Farrow Warlord - SS, DD

Filler post!

The Farrow Brigand Warlord was just released at Gencon, and with it followed a wave of emotions (mostly positive for myself personally as a Gator player who does not play Pigs at all, but as a player of the game, a little more sombre).

 

This was the first thing released to the interwebs, posted on Twitter by Will Shick before the Gencon shop opened. 

Reactions were mixed: on one side, Gang and Reform are both really good abilities for any unit with some melee capability, and Prowl is also useful on a (potentially) Pathfinder unit. 

On the other side, these abilities don't particularly synergize with Brigands, who are at base a pretty weak unit. Reform breaks Dig-In, Prowl more or less depends on a forest being on the table (since Pigs have no cloud creation available), Gang is good but not great on a non-reach unit without melee focus. I mean, there are great synergies with Carver - reform is awesome with Quagmire, and Gang is great with Overtake + Weapon Master. But giving them CRA alone already made them decent with Carver, so they really needed to be more useful with other warlocks thatn even better with Carver.

Overall, at this point my opinion of the UA coincided with Immortan Joe's:

 

There was some discussion about whether he would be worth it for 2pts, and probably a good option for the unit at 1pt. Then 12 hours later, we got the front of the card:

3pts. Pigs - Same Shit, Different Day.

On the positive side, he is a pretty decent model with good stats, 2 RNG:10 POW12 gunshots at RAT 6, Gunfighter for 3 POW12 attacks and some decent options with all his abilities and access to Prayers. If he had everything he had with the unit, minus the unit, he'd be a good 2pt combat solo.

On the side of reality, there is no reason for this guy to cost 3pts as a UA. He brings the unit up to 1pt per model and doesn't really provide them with a specific use. Sure, it makes them even better with Carver and as noted previously, the abilities he grants are not bad. They are just not the right abilities. It makes them relatively worse with everyone else in Pigs. It is not what the Brigands needed to be useful or interesting. It makes them bad Trenchers, a different kind of mediocre.

Much like the Razor Boar's animus, this is wasted design space. 

What stings the most (other than the inexplicable 3pts) is not what is there, but what isn't.

Why is this a UA? A UA is supposed to either improve or redefine a unit.
For example the Legion Warspear UA (2pts AND a better model, trololol) makes them a lot more numerically efficient and gives Relentless Charge, both issues the unit previously had compared to other Legion options (and Gatormans). He brings a previously underpowered unit up to par.
On the redefinition side. Tyrant Vorkesh (Cetrati UA) is a model than make the unit better in some lists and worst in others, depending on its intended purpose and matchups. He allows you to use an already good unit differently, in different lists, against different matchups.

The Warlord neither improves nor redefines Brigands. He gives them more tactical options, for quite a few more points. Unfortunately, Brigands are an underpowered, ill-defined unit that needed improvement, or could have done with some redefinition.

Much like the Farrow, this release lacks focus. 

Nobody really knows what the design of Farrow is supposed to be. Some say chaos, some say combined arms, some say Mad Max, some say cool models, some even say just being bad.

It's like they designed this sweet mini-Carver solo, and attached him to a unit as an afterthought. There is no particular synergy between the two.
He's a pretty bad ass fighter, but his best two abilities are Granted rather than Tactics, so you really don't want to get him sniped (and he is a pretty good target to snipe out) therefore keep him back (reducing his combat potential until after engagement).
He has gunfighter, but it doesn't stack with gang

The more you think about it, the more you focus on what isn't there, rather than what is there. That is the sign of missed opportunities, and it probably all comes back to 'it's probably too good with Carver'.

TL;DR

Pigs are the joke that keeps on giving. Except the joke is more of a Comedian / Joker style of joke, or Rorschach's Palliaci joke.

Sorry, Farrow players. I understand your loss.
But then again, I just don't understand why you keep at it. Just on the other side of the pond, we just got Croak Raiders - who are better than Brigands with the UA, for less points, for every other faction in Hordes. GG.