Gremlins - What I know, what I don't

[shekbo]

I've got Gremlins on mind and I've got to get them out. I love the little swamp dwelling hillbillys and I've been playing them for a few games now. I feel like there are some things that I understand pretty well. On the other hand, many Gremlin abilities still have me scratching my head. So, I thought I'd sit down and put some thought into this. I'll give youI don't about each critter in a typical Gremlin crew. You can agree or disagree with what I know and help explain what I don't.

Let's start at the bottom:

Bayou Gremlin: What I know... The Gremlin motto is "Born to Die". The best use for a Gremlin is to be killed or sacrificed. The second best use is to produce more Gremlins (via Som'er's Git Yer Bro) to be killed or sacrificed.

Sounds harsh but here are the facts. Their best attack, and in my opinion one of the best named abilities in the game, is "Ya'll watch this". If you can pull it off and trigger "Dumb Luck" you'll probably die but it will be a glorious death.

Gremlins can also be sacrificed or killed to summon Giant Mosquitoes (via "Larva" or Parasitic Infection") or Piglets (via Som'er's "Come and Get It"). They can also die to heal a pig (Via "the Other White Meat) although this only works if they fail a morale check so I've never actually used this ability. It's much easier for a pig to just kill a gremlin and use "eat your fill" to heal.

The other helpful thing about a gremlin dying is that it can trigger survival of the fittest for Som'er or the Hog Whisperer allowing you to draw 2 control cards. I guess this makes up for Som'er getting boned out of one control card at the beginning of the game.

The last thing I know is that nothing in this game is more frustrating than "Woops!" taking out your own figs. Aaaaaargh!

What I don't know about Bayou Gremlins... What good is "Flip for it". As I read it this spell only works for cards you flip, not when you cheat fate. So there's really no way to control what you're going to get. Why would I ever do this?

"Reckless abandon" and "Deliverence" also seem pretty useless. I don't see my Gremlins making many melee attacks. They usually sacrifice themselves before that or if they do run up close to someone they can "Ya'll watch this" and do 2 damage to all models within 2" plus shoot at someone else. I you can tell me how to better use these abilities I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for looking. If ya'll think this is useful I'll move on to War Pig with my next post...

Tom M

[Justin]

http://www.wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10472

As far as I know, flip for it absolutely works on cards you cheat since the cheated card takes the place of the flipped card, but if you want a definite answer feel free to post a question in rules discussion.

So, under the assumption that flip for it does work on cards you cheat, I often hold a hand full of odd cards, flip for it, and then make a gremlin firing line. Even if they do kill another gremlin, at least I usually get two cards out of it to make subsequent shots more accurate. At three shots a piece and twelve inch range, you can do some real damage. Also, focus works wonders as well.

Ya'll watch this is good, but you have to be sure you're close to the enemy to benefit from the damage radius, which can be difficult since it's a two action. But, if you're too close and in their melee range, you don't produce a ranged attack. So, that's pretty risky.

Reckless abandon is alright. Not great, but alright. It's cool when you have 8 gremlins charging something and a hand full of odd cards with flip for it.

[shekbo]

Well, that would make "Flip for it" actually useful. I'll ask on the rules forum to be sure.

I did go through your tactics articles and they are very helpful. Gremlin players need to stick together.

Thanks for the reply

Tom M

[Justin]

Well, that would make "Flip for it" actually useful. I'll ask on the rules forum to be sure.

I did go through your tactics articles and they are very helpful. Gremlin players need to stick together.

Thanks for the reply

Tom M

Glad you found them useful.

I hope flip for it works the way I've been playing it, gremlins really don't need any more shafting.

[shekbo]

Since I think this is proving worthwhile, lets move on to the pigs. I'm going to group both the War Pig and the Piglets together because their strategies are similar.

What I know: The first thing I notice about the pigs are their high number of wound points (12 and 5) and the readily available healing. I count 5 ways to heal wound on your pigs. Somer's "take a swig", Gremlin's "The other white meat", Whisperer's "Sooeet Nothins", pig's "Eat your fill" and for War Pig only "Eat Anyting".

All those wound points + the ability to get them back make these pigs real annoying to your opponent.

The second thing I notice is it's pretty easy to give your pigs extra movement. Both Som'er and the Whisperer have Sooey which can give your pig a head start.

and the final thing I notice is that you really want to be stampeding and pigcharging behind enemy lines. Your pig charge is a 10" push + and attack with +1 dam flip and +1 Dam. For the Warpig that means 3/5/7/ damage with a +1 flip. A piglet is at 2/3/4. If you can get your pig "Set off" it can "Pigcharge" for 1 action which means you can do it 3 times per turn. Not too shabby.

What I don't know... out of the 5 ways to heal, 3 require a gremlin to be within 8" of your pig. That means the pig does not get "Set off" so no 1 action charges. Same thing with the highly useful "Stik'em in tha ass" which reactivates your pig.

So ya'll can help me figure out... tactically... how can I keep the gremlins, particularly the Hog Whisperer, close enough to buff up the pig but far enough so the pig can stampede?

The other thing that's kinda confusing to me is Pigcharging during a stampede. "Set'er off" says that I must pigcharge toward the closest non-pig model in LOS. Then pigcharge says I can push, make a GORE strike and continue to push up to my Chg range. If I have, say, to enemies a and B near my pig with A being closest. Can I pus toward A, gore him and continue to push toward B? or can I not do that because after I gore A he is still closest and during a stampede I must push toward the closest?

To wrap up... Bowled over and Squeel will help you attack or get attacked and still be able to charge the next turn. Truffles is useful if you intend to kill a friendly gremlin in order to heal your pig.

Come on fellow Gremlin people, help me out here with some comments and suggestions. I know I'm missing something :-)

Tom M

[Omenbringer]

So ya'll can help me figure out... tactically... how can I keep the gremlins, particularly the Hog Whisperer, close enough to buff up the pig but far enough so the pig can stampede?

Dont forget that the giant skeeters can also help with the pig boomerrang shenanigans. They are a major part of placing pigs after buffing and lining up the pigcharges you want then activating them so they stampede, and finally returning them safely to your lines (under control). Also remember that pigcharges require LOS to the closest target so if you can block LOS with either interveening terrain or medium/large base models (Warpig is great for this) you can exercise a bit more control over your pigcharges.

[shekbo]

OK, so skeeters can cast sooey to pull a pig somewhere and since skeeters are not gremlins then at can set off a stampede when the pig activates. The only problem is the pig might charge your skeeter.

So like you said, we need to make use of terrain and pig placement to assure that there's an enemy model in closer LOS to the pig.

One quick question about the skeets casting Sooey... I assume that when a skeeter uses Magical Extention to cast one of Som'er Teeth's spells I use the CA of the skeeter (which is 2) and not Som'er teeth's CA (which is 5) is that correct?

Tom

[Justin]

OK, so skeeters can cast sooey to pull a pig somewhere and since skeeters are not gremlins then at can set off a stampede when the pig activates. The only problem is the pig might charge your skeeter.

So like you said, we need to make use of terrain and pig placement to assure that there's an enemy model in closer LOS to the pig.

One quick question about the skeets casting Sooey... I assume that when a skeeter uses Magical Extention to cast one of Som'er Teeth's spells I use the CA of the skeeter (which is 2) and not Som'er teeth's CA (which is 5) is that correct?

Tom

Yes, that is correct.