This should be a little bit of a shorter post as I'm not going to be diving overly deep into math or special rules and instead just briefly talking about Hunters and why I believe they are one of the best front lint units W'adrhun have access to and possible one of the best in the game. The title mentions Alton Brown the creator of one of my favorite shows Good Eats in which he goes full nerd on cooking. As the cookery happens to be my other main hobby the crossover title makes me very happy.
In numerous episodes of Good Eats Alton mentions that he has very little space or time in his kitchen for unitaskers - gadgets that are only really good for one function. I find this principle applies as well to much of my list building. I prefer regiments that bring flexibility for the majority of my lists. Not every regiment can be a multitasker, sometimes there is plenty of value in just hits really hard, but the core components of almost every list I build are units that can play multiple roles for me. Hunters in their current form are ideal for this.
An off-hand look at Hunters reveals a light regiment with decidedly average volley and medium range but also with some solid ranged special rules in armor piercing (1) and deadly shot. A closer look shows a unit with decent mobility in March 6, 5 attacks per stand at average for W'adrhun clash 2, and access to a few powerful and interesting officers. Oddly the only regiment in the faction with more officer access is Blooded.
The combination of base abilities and special rules access is what turns this into a core unit for me. I tend to use them in regiments of 4 stands with an officer. The ranged output of 4 stands is 17 barrage shots and if you can aim you are likely to kill a stand of the vast majority of non-monsters in the game. You also present a regiment that outputs potentially 21 melee attacks. Yes they are clash 2 and no cleave but also they are lights and we have chanting to make them pretty reliably clash 4. 21 clash 4 melee attacks is legitimately threatening to most units that want to simply run in and tie up a normal ranged unit.
I know I said this wouldn't have a lot of math but that's something like 9 to 10 wounds into the average unit I use in my other articles in melee...for a ranged unit that can already have killed a stand at range. It's a devastating combination that requires attention. They are as good in combat as Braves and nearly as good as Blooded. So we have a unit that is competent at shooting, competent at melee, on the table early allowing scenario pressure and board control and they have some specialization options from their officer choice.
Let's take a brief look at those officer options. The flint knapper will elevate their ranged output by guaranteeing you get your armor pierce and giving you re-rolls. This is exceptional against Dweghom and solid against both Old Dominion and City States. The Tracker gives you Fiend Hunter for rerolls both at ranged and in melee against brutes and monsters and flank assuring you can start on the table turn 1 to create pressure. Finally the Skirmisher puts your mobility in line with most cavalry allowing you to further press the board and create difficult choices for opponents.
When it comes to chant options Hunters play well with all 4 chants. Famine pushes a little bit more into an aggressive forward unit that can shoot one round and the next be making some impressively long charges and applying good output through shock. Death and War both allow a more conservative game plan. Death tier 1 giving a flat +1 clash is a substantial improvement the to danger Hunters pose to anything simply running at them while War 1 won't make them tanks by any means the bonus to defense can be important in an early shoot out although I wouldn't expect them to survive much. Conquest is a little bit different but no less potent. The 3" bonus movement at tier 1 extends their walk and shoot range from 20" to 23" allowing them to threaten regiments your opponent might have hoped were out of range.
Currently I'm using 3 regiments of them to form the front of my army. I use a pair of 4 stand regiments with flint knappers to provide a threatening forward element that also protects my slinger regiments and more centrally a deploy a 3 stand regiment with a tracker with my Matriarch Queen. The queen enables this regiment to score keeping me with 4 potential scoring regiments despite 5 or my 8 regiments being light and with flank I can use my single auto deploy choice on a non-character unit. I've found liberally using flank makes it very challenging for most opponents as I will have 4 to 5 units on the table round 1 that all present ranged threats and the 2 most forward units are the stands of hunters that can also fight in melee.
I might tackle flank and positional advantage in another article in detail as it is hard to overstate how difficult it makes things for opponents when you have 5 regiments on on round 1 and all 8 by turn 3 with little to no rolling. The consistency and volume of deployment has had substantial impact in my test games.
This went a little longer than I had planned but I hope after reading you take a second look and Hunters as they aren't just a basic ranged unit but a versatile and powerful multitasker of a regiment that brings a number of impactful tools to any list.
-K
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