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So last night I finally got the chance to test run a maxed out beast master squad - I mainly want to give a wrap up of how they performed, but for formalities sake the battle was as follows:

Battle:
2v2 (1000pts each) Take and Hold - Corner Deployment

Forces:
IG and DE Vs Nids and Eldar
I figure the lists aren't incredibly important so just open up the spoiler if you wanna see em'



Basically I just wanted to pick apart how effective the BM squad was, but I'll give you a quick rundown.
Click open spoiler if you care about the first 4 turns of the game for a quick summary.


At around this point the opponents were relatively staggered but the BM squad magically managed to get off a charge (12" cavalry charge hurr)

Here is where it got exciting for me and I'll give you a rundown of just how effective this BM squad was;

Turn 4
1.Charged the Guardian squad, no surprises, wiped out entire squad without losing a wound.
2. Consolidated 4 inches towards the dire Avengers
Turn 5
3. Received shooting from a bladestorm: 1 RW Flock goes down, 3 wounds on CF (hurrr 7 base attacks), 6x 4++ saves on Khyms succeed
4. Take a charge from 10 Genes + Broodlord: 3 Khyms and last RW Flock goes down in return for destroying the entire Genes + Broodlord
5. Charge onto Dire Avengers, entire squad wiped out without taking a wound
6. Consolidate 5 inches onto 3rd objective contesting it
Turn 6
7. Received shooting from 1 lashy whippy Mycetic spore thingy - no wounds
7. Received shooting from Wraithlord, no wounds
8. Take a charge from 15x Hormies, 2 Khyms go down in exchange for wiping out entire Hormie squad
9. Use my movement to spread out and contest both objectives (for no particular reason as there's nothing of the enemies' left that can capture in that quadrant).

Game Ends.

Summary
1x 310 point BM squad effectively removed:
10x Dire avengers (120 points + change)
15x Guardians (120 points + change)
10x Genes + BroodL (200points + change)
15x Hormies (90 points)
Total: 530 points + change

Bm squad Lost: 2 RW Flocks, 5 khyms
Total: 90pts


Now of course I understand that I would have suffered more given more turn for the enemy to shoot me - but I just wanted to adverstise just how effective a BM squad promises to be. Ofcourse I dont think this in anyway justifies the price ($) of the new models, but hey, I field riderless LM Cold ones as Khymera etc.

I Understand that this sort of force would suffer greatly against some heavy mech armies too, but I feel they would be robust enough to tank some serious template damage. I'd like to hear if anyone else has some other experiences running BM squads and how it went as I'm considering fielding two of these bad boys in a 1.75k list with some whyches running as tarpits with a few Heywires.

Hurr.

I saw you used the trueborn to escort the WWP. My favorite si to take 4 wracks with the hammy. This makes them troops, its not an expensive unit to drop out and get shot up. It also is tough with FNP and can hide behind the WWP to at least get cover for the most part. The unit is scary enough with all the poisoned attacks that nothing will come close that isn't tough. By being troops, it also lets you deploy the WWP on the first turn in Dawn of War.

15 wyches with haywires coming out of the WWP is a great combo with beasts. The beast wreck infantry and can threaten vehs - the wyches wreck vehs and can threaten infantry.

Wow, they seemed to have performed pretty well, even without having the advantage of pain tokens.



I am not sure that you did your wound allocation on the beast masters right.

Turn 4: How were you able to put 3 wounds on the Clawed Fiend and 5 saves on the Razorwings, but then only have to take 6 saves on the kymera. You can only allocate 1 save to each model until every model in the unit has 1 save allocated to it. In order to put 3 saves on the fiend, You needed to take al least 63 wounds! Or am I just missing something...

I am not sure that you did your wound allocation on the beast masters right.

I checked up and yes you're right. We had a bit of a mixup with the wound allocations. It was a combination of being unsure if the models were actually in the same squad with multiple beastmaster etc. versus wound wrapping rules and the like - so we kinda just rushed through it on the fly. We picked up on it after the game and sorted through the rules however I may have ended up with 3 or 4 more Khyms dead out of it so not much would have changed.

Good pick up though.

Hurr.

While I don't play DE, I've actually played against the Beastpack twice. Granted, they weren't as large a unit as the one here, but they had about 15 models of various sorts. First time, my Thunderwolf Cavalry swept them. Second time, my Swarmlord swept them. Although, I've had some success against them, I can see how dangerous they could be. I've even seen the Nightbringer shy away from them before.

My first run with the Beasts was a simple 3 BM squad similar to yours except 10 less Khymeras. The unit was efficient for the points and can pretty much man handle a marine squad on their own.

My later experiments in keeping the squad small but yet efficient were to drop the clawed fiend and add 2 more razorwing flocks. This configuration was cheaper but it hit a little harder with the rending. So far after a number of games, I find I am at peace with this squad.

I do like to see how the larger beast packs do but I am finding the point cost, foot print on the table and the overkill in wounds to not be a beneficial one (not to mention how much it would cost if bought new form GW).

P.S. JY2, did that DE player throw his beasts into your Swarmlord or did you charge it? Charging the Swarmlord sounds as foolish as the guy who threw his beasts at your Thunderwolf Cavalry! (wink, wink).

@Kwi:

They assaulted my hive guards and termagants the previous turn, wiping out my hive guards but not my super-gants. Next turn my Swarmlord charged them. Despite them wiping out my gants, I still managed to beat them and then proceeded to sweep them.


As for the TWC, it's either charge or be charged. Better to charge for the bonus attacks and to negate my bonus attacks. But maybe in the future, since you're playing the WWP, get 2 beastpacks?