Forces of Minions & Thoughts on Thornfall Alliance

I finally was able to pick up the Forces Book: Minions...up in NJ. Apparently my LGS in Plano has not wanted to get the new releases in since late November, but that is a gripe for another day. I immediately flipped to the tiers to review what was already spoiled for Carver and Arkadius, then reviewed the units and fluff.

The tiers and pact benefits excited mixed emotions from me. I enjoy the AD Farrow units for the pact - this greatly improves the benefit of the Razorback artillery. I think that the loss of AD when taking the tiers is greatly underestimated in my opinion. Sure we can look at Carver's and say, "But I get a lot more Brigands!" but in the end, it is about getting the alpha strike first. The pact being able to clear out the opponent's AD units and models first, then being able to get a jump on the heavier (and slower) part of the army in my eyes is the benefit of the pact.

However, for Carver's tier some items should not be ignored. 4/7 Brigands is huge and the FA: U means I can take cheap min units. It's almost like Mechanithrall cheap good. Carver immediately pushes this into ungodly good with the CRA benefits to the Brigands. Cheap CRA units? That can make both ranged and melee/Dig In actions? Yes please. Only one Brigand unit or Razorback unit gets AD (I would pick the Razorback) so kind of meh and the advance move for the T4 benefit gives me a little bit more of a jump for my SPD 4 beasts.

Something I think is overlooked in the tier is the point reductions for warbeasts controlled by Rorsh. Definitely risky, but I think the right combination could pay dividends. Reserving R&B as a 2nd or 3rd wave to get awesome assassination vectors means that they may not be doing a whole lot immediately. Why not give Rorsh a gun boar or two then? The Gun Boar's animus greatly helps Rorsh (using dynamite on the opponent's turn!) and it's not fury intensive or control-range restrictive as using a War Hog. It also alleviates fury management issues with Carver. I will have to try it out further, but I'm enjoying the idea of this one. It probably would not work in a 35pt list, but at 50 the idea merits further research.

Arkadius plays much differently. The advance deploying warbeasts reversing the loss of the AD units, although I don't like the idea of dropping certain ones. Point reduction in the War Hogs and huge alpha strike potential is immediately clear, but there is a lack of support overall from the rest of the army. This is one where I would have liked the Razorback ADing as well. Rorsh & Brine do not bring anything immediate to Arkadius and for dealing with pesky solos I would like to have Alten, Orrick, or Pendrake. I think Arkadius definitely brings something quite different to the table though. He might be the better caster to take for the pact than tier, if you can swallow the points.

I'll experiment further - hopefully I can borrow some models and see what exactly what is needed to purchase.