An Uninformed Look at the Beekeepers of Bhir
This time my Grog is bee flavoured.
That’ll be 3 6+ against your lump.
This one goes out to all the Tabernis enjoyers out there.
Horror Swarm
When a Follower unit you control charges a target, before the charging unit moves, and before its target makes any stand and shoot attacks, Every other friendly follower unit within 18” of the target unit may make a set of special shooting attacks. Each unit makes 3 Horror Swarm shooting attacks against the charge target. Each shooting attack has a range of 18” and hits with an inaccuracy of 6+, independent of the unit’s characteristic. A unit can only use Horror Swarm if it can shoot.
So whenever we charge something we’re going to get to plink with any follower unit in range and LOS of the charge target that doesn’t have a powder smoke token. So we a free expected hit per model that can Horror Swarm, a small bonus but that can add up to an extra could of hits when you need it.
What’s more interesting his how much extra panic you add. It looks like we’re making three separate shooting attacks here, so there’s three extra panic on the table. On each given set of shooting attacks you’ve got 42% chance to add a panic, so a 42% chance to add a panic token with one unit in range and LOS, that goes up to 67% chance of one or more panic generated with two units nearby with a 18% chance that you hit a double, going up to a 80% chance of one or more panic if you mange to wrangle all three nearby, with a 38% chance of two or more and a pretty slim 7% for the triple.
So why does the extra panic matter? Well I was saving this for a unit spotlight on bastards but here’s an overview of how much more likely a unit is to retreat with Bowel Loosening Charge.
| Panic | P(Retreat) | BLC P(Retreat) | Average Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17% | 31% | 5.5” |
| 2 | 33% | 56% | 7.5” |
| 3 | 50% | 75% | 9.5” |
| 4 | 67% | 89% | 11.5” |
| 5 | 83% | 97% | 13.5” |
| 6 | 83% | 97% | 15.5” |
But if they panic they run away which makes my charge harder right? That’s where the CCW charge reroll comes in. Now I’ll definitely save the charge reroll table for the Bastards spotlight, but you should know that CCW cavalry can make 20” charge about two thirds of the time.
And what happens when you make a charge on a retreating unit?
Running Down Retreating Units: If a unit retreats because of a panic test, the charging unit must still attempt to get into base-to-base contact with its target, using the shortest route possible. If any model in the charging unit makes it into base-to-base contact with the target after it has retreated its full distance, then the retreating unit is completely destroyed. Remove it from the table.
And the magic number for this really is 2 panic, that’s the tipping point that says, you kill this unit outright without any fight about half the time. We have a 56% to panic and retreat an average of 5.5” and we have a 92% chance of sticking an 18” charge, so if you’ve targeted something that ends up 18” away and it has 2 panic, you end up with a 52% chance of killing right there.
This is the big breakpoint, more panic makes it easier, and further distances make it harder. In general this is why I’ve had a lot of success with Probby which gives you movable BLC buff each round and a charge distance buff based on panic.
The problem with Probby is you have to do some grindy attrition combats or plinking to get to the panic numbers you care about.
Beekeepers just lets you do it automatically if you’ve staged well. So obviously you need to try and keep as much in range as possible when making your charge to try and ensure that you get three Horror Swarm attacks reliably, and even then your only hitting a double 38% of the time. But who cares, bring a big fodder block with black powder, go make them roll some tough charges their not going to make, just get the extra panic here and there, it’s probably going to be better to make 3 sets of 3 attacks on 6+ for the panic than it is to volley with the fodder.
Hive Brethren
Hive Brethren in the WIP v0.2 rules
Okay so we’ve got some slightly more fragile grogs who we have to spend some Norberts on to get Fearless, and as a bonus we can always trigger Horror Swarm even when powder smoked. Well in my book anything that’s “almost a grog” is probably a good unit. You lose Disgustingly Stubborn but as long as we get access to fearless that’s not a huge problem.
These guys are good, even without 5+ vulnerability they can take a hit from most things and still stick around, even CCW bastards are going to be 50/50 to wipe them while their powder smoked, if your not smoked then go ahead and stand and shoot, you’ve got a good chance of reducing that 12 attacks to 9. Make a fearless save and then stay in position to Horror Swarm in support.
They can’t soak everything and are definitely monster prey, things like probby, crabs, & A&M BP chaff a real threat to them, so you’re going to have to think about positioning when those units get involved.
Relics
Hive Pot Grenades (5 Norberts)
You may purchase this relic twice. A unit gifted with this relic, may shoot targets through impassable terrain as if it wasn’t there. The unit with this relic may use Horror Swarm, even if it couldn’t normally shoot.
So we’re slamming this on our Bastards immediately right? Once they’ve charged they get to keep being useful by throwing bees at any pesky interferers. This feels like the kind of 5 point relic I’m really about, something that enables you to be flexible with your list building and lets you play to your armies strength without being hamstrung over which choices work. Love to see it.
Torture Larvae (10 Norberts)
A unit gifted this relic may make 3 additional shooting attacks when using Horror Swarm.
Pretty plain and simple buff that jumps you from 42% to add a panic to 66%, nice clean and still not able to pile on a tonne of wounds.
Matriarch’s Barb (10 Norberts)
This relic may only be gifted to a Lump. Increase the unit’s Wounds and Attack by 1. The unit gains Fly.
Now I’ve generally been pretty low on the lump since it’s playtest rules came out, it’s an antimonster monster that’s absurdly tanky. Generally I wasn’t really sure there was much to write home about other than that. But this is where the lump really shines. It has 9” movement, which makes it a great charger, and it can sit around and be tanky and with a Hive Pot Grenade strapped to it can sit somewhere annoying and throw out free Horror Swarms.
Does a bonus attack, wound and fly really matter. Possibly if fly interacted with charge in a favourable way, but for now I’m not super sure. There’s a way to make lumps work in this army but it’s tough to say that this helps it in a significant way. I was expecting a little more zest. +1 attack and wound is just a bit of a boring “make it better” relic, and that’s fine to have but it’s not the kind of unit I get hot under the collar for when the raw math changes.
I do however know that I want to build horrific potato sized bumble bee, and that’s what turnip’s all about.
Conclusion
I’m starting straight off with a list here:
- Toff
- Hive Brethren (BP, Torture Larva - 10 points)
- Hive Brethren (BP, 5 Norberts spare for a neutral relic)
- Toady
- Bastards (CCW, Hive Pot Grenades - 5 points)
- Toady
- Bastards (CCW, Hive Pot Grenades - 5 points)
This is the boring default list, everyone can Horror Swarm, and you’ve got 2 units with access to BLC. You put your death ball as close to the other army as possible and try to kill two of their units outright on turn 1. This is the vaguely magical christmas land gameplan, you try it you see where it goes.
But maybe you find everything is a little too fragile and you need something to sustain in the middle and throw out bees for the duration of a slower grindier game.
- Toff
- Hive Brethren (BP)
- Hive Brethren (BP)
- Toady
- Chaff (MIS, Torture Larva - 10 points)
- Toady
- Lump (Hive Pot Grenades - 5 points, Matriarch’s Barb - 10 points)
You don’t even need BLC, you can just stay and grind out by throwing enough panic around that you just walk towards people and they start running away into dangerous terrain.
I think that Beekeepers are an exceptionally well designed cult, they kind of perfectly understand the dynamics of shooting, panic and charging. They give you a a little extra steps to wring out a few more tokens before the important charge or let you play something slow and attrition based as well as any flavour in between.
The lump relic could be a bit more interesting but I don’t care because it’s going to be fun to model.