The Untamed Beasts warband guide is the second in the series on all the advice you need to make the most of your Warcry warbands. How to build your warband plus strategy and tactics to get you playing.
You can check out the rest of the Warcry warband guides here:
Untamed Beasts: Hunt the Hunter
Animalistic savages little better than the beasts they are constantly preying upon, the Untamed Beasts are natives to the plane of Ghur. Drawn to the Eightpoints by the prospects of seeking greater prey still to feast upon and cowardly dwellers in civilization to lay low, the Untamed Beasts hold nothing in greater contempt than the trappings of civilization, or those who seek to shelter within it. Mastering the art of hunter through mimicry of the beasts they hunt, the Untamed Beasts are as unstoppable as the primal nature of the land they worship.
Pros
- Absolutely Ferocious – There isn’t a single member of your roster who can’t beat its equivalent in other warbands in a fight. High strength and damage on multiple attacks to take down the greatest enemy.
- Diverse Menagerie – The Untamed Beasts pack a wide roster of different units who each excel in their chosen field. Everything from a Warbeast to range ahead to a potent ranged attack that can pull units out of position.
- Straight out the Box – The default warband for the Untamed Beasts is practically perfect already, and doesn’t require any padding.
Cons
- Low Durability – Armor might be for cowards, but cowards do tend to live longer. Low toughness and wound counts mean you need to hit first or you may not hit at all.
- Unforgiving – Everything in this warband fulfills a vital purpose. Failing to put them to correct use will see the whole warband crumble.
- Complicated – All your stuff that isn’t Chaff or Infantry has a very complicated battle role. Ranged hunter who can pull things towards him, beast handler who requires beast support to be the best, there are a lot of moving parts here.
Mustering your Untamed Beasts Warband
The Untamed Beasts come in the starter set, there is a good chance you already have them. If not, picking them up second hand new-on-sprue is going to be relatively straightforward. Unlike the Iron Golems or Splintered Fang, buying a second box isn’t actually vital here. You have everything you need to start off, but feel free to experiment beyond that.
Painting your Untamed Beasts
As for painting, the Untamed Beasts are models that feature a good deal of skin, pelt and leather textures. These can be often be challenging, but are made simple in videos by Tale of Painters and Warhammer TV.
Untamed Beasts Unit Breakdown
For the purposes of breaking down the units and categorizing them effectively, these reviews will list units as being one of the following:
- Leader – A leader choice for the warband. A Warcry warband must include one of these, and cannot include more than one.
- (Elite) Threat Unit – A higher-price unit that either dishes out heavy damage. Also comes in the Elite variety, which a warband will usually only be able to afford a single one.
- Support Unit – A model who’s use is tethered to an ability, usually a Triple, that boosts the effectiveness of themselves and those around them.
- Infantry Unit – Middle of the road, these units are reasonably affordable in exchange for a baseline unit that can hold it’s own passably.
- Chaff Unit – Cheap, spammable and here to either screen or hold objectives. Can usually be buffed, usually is not cost effective to do so.
Heart-Eater (Leader) – 180pts
Mighty and ferocious leaders of the Untamed Beasts, to the Heart-Eater goes the honor of hunting the greatest prey. These hulking warriors are the equal of any armored soldier, their muscular form proof against all but the strongest hits.
The only leader choice available to the Untamed Beasts. He does respectable damage but he’s not as overall powerful as other warband leaders.
He has access to his own specific ability, All-Out Attack. This let’s the Heart-Eater move AND fight as bonus activations if he kills something. This is stronger than most other Leader abilities where you choose one or the other. Makes sense, as this guy is very much geared purely for Chaff-hunting.
I find him best spent on engaging enemies weaker than himself, to get the most out of his abilities. You’re better off siccing the dog on enemy leaders rather than going all Conan and challenging them.
First Fang (Elite Support Unit) – 140pts
Lieutenant to a Heart-Eater, and the warrior granted the honor of the first strike against the enemy. The First Fang is a lethal hunter, and his unerring aim and devastating strength send his harpoon forward with deadly purpose.
A giant harpoon in one hand and a two-handed axe in the other, you know he’s here for business. The harpoon is quite literally as lethal damage-wise as the axe swung by the leader of this warband.
The real gem this unit brings to a warband is his Harpoon Snag. This lets him throw his spear AGAIN and so hard through them he DRAGS them towards himself, potentially pulling them into range of allied fighters or even himself. Bonkers. Absolutely bonkers.
Beastspeaker (Support Unit) – 125pts
This canny hunter never fights alone, always going into combat alongside one or several trained beasts it lives, hunts and fights alongside. The Beastspeaker position is earned by one who has consumed the meat of the most cunning beasts.
The archetypal beastmaster, just with more chaos worship and murder. The Beastspeaker is here to make sure the Rocktusk Prowler unit sneaks out it’s bonus attack each round with Beastmaster. Outside of that the Beastspeaker is no standout in combat or speed. Ideally kept within 4” of the Rocktusk while also holding an objective for the team.
If you aren’t running the warband straight out of the box, this is a 125pt tax on the Rocktusk Prowler. If you aren’t taking a Prowler, leave this at home.
Rocktusk Prowler (Elite Threat Unit) – 180pts
A more savage beast could not easily be found in even the Bloodwind Spoil. This beast is a native to the Realm of Ghur, brought through into the Eightpoints to hunt the enemies of the Untamed Beasts.
I prefer to put the Elite Threats towards the top, but there’s no point mentioning this beast before the Beastspeaker. This thing moves far and fast. It hits hard and often, and it has TWO abilities geared purely towards it’s own damage output.
A full third of the Untamed Beasts abilities are for this model alone. It also gets excellent use out of the non-specific abilities.
It has 20 wounds, but protecting the beast is priority one. Your opponent will try to kill it as soon as feasibly possible.
Preytaker with Axe/Sword (Infantry Unit) – 105pts
Hardened warriors of the Untamed Beasts, the Preytakers wear down mighty beasts and slay them with brutal blows and animal savagery. Even the least of the Preytakers is a dangerous predator who has devoured a dozen beasts of the wild they killed personally.
First of all, these have two weapon options but it has no bearing on the points cost of the unit. The sword has more attacks and less strength, the axe has less attacks and more strength. I personally prefer the axes as the warband’s Double Savage Fury grants a bonus attack anyway.
These are slightly more expensive than their counterparts in other warbands, but are much better at fighting and likely to beat their counterparts one vs one. Don’t use them as chaff, they’re not THAT cheap and are best served as tagging onto fights next to your Heart-Eater and First Fang.
Plains Runner (Chaff Unit) – 55pts
Aspirants of the tribe, the Plains Runners are the young, the foolhardy and the inexperienced. Their role in battle is to chase down the largest prey, wearing it down with their superior stamina so the more powerful members of the tribe can finish the kill.
Best Chaff Unit available to the Eightpoints Eight so far (Scions of the Flame are not out yet so can’t say so definitively). These are fast, have plenty of attacks and synergize well with the army abilities.
The lowly Plains Runner when juicing on Unleash the Beast will give the enemy Threat Unit a very nasty surprise if they saunter over to try take the objective the Plains Runner beat them to. They’re among the cheapest units in the game so don’t feel bad about pushing them into certain death, worst case scenario they die like the chaff they are and sometimes they may even surprise you.
Untamed Beasts Ability Breakdown
We will now break down the six Untamed Beasts specific abilities.
Savage Fury
Savage Fury (Double) – Add 1 to the fighter’s moves and attacks for this activation.
This is a functionally better Rush as it also boosts attacks. Immediately the Untamed Beasts are showing off the fact they have one of the best ability lineups around.
All-Out Attack
All-Out Attack (Double, Heart-Eater Only) – If the fighter has killed an enemy this turn, it may immediately make a bonus move and attack.
An appropriate leader-specific ability for the leader of the wild savages. The Heart-Eater is pretty likely to kill things given his Strength 4 making him wound on a 3 or 4 against most targets. His 5 critical damage being capable of halving something’s health explosively. Watch as the ferocious barbarian kills a chaff unit with ease, then takes down another.
No matter the level of strength, there is not a lot more powerful in Warcry than a Two-For-One.
Beastmaster
Beastmaster (Double, Beastspeaker Only) – Select a Beast within 4”, it may immediately make a bonus attack.
Requires a little setting up as they only get a bonus attack, not a bonus move as well, but exceedingly powerful when it goes off. As stated above, the Beastspeaker should always be within 4” of the Beast, and should always be activated AFTER it so it is already in position.
Pounce
Pounce (Triple, Rocktusk Prowler Only) – The next time the fighter finishes a move activation within 1” of an enemy, assign damage equal to the value of this ability to a single fighter within 1”.
This is identical to Living Battering Ram that the Iron Golems have, but the key difference is it’s on a model that can move a massive distance compared to the Ogor Breacher, is much punchier in a fight and has further support with a Beastspeaker.
This is a very good ability if you have a Triple 5 or 6 in the pool as it more or less guarantees that the Rocktusk will kill anything it barrells into once it also attacks as normal. Even better if the Pounce brings you within range of an unactivated Beastspeaker so they can throw out a Beastmaster immediately after for those hard-to-kill targets like Spirit Hosts, Ogor Ironguts and Orruk Brutes.
Harpoon Snag
Harpoon Snag (Triple, First Fang Only) – The fighter makes a bonus attack action. Then, the fighter targeted by this attack makes a bonus move action equal to the value of this ability, finishing as close to the user as possible. This move is made as a jump.
This ability is possibly the coolest ability in the game. It provides an extra bit of damage, as the First Fang’s shooting attack is incredibly powerful (and if he spends all his activations on shooting this turn and ends with Harpoon Snag, he will have thrown SIX attacks at the enemy).
The First Fang then follows up that utter devastation by dragging the enemy towards him like he’s Scorpion in Mortal Kombat, potentially dragging them off a building and causing them to take falling damage as the move is treated as a jump.
He can drag them out of fights YOU engaged in first and force them to waste an activation on a move back in before attacking. He can pull a cowardly spear user into a fighter of yours to save said fighter the activation of moving into his victim before striking him.
This ability has just as much depth and utility as other whole warbands. Use it well, use it often and try not to be a bad sport when you cause the enemy leader to die of falling damage because they were hiding on top of the church belltower (again).
Unleash the Beast
Unleash the Beast (Quad) – Until the end of the battle round, add half the value of this ability (rounding up) to the Attacks and Strength of attack actions made by this fighter that have a Range characteristic of 3 or less.
The range caveat here at the end of the ability prevents you using this on the First Fang’s javelin, probably fair enough considering how good it already is.
Unleash the Beast is a solid Quad, giving a model the ability to change the game with a flurry of blows. Ideally use this on models who have a base damage higher than 1. Barring the occasional critical (which should rarely if ever be factored in when calculating your OWN damage output) you’re unlikely to do more damage than just using Harpoon Snag. Essentially, use this on anything that isn’t a First Fang, Beastspeaker or Plains Runner.
Untamed Beasts Strategy & Tactics
The more complex of the two starter set warbands, Untamed Beasts require a bit more learning and practice than the Iron Golems to reach the stage where you know what you’re doing.
Your barbarian warriors are each very much geared towards dealing with a particular enemy threat (which they will excel at when done correctly), but require canny use of your abilities to make effective use of their profiles.
Untamed Beasts Roster Building
Fortunately we don’t need to do a lot of choice unit-wise here, just splitting into battle groups wise. The Untamed Beasts warband gives you everything you could need to get off the ground in the box, and while I have the models to mix things up, I find myself always just returning to basics.
Aiden’s Untamed Beasts – The Apex Predators
Shield
- Heart-Eater (Leader)
- First Fang
- Plains Runner
- Plains Runner
Hammer
- Beastspeaker
- Rocktusk Prowler
- Plains Runner
Dagger
- Preytaker with Axe
- Preytaker with Axe
Straight out the box.
I opted to give both my Preytakers axes for the reasons stated in their profile above. The only obvious choices when splitting your Beasts up is making sure the Rocktusk is with it’s Beastspeaker. Also the Heart-Eater needs some Chaff Units with him to dump in front of the enemy if they’re a fast warband.
Beyond that you can confidently split up your units however you please. Their speed means they won’t be apart for long, should your forces be split by an odd deployment.
Deployment
Surprise surprise, the barbarian savages are deployed aggressively. You want to be fighting ASAP, especially if they have range as they will bleed you down in advance. Definitely charge ahead, but do so in groups to make sure the fighters aren’t outnumbered. Durability really is not the forte of the Untamed Beasts.
The Game
With the strengths of the Untamed Beasts covered, they now need to be put into action against enemies just as determined as we are to take some skins. Below are the key countenances of this warband and what to consider most when practising and learning your warband.
- Be wary of being ganged up on. Untamed Beasts are fantastic warriors that excel in a fair, one on one fight. Unfortunately honor is as rare as clean drinking water in the Bloodwind Spoil, so go in in pairs so the enemy cannot confidently dogpile a lone Preytaker.
- Get the First Fang to high ground immediately. His shooting attack is one of the strongest assets of the warband, and you want to be throwing it minimum once per turn.
- Punch down. The Heart-Eater is strong, but he won’t beat a Dominar when he decides to go for a Spine Crushing Blow. Try and make sure your units are always fighting a tier below themselves. Preytakers hunt down Chaff, Rocktusk hunts down Infantry etc.
- Plains Runners are dirt cheap, but unlikely to tip fights in any positive favor without spending abilities best spent on Harpoon Snag and Unleash the Beast, so always use them first and foremost to run for the objectives.
Conclusion
The Untamed Beasts are my favorite kind of warband. What you see is very much what you get, animalistic savages who hit hard and run fast.
Beneath that they offer a level of complexity is knowing the damage outputs and matchups of prospective threats to get the absolute best out of them, heavily rewarding experience and game knowledge.
I couldn’t recommend them higher to new and experienced players for these reasons. Time to tear up the Jagged Savannah and Hunt the Hunter!