How do you guys use your Giant? Do you think he's worth his points? Does he ever do anything? What is he good and weak against?

My experience is that if the enemy has shooting they're a bit hit and miss, but he does attract a lot of fire and is reasonably resilient, except against cannons I guess! xD (6 wounds is still nice!). If the enemy doesn't have much shooting though...he's brilliant! And of course, great fun besides. Giants are great at taking out monsters with I3 or lower, and opens a can of woop-ass on most infantry too. :)

This weekend I played against WoC at 2500p, wich was fun except it was Watchtower and the only important thing was that his 15 Khorne AHW warriors ate everything with their 40 attacks. :mellow: Anyway, behind the tower was his horde of marauders and his Hellcannon. Turn one the HC fails it's rampage test and runs up. My turn one ol' Borkbork charges the cannon. Initiative 3, that goes before both the cannon and crew. Yell and Bawl! See you next round. in turn 2 Borkbork smashes the entire dang thing with his club, leaving just his silly little chaosdwarfs standing there. My opponent then sent the marauder horde into Borkbork for SCR, it was a clip, but still. The rest of the game Borkbork pretty much held up that unit and they didn't get into the tower, but by the end of the game he had the tower and had crushed most of my army anyway. :lol:

Theo

Haha... It's good that you're focusing on the bright side Theo :lol:

I'm actually planning on trying out two giants and an arachnarok soon, as part of a monster theme. Excited to see how that turns out :D it is gonna be against a VC player, anc I'm totally green against those. I do figure that I'll need some grinding power, but I won't send any of them into ghouls ;)

Some editions ago it worth a lot. He had S7 and T6, which is much better than the actual one and also you could choose what kind of attack you wanted to do. S4 weapons are a pain for the giant nowadays and random attack can be a bit annoying. Of course is a funny pick, but he should be cheaper in points for what it does IMO. If you compare it to an abomination, hydra... Is hilarious! He can do a great job at flanking of course, but is a bit random.

Yup, you could choose to jump up and down all the time (2d6 S7 hits). The good old days :wub:

Good to hear i am kicking ass :lol:

Last time i used one, i put it in my flanks every battle. VS Dwarfs he just ran straight for his silly artillery thingies and i had pump wagons and chariots in his wake, M6 is actually pretty good 12`march makes him a proper flanker.

send in enough other scary stuff like pump wagons chariots, manglers, maybe some wolf riders and you wil take out any gunline in existance.


against chaos warriors he didnt do too good, those guys have either alot of high S or higher initiative. (The hellcannon being the exception).

But even against an army where there's not much he can kill, he can still be a big threat, simply by being this big and fast. It's like the new manglers. theyre so BIG nobody is going to ignore em!

advantage over the arachnarokk is that this guy doesnt have a rediculously oversized base. He wont be hit THAT easily and more importantly, the giant can actually maneuver a bit without knocking all the scenery off the table. :lol:

been a year now, i think im going to put it back in next tourney and see how many other chaff can surround him.

I think you've died in pretty much every game so far though. :lol: In one game I tried to charge you into combat, but you were too drunk and stumbled over a fence. :P At least you're painted!

Theo

I haven't used a giant in 8th much. They are still too expensive for what they do. Only T5 means S4 can wound it. They tend to die to shooting or even to ranked infantry. It's been hit or miss with the Giant. I guess that's part of the problem. Sometimes he is utterly brilliant. Other times he just can't do the right attack at the right time. I've picked up a Tomb Prince and eaten him before (as my opponent laughed and said "1000 yr old jerky!"). He's just died other times, as well.

I think he's best used to help sweep a flank (as said above). He would draw away shots from other things. This allows you to get other fast movers into place. That can be cavalry, other monsters, or chariots.

You never know what you will get!

He still has thunderstomp so that's a plus. I tried him out the other day as a goof and was happy to get him matched up with a sphinx. He headbutted a couple times then did 12 wounds with the club.

Quick question, what ini does a ridden monster or a monster with crew test on?

They should have their own init stat.

A ridden monster is affected separately from the rider, so both will take tests on their own Initiative. A monster with crew tests on its Initiative value.

As for the Giant... I'm toying around with the idea of having 2 of them (yes, 2 of them) and just running them up the flanks. You either focus fire on one of them, or hope that one cannonball is enough to drop each (good luck with that one), and they should be devastating in the flanks. The problem, of course, is if I do that, that means my Rare points are majorly compromised. Still something to consider.

I used a giant effectively in a SoM battle once. He charged a character who had the giant helm :cheese: and found himself fighting a gaint instead. Needless to say that the giant stomped on his unit of necropolis knights. It was fun for me but maybe not so much for him. :o

Giants are fantastic in one way because they have ld10 stubborn and terror but not itp. This means they can do very well on flanks, outside ld bubble and all. They are sort of Swift and almost durable- they, in theory, complement my goblin army very well for example.

The problem comes with the unpredictable combat results and the vulnerability to S4, or even S3.

I am trying to use them as independent actors in my armylists, but they always leave me frustrated and wishing for an Arachnarok instead.

It is funny that things often seem better in memory than they actually were. Sure, he was a bit tougher back then, but he was also ld6 (possibly ld7) and there was no such thing as stubborn. He also only caused fear, and not terror, so he was afraid of almost every other monster on the board. Back then he was more durable and dangerous (since you chose your attack), but he was a huge sissy that often ran away from almost anything if you were not careful to babysit him.

I like the current giant. I miss T6, but having used Giants extensively throughout my days playing Warhammer Fantasy I prefer Ld 10 + stubborn to the extra point of toughness.

The giant is a cheap enough monster that I feel he falls a bit into the expendable category. He is still durable enough that it takes some effort to bring him down, and if the opponent puts all that effort into him then thats ok cuz it takes some of the heat off something else. But he is pretty self-sufficient, which is very nice in our army, and he is very stompy against the right targets. Like many things, he works well if you play to his strengths and don't throw him in over his head. It is a good idea to know what your units are good/weak against and try to use them appropriately, and the Giant is no exception. I am honestly not really sure where his poor reputation came from.

My only real complaint about the Giant is that he is still stuck in the Rare unit category. I feel that in 8th he is much better suited to the Special unit section. Once upon a time he came from Regiment points (about the same as Core). The change to using a percentage system instead of restricted slots means that there is a lot more competing for the points from the Rare section. To add onto that the Rock Lobba was moved from Special to Rare and the Mangler Squig & Arachnarok was added into the army. Rare points are at a premium and with the combat changes to 8th edition units in general are more dangerous to the Giant. He just feels like a special choice now instead of a rare. But that could also just be me complaining cuz I want to use Giants in addition to all my other fun toys.

Well.....for me it was the high number of games that he just died without doing much of anything. He was shot to death. He was magicked to death. Core troopers killed him. Or there are the times that he would roll to attack.......and do something stupid like Pick Up And....on a unit champ.

To be fair, most of the stuff that will kill a giant will also put a serious hurting on most 200pt units (other than gobbos - who shrug off casualties like champs). Artillery is dangerous against him, but it is just as dangerous against an Arachnarok.

He is now more vulnerable against infantry, that is true. I think we just need to adjust our thinking for that. Previously, due to the limited attacks in close combat he was pretty resilient in combat. Now that casualties do not limit attacks and multiple ranks fight standard you have to be wary of what you put him up against.

I feel your pain on the random attacks though. Sometimes that can backfire, but such is life with Greenskins.

The use of the giant was completely different than nowadays. Of course Ld10 and stubborn is a big deal, but S4 weapons are a make big difference between both giants versions. The old one was more durable, but Ld could be a problem. About Ld matters, he could be close to your general so no problem with that. Also, you could pick what kind of attack you wanted him to do, not random.

Both edition giants serve for completely different purposes. IMO, the 8th one should be cheaper in points or switch it to special slot. He is a great flanker though and yes, is a great point for him that he can act out of Ld bubble, but there's lot of stuff at rare slot that makes more complicate to find a place for him.

theya re fantastic against skaven and VC for taking out massive units of slaves and zombies.

especially zombies.

the other night a horde of 40 zombies vanished in 2 turns because of jump up and down and thunderstomp (16 kills baby, near max! 32 zombies removed in a turn!) and their lack of combat resoultion... now thats only 140 points of zombies, but you dont want that to clip your reliable combat units and bog them down.

dont get your giant into multiple combats as they invariably role yell and bawl and you'll only win by 2 whereas you'd probably win by more otherwise.


edit: i typerz gud.

Best edit ever...

I'd like him to be cheaper, not better. :) Giants aren't all that deadly compared to many other more exotic monsters of the Warhammer world, wich I think is how it should be. If he was 150p I'd take him all the time, if he was 180 I'd be happy.

When you compare them with other monsters they come out short on a point-for-performance basis, not because giants are crap but because the Hydra should be 250p and a HPA about 300. A giant can take care of a Hydra with a bit of luck, but hardly ever of a HPA. :D I'm OK with 200p, but many other monsters need to go up in price!

Seriously, a Varghulf is 25p cheaper than a Giant. It's only got 4 wounds, and str5, but it's faster, has Hatred, Regenerates and you don't get CR for flanking/rearcharging it. Should be about 200p I reckon. The Hydra has 7 Str5 attacks with hatred (plus 4 handler attacks IIRC) a breathweapon and regeneration, and is also 25p cheaper than the giant! It needs to be hit with the nerfstick and go up in price. Don't even mention the HPA- at 35p more than a giant it regenerates, can come back alive and has a metric dung-ton of attacks...the Giant is fine, many other monsters are broken. /rant

Theo

Why change the giant when other monsters are broken?

I think a number of the other monsters will end up coming back in line when their books release. Most of the stuff in the game that is out of whack, from spells to magic items, units, monsters, etc come from the legacy books and GWs unwillingness to put out serious FAQs for new rule revisions. They could have fixed a whole lot of that stuff.

For the Varghoul, remember that it has the undead rule - and so it is unstable. Just like the giant that makes it fairly vulnerable against many units. If I remember correctly it is also Vampiric, so they cannot really heal it well via magic - although to be fair it will probably be way out of range of the healing spells anyways.

What is the HPA?

Hell Pit Abomination... ?

5 points for Gryffindor! :P

dont forget the giant stomps at 6, most other monsters this is only 5. it pretty much removes the armour save on most infantry.

also, giants go real bad against chariots, so avoid that match up.

do you guys buy the warpaint for him?
i usually do and i can only think of 1 game where i got 2 or 3 saves out of it.

most games my giant gets obliterated tho :)

the warpaint sounds like a big pointsink to me. But i have never tried it.

and i can confirm chariots are the bane of my giant! especially when there´s some idiot archlector on top!

Yeah, I give it to him since...I have 20p to spare in my current list. It's helped him once or twice, on avarage it's like adding 1 extra wound to his profile for every 6 wounds he takes in the game, wich I feel is worth it if it saves him from taking a wound even just once in the game. :) I'll probably be getting more giants though, one of wich will be savage themed, so then Borkbork probably won't get the warpaint upgrade.

Theo

This made me laugh out loud on a workday :D

I wish there was the +1 ability.

Much appreciated, sir. :)

I actually like the Warpaint. I think of it as giving the Giant +1 Wound. I'd pay 20 points for that.

I would use the warpaint, but it requires Savage Orcs in the army (or a savage orc shaman - forget which), and my Night Goblin themed army does not include Orcs in it. But, once I finish overhauling my old Night Gobbo army to fit the new edition and have a cohesive visual scheme I am thinking of making a full Savage Orc & Forest Gobbo themed force. In that force I would use the warpaint.