The Old World: Arcane Journal – Beastmen Brayherds Review

“Do not speak of that beast! It is the herald of all things evil in this world, to speak its name is to invite anarchy and death!” – Gerald Höffenmayer, Captain of the Grenzstadt Garrison

We’ve had a little bit of a break in Warhammer: The Old World’s release schedule but we’re back with a bang in the shape of the Arcane Journal for the Beastmen Brayherds. You know the formula for these by now, we’ve got half a book of background and lore for the army, some pretty pictures of the stupid army followed by the two Armies of Infamy, a couple of named characters and of course all the shiny new units and magic items you’ve come here to get get my opinion on.

Once again thank you to Games Workshop and the Community Team for providing us with an early copy so we’re able to give you a breakdown of the release on preorder day.

First however I’m going to talk about the lore in this book. I’ve been playing Games Workshop games for a little over 25 years at this point and despite knowing a lot of random information about the lore of the Old World I’m not really sure where it came from as I’ve never been a big reader, but I’m really enjoying reading the lore which is included in these journals and the Beastmen Brayherds is no exception to this. It’s told from a third person viewpoint and serves as a flavour guide for the groupings of Beastmen living in the fragmented world of the Humans residing in both Bretonnia and the Empire. It then progresses to focus in on the Herds fighting in the Westerland not a million miles away from where the Norse invasion of Frydals clans were working their way around in the Chaos Arcane Journal, it really adds to the incredible pressure the armies of the Empire were faced with and shows what a terrible period this would be to be alive in.

Armies of Infamy

We’ve got two new Armies of Infamy in this book and with the Beastmen being one of the few armies in the game which doesn’t fall into a “We’ve got Cavalry so here’s a Cavalry based Army of Infamy” group of armies we’ve got two really interesting and different armies to work with, I’ll just get it out there now. These are great and this will be the new bar by which Armies of Infamy are judged by moving forward. They aren’t ultra powerful similar to the Mortuary Cult or Bretonnia Exiles, but they’re fun, include most of what you need through some magic items, and I’m sure they’ll become staples of the gaming table for years to come. Falcon: I’m going to second Liam here. After a handful of really boring books with some uninspired Armies of Infamy, Beastmen do pretty well and I would strongly argue that one of these armies is bordering on top tier based on my testing of the lists.

Minotaur Blood Herd

The first of the armies is indeed the much anticipated Minotaur Blood Herd list. As you’d expect you may take 0-1 Doombull per 1000pts, 0-1 Bray-Shaman per 1000pts and unlimited Gorebulls, Wargors and Centigor Chieftains. The pretty clear missing link here is the Great Bray-Shaman, and while that might have signaled the competitive death knell for some armies on the internet (looking at your Empire of Man) that really isn’t the case here due to some magic items we’ll talk about in a little bit. Everything else is what you’d pencil in if you were writing the book. The biggest Minotaur you’ve ever seen, some of the smaller (but still massive) Minotaurs along with the lesser Shamans of the tribes and the Centigor Chiefs.

In core (33%) you’re taking (exactly) one Minotaur Herd per 1000pts, 0-1 of the new Herdstone (might as well just be 1) along with Gor Herds, Ungor Herds and Chaos Warhounds. Special sees 0-1 Dragon Ogres per 1000pts and then a bunch of the units you previously found in the Core slot of the Grand Army list along with the more thematic Rare choices. Harpies, more Minotaur Herds, Centigor Herds, Razorgor Herds and the massive Ghorgons all my appearances. The Rare (33%) selection comes with 0-1 Dragon Ogre Shaggoth per 1000pts, Chaos Giants, Chaos Ogres and Chaos Trolls. The other important army construction tool is that a Gorebull (along with the Wargor) can be upgraded to the Battle Standard Bearer. With how tanky the Gorebull can be he’s an excellent addition to the army, the Wargor is already a nightmare to deal with in most Beastmen Brayherd armies, not imagine that on a model with extra wounds that hits even harder in combat!

Falcon: I know a lot of people will be sad to see that the Gigantic Chaos Spawn isn’t available to this Army of Infamy (as well as the other one for that matter), which is a bit of a disappointment, but honestly, that’s not what this list is about. It’s just about smashing stuff and if you can catch your opponent, it 100% will do just that.

There are four special rules for the Blood Herd Bloodshed & Butchery gives all Doombulls, Gorebulls, Minotaur Herds and Gor Herds in the army the Impetuous special rule. This is the biggest downside of the army without a shadow of a doubt but it’s not the end of the world. Impetuous is only really a downside if you don’t want your army getting into combat, something the Beastmen, especially the Minotaur’s don’t really care about. Champions Of Slaughter means that if the General of the army becomes Frenzied as a result of the Blood Rage special rule then all units within it’s command range (12″) also become frenzied along with him. Get the Doombull into combat early and hope for good dice, power up a bunch of units and go to town seems to be the message here. Minotaurs already have one of the highest damage outputs per point spent in the game, this just turns them on quicker than normal and lets them really go for it in combat without needing to trigger the Frenzy themselves.

Falcon: In practice Bloodshed and Butchery can be mitigated pretty easily via Ambush, carefully placed Chaos Warhounds, and simply devoting yourself to the downfall of civilization no matter your opponents’ tactics. Champions of Slaughter creates some really cute scenarios in MSU builds where your warhounds, dragon ogres, harpies, and razorgors that don’t normally get to improve their offensive output get a lift.

Guardians of the Herdstones is a neat little rule and lets Doombulls and Gorebulls in the army take Gifts of Chaos from the Warrior of Chaos list. Want to give the enemy Strike Last in combat via Enchanting Aura in your list? Now you can go nuts! The world’s your oyster with these. The final special rule for the list is Magics of the Dark Gods and means your General has to be a Doombull or Gorebull. It also allows you to upgrade them to be either a Lv1 (+35pts) or a Lv2 (+65pts) wizard. They get access to either Battle or Dark Magic and it lets them wear armour without penalty. I do really like this, Battle Magic especially is great here as you’ve got a really good combat signature spell and if you get lucky and roll Arcane Urgency then fire the Minotaur Herd the General is in across the field Turn 1 and get ready to introduce the enemy to your axe even sooner then you previously could.

Falcon: This is 100% what makes this list potentially work out. While getting a level 1 or 2 wizard to do anything in a game is rough, making your Doombull(s) wizards opens up access to Arcane Items (like the Daemonheart, which we’ll get to later) and Enchanting Aura on a deathstar of Minotaurs makes even the scariest combat monsters in the game beatable.

This is where I normally talk about all the new units which can be included in the list from the book but as you can see there’s only a single new unit for this force in the Herdstone, but it’s vitally important to the list so lets have a look at what it does shall we? For 100pts you get yourself something unique to Warhammer: The Old World in that it’s not a unit you’re bringing to battle, but a Terrain Piece you’ve brought from your army list. We’ve had Wood Elves getting their free woods before but never something you have to pay for. I’m a big fan of things like this and opening up new design idea’s for the game. Let’s see how this goes and what they can come up with next shall we?

The Herdstone is placed after all other terrain and after players have rolled for deployment. It’s placed by the controlling player, must be outside their opponent’s deployment zone and not within 6″ of the centre of the battlefield. You can also use it as a Special Feature if the scenario dictates. In game, you control the Herdstone by having a unit with Unit Strength 5+ within 6″ of the stone which isn’t fleeing. If two units from opposing armies meet this requirement then the closest unit gets control, if these two units are equally close then it’s contested and no one gets it.

As far as what you get from this control? It’s a lot. First off, the unit which controls the Herdstone gains Magic Resistance (1) to help keep them a little safer from enemy spells. The second rule is that if the Herdstone is controlled by a Beastmen Brayherds player, then friendly Beastmen Brayherd units within 12″ may re-roll any rolls To Wound in combat of a natural 1, amazing. Dark Sorcery is the third rule and that allows friendly Beastmen Brayherd wizards within 12″ of the stone (if the friendly player controls it) to add +1 to their spellcasting rolls while also applying a -1 to enemy wizards within 12″. The fourth rule is again only active while the Beastmen player controls it but it adds a -1Ld modifier to enemy units when making Fear, Panic or Terror tests. Finally the last special rule on the Herdstone is it is worth 200 victory points to the player who controls it at the end of the game.

What I think they’ve managed to do here is stick a really powerful “unit” into a book but something which requires commitment a good level of skill to pull off. Place it too far forward towards your enemy and you won’t get control of it. Place it too far back and half the benefits won’t trigger. Place is in the wrong place and your opponent gets 200VPs at the end and you’re playing 100pts down, not good at all. But place it right and you can control where the flow of the game will take place, have units in a position to make the most of the effects and score bonus victory points while having 100pts your opponent can’t kill to get the points themselves. I really like this, hats off to the development team on this one, it appears to be hitting in exactly the right spot.

Falcon: The Herdstone should probably be in every Beastmen list, especially if you’re just playing kill points. While it is 0-1 Special in every list that is not the Minotaur Bloodherd it is an extraordinarily powerful 100 points to have in your corner. In my multiple test games playing with and against this Beastmen book the Herdstone has had an impact. Simply deploy the stone just outside of your deployment zone in most matches and then run the competitive favorite Great Bray Shaman on a Heavy Chariot up to it. Now watch everything come up Krawlmaw as you start blasting viletides and sit on your page worth of benefits. If you lose the Herdstone to your opponent, you were going to lose the game anyway, if you don’t the extra 200 points might just secure you the win as it is a big swing.

I’m also going to talk about Ghorros Warhoof here, he’s a Centigor Chieftain in terms of army composition and can be taken in an list they can be, meaning, he can go in the Grand Army and both Armies of Infamy in this book. Coming in at 155pts you get yourself a Centigor Chieftain with an additional Int at 4 (instead of 3) and Ld8 (instead of 7) but otherwise the profile matches. He loses the Fast Cav rules associated with the standard chieftain but see’s his Stomp Attacks increased to D3 to compensate. In addition his Father Of Beasts special rule allows Centigor within his command range to re-roll the D6 on the Drunken table meaning they’ll do what you want more often than not. The Sons of Ghorros allows you to upgrade a single unit of Centigor (at a small cost) to have an additional +1Ws and gain the Armour Bane (1) Special rule. The Skull Of The Unicorn Lord which he wears upon his head grants him a 6+ Ward Save against normal wounds and a 5+ Ward save against enemy magical attacks, but that it in terms of defense with zero armour worn. Where his power is though is in his Weapon. Mansmasher is S+1 (only on the charge) at -1Ap but has Armour Bane (1) and most importantly Multiple Wounds (D3) which means even a single lucky wound through can take out most none monstrously mounted enemy characters, a great assassination piece.

Falcon: Ghoros isn’t exactly going to change the face of the game and he dies to any breeze stiffer than an Old-Fashioned but he’s fast as hell and may just pick off an important piece if you choose to run him. If only Centigors were a unit that saw any kind of play I’d love for this guy to land on a table.

Wild Herd

The second Army of Infamy is the Wild Herd and is based more around the influence of Chaos into the more standard Beastmen Tribal Force. You can take 0-1 Beastlord of Great Bray-Shaman per 1000pts along with Wargors, Bray-Shamans and as always, Centigor Chieftains. For Core (which is 33%) you have to take 1+ Primal Warherd to get you started. Then it’s 0-1 Tuskgor Chariot per 1000pts, 0-1 Centigor Herd per Centigor Chieftain followed by unlimted Gor Herds, Ungor Herds, Chaos Warhounds, Primal Warhounds and Razorgor Herds.

In Special we have 0-1 unit of Dragon Ogres, Warped Gor, Bestigor Herds, Harpies, Centigor Herds, more Tuskgor Chariots and Razorgor Chariots. In addition you can take 0-1 Cockatrice or Preytons per 1000pts. Into Rare (33%) we have Dragon Ogre Shaggoths, Jabberslythes, Cygors and Chaos Giants. In addition we’ve also got Chaos Spawns making an appearance in the rare section. The Battle Standard Bearer here is just on the Wargor as per the Grand Army list though, no sneaky Bray-Shaman Battle Standards here.

What makes this army tick though? Lets have a look at their special rules. Ancient Sorcery lets Wizards in the army know spells from the new Lore of Primal Magic (more on that later) while Dark Coven is the power behind the list. Wizards in the army may choose to add +1 to their casting or dispel rolls for each other friendly wizard within their command range, a massive boost in casting and something we know it powerful from other armies (looking at you Mortuary Cult). However this does come with a downside in that if when taking the bonus you roll a double the spell is miscast. In addition when you roll on the miscast table you also roll not just for the wizard who made the attempt but for each other friendly wizard in their command range as well. So maybe fishing for more than an additional +1/2 is more risk than it’s worth? Time will tell on that one for sure.

Falcon: This is a really cute rule that a lot of people are going to focus on when they look through the book. Any bonuses to cast are a big deal in the game right now and you can pretty easily run 2 Great Bray Shamans and 2-3 lvl 1/2 Shamans in a list to really go off if you need to. Unfortunately, having potentially every shaman in your list go from a 1/36 chance of exploding to 1/6 is a pretty big penalty. I did run a for funs list that did just this and on my ‘go turn’ it was pretty fantastic casting spell after spell with an additional +3-5 (depending on Herdstone and position) and it was only on my final two viletides that each of my level 1s decided their brains would explode. In my opinion, the actual power in this list is actually the next special rule though, Gifts From the Dark Gods.

Gifts from the Dark Gods allows character models to spend an additional 25pts on magic items and an additional 25pts on Chaos Mutations while Roaming Warbands means any number of Gor Herds, Ungor Herds, Primal Warherds and Centigor Herds may have Ambush at +1pts per model and Beastman Chieftains and Centigor Chieftains can also purchase it at +10pts per model. In addition 0-1 Gor Herds, Ungor Herds or Centigor Herds per 1000pts with a Unit Strength of 10 or less may be given Ambush for free.

Falcon: Gifts is extraordinarily strong. It turns Wargors and regular shamans into absolute monsters and sets up really exciting Great Bray Shaman and Beastlord builds that you didn’t have access to before. It is 100% why you want to take this list.

Leading these Wild Herds we have Kralmaw, the Prophet Of Ruin, of which you can see a model review here as Games Workshop were kind enough to send us a copy of him. Kralmaw is a Great Bray-Shaman and can be taken in armies where he fills one of those slots; his stat profile is very similar to that of his un-named brothers, but trades down his Weapon Skill to Ws3 in exchange for a fourth wound. Costing 245 points, he’s 65pts more than your normal Lv4 in a Beastman list. What do we get for that? He can select his spells from Dark or Primal Magic, and he also have the Lore of Beasts special rule so for those of you who can’t live without everyone having read the great Beastmen book of “How to Cast Viletide” don’t worry, Kralmaw didn’t skip reading that either. Future Sight grants him a 4+ Ward Save meaning if you get a little lucky he’s pretty survivable especially when combined with 4 Wounds. Leering Spirits is the rule which interacts with the little familiar you get with Kralmaw, when deploying him you also deploy the Leering Spirit Marker. This doesn’t move but has a 360deg Line of Sight and can’t be interacted with in any way, shape or form during the game, if Kralmaw is ever slain however it’s removed from the battlefield. During your shooting phase you can choose to cast the Devolve Spell from the Lore of the Beasts with a Bound Spell Power Level 3 from the Leering Spirit token, so a nice extra fifth spell a turn built into the cost of the character. His final special rule is Grisly Totem which means in addition to being a normal Braystaff all enemy units within 6″ of him suffer -1 to their Leadership, a great little freebie throw in there in my opinion.

Falcon: Kralmaw is a cute special character. 4+ ward saves are pretty rare and in the game and it makes him pretty swingy. Unfortunately Dark and Primal magic are pretty weak magic lores to have on a build around character relegated to being on foot. Leering Spirits, in practice, is pretty cool as an non-interactive piece tossing out Devolves turn after turn. If you’re looking for a narratively fun character for your lists you could do worse, if you’re trying to be competitive, you’re probably better off with a Build-a-Bray-Shaman.

Primal Warherds are a throwback to 6th edition and are a mixed Gor/Ungor unit and that’s about it. They’re just the Gor and Ungor together with a couple of rules to allow them to work effectively as a unit, shooting gets mixed between the two types and you wound on their individual toughness, then Ungor help make up cheaper numbers in combat. They are Close Order to make the most of this rule allowing them to really stack the combat resolution cheaper, in addition they can take a magic banner of up to 50pts. Falcon: As a mandatory unit in the Wild Herd Army of Infamy, I recommend getting used to their ruleset. Unfortunately, the Primal Herd has Impetuous and the Ungors in the unit cannot take short bows (which would probably make the unit almost as strong as the Tomb Kings Royal Cohort). That said, the Ungors are great at soaking wounds from your opponent’s shooting attacks (Shooting hits are worded as being split 50/50 between the Ungors and Gors no matter how many of both you have) and the Gors always fight in the front rank of your combats.

Warped Gors are kind of a weird Beastmen Forsaken type unit with Ws4, S3 and D3 Attacks per model. They’re not cheap at 16pts a model but their Blessings of Chaos table boosts their combat ability. You roll at the Step 1.1 of the Combat phase, they can either gain the Poison Attacks special rule, give their attacks an Armour Piercing Characteristic -2 or get +1 Toughness (making them T5). All decent buffs but they aren’t Forsaken and that’s going to be the marker they’re judged by. Falcon: At 3 less points than Forsaken, Warped Gors are nowhere near the same power level and that is unfortunate. No access to Killing Blow and no ward save are massive dips, as well as the 1 less strength and no base AP/magic attacks on their attacks. I feel like unfortunately these guys are an insane miss.

Primal Warhounds and their handler the Ungor Ravager are the last of the new none-monster unit available. This is a combined unit but the mistake made with the Chaos Warriors Warhound Handler hasn’t been repeated here and the Ungor Ravager has M7 to keep up. These are effectively larger unit of Chaos Warhounds with Warband and a higher Leadership due to the Ravager in the unit. They’re in units of 10+ and you can add one Ungor Ravagers to the unit for every three Primal Warhounds in the unit. In effect this means that with say a unit of 15 Primal Warhounds you’d be able to add in five Ungor Ravagers as well. The stats are exactly what you would expect so not going to hand around these much. I like the idea and it’ll look brilliant on the table but not sure you’ll see loads of them in competitive play (I’ll be back in 3-6 months to see if this prediction holds up). Falcon: Yeah, maybe with some rules changes you could see a squad of these hounds on the table. Close order, horde and warband are welcome adds to the Warhound unit even if you do lose the option to Vanguard. I could see someone running a decent sized unit with poisoned attacks and a couple of Ravagers to ensure they’re leadership 10 most of the time if ranked up units ever became popular again.

The Last new unit in the book is the freakish Preyton which rejoins the ranks of the Beastmen in time for the Wild Herds. In a previous life they were majestic Great Stags, now, corrupted by the Bray Magic of the Beastmen they attack with terrible malice at anyone who strays too close. Preytons are a Wild Herd unit which can also be taken in the Grand Army at 0-1 per 1000pts and clock in at, a not cheap, 160pts. Their frame isn’t comparable to a lot of monsters in that price range at T5 and 4W with only a 5+ armour save but it packs a punch. With Ws5, S5 and 4 Attacks along with D3 Impact Hits, Large Target and Terror it can shake some enemies to their core. The Melee attacks are at -2AP with Armour Bane (1) as well meaning it can go through all but the heaviest armoured troops with ease. In addition it can purchase Ambush or Frenzy for 10 or 5pts. It’s Crown of Antlers special rule mean the Impact hits are done at -1AP with the Armour Bane (1) special rule as well. Finally it’s Endless Malice rule means that if it wins combat and passes it’s Ld test to reform/restrain then all enemy units within 6″ must take a panic test. I think this is a great little rule when combined with some of the Leadership modifiers we’ve been in the book previously, get it right and this could well tip the tide of battle in your favour.

Falcon: If the Gigantic Chaos Spawn hadn’t fully corrupted what people see as a ‘good’ monster I’d be a bit higher on the Preyton. The model is extremely fast at Fly(10) and the impact hits with AP are a difference maker. Unfortunately, the current competitive meta features a lot of poisoned shooting and the Preyton doesn’t stand up to any of it.

Lore of Primal Magic

The armies of the Bray are are coming in hot with their own new magic lore similar to the Trolls and this isn’t just a half lore either, it’s the full compliment of 7. I’ve picked out some of my favorites below.

Primordial Gloom – This signature spell works like a combination of Tempest from the Lore of High Magic and some of the Necromancy Ld Debuffs. This vortex once placed means all enemy units within 6″ suffer -1Ld and treat open ground as difficult terrain. Amazing for setting up the chargers you want to make with your forces.

Flock of Doom – A new type of spell in design with a small template being used as an assailment spell allowing you to wrack up some good combat resolution into the biggest enemy blocks out there. Against 25mm infantry in the right formation you can wrack up an average of around 7 models, not bad at all. Plus with S3 and Multiple Wounds (2) then you’ve got a good chance of picking up odd models to swing combat.

Strangleroot – 4D6″ range isn’t much but when it’s on a shaman who’s moving quickly on a chariot it can be enough. Working similar to a cannon, once you successfully cast your magic missile enemy models that fall under a line measured from your wizard suffer D3 Strength 3 hits with -2AP. Get this into the flank of a ranked unit or even just a unit of Cav and you’ll wipe them out without much issue. 5+ save for most Cav will just have them falling over when this is in play.

Falcon: Unfortunately, Primal Magic isn’t all that hot when compared to the book lores. Most of the spells are very situational and don’t add much to your army. That said, I really enjoyed Strangleroot in practice on a chariot shaman with the Hagtree Fetish. Occasionally you’ll be able to rush up a flank and blast it down a line of enemy models 10+ wide as your opponent tries to take advantage of their fighting rank and absolutely decimate them.

Armoury of the Bray

This is without a doubt the headline section of this Arcane Journal. Normally we get these books and have a look through, I think there’s a handful of items here I’d see myself taking, maybe another few if I was playing in a more narrative settings. However this is different. I think there are 14 items I’d put in lists if I had slots for them, 14. Anyway, as normal, my favorites or picks from each category are below. Falcon: This book’s magic items are insane. Literally a half dozen I would run in every list if I could and, like Liam, a dozen or more I would not be surprised to see across from me. They are SO good and just exciting to see.

Axes of Khorgor – S+1, AP-2 and Extra Attacks (+1) make this a reasonable weapon, but the fact you can then re-roll 1’s to wound during the combat phase and the fact that they’re only 40pts all in just tips them over the edge. Fantastic cheap weapons. Falcon: Most of the time your Doombulls and Beastlords are wounding on 2s anyway, it’s a beautiful thing smoothing out those turns when you absolutely blow a roll.

Full Plate Chaos Armour – It’s what the Doombulls always wanted. a 4+ Armour save (which can be combined as normal) along with an inbuilt 5+ ward is amazing. There is also a Heavy Armour version available for the normal cost of a Talisman of Protection meaning you can now have a bunch of 5+ wards in the army if you wanted. Also now the Shaggoth’s new best friend for that 2+ Armour and 5+ Ward save combo. Falcon: What Liam fails to mention here which makes these pieces absolutely insane and absolute must-takes in every list is that these armour pieces are Extremely Common AND Can be worn by Wizards without penalty. At 40 and 30 points respectively, these pieces are eye-wateringly good and immediately pump the Beastmen army up the competitive ranks.

Chalice of Dark Rain – A single use item and 50pts usually don’t go hand in hand but this sure does. If not in combat you can drink from the Chalice in the Command Sub-Phase. Until the start of your next turn enemy missile weapons are halved in range (rounding up) and War Machine cannot shoot. Suddenly all those poison blocks and gunlines which have been keeping you up at night are gone, they now get a single round of effective shooting at you at best, glorious. Falcon: While I am not sure this will see a ton of play, the ability is extremely strong, particularly if you’re running a rush list filled with Razorgors and other units vulnerable to shooting.

Banner of the Warped Moon – It was really hard to pick this as I think all 4 are outstanding and it’s a shame you won’t be able to get them all into your armies. This banner means if you pass a Leadership test (on your own, unmodified Leadership) at the start of your turn, until your next turn your opponent cannot use the Fly (X) special rule. Clearly they’ve learnt something from fighting the Bretonnia’s all the time and wondered why they kept blowing those horns. Falcon: Luckily, unlike Bretonnia, Beastmen don’t have insane access to the Veterans special rule (this may be the best reason to take Bestigors you can come up with) so this banner won’t reliably ruin your dreams like the Falcon Horn does but it is still a must-take tech piece at the competitive level.

Cacophonous Dirge – A little situational item, it effectively turns off enemy musicians within 18″ of the wearer. Situational without a doubt, but if I had the choice between 2 additional Gor into the army and this towards the end of the list construction I think I know what I’d be taking.

Daemon Heart – Without a doubt my favorite item in the book. This means that when attempting a Wizardly Dispel the wizard dispelling counts their level of wizardry as one higher than the opponent casting the spell. For the first time you can really lean into combat characters, take a Lv2 with this and run them forward and not be majorly worried (outside of none wizard level casting bonuses) about the enemy Lv4 getting to do whatever they want, you have an answer and I believe it’s an outstanding investment for any army, no matter what. Falcon: What a frustrating little tech piece to play around. In every game I have played with and against the new book the Daemon Heart has had a say. Even running Mortuary Cults into it was a pain because the Daemon Heart also works on bound spells. When trying to dispel a bound spell, the bearer of the daemon heart dispels at the power level of the spell +1, so powerful spells like Light of Protection and even Ruby Rings lose some lustre. I had a lot of fun running a Daemon Heart on a lvl 2 Shaman with the Skin of Man in a couple of games as you get to see your opponent’s full deployment and potentially slip your master dispeller immediately within frustration range.

Army Lists

Falcon: Let’s take a look at some fun options to try with the new book.

The Labyrinth

This list is all about forcing your opponent to engage your giant brick of Minotaurs or they will struggle to get any points. Both Doombulls have a 2+ armour save and a 5+ ward, 1 will be -2 to be hit and the other -1 because of Slugskin. By abusing the Motley Crew rule, you can place all 3 Bull characters in the larger unit of Minotaurs and they will have a 2+ armour save against shooting as the Doombulls’ armour is in the ‘majority’. Your second mandatory unit of Minotaurs can go into ambush to protect their points and potentially come up behind enemy lines later in the game to smash war machines or stragglers. Chaos Warhounds help fill out the 33% core and make a decent unit to protect you from your own impetuous in games where that matters. The Scimitar of Skultar is a new magic item we did not mention that is Str +1, AP 1 and Multiple Wounds 2 which is a helluva deal for 25 points and gives your Doombull even more punch into enemy monsters. Finally, the Daemonheart gives you the safety to dodge some of the scariest magic spells you need to worry about.

I Heard You Like Viletide

While I believe there are much better take all comers lists you can write with the Wild Herd, this list just wants to do fun things and test your luck with abusing the Dark Coven ability. Ideally, you’ll deploy your Herdstone about 8-10 inches away from your deployment zone so you can post up your chariot shamans around it immediately and still be in decent threat range early on. Your three lvl2s join the Ungor Skirmishers so they can move freely around the board, have 360 line of sight, take advantage of being -2 to be shot at due to skirmishers and pelt of midnight, and being able to stay spread out should they explode. Dragon Ogres and Razorgors flank your primal herd while they try to shut down flyers and take up space. On your ideal turn you’ll be casting spells with massive bonuses and clenching your cheeks with every toss of the dice.

Final Thoughts

So where do we go from there? This book is pretty high on my internal scale of how much I’ve liked each Arcane Journal in terms of what they’ve brought to the table and the game as a whole. You’ve got a new type of unit in the Herdstone which really opens up what they could do with the game if they choose to take it in that direction, a new magic lore which no one will ever feel bad taking to a game of Warhammer. In addition you’ve got the start of the threads of a grand narrative scheme building around the Westerlands and for those of you who are more gaming focused you’ve got, what is in my eyes pretty easily, the best selection of Magic Items available to any army following their Arcane Journal release.

I’ve felt for a long time that the Orc & Goblin Arcane Journal was the best one of the lot we’ve had but for the first time I truly believe they’ve got competition in the form of the Beastmen Brayherds Arcane Journal, sometimes you just have to tip your hat to Games Workshop for having an idea, running with it and ticking all the boxes and I think this is just one of those such times. Falcon: I wholeheartedly agree. This book has some amazing adds to the Beastmen arsenal and is just fun to play all around. The HUGE upgrade to the magic item selection for the army alone is worth the price of admission, that you also get one really fun and competitive Army of Infamy and a second one that is fluffy and decently playable is swell, and the lore in the book is great! All of the games I’ve gotten in both with and against this book have felt refreshing and I’m really excited to see what others do with it.