Whelps Tactica: Or How Snacks On Legs Can Help You Win!

Whelps Tactica: 
Or How Snacks On Legs Can Help You Win!
by GreenJello 



Whelps are the annoying little buggers than spawn when a Dire Troll gets hit and loses a limb or something smaller. Due to their regenerative power, the severed part takes on a life of it's own.

Battlefield Role
Whelps can fill a surprising number of roles in the battlefield. At 5 for 2 points, it's quite a deal for an army that usually has a low model count.

Annoyance
Whelps can be used to block charge lanes, prevent models from moving, engage range units, or contesting/claiming zones. They also reduce enemy model attack rolls by -1. 

Fury Management/Healing
Whelps can be eaten by Dire Trolls to manage their fury or heal.

Whelps are also great for helping to mitigate free strikes. Move away take a free strike, spawn whelp. As long as you end up within that 1" of the whelp you can then eat them to help with lost aspects.

This is really helpful with tramples. Trample forward take a free strike and lose an aspect. Spawn whelp and eat, heal d3, get aspect back. And buy attacks as normal. 

Card
Whelp stats are some of the worst in the game, including the lowest command stat it's possible to have. Yes it's really a 1, that's not a typo.  For the most part, only their SPD5 and low DEF/ARM are really relevant. They're a little slow, and will die to a stiff breeze.

Alternative Food Source
A friendly warbeast can eat them and heal d3. It's essentially Snacking, but it works without a melee attack, and can be used by light warbeasts. Since this requires them to be within 1", it's very tempting to place them around the warbeast, inviting AOEs to wipe out multiple Whelps. Far better to activate the Whelp, move it up, then activate the Warbeast and eat the whelps.

Annoyance
-1 to living enemy model attack rolls with 1". This makes them a little better at being a harassing model, particularly against melee, where it effectively raises their DEF to 13.

Big Brother
Fearless near friendly warbeasts. (Have you seen the CMD stat? )

Comfort Food
Allows removal of any number of fury points for one whelp. This is one of the main reasons to take whelps, since we do not have any other fury management solos.

Spawn Whelps
Allows a whelp to be put into play within 2" of warbeast, when that warbeast is damage. Be careful when doing this that it won't be easy for whatever is attacking your warbeast to also kill the whelps, and do not place them too close to together, since they'll all die to a single AOE3. 1" away from a large warbeast and 1.5" away from a medium warbeast are enough to ensure that even a 5" AOE won't be able to hit them.

This ability can be used to grant immunity to drags on our warbeasts. Harpooner hits warbeast, and wounds beast. Beast spawns a whelp in the path of the drag. A model in the path stops a drag.

http://privateerpressforums.com/show...=1#post1881386

Please note that you have to have bought the Whelps before hand with points, unless you're using the Mountain King. The wording's a little unclear, but there have been a number of clarifications from the Infernals on this point.