Hobby Update: FoN Critters

I always want some chaff in my lists, but the revisions to the Herd and to the Forces of Nature roster have been pretty brutal. The go-to flying Harpies are gone, as are the comparable Gur Panthers, though the latter still exists in other armies, like the Basileans, for some reason. Rude. All that remains for me are Critters, so up now are a few more units of Critters to help me out!

The reinforcing duo.

Hobbying was generally approached the same way as the original unit, though we opted for more ground and less of the flossy frozen water effect. As before, two packs of Griffon Hatchlings were used for each unit, primed during a warm spell in mid-December, and then painted up the last few weeks. I did the same with the bases, though unfortunately didn't really reference my original unit, and made the rocks much smaller here, making it a bit difficult to plop the minis down this time. The dark blue water was hit with a glazing medium to emulate ice, and the rest of the base was hit with a sporadic snow effect, like the rest of the army. A few tufts were placed to hide the worst connection points or errant brush strokes, but here we are, and two more units are ready, bringing me up to three units of Critters.

I got a smaller test game in with them recently, and I am so-so on them so far. Relative to 3rd they got a nice price reduction, but that's about it, and they are still a bit hard to use. All the Herd stuff is Speed 6 or higher, if you are running Beasts or Centaurs, so positioning is extra important. Unlike the old very speedy Harpies or Panthers, you can't really keep these Critters in reserve and send them out when needed - they are just too slow to get up and block without slowing you down too. 

Putting them just ahead to block for similarly-sized Guardian Brutes works, and with a slight pivot, you should be able to block for the important Longhorns too, and provide cover for both units against Height 3 shooting and under, which should be most things. Interdiction duty is where I think they'll fall short, as Speed 6 just can't seem catch anything besides infantry easily. I wish they got bumped up to Speed 7 or 8, to compensate the roster a bit for loosing out on all of our other options. They are all I've got though, and we'll need to get more games in with them to figure the unit out.