Oh yes, the speedier Dwarfs have been a lot of fun, and I should really get back to them. I think 4+ fast units (Brocks, Stoneclaws, assorted mounted Lords) are needed to make that style work reliable though, and I haven’t quite gotten back to them to dig in and really experiment. Hopefully the Dwarfs will hit the table again soon! I am a little backed up on testing for other armies. I hope your sci-fi games have been enjoyable!
September has been mostly devoid of games, and hobbying, though we did sneak one game in recently.
Battle 052 was Herd (FoN) vs Northern Alliance in Control
With Fracture, the Herd are back to being a rather unfamiliar army for me. It is definitely nice to have more than three unit options, but everything feels so expensive now, and I have not been satisfied with my lists. More testing is obviously needed, but we learned a lot this game, despite some rules goofs:
- Tribal Spears are back! The two hordes was nice to have, and did help bring some extra Nerve and US around, but I wasn’t able to make use of Phalanx this game. I probably wouldn’t take the upgrade if I wasn’t stuck with the models right now, but the extra attacks can be nice. The horde should still hold items well too, though I have been lacking points to spare.
- Centaur Striders as core is still nice, and I think I should be running another regiment at least to give the list some reach. Herd-only is pretty slow nowadays.
- Grymbrocks are potent, and have some nice play around opposing Phalanx units, but gosh are they are slow. A regiment could definitely be nice to have around, but without screens to instigate and babysit, I don’t know how viable these will be in multiples for me long-term.
- My Guardian Brutes are rebased now, but now have a bland stat line. They were admittedly over-tuned at the launch of 4E, but I feel like they should have gotten the Brutal 2 of the Grymbrocks or something to make them more unique. Oddly, lacking special rules themselves, they work very nicely alongside the Auras from stuff like Flaxhoof, the Totem, and the Avatar of the Father. I still like my models, and will likely be running these more often than not.
- Flaxhoof was surprisingly decent. The Brutal 1 Aura is neat, but doesn’t play well with Grymbrocks or Spirit Walkers. Probably not a great pick for my lists, but there could be a niche for him as a Warlord in builds for sure.
- Great Totem was finally deployed correctly, and used well. I was able to issue a few orders, and the Vicious Aura helped support some important pushes. It was even able to help score for the scenario! I like it, and it is still neat and very unique.
- Entanglement of Thorns. Surprisingly, since the last game, we learned that the Hold reform also grants a change facing move too. Somehow, we always assumed that those were distinct reform moves, like they are in the Movement Phase. With the swivel, the Command is magnitudes less potent than we had been playing it at the jump a few months back. I guess you can slow stuff down in a roundabout way, but I don’t know how often that will be useful.
