Hobby Update: Herd Flying Beasts of Nature and Woodland Critters

A year or so ago, I picked up a Wizkids Griffon as a potential new mount for running another General on Winged Beast. There wasn't enough good sitting space though. More recently, in April / May 2023, I was looking for a D&D mini for a new campaign, and noticed that some smaller griffons had been released. Already in the midst of hobbying up a bunch of Herd, I decided to pick some up, along with another larger griffon, with the aim of making a few "Scorchwing" units, with a parent teaching their offspring to hunt. 

Unfortunately, most of that order was a bust. The hatchlings were way smaller that I thought they would be, and the unit looked terrible when grouped together. Fortunately, army rosters in this game are pretty deep, and with some time to ponder, I was able to salvage most of those spring purchases. Up now for the Herd are two flying Beasts of Nature, and a regiment of Woodland Critters!

The trio, finished.

As already mentioned, these minis are all from Wizkids. While I have advocated for minis from this manufacturer before, my opinion has somewhat cooled. All of the models here required a lot of mold-line clean-up. I scraped off so much I felt the need to re-prime. Not the end of the world for a wargamer, but more work than advertised, I think. Additionally, the bases for all of the minis in this post were warped. The hatchlings were able to be bent and smushed into working order, but the base for the larger griffons proved to be too hard. For the Griffons, I glued them on as best I could, and then buried the join in snow effect and glue. Had I not been doing a snow theme, putty (or drywall compound, like with the hydras) on the bottom and then sanding it all away would have been a possibility, though a time-consuming one. The price is still pretty hard to beat for these, especially for anyone familiar with GW pricing, but the quality of these minis seem to have slumped a bit.

The rocky base was significantly warped for both minis.

On the table, I'll need to pay to get the wings, but that cost of 190 makes them rather comparable to the General on Winged Beast from the Kingdoms of Men. The General has Thunderous Charge 1, 2 more attacks and 3 more Speed (for 10  Speed total). He also has humanity's Very Inspiring rule. The natural version for the Herd has Pathfinder and Vicious, and has a slightly higher Nerve than the human-affiliated option. You can pay to get two extra attacks, but without the TC and with only 7 Speed, I'm not quite sure if it is worth it. The threat of the General has been the speed and hitting power; the natural version lacks both. If you have the points, more attacks doesn't seem like a bad buy, but is not something I plan on prioritizing for the initial tests. Edit: Looks like this was an error in the list builder, and the upgrade now grants Fly and Speed 10. The General is still a better buy, but the speed makes the natural version more attractive than it was.

Side and back view. 

I am even less sure of the Woodland Critters as a unit. I think it wants to be chaff? Generally, the Herd is a very speedy army, and the Critters have good special rules for movement, with Fly and Nimble, but Speed 6 isn't quite speedy enough to get ahead and interdict, even for friendly infantry. The Critters have Pathfinder and Vicious, but are also stuck with Melee 5+ and no other benefits for offense. With Defense 2, the unit doesn't seem meant for combat. In many respects, the Critters are similar to the Imps of the Forces of the Abyss, but more expensive. 

The leftover hatchings.

At some point, I'll try the Critters out, but they seem pretty underwhelming on paper. As chaff, they will definitely die, but it will likely take some care to make sure that that event happens when you want it to. With the low defense, I don't think I can even relegate them to objective-camping, as anything and everything has a chance to damage them and then good chances to see them off the table, and I don't want to bother to inspire them if they are in this role. It's an odd unit, and one I don't think I'll run often, but we'll give it a try sometime and see if it has any surprises for us.