Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Beastmen

"Chaos comes!"

– Game battle chant for Beastmen

This is the tactica for the Total War: Warhammer version of the Beastmen.

Why Play Beastmen?

• Because you love the half-human half-animal creatures from Greek Mythology, but wanted to see them as destructive, crazy, violent, rapist raiders who hate everything that so much as looks orderly.
• You want to worship Chaos but don't care about the recognition.
• You really, really hate furries, and playing as a race tailor-made to be completely unromanticized animal-people was the best way you could think to express your disdain.
  • Alternatively, you're a Furry yourself and have decided to throw in with a /tg/ approved furry race because you're sick of getting crap for it.
• Because you don't need no OP armor or Daemons to burn the world down.

Pros

• Speed: You are up with Wood Elves as one of the fastest factions in the game. Your infantry and cavalry can outpace their competition from most other factions, and even their monsters are very speedy for their size. Only Slaanesh can reliably out speed you.
• Mass Vanguard: Most of your units have Vanguard Deployment, meaning you can set up troops in places most newer players wouldn't expect. This really helps exemplify them as an ambush faction who relies on catching their opponents with their pants down.
• Summons: With access to Lore of Beasts, Lore of Wilds, and Morghur's Chaos Spawn abilities, you are the most powerful summoning army in the entire game. You can summon a lot of really powerful units like Manticores, Cygors, and Spawn to really give you an edge over your opponents and snowball out of control.
• Hitting Power: Believe it or not, a goat-man that stands roughly a foot and a half taller than a normal human and is made of nothing but muscle hits really, really hard. That's not even getting into Minotaurs, which hit with the force of a freight train with a rocket tied to the back.
• Chase down Potential: Because of how fast your units are, chasing down routing units is something that few factions in the game can compete with you at. Hounds and Centigors will get rid of all that pesky infantry and make sure that terrified Lord is escorted cleanly off the map.
• Monsters: Well, this one is only a super positive if you bought The Silence and The Fury, but yes Beastmen have a ton of cool monsters to pick from. Ghorgon, Jabberslythes, Minotaurs and many more will let you run the beast horde of your dreams.

Cons

• DLC Faction: Unlike the base game factions, who are merely supplemented by DLC, the entire Beastmen faction is locked behind an additional paywall. Combine that with the fact that you need to buy BOTH GAMES AND ANOTHER DLC just to get the full roster, and it can get pretty pricey just to be able to play the cowmen. This is combined with the fact that Ghorgon and Jabberslythe are so important that honestly Silence and the Fury is a must buy for multiplayer.
• Lack of Defense: You are a very fragile faction and are prone to mass missile fire and losing out in pure grindfests. You want to hit hard and get out before the enemy can retaliate.
• Poor Leadership: Most of your army has leadership that can best be described as "A 50's reality show housewife who just saw a Rat." expect your units to be running a lot. The Wargor helps a little but he won't be keeping your troops in line for long as he doesn't provide any fear immunities.
• No Heavy Cav: You don't have any cavalry options which can win in a one on one slugging match against enemy heavy cavalry. Centigors get pimpslapped even by Orc Cav.
• Poor Ranged: While you are ok at ranged by Chaos standards, you are made to primarily be a melee faction. Raiders and Throwing Axe Centigors have very limited range and Cygors are uber expensive. While you do have options, you will need to get up close and personnel to deal with the enemy most of the time.

Universal Traits

• Primal Fury: As the first DLC faction since launch, the Beastmen were the first race to get some kind of passive battle ability on most of their units. As such, it's pretty outdated compared to what the newer faction received. Whenever a Beastmen unit's leadership is over 50%, they gain extra charge bonus, melee attack, speed, and immune to psychology. It's pretty much Frenzy only instead of getting extra weapon damage they move faster. This may sound like a great way to deal with the army's Leadership problems, however since it goes away when leadership is below 50% it means that it doesn't help as well as you think. Combine this with the general low leadership the army has, and sometimes you forget they have immune to psych in the first place. The bonus to stats are nice, but hopefully, this gets updated when the Beastmen update comes.

Legendary Lords

• Khazrak The One-Eye: Your big named bastard who focuses on combat. With armor that provides a 20% damage resistance when in melee and a massive anti Infantry combat steroid, he's a beast in physical combat, especially on his chariot. Since Beastmen chariots are actually pretty good, this guy can be a menace with microed well. His biggest problem is that while he is a decent combat lord he really doesn't do much to help the army as a whole, and mostly just exists to run over the enemy. Granted, he does that pretty darn well, but since the Beastmen units generally need some form of leadership support in order to keep them in the fight this guy usually gets overlooked when it comes to multiplayer. He probably won't lose you a battle, but he probably also won't be the reason you win either.

• Malagor The Dark Omen: The only caster Legendary Lord you currently have, and after his rework he has become one of the best lords in the whole game. he comes with a mixed lore of magic from Beasts, Shadows, Death and Wild with some good damage spells and the ability to summon Cygors out of the ground to bash your enemies to pieces. He flies meaning he's easier to maneuver or run to safety than most lords but if the enemy has any flying units harpies are mandatory to cover for him. In campaign, this guy is so fast and can get so much magic reduction costs that in the late game he can win battles all on his own. However the Beastmen lack of air power means you'll want to toggle his flying off and use him as a boring footlord if you're up against a faction with a strong air force like Bretonnia, High Elves and Vampire Counts.

• Morghur The Shadowgave:Morghur's main draw is the ability to get free value on the field and supply your army with free units. For one, while he is a foot lord he has crazy high regeneration, meaning killing him is actually pretty damn hard. On top of that, his abilities are just flat out amazing. He gets a free Chaos Spawn summon to use whenever the hell he feels like it, so you can surprise the enemy with surprise butt sex. On top of that, he has a really cool passive that makes it so that once per battle, when an enemy unit reaches below a certain health point, they die and spawn a friendly unit of spawn. That means this guy can get you two extra units on the battlefield FOR FREE. Needless to say, that is amazing and as such he is the go-to lord pick for 90% of Multiplayer Beastmen lists.

• Taurox The Brass Bull (DLC): Available in The Silence and The Fury, Big daddy bull is coming to save the Beastmen in their hour of need. He is the Beastmen's monstrous lord and his main job will be to beat the living crap out of whatever you point him at. He is a tanky beast with Armor Piercing fire damage and numerous abilities and weapons that increases his melee prowess even further. His Brass Body ability gives him a 40% damage resistance and melee defense making him even harder to kill, though interestingly his weak point doesn't play into the game even though it shows up on the model. I guess CA didn't like the idea of you randomly losing your lord because Tzeentch felt like being a dick. If he does get in harm's way he also has an AOE explosion around himself to give him a get out of jail free card. In multiplayer he's very expensive, has a big hit box and weak to armor piercing missiles, so there are probably safer, if less fun, options there.

Units

Lords

• Beastlord: Your infantry melee choice and as far as generic lords go he's... Meh? He's pretty much just Khazrak only he trades some melee prowess in exchange for an extra buffing ability for him and his army. Ironically this means in multiplayer he's considered better than Khazrak since he can actually help out all the poor goatmen who are stuck in melee. Other than that, you pretty much use him like you use Khazrak. Put him on that chariot and blast Ludacris on your speakers as you run your enemies the fuck over.

• Doombull (DLC): Budget Taurox, only instead of using axes he just punches people to death. He's a big bruiser lord similar to The Kroxigor Ancient, and comes with the ability to Daze his opponents so when he punches someone in the face they lose speed and Melee Defense, making them easier to stick on and kill. His Barbed Knuckle Boxing also gives him more attack and weapon damage. Very similar to Taurox, though less survivable and cheaper.

• Great Bray Shaman: Confirmed as a FLC lord for the Beastmen on Total War access. He will be the generic caster lord for the goatmen, giving them some much needed lord variety. He comes with a Tuskgor and Razorgor chariot mount. He's great if you just want to save money on a caster by wrapping him up with your lord.

Heroes

• Bray Shaman: Your generic caster hero and he does what you expect most mages in this game to do to be honest, so he's always handy to have around. He has access to the Lore of Beasts, Shadows, Death, and Wilds, so he focuses more only blowing shit up with magic prowess more than healing or straight-up buffs, not that he's incapable of doing that. Since you pretty much got to bring this guy in most armies unless you have Malagor, you may as well put him on the chariot, as when you do that he becomes pretty decent at cycle charging infantry to death as well. If mounted on a Tuskgor Chariot he gains vanguard deployment.
• Gorebull: The first monstrous character (aside from Kholek and Sarthoreal) to be put into the game. This guy is a beast who specializes in AP anti large, so see if you can throw him against any monsters to chip down. He also acts as a pretty good bodyguard for your squishier lords or casters since who the hell wants to be fighting a nine-foot-tall minotaur with a big fuck off axe. The Gorebull does have one infamous weakness that makes him a meme in the community though, his mass. For whatever reason, it is really easy to knock this guy around like a pinball and send him flying to Saturn. Now a Dragon or Giant would understandably be able to do this, but something like a troll should NOT be able to throw this guy around so easily. Seriously, look up Gorebull Mass and you will probably find some damn good memes. This means he has issues sticking to his targets since anything big can just throw him halfway across the map. Still, a pretty good hero is you're able to keep him within orbit.
  • The Twisted and Twilight patch has fixed some knockdown problems that have been plaguing all foot lords, not just Gorebull, so rocketing will be a rarer occasion than in the past. Nope, this guy still has the mass of a rubber ball. Sorry.

• Wargor (DLC): A hero gor and a budget version of the Beastlord. He will serve as your melee infantry hero, providing some defensive buffs for your armies to help keep them in the fight. Both on foot and his chariot mount he is more of an infantry blob fighter with mostly base weapon damage and anti infantry. He also gives +4 leadership and +5 melee defense so he can help your units stick around a bit longer. he's also fairly cheap in multiplayer, so bringing two isn't that crazy. Likely best to use against super infantry reliant factions. If mounted on a Tuskgor Chariot he gains vanguard deployment.

Melee Units

• Ungor Spearmen: Your chaff spear unit, designed to absorb damage and make sure enemy cav doesn't stick around too long. Stat wise they're pathetic and lose to anything not a meat shield but they do have a high entity count and can use vanguard deployment for ambush tactics. They also gain advantages when fighting in the forest, so get tree engagements if you can. By far the best part about them is that they have the expendable trait, meaning you don't have to worry about them scaring the troops you actually care about when they rout.

• Ungor Spearmen (Shield): They will make your frontline in most multiplayer battles, though in campaign you'll want better troops as soon as you can get them. Always get the shields variant.
  • Destroyers of the Drakwald: Not only does this unit have much better melee defense, meaning it might actually stick around for a while, it also has poison attacks. This can be a good support unit and help enemy cav get stuck if they get their hands on them.

• Ungor Herd: The same as above only this is a much more offensive infantry. These axe wielders sacrifice some defensive stats in exchange for better offensive ones, meaning they can pump out a bit more damage than the spear version. They will still lose to most halfway decent infantry of the same tier, but they're meant to be expendable anyway so don't worry too much about it.

• Gor Herd: Your mid-tier infantry and man are these guys lawnmowers against low armored units. They come with two versions, a shielded version with more defense and a dual axe version with more attack. These guys are some of the best chaff clearing infantry in the game and will get rid of all the low-level fodder some factions love to bring to the table. Their armor is garbage so even the shielded version will die to missiles, but can still be great if they get on the right troops. Plus vanguard can help with sneaky shenanigans. Get the shielded version against factions with tons of missiles and the unshielded one against factions who don't.
  • Black-Horn’s Ravagers: They have better armor and stats than a normal Gor Herd, stalk, and an ability that gives them perfect vigor. This makes them great early game damage dealers, but their usefulness will drop off as the battle rages on and they sustain damage.

• Harpies: They're like fell bats, only they might actually kill whatever they're fighting. They are usually used to tie up enemy skirmishers and get them off the field so that your troops can fight unmolested. They will die if anything so much as sneezes on them too hard, so be careful when sending them in, as they may not be able to pull out again.

• Bestigor Herd: One of the few units that can best be described as "Shock Infantry." They have a monstrous charge bonus for an infantry unit and combine that with a decently high model count and they can cause havoc. If they can get a clean charge off on an opponent, these guys will be doing roughly the amount of a monstrous infantry unit PER ENTITY. They will clear through most mid-tier infantry if they can get the drop on them. The bad news for you is they're very reliant on the charge as their defensive stats aside from armor suck, so if they're the ones getting charged, don't expect them to last long. Great for punching through heavy armor.
  • Khorrok’s Manrippers: These guys trade a great axe for a halberd, meaning instead of armored infantry you want them fighting cavalry. They are your only halberd unit and you can only bring one, so they're almost a requirement against heavy cav factions.

Missile Infantry

• Ungor Raiders: Your only foot skirmisher unit, and by Khorne's Bloody Taint are these guys not exactly the model most ranged units strive to be. With pitiful range, accuracy, and AP you'd think there's be absolutely no point in bringing them, right? Well, they do have some uses. They can be used to force away skirmisher cav and can do some ok damage against units that don't have a ton of armor. They also have vanguard and stalk, meaning you can use them to get some sneaky ambushes on an unsuspecting opponent. That said, they aren't Waywatchers, so don't expect them to carry the day for the Beastmen.

Cavalry

• Centigors: These horse goatman things are lighter cavalry designed to go after enemy skirmishers. Their special trait Rowdy gives them perfect vigor while their leadership is above 50% which is great for cavalry as they will be at peak fighting capacity for a large chunk of the battle. Vanguard can also help them with cheeky ambushes Beastmen love to do and a shield will help them against any missile fire coming in. Don't charge these guys into heavy cav, however. That job belongs to...

• Centigors (Great Weapons): These guys are very similar to the above, but they trade their shield for AP. This makes them a good can opener unit that can get through some heavy armor. They shouldn't be thrown in alone, however, and are best used in support with other units, preferably with debuffs like poison. If you can get the drop on your opponent and give them support, they can get some real value for your army.
  • Sons of Ghorros: Not only do they get way more armor, but they also get magic attacks which can help deal with any physical resistance. Guardian is also fun to help protect your characters if they ever get caught out. Though sadly they are much faster than all the Beastmen lords so you won't get to see it much.

• Centigors (Throwing Axes): Skirmisher cav with a whole lot of AP, these boys are your best answer to heavily armored units from range. They're decent in melee but you want them for the throwing axes and all the AP they bring to the table. Granted with only 14 shots you need to be able to use them wisely and you best hope your enemy's light cav don't catch them or they won't last very long. And of course with goodies like vanguard they can be great for ambushes, though it's usually better to keep them with units that can protect them.
  • The Groghooves of Wolf’s Run (DLC): Centigors blessed by Nurgle with poison and regeneration due to a unique passive. This will make them far more deadly in close combat due to the healing and debuffs they can spit out. This likely isn't as useful as you think because any centigor Throwing axe unit in melee is going to be losing models and you generally bring them because they're decently cheap, so a more expensive version isn't the best. Still if they poison something nothing will catch them.

Chariots

• Tuskgor Chariots (DLC): Your budget chariots. They may not hit as hard as your more expensive option but they are much cheaper and have vanguard, giving them much more interesting versatility on the battlefield. You can now get some cheap, relatively strong units in your early game vanguard and hit your opponent with the surprise chariot. In multiplayer these guys pretty much make razorgor Chariots redundant since they do essentially the same thing but for cheaper.

• Razorgor Chariot: Not much to say about these guys to be honest. They're a very solid chariot unit that causes fear. If you're fighting against a faction that loves armored infantry like Dwarfs or Warriors of Chaos these guys will be able to run over them and supply good flank support.

War Beasts

• Chaos Warhounds: Fairly cheap, expendable skirmisher hunters that can be vanguarded. Plus with missile resistance, you don't have to worry too much about them getting torn up by arrows or bullets on the way in. They come in a normal and a poison variant, and nine times out of ten you will take the poison version because it's literally the exact same thing but with poison, with the only downside being that it's ever so slightly more expensive.

• Razorgor Herd: Don't let the crummy statline fool you, Pumba's warped cousins are one of the MVPs of the entire roster. Heavy AP combined with fear is already pretty good, but combine that with high mass and they can fill a variety of roles if they get support. You can team them up with your frontline to tear through armor or help out Centigors with pinning cav or monsters and laying the hurt. Plus they're only 600 gold meaning you can spam the field with bacon. They do have rampage which really sucks, but honestly, at only 600 gold you won't miss them that much if they suicide charge into halberds. Their attack and defense may suck, but the mass, AP, and combo potential more than makeup for it, and they can really punch above their weight.

Monsters

• Chaos Spawn: Pretty much identical to what the Warriors of Chaos have, only these guys trade a lot of Weapon Strength for poison. Believe me, it is a worthwhile trade-off. With poison not only can they do a ton of damage to light armor but they can provide support for your frontline, meaning your ungors may actually be able to do something! And of course, having a unit that will never run is welcome in a faction that's prone to mass routs. Serves as a great inexpensive monstrous infantry in your armies, but if you're worried about armor, see below.
  • Sidegraded in patch 2.2, giving them more weapon strength but also boosting up the gold cost. They are really good monsters for tanking hits and tarpitting single-entities.

• Minotaurs: Let's be honest I think everyone who has wanted to play Beastmen plays them for a chance to use these guys. With high AP, charge, and attack they can tear apart anything that they get their hands on, but their low armor and melee defense mean they can't take much of a beating in return. Bloodgreed also makes them immune to psych while their leadership is up, so they'll stick around longer than your average goat person (good thing too cause their leadership ain't great). This unshielded version has an anti-infantry bonus, so if you can get your hands on armored infantry they won't last long but archers will tear them to pieces.

• Minotaurs (Shields): These cowmen give up the extra axe and anti-infantry bonus for a shield so they don't have to worry about missiles as much. Generally, the preferred choice over dual weapons since they can still tear up infantry just fine and might actually survive an arrow volley or two. They have significantly better melee defense than the dual axe variant also, so they last longer in prolonged melee’s
  • Butchers of Kalkengard: These guys evidently had some troll meat with Grom because they come with regeneration. This more or less negates their one weakness in being squishy, so they can absolutely run train on whatever you need them to. Keep them away from fire or your enemy will be having a nice steak dinner.

• Minotaurs (Great Weapons): With a two-handed weapon comes anti large for these guys. If the enemy has a big monster they'll chop it up if they get their hands on it, though the lack of a shield once again makes them very vulnerable to missile fire.
  • Unfortunately not Doomstack material, even if you're playing Taurox. Auto-resolve hates them, so you can burn the entire unit out with Taurox's "slaughter one army, then the next, until everyone's dead" playstyle

• Giant: God this thing sucks and doesn't synergize at all with the roster. It hits like a truck but it's slow, has no armor, can't ambush or hide, and kind of craps on what Beastmen like to do in general. And now that the Ghorgon is finally here it's redundant on top of that since the big cow now fill every hole that this thing filled. Now there is absolutely no reason to grab this thing, as aside from survivability the Ghorgon just does its job way better.
  • in campaign however it's worth grabbing a few, not intentionally increasing their capacity by themselves but only because increasing capacity for Giants also increases Chaos Spawn capacity too. Their vunerability is offset by the fact they're one turn to recruit and free so they have a bit more use than on any other faction, being tier 3 to recruit and also available from Herdstones makes them great in secondary stacks.
  • Aside from the aforementioned Chaos Spawn/Giant pairing, Morghur can make the most out of Giants because of the Chaos Boons from his tech-tree. You can make them faster and hit more often, Very Tanky with improved Regen, or Invisible and Unspottable, all of which can help Giants get to the melee.

• Jabberslythe (DLC): THE CHARGLEMAGNE MEME IS DEAD! A monster with a bound vortex that goes off automatically, a damaging aura, and poison/magic attacks, making it an infantry blob killing machine. Its best ability is the damage aura, which turns it into a Mortis Engine against any unit that has less than 50% leadership. It's very good against infantry factions that love to blob with a bunch of chaff. Throw this thing at the Vampire Counts and watch it munch skeletons for days. Even though it has wings, it can't "fly" anymore than a few meters above the ground, which is part of a special attack animation. Said animation lets it crash on top of infantry formations and go over tarpits, making them really helpful in fucking up the enemy lines.
  • Pretty good in campaign, where the techtree can give them regen. A few of these guys can keep enemy infantry tied for an entire battle, giving you a good anvil to complement your army of Hammers.
  • The Vorbergland Broodmother (DLC): This one comes with armor sundering and an armor-piercing vortex, making it much better against heavily armoured opponents.
  • The armor-sundering vortex provides good synergy with your chaff and other anvil units which don't have AP, like Chaos Spawn.

• Ghorgon (DLC): Finally, after five goddam years you have a dedicated monster duelist. Fast, anti large and with regen in melee they are exactly what the Beastmen needed to help them out against heavily armored monsters. Its biggest weakness is the lack of armor, so even relatively cheap missiles can tear this thing to pieces. Best used on the flanks were it can take advantage of its fast movement without being at risk of taking the brunt of enemy fire. Best to keep him away from ranged faction such as Elves and save him for more monster focused races like Lizardmen, Tomb Kings or Vampire Counts.
  • The Bloodbrute Behemoth (DLC): This one must have taken lessons from Snikch, since he does more damage to lower health opponents, making him the ultimate anti-monster character.

Artillery

• Cygor: Now this is the big scary monster you want to bring into battle. It's not as good as the giant in melee but it serves as a hybrid monster/artillery platform to rain down giant death rocks upon the enemy. It's also a great counter to mages due to magic resistance and a passive that increases miscast chances map-wide. The rocks are great at taking out infantry formations and if light cav does get on it, well, it's still a giant cow monster that can defend itself with fairly little issue. Won't last long if a big scary monster dedicated to melee gets it though, so throw the rocks at them to push them back.
  • The Eye of Morrslieb: Same as above only with a single target net ability. Now it can lock down incoming enemies to either make its escape or throw more rocks at it. Just supplies that extra usefulness for an army that likes to get the charge but not be charged.

Tactics

So you may have noticed a theme in your army. Almost everything has high charge, vanguard, great attack, and shit defensive stats. This is an army that wants to get the drop on your opponent, get a charge off, rout their units and chase them away before they can hit back. It's a hard to use army that rewards good micro and timing, and due to a lot of their key units being locked behind DLC, you can argue that they're pay to win, like a lot of factions are in multiplayer. Needless to say playing defense is a horrible idea with these guys and if you prefer to sit back and let your enemy come to you this is one of the last factions you should consider playing.

Multiplayer Strategies

• Beastmen: When you're fighting your fellow goat people, Chaos Spawn are your friends. Due to the low armor of the roster they can pump in a ton of damage and apply poison to the whole roster. Morghur is a fantastic choice for getting more of them on the field. Aside from that this often comes down to who can come out on top in the mobility game, as the Brayherd who has the edge in mobility often times can come out on top in the end. Go mainly for an spear frontline to help with cav and spawn and to get as much funds as possible into your mobile and monster elements. Raiders can also poke down the low armor of enemy spawn, but watch out for Centigors. You can also grab Lore of Wilds for a free Cygor, and take advantage of their weakness to monsters.

• Bretonnia: This is an interesting match up as both factions are heavily reliant on getting the charge in order to win. You will have absolutely no issues in the infantry grind, the big issue is dealing with Knights. Obviously you want an Ungor spear frontline in order to get as much anti large as possible, and they should be able to deal with the unwashed peasants that come their way. Razorgors are great, not only because they're cheap mobile AP but they can pin knights in place and allow your Great Weapon Minotaurs on top of them to cut them to pieces. Of course with most Bretonnian knights having anti large, be careful with the big cows when you send them in. Bretonnia also loves spamming archers, especially of the poison variety, so grabbing some Poison Warhounds or Centigors to deal with them can help you. Remember, while Centigors stand no chance at beating knights one on one, they are are a lot faster than them and should be able to avoid them rather easily. If you can deal with the Cav you shouldn't have much trouble dealing with the rest of their army. DO NOT BRING MALAGOR! Double Paladins combined with the Bretonnian air force will fuck him up.

• Dark Elves: Dark Elves are known for bringing a ton of Mobile AP with Dark Rider Crossbows, Scourgerunners and Darkshards. This means your lack of Armor actually comes in handy as you don't really care about the AP. They don't really bring elite infantry so Gor Herds will be able to get you control of the frontline fairly quickly. Don't bring Minotaurs, as Scourgerunners will kite them into another dimension. Cygors are also great here as Elves don't really have much that can deal with them, allowing you to send rocks into their Cav and crossbows with relative safety. Bonuses with the Eye of Morsslieb, as it can lock down Crossbow Cav for your Centigors to rip to pieces. Ungor Raiders are also good for poking skirmish cav if they come close. Aside from that get some cheap spears for bodies and just try your best to beat the Druchii in the mobile game.

• Dwarfs: Yeah you are more than well equipped enough to deal with the Dwarfs. Bestigors are of course amazing here as they can take on the vast majority of the Dwarf frontline and win, though they can be vulnerable to missile fire. If you want to go cheap and expend elsewhere, go for more expendable axe ungors and invest more in Chariots and Minotaurs. Razorgors and Razorgor chariots are great for their AP to get through the Dwarf line and get to the juicy ranged units that are behind them. Minotaurs are a risky pick as they can be taken out by skirmishers and Slayers but if you can micro them well they can do a lot for you. Harpies can also do a ton for you as they can fly over the Dwarf lines and get on the guns and artillery before they get the chance to cause too much damage. And if the Dwarfs waste ammo on your expendable fliers, all the better. Raiders can also be useful, as while their arrows will boink off the armor of the standard Dwarf line, they can cause some cost effective damage to Slayers and help out your large targets. With your mobility and plentiful AP options you'll be able to handle most Dwarf armies, though don't be surprised if one catches you off guard now and then.

• Empire: Once again, dealing with Knights is going to be your big hurdle, though fortunately they aren't quite as big of a pain in the ass as the Bretonnian version. Of course, grabbing spear Ungors is a must to spread the field in Anti Large, so a few of those will certainly help you. Grab Centigor Great Weapons and Razogors to pin them down and you can get some charges off for some good damage. Poison Warhounds are also good for dealing with Outiders and Pistoliers since they can slow them down for Centigors to get on top of. If you can keep them safe, throwing axe Centigors can also help out a ton in dealing with Knights. Once the heavy cav is gone their skirmishers and artillery are free food for your Centigors and Hounds. Gor Herds with shields should be enough to deal with most Empire frontlines as Greatswords tend to be pretty rare in this match up. The Butchers are of debatable usefulness since while they can survive arrow volleys and help with Knights the Empire has plenty of ways to deal with monsters, especially of the regenerating kind. It's fairly similar to the Bretonnia match up only the Knights are slightly weaker.

• Grand Cathay:

• Greenskins: Black Orcs aside Greenskins don't have much in terms of armor in their frontline so Chaos Spawn can help out a lot. Of course, with their plentiful skirmishing options they have ways of shooting Spawn to pieces. Centigors can thus be a good asset in chasing down Spider and Wolf cav and getting them away from your squishier units. You likely won't see Black Orcs due to your lack of armor and if you do, Razorgor support can help your Ungor and Gor frontline deal with them. Of course the biggest thing you will have to worry about here is all the big armoured monsters Orcs love to bring like Rogue Idols and Arachnarok Spiders. In this situation, throwing axe Centigors are your friends, as they can deal with the heavy armor without getting into melee with them. If you struggle with micro or ammo preservation you can also go with one or two Gorebulls with Minotaur support. They will have issues with ranged attacks and aren't as safe as throwing axe Centigors but if you can get them on and Idol or support an attack on a Spider they can rip a very sizable chunk out of it. Or, if you have The Silence and The Fury throw a Ghorgon at them and make sure the enemy skirmishers stay the hell away. With a bit of support the big cow should deal with any monsters the Orcs can throw at you.

• High Elves: Fairly similar to the Dark Elves in that in this match up they tend to rely on mobile skirmishing to get the job done. In that case, a Cygor can work wonders. It will be able to chuck rocks at the Reaver Archers and get some of that annoying archer cav off the field. In the same vein Raiders can unleash some volleys into Ellyrion Reaver Archers if they get too close. Centigors aren't that great here because High Elves have one thing that Dark Elves don't, reliable mid to high tier cav. As such some spears can be helpful to scare off any attempt at a cav charge while Gors can carve through most of the frontline that Elves tend to bring. Rangers can do some decent damage to your infantry and Silverin Guard can hold for a while, but that's about as elite as you can expect to see from High Elf infantry. Swordmasters and Phoenix Guard are too expensive and easy to counter. In case of a Dragon, get a ton of Razorgors and pin that bitch in place for Minotaurs to get on top of and tear to pieces. Centigors with Throwing Axes can also do some reliable damage if he's a bit more apprehensive about landing. Most smart High Elf players won't bring standard archers or bolt throwers but if they do they are free value for your mobile units.

• Khorne:

• Kislev:

• Lizardmen: This match up sucks or at least it did before the Ghorgon showed up! Now that you actually have a way to take down big monsters you no longer need to worry about losing the game simply because you have no way to deal with giant monsters. Hold them down with Razorgors and spam spears for anti large and try to get your big cows to slap them around. Just make sure that you bring plenty of tools to take down Chameleon Skins, because other wise the lack of army is going to put the Ghorgon down fast. Bestigors can fight Saurus and with cheap, cost effective chariots the infantry fight shouldn't be the hardest thing ever.

• Norsca: This used to be a relatively not fun one since you had very little that could effectively deal with both large monsters and Berserker rushes, but with the Silence and the Fury now you do! Most Norscans will bring berserkers as they will easily mow down most of your infantry and allow their big monsters to run amok in your lines. There are two ways to handle them, either get Ungor chaff with Spawn to rip apart Berserkers and get mass for monsters in exchange for missile vulnerability. The other option is simply throw Bestigors at them, as they'll win against any Norscan infantry in a vacuum and aren't as vulnerable to missiles but can't really stop monsters. For monsters you get either get a Ghorgon to slap them down in a straight brawl or, if you want something less vulnerable to missiles, get a Doombull/Taurox and Gorebull combo as a more mobile combo to tie down and tear Mammoths apart. If you aren't going for a Doombull get Malagor as frankly he is OP right now.

• Nurgle: Prepare to suffer. you rely on getting that charge in and Nurgle has enough toughness and healing power to weather through it while grinding you down.

• Ogre Kingdoms: Oddly enough, you guys have a lot in common. You're both generally low-armored and do most of your damage by charging, but while Ogres are all Mass and ignore Charge Defense, you're all Charge Bonus and comedically low Mass (rip Doombulls). While Minotaurs with Great Weapons will trounce any footslogging Ogre on the charge, Ogre Monster Cav will fuck your day up, end of story, so expect Ogres to bring lots. They also have proper artillery, while you're stuck chucking rocks.

• Skaven: Honestly Skaven are one of your favorite match ups, as you have a ton that can counter what they bring to the table. Gor Herds will dominate any infantry that aren't Stormvermin, and honestly most try hard Skaven builds never bring Stormvermin anyway. And of couse, Chaos Spawn are a blessing against low armor, so anything aside from Stormvermin will die quickly. Plus you have plenty of tools to get rid of the gunline, from Hounds to Centigors to get into the backline and get rid of those Jezails, Poisoned Wind Mortars and other Skryre tech before they can cause serious damage. With you mobility and plentiful access to fear and terror you can chase any fleeing ratmen with little issue. Now I know what you're thinking, didn't you say Beastmen have a hard time fighting heavily armoured, single entity monsters? What if they go for a Moulder Rush? Ahh, the answer is in the word *HEAVILY ARMOURED.* While strong, Clan Moulder monsters have piss poor armour meaning Raiders and other units can burn them down with no issue. The match up got a bit more complicated when Skaven got their own mobile skirmishers in the form of Wolf Rats, but your hound and mobile units generally outclasses theirs. Combine that with their low leadership and they're actually somewhat easy for the Beastmen to get rid of. What do you know, a match up you actually have a solid advantage in!

• Slaanesh: Well what do you know, a faction that is actually faster than you are. I wouldn't bother with Centigors or Ungor Raiders here. Seekers will out pace and beat Centigors in a fight and dive into your archers. You'll need mass to lock Slaanesh down and keep them there to butcher. Gor Herds should trade decently into most Slaanesh Troops aside from Exalted Daemonettes, and considering Bestigors are a bad idea in this match up considering all the AP, they might not bring them anyway. Minotaurs and Razorgors should be your way to go for this army, as while they won't catch Slaanesh, they will be able to hold them in once they engage and keep them there with their high mass. Once in, you can use either anti infantry of anti large Minos to slap them around. Since they have low armor, a Ghorgon isn't too necesarry to deal with with large units, and honestly a Jabberslythe might be more helpful to help against Daemonettes. Malagor is a decently safe Lord options since all he will have to worry about is Furies and a Wargor on a chariot can help keep the goats in the fight. Honestly the main goal here is to lock down Slaanesh with mass and pray to any Chaos god that isn't a depraved sex freak that you grind them down before they do.

• Tomb Kings: Gor Herd will have absolutely no problem dealing with Tomb Guard, let alone the basic chaff skellies, but the fact that they're undead makes them a bigger problem than their stats would say. In general, Beastmen hate fighting undead because not only are they all unbreakable, which screws over your "route quick and chase them off" strategy, but they also all have fear, which will hurt the Beastmen's already poor leadership. So while your goats will win in a grind, sadly they may run before that happens. Consider investing in a Wargor to keep morale up. Centigors with throwing axes are a must in this match up as they're your most reliable AP unit, and their mobility will make it hard for the Tomb Kings to catch. Razorgors can also pin them in place so Minotaurs with Great Weapons can get on top of them and carve them to pieces, but if you want a dedicated monster-killer the Ghorgon is the way to go -- just watch out for archers. Finally, Chaos Spawn are just reliable in general because you don't have to worry about them shitting their pants and running away.

• Tzeentch:

• Vampire Coast: Out of all the Undead factions, you hate these guys the least as they at least slightly play into what you like to fight against. An immobile, gunline reliant faction that you can abuse your mobility against. Get a shit ton of harpies and yeet them on top of the gunline so that your Gors with Shields can get to the deckhands unmolested. Of course, that bad leadership is still a thing, so watch out for terror routes. Archer spam is a well known counter to the Coast in general so a crap ton of raiders will be able to get their value back fairly quickly. Lore of Wilds wizard with a Cygor summon can also do some reliable damage from long range so see if you can grab one of those. Big Crabs can be a pain in your ass, though really shooting them with the plentiful amount of Archers you should bring will usually be enough to being them down.

• Vampire Counts: What used to be one of the worst possible matchups for the Cloven Ones is now one of their better ones thanks to the monsters provided in The Silence & The Fury. The vamps have no archers to target, everything is unbreakable and will kill your already poor leadership. Unlike the Lizardmen you know exactly what they will bring, an expendable frontline with 3 Blood Knights and a Mortis Engine to kill blobs. That was all once very scary, but now you have the tools to deal with it. Ghorgons have arrived and they can hunt Blood Knights or Mortis Engines to the ends of the Earth. You also now have your own Mortis Engine in the form of the Jabberslythe, who is excellent at burning through blobs of chaff. Aside from these showstoppers Chaos Spawn are nice since they can't rout and can take on most Vampire Infantry with no issue. Centigors with throwing axes are good against Blood Knights, so save your ammo for then. Razorgors are also good for blocking in Blood Knights and other more mobile threats, carving them up with AP while your Ghorgons beeline for the kill. Aside from that, grab a bunch of ungors or gors to throw into the grind; you're probably not going to need anything fancy in the infantry department considering how crummy skeletons and zombies are, but consider bringing a Wargor to buff up the leadership of your own troops.

• Warriors of Chaos: In order to prove to the pretenders that you are the true servants of the gods, you will need to find a way through all that armor. Fortunately all that armor is usually in their infantry not their monsters, so a Bestigor or two can cut through Chaos Warriors without much issue. If you want more numbers in your AP options, cycle charging Razorgors combined with Ungors can provided a hard hitting AP mess that Chaos Warriors can have a hard time getting through. If they go for Marauders for a frontline and invest elsewhere, then infantry shouldn't be a problem. Minotaurs can also help, especially the Butchers as they can regen through most of what Chaos can throw at them. Marauder Horseman can be a pain in your ass since their mobility can allow them to get their javelins into your unarmoured troops. Centigors can beat them in melee and have the speed to catch them, though they won't last long if something scary gets a hold of them. Raiders are also useful as Chaos Spawn tend to be popular so arrow volleys can come in handy. Since you don't have too many scary SEM or heavy cav Dragon Ogres are fairly uncommon, but if they show up drown them in spears and cycle charge Minotaurs or Ghorgons to carve them up.

• Wood Elves: Two things you want to bring against the Asrai, shields and mobility. You will need hounds and Centigors to hunt down all of the annoying archers that Wood Elves love to bring against you. They should be able to deal with Asrai Spear cav if you bring enough of them, then you can swarm them into the archer position. Dryads tend to be the most popular frontline for the Wood Elves, so Gors with shield should be your infantry option against them. You may question the use of Razorgors due to the lack of armor, but they are useful for pinning Dragons or other monsters in place for your raiders or cav to get a hold of. It's a battle of mobility, and if you win out in the mobile game you should be able to take the field fairly quickly.

Domination

General Tier Rank: A

The fact that half your army has vanguard and hits like a truck really helps you out in this game mode. You can get to the points much faster than most factions and are able to out muscle quite a number of different races due to how relatively cheap some of your units are. Centigors and Tuskgor chariots especially are powerful given that they can come from the vanguard spawn points and hit pretty hard for their price. One of your biggest advantages is your ability to pick you engagements. Due to how much speed you have the ability to decide how much you want to invest in a particular fight. Is that Khorne player placing a ton of Spawn, Bloodletters and a Bloodthirster on the center point? You have the ability to say "Fuck that" and focus on the sides. Granted your units still aren't good at taking damages and if you come across a faction that can outmaneuver you (basically just Slaanesh) you might end up getting served as mutton. Still if you play the goats right those situations should be rare.

Campaign Strategies

With the announcement of the rework finally here, we can take a look at it and finally take our evil goat friends and and burn down the non furries to our heart's content.

The first big change is that now, similar to Tomb Kings, Beastmen units don't cost recruitment or upkeep, but are now locked behind a unit cap. Only Ungor Spears (without shields) and Ungor Raiders can be recruited an unlimited amount of times. Armies are also very limited since you aren't affected by supply lines. As such, similar to the Tomb Kings, make sure that you always have as many full stacks around as the game will let you. Remember, having two armies where one is a full stack of useless ungors is still better than only having one. Even if the second army isn't great for combat, you can still use it to raid, set up ambushes for your main armies, and defend Herdstones. As such once you have an extra army get a full stack as soon as you can, you can always replace those ungors with better units once you have them available. Also when units are damaged after a battle, don't wait to replenish and instead merge the wounded units and rerecruit the ones you lost. They cost no money anyway and it's faster than waiting for them to replenish.

Speaking of Herdstones, that is your new main gimmick for the race. Every time you raze a city it will give you a resource called a Herdstone Shard and once you have enough you can erect a Herdstone at a settlement you burn down. These are very basic settlements with only two building slots, but turns the regions close to it into a Bloodground. Every city in a Bloodground has a value called a Devastation level depending on the level of the settlement (a Tier 1 Settlement is worth 4). Every burned down settlement will add it's Devastation level to the Herdstone, so if you make a Herdstone from a tier one settlement and burn down another Tier 1 settlement, that Herdstone's devastation level will become 8. Once it's at ten, you can start a ritual that once completed adds the Herdstone's level to your Marks of Ruination, a bar that tracks your progress and gives you new units and armies along the way, and makes ALL RUINS IN THE BLOODGROUND UNINHABITABLE UNTIL THE HERDSTONE IS DESTROYED!!!! You also get enough shards to make a new Herdstone.

That may sound really complicated, especially for Beastmen, but it's actually pretty simple. Slap down a Herdstone, burn down as many cities in the Bloodground as you can, complete the ritual, then move on. The big idea is to get as many Marks of Ruination because not only does it get you closer to the final battle but it also increases your unit caps and army capacity. As such, while the goal needed to perform the ritual is quite low, you actually want to get it as high as possible in order to progress the campaign and get a ton of good units quickly. You also need to defend the hell out of Herdstones in order to make sure you don't have other factions plague you with resettlements like in the old Beastmen campaign, so make sure you always have a spare army nearby to make sure no one tries to burn them down. As for the buildings under a herdstone, you have four options. By far the best one is Shaman's Ceremony, which increases your Winds of Magic and gives you vision across the entire bloodground the Herdstone is a part of. I don't need to tell you why vision and extra magic are something you want. The others improve your siege battles, gives you bonus replenishment and can spread plagues. Pick the one that most fits your playstyle.

You also have a new unique currency called Dread, which you get for winning battles. Using Dread lets you increase your unit caps, give you more heroes, and gives you general upgrades and magic items for your armies to play around with. By far the coolest thing about it is that you can use it to essentially purchase the other Beastmen Legendary Lords into your faction, auto confederating with them if they're alive and bringing them back if not. This means that you don't have to worry about confederating other Beastmen factions to get their Legendary Lords if you don't want to worry about it. Bestial Rage is also still around, but now it only connect to Horde Growth so you don't have to worry about attrition. Technologies have been changed to Challenges of the Dark Gods which won't let you research until you complete some challenges (win 5 ambushes, win 4 battles in one turn, stuff like that.) More will be revealed as gameplay comes out.

Total War: Warhammer Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Magic Banner Immortal Empires
Total War: Warhammer	The Empire Dwarfs Greenskins Vampire Counts Bretonnia Warriors of Chaos Beastmen Wood Elves Norsca
Total War: Warhammer 2	High Elves Dark Elves Lizardmen Skaven Tomb Kings Vampire Coast
Total War: Warhammer 3	Kislev Khorne Tzeentch Nurgle Slaanesh Grand Cathay Ogre Kingdoms Daemons of Chaos Chaos Dwarfs