The Sons of Behemat come stomping along with one of the final Battletomes of Warhammer Age of Sigmar 4th Edition! Up for pre order today alongside a couple of brand new kits, the Gargants are refreshed and brought up to date in their latest tome, but how do the new rules size up? In this full review we’ll be checking out all the goodies in the new Sons of Behemat Battletome, checking out what’s new and seeing what has changed across the profiles. We’ll also be taking a look at the new kits and seeing how big they are to the other models in the range.

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us these over to check out on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not pick up your Warhammer Age of Sigmar goodies through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing of the new kits which you can check out just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado let’s check out what is in this latest Battletome!

Sons of Behemat Battletome Review (2026) 4th Edition

Can you believe it’s been 6 years since the Sons of Behemat were released?Originally pitched as the equivalent of Imperial Knights for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, this awesome army allowed you to use a force of a few massive models or even to take a single Mega-Gargant in any other Age of Sigmar army. Needless to say they were popular and in the battletomes that have followed we’ve seen the range expand with a couple of new Mega-Gargants. With this 2026 release however we see another big update to the army with two brand new units of “small” gargants plus a new caster character accompanied by some new beasties!

I’ve been a big fan of the Sons of Behemat since the original release, and it’s really exciting to see the range expanded even further!

Before we jump into the rules however, we need to talk about the lore – as they get a lot of love in this book! We actually get quite a lot of advancement from a lore point of view, from the mysterious Ma Maegran (A small Gargant Witch who uses her magical essence in order to make fellow small Gargants into big gargants) to her uneasy relationship with King Brodd along with rumours of Stunties re-populating the western mountains… Following the teases in the Helsmiths tome could this be another pointer at a refreshed Duardin clan appearing soon?

We also learn about the advancements of Gargant warfare technology, with them learning that chucking stones at walls can help smash them and allow you inside city walls! This has caused the smarter Gargant generals to make sure they have ranged support now, and bully the most downtrodden gargants into pelting the enemy with whatever they can find from range!

This is all accompanied by awesome art, both new and old, and the now customary bestiary section giving each and every unit the spotlight with model shots and lore.

At the tail end of 4th Edition it finally feels like the Sons of Behemat now have a full range, and we’ll see some nice variety on the battlefield due to it too!

So what about the rules themselves? Let’s take a look!

Sons of Behemat – The Rules

The core rules for the Sons of Behemat have completly changed over the previous Faction Pack, and with it adds a really interesting gambling mechanic. Essentially in the Movement Phase, Charge Phase, Combat Phase and the End of Your Turn you get to pick any number of units and roll a dice. If you roll lower than the number picked nothing happens, otherwise you get to pick from a number of different abilities in each of those phases. I really like this, as you can play it safe and only pick a single unit each time to guarantee the effects go off, or you can push your luck to try and get this off on more of your army.

Gargants are split into “Big” and “Little” Gargants, which changes how these rules interact with some of these rules.

In each phase you can pick for the gargant to do D3 mortals on a 2+, which is a nice consistent splash of damage across the turn (and also a nice way of doing wounds in different phases for battle tactics too)

Where it gets more interesting are the other things you can opt to do…

In the Movement phase you can have the picked model move as if they had fly (allowing them to pass through enemies and terrain), or if they are within 3″ of a battlefield edge you can remove them from the battlefield, with them then getting placed within 1″ of any battlefield edge at the end of the turn – giving the Sons of Behemat some much needed “uppydowny” movement. You can instead opt to have the unit building momentum, which does nothing until later in the turn…

In the Charge Phase you can have the picked gargant pile in a extra 3″, or if they are building momentum you have instead have them getting ready. Again, this doesn’t do anything yet, but you can start to see where this is going, have them trigger the relevant rule across each phase you can have them do something really cool at the end of the turn…

In the Combat Phase, if a Little Gargant was Getting Ready you can swap that rule for Strikes First, which is really nice! A Big Gargant can opt to do the same, but can instead choose to swap Getting Ready for Prepping the Big One…

Finally at the end of the turn, if you have any Gargants Prepping the Big One (which will have needed you to pick the relevant rule in each phase) then you get to launch The Big One. This is allows you to roll ANY number of dice. If any of those dice shows a “1” then nothing happens, otherwise you add all the dice together and do that many mortal wounds to a target in combat with the Mega Gargant. This is hilarious in that most games this will not do much (that said, rolling 4 dice and avoiding a “1” will do on average 14 mortal wounds, which is a pretty good way of taking out hardy units) but there’s always going to be the odd game when you wipe an entire unit by rolling an entire bag of dice and the dice gods smiling on you by avoiding any 1s! I want to see that game where someone does 120 mortal wounds by rolling 20 6’s for example!

Any old rules (such as rolling to see if a Gargant falls on a unit) are no longer in the book, though a lot of the unique rampages have been folded into enhancements.

We get 4 new Battle Formations that lean into different play styles. Get to the Goods allows Big or Little Gargants to pile in through enemy models, which can help them get to squishier targets. Eager Louts allows Big or Little Gargants to run at least 3″ when they redeploy. Conquering Stomp is a decent one to stop alpha strikes – it makes enemy units -1 to hit when they attack a gargant that hasnt charged in the first battle round. Finally Heirs of the Old Ways is a very nice anti-wizard one – you pick a Wizard or Priest within 18 in your Hero phase and if you roll equal or over their Control Score then they have a maximum level of 1 and all cast manifestations are banished!

There’s 6 Heroic Traits in the new book – Brute of Brutes is pretty good and ignores all hit and wound modifiers on your Gargant. Spell Chomper allows the model to unbind and banish, and also to heal D3 when they banish a manifestation. Always First In is a really good one that allows the Gargant to move 2D6 in the deployment phase! Unreasonable Tyrant is also decent, it allows you to add 1 to charge rolls for a chosen Gargant each charge phase. Thundering Titan can stop a target unit from making pile in moves, while One-Hit Wonder is an odd one, once per game it has a chance of doing 4D6 mortal wounds, but costs you a fight action too – you’d be better off trying to trigger The Big One in my opinion!

The Sons of Behemat also get 6 Artefacts – a lot of these are refreshes of old ones, but we do get some new ones. The Glowy Lantern now allows the unit to either add 1 to their power level if they are a Wizard or Priest, or instead can be used to make any Mega Gargant a Wizard or Priest too! Krakenskin Sandals increase the attacks, rend and damage of Almighty Stops, The Enchanted Portcullis ignores save modifiers from shooting (this is pretty nice). Massive Stuffin’ Sack is a favourite – you roll 3 dice and each that is at least double the target’s wounds outright slays a model. Mantle of the Wood Kings gives you +1 to hit if you charge 2+ targets and finally Protecty Bits has you ignore the first point of damage each phase.

The Sons of Behemat also get 6 new rampages that can be picked as enhancements – Hammer Throw is an interesting one that allows you to throw a friendly Mancrusher 3D6 inches in the shooting phase (and this can be used to throw them into combat!) Earthshaking Roar can stop a target unit from using commands. Battered Shrimp is a fun one, you and the opponent roll dice until they roll higher than you, then you do mortal damage equal to the number of times you won the roll off. Probably not going to to much damage, but it’s some free wounds every turn. Windmill Walloping is another fun one against monsters and warmachines – you roll dice equal to your health and for each 6 you do a mortal wound that ignores ward saves – whats fun is that each turn you do this same rampage to the same target you get +1 on those rolls (don’t forget you can do it during the enemy turn too…). Colossal Slam has you pick up a monster or war machine in combat with you and pop it anywhere else in combat with you (and also deals some mortal wounds for it) – handy for throwing something off an objective or just out of a table quarter for denying battle tactics. Finally Rancid Flatulence gives a unit a maximum control score of 1!

Finally the Sons of Behemat get 3 spells and 3 Prayers. Yes, they finally have their own Spell Lore with the introduction of their first caster and the ability to make any Mega a caster (or priest) too! Energy Surge is an Unlimited spell and gives Big units +1 to rampage rolls while Little units get run and charge. Pipsqueak Curse is a fun one that makes a target -1 to wound. Finally Thornfang’s Wrath gives a target Crit Mortals (which is very tasty on a Mega gargants sweep attack)

For the Prayer Lore we get World Titan’s Stride which gives a target +3 movement and fly, and on a boosted chant allows the target to deal damage to units it moves over – oh and its Unlimited too! Might of the Earth is a heal ability while Behemat’s Vengeance is used to increase attacks by 1!

So on to the profiles in the new Sons of Behemat book! Before we go through these, there’s a number of things that are in common across all the units. Firstly, the health of all Mega Gargants has been reduced – Brodd for example now has 28 health, while the other megas have 25 health. To balance this the cost of all Mega Gargants has dropped by as much as 90 points each, so while they are easier to kill you can squeeze on average an extra gargant in your lists (perfect for including some of the new units!) In addition all the Big Gargants now have two different attack options on their main weapon – they can do a Crushing Blow (which on the whole is the same as their previous profile) or instead can do a Calamitous Sweep that has 16 attacks (20 for Brodd) with 1 rend and damage but crit auto wounds. The Sweeps also hit on 3s rather than 4s for the Crushing Blow too! Finally any “anti” abilites are gone (so for example Stomp is no longer anti infantry) but this is made up with other abilities in general. Death Grips have gone, but stomps have got an extra attack to make up for this. One thing you need to watch out for is that non of the models in the book have any rules that stop them from being auto killed any more, so watch out for Archaon! Control across all the Mega Gargants has also dropped to 10, so you’ll find it a little harder to claim objectives unless you send multiple gargants (which seems to be the play style here, a few groups of multiple gargants)

So with that out of the way let’s look at the profiles!

King Brodd – In the Charge phase you now roll a D6 (adding 1 if you charged) and on a 3+ you get to add 1 to your hit rolls, turn off enemy rampages AND turn off their artefacts of power – yes, this is now based on a roll but is a lot more powerful now! His prayer is a little easier to cast now, but now increases the rend of a chosen unit (or 2 units on a 7+). Finally his rampage makes enemy units -1 to hit if they are in combat with 2 or more Gargants. This guy is really good now, especially with the choice of different combat profiles

Kragnos is still in the book with all his normal abilities – for me I’d rather take another mega gargant than him to take advantage of the new rules.

Ma Maegran is the new Little Caster in the book (the model’s speartip reaches a Mega’s head, but she is only a tiny bit taller than the other Little Gargants) she’s not amazing in combat but is accompanied by 2 Ancient Ghyrochs which can be used to screen and fight for her (they also heal 3 at the end of every turn, making them a nice little tar pit to stop things from getting close to her) – they have 7 wounds and only a 5+ save, so you still need to be careful with them though. Her rampage revolves around the Ghyrochs, with her able to give them increased damage (topping out at 3 rend 2 damage 4 each if they charge), allow them to move in the hero phase or use them to boost her wizard level to 2. She is also invisible to enemy units outside of 12″ if she is within 12 of another Gargant, which makes her a little more survivable. Her unique spell is pretty good, giving a target unit +1 to hit and +1 to rampage rolls, but you really want to take her for her once per battle ability. Essentially she can turn any Little gargant into a slain Big Gargant. You simply remove the little gargant from the board and place the slain Big gargant within an inch of where it was (you allocate 10 damage to it, but you can always try and rally this back!)Unlike a lot of similar abilities this doesnt cost Command Points too, it’s simply a free Mega back to life once per game (as long as you have a sacrificial Little one to explode)

The model is amazing fun to work on, and shes among the cheapest hero to add to your army too!

Beast Smasher – This guy now gets 6 attacks wth 4 damage each, and as a chance of subtracting ward saves by 1 on a roll of 3+ (Which is boosted by +1 for each other Gargant that is nearby!) his rampage also gives a target unit within 12 Crit 2 hits too!

Kraken Eater – Loses his ranged attack, but like the beast smasher now has 6 attacks. Sadly he can’t kick objectives any more – but this guy now picks an objective at the start of the game and this now gives him a control of 20 when on that objective and while he’s not on the objective he gets +2 stomp attacks for a total of 5! Once per turn he can also give a friendly unit +1 to charge rolls.

Warstomper – This is now kind of a support piece, he can make another unit within 12 move 2D6 inches (this move doesn’t stop them from making their normal movement, and can even be used to move out of combat without any penalty). In addition his rampage gives him an extra D3 stop attacks, and if any model is slain by those stomps the unit has a control score of 1, making this guy a great choice for taking objectives.

Gatebreaker – This is probably the closest to it’s old profile, but still sees sweeping changes. He can pick a terrain piece to uproot and can either pick himself or a unit of Little gargants and increase their ranged attacks by 1, or pick a gargant without a ranged attack and give them a single shot with his Hurled Boulder profiles (essentially they uproot the terrain piece and throw it!) Oh, and if he picks a faction terrain piece he also does damage equal to his rampage roll on it too! Once per game he can also trigger a special rule that gives his Flail +1 attack for every slain Sons of Behemat unit for the rest of the turn!

Boss-Stompers are the first of two new Little units built by the new Sons of Behemat kit. This is a melee unit with movement 8 and 12 wounds each who have 7 attacks a piece at 1 rend and 2 damage plus a Eadbutt attack with 2 rend and 3 damage. Across a unit of 3 they can put out quite a lot of hurt to weaker units, but their main trick is allowing a friendly Big unit within 12″ to fight immediately after them!

Rock-Hurlers are the shooty version of the unit, and these trade in 3 attacks in exchange for 3 ranged attacks (which isnt a bad trade off at all!) On top of that, in each shooting phase they can choose to either gain Shoot in Combat, get an extra 6″ range on their rocks or add 1 to hit rolls, making them really adaptable!

In Spearhead you get 3 of these, and they all have the Reinforcements keyword too, making this a nice little force to use!

Both of these units are built from the same kit, I opted to build these as the Rock Hurlers as they also double as the Combat Patrol in this tome. They are around the same size as the Mancrushers, but are a lot more dynamic and have a nice assortment of weapons across the unit.

Mancrusher Gargant – Speaking of Mancrushers, they are back and only operate solo now rather than in mobs (though a single one can be reinforced if you want to)! Like the other Little Gargants they are now only Control 5, but each Mancrusher is assigned one of 3 special rules at deployment – +1 attacks against Heroes or Monsters, Make a Normal Move at deployment or add 5 to their Control – this gives you a lot of options and makes multiple single gargants quite useful. Oh, and for a command point you can make them fight twice too! And that ability is not once per game too, so you can fight twice every turn if you want to…

Path to Glory

As ever we get a Path to Glory section that allows you to create your own Mega-Gargant or Little Gargant! There’s some really fun options here such as being able to make either a Wizard or a Priest, or even a particularly fast Gargant with an extra 2″ movement! With the Gargants not having any mount options there’s a load of different things you can do to five them additional rules and abilities along with some funky stuff such as a Gargant to sucks the life force from another gargant when they die, healing the hero 6 wounds! I’m looking forward to having a play with this and building some custom heroes.

Armies and Heroes of Renown

Interestingly, both of the Armies of Renown revolve around a specific character supported by Little Gargants. The Stomper Tribe is a single Warstomper and any non-unique Little Units. These gain a unique rule in each phase, such as being able to give Strikes Last to enemy units, rerollng charges in the charge phase and adding to ranged attacks in the shooting phase. You lose all the standard Sons of Behemat rules, but I think there’s some fun stuff you could do here if you want to go heavy on Little gargants. Brilliantly, there’s also a list of “little toes” upgrades that can be given to Mancrushers!

The other Army of Renown is the Matriarch’s Mob, and this is Ma Maegran and any little units – and the main gimmick of this is Ma getting stronger based on the superstitions of the little gargants. you get to pick one of their stories each turn, and this gives Ma a different special rule “I’ve heard she can make you big and strong” for example fives a unit within 12″ of Ma +1 attacks, while “I’ve heard she can shoot fire from her eyes!” gives her a ranged attack that deals mortal wounds! On top of this she can also give friendly units strike first and gains a 5+ ward when next to a little gargant! Again this is another fun one if you want to have an army of just little gargants!

We also see each of the 4 Mercenary Gargants return, with each one still dedicated to one of the four Grand Alliances. These still use the base profile of the standard Mega Gargants, and like with the main list entries have points cuts (though each now has some pretty good special rules too, such as Odo now getting a 6+ ward and Grunnock giving enemy units -1 to hit him. They are accompanied by a new Merc “Krong The Club” who is a Mancrusher that can be taken in any army, which is a nice cheap way of adding a monster to your force!

Summary

So what do I think of the new Sons of Behemat Battletome? There’s been some big changes to the army, but I feel on the whole the Gargants win out here! Some things have been adjusted to make playing against them more fun, but I feel they have been given enough new toys and tricks to make playing with them still fun too. Balancing an army of a couple of massive models is always hard, and you’re going to have a couple more models here compared to what you had previously – but losing a model isn’t the end of the world any more with Ma being able to return slain Mega Gargants from the dead too! The addition of Spell and Prayer lores really helps with Battle Tactics this season, and a dedicated ranged unit finally gives the Sons of Behemat some pretty good shooting too! I’m really looking forward to giving these guys an outing on the battlefield!

The new Sons of Behemat Battletome and kits are up for pre order today and are released Saturday 26th September

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews free copies for review purposes.