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... and wondering what I should do/get never played Fantasy, although I know the basics, so what do I need to know to get started with Beastmen?

The army box is a good buy, everything in it is very useful. Then perhaps you should get more bestigors (a great unit), a beastlord and a shaman. That'd be a good start.
The rare choices aren't very useful, the best of them is the ghorgon, that one is the least overpriced of the trio.
A good build is bray-shamans (1 or 2) standing at the herdstone, which gives you many extra power dice.
Hope that is for some help!

A couple of battalion boxes are a great start. Large blocks of Gors (30+), a big unit of Bestigors, a couple of shamans, and you're pretty set. That's the stuff that's usually considered pretty standard in order to be at least semi-competitive. Every thing else is up to personal preference.

I usually fill most of my points out of Core, with a liberal dose of Heroes and a Beastlord to go along with a big block of Bestigors. Some people like to take Minotaurs instead of Bestigors, but I've had great success with the Bestigors, so I don't plan on switching. They're the best

As far as warmachine hunting and such, you can take a couple of units of Razorgors (I don't recommend taking less than two per, since just one will die to shooting pretty easy), or you can take Harpies. Fliers with scout, I5, and two attacks each. Five are 70 points; much less than the razorgors. The only reason I haven't used Harpies yet is because I'm lazy and haven't converted mine up yet.

If you want to have a shooting phase of some sort, the Cygor is actually ALMOST worth his points...most people tend to stay away from rares, though. With good reason, I suppose. They are expensive and not all that great. Those that take Rares seem to be polarized: some think the Cygor is the only decent option, and some people think the Ghorgon is the only good one. I kinda like both, but I'd rather have a Cygor or a giant over a Ghorgon. Don't underestimate the lowly Giant, though. They are better than most people seem to give them credit.

Anyways, good luck, and have fun! I love seeing other people taking up Beastmen.

Buy 2 battalions, get some boar bitz off ebay from the Savage or Regular Orc Boar Boy kits add in some Chaos Spawn bitz and you can get 5 Razorgors for the cost of 1 metal one, get a box of ghouls, daemonettes, or use ungors along with some tyranid gargoyal wings for cheaper plastic harpies. Get a Dark Emissary and put him on a 25mm base and/or a Malagor or the metal bray shaman get about 2-3, get a BSB model either convert one or buy a beast lord 2 hand weapon one and cut off a weapon angle the arm 90 degrees and give him a banner and a shield. So you now have:

BSB
2-3 Shaman
40 Gor
20 Bestigor
5 Razorgor
10 Harpies split into 2 groups of 5
Make about 12 Ungor as raiders along with 2 musicians and the rest build with hand weapon and shield

This is a good start and should carry you through 1,250 points. When you go up from there grab 2 more battalions maybe an extra shaman and a Beast Lord this gives you:

Beast Lord-Most go with Crown of Command and some other equipment and stick them in the bestigor unit, you are really taking this guy for the higher leadership/inspiring presence for primal fury
3-4 Shaman-Most likely 1 level 4 bsb the others you can park near a herd stone for magic power dice generation, herd stone gives 1 power dice for each shaman within 6inches this is in addition to channeling. Take a mix of beast lore for buffs, shadow for miasma spam and death if you want some extra fun anti monster/characters.
BSB-Make them defensive, Heavy Armor, Shield, Gnarled Hide, Beast Banner if you can fit it.
2 units of 40 Gor Horded out
30-40 Bestigor Unit
5 Razorgor
10 Harpies split into 2 groups of 5
12 Ungor Raiders split into 2 groups of 6
28 Ungors with hand weapon and shield you can use as a bunker for your shaman near the herd stone

Thanks for the advice guys, should be very helpful

AS said though mate rares are fun but not always in competitive list although keeping a cygor near your herdstone shaman unit can be handy as most units that get through might be capable of beating a bray shaman they will just get eaten by a cygor

Some funny and simple tricks (more or less known already to many, but still) with beastmen you can do:

The brass cleaver, giving an extra attack for each model in base contact, might not seem very impressive as it hardly gives you 2 more attacks when the beastlord is on foot, but it certainly becomes more interesting when he is on a chariot and contacts at least four models... That gives more attacks than the sword of bloodshed, for about half the cost!

The staff of darkoth, containing a magic missile of 5D6 S1 hits, are quite mediocre with its low strength. However, if another shaman holds the hagtree fetish, you can get to re-roll those wounds, killing MANY. Use that one against badly armoured units, like slaves, state troops or similar.

Finally, I could tell you that while many magic items in their book are useful, there are some that are completely useless. The primeval club is one. And with armour of destiny available (heavy armour, 4+ ward save) for the same price as the trollhide (light armour, regeneration), the trollhide lose a lot of it's former usefulness.

Saintspirit wrote:The staff of darkoth, containing a magic missile of 5D6 S1 hits, are quite mediocre with its low strength. However, if another shaman holds the hagtree fetish, you can get to re-roll those wounds, killing MANY. Use that one against badly armoured units, like slaves, state troops or similar.

I've been testing this as a counter to war machines, myself. They rarely have armored crew, and when they do their armor is generally negligible. With war machines being T7 at range, S1 is just as good as S5, so the more shots the better. Math hammer suggests you should be able to kill a war machine each turn!

Hey guys,

I got a question, every now and then I get an itch to try Fantasy and Beastmen have caught my interest.

My big question is, are they competitive? It's not all that I care about, but I looked through a few pages of battle reports and every Beastman battle resulted in a (albeit close) Lost game.

Is this Normal? While I'm not unfamiliar with Underpowered armies (I play Necrons) I wouldn't want to start a new system with an uphill struggle.

Also, are we expecting a second wave any time?

Anyway, sorry to Hijack this thread, but it was on the first page, and I figured I'd just post it.

Well, according to the Storm of Magic thingy, Beastmen are doing quite well for themselves ATM. I don't know much about their ability to compete outside of SoM, since I only got them put together shortly before SoM arrived and have only played two non-SoM games with them. The key is that they require a little more finesse than people expect when they pick them up.

As far as a second wave, I hear rumors every now and then.

spyguyyoda wrote:Well, according to the Storm of Magic thingy, Beastmen are doing quite well for themselves ATM. I don't know much about their ability to compete outside of SoM, since I only got them put together shortly before SoM arrived and have only played two non-SoM games with them. The key is that they require a little more finesse than people expect when they pick them up.

As far as a second wave, I hear rumors every now and then.

Is storm of Magic going to be the new standard? I thought it was like apocalypse for Fantasy.


I'll just have to do more research, but so far it seems like things point to having a lot of shamans, and making as strong a magic phase as possible. It also seems like the rare choices are overpriced by about 75 points from what I understand. Which is too bad, because I like the Cygor and the Ghorgan, just wish we had models for them.


Overall, do ya'll think this is a good starting army for someones first foray into Fantasy? I have other armies I like, like VC and WoC as well, I just have Beastmen at the top of the list.


Anyway, thanks again for your time.

Well, beastmen can definitely be competetive, however they aren't the easiest army to play. You could say they are a little of fantasy's eldar, since nearly everything in your army has to synchronize for it to work well. Nearly everything is about combo-charging and magial buffs (particularly Wyssans Wildform).

And about the rares... It is indeed true that all in the big new trio is overpriced. If they release a Cygor/Ghorgon kit I'm definitely building a Ghorgon, because (as I said earlier) that one can at least do what it is supposed to do. Both the cygor and the Jabber's "fun" abilities are based on Ld tests, which in 8th edition are quite hard to not pass, with the now much better BSB.

Is storm of Magic going to be the new standard? I thought it was like apocalypse for Fantasy.

I'd say it is more like Planetstrike or Cityfight for Fantasy.

It's one of the less powerful books certainly the least powerful after the High Elf release. It suffers from being a high poibnts low armour army. I'd agree it has an almost Elvish feel. Ramhorn's Helm and Gorebulls are my recommendation Minotaur characters are nasty.

I do think that we will see less SoM games after the global campaign ends, but right now most of the fantasy games I've seen since it came out were SoM. The only real reason I brought it up was because it's the only barometer I can point to easily that compares it to other armies on a wide scale.

So, here's the thing with Beastmen and Magic. In fantasy, the best way to win consistently seems to be able to dominate two out of the four phases (including movement). Movement is pretty hard to dominate completely unless you have a lot of fliers or cavalry. Beastmen do pretty well in Movement because they do have pretty high movement, but they can't really dominate it. They really have no shooting, unless you fill your core with Ungor Raiders and your rares with Cygor (*not recommended). So this actually kinda helps us out because it means we can focus on combat and magic. Combat is pretty easy to dominate if you take large units of Gors/Ungors and a couple of really hitty units (either Bestigors or the Mino/chariot combo). Given Hatred (not automatic, but keep 'em close to the general) and the potential for Horde formations, that's potentially a LOT of wounds. As we know, wounds = improved combat res. Taking large blocks also means that you will have better combat res, and good combat res = dominating combat.

The other trick up our sleeves is the magic phase. The ability to take Shadow to make our opponents weaker and Beasts to make us stronger is truly potent when combined with our already pretty high combat potential. I never leave home without my GBS anymore. The staff or skull or whatever it's called really helps with dispelling, which I think is more important than just getting your own spells off.

Anyways, that's my two cents. I started Fantasy with my Skaven (who are fun), but I LOVE my Beastmen. I am still learning, though. Like has been said, they require finesse and synchronicity.

It really seems like the Battalion is an excellent buy, gettting 2 or 3 of them seems like a great start.


Now, for he GBS, it seems like the jagged dagger is a great item, for pumping up your magic phase, since you can collect a large pool for more dice.


For Minos, it seems like people are really polarized on them. I've seen people either love them. or hate them.

As long as the guy with the Jagged Dagger can do well in combat it is worth it. If you instead want some power dice with less risk, take the shard of the herdstone instead.

Saintspirit wrote:As long as the guy with the Jagged Dagger can do well in combat it is worth it. If you instead want some power dice with less risk, take the shard of the herdstone instead.

The heardstone has to stay in the deployment zone, though right? does that mean I just sit all my shamans in the back nearby it? Won't they get singled out and killed easily?

Sorry if I sound like a real noob, but I have no idea about this kind of stuff, haha.


And points are usually played at 2000-25000 Right?

Yes, that is true but since those two or three shamans are not likely to be aggresive but rather supporters, alongside the fact that there are big units of beastmen posing much larger a threat, I wouldn't worry that much. Besides, as long as you place them a little further away than the enemy has range (bows, for example), they should be quite alright. They don't cost very much either (three lvl 1 with 1 shadow and 2 beasts, herdstone, maybe hagtree fetish and staff of darkoth if you feel for it) which your other stuff are likely to do. Just watch out for stone throwers, as they are a bigger threat to them than cannons (cannons can at max kill one per turn unless they stand in a line to it). And as said earlier, the Hagtree fetish and staff of darkoth easily takes out warmachines and archers alike.

Also the stone is impassable terrain so you can always run in circles around it, if something comes too close. It's like chasing somebody around a table really.

snapsepaven wrote:Also the stone is impassable terrain so you can always run in circles around it, if something comes too close. It's like chasing somebody around a table really.

Its odd because in the games I have played gors get chopped to ribbons and deal almost no damage back, but Bestigors walk through battle lines in a big enough unit. As other posters have said we are a combo army with a hard learning curve.

I guess I'll just have to keep doing more research.

Beastmen are my Number one pick right now if I were to get into fantasy, I just dread getting steamrolled by every other army.

I think I'm starting to get the Basics of how to put together a good Beastmen Army though.

Lots of Casters, Focus on Lore of the beasts and Shadows for buffs and debuffs.

Large Blocks of Gors and Ungors. AWH seems to be the way to go.

Bestigors are an excellent unit. AHW seems to be the way to go with them.

Razorgors are also really good, run them single or in pairs.

Avoid the Rare section.

Is that about right? What more can you guys tell me about Minotaurs. I like the models, but I've seen a lot of conflicting opinion on them.

Couple small things:

1. Bestigors can only have Great Weapons. Sadly, no weapon choices.

2. Razorgors are one of the ugliest models GW has ever produced. I'm completely unable to get past that fact.

3. Minotaurs are expensive for what they do. I haven't had a chance to really try them out yet, but I get the feeling that a unit of 7 + Doombull or Gorbull will make a brutal flanking unit. M6 means they're only a bit slower than most cavalry, plus they get Impact Hits AND Stomp. Adding in the Character Bull means they start with Frenzy and so they just start adding attacks as they win combat. That said, they're only T4, have paper armor and cost a fair amount of points per model. Still, I'm going to give them a try for the models if nothing else.

Apparently the "MinoBus" is effective, but requires such a significant points investment that you end up lacking in other areas (usually the magic department).

Ralin Givens wrote:

snapsepaven wrote:Also the stone is impassable terrain so you can always run in circles around it, if something comes too close. It's like chasing somebody around a table really.

Its odd because in the games I have played gors get chopped to ribbons and deal almost no damage back, but Bestigors walk through battle lines in a big enough unit. As other posters have said we are a combo army with a hard learning curve.

Thing with gors is that the main gor-unit shall be accompanied with a bsb w/ the beast banner, making every gor S4, or even S5 (and also T5) should they have Wyssans Wildform on them. That's anathema to most everything, particularly since you are nearly guaranteed Primal Fury with the bsb. Who wouldn't want 48 rerollable S5 attacks (in case of a horde) plus the bsb's attacks?

Saintspirit wrote:

Ralin Givens wrote:

snapsepaven wrote:Also the stone is impassable terrain so you can always run in circles around it, if something comes too close. It's like chasing somebody around a table really.

Its odd because in the games I have played gors get chopped to ribbons and deal almost no damage back, but Bestigors walk through battle lines in a big enough unit. As other posters have said we are a combo army with a hard learning curve.

Thing with gors is that the main gor-unit shall be accompanied with a bsb w/ the beast banner, making every gor S4, or even S5 (and also T5) should they have Wyssans Wildform on them. That's anathema to most everything, particularly since you are nearly guaranteed Primal Fury with the bsb. Who wouldn't want 48 rerollable S5 attacks (in case of a horde) plus the bsb's attacks?

That seems pretty powerful!

What are some of Beastmens Worst Enemies, as far as units/Armies are concerned, and ways to take care of them?

Anything that shoots is bad news for beasties (low armour and that). Skinks specially can be a major PITA.

Ambush and chalice of the dark rain should make you a bit more resilient.

Any army with a lot of shooting or a lot of heavily armoured troops are a pain for beastmen. Mino's are good but they can have trouble making their points back. The way to equip them is either ad weapon, or great weapon.

heacy hitter wrote:Any army with a lot of shooting or a lot of heavily armoured troops are a pain for beastmen. Mino's are good but they can have trouble making their points back. The way to equip them is either ad weapon, or great weapon.

The most efficient way to equip them is naked (nothing) and add in characters to soak up the hits. Minotaurs are incredibly squishy being only T4, but damage to them can be mitigated through the addition of beefy doombulls and gorebulls. Equip minos with a full command and you can abuse the make-way rule and place your different geared characters exactly where you want.

Also never got caught up on your units making points back. It's a terrible mindset.

As for general advice about Beastmen, I agree with the other posters who mentioned big gor blocks with the beast banner. Also take at least 2 units of harpies and learn to use them, they are literally one of the best choices in the beastmen army.

Against shooty armies, use chaff (harpies, wolves) to screen for cover and always take Chalice of Dark Rain.

Make sure to utilize magic in one way or another. An "fighty" greater bray shaman with jagged dagger can bring tons of utility and still rack up tons of combat res while simultaneously gaining power dice. Multiple level 1/2 shamans around the herdstone is always good, and allows you to take many arcane items. Staff of Darkoth and Ruby Ring of Ruin in conjunction with Hagtree fetish will solve all your pesky scout-skirmisher problems (Skinks, gutter runners, etc.)

WOC put a major hurt on my Beastmen I have found, due to the fact they are fast cheap and hit like a ton of bricks

Thanks for all the advice here, folks will give me a lot to think about once I get started