Hobby Update: Herd Longhorns

I've squeezed in a bit more hobby time recently, and up now is another regiment's worth of might Longhorns for the Herd!

The combined unit. A full regiment of Longhorns.

The Longhorns have really surprised me in my recent games. It seems that I am not a keen observer of unit changes... Back in Second Edition, they were just ok, and not particularly special. In Third Edition they gained more attacks and a cute Rally Aura. I really like the design of the Ancients of the Salamanders and the Legionaries of the Riftforged Orcs, both of which Inspire, so the latter ability caught my eye. However, I've come to think of the Rally Aura as a bit of a list-building trap though, since it only buffs the "Tribal" units. It's a nice bonus, but not something to try and build around when the army has so many other interesting units. All that said, the simple extra attacks are amazing, and while they cannot grind as well as Huscarls (now knows as Hearthguard, with the recent updates to the Northern Alliance), they should still hit hard on the charge and be a nice hammer unit for the Herd. 

The rear troop.

Hobbying-wise, nothing special is going on. The exact ratio of the snow basing is hard to nail down, so I did the bases up at the same time I was working on the new Rimewings. Doing up a couple of bases at the same time helps tie the various units together overall. The Longhorns got the usual Herd colors, which are detailed elsewhere in the blog, though on a whim I used Citadel's Temple Guard Blue for some touchups, and it matches pretty closely with the Glacial Blue and such from Reaper that I have been using, which was a nice surprise.

The front troop.

The minis are GW sculpts, and came pre-built from an ebay bundle. This particular purchase was very much desired, but I had some minimum bids unexpectedly win, netting me about two dozen of GW's smaller Ungor with many still on sprue. Hobbying can be such a Sisyphean endeavor... I'm not sure if I want to build them up yet, let alone what unit I'd want to aim for. Should I wish to double-down on running some tribal units and really test out the Rallying of these Longhorns though, it looks like I'll have the chance. We'll see what the future holds for the Herd's lists!