About a month ago, Para Bellum posted a little surprise to their youtube channel.
This absolutely beautiful bastard is the Sea Jotnar, an awaited Nord monster thats been in the works for a while, it would seem.
Obviously I’m immensely excited for the model; the Ice Jotnar is easily among my favorite models in Para Bellum’s entire model line, and this definitely takes from its aesthetic style (new Mountain Jotnar when? plz?) and is just awesome to behold. Aside from that, though, the Sea Jotnar’s rules really differentiate it from its more melee-focused cousins… so let’s take a look at what he does!
The Sea Jotnar is, of course, a Monster and sticks with its cousins in the Heavy category. On first glance at the statline itself, it lags behind the other two actually quite a bit. It’s slightly more expensive than a Mountain Jotnar but with three less attacks, two less wounds, and one less point of defense. The only upgrades as far as the statline itself goes are a nice Evasion 1 which can come in handy in some cases, and of course its Volley stat of 3, which is our first sign of where this giant is different from the others.
He follows the Mountain Jotnar in having both Cleave 2 and Terrifying 1, meaning that while it does have less attacks than is typical for its cost, it’s still no slouch if it’s forced into melee. Fiend Hunter gives it re-rolls to hit into Monsters, greatly increasing its effectiveness into other Monster models. Fiend Hunter is a fantastic rule in general, mainly due to how strong many Monsters are in Conquest. Apex Predators, the Fallen Divinity, and even other Jotnars often are the real powerhouses of the armies they’re brought in, and Fiend Hunter lets you put a ton more damage through on these targets.
The main draw of the Sea Jotnar is, of course, its ranged attack, which is where it becomes truly unique between the three Jotnars. Barrage 10 is a very respectable number of attacks, especially combined with Strong Arm and a 16″ range. This means it isn’t exactly reaching out as far as Longbowmen or Marksman Clones, but will be extremely effective when it does get into its effective range. Add in Armor Piercing 1 and, situationally, Fiend Hunter against Monsters makes the Sea Jotnar into a real artillery piece.
The thing that’s exciting about this is that as is, Nords don’t have many currently released ranged options. Stalkers are of course fairly light shooters and aren’t typically taken primarily for their output, but aside from that Nords only real ranged options are Bow-Chosen and Sea Jotnars. Bow-Chosen are, of course, fantastic but are also enormously expensive, making the Sea Jotnar by far the cheapest ranged support option available to the faction. An Ice Jotnar can have some ranged impact with its Rime Storm spell, but is not terribly consistent with that spell and is, similar to the Bow-Chosen, enormously expensive in comparison. The Sea Jotnar is going to add a real dynamic to Nord list building which is very exciting! Plus, let’s be honest… it’s more super cool giants. Can’t say no to that.
How are you thinking about using the new Sea Jotnar? Are you excited for the model? Have you tried proxying it already? Let me know what you think in the comments!