The Sons of Behemat made quite an impact when they were released last year, and the competitive Warhammer Age of Sigmar community had lots of fun trying to decide where these massive brutes fit into the meta.
With very few in-person tournaments taking place at the moment, our event organiser Steve searched the realms to find some folks who could discuss their experiences with the army on the tabletop. He must have rolled a six on his check, because he found TWO top-tier players with loads of advice. Anthony Magro – known on YouTube as the AoS Coach – walked Steve through getting the most from your Sons of Behemat, while Dan Street offered some tips for taking them down.
Steve: Hi Anthony, welcome to Metawatch. Can you let our readers know a little about your background?
Anthony: G’day, mates! It’s your favourite bearded Australian Anthony Magro (you may know me as AoS Coach on YouTube), and I’m here to help you stomp your way to success with Mega-Gargants.
My Warhammer journey started as a loyal Elector Count to The Empire during the late ‘90s. Warhammer Age of Sigmar sparked a curiosity to explore the Mortal Realms, where I’ve played with the Cities of Sigmar, Gloomspite Gitz, and Legions of Nagash to name a few. However, no army has grabbed my attention like the Sons of Behemat.
Steve: When the Mega-Gargant kit first came out, the reaction from the competitive community was mixed, with respected voices claiming they were great or underpowered in equal measure. Now that you’ve had a chance to study the book and play some games, where do you think they sit among the other Warhammer Age of Sigmar armies?
Anthony: I’ve played over 20 games with plenty of success using the Sons of Behemat, including a 2-day tournament and multiple 1-day matched play events. I’m yet to face an opponent where I’ve felt I had an easy victory or been unable to win, so I would say this army sits in the competitive middle.*
Steve: The army is limited in terms of models (although the ones you have are suitably impressive!) – with Warhammer Age of Sigmar being predominantly an objective-based game, how can you mitigate what may initially look like a problem?
Anthony: Mightier Makes Rightier is a big advantage to a Sons of Behemat army for controlling an objective.
Your Mega-Gargants and Mancrusher Gargants will count as significantly more models towards claiming the objective, your base size can dominate the zone around the objective, and you have the ability to dish out high damage to anyone that challenges you. Once you’re sitting on an objective, you’re in a good spot to hold it, as your Mega-Gargant’s profile doesn’t degrade significantly.
You’ll quickly realise your Mancrushers are the damage-dealing hammers in your force, while your Mega-Gargants are the anvil which will soak up incoming damage. The Mancrushers’ Save means you want to be attacking with them first because they can’t take a hit from your opponent nearly as well as they can dish out.
Your Gargant army is limited to how it handles the meta and responds to the battleplans. You don’t have cheap objective-scoring units like Aetherwings, you can’t easily reposition your army like Kharadon Overlords (Steve: a topic we’ve covered in a previous instalment of Metawatch). Nor do you have cheap screening units like Freeguild Guard or the Untamed Beasts to stop your opponent from getting to your juicy units or to leave on home objectives. At times you’ll need to make tough choices.
Focal Points is an all-time favourite battleplan because Monster-keyworded units gain additional victory points – which obviously includes the entire army. Others, like Scorched Earth, will stretch us because we need to hold onto four objectives while battling to control the opponent.
Taking standalone Mancrushers will increase your drops in deployment,** but create flexibility in your army that lets them sit on a home objective or challenge a flank without tying down your large points investments in Mega-Gargants or a unit of 3 Mancrushers.
Gargant players often find themselves leading the victory points count due to their ability to take over any objective and any bonus points that come from the scenario. The challenge is holding onto the lead, doing enough damage to last the full five rounds, and keeping your key pieces on the battlefield.
Steve: Sons of Behemat armies are unique due to the limited model range. How have you been able to vary your list design ideas, and can you give us a rundown of your current favourite list?
Anthony: There’s only so much list tailoring you can achieve with five warscrolls, three sub-factions, and zero warscroll battalions! As a Cities of Sigmar player who can easily get analysis paralysis with all the different combinations, I welcome the simplicity of list design and deployment of Sons of Behemat.
Early on, I played the Taker Tribe and focused on dominating my opponent on the objectives with Mega-Gargants. In a Takers army, they count as 30 models and Mancrushers as 15 models each.
My Kraken-eater general was built to sit on that objective as long as possible using the command trait Extremely Intimidating.
I would pair that with the Chamon realm artefact Plate of Perfect Protection to ignore Rend -1 in combat and shooting. That makes for one durable Mega-Gargant while the rest of the army can go and smash things!
My current favourite build is a Breaker Tribe with three Mega-Gargants. You can use the Fierce Loathings table to create consistency in your Gatebreaker and Mancrusher units. Bossy Pants and Clever Clogs or Shiny ’Uns are the strongest ways to give them +1 to hit, and through the Extremely Bitter command trait your general can have both!
Taking 3 Mega Gargants and a unit of 3 Mancrushers compared to 2 Mega Gargants, a unit of 3 Mancrushers, and 3 solo Mancrushers will decrease your deployment drops down to 4. That usually allows you to dictate who starts the game.
I’ll normally let my opponent move up the board first, because Gargants love dealing out mortal wounds when they charge, and you can increase your likelihood to make that charge by using the Keep Up! rule to run and charge.
With low-Wound models, you can also Stuff ‘Em In Me Bag once you pile in, before you ’Eadbutt and swing that Massive Club.
Thanks, Anthony! With these tips, you’ll be standing tall at your next tournament. On the other hand, if you’re not running Sons of Behamt yourself, you’ll want to come up with a plan for taking them out, instead. Enter our next guest, Dan Street.
Steve: Hey Dan – welcome back to Metawatch. Hopefully you’re up for the challenge of being our David versus the Coach’s Goliath! What top tips do you have for players trying to take Gargants down a peg?
Dan: Hi Steve, it’s good to be back! The key to facing Sons of Behemat is to hit them hard and early. You do not want to be engaging in turns 2 and 3 and finding that the Sons of Behemat player has already gained a substantial lead on victory points.
Hit Hard and Fast
Hyper-aggressive combat armies do well against the Sons of Behemat because they can engage them in their deployment zone. This stops them from racking up points on objectives, and these armies can usually put out sufficient damage in a combat phase to bring them down. Idoneth Deepkin, Ironjaws, Bonesplitterz, Ogor Mawtribes Stonehorn builds, and Daughters of Khaine are all well-equipped to defeat the Sons of Behemat.
Dhom-hain Deepkin and Bonesplitterz also get bonuses against Monsters, which makes them even more deadly. For a fun time, run some large units of Savage Big Stabbas, each with three -2 Rend, D6 Damage attacks against the Mega-Gargants.
Teleporting, high-damage shooting armies are also a strong counter. Consider Khailebron Daughters of Khaine with Blood Stalkers, all Kharadron Overlords, and Cities of Sigmar with the Irondrakes’ -2 Rend shooting, supported by a Soulscream Bridge or Lauchon the Soulseeker. Any Rend -2 shooting will help you get through that Plate of Perfect Protection.
Charge Rather Than Be Charged
By charging the Sons of Behemat first, they’re deprived of causing mortal wounds from Crushing Charge. The Sons of Behemat have no screening units, so you’re generally free to pick your target.
Focus Your Forces to Bring Them Down
Concentrate your firepower. The Gargants still count as 10, 15, 20, or even 30 models on an objective even until their last Wound is taken. Don’t bother splitting fire – take out the most important threat and then move on to the next target.
Hit the Mancrushers First
The Mancrusher Gargants are usually the highest priority threat. The smaller Gargants have the greatest attacking output and wider board presence (in that smaller units or single Gargants can be sent off towards far-flung objectives while the Mega-Gargants hold the centre of the board). The Mancrushers only have 12 Wounds and a 5+ save so will go down quickly under concentrated pressure.
Pin Them Away From the Objectives
Teleporting units can mess with their plans. You won’t be able to steal a home objective against a Sons of Behemat player, because a single Mancrusher will still hold it against a small, mobile teleporting unit). Rather, their objective is to delay the Gargants for a turn or two, allowing other units in your army to score the central objectives.
Endless Spell walls like Prismatic Palisade, Suffocating Gravetide, and Runic Fyrewall can also be an effective way to prevent the Gargants from getting to an objective. While Mega-Gargants can walk over Endless Spells, the Mancrushers cannot, and no Gargants can charge over them.
Unless your opponent has taken the Glowy Lantern artefact, then they won’t have a chance to unbind or dispel the wall and will just have to walk the long way round.
Talking of spells, if your opponent has taken Chronomantic Cogs, make sure you are in unbind range where possible. You don’t want the Mega-Gargants improving their durability through Slow Down Time to re-roll their saves.
Position Your Defensive Screens with Care
As with many armies, the positioning of your units is key. Set your defensive lines and screens taking into account that the Mega-Gargants have 2” and 3” reach attacks, so make sure your key units are far enough back that they don’t get hit on the head.
Make sure you have redundancy against the Kraken-eater’s Stuff ‘Em In Me Net ability, which can be used to break coherency or remove key models such as champions or standard bearers. Poor placement could lead you to lose half the target unit.
If facing against a Breaker Tribe, think about whether you really need to place your Hero on terrain. Taking +1 damage from a Gargant is going to put a dent on just about anything.
Keep Them Engaged
Encircle the Gargants when possible. You want to make it hard for the Mega-Gargants to retreat away from you with Longshanks, freeing them up to get to an objective. Remember, they need to finish their retreat more than 3” away from your models, and they are on big bases, so spread out a bit when you go in so they stay pinned.
If they’re running units of 3 Mancrushers, pin them in so that they can’t straddle across objectives in battleplans with a high number of objectives (such as Scorched Earth).
And Finally, Pressure the Objective Football!
Finally, you have a few options to limit a Kraken-Eater’s ability to move an objective around with Get Orf Me Land!
If you can, give the Sons of Behemat player the first turn to buy some time. A player only checks for control of an objective at the end of their turn, and the Get Orf Me Land! rule can only be used in their hero phase. Giving the Gargants the first turn also protects you from an early double turn.
Also, screen off places where the objective might be placed. It can only be kicked somewhere that’s more than 1” away from models, terrain features, and objectives. With the right unit and some clever positioning, you’ll be able to limit what your opponent can do with it. Watch out during Battle for the Pass – if they kick their home objective out of their territory, you’ll lose the chance to score 4 points, which dramatically alters the scoring balance of the game.
Those are some solid tips. Thanks again to Anthony and Dan for passing on their thoughts about the awesome Sons of Behemat! If you’ve got some head stompin’ tactics, a story from your games, or even a gargantuan conversion you’re proud of, share it on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Facebook page!
* He’s being modest. Anthony recently took his Sons of Behemat to the 62-player Victorian Grand Tournament in Australia and placed 8th with a 4-1 record.
** We’ve mentioned this a few times, but ‘drops’ refers to breakdown of your army at deployment. Each chunk you deploy at one time is called a drop, and generally, the lower the number of drops, the better your chances of choosing who goes first.