Check out the absolutely amazing set of magic items that Beastmen just got access to in their Warhammer: The Old World Arcane Journal.
We’ve already taken a look at the Beastmen Arcane Journal overall. This is a very good and strong book. There is a lot to really love here. While we are excited about the other new books, including the matched play guide, this book has taken the cake of recent releases. One of the best parts of it is the really amazing magic item section with just some of the best items in the game. So today I wanted to take a deep dive into this section and just what makes it so amazing. Take a look.
Beastmen Magic Weapons
The Black Maul
Most armies have some kind of big super expensive weapon, and most of the time it’s not very good. The Black Maul is the rare one that might be worth taking. At +2 and -3 AP and d6 extra attacks its got a major kick, even if 80 pts is a lot and rolling a 6 on the extra attacks gets you -1WS for the rest of the game. The key here is that some of the Beastmen characters already get a ton of attacks and this can push them up into unit killing range. Ogre Blade is still better for fighting big things, but if you want a guy who can just wipe out a unit of knights, this is it.
The Axes of Khorgor
40 pts. Two handed and +1 S and -2 AP. Gives you an extra attack and re-rolls 1s to wound in combat. Give it to something that wounds most targets on a 2+ and it makes you really reliable. Decent enough.
The Brass Cleaver
One of the few big misses here for me. 30 pts for basically just ap -2 isn’t really very good at all. Yes the it denies ward and regen saves on a wound roll of 6, but ehh? I’d rather take the headsmen axe for killing blow if I’m looking for 6s.
Scimitar of Skultar
25 pts for ap 1, armor bane and multiple wounds (2). This is really a steal of a weapon to get multiple wounds. The next cheapest is the Giant Blade at 30 pts which doesn’t have any base AP. This weapon is really made by the high base strength of a lot of Beastmen models, so the lack of a S buff isn’t really a big deal.
Beastmen Magic Armor
Chaos Armour
Yep. Beastmen now get access to Choas Armour as a super common item. 40 pts for full plate and 30 pts for heavy. Comes with the 5+ ward and allows you to still cast. This is a pretty nice buff for the generally low armor Beastmen. This is a super great upgrade option and you can add it to a lot of models for a nice buff. Totally great.
The Fur OF Sharggu
20 pts to give you +2 to your save vs non-magical shooting. It’s a bit situational, but could save you from cannon balls and the like. This is something you want on a Shaggoth or chariot that is going to get shot at.
Beastmen Talismans
Chalice of Dark Rain
At 50 pts and one use only, it’s not cheap. But when you use it, for a turn enemy war machines can’t fire and all other enemy shooting halves it range. Used early you can basically deny the enemy a shooting phase, which is huge. Beastmen, with their own lack of ranged attacks and generally low armor can suffer from gunlines. This is a real answer to those, and buys you time to get up close and personal. Your local meta will likely determine if this is a must take or a waste of points, but man when it works… its powerful.
*cries in gunline*
Cornucopia of Corpulence
30 pts and it forces enemies in b2b to take a toughness test in the combat phase or lose a wound. This is really something you want on a guy with a decently big base that’s going to plow into enemy units. Like a Shaggoth for instance. Not like amazing, but a solid way to get a wound or two in.
Beastmen Magic Standards
The Gore Banner
For 50 pts you force the enemy to take a leadership test to charge you. It’s kind of like fear, without the weaknesses of fear. This could be powerful to protect a unit from getting charged and wiped out. However most things these days have pretty good LD so its not going to work all that often.
Banner of the Warped Moon
For 45 pts you’ve got a banner that copies the famous Falcon Horn. Take an LD test and shut down all enemy flying. SO GOOD! I’ve said for a while that I thought more armies needed anti-flying items and we’ve got one here. Now Beastmen tend to have lower LD than Brets, so it’s a bit harder for them to use this, but as it’s a banner it also means you don’t have to give up a hero to use it. For a min of 121 pts you can throw this on a veteran Bestigor unit to get a re-rollable 7 LD to use it.
The Beast Banner
40 pts to add 3″ to your max charge range and d3 to your charge roll. A decent way to boost threat range and charges. It can be useful. The downside is with only a +d3, making a max range charge means you gotta roll very very well.
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The Soiled Tapestry
15 pts to make you hate everything and make everything hate you. This could be great on a big unit with your characters in it to give you a nice buff. Sadly since Beastmen normally get charged it might backfire a bit. A Blood Herd rocking a character with Enchanting Aura however might really love this.
Beastmen Enchanted Items
Horn of the Great Hunt
35 pts to, once a turn, add a +1 or -1 to the roll to see if a unit comes in from Ambush. You do get to pick if you are using this after you make the roll, which is pretty nice. If you are running a few Ambushers this could be great. If not, its useless. Still it does help boost this core mechanic of the army.
Scourge of the Burdened
25 pts and it lets you cast Call of the Wild as a lvl 2 bound spell. This gives a friendly unit a reserve move. There is nothing bad about this, but its nothing crazy either.
Cacophonous Dirge
15 pts to basically turn off enemy musicians within 18 inches. Maybe not the hugest impact but pretty nifty and cheap. The Beastmen really are the anti-army, shutting down shooting and magic and fly and even musicians and making the enemy come and punch them. I think this is cheap enough that you’ll see it pop up and it can randomly be good.
Beastmen Arcane Items
Blood of the Shadowgave
We’ve seen this item for several armies before. 35 pts and super common. Single use to automatically dispel a spell. It’s the old WFB dispel scroll. It’s useful, but not super amazing and not my cup of tea. However given an army like the Mino Herd with limited wizards it could be good to have around to stop that one spell you really need to stop.
Daemon Heart
On the other hand for that kind of work we’ve got this much better item. It’s 30 pts and lets a wizard, when attempting to dispel, always count as being 1 lvl higher than the enemy wizard. So a lvl 1 wizard attempting to dispel vs a lvl 4, counts as a lvl 5 for that attempt. This is a great item to let you run wizard light and still have decent magic defense. It really helps buff out the Mino Blood Herd army. I suspect you’ll see this a lot.
It’s important to note that if the enemy has other buffs beyond their wizard lvl the Daemon Heart isn’t effected by those. So you might still be overpowered by Mort Cult. But this is still really good.
Goretooth*
Lastly we have the Goretooth. It’s super common and for 15 pts lets you take the Lore of Primal Magic. It’s totally fine and can be fun. Not exciting on it’s own, but Primal Magic does open up some options.
Let us know what you think about these amazing magic items, down in the comments!
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Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.
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