Selecting a Warhammer Army

One of the skills involved in playing Warhammer is selecting an army that is versatile and powerful on the battlefield. There are different methods to achieve this and these methods will vary from player to player. My Warhammer career has been pretty successful to date (one major tournament win out of three and top 5 in the other two!) and my army selection has been based on these overriding principles:

Balance

Hard hitting combat power

Mutually supporting units

Defence against magic

Character

Balance:  While it may be tempting to pick all of your special and rare choices and tool up your characters, this is often a bad idea. Make sure all of your units can do the job you want them to. For example, if you have a high elf spearman unit as one of your core choices then make sure it has the right amount of elves and the right gear to hold its ground in combat. Following this example, a unit of 20 with standard bearer, musician and champion is the minimum I would consider using. This unit would beat an Orc Warlord on a Wyvern.

Combat Power:  It is essential to have troops and characters that will destroy most opponents when they charge. Remember that your opponent will have these units as well so it is important that your killing machines can work together.

Mutually supporting units:  There is no point designing a few super god-killing units and characters and forgetting everything else. Think about how units and heroes will work on the battlefield and how other units will work with them.

Defence against magic:  I do not hold faith in the ability of magic to win the battle.  Magic is used most effectively to support and enhance your troops. If you rely on magical power to win the battle then you will lose more often than you win. Be wary of enemy wizardry and consider equipping your force to protect against sorcery.

Character:  My Beastman army is comprised of, er, Beastmen. Different types of course – Gors, Ungors, Centigors, Minotaurs, etc – but overwhelmingly Beastmen. I like to feel that all of my armies are ‘realistic’ and that you could imagine them as a coherent force. Try to select your army to a theme – a Dark Elf raiding force, an Empire town militia or even just a typical marauding horde of the Undead.

The Warhost of Akhneth Akhandarrghor

A lot of the ideas I am presenting here are based on assembling a Beastman army of  1000 points or more. However, much of the advice can be applied to any Warhammer army.

Firstly, let’s have a look at the strengths and weaknesses of units available to a Beastman Army. Even though you can select from Hordes of Chaos, I only use a small unit of Furies from this book.

Beast Herd:  The Gors and Ungors skirmish and this makes it the most mobile front line infantry in the world. You must use this mobility to its full as the herd will not be able to compete with strong opposing foot troops due to its lack of rank bonuses and dubious leadership. I use a unit of 12-15 (to ambush) and a unit of 20-28 to maraud on the enemy flanks.

Bestigor: I love Bestigor. I use 22 of them with a Wargor and Battle Standard Bearer with the Beast Banner. When this unit charges the enemy regiment is finished. Their weakness is that they can lose heart quickly when losing a fight.

Chariots:    Tuskgor chariots are great when they charge despite being a bit fragile (Toughness of only 4) – they do d6+1 strength 5 impact hits, 2 strength 5 attacks from the Tuskgor, 1 at strength 6 from the Bestigor and 1 at strength 4 from the Ungor. Ouch. Use them in pairs or in support of your foot units.

 Warhounds: 16 doggies in 4 ranks (that’s +3 rank bonus and a unit strength of 32) for less than 100 points. Avoid charging combat units frontally as they are mediocre in combat and instead threaten the flanks and rear of enemy regiments.

Trolls:  Good in combat and fear causing. The reason I don’t use them is for their unreliability – you will fail your fair share of stupidity tests.

Ogres:  Fine in combat and they come with plenty of equipment options. Give them great weapons. The main drawback is that they are not beastmen!

Centigor:  Ideal as a small supporting unit (I use 6 inc. champion) for your main foot units or as a flanking force. The ability to move without penalty through woods is very valuable. The drunken rule can mess up your plans but I think it’s a risk worth taking. And the models are fantastic!

Minotaurs:  I have using 4 with great weapons, a champion and the Mark of Khorne. That’s 17 strength 6 attacks! Unfortunately they are vulnerable to missile fire.

Dragon Ogres: Fast and very intimidating for your enemy but the toughness of 4 means that they are overpriced at 70 points. These guys are a luxury.

Shaggoth:  What a beautiful miniature! I’m not a fan of big monsters in the game and the Shaggoth is no exception. It uses up a special and a rare choice and costs a massive 295 points. My killer unit of Minotaurs is less than 250 points.

Chaos Giant:  A giant will almost always lose combat against 20 Empire swordsmen (or similar core units). Expect it to die quickly if the enemy has artillery.

Spawn of Chaos:  Good when used to support your units but their random movement is unreliable. Great opportunity for you to test your conversion skills!

This is what I use in a 2000 point army:

Beastlord with great weapon and the Mark of Khorne

Wargor with great weapon and the Dark Heart (leader of the Bestigor)

Wargor with Beast Banner (accompanies the Bestigor)

Level 2 Bray Shaman with a braystaff and at least one dispel scroll

Beastherd with 12 Gor (2 hand weapons) and 12 Ungor inc. full command

Beastherd with 7 Gor (hand weapon and shield) and 7 Ungor inc. musician and champion

16 Warhounds

22 Bestigor with champion and musician

3 chariots

6 Centigors with musician and champion

4 Minotaurs with champion, great weapons and the Mark of Khorne

5 Chaos Furies (for a bit of aerial support)

Chaos Spawn

You may have noticed that I don’t equip all of my units with standards. The reason for this is that they are generally supporting units that cannot stand against front line infantry and I don’t want to lose the 100 victory points awarded for capturing banners.

To date, Akhneth Akhandharrghor’s Warhost has been engaged in the following battles:

Author: Stuart McCorquodale
Games Workshop National Accounts Manager
Lives near Newport
Has his own 3 year old chaos spawn called Calum           

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