My pitched 1000 ptk army

[Vespan]

Hello! I have played around 10 battle so far with my 1000 pts grots. I'd like to present it to show people, that not only new releases are viable torunament choices, and also some strategical aspect in the list.

Here's the list:

1 Goblin Big Boss on Gigantic Spider (General), talisman of protection, bellowing tyrant         100 pts

1 Arachnarok Spider, catchweb spidershrine      280 pts

10 Grot Spider Riders, bows       200 pts

40 Moonclan Grots, spears & shields, grot flag, bad moon icon, 4x net       240 pts

20 Moonclan Grots, swords & shields, grot flag, bad moon icon, 4x net      120 pts

2 Grot Fanatics       60 pts

 

The main force of the army are obviously spiders. Big Boss, Arachnarok and spider cavalry move relatively close to each other, buffing either small spiders or arachnarok. If you use Gib Boss command ability (poison on hit rolls 5+ for all spiders within 10") and use bellowing tyrant (+1 to hit rolls for target unit) on spiders and cast Gif of the Spider God, you will get a unit which makes 20 atacks that inflict 2 mortal wound for each hit roll of 4+. If you use the combo on Arachnarok, he will make 4 poison atacks that inflict 2D3 mortal wounds on a hit roll of 4+. This is an incredibly strong synergy.

Of course this army has quite a large drewback. Spider riders have save of only 5+ and Bravery of 4. If you loose few due to shooting and later few in combat phase, most of the unit can escape! That is why you should cast arcane shield on them, use cover and avoid charging few enemy units at once if you can't destroy them in your turn. It is crucial to protect the spiders- that is why i bring Night Goblins!

I love Moonclan Grots for few reasons:

1. The nets: they incerase survivability of the unit greatly and deal more damage than regular weapons! A unit of 40 grots with nets and inspireing presence can hold few enemy units for many turns!

2. Bad moon icon: thanks to this gorts have 4+ save vs shooting attacks. This is incredible, especially for a unit that gives you 20 models for mere 120 points.

3. Fanatics: I don't really use them for damage. They rarely get and opportunity to attack. I use them to block enemy charges and force them to pick fanatic fight first, so my other units can atack safely, before enemy gets the chance to attack them.

So in my games i use small grot unit to hold objctives on my side of the table. Usualy you need more models around objective to control it, or just no enemy in the area. It is hard to outnumber 20 grots, or kill them all (nets again!). The big grot unit is streched widely and serves as a screen blocking access to spiders. Also stretching them in wide line allowes me to intercept most of enemy units that approach to my side of thetable. 

Fanatics are usualy in the big unit and I release them to block enemy from charging my spiders or to prevent the enemy form charging grots with many units at a time.

 

So far I won 8/10 games with that list. I had most problems vs death armies: the have that Deathless Minions save against mortal wounds, and tend to raise from the dead... so they dont fear my mortal wounds as much. I also lost hard against daemons of Tzeench, becouse their spells and ranged attacks combined with great mobility of heralds, greater daemons and flamers allowed them constantly hurt me and keep safe distance.

This army proves to be very strong, but of course has some weaknesses that smart enemy can exploit.

[Chris Tomlin]

Hey,

Thanks for sharing. List looks good/fun. The army Rob Symes used to win the SCGT in April was based around a similar core, though he had many more Spider Riders and 3 Arachnarok's...so I can see why your list is doing well. I like your strategy with the Fanatics and as you say, nets are very solid.

What are your plans to expand the army out to 2,000 points?

[Dez]

Back when AoS hit, this was going to be my go to army...which is still in little piles all over my desk. All that's been swept aside for Ironjawz

I found it to be very powerful, and I lamented using it because it caused one of my gaming group members to pass on playing Age of Sigmar. I was just too excited about the synergy and of course loved the Spiders of all sorts since day 1. So much Voodoo! I'm glad to see you are doing well with it against other seasoned players.

PS Moonclan Grots rule, and if I decide to go overall Destruction and not straight up Ironjawz at some point, I'll definitely be fielding at least 2 units of 40.

[Vespan]

I also wonder how would "Great Gitmob" battalion work in practise. Becouse in theory looks very good. Goblins get +1 hit if they outnumber the enemy and also +1 to wound if they outnumber 2:1. Goblin shaman alsho has a spell that gives +1 to wound rolls and improves rend by -1.

That beeing said a unit of 40 gitmob grots with spears will be hiting on 2+ (5+ base, 3+ due to numbers and 2+ thanks to battalion rules) and wounding on 3+ (or even 2+ and with rend -1 thanks to the spell!). And the nasty skulkers will often land a mortal wound on 5+ if you take 6 or 9 in the unit (that would be often enough to outnumber most units).

Furthemore if your warboss finishes off enemy hero or monster, your grots don't have to take any battleshock tests for the reminder of battle. And you can take Grom the Paunch as the battalion's warboss. With this battle brew artefact, he could kill some weaker characters or finish off a big monster.

Even the bows fire more accurately. It doesn't say the bonus to hit rolls is in CC only

[Chris Tomlin]

18 hours ago, Vespan said:

And you can take Grom the Paunch as the battalion's warboss. With this battle brew artefact, he could kill some weaker characters or finish off a big monster.

Is Grom actually a named character in AoS? If so he would not be eligible for an artefact unfortunately.

(sorry don't have any books to hand to confirm)

[Vespan]

Yes, he is. YouTube are right! Thanks for pointing that out.

[Chris Tomlin]

21 hours ago, Vespan said:

Yes, he is. YouTube are right! Thanks for pointing that out.

YouTube are right? Not me?  

No worries, would make little difference on some of the minor named characters, but it's a necessary restriction for some of the big boys (and girls!)

[Vespan]

Haha, it was auto-corrected by my phone. English is not my native language and sometimes dictionary makes stupid things without me noticing :-)