Beastmen, part I: The General Army

Alright, I got my hands on the new Beastman army book...since I play all things Chaos (I still feel Beastmen are part of chaos) in Fantasy, I figured I would do an overview of how I think about the new Beastmen!


This post is going to cover the general rules of Beastmen...which there are two...

First is Primal Fury! This rule gives certain units Hatred if you pass a leadership test. Basically, any turn you pass a leadership test, you get hatred for the round of combat. This goes for all rounds. Secondly, if you roll double ones, the unit gains frenzy that round as well.

I like that, a lot. The ability to Hate your opponent really gives me confidence needed to win combat. Rerolling misses to hit make the Beastmen characters buff as hell, and the Beastmen units better. Keep a high leadership character in the center of the army, with a BSB close, and you will have high leadership with the ability to re-roll. I like that rule a lot. Probably one of the best "army wide" rules in the game outside of undead. Stupid undead...


The second army rule is Ambush! If you played "classic" Beastmen, the rule change is going to upset you. Here is how the rule works: if you have a same named unit of equal or greater size deployed in your starting deployment zone, you can hold the unit with ambush in reserve. At the start of your turn (even turn one) you roll a d6. If you roll a one, your opponent picks where the unit comes in. If you roll a 2-3, the unit does not come in this turn. If you roll a 4, deployed to your left. Roll a 5, unit deployed to your right. Roll a 6, you get to pick the side where the unit is deployed. Personally, I think this rule is going to be too random to really impact the game. I will talk later about which units I think this might work with, but now an ambushing unit will really only do it's job well if you roll a six. Feels less like ambush and more like "random beastmen wondering around." Still, in the right game, at the right time...it could be super successful.

More to come after I check out the Core units...