I started this blog to talk about Beastmen (Unfortunately there's been a lot of Dwarfs recently) and how Warhammer players can make us of this army and have a lot of fun with it. I've begun working my way through the army book and talking about personal experiences I've had with the book and the army as a whole, however today I thought I'd touch upon the army as a whole.
So to begin, lets have a little look back into the murky, filth encrusted forests of the Beastmen's past...
The Tail End of a Jabbersylthe
The Beastmen army book was released in February 2010, hot on the heels of the vastly superior Skaven army book. Unfortunately the Beastmen instantly got branded as a pile of rubbish and a lot of people couldn't believe just how bad they'd become, before we knew it 8th edition was just around the corner, and this book was made with an 8th edition mindset. Initially the book was still poor compared to the power armies of 7th, even though the new rules set had taken the edge off them the Beastmen really struggled to cut it against the relentless onslaught of magic items and power units the old forces used to be able to muster.
It was all looking rather grim to be honest...
I started playing the Beastmen in March 2011, coinciding with my Dads decision to play Orcs & Goblins. Before I knew it I had mustered a huge force (which I'll showcase soon) and was enjoying playing the game, but the army was always on the back foot against Daemons, Dark Elves and Vampire Counts as it always seemed like they had all the tools to run rings around the army and outlast it. I realised quickly that playing Beastmen was going to be a struggle, and unlike playing my Skaven, every battle won would be a victory of attrition and good play, whereas the Skaven tended to win when I blasted my opponent off the table!
The Beastmen became my underdog - and I love a good underdog.
Their Beastly Bits...
Beastmen are a players army, people who like to move their units around a lot and enjoy creating a bloodbath in the middle of the table will love them. If you want a reliable force then these guys aren't for you, and if you want an army that's unstoppably killy then again these guys aren't for you. The Beastmen are all about attrition, effectively you need to out-grind your opponent to victory and with the addition of some well placed spells, managing to do this is extremely satisfying. So what is so good?
- They're a horde army, they look scary when they're lined up across the table.
- There's a lot of nuisances for your opponent to deal with aka. Razorgors and Chariots
- Beastlords can win you the world!
- The Lore of Beasts works perfectly with the Beastmen allowing you to cast spells a little bit easier.
- They're great to paint, they'll take a lot of time, but it's worth it in the end.
- Minotaurs can become the killiest unit in the game, if they continue to munch through the enemy - a truly horrific sight especially if they're coupled with a Doombull!
The Dreadful Undercarriage
Beastmen have some great pluses, but they've got some terrible downsides to their book, overall a lot of the key problems have been ironed out over time (which I'll explain in a moment). However there are some key problems that simply won't get fixed until or if we receive an 8th edition Army Book.
- Certain units are unbearably poor, especially the Rares, the Ghorgon and Jabberslythe and to a certain extent the Cygor are a big points bundle for your opponent to take.
- The Lore of the Wild is atrocious, there are 1-2 good spells but the rest are terrible.
- Certain magic items are fantastic, however characters not being able to take the same Gifts of Chaos is a pain.
- The range isn't quite complete, certain characters and models in the army don't actually have a represented model which is a pain.
- Centigors just aren't quite amazing! But I'm gonna make them amazing!!!
How Has the Manure Changed?
Because I've played Beastmen all through 8th edition, and have played a whole host of games and a few tournaments I've noticed a few things that will lighten the heart of every Beastmen general in the land. And this is that they're simply 'Getting Better and Better' and there's a few reasons for this.
The first is that as each 8th edition books has been released the armies have retained a beautiful synergy, we were annoyed at how poor the Orc book seemed, followed by the Tomb King book. But as more armies were added to the fray, everything seemed to be leveling out, and because Beastmen were built with 8th edition in mind everything was simply being brought down to their level. I've found myself having bloodthirsty games against armies that would usually dance around me, going toe to toe with Warriors armies and causing havoc against the Ogres - 8th has truly been the rise of the Beastmen from the nobodies to a comfortable middle ground.
Secondly armies aren't running as many large units, and the Beastmen love this as the Minotaurs can mop units up and gain a shit load of attacks, whilst the large Gor herds simply outlast their opponents. This is due to books having great options, but no matter what you do you can't fit everything in because of points values, meaning that certain elements have to take a hit.
All in all, I think it's happy days for the Beastmen, the army has become more and more effective these days and I don't think they have to rely on the Herdstone to even attempt to be competitive. Watch this space, they'll be anarchy in the forests yet, just you wait and see.
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