A look at the Beast Men

[SaintofM]

OK, lets try to look to these armies again and now with the two main books, lets have a look at a different army: Beast Men.

Loosely based on the Germanic tribes that faced off against the romans, what they lack in armor they make up for in ferocity and monsters.

Half the army can be in characters which consist of the follow:
0-1   per 1000 points Beastlord, Great Brey-Shaman, or  Doombull.
And as many Wargores, Bray-Shaman, Gorebulls, a new unit: Centigore Cheiften.

A quarter of the army must be core.
At least one unit of Gor (so no all Minotaur army).
Any number of Ungore herds, chaos war hounds, and Razorgore herds you have points for.
Beastlord/Wargor generals can take a single Beastigor herd has a core.
Doombulls and Gore bulls can take a single Minotaur herd as a core unit.

Half the army can be special which can be
Beastigore herds, harpies, minotaurs, centigoress, dragon ogres, chariots, and cockatrice.
You can also take Chaos ogres from the warriors of chaos list.
If the shamans are a genera, 0-1 cygores or jabberslyths can be taken.
Doombullls and gorebulls as generals take a Ghorgon as a special choice.

A quarter of the army can be rare
SHagoths, Jabberslyths, Cygores, GHorgons, and Chaos Giants can be taken in as much as you have points for.
CHaos Trolls and Chaos Spawn from the Warriors of Chaos list may also be taken in any number of abilities.

Mercinaries can be up to a 25% of the army, and so can the allies can be 25% of the army (a character and units of any of the following):
Warriors of Chaos, an Uneasy one with Orcs and Goblins, and a Suspicious One with Tomb Kings.


Lets look at the Main Chieftains: Beastlords and Wargores. TO avoid any legal thing, I awill be vauge about the point values, but Wargoes are a little more than 50 points, and  Beastlod are a little more than 110 points.  A little more than say the Basic Commanders of a Empire Army.

Stat wise, they are very good. They have elvin movement as all normal infantry of the army has. Both are likely to hit something with Wargores being WS 5 and Beastlords BS 5. Both are also going to be very reclaimant at Toughness 5, which is Hydra and Griffon level. So most enemies will be wounding them on 6’s, S4 enemies will be wounding on 5, and to scratch them with a 4 you need great weapons, combat characters with halberds.

BEastlords and even S5, which is on par withCHaos Lords and a  number of monsters like Manticores. If there is a weak point it’s the LD, with Beastlord’s LD 8 and Wargore’s LD 7. By this point most charecters should be at least LD 8 and 9 based on their power and points.

They can take 2 hand weapons or great weapons. They can take light armor or heavy armor. They can also take a shield.

They can ride Tuskigore and Beastigore chariots. And one per 1000 can be ambushers, sneaking up behind the enemy line later on in the game. Just Imagin it: One of these guys on a Razorgore chariot, coming out of nowhere. I am getting the scene from Vinland Saga where the Vikings rush out of the forest with their longboats in hand.

They can take 50 points of Mutations and 50 to 100 points of magic items with it.

Wargores can also be Battle Standard Bearers.

As for rules, the General probably needs to be on the table for one reason and one reason only: The Breyhorn. If the general is on the table, once per game, can take a LD test to toot the horn on Round 2 onwards. If they do this in the Command Sub Phase on ther turn, you an immediately roll again for every ambusher that hasn’t come out yet.

This means if you failed to get a bunch on the table, you can then try again and unless the dice gods hate you, have a better chance to get them on the table. Just about everything in the army has the mark of Chaos Undivided (reroll failed Panic, Fear, and Terror tests). 

Another common rule is Primal Furry which is an LD test they take in the combat phase. Pass it and they reroll 1’s to wound rolls, giving them a better chance to get a kill in. It only lasts during that sub phase, but its enough for most of them.

Foe Render Gives the Primal Fury beasty an additional -2AP to their hand weapon. Only works on single, normal hand weapons (game balancing I guess, but still sucks). For the most part this gives a large number of units in the game extra armor penetration. A big weakness of the Beastmen army is their lack of armor, and this evens the playing field to a degree.

Bloode Rage also adds to this as if they get the Primal Furry, they get Frenzy, which makes them ignore scary things like mass panic and fear, but more importantly adds an additional attack. Add certain weapons and at least one mutation, and you can easily turn a Beastlord into a blender, and the enemy units the things that are going to be turned into a bloody smoothy.

Finaly Gaze of the Dark Gods, a command Phase option that some chaos characters can do that allows them to get perks or potential downsides. Dependng on what you roll on a D6, you could get Stupidity that keeps stacking, or increased strength or number of attacks.

Overall, these guys are awesome. They have limited armor, but otherwise can make up for it with different magic items and mutations. These same sections can also make them potent offensive killing machines. The other weakness is low LD, but can easily be overcome.

If you are to face them, I would suspect poison, high strength, multiple wounds, and higher toughness would work.

Thoughts and ideas on them, and areas I might have missed?

[commandant]

What is their initative?

[SaintofM]

What is their initative?

5 for Beastlord, 4 for Wargore

[SaintofM]

Been a while, so lets cover the next one.

The Shamans are the magic users of the Beaastmen. One part holy (or unholy if you will) men one part great sorcerers they use sorcery and magic as second nature. Also unlike other casters, who you poke with a stick will die horribly

Great Bray Shamans are 40 more points than a Beastlord, And Bray Shamans 10 More than a Wargore, so standard expectations of wizards


Stats                               W  WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A  LD
Great bray Shaman      5    5     3   4   5  3    4  2  8
Bray Shaman                  5   5     3   3  4   2    3   1   7

As w can see with stats, they are no slouches. While the Bray Shaman is built more like a Gor in all ways but LD, the more lordly Great Shaman has a decent strength and a monster’s defence. Morever both having WS 3 means they can hit most things on a 3.

They have use of Daemonology, Dark Magic, and Elementalism so spells that mostly focus on boosting the and their allies damage dealling, and the occasional hindrance or hex on the enemy. They can take 50 points worth of mutation an depending if they are Great or not 50 and 100 points of magic items.

Its Lore of the Beasts gives it three more options to replace a spell you don’t like with one of these lovelies.
Viletide  which is a magi missile with short bow range, and an 8+ cast. On the upside, it deals 5D6 hits, so between 5 and 30. The down side is they are strength 1 so probably going to need a lot of 6’s to wound. To make up for this it ignores armor, so maybe worth taking if facing off against knights.

Devolve, another magic missile of the same casting difficulty  and range, forces the target to pass a LD test. If failed they loose wounds based on how much they failed by. Against a lot of low LD enemies like beasts, goblins, most monsters, and undead this could leave a decent dent in them. Against something with moderate LD like with orcs, ogres, or humans, and high LD foe like elves, dwarves, and warriors of chaos, less effective.

Mantle of Gorak I swear the best description I can give is the fight between Malus and the Great Brey Shaman in the first Malus Darkblade novel. This enchantment which only needs a 6+ to cast, and targets the caster, boost their strength and number of attacks by D6 to a ma of 10. It lasts until the end of turn, but they hulk out in that time. The only down side is if you ro a 6 in determining how buf you get you instead take a wound and the spell is wasted. Regardless, this is still good and something I think more bestmen need n their arsonel.

Both can be on foot, take a tuskogroe chariot, or a razorgor chariot. They can be ambushers, and can bump their spell levels from 1 and 3 to 2 and 4 respectively.

Like the main units that lead the beastmen to battle, they have Primal Furry, Warband (gets bonus to ld based on unit’s rank bonus),Mark of Chaos Undivided, Gaze of the Gods,

Finaly the Braystaff which is their weapon of choice. Can be taken as an offensive great weapons (with everything that comes with it like always strikes first but +2 strength and tear through armor like tissue paper), or it can be taken defensive, giving the wielder a hand weapon and in melee a 5+ armor save. Its effectively a Kungfu staff.

If they have weaknesses, it would be the range of some of the spells, and the fact as wizards they will eat up a big chunk of your points. That said, they ae not bad, and unlike most wizards, can handle the odd combat phase.

Thoughts and feelings on this, and what I miss?

[PowerSeries]

The puppet.  Really messes with the magic phase.

[SaintofM]

Who wants to hear about a lot of bull?

Minotours are a classic monster in fantasy, and the beastmen do not disappoint. We have Doom Bulls which are over 200 points, gore bulls which are little more pricy than a Beastlord.

Both can have light armor or heavy armor; can take shields; can take an extra hand weapon or great weapon; can have mutations up to 50 points, and magic items up to 50 for Gorebull and a 100 for doombull.

Stat wise      M    WS       BS          S             T           W            I             A           LD
Doom Bull      6      6         3      6             5           5         5        5             8
Gorebull        6     5         3           5              5           4             4             4            7

Stat wise we are seeing some potent monsters. LD, like with the gor characters, are pretty weak but still in a moderate stage.

That said, they have their strength. Movement 6 means they can get far. They have  high WS, hitting most things on 3’s, with the Doom Bull able to hit a dragon on a 4. THe Doom bull can even wound a dragon or giant on a bull. They have high toughness, keeping them alive in most fights, and unlike ogrs they share a size with ogres, they have a fairly high initiative for their size and can get to trike before most other creatures. ANd of course lots of attacks.

Add the rules, and you have dedicated war machines that can also be the general. They have armor bane 1, so wounds of 6 they go through a layer of armor. Like the Gor Heros they have Blood Rage, Primal Furry, Warband, Foe Render, gaze of the gods and mark f chaos undivided.

Unique to bulls are impact hits, Bullgores which gives said impact hits armor piercing 1 Slaughterer’s call which gives their frenzy from Bloodrage to the unit they join. Bloodgreed improves this by giving the frenzied minies +2 instead of +1 to the attacks they get. So lets say a Doombull gets his Freny. He’s got 2 hand weapons. Lets also give him the Mutation that gives him an additional attack. This means they go from 5 attacks to 9.

Strengths, they are a potent, fast, and resilient with the potential to get even more powerful with the extra attacks. The one weakness is their LD isn’t as high as comparable chareters in a human army, but if they deal enough damage, espesialy if they get the charge, it might be a moot point.

The other issue is a lack of armor. With Heavy armor, they have more than most in the army but its still a 5+ unless they also add a shield. While Toughness 5 means a S3 arrow is wounding on a 6, and S4 handgun on a 5, a good barrage of them might get a few high rolls in there.

[commandant]

They have no armour against a handgun which is AP 2.

[SaintofM]

Thats the case with the whole army. Crossbowmen can take out alot of them if it were not for the number of skirmishers in their midst's. What armor they have seems to be token and looking for a Hail Mary Pass to save. The rest might as well go out to battle as naked as the day they were born. Thi gives them a celt feel now that I think of it.

[SaintofM]

Been buisy, and now my laptop has died so fun times. Untill then, been looking at u its a little more intimatly and would like to add my 2 cents on them before going in on the 2 alternative army lists.

For our final charecter before going into named ones, The Centugore Cheiften.

Stat wise there isn't much different from him and a normal centigor. It has a point higher ws, and strength so is bound to hit harder and hit most things on a 3. The hit harder at S5 means it can wound something as tough as an ogre on a 3.3 wounds and 4 attacks make ghis a lord in moat other armies. The major downsides is low initiative of 3. This means unless he has a great weapon, he hits at the same time as an empire spearman

As for BS, its high for a beastman charecter but this is the main range weapon guy so it be nice if he could hit most things.

Gear: they may take light armor or heavy armor and a sheild
May take a cavalry spear or a great weapon. A javalin or a throwing ax.
Can be an ambusher
Can take 50 points worth of mutations and 50 points of magic item. The rest of his states and magic itms point twards a more hero build.

Rule wise they are light cavalry, swiftstrider,  fast cavalry. with primal fury. WRband allows them to get a bonus to LD in melee due to ranking up. They have a stomp attack, so obe auto hot at S5. Given they are T4 with 3 wounds, they can survive most blows, meaning he might live long enough to deal it.

An attack that het even sronger as they like all chaos chatectprs so far het Eye of the Gods.

Like all centigores, they cannot handle their booze but are perpetualy liquored up with the drunken rule.

Start of the player's turn roll a D6 and see what happens to him.
1. Unsteady, they are still wobbly from their social drinking. They have random movement and can only move d6+2 until the next tome they can role.
2-5 they sobered up and act normal...normal for beastmen at least.
6 beligerent drunks, so they get their Ruscle Crow on. Until the next start of turn phase for the beastmen they get frenzy. If they had frenzy byt lost it, they can get it again.

For 20 points more than a wargore, you get a charecter i have mixed feelings about. On onw hand he fits the centigore mold very well, and his higher ld can help them quite a bit. He would also be perfect with ambusher and his high strength and wealon skill for dwaling with enemy gunlines and warmachines: no kill like over kill. Other times i wonder if a gore wargore is better suited for the job.