Special Characters; Are They Viable?, 2500 point tournament coming up...

Hey all, sorry I haven't been around for a while, but kids and work does that to you from time to time

I have managed to get a leave pass for a 1 day 3 game tournament in a months time, and I was considering taking a special character for the fun of it, becuase I never have.

My options;

Snagla Grobspit. Does he make the unit worthwhile? Is he worth his points in disruption on the back line?

Gorbad Ironclaw. Seems pretty good value since he is fighty general and BSB in one. I am having trouble looking past the damage one 1st turn cannonball could do to him though.

I never have been a fan of eggs-in-one-basket or deathstar approach, so some advice?

The rest of the army will likely be;
lvl 4 orc
25 so big uns
30 orcs
couple of largish ng mobs with nets/fanatics
2 boar chariots
pump wagon
mangler
doom diver
rock lobba

and a few more things I guess

RoV

Grimgor is probably the best special characters we've got. Not extremely expensive, got good defenses and he chops things like a maniac while making his Black Orc unit waaaay better what with hatred and WS5 (WS4 to WS5 is a huge deal).

Snagla Grobspit is fun but not very good. You want to fight in close combat with him, but spider riders are terrible at fighting and Snagla himself only has a 5+ armor save which is crazy bad.

I don't know anything about Gorbad, be it good or bad. Very risky I think, if he takes a wound.

Go with Grimgor, he´s the bossiest boss around.
Azagh is great as well and Gorbad, well he´s not bad but you need to build a list around him I say.

Azagh is a bit... situational. It's never a good idea to have a general on a monster if you face warmachines, and lots of races have warmachines.

if you take Gorbad you can up those 30 orcs to Big 'Uns
But if you do take him you will need some cavalry unit for the lookout sir

This post has been edited by Piccolo on May 26 2012, 10:25 PM

Azhag along with 6 trolls is a nice combo though making canons far less scary... Death magic is brilliant on a combat character, and azhag himself is far better than I expected in combat. 5 attacks, rerolling hits, s6... He kills stuff...

thanks for the replies fellas. I am a bit limited in which ones I can field as I don't have any but Grimgor, and I don't really have enough Black Orcs to keep him company. I can easily make Snagla, and have a Warboss on a boar to stand in for Gorbad (powerfist for his ironclaw? j/k)

I was thinking Snagla outflanking with his spiders, and his D3 wounds poisoned weapon could be useful. Quite situational though, I am thinking. At least they would make very good warmachine hunters, even that bloody chariot/cannon thing would have to be careful!
Like I said, scared of losing general and BSB to one cannonball first turn with Gorbad, but I do have boarboys for him to lurk with...

RoV

This post has been edited by rat of vengence on May 27 2012, 05:53 AM

Well the problem is how many spiders would you take for Snagla? 9, 14? And what command upgrades?

Just 9 spider riders and Snagla with no command is 232, very expensive for just chasing warmachines. While they may hit "hard", they also die in droves against anything competent.

Don't get me wrong, it's one hell of a COOL unit and I've tried fielding it many times, but it's veeeery expensive for such a squishy and easily killed unit.

Sneaky Stabbin' is insane on them though.

I've used gorbad previously, giving him a unit of five boarboys to help him keep his wounds and then used that as a bunker behind lines.

his 18" range is enormous for an elite orc army, and he can handle most other characters. like skarsnik his biggest let down is his armour save, or more so, his lack of ward.

i havent chosen azhag as his points cost is at an awkward number, having to be in battles higher than 2200, and the short range of most death magic make me wonder if i can fly forward, zap someone and get back to the battle to keep the orcs in line enough.

Where did I get the idea that one of the hero level characters could outflank, as in, come from a different board edge? Damn, that makes them far less useful, I am better just putting a normal hero in a unit if I want to do that.

Still considering Gorbad, worries me he will die turn one though...

RoV

Grimgor is probably the most efficient, but he has to go with the black orc unit which makes him crazy expensive.
Snagla is actually pretty good against a few armies, (empire, skaven, tomb kings, vc, other greenskins) but will struggle against the others. I like the devastating charge of the unit sudddenly making your spiders killy, and as stated above, if you can sneaky stabbing on this unit then things can actually look up.

Azhag would be great if the cannon's weren't so bent in 8th. I wish the above mentioned troll cannon shield for azhag actually worked, but he has such a large base, that he'll still get hit without his troll shield half the time. I guess your just hoping your opponent gets greedy on turn one and tries to take down some trolls too.

I've not really looked at the others much. Gorbad has lots of potential, but needs a big , ineffective unit to transport him around the place.

Okay, ignore my last post; the Ambusher's rule is not in Snagla's special rules, but those of his unit of spiders. So lets see what they have, assuming a unit of 5 spiders, muso and bows plus Snagla;

Firstly, they can come on later in the game from any board edge you want. Really useful once the opponent has commited many of his units.

Secondly although they can't charge the turn they arrive, you can equip the unit with bows, and Snagla has his one shot poison weapon. Might do something...

Next is the Devestating charge, that's 12 S3 poison attacks, 10 S4 spear attacks and 4 S4 poision D3 wounds attacks. That lot has to hurt something!

Throw in the extra Ld, empire hatred and causing fear on the charge, that's icing on the cake!

Okay, obviously it is a weak unit with 5+ saves and T3 mostly. Being able to come on where you choose would mitigate their vunerability to missile fire and magic though. Might be worth a try, 195 points or so in a 2500 point list? Worth it for a laugh if nothing else

RoV

This post has been edited by rat of vengence on May 29 2012, 02:41 PM

You should probably add that a unit of 5 spider riders and snagla will die to just about any shooting or magic, and costs 180 (185 with bows) for no command.

You'd probably get more out of just spending the points on more spider riders. For 180, you get about 13 spider riders!

Grimgor is still damn good as people have stated here, although you have to go all-out with him. If you're taking grimgor, you're taking at least 30 blorcs, and giving them shields too. Anything less will be a waste. Gorbad is fantastic, but best reserved for smaller games (he just fits into a 1500pt list's lord allowance and I dont think this was an oversight lol) If you have him in bigger games make sure you give him a bunker, I've found (dont laugh) a large block of wolf riders with spears & shields to work well, but a hard hitting unit of pigunz could go nicely too. Im yet to try him out in a full 2500pt elite list, but I think thats how Ill be going from now on with my Chaos Orcs, it worked well in the smaller games. Horde of SObigunz, horde of regular bigunz, unit of blorcs, a block of pigunz for Gorbad & a few chariots/trolls for good measure? Sounds good to me!

Snagla just seems too pricey for me as everyone has said, if spiders could get a 4+ save it'd be different but as it stands they'll die in droves. That said, putting a 30 strong unit of spiders on the other side of the board would actually be hilarious CAV HORDE!

Arfa da Grate

What about wuzzrag?

am I wrong in thinking all the greenskin anti-magic was stuffed into this one super expensive, special character?