A Tactical Look: The Doctors and the Beasts

So you’ve got the Doctors starter gang and the new Beast Tamers box, however you don’t know how to assemble them into a successful gang. Well this is my suggestion using the two boxes for a gang built around the Gorilla and the Lion.

Building the Gang:

Leader:

For your leader character take the Plague Doctor from the starter set. This is your only choice (unless you had Doctor of the Mind from the Kick starter) but what a fantastic choice he is, capable of taking either Blood Rites or Wild Magic, Mage(2), Universal Shielding and Expert Sorcerer, plus invoking fear in his enemies, he is a powerful character and his Command ability to give all friendly units within 3″ Penetration -2 shouldn’t be understated, especially with his 5 command points.

Heroes:

We only have one Hero in this list, the Doctor of the Beasts. This character is the linchpin of the list, it is he that has bought the Lion and Gorilla to test on the streets of Venice. He has magical abilities, using the Runes of Sovereignty, this allows him to move his beasts via magic, and bring prey to his beasts via the same. His Shock Staff, normally used to keep his beasts under control, is now used to subdue possible prey. He can also use his hunter ability to take on characters larger than himself, and his command ability can make the Gorilla or Lion berserk.

Henchmen:

We have 5 Henchmen in this list, the main  mêlée damage dealers, the Lion and Gorilla. The Gorilla hits hard and flies, it can’t claim objectives but that’s not why you bought it. The Lion is capable of ripping through the armour used by most of the people in Venice, with Expert Offence(3) he re rolls 3 of his 4 attack dice, and with hunter he can bring down even bigger creatures than himself. Again, the Lion won’t be claiming objectives, so send it in to rip and tear

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We have a Lab Assistant coming along, he helped bring the animals here, so now he can help test them. He also has a shock prod, adding more stun to the list, he also has Hunter meaning he is a threat to creatures bigger than he is. He is also your only henchman capable of claiming objectives, so best to keep him safe.

The Doctors of course never go anywhere without their Will Point batteries, I mean, Madmen. There are 2 of them in this list, of course these can’t claim objectives and do very little, if anything in combat. However they have 6 will points each for the Doctors in the list to use for magical abilities. Keep them safe until their will points are drained and the madness starts to kill them anyway. Then they make great meat shields.

Equipment:

That comes to 96 Ducats, if we’re going for 100 Ducats as is usual, fill the rest with equipment. I’ve gone for a Flashbang Grenade, if I need to get out of a tricky combat, and a parachute for when I find one of my characters is higher than I’d like them to be on a building.

Tactics:

To use this list effectively, see it as a combination of 2 or 3 parts. Your first part is your Plague Doctor and his personal battery, sorry I mean Madman. He can pick off individual enemy characters, or claim objectives. Your goal however is to make sure the enemy don’t try to kill him, to do this you use the rest of this list, either as one big group of pain, or split into two again. If splitting, send one animal with the Lab Assistant, and the other with the Doctor of the Beasts and the second Madman.

Use the animal group(s) to attack the bulk of your enemies forces, using the Doctors runes of Sovereignty as needed. Remember to use those shock prods first though, stunned enemies are far easier for your beasts to hurt after all. Some particular things you want to try to pull off to achieve victory are:

Stun and Water:

With two ways of delivering Stun, the Staff and the Prod, look to stun your enemies, attack them with the beasts, then move them into water using magic. There are a few ways to do the moving using both Runes of Sovereignty and Wild Magic and of course you can always grapple with a madman. That enemy will have taken a pounding by the beasts, and will lose 2 life points on it’s next activation.

Protect the Plague Doctor with Gateway:

So your enemy thinks they are being clever and sends something nasty to hurt your Plague Doctor, you’d rather see this thing battered by the beasts but just can’t get your beasts close enough before he hurts your valuable leader. Worry no more, use Gateway to move that nasty character closer to your hard hitters, then swarm him. The Plague Doctor can continue his work uninterrupted, and your beasts get to test their mettle. Even better if combined with the first trick above, there goes your opponents plans.

Drain ’em and Throw ’em.

While they have will points your Madmen are absolutely crucial, otherwise your ability to use magic will be severely stunted. However once they’ve been drained they are dead weight, can’t even claim objectives, so throw them at the enemy with reckless abandon. If they are within 3″ of the Plague Doctor they get -2 penetration if he uses his command ability. It won’t make them excellent combatants, but it’s a little push towards being better than they are normally.

Final Thought:

This list does lack in objective control, relying on the two doctors and the Lab Assistant for claiming objectives, however you have plenty of damage dealing ability. Sometimes attack is the best form of well, attack.