Hobby Update: Undead Goreblights

The last full units I managed to complete in 2020 were a pair of Goreblights for the Undead.

They are probably the unit I was most excited about with the release of 3rd Edition. A monstrous, towering bastion of undeath is a very cool concept! Like many, I went with some Bone Golems from a Pathfinder miniature line. I got mine for under $5, and while the price looks to have since basically doubled for some reason... it still still a pretty good deal. 

Terrible picture; out of the dozen or so shots from start-to-finish, this is literally one of the least blurry or weird. I think I will need to build up a light box or something in 2021.

The miniatures come pre-primed, which is a bit odd for a hobbyist! I've picked up a handful of these kinds of minis for D&D before, but this was the first I've actually painted. 

The mold lines needed some scraping and cleaning. A lot of the seams are right across skulls, which would look funny. Nothing fancy there; just a hobby knife scrape in a few spots, and a small file in others. I decided to not re-prime the mini, and just see what happens. No issues so far... though it hasn't gotten a lot of wear and tear yet. I also ended up trying to fill a few gaps with green stuff, as some of the arms didn't fit well, and the joins were pretty noticeable. After pressing the putty in, I went at it with a hobby knife, trying to add lines/indents to mimic the muscle and sinew of the model. I'm not sure of all that prep work was actually needed though. The mold lines on the skulls, sure, but the model is pretty "busy" already, and the greenstuff may have been overkill.

Yuck. Super sorry on the quality here. I can't remember why I was playing around with the flash option. This is still somehow better than the unflashed picture. Anyways, here you can see where I was using the greenstuff.

I painted these up over a few days. They were quite fun to do, but were unfortunately about all I could accommodate in my dwindling hobby space. Painting up the muscles was fun, as I usually can't get that pronounced of a drybrush effect going, but with all the muscle bits, I was able to get in a red base, then a middling pink, and then a light pink in a few spots.

In the middle of painting. Pre-shading and pre- the glossy effect. The lighting was terrible, so I'm playing around with the flash on my phone. Sheesh. Again, sorry for the poor quality.

On the table, they seem quite strong. They are monsters, not heroes, so should be pretty easy for the Undead to unlock, especially if you are running a horde or two. Shambling is quite often a boon rather than a detriment, and for a monster... well, if you aren't getting (or at least threatening) shambling flank charges with them, I dare say you may be doing something wrong! Their semi-random attacks is hard to plan around, but with CS2 and again if you gen get them into a flank... these should be able to do some work.

Finished pic, back from a sunny day in October. I opted to go for a glossy coat on the flesh, rather than a full-fledged blood effect. I think either would look good. The mini is quite terrifying. 

They also have a special rule that helps their damage output, Cloak of Death, which damages nearby enemy units once the Goreblight has moved. The Abyssal's Chroneas pioneered a similar effect in 2nd, and (if I recall correctly) has this special ability as well in 3rd. While the range is small (6"), this can add up over a long, drawn out scrum, and since it can hit all enemy units within that range these can make excellent damage multipliers.

I figured these beings would be squishier, but instead they have a surprising sturdy Defense 5, and Nerve --/17 and Lifeleech too. They are pretty tanky!

About the only downside I can see is the Unit Strength of 1, which seems typical for monsters in 3rd. This means that arguably, the Goreblight will have a more difficult time holding or contesting objectives... but, if you can just obliterate the enemy units, they won't be contesting it anymore! Additionally, this downside only comes up if the Goreblight is unsupported. 

Other armies with other monsters might try this solo approach... but playing the Undead, I think this will be an unlikely scenario. You have access to Skeletons and Zombies and all sorts of mediocre, but numerous, infantry. So I think most of the time, the Gorebeast should be pretty well supported.

The Goreblight is a really cool unit. Hopefully I will see them in action soon!