As part of our Start Collecting series looking a beginner armies, I’ve drawn the short straw and been ‘given’ Sons of Behemat. Maybe this has something to do with the fact I actually own an army of them, or just because I’ve upset Peter! Either way it’ll be fun, so join me on perhaps the strangest ‘Start Collecting’ article on Woehammer.
Sons of Behemat are the Gargants (Giants) of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. If you play 40k, then think about the Chaos Knights or Imperial Knights Codices and you’ll get the right idea… in fact it is very likely that the success of the Knight kit encourages GW to try making a Mega-Gargant kit.
Upon the release of their book, they were a very popular army but with new armies coming on the scene, extra points for killing them, and the difficulty in piloting them 5-0 they have seen less representation in AoS3. They also suffer a bit from being one dimensional! Sit on an objective; don’t die – can often be a tactic that’ll get you 2-3 at a tournament.
Despite the stop of popularity (10% to 3.3%), they remain a 3-2 army and the best Destruction army (statistically… check out more on The Honest Wargamer website).
The first thing you’ll notice with this army is that there are 4 warscrolls, and no allies (we’ll discuss this below), so there’s not many options available for a 1,000 point force. The second thing you’ll notice is that there is no Start Collecting box… what a surprise; so we’ll have to forge our own path.
1,000 points or working towards 2,000 points
<updated after article released>. We had a great comment on one of the social media thingys that Peter pays attention to. Thanks to Dead Pheonix for pointing out that the below isn’t allowed in matched play 1,000 points ‘Contest of Generals’ because the Gatebreaker is over 50% of the army… so do I rewrite the article, or just change it’s premise! Change of course.
If you want to play 1,000 points open play then the below list is fine, if you’re playing 1,000 matched play then you’ll need Kraken Eater & Warmstomper or 2 Kraken-Eaters. The list below is a great stepping stone to a 2,000 point list though, so have fun with it…!
Gatebreaker or Kraken-Eater?
Your first question will be whether you want a Gatebreaker or whether a Kraken Eater is ‘good enough’ for what you want. The advantages of the Kraken Eater are the additional model count on objectives (30 rather than 20 for the Mega-Gargants) and additional Artefacts if you want them. The disadvantage is – although they look good on paper – the low rend makes them do a lot less damage that you’d think.
The Gatekeeper is definitely a beat-stick and able to take down some of the biggest enemies in Age of Sigmar, but he comes with a problem at 1,000 points… he costs 525 so you can’t have two of him. This makes him a target alongside the Warstomper you’ll be bringing along to keep him company. If you can only kill one of them, you aim for the Gatebreaker.
And why not just grab a Warstomper and 3 Gargants… well you can if you want, but the Gargants only come in 2s, so you’re buying one you don’t need and at 1,000 points then the 2 Mega Gargants are a great start – and a chunk of cash!
You’ll also need a copy of the Battletome as well.
Because we want an army with some variety, and you don’t want to paint two identical models, we’ll go Gatebreaker and Warstomper for our 1,000 point army. Of course, you’ll need the Battletome as well… so this is an expensive start!
The Cost
Remember that if you sign up with SCN Hobby World you can get all these boxes at 25% off the Games Workshop price.
| Set | GW Price | SCN Price |
|---|---|---|
| Mega-Gargant – Gatebreaker | £120.00 | £90.00 |
| Mega-Gargant – Warstomper | £120.00 | £90.00 |
| Battletome: Sons of Behemat | £27.50 | £20.63 |
| Total | £267.50 | £200.63 |
The Army List
Gatekeeper (General) 525
Warstomper 470
So… that was simple. The artefacts are really entirely up to you. I prefer ones which improve killing power, but Arcane Tome is a fan favourite to allow Flaming Weapon and a dispel opportunity. Sure it won’t help against Teclis and Kroak, but if you’re against a mid-tier army it may stop the key spell.
Allies
On the face of it, the Sons of Behemat cannot have allies, but as the army expands, it is possible to take Kragnos to get a little more hitty power – but although he has a 2+ save he can be a weak link against shooting mortal wounds. The other option is of course a Thondia Incarnate… but I don’t know how many of these we’ll see in competitive play given their narrative background and the expense of book and model.
Where next?
Now you’ve got to 1,000 points where to next. Well there are two ways to play if you ignore the Kragnos option. One is to get another 2 Mega-Gargants and take along 4 models to a tournament. It’ll give you a lot of time to view other games as everything is so quick with this option. It also allows you to try out the Kraken Eater.
The other option is lots of small Mancrusher Gargants. These are better than their Gitz cousins (Aleguzzlers) in the Gloomspite Gitz book. They can’t fall over and their damage table doesn’t reduce movement (because you can take them in units). The disadvantage if that they are expensive for an old kit (£80 RRP for a pair), and if you need more than 3 of them they become somewhat mono-pose. They are so bad, even I have converted a few.
The good news about the Mancrusher Gargants is that if you aren’t playing at a specific GW event you can bring Proxies… and there’s loads of great models out there – don’t overlook 3D printed toys either.
So that’s it – is 1,000 points good? Well strangely yes. A lot of opponents won’t have the tools to deal with 2 monsters and the Mightier Makes Rightier rule for objective capturing makes it difficult to take objectives off the Sons of Behemat if they are still alive. Just don’t bank on having too many Most Sporting votes. If you’re playing against a regular opponent, you may want to agree an adjustment in points for them as well – especially if they don’t have access to much shooting.
— Declan
