The Biting Flies are cheap, quick units whose goal is to harass the enemy. They include Gor Herds, Ungor Herds, Ungor Raiders, Chaos Warhounds, Harpies, and Chaos Spawn. These all have Strength 3 (except Chaos Spawn with S4). This means they will cause virtually no wounds. So they need a different role to play. This role involves:
1) March blocking. Simply keep a unit of Biting Flies within 8” of the enemy and they can’t march. Skirmishing Ungor Raiders and Harpies are best at this.
(I like Dylan Gauker’s Golden Demon winning idea for Harpies using old ghoul models)
2) Turning. This is a very important technique used by all veteran players. When the enemy charges one of your (non-skirmishing) units, the enemy “turns” to face “out the butt” of your unit. If they pursue or overrun they do so pointed “out the butt” of your unit. So, by moving a unit of Biting Flies in front of an enemy unit, and placing it at an angle, you can control the direction of the enemy unit after the charge. This is hugely useful both for directing enemy units away from your stuff, and by opening up their flanks for charges from your stuff. Chaos Hounds are best for this as they are faster (M7) and cheaper (30 pts. for a unit of 5) than Gor Herds and Ungor Herds. [In addition, Chaos Spawn movement is intentionally written to prevent them from being used to “turn” opponants. Note under Lurching Horror the phrase “(the player) may not subsequently change the Spawn’s facing.” This prevents you from angling the spawn to “turn” enemies that charge it.]
3) Rank Bonus. There are three likely candidates for building fully ranked units in a Beastmen army. Ungor Herds (100 pts for 20), Gor Herds (140 pts. for 20), and Bestigors (240 pts. for 20). Gors are significantly more survivable than Ungors due to their WS4 (which means most troops hit them on 4’s rather than 3’s), T4, and Ld 7. In contrast, Bestigors advantage lies in their offense—they have S6 with great weapons and can carry the War Banner. I don’t think that 5 S6 attacks in the front rank is worth nearly doubling the points cost of Gor Herds if you are planning on running them fully ranked. If you want full ranks in your Beastmen army take Gors… but personally I would just forego it altogether as I don’t think its a particularly strong feature of the list.
4) Killing weak enemies. To be honest Harpies, Ungor Raiders, and Chaos Hounds are going to have a lot of trouble trying to kill even the weakest enemies. The “hardest hitting” of your expendable Biting Flies is the Chaos Spawn. It has the added bonus of being unbreakable. Don’t expect it to crush ranked units but it can threaten war machine crews, lone wizards, and light cavalry successfully.
(Here is another awesome model by Dylan Gauker)
General Recommendation:
3+ units of 5 Ungor Skirmishers (30 pts. each)
2+ units of 5 Chaos Hounds (30 pts. each)
0+ units of Chaos Spawn (55 pts. each) [fill up any left-over Rare slots]
0+ units of 5 Scouting Harpies (70 pts. each) [fill up any left-over Special slots]
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