Just finished reading through the latest No Quarter Magazine (33), the theme strongly set on Minions with more previews and a awesome battle report between Blindwater's Bloody Barnabas and The Farrow's Lord Carver. For those curious about the new Blindwater Congregation, NQ32 shows the Bull Snapper light warbeast hinted at in NQ32 as support beast to fellow gators with some melee punch. Naturally this opened up speculation of shield walling or even counter attack possibilities.
Statistically, the Snapper has average stats all-round for a light warbeast, at first glance the POW12 bite is unimpressive, defence low like all other gators and has a relatively low ARM of 14 which seems to move away from the idea of Gators being a ARM reliant force, or does it?...
Where this beast begins to shine however , is the abilities. At a ability to cost ratio the Bull Snapper is magnificent, for 3 points we get access to sustained attack, non-forced +2 charges vs living models and of course it's Animus: Spiny Growth. This is a very defensive ability as mentioned in the last NQ, which grants + 2 armour within 6" making the Wrastler a very impressive ARM 21. As a further benefit any Warjack or Warbeast that hits a model under Spiny Growth takes D3 damage. While this means the Snapper can bump it's own ARM to 16, at time of writing I am viewing this ability as a very effective anti assassination tool when stacked with Bloody Barnabas, most 5 wound melee assassins (Manhunters?) will be able to land hits but will struggle to bypass ARM21, culminating in 2D3 Spiny Growth wounds and a very alive (and angry) Barnarbas ready to bite back...
There is one ability(limitation?) however: Torpid. Should your Snapper destroy a living model, it's activation ends after resolving attack, you then get to remove 1 Fury point. On the one hand, you gain a Fury, on the other though you need to make sure you have done everything you need to in terms of buffing before committing to combat, food for though? *sorry* Again for the cost of 3 points, it is a lot of supportive ability and sustained attack, so rest assured this warbeast can provide some hurt when required. I am really looking forward to picking one up (8th Dec!) as I am intrigued by the rules and really like the sculpt. With the Force book arriving at the same time, I will be interested to see if more Blindwater figures are due (after all Wrath is scheduled for June!) and also if those figures will be beasts to reflect the more savage nature of the Blindwater Congregation.
Pre-order a BullSnapper today! Pick up all the latest Wargaming releases and pre-orders from: Wayland Games - Discount Wargames
Thanks for reading,
DiStudios
The 14th Legion