How Do You Run Your Mournfangs

I am pretty new to the OK and running a pretty standard 2500 list that includes 3 Mournfangs.

I am debating whether it is better to give them Great Weapons or Ironfist.  I am leaning towards the Ironfists, but I tend to get too defensive in my list building.  Was curious what some you more experienced OK players thought.

Thanks in advance for any input and help.

Ironfists all the way. And I'd consider adding a 4th Beatle to the group.

Ironfists.  Tried great weapons the other day out of interest.  Definitely ironfists for me 


Try them both and see which you prefer though!

On Mournfangs there is only one set up and that is Heavy Armour and Ironfists. They have enough damage output this way, keeping them alive is key. The mournfangs do the damage, the Ogres on top of them are extra.

Best uses I see are either units of 4 or units of 2. The unit of 4 is a hardcore unit that can almost smack anything on the board to pieces, or grind them down slowly (Dragonhide banner is excellent for them!)

A unit of 2 is a hard support unit. Only give them a muscician (swift reform) and you have a unit that performs like a chariot on steroids that may march!

Also, never bother with a champion on Mournfang cav. They are there for damaging units and grinding them down, not ending up in challenges.

Hope this helps!

D...

The deal is this.

The Mournfang has 3 Str4 attacks and 4 Str5 attacks.

If you give them a GW, you only improve the rider's attacks. Meanwhile you reduce the durability of the entire model.

If you give them ironfists(and HA of course) you have increased the durability of the entire model, and thus benifit all parts of the model.

Therefore, Ironfists are the more efficient choice.

The deal is this.

The Mournfang has 3 Str4 attacks and 4 Str5 attacks.

If you give them a GW, you only improve the rider's attacks. Meanwhile you reduce the durability of the entire model.

If you give them ironfists(and HA of course) you have increased the durability of the entire model, and thus benifit all parts of the model.

Therefore, Ironfists are the more efficient choice.

Not to mention, Ironfists are cheaper.  And it isn't super big, but in the event that you fight I 1 or I 2 enemies, you will get to fight before you get hit/killed.

plus that parry save is the cherry ontop of it all! more than once I've had a model stay alive with one wound on account of the parry-save.. Loosing all the models attacks because it died is too big a risk to me..

Yeah, one time I hit a Pheonix Guard bunker with my mournfangs. Every one of their attacks bounced off my armor.

Teclis swings, hits, and wounds. Mournfang parry's his attack like a BAMF. Mournfangs destroy the unit.

Ironfists, Heavy armour and.... drumroll....

DRAGONHIDE BANNER!!!

350pt annihilation unit!

I have to say I find the gleaming pennant a safer buy for them. Dragonhide is very fun but they can make do without it but every so often you just need that re-roll...

I usually run the same thing:  3 mournfangs with HA, IF, and Gleaming Pennant

In larger games I have done 4 with HA, IF, and Dragonhide (last time it didn't work out too well, charged a unit of 14 DE cold one riders and only killed 3 in the 1st round of combat...it was a sad day for MF)

They grind infantry, not 14 cold one riders....

Yeah, they're there to chew up blocks. Cavalry can generally save enough guys to make it a long, annoying grind. That said, you should have killed plenty more than just 3 with a charge from 4 Mournfangs.

I'm aware that it wasn't the ideal target for me to charge, but since I got the charge (all those impact hits!) and I have S5 beasts and I had the Dragonhide Banner, I figured my chances were decent to get 5 kills the first round and then get strike 1st in the 2nd round if there is anything left to clean up (I killed 1 the 2nd round of combat, so nothing really worked out).

In this particular case you got unlucky and were hitting a non-ideal target. More unlucky than bad target.

Most knights, like Empire or Brettonia, aren't going to do much to Mournfangs if the Fangs charge. The knights are only str3(unless inner circle or have GWs, in which case don't hit them) which won't be killing the Mournfangs. It just becomes a straight grind. Not ideal for mournfangs who prefer to grind weak unarmored stuff. but its not the end of the world.

Having played a couple of games now with Mournfangs it as apparent that HA, IF is the way to go.  Unfortunately I have played them rather poorly so far and have not gotten much use out of them.  My bad, but learning with them still.

My next question on this topic is how many.  I have a 2400 point tournament list and room for three or four.  I would imagine I will see a good deal of cannon fire and my worry about four is that losing one creates panic.  Even if I pass panic, I am down to three.  If I start with three, I think they may be less likely to be targeted as killing one won't create panic.  Three is also a bit more maneuverable. 

Am i over thinking this?

You most definitely are overthinking it. Mournfangs in any number will be a target for shooting, and 4 guys is that unit's "sweet spot" in that it's just enough offense to run a block over, even if it's 5-wide.

I like running 2 units of 2 MF with IF for 150ish points each.  I usually bash them into the biggest S3 T3 block my opponent has to stop him using that tarpit against my own ogre blocks.  2 MF don't easily lose combat against S3 T3 troops with a 4+/5+AS.

If I start with three, I think they may be less likely to be targeted as killing one won't create panic. 

How come losing one when starting with three doesn't create panic? it is over 25%...
Aren't you mixing things up with having to roll snake eyes when you have <25% of your unit left? that would not occur when starting with 3 in relation to starting with 4...

I don't really have a favorite unit size to roll MFC. usually they support the rest of my army and depending on that they either go 2x2, 2x3, 1x3 or 1x4 with Dragonhide banner. most of the times it is a unit of three as I put Maneaters in before MFC and find them more versatile, but thats just me perhaps.

On the other hand there are few games that I do not field them 

I've had success with two units of two with musician, as well as a unit of four. Three I think is too few for a decent block, but too many to be support.

How come losing one when starting with three doesn't create panic? it is over 25%...
Aren't you mixing things up with having to roll snake eyes when you have <25% of your unit left? that would not occur when starting with 3 in relation to starting with 4...

That's kind of why I like running them in 3s.  You'll never be on Snake Eyes to Rally because you always have at least 25% left.

Right, but reducing a unit of 4 Mournfangs to 1 man and then putting it to flight is not a trivial thing to accomplish for any army, so I wouldn't worry overly much about it.

Right, but reducing a unit of 4 Mournfangs to 1 man and then putting it to flight is not a trivial thing to accomplish for any army, so I wouldn't worry overly much about it.

it may prevent the unit from running off the board... (which is the whole point imo)

My counterpoint in turn is that it's not a situation that will come up often enough for you consider 4 v. 3, whereas having the offensive firepower to smash units into the dirt comes up a lot more often, and 4 guys will get that done a lot more often than 3 will.

I field them 4 (imo its the only right thing to do), fc, dragon hide banner and with GW.

How does the Gleaming Pennant work with a BSB... or would that be only useful in a list without a BSB?

I hadn't considered that Magic Banner before..

It wouldn't work.

You can't re roll a re roll.

It would only work for units that are out of the BSBs range.

I'm set on fielding 4x MFC w/ DragonHide Banner (350 points)

But now thinking Gleaming Pennant would be solid on a second unit of 2x MFC, including musician, (165 pts) and send them off without a worry!!

Thanks!!

Only one unit of Mournfang Cavalry may have a magic banner.

-Snark

Awww!! Thanks though for letting me know before I had time to convert one of my MFC's into a second standard bearer!!

I still will model that 2nd musician for that 2nd unit I want.

I guess I could try out the Gleaming Pennant in a 1000pt list without a BSB.

The musician is definitly a good thing to have. The second banner is optional and points that may be better elsewhere.

One banner to consider besides the DHB(if you arn't being super hardcore) is the movement banner. Movement 9 can catch people off guard. "They charge how far???"

On a side note about the DHB, I tried it for the first time against WoC yesterday (figured I'd need any advantage I could get; I've never beaten them with my Ogres).  Absolutely steamrolled a 25 man unit of Khorne warriors head on, and the banner is what made all the difference in killing enough to break steadfast.

Definitely relegating the item to my grudge match/tournament lists; it's as hard as everyone claims.  For friendly matches, I'll stick with the movement banner as mentioned above.

My Mournfangs have downright refused to work for me. Armour saves get failed followed by panic tests with alarming regularity. I think I've gotten the charge off with them once in five games.

I'm going to have to start using the gleaming pennant, sigh. Oh well, when they did charge it was pretty brutal.