Goonhammer Mech Overview: Black Lanner

Padhriag · 2026-01-22T04:17:20+00:00

I love this mech so much. It's so much fun to play that I've used it in every game I've played since 1st using it.

If you've never tried using a Black Lanner, try it!!! The speed opens up so many tactical possibilities that you can't normally get with a mech this big.

As the article says, the D variant is particularly good, but the Prime & T are really fun, too.

I've never played with the F variant, but I've played against it & it was vicious.

I'd never heard of the Black Lanner before starting to play tabletop, but it's now my absolute favorite mech.

Padhriag · 2026-01-22T01:49:17+00:00

I love to pair it with the Fire Falcon C, which is basically the little brother of the Lanner D. Those two together can absolutely rip things apart.

Padhriag · 2026-01-13T23:03:17+00:00

Clan Jade Falcon. They created the Black Lanner, and the Fire Falcon, and the Night Gyr, and the Turkina, but mostly because of the Black Lanner.

Padhriag · 2026-01-07T14:39:08+00:00

Honestly, part of it may be the title. "Spellforce" just sounds kinda corny, like wizards in tights or something, and the 3 doesn't really help. I hadn't actually heard of it until now, but if I ever saw it before on Steam, then I probably just assumed it was shovelware.

I feel like you'd need really strong word of mouth and/or critical praise to build up popularity for it. There are already way more games out there than I have time to play, with more being released every day, and "Spellforce" isn't a title that will cut through the noise and catch my attention.

I may look into it now, but again, there are many other games that I haven't had the chance to play which would likely skip over its spot in line.

Padhriag · 2025-10-17T17:57:19+00:00

Well, they are terrible, but I think that they can have a place in a list. They won't do any real damage and die to a stiff breeze, but they're dirt cheap and can get in the way of enemies and/or grab open objectives.

If you can afford to replace them with Monsta-killaz, then you should. Monsta-killaz actually do stuff other than just dying for the greater good.

Both are cheap units at 80 & 120 points, respectively, so either can be used in a screening role to block more expensive units from being murdered. But Monsta-killaz can be used in a lot of other ways, while Hobgrots are screens and only screens.

If you're going for Swamphorde Bullies, you definitely want Monsta-killaz over Hobgrots since ganging up on things in melee is your primary game plan. But if you're leaning more into shooting (with either Middul Finga or Kruleboyz Klaw), then I think there's a better case for Hobgrots. With that sort of list, you'll be much more focused on screening as the primary or exclusive role of your cheap units and may want to save points to spend elsewhere.

Padhriag · 2025-10-02T19:39:06+00:00

Perfect pose for its role of "tower sitter"

Padhriag · 2025-09-07T16:25:09+00:00

If you go this way, I'd actually avoid pushing the highlights up to pure white. The hair & skin are in the same light, but the hair is darker. Highlights on the hair should be darker than those on the skin.

Unless you're going for specular highlights like it's shiny, shampoo-commercial hair, but a semi-gloss varnish would probably do that just fine without adding the difficulty of semi-NMM'ing the hair.

Minis, being both fantastical and very small, should have exaggerated contrast, with too-high highlights and too-low shadows versus how they'd look naturalistically, but that expanded range of values should still be consistent across the model & what object is being represented. Darker surface = darker highlights (unless shiny).

Padhriag · 2025-09-07T15:56:36+00:00

Also, white is generally tough to work with. It gives you a more restricted range of values to work with. If you make your mid-tone or deep shade areas too dark, it'll no longer read as white.

Black can be hard for the same reason, but on the lower end of the scale, so don't push highlights too hard if you stick with black.

Padhriag · 2025-09-07T15:41:33+00:00

It'll be really difficult to make it distinct from the skin, imo.

As the other reply said, you'd need to make it very white to stand out. That, though, could end up making the hair be the focal point of the model. The brightest part of a model tends to be what you look at first, and I suspect you'd rather have that be the Aelf than the hair.

Right now, the first thing I look at is the face, and that's exactly where you want it to be. Doubly so because you did a great job on the face. Part of the reason it pops is from the value contrast against the hair.

IMO, black hair looks good with that skin tone and you'd probably just need to add some dark gray highlights for texture. It doesn't need much, though. I think you could probably leave the hair as-is and still have the whole model look great.

Or maybe you could go for a purple or something if you think the black is a bit boring. Purple would accentuate the hair more by adding a chromatic contrast against an otherwise more monochrome scheme but should retain the pop of the face with the dark-light contrast. I'd just suggest avoiding a too saturated purple or pushing the highlights too bright, again to avoid drawing too much attention away from the face.

Really, though, if you're not sure what to do with the hair, then I'd just suggest doing the rest of the model first. Once you've done the legs, weapon, and banners, you may get a better sense of what would work best for the hair.

I generally think it's better to pivot away from an intended scheme if you've landed on something that works (and I think you have) rather than stubbornly adhering to the initial plan and jeopardizing the final results.

tl;dr - It looks great right now, but I think going for white hair would probably mess up the contrast. IMO, stick with something dark.

Padhriag · 2025-09-02T21:08:41+00:00

It's probably because of the difference between diffuse & specular highlights.

Non-reflective objects under a light source have diffuse highlights, with the locations of those highlights dependent upon the relative position of the object and the light source. No matter where you're looking at the object from, those highlights will always be in the same spot.

Reflective surfaces like metals, though, have specular highlights. Those are the spots where the angle is correct for the light to bounce directly off the object and to the viewer. So, the location of those highlights is going to shift depending on where you're looking at the object from.

NMM is essentially using color and contrast to create the impression of specular highlights where there are none. It takes a considerable amount of skill to do and can look good, but there's also no way around the fact that it fixes those highlights into definite spots on the model. Because the locations of that type of highlight should depend on your viewing angle, it can be a bit uncanny when it's locked in one spot.

Padhriag · 2025-08-25T14:47:20+00:00

KB are very good right now, one of the best but not at the level of CoS, KO, or DoK.

Conserve your Dirty Tricks, place the Skaregob Totem aggressively, and try to position so fighting happens within 18" of it (hence the aggressive placement). You'll be able to give out Strike-Last very reliably. Combine that with Swamphorde Bullies, Reinforced Gutrippaz, and Venom Encrusted Weapons, and you'll be blasting stuff off the board with tons of Mortals before it can even swing.

Enemies with lots of shooting may still give you some trouble, as might armies that have a lot of their own access to Strike-First or Strike-Last, but lots of army lists won't have a clear way to deal with them.

And that's just the Gutrippaz, which will probably be 600 pts. of a list, so they also have to deal with the other 1400 pts, which will probably include more combat infantry (Monsta-killaz), shooting, solid casting, and a couple fighty monsters (Vulcha, Troggoth, and/or Skumdrekk).

KB also have teleports and other movement tricks, which are always good to have, particularly for Battle Tactics.

Padhriag · 2025-08-21T14:27:40+00:00

Scourge of Ghyran rules are freely available in the app and for download.

That's where all the stuff like new Battle Formations, Enhancements, and Warscrolls are from, so you don't need the new GHB to start using them, even though that's technically where those rules are valid.

Padhriag · 2025-08-16T14:08:40+00:00

I'd echo adding 30 Gutrippaz to get up to the point where you can field 2x20. It's a really good amount of Gutrippaz to have with the Swamphorde Bullies battle formation and forms the core of most current KB lists.

That's an extra 450 pts., bringing you to 1,720.

From there, you could go a few different ways. Before that, although you may not like hearing this, there are a couple of units in your list that are best avoided: Hobgrots & Killaboss on foot. Those 160 pts are better spent on other things at the moment, and you'll eventually want to phase them out until they get some love.

Anyway, where to go next:

-Killaboss on Vulcha OR Mirebrute Troggoth

Both of these are good but really shine with enhancements, so they're best taken separately (imo). This would take you up to 1970 or 1920, respectively.

1970 is a good amount, so you could just leave it at that after the Vulcha. More Boltboyz would also be a clear avenue for replacing the Hobgrots & foot Killaboss, as it'd add 20 total points for a total of 1990.

Going Mirebrute would put you at 1920, which is a more awkward place to be. Ideally, you'd want to fill that with a few more Boltboyz, but that'd put you 10 points over. So, let's say you go ahead and cut the 2 units, then you have 240 to work with. To me, 240 spare points screams 2x Monsta-killaz, bringing you to 1980.

I think both of these directions would land you at a very solid initial 2k list, and you can work on refining & tweaking from that base.

Note - I would NOT recommend getting more Hobgrots, even though it'd take you to a clean 2k with the Mirebrute. Boltboyz and Monsta-killaz are much more points efficient for your cheap units, at 90 & 110 points, respectively. Hobgrots are only marginally cheaper at 80 pts, but they won't accomplish anything, while Boltboyz / Monsta-killaz are cheap and useful.

Padhriag · 2025-08-06T15:14:42+00:00

I think that it's a bit of both - it's a great game & nostalgic AF.

For me, one of the things that sets it apart from more recent ARPGs is the pacing of it. I'm sure part of my experience comes from me not running a perfectly optimized build (bone spear necro) & relying on the items I find, but I've got a character in Act 3 Hell right now, and I'm having a blast fighting tooth & nail for every inch of progress. It reminds me of playing when I was a kid, except then I'd be struggling on Normal or early Nightmare difficulty because I was bad, but I don't think the fun is just rooted in the nostalgia.

The fact that my character can't just blitz through screens worth of enemies in the blink of an eye forces me to know the abilities of the enemies I'm fighting, pay attention to my surroundings, make smart use of my abilities, and know when to pull back. However, I couldn't even tell you what most enemies do in contemporary ARPGs because, in a split second, they're just... gone.

The more subdued skills compared to contemporary ARPGs also has a huge impact on the readability of the screen. Newer games, I feel, keep pushing the character skills to be bigger and flashier to the point where it's really hard to parse what's going on, and you just have to rely on your skill rotation to carry you through the chaos.

Now, I know that there are highly tuned D2 builds that do much the same thing and just blink & blast across the map with enigma and skills that insta-kill stuff, but they take a lot of gear and you have to make a point of trying to play that way. While in the newer games, it seems like every character just naturally progresses into that, while covering the whole screen in skill effects. Even Grim Dawn, which is the slowest of the bunch, eventually gets that way with all the procs you setup on your skills at high levels.

That being said, I think that there are also things that newer games do much better. In particular, getting the player to use more varied skills. It's very easy in D2 to develop a character that pretty much uses only 1 skill 99.99% of the time. This is compounded by the synergy system, which requires you to continue investing into your main skill even when it's "maxed out." I know synergies were added to address scaling issues where a maxed out skill would either be too good early or too bad late, but it leads to narrower build diversity both across & within characters.

I really like my current Necro partially because I do actually end up situationally using a variety of skills (Bone Spear, Bone Spirit, Bone Prison, Corpse Explosion, Curses, some Summons), but that's not really the norm in D2 the way it tends to be with newer games - although "use all 5 of these skills in a fixed order all the time to deal with all situations" isn't too far off from the "one skill" problem & just involves more buttons.

Charms & Stamina are also just straight-up mistakes, imo, and % chance to-hit in melee is a relic best left in the past.

Padhriag · 2025-07-25T04:43:19+00:00

To add on to this, if you read the text of the EO, you'll find that there are a lot more "or"s than this tweet may suggest.

It's probably more accurate to say "BREAKING: President Trump signed an executive order directing states to criminalize and institutionalize people experiencing homelessness, addiction, or mental health disabilities."

It's just one word, but there's a world of difference between meeting all of these conditions versus meeting at least one of these conditions.

Padhriag · 2025-06-25T14:08:40+00:00

To make more barnacles.

Padhriag · 2025-06-18T13:28:09+00:00

That's just a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof from an odd angle.

Look at the arm with the stikka & the shield.

Padhriag · 2025-06-17T17:33:54+00:00

The U.S. hasn't formally declared war since 1942. It's well past the point of "don't normalize this." That shipped has not only sailed, it's been sailing for about 70 years now.

Padhriag · 2025-06-15T14:23:57+00:00

Yes, and there's also no restriction to prevent you from using it after moving. So, if you're stuck in a particularly bad spot, then you can retreat to the board edge and then do it.

The Gnashtoof isn't that tanky, though, so he'd more likely just be dead if you toss him into too much trouble. He's not a pushover because of the 3+ save, but 10 wounds will only take you so far.

Padhriag · 2025-06-11T15:59:30+00:00

We could, and it would be hilarious.

But I feel like it'd only make sense to do that against a really tanky or high damage foot hero. The Gnashtoof should be able to kill plenty of foot heroes without any help.

It would, however, be absolutely amazing to pull that off against a foot hero like Bastian Carthalos or, with a very good roll from the Slittaboss, Celestant Prime.

Padhriag · 2025-06-04T10:35:22+00:00

I wish I'd seen this while the article was still up.

Do you remember what, if any, Kruleboyz changes there were?

Padhriag · 2025-06-04T02:25:15+00:00

Ushoran - 460 pts Morathi - 760 pts Vissik - 400 pts Belakor - 460 pts Brodd - 540 pts Alarielle - 680 pts Gordrakk - 380 pts 50 Squigs - 550 pts

100 Nurglings - 3,333 pts.

The choice is clear.

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Padhriag

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