Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Beastmen
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Why Play Beastmen
Let's say you like Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy, but you're not that hell-bent on winning every game you set out to play. A strange thought to many, I know but let's entertain this one. What would an army of this sort look like? I'll tell you what it would look like - it would look like Beastmen! Like Daemons and Warriors, Beastmen have all that cool chaos flair, like spiky bits, evil and malice, awesome looking models, etc. - and none of the cheese! If you like an army of angry, bitter, drunk pseudo-furries (it's actually a lot cooler than that sounds), you will like the Beastmen.
Also, if you like tough, fast-moving cores supported by awesome lords and heroes, one of the most bad-ass special units and literally terrifying rare choices, Beastmen are for you.
Unit Analysis
Lords & Heroes
Named Characters
Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.
Gorthor, The Beastlord The Archaeon of beastmen, comes riding a tuskgor chariot upgradable to a razorgor chariot. Wields a killing blow spear, randomly casts spells in the magic phase and fucks shit up in close combat!
Khazrak, the One Eye As his name implies, he has one eye, but that doesn't seem to hinder him much. He lost his eye during a bout with Boris Todbringer, but Old One-Eye took that panzy faggot's eye for the insult. In game, he's a deadlier beastlord, armed with a nasty whip (sacrifice all attacks to hit everyone in the front rank) and some pretty hard armour (2+, negates magic/runic weapons) with +1WS. However, the best thing about Khaz is his Bestial Cunning rule, which allows you to reroll either the turn or side for where your beastmen ambush strike!
Malagor, the Dark Omen His name sounds metal as fuck, and he's the Beastman wizard du'jours. He stores unused enemy dispell dice as power dice for the next turn, frenzies your own troops on a PF test that rolls a double and blocks inspiring presence. Did we mention that he can fly, too?
Taurox, the Brass Bull THIS RAPE TRAIN HAS NO BRAKES! Holy fuck, seriously, Taurox is outrageously deadly even when compared to minotaurs which are already outrageously deadly. He sports a stat-line that's almost entirely 6's, deals D3+1 impact hits, has a 1+ armour save, two hand weapons that grant flaming attacks and no armour saves, is frenzied, has slaughterer's call and bloodgreed. He really is that deadly - this wikifag saw Taurox eat a Dwarf Slayer Lord, the slayer unit attached to him and two war machines after losing the regiment of minotaurs that were supporting him.
Morghur The Shadowgave is quite possibly one of the most OP hero-level characters in Fantasy. He's unbreakable, turns things into that which must never be named and cannot be hurt by shooting or magic unless it was loosed within 12" of him - also known as prime spawning range.
Slugtongue One of two bray shaman special characters in the book, being the weaker of the two. Stock level 2 wizard with the ability to randomly inflict wounds on enemy units without armour saves. Also has poisoned attacks.
Moonclaw, Son of Morsleib The other bray shaman special character, and yes, he is apparently the son of the chaos moon. Level 1 wizard, may ride an M7, T5 beast of sorts and has a better strength (of 4) compared to other bray shaman. His wave of insanity is nifty for disrupting enemy formations (or your own) and the fact that he can summon a fucking comet is always good times.
Generic Characters
Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.
Beastlord A decent Lord choice, though overshadowed by other choices. Best to kit out with magic items for army-wide benefits (like the Horn of the First Beast) plus a few gifts/magic items. Great if you are in a pinch for points or if you go against Bretonnians/Empire a lot because of the manbane rule (re-roll failed primal fury tests).
Great Bray Shaman The wizard lord of the Beastmen. Can cast either from the Beastmen's own Lore of the Wild as well as the Lores of Beasts (shock!), Death and Shadows. A fun thing to do with this guy is tool him up with a Razorgor Chariot, Skin of Man (magic item, allows the shaman to scout) and the hunting spear.
Doombull Pure fucking awesome! Like minotaurs, they don't get primal fury but instead cause fear and get access to bloodgreed (successful rounds in combat cause frenzy unless frenzied, then just grant bonus attacks; can only pursue D6"). On top of that, they come frenzied and frenzy any unit they join. An absolute no-brainer to stick in a squad of minotaurs, buff this guy with armour/ward saves and give him the Stonecrusher mace for initiative order S9 attacks!
Wargor These basic heroes are a must! Cheap, tough, fast, manbane, primal fury and can pack lots of goodies for small point games. Take two with great weapons and stuff them into a regiment of bestigors, one with a battle standard and the other with the horn of the first beast and watch the fun ensue.
Bray Shaman Pretty good as far as wizards go, but could be better. T4, M5 are nice things to have in a wizard and they are a swell addition to a unit of Gors. Great for taking a heardstone shard for magic or the steel talons for close combat.
Gorebull Has all the same rules like the doombull above, but hero-level stats and price. EXCELLENT taken by themselves or supported by minotaurs. In the former, take two with great weapons and one with the dark chalice. Otherwise, stick one in a minotaur regiment with a great weapon and trollhide.
Core Units
Gors The Beastmen bread and butter, M5 and T4. Don't bother with shields, just load them up with extra hand weapons and run screaming at your foes. Generally advised to duplicate your squads so you can send one screaming at your foes as stated earlier while the other one sets up for a beastman ambush.
Ungors Give them shields and spears, line them up in a horde and march. They are the beastmen's tarpit so use them as such. For added fun, take a duplicate squad and ambush with it - a successful roll will make your opponent's eyes explode in shear WTF-ness.
- Ungrel Four-Horn: An upgrade for your Ungor champ and what an upgrade he is! Randomly turns into a wargor or a bray shaman and gets to re-roll primal fury tests against Empire, Bretonnians and even other Beastmen. He's also the only special character that can ambush.
Ungor Raiders One of the few missile troops available to Beastmen, equipped with short bows, skirmishers and can ambush. Don't bother with a standard bearer but do take the half-horn and field in two squads of 10 - one for setting up normally, the other for ambushing.
Warhounds Identical to their Warriors of Chaos counterparts, can be given a worthless scaly skin save or (much preferably) poisoned attacks! a pretty good, fast-moving meat shield.
Tuskgor Chariots Pretty fucking awesome if you ask me. Whereas most armies have chariots in special or rare, these guys take them in Core and the entire chariot has primal fury!
Special Units
Minotaurs If you're not taking minotaurs, then that means you don't have a gorebull or doombull. Otherwise, what the fuck is wrong with you? M6, S5, T4 and 3 each of wounds and attacks per model. Not cheap, but who gives a fuck? Field in small units to support a Gorebull or Doombull, but be sure to take one of those as a lord/hero first. Nothing's worse than your rapetrain getting derailed from a failed morale test from a weak-ass shooting phase.
Bestigors The special unit that you never leave home without. Best equipped with a war banner to supplement their despoiler special rule, which causes them to automatically seize banners from victorious combats and add to their combat resolution. Points permitting, field them in a horde and dare your opponent to charge you. Slap a couple of wargors inside with great weapons, a beast banner and the horn of the first beast and you will dish out so many S7 great weapon attacks! It's rather amusing to break your opponent's heavy infantry squad, seize his banner and pretty much never lose combat from that point on.
Razorgors They are quick, but face stiff competition from other choices in this section. Can be fielded as chariots instead, but are better taken as upgrades for heroes and lords.
Centigors The fun special unit as well as the only cavalry unit for Beastmen, their drunken special rule makes these guys shine (granting stubborn, +1M or re-rolls to primal fury), in addition to a decent armour save, cavalry spears and available throwing axes. The cheap alternative to minotaurs and razorgors.
Harpies Just don't. They fly - so what? The rest of your army already moves fast and unless you absolutely cannot afford centigors, then take warhounds because they're cheaper and you can take as many as you want!
Rare Units
Giant You know him, you love him. Special attacks, terror, stubborn, etc. The affordable alternative to the other rare selections in this list, definitely worth taking if you have the points to slot him in.
Chaos Spawn Unbreakable, fear causing, random attacks and movement with a T5 to boot. Great for fielding in multiples to distract, guard flanks, setup charges, etc.
Cygor Giant, anti-magic, terror-causing stone-thrower. This thing is really as insane as that sounds and he's great fun against undead and daemons. He re-rolls to hits against wizards, undead, daemons, anything with magical attacks and anything with a ward save. He also has magic resistance 2, large-target, stubborn and scares the shit out of mages into causing them to miscast. Oh, and did we mention he's a fucking stone-thrower to boot? You wan walk his ass out 7 inches and then throw a pie plate on your opponent - good times!
Ghorgon The other gigantic minotaur horror of the army. Large target, terror-causing, stubborn and frenzied, this guy dishes out plenty of S6 attacks, which can be buffed with the bloodgreed special rule. To top it all off, he can munch on infantry to regain any lost wounds from those pesky shooting attacks!
Jabberslythe This thing is so ugly it scares your army into killing itself. It also flies, causes terror, has a S5 shooting attack, poisoned attacks and dishes out a S5 hit to anyone that successfully wounds it. The reason to take this thing though is because of said aforementioned ability, the aura of madness. Fly him out to your low-Ld enemy line and watch as his men crack under the shear ugliness and take wounds equal to the amount they fail their Ld tests by. Did we mention that this will hit everything within 12" of it? Yeah.