhen I used a Thundertusk it only survived until turn 2 twice... enemies with Cannons just saw easy points.
When it did survive I found the 'ice freeze' very tricky to use to get in range.
Best thing for them though, is when in range of bubble-regen etc... can make them very good.