If you go down to the woods today...

[maelzch]

Beastmen book cover art released, army apparently coming Feb 2010

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.

[StubbornMark]

so unlike the skaven they aren't trying to keep this one secret then.
Wonder if they will have dragon ogres and shaggoths in there considering that they are in the warriors book.

[Veldemere]

Not sure I am a big fan of that cover art (if it is actually it!) as they now appear to look like marauders with a different head stuck on, perhaps they should change the name to beastheadedmen!

But, yay they are getting a richly deserved new book.

Also didn't they have a complete stand alone army book already, yes it was allowed to (and needed to) draw from the hoards of chaos book, but they had a book in its own right.

[cunningmatt]

Not sure I am a big fan of that cover art (if it is actually it!)

I actually quite like the cover art, but there you go!! Turned into an excitable kid when this arrived in my inbox from GW, oh dear!

Also didn't they have a complete stand alone army book already, yes it was allowed to (and needed to) draw from the hoards of chaos book, but they had a book in its own right.

I guess this refers to that fact, plus the last book was Beasts of Chaos not Beastmen - which obviously makes all the difference in marketing speak! Bare in mind when they released the 7th edition Daemons of Chaos book they claimed in the pre-release stuff and I quote "This is the first time the the Warp-spawned fiends of the Immaterium have been represented by their own army lists and background in either game system [Fantasy and 40K]" - really? Because there was a Daemons only army list in the 5th edition Chaos Book, and in the 6th edition Hordes you could easily field a Daemons only army! Sounds like cleverly worded marketing speak to me!

Wonder if they will have dragon ogres and shaggoths in there considering that they are in the warriors book.

Hope so! Have been painting my Warriors of Chaos army biased to include units in both armies to give me a half complete Beastmen army before February, shall be annoyed if my Chaos Trolls, Dragon Ogres, Hounds of Chaos, Giant and Spawn disappear from the Beasts list!

[fatolaf]

Next year could be the year of fantasy that this year was meant to be..
Very quick turn around from GW here straight after Skaven, lets hope its in the same fun vein...

[fatolaf]

Rumours from the usual good sources:

The Beastmen army book will be out in February 2010. It was being written by Andy Hoare, who left GW and the project part way through (for undisclosed reasons). It is not known who finished it.

As with the two previous Chaos books it will be stand-alone in that you can't use things from the Warriors of Chaos and Daemons of Chaos books, but there will be a degree of overlap in that the same units (though not necessary with the exact same rules) will appear in multiple books. This is similar to how Warhounds were in both the old Hordes of Chaos books and the current Beasts of Chaos books, but has the Ambush rule in the beast books.
It is not know which units will be shared with the other books (some rumours say many, some say only a few), but obvious contenders are the things that appear in the current Beasts book (Warhounds, Ogres, Trolls, Dragon Ogres, Shaggoth, Spawn, Giant).

[fatolaf]

Background
The GW newsletter speaks of Beastmen as being the original inhabitants of the Old World, which is nonsense according to the current background material, which has Beastmen being humans mutated by the fall of the polar warp gates. Either the person writing this didn't know the background or it heralds a significant shift in the background material.


Magic
The GW newsletter has stated that there will be an all new magic Lore for Beastmen. This could mean that this new Beastmen Lore replaces the three old god-specific Lores (most likely) or that they get new Lore in addition to having the three old Lores for Slaanesh, Tzeentch and Nurgle (less likely).


Marks of Chaos
It is not known whether Beastmen get a wider or more limited access to Marks. It is possible that Marks will be available to more units like in the Warriors of Chaos book (where you could Mark Marauders and Ogres, which you could not do previously) or the book might drop Marks completely in favour of something else.


The list as it is looking at the moment:

Lords

Beastlord

Great Bray-Shaman

Doombull
- new metal model


Heroes

Wargor

Bray-Shaman

Centigor Hero(?)


Core
- The current GW policy appears to be that any (new) box you buy will be a legal unit you can field. Thus with the splitting of Gors and Ungors, it is almost certain that you will be able to field units of only Gor and units of only Ungor.

Gor
- new plastic set

Ungor
- new plastic set

Beast Herds(?)
- with Gor and Ungor coming in separate boxes, the old mixed Beast Herd might end up going the way of the Dodo

Bestigor
- new plastic box

Warhounds
- The WoC Warhounds have a couple of (fairly useless) upgrades available to them. It is not known if the BoC ones will have the same


Special

Centigor

Tuskgor Chariots
- almost certainly 1 per Special

Minotaurs
- new plastic kit
- might be the only "big guy" infantry in the list
- it is not known if they can be taken as Core with a Doombull general

Harpies(?)
- rumoured as an inclusion in the book, but this might just be wishlisting based on them being in the 5th edition Realm of Chaos book and players wanting a flying unit
- presumably as in the Dark Elf book


Rare

Giant

Spawn
- presumably as in the Warriors of Chaos book

New big beast thingy
- some sources has it as a quadrupedal, bull-like creature that breathes fire


Unknown

Daemonkin(?)

Revered Beast Spawn(?)



Might end up dropped

Daemon Prince(?)

Ogres(?)
- might be dropped from the list

Chaos Trolls(?)
- might be dropped from the list

Dragon Ogres(?)
- in his Warriors of Chaos designer's notes, Phil Kelly suggested that Dragon Ogres fit better in a WoC army than a Beasts of Chaos army, which might imply that they are dropped

Shaggoth(?)
- in his Warriors of Chaos designer's notes, Phil Kelly suggested that Shaggoths fit better in a WoC army than a Beasts of Chaos army, which might imply that they are dropped

[fatolaf]

Hasting's views on the new Minotaurs and the expensive new Betsigor models...

I highlighted the part of your post that pretty much nails the main problem IMO.  They are over-muscled, however the paintjob I saw didn't help as it has too extreme highlights making the muscles even more prominent.  The heads of the Minos aren't very good IMO and let down what could have been a decent kit.  However those heads pale in comparison to the abortion that is the Doombull head!!!!

Bestigolds...... hmmmmm, tiptoes, awkward stance, imagine you are trying to do a pee with your boxer shorts still on, but without opening the fly, you spread your legs to avoid getting wet...... they are just OK IMO

[StubbornMark]

Damn you to hell, I was sooooo looking forward to a new doombull model.

[v3n]

A "friend" of mine has seen pics of the new stuff including plastic minos, new doombull, updated gor and ungor in separate boxes, plastic centigor and a razorgor which looks like a cross between a tuskgor and a spawn but not in a good way

The doombull looked great, the minos were a bit muscle bound but as previously stated this wasnt helped by the paint job. Can't wait for February