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Greetings!

I'm interested in rejoining the ranks of Warhammer Fantasy. I jumped in back when 8th first dropped and had a Lizardmen army. They didn't do it for me and really turned me off of the system. I dumped them months ago. Now I've got the Fantasy bug again (it helps that there's a pretty good following of fun players at my FLGS) and I've turned my sights on to Beastmen.

What can you guys tell me about Beastmen? I know that they're Chaos spawns to some degree. That's pretty neat. I dig how the look. But how do they play? What kind of playstyle do they fall under? What is the standard "core" of the army? What do I need to know about running Beastmen successfully? I'm not looking to play in tournaments, I just want to chuck a ton of dice with a ton of neat looking mutant guys running around the board. Are they fun? Are they cheesey? What do they have difficulty with?

Basically, if it's possible, I'd love a giant run-down of Beastmen. Or if there's a wiki I can check out, can I be pointed to that?

Thanks!

I think they are hard to play, but still playable.

Your Core are all kind of sucky and horde-y and naked.

You can get mass casters by standing around a herdstone and getting its bonuses.

Minotaurs are good and can be extremely powerful if they get going.

Drunken Centigors are really fast, but kind of expensive.

They have a lot of horrific looking monsters, but they are most probably overpriced.

So lots and lots of infantry and monstrous infantry, almost no shooting. No war machines. Potential for pretty good magic by having lots of shaman around a herdstone generating dice.

The one rule that defines Beastmen is Primal Fury. Basically, if in combat they can reroll failed to-hits always. And if they succeed the roll well, they also gain +1 attack. It's a way to turn the horde-y Beastmen into a tougher force.

Our core needs a strong LD bubble but if we have that we shine. We have a very strong magic phase and we are very fast.

I have placed in the top 5 consistently with my beastmen at local tournys

So far, neither of you have posted anything that really deters me from them. Their aesthetic really gets me. I honestly don't think I'd mind painting up a giant horde of these guys.

My only question is, and this is just ignorance to the system and not having the army book but having been a GW player for years, do they have anything in their army book that is really good, but doesn't have a model?

The Herdstone but honestly I made mine out of a painted rock.

There are a few SCs without a model, one of whom, Slugtongue, is pretty handy in some circumstances. He is easily convertible though.

I prefer converting special characters over buying the models anyway, so that's not much of an issue. I more meant things like, Thunderwolf Cav went years without a model, and those were nearly pivotal for some powerbuilds.

Gor herds are going to be my main rank and file troops, right? Ungor herds aren't worth it? Or do they fulfill a different role?

Gor are your Main Infantry Block You will run them in usually 30-40 Man Horde Units is what I have seen 40 being the norm. They pump out a good amount of Damage when equipped with 2 Hand Weapons and that with Primal Fury rerolls can be very overwhelming to enemies. They need a BSB in the Unit or in a Bestigor Unit Nearby for the Reroll on Primal Fury to make sure you get it, which based on what I am saying its a lot of interlocking units with one another to achieve the power.

Ungor units are cheap and can be decent war-machine hunters or charging enemy Archers ect. Ungor Raiders however since they are skirmished and have the short bows make better War machine Hunters , 2 Units of 5 or 2 units of 10 Skirmished are probably a good amount to have around.

So I would say a good start is to get
40 Gors
10-20 Un-Gors
40 Bestigors
1 BSB
1 Hero/Lord (Either a Shaman or Chieftan/Warlord whatever they are called)


Razorgors also make good support combat units and good for charging enemy support units like enemy chariots ect.

Hopefully this helps

timofeo wrote:Gor are your Main Infantry Block You will run them in usually 30-40 Man Horde Units is what I have seen 40 being the norm. They pump out a good amount of Damage when equipped with 2 Hand Weapons and that with Primal Fury rerolls can be very overwhelming to enemies. They need a BSB in the Unit or in a Bestigor Unit Nearby for the Reroll on Primal Fury to make sure you get it, which based on what I am saying its a lot of interlocking units with one another to achieve the power.

Ungor units are cheap and can be decent war-machine hunters or charging enemy Archers ect. Ungor Raiders however since they are skirmished and have the short bows make better War machine Hunters , 2 Units of 5 or 2 units of 10 Skirmished are probably a good amount to have around.

So I would say a good start is to get
40 Gors
10-20 Un-Gors
40 Bestigors
1 BSB
1 Hero/Lord (Either a Shaman or Chieftan/Warlord whatever they are called)


Razorgors also make good support combat units and good for charging enemy support units like enemy chariots ect.

Hopefully this helps

This is actually insanely helpful! I'm glad to see some actual numbers for what I should have, or at least what is recommended/the norm. I was thinking of rocking two 40 Gor units, one of which to ambush. I wasn't really thinking too much on the Un-Gor skirmishers, but I can see the utility of them. Bestigors were in my sights as were Razorgors. It's just good to know the numbers I need to gather up.

Having to keep things in a bubble to keep their leadership up and whatnot won't phase me too much. I'm a Warmachine/Hordes player, so keeping things in a command area will just further keep me in a bit of a comfort zone :lol:

Ungors can fill a slave like roll if you wish. But IMO gors are just better

Gors are better but Ungors can provide that little annoyance unit that just gives you more options on the field and you never feel bad when they die lol,

But yes BSB and General Leadership Bubble is just like Warmachine Control area so its that important as it will keep the army in check.

Ambushing can be useful, but I have not seen it done to often so I cannot give any real advise on it, but suffice to say if 40 Gors appear on a units flank and you have a unit of Gors on the field infront of them the unit will then have a choice between facing one or the other which is always what you want to set up.

timofeo wrote:Gors are better but Ungors can provide that little annoyance unit that just gives you more options on the field and you never feel bad when they die lol,

Pretty good Beastmen playe at my store runs a few small units of skirmishing units of Ungors and it really makes it a headache for a shooting army like mine as he runs them in front of his big blocks of Gors to mess with my shooting so they do have their uses, and best part if they die you lose so few victory points it doesnt matter. Lore of beasts is VERY good with this army especially since your entire army is -1 to casting value.

Don't ambush 40 gor, the rule of thumb for ambushing is if you are going to do it be willing to throw away the unit. It may not show up or may show up late in a bad spot and not get any action. IMO 5 man raider units and no larger then 20 gor.

Beastmen are a funny army. They have a number of great synergies and strong aspects, but at the same time struggle at times to perform up to par with many other armies out there.

One of the problems with the army as a whole is that it suffers from an overall lack of variety. There are a few good ways to play the army and many that are lots of epic fail.

In the four phases of the game, Movement, Magic, Shooting and Combat, the True Sons of Chaos can excel in just one phase, Magic, perform strong in two others, Movement and Combat. Meanwhile they are just the worst in shooting. The worst.

Magic phase they have access to three strong Lores, including the "best" overall, Shadow. They have access to multiple ways to generate more Power dice, very necessary to have a strong magic phase. Their wizards are also no pushovers with a respectable Toughness score and lower cost.

In combat Primary Fury helps an amazing amount. But it is Ld dependent, and overall the Ld of Beastmen are really bad. They can get lots of decent attacks, have lots of troops with WS 5 and can get Hordes of models. But, they can't just throw your units in without some type of support.

Movement, they have access to great, low point cost, units that can re-direct, charge block and just frustrate the opponent. 5 man Ungors, Razorgors and Harpies are all musts to help control the movement phase and get the match ups you need. Your infantry is all MV, getting you in that much quicker. But, without and stong Cav, light or otherwise, they don't dominate the phase. (Centigors are an interesting concept.... but no one calls them amazing)

Finally, in the shooting phase they have some shortbows and a hugely overcosted giant that can throw stones like a Stonethrower. A nice trick, but it sounds better than it really is.

If you are looking for a run down of units for Beastmen, I can't do any better that what's already done here: http://z2.invisionfree.com/herdstone/index.php?showtopic=21170

The Herdstone is a great resource, btw.

Overall, my suggestions for starting out are simple.

Lots of Gors. A couple characters including Beastlord and BSB and some Bray-shamans. Then some Bestigors, a few Ungors and something to work as a Razorgor or two. (I am not partial to the GW model)

Finally, there is nothing Cheesy about the Beastmen. People may complain about Herdstone abuse (taking a Lvl 4 and then 3 Lvl 1's and having the level 1's Miasma (signature spell of Shadow) spam on 1 dice and go crazy with the Lvl 4) But as I already stated, being strong in one phase doesn't make the army broken... it's the strength, just like warmachines to a dwarf army.

http://z2.invisionfree.com/herdstone/index.php? get yourself on the herdstone first bit of advice
Second is our batallion box is one of the best ones out there, we always need gor, bestigor and ungor!
Always ignore the niegh sayers that say we are bottom tier, We are not it's just our army punishes mistakes!
problems we have with the army list
Core - nothing wrong here
Special - Centigors are over priced
minotaurs you really have to go all or nothing with these or bestigors will out perform most of the time
Razorgor/Harpies - expect them in most lists these are your warmachine/mage hunters
Rare - most of our rare are overpointed none are really worth 275 and they hardly ever make points back.
Spawn are ok, nothing to right home about a little slow compared to the rest of the army.

Awesome magic items
beast banner + 1S for the unit
Chalice of Dark Rain - shooting protection
Blackened Plate - Unit wide protection from flaming attacks
Brass Cleaver - lots of attacks
Herdstone - lots of powerdice
Stone of Spite - teclis killer
Gnarled Hide - +2 as
Ramhorn Helm - more attacks and +1as