I visited my local GW today and found an old colleague running the store as most of the regular staff were off with Manbearpig Flu.
We got on to the conversation of WFB and some of the forthcoming releases...
One of them being Beastmen.
He told me what to expect from the book and confirmed some things I had wondered about:
The Marks:
All exactly the same as WoC.
Special Characters:
Morghur.
Gorthor - allows Beastman Chariots as Core Choices
A special character Doombull - allows Minotaurs as Core Choices
Khazrak.
A special character Bestigor Upgrade.
A special character Centigor Upgrade.
Lords and Heroes:
Beastlord - can ride a Tuskgor or a larger Razorgor. Can have Marks.
Great Bray-Shaman - Can have a herdstone altar. Can have Marks.
Bray-Shaman. Can have Marks.
Doombull - Who doesn't allow Minotaurs as core choices. Can have Marks.
A hero level Beastlord. Can have Marks.
A hero level Doombull. Can have Marks.
Some sort of Beastmaster.
A lord that lets you have as many Bestigor units as you can field.
Core Choices:
Gors - Finally separate from Ungors, apparently Skirmish when not in combat, but then act as a full rank and file unit when in combat. These guys can have a musician. If i'm right about this, this means that these guys have a 360 degree LOS and are at -1 to hit from shooting and can still fight good fights??? Have light armour, can have HW and Shields or Additional HW. Cannot have Marks.
Ungor Skirmishers - Are basically cannon fodder. They have no unit upgrades except a champion. They Skirmish too. Apparently about as nasty as a Goblin, but with better WS and higher movement. Cannot have Marks.
Bestigor - You can only have one unit of these guys per unit of Gors. Str and Toughness 4. Can have Great Weapons, Additional HW or HW and Shields. Come with Heavy Armour. Can have Marks. These guys can hit pretty hard from what I've been told.
Ungor Trackers - Skirmishing scout unit. Braver than a regular Ungor unit. Can throw Javelins.
Chaos Warhounds - As WoC.
Special Choices:
Tuskgor Herd - A unit of Tuskgors led by a Gor. From what I can gather, similar to the Packmaster units in Skaven. They have a special rule called stampede that can backfire if they fail a panic check.
Tuskgor Chariot - Now have two Bestigor riding them. Can have Marks.
Centigor - Can now have Marks.
Minotaurs - As before but now have something similar to the Ogre Kingdoms Bull Charge. No longer have Bloodgreed. Come with 2 HW and can upgrade to GW. Can have Marks.
Rare Choices:
Mammoth - WTF??? A large Mammoth with several Gor/Ungor riding in it. I doubt this one very much.
Tuskgor Cavalry - This sounds awesome. Apparently Bestigor on a Tuskgor with a 2+ save if the riders have shields and they can hit really really hard. Can have Marks.
Chaos Giant - as WoC.
Spawn - as WoC.
Magic Items:
Apparently the Beasts get the worst magic list in the game. No confirmation on what they are though.
Magic Spells:
They get a complete overhaul of the current spell list. They also have their own version of the Lore of Beasts.
New Models:
The entire range except for the Characters, Ungor Trackers, Centigor and Tuskgor Chariot is plastic.
Now to clarify this, I didn't see the book, but this is from a former colleague who I worked with at GW for almost my entire tenure (at least 4 out of the 6 years) and he is has been right about rumours before.