With the Green Lady list more or less done, it’s time for me to start working on a second army. I’ve decided to go for the Herd, with a sort of chaotic neutral guardians of nature fairy tale theme to them. This is my preliminary list:
The Herd
Tribal Spears Regiment [135]
Tribal Spears Regiment [135]
Spirit Walkers Horde; Helm of the Drunken Ram [285]
Spirit Walkers Horde; Blood of the Old King [280]
Longhorns Troop; Skirmisher’s Boots [145]
Longhorns Troop [135]
Harpies Troop [90]
Harpies Troop |[90]
Minotaur Chariots Horde; Maccwar’s Potion of the Caterpillar [285]
Hydra [150]
Great Chieftain; Horn of the Great Migration|[110]
Druid; Bane Chant (2) [85]
Gladewalker Druid [90]
Avatar of the Father [285]
Total Unit Strength: 23
Total Units: 14
However, I’m not very happy with it. Whilst I think the Herd as a faction is very characterful, and the models I’m looking at as well, I don’t really feel like this has its own playstyle yet. The point of the Herd, I’ve been given to understand, is speed and pathfinder. But that is exactly what my Green Lady list does, and that one’s faster and hits about as hard as anything I’ve been able to come up with in The Herd…
So, the present idea is to line up the infantry in two lines: Spears - Longhorns - Hydra - Longhorns - Spears; and then the Spirit Walkers in the second line. This block moves up as one with the druids and chieftain in support and means charging anything will get you a lot of angry fauns to the face. The Minotaurs and Avatar meanwhile cover the flank(s) or provide a fast wing, as the situation demands. The harpies do harpy things, of course.
I stole the idea from a -/28 Kingdoms of Men list, but it still doesn’t feel like something “my own”. Also, I have doubts as to how efficient it’ll be.
So, to sum up, I’m looking for the unique feel of the Herd as an army, and how to translate that into an effective list. Can someone help?
i would tend to agree @Telchar . My own Herd army is themed around Early Irish mythology, so was somewhat restricted in units that embraced that theme, but generally it looks similar to your own list. It didn’t seem to benefit much from Clash of Kings upgrade.
On your list, I can recommend some quality of life tweaks:
Helm of the Drunken Ram takes away pathfinder and makes the SW horde even more reliant on charging, when it’s got the Nv to grind as well. I’d generally avoid the Helm in Herd myself.
While I respect your Minotaur horde, I do think the Stampede is really great, especially for the reg discount on items. Stampede with Sharpness is 10 pts cheaper but takes up less space on the table, doesn’t care about any terrain, hits virtually as hard, and has just 1 less Nv.
What is the Gladewalker really doing? I think a Centaur Chief would do far more for the list, between chaff duties and just keeping up with the very fast stuff charging away from the Chieftain’s WC aura.
I’m a big fan of Conjuring Staff on Druids so their teensy spells hit, but I’m always drawn to Crown of the Wizard King for that 18" BC as the army starts to spread out.
On Herd in general, I feel like all three of us are in a similar place. We’re using the list to run an interesting mix of infantry with good support, when the meta (!!) form of the faction is extreme alpha strike, which is a play style I don’t enjoy. I’m currently rebuilding my Herd right now to focus on token infantry backed up by just a sack of hammers: Brutes, Lycans, Lycan Alphas, etc. Hoping it’s fun to play, if not also successful.
EDIT: I often look at the Horn Chieftain and wonder what item to give him. The meta item is absolutely Wings of the Honeymaze, and you can see how this is excellent for putting that Dread wherever it needs to be, as well as his WC boost. I always want to give him Mead, boosting his own charging to 14", but increasingly I think he needs items that still work when he’s moving at the double, since his homies are often much faster than he is (thanks to not having a mount option). Which often has me looking at the Sacred Horn, however that’s just boosting the WC aura, and not that sweet, sweet Dread. Which keeps bringing me back to Wings or … maybe nothing? He can certainly punch, but again, the good stuff in the Herd list is likely moving faster than he is.
EDIT2: A flying Horn Chieftain largely takes the place of the Centaur Chief in the above list, minus true chaff duties. I’d still much rather have a second BC Druid than the Gladewalker.
Thanks for all the fine-tuning tips! The idea for the gladewalker was to provide some healing, because all of the D4 kinda scares me, but I think you’re right and I need to just get over it
Yea, paying for ~2 healing a turn doesn’t seem great. Double Druids can do that on the way in, then do the real work of bane chanting when the punching starts. The low De of the army however does make Barkskin enticing, plus it’s really thematic for the force. I’ve yet to run it but keep tossing it around.
My GladeWalker was always wearing a shroud and chugging along after a Greater Earth Elemental either healing it, or other units in range or surging it forward
@Nav, I see your point, but the GEE really doesn’t call to me I’m afraid. It seems very expensive, and quite slow as well. And it doesn’t really fit theme either, I don’t think…
No problem @Telchar, i’m used to Surge for my Ice Queen and Ice Elementals, and the GEE works for me as a good counter to Giants, but isn’t it a good thing that an army has many variables in terms of Army build or ways to play it?
It definitely is! You know, maybe I ought to play something with Surge in it just for the sake of learning the trick of it… I sense a third army to dream about on the way…
