AoS: The Beast of Chaos – Abilities Of The Herd
Games Workshop has unloaded a massive amount of info to digest about the upcoming Beast of Chaos Battletome. Let’s get in there and see if we can chew through it all!
The Beasts of Chaos have a new Battletome on the way and the Warhammer Community is spilling the beans on them today. There are lots of things for Chaos players to get excited about because the Beastmen have gotten a lot of love from the design team. Multiple Allegiance Abilities are in their new book as well as many other tweaks and changes are ahead for these true sons of Chaos.
“A Beasts of Chaos army can be made up of any combination of Brayherds, Warherds, Thunderscorn and Monsters of Chaos. Each of these first three gets their own Allegiance Ability when used in the army. “
That’s right – Beast of Chaos get 3 new Allegiance Abilities, but that’s not all – they also get the Herdstone which helps during the game as well. Let’s break down each one:
Breyherds
Brayherd Ambush allows you to outflank with your Brayherd Beast of Chaos units. For every unit that you setup on the battlefield, one unit can be placed “in ambush” as a reserve unit. At the end of your first movement phase, you must then setup ALL friendly units that were “in ambush” on the table. They must be wholly within 6″ of the edge of the battlefield and more than 9″ away from the enemy.
This is an incredibly powerful ability and really rewards players for smart deployment. I would even argue that going second could be beneficial in this case because it could set you up for a really powerful second turn if you get the initiative. Then again, you might be able to pull off some spectacular first turn charges if your opponent messes up their own deployment.
Warherds
Warherds are sounding pretty terrifying from the description – but that brutality leads to a way to regenerate wounds. After they destroy an enemy unit in the combat phase they can heal D3 wounds. Keep in mind that counts for EVERY Warherd unit. If your units can get in there and literally eat up those small squads they can regain lost wounds!
Thunderscorn
Hey, do you like free movement? Because if you do, The Thuderscorn have you covered. Every Thuderscorn unit gets a D6 worth of extra movement during your hero phase as long as they are more than 3″ away from the enemy. If you want to close the gap between you and your squishy targets it’s time to get thunderstruck!
The Herdstone
“Every Beasts of Chaos army gets a Herdstone, absolutely free as part of their allegiance abilities”
Okay – this Herdstone is kind of nuts. Enemy units must subtract 1 from their save rolls while they are within 6″ of the Herdstone while Beast of Chaos units get to ignore battleshock tests. That’s already really powerful. But that’s not all – the aura grows 6″ at the start of each battle round after the first! YIKES! If you park this thing in the middle of the table that’s going to impact a pretty big foot print on the tabletop.
The Breystone is also used for Summoning more units. Apparently, you can toss Ungors on the pyre using “Dark And Evil Rituals” on your turn to bring on some big bads. We don’t have a full list, but from what we’ve seen so far, it’s got some heavy hitters:
That list starts at 10 and counts down…who knows what else is on it.
Stormhosts For The Beastmen? Well…Sorta
There are also three Greatfrays you can dedicate your Beastmen to as well. These function very similarly to Stormhost from the Stormcast Eternals which essentially give you even more benefits for using them. The Darkwalkers, for example, allow you to use the Brayherd Ambush rules with your Warherd and Thundersorn units – which sounds pretty amazing!
The Gavespawn aren’t without their own tricks however. Everytime one of their Heroes dies, a Chaos Spawn is born:
Ugh – that’s going to be extremely brutal to deal with! It’s bad enough you have to kill the hero, now you’ve got to take out a pesky Chaos Spawn, too! And if you haven’t guessed it by now:
“Each Greatfray has a unique Command Ability, Warlord Trait and Artefact too…”
Yep – that’s a lot more stuff you can add to your Beast of Chaos Army. Oh and while we’re making deductions, you may have noticed from the Gavespawn rules that units can be marked. That’s correct and those Marks add some pretty spicy stuff to your options:
Yeah – that’s just ONE Chaos Mark option. There are a total of four of these special Warscroll Battalions you can work with.
We haven’t even gotten into the improvements made to the units yet and I’m already thinking of how cunning beastmen players are going to use these rules to their advantage. They’ve got a lot more to work with – that’s for sure!
What do you think so far for the Beast of Chaos? Are you liking what you’re seeing?
