new to warhammer...

[shadowvillian127]

im just starting WHFB and i decided to play beasts of chaos. does anyone have any tips for were i should start and the pro and cons of the army? thank in advance.

[Razhbad]

Well Beastmne do well as a swarm, providing you ambush several heards giving you reserves appearing at board edges can take enemies focus to other points. for Heavy hitting i prefer to use lots of chariots, but bestigors can do well.

The major cons to Beastmen are that your Leadership is not good, so always get a foerender as this bumps it up by 1, they also are weak armoured, so try not to get bogged down in a fight as chancers aare you'll lose.

Try to use there manoverablity, run for terrain to terrain, you'll want to charge the enemy with multiple units and cause them to run as soon as you can and when in doubt Minotours.

[Draco69au]

you can never go wrong with at least one unit of minotaurs these guys are awrsome with better then average WS compared to most other multi wound monsters and the ability to mark them just make them awrsome.

Other than that you do want a few ambushing units as these guys can deal with war machines and other pesky long rang units at the back of an army and chariots to get some strength into a charge is always good. Trolls are good as they regen but unless they are near your general or they wont be moving any time soon

Shaggoths and spawns are a must as the shaggoth adds much needed strength and the spawns a cheapish and unbreakable perfect for holding up units for flank charges

[justiceisrelative]

Beastman are an unforgiving army that in its current state veterean gamers struggle to win with. Therfore I would advise against it as a starting army beacause i want to you to play for years to come and iam affraid that this sort of army is going to make you quit the hobby. If you like the idea of monsters and the like i might suggest Ork and goblins. They are mostly in plastic so their cheap, Included in the starter box so you get the rules and mini's, can particpate in all the phases but excell at combat and are a fun forgiving list to play. Hope this helps

[Draco69au]

Not only are Beastmen due for a new release sometime this year but they are definitely not a unforgiving race to start with, many of the magic lores are still good, also lore of beast works on most of the army, many close combat units like the minotaurs, beastigors, shaggoths and dragon ogres. While they might not have much in the way of shooting they have cheap core units so can more than make up for lots more CC units

but when it comes down to it its all about personal preference and how the army looks that usually determines what you want. Beastmen are still powerful and by no means unforgiving as like all races in the hands of the right person any race can perform really well

[justiceisrelative]

Draco69au I do not know where you play or how long you have been playing but beasts are a hard army to win with. Their low leadership and fragile units really hurts against VC, Chaos, ogres and other fear machine armies. They lack the spped and abilty to deal with guns and combat res. armies like dwarfs and empire. Maybe they will fix this with the new edtion but why invest in something that you struggle with most people i know do not have the patience to spend $300 only to lose 20+ games in a row even if you have players willing to let the wookie win. I play at a store where their is disproptional number of gamers who have played since 2nd edtion, most of them have retired their beasts armies until a new codex comes out beacsue its rule set are too far behind the current format. just my 2 cents.

[Draco69au]

Their low leadership and fragile units really hurts against VC, Chaos, ogres and other fear machine armies.


If low leadership and being fragile were factors when picking a army then i dont think anyone would be buying skaven for awhile dont you think? ;)And talking bout skaven they haven’t had a re-release for a long long time but they seem to be doing fine so far. But in any case if you worried about fear take the mark of nurgle then they cause fear themselves negating fear and since most of your special and rare choices cause fear or terror i cant say ive had a problem with it, even take a doombull for a general, then minotaurs become core choices hello monster army :soldier:


They lack the spped and abilty to deal with guns and combat res. armies like dwarfs and empire.

Ambushers, hounds, centigors, even dragon ogres to a degree are excellent war machines hunters and since hounds and beast herds are cheap you can get alot of them so they have plenty in the way of anti war machines

Im just saying don’t ride them off before you give them a go and just because some people there have retired them dosnt mean their weak they just probably wanted to play some of the new armys being re- released and wanted a excuse or something :)

[Stunted_Merc]

Uh, Skaven have a rule that increases their Ld., I have never seen a Skaven force struggle with Leadership as badly as BoC. The point you make about them being just fine is again, wrong, because the BoC book was built with using it alongside HoC in mind. Now that we can't use Deamons or Mortals, the book really suffers for it.

MoN isn't a solution either, since only select units can take it. Doesn't really solve that problem, only make it look less disturbing.

-K

[justiceisrelative]

Plus skaven have warp lighting and jezalis. Enough said. Ambush as I have seen it is like Last year Dallas Cowboy's looks really good on paper but never pans out on the gametable because agin its reling on their paltry leadership. which means that out of the 3-4 units ambushing only one is coming in on target which any general can prepare for. I must say in a very kidding way , you are the grand apologist for the B.o.C, I have never seen any one stick up for an army like this especially one that has been so maligned.

[Draco69au]

Once a foe-render is in a unit of beast herd its ld is 7 an average leadership most army’s have before generals, special rules, etc as for the mark there’s only four units that cant take it that don’t already have fear one of which can suffer from stupidity/frenzy 2/6times a game (centigors) and the others can have a marked hero join the unit makes it immune to fear (nurgle) themselves so yes fear can be avoided if you cant roll average leader ships tests

As for the skaven i hadn’t read the book for a while now and forgot the rank + leadership rule but that’s easy negated with a flank charge which with how many CC troops you have can be quite easy.

And again with ambushing unless you cant roll average leadership tests most of you units will be coming where you need them and with all those ambushers coming you should be able to pass some if not they have a banner that can help with that and 3-4? with four hero’s, three units of beast herds and 5 units of warhounds (which are all cheap as chips and still fast enough to threaten war machines) you get 6 units/hero’s that can ambush so have quite a lot a chances there

As for sticking up for them of course a would as i would for any other race (except High Elves and the empire too snooty especially high elves) all races have there pro and cons but to say the beastmen are a complete NO is just stupid as like most races have ways to get around there weaknesses especially if you able to use them right, i collect all chaos races, night gobbos and tomb kings but would collect pretty much all races if, i could so i just get really annoyed when someone says one particular race are completely crap (yes even high elves) so im just saying don’t ride them off just yet for the second time.

[Phoenix]

Beasts are a great army! :) Awesome models, fun to play with, nicely themed. Due for a new release soon, so maybe hold off for a bit on buying a whole army.

As for the ''low Ld'' issue, its not a problem :)

Skaven have Low Lw, but lots of numbers.

Beasts on the other hand has massive tactical flexibility, as well as decent numbers. They arent the BEST army, but that doesn't mean they cant win lol.

[justiceisrelative]

If you are a skilled general you can win with almost any army aginst an infeior or green oppennnent. Beastman can work but rember this person who started this thread is new to the hobby. Maybe iam wrong but one needs to crawl before you can run. I never said they were unplayable, its just their degree of dificulity is like 9 out of 10. When you are starting out with anything i feel you should start with the basics and build upon it. When you start with an army as difficult as beastmen, you never learn the core rules and/or never win a game it makes you resent starting the hobby because you can't master the intricasies. Which is why i suggested a more rudamentary army to start with for this particular gamer. It gives him a fighting chance to learn the hobby and have success.

[Phoenix]

Fair enough. I did start with Tomb Kings though, can't get much more of a steep curve than that lol.

Your first army tends to influence you as a player, so its very important to choose an army you like (looks and play style wise) rather than just going with a ''beginner'' army (eg Dwarves) for the sake of it, where youll end up going down a route you don't like playing (eg gunline)

If you start with beasts, you get to practice within 3/4 phases of the game (miss out on shooting... unless you use my beast rules ;)) As with dwarves, they miss out on magic. But you learn to work around it, excelling in other areas.

Begin with a ''beginner'' army, and youll learn how to play them. Then its likely (atleast in my case) that you switch to beasts and cant grasp their style as well as you would've learned to as you learned the rules of the game.

Basically, it all comes down to personal choice :) My only advice, be sure to choose an army you like.

[justiceisrelative]

lucky for me my army is Empire and they can be tailored to fit almost any style

[Ulvemanna]

I am quite new to WHFB, and my army is beasts. I was well aware of the fuzz about them being under-powered and ****ed up by 7th edition, but I just loved the theme about bloodthirsty, intelligent and savage beastmen, prowling the deep, dark forests. I have now played some small games with them, but I wouldnt say they are under-powered, just not as the other WHFB armys.
Anyway, I love my Beasts :sinister:

[Phoenix]

Anyway, I love my Beasts :sinister:

Good man! :D