Beastmen; Chaos Daemons Tactica Update
Before we get stuck into Beastmen I wanted to let you know about an article that we have updated. Tactica Chaos Daemons is written by Adam Troke who has been researching the battle tactics and formations of the daemonic legions for some time. Not only does he look at tactics for the overall army he looks at tactics to consider for pretty much every unit in the army including all of the new models from the Pink Horrors through to the Daemon Prince.
Right then, onto Beastmen. Well, we know that they are big, hairy and live in the woods, but what do we know about how they fight in the new Warhammer? I asked Martin Morrin, who lives in the woods but isn't big and hairy, to provide us with some sage advice.
Martin: The new edition of Warhammer has thrown up some exciting things for Beastmen. The Primal Fury rule (getting hatred on a successful leadership test) has really come into its own. Beastmen can take large units of cheap troops and so combining this with the ability to re-roll misses in every round of combat is a massive boon. This is made even more effective when combined with a Beastlord with the Horn of the First Beast, which allows you to re-roll the leadership test. As such fielding large units of Beastmen of all varieties is the order of the day.
Minotaurs must get a special mention. The Monstrous Support rule means that they can get up to three supporting attacks from models in the second rank. Even better they get the horde rule with only six models to a rank and so a unit of eighteen Minotaur's could all get to fight!
Tuskgor Chariots are a Core choice for Beastmen. They are no longer killed outright by a Strength 7 hit and are therefore likely to survive a lot longer on the battlefield. Charging with multiple chariots or combining a chariot charge with one of your infantry blocks can put a big dent in the enemy unit.
A Beastmen Shaman has access to the Lore of Beasts allowing them to do some nasty things in the Magic phase to enemy units while supporting their own troops. It also gives you the option to transform into a giant monster, what's not to like?
Finally the Beastmen have many big scary monsters available to them. The Thunderstomp rule has now made them even more effective. Dealing out those extra hits can help them to win those all important combats even when they are outnumbered by large units of infantry.
The main reason that I picked Beastmen to talk about today was the fantastic army painted by Tony Pacheco, which he sent in to the What's New Today inbox. As soon as I saw it I immediately sent Tony an email and asked him to tell us some more about the army. Here are plenty of pictures and some words from Tony on his army:
Tony: I had been struggling with what army I would be using for this year's tournament season and when I saw the new models for the Beastmen I knew I had to take them. I was looking for an army I would enjoy creating and that wouldn't be overrepresented. I also needed the army to have a cool history. The Beastmen were the perfect fit. Lucky for me I had a few classic Beast Herds from back in the day and after getting a few test models done I was sold.
Having just finished a 2250-point Wood Elf army for last year's tournament season I was pretty excited to have the two rivals of the forest together. I had originally wanted to make my Beastmen monsters be corrupted versions of Wood Elf monsters. The Ghorgon would be a corrupted Treeman, Jabberslythe would be a corrupted Wood Elf Dragon and so on. I had the extra models lying around to do so but after experimenting with using cork and snow effects I decided to make the army hailing from the cold mountains. This came to be the new theme of the army.
I wanted to give the army a cool colour tone so I tried to stick with colours that fit that spectrum. I also mixed Shadow Grey (favourite colour of all time!) into my reds to make them cooler. The red ended up being the army colour which I felt contrasted with the greys and blues well. The bases were done with pieces of cork tiles and originally had snow on them but after getting a few units done I thought the snow was a little too overwhelming. As a last minute touch I added some skulls to some of the bases.
I'm particularly proud of my Razorgor Chariot and Doombull. For the Chariot I took the Orc Chariot and merged the two pig yoke into a one giant pig one. I used a little bit of green stuff to make it wide enough but it was almost a perfect fit. I also put one of the beast icons from the Bestigor box set on the wooden pole to finish it off. For my Doombull I used two axes from the new Minotaurs box set to give him the Axes of Khorgor.
If Tony's army has inspired you to start a Beastman army or Martins advice has left you wanting just a few more Minotaurs then you can view the whole Beastmen range here. I've also added the army book and battalion as well as the Minotaur boxed set below.
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Warhammer Battalions contain a wide range of units, making them a great value purchase for both new and experienced hobbyists.
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If you're getting a Beastmen Battalion, then make sure you pick up some Minotaurs too, as they make a great addition to the set.
Finally, here in the Games Workshop web team we are looking for a new developer. The role is based here in Nottingham, England. If you are interested please click here for the job advert.