8th Ed. Beastmen Army Book Analysis, Character Builds and Tactics

[Knoffles]

Welcome to the Beastmen Army Book breakdown and Tactica Guide. This set of posts is an amalgamation of guides and articles compiled by individuals from other forums/blogs and websites. This particular guide borrows heavily from Rothgar13 and his pro's and cons and general layout but I’ve taken other guides and articles and tried to weave them into his initial layout, added new sections, descriptions of item effect and re-writing quite a few areas.

As ever, if anything is inaccurate, has been missed or if you have any other thoughts, please comment and I’ll add to this - Knoffles.


Post Guide

Post 1 - Introduction and special rules

Post 2 - Magic Lore analysis

Post 3 - Chaos Gifts and Army book Magic Items

Post 4 - BRB Magic items

Post 5 - Lords, Heroes and Mount options

Post 6 - Core Choices

Post 7 - Special Choices

Post 8 - Rare Choices

Post 9 - Recommended Units and Tactics

Post 10 - Sample Character Builds

Post 11 - Sample Army Lists

Post 12 - Marks of Chaos (End Times - Glotkin/Archaon)


Contributors

Rothergar13 - http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/beastmen/219165-8e-beastmen-handbook.html

Azeebo - http://www.miniwargaming.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=76257

Gojiragor - http://z8.invisionfree.com/herdstone/index.php?s=76bd4677de766a3a6f7cf61a77217f72&showtopic=21170

1d4chan - https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer/Tactics/8th_Edition/Beastmen

Knoffles (that’s me)

OnceBitten360 – He hasn’t written a guide but has put up dozens of Beastmen battle reps on Youtube that are worth watching to get a feel for the army - https://www.youtube.com/user/OnceBitten360


Why play them?

Do you like the dark twisted places found in the deep woods and forests of the world? Do you have a deep resentment of man, and believe they usurped your rightful place and drove you into those woods. Do you have an unending hatred of all other races combined with an instinctive cunning?

Congratulations, this is the army for you!


How do they play?

The first thing that has to be established, when talking about Beastmen in the competitive sense, is their army identity. What does this army play like? What things does it bring to the table? We'll expand upon this below:

1. Beastmen are a Horde army.

We have infantry with above-average stats (WS4, T4, and even S4 are fairly easy to obtain in this army), but with below-average defensive equipment when compared to other troops with these stats, like Saurus Warriors or Chaos Warriors. This is somewhat mitigated by their lower points cost when compared to those same elite troops, so we can compensate for our poor armor with numbers and take advantage of mechanics such as rank bonuses, steadfast, and Horde formation more effectively. Even our more elite builds benefit greatly from having lots and lots of guys on the table.

2. Beastmen have a strong Magic phase.

While our Lore access is relatively limited and our native Lore is in the running for being the worst in the game, the main rulebook Lores we do have access to (Shadow, Death and Beasts) are all exceptional, and we have access to several items that can generate additional power dice, which makes our magic phase quite formidable.

3. Beastmen depend heavily on their characters.

Because most Beastmen troops have average or below-average Leadership, little immunity to Fear, Panic, or Terror, and a Leadership test-dependent combat gimmick, a strong Leadership value is crucial, and that is invariably provided by characters. Additionally, the magical strategy that sets Beastmen apart is dependent on multiple casters, so this is an army that will put lots of investment into Lords and Heroes. This is especially true for any army that looks to use Minotaurs as its primary offensive unit, as they feature poor defense for their cost and thus depend on characters who can stand in front and take damage for them.

It is worth noting that that the army book was written in the 7th edition and as such it does suffer a bit in 8th edition. Mainly, in so far as, a number of entries are really overpriced for what they bring to the table (especially minotaur units and the monsters). As such the army is considered to be at towards the lower end of the power tier. Most tournaments balance this out by allowing Beastmen players to take a couple of hundred extra points in their lists or marks of chaos from the end times, Glotkin/Archaon book. Don’t in any way make the assumption that they are an ineffective army. They can be brutal in the right hands, with plenty of hard hitting units/characters, combined with plentiful cheap chaff. They just take more maneuvering and strategy to play. They aren’t a Warriors point and shoot kind of army – Knoffles.


Special Rules

Primal Fury

At the start of each round of combat, a unit/model with this rule must take a leadership test. If passed they gain hatred. If you roll a double 1, they get both hatred and are frenzied.

This is the rule that gives the army such punch and turns your fairly average units into brutal killers. It is the single most important rule in your army and you must NEVER forget to roll for it. Seriously, write it down on some paper and have it on the table in front of you. It is THAT crucial!

Please note that if you do gain frenzy, it only lasts until the end of the combat phase, in the same way as primal fury. They can also gain frenzy several times during the battle (if you happen to roll double 1's a lot!).


Beastmen Ambush

You can choose to keep a unit off the board 'in ambush' providing, they have this rule and you have another unit of the same size (or larger) that you deploy as normal.

This is one of the more iconic abilities for Beastmen and on the surface sounds like something that's pretty useful to have. Unfortunately, the beastmen version of the rule is very much subpar to the rulebook version and this is for a number of reasons:

1. The chart is very unfavorable. Only have a 1/6 chance of going where you want (as opposed to a 1/3 chance of being delayed, and a 1/6 chance of showing up where your opponent decides) is not good odds, and it shows in play. The occasions when you get an Ambushing unit in a genuinely useful tactical position should be celebrated, because they are rare.

2. The units involved need character support, and they likely won't get it. This alludes to the previous point I made - since characters can't ambush along with units, you're basically gambling on that your Leadership 6 or 7 troops can nail some tests and actually contribute. A quick look at the typical distribution of 2D6 will tell you those aren't good odds. The other table edge or the far flanks typically aren't where you have your big blocks (and thus your characters) jockeying around for position, so they'll be on their own for a bit. And god help you if your opponent can cause Fear...

3. Requires unit redundancy. Given that you need another unit of the same size or larger on the table to ambush something, this is a tactic that can either get really pricey quickly, or force you to water down your main units in order to pack fighting-caliber numbers on your ambushers. Neither of these propositions are appealing.

Now having said that, the rule isn't completely useless. It does allow you to:

1. Ambush from turn 1

2. Provide an alternate means of deployment, one that an opponent must cater for, potentially putting them off their game plan, especially if you can make it so they are reacting to your plan.



Building an army around it does not work (even taking Kazak One-Eye) so the question then becomes, if you are going to use it, how best to utilise it?

Throwing multiple units of 5 Ungor Raiders into ambush can be worthwhile, as at 30pts for 5 and with enough of them being used for chaff, some should come on at a table edge that might be beneficial in order to tie up warmachines for a turn, however anything bar a human or goblin crew should easily beat them in combat.

A unit of 20 Gor is possibly the best option. Having a unit of this size offers some flexibility. It is a big enough threat to easily take out warmachines and threaten the rear of an opponents lines and you don't have to use them in ambush. If you happen to roll the watch tower scenario, you also have a unit that is quite capable of garrisoning it and holding it until backup arrives.

 

[Knoffles]

POST 2

Magic Lore Analysis

Here we'll look at the four different Lores of magic that Beastmen have access to. Three of these are amongst the best lores available from the BRB, namely: Lore of Beasts, Lore of Death and Lore of Shadow. The final lore is a the beastmens unique lore: Lore of the Wild, which spoiler alert, is frankly in the running for worst lore in the game.

We'll start with my current favourite (at least from a thematic side).

Lore of Beasts

Lore Attribute - Wildheart: If any spell in this lore is cast upon anything from our army book, the casting difficultly is reduced by 1. This Lore Attribute is quite literally made for us to take advantage of. Lower casting values on a buffing Lore that is characterized for having rather pricey spells is a welcome boon.

0. Wyssan's Wildform (Augment): Arguably one of the two best signature spells in the game. The range is a bit short on the default version, but +1 Strength and Toughness can swing a combat in a major way, and you can always cast the augmented version if you need a bit more distance. An excellent spell to have, as even a Level 2 Wizard has a decent chance of casting it on 2 power dice.

1. The Flock of Doom (Direct Damage): A magic missile with decent range (24 or 48") that inflicts 2D6 Strength 2 hits. Very vanilla and kind of weak, but it can be useful on occasion.

2. Pann's Impenetrable Pelt (Augment): A major Toughness boost of +3 for one or more characters, depending on whether you cast the boosted version or not. It can be useful for keeping a character alive during a crucial turn where he's in a tough challenge or getting wailed on by an entire unit, but it's not going to do much more than that.

3. The Amber Spear (Direct Damage): Our version of an artillery shot. You can use it to replicate the effects of a bolt thrower, or a cannon if you use the boosted version. Can be useful for threatening monsters, fliers, and other problem targets.

This spell is excellent for an army that doesn’t have access to any kind of warmachine bar a very overpriced stone throwing monster in the Rare slot. It also has the advantage of, if you roll it, being able to swop it out for the signature spell if your opponent doesn't have any suitable targets for casting it at.

4. The Curse of Anraheir (Hex): An excellent spell to either hamper your opponent's combat or shooting effectiveness, as it imposes a -1 to hit, or make him very apprehensive about his movement, due to also causing a unit targeted to take a dangerous terrain test when they move. Remember that open terrain counts as terrain, so every single instance of movement that is not a normal move or a reform will provoke these tests, no matter where he's standing. Any spell that impacts movement is fantastic and it is one of my favourite spells in the game.

5. The Savage Beast of Horros (Augment): A whopper of an offensive spell, this can make one or more characters absolutely murderous in combat by giving them +3 attacks and strength. It can swing challenges even more easily than Pann's Impenetrable Pelt, as well as help you kill enough rank-and-file infantry to negate a crucial turn of steadfast, and it combines especially well with any Shaman that is equipped to fight and holding the Jagged Dagger, as it can result in a self-perpetuating power dice engine (kill guys, get power dice, cast Savage Beast, kill more guys...). Even just an additional hand weapon on the shaman will give him a base of 3 attacks. This spell will boost him to 6 to allow him to reap in the additional power dice when combined with the jagged dagger.

6. Transformation of Kadon (Augment): The first thing to point out is that the monsters offered by this spell aren't really much to talk about unless you cast the boosted version, so we'll approach it from that perspective. The Great Fire Dragon is a great way to get a one-time dose of Flaming Attacks if you desperately need them, and the Mountain Chimera is an absolute blender of a monster. That said, this spell is a bit of a gamble unless you cast while your Shaman is safely bunkered in a unit, and even then you're flirting with the miscast just to get it off. It can work, and it's spectacular when it does, but use it with caution.

It's worth noting that if your shaman is bunkered in a unit of Gor, the monster footprint matches the unit, so he can potentially displace models within the unit. Oncebittern360's favoured use was to bring a level 4 and a level 2 and try and get this on the lower level shaman.

Overall: This is a pretty strong Lore to have around. My recommendation is to either bring a L4 Great Bray-Shaman who can exploit the buff spells to generate more power dice using the Jagged Dagger, or multiple L2 Wizards who can cast Wildform over and over again and really make your troops monstrous.


Lore of Death

This is one of the strongest lores available. It has several great sniping spells, some superb hex's and the most infamous of the 'number 6' spells.

Lore Attribute - Life Leeching: Roll a D6 for every unsaved wound caused by a Lore of Death spell. For each 5 or 6 you gain another power dice. A Lore Attribute that has good potential synergy with the Beastmen book, as it can allow you to string together a potentially devastating magic phase. It isn't something to be relied on, though.

0. Spirit Leech (Direct Damage): Target a single enemy model and each roll a D6 and add your unmodified leadership. For each point you win by, the target suffers a wound with no armour saves allowed. A roll-off modified by Leadership is not quite as good for Beastmen wizards as it is for those of other races, but it can still be useful to hunt monsters or to attack Hero-level characters. The boosted version has a longer range, which helps out a lot (most Wizards don't want to be within 12" of an enemy unit, and the ones that do usually want to charge it). And at the end of the day, it's a dangerous ranged attack on an army where that is in very short supply.

1. Aspect of the Dreadknight (Augment): Target a unit to make them cause fear. The boosted version makes them cause terror. While Fear and Terror aren't really all that, one neat thing it will do for you, though, is make you immune to Fear and/or downgrade Terror to Fear for very cheap. That has some potential in an army that just doesn't have that much stuff that's Immune to Psychology, but overall the spell is a bit conditional.

2. Caress of Laniph (Direct Damage): Targets a single model and the target suffers 2D6 hits minus their strength. Any hit wounds on a 4+ with no armour saves allowed. An interesting spell you can use to go after enemy characters (monsters are usually a bit too beefy for this). The boosted version has a longer range, which helps it out a lot, as does its potential synergy with the Hagtree Fetish. I consider this potentially the weakest of the 3 sniping spells, if only due to the 4+ wounding roll.

3. Soulblight (Hex): An absolutely amazing spell. It is the antithesis of the Lore of Beasts's wildform, giving instead a debuff of -1 Strength and Toughness. This can cripple an enemy unit, and the boosted version can turn the tide in even the ugliest combat situations as it targets every enemy within 24"! This is a spell you'll never regret having.

4. Doom and Darkness (Hex): This subtracts -3 from the targets leadership. This spell can be useful to help break an otherwise immovable block of Steadfast troops, but the average Beastmen army won't have all that much to exploit this with. It's an absolute gutpunch to land it in a mirror match, though - this spell gives us all sorts of issues.

5. The Fate of Bjuna (Direct Damage): A single model within 12" suffers 2D6 hits minus it's toughness. Any hits wound on a 2+ with no armour saves allowed. If the target survives they suffer from stupidity. A more powerful version of the sniper spell, this one is both more likely to Wound and leaves a nasty after effect, even if it doesn't finish the job. Unfortunately, the fact that it doesn't have boosted range is a major strike against it, though (as before) anything that has range at all helps. Also has synergy with the Hagtree Fetish.

6. The Purple Sun of Xereus (Vortex): One of 8th edition's infamous "nuke spells" and probably the most hated of all of them due to how many armies are susceptible to it. The Initiative-test-or-die can be absolutely devastating against armies like Dwarfs, Lizardmen, Orcs & Goblins, Ogres, both flavors of Undead, and most monsters, and it's not exactly a picnic for armies like us, Bretonnia, or the Empire, either. One nasty thing about this one is that since it's a magical vortex, you can fling it right into a combat and watch the ensuing carnage. The boosted version uses the large template. That said, its range is a bit unreliable, the casting value is monstrous, and it can hurt you quite a bit if it backfires. Use with caution.

Overall: This is a strong Lore in that it can help us do things other than fight while providing spells that are useful in fights, but I strongly recommend a high-level caster in order to get good mileage out of it.


Lore of Shadow

One of the best all round lores in the game.

Lore Attribute - Smoke and Mirrors: When a spell is successfully cast, the wizard may swop places with a friendly character within 18". While you do have to get a bit clever to wring any use of this thing, it can potentially get your mage's skillet out of the fire, or help put characters in better situations, and all effectively for free. It is is something that I've rarely seen anyone use and our shamans are more combat orientated than other wizards so it likely the least useful for (though you would love to suddenly plonk down a Doombull in place of your shaman!).

0. Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma (Hex): Reduces an enemies Movement or Weapon Skill or Ballistic Skill or Initiative by D3. Boosted lowers them all. Remember when I said that Wyssan's Wildform is arguably the best signature spell in the game? Meet its competition. The ability to lower enemy movement puts all sort of unit avoidance shenanigans into play, lowering Ballistic Skill is a fantastic way to combat small-arms shooting, and debuffing Weapon Skill and/or Initiative can swing a combat your way. An absolute gem of a spell.

1. Steed of Shadows (Augment): Target immediately makes a fly movement. Useful for advancing characters such as lone Doombulls to enemy lines quickly. Otherwise... not much to see here.

2. The Enfeebling Foe (Hex): Reducing enemy Strength by D3 can swing combats and help keep a lot of your guys alive, and its being a Remains in Play spell means that it will sap enemy dice before it goes away.

3. The Withering (Hex): The Ying to the Enfeebling Foe's Yang. This one reduces the targets Toughness by D3. A potentially backbreaking spell, this spell can help even the humblest regiments of Gors chew through big tough monsters with little trouble. Being Remains in Play means that your opponent has to expend resources to make it go away, which is always nice.

4. The Penumbral Pendulum (Direct Damage): A "cannonball" (Str10 but only D3 wounds) that has unreliable range (6D6) and allows an Initiative test to avoid. This is vying with Steed of Shadows for the worst spell in the lore.

5. Pit of Shades (Direct Damage): Another one of the infamous "nuke" spells. You place the small round template and it scatters D6. Anything underneath takes an initiative test. If they fail they die. This one has several perks, one of which being that you get to choose the unit you're going to dump it on, and that the range and casting cost are pretty decent. You can't cast it into combat and the template does have a chance of scattering, but those are mostly nitpicks. A great spell to have and it combo's so well with Mystifying Miasma!

6. Okkam's Mindrazor (Augment): Models in the target unit, use their Leadership instead of Strength in combat. Another amazing spell, this spell will give even the most humble Ungor a massive boost to their effective Strength, making Beastmen's already accurate attacks exponentially more dangerous. While we're not as fast or as high up on the Leadership scale as some of the other armies that use this to great effect (notably the Elves), we usually have a heck of a lot more guys benefiting from it.

Overall: A fantastic lore. A couple of low level shamans around a herdstone casting miasma multiple times per turn can be excellent.




Lore of the Wild


Lore Attribute - None: This is a Lore from an older edition, so it doesn't have a Lore attribute. Started off on the wrong foot, here...

0. Bestial Surge (Augment): All units within 6" move D6+1" (roll seperately for each unit) towards the nearest unit. The random nature of the distance each unit moves, the range of the spell and the fact that the movement isn't uniform, make this a terrible spell. Especially with it's reasonably high cost for the effects. In the previous edition, you could use it to enter combat, so it's definitely one that has suffered from not being updated for 8th.

1. Viletide (Direct Damage): 5D6 strength 1 hits. The Strength of these hits is very low, but Beastmen have access to the tools that you need (like the Hagtree Fetish) to actually make this spell a threat, and it will definitely spell doom for squishy chaff units. Not amazing (and worthless against armor), but solid. It is a spell that could be more useful against warmachines (if within range), as you will normally need a 6 to wound everything, so the potential high number of shots at least gives you a reasonable change of removing them.

2. Devolve (Direct Damage): The target takes a leadership test and if failed takes a number of wounds equal to the amount the test was failed by with no armour saves allowed. This spell can be useful for picking off chaff and flankers that could be threatening your main blocks, but given its range, it's unlikely to affect anything that's not within range of the enemy army's General and/or Battle Standard-Bearer, who will make passing the test easy.

3. Bray-Scream (Direct Damage): A breath weapon attack at S3. A decent spell from the shooting perspective, but it would be much better if it could be cast into combat for a shot at free combat resolution. It's casting cost is also quite high.

4. Traitor-Kin: Any mounted enemy within 12", suffer a number of hits equal to their mounts attacks. Any armour bonus for the mount are lost (e.g. mounted and barding). The emergence of Monstrous Cavalry has made this a solid spell, but it does suffer from being mediocre or worse against any army that does not have that unit type.

5. Mantle of Ghorok: A targeted character within 6" gains +D6 attacks and strength. If you roll a 6 then the model takes a wound with no saves allowed. A less reliable, more expensive, shorter-ranged, and more dangerous version of The Savage Beast of Horros. Not really my cup of tea.

6. Savage Dominion: The caster can summon any of the rare monsters with the exception of the Cygor. While controlling it, he cannot cast or dispel or attack in combat. Each time the monster is wounded, the saman takes a toughness test and if failed he takes a wound with no saves allowed. Arguably the best spell in this Lore, it can be a great potential boon to bring in a monster from any table edge that doesn't provide any Victory Points when slain. The key problem is that your Shaman will be out of commission while the Beast lives, and unless he's a Great Bray-Shaman, he's more than likely to die with the monster if it falls. Not a spell for the risk-averse.

Overall: This is a very difficult Lore to use effectively, and the main reason why is because the spells are pretty poor and really conditional in scope. In any mildly competitive list you should avoid it like the plague and probably in fluffy lists too!

 

[Knoffles]

POST 3

Chaos Gifts and Army book Magic Items


Gifts of Chaos

Crown of Horns – (Grants Stubborn - 75pts) Very expensive, but can be interesting in larger games, when the Crown of Command has already been taken. But let’s be honest, you won’t ever take this due to the horrendous price.

Gnarled Hide – (+2 to an armour save - 15pts) Can be combined with armor, magic items, and/or a shield for a quite formidable save. It is about as close to an auto-include as we have. This is about the only way to get a 1+ save for your Beastmen and if you are taking the Ramhorn helm, you will be taking this item too.

Gouge-Tusks – (Grants Armor Piercing - 15pts) An interesting ability to have, and it's not costing much. Good to add onto a great shaman or even a different combat character in order to give him some additional combat punch.

Many-Limbed Fiend - (An additional attack at basic Strength - 20pts). Most useful on a model with high strength already. If only you had minotaurs as an option…

Rune of the True Beast – (Monsters, steeds, swarms etc. suffer -1 to hit against the bearer - 15pts) Too conditional to truly be of use.

Shadow-Hide – (Enemies get a further -1 to hit modifier when shooting against this character and he is in cover - 5pts) A very conditional benefit, even for the low points. There are just better options to take even at that cost.

Slug-Skin – (Causes a S3 hit to anyone in base contact - 30pts). A handful of Strength 3 hits really isn't worth as much as this gift is trying to charge you for it. It is worth noting that these attacks do occur at the start of the combat so before even ASF attacks occur.

Uncanny Senses – (+1 Initiative - 10pts) This is pretty cheap and is really useful to boost the speed of certain characters. A doombull with the ASF sword will benefit from the extra pip as it will mean he gains re-rolls against most elves. It's not an auto-include but well worth considering.


Magic Weapons

Axe of Men – (User gains Killing Blow. If the bearer kills an enemy character in a challenge he and any unit he is in become unbreakable and cause terror - 75pts). Can potentially be interesting, but takes a bit too long to do anything remotely worth its points.

Axes of Khorgor – (Requires 2 hands, grants +1A and bearer can re-roll misses in combat - 40pts). A nice weapon for a Doombull (or Gorbull), as it provide condition-free re-rolls along with an extra attack.

Everbleed - (If you cause an unsaved wound, roll a D6 and on a 6 you cause another wound that cannot be saved. If you rolled a 6 you can then repeat the process as long as you keep rolling 6's - 25pts). With only a 1/6 initial chance of the effect kicking in, you are effectly paying 25pts for magic attacks. There are much better weapons available for this price. I like Garage Hammer's renaming of it to the 'Neverbleed'!

Hunting Spear - (A 24" bolt thrower than can fire if you move and when standing and shooting - 50pts) The ability to fling Bolt Thrower-style shots is nice, but Beastmen characters only having Ballistic Skill 3 really puts a cap on how awesome this can be. The fact that you might even consider taking this in your army just shows how short of ranged warmachines Beastmen are.

Mangelder – (Bearer causes Terror and anyone wounded loses 1 point of LD for each wound caused - 50pts). For the price, you could be better off taking the Terrifying mask of EEE, which is half the cost.

Primeval Club – (Bearers Str counts as the same as the unmodified leadership of the target - 100pts). Far too expensive. You would be better off buying one of the cheaper+ str weapons in the BRB - Sword of Might, Ogre or Giant blades at 20/40/60pts respectively as it would still give you points to spend on defence.

Stonecrusher Mace – (Confers +3 Str and when rolling to wound vs warmachines, incl unique types such as Stanks etc. the Str becomes 10 - 65pts) A formidable Strength boost, with a conditional after effect. It's not bad and worth noting it costs only 5pts more than the Giant blade but with more effects, so if you were going to take that weapon, then just take the Mace!

The Brass Cleaver – (Bearer gains +1A for each enemy in base contact - 30pts). A decent troop-munching weapon, though it's at its best when put on guy who has a wide frontage, like a Beastlord on a Chariot. If used with a shaman on a chariot, with the jagged dagger and lore of beasts (ignoring the fact that he will have a huge target over his head), he could rack in the power dice!

The Steel-Claws – (Requires 2 hands. Bearer gains D3 attacks and if the roll is a 6, the bearer can ignore armour - 35pts). A variable number of extra attacks, along with a puncher's chance at ignoring armor. It's not bad but a bit too random to be taken regularly.


Magic Armor

Blackened Plate - (Heavy Armour that gives a 2++ ward vs flaming and the unit a 4++ save vs flaming - 20pts). Protecting an entire unit against fire can be a great boon for anyone going monster hunting, or to protect yourself against attacks that must be flaming. A good option to put on a Minotaur Champion or even a beastlord in your key unit that you want to protect.

Blade-Blunter Armor - (Heavy Armour that at the end of each combat phase, roll a D6 for each magic weapon that hit the bearer, on a 2+ the weapon loses its special rules for the rest of the battle - 50pts). A good effect that is almost certain to work and can be combined with other items to give you a decent save. It's expensive enough that you will struggle to get both good defence and attack with it. With the wording of this, it doesn’t matter if your character survives in combat in order to destroy your opponents weapon.

Pelt of the Shadowgave - (Light Armour where all shooting at the character and his unit are at -1 to hit. Spells that target them deduct 2 from their roll - 45pts). These are both good effects and could really help if you are running a deathstar unit. It can also combine well with curse of Anraheir and the Chalice of Dark Rain to neuter enemy shooting. However, it is relatively expensive and anyone wearing this, will be easy prey in combat.

Ramhorn Helm - (Grants a 6+ save that can be combined with other armour. For every save made in combat, the bearer strikes back at their base str - 15pts). A great "bite-back" sort of ability, when combined with a properly high armor save (hint Gnarled Hide). This is the staple put on many Doombull builds (or the cheaper Beastlord using the same build) and is a fantastic item.

Trollhide - (Light Armour that grants 4+ regeneration - 50pts). It's weaker than the Armor of Destiny in most aspects as you lose 1 point of armour save and you get regen rather than a ward. It is only useful in a really large game where all other decent pieces of magic armour have been taken.


Talismans

Chalice of Dark Rain - (One Use Only (at the start of the enemy shooting phase) All shooting is at -1 to hit and warmachines can only fire on a 4+ - 40pts). A potential back-breaker against gunline armies. It's reasonably expensive but if you are running multiple monsters, it's a 1+ item to save those overpriced rare creatures.

Eye of Night - (Grants MR2 and if any enemy wizard (of Life, Heavens, Light) within 24” miscasts, you can make them re-roll the initial miscast roll - 45pts). Magic resistance is rather conditional, as is an effect that only works against the Lores of Life, Light, and Heavens, and only if they miscast. The price tag makes it so you will probably never see this.


Arcane Items

Hagtree Fetish - (Allows you to re-roll wounds in a magic phase against one enemy unit within 24” - 20pts). Can be very interesting on a Death caster, who can use it to put a little extra punch behind his sniper spells. Also useful with direct damage spells like Viletide.

Jagged Dagger - (For every model killed by the bearer in combat, that model may be put to one side and used instead of a power dice in his magic phase - 10pts). This item can be combined with a Beasts Great Bray-Shaman that is built to fight in close combat for a source of even more bonus power dice. I love this item but does rely on you getting your shaman into combat (something they are not bad at). The drawback is you won't be taking a potentially more useful arcane item.

Skull of Rarkos - (All friendly wizards within 6” get +1 to casting rolls - 60pts). Very pricey and so can only be taken on a level 4 but a casting bonus that can affect multiple characters is worth considering, especially if you are running multiple casters (min 3) round a herdstone.

Staff of Darkoth - (Bound spell (3). Casts Viletide (24" - 5D6 S1 hits) - 50pts. Very pricey for a pretty mediocre spell.


Enchanted Items

Cacophonous Dirge - (Enemy musicians in the same combat as the bearer do not count towards the combat result - 15pts). Not too expensive but you are taking an item in case the combat ever ends a draw. It is a rare instance in 8th where this happens. This is likely a case of an item that hasn't translated well from one edition to the next.

Horn of the First Beast - (All units within 36” can re-roll primal fury results Wargor or Beastlord only - 50pts). While I would normally consider anything with such a huge range useful, this really costs a lot of points for something that's redundant with a Battle Standard-Bearer and not as good a blanket effect (plus, what units are getting into combat 36" away from your characters? Chances are they're in trouble, Primal Fury or not). Again another item that would have been good in 7th when BSB's didn't allow blanket re-rolls.

Horn of the Great Hunt - (Beastlord of Wargor Only. Bound Spell (3). Counts as the Bestial Surge spell (units move D6+1") but effects all beastmen units within 36” - 50pts). Very pricey, and while it fixes one of the issues of Bestial Surge (the range of effect), it doesn't address the others.

Shard of the Herdstone - (Any wizard within 6” of the herdstone automatically generates an additional power dice - 50pts). This is a staple in any magic orientated beastmen army and is one of the ways they can get magical superiority. A great item that isn't an auto include but essential in some builds.

Skin of Man - (Bray Shamans Only. The bearer has the Scout ability - 15pts). It's cheap and can set up some interesting tricks when combined with factors like the Lore of Shadow Attribute (shazzam have a Doombull). Has good synergy with a level 4 death mage to allow them to get close to launch the nuke spells down a battleline. You can also mount them on a Razorgor Chariot with the jagged dagger and brass cleaver for even more fun (though don't expect them to last too long!).

Stone of Spite - (One Use Only. Bound Spell (5). Every arcane item within 18” explodes. The bearer of the arcane item (friend or foe) suffers D6 S4 hits and the items are immediately destroyed - 25pts). This item has potential, given the amount of magic-users who tote their precious Arcane Items around. It has to be used carefully, as your opponent does get to try and stop it.


Magic Banners

Banner of Outrage - (The bearer and his unit automatically passes Primal Fury rolls but enemies hate the unit - 20pts). I cannot can't fathom a scenario when giving an opponent re-rolls to hit will help me. If you want to pass Primal Fury all the time, bring characters.

Manbane Standard - (All enemy units within 6" suffer -1 to their leadership - 35pts) A nice effect, but the range is a bit short.

The Beast Banner - (Gives the bearer and their unit +1 str - 75pts) This is very expensive, costing the same amount as a naked Wargor and if you are taking a horde of Gor, I consider this an almost auto include. +1 Strength on that many attacks, is just too good to pass up.

Totem of Rust - (All units (friend or foe) within 6” count their armour as one one worse than it actually is. Any unit in base contact counts it as two worse - 50pts). It can be interesting, but the only unit that can field it without a Battle Standard-Bearer is the Bestigors. It is worth taking on them? Well, Bestigors only have a 5+ save which will quickly be reduced against any halfway decent unit anyway. They also already get a -3 to enemies saves due to their Str of 6 and an additional -2 will mean they will ruin any cavalry or other 1+/2+ enemies they face.

 

[Knoffles]

POST 4


BRB Magic Items

As with some other older edition army books (Skaven and Bretonnian), Beastmen have some of the BRB magic items listed in their army book and this is both an advantage and disadvantage as the points costs do not match the BRB listing in many cases. For example, the War banner is cheaper but the Enchanted Shield costs more. It’s just something to bear in mind when creating a list - Knoffles


Magic Weapons

Berserker Sword - (The bearer has frenzy and can never lose it - 20pts) Keeps a Minotaur unit nice and angry for eternity, provided you bring a Minotaur character armed with this sword.

Biting Blade - (Gives the bearer Armour Piercing - 10pts) You could do worse than this.

Fencer's Blades - (Paired weapon - gives the bearer WS10 - 35pts) A great weapon for characters you want in combat but you don't want getting hit often such as a Level 4 shaman with the jagged dagger.

Giant Blade - (Gives the bearer +3 str - 60pts) A huge bonus to Strength, though it's a bit of overkill and if you are going to take this consider taking the Beastmen magic weapon, Stonecrusher Mace, for 5pts more.

Gold Sigil Sword - (Attacks made are at initiative 10 - 15pts) If you want to go faster on the cheap, this is a good option and it can deny elves their re-rolls to hit from ASF. A decent option if you go with the ramhorn helm flying carpet build on a doombull as you won't be able to afford much else on weaponry.

Obsidian Blade - (No armour saves are allowed against wounds caused by the blade - 50pts) Chances are you can slice through most armor by increasing your Strength, rather than having to resort to this.

Ogre Blade - (Gives the bearer +2 str - 40pts) A nice Strength bump at a reasonable price and you often find this blade on any fighty lord in most armies, as it also allows you to take defensive equipment.

Relic Sword - (always wounds on a 5+ at minimum - 10pts) Chances are you're doing better than what this sword would on just about anything by default.

Shrieking Blade - (The bearer causes fear - 10pts) Not a bad price to pay for Fear (and also gaining immunity to Fear) and as a bonus getting magical attacks..

Spellthieving Sword - (A wizard wounded by this randomly loses one of his spells - 25pts) Way too expensive to take, especially as you have to try and get into combat with a wizard to get the benefits. I'd rather focus on killing the mage than on stripping his spells.

Sword of Anti-Heroes - (+1Str and +1A for every enemy character in base contact with the bearer or his unit - 30pts) Sure, it's conditional, but it's already a bargain if you get the effect once. Comes into it's own if you get into combat with a deathstar unit.

Sword of Battle - (+1 attack - 15pts) Beastmen get a 5pt discount on this item and that makes it cheap enough to consider using, especially with their already solid strength on a minotaur or beastlord.

Sword of Bloodshed - (+3 attacks - 60pts) Lots of extra attacks, but the price tag gives me pause.

Sword of Might - (+1 str - 20pts) A cheap bonus to Strength. A pretty nice item, especially for heroes

Sword of Strife - (+2 attacks - 40pts) Extra attacks are nice, but the math favors quality over quantity (just take the Ogre blade for the same cost instead)

Sword of Striking - (+1 to hit - 25pts) Primal Fury makes its effect less useful on most of the beastmen and it costs 5pts more for us to use, however it can be good on a Doombull that doesn't have the next sword or the Axes.

Sword of Swift Slaying - (ASF - 25pts) A great way to get a Doombull re-rolls to hit over most infantry, as well as maximizing his impact by having him go first. Really combines well with the Chaos Gift, Uncanny Senses.

Tormentor Sword - (A monster or Character suffering an unsaved wound is subject to stupidity - 5pts) An interesting ability, though only relevant if the enemy manages to disengage somehow. Think of this primarily as a cheap way to get magical attacks.

Warrior Bane - (A monster or Character suffering an unsaved wound loses an attack - 5pts) Again a cheap way to get magical attacks but with a secondary effect that could actually be useful.



Magic Armor

Armor of Destiny - (Heavy armour with a 4++ ward - 50pts) Arguably the best armor to keep a character alive in. Pretty essential for a lord level character.

Armor of Fortune - (Heavy armour with a 5++ ward - 35pts) Pretty close to the Armor of Destiny at first glance, but the drop-off from a 4+ save to a 5+ save is quite considerable. As such you will rarely see it.

Armor of Silvered Steel - (2+ armour save - 45pts) A formidable save, but the price tag is quite high. Never-the-less, it isn't a bad choice for a great weapon wielding hero of even a monotaur.

Charmed Shield - (One use only, the first hit suffered is discounted on a 2+ - 5pts) Any character who sees cannonballs heading his way in the near future should consider this item.

Dragonhelm - (+1 to an armour save and grants a 2++ ward vs flaming attacks - 10pts) It's cheap, it improves your armor save, and protects you against flaming attacks. What's not to like?

Enchanted Shield - (A shield that gives +2 to the armour save - 10pts) We get a version of this item that costs double what most armies pay. As such if you are considering this, you may as well take the Dragonhelm unless you are really short on points and can't afford the shield on top of it.

Gambler's Armor - (Heavy armour with a 6++ ward - 20pts) Far too expensive for the limited ward.

Glittering Scales - (Light armour and enemies suffer -1 to hit the bearer in combat - 25pts) A penalty to hit can be as good as a strong armor save in some cases. If you are using the end times marks of chaos then this, together with mark of nurgle confers a -2 to hit, which is just brutal.

Helm of Discord - (+1 to an armour save. In combat, pick an enemy character in base contact. If they fail a leadership test, your attacks automatically hit - 30pts) Can potentially turn a challenge on its head, but it relies on characters failing Leadership tests, which doesn't happen much by default. You need to combine this with things that reduce leadership, such as the Manbane banner or the Death spell, Doom and Darkness. Still that's a lot of effort just to auto hit, especially when most of your characters will have primal fury which is almost as good.

Shield of Ptolos - (1+ save vs shooting - 25pts) Over costed for the benefit it gives and the kind of shooting, characters running around on their own, should be worried about usually doesn't allow armor saves.

Spellshield - (Gain magic resistance 1 - 20pts) Magic resistance is not hugely useful against most spells and MR 1 for 20pts seems a bit steep.

Trickster's Helm - (+1 to an armour save and successful wound rolls need to be re-rolled - 50pts) A good potential deterrent, if you face attacks that are unlikely to wound you the second time around but again it is very expensive.



Talismans

Dawnstone - (Re-roll failed armour saves - 25pts) This item has excellent synergy with the Ramhorn Helm and a strong armor save.

Dragonbane Gem - (2++ ward vs fire - 5pts) Virtual immunity to flaming attacks, for next to nothing. Always worth taking on lone characters.

Luckstone - (One use only - Allows a one time re-roll of an armour save - 5pts) It's cheap but we are likely only going to have one or two (at a stretch) characters with armour saves that would make it worth while.

Obsidian Amulet - (Gives magic resistance 2 - 30pts) A decent bit of magic resistance, and it's not terribly expensive but again MR is not something you will normally voluntarily purchase.

Obsidian Lodestone - (Gives magic resistance 3 - 45pts) Way too many points for a conditional effect.

Obsidian Trinket - (Gives magic resistance 1 - 15pts) Reasonably cheap but you are still unlikely to take it.

Opal Amulet - (4++ ward against the first wound suffered - 15pts) One good shot at making a save is usually better than multiple bad shots at it, especially if you don't have that many Wounds to start with.

Pidgeon Plucker Pendant - (Grants the bearer a 5++ ward in combat vs models with the 'Fly' rule - 5pts) Not a bad save and very cheap but pretty conditional.

Seed of Rebirth - (Grants the bearer a 6+ regen save - 10pts) A 6+ regen for 10pts just isn't worth it in most cases. The only time I could conceive of someone taking this item is in a Vampire Counts army with a mortis engine, where it would boost it to a 5+. In a Beastmen army, there are just better things to take.

Talisman of Preservation - (Grants the bearer a 4++ ward save - 45pts) An excellent defensive item that is almost an auto include. It's rare you'll see a level 4 shaman without it.

Talisman of Endurance - (Grants the bearer a 5++ ward save - 30pts) The gap from 4+ to 5+ is significant, so this item only comes into play when the big boy saves are taken.

Talisman of Protection - (Grants the bearer a 6++ ward save - 15pts) Almost as terrible as the Seed of Rebirth. The Seed is at least 5pts cheaper. There are better things to spend your points on.



Arcane Items

Book of Ashur - (+1 bonus to cast and dispel - 70pts) Very expensive, but that bonus could add up.

Channeling Staff - (+1 to channeling attempts - 15pts) If you are running a herdstone then likely you won't need this item. If you are not, then it could be helpful.

Dispel Scroll - (One use only. Auto dispels when used unless the spell had irresistible force - 25pts) The essential component of any magic defense. I'd almost never leave home without it.

Earthing Rod - (One use only. You can reroll on the miscast table - 25pts) If your caster is the lynchpin of your strategy, a little insurance never hurts.

Feedback Scroll - (One use only. Use instead of attempting to dispel. Roll a dice for every dice the enemy mage used to cast the spell. In a 5+ the mage takes a wound with no armour saves allowed. - 50pts). This is expensive and has only one real application and that is when your opponent 6 dices one of the 'terror' spells and gets irresistible force or you don't have the dispel dice to get rid of it. You only want to use it when they 6 dice something as that gives you the maximum chance to inflict wounds with it and if they don't get irresistible force, then you will want to try and dispel it! The no armour saves makes almost no difference vs a lot of casters with many of them rocking the 4++ ward. This means you tend to have only a 1/3 chance of killing a standard 3 wound level 4 and that is excluding the chance that the miscast roll will wound or outright kill them. As such it is a fun item but probably not quite as effective as it initially sounds.

Forbidden Rod - (One Use. Adds D6 power dice to the pool but inflicts D3 wounds on the bearer with no armour saves allowed - 35pts) Terrible! Beastmen have easier and safer ways of making power dice (jagged dagger/herdstone).

Power Scroll - (One Use. Halves the casting cost of a spell - 35pts) If you're aiming for a huge casting value on a few dice, this is a huge boon. Note it was errata'ed to say you can't cast a boosted version of a spell using it.

Power Stone - (One Use. Add 2 extra dice to the power dice used to cast a spell - 20pts) Extra dice on demand is nice to have.

Scepter of Stability - (One use. Can increase a dispel result by +D6 - 15pts) A pretty solid item to try and make sure a key spell doesn't get through especially as you choose to use it AFTER you have rolled your other dice. This can prevent your main caster losing concentration on the first dispel. Not a bad choice.

Wand of Jet - (One use. Can increase a casting result by +D6 - 35pts) This is the counter part to the Scepter of Stability. The ability to decide when to use it, in order to help prevent a failed cast and thus ruin your magic phase is superb, however you should be able to mitigate this risk normally and the power stone is the cheaper option to take and adds 2 dice (though admittedly you have to use them when rolling to cast).

Scroll of Leeching - (One Use. Use this instead of dispelling a spell. Add the number of dice used to cast the spell to your dispel dice pool - 50pts). This is a bit of a gamble that can be seen coming and thwarted by your opponent, and that's before irresistible force rears its head. And it's not cheap.

Scroll of Shielding - (One use. Use instead of dispelling. Gives the target a 4++ ward vs any wounds caused - 15pts) Dirt cheap, though it only protects against damaging spells.

Sivejir's Hex Scroll - (One Use. Use instead of dispelling. The enemy wizard must roll under his wizard level or they are transformed into a frog. All magic items stop working and all his stats are reduced to 1 except for wounds. At the start of THEIR magic phase, they can attempt to transform back on a 4+ - 50[ts) Not always useful, but it can be potentially devastating with a little luck and timing. It could also really cripple the movement of a unit the mage is embedded in, necessitating the controlling player to move the mage out of it, which then makes it easier to target (and slay) the transformed mage with missiles.

Staff of Sorcery - (+1 to dispel attempts - 35pts) A bump to dispel attempts is probably worth the price. Note this item was added in the Basic Rule Book errata (hence you won't find it in the BRB).

Trickster's Shard - (One Use. Declare use at the start of your phase. For that phase, whenever one of your spells is dispelled, the enemy wizard suffers a wound on a 5+ with no armour saves allowed. - 25pts) It's really only useful on a phase where you get a lot of dice so can force an opponent to make lots of dispels. Unless it's been errata'ed and I missed it, it should also work if your opponent uses a dispel scroll. It's unlikely you'll take it however as it's too conditional. I'd rather take the feedback scroll instead, even with it costing double the points.




Enchanted Items

Arabyan Carpet - (Grants the bearer Fly - 50pts) An auto include in the now legendary Flying Doombull build. Outside of that, you'll rarely take it.

Crown of Command - (Grants the bearer Stubborn - 35pts) Stubborn is a great ability to have. Take it if you think you won't have steadfast on a unit.

Featherfoe Torc - (Flying creatures and riders must re-roll hits vs the bearer and the unit he is in - 35pts) A bit expensive, given how conditional it is (and so rarely seen that I had to look up what the item actually did...)

Fozzrik's Folding Fortress - (Allows you to place a single watch tower building in your deployment zone - 100pts) Outside of gimmick points-denial lists, Beastmen don't stand to gain all that much by cooping themselves up in a giant building. This item is possibly the single most 'comped' item in the game as many tourney players abused the lack of size attributed to the building by fitting huge units into it. However, if it had been limited to 20 models, as per the watchtower scenario (something i'd argue was implied) then for this cost, you probably wouldn't have ever seen it.

Healing Potion - (One Use. The imbiber gains D6 lost wounds - 35pts) A Doombull is the only sort of character in this army that stands to gain any real benefit from this item.

Ironcurse Icon - (A 6++ ward for the bearer and the unit vs warmachines - 5pts) Dirt cheap, and it protects against shooting that hits enough people for a 6+ save to actually matter. Never a bad option to put in your hordes.

Potion of Foolhardiness - (One Use. The imbiber gains devastating charge and immune to psych - 5pts) Very cheap, and +1 Attacks is nothing to sneeze at.

Potion of Speed - (One Use. The imbiber gains +3 initiative - 5pts) Initiative between otherwise evenly matched characters can decide who lives and who dies, and it's dirt cheap.

Potion of Strength - (One Use. The imbiber gains +3 strength - 20pts) This gives you one turn of awesome combat potential when you need it the most. However you will often find that Beastmen run lore of beasts and Wyssans and Savage beast spells and either of these will almost negate this. The +str magic swords are also the most commonly taken and again will negate the need to take this.

Potion of Toughness - (One Use. The imbiber gains +3 toughness - 20pts) If you need a character to hold out for one crucial turn, this can help you do it. Beastmen Characters are pretty tough already and with the ability for opponents to always wound on a 6 and the cost/one use nature of this together with a general preference for offensive or better protection items, you will rarely take this.

Ruby Ring of Ruin - (Bound spell - Fireball - 25pts) This is not a bad option as it gives your army something that it is sadly lacking, a ranged option to remove chaff. Throw on a level 1 or 2, especially if you have the herdstone and likely dice to spare.

The Other Trickster's Shard - (Models in base to base contact must re-roll sucessful ward saves - 15pts) Most lords (and a few other things) sport some form of ward save, so this is an excellent way to help circumvent it and at a very cheap price.

The Terrifying Mask of EEE! - (The bearer causes terror but other models can't use his leadership - 25pts) Hilarity aside, this item can be solid on a character that was never expected to provide Leadership in the first place.

Wizarding Hat - (The wearer is treated as a level 2 wizard with a randomly chosen lore but suffers from stupidity - 100pts) A totally fluffy and fun item.



Magic Banners

It's worth noting that beastmen are able to access magic standards in only two ways. Via the BSB or on a unit of Bestigors. With such limited access to standards and an almost guarantee that the BSB will be taking the Beast Banner, then you will likely only take one standard from the following list and it will realistically be either Eternal flame or Discipline.

Banner of Eternal Flame - (Gives flaming attacks - 10pts) Beastmen have poor access to Flaming Attacks, so you may need this to counter the Regenerators of the world.

Banner of Swiftness - (Gives the unit +1 movement - 15pts) Extra movement is certainly interesting, though its utility is debatable on infantry that already moves fast.

Gleaming Pennant - (One use. Can re-roll the first failed leadership test - 5pts) An emergency do-over on a Leadership test can be useful for a unit that's striking out on its own.

Lichebone Pennant - (Give magic resistance 1 - 15pts) I can think of better things to do with my magic banner slot than take a weak and conditional save.

Rampager's Standard - (Can re-roll the charge distance - 55pts) Too pricey to truly be useful.

Ranger's Standard - (Gives the strider rule - 50pts) Most units that can take this banner aren't really concerned with terrain, and this is a lot of points to ensure the safety of a single chariot.

Razor Standard - (Gives armour-piercing - 45pts) Armor Piercing can make Bestigors capable of chopping through most armor out there.

Scarecrow Banner - (Cause fear in models that fly - 5pts) Very conditional, so you'll never take it.

Standard of Discipline - (Gives models in the unit +1 Leadership - 15pts) Provided you put your General in this unit, this item can help you solidify your Leadership base even further. Essential for competitive builds as it can ensure you get primal fury every turn.

Wailing Banner - (Unit causes terror - 50pts) Causing Terror could potentially be useful against armies with weak Leadership values, and it also works defensively as it protects you from Terror and Fear. That patches up some bad match ups.

War Banner - (+1 to combat res - 30pts) We get it for cheaper than most, and +1 CR is useful. However in an edition where most combat res comes from kills it's worth is debatable.

 

[Knoffles]

POST 5 - Lords, Heroes and Mount Options

Generic Characters

In this post i've grouped the lord and hero equivilent choices together as there are very little difference between them in most cases, bar stat changes.


Beastlord (145pts) - Though most competitive armies will make the level 4 mage their first choice and beastmen are no exception, there is a stronger case than for many, to take a Beastlord as well. The main reason for this is he is the only model to come with an innate leadership of 9 (which could be boosted to 10 with the standard of discipline) and high leadership is essential for ensuring that you consistently get Primal Fury to work (i'll keep banging on about this, as it is THAT important). Combined with his high Strength, decent initiative and high toughness also allows him to be give out reasonable punishment and surviving return punishment. He's at his best when running around with a large Horde of Gors or Bestigors and keeping them pointed in the right direction, which is usually full speed ahead. Importantly, he is also quite cheap.

Pros

• Hits hard
• Can take a beating
• Leadership 9
• Reasonable Weapon Skill
• High Initiative
• Strength 5 and Toughness base
• Can be kitted out to be really killy, or really defensive
• Pretty cheap for what he brings to the table
• Benefits from and gives Primal Fury
• Can be mounted on a chariot

Cons

• Not as killy or as tough as a Doombull
• Can be pushed down a defensive path due to his importance on the battlefield
• Hard to take in lower points levels due to the importance of your Shamans
• Whilst rather killy, a lot of other lords could probably take him on in a scrap

Special Rules

Man-bane

It is an pretty decent special rule since it lets you, and your unit, re-roll primal fury. The problem is, it only works against units from the Empire or Bretonnia army books. Furthermore, Primal Fury is a leadership test so a BSB would make this ability somewhat useless. On the plus side, should you ever be against the above armies and without a nearby BSB, you’re going to be glad you had it!



Wargor (85pts) - Rather overpriced in base cost, which limits how many you'll ever take. Still you will always take one as the BSB is utterly essential, not only for the normal reasons you would take one (and with their human like leadership, you need it) but in allowing you to re-roll your primal fury, it becomes doubly important (are you noticing a trend yet?). If taken as the BSB and in a unit of Gor, the Beast banner becomes almost an auto include in a competitive army. I cannot understate how much the +1 strength is on a unit with that many attacks. It is almost a crutch. Access to the Gifts of Chaos means that giving him said banner does not deprive him of all defensive options either and in Beastmen circles, the '206 Build' is very much the standard load out (Heavy armour, shield, Gnarled Hide for a 2+ save and the Beast Banner, coming in at 206pts).

Pros

• A fairly impressive statline
• Battle Standard Bearer
• High Leadership

Cons

• For what he brings to the table, he is rather expensive
• Being a battle standard bearer reduces his defenses
• Whilst packing good stats, he will struggle in a one on one scrap
• Somewhat inferior to other hero options
• His price can sky rocket very quickly
• Can be mounted on a chariot

Special Rules - Manbane (see Beastlord)

Doombull (235pts) A Lord for more aggressive players. He loses a point of Leadership but compared to the Beastlord, gains +1 Str, +2 wounds and +1 attack (at base, +2 when Frenzy is taken into account). The only characters that are in the same combat zip/post code as a kitted-out Doombull are Chaos Lords, Greater Daemons, and a Red Fury Vampire Lord, and even then they should be apprehensive of the Minotaur wrecking ball. Seriously he can be brutal and there are a number of ways to field him to get the most out of him, whether on a flying carpet, as a single support model or in a mino-bus. Giving him a 1+ save with the gnarled hide, ramhorn helm and then ASF with the sword of swift slaying is a very popular (and effective) build.

Pros

• Hits harder than just about anything else in the game
• Can take an insane amount of punishment
• Decent Weapon Skill
• High Initiative, attacks and wounds
• Pretty cheap for what he brings to the table
• Can potentially solo entire armies...even at higher points levels (2000+ points)

Cons

• Sacrificing leadership for pure combat prowess
• Expensive and can impact the other lord choice options.
• Frenzy

Special Rules

Blood Greed

Every round of combat you win, you gain an additional attack...what's not to like here. This is what makes the doombull so vicious. Be warned, it also forces you to overrun at only D6" making it very hard to catch fleeing enemies. The plus side of course is that most enemies will be dead long before they run

Impact Hits

D3 impact hits on the charge...who doesn’t want up to 3 additional Str 6 attacks?

Slaughterers Call

Gives his unit frenzy...not bad, but can result in some awkward situations when you start chasing enemies around the board. That said, having +1 attack is awesome and when you slap him in a unit of minotaurs your just going to have a blast.



Gorebull (160pts) His limited magic item allowance combines with his high base cost to only make him only really useful in a Minotaur-centric army but it should be noted he's quite good in that context and crucial in a mino-bus. Barring his average leadership and Elite stat weapon skill (5), his stats are still better than a lot of fighty lords out there. If you think that he has Str and Toughness of 5, 4 wounds and 4 (5 with frenzy) attacks. His cost isn't too bad. He can also be made the BSB and in that context, you'd be hard pressed to find a tougher one in the warhammer world.

Pros

• A very impressive statline for a hero
• Probably the toughest BSB in fantasy
• Unlike most heroes/BSB, this guy can really do a ton of damage
• Whilst not as good as their lord counterparts, can be built for insane damage
• Like all heroes, very easy to attain a 1+ save making him EVEN tougher

Cons

• As expensive as some lords
• Terrible leadership
• Almost completely nonviable in smaller games
• Eats up Hero choices
• You may as well just get a Doombull...

Special Rules (See Doombull)



Great Bray-Shaman (200pts - 235pts for a lvl4) The one constant in the majority of Beastmen competitive lists, he can be equipped to fight as well as cast, as unlike the majority of wizards he has 2 attacks base, WS 5, Str 4 and Toughness 5! This gives him an added dimension of versatility that sets him as the premier Lord choice in the book. You can tool him up to boost his ability to fight/survive (Fencers blades/Brass Cleaver/ToP) as well as increase his magic ability at the same time (Jagged Dagger) or run him as you would any other mage. He only has access to 4 lores (Death, Beasts and Shadow from the BRB and lore of the wild) but 3 of them are excellent (see Post 2) and Beasts can help turn him into a combat monster.

Pros

• Supports your army better than any other choice
• Can turn a losing battle into a crushing defeat
• Very hard to kill thanks to a unnaturally high toughness
• Able to do decent damage in close combat
• Can generate an insane amount of power dice very quickly
• Decent leadership allows for him to be the general in smaller games
• Cheap enough to take a level 4 wizard at 1000 points (wooo!)
• Surprising amount of attacks for a wizard
• Can be mounted on a chariot

Cons

• Winds of magic are fickle
• Additional protection is rather expensive
• Due to his use in lower games, he can seriously limit your army
• Prime target for assassination


Bray-Shaman (75pts) They are quite expensive all things considered but are just as useful as in other armies for their scroll caddy ability and are essential if you're going to use the Shard of the Herdstone. Having some Lore versatility (or a second chance at a great signature spell) never hurts.

Pros

• Access to 3 great lores of magic
• Surprisingly good in close combat.............for a wizard
• Tougher than most wizards since he packs T4
• Can be mounted on a chariot

Cons

• Single wizards tend to be ineffective in comparison to spamming
• Requires a level 4 to reach full potential
• Winds of magic are fickle
• Additional protection is rather expensive




Special Characters

Lords

Gorthor the Beastlord (350pts)

He's forced to be on a chariot, which can be upgraded to a Razorgor chariot at an additional 65pts, thus adding to his already substantial cost. He can generate 1 random lore of death spell each turn and cast it as a bound spell (at half the normal casting value). His weapon gives him killing blow. He can roll 2D6 for impact hits and chose the highest dice to use and he gives an 18" leadership value. The main issue with him (bar the cost) is he suffers the same affliction that a lot of special characters have, negligible saves and no ward, so one warmachine shot could easily finish him! This conspires to undermine all the positives he provides.


Khazrak the One-Eye (270pts)

He has standard Beastlord stats but with +1 WS (7) which is decent. He has no ward save, however his magic armour not only gives him an armour save of 2+ but also negates the abilities of any magic or runic weapon of models in base contact (this could possibly include friendly models...). This means his main worry is standard great weapons or other mundane weapons that boost strength.
His magic weapon allows him to attack with the same number of attacks as the enenmy unit has models in the front rank (distributed as per shooting). This means he excels when fighting hordes. A potential 10 attacks, re-rolling to hit at strength 5 can cause some serious hurt to most units. The issue is that our hordes of Gor are also made for the same task so is his price tag worth it? Probably not.
His final ability is to allow you to re-roll the dice when seeing how and when an ambushing unit appears. With how rubbish the beastmen ambush rule is, This ability is negligible at best.
He's not a bad choice at all, just not as useful as some home brew lords.


Malagor, the Dark Omen (350pts)

While he has no saves of any kind, his ability to fly should help keep him out of trouble, though you could choose to embed him in the corner of a horde as normal.
He has a special rule that prevents units within 6" using their generals leadership (unless the general is in the unit) and that is a superb ability.
He also adds a cumulative +1 on casting attempts for every cast that is not dispelled in a phase, a nice rule that can make his magic phase stronger as it goes on. This can be doubly effective if you bring a herdstone and retinue or take Death and generate additional dice.
His single magic item makes it so that any unit within 6" gets frenzy on any double roll for primal fury, rather than just double 6's.
He is expensive but is not a bad option to take. There is definitely a case for him (and the model is excellent).


Taurox, the Brass Bull (335pts)

Essentially a Doombull with a "locked-in" build with 100pts of equipment and special rules, so no more expensive then a standard doombull. His toughness and attacks profile is 1 higher than the standard bull (at 6 each - though the extra attack is from his pared weapon) and comes with a 1+ armour save.
The Brass Body insta-kill rule freaks me out (if an attack dice rolls a 6 to hit and then rolls a 6 to wound he will be slain, IF he fails the saving throw. Remember to roll the wounds separately for any attacks that hit on a 6 (and then the saves for those that then wound on a 6)).
He deals D3+1 str 6 impact hits, which is nice.
He has paired weapons meaning together with frenzy, he starts with a whopping 7 attacks! In addition, they ignore armour and are flaming.
His ability to deal with Regenerators and heavily armored troops with equal ease, combined with his high armour and toughness. makes him a pretty good choice. Its just the insta kill drawback and lack of ward that give me pause (though the save offsets the later to some degree, especially if he is fielded in a unit).


Summary of Special Lords

Compared to many army books, our lord choices aren't too bad at all. Three are usable, if not the most optimal choices. The weak link (as it were) is Gorthor. With no ability to hide and pathetic save he just has a massive target over his head and will give up his points too easily in most situations.


Heroes


Moonclaw, Son of Morrslieb (200pts)

A level 1 wizard who can take spells from lores of wild or shadow. At the start of the game, secretly roll a D3 and in the turn that corresponds to this number, he gets +2 to cast. In addition he can call down D3 meteors (resolved as stone thrower attacks). Any misfires cause a wound that cannot be saved.
Any unit within 12" (excluding Moonclaw) must take a stupidity test each turn.
He has standard hero attack and wound stats with Str and toughness of 4 but WS3 and LD 7. He rides a better tuskgor with Str and Toughness of 4 and 3 attacks.
He does get a 5++ ward and Magic Resistance 2.
If you like taking things that are very random and have a mismash of abilities but are not very good at any of them, then this might be the choice for you. It could definitely be a fun fluff choice.



Morghur, Master of Skulls 280pts)

He has the standard wargor stats but with an increased WS of 6. He is also unbreakable.
He has a number of other special rules. He is unable to be targeted by any missile fire or spells unless the source of the attack is within 12". At the beginning of each combat phase, any enemy in base contact takes a str 3 hit with no armour save allowed.
At the beginning of each magic phase you must remove one friendly model within 12". Then roll a D6. On a 3+ you can place a chaos spawn within 3" of the spot the model was removed from.
He can be placed in a unit but if it were Gor, with a 40mm base size, he would have to go on the end.
At the end of the day, he has some fun abilities but he is very expensive for what he brings.



Slugtongue (190pts)

He is a level 2 shaman that can take lore of the Wild or Death. He has regeneration and poison attacks (or attack as he has just 1 and no option to take an additional hand weapon unlike the standard shamans).
He has a special ability called curse of the famine fiend. Immediately after deployment, roll a D6 for every enemy unit within 36" of him. On a 4-5 they take D3 wounds with no armour save. on a 6 they suffer D6 wounds with no armour saves allowed.
You are basically paying 90pts for this ability (and his regen). Against certain targets, this ability could ruin their game plan (warmachines and chaff for instance) but it is very random, so whether you think that this ability, together with being limited to lore of death on him, is worth the points, may depend on your normal foe.


Summary of Special Heroes

These are a lot more debatable on their worth. Slug tongue is the only one you would normally consider taking. The other two just cost too many points to take in anything but a fun and fluffy list.


Other Special Characters

Ungrol Four Horn - see Ungor Herd entry in Post 6 - Core Choices

Ghorros Warhoof - see Centigor entry in Post 6 - Core Choices



Mount Options

This will be a very short section. A Beastlord, Wargor, Great Bray Shaman and Shaman, all have the option of being mounted on a Tuskgor Chariot for 80pts or a Razorgor Chariot for 145pts (the same cost as fielding these separately). In each case, they replace the Bestigor.

If you are running a competitive list, then it normally isn't advised, as it makes them a prime target for cannons and other warmachines, in much the same way as taking a character on a monster.

However chariots and the Razorgor in particular, do considerably add to the combat potential of a character mounted on one (to put it into perspective, on the charge, the Razorgor adds the following punch to your combat: 4 S6 attacks, 1 S4 attack, 1 S5 stomp and D6 S5 Impact Hits...)and if you are fielding multiple threats (several mounted characters and some monsters), then there are only so many things that can be targeted before you make combat and the Beastmen army has ways to help neutralise enemy warmachines reasonably quickly (Harpies and the Chalice of Dark Rain come to mind). It also allows you to potentially pull out Death Magic Shenanigans by fielding a scouting Great Bray Shaman on a chariot.

I like fielding Characters on Chariots for fluff reasons as I imagine them lording it over the lesser beasts in the army. The chariot being a status symbol. So they aren't always the best thing to use and against certain armies they could be a liability but they can be quite effective, especially if you build your list around them, so don't automatically exclude them as an option.

 

[Knoffles]

POST 6 - CORE UNITS

Chaos Warhounds (6pts each)

Chaos hounds are fast and cheap and make excellent chaff units IF used in a Warriors of Chaos army. The reason why they become a subpar choice for Beastmen is that their points don't count towards core. As such, it means you will hardly ever take them as there are other options in core that are just as cheap to use as chaff and options in special for fast moving (if more expensive) chaff.
It must be noted that they can be upgraded to give a 6+ scaly skin save for 1pt per model or to have poisoned attacks for 3pts per model. A 6+ save is just pointless and the poison upgrade is too expensive on a unit with too few attacks and whose primary purpose is to get in the way and die!

Pros

• Decent statline
• very cheap
• Good for redirection
• Good for screening
• Warmachine hunters

Cons

• A lot of units do their job better
• surprisingly slow
• Terrible leadership
• If badly placed, could lead to a game changing leadership chain reaction
• Have no damage potential
• Doesn't count towards core!



Gor Herd (7pts per model)

A very solid unit with WS 4, move 5 and toughness 4 being the outstanding stats. These are the mainstay of all beastmen armies. You can upgrade them to have shields or an additional hand weapon (AHW) for 1 pt per model. If fielding a horde, you will always choose the AHW and when supported with magic and/or the presence of the Beast Banner they can tear through stuff. They are relatively fragile though with no save and just their toughness to protect them.

Pros

• Lots of attacks
• Above average statline
• Cheap command options (their musician is only 5pts)
• Toughness 4
• Fast moving
• Amazing with magic support
• Decent leadership (for Beastmen that is)
• Small units are great for ambush!

Cons

• Not exactly cheap
• No armour
• Only Strength 3
• average initiative
• Despite decent leadership, they still need babysitting by characters



Tuskgor Chariot (80pts)

Chariots are great to have in core and this one is no exception. As unlikely as it sounds, it's one of our most defensive options, with 4 wounds, toughness 4 and a 4+ save. It's also hard hitting. As well as the D6 Str 5 impact hits, on the charge, the Gor hits at WS4, Str 4, the two Tusgors at WS3, S4 and the bestigor at WS4, S6!. On top of that the whole model (including tuskgors) get primal fury. It's great to support an ongoing combat and can also be used as a further chaff option. It could go on the flanks but with only LD7 it works best when in range of the BSB/General (a common theme of most of the army!). It's inability to march means it will often lag behind your infantry.

Pros

• Loads of damage potential
• Effective monster hunters
• PRIMAL FURY!!
• Lots of attacks
• Cheap
• Strong on the charge
• Pretty tough

Cons

• After the first round of combat, you are going to do next to no damage
• You can't take on units solo
• A bit slow...



Ungor Herd (5pts per model)

This unit is comparable to your average human but with 1 better movement and one worse leadership. They are reasonably cheap and come as standard with a shield (and primal fury). You can upgrade them to take spears at 1pt per model (which you probably don't want to). The command options are dirt cheap costing just 15pts for all 3! These are the closest thing to a tarpit that we have but bear in mind they'll need your General nearby for that sort of duty, though - Leadership 6 means they're not likely to hold on their own. I have seen units of these fielded with spears and a couple of minotaur characters within them. The minotaurs can shrug off the incoming damage and put the hurt out, whilst the ungors provide the steadfast breaking ranks. It is definitely gamey but quite effective.

Pros

• Cheap
• Average statline
• Cheap command options
• Access to spears
• Fast moving
• Good for holding dangerous units at bay
• Small units are good at ambushing
• Come with shields as standard granting a 6+/6+ save

Cons

• Despite being cheap...they really aren't all that cheap...
• Lousy armour...
• Below average leadership
• Low initiative
• They need constant babysitting by characters
• For just a few more points you can get Gor
• Chances of them doing anything but die is slim at best

Upgrade

Ungrol Four-Horn (75pts) Instead of a champion you can take this special character upgrade. For the cost you get a WS, Str, Toughness, initiative 4 model, with 2 attacks ans wounds. At the start of each of his turns, take a leadership test. If he passes the test he gains +2 WS and +1 str. If he fails it, he is treated as a lvl 1 shaman and gets a randomly generated spell from the Lore of the wild. On top of this, he can re-roll his (and his unit's) primal fury tests when in combat against Empire, Bretonnian and Beastmen, however he can never use the army general's leadership. This effectively means that he and the unit he is in can never have a better leadership than 7, especially as no other characters can join the unit he is in...
He would be decent on a unit of ambushing Ungors, but the only thing a unit of Ungors will accomplish by ambushing on their own is an ugly death. He's a liability in any other situation. Avoid.


Ungor Raiders (6pts per model)

They come in units of 5-10 and have short bows as standard. You don't take them for their awesome shooting ability (though definitely claim the moral victory anytime they manage to actually take a wound off something or even kill a model!). What you take them for is a source of very cheap, skirmishers that are used as a screen of chaff. I never leave home without at least 2 units in my army.

Pros

• Access to the shooting phase
• Skirmishers
• Brilliant protecting your flanks
• Chaff hunters
• Pin cushion!
• Cheap

Cons

• Fragile
• Not fast enough to be used for redirection
• Rubbish leadership
• Short ranged weaponry



Centigors - Sons of Ghorros (25pts per model)

Normally Centigors are taken from the special section, however if you take the Special character, Ghorros Warhoof, then centigors become a Core choice and get another bonus. As such I've covered them both here and in the special section.

Sons of Ghorros are your standard Centigor with M8, Str & Toughness of 4, BS 3, Initiative of 2 and 2 attacks. They come with Light Armour and shields and as they count as cavalry, this bumps their save to a respectable 4+. They also have spears as standard, giving them S5 on the charge. When combined with Primal Fury, this gives them a very solid offensive output. The Sons of Ghorros then gain an extra pip of WS, boosting it to 5, which is elite level.
They do have a couple of upgrade options: Throwing weapons for 2pts per model (not worth it in this edition) or Great Weapons for 2pts per model (again not really worth it as it really removes 1/3 of the drunken effects and arguably the best one).

Like many things in the book, they suffer from costing too much for what they offer and how easily they can die to missile fire. Wood elf wild riders are 5 pts more with shields. This gives them the same WS base Str and armour. They gain +1 Move, +1 attack (on the charge), +3 base initiative, +2 leadership and ASF. And that's discounting their mount. Yes they lose a point of toughness but they are better in almost every way for a negligible points increase.

Pros

• Decent stat line for the most part
• 4+ Armour save is the best you can get for a beastman unit
• They hit very hard
• They are pretty nimble
• Ranged options in the form of throwing axes
• Can be taken as Core
• Powerful Special Character upgrade
• Loads of attacks
• Can build an entire MSU army out of these guys
• They go to battle completed off their heads on ale
• Increased 'elite' stat weapon skill


Cons

• Despite T4 and Armour 4, they are hardly difficult to kill
• INITIATIVE 2!
• Unless you are going MSU, you are going to need a lot of these guys
• They are not the easiest unit to use


Special Rules

Drunken

This rule is very fluffy, but not actually that useful 2/3 of the time. At the start of the game you roll a D6 and consult the Drunken table. This could give your unit +2 initiative (VERY handy), Stubborn or give Rerolls to Primal Fury at the cost of a movement point. A fun little rule, but only the initiative bonus is generally worth it on this unit.



Ghorros Warhoof

In order to field Centigor as core, instead of a 14pt champion upgrade you have to take Ghorros instead. He is a 155pt upgrade, meaning that a single unit of 4 centigor + Ghorros costs a whopping 255pts.

Is it worth it? Well this guy is a beast. Also packing WS5 and an increased LD8, he has a base Str 5, 4 attacks at Initiative 3 and for defense has a Toughness of 4 with 2 wounds and a 5+ armour save. He has a magic weapon that causes D3 wounds and combined with his attacks and high str, makes him very effective against monstrous infantry (if he survives...). On top of that, he gives his unit Magic Resistance 2 (though all wood elves hate him and the unit). He also has the drunken rule (and allows Centigor in core of course) and if he should ever die, all units in your army will get +1 to their primal fury roles (not that you want him to die at 155pts!). He also gets a lookout sir rule as long as one other member of his unit is alive.

He does make you want to field a larger unit of centigor but then you have the age old issue of how large do you go, as if you take a supporting rank they only provide a single attack each, neutering 50% of their effectiveness.

There is no arguments, he is bloody expensive but I still quite like him never-the-less. He gives you the option to field centigor in core, I like that flexibility and it makes them a much more viable option as they will no longer be competing against much more useful options in the special section. The questions are is, is he too expensive for that flexibility? Probably so. And does fielding centigor in core offset their inherent overcosting? Probably not.

 

[Knoffles]

POST 7 - SPECIAL CHOICES


Bestigor Herd (12pts per model)

These are your elite choice. They are solidly priced and come with WS, Str and Toughness of 4. They are one of your few troop choices with an armour save (5+) and have great weapons so automatically get str 6, combined with primal fury means they can take down most things. They are also your only unit that can take a magic standard (normally discipline or flaming). These guys are a competitive mainstay and for good reason. They just need a steady Leadership in order to be devastatingly effective.

Pros

• Strength 6 means you are eating infantry and heavy cavalry alike
• Good Weapons Skill
• High Strength & Toughness
• Heavy Armour
• They become more powerful as the game goes on
• PRIMAL FURY!
• Vell costed
• Can take magic banners

Cons

• Only 1 attack per model
• They need a character to grant Stubborn to the unit
• Even with Heavy Armour, they are not exactly hard to kill
• You are going to need 30-40 of them to be effective
• Always strikes last

Special Rules

Despoilers

Brilliant special rule that can really start to snowball. Everytime you wipe a unit out, you get an additional +1 combat res for the rest of the game. The more you kill, the easier it is to kill things...which makes it easier to kill even more things etc. etc. Whilst it doesn't always come into play, it is a very nice rule to have rolling in the background.




Centigors (25pts per model)

Centigor are your cavalry option with M8, WS, Str & Toughness of 4, BS 3, Initiative of 2 and 2 attacks. They come with Light Armour and shield and as they count as cavalry, this bumps their save to a respectable 4+. They also have spears as standard, giving them S5 on the charge. When combined with Primal Fury, this gives them a very solid offensive output.
They do have a couple of upgrade options: Throwing weapons for 2pts per model (not worth it in this edition) or Great Weapons for 2pts per model (again not really worth it as it really removes 1/3 of the drunken effects and arguably the best one).


Like many things in the book, they suffer from: costing too much for what they offer and how easily they can die to missile fire. However they are still a very hard hitting unit, cheaper than minotaurs and if your opponent is shooting at these, he is not killing something else of equal importance in your list. It can be worth fielding a small, flanking unit of these, in a similar way to a chariot but at the end of the day, they are competing against other, far more useful units in your special section (unless you take the expensive special character option that allows you to field them as a core unit).


Pros

• Decent stat line for the most part
• 4+ Armour save is the best you can get for a beastman unit
• They hit very hard
• They are pretty nimble
• Ranged options in the form of throwing axes
• Can be taken as Core
• Powerful Special Character upgrade
• Loads of attacks
• They go to battle completed off their heads on ale


Cons

• Despite T4 and Armour 4, they are hardly difficult to kill
• INITIATIVE 2!
• Unless you are going MSU, you are going to need a lot of these guys
• They are not the easiest unit to use


Special Rules

Drunken

This rule is very fluffy, but not actually that useful 2/3 of the time. At the start of the game you roll a D6 and consult the Drunken table. This could give your unit +2 initiative (VERY handy), Stubborn or Rerolls to Primal Fury at the cost of a movement point. A fun little rule, but only the initiative bonus is worth it in my opinion.

Upgrade - Ghorros Warhoof - See Core Section as if taken, Centigor move from Special to Core.






Harpies (11pts per model) - I will hold my hands up to loving these and rarely leave home without 2 units of 5. They have very average stats with three exceptions. 2 attacks and initiative 5 mean that they will attack most things first and so can shred other chaff and fly means you can get them to where they need to go pretty damn quickly. They excel at Warmachine hunting and also as standard redirecting chaff and are pretty cheap. You can upgrade them to scout and it's something to be considered on a unit, as you can then get them on a flank or behind an enemy lines to march block or threaten very quickly.
Their downside is they are really fragile and have poor leadership so will panic easily As such you'll find some games where they are a thorn in your opponents side and others where they do nothing but run off the board!

Pros

• Really...REALLY cheap
• Really...REALLY fast
• The masters of redirection
• Nothing takes out warmachines quite like them
• brilliant statline for the price you pay
• Good enough to handle other fast units like great eagles and fast cav
• Loads of attacks

Cons

• No armour
• Low strength
• Low Toughness
• Low leadership

Special Rules

Scout

A great ability that is reasonably priced but not always useful. Harpies are super fast anyway, so they are striking the enemy turn 2 at the latest, making scout somewhat redundant. It has its uses if you want to get behind the enemy faster and begin march blocking asap. Scout can also force your opponent to have to change their plans to take it into account and that can lead to them making mistakes.




Minotaurs (55pts per model) These guys are possibly the most iconic monstrous infantry in the game. They have a decent WS and Toughness of 4, Strength 5, 3 for wounds, attacks and initiative and also cause fear. Fairly standard stats for this kind of unit. On top of this they gain impact hits (nice as it is at S5), light armour (a pretty pointless save) and the rule Bloodgreed. If they win a combat they gain frenzy. If they are already frenzied, they gain +1 attack that is cumulative. This can quickly rack up and turns them into destructive nightmares.

They do have a number of severe downsides though. Bloodgreed means they will only pursue and overrun D6". It means you will struggle to fully destroy larger units (and thus get their points). Their fragility combined with their middling Leadership means they also require careful planning or character support in order to be truly effective.

The main bugbear of them, however, is their cost and this can be further split into two categories, Base cost and upgrades.
If you compare them against a standard Ogre, Ogres are 30pts each but get -1 WS, Str and initiative. They get fear and impact hits (with a potential boosted impact). Additional weapons are +1pt and command is 30pts for all 3.
Even looking at Ironguts, they are 43 points, get the same -1 WS, Str and initiative but +1 LD. They also come with fear, impact hits, heavy armour and a Great Weapon for that cost.
Minotaurs pay a huge 50pts for full command. If you want additional hand weapons or shields, it's 4 points per model or for great weapons, 8pts! This just makes taking a unit of them phenomenally expensive.

That said, you can make them work but doing so effectively is more likely to send you down the deathstar approach with a unit of 6 minotaurs and 3 minotaur characters.

Pros

• Pretty darn strong
• Insane amount of attacks
• Once they get on a roll, it is impossible to stop them
• Pretty good statline
• Multiple wounds
• High movement speed
• Impact hits
• Stomp

Cons

• No armour
• Really....REALLY expensive
• Really low leadership
• Pretty low initiative
• You are going to need to invest A LOT of points to make them worth it
• Until they get a few frenzy markers, they are pretty easy to knock down
• Surprisingly fragile due to T4
• Each dead minotaur has a major impact on the units effectiveness

Special Rules

Blood Greed

Every round of combat you win, you gain an additional attack...whats not to like here. This is what makes minotaurs so vicious. Be warned, it also forces you to overrun at only D6" making it very hard to catch fleeing enemies. The plus side of course is that most enemies will be dead long before they run




Razorgor Chariot (145pts)

This is the big-boy version of the Tuskgor Chariot, and it's worth considering the points to upgrade. It will usually produce a higher Wound differential than 2 Tuskgor Chariots as although the crew are the same, it is pulled by a Razorgor and this monster really, really benefits from gaining primal fury. It's also fairly tough to kill in combat with the 4+ save and sporting both 5 wounds and toughness. You don't want to run these into Hordes on their own, but in tandem they can probably do some real damage.

Pros

• On the charge they get: 5 S6 attacks, 1 S4 attack, 1 S5 stomp and D6 S5 Impact Hits...ouch
• T5 means you can take the hits
• W5 means you can take the hits...repeatedly
• They can really lay down the hurt
• Super versatile in both offense and defense
• Primal fury on the Razorgor (seriously I can't express enough how much of a force multiplier this is).

Cons

• Pricey, coming in at just under 150 points
• Can almost take 2 Tuskgor chariots for the price of 1
• Not really a throw away unit
• Not so good in prolonged combats

Special Rules - Thuderous Charge (Razorgor only)

The Razorgor gets +1 Str on the turn it charges




Razorgor Herd (55pts) Don't be fooled by the unit name - these guys are meant to be fielded solo. These are our toughest chaff. Whereas Ungor Raiders are super cheap and pretty useless and Harpies are our fastest unit these guys have the punch to actually threaten small units. They are another 1+ unit for your army. Seriously, if you aren't taking at least 1, you should probably go back and re-write your list.

Pros

• 4 s6 attacks AND a stomp! What is not to like!
• T5 means you can take the hits
• W3 means you can take the hits...repeatedly
• minimum unit size of 1 !!!!
• Super cheap for what they can do
• You can call them pork rockets...
• Super versatile in both offense and defense

Cons

• No armour save
• NO PRIMAL FURY!
• Low initiative

Special Rules

Thunderous Charge

The model gets +1 Str on the turn it charges

 

[Knoffles]

Post 8 - Rare Choices

It’s worth stating straight from the start that the Beastmen monsters in this section are wildly over-costed. That isn't to say they aren't usable but the cost reduces your ability to take other more points efficient units and if taking them, you often have to build a list round them. It's often worth taking duplicates or not taking them at all.



Chaos Spawn (55pts)

Their stats aren't too bad. WS and Wounds of 3. Str 5, Toughness 5 and D6+1, initiative 2 attacks. It is also unbreakable and causes fear.
It suffers by having 2D6 random movement. One one side that means that opposing units cannot declare a charge reaction against it (or flee), on the other, it means that it will likely struggle to keep up with the rest of your army. If you compare it to the Razorgor you will see why almost no one takes this unit.

Possibly the best use for it i've seen is to run backwards and forwards in front of a herdstone to guard the shamans. Though if you are getting these for 'free' with Morghur, then I wouldn't complain

Pros

• Unbreakable
• Decent Statline


Cons

• Random movement
• The Razorgor is better for the same points.



Giant - (225pts)

Formidable against enemy monsters and most of the things he'd run into while occupying a flank, but like most monsters, he faces difficulties when shot at on mass, by war machines or confronted by ranked infantry with the equipment to get past his Toughness. His price doesn't do him many favors either. He is always fun to use and can cause both players much amusement.

Pros

• Decent Statline
• Stubborn 10
• Terror
• Immune to Psychology
• Immensely fun to field and such an iconic unit
• Str 6 thunderstomp
• Can automatically win combat by 2!


Cons

• Expensive
• More of a fluff choice
• Can regain wounds lost
• No save
• Very random attacks




Cygor (275pts)

The first of our monsters and perhaps the most intriguing, however it falls into a weird spot. It's far too expensive to be fielded as mere artillery, it's soul eater ability is too short ranged to gel with the stone thrower and it's too unreliable to be considered a true combat unit with its poor Weapon Skill and lack of saves. The Hurl attack is also at odds with the Ghostsight, as one requires you being at range and the other in combat.

Possibly the best use for it is, sit it on a flank (stubborn should ensure it doesn't flee) and move it up each turn with your battle line, throwing rocks as you move. This should get it within range of your opponents magic users fairly quickly to make the use of Soul-eater (if you are using a Death Shaman, then sniping out the enemy BSB should be priority number 1!). When in range, use it to charge in and support an existing combat. It may have poor WS but it still has 5 attacks at str 6 and also a Str 6 thunderstomp.

Pros

• Our only warmachine
• Decent Statline
• Stubborn 8
• Fair few attacks
• Magic Resistance 2
• Terror
• Immune to Psychology
• Can potentially nerf wizard
• Str 6 thunderstomp

Cons

• REALLY expensive
• Very situational
• Throwing rocks can kill you
• No saves unless targeted by magic
• His Soul-eater special ability is largely useless due to Generals and BSB's
• Two of his rules are at odds with one another
• It is only T5 with 5 wounds
• For the same cost, you could get a Ghorgon...

Special Abilities

Ghostsight

This is a decent ability. Any Undead, Wizard, enemy with magic equipment or with a Ward Save gives this guy re-rolls to hit in close combat. This makes him rather effective against a lot of enemies when duking it out. Think about this for a second, what can this work against? The answer is nearly everything. Hand Weapon and Shield infantry all have ward saves (a parry is a specified as a ward in the rule book), Daemons all have ward saves, a unit with a magic banner that grants the unit an effect all count as having magic equipment (FAQ), units who have very specific ward saves, like Phoenix Guard or one equipped with the Rune of Grungi (that only works with shooting but is STILL a ward save), thus you get re-rolls to hit. Finally, things like the Iron Curse icon, also give a specific ward save...so you get those re-rolls again. It is a very strange ability to have but it is a welcome one... especially with WS2! There is no downside (excepting if you are in combat, you can't use the Hurl attack).

Hurl Attack

This is the main selling point to the Cygor, the fact he is a Stone Thrower. There are a few advantages he gains that other Warmachines don't get. For example he can move and still throw rocks at things (not march) and that he has no minimum distance, so he can target enemies at close range. He can also throw every turn regardless of a misfire...the downside is that a misfire wounds you. When you are already fragile, you are going to kick yourself when you inevitably drop a rock on your head. Finally, 275 points is far too expensive for a Stone Thrower!

Soul-Eater

Wizards with 24" take a leadership test, if they fail any spells they fail to cast cause a miscast. This ability is one that may have been ok in 7th but hasn't ported across between editions very well. 24" is not that far and leadership tests are rarely going to fail due to BSB's and Generals being nearby. It might ensure that opposing players throw more dice at a spell to ensure it doesn't fail and thus increase the chance of a normal miscast (over one from the spell failing) and that will help potentially reduce the amount of spells they might be able to cast in their magic phase. It is very situational though, especially given the range and leadership test.





Ghorgon - (275pts)

An absolute brute and possibly the best combat monster in the game. If you think of him as a boosted Doombull, you wouldn't be far wrong (in stats, rules and fluff). Bloodgreed can be a mixed blessing, having no saves makes him a very expensive fire magnet and he needs to get going a bit before you can throw him into a big infantry unit (and even then, he'll need help). Still, if you can get him into the fights you want reliably, he can be a big help and opponents will be very worried about seeing one (or better yet 2!) across the board.

Pros

• High Movement
• Great Statline with S, T and W all at 6
• Lots of Attacks (6 base + frenzy AND thunderstomp).
• Has the ability to gain more attacks as the game goes on
• Stubborn 10 is brilliant
• High Weapon Skill and Initiative for a Monsters
• The ability to regenerate wounds by eating the enemy
• Can potentially survive in combat indefinably
• Immune to Psychology
• Causes Terror

Cons

• No saves...at all
• Regenerating wounds is risky since you get ONE attack to kill someone
• Cannon Balls are your bane
• Concentrated fire power will take you out
• A few lucky rolls from the enemy will see you dead
• Poison!
• Over priced, being 50 points more than a giant
• Eating someone to regain wounds means you will likely lose combat, thus losing your frenzy stacks


Special Rules

Blood Greed

Just like a Minotaur, you Ghorgon is going to get more attacks as the game goes on. This is brilliant, making him much more powerful. The downside is actually non-existent since the Ghorgon will likely never get the chance to overrun thanks to Steadfast and will have to resort to killing them all off mercilessly...whats not to like

Swallow Whole

You exchange all your attacks for a single attack at Initiative 1. This attack causes Killing Blow on a 4+. Not a bad attack, but since it is only ONE attack, there is a reasonable chance you are going to lose combat and thus lose all the attacks gained through Blood Greed (it will likely depend on if you are supporting another unit in combat and so they negate an opponents combat res and/or if you roll high with your thunderstomp). Since you strike at Initiative 1, there is also a chance you will die before you reap the benefits in the next rule.

Strength From Flesh

Each time the Ghorgon gets a kill with Killing Blow it regains D3 wounds. There is nothing to not like about that. Against the right enemy, you could be sustaining your self throughout the entire game. Opponents with WS3 or under are your best bet.






Jabberslythe - (275pts)

Like most monsters in the Beastmen army, a high points cost combined with a relative defensive fragility really limit what you can use him for. Fortunately, flight and an aura that can threaten units on the flanks without actually engaging them in combat (a rarity in the Beastmen army) enhance its stock somewhat. It can probably do well if you're using it to clear chaff and hunt down enemy mages, though it's a very pricey for that job. In my opinion it is the worst of the 3 unique monster options.

Pros

• Being able to fly makes him a very serious threat
• Even if he is unable to fly due to a special rule, his base movement of 8 is still very impressive
• His statline is pretty good, with WS & BS or 4, Str, T, W and A of 5 and LD 9.
• Terror
• Immune to Psychology
• Poison Attacks
• interesting special rules
• Even in death he can cause some serious hurt

Cons

• Only T5 W5
• His abilities are rather situational
• He is pretty fragile
• Overpriced for what he brings to the table
• Some units are flat out immune to what he brings
• Some ARMIES are flat out immune to what he brings

Special Rules

Aura of Madness

This is the main selling point of the Jabbeslythe. Every unit within 12" of the Jabberslythe, at the beginning of the Beastmen magic phase takes a leadership test and takes wounds equal to how much he failed by. This is mostly useless against hordes, but what it is good against is chaff and war machines. This makes his prime targets fast cav, war beasts, war machines and a number of monsters, since he can really put on the hurt. He is especially effective against Ogre Kingdoms, since small units of low leadership models are common (Mournfang for example). The main downside is that the General and BSB can make this rule most pointless, but more importantly things immune to psychology are flat out immune to it! This means 3 entire armies are complete immune...not good.

Slythey Tongue

A bit of a pointless ability. A S5 shooting attack...and that is it. Sure you have a BS of 4, but it is not going to do anything worthwhile against most things. I guess it could be handy at putting the last wound on a monster, or taking out a small unit who lost some guys to the Aura. A nice addition...but if this helped increase the price of the thing, i would rather it not be here!

Spurting Bile Blood

A true double edged sword. In combat, every wound you take returns a S5 hit on the enemy. Some cheese is here of course, as you can wound the enemy more times than the number of wounds you have meaning overkill is a bad thing for them. Of course, the biggest downside to this ability is that you have to take damage for it take effect and beastmen have no way of recovering lost wounds.

 

[Knoffles]

POST 9

Recommended Units and Tactics

Since different units in our army have different roles, I'll include a brief primer on what I think our units do best on the battlefield, and what size and formation I think our units are most efficient in.


Lords

Beastlord

This guy goes front and center no matter what - he's fighty enough to give and take hits, and his Leadership is also very important. I mostly recommend him being in a unit of Gors or Bestigors, but even putting him up on a chariot isn't a terrible idea, provided you protect him against artillery.


Strengths:

Leadership 9 bubble. This is more important now as you can couple it with a BSB which allows you to re-roll all LD based tests, not just break tests as before. Consequentially, an army gets the most from a beastlord when it’s within both its beastlord’s bubble and the bsb’s bubble. A common combo is to use him in a unit with either a BSB with banner of discipline for a LD10 lord, or sticking the discipline banner on a unit of bestigor and bunkering him there.

Other strengths include the fact that he’s simply a very tough combat character!

With the addition of magic items from the BRB, beast characters are spoiled for choice. There are many viable ones all with their own niche.

Some decent weapon choices:

Some decent choices are, stonecrusher mace(beasts book), sword of bloodshed, ogre blade, sword of strife, sword of might, gold sigil sword, steelclaws. It’s important to think about what you want your beastlord to do when picking the weapon. If you want him to wreck a lot of infantry, don’t bother with the high strength stuff, pick something that provides more attacks, and vice versa. Keep in mind too that the beastlord will usually have primal fury active, so the ASF sword+ higher initiative is a bit redundant. The gold sigil sword will make you I10 with your PF rerolls, which is just as good in most situations, and cheaper.

The great weapon used to be a great cheap choice to make a very choppy beastlord. It can still have its uses, but striking last isn’t very desirable in 8th.

Some decent armour choices:

Ramhorn helm, heavy armour, shield, enchanted shield, armour of destiny, trickster’s helm. There are other decent choices, but it gets a little more situational, so again, it’s important to think of your BL’s role.

Some good gifts:

Gnarled hide, Uncanny senses (much better in 8th), gouge tusks (if going for more attacks at base strength).

Common uses:

A beastlord will do well in most units. I prefer to use him in Gor units, or Bestigor units (normally the latter), depending on how I feel and what I’m playing. When in a unit of infantry, a beastlord with high initiative will do very well against units that don’t have any ‘excess’ models. What this means is, a unit that is running close the number of models it needs before it starts to lose attacks back. So the unit will charge, the beastlord will strike first and clear out some models that would have attacked otherwise. This works well because beastmen don’t typically have a great initiative value.



Doombull

This guy has 2 main options on how to reach the enemy - he can either strike out on his own as a wandering force of destruction, or he can lead a unit of Minotaurs to battle. Each has their merits, and it really depends on whether you're willing to put down the points on Minotaurs or not.

Strengths:

Impact hits, S6 A5 W5 basic! He is a combat monster, you lose a point of LD over a beastlord, however, it’s possible to fit one in as well as a beastlord at point values above 2300, including some gear, but personally I don’t recommend both. He’s also immune to killing blow, which is pretty good against things like blocks of bloodletters. In 8th he became more of a force to be reckoned with. He can control his frenzy with a LD test, and when you have him in a compatible base size unit (ungor, minotaurs), he can ‘make way’ to any part of the unit to participate in combat.

Makes units it joins frenzied and thus immune to psychology. This can be good if you pick a narrow formation steadfast unit of ungors which you don’t mind giving up primal fury on.

Some good weapons:

Axes of Khorgor, brass cleaver (any mino character really), common magic weapons (they are all mostly good). The Sword of swift slaying coupled with uncanny senses can let you re-roll misses against many opponents, and works out cheaper than the axes while still allowing you to take a shield. The sword of striking is equally as good, as the +1 to hit can sometimes be more reliable.

Some good armour:

Ramhorn helm, armour of destiny, trickster’s helm, enchanted shield, shield, heavy armour.

Trollhide used to be a good choice for the doombull, but with the BRB having a piece of magic armour that is heavy and gives a 4+ ward for the same price means trollhide can be forgotten about.

Some decent gifts:

Gnarled hide, gouge tusks, uncanny senses, many-limbed fiend, slug-skin.



Gorthor the Beastlord

If you must field him, field him defensively. His saves are very poor and his Leadership bubble is very large, so you can hide him behind another chariot and pop him out when there's a unit he has a good chance of rolling over without getting hurt.



Great Bray-Shaman

The options here range from either sitting him in the back so he doesn't get targeted (preferably near a Herdstone), or gearing him up to fight and throwing him in there. Each has their benefits.

Strengths:

T5, Chariot options, can scout with an item even while in a chariot, new lores of beasts, death and shadow. Coupled with a Lvl 2 with the same lore, you can almost guarantee you get the spells you want.

Some decent magic items:

Shard of the herdstone, Hagtree Fetish, Talisman of preservation, Jagged dagger.

Common uses:

GBSs were used in magic heavy lists, but since 8th, lvl 4s have become very popular due to certain spells.



Khazrak the One-Eye

Same as a Beastlord.



Malagor, the Dark Omen

Take advantage of his auras and Flight, and have him hover just behind your units, where he's relatively safe. If he's targeted by small-arms fire, just put him into a unit while you eliminate the threat.



Taurox, the Brass Bull

Same as a Doombull.




Heroes


Bray-Shaman

In general, you want these guys around the Herdstone giving you power dice. They're not incompetent at combat, though, so if you want to bunker one in a fighting unit with some gear, it can be done.

Strengths:

Possibility to scout.

Some decent magic items:

Shard of the herdstone, Hagtree Fetish, Dispel Scroll

Common uses:

A level 2 shaman, when coupled with a level 4 of the same lore, can practically guarantee all the spells you want, like those final spells.



Gorebull

If he's in your list, you should also bring Minotaurs, in which case he rolls with them.



Gorebull Battle Standard-Bearer

Same as a Gorebull.

Strengths:

Impact hits, T5, 4 wounds, one of the most resilient BSBs in the game.

Some decent weapons:

Brass cleaver, common magic weapons, extra hand weapon.

Some decent armour:

Heavy armour, shield, armour of destiny(when bsb).

Some decent gifts:

Gnarled hide(when bsb), gouge tusks, uncanny senses.

Common uses:

With the BSB being important for beastmen, having access to a T5, 4 wound character that can be one is great. He adds more versatility to the army too, as with a gorebull we have both an infantry type bsb and a monstrous infantry type bsb, so you can go either doombull or beastlord while still having enough options for bsb and general combos. As with the doombull, the gorebull frenzies any unit he joins, and has a footprint compatible with ungor.



Moonclaw, Son of Morrslieb

Don't bring him at all.



Morghur, Master of Skulls

If you must, run him near units like Gors or Ungors, so that his ability to generate Spawn doesn't come at the opportunity cost of expensive troops. Beware of what he runs up against, though - 2 Wounds with no save won't last long.



Slugtongue

A bit different from a typical Bray-Shaman in that he can handle the heat of being in close combat a bit, so you don't have to be apprehensive about sitting him in the front rank of a Gor unit that's getting into fights.



Wargor

A good way to boost the Leadership and provide a little extra bite on a unit of Gors or Bestigors.



Wargor Battle Standard-Bearer

Place him in a big unit of Gors, and watch him work his magic, especially when he has the added bonus of the Beast Banner.

Strengths:

T5, can be the BSB.

Some decent weapons:

Common magic weapons.

Some decent armour:

Ramhorn helm, heavy armour, shield, armour of destiny (when bsb).

Some decent gifts:

Gouge tusks, gnarled hide(when bsb), uncanny senses.

Common uses:

With the changes to units in regards to footprints and troop types, sometimes a wargor BSB is the only option. Also, since the BSB now provides re-rolls on every LD based test, almost every beastmen or psychology weak army will include a BSB in one form or another.





Core

Chaos Warhounds

These guys work best as dummy drops, screeners, redirectors, and general annoyances. As such, squads of 5 with no upgrades are the order of the day.

Strengths:

M7, minimum size of 5, can provide hard cover on the cheap.

Common uses:

Since unit strength is gone, everything causes panic when it flees through a unit. This is why some avoided using dogs as screens in Beastmen armies. Since everything suffers from this now, dogs can be used in small units as screens, whilst using a nearby bsb to avoid the inevitable panic.

NOTE: These do not count towards your core points allowance (don’t ask me why). As such it is rare you will take them.



Ghorros Warhoof

A decent-sized unit of Centigors (9 + him) is what I'd go for. As long as you choose your targets wisely, they should be all right. Remember that even if Ghorros dies, your opponent doesn't get points unless the entire unit gets axed (he counts as a unit champion, not as a character).



Gor Herd

These guys will form one of your mainstay combat units, and can also be fielded as a smaller unit of 20, either as ambushers to disrupt your opponent's backfield or to be put in the watch tower. Mainline fighting units should number at least 40 strong once characters are included, but I would run ambushing units at 20. Horde formation is a good idea for the mainline unit, not so much for ambushers.

Strengths:

Character delivery, T4, WS4.

Common choice: Additional hand weapon

Command: Full command if it’s an important character’s bunker, else, options as needed.

Common uses: Gor form the backbone for the vast majority of beastmen lists. They are T4 as standard and make good use of magic buffs. Their basic unit size has increased in 8th edition because of the changes to infantry and combat order. They are typically picked in units of 40+ in size, unless for ambushing, when they can be smaller.



Tuskgor Chariot

Its job is run into a fight that would otherwise be hotly contested and turn it in your favor with some valuable combat resolution from a flank charge and impact hits, or to clear out a chaff unit trying to block you from a matchup you can win head-on. As such, run it close to your blocks and rush it out as necessary.

Strengths:

Cheap, primal fury is nice when impact hits aren’t great.

Common uses: Used in pairs or in conjunction with something else as it can only really take on small and light units when solo. They work very well for their price when combo charged into the flank of something where they won’t get many return attacks. At a pinch, you can also use them as another chaff unit, blocking opponents units and helping to get flank charges or just holding them up. In those situations it is sometimes beneficial not to charge.

Since they have no upgrades and no build other than running solo, i thought i would just include some basic tactical advice when running chariots. First off, remember these guys can do considerable damage on the charge. When you combine the impact hits, the steeds attacks, the gor attacks and the bestigor attacks you can really lay down the pain especially with primal fury effecting everyone (including the tuskgor!). What you are going to want to do is use this damage to take on things like Fast Cav, regular cav, some heavy cav, monsters, solo's, small units, scouts, archers etc. You can decimate these units by yourself, and you certainly should! What you don't want to do is hit a big block of infantry since you will do some damage initially but you will eventually be destroyed or broken in combat...neither of which are good things. Luckily, with support these guys can really help the fight. Having a unit of Gor hitting the front supported by a chariot can really tip a combat in your favor.

Whilst i said not to tackle big units, it actually can be beneficial to do so in certain situations. Since you are tough and have a bunch of wounds with a decent armour save, tying units up for a round or 2 can mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Any beastmen army should run at least 2 chariots, one on each flank. However more can be viable. Having more than 3 or 4 is not really worth it however...we are not tomb kings remember.



Ungor Herd

In general, these guys are there to get punched in the face so that your better troops don't have to. They can also serve as a secondary combat unit, should you face troops weak enough for them to overwhelm, especially if they get some magic on their side. Either way, you want at least 40 of these guys (not in horde), with a bit of command (musician for sure, standard-bearer is nice, champion is unnecessary).

Strengths:

Cheapest rank and file in the book, cheap ranked ambushers.

Common uses: Ungor herds are perfect to form big steadfast blocks for relatively cheap, like the kind some other armies are able to exploit. Ungors 5 wide and very deep will last a long while against most things, importantly giving you enough time to get the unit you want into combat. When used like this it’s a good idea to give them a full command. It means they can absorb a challenge off one of your other units in combat. The standard will stop them giving up too much combat res and the musician with help with drawn combats, reforms, etc. Run like this, it is best to not bother with spears as it is too expensive for a unit that holds stuff up well and is only 5 wide. Putting a Doombull and even a Gorbull in the unit is not unheard of.



Ungor Raiders

These guys fill the dummy drop/screener/redirector/general annoyance role, and provide a bit of shooting while they're at it. Units of 5 with no command are the order of the day.

Strengths:

Skirmish, shortbows, minimum size of 5, can provide hard cover on the cheap.

Command: The musician can be useful, but the champion is pretty pointless.

Common uses: Screening units, ambushing. Raiders are probably not used in the amounts they were before mainly due to chargers being able to redirect and not being pulled out of position like before. But they can still provide screening for units in a -2 modifier, and can take down some light units with shooting and light war machines when coming on from ambush.


Other uses:

Flank Protectors: Having multiple units of these guys running around on your flanks to protect your units from charges etc. is both invaluable and annoying for your opponents. To top it off, 10 guys are enough to actually do some damage to chaff like fast cav! Whilst raiders are not that great on the table since they dont really do much...what they can do can certainly help the main army. Just an example, an average unit of fast cav is 5 strong. They move up, you fire your 10 guys hitting 5, wounding 2.5 they are not useless in game and they could flee...considering the price of fast cav you have just got your unit cost back for very little effort. What else can your little unit of 10 do? Take on monsters. Sure they dont do much damage, but every 6 you roll to wound is a wound your main line doesnt have to deal with...which can be huge. Have a few units popping shots off at a giant and it will go down without a fight. Keeping your flanks safe is a double edged sword. On the one hand you can throw your unit forwards and stop things like chariots, but on the other hand you are giving up a pretty pricey unit. Whats more is, you are pretty slow compared to other redirection units such as Harpies. Finally, if you flee or are destroyed to close to your lines can be DEVASTATING to the rest of your army making positioning huge. All this said, you are going to want at least 4 units of 5 ungor units in most lists. Boost the units to 10 if you want more staying power, but 5 is cheap and whilst having less hitting power, excels in redirection and being chaff.

Ambush: This can work, but it is not overly effective. Compared to things like Gor, who can ambush in and do some real damage if left unchecked. Raiders dont really have the damage to do anything at range, but what they can do is take on things like Warmachines. The biggest mistake people make when running raiders is taking units of 5...they dont have the damage to take on these things. A unit of 10 is perfect. I still feel Gor or even regular Ungor can do this better, they are the cheapest option and if you already have some raiders running around, it is not hard to thrown in some ambushing raiders.

Screen: Beastmen have many weaknesses, the biggest being lack of armour. One of the cheapest ways of keeping your units alive is to not get shot before you get into combat. This is where raiders come into play. Shooting through ANY unit, grants a -2 to hit modifier as if they were in hard cover. Covering your 250 point unit with a 30 point unit is certainly worth the investment. Also remember, if they shoot your raiders they get a -1 since you still a skirmisher AND you dont really care if they die. Lets do some basic math stuff here, lets say a unit of 10 bog standard bowmen shoot at your gor who are screened. They would likely get -1 for long range, -2 for hard cover, if they had to move it's another -1 and lets say you popped the Chalice of Dark Rain for another -1. That is a total of -5. Your standard bowmen has BS3, they are now hitting on 9+, or in other words a double 6 just to hit. If it happens to be multishot (for whatever reason) the shot is impossible. Handy to have indeed.



Ungrol Four-Horn

Just don't.



Special

Bestigor Herd

Arguably the best choice Beastmen have to offer in the list. A big unit of 40 (counting characters) and a nice magic banner is how I would field them. You could use them to hunt monsters as well, but character support is strongly recommended for that s well.

Strengths: Great Weapons, 5+ save.

Common uses: With the changes to LD tests, you can almost guarantee primal fury on bestigor. Combined with the new BRB banner choices and supporting attacks and step up, the bestigor have improved from 7th vastly. They can provide our army with a chunk of flaming attacks through the banner, or as a hard hitting general/bsb bunker.

Command: A musician is a good idea. Always consider a full command when using the unit as a bunker.

Builds:

HORDE

30-40 Bestigor, Full Command, Stubborn Crown Character

This is my personal favourite build. You have to lose 10 models before you start losing attacks, meaning in most situations you are packing 31 S6 attacks rerolls to hit and on the odd occasion you are packing 41 attacks. The unit should never lose combat, but if it ever did, you are stubborn 8-10 depending on the character you harbour. This is your big hitter and boy does it hit hard!

Mini Horde

25-36 Bestigor, Full Command

Not built for as much attack, but cheaper and a bit more defensive. The unit should be getting 5 ranks and either 5-7 wide. It is a nice sized unit, but i would still rather go all out with the horde for the big hit.

Small Games

14 Bestigor

7x2 formation designed for flank attacks. The unit is really cheap, hits hard and is perfect for smaller games. Bigger games are not really suited for this kind of unit though.

Conclusion

A brilliant unit that is both cheap, strong and tough. You can’t go wrong with a unit of bestigor rampaging through your enemies’ lines!




Centigors

Can either be fielded in 5-6 man squads to take advantage of their speed to hunt war machines or enemy redirectors, or bulked up to 10 if they expect to see combat in the flanks. I prefer them in the former role unless fielding Ghorros when I take a bigger unit.

Strengths:

4+ armour save, 2 attacks, speed.

Common uses: Centigor were debated in the last edition as to whether they were worth the points. With the changes to combat in 8th, they aren’t that great a choice. It’s not specifically centigor, cavalry in general has to be really good to see a lot of use now. The problem is initiative and even in an expensive unit of 10, if you lose one model, you can’t break ranks anymore.

Command: Again, the full command is going to be expensive. A musician is usually a good choice, the others are more situational.




Harpies

These guys are at their best hunting war machines, though they can screen or redirect in a pinch. Units of 5 do the job well, and Scout is worth considering if you have the points to spare.

Strengths: Flying, minimum unit size of 5, option to scout.

Common uses: Harpies are widely used as march blockers and war machine hunters. March blocking isn’t a sure thing anymore, but it still catches some out when they are away from their bsb and general. At 55 points for a minimum unit, they are a good investment as they can easily kill a more expensive war machine and slow down an expensive elite unit. Their higher initiative is great too. Scouting is a lot easier to pull off now that you can deploy in line of sight, just be mindful of turn one shooting.



Minotaurs

I'm a "go big or go home" proponent with Minotaurs - either you bring a block of them and support it with characters, or you leave them on the shelf. If you do bring them, just slam them into whatever you want dead, and watch the limbs fly.

Strengths:

Impact hits, versatility (great weapons, extra hand weapons, shields), damage output/volume of attacks.

Common uses: They mostly show up with either additional hand weapons or great weapons. While Str5 is really good for the likes of heavy infantry, Str7 is ideal against the heaviest, turning a 1+ into a 5+ armour save.

Command: A full command for minos is expensive and should probably be judged on a case by case basis. Musician is usually a good choice if you can afford it, especially with a character in the group. It used to be the case that if you had a champion in the group, you could possibly increase the number of wounds taken before you have to take a panic test due to wound allocation. Now the case is that you just remove the champion last after the other rank and file and command options have died. This means if you want a champion it needs to be for another reason. There are a few tricks involving mino units and characters with champions. Out of combat, you need to keep your command in the front rank over characters, but you can always choose to ‘make way’ when in combat, with your characters. Coupled with a champion in the front rank, you can force your opponent to allocate all their attacks onto tough characters, or your champion with optional magic item.

Example Builds:

Minobus (12 models)

Doombull, Gorebull BSB, Gorebull, 9 Minotaur, Full Command, Bloodkine with Blackened Plate

This unit is STUPIDLY expensive but also insanely powerful. As deathstar units go, not much is going to dent this mass of muscle. On the charge (fielded 4 wide) you are getting up to 42 attacks (incl impact), and that is before you add in any upgrades to your characters. If you start throwing on upgrades you are going to exceed that. Then, lets not forget you are also getting 4 more attacks every round of combat you win. If you have some more points left over, you can even throw in more minotaurs to make a horde and then your attacks will be at least 62, all at S5-8 depending on unit upgrades. As you can imagine, this is just stupidly powerful and will destroy anything that comes its way. But as i said, it is stupidly expensive coming in at over 1000 points fully kitted out...or in other words you are going to need at least 2000 points to run it legally. That said, the minobus death star is insanely popular in the tournament scene, almost on par with Herdstone spam...if you want something stupidly powerful, stupidly expensive and that can be destroyed with a level 6 spell and be dragged around by its nose with blood greed, give it a shot. It is a lot of fun!

Mini-Minobus (6-8 models)

Doombull (1+ armour), Gorbull (GW, Armour Silvered steel + Icon), Gorbull (Armour of destiny) - Musician - possibly Bloodkine with blackened plate, all RnF minotaurs have GW.

This unit is still very expensive but has good synergies. It utilises the good saves of the characters to protect the hard hitting rank minotaurs.

Infantry Mincer

4-8 Minotaur, Additional Hand Weapons, full command (situational)

A brilliant way to tear up infantry. Depending on the size of the unit, you are going to want to run in 1 or 2 ranks. I would recommend running 1 rank if running 4-6, and 2 ranks if you go above. The idea size is probably 5-6 in 1 rank, this will net you a hefty 37 attacks (including impacts) on the charge, with an additional 6 attacks each round of combat assuming you dont lose a minotaur in combat. Whilst expensive, it can do some serious damage quickly. Also, when combined with Shadow Magic you are going significantly increase their output and reduce the damage taken. It is very possible to wipe a unit out before it gets to attack when supported this way. The biggest downside is that a unit of gor easily go beyond this level of killing, kill more reliably and be significantly cheaper. Like all minotaur builds, it is hard hitting but really squishy.

Cavalry Crusher

4-8 Minotaur, Great Weapons, full command (situational)

Less attacks per model and always strikes last makes this already squishy unit even more squishy. The plus side you are hitting harder than anything else in the game packing a whopping S7 attack. This is enough to flatten even the heaviest cavalry without breaking a sweat, assuming you dont get cut down before you get to swing. Like the infantry mincer build, you can get a much more reliable unit in the form of Bestigor who are S6, but pack a better armour save and are almost 6x cheaper per model...which also means you are getting more attacks using bestigor for the same price! Not good...To top it all off, you do not benefit from magic as well as other builds since you cant drop your initiative low enough for you to hit first...a decent build, but very much inferior to other choices.

Conclusion

I like these guys, but they do have some glaring weaknesses. If they EVER lose combat they are going to be running. Luckily the damage they do is so insane that they should not be losing combat anytime soon. One of the best infantry grinders in the game, able to cut down hordes of infantry like they were nothing. Be warned, if you are not going big, then go home. Finally try to avoid them till 2000+ points since they tend to be a massive points sink until then, seriously reducing your armies effectiveness.



Razorgor Herd

They can redirect and kill enemy re-directors, and in a pinch, they can hit a unit's flank pretty hard. Units of 1 is where it's at.

Strengths: Great on the charge, can be taken as singles.

Common uses: Beastmen are all about combo charges, so Razorgors see a reasonable amount of use in small units, or even solo. They have terrible leadership, and sometimes space around the general and bsb can be at a premium, or even not available due to terrain, so bigger units tend to not see any use.

You want 2 of these pigs in your army AT ALL TIMES. There is absolutely no excuse not to. For less than 60 points a pop, you get 1x2 suicidal anti hero bombs. You see a BSB? Throw a razorgor at it. You see a wizard hero or lord? Razorgor it. The best part is, these targets tend to hide in bunkers, meaning these units wont be able to kill your pigs before they attack back, which means their character is as good as dead. Oh, and due to the base size you can easily get 2 razorgor in base contact giving you 6 wounds to burn through and 8 S6 attacks. Now wizard or BSB is going to survive that. When you are not flying towards the enemy, you are fantastic at redirecting, holding things up and generally being a pain in the bottom. With T5 you are really hard to shift, and even 1 razorgor can hold up units for a round or 2, and can EASILY take on other chaff units like fast cav making them super dangerous on the defensive as well. You are also great at monster hunting. 3 Razorgor charging a Hell Pit has a good chance of killing it, or at least beating it so close to death that it is useless for the rest of the game...for about half the cost. Brilliant. What you NEVER want to do is take more than 3 units of 1. You might think taking 3 units of 2 is good since you have more wounds and each unit can wipe out a character with ease. The down side to this is, they immediatly become a priority target, meaning 1 will likely die before they get into combat which is not good...but your other razorgor is likely going to run off the board. Units of 1 will do.

It's worth noting that, yes these guys are super tough and a must take, but their damage output is very variable. Not having primal fury and only WS3, really impacts how much damage they output, so you can’t rely on them to take something down, even a support wizard.

Conclusion

You NEED to bring these guys. They are as MUST HAVE as Harpies. Beastmen have the best chaff in the game...and this guy proves it.



Razorgor Chariot

Fills the flanker and chaff killer role well, though its being more formidable in combat than its Core cousin means you don't have to be as apprehensive of throwing it into tougher units.

Strengths: Great on the charge, Primal fury can make up for low impact rolls.

Common uses: Even though they are great on the charge, they don’t feature too much. This is due to the cost of the unit and the fact it is a lot slower than a small unit of razorgor. It costs as much as almost 3 razorgor or 2 regular chariots.

Think of this as a super chariot. It can do everything a Tuskgor chariot can do, only better. Basically, this is a copy and paste of the Tuskgor entry, with a few additions.

First off, remember these guys do MASSIVE damage on the charge. When you combine the impact hits, the steed’s attacks, the gor attacks and the bestigor attacks you can really lay down the pain especially with primal fury effecting everyone (including the Razorgor!). What you are going to want to do is use this huge damage to take on things like Fast Cav, regular cav, some heavy cav, monsters, solo's, small units, scouts, archers etc. You can decimate these units by yourself, and you certainly should! What you don't want to do is hit a big block of infantry since you will do some damage initially but you will eventually be destroyed or broken in combat...neither of which are good things. Luckily, with support these guys can really help the fight. Having a unit of Gor hitting the front supported by a chariot can really tip a combat in your favour.

There are a couple of things I felt I should add to this. The first is to emphasis the toughness of this thing. T5 with 5 wounds means most infantry without great weapons will have a job wounding it and the number of wounds gives it a good chance of withstanding warmachine hits. The second thing is to point out how much more improved the Razorgor is attached to the chariot. As well as adding to the hard hitting nature of the chariot, giving the razorgor primal fury is just fantastic and really makes it a solid threat.

Conclusion

If you want a more reliable chariot than the Tuskgor, then go with the Razorgor. Just remember they are expensive and eat into our heavily contested SPECIAL allotment.



Rare

Chaos Spawn

They are limited units overall, but they make decent flank guards, as Unbreakable means they have to kill it in order to get past it.

Strengths: Unbreakable, Cheap, 360° charge.

Common uses: They are cheap, and they don’t budge until they’re dead, but they are very slow, which is the sticking point for a lot of people.



Cygor

They seem to be designed to lob a few rocks as they close into combat, but I would advise against that, as their combat ability is rather poor. Only charge things that are going to charge you next turn anyway. I wouldn't field this guy at all, though.

Strengths: Magic resistance, Stone thrower, re-rolls against magic orientated units and characters.

Common uses: The cygor is also very expensive with T5 W5 with no save of any sort. Some people use them exclusively as artillery, but at 275 points, hiding and throwing rocks isn’t a good choice. Also, its Soul-eater ability inadvertently lost some effectiveness due to people tending to throw more dice at spells and added to the lvl bonus, they clear the casting value.

You have 2 ways of running the Cygor. The first is staying out of harm’s way and throwing rocks across the board. Whilst it is only S3(9) it can still do some heavy damage to units like Humans, Skaven, Goblins, Daemons etc. And since a good throw will net you 21 hits, you can actually do a lot of damage this way. A cygor will never get his points back doing this though, and you could damage your self with a misfire. This is the safest way to run one.

The other way is to have him as a moving firing platform who will eventually get into combat. You simply move forwards, throw rocks and then charge. You can net 11 kills a turn, you will likely get rerolls to hit and you are pretty tough against your basic infantry. Due to your reduced toughness, try to avoid S4 opponents in combat. This also means you are closer to enemy wizards so your Soul-Eater special rule MIGHT one day come into play...although i would not count on it.

Conclusion

A monster that sits in an odd spot. Like the others, he is too expensive for what he brings to the table. Yes all the rares are overpriced, but to me, none feel more so than the Cygor. If you want a more dominant shooting phase, then a Cygor is your best bet of course, and like always they work best in pairs.



Ghorgon

I am of the opinion that these guys are at their best on flanks, where the opponent will have to direct mainline attention to them (and thus not to the rest of your army), because most units that occupy flanks don't have a prayer against it. Additionally, every cheap unit it eats makes it a better fighter.

Strengths: 7 attacks from the get go, option to regen wounds.

Common uses: Probably the most commonly used of the rares since 8th hit. For the same price, it’s tougher, has more wounds and although it has no saves, it has an ability to regain wounds. He still costs a lot compared to other more resilient monsters in warhammer, and it can be hard to survive long enough to get into combat with how deadly warmachines and ranked shooting are against our rares.

The Ghorgon has a few ways to be used. The most independent tactic is to run forward and grind down infantry. With his high number of attacks, he can really shred through infantry like they were nothing. When he starts losing wounds, eat someone and then continue. Remember being Stubborn 10 makes you very hard to shift. In fact it is the most reliable thing in the entire book! This allows him to work without babysitting. A benefit of the Meat Grinder is that you are also holding the enemy up. This then lets you manoeuvre knowing your lines are safe etc.

Support charging is another way of utilizing your Ghorgons talents. A ghorgon on the flank is receiving less attacks, resulting in lower chances of being wounded. This lets him work his magic and kill 16 (max) enemies a turn whilst your frontal assault reaps the benefits. If it all goes wrong and your frontal unit flees, your Stubborn 10 Ghorgon is going to hold, and prevent the enemy from overrunning...so he is also a handy safety net.

Conclusion

I like the Ghorgon. Yes he is rather fragile, yes he is rather expensive but what he brings to the army is something rarely found in Beastmen, and that is reliability. You know he probably going to hold to his last breathe, you know he is going to go down fighting like a champ and you know that he is a threat to your enemy. I would not say he is a MUST TAKE choice, none of the Beastmen Rares are like that, but the model is GORGEOUS, he is a fun choice to bring, and he is certainly going to wreck some havoc! As a side note, these guys work best in pairs, so take 2 for maximum effectiveness (or 3 if you use Savage Dominion).



Giant

Another monster that does well on flanks, it also has the benefit of performing spectacularly against most monsters. It's also priced such that running 2 of them (one on each side) doesn't break the bank.

Strengths: Stubborn, Immune to Psychology.

Common uses: It’s the cheapest large monster we have, but with 8th ed shooting, it’s probably going to be some easy victory points for opponents, as it has to gun itself forward and get into combat to earn it’s points back.



Jabberslythe

If you are fielding this unit, I recommend taking full advantage of its flight in order to seek targets that can't easily fend it off. It can be an effective mage, war machine, and chaff hunter, as well as a decent secondary combatant, provided it's not in anyone's front arc

Strengths: Flying.

Common uses: Use of the jabber has dropped considerably since 8th edition. It’s extremely expensive for a T5 W5 monster with no save of any kind, and its ability lost effectiveness with the change to LD tests. Some people still use it to hunt warmachines and light units behind enemy

 

[Knoffles]

POST 10

Sample Character Builds

This section has a number of builds taken from various posts and I’ve also added a few of my own favourites – Knoffles.


Beastlord

Character Type: Beastlord.
Role: Leadership, support.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Armor of Destiny, Crown of Command, Shield, Sword of Battle.
Placement: Unit of Bestigors.
Tactics Discussion: He brings Stubborn and a lot of attacks striking at Initiative order to protect my Bestigors, especially when you factor in ally buffs.


Character Type: Beastlord.
Role: Leadership, support.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Crown of Command, Shield, Gnarled Hide, Dawnstone, Ramhorn Helm, Heavy Armour.
Placement: Unit of Bestigors.
Tactics Discussion: This guy is a total tank in a scrap being almost unkillable and your making any unit stubborn 9-10...brilliant for keeping an important unit going throughout even the toughest fights. Not as killy as other builds but much more effective and in line with what the Beastlord is good at: Keeping your army in line.


Character Type: Beastlord.
Role: Leadership, challenges.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Tal of Pres, Gnarled Hide, Heavy armor, Sword of Might, Ramhorn Helm.
Placement: Unit of Bestigors.
Tactics Discussion: He's there to help wreck tish and beat up enemy heroes. He might struggle against the top notch fighty Lords but he's pretty tough and helps the unit overall. I love it.


Character Type: Beastlord
Role: Killing and Challenges
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Armour of Silvered Steel, Talisman of Preservation, Additional Hand Weapon.
Placement: Anywhere
Tactics Discussion: Basic fighter lord with enough attacks to put hurt on most opponents and enough survivability to last against most opponents.


Character Type: Beastlord
Role: Killing infantry
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Heavy armour, Ramhorn helm, The Steel-claws, The other tricksters shard, Gnarled Hide, Uncanny Senses.
Placement: Bestigor
Tactics Discussion: Tooled up to put out a very large number of attacks at a high initiative, in order to offset the ASL of the Bestigor unit.


Character Type: Beastlord
Role: Killing high armour
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Armour of Destiny, Shield, Ogre Blade.
Placement: Lower Str units (but really anywhere)
Tactics Discussion: Reasonably survivably and hits hard to assist a unit of Gor.


Character Type: Beastlord
Role: Killing Infantry
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Armour of Destiny, Brass Cleaver, Dragonbane Gem, Gouge Tusks, Shield, Razorgor Chariot.
Placement: Support
Tactics Discussion: If in combat against rank and file, he gets a huge number of attacks which become even more potent when charging. It is vulnerable to warmachines so should get stuck in as soon as possible.



Great Bray Shaman

Character Type: Great Bray-Shaman.
Role: Buffing/debuffing, power dice generation.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Fencer's Blades, Jagged Dagger, Talisman of Preservation, Uncanny Instincts
Placement: Unit of Gors with the Beast Banner.
Tactics Discussion: This fighting Shaman swinging at S5 promises to provide you with extra dice across the course of a game, and then there are his buffs to consider and the fact that characteristic tests won't hurt him often (S5/T5/I5).


Character Type: Great Bray-Shaman.
Role: Buffing/debuffing, power dice generation.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Brass Cleaver, Jagged Dagger, Talisman of Preservation, Gouge Tusks. Typically takes Lore of Beasts.
Placement: Unit of Gors with the Beast Banner.
Tactics Discussion: Similar in role to the previous build but trades some defence for more attacks with a -3 modifier to armour. This fighting Shaman swinging at S5 promises to provide you with extra dice across the course of a game. Lore of beasts, with its short range, works well with a combat character.



Wargor

Character Type: Wargor.
Role: Buffing, Leadership, support.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Battle Standard-Bearer, The Beast Banner, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Shield.
Placement: Unit of Gors.
Tactics Discussion: This is what makes Gors tick. +1S on an entire unit is a huge deal, as is a beefy BSB with a 2+ armor save.

You may find yourself taking the same build but without the Gnarled Hide, if you are taking a Doombull with the Ramhorn helm build. He also works just as well but just suffers from reduced survivability.


Character Type: Wargor
Role: Rank-and-file Slayer
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Heavy Armour, Gnarled Hide, Ramhorn Helm, Great Weapon
Placement: Unit of Gors or Ungors.
Tactics Discussion: The basic idea here is to have a character that can bring some S6 striking power to unit that is normally S4 or S3. At the same time this Wargor is infuriatingly hard to kill with normal rank-and-file troops since he has 2+ armor save and gives ok S4 revenge-attacks due to his Ramhorn Helm. I've also used him as a BSB when I don't use a Magic Banner.



Doombull

Character Type: Doombull
Role: Challenges
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Gouge Tusks, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armour, Shield, Golden Seal Sword (Ini 10), Ramhorn Helm.
Placement: Mino bus
Tactics Discussion: Generally taking on opponents' characters and chomping his way through heavily armoured units. He usually stirkes first with 6 str 5 attacks with -3 ASV mod. Not much survives that, and if they do, his armour can hit them back!

The Ramhorn Bull is actually a fairly common build, though I usually see it looking like this:

Character Type: Doombull.
Role: Combat.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Dawnstone, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Potion of Toughness, Ramhorn Helm, Shield, Sword of Swift Slaying.
Placement: Minobus.
Tactics Discussion: Your standard-issue killing machine. Run him into just about anything in the game and watch him tear it limb from limb.

This build has a 1+ re-rollable save, which means that rank-and-file can't really hurt him - and when they try, he hits them back. The ASF is important because it will also give you re-rolls against those enemy troops. If you run into a character that can actually threaten you, gulp down that Potion of Toughness and present him with a T8 monstrosity that can take anything he has to give. Even in subsequent turns (should the enemy not simply turn and flee), it takes an attack coming in at S8 or better to give him less of a 50% chance to save (yay re-rolls!).

The build I’ve most often seen for the doombull is actually the following.

Character Type: Doombull.
Role: Combat.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Dawnstone, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Other Tricksters Shard, Ramhorn Helm, Shield, Sword of Swift Slaying.
Placement: Minobus.
Tactics Discussion: Your standard-issue killing machine. Run him into just about anything in the game and watch him tear it limb from limb.
It is worth considering swopping out the sword of swift slaying for the sword of striking. The +1 to hit can sometimes be more effective than ASF and the potential to re-roll hits.


Character Type: Doombull.
Role: Combat, backfield harassment, monster hunting.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Arabyan Carpet, Charmed Shield, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor, Talisman of Preservation.
Placement: Solo.
Tactics Discussion: Run him up to anything that isn't ranked infantry - he'll take care of the rest.

No, you're not seeing things - this is a flying Doombull. I was as skeptical of this idea as you can get, but after seeing what it can do to problem targets like Steam Tanks and Sphinxes, I'm on board - this guy is terrifying to face. Not something I would recommend for every army, though.


Character Type: Doombull.
Role: Combat, backfield harassment.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Arabyan Carpet, Ramhorn Helm, Heavy Armor, Shield, Gnarled Hide, Dragonbane Gem, Gold Sigil Sword.
Placement: Solo.
Tactics Discussion: Point and shoot!

My alternative take on the flying Doombull. He loses some survivability against warmachines but with the 1+ save and the retaliation attacks, he works surprisingly well against medium size infantry units.


Character Type: Doombull

Role: murder
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: axes of khorgor, Gnarled hide, ramhelm, 5+ward talisman, hvy armor
Placement: normally solo, sometimes in ungor for immunity to psych

2+ rebound, 5+ ward, 7 str 6 rerollable attacks and can take an average of 3 cannonballs to the face before hitting the ground.
I prefer him over the rerollable 1+bull just because I get a little paranoid in the face of cannons and he performs a little better against chars.

Gorebull


Character Type: Gorebull.
Role: Combat, support.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Armour of Silvered Steel, BSB, Ironcurse Icon and either an AHW or GW (I’d give him the weapon that the rest of the unit doesn’t so he complements their output).
Placement: Minotaur Unit
Tactics Discussion: If you are going to take a Gorebull, you are probably going to want to make him a bsb. As a result you are going to want to make him REALLY hard to kill. As a result a 2+ save and 6+ ward for your unit when hit by warmachines is probably the best all round build.

 

[Knoffles]

POST 11 - Sample Army Lists

The below are a few sample lists from Rothgar, Kevin Bruin and myself (Knoffles).

All are based on lists fielded (and in the case of Kevin, he was renowned for double ghorgon lists and has won GT's with them).



Herdstone + Hordes - 2500 points - Rothgar

Lords - 573 points

Beastlord, Armor of Destiny, Dragonbane Gem, Potion of Strength, Shield, Sword of Battle [General]
Great Bray-Shaman, Fencer's Blades, Hagtree Fetish, L4 Wizard, Talisman of Preservation [Lore of Death]


Heroes - 546 points

Wargor, Battle Standard-Bearer, The Beast Banner, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Shield
Bray-Shaman, Chalice of Dark Rain [Lore of Shadow]
Bray-Shaman, Dispel Scroll [Lore of Shadow]
Bray-Shaman, Shard of the Herdstone [Lore of Shadow]


Core - 708 points

48 Gors, Additional Hand Weapons, Full Command [Wargor Battle Standard-Bearer and Great Bray-Shaman go here]
40 Ungors, Musician, Standard-Bearer
3 x 5 Ungor Raiders


Special - 673 points

39 Bestigors, Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame [Beastlord goes here]
2 x Razorgor
5 Harpies

Grand Total: 2500 points



Minobus - 2500 points - Rothgar

Lords - 617 points

Doombull, Dawnstone, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Ramhorn Helm, Shield, Sword of Swift Slaying [General]
Great Bray-Shaman, AHW, Chalice of Dark Rain, L4 Wizard [Lore of Shadow]


Heroes - 601 points

Bray-Shaman, AHW, Dispel Scroll, L2 Wizard [Lore of Beasts]
Gorebull, Armor of Destiny, Battle Standard-Bearer, Shield
Gorebull, Heavy Armor, Ironcurse Icon, Shield, Talisman of Preservation


Core - 638 points

2 x Tuskgor Chariot
2 x 40 Ungors, Musician, Standard-Bearer
2 x 5 Ungor Raiders


Special - 644 points

2 x 5 Harpies
6 Minotaurs, Full Command, Blackened Plate, Shields [Minotaur characters go here]
2 x Razorgor

Grand Total: 2500 points



Duel Character Razorgor Chariots (50% character end times allowance - Fluffier list)

Lords - 729pts

Beastlord - Heavy Armour, shield, Brass cleaver, Ramhorn helm, Talisman of Endurance, Shadowhide, Razorgor Chariot - 399pts
GBS - Level 4 - lore of beasts, Fencers Blades, Jagged Dagger, Talisman of Preservation, Ironcurse Icon - 330pts


Heroes - 490pts

Wargor - BSB, Heavy Armour, Shield, Beast Banner, Gouged Tusks - 206pts
Wargor - Heavy armour, Charmed shield, sword of might, dragonbane gen, gnarled hide, potion of foolhardiness, Razorgor Chariot - 284pts


Core - 629pts

48 gor - FC, AHW - 409pts
1 x Tuskgor chariot - 80pts
1 x Tuskgor chariot - 80pts
5 x Ungor raiders - 30pts
5 x Ungor raiders - 30pts


Special - 650pts

1 x Razorgor - 55pts
1 x Razorgor - 55pts
5 x Harpies - Scout - 70pts
5 x Harpies - Scout - 70pts
30 x Bestigor - FC, Banner of Eternal Flame

Total - 2,498pts



Double Ghorgon - Kevin Bruin


Kevin was renowned for running double Ghorgon lists and did very well with them. He won a least one GT and consistently placed in the top 10 if not higher. I've put two of his lists below as examples of what he ran.

Essentially he sees the ghorgons as taking fire that lets him deliver the Gor block, unmolested, into combat. A very interesting take. His play style involves throwing the razorgor forward. If you charge the razorgor, the ghorgons and chariots charge you. If you don't charge the razorgor, they charge your artillery/mages or move right up to block you in, so the rest of the beasts can advance all the way up. He throws everything at single targets to destroy them after winning the chaff battle with chariots and ghorgons.



Double Ghorgon - List 1

Lords - 572pts

Beastlord - blackened plate, shield, talisman of preservation, uncanny senses, sword of battle, ironcurse icon - 243pts
Great Bray Shaman - level 4 lore of beasts, AHW, chalice of dark rain, dispel scroll, ruby ring of ruin - 329pts


Heroes - 206pts

Wargor - bsb - heavy armour, shield, gnarled hide, beast banner - 206pts


Core - 629pts

48 gor - FC, AHW - 409pts
1 x Tuskgor chariot - 80pts
1 x Tuskgor chariot - 80pts
5 x Ungor raiders - 30pts
5 x Ungor raiders - 30pts


Special - 540pts

1 x Razorgor Chariot - 145pts
1 x Razorgor Chariot - 145pts
1 x Razorgor - 55pts
1 x Razorgor - 55pts
5 x Harpies - Scout - 70pts
5 x Harpies - Scout - 70pts


Rare - 550pts

1 x Ghorgon - 275pts
1 x Ghorgon - 275pts

Total - 2,497pts




Double Ghorgon - List 2

Lords - 512pts

Beastlord - Armour of Destiny, Crown of Command, Biting Blade, Dragonbane Gem, shield - 248pts
Great Bray Shaman - Dispell Scroll, AHW - Lvl 4 - Lore of Shadow - 264pts


Heroes - 206pts

Wargor - Gnarled hide, the beast banner, HA, Sh, Battle Standard - 206pts


Core - 630pts

41 Gor - FC, AHW - 353pts
Tuskgor Chariot - 80pts
Tuskgor Chariot - 80pts
15 Ungor - musician, standard - 84pts
5 Ungor Raiders - musician - 33pts


Special - 601pts

Razorgor Chariot - 145pts
Razorgor Chariot - 145pts
Razorgor - 55pts
Razorgor - 55pts
5 Harpies - 55pts
5 Centigor - Musician, Standard - 146pts


Rare - 550pts

Ghorgon - 275pts
Ghorgon - 275pts

Total - 2499pts

 

[Knoffles]

Post 12 - Marks of Chaos

I thought it well worth adding a short post on the Marks of Chaos. They were available to Beastmen armies in previous iterations but were dropped in the 7th book. With the release of the End Times - Glotkin Book, Beastmen again had the option of using the marks. The marks were made available for the following units:

· Beastlords
· Wargors
· Great Bray Shaman
· Shaman
· Doombull
· Gorebull
· Gor herd
· Ungor herd
· Ungor Raiders
· Tuskgor Chariots
· Razorgor Chariots
· Minotaurs
· Centigor
· Bestigor


The marks themselves gave the same benefit as those for the Warriors of Chaos. To recap the abilities and the points for taking them (for Beastmen):

Mark of Khorne - 2 points per model (10 points if hero, lord, chariot or monster)

A model with this mark has Frenzy

Mark of Tzeentch - 2 points per model (10 points if hero, lord, chariot or monster)

A model with this mark has a 6+ ward (if they already have a ward they improve it by +1 to a max of 3++). Wizards also reroll any 1 when channeling.

Mark of Nurgle - 2 points per model (10 points if hero, lord, chariot or monster)

An enemy attacking a model with this mark, has -1 to hit in combat.

Mark of Slannesh - 1 points per model (5 points if hero, lord, chariot or monster)

A model with this mark automatically passes any fear, terror or panic tests.


Now as first glance, having access to the marks is a great boon, however there is one issue that must be raised at first instance. A great many of the beastmen entries are over costed and so then having to further increase their price by adding marks to them, frankly stings. The average Gor unit is fielded with between 30-50 models so you are increasing their cost by (likely) 60-100pts. Multiply that across the army and you are losing a lot of points. This means you are normally, unlikely to apply marks to everything.

That said, at the time of writing, in the UK, most tournaments are comp'ing the beastmen to allow them access to the marks for free (whether units or characters). That simple change significantly improves their competitiveness. It doesn't make them top tier by any means or even upper middle but it definitely raises the bar.

So what marks will you take? There is an argument for taking all of them. In reality what you take, will depend on the unit/character loadout and where the character is to be placed.

Chaff (raiders) and chariots are most commonly found with Slannesh, though chariots can have Khorne or even nurgle too. Both have useful applications and because they are smaller units, the small cost of applying the marks is almost too good not to include.

The big blocks of Additional hand weapin Gor/Bestigor tend to favour Nurgle as it really helps up their survive-ability, though Khorne is sometimes taken to increase their damage output and Gor with shields sometimes have tzeentch, especially if used as a shaman bunker (it gives them a 5++ parry and works well with the shaman who will likely have a ward and helps with his channeling).

Minotaurs and Centigor probably suit nurgle most as it helps reduce the attacks against you. This applies really to all the army. Beastmen tend to have an above average toughness but little to no armour, so anything that helps them to not die, is extremely useful, especially if it then allows them to maximise the number of attacks back!

A special shoutout must be given to Doombulls. The ability to give a 3++ ward save to such a combat monster is almost too good. It gives a new twist to the flying carpet monster but when fielded on foot, it gives almost more pause for thought, as you can then kit it out for even more destruction!

As ever, if you have anything else to add or disagree with anything, feel free to comment!

 

[Lizards of Renown]

Welcome to the Beastmen Army Book breakdown and Tactica Guide. This set of posts is an amalgamation of guides and articles compiled by individuals from other forums/blogs and websites. This particular guide borrows heavily from Rothgar13 and his pro's and cons and general layout but I’ve taken other guides and articles and tried to weave them into his initial layout, added new sections, descriptions of item effect and re-writing quite a few areas.

As ever, if anything is inaccurate, has been missed or if you have any other thoughts, please comment and I’ll add to this - Knoffles.


Post Guide

Post 1 - Introduction and special rules

Post 2 - Magic Lore analysis

Post 3 - Chaos Gifts and Army book Magic Items

Post 4 - BRB Magic items

Post 5 - Lords, Heroes and Mount options

Post 6 - Core Choices

Post 7 - Special Choices

Post 8 - Rare Choices

Post 9 - Recommended Units and Tactics

Post 10 - Sample Character Builds

Post 11 - Sample Army Lists

Post 12 - Marks of Chaos (End Times - Glotkin/Archaon)


Contributors

Rothergar13 - http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/beastmen/219165-8e-beastmen-handbook.html

Azeebo - http://www.miniwargaming.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=76257

Gojiragor - http://z8.invisionfree.com/herdstone/index.php?s=76bd4677de766a3a6f7cf61a77217f72&showtopic=21170

1d4chan - https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer/Tactics/8th_Edition/Beastmen

Knoffles (that’s me)

OnceBitten360 – He hasn’t written a guide but has put up dozens of Beastmen battle reps on Youtube that are worth watching to get a feel for the army - https://www.youtube.com/user/OnceBitten360


Why play them?

Do you like the dark twisted places found in the deep woods and forests of the world? Do you have a deep resentment of man, and believe they usurped your rightful place and drove you into those woods. Do you have an unending hatred of all other races combined with an instinctive cunning?

Congratulations, this is the army for you!


How do they play?

The first thing that has to be established, when talking about Beastmen in the competitive sense, is their army identity. What does this army play like? What things does it bring to the table? We'll expand upon this below:

1. Beastmen are a Horde army.

We have infantry with above-average stats (WS4, T4, and even S4 are fairly easy to obtain in this army), but with below-average defensive equipment when compared to other troops with these stats, like Saurus Warriors or Chaos Warriors. This is somewhat mitigated by their lower points cost when compared to those same elite troops, so we can compensate for our poor armor with numbers and take advantage of mechanics such as rank bonuses, steadfast, and Horde formation more effectively. Even our more elite builds benefit greatly from having lots and lots of guys on the table.

2. Beastmen have a strong Magic phase.

While our Lore access is relatively limited and our native Lore is in the running for being the worst in the game, the main rulebook Lores we do have access to (Shadow, Death and Beasts) are all exceptional, and we have access to several items that can generate additional power dice, which makes our magic phase quite formidable.

3. Beastmen depend heavily on their characters.

Because most Beastmen troops have average or below-average Leadership, little immunity to Fear, Panic, or Terror, and a Leadership test-dependent combat gimmick, a strong Leadership value is crucial, and that is invariably provided by characters. Additionally, the magical strategy that sets Beastmen apart is dependent on multiple casters, so this is an army that will put lots of investment into Lords and Heroes. This is especially true for any army that looks to use Minotaurs as its primary offensive unit, as they feature poor defense for their cost and thus depend on characters who can stand in front and take damage for them.

It is worth noting that that the army book was written in the 7th edition and as such it does suffer a bit in 8th edition. Mainly, in so far as, a number of entries are really overpriced for what they bring to the table (especially minotaur units and the monsters). As such the army is considered to be at towards the lower end of the power tier. Most tournaments balance this out by allowing Beastmen players to take a couple of hundred extra points in their lists or marks of chaos from the end times, Glotkin/Archaon book. Don’t in any way make the assumption that they are an ineffective army. They can be brutal in the right hands, with plenty of hard hitting units/characters, combined with plentiful cheap chaff. They just take more maneuvering and strategy to play. They aren’t a Warriors point and shoot kind of army – Knoffles.


Special Rules

Primal Fury

At the start of each round of combat, a unit/model with this rule must take a leadership test. If passed they gain hatred. If you roll a double 1, they get both hatred and are frenzied.

This is the rule that gives the army such punch and turns your fairly average units into brutal killers. It is the single most important rule in your army and you must NEVER forget to roll for it. Seriously, write it down on some paper and have it on the table in front of you. It is THAT crucial!

Please note that if you do gain frenzy, it only lasts until the end of the combat phase, in the same way as primal fury. They can also gain frenzy several times during the battle (if you happen to roll double 1's a lot!).


Beastmen Ambush

You can choose to keep a unit off the board 'in ambush' providing, they have this rule and you have another unit of the same size (or larger) that you deploy as normal.

This is one of the more iconic abilities for Beastmen and on the surface sounds like something that's pretty useful to have. Unfortunately, the beastmen version of the rule is very much subpar to the rulebook version and this is for a number of reasons:

1. The chart is very unfavorable. Only have a 1/6 chance of going where you want (as opposed to a 1/3 chance of being delayed, and a 1/6 chance of showing up where your opponent decides) is not good odds, and it shows in play. The occasions when you get an Ambushing unit in a genuinely useful tactical position should be celebrated, because they are rare.

2. The units involved need character support, and they likely won't get it. This alludes to the previous point I made - since characters can't ambush along with units, you're basically gambling on that your Leadership 6 or 7 troops can nail some tests and actually contribute. A quick look at the typical distribution of 2D6 will tell you those aren't good odds. The other table edge or the far flanks typically aren't where you have your big blocks (and thus your characters) jockeying around for position, so they'll be on their own for a bit. And god help you if your opponent can cause Fear...

3. Requires unit redundancy. Given that you need another unit of the same size or larger on the table to ambush something, this is a tactic that can either get really pricey quickly, or force you to water down your main units in order to pack fighting-caliber numbers on your ambushers. Neither of these propositions are appealing.

Now having said that, the rule isn't completely useless. It does allow you to:

1. Ambush from turn 1

2. Provide an alternate means of deployment, one that an opponent must cater for, potentially putting them off their game plan, especially if you can make it so they are reacting to your plan.



Building an army around it does not work (even taking Kazak One-Eye) so the question then becomes, if you are going to use it, how best to utilise it?

Throwing multiple units of 5 Ungor Raiders into ambush can be worthwhile, as at 30pts for 5 and with enough of them being used for chaff, some should come on at a table edge that might be beneficial in order to tie up warmachines for a turn, however anything bar a human or goblin crew should easily beat them in combat.

A unit of 20 Gor is possibly the best option. Having a unit of this size offers some flexibility. It is a big enough threat to easily take out warmachines and threaten the rear of an opponents lines and you don't have to use them in ambush. If you happen to roll the watch tower scenario, you also have a unit that is quite capable of garrisoning it and holding it until backup arrives.

This is excellent. Must come back and read through everything thoroughly.

Do you have one of these for Chaos Dwarfs? Ogres? Daemons of Chaos? Lizardmen? Tomb Kings?

 

[Knoffles]

This is excellent. Must come back and read through everything thoroughly.

Do you have one of these for Chaos Dwarfs? Ogres? Daemons of Chaos? Lizardmen? Tomb Kings?

You’ve managed to pick most of the ones I haven’t done this to. Yes to Ogres, so I’ll post that one next if you like. The Lizardmen one was just an extract of a load of the articles from one of the indexes here. The Chaos Dwarf one, again, was an extract of each unit guide from CDO (but I’ve never weaved these two into a coherent single doc).

 

[Lizards of Renown]

You’ve managed to pick most of the ones I haven’t done this to.

Ha! Murphy's Law in application.

Yes to Ogres, so I’ll post that one next if you like.

Fantastic! Cheers matey!

The Lizardmen one was just an extract of a load of the articles from one of the indexes here. The Chaos Dwarf one, again, was an extract of each unit guide from CDO (but I’ve never weaved these two into a coherent single doc).

Fair enough, would still love to see them.