This question has been popping up a lot with the upcoming release of these two fantastic but also quite expensive kits. If the goal is to only get one of the two initially how should we look at which one is the right choice for what we want?
Firstly we should look at the differences. It doesn't seem like all that much - the Tontorr gets a few extra attacks and has relentless blows while the Drum Beast has the Sound of the Drums drums special rule and costs 20 more points. The extra attacks for the Tontorr end up being pretty easy to quantify. In most situations you'll get about 20% extra output from the Tontorr at a slightly cheaper price. The crux of the evaluation then rests on how much is the Sound of the Drums rule worth to how you play.
Sound of the Drums gives your entire army the ability to not chant when you have 3 tokens in your pool. Under normal circumstances drawing a regiment that is eligible to chant when you have 3 tokens already or are placing your third token forces you to chant even if you wouldn't want to. The option to hold that can be quite valuable as it makes your turn much more consistent. Lists that utilize large numbers of smaller units and therefore generate lots of tokens can find very good value there, however, the cost of the Drum Beast itself (currently a whopping 330 points) is likely to push you into a more elite build anyway.
For this reason I think the Tontorr is the likely to see more play. It provides much more consistent output regardless of the list around it. The Drum Beast likely has a role in a list designed to generate a ton of tokens that could use the additional flexibility but recommending it for what might be a niche use is a little more difficult than just saying slam in a Tontorr.
The other consideration is of course which model you prefer aesthetically. I think the Drum Beast is fantastic in this regard and would consider designing a niche list just for full rule of cool reasons but that's probably another argument entirely.
As always thanks for reading
-K
I would say other factors are (a) which Warvand you need the most and (b) which Rider do you prefer if you are going for the supermonster option. I would say the Scion/DrumBeast will regain some usage when other chosen are released.
ReplyDeleteI'd be concerned that as is the restricted chosen would over shadow it a lot and push you into that realm where you just don't need anything the drum beast does where you have a lot of fanatic units that want to chant as much as possible
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