Nemesis: How to Fight Beorn and Grimbeorn

Good morning gamers,

This is our fourth article in this series on how to fight "bad" or "mean" models and today we're tackling Beorn and Grimbeorn, two of the toughest monsters in the game right now. With a new Legendary Legion released in the Defence of the North supplement giving new life to Beorn (and a profile to Grimbeorn - at long last), the bears are a real danger you could see on the tabletop. But how bad are these guys - and what can you do to fight against them? Let's dig in and see what all the hullabaloo is about . . . did you catch the "Baloo" reference there?

What Makes "The Bears" So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

Since the rules update in 2018, Beorn has had one of the strongest profiles for the Forces of Good (and to be honest, he has one of the toughest profiles in the game period). Despite having incredibly good stats while in bear form (F8/S8/D8 with 3 Attacks/Wounds/Might/Will/Fate and C6 with Fearless), Beorn wasn't nearly as prolific on the tabletop as other Good monsters like Gwaihir or Treebeard. Armies of all-Eagles and all-Ents have been seen throughout the world at tournaments (for the Ents, this was particularly true after the release of War in Rohan), but Beorn only made an appearance here or there.

If I had to guess, this is probably due to two reasons: first and foremost, he's a 200-point hero who couldn't lead troops cheaper than 100 points (Great Eagles) - and most players aren't going to dump 200 points into a hero who can't lead troops unless they've already got a heap of models (and why do that when you could run Gwaihir or Treebeard or just more guys?). Second, Beorn isn't as fast as Gwaihir (8" move isn't bad, but it isn't a 12" Fly), doesn't give you three models towards your army size like Treebeard (for the same cost as Beorn), and doesn't have the alliance options you get with either of these other two monsters. Third, there were the occasional games where Beorn would just not want to change from a man into a bear (getting a 4+ can sometimes be elusive). To be fair, Beorn in man form is no slouch - he's really good - but he's not nearly as resilient as he is in bear form - and he doesn't have Brutal Power Attacks (most particularly Crushing Strength). Yep, there are ample reasons to take someone other than Beorn in your army.

The Bare Necessities, Part XLVII: Grimbeorn and his Beornings

Good morning gamers,

With the release of Defence of the North, we have a new faction that you can ally with if you have a Forces of Good army: the Beornings. No, this isn't the new Legendary Legion (view our article from last week on that list) - it's "just Grimbeorn" and up to 15 Beornings. They lose a lot of rules, but they gain something valuable: the ability to ally with other factions. Do any of the other Forces of Good factions have anything to offer that rivals the boosts from the Legion? Let's dive in and find out - I think the answer might surprise you . . .

More gifs of daddy - Photo Credit: Tumblr 

Grimbeorn and the Beornings: How Important Are Army Bonuses, Anyway?

When it comes to the alliance matrix, running a pure list or a historical alliance has one advantage: you get to keep your army bonus. For most factions, though, you can live without it - it might help your army, but sometimes an alliance can get you as much or more than your army bonus does.

While a Convenient alliance makes you "just lose your army bonus" (and this would appear to be the best route for the Beornings to take, since they have no army bonus of their own), an Impossible alliance grants three additional penalties: first and foremost, heroic actions only affect models from the faction that's calling them. This can be bad, but can also mean nothing. Second, banners/banner effects are faction-specific as well. If you don't run banners, it's no big deal (and since Grimbeorn counts as a banner for his guys, bringing another banner will just help the other guys). So there we go - not much lost there.

Third, impossible allies break independently of each other. Giving up points for being broken can be really bad (3-5 VPs in some scenarios) or not that bad at all (1VP in some scenarios). Since there's only 12 VPs up for grabs in any given game, avoiding being broken is generally a good idea (and it causes many armies to avoid Impossible Alliances where possible - even if they have no banners or stand fasts that need to help the army as a whole).

The Stuff of Legends: The Beornings

Good morning gamers,

We've covered several of the Legions from Defence of the North so far (the Army of Dale, the Defenders of Erebor, the Assault on Lothlorien, and the Fell Beings of Mirkwood) and today we're covering one of the last Legions that has proved to not only be popular, but also be competitive at top tables. Yes, today we're getting our broken overalls and our plaid shirts on and looking at the Beornings Legendary Legion!

It should be noted that next week we'll be reviewing the "normal" Beornings army list, which isn't exactly an "army list", but functions VERY differently from this Legion. We'll cover when you'd want to use the normal list instead of the Legion in that article, but everyone seems to want to run this Legion and I'm inclined to think that this Legion might be the most competitive way to play with bears and their acolytes. Let's get into it!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 200pts

This Legion doesn't require you to run a particular bear (Beorn or Grimbeorn) but does require you to run one of them. Beorn can't lead any troops other than Great Eagles in Radagast's Alliance (the only other list he's in), so popping him into this Legion gives him access to cheaper troops (though they're still pretty pricey, even for elite warriors). Grimbeorn can be fielded in the aforementioned Beornings "list", though with no other help, his contingent caps out at 500pts (so you're in the same boat you'd be in with the Three Trolls if you ran them pure). While both bears are definitely threats to any hero, this Legion allows you to run them together (what would normally be an Impossible Alliance) and get decent numbers in their ranks.

The Problem with Beornings

Pic courtesy of GamesWorkshop

Hey Reader!

So to start off, I should mention that I don't mind Beornings: I think they are a fantastic new addition to the game, and I'm so glad to see them in the miniatures line! A+ job by the team in model design, mechanics, points cost, and the legion associated with them.

But beornings bring out a potential issue in the game, which is the concept of "stat creep" from one release to the next, as the release of the beornings outdates, in my opinion, an entire faction in the game. Rythbryt covered this faction recently on the blog, so if you haven't played with them before, I recommend opening that article to give you a deeper dissection of the models in the force, as we won't be going that deep into it here.

Because from what I can see, The Beornings legendary legion is the new Rangers faction, except that they do almost everything better. Let's see why.