As is traditional with the release of a new Armies book, Gav Thorpe explains some of the thinking behind the latest addition to the Warhammer world - the new Beasts of Chaos book.

Only the newest members of our gaming community (or perhaps a blind, deaf troll hiding under a bridge) would be unaware of the growing threat of Chaos in the Warhammer world. As declared in the Hordes of Chaos book, we continue the documentation of these dread legions in Beasts of Chaos. This volume works as a stand-alone Armies book just like any other, but can also be used with Hordes of Chaos. I'll explain more about this later.

LEGACY OF THE BEASTS
The first things I looked at when it came to writing the proposals and briefs for Beasts of Chaos were our previous renditions. As with Hordes of Chaos, my aim was very much to capture the chaotic essence of the original Realm of Chaos books from 3rd edition Warhammer. In truth, the Beastmen have evolved less in the last fifteen years than their warrior and daemon counterparts, and much of that original material still holds as true today as it did then.

This made the job a whole lot easier, as you can imagine. Rather than spending time representing background, or trying to "massage" the history into something that was more fitting to the present day depiction of the Warhammer world, I could focus my efforts working on the army itself.

ROMANS AND GERMANS
It has been my goal, since taking on the mantle of Loremaster, to make sure that each Warhammer army not only looks different, but plays differently as well. I think players should choose their armies based not only on their aesthetic values, but also their playing style. I fondly imagine that we're doing a pretty good job of that at the moment, and I was sure that I wasn't going to buck the trend with the Beastmen. So, what would make for a really characterful army?

Well, like many things Warhammer-orientated, my inspiration came from history - and the original Beastmen background. In essence, the Beastmen are akin to the Germanic tribes that fought against the Roman legions two thousand years ago; tribes such as the Goths, Saxons, Visigoths, Angles, Ostrogoths, Alamanni and Jutes. I found particular interest in the defeat of the Romans by Arminius in 9AD. Accounts of this tell us that the Germans painted their bodies, made a great clamouring with their weapons and shields, and generally "psyched themselves" up for the battle before descending on the Romans. This is pretty much the archetypical barbarian image we have today. However, the important point is that it fooled the Romans into thinking that the forests were swarming with Germans, unnerving them even further. So, when Arminius attacked, his foes were already on the back foot and scared.

Which is all very interesting as a history lesson, but what's that got to do with Beastmen? Well, let me explain. The Beastmen are the German tribes of the Warhammer world. They lurk in the deep forests, raiding settlements, attacking supply caravans and ambushing armies whilst they're on the march (incidentally, Orcs are Warhammer Scots, raiding out from their highland homes, but that's not important right now). I wanted the Beastmen to fight on the tabletop the same way. I wanted someone who was facing a Beasts of Chaos army to be unsettled, unsure of what they're facing, unable to predict the direction of attack.

To this end, I invented the Ambush rule, which many of you will have seen in the preview in White Dwarf 275. This enables certain Beastmen units to be set up in ambush. These units are not deployed as normal, but instead can be brought on in a later Movement phase when the General gives the signal. Although Beastmen are quite adept at this type of warfare, I didn't want them becoming too efficient – it didn't suit their Chaotic character. Basically, each ambushing unit has to take Leadership test - if it fails the unit appears, not where you want them, but at a random point on the table edge!

Beasts in the fold...