Exigence musings

The Hordes Exigence book has been out a while and everyone important has run through it back to front. Myself, I have finally finished with it and thought I’d throw out my thoughts. These are just quick hits about what I play, what I face in my home and then just a tiny bit of coverage on everything else.

My Circle Orboros druid new stuff

Bradigus Thorle would have probably have been my starting warlock if he had been out when I started this game. Why? Well the model is pretty damn cool. Plus he is all about the giant rock monsters. This guy and a pack of walking rock hulks would look pretty sweet on the board. Plus his tier list can take multiple shifting stones that can cause all kinds of teleport shenanigans. Being entrenched with Kaya and giant dog monsters will keep me from using Bradigus. I have enough stuff to paint without running out to buy a new battle force to compliment this warlock.

Argus Moonhound would be great if I ran a druid crossbow list. Sadly he does nothing for me at this time. It is a fun model though and would have made a nice proxy for a regular Argus.

Rotterhorn Griffon has an interesting animus that lets you perform a special action at the end of your activation. So…run in attack then pull of that one special ability that you want. Does it allow for the same special action to be used twice? This is the only one of the bird warbeasts that I find appealing.. Mostly because he doesn’t have a cowl or pseudo-Wolverine claws

Brennos is a named heavy satyr and I’m on the fence about him. He has an affinity with Morvahna and helps keep her alive with extra health, but that doesn’t help me at all. He is a shooty/support warbeast. He had a magic ranged attack and can throw down in melee if necessary. However, Brennos looks to  no melee beatstick, especially against other punchy heavy beasts. I would probably rather just take a Gnarlhorn instead, but if he has a super sweet model I might be enticed.

Una the Falconer is a mini/lesser warlock and has affinity for birds. She has a ranged attack that throws up to three birds down field for damage. She can also take griffons for reduced cost. She has four fury and two spells which are alright, but with her control of 8” and 4+2D6 to hit with offensive spells, make them pretty weak. Her model is damn fantastic and intimidating with all those feathers and the typical druid armor filigree. I’ll pass since I am not a griffon warbeast guy. If I was then she is a must.

Death Wolves are the druid character unit. This unit of three really intrigues me. They start the game with a token that can be used to boost or to negate damage to 1 point. Hmmm….interesting. Especially when this is mixed with their multiple health boxes. They gain tokens for killing that can be used to boost or lower damage. They come with a mixed bag of weapons and abilities as well. Sadly there are no models yet and that blows! If the models are descent then I will be adding these guys to the list.

What Trolls I might have to face

Borka on his polar bear is pretty damn impressive. However, I have already done a Borka and don’t really want to paint another. That being said, the decision really isn’t mine since it is her army. Facing Borka can be dangerous now. I can only imagine how much more dangerous he is with a polar bear mount. The extra attack and movement are troublesome as is his ability to slam models His bear gets to roll extra dice with a critical.  He is a fighter and having a bear mount helps that. His fury pool is low and he looks to prefer infantry to beasts.

Dozer and Smigg the dire troll howitzer. Did the trolls bloods need another shooting dire troll? I guess they did. This is another character beast for this army. He is a mobile artillery platform. Wait he also buffs dire trolls, has affinity with the bazooka Joe warlock, has an animus to help him nail targets with his giant cannon and is no slouch in melee (being a dire troll has its advantages). The upside is that shooty trolls are not present in my home, so this guy will never grace the table. I worry more about Mulg and Rok.

Troll Highwaymen are trollblood banditos! Not sure if their leader is El Guapo, but he should be. Anyhoo…more shooty troll warriors with a bit of combined fire, two shots each and some sneaky. The models are a bit underwhelming to me and thankfully they are shooty.

Braylen Wanderheart is the female troll Antonio Banderas (from Desperado) or the Clint Eastwood (from Good, Bad, Ugly)for this army. She is mobile gun fighter that needs to keep moving and get behind targets to get some real advantages. A possible solo hunter or annoyance piece, but still shooty so not in my house!

Horgle Ironstrike might be showing up someday. This is the troll mini/lesser warlock. He  gets reduced cost pyre and slag trolls. He has 4 fury and two attacks (with reach) and one cause continuous fire and the other has a knockback ability. He comes with two spells that buff ranged attacks and the other is anti-warjack. Since that damn pyre troll is always showing up to bother me, I can see Horgle appearing in the future.

Northkin Fire Eaters are a unit of two trolls and pyg that dink booze and then breathe fire. That is some good damn fun, but not for me. A three warrior unit with a POW 12 flame thrower that just keeps burning is awesome and annoying. Plus they only get tougher if they are on fire. I guess that means they can burn themselves a bit, or get burnt, and gain an ARM bonus. The models for these guys do look good, but I know I’ll hate dealing with them.

Skorne, Minions, Legion stuff

I am still not a fan of the whole Skorne army. It was good to see that the new warbeasts they received were different and not just more multi-limbed non-elephants. The rest is the typical red and gold mix of Klingon, Drow and Dark Eldar Skorne. They did get one of the warbeast packs. Man, those are head scratchers. They are warbeasts and units in one and the rules are sort of meh for them.

Legion of Everblight’s new releases left me sort of bland, except for the Strider Blightblades and Fyanna. The Blightblades would be a great flanking/harassment unit and Fyanna has so many interesting melee abilities.

Blindwater and the Thornfall minions both received new warlocks and battle engines. I do find the Meat Thresher interesting as it reminds me of the Dreadnoks Thunder Machine if it were created by crazy pig men. The big surprise is the Doomreaver pig Maximus. Wow, he looks to be a pile of combat awesome. He will work for Circle and Trolls as well. He will be added as soon as I can get him.

Final thoughts

The fiction is descent and ties events together with happenings from Vengeance and before. Glad to see the Iron Kingdom world is still advancing.

I’ll be curious to see what kind of warbeast packs the druids and trolls are given. I do find the two they introduced a bit underwhelming, but they are also for armies I don’t play. Hopefully the druids beast pack will be angry forest critters!

The Thornfall/Farrow are starting to grow on me as well. Maybe a second Horde force for me in the future? That or I’ll just have the units I like in my druid force since they will work for/with them.

Plus can we get model releases faster? Seriously, why are models not available when the book drops? That is my only issue with Privateer Press. There are still models from Vengeance that haven’t been released yet.