Brunhilde
Even as other giants go, Brunhilde is an incredibly powerful one in melee.
‘Giant-Forged Blades’
Giant support, Giant songs and Giant damage
Although Loubard may have a better damage potential when given a myriad of buffs, it is Brunhilde who will be the best equipped for dealing damage at the start of the turn. Firstly, 'Giant-Forged Blades' increase damage by +2 for slicing and piercing damage, but not impact. However, the only impact damage cards can also be used as slicing or piercing, so this will only ever be an issue in extremely specific situations where an opponent reduces only slicing or only piercing damage. As well as +2 damage on what is essentially nearly all attacks, Brunhilde has an excellent, for a giant, 4 melee. Whilst this is only 1 above Loubard and Gotchgut, the extra 1 melee card means she will far more reliably crit and a good crit with +2 damage is usually enough to kill most models in the game.
‘Loyalty’ and ‘Bodyguard’
In addition to this excellent damage output, Brunhilde also has some mobility tricks to get into combat sooner and start dealing damage faster! With careful positioning and timing, a noble can move roughly to where Brunhilde wants to be, then Brunhilde can use 'Loyalty' to turn a 1 energy reaction step into a 3" move. With even better positioning she could do this twice, doing 2 of these larger reaction steps then jogging during her activation for a 10" move overall!
“Who would like to hear another epic ballad? I know dozens more.”
Although this is an excellent use of 'Loyalty' it's arguably not its intended use, rather it is normally used to make sure Brunhilde will always be close to a noble. If she is close to a noble she can make use of 'Bodyguard' to alleviate some of the damage they take. With 13 wounds, Brunhilde has got plenty of wounds to do this but unlike Gotchgut, she won't reduce any of the damage coming her way with any passives. This is where 'Loyalty' especially sets her apart from Gotchgut. Usually, Gotchgut can be played around by exploiting his terrible evade and dragging him away from the noble he is supposed to protect. For Brunhilde though, this isn't usually a viable option as she can just use 'Loyalty' to immediately get back into position!
‘Epic Ballads of Giant Heros!’
If you still can't decide which 'Bodyguard' giant suits you better though, you could take both! Then you could add Loubard or maybe even Dim & Dimmer to make the most of her active ability: 'Epic ballads of giant heros!'. With this ability, Brunhilde becomes the focal model of a predominantly giant troupe by boosting all the other giant's generally poor energy pools to a more respectable amount. For Loubard this is incredibly useful as with 1 more energy he can make use of 'Righteous fury' to deal huge amounts of damage and let Brunhilde take a more support-orientated role. Other giants will of course also enjoy the energy boost as all of these hard-hitting models will always appreciate the chance for an additional attack in melee!
Supporting Brunhilde
As well as Brunhilde supporting other models, a swathe of other models can also support Brunhilde. The two main things Brunhilde likes to see are some movement buffs, so she can get into combat and start hitting things sooner, and some energy buffs, so she can hit stuff more times! For the former, Kaufman can do an excellent job in moving her around with 'Shower of gold'. Kaufman can also be the main moonstone harvester and carrier of the troupe, using Brunhildes 'Bodyguard' to keep him safe from harm as he guards your troupe's stones. As mentioned earlier, this noble trait also indirectly speeds up Brunhilde too as she can wait for Kaufman to move forward before catapulting herself towards the enemy with 'Loyalty'!
For energy, Brunhilde's favourite can supply her with plenty of energy in the form of a passive and an arcane ability. Agatha Tavernfrau is also one of the few models in the game that can take advantage of Brunhilde's mercenary trait. She can therefore give Brunhilde extra energy for attacking, something she will do very often, through the use of 'Deutsch courage'. Additionally, she can use 'Drink Your Fill' to supply even more energy, essentially ignoring the arcane reduction with Brunhilde's lack of arcane ability. With all this support Brunhilde will be able to get into melee very quickly and then make an absurd number of super-powered attacks. Furthermore, if she keeps a little energy left over, she can retreat from any counterattack with 'Loyalty' or perhaps launch a new attack on anyone who would dare attack any noble she is guarding!
