Colossal Squig Rant, Are There Any Uses At All?

Soon I will be hosting a 4-sided Orcs and Skaven v.s. Empire and Lizardmen (3000 points for each army) annihilation game when my new terrain mat comes in the mail. We have agreed that Forge World units and magic items will be allowed as long as they have their own monstrous arcanum and/or other forge world codex. staring with envy at my ally's EPIC exalted vermin lord, I began to look into forgeworld. I myself, being relatively new to war hammer, have no forge world books or units. I have a spare 100 points in a list I'm trying to make up and the perfect unit for that seems to be the colossal cave squig. however, while looking at one of my friends arcanums, I researched his page and found his status...disappointing.

For starters, a measly weapon skill 2 will guarantee that he won't hit often. this would be fine if not for the fact that he has d6 attacks. even if you roll a six for the number of attacks he can dish out on, say, an ancient stegadon with a weapon skill of 3 (still very low), you still have half a chance on each of those dice of them even hitting, not to mention dealing with amour and ward saves. a leadership of 3 (3!! Even snotlings have leadership 4!) makes passing break tests impossible, even if you are in the range of your bsb, since you need snake eyes or a 1 and a 2 to pass (unless you are in range of the general in which case you're ok). the falls apart rule is useless against everything because if you are in base contact with a monster, they normally have high toughness so it won't do much, if you're fighting infantry you might kill a few troops, but nothing spectacular, etc. ect. why couldn't they have made the falls apart rule very similar to the squigs go wild! or the mangler squig special rules, where every unit within 2D6" suffers 3d6 strength 6 hits. lastly, it doesn't say that in his 4D6 random movement you are supposed to use a scatter die, so it seems unlikely that the Dinner's Dinner special rule will affect my units at all, unless I purposefully move the mangler squig into my own units.

With all this, are there any uses at all I could use for this thing? the colossal cave squig seems like a sick joke, as bad as the chaos spawn right now, something nobody in their right mind would take even in joke or flavor games, an epic faliure on every level. can anyone here defend it and give me any ideas on how to use it? thank you.

This post has been edited by DaWild'Un on Aug 21 2012, 12:33 AM

Well, first let me say that Spawn can be very useful, especially in an army with no smart chaff choices. Plus, random movement doesnt allow for any charge reaction other than stand which is stupendous for dealing with Fast cav. (I HATE ENEMY FAST CAV!!)

Ok, that being said I'll address your concerns about the colossal squig. (Well... give my opinion anyway.)

WS2. Yea, it sucks, but against anything WS 1-4 your still hitting on 4+... which for OnG is pretty standard. Anything WS 5 or higher is a character or an elite choice which your Squig probably shouldnt be facing on his own anyway. So with D6 attacks usually needing 4s to hit, well its not unreasonable at 100points.

Squigs in general. From your post you want your colossal squig to slam into a unit and either hold its own or decimate the unit single-handedly because it looks cool. Well man, its a 100 point model, its a support unit, not a main unit. I know it looks cool but its unrealistic to think it is going to be able to kill any real units by itself. Its for support, send it into the flank or rear of an enemy brick one of your bricks have already hit. Then you'll get your points out of him. (Dice willing)

LD3. Again, this isnt a standalone unit. This model is supposed to be used in conjuction with bigger bricks in your army. Keep him close to your General and instead of LD 3 he'll have LD 8 or 9 thanks to inspiring presence. (Same way you have to run trolls)

Mangler Squigs. They dont do 2D6" 3D6 S6 hits. If a unit (Friend or foe) lands on top of a Mangler Squig the unit takes 3D6 S6 hits and then the mangler is dead. NOT every unit within 2D6".

4D6 random movement. This baby, if you dont want to use him for support, is a GREAT anti-chaff / anti-redirector. With the random movement rule the ONLY charge reaction your opponent can make is STAND. Even with WS 2 Almost no fast cav is going to stand up to this thing. Also, Archer units can't stand and shoot, only stand. 4D6" for movement and its not random movement? Dude, thats worth it weight in dwarven runic weapons when it comes to anti-chaffing.

Anyway, I hope this helps your perscpective a little bit. If your looking for a monster that can slam into units and have a chance try a Arachnarok Spider (No shaman or flinger) or maybe a couple giants... they're unreliable at best but fun as heck in CC.

This.

Also, despite its size it's only 135 points. It has more W and T than any other model at that points level. You can afford to take more than one and you can afford it to take out small units. And if your opponent wants to get rid of it, it will take a serious effort on his part.

This.

Also, despite its size it's only 135 points. It has more W and T than any other model at that points level. You can afford to take more than one and you can afford it to take out small units. And if your opponent wants to get rid of it, it will take a serious effort on his part.

Well sure, it's okay for such jobs. But it's a humongous squig dammit, it should be by far stronger than any normal Warhammer monster. A normal squig has 2 Str5 attacks, this looks like it should have 10 str9 or something. Even if it isn't useless it's extremely dissappointing. This thing has D6 attacks. A nightgoblin with a ball and chain does D6 hits. You could get 2 manglers for the cost of that. It's just not right.

At all.

Theo

This post has been edited by theorox on Aug 21 2012, 02:12 PM

Yes, but the difference is that troll's LD can be improved by putting a character in the unit, therefore making them use the character's leadership. this is a monsterous creature, it can't even enter other units, let alone be joined by a character, so it should be made to at least have something like 4 or 5 leadership.

I didn't say mangler squigs did that. I was combining the squigs gone wild special rule with the mangler squigs death throws in order to better improve the falls apart special rule.

Other than that, you did make some good points. I just wish it had more tricks and better stats, and because of that cost more. also, I totally agree with theo that the D6 attacks is a slap in the face. maybe 2d6 hits would work, but when a regular, run of the mill cave squig for 8 points can do the same amount of attacks (or more) with +2WS and -1S that your 135 point colossal squig can do 1/3 of the time, I would rather have my points go into a snotling pump wagon

So would you suggest that because of it's high movement and it being a support character I could use it to take out my imperial foes hell blaster volley guns (I know he takes quite a few of these) and other war machines? that could actually make this thing very useful. thank you for your help

for just this once i am with theo.

Its rules are ok for the points, but its rules (and points) just dont make sense with the model.

I'll agree with Theo and Bork. The rules/stats/points are fine, nothing to get excited about, but not worthless. However, there is NO WAY they fit either the model or the fluff of a monstrous rampaging cave squig (in Tamurkhan book where their fluff was introduced 2 of them ate through several regiments of Chaos Dwarves on their own, as well as a good number of Night Goblins, several warmachines, and almost ate a Chaos Sorcerer). Their other problem is that they make great anti-chaff...but we already have a host of great anti-chaff options, including Trolls, small Squig Herds, Squig Hoppers, Pump Wagons, Manglers, Wolf Chariots, and Doom Divers.

WIIIHOOOO!

Theo