Thanks @PlasticCraic - I've never done a write up before but I will do my best. For the record, I only had 1 block of 40 shootas, but if they go down in points that might change!
Please note I am unfamiliar with a lot of what my opponents armies did, so I was more or less playing by ear.
The list I took was this. I'll try to note my mistakes and what carried its weight in each game. The shootas won me 2 of my games because people who know anything about Gitz seem to think they can't kill anything and so ignore them. That essentially leaves me with a big block of 40 dudes to run around and do what they want unmolested.
Allegiance: Gloomspite GitzLeadersSkragrott, The Loonking (220)- General- Lore of the Moonclans: The Hand of GorkLoonboss (70)Madcap Shaman (80)- Artefact: Moonface Mommet - Lore of the Moonclans: The Great Green SpiteWebspinner Shaman (80)- Lore of the Spiderfangs: Sneaky DistractionFungoid Cave-Shaman (90)- Lore of the Moonclans: Itchy NuisanceBattleline60 x Stabbas (360)- Pokin Spears & Moon Shields- 9x Barbed Nets- 2x Moonclan Flag Bearers- 1x Badmoon Icon Bearers40 x Stabbas (260)- Stabbas & Moon Shields- 6x Barbed Nets- 1x Moonclan Flag Bearers- 1x Badmoon Icon Bearers40 x Shootas (260)- 6x Barbed Nets- 1x Moonclan Flag Bearers- 1x Badmoon Icon Bearers12 x Squig Herd (140)Units10 x Loonsmasha Fanatics (280)6 x Sneaky Snufflers (70)Endless Spells / TerrainQuicksilver Swords (30)Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (60)Scuttletide (30)Total: 2030 / 2000Extra Command Points: 0Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 209
Game 1 vs Fyreslayers on Border War - Loss
This was a close game. The Shootas held against a 20 block of Hearthguard Berzerkers doing their attack twice a turn thing for 2 turns. The fanatics nearly took out his magmadroth but he managed to roll 5 x 6+'s against 7 wound rolls, so that was fun.
Basically, it was a close game for the whole game and came down to literally the last priority roll which would have made it anyone's game. Great game, great opponent.
My major mistake was forgetting about his 10 hearthguard berzerkers tunnelling up behind me. It did take him a couple turns to kill Skragrott, but I made the mistakes of deploying too far forward. After this game, I'd been using the squigs to semi protect Skragrott and use as a late game Hand of Gork unit which won me a couple games. They do really well being Hand of Gorked.
I played poorly this game, wasn't aggressive enough with my giant block of 60 Stabbas and I probably would have won if I was more aggressive. I learned in later games this was a huge winning strategy. Netters are bonkers good.
Game 2 vs Free Peoples on Knife to the Heart - Win
My opponent got to choose his side of the board and turtled up with the objective on a terrain piece and deployed a ton of hand gunners on it. He then deployed a big ring of Freeguild Guard around that to stop any sneaky teleports and then another several layers of freeguild guard all the way up so that I couldn't just jump onto the objective, I would have to fight my way through. He also deployed his General on Griffon on one flank along with Demigryph Knights, Pistoliers and a Knight Azyros. Outriders made up the other flank.
For this game, I opted to achieve magic dominance early by heavily targetting his only dispell and since I set up the moon to move from my corner to his, I was gaining command points and bonus to casts the whole way through. Once it hit the middle I kept it there with Skragrott and had several good turns of blasting him.
I hid my fanatics in the shootas (a recurring theme for me) and Hand of Gorked them up turn one to destroy one flank with the shootas to support them through shooting. Next turn I withdrew the shootas by Hand of Gorking them back to shore up my left flank and provide a roadblock with the scuttletide to stop his demigryphs, griffon and pistoliers. I left my 60 block of Stabbas on my objective with Skragrott and Webspinner Shaman all game just so there was no way he was taking mine.
My 40 block of Stabbas backed by Loonboss, Madcap Shaman and Snufflers basically walked their way up straight through the middle of the board and with the Geminids providing debuffs, I basically grinded to his objective by my turn 5 and capped it.
He did make a good dent in my left flank though, wiping out my Shootas I believe and I sent my squigs in to cover. Skragrott was firing off his Moon Onna Stikk to provide covering fire with his heroes. I also sent in the squigs in late to provide more bodies to prevent him from doing anything crazy. I think I destroyed his Sword of Judgement with Nikkit Nikkit, but I don't remember. I hadn't had much sleep the previous night.
The Shootas hands down won me this game as they held up quite a lot of points worth of stuff for more time than they should have. Even though the 40 block of Stabbas pushed through to the objective, the Shootas prevented him from capping mine and he didn't target them with his handgunners, so they were left to do what they wanted.
Game 3 vs Kharadron Overlords on Scorched Earth - Win
His army consisted of 3 blocks of 40 Arkanauts, an Admiral and 2 Aether Khemists. The board also had a giant hill in the center that he chose as his piece of terrain to do some bravery shenanigans with (I really don't know anything about KO, but I had I wasn't going to break his army through weight of attacks and bravery)
This was my 2nd favourite game of the tournament and it was a very close win, only happening because I decided to do some sneaky retreating in the last turn to cap objectives rather than win combats. I really was unaware of the range of KO's guns, and had deployed my fanatics in my shootas in the back thinking I was going to Hand of Gork them and do a nice fanatic bomb to him. That did not happen.
The first two turns were brutal. He went first and shot Skragrott off the board, then my fungoid cave shaman. I think I won priority for 2nd turn but didn't manage to get far enough up the board and failed my charge but had buffed my 40 block of Stabbas and had my loonboss and madcap backing them up. My shootas were making their way up the rear still.
In my first turn I managed to get Geminids off which helped me survive the 2nd round of shooting. I was helping my 40 block of Stabbas run up the board
By the end of his 2nd turn, I had no Loonboss or Webspinner Shaman left, my big block of 60 Stabbas were about 40 guys left halfway up the board. My Madcap Shaman did put Night Shroud up on the 40 block of Stabbas and combined with the additional -1 to hit from the Geminids they were someone survivable. He didn't once fire a single shot into my Shootas (I am pretty sure he thought they were in the Stabbas given how much I was trying to protect them). Sneaky git I am.
By the 3rd turn however, the fanatics released, got off a charge and killed 28 arkanauts, the Stabbas had gotten into combat and finished off the rest. My Spear equipped Stabbas got into combat and held up the Arkanuts. The Fanatics then swept across his backlines while he was casually shooting my Spear equipped stabbas and wiping them out. He walked down my right flank and capped my far right objective with his last block of arkanauts. By the time he got close to my center objective, my Spears had recycled, jumped out and held him up in the middle while I casually capped all his rear objectives. My Spear stabbas ran in the last turn to recap my far right objective and guarantee the win after I burned all his back objectives.
The big winners for this game for me were the Geminids combined with Night Shroud keeping him from shredding my left flank and I think that distraction kept him from shooting my fanatic bomb, which survived all the way through til the end of the game and had engaged him again last turn on my side of the board.
Shootas are great, people underestimate them and leave you with a solid block of 40 dudes running around doing whatever.
Game 4 vs Legion of Night on Blood & Glory
His army consisted of Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon with Ethereal Amulet that came down the center of the board. A block of 40 Skeleton Warriors backed by a necromancer and 2 gravesites around his side of the board combined with Damned terrain that he used for rerolls. A block of 30 Grimghast Reapers combined with a Vampire Lord and 2 gravesite around his left side of the board with the objective marker. He deployed a block of 5 dire wolves on his left flank 5 dire wolves and 2 x 2 morghasts to outflank me later.
I figured early that he was intending on trying to drop in on my objectives and was going to come for me early, so I let him do it. I deployed back and moved only as far forward as I could to stay in range of the Loonshrine to just turtle around my objectives.
Given this, I deployed my 40 block of stabbas on the right with snufflers, loonboss and madcap shaman. I held the squigs back around the loonshrine and Skragrott to see what would happen. I deployed the 60 block of stabbas near the loonshrine around the middle of my table and the 40 shootas on my left.
I did the usual hide fanatics in Shootas as I was intending on throwing them deep into his right side of the board and taking out those skeletons. That did not happen.
I set up the moon to go from left to his right so that Skragrott would gain maximum use out of it. He let me have first turn.
I rolled high for my Hand of Gork, he rolled higher for dispell, leaving my fanatics with nowhere to go so I had to basically deploy them to prevent his charge and so they wouldn't just be eaten. In hindsight, I should have deployed them in such a way as they should have been base to base with my shootas so the netters would still be effective. I'll do this next time.
He charged on in, my fanatics did very little against his ethereal saves and I think I killed 5 Reapers which he subsequently regenned next turn. They did not last long.
Theres not much to say about this game except it was a grind. I did my best to get debuffs up to keep my guys alive for as long as possible and then went to town on trying to kill his heroes. Once the 2 vampires were down the game was more or less mine.
Speaking of Vampires, his Zombie Dragon vampire charged into my big block of 60 Stabbas. The Netters and Webspinner Shaman held him up there until I could destroy his Ethereal Amulet with Nikkit Nikkit. I then Mommeted him, buffed the Spears with my Loonboss and Snufflers and poked it to death. It survived 1 round of combat and then died to the netters.
The Grimghasts on the left spent their entire game trying to get through the geminids/netter debuff and killing maybe 2-3 shootas a combat. He was doing his best to daisy chain back to his gravesites as he didn't want me to Hand of Gork something onto that objective... which I did with my squigs in turn 5 capping it.
His right flank was just a bunch of dudes flailing at a bunch of my dudes flailing at him. He killed maybe 20? I figured around turn 3 that he started slowly pulling from around the objective as once I killed his vampires he was regenerating less and all I had to do was spend the command point, run 13" and cap that objective. I was just waiting for the squigs to land successfully and for the numbers to work out in my favour
Keys for me for this game were just to keep him debuffed, hold him up and wait for an opportunity to put stuff where it needed to be. We weren't going to wipe each other out, so it was just for the moment to run away and win. Gitz are great at running away.
Game 5 vs Seraphon on Focal Points
This was my best game of the tournament as I had a better understanding of the mechanics of Seraphon that I did of any of the other armies that I played against. I also got some pretty lucky dice rolls and the game was called by the end of turn 3 with me basically tabling my opponent. He was a true sport about the whole thing and I really liked playing against him. I hope to play casual games against him some time in the future.
He ran, a Slann with Cogs/Balewind Vortex (it never got the opportunity to get cogs off), 2 Engines of the Gods, a Starpriest and an Astrolith Bearer. For battleline he had 3 x 10 skinks. Other units included a Dread Saurian (holy heck it's a huge model) and 3 ripperdactyls and a Shadowstrike Starhost.
He deployed his Dread Saurian centrally with skinks to the left and right of it. An engine of the gods behind it, an engine on my far right and a slann in the back with some skinks to protect it from Hand of Gork. He seemed to know as much about my army as I did.
I deployed my Loonshrine centrally, my 60 stabbas to the left of it, 40 shootas to the left of them (with fanatics inside), 40 stabbas to the right of my loonshrine. Loonboss and Madcap behind the Shrine, Snufflers behind them so it could buff either Stabbas unit. Skragrott centrally in the 60 stabbas, Webspinner next to him and fungoid next to that. Squigs were somewhere in the back providing cover against the Ripperdactyls I knew were coming down.
I set up the moon to move over the length of the board that we had so that Skragrott would have maximum use out of it early.
He got a bunch of summoning points and brought on 2 more units of skinks.
He had first turn, ripperdactyls came down right behind my shootas. I knew how many attacks they could dish out and that my shootas were probably going to die, so my fanatics piled out. After his charge, they were still out of range and he put everything into the shootas (1 netter from my nearby stabbas debuffed 2 of his ripperdactyls) so he only killed 20 shootas. That combined with Battleshock and I only had 6 dudes left, who survived until the end of the game.
His Dread Saurian failed its first turn 9 inch charge.
The Ripperdactyls were torn apart by the squigs and spear equipped stabbas that were around that side of the board, but the damage was done and he capped that objective with his skinks that were over there. He was up turn 1 against me.
I tried to throw up some endless spells and hand of gork as distraction spells, which I think he dispelled most of easily. This let me get off Itchy Nuissance onto his Dread Saurian though.
I buffed my 60 Spear Stabbas with the snufflers and walked them up to the Dread Saurian. My fanatics walked up to his left skinks, my right stabbas walked up to his right pack of 2 skinks.
Skragrott had shot the Slann in the back with Da Moon Onna Stikk. I didn't realise they had so few wounds and no mortal wound protection. This was a key moment for me I think.
So turn 1 combat had the fanatics go first and wipe out that unit of skinks. Then my activation had my 40 stabbas kill I think 1 and bit unit of skinks, then he retaliated and did a couple wounds, then my 60 block of stabbas with spears destroyed the Dread Saurian easily. It didn't attack the whole game. He piled some skinks into my Spears and would have held me there for a turn. By the end of it, 1 skink was engaging a unit of 60 stabbas with a Dread Saurian sized hole in the middle of them.
I won the roll off for round 2 and he said that he think he just lost the game. We both found out that he was right.
I chose to go first, the moon moved over all of my shamans and I killed his Astrolith Bearer and Starpriest in the hero phase with Geminids, and Great Green Spite. Quicksilver Swords got his Slann down to 1 wound (I was under the impression it had more) and Hand of Gorked the Squigs to try and take his right flank (they almost made their charge after reroll) I dropped the Scuttletide behind his right hand skinks and that caused both of us trouble, so thats fun.s
The 60 Stabbas fled from 1 Skink to take his central objective where an Engine of the gods was sitting.
I shot off his Slann with Da Moon Onna Stikk, the Fanatics kinda flailed around a little bit and ran up the board.
By the end of my turn 2, he had 2 engines of the gods, 2 units of skinks left.
In his turn 2, he rolled up 20 skinks from the engine of the gods, teleported them up behind me to capture my left objective with Lords of Space and Time and get back into the game. His central Engine charged my 60 stabbas, got netted up and then got swarmed and killed same turn.
He won turn 3 roll, not much happened - he shot off half of the fanatics and tried to move in a way to cap my center objective but the snufflers wouldnt let him have it.
My turn 3, the fanatics walked back, killed 13 skinks, skragrott shot at the engine and he basically called it there after it was clear he had no fuel left in the tank.
Conclusion
So the big takeaways from this is that Gloomspite Gitz has a lot of utility/versatility that you can deploy to suit whatever situation arises.
I played against a combat heavy army, shooting heavy army, magic heavy army and a horde army that recycled and felt I had the tools to deal with all of them in different ways.
Netters are BONKERS good. Not only do they debuff the enemy's to hit stat, but I've noticed that they usually deal around half the damage of a unit to the enemy, which is why I think Shootas are underrated (if overcosted) given they still have about half the damage output in combat as a similarly costed unit of Stabbas but provide other benefits. My opponents typically ignored them because they aren't a "hard hitting unit" or as in my last game, went all out for them because they were less armoured and instead left alone more key units like my characters which he had engaged.
Netters, combined with Geminids and Sneaky Distraction, you can just hold opponents up seemingly forever and sit on objectives to your heart's content. Since AoS is an objectives based game, bodies win games and keeping bodies on the table the longest win games.
Having the moon move over Skragrott and holding it in the center when you need it is hands down the way you should play him. Da Moon Onna Stikk is crazy good. Nikkit Nikkit is also a great spell for breaking down combos.
Snufflers and a Loonboss buffing a block of 40 Stabbas with stabbas is brilliant. It's much harder to get it to work with 60 stabbas, so a smaller elite unit is better I've found.
The mommet is a great artifact. It's probably my favourite in the book.
It's actually because I play aggressively with my Shootas because it doesn't bother me if they get killed. I'm expecting them to die so that they recycle at size 20, that way they still retain the +1 to hit once they come back out of the Loonshrine and with their 16" Shooting attack can still have a non negligible effect on the game. For that reason alone I don't think units of 2x20 is a good idea as they lose the bonus but you're still paying the same points overall.
