Hobby Update: Varangur Lord with Devoted Icon

I was cleaning up my little hobby space the other day, and while returning some unused bits from whence they came, noticed some old Chaos Marauder banners. Inspiration struck, and I found a use for one of the two leftover Nightraiders / Clansmen: as a new Varangur Lord with Devoted Icon, to help lead all these new Mantic models.

Vertical is the only way this would stay in focus, so here you go.

Since I use super glue for assembly, it was pretty easy to just pop off the first arm and replace it with this new one. The banner pole doesn't touch the ground, meaning the Mantic Clansmen minis are actually a bit taller than the GW Marauders. I wasn't expecting it to be an exact match, but this was a bit surprising, and the Clansmen really are that big and burly. No wonder weapon swaps were so difficult for the units... The little conversion works, though something like a GW Bloodsecrator would be an even better fit with the heavy armor, big weapon and such. 

I had written off the Lord early on in 3rd, as it lost the horse mount, and it seemed like too many points for an infantry hero, and you'd probably need to be running a lot of infantry to make use of him. The basic Lord actually a much more interesting choice for the army nowadays. Stock, he has a good stats and a good number of attacks, and should (on average) put 2 damage on anything. He also has a lot of customization options, including gaining an extra attack, Brutal, and regains the horse mount. You can even take all three for a very mobile combat support unit. If you are low on spare points, generally I think Brutal is the best pick. The extra attack needs to hop through the gateways of your dice rolling, making combats fractionally better, while Brutal is usually going to increase his combat result by a flat 1, assuming there isn't another Brutal in that combat already.

The Devoted Icon option kicks the customizability up another few notches, giving a 6" aura to all Barbarian keyworded units. This cannot be taken with the horse, but can be taken with the extra attack and Brutal upgrades, if you want. The aura won't include monsters and such, but does cover most of the army's basic infantry (excluding Draugr and Fallen) and cavalry units (excluding the Frostfang Cavalry), as well as a number of the heroes too (excluding the Magus, but including Magnilde and both Lords and Thegns on their Frostfangs). All in all, that is a good number of units! The Lord should have plenty of friends to play with, though I am bummed about the exclusion of the Frostfang Cavalry. That unit is too tall to be really hidden, too wide to be really screened, and apparently too scary to play nice with the rest of the barbarians. It's still powerful on paper, but the lack of synergies with other units is just so darn punishing.

Right now, the Aura can either be Lifeleech 1, or Stealthy. Seeing the Ancient Phoenix in action in a few different armies over the last few games, I can't discount an ability that can heal multiple units, and the Varangur are likely to be doing the damage to get Lifeleech that point back. However, the Varangur lack other good healing options, so I am not sure how impactful this choice would ultimately be over the course of the game. And Stealthy is useless unless your opponent is running ranged units or certain spells, so its benefit is quite conditional. However, it could be clutch in the right meta or matchup. I could maybe see Stealthy picked for tournament lists and such, just a 20 point tax to help protect your valuable Huscarls or something?

With all the new infantry joining the ranks of the Varangur, I'm sure I'll find a use for this Lord and their Icon. We'll just have to play around some and see what the fun loadouts might be! I'll try to get him on the table soon.