Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Beasts Of Chaos

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Note: The Beasts of Chaos book isn't even available for pre-order at the moment, so expect it to be some time before this page gets fully fleshed out.

Why Play Beasts Of Chaos?

• • Because you thought Satyrs in Greek mythology were better at killing and raiding than being homosexual rapist pipe players.
  • You understand that the armies are styled around CELTIC warbands and despite Celts losing nearly every battle against the Roman Empire and their culture being nearly eradicated from history you feel you can do better ...after all you have shamans and minotaurs.
  • Because they look cool with their horns and shaggy fur.
  • Because Chaos Warriors or too civilized as they don't shit where they stand, have fleas, and smell like piss all year round.
  • You like massive, lightning-using foot dragons native to the World-That-Was who made a shitty deal with the Chaos Gods.

• Pros:
  • Can swarm the board with cheap fast and flanking Brays
  • CHARIOTS! three straight into that dwarf shield wall
  • Monster. Monster everywhere.

• Cons
  • Weak and few ranged units
  • Ungors, now they have bows, but their still ungors...
  • Gorebull charging straight into the enemy, breaking them, then sitting down for a bite to eat

Allegiance

Battle Traits

• Brayherd Ambush: you can set up a Brayherd unit into an ambush during deployment for each Beast of Chaos you place on the board during setup. At the end of your first movement phase, you must place them within 6" of the edges of the board and more than 9" away from any enemy models.
  • While not as flexible as some other deepstriking abilities (Stormcasts) it can be an effective way of getting large Brayherd hordes quickly up the board when confronting the enemy and taking objectives. Many artillery crews find it hard to worry about shooting down a monster when goatmen are next to them.

• BloodGorge: at the end of a combat phase when a Warherd destroys a unit, heal 3d wounds, good to Rejuvenate injured bulls after a fight

• Creatures of the Storm: during the start of your Hero phase, each Thunderscorn unit rolls a d6 and move that many inches if not within 3" of an enemy nor move within 3" of them. Good to get your Dragon Ogors closer to their targets or get them out of danger in rare circumstance.

• Primordial Call: At the start of your turn, gain a Primordial point. You can gain more during your hero phase by having a Beasts Of Chaos Hero sacrifice another unit if both are within 3" of a Herdstone. if you do, inflict 3d mortal wounds on the sacrificed unit and gain that many points for each wound that is lost. At the end of your movement phase, you can spend points to summon one or more units and place them on the board in the same manor as Brayherd Ambush.

Command Traits

Brayherd Alphabeast

1. Beastial Cunning: Up to half (rounding down) of your Ambushing units can arrive during any of your movement phase instead of the first.
2. Indomitable Beast: Gain 1 Wound characteristic
3. Apex Predator: Re-roll the general's wounds rolls of 1.
4. Malevolent Despoiler: Enemies don't benefit from cover when they are 12" of the general
5. Oracle of the Dark: -1 bravery penalty to enemys within 12"
6. Shadowpelt: -1 to hit rolls from attack that came over 3".

Warherd Alphabeast

1. Eater of Heroes:
2. Rampant Juggernaut:
3. Gorger:
4. Gouge-tusks:
5. Roaring Brute:
6. Rugged Hide: Reduce the rend of attacks against the general by 1 (min "-")

Thunderscorn Alphabeast

1. Tempestuous Tyrant:
2. Magnetic Monstosity:
3. Thunderstrikes Lodstone:
4. Horn of the Tempest:
5. Tanglehorn Famillars:
6. Ruinous Icon:

Spell Lores

Twisted Wilds

1. Viletide:
2. Vicious Stranglethorns:
3. Savage Dominoin:
4. Tendrils of Atrophy:
5. Wild Rampage:
6. Titanic Fury:

Dark Storms

1. Thunderwave:
2. Hailstorm:
3. Sundering Blades:

Endless Spells

• Doomblast Dirgehorn:

• Balefire Taurus:

• Ravening Direflock:

Greatfrays

If you have a Beasts of Chaos army, you can give it a Greatfray Keyword. This works exactly like the Stormcast version - everyone in your army gains the Keyword, except any named characters (not that you have any right now). On the upside, you get a unique Command Ability, Command Trait, Artifact, and a unique ability. On the downside, your General must take the unique Command Trait, and the first Artifact you give to someone must be your Unique Artifact before you can assign any others. Like the Stormhosts, it's up to you if you want more freedom to choose, or gain some benefits from having important decisions locked off.

Allherd

• Ability: Bestial Might:

Subtract 1 from battleshock rolls made for ALLHERD units in the battleshock phase if they were picked to fight in the combat phase of the same turn.

• Command Ability: Booming Roar:

You can use this command ability at the start of your hero phase if your general is on the battlefield. If you do so, you receive 1 Primordial Call point.

• Command Trait: Dominator:

An ALLHERD general must have this command trait.

You can re-roll charge rolls made for friendly ALLHERD units wholly within 18" of this general if this general is within 3" of any enemy units.

• Artefact of Power: Blade of the Desecrator:

The first ALLHERD HERO to receive an artefact of power must be given the Blade of the Desecrator.

Pick one of the bearer's melee weapons. Improve the Rend characteristic of that weapon by 1 for attacks that target a unit of 10 or more models. Improve the Rend characteristic of that weapon by 2 instead for attacks that target a unit of 20 or more models. Attacks made by this weapon cannot have a rend characteristic great then -3.

Dark Walkers

• Ability: Shadowbeasts: WARHERD and THUNDERSCORN units in a DARKWALKERS army are considered to have the BRAYHERD keyword for the purposes of the Brayherd Ambush battle trait. In addition, up to half (rounding up) of the reserve units that are set up in ambush can arrive in your second movement phase instead of your first movement phase.

• Artifact: Desolate Shard: The first DARKWALKERS HERO to receive an artefact of power must be given the Desolate Shard.

Once per battle, at the start of your hero phase, the bearer can use the Desolate Shard if they are within 3" of a terrain feature. If they do so, roll a dice for each enemy within 1" of that terrain feature. On a 4+ that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.

Warscrolls

Leaders

Brayherd

• Beastlord: Meh, good at taking Hero challenges but to be honest your better off with a Shaman and Doombull as a general. He has a situational Command ability that if he kills something in melee, All Brayherd modules wholly within 18" that attack after him can re-roll all wound rolls. This upgrades to include all hit rolls if her kills a hero. Take him along with some Gors, Bestegors, or Tzangors into an ambush to support them.

• Great Bray Shaman: See? They really do hate us. The Shaman has the exact same profile as any other run-of-the-mill Wizard, but they gave the guy worse To Wound rolls with the staff, just for spite. But of course, you still need this guy because he can still cast Mystic Shield and he increases the Move of all Brayherd around him by 3", which is incredible combined with their run+charge musicians. Sure, those first turn charges are still not likely, but they're possible thanks to him. His spell, Devolve, which casts on a 7 and just takes an unengaged enemy unit within 18" and pulls it towards your closest unit by 2D6". Best used to pull the enemy away from objectives, cover, or buffers while improving your Chances for a successful charge.
• Tzaangor Shaman: The mage you want in a Tzaangor-heavy army. Thanks to his Disc, he's not all that bad in melee, but that is still only a last resort, as he's too important to risk. The fun part is that he is a 6 wound Mage with high movement and a decent spell: Enemy unit takes D3 Mortal Wounds. Afterward, you can add a Tzaangor to a nearby unit for every model the spell killed. Roast some Saurus Guard and fill up your Beastmen all in the same breath. The Shaman also carries a nice energy drink with him that, once per game, lets him cast twice and re-roll casting rolls while he's at it. Use to best effect in an Arcanite Cabal Battalion for three re-rollable spells. Also, since the disc he rides gives him the Daemon keyword, he qualifies for and can pick from both Daemonic and Arcanite tables form the Allegiance abilities.

Thunderscorn

• Dragon Ogor Shaggoth: One of the better picks by a long shot. Gee, that can't have anything to do with the Shaggoth being one of the most expensive kits in the WoC range, can it? 10 Wounds aren't all that high, but thanks to his Summon Lightning spell the problem is remedied. The Shaggoth also has an awesome special rule where, if the roll to see who goes first in a turn is a tie, every Dragon Ogre unit, including the Shaggoth, immediately heals D3 Wounds on a D6 roll of 4+. And those ties happen way more often than you expect them to. Also, the Shaggoth has some absolutely devastating attacks in close combat.

Warherd

• Doombull: The murder cow has a two-handed axe (3x 3+/3+/-2/3). Overall, the Bull an absolute melee monster. His attacks are great and he shares the Bloodgreed ability with his lesser kin - on an unmodified 6 to wound, inflicts an additional mortal wound. Although it may look a bit gimmicky and definitely weaker than some of the absurd stuff that the Stormcasts have access to, it is very much relevant. his Command ability grants a +1 To Wound roll to a Warherd unit wholly within in a huge bubble. Play him, CHOP EVERYTHING IN HALF. Also, like his lesser kin, he's very fast with a Move of 7". If you make him a Gavespawn and give him the unique artifact, his weapon becomes a damage 5 rend -2 nuke on a stick, fairly able to down a big enemy monster in one turn.

Battleline

Brayherd

• Gors: Your Default mass melee infantry. The first thing you notice is that Gors are pretty fast, pretty tough and not too killy to start out. gains +1 attack if the unit is +20 models. All in all, they're good. Either +4 melee save with shields or decently killy and still pretty survivable with two weapons. Though be advised that they painfully miss a spear-option, so while sizes of 20 to 30 are encouraged, never go beyond that, as you can never attack in two rows. Also, if you stack on the buffs, they can go from 1 attack at 4+/4+/-/1 up to 2 attacks at 3+/3+/-/1 that reroll 1s To Hit and To Wound. Sweet.

• Ungors: Weaker Save than Gors and weaker size bonuses. The main reason you use regular Ungors is so you can sacrifice them to summon more units. The other redeeming factor to these guys is the fact that they can take spears, which let them fight in more rows.

• Bestigors: (Battleline if your general is a Beastlord or GreatBray shaman)Silly armor wearing tits, comparable to Freeguild Greatswords but better, they are a hard unit to like as Gorebulls, do better at killing and most masses of Gors with shields will create a fair tarpit. If only we had access to good ol' pestigors, now they did their job.

• Tzaangors: (Battleline if your general is a Tzaangor Shaman) Incredible. They are, slightly slower gors with more attacks. No matter what you equip them with, they will always have a 4+/5+/-/1 beak attack each. Then you can choose between three weapons, twin swords, sword and shield, and Greatsword (only two on every five models can use Greatswords). The shield gives you a nice save-after-the-save, the twin swords get you better hit rolls and the Greatblade only give you 1 attack instead of 2 but at damage 2 and Rend -1. They also have a nice rule where you gain +1 attack to all weapons if you have 9 or more models. Since this stacks nicely with the few strong attacks from the Greatblade, you want Greatblades if you want to go for raw damage output and shields to keep them safe, and they can have one mutant for every 5 models, who always have two blades and make 1 additional hit with them. The good thing? You can mix-and-match so that you can do both! They can also run and charge like normal Beastmen, thanks to their musician and can channel mortal wounds onto enemy units if the Tzaangors have Wizards chilling with them. Having an Arcanite Hero hanging with them also gets them better Wound rolls, so keep that Tzaangor Shaman nearby to buff and replenish.

Warherd

• Bullgors: (Battleline if your general is a Doombull) Get the same Bloodgreed rule as the Doombull, а weapon choice of axe(s) (3x 4+/3+/-2/3) or two-handed axe (4x 3+/3+/-1/2) both in addition to 2 Horn attacks. But the really interesting trait is their Drummer and Banner Bearer abilities: namely, they give +1 respectively to charge rolls and Bravery for each enemy unit within 12" from them. If you want to go full Warherd, take one unit of each and see which ones perform best, but if you take only one unit of them and a Doombull, you're going to want Great Axes. Other than that, they're fast, have more raw, balls-out power than almost anything in the game and have lots of Wounds. The high Wound-count combined with the meh Save also means that targeting them with Mortal Wounds will almost feel like a waste to your opponent, which might keep them safe longer.

Thunderscorn

• Dragon Ogors: (Battleline if your general is a Dragon Ogor Shaggoth) Not bad, either. Five Wounds with a 4+ save, okay Bravery and scary weapons. Each has what is basically a Chaos Knight's horse bolted to it and in addition fights with a big weapon. You get either Ancient Weapons which are two Double-Hammer Liberators in one, Glaives which exchange the reroll 1s To Hit with 1 more inch of range and a Rend of -1, or Crushers which only have 3 attacks, but with 2 damage each. They also grant the Summon Lightning to nearby Chaos Wizards, which when cast heals the Dragon Ogres for D3 Wounds and grants them rerolls To Wound. With a pretty low casting value of 5, there are worse things you can waste casting attempts on.

Others

Brayherd

• Ungor Raiders: Same as Ungors, but with bows instead of shields and a basic scouting rule. Don't think their bows are good, by the way, but the mass of shots really helps.

• Centigors: Light Brayherd cavalry unit that can Run and Charge. Fairly useless as the other player can lay down even light fire and wipe them out. Their good to at moving across the board, harassing, tieing down or grabbing an objective but not much else. Each turn you can decide to have them get drunk on beast piss to add +1 to their hit rolls but at the cost of your opponent getting +1 on them.

• Tuskgor Chariots: It's a chariot. Aside from the fact that the model is painfully showing its age, it's actually damn good. Lots of Wounds, good Save, tons of attacks that are great on the charge and okay normally. Play three of them and make sure they have a Bray Shaman close to them in your first movement phase. Like Bestigors, its Despoiler Axe can re-roll 1s against Order units and add 1 to hit rolls if the unit has 10 or more units. FIll your army with chariots! they are one of the best beast units!

• Tzaangor Enlightened: Elite Tzaangors. They have the "option" of putting them onto Discs, though frankly, that option is somewhat insulting, as you will ever not take it, but being able to play them on foot is good if you want three spare discs that you want to use with other Tzeentchian models, either from AoS or 40K, is nice. For the low price of being affected by anti-Daemon abilities, all your Enlightened gain 10" extra Move, an extra Wound and a massively scary melee profile on top of their own massively scary melee profile. They get better when a Tzaangor Shaman is nearby. Other than that, they have a beautiful psychological tool in the Guided by the Past ability, which grants them full rerolls To Hit and Wound if an enemy unit within 3" has already attacked this turn. This puts your opponent into an unpleasant situation: Either attack them first and give the survivors powerful rerolls or let them attack first and pray he'll still have models left once they're done.

• Tzaangor Skyfires: Ranged Elite Tzaangors. These fellows are the unholy cross between a Tzaangor Enlightened, a Kurnoth Hunter and a Warplock Jezzail (guess who did what, I don't wanna imagine that scene). They have the obscene 16" Movement of the Enlightened, the 24" range of the Kurnoth Hunters and unmodified 6 Hit rolls immediately deal Mortal Wounds. This is even stronger considering close proximity to a Tzaangor Shaman grants them +1 To Hit, and the leader already has an additional +1.

Others

• Chaos Spawn: That Which Must Not Be Named. Not actually terrible anymore, though far from reliable. A Move of 2D6" makes for potentially fast movement. Similarly, 2D6 attacks per Spawn is potentially strong, but even better is the special rule these attacks come with: If you roll a Double, instead of Hitting and Wounding on 4+, you Hit and Wound on 3+. Just think about it, 12 attacks apiece with good Hit and Wound rolls... Also, five Wounds with a 5+ save makes for pretty hardy models. It can also dedicate itself to a chaos god.

• Chaos Warhounds: They're warhounds. Each is just as durable and twice as powerful in combat as a Marauder but without any of the buffs and an awful Bravery of 4. They're pretty fast, though, so that's good. Use them with Bulls after they break the lines send in Warhounds to mop them up quickly.

• Dragon Ogors: Another top unit, scales give them some protection against most attacks and they are great for smashing up warmachines and chasing down wizards.

• Razorgors: The bacon missile! A cheap beast that you would somewhat play like a Cairn Wraith. it has 4 wounds, 10" move and 4 above average attacks on the charge. Razorgors look threating glancing at the warscroll, Making them good Distraction Carnifexes. They are as cheap to field as large units.

Behemoth

• Cockatrice: It's a cheap flying monster with a low Wound count of 8. However, because of this low Wound stat, it doesn't lose effectiveness as it gets damaged. It's Petrifying Gaze has you pick a unit in range (10"), roll a D6. At 4+, the enemy unit suffers D6 Mortal Wounds. Aside from that, the Cockatrice is okay, not devastating, but nothing you want to see charging your squishy units.

• Chimera: Very fragile, but very fast and extremely damaging, with four weapon profiles in melee after a flame breath. The flame breath is D6 MORTAL wounds at full health. That's the equivalent of 'point-click-die' to any lone heroes if your opponent is stupid enough to allow this beast to go unmolested long enough to get close to his lines. As well as that, it has a number of different weapon profiles. The leonine head is 3 attacks, 4+/3+ with a -1 rend and D6 damage at full health, this alone is pretty brutal. The avian head is also 3 attacks, except with a 3+/4+ and (at full health) -3 rend, D3 damage, the dragon head is basically a middle ground between the other two; 3 attacks with a 4/4+, -1 rend and 2 damage. Also has 6 meh attacks with no rend from claws and tail. All in all, this has the potential to be an absolute beast and can very easily maul a lot of things in one turn of combat. The problem is ensuring it gets there as it's 5 up save won't do a huge amount to block any artillery fire that may very well aim at it unless you have deadlier choices. A good tactic is to get it a Re-roll saves of 1 and then send it up the flank to any priority targets. D6 mortal wounds can get slapped on in advance and then charge it in to finish it off if it's still moving. It also gets +2 to charge rolls so this makes doing so a little easier.

• Cygor: Can unbind two spells in each Hero Phase: If he manages to do it, he deals a mortal wound to the caster while getting back a wound for himself. He also can reroll hit rolls when attacking wizards, which he really really needs, having Hit rolls of 4+ across the board. Two of them can add some okay shooting, but the fact that the damage table influences his range makes him unreliable at best.

• Ghorgon: Same Blood Frenzy as Doombull and Bullgors, but deals d3 mortal wounds on a\ modified 6. Also, he can kill slay a specific model within 1" after he makes all his attack if he rolls a dice equal or greater than its wounds characteristic. This thing is your sledgehammer, with insanely strong attacks, but very slow for a monster. If you manage the charge and a Doombull is nearby, this thing can rip apart whole units, otherwise, it will stop cannonballs with its face for two turns and then die.

• Jabberslythe:

• Chaos Gargant: For 170pt. he can instant kill a model before attacking if you roll on a D6 a number that is double or more than that model's wounds. When you roll a double on a charge (or when he dies) you and your opponent throw a dice to decide the direction he will fall and every unit that would be squished in a 2" radius within 3", suffers D3 mortal wounds. If he is dead he just dies, if he was charging he just rises up again and doesn't charge. Also, gain the ability to take a mortal wound if near a Beast of Chaos hero in exchange for +1 attack to all his weapons.

Scenery

• Herdstone

Battalions

Brass Despoilers (190 p) (Min: -.pt. Max: -pt.) 1-4 combination of Beastlord and Doombull; 3-8 combination of Bestigors, Bullgors, and Gors; 0-8 combination of Centigors, Dragon Ogors, or Tuskgor Chariots; 0-2 combination of Cygors or Ghorgons. Give all units in this Battalion the Khorne Keyword and grants them re-roll hit rolls of 1 if the unit is wholly within 9" another unit from this Battalions. Also once per battle, during the hero phase, you can extend the re-roll ability to also include all failed wound rolls until the next hero phase.

• gaining the Khorne keyword synergies with allies like Bloodstokers and Bloodsecrators.

Phantasmagoria of Fate (200 p) (Min: -.pt. Max: -pt.) 1-4 combination of any Beast of Chaos Hero; 3-9 combination of Bestigors, Gors, Tzaangors, Ungors, Ungor Raiders; 0-9 combination of Bullgors, Centigors, Dragon Ogors, Tzaangor Enlightened, Tzaangor Skyfires, Tuskgor Chariots; 0-2 combination of Cygors or Ghorgons. give all units the Tzeentch keyword and non-wizards can unbind as if they were wizards.

The Pestilent Trong (200 p) (Min: -.pt. Max: -pt.) 1-4 combination of Beastlord, Dragon ogor Shaggoth, Doombull, Great Bray Shaman; 3-7 combination of Bestigors, and Gors, Ungors, Ungor raiders; 0-7 combination of Bullgors Centigors, Dragon Ogors, or Tuskgor Chariots; 0-2 combination of Cygors or Ghorgons. Give all units in this Battalion the Nurgle Keyword and when one of the Battalion units are destroyed, enemy units within 7" take a mortal wound on a 2+.

Depraved hoard of Slaanesh (150 p) (Min: -.pt. Max: -pt.) 1-4 combination of Beastlord, Dragon Ogor Shaggoth, Doombull, Great Bray Shaman; 3-6 combination of Centigors, Gors, Tuskgor Chariots, Ungors, Ungor raiders; 0-6 combination of Bestigors, Bullgors , Dragon Ogors; 0-2 combination of Cygors or Ghorgons. Give all units in this Battalion the Slaanesh Keyword and Re-roll failed charge roll if the unit is within 12" of a hero with an Artifact and hit rolls if the target has an Artifact.

Army building

• • Five chariots, one with a Beast lord inside, smash them into the flanks or straight into a shield wall
  • A shaman or two is a must, he'll buff your shaggymen and/or summon creatures to piss off your opponent.
  • Bulls, in groups of 3 or 4 are great at charging the enemy and breaking lines but be ready for them to stop dead in their tracks after they do this, have some warhounds ready to chase down fleeing units.
  • 20 to 30 Gors. Shield for hammer and anvil with Bulls or Two axes for chopping.
  • 5 Ungors per unit with bows, very annoying when they move about and pop up forcing the other player to chase them and waste turns getting rid of them, not good for much else.
  • 5 Warhounds per unit. Keep them with the Bulls.
  • Cygors, not great but useful to have some siege weapon capability and annoying enemy wizards.

Tactics

External links

Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Realm Of Battle Malign Sorcery Path to Glory Skirmish
Order	Cities of Sigmar Daughters of Khaine Fyreslayers Idoneth Deepkin Kharadron Overlords Lumineth Realm-Lords Seraphon Stormcast Eternals Sylvaneth
Chaos	Beasts Of Chaos Blades of Khorne Disciples of Tzeentch Hedonites of Slaanesh Maggotkin of Nurgle Skaven Slaves to Darkness
Death	Flesh-Eater Courts Nighthaunt Ossiarch Bonereapers Soulblight Gravelords
Destruction	Gloomspite Gitz Ogor Mawtribes Orruk Warclans Sons of Behemat
Others	Monstrous Arcanum Legends Old Rules