beastmen & skaven 7th edition books

I think Skaven work fine against the 8th books besides a few tricky/semantic things which come up with some of their spells.

Beastmen I would either use our very own KevinC 's book in the rules section (also has rules for the new things which came out) or just stick to the slightly expanded rules in the End Times Glotkin book. This gave them access to marks and gave the characters Eye of the God. It's a start at least

The Skaven book is better than most 8th edition books. It benefits from being written in 7th edition, the spells have some powerful advantages, such as not having spell types allowing you to do stuff like cast Cracks Call into combat and through your own unit. It also has some bonkers magic items that 8th edition would likely have removed as 8th reduced the number of magic items armies had by a huge amount.

Skaven are probably the 4th-7th best army in 8th edition using their 7th edition book. Personally I rank them 4th best.

One of the Skaven advantages is that Skaven are the epitome of a horde army, and 8th edition is a horde edition in a way that 7th edition wasn't, giving them a huge bonus.

Along the same vein, I'm always wondering what an 8th edition Bretonnia would look like, especially since fast, hard-hitting units (like cavalry) where so potent in 6th/7th, but between steadfast, step-up, randomized charge distances, and combat via initiative order, it significantly weakened an army with so few infantry options.

Skaven are just fine in 8th with their 7th ed book. As others have said as is they are one of the better armies in 8th.

Beastmen on the other hand need a little more skill in 8th. I have seen some folks that are really good with them. To give them a little boost you can do few things,

1) allow players access to the Storm of Magic book. Storm of Magic has some points cuts for the Beastmen Monsters which helps a bunch and gives them back access to Dragon Ogres which a lot of veteran players like. Frankly I like to play where all players have access to this book, the bound monsters can add lots of flavor to most armies.

2) use the End Time updates. Giving the Beastmen access to Chaos Mark's certainly can make them more versatile.

3) do both

Personally I stick with option 1, but that's me, your mileage may very.

I agree there isn't much to change the book has a good feel to it. To me the 7th ed book feels like a separate army whereas the 6th seemed like "hey here are Chaos Orcs". I like the idea that Beastmen are an evil army that is separate from chaos.

The only changes I would seriously consider is some points costs to match the Storm of Magic, sneak those Dragon Ogres back in AND allow one Gor unit and one Minotaur unit to take a magic standard ip to 50 points.

The Beast Banner is one of their best items and only Bestigots or a BSB can take it. The banner is best in a unit of Gors. On a Wargor, it leaves him vulnerable to being singled out. Minotaurs and Bestigors don't need a Strength Bonus, though Minotaurs could benefit from other banners without having to spend the points for a Gorbull.

Oh, and I don't understand why Centigors aren't fast cav.

So I wouldn't change anything group breaking just some tewaks!