Big New Releases

Hey guys, sorry for the long hiatus - there are several posts I've been working on that are taking a bit longer than I'd hoped thanks to real life getting in the way (grrr, real life), but since there are several new releases revealed at Lock & Load last weekend I thought I'd post my thoughts on them.

First up, we have the preview of the Legion of Everblight Gargantuan, the Archangel.

Here's some more pictures, as well as a video interview with the sculptor as he's builds it. I'm going to echo the comments I've seen everywhere else and say HOLY CRAP THIS THING IS INCREDIBLE. As someone who got into Legion because of the dragon theme, I cannot wait to get my hands on this guy. I can honestly say this is the first model I've seen in any system that I knew I wanted to buy it before seeing anything about the rules. Very, very psyched for this.

Speaking of the rules, the Mountain King was released at Lock & Load, giving us a chance to see what the Gargantuan cards will looks like.

There's a complete unboxing rundown here. Off the bat, I'm a little bit disappointed. The Collosals are walking armories, most with at least 3 enormous guns and so many special rules you could confuse the card back with a warcaster. This guy has one gun (still enormous), a solid but not unique animus, Battle Wizard except with his gun instead of magic, and Whelp Shedding. In addition, his stats are pretty mediocre - his offensive power is less than Mulg, not even adding more FURY, and while ARM 19 is pretty solid, 48 boxes is a lot less than you'd get from 2 heavies that cost the same amount of points. While I'm not terribly excited about him, I'll leave that discussion for all the Trollblood players. What I'd really like to focus on is what we can guess about the Archangel given this guy's stats.

On offense, I'm really optimistic about the Archangel. The Legion doesn't have anything that hits like Mulg, with most of our heavies striking at POW 17. If the Archangel has POW 19, or even 18 with reach, it'll be a great way to add some more punch to higher point armies. In addition, it has wings, making me think it'll be at least speed 6, if not 7. And of all the hordes armies, we tend to have the best guns on our heavies, so I'm looking forward to what he gets. On the downside, I don't think its going to have a FURY higher than 4. The Mountain King may be an exception since dire trolls naturally have FURY 5, but if that monstrosity doesn't get an extra point I doubt the Archangel will.

Everblight has never been known for defense, but I think the Archangel may become the exception. So far our heavies with wings have had solid DEF scores, particularly since we can buff it with Tenacity in nearly every army. While I don't think it'll happen, DEF 13 would be ideal, since with a 14 after tenacity most heavies will need an 8 to hit, forcing them to boost and depriving them of the attacks needed to chew through all the boxes. Even a DEF 12 would be amazing, though if its any lower, we're probably going to be better off focusing on ARM with Spiny Growth. Still, it's going to be exciting for the glass cannon faction to finally have something that isn't guaranteed to die to a charge from a heavy.

The last new release I want to mention is the Extreme Carnivean.

This is without a doubt my least favorite model in the Warmachine/Hordes range. It looks like the regular Carnivean bulked up, but his skin didn't stretch so its just torn over Incubi-like muscle. The claws look like oven mitts, too bloated to be used as open firsts, and the pose is just bizarre - maybe it would make sense as part of a diorama where the Carnivean is dodging an enemy attack, but on the table this guy can't dodge anything, an really shouldn't be trying. Why not a more aggressive stance like the Warpwolf Extreme or Dire Troll Mauler Extreme, or at least neutral like the Gladiator Extreme? Perhaps my least favorite part is the spines. Whats up with the fleshy rubberbands around them? Not only do they look terrible, they don't make any sense - how or why would those straps grow? Why are spines wrapped with muscle tissue? I'm really sad because the Carnivean is one of my favorite beasts, and I really feel like he gets bashed more than he deserves from the community, but this sculpt is just terrible.

So a rundown: Archangel yay, Extreme Carnivean boo. I should have another post up in a week or so with some actual progress on my army!