Hobby Update: 2nd Guardian Brutes

Way back in 2017, I used some Farrow Slaughterhousers as the minis for my Herd's Guardian Brutes (here are the wip & update posts). Sometime since, the box was apparently discontinued! I was not expecting to get another box of these, but I found a hobby website that was redoing their inventory and digital storefront, but showing it as available. After a few days of checking back and trying to refresh their cart I managed to checkout, and I have a second horde ready for the table now!

The finished horde nestled in their tray.

March was bonkers with weather (about once a week we were getting a serious ice or snow or rain storm, followed by enough warm days to melt everything away before more precipitation), but I managed to get these assembled (with their additional horn bits) and primed on a nice March day without issue, and paint thrown on them in April. 

Testing layouts.

The miniatures are metal, though this box went pretty smooth for assembly. Being heavy, metal minis, I didn't want to cut them off of their slots, which do provide a lot of stability when used with the bases they come with. However, I did sand off the lip of each before inserting, so the paste would hopefully be a little less noticeable for the final unit. The bases were pasted and then glued down, and then the unit base itself got a thin layer of paste. I applied this sparingly, wary of the warping I got with the Forest Shamblers recently. Maybe I was smarter here? Maybe the metal minis helped weigh things down? Either way, these ended up much better.

The Guardian Brutes were a very different unit when I first built them up. Previously, they lacked Pathfinder, but were one of the only units in the entire Herd roster to get Defense 5, which is why I built them up originally. With the rest of the collection being speedy glass-cannons, I felt that something probably needed to hold the line and contest open terrain. That could have been a folly; I didn't get to play much of the Herd.

Their stats have changed a bit with the new edition. The game got rebalanced and units across various armies fell more into similar categories (the Brutes here are kind of a large infantry berserker unit type now, like Ogre Berserkers or Salamander Tyrants, with lots of attacks but hitting on 4's). However the Guardian Brutes have been granted the Herd's army-wide Pathfinder special rule now, which is very nice! Pathfinder is a really strong ability, even on a slower unit, so these Brutes should be a much more attractive options nowadays, able to sneak through terrain and connect with Thunderous Charge.

Rear Regiment finished. I still like the mini on the right the best of all the sculpts.
Reminds me of a hockey player or something.

Front Regiment finished.

With so many attacks, any buffs or magic items or hot dice are likely to have a huge impact on their performance. Gaining Pathfinder is again great for the unit, and having a second horde's worth of models will certainly give my growing Herd army some more options in list-building! I think these will do well for the army, and will try to put that hypothesis to the test soon!