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I've never really considered Beastmaster packs for my upcoming Dark Eldar army. But after reading a battle report featuring them, I was surprised at how well they did. I know that Beastmasters were good in the last codex, but I don't know much about how they're doing in this edition.

What is the best composition for the pack? I know you want at least one Beastmaster for Leadership purposes, but how many of each beast should you take?

Also, what are some good models for converting Beastmasters and their packs? One of the reasons they weren't on my radar is because they're all in Finecast, and apart from the Chimera all look terrible.

For coversion I would say spawn for claw fiend, fenrisian wolves for the chimera, but for razorwing not much you can do about those.

Though chimera are not as good as used to since now 5+ invun. no longer 4++

Would a Gargoyle Brood work for Razorwing conversions? Gets you a lot more bases than the actual Razorwing model for the price point. Failing that, I think theres a Vampire Counts bat swarm set.

As for their viability, I only realy remember their last codex, where Sathonyx could make them very strong indeed.

I would imagine that the body of your group is going to be Razorwings though, 5 rending attacks is pretty amazing. One or two Chimeras to tank wounds whilst they make their way up the table perhaps.

You don't have to take the beastmasters themselves, interestingly enough, nor do you have to take beasts - if you really wanted, Beastmasters are a better way of running Hellions because of this

Beastmasters are very good in kabolite lists to flank units and in Coven lists to pin units while your slower stuff gets there. Giving your beastmaster a power sword is a nice option as you only need to do a few wounds to force a ld test and run down units with your high initiative.

I use old Dreamblade minis for my Chimerae (since they are in fluff demons grabbed from nightmares, and Dreamblade minis literally represent nightmares, they fit rather nicely). My Razorwings are made from a scarab swarm, a Dreamblade mini that is a giant pile of bugs and roaches, a rat swarm from Reaper, and the crow flock from Reaper.

Thanks for all the responses, but my other question hasn't been answered: how should you ideally build a solid beastmaster pack?

I run one with 2 Beastmasters (for the leadership, two incase one gets killed), 2 Razorwing flocks (for Rending) and 5 Clawed Fiends (the best all round model, majority toughness 5 and you can play some wound shenanigans. It's a good unit that can pick on anything that isn't dedicated melee but will lose to many of the harder melee units, lack of grenades can really hurt it. Khymera are ok but I think they die too easily.

If using Eldar allies then you might consider an Autarch with Hawk wings (bike is also good for T4 but makes the unit lose Fleet), a Power Axe for some AP2 and a Banshee Mask. However this is pushing the unit towards 350 points and I don't feel it's really good enough for that as it's not Fearless and isn't super damaging so can be beaten in combat and forced to flee. Taking Baharroth instead is more expensive but gives you Fearless and Hit&Run as well as a couple of other tricks.

 TheNewBlood wrote:
I've never really considered Beastmaster packs for my upcoming Dark Eldar army. But after reading a battle report featuring them, I was surprised at how well they did. I know that Beastmasters were good in the last codex, but I don't know much about how they're doing in this edition.

What is the best composition for the pack? I know you want at least one Beastmaster for Leadership purposes, but how many of each beast should you take?

Also, what are some good models for converting Beastmasters and their packs? One of the reasons they weren't on my radar is because they're all in Finecast, and apart from the Chimera all look terrible.

Beastpacks are cool. the tactic i have found works better with them is that they advance full throttle turn one and then turn two i hop out a character to join them and hold them fast in close combat (somewhat like how you used to use Mandrakes before the new hardbound codex, if you ever tried that).

I like using the Clawed Fiends. Rage gives them 6 attacks at STR 5 on the charge (which means they can take on more kinds of targets successfully). I accompany them with two Razorwing flocks (their job is just to take wounds on the approach) and then Beastmasters, usually three. The Clawed Fiends used to be even more fun but they changed their rules. Toughnss 5 really helps in round 2 when they are engaging in close combat.

Most people like the Khymerae. They give you 12 STR 4 attacks on the charge (for the same points) instead of 6 STR 6 attacks and are WS 4 instead of 3 plus INIT 6. So They are typically doing 1 unsaved wounds to a MEQ with those points. The Clawed Fiend does .67 unsaved wounds on the charge, so pretty close. 9 "assault" models with two attacks each is responding with 9 x 2 = 18 attacks and causing 3.33 unsaved wounds back to the Clawed Fiend. Whereas the same 9 would do 3 unsaved wounds to he Khymerae. Kymerae advantage right b ya bit?

The Khymera in subsequent rounds are now down 9 attacks next assault phase, whereas the Clawed Fiend is down only 4 (and sometimes not even that if they get extra attacks from being wounded). So the unit kind of keeps its effectiveness in subsequent rounds better than Khymerae and Khymerae losses can tempt leadership checks sooner in theory. It is in the subsequent round that you wish to break units in 40K, not the charge.

So it's a complicated unit to evaluate. All other things being equal i think you can make a pretty good case for Khymerae against normal targets but they really arent good against armor and frankly, they cant tough a Tough 8 model. So there's that. I like the versatility of the Clawed Fiend, which iw what you really get from them.

Thanks for all the responses everyone. T was thinking of a composition something like this:

1x Beastmaster (Leadership)
3x Clawed Fiends (majority T5, absorb Overwatch)
2x Khymerae (High Initiative and WS)
2x Razorwing Flocks (Rending)

Total: 160 points

I think this looks good for a cheap and fast melee unit.

It looks pretty good to me. Let us know how it works, I might want to pick up a pack for my DE army when I get around to starting it.

War Kitten wrote:It looks pretty good to me. Let us know how it works, I might want to pick up a pack for my DE army when I get around to starting it.

Unfortunately, that might be a while. I'm still in the process of building my Dark Eldar army, and the niche of "fast melee unit" is initially going to be filled by Reavers.

And I'm in the process of building an Eldar and Dark Eldar army at the same time. Plus the BaC set is intriguing me. So yeah, I understand.