Beastmen Tactics: Rare

Alright beasties, onto the last section of the hairy horde!  The Rare section gives us the selection of the biggest, smelliest and presumably nastiest monsters available to the Beastmen army.  Sadly though, I must warn you, 8th edition has hampered the Rare choices fairly significantly, but there are still uses for our big guys.

Cygor

First up is the Cygor, weighing in at 275 points, you get a M7 monster with 5 T/W/A and a few special rules.  His most notable feature in 8th edition is his ability to throw rocks, much like a stone thrower, which lets him put a dent in opponents from range and while on the move.  The Ghostsight rule allows him to re-roll hits against anything with magic items, magic attacks, ward saves, undead, or a wizard level, which is much needed being WS2.  Lastly, he has Soul-eater, which means any enemy wizard within 24" needs to take a LD test, should they fail, any spell they fail to cast in the magic phase will result in a miscast.  Soul-eater can be a devastating ability, if it wasn't for BSB's allowing re-rolls to the LD test required.  Overall, he does have some neat abilities and a bit of versatility from throwing rocks, but at 275, it is hard to justify, drop his cost by 75 points and we're talking.  To round things off, he is Immune to Psych, Stubborn, Large Target and causes Terror, most of which is to be expected.

Ghorgon

Imagine Goro, except bigger and uglier!  Sporting an impressive statline with a healthy smattering of 6's (S/T/W/A), and on top of that is frenzied.  Still, a hefty price tag of 275 points means that it's rare that you'll see one on the field.  Of the monsters available to the Beastmen though, this one I think is the most effective.  Lastly, it has the ability to forego it's normal attacks to make a single attack that has killing blow on 4+, and if that is successful, it regains D3 wounds, nothing huge, but could be helpful on rare occasions.

Chaos Spawn

I'm not sure if it's a good thing, but I believe the Chaos Spawn is the best rare choice for your points in the Beastmen list.  For a mere 55 points you have a little monster who can't have charge reactions declared against it, with T5 and 3 wounds, on a narrow 40mm base.  Chaos Spawn are a pain in the neck to kill, unbreakable and will absolutely tie up most enemy units for a turn.  I love these guys, either use them to charge redirect or tie up big hordes of weak troups (*cough* high elf spearmen *cough*).  On top of everything, you can take 2 for a single rare choice, so that's potentially 4 available to you in most games you'll play.

Giant

I wont say too much, this is just your bog standard giant for 225 points.  If you've ever seen a giant fight, you've seen this guy.  At 225 points, he's not bad, and for the point cost may be a better option than the other big monsters.

Jabberslythe

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"

-Lewis Carol

The Jabberslythe is without question the most unique monster in the Beastmen list.  Sporting mostly 5's across it's stats, it is the only large monster we get that isn't Stubborn.  It has an ability similar to the Vampire Banshee, where every enemy unit within 12" of the Jabberslythe must take a LD at the beginning of the Beastman magic phase, units that fail, suffer a number of wounds equal to what they failed by.  BSB's really tend to make that ability less effective, though I'm considering using it along side a Lore of Death wizard to try and maximize it.  It has a fairly weak ranged attack as well, Poisoned Attacks, Fly, Terror, and Immune to Psych.  Unfortunately, for how interesting it is, it again suffers from a 275 point price tag.