When a Hero does a Ritual they must take D3 mortal wounds or assign it to a BOC unit within 3” before the action goes off (again, naturally, if you’re off the board you can’t delegate wounds elsewhere). If the Hero kills themselves in the process, it doesn’t work. As the only priest in the army, it is also the only source to chant Curse (1 mortal wound for each unmodified 6 to hit the targeted enemy model receives). In this spell lore there are interesting options like Viletide that allocates mortal wounds and prevents the target from receiving commands for the whole turn, Vicious Stranglehorn that prevents the target from piling in, and Tendrils of Atrophy that adds 1 extra damage to each successful hit against the target enemy unit.

Heroes can perform Heroic Actions, in addition to the other abilities they can perform. You do it in the hero phase and you can only do one heroic action. Here is the list: This spell is all about shutting down enemy commands. Rally and Inspiring Presence can’t be used within 6” of one of the three pieces of the spell (it used to be 12”). If an enemy model issues a command within 6” of the spell on a 5+ the command is not received and the command point is lost. We have ways to mess around with enemy commands in this book, so this adds to it. It no longer gets removed if enemies come near, which makes it much better. Doomblast Dirgehorn

Nothing exemplifies this better than what the Sylvaneth experienced in the Witherdwell, a dark place in Ghyran, the Realm of Life, retaken by Morghur’s followers and since corrupted so that ooze and eldritch energies propagate from there infiltrating the other realms. Slakefray Reveller helps out with speed if you wish by adding 3” to the move of BOC units within 6” of a terrain piece. Unfortunately, Beasts lost a lot of their movement buffs in the transistion to the new book, so this is arguably a very useful trait for trying to make up for some of those lost buffs. Rotfray Plaguepelt is the one I really don’t care for that much – on a 2+ in the combat phase enemies within 3” of your general take D3 mortal wounds. The battletome has a lot of ways to do D3 mortal wounds, so maybe you go all in on that, but it seems rather generic to me but it’s hard to argue with more free Mortal wounds, especially on a unit with a sufficiently large base to tap multiple units. 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. Quakefray, hordes of behemoths led by Cygors, who become Priests in this army. Cygor and Ghorgon become battlelines.

The ones I am going to try out first are In the Shadow of the Herdstone , Rampaging Beastherd , and Aid of the Wilderness . The Knowing Eye gives Heroes some real flexibility – if you take the first turn in a battle round, you get a CP that Hero must use to give a command. If you take the second round, the Hero gets to move 6” after receiving CP. As a player who regularly finds myself leaving a spellcaster just out of range, or my Hero is too far to provide a key ability, this one really makes me think. You can bamf your wizard into range for a spell when it’s your turn, just be careful with threat ranges.For the more combat-oriented heroes, the Axe of Morghur makes it so enemies cannot take a Ward save from one of their melee weapons. I don’t see it being hugely useful.It starts with a Great Bray-shaman that is always a decently cheap wizard that can be used in different contexts (like using heroic actions through the Rituals of Ruin) and then adds 2 battleline units (Gors and Ungors), an extra unit that can become battleline if the hero in this box is your general (Bestigors) and another conditional battleline unit that is one of the best hammer available in this army (Dragon Ogors). Beasts of Chaos generals can choose between a good list of command traits like Propagator of Ruin that allows to use a second Ritual of Ruin in the same turn and without paying the mortal wounds cost, or Twistfray Cursebeast that improves the casting roll of the hero. Placed on a Tzaangor Shaman with Arcane Tome you now have a very mobile and powerful caster in later turns. Cygors are also able to see the Winds of Chaos, which makes them mad and extremely dangerous. They are drawn to war by the twisted will of the Dark Gods, taunted by half-seen visions of light planted by the Chaos Powers or by the most powerful of the Bray-Shamans. There are two types of spell lores that we are going to discuss in the Wizards section: the Lore of the Twisted Wilds for Brayherd wizards (Great Bray-shaman and Tzaangor Shaman) and the Lore of Dark Storms for Thunderscorn wizards (Dragon Ogor Shaggoth).

Chariots gained a wound and some better offensive output with the upgrades that Bestigor weapons got. They now cause Mortal Wounds when they charge – you roll a number of dice equal to the Charge roll and on a 5+ (or 4+ for smaller infantry) they take a mortal wound. They went up almost 50% in points, but I feel like they’re worth a try to see if they can do some mortals with big charges. Razorgors In terms of gameplay, Bullgors are a powerful frontline unit that can be used to charge into enemy lines and wreak havoc.I think this is interesting – the beloved Chaos Spawn minis can now be battleline in a Gavespawn army. They remain largely the same from the previous tome, although now you can’t use the Gavespawn command ability to add +1A to units. They’re faster, at 3D6” instead of 2D6”, and they can run and charge, so they can shoot out and hit stuff further out. In a Gavespawn army, I think I’d rather just take the Morghurite Spawn. Morghurite Chaos Spawn I think with Dragon Ogors and Bullgors both we will see fewer armies entirely using them as battleline and maybe just one-off units. It helps, to me, that the Shaggoth is better than the Doombull. I might consider two units of three as flank holders because they’re fast, big bases, and can heal. Beasts of Chaos Chaos Spawn In terms of gameplay, Cygors are a powerful unit choice for any Beasts of Chaos army that wants to focus on brute force and close combat.