Minis Week in Review: Cygnar Storm Strider, Orcs and Goblins

In keeping with past weeks, it looks like Privateer Press has been doling out Battle Engine stuff at the end of every week, and this week was no exception. We see the arrival of the Cygnar Storm Strider in it’s fully painted glory, and it is a sight to behold.

The Storm Strider represents the largest battlefield implementation of Stormsmith technology, so it’s only natural that Cygnar’s battle engine bears some resemblance in game play to the Stormsmith Storm Tower light artillery. The power of the lightning fields drawn to this towering storm’s eye exceed those of smaller lightning staves or rods, and the nimbus of voltaic energy surrounding the tower focuses the electrical blasts of nearby Storm Knights on Cygnar’s foes. Able to send powerful bolts of lightning arcing deep into enemy lines, it also builds up an increasing static charge from enemy attacks. This causes a damaged Storm Strider to become more and more deadly as the battle progresses.

So, giant tripod shooting electrical death into the opposing army? Check. Buffing (I think the accuracy of) Stormnouns? Check. What we didn’t think it would have would be some sort of increase in offensive power as it gets killed. I sure hope it’s just a POW buff and not something like Might of Kings. That would be crazy.

We’ve also got a 360 degree view of Retribution’s Arcantrik Force Generator, and the inside of the Beetly Engine looks pretty interesting too. Just not as cool as Cygnar or Khador’s. 😉

Bloodthirsty, tough as nails, and strong enough to hack the arms off a gorax, slaughterhousers serve as vicious shock troops in farrow warbands. Heedless of danger, slaughterhouser units charge recklessly into battle, cutting a wide swath through the enemy with their massive pole cleavers and shaking off wounds that would kill or incapacitate lesser farrow.

More details on the Farrow Slaughterhousers seem to further confirm the idea of medium based multiwound models. The sound like Piggy versions of the Everblight Blighted Ogrun. Which would be frightening.

On the GW side, the O&G army book and Arachnarok Spiders have been making their way into the FLGS, and I got to check both out.

The O&G book is pretty interesting. Hardcover and about the size of one of PP’s ‘Forces of’ books, the codex is also finally fully printed in colour. Too bad most of the pictures are in a sepia tone. While it does make it look a bit more ‘aged’, I’d have preferred full colour pictures as well. Shame to have full colour printing with essentially B&W art. I can’t judge the meat and potatoes of the book, but veterans at the store also seemed a bit put off with the new army book. Something about the small spread of magic items limiting the ways the O&G army could be played?

The Arachnarok Spider though is a technical Marvel. The spider itself is made up of like a bazillion interlocking bits, but because of the way it’s engineered and built up (carapace by carapace), it’s actually pretty easy to put together, and the outermost parts hide the seamlines of the inner bits. The only thing that gets me is the howdah. It looks incredibly fragile (detailed, but fragile), and would definitely need a lot of care to make sure it doesn’t get destroyed.

Although, as a D&D player, all I can think about is to combine the Arachnarok and the Keeper of Secrets and make Lolth.

Speaking of Forgeworld, they’ve got a new model out for Forgeworld Fantasy in the form of Theodore Bruckner. Thank god for some non Daemony stuff! He looks good too, with his detail and armor. I’ve never heard of a Demigryph though, let alone a fell one.

Lastly, GW is also giving out more Apocalypse Data Sheets; this time two different forces that could be used by the Blood Angels. Fast Land Raiders? *shudders*

And with that, this week’s minis review draws to a close. We’re missing fully painted pictures of theCryx and Menoth Battle Engines, care to take votes on who’ll be coming in next? We’ll definitely be seeing more of them come the next No Quarter…