Drum Beast - W'adrhŭn Guide (english)

Especially gentle Tontorrs are allowed to carry the tribe’s ritual drums and horns, but I would rather wish that the Drum Beast performs a Dance of Destruction instead of peacefully listening to the sound of the drums.

Cost

With 310 points, the Drum Beast is one of the most expensive monsters in the game and one with a lot of potential for improvement.

Strengths

• Cleave 1: In melee combat, we reduce the opponent's armor by 1 with a Clash attack.
• Linebreaker: With Clash and Impacts, the regiment ignores the special rules Bastion and Shield from the opponent. This does not apply to attached regiments or Riders.
• Impact 6 & Brutal Impact 2: On the charge, if we manage it, we get 6 Impacts with -2 armor against the opponent. Sounds cool, if only it weren’t for Clash 2.
• Trample 8: At the end of the activation, an opponent in the front takes 8 auto-hits with no special rules and no Resolve tests required.
• Inspired: Stands in this regiment, including character stands with Riders, always benefit from the Inspire special rule. This gives them +1 Clash for Clash actions.
• Fearless: Immunity to Terrifying.
• Oblivious: For every two failed Resolve tests, the regiment only takes 1 damage (rounded up).
• Stability: D3 R3 is usually just moderate, but with Oblivious and powerful 26 health points, the Drum Beast stays on the field for a long time.
• Towering Presence: The stands in this regiment count as size 4, meaning the long neck is always visible and can see everything. However, everything can also always target it in ranged combat.
• March of Giants: The March characteristic and distance of this regiment cannot be negatively affected by abilities, special rules, or terrain. Rarely useful, as there are only two abilities that currently negatively affect Movement.
• Drum Beat: A friendly regiment within 10" can add an extra marker when adding a Chant Marker.
• Chants: Generates a Chant Marker, thus supporting the W’adrhŭn mechanic, which gives it access to many useful abilities.
• Chant Primal Cacophony: The Drum Beast’s unique chant, which can be extremely effective, even devastating, against certain armies. By discarding three Chant Markers, all enemy regiments within 10" must use their lowest Resolve value for the rest of the round.

Weaknesses

• Low offensive power: For its points, the Drum Beast has surprisingly few attacks. It’s more of an expensive support unit than a serious fighter.
• Limited mobility: With a Movement of 6, it’s not particularly fast for a heavy unit. While the Famine Chant occasionally allows a charge, it usually relies on Move Charge.
• Unnecessary support: The Drum Beat special rule is rarely decisive in a W’adrhŭn army, unless you focus exclusively on Chosen regiments. Even then, the 10" range is often too small.
• Battlefield Role - The Cults: This keyword currently offers no synergies within the faction.

General Tactics

The Drum Beast is primarily useful as a support unit to enhance the W’adrhŭn chant mechanics and weaken the opponent's morale. Especially against armies like the City States, where characters often have high Resolve values while the regiments themselves have lower ones, this ability can be extremely useful. In practice, however, the 10" range often proves too small, as there are often no worthwhile targets within range. Additionally, the ability is completely useless against the Old Dominion, as this army ignores Resolve tests.

The additional Chant Markers from Drum Beat seem interesting at first glance, but in my games, they haven’t really proven useful even in lists with many Chosen regiments. Again, the small range is a major issue, as it either forces you to keep regiments farther back near the Drum Beast or fails to utilize the effect effectively. In lists without Chosen, the question quickly becomes: what do I do with all these markers? I haven’t found a good answer so far and have tried positioning two to three regiments around the Drum Beast to collect markers for Light regiments fighting up front. However, this quickly overloads one flank. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the Drum Beast’s limited offensive potential needs all the support it can get. Nevertheless, I would like to see its role as a support unit significantly strengthened. Although Primal Cacophony is already strong against certain opponents, the Drum Beast could benefit from another ability specifically tailored to The Cults. Additionally, a significantly larger range for Drum Beat would be desirable to better utilize its support role.