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Thursday, December 08, 2011

Showcase: Gnarlhorn and Pureblood

To continue with my painting streak, I finally decided to finish my Gnarlhorn and Pureblood Warpwolf.  Much like my Druids, I had started and essentially finished these two warbeasts over the summer while I was in Savannah, but I had never gotten around to basing them because my basing stuff was packed away for so long.  These are two warbeasts that I absolutely love and they find their way into many of my lists, so I figured that it was about time that I touch them up, finish basing them, and seal them.  I did complete painting these two guys prior to finishing the Gorax, so you'll notice that the musculature is not as highlighted as I wanted.  Still, I think they look pretty good, even if their skin looks a little too flat.

I love the Pureblood Warpwolf.  It's the perfect blend of an awesome model, great rules, and a fantastic toolbox of skills and abilities for any Circle warlock.  His animus is situational, but can be great in a pinch.  He brings a SP10 (!) POW 14 (!) magical spray too!  While his RAT is pretty low (although typical for a spray), he's still able to force to boost against targets and I find that he will often tag warcasters/warlocks for a few points to make it easier to finish them off later.
Also, the model is pretty awesome
I did receive these models second-hand, and the Pureblood was missing a few of his back armor spikes, so I had to sculpt with greenstuff to replace them.  You might be able to pick out which ones they were, but if you can't, then I guess I did a pretty good job!
Overall I'm pleased with how the Pureblood came out and he will find his way into most of my lists as a signature anti-cryx warbeast.  He's a little "pillow-fisted" at only P+S 14 (16 if he Warps STR), but he doesn't need to fill that role in most of my lists.  He's great at getting to some great angles and then spraying the crap out of stuff!  Circle is apparently an army with lots of sprays, and this one is hilarious with the Kayas as well.
The musculature is not as defined as it is on the Gorax



The Gnarlhorn is one of my other favorite models in Circle, and was one of the first models that I saw someone fielding back in the days of Hordes Mk1.  I love everything about the model, and he's also a solid addition to most of my lists, even if he is similarly pillow-fisted like the Pureblood.
His horns do the damage anyway
For 8 points the Gnarlhorn is a fantastic warbeast.  His animus Bounding is solid, as it gives +2" to charge movement as well as +2 to the charge attack roll (which is usually the one that matters most!).  Not only that, but he sports Counter Slam which is, at best, able to catch an opponent off guard and slam a model far away (with Grand Slam to throw him back even farther), but most of the time it's just a solid deterrent for your opponent and makes them think twice about their activation order.
I love this guy!
While he only sports P+S 14 on his fists, he should be slamming into a model with his P+S 15 horns and then following-up to beat him while he's down with his horns anyway.  He's also a great candidate for Primal, as he will often find himself slamming a target deep into your opponent's lines and will likely die next turn anyway, and you'll want to be able to wreck a target and maybe even smack another.
He's also a solid chunk of metal
I could keep gushing about the Gnarlhorn, but my advice to you is to look beyond his seemingly-bad statline and just give him a try.  Slamming can be devastating, especially since he can slam so far.  Counter slam can be a fantastic ability for keeping your warlock safe, and his animus is also great for extending the threat range of our heavies like the Stalker or the Feral Warpwolf.

Plus the model is awesome.