Let's chat Grotz and Moonclan

[Skabnoze]

2 minutes ago, Skreech Verminking said:

Why do I get the feeling that Skarsnik is coming back. ?

I would really really love that.  He is probably the one character from the Old World that I really miss.  And of course Gobbla also.

It would be neat if they made a plastic Colossal Squig kit, and then made an option for mounting  a warboss on it - sort of like the Maw Crusher for Ironjawz.  Then you could make a new version of Skarsnik as the special character variant and Gobbla could now be absolutely enormous.  That would be amazing.

[PlasticCraic]

14 hours ago, Malakree said:

My number 1 pet hate is that I bought 60 Grots and had to then buy 60 round bases for them......FUUUUUU!!!

Yep...what is it, 3 years now?  And they're still selling kits with square bases?

Come on!

[Banglesprout]

6 hours ago, Skabnoze said:

I would really really love that.  He is probably the one character from the Old World that I really miss.  And of course Gobbla also.

I miss Grom, and of course Niblit!

I'd love GW to bring back a big fat gobbo boss!

And speaking of regeneration... Trolls! Is be so excited to see them expand!

[Warboss Gorbolg]

3 hours ago, PlasticCraic said:

Yep...what is it, 3 years now?  And they're still selling kits with square bases?

Come on!

Moonclan Grots were reboxed with rounds a couple of months ago. In general however, I'm 1000% agreeing that no models should still be sold with square bases.

I'm still limping along with building some new Moonclan units. Should finish a unit of 40 with stabbas this week. Thinking of 20 with bows next. The rules for the bows are awful but I'm betting on GW coming to their senses eventually.

[Anaticula]

Cheers friends, yesterday I uploaded a battle report, the battle of the bosses. It's Moonclan vs Ironjawz! 

 

[Hashut]

I’d love to see the return of units of netters and clubbers, and squig hoppers.

[Skabnoze]

4 hours ago, Hashut said:

I’d love to see the return of units of netters and clubbers, and squig hoppers.

Squig Hopper units are still around.  Honestly, I would say that Squig Hoppers currently have the best unit rules that they have ever had in any edition of Warhammer.  Once upon a time they were a fanatic-type of unit that you would keep inside a unit of cave squigs and then "bounce" them out - at which point they would randomly bounce all over the place biting whatever they landed on.  Lots of fun, but most of the time not overly useful aside from being a nuisance.  Eventually they pulled them into their own unit - but they never quite worked well.  The current rules are not bad - although they have serious battleshock issues.

I agree about Netters & Clubbers.  I loved when they were a distinct unit - before they rolled the nets into standard night goblin units as an equipment option.  I loved how the netters would attack and fling their nets at a higher initiative step - and then the clubbers would attack the enemy with clubs and also bash anyone that had been netted.

[TalesOfSigmar]

Morning fellow Grot Lovers, considering dusting off my Moonclan for the next couple of events just to have a laugh on the table with. Was wondering whether you could give a look through this and give any critque on the list please!

Allegiance: Moonclan

Leaders
Grot Warboss (120)
- General
- Moon Prodder & Giant Cave Squig
- Artefact: Battered Talisman

- Command Trait: Ravager

Moonclan Grot Shaman (80)

Battleline
20 x Cave Squigs (240)
40 x Moonclan Grots (260)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
40 x Moonclan Grots (260)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields

Units
2 x Grot Squig Herders (20)

Behemoths
Mangler Squigs (240)
Mangler Squigs (240)
Colossal Squig (300)

War Machines
Grot Spear Chukka (120)
- Allies
Grot Spear Chukka (120)
- Allies

Total: 2000 / 2000
Allies: 240 / 400
Wounds: 180

[Ungface]

Me too. Hows this for an initial 1k?

 

Allegiance: Moonclan
Grot Warboss (120)
- Git Cuttas
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (80)
60 x Moonclan Grots (360)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
15 x Cave Squigs (180)
2 x Grot Squig Herders (20)
3 x Grot Fanatics (100)
Squig Gobba (140)

Total: 1000 / 1000
Allies: 0 / 200
Wounds: 108
 

Using the boss to buff the grots, gobba to snipe sneaky heros and fanatics to protect the squigs from being charged and attacked before they can do be picked.

[Sheriff]

23 minutes ago, Ungface said:

Me too. Hows this for an initial 1k?

 

Allegiance: Moonclan
Grot Warboss (120)
- Git Cuttas
Fungoid Cave-Shaman (80)
60 x Moonclan Grots (360)
- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields
15 x Cave Squigs (180)
2 x Grot Squig Herders (20)
3 x Grot Fanatics (100)
Squig Gobba (140)

Total: 1000 / 1000
Allies: 0 / 200
Wounds: 108
 

Using the boss to buff the grots, gobba to snipe sneaky heros and fanatics to protect the squigs from being charged and attacked before they can do be picked.

I tried something similar at a 1000pt event and flopped, but due to lacking rend/mortal wounds, and the gobba always arrived too late to be useful in range. Keep them squigs safe til they've bitten stuff and you'll be alright though (I had no squigs). I find the gobba is better off just attacking whatever your 60 grots are attacking. 

[Congratz]

On 4/5/2018 at 3:16 PM, Sheriff said:

I tried something similar at a 1000pt event and flopped, but due to lacking rend/mortal wounds, and the gobba always arrived too late to be useful in range. Keep them squigs safe til they've bitten stuff and you'll be alright though (I had no squigs). I find the gobba is better off just attacking whatever your 60 grots are attacking. 

How would ye keep them squigs safe?

[Sheriff]

47 minutes ago, Congratz said:

How would ye keep them squigs safe?

 fanatics. Keep the clansmen close and release. But against shooting it's kind of impossible. I always shoot them when playing against them. 

[Saiken]

Well ... this looks a lot like a Squig to me
 

[Warboss Gorbolg]

Definitely looks Destruction to me, but the nose is really throwing me off as to what it is. Seems like it could be a new IJ or Moonclan hero as well.

[Skabnoze]

2 hours ago, Warboss Gorbolg said:

Definitely looks Destruction to me, but the nose is really throwing me off as to what it is. Seems like it could be a new IJ or Moonclan hero as well.

I doubt that it would be an Ironjaw model - or an Ork model.  Modern Ork/Orc models have flat pig noses that do not extrude past their face.  The only models that generally have big noses are goblins.  Squigs are all over the place in this regard.  It depends on when the squig models were made.  Older squigs were basically faces with feet and a rat-like tail.  Some of them had big bulbous noses, others had tiny noses.  Later on some of the squig models had flat pig noses or simply nose-holes that were flush with their face.  There is no reason that a new squig sculpt could not go back to big noses.  Or maybe they are making some sort of squig-goblin hybrid.

But honestly, I keep looking at that picture and trying to see the nose, and I am not convinced that there is a nose in that picture.  There is something that protrudes past the upper teeth, but to me that seems more like the lips protruding past the gums and teeth as this thing does a sort of smiling snarl.

[Saiken]

I do agree with Skabnoze on this !
To me, it looks almost exactly like a close-up of the colossal squig from Forgeworld. Same teeth, and to me it's not the nose either, but the mouth or something.

Check this picture for comparison

[Warboss Gorbolg]

You guys could definitely be right. Someone in the rumor thread claims that a friend has seen the new Moonclan models, indicating that they will be released soon (if you believe them of course).

[Skabnoze]

3 hours ago, Saiken said:

I do agree with Skabnoze on this !
To me, it looks almost exactly like a close-up of the colossal squig from Forgeworld. Same teeth, and to me it's not the nose either, but the mouth or something.

Check this picture for comparison

My first thought on that was that it was either a plastic Colossal Squig, Mangler Squig, or Great Cave squig (or a new unit of roughly that size), but the more that I look at that picture the more I don't think that is the case.

This model does not have very many teeth.  It has a number of snaggle-teeth, but there are really not that many of them.  The main part of a squig model is the mouth.  In fact, they are pretty much defined as a giant bouncing mouth with little legs.  They are a murderous cave-dwelling version of PacMan.  If you look at all of the large squigs, from the Great Squigs and up, they all have a lot of teeth packed into their maw.  This model does not.  Now, it could simply be that they are doing a bit of reimagining of what Squigs look like.  That is certainly a possiblity, and when they make a squig kit for Age of Sigmar I think they will have some new evolution of aesthetic to them, but I don't think that is what is going on here.

In addition to the small number of teeth, it is interesting to look at the brush-work.  This model is painted, but the picture is simply gray-scaled.  But you can still see a lot of the brush-work and it looks a bit sloppy with big giant brush strokes.  I think the reason for that is that this model is actually fairly small and the picture is zoomed in a fair bit.  My guess for this model is that it is part of a new standard Cave Squig sized model.  So either Cave Squigs, Squig Hoppers, or some sort of boss companion Squig model.

I could be wrong, but that is where I am going to put my money.

[Skabnoze]

1 hour ago, Warboss Gorbolg said:

You guys could definitely be right. Someone in the rumor thread claims that a friend has seen the new Moonclan models, indicating that they will be released soon (if you believe them of course).

I believe that the Malign Portent "Harbingers" are all a taste of what is in the works in regards to battle tomes.  The name "Harbinger" seems fitting in that regard, and it lines up with the rumors for some of the other releases.  Nighthaunt is the main rumor for one of the next books and that was the Death Harbinger.  I would not at all be surprised to see Games Workshop turn Slaves of Darkness into a Darkoath theme - which seems more like a Conan-esque Age of Sigmar version of Marauders.

Putting aside my own total favoritism and trying to be objective, Moonclan seems like the most logical choice for bringing an old Grot faction across to Age of Sigmar.  First, Night Goblins were one of the most original creations that Games Workshop made for the Old World - along with Skaven.  Cave goblins are not anything new in terms of fantasy - nor are goblins that overrun Dwarven cities.  That part of Night Goblins is pretty much straight out of Tolkien and about as generic as you can get.  But the rest of Night Goblins was quite an original creation.  The hooded appearance, the absolute nonsensical looniness of the faction, the obsession with fungus, and then Squigs.  Combine all of that stuff together and you get something that I cannot really recall in another game or fantasy setting.

Games Workshop seems to be  working very hard with Age of Sigmar to make the factions they add into the setting much more original and less as direct copies of other historical or fantasy forces.  They are still borrowing a lot of things heavily from mythology (this whole game is currenty a really heavy mix of Norse & Greek mythology), but they seem to still be trying to make the factions more their own creation than they necessarily were in the past (that is not a slight against the Old World - it is still one of my all-time favorite fantasy settings).  So, it makes a lot of sense for GW to bring across factions that are already very unique creations.

Night Goblins also have always been somewhat of a favorite Greenskin faction both with the designers and with the players.  Even before Battle For Skulls Pass made it easy to get huge amounts of Night Goblins the most common themed Greenskin army that you would see would be Night Goblins.  Most people played the Orcs & Goblins soup armies - where you mixed it all together.  Sometimes you would run across a Forest Goblin themed force, or a Common Goblin force.  There were also some all-Orc armies, but it was more common to see people go for all Night Goblins if they were doing a theme.  Games Workshop spent the most development effort on Night Goblins over the years as well.  They always had more specialty units than any other Greenskin type:  goblin infantry, squig herders, cave squigs, fanatics, squig hoppers, Skarsnik & Gobbla, Netters & Clubbers, Mangler Squigs, etc.

Also, Night Goblins (moonclan) have the most Forgeworld items of all of the greenskins as well.  So it really just seems like a no-brainer to move them over into Age of Sigmar.

[novakai]

Is it just me or did they just redo the Moonclan Grot store page on GW and reshoot their photo from the square base they had to the modern round base?

I could have swear they where still shown in that Rank n file formation from WHFB not that long ago.

[Vasshpit]

Sneaky gitz.....

[Skabnoze]

Not sure if they just got around to updating the picture in the webstore, but they updated the box packaging with those pictures a while back.

[kenshin620]

I just wanna see some mushroom monsters!

Or plastic squids, which haven't existed at all for the +20 odd years warhammer has existed outside of the attack squig from that one 40k plastic warboss.

[Skabnoze]

So the look out sir rule they previewed today should be interesting with the grot warboss and fungus shaman - since it should stack with their inherent defense abilities.  That means the fungus shaman is -2 to be hit by shooting.  The warboss would just be -1 to be hit, but any 6s rolled to hit him count as 1s.  Should be a nice extra bit of protection for those guys.

[Matt Large]

I wasnt sure about the warbosses rule about 6s when i played him. Is it unmodified 6s fail, how does it work with modifiers?