Beasts of Chaos Rumour Summary

[Revlid]

Originally Posted by Games Workshop Newsletter, November

In the dark places of the world, the Beastmen have been gathering in number and in February they will unleash their rage on the Warhammer world with renewed vigour. A feral army of twisted monsters, the Beastmen have inhabitant the dark forests and wild places of the world since such places existed. To lead a Beastmen army is to field vast herds of braying, brutish beasts who worship Chaos in all its forms, and who fight to level the civilised world.

This will be the first time ever that the Beastmen have had their own, completely stand-alone, army list. The forthcoming Warhammer Armies: Beastmen is full of twisted monsters old and new, and an all-new lore of magic. The Beastmen are the original inhabitants of the Old World: in February 2010 they come to reclaim it from the hands of Men.

It is not my intention to imply that only these rumours may be discussed, only that these are the ones I have determined to be strong enough to put in a summary (and have actually read).

People should feel free to post and discuss anything that they hear, regardless of the source, but the Summary will only ever include those rumours which I feel deserve to be here.

General info

ALL NEW MODELS CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/co...p?aId=7300005a

Release is February 2010, after Tyranids, with advance orders starting January 4th. There will be a preview in WD362, and posters available in-store on January 3rd.

Was to be written by Andy Hoare, but he has since quit Games Workshop. Has since been finished by Phil Kelly.

The name of the book has changed from "Beasts of Chaos" to "Beastmen". The cover art is below.

The initial fluff for the army book claims that Beastmen were the original inhabitants of the Old World - although initially seeming odd, this is in line with fluff found in Liber Nurgle.

Rules

Army-wide Special Rules, Magic Lores, and Magic Items

Ambush is no longer dependant on the General - for every unit laying in Ambush, there must be one of equivalent or greater size on the table. Roll a D6 at the start of each turn for each Ambushing unit.

Ambush Table
1: The unit comes onto the table, your opponent choosing which edge.
2-3: Roll again next turn.
4: The unit comes onto the table on your left hand table edge.
5: The unit comes onto the table on your rioht hand table edge.
6: The unit comes onto the table on an edge of your choice.

Unruly has been replaced by a new "Primal Fury" rule, whereby Gor Herds, Ungor Herds and Raiders, Bestigor Herds, Tuskgor Chariots, Minotaurs and Centigor Herds in combat may pass a Leadership test to gain Hatred (if passed on a double 1, Hatred and Frenzy are gained). The Beastlord allows a re-roll of this.

The Chaos Lores have been replaced by the Lore of the Wild, which has 7 spells, running from 0-6.

0: Bestial Surge - Cast on a 7+, the unit may make a free move, but may not use this to charge.

1: Viletide - Cast on a 7+, 24" Range Magic Missile, 5d6 S1 Hits

2: Devolve - Cast on a 9+, Enemy units within 12" take a Leadership Test, losing wounds equal to the amount they failed by, with no Armour Save allowed.

3: Bray-Scream - Cast on a 10+, One friendly character within 12" may use a S3 Breath Weapon with no Armour Save allowed.

4: Traitor-Kin - Cast on a 10+, All enemy models within 12" riding a mount of any kind suffer a number of attacks equal to their mount's attacks, at the same Strength, with no Armour Save bonus for being mounted or barded. The same applies to the handlers of Monsters and the riders of Chariots.

5: Mantle of Ghorok - Cast on a 13+, One friendly character within 6" gains +d6S and +d6A (max 10), if one or more 6s are rolled, the character suffers a wound with no saves of any kind allowed.

6: Savage Dominion - Cast on a 16+, You may 'summon' a new Giant, Gorgon Cygor or Jabberslythe, entering play at any point on a table edge and moving as if returning from pursuing an enemy off the board. While the monster is on the board, the wizard that cast this spell may not cast another spell, nor may he "dismiss" the model voluntarily, and if he dies the monster immediately disappears. Every time the monster takes a wound, the wizard must pass a Toughness Test or also suffer a wound with no saves allowed.

Magic Items include:
Nangelder: The wielder causes Terror. In addition, models wounded by the wielder suffer a -1Ld penalty for every wound.
Scimitar of Skultar: +D3 Attacks. If a 6 is rolled for bonus attacks then the wielder's attacks ignore Armour Saves for this turn. Two-handed.
Hunting Spear: A Magical Spear. May also be used as a Bolt Thrower, which may shoot after moving (not marching) and may be used to Stand-and-Shoot.
Axes of Khorgor: +1A, the wielder may re-roll failed "To Hit" rolls. Two-handed, and cheaper.
Stonecrusher: +3S. The wielder has S10 against Steamtanks, Chariots, Warshrines, Corpse Carts etc. NOT a Great Weapon.
Brass Cleaver: The wielder may make a single bonus attack against each enemy model in base-to-base contact.
Everbleed: Whenever the wielder inflicts a wound on an enemy model, roll a D6. On a 6, the model suffers another wound with no saves of any kind allowed, and you must roll again until you do not roll a 6.
Unnamed Weapon: The wielder treats the opponent's Leadership as his Strength. 100pts.
Unnamed Weapon: A magical Great Weapon. The wielder may re-roll all failed "To Hit" rolls.
Unnamed Weapon: The wielder has Killing Blow. In addition, if the wielder kills an enemy character in a challenge, they (and any unit they are with) become Unbreakable and cause Terror.
Unnamed Weapon: Bray-Shaman only. Put aside every model killed by this weapon - they may be used as one-use Power Dice by the wielder.
Trollhide Armour: Light Armour, Confers Regeneration upon the wearer. 50pts.
Unnamed Talisman: Confers a 2+ Ward Save against Flaming Attacks upon the bearer, and a 4+ Ward Save against Flaming Attacks for the unit he is with.
Horn of the Great Hunt: Beastlord/Wargor only. Bound Spell, Level 3. Contains the spell "Bestial Surge" with a range of 36".
Horn of the First Beast: Beastlord/Wargor only. All Beastmen within 36" of the bearer may re-roll failed Primal Fury rolls.
Crown of Horns: The wearer and any unit he is with is Stubborn. 75pts.
Stone of Spite: Bound Spell, Power Level 5. One Use Only. All enemy Arcane Items within 18" of the user are destroyed. The bearer of each item that is destroyed takes D6 S4 hits. 25pts.
Unnamed Enchanted Item: The bearer may force the opponent to re-roll a result on the Miscast table.
Herdstone Shard: Mark one spot within your deployment zone. All friendly wizards casting a spell within 6" of this spot may roll an additional "free" power dice every time they cast a spell.
Staff of Darkoth: Bray-Staff. Bound Spell, Power Level 3. Casts "Viletide".
Unnamed Arcane Item: The Shaman with this item may Scout.
Banner of Rust: All units (enemy or otherwise) within 6" suffer a -1 penalty to their Armour Save. Units in Base-to-Base contact with the banner suffer a -2 penalty. This does not affect Scaly Skin saves. 50pts.
Unnamed Banner: The unit carrying this banner has +1S. 75pts.

Alongside Magic Items, "Gifts" will be available in the same way as WoC Gifts, operating on the same budgetary lines. Bonuses like Scaly Skin or extra Attacks will be available, as well as more esoteric abilities like Breath Weapons.

There are NO Marks of Chaos in the army.

Lords & Heroes

Beastlord/Wargor – Ld 9, T5, with appropriate price hikes. May take Chaos Armour. May be accompanied by a 'pet' Revered Beast Spawn. Allows any unit he has joined to re-roll their "Primal Fury" roll.

Great Bray-Shaman/Bray-Shaman – T5, with price hike. Beast Spawn as above, access to new Lore. Bray-Staff may come as standard.

Doombull/Gorbull – S5, with price hike. The Doombull does not allow Minotaurs as Core. The Gorbull is a hero-level Doombull who may be the BSB. Both cause D3 Impact Hits on the charge. Any Gorbull or Doombull may declare The Slaughterer's Call at the start of the turn - all Minotaurs lose Primal Fury and gain Frenzy.

Core

Gor Herds - A ranked unit, with no price change. Ld7 base - Foe Renders no longer provide +1Ld. Equipment options as now, at 1pt/model each.

Ungor Herd - A ranked unit, with Shields and the option for Spears. 20x20mm bases. A cheap Special Character is available as a Champion. 5pts per model.

Ungor Raiders - A skirmishing Ungor unit, with Shortbows and BS3. 20x20mm bases. 6pts per model.

Warhounds - As in WoC.

Tuskgor Chariot – Tuskgors are S4, but no longer gain +1S on the charge. 5pts cheaper.

Special

Bestigor Herds – Bestigors may capture enemy Standards upon winning a round of combat, thereby depriving them of their bonuses - this allows the Bestigors to gain the bonuses of the captured standard themselves.

Centigor Herd – Not Fast Cavalry. New Drunken Rules, rolled for at the start of the game (as Eye of the Gods or Possessed).

Drunken Table
1-2 = +2I
3-4 = -1M, Re-roll failed Primal Fury
5-6 = Stubborn

Minotaurs – S5, 55pts. Options for Additional Handweapons, Great Weapons, Shields, and Full Command. The only "Ogre-Sized" infantry in the list. Frenzied upon winning a round of combat, gaining an additional attack per round of combat won as they go deeper into their bloodgreed. Only ever pursue and overrun D6". Cause one impact-hit on the charge.

Razorgor - A warthog-esque unit of monsters. M7, S5, T5, 4A. +1S on the charge.

Razorgor Chariot – Ridden by Bestigor, pulled by Razorgor. Very hard-hitting.

Harpies - As in the Dark Elf book. May Scout for +6pts per model.

Rare

Chaos Giant – As in WoC book, with no Marks available.

Cygor - Cyclops monster, with WS2, S6, T5, W5, A6 and Ld8. It may move-and-shoot as a Stone Thrower with no minimum range, and re-roll failed hits against Undead, Daemons, and models with Ward Saves. In addition, wizards attempting to cast a spell within 24" must pass a Ld test - if they fail, any of their failed casting attempts this turn also count as Miscasts.

Spawn – As in WoC book. Possibility of slight changes with regards to "Marks".

Gorgon – A new monster, a great mutated Minotaur. Movement 8 and stats in the 5s, with Impact Hits and Killing Blow. May sacrifice its attacks to make a single attack which causes Killing Blow on a 4+. Upon causing a Killing Blow, it regains D3 Wounds.

Jabberslythe - A new monster, based around the Jabberwock of Wonderland fame. A Flying, Terror-Causing Large Target with Poisoned Attacks and Poisoned Blood. Any enemy unit within 12" that can draw Line of Sight to the Jabberslythe must make a Ld Test or take a number of wounds equal to the amount they failed by, with no Armour Saves allowed. This does not affect units that are Immune to Psychology.

Special Characters

All the Special Characters from the last book will return in this one. New ones talked about include:
- A Centigor character by the name of Ghorros Warhoof, with special Drunken rules, MR2, a Unicorn Helm, Hates Wood Elves, and a magical Great Weapon. All Centigor units gain +2WS and are Core. As his name suggests, he has hooves rather than claws.
- A Bray-Shaman by the name of "Malagor the Dark Omen", with a feather-lined cloak. He is a Level 4 Wizard who may fly, and gains +1 to his casting attempts for every successful spell he has cast this Magic Phase. Units rolling for Primal Fury within 6" gain Frenzy and Hatred on any passing roll of a double, rather than just a double one.
- A Doombull clad in brass daemon-armour that gives him a 1+ save. 6 Strength 6 attacks. Any attack against him that rolls a 6 to hit and a 6 to hit wound instantly kills him.
- A Shaman who causes random wounds on enemy units pre-game.
- A Beastman riding a two-headed monster.
- A four-horned Ungor champion upgrade, a level 1 Wizard.
- Morghur returns, as a hero-level Spawn character that allows you to convert friendly units into Spawn. Sadly, he's been very toned down.
- Khazrak now allows you to re-roll the Ambushing D6, as well as having a 2+ Armour Save and ignoring the magical effects of weapons.

Models and Army Book

Work by Aly Morrison and Mark Harrison. Releases are:
* Special Characters Malagor and Ghorros have models at £12.
* Metal Doombull Box, sculpted by Mark Harrison. One model, £25.
* Metal Razorgor Box. One new model, £15.
* Plastic Bestigor Box. Ten models, £25.
* Plastic Minotaur Box, sculpted by Mark Harrison. 3 models, with options for full command, greatweapons, two handweapons, and shields. £27.
* Ungors and Gors are being resculpted and split up into seperate plastic boxes, at £15 for 10 models each. They are extremely similar to the current models but more detailed, and with a greater variety of poses. Ungors will come with shortbows, and are on 20x20mm bases.
* The Tuskgor Chariot is a metal box at £18.
* The same applies to Centigors, who are now a metal box at £35.
* The Battalion will consist of 20 Gor, 10 Ungor, and 10 Bestigor, and costs £55.

If you intend to start BoC, I'd advise you to do so before the release, as Gor and Ungor (their basic troops) are becoming 67% more expensive. Snap up those Beast Herds!

[Scryer in the Darkness]

Well I can confirm a February release with Advance Orders starting January 4th.

[Revlid]

Added.

THE SYSTEM WORKS!

[Avatar of the Eldar]

So where's the rumored "evil tree" thingamahoochie?

[static grass]

Thanks for putting this up.

Just to give some insight from Warhammer Online I know some dont like it but they have made alot of effort to follow the existing fluff and in some cases develop it.

Chaos troll don't seem to have any association with BoC at all and seem mainly limited ( in game) to Troll country which seems to put them in the WoC camp. Similarly Dragon Ogres only occur in large numbers in the Chaos Wastes. Again with no association with beasts.

This is in contrast with Mino's and centigors who are encounted along side beasts quite often.

[Schelle]

Any news or rumour on the contents of the batallion box?

[tkkultist]

>Special
>Tuskgor Chariots – Thought to be only one per special.

I think it was GOC on herdstone (though i could be way off knowing my memory) who pretty solidly suggested that chariots were 2/slot

[Revlid]

Originally Posted by tkkultist

>Special
>Tuskgor Chariots – Thought to be only one per special.

I think it was GOC on herdstone (though i could be way off knowing my memory) who pretty solidly suggested that chariots were 2/slot

I've read that, but I've also read rumours saying they're 1/slot now - I'll change it to reflect the uncertainty.

Originally Posted by Avatar of the Eldar

So where's the rumored "evil tree" thingamahoochie?

Under "Other Thoughts".

Originally Posted by Schelle

Any news or rumour on the contents of the batallion box?

Nope. We don't even know what new models we're getting yet.

Can I get some clarification on the Andy Hoare/not Andy Hoare issue?

[phoenixlaw]

Well Andy Hoare no longer works for Games Workshop.

[BlazeXI]

Looks like Nathan Long was hinted to use a Heardstone in "Shamanslayer".

[fenrisnorth]

Do you suppose the plastic Minotaurs will look like the minotaurs in the new Blood Bowl video game? if they do I will buy a whole army's worth

[decker_cky]

There's also rumours of a corrupted tree (dark heart type thing) being available. I'll try to look through the herdstone and add in the rumours we've gotten there.

Here's one from Harry hough I don't have the post it originally came from:

Originally Posted by Harry

Mark Harrison, (who did such a great job on the Chaos Knights) and the 'ever green' Aly Morrison have both done a great job on their contributions. So you do have some very nice plastic to look forward to .... all in good time.

Well the odd little snippet never did any harm.

(Go feed the ravenous beasts over at the Heardstone. )

Elsewhere Harry had referred to the Minotaurs being sculpted by one of the young'uns or something like that, so that likely means the plastic minotaurs are sculpted by Mark Harrison.

edit: The Herdstone rare HAS to be more of a wishlist item than the corrupted tree. Lugging a herdstone to combat flat out makes zero sense...

edit2: Harry confirmed that Andy Hoare left the company before the book was finished, so someone else is the author.

[HK-47]

Nice Info; does anyone have anything about changes made to the marks, and magic?

[decker_cky]

According to GoC, marks are very similar to WoC.

If someone feels like digging, there's a few Herdstone threads you can dig through:
http://z2.invisionfree.com/herdstone...howtopic=17473
http://z2.invisionfree.com/herdstone...howtopic=17449
http://z2.invisionfree.com/herdstone...howtopic=16535

That's the source of most of the stuff in the first post, and contains more details in a lot of places.

[Walls]

I am pretty excited for the book. They'll go along wonderfully with my marauder styled Warriors of Chaos. Guess I can start getting some boxes of gors and get going on this baby!

[sulla]

Originally Posted by decker_cky

edit: The Herdstone rare HAS to be more of a wishlist item than the corrupted tree. Lugging a herdstone to combat flat out makes zero sense...

Yeah, totally ridiculous. Not like the stunties and their smithy they build in the woods each battle, or my Elves giant bucket of blood they drag around behind the army... Ridiculous or not, stranger things have happened. (Not that I particularly rate any of these rumours. Even if they did come from playlists - and we don't even know that - things can change.)

[Vermin-thing]

About the chariots, been digging in the heardstone, the rumors point towards 1-2 per special choice. Why do I think this is solid? Well, at 1/choice I fail to see how they will be competitive at all compared to the other choices, unless their going to be like WoC chariots, which I highly doubt.

[Ramius4]

I'd love to see one of two things... Bestigors getting either T5 OR Chaos armor as standard equipment. Make them worth taking.

[Ultimate Life Form]

Has there ever been a precedent of a model jumping the border between gaming systems!?

Because as an avid Mordheim player I'd like to know how the chances are of the Thing in the Woods making it into the Beasts book. How believable are these rumors? Though it's quite fitting to class it as a Special Character, as that's pretty much what it's in Mordheim as well: a mythic creature that hides out in the woods, attacking anyone who would dare enter...

By the way, its real name is Balewolf.

[Devil Tree]

I think what Bestigors really need, is for them to have the ability to move through woods and 2 attacks as standard. It fits the glass cannon ethos of the army and doesn’t make them too expensive point wise.

By the way, does anyone know if we’re going to get any new infantry units? When rumors first started trickling in (around the time of the WoC book) I remember hearing about things like half spawn freaks and ungors with slings but nothing lately.