Warcry- The Untamed Beasts

Starting to get into Warcry a bit, I've decided to write up a couple posts on what I think about the warbands I play and how I use specific things in them. To start with I'll start with the warband that got me into the game, the Untamed Beasts, and discuss what I think about them in general. 

Faction Abilities

The model-specific ones I'll mention below because they're more relevant there, but the generic ones I'll discuss here

Savage Fury is a pretty simple +1 to move and attacks, but only for 1 action each. Acting as a middle-ground between Onslaught and Rush is great for if you want to move and attack, as you will get a bonus for both, but otherwise I would consider what you're getting out of it and the specific situation

All-Out Attack is only for your leader, and just gives him a free attack or move if he takes another fighter out of action. For a double it's pretty good and if you can set it up getting an extra action is never a bad thing. 

Beastmaster is the last of the doubles, and is for the Beastspeaker only. It lets her give a bonus attack to a Beast within 4" which is simple but really effective, because it gives your excellent Rocktusk Prowlers more attacks so they can chew through enemies. 

Pounce is the Prowler's triple, and lets you damage a fighter within 1" equal to the value of the ability when you end a move within 1" of an enemy. In effect giving you a 9" range to damage someone it's pretty great in almost every case, and on a model that already has good damage just makes it better. 

Harpoon Snag is the triple for the First Fang, which gives you a free shooting attack followed by moving the target a distance equal to the value of the dice used. This can be a great way to drag models off of objectives, treasure-carrying models into your warband to kill them or just to relocate enemy models to take heat off other things you can use to score. 

Unleash the Beast- The Untamed Beasts' quad, this is pretty rough when it goes off. Doesn't give free actions like Rampage does, but it's still really good if you want to be absolutely sure something dies and if you put it on a Rocktusk Prowler or Heart-Eater things are going to get removed really quickly. 

Heart-Eater

As the leader you have to take one, but he's not bad. He has an almost identical stat line to the Rocktusk Prowler just slower, and in general for 180 points he's pretty worth it with what he does. Not much else to say with no other leader options though. 

First Fang

The First Fang has a lot of utility and can be really great for zone control, but you have to play him carefully and he doesn't do huge amounts of damage compared to models in the same niche in other warbands. His melee isn't fantastic and he's one of the slower models in the warband, but he brings the harpoon which is good damage (low dice, but it's a ranged attack and plays with his triple)

Rocktusk Prowler

My favourite model in the warband, the Rocktusk Prowler just does work. Great damage which plays great with any of the damage-boosting abilities (of which there are a lot that affect the Prowler), insane movement and 20 wounds make these really great purchases at 180 points. My only complaint is that there's only one in the box, because I really do love these beasts so much!

Beastspeaker

Simply because of the triple it has and how that plays off the Rocktusk Prowler, I will always take a Beastspeaker. The 4" melee is also pretty good so she can stay somewhat safer while she hits things, but her actual damage output isn't fantastic outside of getting the Prowler to hit more (which is in itself amazing IMO) 

Preytakers

These are my least favourite model in the warband, mostly because they exist in a bit of a mid-role and don't excel in any one job. They're almost double the cost of Plainsrunners for 2 more wounds, an extra toughness and a better melee weapon but they lose out on movement (the big one here) and the change in weapon doesn't really justify the hike. Going from 1 to 2 damage on regular hits is good, as is the extra strength in the case of the axe, but spending points elsewhere will almost always be a better option unless you have 105 points to spare exactly (and even then, you could probably go for a thrall)

Plainsrunners

These guys are really just disposable chaff and are meant to grab objectives or slow enemies down. They aren't fantastic stat wise but they're cheap enough to justify and I would take at least 2 in most lists I'm running.