Which is THE BEST Magic Lore for Beastmen?

How can we get the most out of magic when playing Beastmen?

Beastmen have had access to three lores of magic since they were released in Warhammer The Old World, and later on a fourth one was added: Primal Magic.

Not all of them are good. Not at all.

In this post we’re going to go through their spells one by one and see what synergies they have with Beastmen units in particular, as well as with their faction signature spells.

Let’s dive in!

BEFORE READING: Herdstone and VILETIDE

Important: Beastmen have something very iconic, which is the Herdstone. It helps you cast magic, protect yourself from enemy magic, and also provides other benefits for only 100 points. I don’t want to spend too much time on it here because I already cover it in the Beastmen unit tier list post, but if we’re going to play magic, I think it’s just too good and that you should ALWAYS take it.

Throughout the article I’ll be talking a lot about Viletide, which is an absolutely great spell: casting value 9+ (it used to be 8+, but it was FAQ’d), 15” range, and it deals 5D6 Strength 1 hits with no armour saves.

It is the Beastmen signature spell, which means any wizard can choose it regardless of the lore they pick, and they will always have access to it without needing Lore Familiar.

Dark Magic

Doombolt, which is the lore signature spell, is a magic missile with good range, but it is very situational because it uses a small template with Strength 3 AP 2. So it will always do the most damage against small-base infantry.

“Small” in quotation marks, because we know that in Old World the size of almost all bases increased.

Since it causes partial hits and it is Strength 3, the damage is quite limited against anything that isn’t light infantry.

The only option I can think of would be to use a lot of low-level wizards, level 1, with this spell near the Herdstone, far away from the opponent, but I honestly don’t think that would work.

I definitely wouldn’t take this lore because of this spell.

Why would I take it then? Because of the next spell we’re about to talk about.

1. Word of Pain

Even though it is short range, it is one of the strongest hexes in the game. It gives the target enemy unit -1 Strength and -1 Toughness. This means the target unit suffers much more from shooting and in combat, and on top of that it deals less damage back to us in melee (useful when you have a naked army like wood elves or beastmen).

It synergises with pretty much everything. It doesn’t matter what kind of army I’m playing, whether it is infantry, monstrous creatures, or chariots. It doesn’t matter. It is really good.

The casting value of this spell is quite high, but Beastmen have certain advantages to bring that down. For example, you have the dagger, which lets you kill models from your own unit to add +1 to the casting roll, on top of the Herdstone. So with all that added together, you would be casting with a +4 on a level 3 wizard.

That is very good.

2. Stream of Corruption and other shit spells

While the previous spell was very good, this one really isn’t. It could be useful on a combat wizard, but even then there are better options that do not cause partial hits and do not depend on the number of enemy models in the unit.

And on top of that, even if we hit a lot, the spell has very low Strength, which means the damage is very limited. It is not an interesting spell at all.

The same goes for Infernal Gateway, because it only transports characters. It can help a character get into combat faster, but it doesn’t really do much more than that.

The same goes for Phantasmagoria, which may look interesting on paper, but in reality the enemy has many chances to stop it from having any noticeable effect. They can dispel it multiple times, and they can also just move away from it.

And Soul Eater, spell number 6, can be described in exactly the same way. In the end, all the direct damage in this lore is very limited because of Strength 3. A shame.

5. Battle Lust

The spell we do need to talk about in this lore is Battle Lust. This one is interesting for combat, because it gives Hatred and also Frenzy.

What is the problem with it? Our units already re-roll 1s to hit if we pass the Beastmen racial Leadership test. So there is overlap between the two effects. Even so, it is still very good.

Also, another advantage Beastmen have with enchantments is that they have very easy access to skirmisher units, and that makes it much easier to cast buff spells on allied units positioned on the sides of the shaman. It may sound like a minor thing, but when you play armies where close order dominates, you really miss that flexibility.

This is an army that usually throws out a lot of attacks in combat, and that means Hatred gets very good value from it (Gors with two hand weapons, Minotaurs…).

It could also work well with Dragon Ogres. In general, the more Strength the models have, the more useful this spell becomes. And in that sense Gors hit at Strength 4 on the charge, which is also when the additional attack kicks in.

Conclusion on the Dark Magic lore

Is this lore worth it? Considering that most of its spells are bad, you would really want to combine it with Lore Familiar, for 30 extra points, so you can choose the spells.

It is important to point out that Beastmen have very good signature spells. So there is never really any need to take the basic one (Doombolt) when you can take others.

In any case, now that we’ve whetted our appetite, let’s move on to the two lores I like the most for Beastmen.

Demonology with Beastmen: just brutal

Signature spell: The Summoning

This lore has a very interesting magic missile that is almost never used. Why? Because we have better options (Viletide). But with low-level wizards it is very common to take Demonology.

Why? Because even though it might seem like it doesn’t really matter what lore you choose on a level 1 wizard when your plan is always to take Viletide, in reality there are matchups where that signature missile is very bad. For example, against lists with lots of Night Goblins, because with Strength 1 you wound Night Goblins on 6s.

That’s not interesting.

In that matchup, this Demonology magic missile, which causes Strength 4 hits, could be much more useful.

In any case, apart from the signature spell, there are other spells in the lore that combine very well.

1. Steed of Shadows

Let’s start with spell number 1, the movement spell. It makes the unit fly 12 until your next turn. This has a huge number of synergies.

For example, with lists that put wizards inside skirmisher units. The problem with those lists is that the range is short, and very often Movement 5 is not enough to get into range to fire Viletides, because you can’t march and shoot.

This spell allows the unit to move 12 and shoot. That alone is insanely strong.

But on top of that there is a 25-point magic item that allows an extra reserve move. So you can move 12, shoot, and then reposition. I talked about this reserve move spell in the Primal Magic post; I’ll leave it down below in the related posts.

Another option is the famous Gor Death Star with characters inside. This Steed of Shadows lets that unit march 24 on the first turn and get right in the enemy’s face very quickly, or move 12, fire the Viletides it may have, and then move another 12.

Also keep in mind that Minotaurs are infantry, so they also benefit from this spell.

2. Gathering Darkness

Let’s move on to spell number 2, which is a hex that reduces Leadership by 2 and Initiative by 2. This not only helps make the enemy flee, it also allows Beastmen to strike first.

This reduces the damage you take in return, which is key because Beastmen are not an army that stands out for its durability.

This is one of those spells that is just really good and works well with any army, like Word of Pain from Dark Magic.

3. Daemonic Familiar

Spell number 3 causes hits with no armour saves allowed and has a low casting value. It is very useful for a combat wizard. A wizard on a chariot with the Beastmen signature spell that gives more attacks, plus this spell, plus the next two we’re about to see… that thing is an absolute monster in combat.

Demonology buffs

Spells number 4 and 6 buff units in combat. They are very good for the wizard inside the Gor Death Star.

The only spell in this lore that is completely useless is Chaos Vortex. Never take it. And even less so with Beastmen, who have so many good magic options.

Overall, this lore is very solid.

So why would we then take Elementalism?

Because it has brutal synergies with certain units. It works very well for ANOTHER style of play, which we’re going to look at now.

Elementalism with Beastmen: the best option?

What if I don’t want to play the hard-hitting wizard on a chariot or the Gor Death Star with the Minotaur of Doom list, which I analyse in another post?

Elementalism is a lore focused on ranged damage.

2. Plague of Rust

Spell number 1 and the signature spell are useless in this army, but then you get very strong options like Plague of Rust, which reduces enemy armour and has great range. This effect helps us both in combat and at range. Ungor bows actually start doing damage once you have reduced the enemy’s armour.

4. Earthen Ramparts

Spell number 4, Earthen Ramparts, gives a 5+ ward save with a really low casting value. This is extremely good in an army with poor saves like Beastmen.

And it has brutal synergy with random movement units like Chaos Spawn, because they do not march or charge, so they do not suffer the downside. The downside is exactly that: it prevents the unit from charging or marching.

Elementalism direct damage

Spell number 3, Elemental Spirit, is a magical vortex that deals damage when passing through units and also creates difficult terrain. It deals 3D3 Strength 4 hits with AP -1, which can obviously be combined with the -2 armour from Plague of Rust.

This combos with Wind Blast, which pushes units and deals D3+3 Strength 5 AP -1 hits.

Keep in mind that in this lore the direct damage is NOT, in any case, the signature spell, so we can add our Viletide to those two as well.

Although the Elemental Spirit vortex blocks line of sight and can help us avoid enemy charges, I wouldn’t rely on it too much for that, because this vortex DOES move at the start of the turn and can therefore leave you exposed before the enemy declares charges. On top of that, it has a casting value of 9, which means for many opponents it is not especially hard to dispel at the start of their turn.

6. Travel Mystical Pathway

And finally, spell number 6 lets you reposition, although it does not combine QUITE AS WELL as Steed of Shadows with the Beastmen army and the kinds of lists you usually see in competitive play.

Even so, it is useful for repositioning chariots, Spawn, and other units without having to risk rolling low on random movement.

It is another option.

Primal Magic

Finally, with the Beastmen Arcane Journal, Primal Magic appeared, accessible to all shamans through a magic item (Goretooth, 15 points).

I’ll tell you right now that I don’t like this lore. At first I thought it was brutal, but now I don’t recommend it. Why? Because it has limitations that the opponent can exploit very effectively, and that makes it very situational once those limitations are known.

I explain them in 3 minutes in the post I leave below, and if you find this content useful, I’d ask you to share this post to a friend, or another one that might help him too.

See you in the next one.

THE BEST Magic Lore for Beastmen in Warhammer The Old World