Finally Beasts of Chaos have their own Vanguard box that replaces the previous Start Collecting. This is a really interesting box that provides a lot of miniatures (34!!) and a solution for every question. Brand of Wild Fury allows you to target a BOC hero (including themselves) within 12″ and a BOC units wholly within 12” of that Hero get a 6+ Ward. 6+ Wards aren’t the best but you take what you can get sometimes.

I love the idea of making this huge thing a Priest, and I like that it hits easier with the artillery, but I just don’t know if it’s worth the 68% points increase here, especially with the range reduction that then puts you in threat range of a lot of stuff. JabberslytheHe helps friendly units if he’s near enemy heroes – they get +1 to hit and wound, which is great. You want him basically running forward with a unit of Bestigors as his vanguard because he also can grant one unit the ability to fight right after him (or right before him). I really love the theme here – he’s not just running off to fight stuff, he’s got his lads with him to take out the center of the enemy line.

The Beast of Chaos Tzaangor Shaman represents the avian side of the army, the one related to Tzeentch. The only buff that provides to the other Tzaangors is limited to resurrecting up to 3 models from a nearby Beast of Chaos Tzaangor unit as long as the spell Boon of Mutation slays as many enemies. There are also some good hammer options with Bullgors and Dragon Ogors, but some alternatives like Bestigors and other opportunely buffed units too. There’s a bit of ranged potential, so that you are active in all phases, and of course, there’s also the chance to really compete in the magic meta with some good endless spell options and some buffs from your wizards like Twistfray Cursebeast that combined with a Tzaangor Shaman and a Cygor can really allow magical power. Having a shield provides them a 4+ save that can be combined with any ability (like All-out Defence) that gives +1 to save to bring them to 3+ that is pretty good for a cheap battleline. Add to this that they have a good chance (on a 3+ and only against charged units with a lower number of models) to apply the strike-last effect to their target and that they rally on a 5+ and you have a good all-round unit for its price.

PATH TO GLORY

Some excellent information that we often use from articles like this one comes from YouTube channels like Warhammer Weekly with Vince Venturella, AoS Coach and of course The Honest Wargamer. This is definitely a mid-range spell for me. When set up, it has a 6” range – non-BoC units within range subtract 1 from wound rolls. Each turn that goes up by 6”. It used to be 3” range and 3” increase and on hit rolls, so this is a welcome change. At only 30 points it seems like a really interesting spell to try out a few times. It could be used for area denial, objective taking, or obviously just making your goats more durable. Wildfire Taurus He gains some survivability in that he can cancel spell effects on himself on a 4+, and at the end of each combat phase he can heal D3 wounds on a 2+. Summon Lightning is somewhat similar to the old spell, but you get to choose D3 units instead of just one to heal up D3 wounds. To start with, you get command points from the general even if he is in reserve but, more importantly, you can leave the reserve by setting up in the first or second end of movement phase within 9” of an edge (with the usual 9” distance from any enemy unit). You get +1 to charge the turn you deploy so it’s an added bonus. But, as we will see later, this is not the end of the ambush tactics available to the Beasts of Chaos: you could shoot from outside the battlefield, or even perform heroic actions. I like their special rules – before they were mostly just fast dudes that hit stuff, which you could get elsewhere – now they negate the first two wounds or mortal wounds caused to the unit in the combat phase. Load them up with Mystic Shield or All Out Defense and see them tank smaller units on the flanks, holding stuff up. For that reason I think I’d like to consider taking two units of five instead of one unit of ten – spreading out that ability and really messing around with flank objectives.