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subber45

Ghoul
Mar 27, 2008
144
Arkansas , USA
Ok...so fed up with being told my wins are all due to being undead, unbreakable, and OP ( Yawn ) I decided to grab a challenging army. So I looked into and bought the new beastmen. That all being said, Look at my records for the year so far and you can tell that I dont play an over the top army..competative maybe but not OP.

* Because of this my Vampire Lord model glares at me anytime I touch the new book * :|

SO here are some thoughts based on a game I had with my roomie and his lizards, Granted I tokd him NOT to take a Super heavy style list cause I wanted, to just run this army through the ringer once so keep that in mind.

HE brought roughly,
2 Stegs, one Engine and one normal with Bow
20 Saurus block
15 Skinks X 2
10 Chameloen skinks
2 units of 3 terradons
Sking block with 2 Kroxigors in it
Old Blood Carnasaur ( NOT The Blade though )

I brought
A BeastLord ( S 8 +1 SV )
2 level 2 Shamans ( 3 scrolls and Stone of Spite )
3 Minnos with Champ, Banner, Shields X 2
Wargor BSB with Banner of Manbane
2 X 20 Gors with AHW Champs and Banners
3 X 10 Ungor Raiders, Muscian
2 X 10 Ungor blocks, Musician
Jabber Slythe
10 Harpies with scout.

Now I am not going to give a battle report just some obserrvations...
1 That Beast Lords LD 9 is A MUST !!!! I barely controlled the army with his bubble giving all it got :(
2 The Beastlord can RIP a big target open if you can catch it on the charge. He smashed a Steg easy on his own.
3. Ambush is useful but only in fair amounts and can break you. I had him Marched block first turn and wasnt really ever out manuvered at all
4. NEVER Underestimate the power of Ungor Raiders !! They Wounded the Old Blood more then anything else and helped negate the Terradons. I think these boys will become even MORE prevelant in my list
5. Minnos HAVE TO CHARGE ...iits a must. They cant quite hack it on their own if they get hit first. I dont know is GW is the way to go though..it looks nice on paper, but they are expensive W4 and T4 doesnt cut it with no armour at all. At least the equivilant Blood Knights are SV 2 with some Ward if wanted. Maybe AHW would be better sine you REALL want those attacks to rack up.
6. Harpies may be redundant except for a Dragon holder/ diverter. The Raiders did the same job, for much less ! with some shooting thrown in.
7. Jabberslythes if deployed well and used very carefully can just punish lone characters and small units. Were it not for Lizzie coldblooded Id have taken about 10 percent of his army with the Jabber alone.
8. Bait and flee works..but be prepared to lose the fleeing unit. They just wont rally if they run far...12 LD bubble from the Beast Lord couldnt help enough..
10. If you do take some magic..the Lore of death does VERY well. The Fear Causeing spell saved me bacon.

Now all this is based on a Loss ( SV to him ) but I had alot of stuff just panic and run from botched Terror and failinig to Rally. Still even so I managed to get a steg, wound the Old Blood, Wipe out the Kroxi/Skink Unit and Get me some Terradons. High point of the Game ? My Ungor Raiders causing wounds to a Steg and The Old blood ! :clown:

Low Point ? My BSB Fled from a Steg charge and moved the Steg into a GREAT Spot for a Flanking assult by the Minnos, Problem ? HE never Rallied !! Ran smooth off the table without so much as flinging harsh language at the enemy !:devil:

Anyway, this may all be useless to some of the people here, and probably seems disconjointed at best. But Carpe Noctem is my home, and the VC are my babies I wanted to express my thoughts to the fine gentleman here far more then other sites. Hope this was at least entertaining.
 

Danceman

The Devil in Pale Moonlight
True Blood
Aug 19, 2007
3,472
Sort of the same reason I started to look at beastmen. Then, all of the sudden, there were beastmen everywhere I decided to take a look at my VC again instead.
I also realised it wasn't the best of reasons either(to change army due to pressure from other players) but I think anyone can conceed Beastmen definitely is going to be one of the more challenging armies to consistently rack up wins. Lately, and thankfully, I am blessed with mature opponents who know a well designed list when they see one. Anyways!

Beastmen does look like a cool army, I agree and I appreciate the report. I think it reflect the beasts very well, a fast and hardhitting force that needs to get to CC as soon as possible.

* love that sig quote xD
 

TMS

Moderator
Staff member
True Blood
Nov 26, 2008
4,662
Sweden
I feel like as if I'm on the verge of taking the plunge into a Beastman army of my own. They really feel like they'd be an interesting army to play, and even more so when taking my standard VC into contrast. Thanks for taking the time to whip this report up - every little bit of feedback is a good read. :)
 

subber45

Ghoul
Mar 27, 2008
144
Arkansas , USA
*Blink*

Thanks Dance ! Nice to recieve some support from a more senior member about things I say. And that quote made me spit coke on my Army book. The guy playing VC was thoroughly upset to say the least.
 

Disciple of Nagash

Oldblood
Staff member
Feb 12, 2008
27,732
Great feedback Subber. It does give a more indepth perspective than just reading the book, or hearing it from the VC players point of view. Leadership does seem to be a big issue for them, which would suggest we will have a big advantage of them.

On the other hand the amount of attacks they put out could prove troublesome, as they could munch through our core units faster than we could heal them....

I still think out of all the monster, the Ghorgon is going to be the nastiest for us........
 

Danceman

The Devil in Pale Moonlight
True Blood
Aug 19, 2007
3,472
Yes, we definitely need to take care of our units so their attacks don't go through the roof. Thankfully we have some tools for this.

The worst enemies of beastmen, other than the impact of psychology, will be Wraiths and Helm of Commandment. The former because they can only kill them using characters, the latter because it denies them what they need the most, which is generating kills. There are other tools though, because as mentioned if we get the charge it is likely they'll run for the hills due to the lack of armour and mostly being T4(rare's and razorgor's excluded). Infact, anything with plenty of attacks will hurt beastmen which once more makes it worse for the beasts. Ghouls... lots of cheap poisoned attacks.

We got another weapon, or weapons rather. Mobility + magic + divertion. Many of our faster units are also potent hammer units(such as varghs, knights and wraiths). This should pose a real threat to beastmen players as they do not respond well to being charged.
Magic; There is a definite use for Wind of Death against beastmen. Image all those small units... That is alot of dice to be rolled and to add insult to injury beastmen don't cope well with ethereals and them spirit hosts is going to make it much harder to get a decent charge off. Gaze is definitely a keeper as well VS beasts, infact lore of the vampires is perfect VS Beastmen.
Then there is fell bats and wolves to ruin the day for all those careful setup charges.

Though I cannot stress this enough. Do NOT underestimate the obscene amount of damage they can dish out once in combat. All in all though it is going to be rough on the beastmen facing off vampires.
 

subber45

Ghoul
Mar 27, 2008
144
Arkansas , USA
Sudden thought...the beastman ambush rules are fairly vauge and any result but a 1,2,3 result in them Ambushing close to our backfield IF not in it directly !

To me this means small bunker groups and potentially the small starting units of core, those corpse carts and what nots are going to not be as secure as they are against other armies that need to march to us.
Now those Ungor Raiders maybe poo against anyonelse but verus no AS ghouls , T3 Skellies and T3 no AS wolves we might just lose units to MSU Ungor overload. In the game I played the two units of Ambushing Ungors showed up on the Left side of the table, I stuck em Inside the Enemies deployment zone on the table edge and a little further up.
This isnt fool proof, but Terror test dont occur until the start of the turn, which is BEFORE the arrival of the ambushing herds. So for at least ONE turn they arent running from the inherent spooky-ness of the army.
And the beastmen have a scouting unit of Harpies, with no shooting other then Magic missles we will see them do a lot better job of redirecting, march blocking and the drawing out of the frenzied bloodknights.
 

The Red Scourge

Grave Guard
Jan 27, 2009
220
Beasts look like a great and fun army, especially if you're in for a good oldfashioned brawl. Their monsters are supercool, but seems properly costed, and their lore have great 'personality'.

Unlike the other new chaos armies, beasts really look like a fun army. Daemons ended up imbalanced and warriors one-dimensional, but beasts will be a blast to play - and play against :)
 

Zephyr

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Mar 3, 2008
2,522
Rotterdam
Can't wait to sink my fangs into that that army! Next week I'll be playing against a long-time Beastmen player; he used to have a mixed army but decided to go Beastmen only as he already had more of those units to begin with.

I've heard lots of positive things about the new army book. I had some doubts quickly reading through it as I thought it was a bit underpowered compared to some other armies but most Beastmen players seem to be content.
Nice to see your thoughts about the army, against Lizardmen no less which can be IMO a serious pain in the rear.

I'm also getting very annoyed at what I call fangscrimination; "you play VC so therefore you must be a cheesy player" :rolleyes:
 

Danceman

The Devil in Pale Moonlight
True Blood
Aug 19, 2007
3,472
That is probably it, the book is sanely costed instead of the too common cheap monster unit most are getting. Though like with old DE/HE book it seems they've learnt from their mistakes and produced a more composed book. Although in some areas I feel there might be a case of overcosting certain units abit. If would have some way of expanding space and time I would probably have started Beastmen too but the imminent return of Tomb Kings simply won't allow me to tie myself up in another project which may very well amount to nothing in the end anyways... Rambling again... :silent:

From a beastmen perspective I cannot see myself giving up any special slot for Harpies. Especially since Ungors do what they do for a very low price and also due to the important power the special slot unit gives you. Then again, if you move some hitting power points into Razorgor chariot for your characters...
Going to be interesting face off the furry ones, thats for sure. Perhaps my overconfidence will cost me dearly... :skull:
 

Bishop

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Feb 5, 2009
2,683
Toronto, Ontario
Yeah, the beasties are going to be fun... I already have most of them. Including my "giant" Minotaur, which will naturally be a Gorghon... might add another set of arms, not sure.

It's sad that there's no Marks of Chaos, but the new book looks like its going to be fun for sure!

Too bad GWs new costing structure for the Beasts is WAY out to lunch!
 

Anubis

Wight King
Dec 28, 2008
417
Lurking in the Darkness
the new beastmen are well and truely the ultiment gas peddle army! they hit like one helluva frieght train, but they are prone to getting slapped upside down if the enemy can hold their charge...

minotaurs are plain gross when you go the extra hand weapon. 5 attacks each and then +1 for every round they win while they're still frenzied...:zombie1: combine that with the new primal fury that's well supported by a beastlord, and the new minos will lay waste to anything they charge. (i've seen a single unit of 3 + gorebull w/brass cleaver chew through almost 1000pts of lizzies on their own!)

another nasty little trick - taking ghorros warhoof in a small unit of centigors. basically turn his unit into a sacrifical cruise missile that hits something vital where it hurts, and then gets killed within a turn or two.
problem is, now every beast unit re-rolls failed primal fury tests!:tongue:

all in all, the new beast book is alot of fun and it plays very well. while it might be the most imaginative tactically, (basically just point and charge!) it's the fact that the beasts can also come at you from every angle at once!

cheers!
 
Mar 28, 2010
20
I too crumbled to the pressure of the new Beasts and now have a ~1400 pts. army of them. (Okay, so I have a fantasyworld to which I base my conversions... :P)

I like the new beasts, mostly 'cause they are so different from VC and also hate the Humans of the Old World.
And I agree on that Psychology is the worst opponent to the Beasts. The Lord or the Doombull? Well, the Doombull is a magtrain and gets like a 1+ reboundsave, but I really think that the extra LD is worth it.

And on the topic of Ethereals... Lore of Death ftw. Okay, VC also have antimagics, but it's all we have (unless take a Beastlord on foot with eg. Axes of Khorgor...)

A challenging army, yes, with the additional threat that some of the strangeness will be resolved in the summer (8th Ed)...
 

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