When last we convened, in a blackened copse aglow with the sickly light of Morrslieb, the Prophet of Chaos, a hunched figure known only by the cursèd sigils J, T and Y whispered dark tidings in a sibilant tongue. He and his Dark Master’s dark master Gadge* return once again with another glimpse into a forbidden grimoire, a tome so evil that it damns your soul just to utter its name: Arcane Journal: Beastmen.
JTY: We pick the story up in Westerland, on the outskirts of Laurelorn Forest. Another village has fallen to the depredations of the Beastmen, and the survivors have stumbled upon a mercenary company from Middenheim. They warn the mercenaries of what’s befallen the village, but the soldiers don’t believe these mad, ragged people who have emerged from the trees.
The mercenaries, of course, are themselves surrounded by Beastmen, and as it starts snowing, they have to fight for their lives. The outcome is as yet unwritten, so please email us to tell us what happened when you played through the scenario – and indeed all of the scenarios in the Arcane Journals. We love to hear about your battles.
The ambushers are led by Kralmaw, the Prophet of Ruin, a new character for this era who arrives with an excellent new resin miniature. He’s been given visions of the rebirth of the Shadowgave, and he is one of the characters who knows that bit more about what’s coming. Not even the likes of the Chainmaker have that much awareness of the future – she has her own ambitions, but she’s a harbinger of what comes after…
Kralmaw is aware that Morghur has been reborn and has an inkling of his purpose. And while he doesn’t know who Asavar Kul is, he knows that there’s a champion of that name building power to the far north. Kralmaw hates him, because he’s a human.
He’s blind and he has an appropriately low Weapon Skill, but he does have a 4+ Ward and powers of prophecy that shine through on the battlefield. He’s a decent Wizard – his Familiar is actually a marker through which you can channel spells. It’s a Leering Spirit, a manifestation of Kralmaw’s powers, and not, as some have theorised, the infant Shadowgave.
The other character we feature is Ghorros, who is returning in metal. He was prominent during the Era of Karl Franz, and is supposedly very long-lived. He is known as the Sire of a Thousand Young, and the Father of All Centigors. We actually don’t know how old he is – beings that the gods favour get to live a very long time, and it’s possible that he’s as old as the eldest dragon ogres. But then again maybe he’s been having us on, and he’s young in this timeframe!
He’s a recognisable character in terms of his profile and abilities. He makes your Centigors stronger, and he fits in quite well with the first Army of Infamy, the Wild Herd – as does Kralmaw.
This is a slightly restricted list that provides a few different options to the main Beastman Brayherds grand army composition list. We bring back mixed herds of Gors and Ungors, adding Close Order to scary units of warhounds driven forward by Ungor beastmasters, and quite a lot of magic and mutation. Then there are the Warped Gors, who are a kitbasher’s dream – get yourself a Chaos Spawn kit and chop up some Gors! As with all Beastman lists, it’s aggressive – they have access to a lot of Ambush, which is powerful, if unreliable.
The second army is the Minotaur Blood Herd – which is simply about giving you the tools to play an all Minotaur army. This is perhaps the most aggressive, hard-hitting army in the game. You get a Doombull as your Lord, and there are Gorebulls as heroes. Ungors and Gors are available, as you do need light troops, but there are Ghorgons, Cygors, Razorgors, Warhounds and Harpies, with Chaos Ogres and Trolls available as rare units. You can take Gifts of Chaos for your leaders, and there’s a lot of Frenzy. I love this list, it’s a brutal weapon.
Then there’s the Lore of Primal Magic, which includes potentially some of our finest spell names. It’s very thematic – it builds on the fear of the deep, dark forests of the Old World, applying lots of different effects including plenty of Fear and Terror.
With all these books, we were inspired by classic Warhammer lists of Magic Items. There are plenty of iconic items which we knew we had to include – things like the Hail of Doom Arrow and the Blade of Leaping Gold. This philosophy is on show in this Arcane Journal – we’ve brought back the Brass Cleaver, the Axe of Khorgor and the Gore Banner, to name but a few.
The Black Maul 80 points
This brutal, spiked cudgel is stained black with the blood of a thousand victims. Those that wield the club for too long become overwhelmed by its thirst for violence.
R: Combat
S: S+2
AP: -3
Special Rules: Extra Attacks (+D6), Magical Attacks
Notes: Each time a natural 6 is rolled for the Extra Attacks (+D6) special rule, the wielder of the Black Maul suffers a -1 modifier to their Weapon Skill characteristic (to a minimum of 1, and for the remainder of the game).
The Black Maul is an 80 point magic item, which grants extra Strength, Attacks, and AP. Put that on a Doombull with 5 Attacks as standard plus the two from Frenzy, and you’ve potentially got 13 Attacks.
We also took this opportunity to remaster some of the stranger beasts in Forge World resin, which is much easier to work with. The Jabberslythe and the Cockatrice were previously only available in Finecast resin – they have been substantially remastered and become more striking miniatures as a result. Likewise, the Doombull had been briefly available in metal before it became Finecast. The metal version was a weighty model indeed – it’s definitely now at its best in Forge World resin.
The Preyton returns unchanged from the old Warhammer Forge range, and it’s still one of the strangest of the beasts of the forest. We’ve even brought back the Centigor Chieftain from Mordheim, who is a slightly chunkier Centigor holding a beer jug.
The basic troops are miniatures from the mid-00s, mostly from the 6th and 7th editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Centigors are still in metal, as is the Tuskgor. The plastic Beastlord, first released for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, is a lovely plastic sculpt and completely fits into the atmosphere.
Finally, Herdstones return in the form of special terrain features that make casting spells even easier for Beastmen Wizards whilst making the Beastmen themselves more ferocious and sapping the courage of their enemies. These represent a fun modelling and terrain making project for hobbyists. Such terrain features are something that, to my mind, have always been a major feature of the battlefields of the Old World.
Gadge: They’re a fairly easy modelling project. Get some foamcore, or even a big rock, put it on a base with some grass tufts and flock, and cover it with Citadel skulls and Blood for the Blood God!
JTY: With so much Beastmen history in Warhammer, the challenge was paring it all down into a 48-page book. We mostly used the two most recent books from Warhammer, which were themselves wonderful distillations of all the craziness from the 80s and 90s.
Thanks guys. That wraps up this series of the Old World Almanack. We will be back at some unspecified point in the future when the Storm Dragon and the expeditionary forces of Grand Cathay make landfall in the Old World, ready to do battle with the waxing threat of the Dark Gods. Follow the Great Plan…
* Both official job titles, believe it or not.
