Humans Of The Northern Alliance

Brace yourselves everybody – it may be June, but winter is coming…

We love the foundations of classic fantasy, but it’s always good to freshen things up with something new! In the same way that the Nightstalkers brought cosmic horror onto fantasy wargaming tables in 2019, the Northern Alliance spiced things up with their tribal aesthetic and winter warfare gameplay mechanics.

Now that they're gearing up for fresh battles, it's time to start covering some of what's changing with some of your existing units.

Leaders Of The Pack

Pack Hunters are well-balanced and pointed to begin with, so are largely unchanged. They gain the Tundra Fighters special rule, which represents the Northern Alliance’s ability to spot (and pick on) enemy fighters succumbing to the cold through ice magic or the chilling presence of certain units. We will talk much more about this in an upcoming video, and show you in full how it works!

This rule will be available to a variety of Northern Alliance units, and rewards very different units working effectively together against their common enemy. It's extremely characterful, and will open up very cool synergies across the list.

Introducing The Tribesmen

The Clansmen unit profile wasn’t fully serving its desired purpose within the current list. They are supposed to be the robust core of the army, and following a rules revamp have emerged as Tribesmen.

Their points and stats place these grizzled fighters in between your standard Clan Warriors and the more elite Berserker units. As well as 2-handed weapon options, they will have access to the new Tundra Fighters special rule as a unit upgrade.

To Unsnarl A Huscarl

Although we have a soft spot for the Huscarls, there are things here that need fixing for the new army list and miniatures range.

The old Huscarls are made from PVC – a material we are moving away from, especially for infantry. They are too similar to the Tribesmen for a separate hard plastic frame, and they would become more expensive than we would like if made wholly from resin.

We want to support our players who have these miniatures, which has led to the creation of the Hearthguard - a special upgrade to the Tribesmen regiment. These models will keep their well-liked stats, heavy infantry footprint, and up to two units can be taken per army.

For players without the old PVC models, we will have a brand new upgrade kit coming soon that can also turn the Tribesmen hard plastic kit into the new Hearthguard unit- watch this space!

So What's Next?

The Northern Alliance is getting a new style of synergistic play which will particularly reward good use of combined arms tactics alongside the Frozen mechanic. The Hearthguard are a no-nonsense hammer that will fit well within this new style of play, and we'll expand on this in an upcoming video.

As always, we're continuing on our mission to add fresh ideas, flavour and fun to your games while maintaining the competitive balance between the factions of Pannithor.

Coming soon: (i) the reveal of our brand new hard plastic kits, (ii) faction tactics and design commentary, and (iii) the very first details of our upcoming global campaign...

If you've ever been tempted by a Northern Alliance army, there's never been a better time to start!