Beasts of Chaos
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Beasts of Chaos is one of the two army list books covering the forces of Chaos in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle table top game. It replaces previous army lists.
The contents provide the rules and army list for an army of Beastmen and monsters as a stand alone army. Equally they can also be used as add ons for a Hordes of Chaos army. The book starts with the tale of Tomas Wanderer.
[edit] History
When the gateway above the poles of the Warhammer world collapsed, Chaos entered the world. Beasts mutated with human and the Beastmen were born. Since then the Beastmen and other monsters roam the planet. They can be found everywhere in the world, in the forest and other dark and untamed places like the Drakwald forest and Troll Country. They are known to include Mutants and peoples touched by Chaos. They played a role in the Storm of Chaos and helped Archaon in his invasion of The Empire. A particularly hated foe of the Beastmen are the Wood Elves. Unbeknownst to most races, a secret war is constantly waged between the Elven folk of Athel Loren and the bestial hordes.
[edit] Army
Beastmen of various kinds form the bulk of the army. Beastmen are humanoid, with a variety of animal features, usually including cloven feet, horns, excessive body hair, and beastial faces. However, there is much variation amongst them. The largest and most brutal beastmen are called Beastlords, followed by the only marginally less vicious Wargor. Of the infantry, the strongest are the heavily armed and armoured Bestigor, who fight in elite units. Finally come the rank and file, Beastherds composed of the larger Gors, mixed with mobs of the frailer, short-horned Ungor. A relatively stable mutation are the Centigor, beastman with the lower torso of a goat, quick and powerful cavalry. However, Centigor are prone to getting drunk at inconvenient points in the battle, so are rather unreliable. Some Beastmen also possess magical and spiritual powers, these are called Bray Shaman, and are influential, powerful characters.
Minotaur are enormous, bull like creatures, renowned for their enormous strength and predeliction for eating the bodies of their enemies (a trait which makes them rather unreliable at pursuit). The strongest of their number are the Doombulls, who are powerful enough to lead an entire army, while the rank and file are simple minotaurs, who can be equipped with a variety of weapons.
The Beastmen use a variety of trained animals, including large packs of the mutated Warhounds of chaos, as well as Tuskgor, which are massive boarlike creatures that often drag Tuskgor Chariots.
Naturally, the army contains many great large creatures. These include Chaos Ogres, which wear armour and bear massive weapons in combat, Chaos Trolls, the already obscenely dangerous, regenerating creatures made even more deadly by mutation, the enormous Giants whose ability to simply jump up and down on opposing regiments makes them highly lethal, and the bizarre, expendable Chaos Spawn, mewling mutants whose forms twist even as they shamble towards the foe.
Dragon Ogres are akin to centaurs, except the top part is an Ogre, the bottom half a Dragon. As can be expected, such creatures are very powerful, albeit expensive. Among their mighty powers is the ability to absorb thunder in order to enter a killing frenzy. The very oldest Dragon Ogres are called Shaggoth, ancient, mighty creatures who can lead or obliterate an entire army.
The tactics of the Beastmen can be described as guerrilla warfare akin to the germanic tribes around the time of Rome's fall.
They have a variety of fast and maneuverable units, from large heavy-hitting monsters such as minotaurs and dragon ogres, cheap but effective chariots, medium cavelry like centigors, maneuverable skirmishing infantry in the form of beastherds, and disposable chaos hounds. They can also make use of daemons and mortals in their force, and some of these complement the play style and theme quite nicely. Most however don't mesh with the beasts theme or play style.
In the game, they revolve around using the superior maneuverability of the beastmen units to gang multiple beasterds and heavy hitting units up on enemy regements to break them, preferably getting in on the flank.
They also may use a special ambush rule, allowing them to move beastherds, warhounds and certain character behind enemy lines, though there is a chance that they will get confused and end up in the wrong place.
[edit] External links
| Warhammer Fantasy | |
|---|---|
| Major Games: | Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warmaster, Mordheim, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Man O' War |
| Nations and races: | Bretonnia, Chaos, Chaos Dwarfs, Dark Elves, Dogs of War, Dwarfs, The Empire, High Elves, Lizardmen, Ogres, Orcs and Goblins, Skaven, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts, Wood Elves |
| Places: | The Old World, Araby, Cathay, Lustria, Ulthuan, Southlands |
| "People" | List of major Warhammer characters |
| More | Warhammer Fantasy creatures, Warhammer Fantasy deities |
