While I don’t play much AoS these days, I have “herd” that the Beast of Chaos (Boc) are a rather broken army right now. And, (maybe because I don’t play I am kinda glad for them) this long neglected faction deserves something nice every now and then! Anyway today we are looking at their Path to Glory rules. As with other older books they are still waiting on a full release.
Army Special Rules and Quest:
I still do not fully understand why some of the factions in these releases get unique rules and some do not. As it stands, the BoC do not get any unique faction rules but do get a pretty good quest. You get one point for each battle you win. At the start of each battle you get an additional point for each win you have already banked. Once you get to five, you complete the quest earning:
- 10 Glory Points
- Guaranteed Faction Territory
Not this is pretty good, as your faction territories are pretty useful, and 2/3 are repeatable. I still feel they could have added a bot more here. Perhaps giving bonuses against enemies who have more developed faction terrain or who are more “civilized” I think there is a lot of room to have fun with the rules here.
Upgrade Table and Territories:
As we have seen with a few other armies the upgrade table is locked to certain unit types. Thus while there are three options they are limited to certain units:
- Brayherd: These units get +1 melee attack the turn they come in from ambush. I feel this is a little “meh” as it can be played around somewhat easily.
- Warherd: These units can return D3 slain models once per game, if it destroyed any enemy units. Much more useful, and can be used in your opponent’s turn!
- Thunderscorn: In your movement phase, the unit may move 6″ for its “Creatures of the Storm” rule. While not overpowered this rule is a good one to have as you can use it on early rounds when you might not have any other options.
The BoC also get some pretty useful territories:
- Tainted Deepwoods: You get to return D6 slain Brayherd models to a unit in ambush. Pretty good, especially as you can have up to three of these territories.
- Wild Mountains: +2 monster slots in your army and after each battle you roll a dice, on a “6” you get a free monster. Also, you can have up to three of these territories. When upgraded you get +4 monster slots.
- Warp-Nexus: Max of one, no effect until upgraded. However once it is upgraded you get to add +18″ to the range of your Herdstone’s locus!
Summary:
All told the rules here are adequate. I think the strength of the BoC army should come from their ability to get good territories as they should be connected to the land. I wish more thought had gone into giving them a custom rule as the army is rich with fun possibilities but I will reserve my judgement until their book comes out. I like their quest a lot, and it is one you can easily repeat which should make starting the campaign a bit easier. Their veteran abilities are okay but their territories are pretty good which seems to be the balance of most of these mini-rule sets.
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