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AoS Destruction Grot Gitmob Snotlings

AoS Destruction Snotlings show off to their Orruk kin.

Snotlings are are smaller Grots that run around in small mobs (all on one base). What they lack in size they make up for with noise.

Grots are not short of small, cheap disruptive units. Snotlings are another unit that can take on this role.

Snotlings have a 6″ ranged attack, and a close combat attacks. The ranged attack in only short so you may only get one shot before assaulting, or being assaulted. However if you sit your Snotlings on the sidelines as you Orruks take on the enemy and have the Snotlings fire in to the combat.

Don’t get excited about the amount of damage the Snotlings will cause. The basic chance to wound is 5+,6+, or 1 in 18 (5.55%). Even if you are 6″ then the melee attacks only come down to 1 in 12 (8.33%) per attack. So with 5 melee attacks per base you get a 27.5% or 41.65% chance of wounding per base depending if there are any Orruks around. If you do wound there is no rend and 1 damage per unsaved wound!

In summary Snotlings are not going to be game winners. You may want to add them to the army for fun but that is about it!

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AoS Destruction Grot Doomdiver Catapult

Twang, whoosh, “Wee!” the sounds of another moonclan grot launched towards the Chaos army.  You may have thought that the Grot war engine crew would have difficulty finding Grots to send on a one-way trip in to the enemy lines, but this was not the case. Around the war machine where a throng of willing Grots wanting to fly high over their Orruk overlords, even if it was just the once.

Bubby was next in line to be hurled into oblivion. With his wing harness strapped on he flop landed in to the launch seat. The catapult groned under the weight but it held firm as the crew pulled back the bungie cord.All of a sudden the cord was released, Bubby felt himself catapulted forward at a tremendus rate just before blanking out.

Bubby woke up, still in the air hurtling towards the enemy. “No one warned me of that” he thought, but as noone had come back from one of these trips, it was no surprise! “Oh bother, I have over shot the Barron and his Guard. I will just have to hit something else. Bubby set is eyes on a Chaos Giant right in his flight path.

Gob the Giant thought it was his lucky day. The Grots where flinging treats high in to the air ready for Giants like himself to catch in his open mouth, and this one looked specially plumb and switched direction for an easy catch. Chomp! Down in one! However the Grot’s wings got caught in Gob’s throat.It turned out not to be Gobs lucky day at all!

The Grot Doomdiver is he classic war machine used by the Moonclan Grots. It consists of a big catapult, a few war machine crew, and a willing Grot that gets fired at the enemy. You need the models for the war machine and crew, but the ‘Diving Grot’ Grot projectile never stays on the table, so is not strictly needed.

How to Use the Doomdiver Catapult

Age of Sigmar Aleguzzeler Giant. A favorite target for Doomdiver Catapults!

​The Divin Grot is guided. This means that they are surprisingly accurate and can hit targets out of line of sight. The Divin Grot will hit 4 in 6 times. However if you miss you get a 50/50 chance to hit a 2nd unit within 10″ of the first one. So as long as you pick a first target that has a second possible within 10″ you have a 5 in 6 chance of hitting something before rolling to wound. Once you have hit a target you still need to roll to wound. As Divin Grots wount 2 in 3 times, you should wound most of the time.There is a -1 rend that will help negating saves, and models with a 6+ save will not save against Divin Grots at all.Giants are a favourate target of mine because they have  poor 5+ save and a few wounds will slow them down a lot!  Acouple of Doomdivers and a few good rolls can kill them off completely.

Divin Grots normally cause D3 damage. However if you set tem up in pairs them bot the Doomdiver Catapults cause D6 dammage. This is a massive bonus so I highly recommend setting the Catapults up in batteries of 2+

Doomdiver Catapults do better if there are a few crew around. The optimum is 4. If there are a few crew around you will be able to fire the Divin Grot further and move the Catapultaround faster if trubble comes your way! This is another reason to set up Doomdiver Catapults up in batteries. Unfortunatly  if the Catapult is destroyed the Crew can not join another Catapult. But they can be there to defend another machine against assault.

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AoS Destruction Grot Moonclan Shaman

Moonclan Grot Shamans are wizards and mushroom lover. As they are goblins they are not strong on their own. The first rule of battling with Grot is that you need numbers!

Strength and Weapons

Ok, don’t think that you will put up much of a fight in combat. If you do hit with your Moon Staff then it will do D3 damage. The Moon Staff does have a 2″ reach. You can use this reach to make sure there is a line of Grots between your Shaman and the attackers.

Moonclan Shaman Abilities

Ok, so if they are not great in combat so why take them? For the magic of course! And Moonclan Shamans are quite good at magic too. They can cast one spell and dispel another spell a turn.However the Shaman can take a magic mushroom each Hero Phase. If he does there is a 5 in 6 chance that you can add 2 to your casting roll. You need to decide if you want to take the mushrooms and roll for their results before you roll to cast your spell. On the whole it is worth the risk.

Moonclan Shaman Signature Spell: Curse of the Bad Moon

This spell is much like Arcane Bolt with a casting value of 8 (instead of 5) but if it is successful you can pick a second unit within 6″ of the first unit and on  a roll of 4+ that unit gets D3 mortal wounds too. This means that it makes sense to pick a target unit that is close to a second one that you want to wound too.

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AoS Destruction Moonclan Grot Warboss

The Moonclan Grot Warboss is the meanest nastiest Grot around.  The thing is is that a mean nasty Grot still dosent amount to much. Grot Warbosses work best when backing up and surrounded by thier grot underlings.

Grot Warboss Weapons

The Grot Warboss is not the strongest fighter. He does have a few weapon options. Of all the options I would rscommend the Moon Prodder. This is the weapon that Skarsnik, Warlord of the Eight Peaks had.

If you have the Night Goblins from the ‘Battle for Skulls Pass’ box set then the Night Goblin Warboss in that set was supposed to be Skarsnik, however the Squig on that model is far too small to be called a ‘Great Cave Squig’. So here is a ‘house rules’:

Some Moonclan Warbosses have a Moon-prodder and junior squig.

Melee Weapons Range Attacks To Hit To Wound Rend Damage
Junior Squig 1″ 2 4 3 -1 1

Junior Squig Abilities:
Junior Squigs have no special abilities.

Grot Warboss Abilities

The Grot Warboss comes wih a special rule that adds an extra chance of survivability.

Dead Tricksy

The ability of Grot Warbosses to dodge blows, or to place another grot in the way is legendary. This special rule means that any rolls to hit of 6 ( on the dice roll before any modifiers ), are treated as rolls of 1. This usually means that they miss.

Grot Warboss Command Ability

I would only recommend using the Grot Warboss as your General if you are playing a Moonclan Grot only army. Otherwise there are usually other, better Generals available.

‘I’m Da Boss, Now Stab Em Good’

If you do make the Grot Warboss your general then you can pick a Moonclan unit in 20″ and that unit will do double damage on unsaved wounds where the wound roll is a six.

A few points to note about this Command Ability. First is that this will work with stooting and combat attacks, but not magic. You do not roll to wound with  Mortal Wounds. The second point is that units that do a random amount of damage, say D6, you roll for damage and double the result and don’t roll 2 D6 dice (D6*2 not 2D6 !). The next point is that you can pick the Grot Warboss as the target unit if you expect your Watboss to get in to combat.

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AoS Destruction Moonclan Grot Squigs, Mangler Squigs, and Squig Hoppers

Age of Sigma Night Goblin Squig Hoppers

‘Squigs’ or Squiggly Beasts are fungus based life forms that the Moonclan Grots use as beasts of Burden and some time food. Squids come in all sizes and a variety of shapes, however they all tend to be bipedal with a mean attitude.

In this article we will have a look at all the different Squids and how to use them in Age of Sigma games!

AoS Destruction Moonclan Grot Cave Squigs and Squig Hurders

AoS Desstruction Moonclan Grot Squig Hurders and Cave SquigsSquigs are cheap harassing units that can use to disrupted your opponents manoeuvres and ability to catch objects. They are not strong or tough so don’t expect them to delay the enemy long, but a well placed speed bump can make all the difference!

Oh for a Squig Hurder!

Squigs have quite a bite causing D3 wounds with -1 rend, however they only hit on a 5+ wounding on 3+. This means that you wound 22.22% of the time, or just over 1 in 5 times. The way to improve this is to have a Squig Hurder.

With a Squig Hurder within 5″ the chance of hitting comes down to 4+. This means that you will wound 33.33% of the time. That’s much better!

The other benefits of having a Squig Hurder near your Squigs is that they can push them into running and charging further by allowing you to re-roll run and charge rolls.

AoS Destruction Moonclan Grots Squig Hoppers

Age of Sigma Night Goblin Squig Hoppers

Age of Sigma. Every unit is a skirmishing unit!

Forget your Wolfs! Forget your Spiders! Squig Hopping is where the fun is! Oh yes and forget about using a weapon too. You may get the odd jab in with your slitta knife, but usually you will be hanging on to your Squig Hopper for grim life and letting it do all the damage!

Squig Hoppers are the cavalry of the Moonclan Grots.  They are fast, moving at an average of 7″ in the movement phase. But beware, the movement distance is random.

While most cavalry units rely on the rider to cause damage with the horse’s hoves just adding a bonus attack, but with the Squig Hoppers it’s Squig that causes most damage. However this does’nt effect in game tactics. So Squigs get 2 attacks normally with each with 33.33% chance of wounding, so 2 wounds for every 3 Squigs attacking before saves.

Squig Hoppers Ability – Boing! Boing! Boing!

More fun with Squig Hoppers come with the Boing Boing Boing Special Ability. This rule gives the Squig Hoppers 4 attacks in the first round of combat if you roll a double for the charge distance. So no bonus if you get assaulted, or if you stay it combat. Also remember that you can choose your target after you roll for charge distance. This means that you will know if you are about to get double attacks before you pick your target!

AoS Moonclan Grot Mangler Sqigs

AoS Destruction Moonclan Grots Mangeler SquigWhere riding Wolfs is fun, and riding hopping squigs is an extreme sport, then charging around on Mangler Squigs is just totally insane!

Mangler Squigs are enomouse cave squigs that take a number of the bravest or most stupid Night Goblins / Moonclan Grots prodding them in the right direction like a hurtelling commet.

General Moonclan Mangler Squigs Tactics

Mangler Squigs Are monsters, and as monsters thier abilities reduce as they take wounds. This means that you will want to get your Mangler Squigs in to combat as soon as possible. This should not be a problem as they start with a 3D6″ move. This works out at 3″ to 18″ move with an average of 10.5″.

All the Mangler Squigs weapons are melee weapons, so there are no reasons to hang back. If you don’t pile in then you won’t get value for points.

Another point is that in a Grot / Goblin only army you are a bit short on heavy hitting units. If you have a Mangler Squig it will stand out and be a target, but it also will be a bit hammer to crack some tough nuts. Just don’t get stuck fighting massed troop units that your other units could deal more efficiently.

Mangler squids have 10 wounds but only a 5+ save. This means that the Mangler Squids will loose wounds quickly, specially from shooting attacks. With this in mind aim for close combat troops. Fortunately your opponent will probably place these at the front of the army, maybe within first turn charge range!

Modelling Grot Mangler Squigs

Squigs are fairly easy to scratch build as they are balls with legs and teath!

If you don’t want to make your own Mangler Squigs, then Games Workshop do a very detailed dynamic model, however it is difficult to build. There’s one big mangler squig balanced precariously on tpp of another. If you are going to build the double decker mangler then you will need to get busy with some quality pinning! Another popular option is to split the double decker mangler in to two separate manglers. This is much easier, and you get two models for the price of one!

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AoS Orruk Black Orc Big Boss Tactics

Age of Sigmar Orruk Black Orc Big Boss

In Age of Sigmar Black Orcs are called Ironjawz. so Really this model should be the Ironjawz Big Boss, but as hew was left out of the Ironjawz army book we will keep to how he is known in the Age of Sigmar App, the call him the Black Orc Big Boss.

Black Orcs and Ironjaws are bigger tougher cousins of the regular Orruks. Also they tend to have better weapons and armour. The Black Orc Big Boss is the biggest and badest of the mob that earned respect and following by beating up anyone that argued with him!

General Black Orc Big Boss Tactics

There is nothing subtle about the Black Orc Big Boss. He is designed to get stuck in to the close combat wielding his Deff Choppa and lobbing of heads left right and centre.

The Black Orc Big Boss can make a very acceptable general. If you do have him as your general then he works best in mob or two of Black Orcs and Ironjaws. However there are usually better options available as an Orruk General, so the main role for the Black Orc Boss is as a secondary Hero. He is great at adding extra mussel to the front line.

Black Orc Big Boss Weapons and Abilities

With 6 Wounds and a 4+ save, the Black Orc Big Boss can take some punishment. If you have him with a Tusker Shield we re-rolls failed Combat saves too ( not failed saves from shooting attacks though). This means that he is great at taking on units of regular foot troops. I would recommend that you give him some backup though so he does not get overwhelmed!

Most Black Ork Big Bosses are armed with Deff Choppas. These are 1″ range weapons that have 6 attacks, with each attack having 44.44% chance of wounding ( 2.66 wounds per combat phase before saves ) with -1 rend and 1 damage. The Slaughter-choppa is a two handed affair that has 3 attacks, each with the same chance of hitting, but you get -2 rend and D3 damage. Given the option you would use the Slaughter-choppa against more heavily armoured opposition.

I’m Da Best Special Rule

The Black Orc Big Boss is always out to prove that he is the best. Because of this he gets +1 to hit if he is within 10″ of another Orruk Hero when it comes to his turn to fight. This means that he makes a good body guard for another hero, and that you should choose to fight with him first if the other hero is likely to die this combat round!

If he does use this ability a 2+ will be good enough to hit, meaning that the Deff Choppers will cause 3.33 rounds per combat phase (before saves).

Black Orc Big Boss and the Generals Handbook

The Black Orc Big Boss comes in at 100points. This makes him good value for the point. This is specially true if you can use him correctly in conjunction with another Orruk Hero. And remember that could be another Black Orc Big Boss that are egging each other on!

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AoS Orc Ironjawz Orruk Ardboys Tactics

Warhammer AoS Orruk Ardboys / Bloack Orc weapon types

Ardboys are bigger tougher Orc that instead of leading their own mobs. These Ardboys mobs are usually hard enough to deal with any opposing elite units.

If you wondered where the 8th edition Black Orcs went in Age of Sigmar, well you have found them!

General Orruk Ardboys Tactics

You may notice that Ardboys move an inch a turn less than Orruk Boys. This should mean that the Orruk boys get in to combat first. This is good. It means that the Orruk boys will act as a natural shield holding back the enemy rank and file troops while your Ardboys seek out bigger targets.

Orruk Ardboys have 2 wounds an extra point of bravery and a 4+ save from the extra armour the Ardboys wear.

Orruk Ardboys Weapons

Warhammer AoS Orruk Ardboys / Bloack Orc weapon typesOrruk Ardboys get a wider weapon choice than the first Black Orc warscroll offered. If you have not built your models yet have a look at the different 3weapon choices and think about how they match your style of play. None of the weapon options are massively better than another. Also have a think about having a unit that has a mixed bag of weapons. Having a unit with different weapons will give you more tactical options (more flexibility in what the unit can do during the game ) but less able to be a specialist unit for specific situations.

Single Choppa / Smasha and Orruk-forged Shield

Orruk Ardboys with one choppa and a shield loose some hitty damage in favour of an extra 1 in 6 chance of saving a regular damage. The Ardboys have 2 attacks that hit on 4 and wound on 3’s which means 2/3 chance of wounding per turn per Ardboy.

Dual Choppas / Smashas

Orruk Ardboys with dual choppas or smashas get an extra attack for each combat round. That means they have 2 attacks that hit on 4 and wound on 3’s which means 3/3 chance of wounding, or once per turn per Ardboy. These wounds have no rend so they may bounce off any armour that the target has! You want to use this weapon if you are facing large numbers of weaker targets.

Big Chappa / Smasha

The third option is to arm your Ardoy with one big chappa or Shasha. this gives you 2 attacks like the single choppa, but adds a +1 rend. So you get 2/3 wounds per combat phase per Ardboy, but target models with 6+ save don’t get a save at all, and all others have a greater chance of failing their saves.

The Big Choppa / Smasha was the only type of weapon the Black Orcs had. even though they could be modelled with ant of the three weapon types.

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AoS Orruk and Arrer Boyz Tactics

Age of Sigmar Orruk Orc Boys including boss, banner and drummer

Ere’ we go boyz! There’s the the pointy eared gits. Let’s run ‘um off and show’um who’s boss!

A mob of boys gathered around.

Orc Boyz are the rank and file troop unit for a Orruk army.  Orc Boyz come armed with a choppa (hatchet) and shield, two choppas, or a ‘Pigstikka’  spear and shield. If you have the old Orruk page with out the graphics, update your app. The new page also allows Orruk Arrer Boyz in the same unit.

Orc Boyz are rough and tough, but with a quite average bravery score. To improve on this keep them in larger groups so that they will benefit from the +1 bravery every 10 models in a unit rule found in the main rules. Mobs of 20 to 40 are common.

Orruk Boyz Weapons

The main weapon of the Orc Boyz is the Choppa. This is a basic weapon so you only get one attack per Orc, you do get a +1 rend per hit though. If you arm your Orc Boyz with 2 choppas then you can re-roll 1’s to hit. Orcs normally hit on 4+. The re-rolls move the chance of hitting from 50% to 58.333%. This may not look much on paper, but it is very satisfying when you stick in a couple of extra wounds.

Grubba saw some of the younger Orruks grab Pigstikkas and shields. They won’t get a chance to get their hands on the pointy ears, but they will be looking for a chance of some action from the back

The next most popular weapon is the spear ‘Pigstikka’. This gives the Orruk a 2″ reach. This means that Urruks on the second or third rank (depending on the size of the bases) can reach over the Orruks on the front rank for some extra killiness. The downside of the Pigstikkas is that they do not get a rend, but that’s it. For larger units I recommend having a mix of choppa’s and Pigstikkas.

The last option for the Orruk Boyz is the Bow. Orruks with Bows use to be in a separate unit called Arrer Boys. Now that they are listed on the same warscroll you can mix and match units with choppas and arrer boys. However the fact that you can mix and match doesn’t mean that you should. Arrer boyz work best as stationary units. You get +1 to hit if the Boyz are stationary that turn, and are 3″+ away from the enemy. This goes right against the Orc, change in first and think about the consequences if you live long enough, attitude. In short keep the Arrer boys as a separate unit unless you have a good reason not to.

Arrer Boyz get a short Cutta knife. Nothing much to get exited about here. It just gives the Arrer Boyz some close combat ability.

Orruk Spacial Rules and Abilities:

Orruk Boyz have a number of simple special rules and abilities that make them more like Orcs! To really buff up the units you will need to use them in coordination with Warbosses and other special characters.

Orruk Standard Bearers

You can have any number of standard bearers inn a unit of Orukk Boys. these standards can be either Orruk Banners or Skull Icons. There are no benefits If you have two of the same standard ( other than if one dies you still have another one), but you can benefit from having one of each standard bearer in your unit.

Orruk Banner

One way to improve the leadership score is to have a Orc Banner. This will give the unit +2 to bravery when a enemy unit is within 3″. This means that when you are in close combat or about to change in, you will benefit from the bonus. However you don’t get any benefit if you are stuck in the middle of nowhere and being shot at. The moral of this story is to get your Orruk Boyz stuck in!

Skull Icon

This is normally the skull of some beast or for that the unit have killed ion the past placed on a pole to show how hard they are. In game turns in allows you to roll a D6 for each fleeing model and on a 6 the model stays. This is OK, but if I have to choose between this standard and the Orruk Banner, I would go for the banner every time!

Mob Rule

Orruks are more brazen when then are in larger mobs. In game terms the Orruks hit on 3+ with melee weapons if there are 20+ models left in the unit. This applies to melee weapons only, so no benefit here for Arrer boys shooting their bows. Arrer boys could benefit from this rule using their Cuttas which they didn’t get when they where on  a separate warscroll.

Orruk Boss

the leader of the Orruk mob is called the Orruk boss. He gets 2 attacks instead of 1. The warscroll does not specify which weapon so we have presume that Arrer Bosses get two attacks with his bow and two attacks with his cutta.

Waaagh! Shields

Here is one for the rule lawyers out there. In the warscroll it says that “You can re-roll save rolls for a unit with Waaagh Shields in the combat phase” how I read this is that if there is a single model with a shield then the whole unit gets to re-roll saves. I suspect though that it should just be the models with shields that get the saves. I will leave this one for you to decide!

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AoS Free Mission Battleplan Madcap Mushroom Dash

Age of Sigma Night Goblin Squig HoppersLegend had it that one day a year under the iron mountains there was a cavern where the most sort after mushrooms bloomed. Listing after these mushrooms where the Dwarfs of the iron mountains and the local night goblin warband. The thing is is that the mushrooms sprang up randomly around the cavern and then exploded in a cloud of spores very quickly. Anyone wanting to harvest the mushrooms had only minutes from the mushrooms blooming before they where gone.

This mission baattleplan attempts to recreate the mayhem of the manic mushroom picking.

Battleplan Setup and Rules

Warhammer Fantasy Dwarf Thunderers

Warhammer Fantasy Dwarf Thunderers

To represent the random appearance and disappearance of the mushrooms, I suggest using a simplified version of the mission objectives found in Warhammer 40,000 7th edition.

  • After you have set up the scenery, and before you select sides, take turns to place 6 markers on the table. These markers should be numbered 1 to 6.They should be no closer than 12″ from the table edge, and no closer then 6″ from another objective marker.

Once the objectives have been laid down choose table sides using the rules in the Age of Sigmar rule sheet.

Battleplan Objectives

To represent the mushroom collection the players need to get a unit to where the mushrooms have popped up and collect them before enemy units squash them under their boots.

  • At the beginning of each player’s turn, at the beginning of the command phase, roll a dice. If the player controls the marker matching the dice roll they get 1 victory point.
  • To control an objective marker you must have a unit touching the objective marker and no enemy units can be touching it ( uncontested ).

The player with the most victory points after 6 turns wins.

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AoS Orruk Great Shaman Tactics

Orc / Orruk Shaman and Bor Boyz

 AoS Orruk Great Shaman and Orc Great Shaman tactics in Age of Sigmar.

AoS Orruk Great Shamans are the wizards of the Ork or Orruk army. They draw energy from frenzied Orruk Boys around them and focus it in to magic energy. Be warned though, Great Shaman magic can be unpredictable. If there’s too much wild energy the Great Shamans head may explode! ( don’t worry the head exploding bit did not get in to the Age of Sigmar rules ).

Orruk Great Shaman Magic

AoS Great Shamans can cast one spell in your hero phase. This spell could be one of the two basic spells in the main rules, or the Orurk Shamans own spell ‘Gaze of Mork’.

Mork is one of the two Orruk gods. The other is Gork.Mork is the Orruk god of cunning, but knowing this does not help in the game. It’s just part of the back story.

The Gaze of Mork spell can be very powerful, but a bit erratic. First off, it only has a cast value of 6 which is fairly easy to cast. The second bonus is that you can target up to 3 different enemy units ( you can not target the same unit twice), and these target units can be up to 20″ away. This means you can target enemy wizards from outside the unbind range. Do beware though, the amount of damage could range from no damage up to D3 mortal wounds.

Orruk Great Shaman Waaargh Energy

As I mentioned at the beginning Orruk Great Shaman’s feed off the energy emitted by frenzied Orruk Boys. This is represented by this special rule. If the Orruk Great Shaman is within 8″ of 20 Orruks then the Great Shaman gets +1 to his magic roll. This can be improved further if the Great Shaman is near Arcane scenery too.

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