How to Beat; Beastmen

That's right folks, it's back to me desperately trying to get my view count up with a new series, and that is; How to Beat (insert name of army here). I thought I'd do us all a favor and offer my tactical knowledge to some of the newer players out there and  maybe start a debate with some of veterans among us. So how this works is that I'm going to list the five things that make each of these army's strong, and the best to mitigate if not nullify these advantages. This is going to start out really obvious with the first couple of armies, but I promise it will get better as we go along. For now, let's explain the format. I'm going to list in ascending order the things that I think make the army strong, with their primary strength at the bottom and their lesser strengths at the top. After that's we'll review the topics and go into more detail about how to counter these strengths. Without further ado, let's get started.

#5: Special Armory
Beastmen are for once blessed by having an older book because it gives them access to more than just two pages of magical items. They practically have a page worth of each type of magic items available to them, plus a whole page of mutant abilities you can put on your characters! This often leads to the Beastmen relying on a wonky or almost unknown piece of gear that is actually really, really damn powerful. I'll list specific examples later, but just something to remember when playing these bizarre children of Chaos.

#4: Chaff
This is a very pivotal strength that the Beastmen have and it's arguably the only thing that keeps them viable in the current meta. Units that were once considered to be not worth the ink they were written with are now being used for very complex and frustrating tactical maneuvers which now dominate the current culture of Warhammer Fantasy.

#3: Magic
While by no means the most infamous of magic users, Beastmen can still really Rick-roll in the magic phase with their access to three excellent lores and perhaps the most broken piece of war gear in the entire game, barring the Chalice of Blood and Darkness. Their signature lore is pretty shitty all in all, but there are a few nice spells in it that you should really be on the up and up if you want to rock out to Lore of the Wilds. However, the lores of Beasts, Shadow, and Death make the Beastmen a dangerous opponent in the magic phase to be sure.    

#2: Army Special Rules
I'm going to be focusing on two of their special rules in particular, Primal Fury and Beastmen Ambush. Both of these rules are very, very powerful and can really make the Beastmen very dangerous on the board despite their archaic book and rule set.

#1: Obscurity
Much like Bretonnia and Chaos Dwarves, most of what makes the Beastmen a threat to other armies who are technically better than they are is that very few people actually know that they exist. Sure, they've been around for a few editions in various different forms and books. But they appear so infrequntly in Grand Tournaments and even in casual games that people seem to forget that they're still around. And this lack of knowledge aids them in a way. Again, I'll explain more in a little bit.

HTB: Special Armory
This is one of those things that can't be completely mitigated but the lack of knowledge regarding these items can be avoided if you do proper research. Now even these older books, like the Beastmen, still have mostly 75% of their items are overpriced and/or not remotely useful, but the 25% that remain are exceptionally dangerous items. The most common ones you'll see will most likely be the Hunting Spear, Ramhorn Helm, Shard of the Herdstone, the Beast Banner (the last three are almost Auto-Includes in any Beastmen list), and in tournaments I've often see Beastmen bring the Chalice of Dark Rain to nerf Gun Lines. The best way to take the power away from these items is to learn what they do and make a plan that will not allow the Beastmen player to use these items to their fullest extent. Either buy the book, which isn't that much an investment due to it's age and lack of demand, or just borrow it from someone who already owns it and memorize what they do. I know that seems really generic advice, but you know what GI Joe says; "Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!"

HTB: Chaff
If Beastmen have gained power anywhere in the meta it's most certainly in the chaff department. In their core section alone there are two viable choices in the form(s) of Ungor Raiders and Warhounds. You're most likely to see Ungor Raiders over the Warhounds because the Ungors have a bow, something that you won't see too much in this army, and they actually count towards the minimum core allotment in the army, unlike the Warhounds. The other big options you'll see come in the form of Razorgors and Harpies, both are good for different reasons. Razorgors will fuck up other chaff and Harpies can Fly, meaning they're adept at Artillery hunting. So how do you stop them from redirecting you're own units? Well, Beastmen have almost no ability to shoot, meaning they can't return any serious fire power. Some regular BS based shooting units will clear these guys out like nothing else. They're still Beastmen, so average Toughness and practically no saves of any kind means they will get shredded when shot at. The other thing you can do is counter their chaff with your own. Harpies and Ungors will fold when charged, and provided you don't get charged by them Razorgors and Warhounds will go down pretty easy too. However, if you're not a believer in either chaff or shooting, then this will be a tough game for you unless you've got some serious numbers of MM and DD spells on you.

HTB: Magic
Beastmen have access to two things that make them very dangerous in the magic phase. The first is access to three lores that are immensely useful to Beastmen in the forms of Beasts, Shadow, and Death. The second in the Shard of the Herdstone. These two things lead to Beastmen being able to have very powerful magic phases that result in them getting lots of things done, particularly Wyssan's Wildform and Okkam's Mindrazor, though almost never on the same unit obviously. So, the question remains how to stop them from steamrolling in the magic phase. The answer is in the form of their greatest strength. If all the casters are dancing around the Herdstone, then you can take them out with shooting, war machines, chaff, etc. They're vulnerable without bodies to protect them from things most wizards would be shielded from. If they aren't doing that, then your best bet is to try and take them out the old fashioned way. be warned though, these guys are tougher then most casters, although enough attacks directed at them will take those guys out.

HTB: Army Special Rules
So first, how do you deal with having to deal with Frenzy (and possibly Hatred) every single solitary round that you get into combat! Well, the answer is actually a lot simpler than you might imagine. See, Beastmen need to pass a Leadership test every round in order to get Frenzy off on your units. However, Beastmen have low Leadership and they absolutely need their characters their in order to reliably pass these tests. Beastmen are also a combat army that needs to be able to win in combat, +1 Attack and the possibility of re-rolls to-hit are absolutely huge for a combat army. So, you take out the characters. Which, with their lack of defensive attributes makes them very susceptible to being KO'd. As for the Beastmen Ambush, there's almost nothing you can do to stop it. Bad rolling will mitigate effectiveness as will good positioning. However, the Beastmen need to sacrifice a block of their own troops in order to do this meaning, they start off in worse positioning in terms of bodies on the board. Press this advantage as much as you can and make sure you can kick as much ass you possibly can. Other then that, I got nothing, other than your war machines are going to be fucked over if the Beastmen are using this rule.

HTB: Obscurity
As with their Armory, the best way to stop this is to just buy the damn book. Beastmen aren't something that you see all that often and as a result when people do encounter them, they very rarely know exactly what to do against them. Most of their stuff is overpriced and does way too little for what it costs. However, they are still a viable army (barely) and they can still pull a lot of tricky shit that people aren't prepared for. Knowing them through can give you the key to avoiding half that shit. That, or play them enough to the point that you are guaranteed to learn their means and ways. This may be difficult if you live in a smaller area though, as it is unlikely there will be too many people who actually play Beastmen.

So that's it folks, let me know as to how much you enjoy these and if you would like me to keep going with them.