First introduced in 2nd edition Age of Sigmar, the Sons of Behemat really brought giants into their own as an army. And while they’ve had competitive ups and downs and acted as a gatekeeper off and on, they’re an absolute blast to play and a joy to model. In this article we’ll be diving into the faction, the warscrolls, and how to make the most of its abilities on the table.

This article was updated on June 16, 2023.

Overview

Why Play Sons of Behemat?

Because you want big models and not have to think about the rules too hard. Sons of Behemat are the Imperial/Chaos Knights of AOS. Your list will often have 4 models, and that’s it, that’s the list. Despite the seemingly complex warscrolls, there actually isn’t a lot to them, which has advantages – if you don’t need to finagle things too much to make it work, you know you’ll be working at your optimum levels.

Strengths

• Excellent Objective Control – Gargants count as more on the point to compensate for the lack of models, as of third edition this diminishes over time but even at bottom brackets it’s still a lot of models. If your opponent can’t kill the gargants on the point, they usually simply won’t be able to take it.
• High Wound Count – All mega-gargants are at least 35 wounds and that’s a lot. It takes a real strong hammer or two to do that much in one turn. Their saves are pretty bad though, 4+ across the board, which turns this into a DPS check for the opponent. Some armies simply can’t hope to do that much in a turn without some hot rolls.
• Who Cares about Bravery? – Since Sons of Behemat are all single model units, they don’t care about bravery. Even if the bravery might matter on occasion, such as with a spell, their 7 is usually good enough. Knowing you’ll never need to blow a CP on inspiring presence or Rally can be liberating, since it means more CP in hand.

Weaknesses

• Slow Movement – Sons of Behemat are big models but the movement is actually very slow at 10″ and no fly. While they do in theory have the ability to walk over terrain and units, the effect is written poorly and usually doesn’t work at all. Your big base size means you often won’t be able to clear whatever is blocking them. This also means opponents can often avoid you or screen you out.
• Mediocre Damage Output – At least, it’s lower than you’d think. Many of your attacks have random Damage characteristics, or are 4+ to hit so they can whiff shockingly hard. The damage can still be pretty punishing to those not prepared for it, but for some more resilient anvils it can take 2-3 turns to remove them, if not more.
• Poor Battle Tactics – This is often what gets them, if the poor board control doesn’t. You’re practically guaranteed to not really fit into whatever the current season’s gimmick is, which means you need those book tactics to go off. The Sons of Behemat battle tactics aren’t the worst but they’re far from say, Daughters of Khaine easy.

Competitive Rating – Medium

This rating comes with a few caveats. Sons of Behemat are not bad, far from it, they just really struggle to perform at the top tables. Newer players are often thrown off by them and don’t know how to tackle them. More experienced players generally know how it works and how much damage they need to do. Since Sons of Behemat don’t really have any surprise tricks or gotchas, this means they often do well at the early tables but can struggle in round 4 and 5.

Battle Traits

Mightier Makes Rightier

Sons of Behemat models are big while their model counts are small. To even things out, every Mega-Gargant has a table indicating the number of models they count as on the objective. For most Mega Gargants this caps out at 20 (25 for King Brodd) and in most cases this is fine, even at bottom bracket, 12 is usually high enough to still hold the objective, so your opponent will have to kill you for it to count.

In addition, Mancrushers also count as 10 on the point instead of 5. Not as good, but still welcome.

Lord and Master

Essentially you have 4 subfactions, but rather than pick one, your subfaction is determined by whoever is the General. In most cases you will pick Breaker Tribe, maybe Taker Tribe if you include a Kraken Eater and want to count as even more models on the point.

Wrath of Titans

Since Sons of Behemat have all monsters, they have 3 extra Monstrous Rampages, to make sure they all have something to do.

Beast Grapple – Pick an Enemy Monster you’re in combat with and on a 3+, Strike Last applies to both of you. This is situationally useful, i.e. if it’s your turn since if you’re both Striking Last you know you will be the first of the two. Just watch the game state carefully and make sure there aren’t any other Strike Last effects that might muck up the order. If it’s not your turn, avoid.

Earth Shaking Roar – Pick a unit with 1-2 wounds they’re in combat with and roll 2D6 against bravery, if you beat the bravery then the difference flee. Largely ignorable, as Stomp would likely do you better against the same unit unless they have some really bad bravery.

Colossal Slam – Pick a monster within half an inch and roll a die, on a 3+ you get to move it onto open ground within an inch of your monster and deal D3 Mortals. In addition, the enemy monster gets -1 to hit, and an FAQ clarified that the -1 to hit always goes off, even if you fail the 3+.

The reposition has a few uses, you can move it into range of another nearby gargant so you both can gang up on it. Alternatively it can be useful for clearing away if its screening out a more delicate unit, if a tactical pile-in could get you in with them. At worst you get to do Stomp to a monster and inflict -1 to hit, absolutely nothing to cry about and you’ll probably use this on every turn you can.

Command Traits

You get a suite of 3 command traits any tribe can take, while each tribe gets another 2.

Monstrously Tough – Your general has 40 wounds instead of 35. As a note for those of you who track wounds remaining, this won’t make it take longer before your damage table drops off, since Age of Sigmar’s damage tables keeps track of wounds suffered rather than wounds remaining. Otherwise, decent and a practical choice. B

Furious Temper – Once per game you can operate at top bracket. Not really as useful as you’d think, it just won’t come up often enough that a few extra attacks or counting at 20 models instead of 12 will change the game. But when it does, it can win games. C+

Rabble Rouser – All Sons of Behemat units within 18″ get +1 to charge. Your guys are slow, so often will need to make up for it in the charge phase. Fantastic choice, makes your entire army better and has a huge aura with that pie plate base size. A

Artefacts

Similar to command traits, we got 4 generic ones and then 2 for each tribe.

Extra-calloused Feet – Makes one of your attacks, Almighty Stomp better all around. Extra attack, Extra rend and max damage instead of D3. The problem is stomp is just a nice bonus damage, and not your main damage output. But a potential 9 damage against Hordes? Still really good. B+

Glowy Shield of Protectiveness – Reduce Rend -1 to 0 and in addition any 6s to hit from the enemy units do a mortal wound back to them. This is practically an auto-take. While the effect doesn’t work if the rend is -2 or better, it will help weaken chaff who try and drown you in sheer number of wounds. Your saves are really mediocre, relying more on sheer number of wounds to keep you alive, so any save boost and extra damage is helpful. A-

Scavenger Wake – Once per battle you can pick a unit in combat with the bearer and roll a die for each model in a unit (cap of 10), on a 4+ deal a mortal wound. Average of 5 mortals is…it’s fine. Hordes can tie you up real good, but you just have so many better artefacts C-

Amberbone Totem – Run and Charge. Pretty great, especially if combined with Kragnos for a 3D6 charge. Your guys are pretty slow at 10″, and they really want to get into combat, so you can compensate by getting a long bomb charge in. B+

Subfactions

Sons of Behemat subfactions are a bit different. Rather than actively choosing a subfaction, your choice of General affects the subfaction, which will be noted in parenthesis next to the subfaction. The subfaction traits usually only affect Mancrushers, with some exceptions, but you can still take any gargants you want past your general. They also come with another set of Command Traits and Artefacts, both only usable by the appropriate Gargant for that faction.

Taker Tribe (Kraken Eater)

Taker Tribe is like the Jack of all trade faction. Its the only one with a trait that affects everything, and a decent set of traits to boot.

Get Rid of Em’! is one of the few abilities that affects everyone, which does make it a strong contender as your general’s army. Mancrushers count as 15 models on the point, while Mega-Gargants count as an extra 5. For mancrushers its decent. Many units are in groups of 10, so having even one more over that gives you an advantage. Mega-gargants getting an extra 5 is ok. You’re usually going to be ahead of the game anyway and so the opponent will just try and kill them instead, but it’s not bad to count as 25 at full health.

I Want That for Me Collection! – A command ability that can be issued to mancrushers, letting them gain +1 damage against Heroes with artefacts or Unique characters. The fact it’s only for Mancrushers really kills it, but a solid buff if somehow they get cornered and need to fight a Hero.

Command Traits

Very Acquisitive – Your General gets two artefacts, a very rare bonus indeed. You can’t take the same one twice to double the effect of course but even still, makes a lot of niche artefacts suddenly useful if it’s not your only one. A-

Extremely Intimidating – Enemy can’t use Inspiring Presence or Rally within 6″ instead of 3″. It’s a good buff, though you probably want to be in combat with stuff, sometimes that isn’t possible, either due to screens or just a bad charge roll. Not being able to rally back after you just threw rocks at them can be clutch. B

Artefacts

Wallopin’ Tentacle – Pick an enemy Hero in combat with the bearer and on a 4+ deal D3 Mortals and inflict strike last. It’s a real “silver bullet” that will be killer in some matchups and do nothing in others. Probably not worth it over several games. C+

Glowy Lantern – Cast an endless spell like a wizard and double the range. The doubled range is quite good, and makes the artefact worth looking at. Bring a Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws for some Mortal Wounds to soften up the enemy before a charge, or Chronomatic Cogs for reroll charges. The big challenge is that you may not always have space for an endless spell and it also doesn’t make them a wizard, so you can’t unbind. If the extra range isn’t worth it to you, consider Arcane Tome instead. Then you get Mystic Shield and an unbind too B+

Breaker Tribe (Gatebreaker)

Easily the most popular faction, the reasons being a combination of every list including Gatebreakers because they’re really good, and the fact that the faction abilities actually affect your mega-gargants.

Breaking Down the Houses – +1 damage against units within Garrisons or wholly within a terrain feature. Too niche to be regularly useful, but when it comes out, you will never say no to +1 Damage.

Ramming Speed – A command ability that gives 3D6 charge to a Mancrusher unit. For the most part isn’t very useful, not worth a command point unless you need to tie up some chaff.

Fierce Loathings let’s you pick one of 3 groups and all Gatebreakers and Mancrushers gain +1 to hit against them:

• Bossyboots and Clever Clogs – Heroes and Wizards
• Idiots with Flags – Totems or units with Commanders
• Wannabes – Warmachines and Monsters

This would be a bit better if you could pick one at the start of the battle but you don’t. So almost always, take Idiots with Flags. Nearly every non-hero unit in the game has a command model so it’s easily the most widely applicable group of the three. Heroes and Wizards is pretty close – because everyone has at least one hero, but you can never be sure how many they’ll have or how many wounds there are. Naturally, your local meta may vary.

Command Traits

Extremely Bitter – Get a second Fierce Loathing only for your general. Idiots with Flags generally covers enough units. Bossyboots or Wannabes maybe for edge cases but you have so many good choices. C-

Sees Red – If an enemy unit is inside a garrison or wholly on a terrain feature, act at top bracket. Far too niche, as many games won’t even use Garrisons, and it’s not gonna help you against KO. Even one model off of a piece of terrain breaks this, and it of course does nothing at full health. D

Artefacts

The Great Wrecka – On a 6 to hit with the bearer’s Fortcrusha Flail deal D3 mortals on top of your other damage. Good stuff, an average of 2 Mortal wounds each combat on top of your normal damage? B+

Kingslaughter Cowl – +1 to wound against enemy Heroes. For once it affects all your attacks so if you get into combat with a Hero, it’ll tear things up. Not bad, if you can get an ideal target. B

Smasher Tribe (Beast Smasher)

The new kids on the block, ostensibly designed to fight Monsters like their General but, again, it really only benefits Mancrushers.

Bone-Crunching Strikes – When a Mancrusher is within combat with a monster, if you choose to, their primary attack drops to one swing and does 4D6 damage. Potentially really good if your opponent has a monster, but if you’re Beast smasher tribe you have a Beast Smasher who does it better.

Don’t Let a Few Cuts Stop Yer! – A command ability for Mancrushers in the combat phase. Always fight at the top bracket and get fight on death. Fight at Top bracket is pretty good, since they do drop off pretty hard, but fight on death is the real star since that also means they fight at top bracket.

Command Traits

Sees Green – Once per battle you can pop this to get a 4+ Ward against mortals for the phase. A bit too limited to really be practical, even if it can feel good to laugh off a lumineth archer strike. C-

Marrow-Drinker – After your general slays an enemy Monster, roll a number of dice equal to the wounds characteristic of the slain Monster and for each 5+ heal a wound. This is very contingent on if your opponent even has a monster but when it works it’s an excellent source of healing C+

Artefacts

The Shatterer – When targeting a Monster, Hero or War Machine with the General’s Menhir Club, on a 6 to wound their armor is Shattered and cannot receive positive modifiers to saves for the rest of the battle. This sounds better than it is, if you can get them caught up in combat, they’re likely not long for the world anyway. It does let you put your thumb on the scale for damage so its not worthless, but maybe of limited use C

Mantle of Tusks and Horns – Once per battle you can pop this in the combat phase and all Gargants get +1 to hit for the phase. Crazy good buff, basically army wide All Out Attack with no range limit, opening yourself up for other command abilities. A

Stomper Tribe (War Stomper)

Arguably the worst tribe because it really tries (and fails) to make Mancrusher spam happen.

Big Shouts lets your general issue a command ability to any number of Mancrushers without spending a CP past the first. You don’t need to issue all at once, so keep that in mind. If you send 3 guys into combat, issue All Out Attack to the first one, wait to see which one your opponent attacks for All Out Defence and then issue All Out Attack on the last one you choose to fight with.

Grab Those Rocks and Chuck Em’! Is a command ability that adds 1 to the attack’s characteristic of a Mancrusher’s Throwin’ Rocks. This doubles the number of attacks and thanks to Big Shouts you can hand it out to every Mancrusher within range. So with enough of them you get a decent amount of shooting – a couple of them gotta hit.

Getting Stuck In – Add 1 to the damage against hordes of 10-19, and add 2 for 20+. Good for delegating horde clearing duties to the Mancrushers so your Megas don’t need to waste their time.

Command Traits

Inescapable Grip – Reroll both dice for Hurled Body. Hurled Body is actually good, as long as you have less than 16 wounds since odds are pretty good you can hurl even a foot hero, the only thing holding it back is the randomness of it. For the most part though it’s just a novelty, fun pick but maybe not optimum. C+

Eager for the Fight – 3D6″ Charge for the General, this is real good and if you are in this subfaction practically an auto take. It even beats Rabble Rouser, it’s just held back by being locked behind a terrible subfaction and arguably the worst Mega Gargant. B+

Artefacts

Club of the First Oak – Heals 1 wound each turn, which when you have 35 wounds doesn’t really mean a hell of a lot, but it also grants a 5+ Ward when you’ve taken 25 wounds. Needing to get so close to death doesn’t feel great but even if you survive a turn that’s another turn your opponent isn’t taking the objective. B

Mantle of the Destroyer – Bravery of all units within 12″ counts as 10. Who the hell is this for? The only situation where running is a concern is if 2 Mancrushers in a mob died, otherwise this does nothing. The only way it helps is spells that target bravery, but yours is 7 by default, which is fine. No use whatsoever. F

Battalions

Being an army of all Monsters you don’t fit into any of the stock battalions, even the less than stellar linebreaker, since most (if not all) of your list is Behemoths who are also leaders. So the book has a solution, two excellent battalions that fulfill the needs you would need elsewhere.

Bosses of the Stomp is everything you’d want in a battalion. 1 required Mega-Gargant, and up to 3 additional Mega-Gargants. With that you can do a one drop or gain an extra enhancement. The majority of your lists are probably going to be 4 megas, and you can either help guarantee your first turn supremacy or give yourself another Artefact to chew on. You’ll almost always take this.

Footsloggas is less impressive, but has some niche use. 2 Mancrushers are required, and you can include one mega and one additional Mancrusher. You get one drop or swift. We don’t care about Swift, but the one drop can be combined with a second Footslogga or a Bosses of the Stomp to make your list 2 drops. If bringing Mancrushers is essential to your strategy or you just simply had to fit them in, this is a decent compromise to reduce the drop count.

Grand Strategies

Brodd’s Revenge – Can only take this if Brodd is in your list, and you must use all of his Prayers effects at least once and he still has to be standing at the end of the battle. His Prayer only has a casting value of 3 and all the effects are solid, so if you do include Brodd, good option. B

Make the Land Tremble! – Every round you need to run or charge with at least one model. This is pretty much an auto take because it’s hard not to get this. You can always run and not move with one model if you need to satisfy the requirements, just dont rely on a long bomb charge as your only source for a given turn and you’re good. A

On the Warpath – Every friendly unit must be in enemy territory. This is… mostly fine but its very match up dependent, if you have to hold back some models to keep on objectives this can really hurt you if enemy deployment isnt close by, and sometimes even Sons of Behemat have to use some caution C+

Show Em’ Who’s Boss! – Kill your opponent’s largest wound value creature while keeping your general alive. Also pretty good, since usually the largest wound creature is going to be their big hammer they want to throw at you, so go for it. B

Battle Tactics

As with all other books, we won’t rate these individually since their value relies on if the situation comes up, and you can make that judgement call when the time comes. The big weakness of a lot of these is how Keyworded they were, since you likely won’t have them all.

That’s Mine! – Pick an Objective that is not within your deployment (including partially) and kick it wholly within. If you brought a Kraken-Eater you’re probably trying to do this anyway, so just do it when you know you can kick it in reliably.

Wrecking Crew – Smash an enemy terrain feature successfully. It doesn’t require a specific ability, so if you allied in Kragnos you can try to use his ability as well if you want some redundancy. Alone though it’s a 50% chance of success on the Smash to Rubble Monstrous Rampage, which is real dicey.

Man-Skittles – Succeed on the Warstomper’s Hurled Body ability and also successfully deal Mortal Wounds with it to another unit. It’s a lot of hoops to jump through, so I would save it for when there isn’t a better choice, but it’s there if you got a Warstomper.

Fury of the Titans – Do all 3 of your faction exclusive monstrous rampages in one turn. Two require Monsters, so this may be flat impossible, but you’ll know if this is doable. You do not need to succeed on any dice rolls, just use them, so it’s not as difficult as it may initially appear.

Splat! – Kill a Hero with one of your Gargants ranged weapons. Again, you’ll know how feasible this is. The damage is very variable so make sure they have like 1, maybe 2 wounds but not a bad choice if the opportunity presents itself.

Colossal Violence – Pick a Mega-Gargant and use Titantic Duel and successfully kill a Monster this turn. You’ll know if you can do that, similar to Splat, save it for when an enemy Monster is close and low on wounds for the easy 2 VP.

Units

Heroes

Everything in here is also Battleline and Behemoth

Shared Abilities

All mega-gargants (including King Brodd) share a set of abilities across all their warscrolls. In order to avoid redundancy I’ll list them all together here.

First, your utility “good to have” stuff. Longshanks is an ability that technically exists, letting you move over terrain 4″ or less. While it also lets you clear units, this basically does not work unless you get a good Advance roll. You cannot stop within 3″ of an enemy model, naturally, so assuming you start exactly 3″ in front an enemy unit and walk over them, the back of your base still needs to clear the 3″ behind them which adds another ~5″. Due to the massive size of the bases this is practically impossible short of a single rank of of 25 mm chaff. Try it, it’s harder than you think. Your final utility ability is Son of Behemat that keeps you from instantly dying from an auto death spell, taking D6 mortals instead. This isn’t quite as important as it used to be, since its original primary use was to keep you from being instantly destroyed by the Purple Sun. The Purple sun actually benefited from its warscroll rewrite in this one case, allowing it to deal more damage to a Gargant than it would have before (D6+6 to a model with more than 9 wounds). It can save you from Nagash or Vokortian though.

For charges, you of course get impact wounds with Crushing Charge, on a 2+ it does D3 mortal wounds to a monster or D6 if it’s not. That 2+ makes it reliable and is pretty nice for softening things up before the strike.

Next are 2 abilities that make a specific attack better against specific targets: Almighty Stomp adds 1 to hit rolls of their Almighty Stomp attack against models with 3 or fewer wounds while Death Grip lets you roll two dice and pick the better when using that attack against Monsters. For all of the Gargants, these are not their “primary attack” i.e. the big one that’s going to do the majority of the damage, they’re more of a side bonus. This means it’s not quite as helpful as you’d think, but it also means the fact that you get no bonuses against units with 4+ wounds that aren’t monsters less of an issue.

At the end of combat all Mega-Gargants have Terror which stops the enemy from using Inspiring Presence if they are in combat. While you may not be able to kill certain units, you may get the rest to flee through battleshock.

Finally if one should fall, the “fun” Timberrrrr! rule comes into play. You and your opponent roll off and the winner picks which direction it falls, choosing a point within 5″ and then each model within 3″ of that point takes D3 mortals. A parting shot in the event they do manage to kill one, though just as often they can just point it toward one of your own guys, or off in a direction where it won’t hurt anything.

King Brodd

The big lad himself, King Brodd is pretty versatile. His main attack is very good at a whopping 5 damage. Not as much damage as the Gatebreaker overall, but Brodd is a lot tankier at 40 whole wounds and 25 models on objectives at full health.

Brodd’s strength comes from being more of a support role than any other other Gargants. His Priest keyword gives him a unique prayer Power of Behemat which is quite good. It offers one of 3 effects that affect your entire army but you can only use each one once per battle

• Shatter the Mountains – Add 2″ to move characteristic of your Sons of Behemat for the turn. Great opener for getting up the field faster.
• Might of the Earth – Heal D3 wounds to every unit, while 3 wounds may not feel like a lot you can stack it with Heroic recovery and the Heal prayer (if used on other turns) to recover a fair amount over time.
• Pummel All to Dust – Increase rend of the “main” weapon of all Gargants by -1. This is your big push, the one to use when everyone charges in.

At launch Brodd wasn’t viable due to costing a bit too much at 570. Due to every model in Sons of Behemat hovering around 500, everything is in a precarious balance to fit 4 a 2k list. He’s still the most expensive Gargant but at 550 you you offset it with a Warstomper for 450 and then work out what your last 2 will be from there. Or you can say to hell with it and bring some Mancrushers.

Beast-Smasher

The other new Mega-Gargant, this guy has struggled to find a role in the army. His base attack profile with his Menhir Club is good. 3 attacks at 3+/2+ with Rend -3 (though it degrades) and 5 damage but he will get outpaced by Brodd or a buffed Gatesmasher in most cases.

His unique ability is the Beast-Breaking Strike which allows him to change his attack characteristic to 1 and then do 5D6 damage to a Monster. Which in lies the problem. This guy is a silver bullet in an army with far too few models to bring a silver bullet. The Gatesmasher can rough up most Monsters almost as well, and perform better against non-monsters.

He’s not bad, far from, so if you’re drawn to this guy give him a shot. He just won’t operate at peak efficiency if your opponent doesn’t also have a Monster to hit.

Gatesmasher

The big cheese, definitely the most popular in the army. For a time many lists would 2, just because his damage output is unmatched, though this is more difficult since their points hike. He’s got a one shot ranged attack that his pretty reliably and does 4 damage, softening the enemy up nicely before the charge. In melee he has the highest damage output of all of. While that 4+ To hit on the Forcrusha Flail is a rough one, it gets 6 attacks at rend -3, Damage 4 a pop so it will tend to do the most damage on the aggregate, it’ll just whiff real hard if you get some bad rolls.

It’s other abilities are less impressive, but worth remembering. Smash Down gives you +1 damage on the Flail if the enemy unit is in cover or Garrisoned. Won’t come up a ton, but don’t forget it when it does. It also does some mortals to units inside a garrison when you smash it down, which will come up even less but hey, it’s a free bonus.

Finally Pulverising Strike is your trump card. If you want to give up all of your attacks and go for broke, you can instead choose to roll a die and on a 4+ deal 4D6 mortal wounds. Generally, you don’t want to do this. It’s too risky to go all in on one 50% hit like that, however, it’s worth the gamble if your opponent has stacked every save bonus to get a functional 1+ or even lower. In those scenarios your normal attacks probably won’t do much if any damage, so you might as well swing for the fences.

Kraken-Eater

The Kraken-Eater is a bit of an all rounder in the bunch. His attacks are just solidly ok. He also gets a ranged attack, though it hits on 4s, Rend is only -1 and the Damage is random at D3 it won’t impress much. His Warclub is the weakest weapon of all of the Megas, at 4 Rend -2 Damage 4 attacks. Which at the very least when that’s the weakest profile your army isn’t doing too bad.

His strength comes in his utility. Stuff Em’ in Me Net lets you pick up D3 models after pile in and slay them instantly, if you roll double their wound characteristic, making this functionally worthless on models over 2 wounds but it’ll kill a few more chaff on those larger hordes. Get Orf Me Land! is the ability he is most famous for. When within 1″ of the center of the objective, he can kick the objective 2D6″ away. You don’t need to move it the full distance if you don’t want to, for what it’s worth. It’s fun as hell but doesn’t help as much as you’d think because kicking it back in your territory can keep it away from the enemy but it also means you need to go chase after it to hold onto it. Some missions also don’t let you kick the objectives, so keep an eye on that.

Overall he’s just fine. Damage isn’t as good, but solid and he has some fun tricks. He is a bit cheaper at 490, which helps his case.

Warstomper

In the past, the Warstomper is often viewed as the compromise: The last option you take to avoid needing to resort to Mancrushers. He’s the antithesis to the Beast-Smasher, a silver bullet to clear hordes. His Titantic Boulderclub’s attack characteristic is tied to the number of models within 3″, plus some extra attacks based on damage taken up to a maximum of 10 total. The damage is only Rend -2 Damage 2 so it is going to struggle hard if he tangles with another Monster or even some hardier elite troops so do not let that happen if you can avoid it

Aiding his horde clearing prowess is the Hurled Body ability to pick up a model he’s in combat with if he rolls double their wound characteristic (plus a modifier) and hurl it at another unit within 12″. Cute ability, worth a laugh.

The perception is that he is underwhelming compared to others, but due to the cost of the army in general, this guy punches above his weight at only 450 points. At such a low cost compared to the other models, and the fact that they still do solid work against infantry means against most lists their damage output is probably the best per point there is.

Battleline

Mancrusher Gargants

You can either run them as 1 or a unit of 3 for a more powerful Stomp. Otherwise the stats are the same so we will review them together. These were once your mandatory battleline, they’ve definitely been pushed to the wayside since mega-gargants were also made battleline. Frankly there just isn’t much here for them, the models are ugly, they aren’t nearly as fun to play as a Mega-Gargant and a mob of 3 costs as much as a Warstomper does anyway. If these end up on your list its likely because you brought 3 Megas that work out to costing more than 1550 points and that means you gotta fill in the gaps in the wall with caulk in the form of these guys.

These guys got a few unique abilities that are pocket sized versions of Mega-Gargant abilities. Keep Up! compensates for their slower move speed by granting run and charge within 15″ of a Mega-Gargant. They can stuff one model in their bag similar to a Kraken-Eater, which is a nice trick against infantry. Overall though just nothing here is exciting or fun.

Allies

Since the unit options are so limited, I’m going to branch out into possible allied options for Sons of Behemat. Due to their high point cost there aren’t many but they are there, some are quite common in competitive lists but none are mandatory if you want to stick purely with giants.

Kragnos

Kragnos is a surprisingly good fit, if you can make room. He practically works as another giant, only 18 wounds but a 2+ save with a 6+ Ward and practical immunity to spells balances this out pretty well. He does a ton of damage, probably more than your stock Mega-gargants will, and has his own version of Mightier Makes Rightier that’s even better than yours. Most importantly however, he has The End of Empires which lets him grant all Destruction units within 18″ a 3D6″ charge. This is huge for your slow as molasses mega-gargants, making a turn 1 charge quite doable. Don’t make the squishies come to you, become a problem for them first.

However, this all comes at a huge cost of 720 points. This means you’re only fitting in 2 other megas, and you’re gonna need some Mancrushers to round out the list. So ask if that’s a sacrifice you’re willing to make.

Krondspine

Krondspine is your Kragnos-lite. While it doesn’t grant 3D6″ Charge, it does grant rerolls, which on certain maps can be good enough.

Otherwise it’s fairly resilient, taking at least 2 turns to kill guaranteed, even if its save isn’t great and does a scary amount of damage. It’s also more economically priced at 480, actually cheaper than your usual stuff so you can easily fit 2 Gatebreakers and Brodd while having another monster. The only real downside is that it only counts as 5 on the objective, like any other monster so it doesn’t have quite the same objective control as even a Mancrusher would.

List Building

EL Miller – 19th Place at Adepticon, March 2023 (4-1)

El Miller's List - Click to Expand

This last channels the dual gatebreaker lists that were big before the points hike, by compensating with the cheapest Mega-Gargant and the Krondspine. As discussed above the Krondspine makes a great ally, it’s held back by only being worth 5 models on the objective but in most missions you really dont need to hold down more than 3.

Luca Quinale – 3rd place at Neapolis GT, April 2023 (4-1)

Luca's List - Click to Expand

One of the rare ways you’ll see more than 4 models, to a whopping 5! Warstompers have recently come into their own, helped by being far cheaper than any other option. While they may struggle against other Monsters, that’s what the Kraken-Eater is here for and the Mancrusher can pull multiple jobs as a backline objective holder or a screen through tight spaces inbetween giant pieces of terrain.

Wrapping Up

Sons of Behemat channel some of the best parts of Sigmar – They’re about having fun and pushing big models up the field and charging in to do a ton of damage. While the high cost of models and lack of board coverage can be a challenge to some, the sheer joy of a true Stomp carving through the enemy numbers cannot be matched. Grab your gargants and march to war!