Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Beastmen

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.

Sadly, Beastmen were written when 7th edition was in vogue and they really shined back then still sucked, but not as hard. Prior to the new army book the "only" way to play Beastmen was chariot spam and while the new book added more options, lists didn't change all that much. Today, they are overpriced and nowhere near as durable as they used to be. Essentially, they're now a casualty of 8th edition; pity that WHFB had to be rebooted because of an exceptionally OP army made by a particular cocksucker.

Until the Beastmen get their new army book, Beastmen is for those that likes to use a challenging army that relies on actual tactics, much like how the Dark Pansies USED to be in this regard.

Rumor has it that Beastmen might get some new toys in the next End Times book after all. There is hope.

Unit Analysis

The first thing to note about Beastmen is that most of the army benefits from a rule called "Primal Fury." In close combat, the unit takes a Ld test and if successful, gets hatred for the round. If the unit passes on a double 1, they get hatred AND frenzy for the rest of the round. While this sounds good, you must understand that one of the Beastmen's major weaknesses is their low LD, so they won't be passing as much as you want them to. Keep close to a general and BSB to maximize results.

The other thing to note about the Beastmen is that a number of units can be held in reserve for a Beastmen ambush. Gors, Ungors and Ungor Raiders can all do this, which requires a duplicate unit of the one you want to ambush with (excluding characters and upgrades, it just has to be the same size). Ambushers can strike on the first turn if you roll well enough; after that, the table edge they come in on is determined by the roll of a die and if you roll a 6, you get to choose the side. Again, this sounds good but Gors and Ungors are absolutely terrible and the randomness of where they show up can often screw you over (I need them to show up on the left and they...show up on the right). Never mind that even if they show up where you want them to, they can't charge on the turn they arrive, giving everyone a turn to react to them being there. Therefore, this tactic is best used as a distraction, with shitloads of cheap, annoying surprise-attacking little cunts. You will however need many of them... Get ready to MSU (Multiple Small Units) the hell out of part your army.

• Please note that while this would appear to be (and should be) the Horned Horde's superpower, it is deceptively underpowered instead. As noted above: the seeming randomness of their arrivals coupled with the requirement of having a similar unit on the board at deployment makes this a tentative proposition at best. If you are going to use this, be prepared to accept random outcomes, and use it for what it is good for: a monkey wrench with occasionally hilarious results for one of the players.

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 Archaon of Beastmen, which is kinda sad when you think about it. Costs 125 points more than a Chariot mounted Beastlord and you are willing to pay that because of the 18 inches of Inspiring Presence. That is the ONLY reason why. Combat wise, he's okay, but unreliable. Killing Blow is nice, but his mediocre I and only slightly above average WS (especially for a lord) hurts him a lot. His magic casting ability is pretty useless (as you need to use dice to cast Bound Spells now) and the fact that he's hanging out on his own in a chariot is essentially an invitation for any Lord with a mount and magic weapon to walk up and take a swing at him (more on this later, under the Beastlord). He's still fairly useful, but you might need to keep him out of combat and behind your main units.

• Khazrak, the One Eye: Here we go. 80 points less than Gorthor, helps your Ambushing units to arrive better (never roll a 1 again) and can actually join units and help keep them from fluffing rounds of combat (and unlike Gorthor, he can actually survive the odd round of combat with another lord). If you want a special character Beastlord, this is the one.

• Malagor, the Dark Omen: Not too bad as far as Beastmen Special Characters. If he starts casting he gets hard to stop, he helps your guys around you get Frenzy and he helps hold up your enemy's general. Maybe a little on the pricy side, but worth it for his abilities, especially since he can fly around and troubleshoot. Not bad, not bad.

• Taurox, the Brass Bull: THIS RAPE TRAIN HAS NO MODEL! An awesome chance for you to practice your modelling by upgrading and NMM painting a Doombull model. So - Taurox is really here for those players who want to run a megaton-grade Minobus (see tactics). Probably not seen in games less than 2500 points, Taurox really comes to the fore when supported by egregious spending of points and magic, and a horde of Minotaurs following him in. Some players feel that a kitted out Doombull beats Taurox, but others feel that he is actually quite worth it: Tons of S6 attacks that are magical, flaming and ignore armor saves. He hits like no other and is more then capable of destroying entire units by himself. His weak spot might look scary considering his points, but it doesn't happen that often. One of the better special characters in the Beastmen book without a doubt. Remember though that the amount of points invested into the Bus means that your Gors now will be less well led, so you'll need some buffs for those Gor blocks.

• Morghur The Shadowgave: Unbreakable and kinda fun in the stats department. He kills one friendly (AND ONLY FRIENDLY) model per turn and turns it into that which shall not be named. If you want to take him, keep some Ungors near him to try and turn them rather than something more worthwhile and be aware that if no other friendly model is near enough, he takes the hit himself, so always make sure he has an escort. Can be fun in a non-competitive list, especially if you really wanted to run some grblrlgrbrlrlgrrrr but were turned off by the points cost. Kill 5 or 6 Ungors and get 3 chaos spawns on average? Yes please. Chaos Spawns may not be great for 50+ points but they're amazing for 5 points.

• Slugtongue: Slugtongue costs nearly 80 points more than a level 2 Bray Shaman for a 50 percent chance to cause up to D6 wounds (usually D3) to all enemy units within 36" before the game begins. Other pros are that he has Regeneration (making him marginally less squishy than a normal Bray-Shaman) and has poisoned attacks (for what that's worth). Sadly, he loses access to Lore of Beasts which is one of the main reasons you take a shaman. On the other hand the lore of Death isn't all that bad. The real question is: do you want to pay this much for what is essentially a gimmick?

• Moonclaw, Son of Morsleib: Just what you need, something to make your units worse. As low LD is one of the major weaknesses of a Beastmen army, his Stupidity causing is MUCH more likely to hurt you than your opponent. His once per game ability to drop stone throwers could be fun, if he's inside a unit, you're gonna end up firing at the same unit 3 times (and if you're in combat then your opponent is just going to laugh at you). Oh and did we mention he's Level 1 for 125 points more than a Bray Shaman? Skip him hard.

Generic Characters

Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

• Beastlord: Leadership 9 is what this guy brings to the table and holy shit are you paying for that privilege. He has a respectable S and T of 5, but that's really the most outstanding part of his statline. Properly kitted out he can bring the hurt just like any other combat Lord but toe-to-toe he will get put down like... well, like an animal. Having to pay for Gifts and Magic Items from the same pool limits your ability to outfit him a lot. Almost mandatory for that Ld 9, though.

• Great Bray Shaman: The wizard lord of the Beastmen. Useful as far as Wizards go, but a tiny bit on the pricey side. His LD8 could help in a pinch, but don't rely on it. Lore of Beasts is an incredible choice for him for reasons which should be obvious. Expensive for what he does.

• Doombull: Doombulls bring the murderfest to the table for those players who really want center their army around the Special units section (Minotaurs, baby!). These powerhouses have a gnarly stat line, are mean as a starved dog, and give a LD buff to any unit of minotaurs that they lead. There are some detractions: they're expensive and hard to keep in line (Frenzy plus Bloodgreed means he and his unit are easy to strand, and will be abused by experienced opponents). As well, being Lord level, you now have less access to that LD9 that your Gors need. LD8 makes him unreliable after a fluffed round of combat, BUT they can become a rape train under the right circumstances: kit him out to the max (Ramhorn Helm and a magic weapon are almost mandatory here) and engage trollface while you steamroll rank and file troops. They should almost never be run as solo characters - they're not the lone ranger and can be crushed or led astray too easy. He needs to be stuck in with Minotaurs, but remember that when you do this you need to think about screening units: odds are you're spending a lot on that unit, you don't want it to get isolated and shredded. However - with back up and screening, you are looking at a lawnmower that can really bring the pain to the enemy. Kit him out with some gear and consider some sort of magic banner to boost that LD8/buff his unit, and you could be looking at the reason why the Beastmen have one of the most awesome Special Units in the game!

• Wargor: What with Beastmen LD being both critical and piss poor, and your Beastlord being unable to be everywhere at once, you're going to be buying a lot of these guys to do unit babysitting and troubleshooting. As with Beastlords, most people can kick their teeth in, so be careful with them. Also, get a BSB. Seriously, you need it. A lot.

• Bray Shaman: Cheap level 2 wizards are always useful for when things go tits up for your Level 4's and Bray Shamans fill that role nicely. Worth taking. Don't be fooled though, they can't fight in combat so don't try it.

• Gorebull: He has all the issues of a Doombull with none of the advantages. At least a Doombull has a brutal statline and higher base LD than the Minotaurs (pathetic) LD. Combined with limited access to magic equipment, makes the Gorebull just a fucking awful choice. Frankly, the only reason you should ever see this is in a Minotaur themed army, specifically a Minobus (see the tactics section at the end of this article), where you want a Minotaur Hero as a BSB. Otherwise ignore with prejudice.

Core Units

• Gors: Toughness 4 infantry, a good stat line save for their poor Ld, and aggressive in h2h. Take them in big hordes and buff them with Lore of Beasts (preferable) or debuff their enemies with Lore of Shadow. Throw in leaders in the form of heroes and lords to try and bolster that weak LD - you'll need it so you don't lose a huge block due to a flubbed round of combat. If you're gonna buy additional equipment (you should), make it Extra Hand Weapons, Shields might as well not exist for them. Extra hand weapons become worth it when you consider you'll be rerolling your hits almost every turn if you took a BSB and a Lord (which you should have). Keep these blocks near or with the BSB and El Jefe and you have a really good hammer/anvil for killing the enemy.

• Ungors: Ungors are a tough core unit to swallow: they are supposed to be this army's skavenslaves/goblins but are overpriced for the role at 5pts, and generally don't perform as well as their counterparts. Beastmen don't make use of tarpits, they make use of MSU flankers - which is how these should be used. Blah upgrades (a spear, kind of meh) means that they are less than appealing than their raider counterparts (see below). You're probably going to need some just to keep your Gor/Bestigor units from getting flanked, just be aware: Without a general/hero nearby they can't even function as a Horde (be Steadfast all you like, you're still likely to break when you lose combat at LD6). You shouldnt be blocking them up anyway - they underperform in combat and make a horrible tarpit. Keep them near the General and pray. Tip - if MSUing them, try to keep them 6" apart because they will break, and you don't want a chain reaction to wipe all of your flankers off the board and possibly upset a core block. Your enemy's laughter mixed with your tears of bitterness makes not for a fun night.
  • Ungrel Four-Horn:A 75 point upgrade that occasionally turns into a Wargor and allows you reroll Primal Fury tests against Empire, Bretonnia and other Beastmen. Oh and he traps you at his basic LD, IE 7. Spending 75 points on a unit that will still break under any direct pressure is not a good call. Skip him hard, middle finger raised high.

• Ungor Raiders: Skirmishers got nerfed in 8th edition and these lads are no exception... BUT, these guys are probably the best chaff we have. For 30 points you get a small unit that can pepper lone characters, ambush, and march 10" to protect your flanks. These are great for turning enemy elites in the wrong direction, sniping war machines, trying to appear in the rear with gear as ambushers, and in general making a giant pain in the ass out of themselves (fitting, as that is what they would be good at in the fluff). Take 4+ units of these in MSU form and get to work.

• Warhounds: The main reason to take Core units in a Beastmen army is to try and hit the minimum requirement as fast as possible and since Warhounds don't count towards that, these guys are iffy. They make okay screening units, but are vulnerable to Panic and cause Panic in others. Their primary use is as a screening unit for Frenzied Minotaurs, so that's...something.

• Tuskgor Chariots: The Chaos Gods have seen fit to grant you a core unit that's actually worth it's points, and this is it. Seriously, you can never have enough of these filling out your core choices. Don't go overboard though, you're not Tomb Kings, you can't make an entirely chariot army (at least not and have it work).

Also remember that the primal fury works on the beasts pulling the chariot as well. This is no doubt not intended but as things are written now, the entire chariot gets primal fury.

Special Units

• Minotaurs: The true glass hammers of the Beastmen. Minotaurs are your blunt force instruments and are indicative of the army as a whole: Powerful on the face of it, weak in the details, overpriced, prone to running away on tough rounds of combat or unlucky rolls. Killer models, they are brutal in hand to hand, but this contrasts with their shitty Ld, Bloodgreed and weird movement to role ratio within the army as a whole which makes Minotaurs a hard unit to use right. If you're willing to invest the points and the time (not to mention a necessary hero), they can truly maul the enemy. Be careful about how you move them, and investing in a screening unit or two is mandatory. They won't be chasing down any units (read bloodgreed again - it puts the brakes on what could be a brutal unit otherwise), so try to get a Razorgor in the flank to help run the fleeing enemy down.

• Bestigors: If you want to take Bestigors, you're going to have to commit to them. Units of 10, 15, even 20? Fuck that, who do you think you are, Elves? No, if you want Bestigors you're going to want HUGE units of 30+. Yes they're overpriced for their abilities, but at least at that size they're unlikely to get shot to pieces. In units of that size, they can actually accomplish quite a bit, but don't let them operate on their own. You're going to want a Beastlord nearby and a BSB in the unit would not go amiss. And you definitely should use their magic banner allotment - the only infantry in the list with one. As we said: Commit.

• Razorgors: Two units of 1 should always be an auto include. For 55 points you get a unit that can kill lone characters in the front ranks of units, such as wizards. Good at clearing chaff, combo charges to help run down units, and as flank protectors. Only LD6 so keep 6" away from other units so they won't flee; for this same reason, never take razorgors in units of 2, because if one dies, the other little piggy will run all the way home.

• Razorgor Chariot: For 15 points more you could get 2 Tuskgor Chariots, which is the better choice. Overall though, not a bad choice, as it provides a fairly nasty blunt-force hitter. Just, as always, be careful.

And as with the Tuskgor Chariot, the razorgor all of the sudden got primal fury if you make him pull a chariot, making him more nasty.

• Centigors: Garbage. Absolute garbage. They're overpriced (Cold One Cavalry costs 2 points more and is better in essentially every possible way), they'll crumble if they hit a unit that's not made of cardboard, 1 of their drunken results is meh, one is okay (would be better for a different unit) and the third actively makes things WORSE. Any points spent on these is wasted.
  • Ghorros Warhoof: Spend 155 points to make your Centigors slightly less shit! Honestly, this guy would be 100% better if you could field him and then just cause him to die out of nowhere. As it is, he's not very good. He's so shit his main advantage to your list is the +1 to Primal Fury checks every else gets after he dies. You could use him as a suicide unit to try and get the buff off, but to do that you probably need to stick him in the very center of your army. And if you do that then you can't put any of those other things you need to put in your center (Bestigors, Minotaurs, huge Gor units) in your center. Never mind that you are still paying a MINIMUM of 280 points (more than 10% of your army) on a throw away unit that gives you bonuses that won't kick until turn 2, at the earliest (probably turn 3) and 3-4 turns of +1 to Primal Fury is not worth 280 points. Once you've spent over 150 points on a unit, you can't use it as a throwaway unit anymore, much less once you've spent 280 points on it (for context, that is 5 points less than 5 Blood Knights, with full command. Yeah). So once again, never take Centigors, and never take Ghorros.

• Harpies: It's amazing how much the omission of one special rule can change the Harpies from being pretty good (in the Dark Elves book) to being a risky difficult proposition. They cause panic. Remember, Panic is the easiest way to get your units heading for the hills and never returning, and Beastmen don't exactly need a reason to panic. But they make okay screening and war machine hunting units, so if you're running Minotaur heavy, you could think about investing in a small unit or two.

• Putrid Blightkings (End Times) : Not part of the Beastmen list. Move along, citizen.

Rare Units

Beastmen Rare choices are overpriced and (somewhat) underpowered, like all of the Beastmen book right now. However, unlike most of the rest of your army, they operate just as well with or without Hero/Lord supervision. Thus they can fill gaping holes in your army, cause casualties where you normally can't and hit the flanks. Don't feel bad if you wind up with no Rares in your army - quite often, the points are better spent on buffing your Cores and Specials.

• Giant: You know him, you love him and he's slightly over priced (225 pts. vs the Ogre Kingdoms' or Orcs and Goblins' Giants' 200 points, because those two armies' Giants aren't immune to Panic. However, contrast that with ALL of the Ogre Kingdom's Giant's Pick Up And... resulting in auto-death for the target. Depressing). In all seriousness, the Giant is a safe boring rare choice and combines with any of the other big choices for a perfect 500 points in Rare units. You want the Giant

• Chaos Spawn: Worthless in Warriors of Chaos, worthless here. Do you want a unit that can either hang around the back of your army failing to do anything, or lurch on ahead of your units to get run over by any competent combat unit (T5 and 3 wounds does NOT make him survivable). What's more, he's eating up precious Rare Points. Every time you take a Chaos Spawn, Tzeentch kills a kitten. Think of the kittens. On the other hand you get two in the boxed set...

• Cygor: Cygors are useful but somewhat iffy and probably require more careful use than most of the other monsters. Basically they are your ONLY semi-reliable form of long range attacks, which can be ridiculously useful for softening up key units before combat. The downside is that this will make him a big target for your enemies shooting. Next to being an overpriced movable stone-thrower, Cygors also have some anti-magic abilities. In close combat they can re-roll their attacks against anything that smells like magic (mages, magic items, undead, demons, ward save, hexed/augmented enemies,...), although with a WS of 2 you better still not expect miracles here. Also with a T/W/A of 5 each and no saves he's rather fragile for a monster. Lastly, he has a thing for enemy mages, making that any failed casting attempt also counts as a miscast, thus the potential of blowing both the mage and part of his unit to bits. Sadly enemy mages need to be within 24" AND fail a Ld test so again...no miracles. Overall you're probably better off with a Ghorgon.

• Ghorgon: This (insert derogatory term about 'your mom') is scary and under the right circumstances can cause a lot of carnage, but requires careful use. For starters, Frenzy and Bloodgreed increase the possibility of him being led by the nose (yes I know you need to fail an LD test to accidentally charge, but he will still pursue that unit of Fast Cavalry that flanked him and he won combat, trust me, canny opponents know how to use Frenzy), and being stranded in a bad situation (if he gets into combat with 2 ranks of Swordsmasters, White Lions, Witch Elves, etc, you might as well just remove him). His swallow whole is of limited usefulness and his mediocre WS makes him an iffy proposition. Most importantly: the Ghorgon has NO ARMOUR SAVE. On the other hand, he's one of the 2 units in your army that can operate entirely self-sufficient (even Jabberslythes and Cygors need general or unit backup, the Giant is the other) which might make him worth it all on it's own. Be careful with him though, he's expensive and can easily be put in a situation where he'll drop like a fly. Take advantage of the Ghorgon being one of the very few monsters in WHFB with WS4 and utilize as a flanker as much as possible. Use some of your smaller chaff/finesse units (harpies/other fast warmachine hunting units) in concert with the Ghorgon to get rid of the main threats to the Ghorgon and position as required to rip out some kidneys.

• Jabberslythe: This thing is so hideous it drives your enemy insane (and it's model costs so much it drives YOU insane - not to mention it's the ugliest thing ever to come out from GW. Probably intentionally, but still). Not as all around good as the Giant, Cygor or Ghorgon, due to a lack of Stubborn and comparatively low S and T, but he flies, he shoots, he causes wounds when he gets wounded, he thunder stomps and he drives enemy models insane. Will probably be worth his points so long as you don't use him carelessly. Just keep him away from Vorpal Swords. Also, VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Despite being a flying monster he is NOT repeat NOT qualified to go head to head with a Dragon without backup. A Dragon with a halfway competent rider will knock his ass down. Sending him up against anything above a Manticore qualifies as using him carelessly.

Building Your Army

Army Composition

Play Legions of Chaos instead.

Okay, that's harsh so I'll explain. Legions allows you to fix a lot of the problems of this list by adding WoC units that are, let's face it, more reasonably priced and better at fighting and standing their ground. Sad but true.

What's that, you say? Playing Warriors is for chumps? Okay, you mad bastard. I like you, so listen closely.

Your Core choices are shitty so you'll have to deal with that. Big horde units will give you some holding power (you brought that BSB, right?), small units making the most of the Ambush rule may help by throwing a wrench in your opponent's plans. Tuskgor chariots are handy and will bring some pain but not if you send them in one at a time like ninjas in an episode of Walker: Texas Ranger.

Your real tools lie in the Special slot so when you get to list building your eyes are going to start here. Razorgors for flanking, Minotaurs for smashing. Bestigors will fuck some shit right up but if you expect them to do work all by themselves then you deserve the spanking you're about to receive.

Magic Items

Gifts of Chaos:

• Crown of Horns: It's over costed, and with 8th Edition Rules you get Stubborn so long as you have more ranks than your opponent.

• Slug-Skin: Noooooope. 30 points for a S3 hit on the what, 3 models max that are in base contact with him? No thanks.

• Many-Limbed Fiend: 1 extra attack at base strength? For 20 points. Nope. (This could be 1 extra strength 5 attack on your lord, consider it)

• Gouge Tusks: Here we go. Helpful for breaking through heavily armored fuckers and keeping you from fluffing those important rounds of combat.

• Gnarled Hide: This one is excellent, 10/10 WOULD BANG, especially when combined with existing armor.

• Rune of True Beasts: Not worth it. It won't protect him enough from big scary monsters and it won't protect him at ALL from the Riders, which is where a lot of the threat comes from.

• Uncanny Senses: Good if you're combining it with The Swift Sword of Slaying and might face initiative 5 troops to make sure you get those rerolls. Just be sure to NOT combine it with a Great Weapon.

• Shadow-Hide: Too limited in it's wording. And never mind that if he's on his own, in cover, people shooting at him will already be at -2 and will therefore probably be ignoring him. Skip it.

Magic Weapons:

• Primeval Club: The fuck is this? Who thought this was worth an S5 lord's ENTIRE points allowance. Beastmen lords don't need help wounding, they need help hitting. Never mind that point where you're fighting Zombies and are wounding on a 5+. Skip it.

• Axe of Men: A little on the expensive side and lacks a way to make the enemy accept the Challenge. Maybe if he could take a more proactive role in Hero killing (IE, if he had a mount). As it is? Nah.

• Stonecrusher Mace: HERE we go. Great for a combat Lord, especially if you're going to face Empire and you want to see the look on your opponent's face when you break his Steam Tank. Still a bit on the pricey side.

• Mangelder: Nah. Terror got neutered, as did Fear, so it's too expensive (plus it says Model, not Unit for the second ability).

• Hunting Spear: Having been officially FAQ'd to be a throwing weapon, this one can actually be worth it, just of it's potential for Monster Hunting (big scary monsters that fly, like Dragons, are one of your worst enemies). Best for a cheap Hero, just be aware that your BS will cause you frustration.

• Axes of the Khorgor: Good on a Doombull to make sure you get those attacks in, but it will really eat into his magic points with its high cost.

• Steel Claws: Wielding this weapon comes with a cigar and a penchant for calling people Bub. Amnesia is optional. Seriously though, a good item for it's points, combine with Gnarled Hide for an effective combat Hero, or with both Gnarled Skin and Trollhide for an effective Lord.

• The Brass Cleaver: It's 30 points for on average two or three extra attacks. Not a bad value at all compared to the extra attacks weapons in the core book. A Doombull carrying it around will mince infantry.

• Everbleed: If this item works for you regularly then what are you doing playing Warhammer instead of shooting craps in Vegas? Seriously, the amount of luck required to make this work regularly is absurd, so the points are essentially wasted.

Magic Armour:

• Blade Blunter Armor: Could be worth it just to discourage enemy heroes with magic weapons. Though I don't know if it'll work if the character and thus the armor, are killed before it can knock out the magic weapon. Worth investigating. (Investigated, it still works.)

• Trollhide: It would be churlish of me to point out that Dark Elves have a suit of armor that does the exact same thing, but is Heavy Armor, for 15 points less. But it's still a good item.

• Blackened Plate: Good on Minotaur Bloodkines, but could be good just because of the ubiquity of Flaming Attacks. Still, you could very easily buy this and have it not do a single thing.

• Ramhorn Helm: AWESOME, again 10/10 would bang. Sweetness when combined with Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armour and Shield, giving you 1+ Armour Save that gives you an extra attack every time you make an armour save. Very good with this combo. Send a Doombull out on his own with this combo while he's saying "come at me bro!" and watch him decimate rank and file troops.

Enchanted Items:

• Shard of the Herdstone: Extremely awesome, but keeping all your Wizards in one place is just begging for a unit of flyers to come eat them.

• Horn of the Great Hunt: Great in a Chariot list or if you need to get into combat fast. Beastmen resist shooting damage in the same way an infant fights Mohammad Ali, you want ANYTHING that will get them into combat faster.

• Horn of the First Beast: It's over costed, and you're better off using your Battle Standard Bearer to get those Primal Fury rerolls.

• Stone of Spite: Could be fun, especially against Dark Elves/High Elves (though if you're fighting either of those armies, you've probably lost already) but it's worthless against Daemons or Dwarves (though, see above). Not a bad item though, especially for friendly play.

• Skin of Man: Perfect for a Bray-Shaman who, in your opinion, should not live past turn 2. If you have some silly desire to keep your Shaman alive long enough to affect the game, you should probably skip this one. Keep in mind this still works if your Shaman is mounted on a Chariot, so if you have the points try out a scouting Razorgor Chariot.

• Cacophonous Dirge: Since Musicians only work in combat if you've drawn (and ONLY if you've drawn) this one is limited in usefulness, but it could be okay at ending drawn out combat.

Talismans:

• Eye of Night: Overcosted and weirdly specific in it's effect. If it effected ALL wizards within 24, it might be worth it. As is, no thanks.

• Chalice of Dark Rain: Since, as I said, Beastmen do not resist shooting well at all, this item is worth it. Unless you KNOW you're not facing an army that's not using shooting (and it can be useful against some of those: Read it, it says that Banshees can't scream except on a 4+), you should really be grabbing this.

Arcane Items:

• Skull of Rakos: Odd, but effective, especially if you grabbed Shard of the Herdstone. Probably worth it even it only affects the one Shaman.

• Staff of Darkoth: Remember how we said that you want to tip the odds in your favor? This item is exceptional at helping you do that. Well worth taking.

• Hagtree Fetish: Beastmen magic is lacking in offensive spells, but this could help in a pinch. Worth taking in larger lists.

• Jagged Dagger: If your Bray-Shaman is trying to run touchdowns or getting into combat, he's probably gonna bite it too quickly to make use of this. Even though your GBS may be able to pop off some nice buffs with Lore of Beasts you're not going to be doing enough to justify even its meager points cost. Storing up extra Power Dice may sound nice, but it requires some work to be done in combat that, let's face it, isn't going to happen unless you get wicked lucky.

Magic Banners:

Please note that the only unit that can take magic banners is Bestigors. This may seem like a losing proposition since you already sunk a lot of points into that HUGE unit of Bestigors (to bring the large number of guys you need to have to keep them from getting shot to pieces/cut to ribbons before they get to combat) and you don't want to sink more points into one unit. To that I say: Bitch, did you think I was kidding? You ARE sinking more points into those Bestigors.

• Beast Banner: Really good for a unit you NEED to survive or cause casualties, especially a large Gor unit. Great for a BSB.

• Totem of Rust: Well, here we have a dilemma. -2 armour save for the unit and enemies in close combat, -1 save for all units within 6". Now you have two choices. A) give it to a BSB in a heavy unit of gors. You can soak a decent amount of damage simply by being T4 and a lot of enemies will seriously miss those two points of armour. Toss in some buffs and your blender is good to go. The downside to this plan is that you miss out on being able to take the pretty solid Beast Banner listed above. Since the Totem doesn't effect Scaly Skin saves your BSB really needs to be sporting that Gnarled Hide. Option B) give it to your Bestigors. Doing so will be a total waste of their heavy armour but will give you a unit that can make Chaos Knights go bye-bye. Definite high risk, possible high reward. Think about this item carefully.

• Manbane Standard: Could be worth it on the Bestigors, especially a center-field one.

• The Banner of Outrage: So let me get this straight: The Beastmen get the chance to reroll their opportunity to automatically get Hatred every turn and your enemies also get Hatred, just not every turn. You also lose the chance to get Frenzy from Primal Fury, at least according to the FAQ. What is it with these banners helping out the enemy. It's not like they need the help. Don't ever take this.

Magic

Beastmen magic is generally overpriced and underpowered, just like the army itself and can be beaten down by any dedicated magic armies. Hell, even if it's not a dedicated magic army, it can probably outcast you (Ogres army specific Lore will kick your ass and even Bretonnia and Wood Elves get access to Lore of Life). However, taking the Shard of a Herdstone with some Shadow level 1 casters, and you can miasma the BS of shooty armies, and the WS, M and I of the fighty armies. Even gutstars are no good if they have a movement of 1. Prepare to pay upwards of 600-700 points for a decent magic phase though. However with a L4 and a power scroll, you can potentially force through a couple of spells at crucial times.

But it's not all bad, your casting Heroes and Lords are cheaper than MOST peoples and can hold up acceptably in combat (not on their own, never on their own). You're going to want your lower level Heroes to concentrate on Lore of Beasts and grab multiples of it's Signature Spell (and maybe try to grab an offensive spell or two) to try and tip an important combat in your favor. Lord level wizards should be nabbing Lore of Death right out, for it's usefulness at sniping enemy heroes and weakening enemy units. Lore of Shadows is okay if you want to try for Occam's Mindrazor, but Death and Beasts are more all purpose. Note that the Beastmen's personal lore is not very good, as it has high casting values and low range (4/7 of the spells have ranges of 6-12) which means it has to be a high level Shaman near the front to make proper use of them, which is NOT where you want him.

Here is a breakdown of the spells of the Lore of the Wild. Remember, you'll get more bang for your buck (in terms of longer ranges, lower casting values, and over-all benefits/effects on the targets) by taking spells from Lore of Death and/or Lore of Beasts. Also note that with Lore of Beasts, you subtract one from each casting value, so it's like it's custom made for Beastmen! Also, Beasts is where Wyssan's Wildform is... which you need very much. With each of these spells - look at the ranges (generally too short) and the casting values (generally too high) and you'll see why, for now, the Lore of the Wild really is not that great of a choice.

Lore of the Wild

• Bestial Surge (7+): Signature spell - Allows ALL friendly units within a whopping 6" to get an additional 2-7" in movement directly towards an enemy unit. Useful if you are under threat of missile fire or you just need that little extra bump to get into charge range. Remember that Beastmen survive by being aggressive, so this can't hurt. However, when compared to other Lore's signature spells, this spell leaves a Beastman underwhelmed, frankly.

• Viletide (7+): A 24" magic missile that hits an enemy for 5D6 S1 hits. Great for hunting warmachines, as a S1 hit is still a hit on a 6+. Compare to Flock of Doom's (Beasts) 5+ 2D6 S2 and boostable to 48" range.

• Devolve (9+): You know the Jabberslythe's Aura of Madness? This is the spell version of that. All enemy within 12" take a Lead test, if they fail, the unit takes wounds equal to the number failed by. Considering the number of LD10 units out there, this spell is probably best used on... Beastmen.

• Bray-Scream (10+): Already into high 2 dice land, the third spell gives one friendly character within 12" a S3 breath weapon, no armor saves. For 10+?! Skip hard.

• Traitor-Kin (10+): Its very specific wording and the minimal numbers of cavalry that would be stopped within 12" of you (and not be busy impaling your caster and friends on pointy sticks) means that this 10+ spell is overcosted and/or under-ranged. All enemy cav within 12" (basically, anyone on a mount or chariot) gets attacked by their own mount at its strength and attacks. Engage trollface when playing Bretonnia.. otherwise sit down and wonder why you didn't take Lore of Beasts.

• Mantle Of Ghorok (13+): So.... 13+ for a spell that relies on the Dice Gods to work, and then relies on them again to give you good numbers... but punishes you if you do too good? My oh my. One friendly character within 6" (what is this, a beastman mosh pit??) gains +D6 S and A.... but takes a wound for any 6s rolled for those characteristics. Skip skip skipitty skip.

• Savage Dominion (16+): This spell had awesome potential until the authors went about punishing the caster again. Lets you summon one Giant, Ghorgon, or Jabber (your choice). Sounds good so far... until you read that any wound suffered by your beastie means that the caster has to make a T test for each wound taken, and a failed test means taking a non savable wound. Not too terrible, considering your Great Bray or Malagor (both T5) are your likely caster... but still. Also- the caster cannot cast after this point as long as the monster is alive. Has potential - but your caster is likely going to be your Great Bray Shaman/Malagor, which means that your L4 powerhouse is now rendered unusable.

Tactics

Let's get down to brass tacks here eh? Beastmen, as an army, have some gaping holes. The biggest and most egregious: They have piss poor LD across the board. This means that you need, need, NEED most of your units to be either within your general's LD bubble or contain a babysitting Hero (and even then, don't get excited, your LD max is just about equal to Dwarf base LD). This means you're going to be concentrated towards the center and thus reallllllly open to flank charges.

Preferable Units

Here are some favorite unit designs that Beastmen players have used. You'll notice that the first three are Special Units - welcome to Beastmen:

• Bestigor Herd: Remember how we told you to commit? Here it is. Take 30+ Bestigors (the optimal number is usually 35, but some players go large at 40+ or 50+!). This is a WS/S/T 4 warrior with a great weapon and heavy armor in a unit that can have a magic battle standard. Got a Great Bray Shaman, Wargor or Morghur? You can pop him in here along with a Standard of Discipline, and suddenly you have the Same Ld (9) as if you were in the General's bubble, but are now independent of that bubble and free to wreak havoc. Other options are possible, but make sure you utilize your magic banner allowance. COMMIT.

• The Minobus: A favorite of players who like the awesome Minotaur models and want to field a rape train capable of boosting their murderboner into orbit. Minotaurs can be fielded in multiple orientations such as 2x2, 3x2.... but if you really want to bring the beef, the minobus is a generally minimum of 3x3. Again, commit (just like with the Bestigors) and get at least one hero/lord - you need it because if the Dice Gods frown on you, this very expensive unit of stone killers suddenly turns into a stampede for the rear that is fast enough to get off board before you can rally it! Quite often you will see a Doombull, a Gorebull, and a second Gorebull as BSB in the front row, and 6+ minotaurs in the back. Don't just run the three characters, you need ranks to maintain the bus's ability to combat. Insane players will field 9 to 16 Minotaurs along with Taurox and a Gorebull (or in bigger games, a Doombull) BSB along with a second Gorebull for a unit capable of class 5 hurricane levels of destruction. Remember - canny players KNOW how to redirect this thing, so make sure you are screening it with ungors/gors/razorgors/harpies so that they don't get led around by that ring in their collective snouts. Obviously this unit becomes a risky proposition as a potential one hit wonder, but it can be a thrill to see once the killing gets started. A unit this involved is around 1000 points, so the enemy must engage it if they want some serious VPs. This means a retarded amount of incoming will be directed at the bus: missiles, engine fire, magic, foul language. This will allow your Gore blocks, harpies and chariots to go and assault forward. This also means that your bus needs some serious support - Gores on the wings, and at least 2 wizards trying to keep it alive!
  • Want some load outs? Here ya go: Doombull with Heavy Armour, Shield, Sword of Striking, Ramhorn Helm, Dawnstone, The Other Tricksters Shard, Gnarled Hide; Gorebull with Heavy Armour, Shield, Battle Standard, Beast Banner; Gorebull with Heavy Armour, Shield, Sword of Swift Striking, Dragonhelm, Ironcurse Icon. Obviously, tinker with moving the Sword around, different banners are a possibility as well (but that beast banner is nice).

• Bacon cruise missiles: We told you before, and here it is again - get two units of one Razorgor each. Use them as flankers, wizard hunters or war machine hunters. They also excel at redirecting, chasing down and pinning units so your Minobus can finish omnomnoming them, and in general running around like a .... greased pig. Single model units only: don't buy doubles because the second one will bolt with that Ld 6.

• Ungor Ambush Spam: MSU (Multiple Small Units - usually 6+ units of 5) of ungors or gors with the sole purpose of being meatshields and redirectors. For every unit you have on the board, try to ambush with another. Multiple units of these little bastards means that eventually you'll wind up a few of them in the enemy's knickers. Best used in conjunction with Kazrak as your General so that you are really effective on landing these where you need them. Again, risky in that each unit is essentially 25 points that you are giving to the enemy, but you should think of that as you are spending it so that you can cause havoc and get the enemy looking in the wrong direction or turned for flank attacks.

• Big Block Gors: Get two units of 40+ Gors and kit em out. Remember, no shields - you want AHW, and try to keep them near the BSB for re-rolls. This becomes the anvil for the enemy unit that your hammer will flank charge. Doesn't hurt to screen them - they can get weak in the knees if charged on the flanks. And you are prone to that.

• Harpy Havoc: Facing a ton of wizards or warmachines? It may behoove (nyuk nyuk) you to acquire some harpies - they make descent warmachine and wizard hunters. YMMV. Use with caution as when they are broken, they can cause a chain reaction of panic and fleeing in your flanking units. It's an unfortunate reality that they can break, but their ability to fly allows you to pick off loners. Also act as backup redirectors and meatshields.

• Ham n' Hoof Drag Racing: New Beastmen players are usually so worried about how underpowered their army allegedly is that they forget that there is some awesomeness here: Chariots, baby! Piggy powered wheeled death means that you get some fast and powerful core choices capable of fulfilling multiple roles: flankers, anvil, hammer, warmachine/wiz hunter. Take in 2+ units in smaller games, but try to go large here as this is a powerful core choice for you. Remember that CHARIOTS CAN'T MARCH (pg 86 BRB), so use their ability to wheel while moving to get them into prime charging position. Get aggressive with these, they can be the start of something beautiful if you can get stuck right in early before the enemy brings his magic and missiles to bear.

Strategy and Tactics

The best strategy is to concentrate your Minotaur and Gor blocks towards the center and play big monster/screening units on the flanks. There should be no giant blocks of ungors - this is not their forte, they're not Skavenslaves: they function better in MSUs and as flankers for cheap hits or to force a unit to turn it's own flanks. Minotaurs do flank duty alright, but are unreliable and easy to strand; inherently, put them in the middle (army general helps their low LD) and put the Gor blocks nearby. Cores and Special blocks need flank support: screening units (these are your Ungor/Ungor raiders both on board and ambushing, also your razorgors and harpies, and even MSU gors) are all key to that.

Your Bestigors will likely fall into the above paragraph unless you set them up as stated earlier - with the Standard of Discipline and a Character, at which point they become independent of the General's Ld bubble (this is good). Even then, they cannot be run as a solo problem solver, or the inevitable paddling they get will be well deserved.

Cygors are decent flank units, but need the screening unit to keep dedicated combat units away. Ghorgons fair a little better but have the same problem that Minotaurs have in that they are easy to pull off in a bad direction. Jabbers are great mobile trouble-shooters, but automatically become winged shit magnets. Remember, keep all of these monsters away from dedicated combat units with lots of attacks, great weapons or poisoned attacks. They should be slamming into the flanks, not going nose to nose.

Avoiding your opponent's heaviest units is also important to your success, which naturally is easier said than done. Beastmen are at a disadvantage against pretty much everyone, so you need to strike the weak points hard with magical buffs from Lore of Beasts and huge blocks of Gors/Bestigors, while using lone Razorgors and Ungor Raiders to redirect the enemy's elites, get in the way and basically make a nuisance of themselves while your heavy-hitters crush the enemy's weaker units for the points. Don't fight defensively: you're not Warriors or Dorfs, you can't sit back and let them come to you. Strike hard, strike fast, and melt away before any real opposition comes to get you. Learn from the Beastmen in the lore, they know how it goes.

A nice big meaty unit of Bestigors (35+) or Gors (50 at the least) is very effective as a hammer for this purpose. Kit out the gors with additional hand weapons, a few heroes and Wyssan's Wildform, and run like hell towards the enemy. You should be buffing your Gors with either the Beast Banner for killing, or with the Totem of Rust when facing armies with plenty of disposable income. You need to get as many kills as possible to force Insane Courage from your opponent on the charge. Don't pull your punches, go all out on the offense. March everything forward, move to within inches of the enemy to guarantee charges, because you can't do jack sh*t when you're not in combat.

Now that you're stressed for points, let's not forget to add the fact that you should have 2-3 wizards if possible. Remember - be prepared to pay 600-700 points for a decent magic phase. You need buffs more than other armies and the way to get that is via magic. All of your magic characters will find their points allotments for magical items to be a bit tight - beastmen are poor from living in the woods after all. Buy those casters and try your best to buff buff and buff your units. And ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS try to pop Wildform.

Don't be afraid to stack the odds, no one came along and gave you a 175 point Hydra or decent cavalry. For instance, Gors will almost ALWAYS lose to their equivalent points in (fill in here)Elf Warriors. But, you toss in a Cygor or even a Chariot on the flanks, and suddenly you're doing okay. Gang up on enemy units, don't play nice.

Much of Beastmen playing will involve heavy maneuvering, unit redundancy, draw and counter-charge and avoiding getting shot to pieces. Welcome to Warhammer on Hard Mode.