Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Beastmen (section)

==Building Your Army==

===Army Composition===
Play [[Legions of Chaos]] instead.

Okay, that's harsh so I'll explain.  Legions allows you to fix a lot of the problems of this list by adding WoC units that are, let's face it, more reasonably priced and better at fighting and standing their ground.  Sad but true.

What's that, you say?  Playing Warriors is for chumps?  Okay, you mad bastard.  I like you, so listen closely.

Your Core choices are shitty so you'll have to deal with that.  Big horde units will give you some holding power (you brought that BSB, right?), small units making the most of the Ambush rule may help by throwing a wrench in your opponent's plans.  Tuskgor chariots are handy and will bring some pain but not if you send them in one at a time like ninjas in an episode of Walker: Texas Ranger.

Your real tools lie in the Special slot so when you get to list building your eyes are going to start here.  Razorgors for flanking, Minotaurs for smashing.  Bestigors will fuck some shit right up but if you expect them to do work all by themselves then you deserve the spanking you're about to receive.

===Magic Items===

'''Gifts of Chaos:'''

* ''Crown of Horns:'' Steadfast makes this mostly pointless unless you're taking on Horde armies.

* ''Slug-Skin:'' Not very good, you're paying 30 points for a S3 hit on 1-3 models (unless you are on a chariot which makes it a lot better), usually the casualties don't add up enough to make the points back.

* ''Many-Limbed Fiend:'' Useful on anybody S5 and higher, not so useful on others.  Combines nicely with a Gorebull with an extra hand weapon for 7 S5 attacks.

* ''Gouge Tusks:'' Here we go. Helpful for breaking through heavily armored fuckers and keeping you from fluffing those important rounds of combat.

* ''Gnarled Hide:'' This one is excellent, 10/10 WOULD BANG, especially when combined with existing armor.

* ''Rune of True Beasts:'' Slightly more useful against the combined profile characters, but unless it's on a Doombull with the Armour of Destiny (or Glittering Scales), they are unlikely to survive against even the weaker ones or regular monsters and their rider/handlers.  With that armour though they can Doombulls can kill the weaker Combined Profile characters.

* ''Uncanny Senses:'' Good if you're combining it with The Swift Sword of Slaying and might face initiative 5 troops to make sure you get those rerolls. Just be sure to NOT combine it with a Great Weapon.

* ''Shadow-Hide:''If you have 5 points to burn on a Gorebull or Doombull you could do well with this to prevent archer spam against him, making him virtually impossible to hit with normal troops.


'''Magic Weapons:'''

* ''Primeval Club:'' Beastmen lords usually don't need help wounding, they need help hitting, not to mention this one weapon uses your Lord's ENTIRE points allowance (who thought that was a good idea?) and its effects can almost always be replicated with a great weapon or the Ogre Blade for far less. This is just a much, MUCH worse version of most other races equivalent, runefang is 15 points LESS but is much better, the fellblade of the Skaven is infiniately more damaging, there is no possible good reason for this, just move on.

* ''Axe of Men:'' A little on the expensive side and lacks a way to make the enemy accept the Challenge. Maybe if he could take a more proactive role in Hero killing (IE, if he had a mount). As it is? Nah.

* ''Stonecrusher Mace:'' HERE we go. Great for a combat Lord, especially if you're going to face Empire and you want to see the look on your opponent's face when you break his Steam Tank. Still a bit on the pricey side.

* ''Mangelder:'' Very pricy for very little effect. Terror only comes into affect when you charge the enemy and even then most enemies have decent Ld and combat is where you want to be.

* ''Hunting Spear:'' Having been officially FAQ'd to be a throwing weapon, this one can actually be worth it, just of it's potential for Monster Hunting (big scary monsters that fly, like Dragons, are one of your worst enemies). Best for a cheap Hero, just be aware that your BS will cause you frustration. 

* ''Axes of the Khorgor:'' Good on a Doombull to make sure you get those attacks in, but it will really eat into his magic points with its high cost.

* ''Steel Claws:'' Wielding this weapon comes with a cigar and a penchant for calling people Bub. Amnesia is optional. Seriously though, a good item for it's points, combine with Gnarled Hide for an effective combat Hero, or with both Gnarled Skin and Trollhide for an effective Lord. The chance for ignoring armour saves could be handy but is unlikely to happen when you need it.

* ''The Brass Cleaver:'' It's 30 points for on average two or three extra attacks.  Not a bad value at all compared to the extra attacks weapons in the core book.  A Doombull carrying it around ''will'' mince infantry. It is worth noting that in a challenge it is only +1 attack, so it's not great for challenges. Otherwise it is simply a better version of the steel claws. It should also be noted that unlike the steel claws these do not require both hands, so you can combine it with a charmed shield for a 1+ armour lord.

* ''Everbleed:'' Considering how many attacks your Lords can get on average, you'll be getting one to three unsavable wounds per game and so it's only really worth if you combine it with several attack increasing items, and if not there's other things you can spend your points on.


'''Magic Armour:'''

* ''Blade Blunter Armor:'' Worth it considering the large increase in heroes you'll be fighting, put it on a Wargor, run him at Tyrion/Karl Franz Ascendant/Malekith to get rid of their magic weapons as your hero doesn't need to survive in order to make combat monsters a lot weaker.

* ''Trollhide:'' Not as good an item as others, for example the Armour of Destiny outstrips it in every way, but if you've already put that on somebody else and aren't going to be up against many flaming attacks then go for it.

* ''Pelt of the Shadowgave:'' Light armor, causes spells targeting the wearer and his unit to be slightly harder to cast, but that's not why you want it.  All shooting attacks directed at the bearer and his unit are at -1 to hit.  Yea, read Chalice of Dark Rain, and now put that on a single unit for the entire game.  Stick this on a hero in your deathstar so they don't get shot to pieces while you march them up the middle.

* ''Blackened Plate:'' Good on Minotaur Bloodkines, but could be good just because of the ubiquity of Flaming Attacks. Still, you could very easily buy this and have it not do a single thing.

* ''Ramhorn Helm:'' AWESOME, again 10/10 would bang. Sweetness when combined with Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armour and Shield, giving you 1+ Armour Save that gives you an extra attack every time you make an armour save. Very good with this combo. Send a Doombull out on his own with this combo while he's saying "come at me bro!" and watch him decimate rank and file troops. Give him a Brass Cleaver for the full near unlimited attacks.



'''Enchanted Items:'''

* ''Shard of the Herdstone:'' Extremely awesome, but keeping all your Wizards in one place is just begging for a unit of flyers to come eat them, though with your statlines and lore buffs available you should be able to handle them.

* ''Horn of the Great Hunt:'' Great in a Chariot list or if you need to get into combat fast.  Beastmen resist shooting damage in the same way an infant fights Mohammad Ali, you want ANYTHING that will get them into combat faster. You're not dwarfs so don't think that T 4 will make you invincible.

* ''Horn of the First Beast:'' While your Battle Standard Bearer already gets you those Primal Fury rerolls on Higher Ld, this has far more range and is a lot more useful if you plan on spreading out your forces.

* ''Stone of Spite:'' Could be fun, especially against Dark Elves/High Elves but it's worthless against Daemons or Dwarves (though, see above). Not a bad item though, especially for friendly play and with the increase on Heroes and Lords you'll be getting more uses out of it.

* ''Skin of Man:'' Perfect for a Bray-Shaman who, in your opinion, should not live past turn 2. If you have some silly desire to keep your Shaman alive long enough to affect the game, you should probably skip this one.   If you want to use it effectively though, get a Bray-Shaman, try to get Bray-Scream and then fuck up some flanks.  Keep in mind this still works if your Shaman is mounted on a Chariot, so if you have the points try out a scouting Razorgor Chariot.

* ''Cacophonous Dirge:'' Since Musicians only work in combat if you've drawn (and ONLY if you've drawn) this one is limited in usefulness, but it could be okay at ending drawn out combat.



'''Talismans:'''

* ''Eye of Night:'' [[Overcosted]] and weirdly specific in its effect.  If you really want Magic Resistance then the Obsidian Lodestone does the job better but costs the same.

* ''Chalice of Dark Rain:'' Fucking fantastic, everything in your army favours combat over shooting and unless you KNOW you're not facing an army that's not using shooting (and it can be useful against some of those: Read it, it says that Banshees can't scream except on a 4+), you should really be considering this.


'''Arcane Items:'''

* ''Skull of Rakos:'' Odd, but effective, especially if you grabbed Shard of the Herdstone. Probably worth it even it only affects the one Shaman.

* ''Staff of Darkoth:'' Remember how we said that you want to tip the odds in your favor? This item is exceptional at helping you do that. Well worth taking.

* ''Hagtree Fetish:'' Beastmen magic is lacking in offensive spells, but this could help in a pinch. Worth taking in larger lists.

* ''Jagged Dagger:'' If your Great Bray-Shaman is trying to run touchdowns or getting into combat, he'll have to be built correctly or he's gonna bite it too quickly to make use of this.  Keep in mind it's not actually a magical weapon, so if you want to use it effectively get a Great Bray-Shaman, put him on a chariot, give him Skin of Man and whatever other options you find appropriate and send him into small vulnerable units.


'''Magic Banners:'''

Please note that the only unit that can take magic banners is Bestigors. This may seem like a losing proposition since you already sunk a lot of points into that HUGE unit of Bestigors (to bring the large number of guys you need to have to keep them from getting shot to pieces/cut to ribbons before they get to combat) and you don't want to sink more points into one unit. To that I say: Bitch, did you think I was kidding? You ARE sinking more points into those Bestigors. Also, a magic banner bsb has every capability to be just as useful as one with a decent save.

* ''Beast Banner:'' Really good for a unit you NEED to survive or cause casualties, especially a large Gor unit. Great for a BSB. It is of limited usefulness on that huge unit of bestigors that you have made the centre of your army, there are better options, strength 6 tends to be enough.
'Counter Point' Er no, keep it off your bestigors as much as you can but for that huge horde of gors its just the perfect way to finally make them decent in combat, combine that with wildform when you need it (which might be easier than you think with a lvl 1) and you suddenly have a 40 attacks S5 T5 unit to tear things to shreds.

* ''Totem of Rust:'' Well, here we have a dilemma.  -2 armour save for the unit and enemies in close combat, -1 save for all units within 6".  Now you have two choices.  A) give it to a BSB in a heavy unit of gors.  You can soak a decent amount of damage simply by being T4 and a lot of enemies will seriously miss those two points of armour.  Toss in some buffs and your blender is good to go.  The downside to this plan is that you miss out on being able to take the pretty solid Beast Banner listed above.  Since the Totem doesn't effect Scaly Skin saves your BSB really needs to be sporting that Gnarled Hide.  Option B) give it to your Bestigors.  Doing so will be a total waste of their heavy armour but will give you a unit that can make Chaos Knights go bye-bye.  Definite high risk, possible high reward.  Think about this item carefully. If you are going the ToR path you will want to be casting wild form on the unit every turn as T5 is better than a 5+ against pretty much everything.

* ''Manbane Standard:'' Could be worth it on the Bestigors, especially a center-field one.

* ''The Banner of Outrage:'' So let me get this straight: The Beastmen <s>get the chance to reroll their opportunity to</s> automatically get Hatred every turn and your enemies also get Hatred, just not every turn. You also lose the chance to get Frenzy from Primal Fury, at least according to the FAQ. What is it with these banners helping out the enemy, it's not like they need the help. NEVER take this banner not even as a joke just leave it in the hands of the corpse that the beastmen probably took it from.

===Magic===
Beastmen magic is generally too situational, just like the army itself and (unless really dedicated to magic) can be beaten down by any dedicated magic armies.   However, taking the Shard of a Herdstone with some Shadow level 1 casters can change this around, you can miasma the BS of shooty armies, and the WS, M and I of the fighty armies. Even gutstars are no good if they have a movement of 1. Prepare to pay a lot of points for a decent magic phase though.  However with a L4 and a power scroll, you can potentially force through a couple of spells at crucial times.  In general the biggest problems with Lore of the Wild is what the spells work on and the fact that some can be done better by your own armoury (more on this in the spells themselves).

But it's not all bad, your casting Heroes and Lords are cheaper than MOST peoples and can hold up acceptably in combat (not on their own, never on their own). You're going to want your lower level Heroes to concentrate on Lore of Beasts and grab multiples of it's Signature Spell (and maybe try to grab an offensive spell or two) to try and tip an important combat in your favor. Lord level wizards should be nabbing Lore of Death right out, for it's usefulness at sniping enemy heroes and weakening enemy units. Lore of Shadows is okay if you want to try for Occam's Mindrazor, but Death and Beasts are more all purpose.  Note that the Beastmen's personal lore is situational, the casting values, and low range (4/7 of the spells have ranges of 6-12) means it has to be a high level Shaman near the front to make proper use of them, which is usually NOT where you want him.

Here is a breakdown of the spells of the Lore of the Wild. Remember, you'll get more bang for your buck (in terms of longer ranges, lower casting values, and over-all benefits/effects on the targets) by taking spells from Lore of Death and/or Lore of Beasts. Also note that with Lore of Beasts, you subtract one from each casting value, so it's like it's custom made for Beastmen!  Also, Beasts is where Wyssan's Wildform is... which you need very much. With each of these spells - look at the ranges (generally too short) and the casting values (generally too high) and you'll see why, for now, the Lore of the Wild is not as good as some of the others (though it does have its high points).

====Lore of the Wild====
*Bestial Surge (7+): ''Signature spell'' - Allows ALL friendly units within a whopping 6" to get an additional 2-7" in movement directly towards an enemy unit. Useful if you are under threat of missile fire or you just need that little extra bump to get into charge range. Remember that Beastmen survive by being aggressive, so this can't hurt. However, when compared to other Lore's signature spells, this spell leaves a Beastman underwhelmed, unless you are using more than one Bray Shaman to cast it per turn, in which case it decently useful.

*Viletide (7+): A 24" magic missile that hits an enemy for 5D6 S1 hits. Great for hunting warmachines, as a S1 hit is still a wound on a 6+, horrible for everything above T2 which is nearly everything else, for those you want ''Flock of Doom (Beasts)'' instead (5+ 2D6 S2 and boostable to 48" range).

*Devolve (9+): You know the Jabberslythe's ''Aura of Madness''? This is the spell version of that.  All enemy within 12" take a Lead test, if they fail, the unit takes wounds equal to the number failed by.  Considering the number of LD10 units out there, this spell is probably best used on... Beastmen and Undead.  Combos nicely with Doom and Darkness from Lore of Death.

*Bray-Scream (10+): Already into high 2 dice land, the third spell gives one friendly ''character'' within 12" a S3 breath weapon, no armour saves.  Fuck awesome, use on Malagor after flying into a flank to turn those Phoenix Guard or large hordes into mincemeat (the breath weapon can get a fuckload of hits in 8th edition), or use it on a character in close combat against any well armoured enemy, gaining 2D6 armour ignoring hits against Heavy Cavalry is huge.

*Traitor-Kin (10+): All enemy cav within 12" (basically, anyone on a mount or chariot) gets attacked by their own mount at its strength and attacks ('''KILL THE STAR DRAGON RIDER!''').  Engage trollface when playing Bretonnia or up against a monster happy army (monsters with handlers on it like Sphinx's and Araknaroks attack themselves)... otherwise sit down and wonder why you didn't take Lore of Beasts.  With the new Nagash book though, this is one of the few spells that can help you take down the new mounted heroes, since the FAQ states that the spell works on combined characteristic models.

*Mantle Of Ghorok (13+): One friendly character within 6" gains +D6 S and A.... but takes a wound for any 6s rolled for those characteristics.  It's useful for making that Doombull into the unholy rape train he was always meant to be without paying for magical weapons, but if you're packing a quite a few strength/attack boosting weapons (aka what every weapon in the beastmen armoury does) then you can safely skip it. You could use it on your caster if you get stuck in combat- takes him from S4 and A2 to possibly S10 and A8 (although at that point He's dead).

*Savage Dominion (16+): This spell had awesome potential, it lets you summon one Giant, Ghorgon, or Jabberslythe (your choice).  Sounds good so far... but any wound suffered by your beastie means that the caster has to make a T test for ''each wound taken'', and a failed test means taking a non savable wound, that's not too terrible, also - the caster cannot cast or attack after this point as long as the monster is alive.  If you use this spell with anything higher than a normal Bray Shaman at all you've effectively wasted the points, you might as well have bought the monster instead and placed it with your army rather than try to cast it, have it start at the table edge, then run it to the enemy while it most likely gets shot.  Pretty good though if you're lucky enough to get it on lower level wizards.