Hot Take: Berehk Stornbrow Adds a Long-Needed Character to Beserks

It’s time again for some new rules! On Monday WarCom showed off a new datasheet for the T’au Empire - you can read our review of the new Twin Lance Datasheet here. Today we're moving on to a second previewed model and one even more hotly anticipated - Berehk Stornbrow gives the Leagues of Votann a badly-needed new character to join and buff Cthonian Beserks.

But is he any good? We don’t have points yet but we can evaluate the datasheet released today and so far the prediction is that yes, he's pretty good.

EDIT: After careful review, it is the opinion of our staff that Berehk will in fact gain DEEP STRIKE when attached to a unit of Beserks in the Delve Detachment as there is no timing restriction on when that happens so after he's placed into reserves with his unit, they have DEEP STRIKE and can be deployed as such.

Let’s dive in.

Shane: Fire up the plasma axes and graviton mauls, Berehk Stornbrow has arrived after breaking the latest tide of greenskins. Berekh Stornbrow is a new Epic Hero for the Leagues of Votann, whose model was previewed last year at WCW. He's an infantry character who is a brawler and can lead Chtonian Beserks - the first and only character able to do so.

Berehk has a statline that lines up with the Beserks unit, sporting a 6" move, toughness 6, a 5+ save (with a sneaky 5++ invulnerable save), and 5 wounds. In the reveal GW mentioned his "stony" skin making him more tough, which seems to be reflected by his having Feel No Pain 4+, which functionally will make him feel more like a 10-wound model.

Notably, this dwarf has no need for ranged weapons - he is the ranged weapon. Berehk has a "split profile" melee weapon and a couple of extra attacks with his ROBOT FISTS. His weapon Kromlok's Revenge can either swing with 4 attacks at strength 10, AP-2 4 damage with [ANTI-VEHICLE/MONSTER 3+], or dish out a cool 8 attacks at strength 7, AP-2 2 damage. His extra attack fists are another 2 attacks at strength 6, AP-2 1 damage. All of this hits on 2s, in line with what you'd want form an EPIC HERO who specializes in close combat.

In addition to his ability to lead Beserks and his Feel No Pain 4+, Berehk has two key abilities: Melee weapons in his unit - not the unit he's leading, mind you - have [SUSTAINED HITS 1]. This pairs really well with the army rule for getting +1 to hit since it functionally acts the same as +1 to hit already and makes WS 3+ models that much more dangerous. Plus the fact he has it even if he is solo is pretty cool, giving him value as a solo piece. Additionally, you can target his unit (again, his unit and not the unit he's leading), with the Heroic Intervention Stratagem for 0CP, and you can use it on his unit even if it was already used by a different unit this phase. Having Beserks as a heroic threat was already a thing, so the opportunity to make it free is even better.

So what does this look like in an army? Well, unless Berehk's points cost is astronomical, he looks like an auto-include in an army using the Delve Assault Shift detachment, if not just because having a SUPER unit of Beserks in a detachment that can potentially rez models seems like a real good plan. There is one drawback for Delve though: Berehk doesn't have the DEEP STRIKE ability nor the Beserks keyword so if you want him to Deep Strike in Delve, he'll need to be attached to a unit of Beserks. While this is kinda of a miss by GW in my opinion, if he's not attached you can at least mitigate it by planning on starting his unit on the table (or in a transport) ready to be staged forward aggressively (which I guess is the plan if you aren't playing Delve too, heh).

Other Detachments like Needgard, Hearthband, and Mercenary all can benefit from adding Berehk as well. These other detachments usually saw the inclusion of a single Beserks squad or melee steeljacks to act as a melee threat, so a squad of Beserks lead by him can become a new hammerblow unit if you're playing one of those Detachments. All three options have some cool melee support; Needgard bumping AP (AP-4 on this guy + beserks is spooky), Hearthband adding extra damage vs vehicle/monster and free wound rerolls of 1, and Mercenary getting the re-roll Stratagem that is ironically better than Delve's wound re-roll stratagem simply because it adds re-roll 1s to hit. The elephant in the room, much like other articles we write, boils down to points.

If Berehk costs more than 5 beserks, ehhhhhhhhh, it might be a problem. If he costs less though, I definitely think you'll see him on the table. Hell I haven't even mentioned how much I can't wait to Chaos Dwarf-ify this guy, can you imagine this dude with a BIG HAT?

Jeremy: My initial general thoughts here are that 1. Sustained with Beserks is really good - effectively gives them +1 to hit and some serious spike potential. 2. Otherwise his melee profiles are quite good, but AP-2 is quite anemic into 2+ saves (outside of Needgaard Oathband where he can get +2 AP). That said, flat 4 damage with access to +1 damage in Hearthband is very interesting into C'tans and that could be plenty reason to play him.

Overall Berehk might be better as a solo missile, especially since he always has the Sustained Hits 1, not only while leading - a pretty nice distinction.

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