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Got the urge to start a new army and like the aesthetic of Beastmen (although no-one mention the fact that they are the arch-enemies of my Wood Elves ) but I was wondering what their playstyle was like and what units are good/mediocre/bad.

If you go heavily for magic or melee. The standard tactic for beastmen is to hit them so hard as fast as possible that they fold. Gor units and chariots are in my opinion the best core you can take. Gors have a decent statline for their price. With primal fury rolls passed and a nearby shaman casting lore of beasts spells on them they can take on more than you might give them credit for. Whilst the chariots are great for flank/rear charges, warhamchine hunting and generally annoying your enemies flank as a distraction to make them split their forces up.

You also have a great mix of magic lores to choose from. I personally recommend at least 1 lore of beasts shaman to spam augment spells. But you can cause a lot of damage with using a lvl 2 with one of the other lores they can take and the skin of man magic item they get. Letting it pop up behind enemy lines to cast hexes/direct damage spells. This can win you the day much easier sometimes. And if not. Then at least buy you time to get your other units into the fight.

I highly recommend the Ghorgon. Once its in melee it nearly always makes a profit on its points cost. Spawn are the worst of your rares. I'd leave them out. Jabberslythes and cygors both have their places depending on your setup.

Out of the specials I'd say bestigors and harpies perform better. The centigors whilst looking awesome and can be effective. Are too pricey for what they are. Do try them though. They just might fit a niche for you. Minotaurs with additional handweapons can ruin your enemies day. With a hero level minotaur heading up a unit of 5 They are great for pushing a flank. Just make sure you arent sending them versus something like poisoned ranged weapons. They'll fold quickly. They are also prone to charge redirctions. Harpies are great for going ahead of your main lines with chariots to harass the enemy lines and kill solo wizards and vulnerable war machines. Razorgor chariots are great heavy hitters. Im not a fan of the razorgor herd. But i've seen others use them well.

if your going to take ungors. Stick to either units of 5 raiders as a skirmishing screen for your main troops. Or large blocks of spears/handweapons ungors. Though I prefer gors all round due to their better stats. They are good though if you need a cheap unit with a lot of bodies. Just make sure its near the BSB/general or it will panic off the table as soon as things get tough. Just let your gors and Tuskgor chariots do the heavy lifting.

Beastmen have some great hero options. I wouldn't say any of the standard lords and heros are bad. it just depends on the type of army your building. Wargors/beastlords are great for adding more combat ability to a gor unit. And the minotaur lords/heros are just combat resolution machines in their own right fitted well. Your spellcasters will be either augmenting your forces or being outright devious and destructive. They have some great equipment setups available to them. Plus some of your special characters are funa nd useful as well.


Whilst the general theme of a beastman armies tactics is by no means subtle. how you go about smashing your enemies asunder is up to you. You have some very solid options open to you. have fun with them. With patience you can get a lot out of this army.

A few things
1. We have a insanely strong magic phase with Herdstone spam
2. We have a Fantastic BSB build that is a must IMO
3. We have some of the best basic core in the game (AHW Gor)
4. We have fantastic chaff choices (Razors/Harpies/Raiders)
5. Our rare page should not be in our book.

Johnny nailed it. For a learning force grab 2 battalions and another 10 bestigors with filler a box or a third battlelion, you really want 40 ahw gor and 30 bestigor for a 1k force, make the ungor raiders 20 should be the most you will ever need. 5 harpies and 2 razorgor would be great and you can convert those up to save cost and make them plastic only. A beast lord and 2 shaman models would be great too as well as the bsb model, you can make the bsb and beast lord out of bestigor bodies and for shaman I recommend Malagor and the Dark Emmissary model if you want to avoid metal.

Johnny, what's the BSB build?

Wargor with Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Shield and Beastbanner. Or as he is more commonly known The 206

Hargus56 wrote:Johnny nailed it. For a learning force grab 2 battalions and another 10 bestigors with filler a box or a third battlelion, you really want 40 ahw gor and 30 bestigor for a 1k force, make the ungor raiders 20 should be the most you will ever need. 5 harpies and 2 razorgor would be great and you can convert those up to save cost and make them plastic only. A beast lord and 2 shaman models would be great too as well as the bsb model, you can make the bsb and beast lord out of bestigor bodies and for shaman I recommend Malagor and the Dark Emmissary model if you want to avoid metal.

Are you psychic or something, because I was just gonna ask if two batallions would be a good start for beastmen, I guess it is than isn't it.

Johnny-Crass wrote:Wargor with Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Shield and Beastbanner. Or as he is more commonly known The 206

The beastbanner seems cool but it is also pretty pricey, for my bsb I was thinking of something along the lines of Wargor with Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armour, Shield, Dawnstone for a 2+ re-rollable, what is your opinion on this?

Beastbanner in a Gor Horde is a must IMO. Two attack WS4 S4 T4 Primal fury horde is just too good

206 is expensive but it is very durable I've held up blocks before but I would not recommend it (after a few combats he was all that was left and a champ and that denied my opponent some 550+ victory points), also with ld tests for primal fury our bsb is our most important lord/hero and the beast banner is that damn good in a unit of gor. With primal fury you'll be racking up a lot of hits on average against ws4 you will be looking at 30 hits and making that 4+ to wound a 3+ is the difference between 15 wounds and 20 wounds plus since its S4 they are at -1 armor save so it helps even more to wound.

Apart from the 206, can you list some other character builds, because I tried to build a list and just couldn't figure out what to give my characters, I was drawing a complete blank.

Beastlord
AOD
GW
Stubborn Crown

Great Bray
Jagged Dagger
Fencers blades
Tali Ed

these are two I see alot

Don't forget the flying doombull of doom.

So fun you MUST try it.

Johnny-Crass wrote:Beastlord
AOD
GW
Stubborn Crown

Great Bray
Jagged Dagger
Fencers blades
Tali Ed

these are two I see alot

Those builds seem pretty cool, although isnt it risky getting a lord level wizard into combat? I understand that Great Brays are better at combat than most wizards, but they would still fold against enemy fighty characters wouldn't they? Also are shadow and beasts the most common lores that are used with beastmen as I can see that mindrazor is kind of a no-brainer for shadow and beasts with wildform.

I like shadow and a Greay Bray is no pushover in CC with 3 attacks WS10 and toughness 5. I drop him in the beastbanner unit and boy oh boy does he pull wieght.

Well I guess he does seem pretty good, for a non-vamp wizard anyway. Is it just me or do Beastmen seem to do pretty well at higher point games than lower point ones, would that be a fair assessment?

Yah we really need our big units and lots of characters. Below 2k we can not really play the game IMO

8th really gave us a boost. In the kind of way it really hurt shooting in a major way particularly with no more partial victory points, in order to get victory points you have to completely destroy a unit. The best way to do that is win combat and run a unit down and no one does combat quite like the Beastmen, PF and out cheap troops on top of our ability to dominate our magic phase with buffs and hexes to make it so we hit that much more and that much harder.

Also if you want to compare a wizard's fighting ability to a Vampire you may as well play vampires, however a GBS is the 2nd if not 3rd most fighty wizard close behind a Slaughter Master, however with your GBS you get the OMG 10 point jagged dagger so I'd take it over a fat bloke.

Yupp I love jagged Dagger....

Hargus56 wrote:Also if you want to compare a wizard's fighting ability to a Vampire you may as well play vampires, however a GBS is the 2nd if not 3rd most fighty wizard close behind a Slaughter Master, however with your GBS you get the OMG 10 point jagged dagger so I'd take it over a fat bloke.

Pretty on a par with the Orc savage great shaman w/fencer blades. 3xWS10 S5 attacks on the first turn, S4 afterwards. T5 and probably with a 5+ ward, too. If you get fists of gork off that's 6 attacks at S7(8) which can mess pretty much anyone out there.

Yep, put the GBS in with the unit with the beast banner and you get a Horros off and you are looking at 6 WS10 S8 T5 4+ or 5+ ward, and likely has hatred more then just the first round and every model he kills he gets to "turn it in" for a power dice.

Beastman has some very good magic. The shamans can't wear armour, but they have pretty good fighting stats. The signature spell from the lore of beasts (witch is cheaper for you) and the lore of shadow is almost the two best signature spells in the game. It could quite easaly justefy 2-3 shadow mages and one main beastlore lord choise. This also combines good with the herdstone. (Mind you this might be fround upon as the shadow signature spell is -way- undercosted.) Also the shadow cantrip can pull your mage out of a hard choise.

Bestigors are a nightmare. And you are very dependent on a good leadership and the banner re-roll all over the army. Ghors with S4 (beastmen banner) is very good. Especialy with the beast signaturespell.

The beatsmenbook has some of the best cheap models in the form of redirectors. Ungors, Harpyes, and the damned pig really gives you an advantage in the deployment phase. Mind you once the game begins your options are really resticted as you have big blocks of mellee. The only good thing you have on your side is wounds. Tthe fluidaty comes from the magic in the magic phase. Besides that it is all about hoping that the troops you have that reach the oponent hit him harder in the face then he hits you back. If you winn you winn with a small amount of models as beatsmen is a grinding battle and not a strategic one.(Mind you, tactics are very mutch present.)