# Unit Of Gigantic Spider Heroes



## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

I have been experiencing more and more Monstrous Cavalry in my games of late and while flicking through the well worn pages of my gaming (I have 2 one for games one for shelf) Orcs and Goblin army book I was struck with inspiration to make a unit of Goblin Big Bosses on Gigantic Spiders since you can create units of Heroes in 8th edition.

So a 'basic' unit of 3 of these guys clocks in at just under 250 points, here is what I am thinking;

2 x Goblin Big Boss (81 x 2)
Spear, Shield, Light Armour, Gigantic Spider.

1 x Goblin Big Boss (87)
Light Armour, Enchanted Shield, Warrior Bane, GiganticSpider


This gives me 3+ Armour Save and 3 wounds per model. 3 Strength 5 attacks on a charge from the Goblins, 3 S4 posion attacks and a stomp from the mounts. Plus I have a character with cheap magic weapon for ethereal hunting

Now I know that they're not Mournfang, but they have a few additional bonuses that I think will offset the cost. 

Firstly they can move over almost anything on the board, making them a very hard unit to hide from, they can also split up at any time. Also because they're characters I would have wound allocation (meaning you need to completely kill one character without wounds carrying over onto the rest of the 'unit') 

Downsides include, no look out sir rolls, no musician and quite expensive really.

What do you think?


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## effigy22 (Jun 29, 2008)

The idea is cool. But I think they work better on their own. Easier to move and you can specialise the individuals, such as give one a 2+ ward against flaming attacks to hold up those pesky flame units etc.

the other downside I see is challenges. Single hardcore character (bloodthirster comes to mind) can avoid the majority of attacks by issueing a challenge, making the unit redundant.

Its a very cool idea nonetheless.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

I'll cobble some together and playtest the unit this weekend, my initial thoughts was to keep them together to mitigate shooting against them, then I can charge the characters off in different directions. I'll have a play with the equip as well, I already have a WolfBoss with Dragonhelm, M9 is needed to get him into combat faster then the spiders although the stomp attack is nice....... damn too much variety


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

I had a similar idea with a gobbo horde with 10 heroes in the front rank. Worked until someone took a slaughtermaster with a sword of antiheroes. 15 str 10 attacks and a stomp later.


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

Vaz said:


> I had a similar idea with a gobbo horde with 10 heroes in the front rank. Worked until someone took a slaughtermaster with a sword of antiheroes. 15 str 10 attacks and a stomp later.


That, never occurred to me

I have run 5 Goblin Big Bosses on Wolves as a unit, due to closed list format they were ignored until they rear charged a unit of TK Spears and preceeded to slaughter their little green way throught them


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## Deathypoo (Jun 27, 2011)

It seems really vulnerable to basic shooting attacks, but I'm still intrigued... let us know how it goes


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## olderplayer (Dec 11, 2009)

Interesting concept. The biggest problem is low leadership 7. If one model is killed, the other two panic more than 40% of the time unless within range of general or BSB. For target saturdation and panic test purposes, you would almost be better off running them separate except when faced with BS shooting that will spread out the wounds and avoid any model from getting killed. 

That being said, they can be a very effective way to deal with units bunkered in a building because the spiders get to attack. 3 would give you a total of 18 attacks, 9 at WS4, S4 and I3 and 9 at WS3, S4 with poison, and I4. If you had the room and options, it would likely be worthwhile to boost the AS for the other two goblin big bosses with cheap magic armour options. 

You can run in a unit of spider riders (no look out sir but you can spread the shots from attacks distributed as shooting across the unit) as well for synergy. Similar to the strategy of running a night goblin big boss on giant squig in a unit of squig hoppers.


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## blackspine (Jun 9, 2010)

If you're going to sink that many into the unit, why not take the BSB in there and put the spider/poison banner on him? 

That way the poison is more effective and if you get 'gift of spider god' things get very fun. 

this unit would get mauled in a straight fight, but on the flank, with Sneaky Stabbin, it would be a sight


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