Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Chaos/Brayherd

These are the rules for Brayherd prior to the release of the Beasts Of Chaos Battletome, and as such are no longer matched play valid.

Their a tough army to like. Based on the old Celtic armies of Britain and western Europe (the ones who were wiped out by the Romans) they are weak, lacking strong killing ability and not a great variety of units. BUT they do have some hard hitters in terms of chariots and minotaurs, they can deploy in swarms and they can move across the board pretty quick. Beastmen are an army for true battle masters!

Beastmen Warscrolls

Forenote: The following section will be arranged with similar units and formations being grouped together for easier reading.

This is by no means a complete guide. But some common equipment among the army include:

• Brayhorn: Can run and charge in the same turn.
• Banner Bearer: gets +1 when running and piling up.
• Beastshield/Brayshield/Half-Shield/Bullshield/Beastbuckler: +1 Save during Combat Phase.

Allegiance Abilities

With the advent of the General's Handbook Part 2, the Brayherds have now become even better with new Battle Traits, Command Traits and Artefacts! In addition to abilities that actually benefit an ambush horde mentality that can actually help your units get to combat quickly.

Battle Traits

• Ambush: Instead of setting up your units normally you can set them up to the sides in ambush. In your first movement phase, you must place them within 6" of the edges of the board and more than 9" away from any enemy models. This counts as their movement phase for the turn. This while not as flexible as some other deepstriking abilities (Stormcasts) it can be an effective way of getting large Brayherd hordes quickly up the board when confronting the enemy and taking objectives.
• Herdstones: One of the more unique aspects to this army and continuing with the new tradition of incorporating terrain into an armies allegiance abilities and this one isn't bad. After selecting your general and setting up your army you may place a Herdstone within 6" of your army with a piece of terrain up to 4" across to represent the stone. It can be set up on any open ground at least 1" away from any other terrain or models. The Herdstone provides two benefits to your army:
  • 1. All friendly Brayherdunits in your army treat the Herdstone as having the Damned, Arcane and Inspiring scenery rules from the Age of Sigmar terrain rules set.
  • 2. All other units treat the Herdstone as having the Deadly Scenery rule from the terrain ruleset.
    • Overall while it may cover a relatively small area of the battlefield it does work well in creating a danger zone you can control for your opponent. In addition, it can create a good buffing area for your troops that you can use to create an effective beachhead with your hoards.

Command Traits

• 1. Unreasing and Deadly:Re-roll wound rolls of 1 for your general.
• 2. Crown of Horns: Pick an enemy unit within 1" of the general when the general is selected to attack in the combat phase, and roll a dice. On a 5 the unit suffers a mortal wound. On a 6+ it suffers d3 mortal wounds.
• 3. Malevolent Despoiler: Do not add 1 to save rolls for enemy units that are in cover and within 12" of your general.
• 4. Massive Beastlord: Add 1 to the general's wounds characteristic.
• 5. Scions of the dark gods: If your general is a Wizard, add 1 to their casting rolls in the hero phase. If they are not a wizard than they can cast the mystic shield and arcane bolt in the hero phase as if they were a wizard (but cannot attempt to cast any other spell or unbind spells in the enemy hero phase).
• 6. Bestial Cunning: Up to half your units set up in ambush, rounding up, can arrive in the second game turn if you wish.

Artefacts

• 1. Ramhorn Helm: You can inflict D3 mortal wounds on a unit within 1" of the model after completing a charge move.
• 2. Brayblast Trumpet: Add 1 to hit for any Brayherd unit that used that Ambush battle trait to arrive on the board this turn.
• 3. Herdstone Axe: Pick one of the bearer’s melee weapons. Add 1 to that weapon’s Damage characteristic.
• 4. Bleating Gnarlstaff: roll a dice if this model is within 1" of a terrain piece at the end of the movement phase. On a 3 or more all enemy units within 1" of the terrain, piece suffers 1 mortal wound. Something to consider if you are playing on a heavy terrain map.
• 5. The Festerpelt: You can heal 1 wound for this model in each of your hero phases.
• 6. Rune of the Insatiable Beast: Add 2 to this models charge rolls. This model can also re-roll hit rolls of 1. A very good upgrade for a melee centered general or another hero.

Brayherd

Heroes

• Beastlord: Standard leader Hero who can choose between axe'n'board, double axes or great ax. Which you take is really up to you, but if you play a Battalion that hinges on the Lord is alive, the shield might be useful even if it only works in melee. He has a potentially great Command that grants all Brayherd +1 to their run, charge and hit rolls, which unfortunately can only be used if he personally killed something the turn before, limiting its usefulness quite drastically. But still, the range of the ability it's a 32" bubble! It'll probably affect 4, 5 or even more units each time, making it that many times as powerful as the usual "+1 to hit for a unit until the end of turn" Command Ability. And because Brayherds can run and then charge, the +1 to run and charge it's usually a 2" bonus! If you can protect your Beastlord well (with Wizards to Mystic Shield him and unbind spells that can do mortal wounds to him, and big Monsters/units to hide him), it can easily win you the game outright, but remember that he needs to kill things EACH previous turn for his ability to work.

• Great Bray-Shaman: See? They really do hate us. The Shaman has the exact same profile as any other run-of-the-mill Wizard, but they gave the guy worse To Wound rolls with the staff, just for spite. But of course, you still need this guy because he can still cast Mystic Shield and he increases the Move of all Brayherd around him by 3", which is incredible combined with their run+charge musicians. Sure, those first turn charges are still not likely, but they're possible thanks to him.
  • Also, the Savage Dominion spell, while great in theory ends up being quite useless, as you have better things to do with your casting attempts than waste it on a statistically unlikely chance of summoning a Chaos Monster you could have just put onto the table, to begin with (but the spell also "teleports" the monster, which is pretty neat). If you wanna make Savage Dominion work, just put some Chaos Familiars near the shaman. They die to a breeze, but even with only one or two successful summons, they'll have done their work. Yes, technically Chaos Familiars are included in the Warriors of Chaos faction, but actually, they only have the CHAOS keyword, so you can stay fluffy if you use them. Just model them to be very savage and beast-like (that's also very fun in and of itself). Savage Dominion gives lets you any Chaos allied Monster at a set summon value of 9. although this is still unreliable as stated above, your toolbox is larger than other Chaos wizards which are only limited to daemons that posses summoning values, while you could whip out a surprise Archaon in addition to summoning bigger demons at a lower summoning value.
  • FORGET THIS. With the new edition of AoS changing how summoning works, summon spells have been removed completely from the game and the Bray-Shaman was FAQ'd with a new spell called Devolve, which casts on a 7 and just takes an unengaged enemy unit within 18" and pulls it towards your closest unit by 2D6". Best used to pull the enemy away from objectives, cover, or buffers while improving your Chances for a successful charge.

Units

• Gors: Counts as Battleline. The first thing you notice is that Gors are pretty fast, pretty tough and not too killy to start out. Then you will see that their size bonus actually hinges on luck, as they get a roll that determines if they get a bonus and having 20+ simply adds a modifier. On the one hand, this means these guys might get all the bonuses without being in units of 20+ but on the other hand that means even with 20+ the bonus isn't guaranteed. All in all, they're good. Either disgustingly resilient with shields or decently killy and still pretty survivable with two weapons. Though be advised that they painfully miss a spear-option, so while sizes of 20 to 30 are encouraged, never go beyond that, as you can never attack in two rows. Also, if you stack on the buffs, they can go from 1 attack at 4+/4+/-/1 up to 3 attacks at 3+/3+/-/1 that reroll 1s To Hit and To Wound. Sweet.

• Ungors: Counts as Battleline. Weaker Save than Gors and weaker size bonuses, good for ambushing warmachines and running after routed infantry but not much else. Gors are already mass-infantry, you don't need EVEN weaker mass infantry. Just use these with the bows, that way they at least fulfil a role other than being the tarpit FOR the tarpit. You could give these guys spears to fight in two rows but their not worth going above 10 in a unit and giving them spear is on the assumption that they'll actually kill something...

• Ungor Raiders: Counts as Battleline in a Brayherd army. Same as Ungors, but with bows instead of shields and a basic scouting rule. Don't think their bows are good but the mass of shots really helps. Also, one of the very, very few shooty units Chaos has to work with, so make the most of them. Units of 5 dotted around your army can be effective but sending them out will make them a target of rival archers who will turn them to bloody swiss cheese.

• Bestigors: Counts as Battleline in a Brayherd army. These guys are amazing. Multiple attacks per Wound, a great profile including Rend, 4+ save that doesn't rely on shields with conditions and just as fast across the board as the rest of the army. As of 2nd edition Generals handbook theses guys are 300pts if taken in a unit of 30, need i say more?

• Tuskgor Chariots: It's a chariot. Aside from the fact that the model is painfully showing its age, it's actually damn good. Lots of Wounds, good Save, tons of attacks that are great on the charge and okay normally. Play three of them and make sure they have a Bray Shaman close to them in your first movement phase.

Allies

Hero

• Doombull: The murder cow has the exact same options as the Beastlord, those being axe'n'board, twin axes or two-handed axe. The most damage potential comes from the dual axes, but you're going to want the -2 Rend from the great axe. As you can see, the Bull is an absolute melee monster, as his attacks are great and he shares the Bloodgreed ability with his lesser kin, though he also has the best possible Command you could hope for, as it grants a flat +1 To Wound to Warherd units in a huge bubble, including to himself. This of course stacks with the Blood Greed ability all Warherd has, which gets them extra attacks for Wound rolls of 6+, making that ability activate on 5+ dice rolls and getting much more mileage out of it. Play him, kill everything. Also, like his lesser kin, he's excessively fast with a Move of 7".

Unit

• Minotaurs/Bullgors: Get the same Bloodgreed rule as the Doombull, similar choice of weaponry but the really interesting trait is their Drummer and Banner Bearer abilities: namely, they give +1 respectively to charge rolls and Bravery for each enemy unit within 12" from them. If you want to go full Warherd, take one unit of each and see which ones perform best, but if you take only one unit of them and a Doombull, you're going to want Great Axes. Other than that, they're fast, have more raw, balls-out power than almost anything in the game and have lots of Wounds. The high Wound-count combined with the meh Save also means that targeting them with Mortal Wounds will almost feel like a waste to your opponent, which might keep them safe longer.
  • Consider the following: Because of the model's bulk, squads bigger than 3 are clunky to use. As such, there's only one real way to run these guys, and it's MSUs of 3, each with a BLOODKINE, banner, drummer, and Great Axes. MSUs take advantage of their insane speed, reduce the chances of losing a precious bull to almost nothing (You need to roll a 6 if you lose 2), and best of all? You can SPAM BLOODKINES, who makes an ADDITIONAL attack with their Great Axes. Remedy a unit's chance to hit with Lord of War or a Chaos Sorcerer, and you're dealing almost 12 damage AVERAGE at Rend -2, with the potential for MORE with BLOODGREED, PER THREE BULLS. Finally, don't forget to take advantage of their drummers. This ability stacks, increasing your charge ranges to absurdly high numbers. What about shields and dual-wielding? Sorry folks, but here's some shit: Shields MIGHT have been worth it if it was a flat +1 to your save, rather than a gimmicky +1 in the combat phase, so fuck that shit; even a round of shooting from an Ungor Raider squad can put a single bull down. And with the number of Mortal Wounds being tossed around in this current Meta, your dinky shield would fucking explode in sheer horror at how useless it is. In regards to dual-wielding, there are already many ways in this game to re-roll 1s for hitting, and by taking this option, you're losing out on Rend -2, which is the biggest way to bypass your opponent's armor. You're also hurting their effectiveness at taking on Mystic Shield. Most big enemy heroes have 3+ or 4+ nowadays, and Mystic Shield is only going to make that harder to penetrate, and your Warherd will NEED the -2 to get damage through. TL;DR: Optimal is Great Axes, MSUs of 3 for BLOODKINE spam. Don't forget your Banner and Drummer bonuses, and your additional attack for your BLOODKINE. DON'T FORGET YOUR FUCKING DOOMBULL FOR THE COMMAND ABILITY.

Monsters

• Ghorgon: Same Blood Frenzy as Doombull and Bullgors, but on a 5+ (so on a 4+ if you have a Doombull nearby, say bye-bye, Sigmarines). Also, he gets back d3 wounds if his Huge Slavering Maw attack wounded someone. This thing is your sledgehammer, with insanely strong attacks, but very slow for a monster. If you manage the charge and a Doombull is nearby, this thing can rip apart whole units, otherwise, it will stop cannonballs with its face for two turns and then die. Sidenote: If you want to ensure that this guy gets in, bring Sayl the Faithless. His spell will make the Ghorgon go flying down the board and into your enemies, who will wonder how this guy got so close so fast and what happened to his heroes.
• Cygor: Can unbind two spells in each Hero Phase: If he manages to do it, he deals a mortal wound to the caster while getting back a wound for himself. He also can reroll hit rolls when attacking wizards, which he really really needs, having Hit rolls of 4+ across the board. Why not take two or three, completely deny rival wizards in the magic phase and rain down boulders on your opponents army. Yes taking wounds will bring down his range but if you keep him moving with your army he can maintain his usefulness. Oh and use the statue hands that come with the sprue, no one ever uses them...

Old stuff

AKA all the dudes that were removed in the Grand Alliance Chaos book with their models out of print and stuff. The rules are still available in the PDF on the website and stuff, but if you didn't already own these models... well, getting them will be kinda hard (Except Malagor whose model was retconned as a regular Great Bray-Shaman)

• Gorthor The Beastlord: Your greatest champion. He's very fast and an okay fighter, but don't throw him at anything competent, as he is primarily a buffer, having the exact same Command as the normal Beastlord, but without that bullshit restriction, so you get infinitely more mileage out of it. Each turn he can heal a wound (he has 8 on his profile) or inflict one to a nearby enemy. If he charges he can re-roll his hit rolls with his weapon, the Impaler and inflict 1d3 mortal wounds to his enemy. He also re-rolls wound rolls against heroes, so he can (with the extra help of his assistant and Tuskgor) kill most heroes in one charge phase.
• Khazrak The One-eye: 6 attacks plus a number of extra attacks equal to the number of enemies within range of his weapon (3"), so he can kill foot soldiers with ease. THIS is what Decimators wish they could be. He can decimate any infantry he wades into but with his 6 guaranteed attacks and rerolls, he is never completely fucked against Heroes. His dark mail offers him a good save (3+) and gives a -3 to cast penalty to enemy wizards within 12". His command ability allows friendly units within 16" to retreat and then charge in the same turn, which would work great for stuff with charge bonuses, but since the only one of those you have are chariots...
• Wargor Standard Bearer: Gets +1 to hit and wound rolls if, before rolling the dice, you let loose a bestial warcry. More seriously, if he plants his standard Brayherd units within 18" get +1 to their wound rolls. Kind of essential to get Gors able to do anything, Bestigors get nasty with this too.
• Malagor, the Dark Omen: A mighty spellcaster with two spells per turn and a +1 to cast if he has already cast a spell this turn. He has a nifty ability that gives him a chance of protecting himself in close combat.
• Morghur, the Master of Skulls: The other powerful spellcaster in the army. He's immune against long-range attacks and spells, can turn your guys intoChaos Sp... THOSE, which is actually always a good trade, especially if you take some shitty Ungor and turn him into a rampaging 5-Wound abomination. But remember that, with Beastmen Bravery, that guy you killed with Morghur's ability can end up making others run, so play accordingly. He also has a signature spell powerful against heroes with bad bravery, of which there are more than you'd think. Thanks to his ranged attacks protection, and 2-level spell capability, he's very very good at supporting your units with Mystic Shield, or even Inspiring Presence if you don't have anyone better to be the General.
• Ghorros Warhoof: Very decent as a fighter Hero, almost having the same profile as a Vampire Lord, his true value lies in boosting a unit of Centigors, turning them from very meh to pretty good. His command ability further boosts Centigors. His wonky Bravery is completely irrelevant as Heroes never take Battleshock anyway. If you use him with Centigors, you will probably only use one unit of Centigors, so Inspiring Presence is better in any case.

Formations

• Wildstalker Brayherd: A Beastlord takes 1-3 Great Bray-Shamans, 2 to 6 units of Bestigors and/or Tuskgor Chariots, 3-9 units of Gors and 4-12 units of Ungor and/or Ungor Raiders. Everything within 16" from the Beastlord gets an extra melee attack and can also reroll every 1 to wound if they're within 16" from both the Beastlord and a Great Bray-Shaman. Also, the entire formation can be kept in reserve and placed during your first movement phase within 6" from field borders and within 9" from enemy units.

The only benefit this formation gives you is the benefits of the Beastlord's aura and when you consider that this is you're the only formation and that most of your armies will look similar if not identical to this so you might as well take it.

External links

Rules are here [1]