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Hello,

Just getting into Warhammer Fantasy and went with Beastmen, I thought they looked pretty cool and someone pointed out the codex was brand new so it wouldn't go out of date for awhile.

Any advice for a new player. I want to try and keep a mostly Gor army and not load up on minotaurs, although they do look like they would wreck shop on paper? And does anyone use Army Builder and know if an updated data file for beastmen is available anywhere?

Always happy to help a new Beastplayer.
Warhounds are a must, Ungor Raiders are useful too. Just don't expect them to kill anything. They are supposed to irritate.
Minotaurs have cumulative frenzy, each time they win a combat they earn +1 attack to their frenzy. And with S5 as base and impact hits, they are likely to win combats if they get the charge.
Bestigors aren't really worth it, there are so many better special choices. In case you want them, you can use Ghorros Warhoof to free up special choices (by making centigors core), and taking Razorgor Chariots as mounts for characters instead of as a special choice.
Their magic is... well, ok. It is hard to make a magic-heavy army with them though. Their own lore are really hard to cast, with 7+ as the lowest. They do however have some nice arcane items.

And their rare choices... They have one mobile stonethrower who is also antimagic, one four armed giant minotaur who can swallow enemies whole and regain wounds by doing so, and a wierd bug-dragon who makes enemies crazy and hit eachother. each one for 55 NU (NU - New ungor points cost)

Hope that helps.

I don't claim to be an expert on fantasy and I haven't played with my new beastmen yet so this is purely mathhammer and information gathered from talking to others but I hope it can still be helpful.

Lords and Heroes
Doombull / Gorebull - A close combat killer. This is one of the best lords / heroes in the game. One on one he can take most other characters and elite unit. Great for killing expensive units but wasted on normal units.

Bray shamans - Our magic users. Tougher than normal magic casters but not the greatest at magic. The beastmen lore is dissapointing as it's hard to cast. Unless you have a specific plan for it I would suggest picking another.

Beastlord / Wargor - Normal fighting character. Pretty good in combat, the best choice for killing weak units as they aren't hugely expensive. Good leadership is helpful.

Core

Gors- nothing special here. They aren't bad they are just pretty normal. Similar to Orc warriors in stats. Good in combat but lack of armour make them vunerable. Best used with 2 hand weapons.

Ungors- Cheaper version of gors. Only really any good for being shields of taking charges.

Ungor raiders- Claimed to be the best core choice. Skirmish increases their chance of surviving and the chance to come in from a side edge means they are quite useful. As already said they mainly weaken units but are unlikely to do any serious damage.

Warhounds- A nice unit which is good at killing anything left unsuported, I suggest having at least one unit of these. They are fast so have a good chance at hitting the flank. Are best used in combination with a harder hitting unit.

Chariots- My favourite core choice. They hit hard and aren't too expensive. Good mount for a character. Uprgrading them to razorgor chariots makes them even better.

Special

Bestigors- Nothing great, just a better version of gors. More expensive but not much of an improvement.

Centigors- Good cavalry, one of beastmens more reliable units. Good for doing some damage in an army where many units are built for distraction.

Minotaurs- Our best units, hard to kill and able to deal a lot of damage. A must have.

Razorgor herd- Another unit with good damage potential. S5 and T5 combined with M7 make this a good unit.

Harpies-Good for blocking marches and subduing people, but there are a lot better choices for special. This section needs to be used for some of the killer units so harpies don't really cut it.

Rare

Giant- pretty standard, many armies have these.

Chaos Spawn- Compared to other rare choices ths is horrible. Too unreliable.

Ghorgon- Giant Minotaur that Saintspirit mentioned. Hard to kill and good for taking out tough units.

Cygor- A One eyed Giant that is good against magic users. Very useful against magic heavy armies, and great against daemons. Can also throw rocks. WS 2 (IIRC) lets this guy against down against non magic users. Good as long as you can find a magic target otherwise a waste of points.

Jabberslythe- This is the best rare choice. This monster flies around forcing nearby units to go insane and take damage. Also this guy can put up a reasonble fight in combat. A pair of these flying around and keeping out of an enemies range will really mess uo their battle line.

4M2A wrote:
Lords and Heroes
Doombull / Gorebull - A close combat killer. This is one of the best lords / heroes in the game. One on one he can take most other characters and elite unit. Great for killing expensive units but wasted on normal units.

Beastlord / Wargor - Normal fighting character. Pretty good in combat, the best choice for killing weak units as they aren't hugely expensive. Good leadership is helpful.

Core

Warhounds- A nice unit which is good at killing anything left unsuported, I suggest having at least one unit of these. They are fast so have a good chance at hitting the flank. Are best used in combination with a harder hitting unit.

Special

Harpies-Good for blocking marches and subduing people, but there are a lot better choices for special. This section needs to be used for some of the killer units so harpies don't really cut it.

Rare

Chaos Spawn- Compared to other rare choices ths is horrible. Too unreliable.

Ghorgon- Giant Minotaur that Saintspirit mentioned. Hard to kill and good for taking out tough units.

Cygor- A One eyed Giant that is good against magic users. Very useful against magic heavy armies, and great against daemons. Can also throw rocks. WS 2 (IIRC) lets this guy against down against non magic users. Good as long as you can find a magic target otherwise a waste of points.

Jabberslythe- This is the best rare choice. This monster flies around forcing nearby units to go insane and take damage. Also this guy can put up a reasonble fight in combat. A pair of these flying around and keeping out of an enemies range will really mess uo their battle line.

Just wanted to add a few thoughts to the above. First off, keep in mind that Ld is going to be your achilles hill and to some extent your list, and larger extent your luck in game, are going to need to deal with Beasts' low Ld.

Doombull / Gorebull - Not only are they tanks but they make their unit frenzied, which is the only ItP you can get for your troops. Frenzy is of course a double-edged sword that you as a new player will have to learn to control and limit.

Beastlord - 4M2A suggested that their better leadership is useful, but this is especially true of the beastlord. With Ld9 it's looking like most every list needs this guy, or it goes balls out frenzy and ignores all the psych it can.

Warhounds - These are good because they cost nothing, so you can bait-and-flee with them, release fanatics, charge into war machines to hold them up (not necessarily win), sit in a quarter all game and nab +100 points, and/or move up and divert enemy power troops by dying or purposefully losing (to pull frenzy and hatred units after them, as they must pursue). Warhounds are not made to kill much beyond getting very lucky against light stuff or the occasional war machine, but are made to die or do other junk jobs while messing with the other guy in the process. Something to keep in mind: warhounds are great, but they're also just naked T3. If you have your warhounds within 6" of a lot of your stuff, your opponent just needs to cause 5 easy wounds to wipe the hounds and cause everyone around them to take panic checks. If Ld is everything for beasts (as it often is), warhounds are not the auto choice they are for WoC.

Harpies - These gals are totally excellent, particularly with the option to scout. Scouted up, a harpy unit can turn 1 be march blocking the enemy or setting up for a war machine charge turn 2. They're pretty ferocious with 2 attaks each, but should really be used to nab war machines, scrap solo wizards or simply march block and quarter grab. Yes the other special slots are designed to KIL KIL KIL, but I'd say reserve your 4th slot for 5-6 flying bird girls

Spawn - Compared to the other rare choices spawn also cost 220 points less ... I personally still like the idea of spawn, but in a Beasts army (as opposed to WoC) you don't quite need yet another utility unit, and you have other 360-chargers to toss into march blockers should you need to. And the main issue with spawn, which M42A might be alluding to, is that you can't take 2x terror-causing large target rares if you take 1-2 spawn

Ghorgon - Yea he's smashy, but he's also a non-flying frenzied large target that can't really handle a fully ranked unit on his own. I don't think he's worthless, though many people (me included) put him at the low end of the Cygor / Jabber / Ghorgon debate. Really it's his stubborn rule that makes him functional IMO, as he doesn't need to win combats or run (like the WoC shaggoth).

Cygor - Easily my favorite choice of the three. Quite versatile, pretty massive stats, and that reroll to hit is pretty easy to get, frankly. And again, stubborn ftw. I think it's a mistake to focus on the cygor as anti-magic, he's really quite good against everyone - a moving stone thrower attached to a stubborn terror-causer giant monster tends to mess with everybody!

Jabber - This is also the most specific rare choice for what it's great against - i.e. non-ItP units / armies. It totally does tear those apart, and since none of my armies are ItP I can only assume it'll rock my world too. However against ItP things (most all powerful units / armies) he's essentially a US5 flyer with 5 attaks, and a random S5 shooting attak. Sure that's good, and the ultimate war machine / light support hunter, but it's 'good' not 'great.' Still a strong choice though.

- Salvage

Hrm, disappointing to hear Bestigors aren't very good, means the army I was wanting to do doesn't sound like it will be very effective

Wargor wrote:Hrm, disappointing to hear Bestigors aren't very good, means the army I was wanting to do doesn't sound like it will be very effective

Yeah, it is a shame when they look so good

BTW, the cygor WS2 isn't so bad really, as he can reroll to hit agaisnt anything with magic in it (Magic items, wizards, undead or anything with a ward save). Can be useful.

You can still go with a lot of gors but you need to includude some of the big monsters as thats what really does the killing. A basic gor isn't expensive so you can get a lot if thats the way you want to go. With beastmen you can either go monster heavy or hordes of gors. If hordes of gors is your thing then take bestigors. They aren't a bad choice it's just that there are better. For friendly play they should be ok.

Don't forget about ambushing, its a very unique mechanic that beastmen get. Gors with AHW do this job very well.