Character Build Thread

[rothgar13]

Hey guys,

As most of you know, characters are crucial for the smooth operation of a Beastmen army, because they either provide the Leadership that keeps the army together (Beastlord), some crucially important buffs (Bray-Shamans, Beast Banner BSB ), or are simply wrecking balls of destruction that deal with enemy threats (Doombulls & Gorebulls). This thread's purpose is to discuss and share builds we use on our characters, in order to have a nice place to find 'em all.

I'll get this thing started with the builds that I favor on my Herdstone + Hordes list, and I'll also provide a template for the formatting I think we should use:

Template

Character Build Title (optional): If you have a fancy catchphrase or a shorthand to refer to your build, here's where I'd put it.
Character Type: What model is it? Beastlord, Doombull, Great Bray-Shaman, Bray-Shaman, Gorebull, Wargor?
Role: What purpose is he filling in your army? Leadership, buffing/debuffing, generating power dice, Arcane Item caddy...?
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: What items is the build equipped with?
Placement: Is the character on his own, or is he in a unit?
Tactics Discussion: How do you use your character?

All right, as promised, here are the character builds I use:

Character Type: Beastlord.
Role: Leadership, support.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Armor of Destiny, Crown of Command, Shield, Sword of Battle.
Placement: Unit of Bestigors.
Tactics Discussion: He brings Stubborn and a lot of attacks striking at Initiative order to protect my Bestigors, especially when you factor in ally buffs.

Character Type: Great Bray-Shaman.
Role: Buffing/debuffing, power dice generation.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Fencer's Blades, Jagged Dagger, Talisman of Preservation, Uncanny Instincts
Placement: Unit of Gors with the Beast Banner.
Tactics Discussion: This fighting Shaman swinging at S5 promises to provide you with extra dice across the course of a game, and then there are his buffs to consider and the fact that characteristic tests won't hurt him often (S5/T5/I5).

Character Type: Wargor.
Role: Buffing, Leadership, support.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Battle Standard-Bearer, The Beast Banner, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Shield.
Placement: Unit of Gors.
Tactics Discussion: This is what makes Gors tick. +1S on an entire unit is a huge deal, as is a beefy BSB with a 2+ armor save.

[Blackheart]

Character Type: Beastlord.
Role: Leadership, challenges.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Tal of Pres, Gnarled Hide, Heavy armor, Sword of Might, Ramhorn Helm.
Placement: Unit of Bestigors.
Tactics Discussion: He's there to help wreck tish and beat up enemy heroes. He might struggle against the top notch fighty Lords but he's pretty tough and helps the unit overall. I love it.

I've had alot of trouble setting up heroes for Beastmen mostly because I never know how to use them exactly right. The hardest hero for me are shaman, I never set up a good one and it never works out for me. I think this thread if it really takes off will be great.

[Beastmaster]

Character Type: Doombull
Role: Challenges
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Gouge Tusks, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armour, Shield, Golden Seal Sword (Ini 1, Ramhorn Helm
Placement: Mino bus
Tactics Discussion: Generally taking on opponents' characters and chomping his way through heavily armoured units. He usually stirkes first with 6 str 5 attacks with -3 ASV mod. Not much survives that, and if they do, his armour can hit them back!

[Blackheart]

@Beastmaster

- Interesting build. No ward save at all? I don't want to beat up your build but I could see that Doombull getting rocked by a killy lord.

I'd say you gotta go with the AoD and the sword of swift slaying, after that you could change it up to your taste but I don't think that armor save would be all that useful against other killy lords and you can take away my WoC Lord's armor save away all you want, I still have a 3+ ward.

[rothgar13]

The Ramhorn Bull is actually a fairly common build, though I usually see it looking like this:

Character Type: Doombull.
Role: Combat.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Dawnstone, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor, Potion of Toughness, Ramhorn Helm, Shield, Sword of Swift Slaying
Placement: Minobus.
Tactics Discussion: Your standard-issue killing machine. Run him into just about anything in the game and watch him tear it limb from limb.

This build has a 1+ re-rollable save, which means that rank-and-file can't really hurt him - and when they try, he hits them back. The ASF is important because it will also give you re-rolls against those enemy troops. If you run into a character that can actually threaten you, gulp down that Potion of Toughness and present him with a T8 monstrosity that can take anything he has to give. Even in subsequent turns (should the enemy not simply turn and flee), it takes an attack coming in at S8 or better to give him less of a 50% chance to save (yay re-rolls!). While we're on the subject of Doombulls, here's an interesting build someone suggested not that long ago...

Character Type: Doombull.
Role: Combat, backfield harassment, monster hunting.
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos: Arabyan Carpet, Charmed Shield, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor, Talisman of Preservation.
Placement: Solo.
Tactics Discussion: Run him up to anything that isn't ranked infantry - he'll take care of the rest.

No, you're not seeing things - this is a flying Doombull. I was as skeptical of this idea as you can get, but after seeing what it can do to problem targets like Steam Tanks and Sphinxes, I'm on board - this guy is terrifying to face. Not something I would recommend for every army, though.

[Blackheart]

@rothgar13

You're not worried about KB on that first Doombull? Or would you avoid him if you knew you went up against a KB heavy army?

Never mind, I just looked up KB in the rule book. I get it, monstrous infantry.

[rothgar13]

Exactly.

[Beastmaster]

@ Rothgar

Do you also upgrade your Great Shaman to level 4? And which Lore is your favourite? I usually go Shadows for the Lord and then Beasts for any level 1's I have hanging around a herdstone...

[rothgar13]

I do the opposite - Beasts on the big guy, Shadows on the L1's. The reason I do that is because Beasts has high casting values and short range, so having a Beasts L4 is beneficial (plus the Jagged Dagger combines beautifully with its buffs, notably Savage Beast of Horros). Shadows has a low casting value on its signature spell with a huge range, so I can stick my L1s all the way at the back of the board and make them really hard to get to while they spit Miasma after Miasma out there.

[Blackheart]

I'm on board - this guy is terrifying to face.

I watched a bat rep on youtube with one of these, he really didn't end up making that big a difference.

I have a question on a LVL 2 Shaman build. How often do you bring one just to get Khadon's off? I happen to watch alot of youtube bat reps and I've been following a tourney list that this particular person has been working on. Long story short he brings his LVL2 literally in the hopes of getting the transformation spell off and turning into a mountain chimera. Literally every game that's his spell to use. And that thing does a pretty darned good job in CC.

Anyone ever use that strategy?