Beastmasters

I'm thinking of buying some Hellions to convert to beastmasters so I'm wondering how they perform? What are the best beasts to use? Thanks in advance.

Bastmaster units are rubbish, and pointless.

I find that beast packs can be very useful and points efficient. This new iteration of the pack just has different uses than the old. If your looking for a 30+wound death star with every usr available, then look somewhere else. That pack died with the baron.

Nowadays they've been relegated to a more secondary role, with arguably more versatility than they had with the old. No points? Take a handler and as many 10 pt dogs as allows and use them to screen the valuable stuff like reavers or freak show units. They are all fast and can be tailored to your armies needs. The 1-12 in any mix is what sets this apart from last dex. No more multiple handler tax if you don't want it. For TAC I always try to fit a full squad. 4 fiends, 4 dogs, ,2-3 flocks and the rest handlers give me options, and majority t5 lol.

Many say they are not competitive enough, but I just don't see it that way

In a MSU list, i play 4 units of 2 Fiends+1 Beastmaster.

They have a great weakness, the Leadership. But small units can work very well.

Based on my experience, pure Beastmaster squads do surprisingly well on tables that have lots of difficult terrain, such as in Cities of Death games. The key is to use them for shooting rather than close combat.
Not only are they not slowed down by terrain, but they have 18'' Assault 2 Poison weapons. That's just one shot less than a Shard Carbine, and technically 6'' more range than a rapid-firing Splinter Rifle.

I may have to give that a shot sometime. As a shooting unit, they're just as good as Hellions, but cheaper and less prone to clothes-lining themselves.

Rokuro wrote:

Based on my experience, pure Beastmaster squads do surprisingly well on tables that have lots of difficult terrain, such as in Cities of Death games. The key is to use them for shooting rather than close combat.
Not only are they not slowed down by terrain, but they have 18'' Assault 2 Poison weapons. That's just one shot less than a Shard Carbine, and technically 6'' more range than a rapid-firing Splinter Rifle.

That's a very interesting idea I may have to try that. Thanks.

I think the transition from 30 model deathstar joined by multiple ICs to a small (max size 12) assault unit has hit the beastpack's reputation more than they deserve.

They are quite points efficient, but their weakness is ld8 (given by the beastmaster)...wait that's the ld of our basic troops until you pay for a squad leader.

The krymera for 10 pts is still good, it's inv save went from 4+ to 5+ but it went up to T4. For 10 points compare them to wyches or wracks. A full unit of 1 beastmaster and 11 krymera is only 120 pts and throws out 44 str 4 attacks on the charge. Don't forget with so many attacks they can shred the hull points from non walker vehciles that have rear armour 10 (ie. most vehicles). They should do 5 hull points on average on the charge, and their speed means they should be threatening a turn 2 charge (deploy 12" on the board, move 12" turn 1, run D6" with reroll from fleet, and then on turn 2 move 12", and 2D6" charge with reroll = for a total of 36+3D6" onto the board).

The flocks have been nerfed quite hard, and I would advise that, unless you have the models and desperately want to use them, I wouldn't take them.

Clawed Fiends are interesting, they are weaker than Grots (no FnP), don't have the special rules (Rampage) and don't have poisoned weapons, but are cheaper, faster (beast and fleet) and don't need an expensive babysitter (the Fiends only need a 10pt handler rather than an IC) or a transport.

Three configerations I'm trying out are:
1 Beastmaster with 10/11 Krymerae (loads of str 4 attacks) - 110/120 pts
1 Beastmaster with 5 Clawed Fiends (a small unit that hits surprisingly hard, 30 str 5 attacks on the charge) - 160 pts
1 Beastmaster with 4 Krymerae & 4 Clawed Fiends (a mix of both that has majority toughness 5 and the krymerae with a 5+ inv save) - 170 pts

I wouldn't like to sink too many points into the beastpack, as it moves away from the MSU style that suits DE well, and they are still only ld8 and fragile.

However if you are willing to use Eldar allies, you could add an Autarch with Wings with the relic weapon that gives rending and fearless. Then I would be tempted to use the following unit: 2 Beastmasters, 5 Krymerae & 5 Clawed Fiends (220pts) plus the Autarch. 25 majority T5 wounds, with the first 5 models having a 5+ inv save, and kicks out 30 str 5 attacks and 20 str 4 attacks on the charge. It has issues with heavy infantry and vehicle walkers (oh and wraithknights, but who doesn't), but will drown most other targets in a bucket of saves they have to make.

Interesting the Clawed Fiend is the only one of out of our big cribbles (Grots and Sslyth being the other two) that has I5 (and the Krymerae are I6)

As a combat unit the beastpack gives us a credible unit that unlike the other top assault units we have doesn't need a paper frail transport).

Imho the other best assault units we have are:
Grots with IC in Raider (particularly if you use the Grotesque formation from the Coven suppliment)
Court of the Archon (made from Lharmaeans and Sslyths) in a Raider (another unit that does not need a IC babysitter)
Incubi in a Raider (but specialised in taking out heavy infantry)

Rathstar