The 9th Age/Tactics/Old/Beast Herds/v2.5.0

The fair use The 9th Age expy of the Beastmen of Warhammer Fantasy.

Tactics

The Tactics are current as of .205

Army Rules

Drunkard At the beginning of the game (step 8 of the pregame sequence) units with this special rule choose to be drunk or sober for the fight. Sober units gain light troops and vanguard, drunk units gain devastating charge (+1 str/AP) and fearless. Drunk and Sober models cannot intermingle in units.

Looted Booze One use only, at the beginning of any player turn, all models in the bearer's unit change their drunkard status from sober to drunk.

Hunting Call If your army includes a model with hunting call you can A; roll ambush for units on turn 1 and B; reroll ambush rolls of 1 or 2. These rules only apply to ambushing models with pack tactics. Hunting call works even if the model with hunting call is not on the table yet.

Pack Tactics Units where every model has pack tactics gains swiftstride when charging at the flank or rear of an enemy unit. Does not apply to pursuit or overrun moves.

Primal Instinct At the start of each round of combat, each unit in combat rolls a discipline test, if successful that unit must reroll failed to-hit rolls during this round of combat.

Armory

Beast Axe Always strikes at initiative 0, +1 str/ap and +2 defensive skill as long as the model is not wielding another weapon. Cannot be enchanted with common weapon enchantments from the core rulebook. Can be used along side a shield.

Magic

Hereditary Spell

Echoes of the Dark Forest the target gains fear, fearless, and terror. Enemy units in base contact suffer -1 discipline.

Totems

Totems are bound spells that can be carried by champions and some characters. Each Totem lasts one turn and has a power level of (4/8).

• Black Wing Totem models effected by this totem gains +3 agility and adds d3+1 to charge range rolls.

• Blooded Horn Totem the target gains +1 attack and close combat attacks gain +2 AP.

• Clouded Eye Totem all models effected gain hard target (1) and magic resistance (3).

• Gnarled Hide Totem target gains +1 armor and distracting.

An army can attempt to cast each totem up to 2 times each magic phase, any unit can only be effected by one totem at a time. There are two levels of totem bearer:

Totem Bearer Champions, choose one of the totems from above, that champion can cast that totem with range: caster's unit.

Greater Totem Bearer Characters, has access to all four totems, can cast with range: 18".

Unit Analysis

Characters

Beast Lord A pretty good character with good stats and a cheap price. He doesn't have all the defensive options of other armies, but resilience 5 will help keep him alive. You're taking him for two things, Discipline 9 so your army passes Primal Instinct rolls, and Hunting Call so your ambushers will reliably arrive.

Beast Chieftain Can take totems and be Battle Standard Bearer. Beast Chieftain and Lord are the only characters that can take Hunting call, and only if they are the general. If you are running an ambush centered army, make one general.

Soothsayer Your wizard choice. Has access to Druidism, Evocation, and Shamanism. Also has resilience 5, making this one of the tankier wizard choices.

Minotaur Warlord You know him, you love him. Will trash anything you throw him at. Canny opponents will string him along by the nose abusing his frenzy rule.

Minotaur Chieftain Your minotaur battle standard bearer and totem bearer and now cheaper. Hilarious when your opponent tries to bait your minobus around the table and you get black wing totem off and just dump truck their chaff.

Centaur Chieftain Can also be BSB. Starts with Looted Booze, so if you're running a lot of centaurs, take one to babysit them. Being able to switch from light bait cavalry to shock cavalry whenever you want is very powerful.

Character Mounts

Raiding Chariot available to Beast Lord/Chieftain and Soothsayer. Is a good way to add speed, and if you aren't planning on hiding your character in a unit, is a good way to tank up the character with +1 hp and +2 armor.

Razortusk Chariot available to Beast Lord only. An incredibly strong option. +2 hp and +1 armor gives your lord some survivability, and the chariot gives all units within 6" +1 to charge range.

Core

Wildhorn herd 10 pts/model is their main upside. They come with shields standard, but a 6+ armor save will not help them and Parry has very little benefit for them. Run them with paired weapons to blender enemies. If you use them, you have to screen for them or ambush them to make sure they make it to melee range. Throwing weapons are not useful either. Champion can be a totem bearer.

Mongrel Herd up to 50 models, only 8 pts/model. Start with shields standard. These are your best option for screening. Throw these guys around to clog charges and block line of sight to your more important units.

Mongrel Raiders Same as above, but max 20 models and come with bows. Useful for peppering flankers, but don't expect them to do much on their own.

Special

Feral Hounds units of 8 or more count as core. Come with ambush, feel free to threaten enemy wizards and warmachines and hope they make it there from the board edge before they get shot to bits.

Longhorn Herd Wildhorns but good. Come with Bodyguard for Beast Lords/Chieftains, heavy armor, and halberds. You can trade halberds for great weapons for free, you aren't losing much with agility 3 anyways. Champion can be a totem bearer and the unit has the option to ambush.

Minotaurs The bus you want. Take paired weapons, more attacks will get the most out of them. Champion can be a totem bearer.

Centaurs Drunkard gives the option to run these as chaff cavalry or shock cavalry. You can take throwing weapons to be annoying, take a chieftan to make them both. Champion can be a totem bearer, the unit has the option to ambush.

Raiding Chariot Units of 3 models counts as core. If you really want to, you can pretend your undying dynasties. The lack of ranged support in your army makes it harder to run a full chariot list.

Razortusk Herd Take them in small units (3 at most), point them at what you want dead and hope they get there. If any of them get shot at, Discipline 6 will make sure they run for the hills.

Razortusk Chariot At the cost of 3 razortusks, it loses some attacks but gains survivability and won't run if combat doesn't go its way.

Briar Beast It's a Chaos Spawn. Can Ambush, but has a special rule that it can ambush in from any forest as well as from the table edge.

Gargoyles Flying skirmishers, come with devastating charge (+1 str/ap). Don't expect them to survive if anything looks at them funny.

Terrors of the Wild

Cyclops Is a big walking catapult. His hurl attack has divine attacks, meaning that not even characters are safe from him. Resilience 5, Aegis 5+, and Magic Resistance (3) makes him a pretty tanky catapult.

Gortach The Minotaur's big ugly redneck uncle. You can statistically rely on his Strength from Flesh to trigger once a round, meaning he'll heal 1 hp each round while in contact.

Jabberwock Other armies have dragons, but Beast Herds have this, um, you know, thing? Has a breath weapon, poison attacks, and an Aura of Madness. Anything it'll fight suffer -1 to discipline.

Beast Giant Is a beasty guy, gains forest strider and drunkard. Take the beer barrel so you can run him quick into the enemy before they can shoot him too much and then get wasted for close combat. You can make him big if you want, he'll get +1 hp and maximized rolls for number of stomps, but gets a bigger base size.

Magic Items

Weapon Enchantments

Hawthorne Curse gives your model a lance and lets them pretend to be a bolt thrower. The best ranged option you have as beast herds, never leave home without it.

Ancestral Carvings Soothsayer only, +2 Str, AP, attacks, and gains distracting. If you want your wizard to run touchdowns, this is the way to go. can be taken 3 times per army.

Twin Hungers paired weapons only, adds lethal strike, and whenever a 6 to-wound roll successfully causes a wound the bearer regains 1 hp (max 1 per round).

Fatal Folly Beast Axe only. Close combat attacks allocated against the bearer that roll a 1 to-hit immediately provoke an attack from the bearer.

Armor Enchantments

Aaghor's Affliction The bearer gains +1 resilience and Fortitude (4+) and automatically fails all armor saves.

Trickster's Cunning successful to-wound rolls against the wearer must be rerolled.

Wild Form at the start of each melee phase, choose one: +1 str/ap, -1 res OR -1 str/ap, +1 res. Effects last until the end of the melee phase.

Obscuring Fog shield only. enemy units in base contact suffer -1 agility. Is only occasionally useful.

Banner Enchantments

Banner of the Wild Herd max 3 per army. one use only, only one may be used for each round of combat. When used all mongrels and wild horns in bearer's unit gain +1 to str and AP.

Artefacts

Dark Rain for the first game turn your opponents shooting attacks suffer -2 to-hit (-1 if you went first).

Seed of the Dark Forest place a forest before the game starts, friendly models within this forest gain +1 to cast augment and hex spells as well as (+1/+1) to the power level of totem spells.

Pillager Icon All friendly Razortusks and single model chariots within 12" of the bearer gain vanguard.

Inscribing Burin While the bearer is within a forest, all friendly units within any forest gain magic resistance (2).

Eye of Dominance Attacks from Beasts, Cavalry, and Constructs can only hit the bearer on 6+.

Crown of Horns The bearer, all models in its unit, and all units within its commanding presence automatically pass Primal Instinct tests.