Hobby Update: Redone Herd Trappers / Silent Hunt

I was really satisfied with myself when I recently finished up my Spirit Walkers. With them done, I had enough unlocks to run my collection for a few different larger builds, I had enough infantry unlockers to now play smaller introductory games with the army, the entire collection all fit into one storage bin, and I had zero minis remaining! It was a great situation. About a day after they were complete though, I donked up a little bit, jumping on a little ebay bundle of mixed-weapon ungors. Fortunately, things aren't too bad regarding the collection stasis I had just achieved...

While looking up and confirming the stats for the Spirit Walkers to talk about them a bit in their post, I started looking through the army list again for the Herd. It had been a few years since I last looked at it, and since then, there had been a few Clash of Kings updates, and I had started actually playing games of 3rd Edition. The army still seems very aggressive, and has a lot of neat options. While browsing, I saw the newish Silent Hunt formation, and realized that I just needed one more troop's worth of shooty guys to run that, and that realization was the push to purchase the ebay bundle.

The bundle came with three archers, which will be used for the formation, three spearmen which will be added to the pale Beastman Warband I hobbied up last year and 4 guys hand-weapons, one of which was used here, and three now who are "extra." The collection stasis is still fine for the moment, but I think I'll be picking up some more minis for the Herd in the future. It's probably just a matter of time, though I will try to promise myself to get a few games in before I buy anything new.

See? It all fits.... but just barely. 

I pulled the army out of storage again to try and match the old skin color schemes. Unfortunately, the  (I'm assuming) super glue I used to connect a lot of minis and grass tufts has yellowed some of the snowy areas. I touched up these elite trappers, but will need to give the rest of the army an hour or two of touchup work before it sees the table.

Regiment 1, made with two troops. Most of the new minis are in the back troop.

Some of the veteran trackers got reshuffled. I had troops of 7 and 7 and 6, predominately armed with bows. I brought that down to troops of 6 across the board to stretch the minis out and add terrain bits. A few have axes and such, but the units should still be intuitive for my opponents. 

Regiment 2, again made with two troops. These are mostly unchanged.

Outside the formation, the Trappers still seem like a very unique pick, with a neat combination of special rules. Scout will let them get very close very quickly and Pathfinder will let them zip through most terrain without worry. I would have loved to have seen them get Steady Aim to do some mobile shooting, but their shooting is only at 5+ and without any Piercing. Their Melee is is 4+ and with Thunderous Charge (and Pathfinder), well they are going to be better in a fist fight, though with Defense 3, they probably won't last too long, even as a regiment. Still, the Trappers seem like a very unique and aggressive unit, able to put a fair amount of pressure on your opponent very quickly.

The Tracker. Now-named Softhoof. 

The Tracker also got some touch-ups. Just a little shading actually. It looks like I skipped that finishing step back in 2016. I snowed the army likely half a dozen different times. I am considering a more unified layer in the future to kind of tie things up, but who knows when that will happen. Minus a little yellowing here and there that can be fixed, the snow effect is holding up, and the army looks pretty unified, as you can see from the overhead storage shot.

Outside the formation, the Tracker seems like a great pick. In a pinch, he will just Inspire your troops while offering some closer shooting support. Ideally though, he will be making use of Scout and Pathfinder to get into position to apply some pressure. The Sabre-Toothed Hunting Cat gives him the Duelist rule, doubling attacks against individuals. I think it's probably close to a "must take" upgrade for the Tracker. The Herd can apply a ton of pressure, and having this guy skulking around at 18"  - 24" killing enemy characters is probably really strong.

The formation then looks pretty intriguing. Everyone gains Ensnare which is, generally, a great ability. Having Pathfinder already (and Scout), these should already be stalking about in difficult terrain, so most things charging them would be at a -2 to hit (Ensnare plus a hindered charge), which is very strong... though the units are still only at Defense 3 and can be fought off.

Still, the formation also grants a Deadly Snares rule, which deals 1d3 points of damage to any unit that attacks a unit in the formation, provided that the unit in the formation is touching difficult terrain, which again they very much should be. 

I think the Silent Hunt could be quite strong in the hands of a competent player and good remaining list. The formation emphasizes smart terrain use, and messes with enough things that your opponent should have a very hard time evaluating how much they need to commit to remove them. The Hunt also has the option of just charging out into melee to help with an important fight too, so trying to ignore them and their ranged attacks likely won't work too well either for your opponent. They demand attention, and smart players should be able to use them well.

...I don't think that I am that player. This is not my main army, and my Herd collection is not very deep, but it will still be very fun to try and explore the formation and the army a bit in the future.  We'll see when they hit the table for 3rd Edition!