Grut's Victim

Personally, I never bother with Grut's Sickle; too much competition for arcane items.  However, alot of folks swear by it, despite that little down-side it has.  So, I was curious:

Have you ever had your Slaughtermaster (or butcher) eaten by the squad as a result of the Grut's Sickle test?

Nope & I've used it in 10+ games, including tourneys.

Played about 20 games or so with the sickle and never have been killed.

Oddly enough I find that to be boring.

Happened in the first and only game I've used it.
In a siege battle where I was defending from a VC attack. An angry irongut got pissed after he took the sickle in the gut for the second time.

Yeah i have been killed by it before, turned the game from a slight victory to me, to a draw! When it worked it was awesome and helped me control the magic phases but that slight risk of double ones is not good when you have a 300 point+ character

Az

I used to use Grut's on a regular but my last game saw my SM being eaten for the first time in about 10 games. After which I figured I'd try other tactics out. It works well and considering your looking at something like a 1 in 36 chance of your SM/Butcher being eaten the risk isn't all that bad but it certainly sucks when you do roll them snake-eyes. It's a pretty decent item for it's points but I rarely put it on my SM as he is often my General as well. I reserve Grut's for a support caster (usually a level 2 Maw Butcher) if I'm not using HH or a scroll.

I'm not worried about the sickle on my SM seeing as my SM rarely survives a battle anyway.  (haven't been killed by sickle yet though)

The good thing about the sickle is it's flexibility.  If you are worried of putting it on your SM, give the sickle to a backup butcher or firebelly.  That gives you 2 lvl 4 casters (essentially) and if the backup caster dies to the sickle is not a massive loss.

I've run a LoTGM SM lvl 4 along with a beasts lore butcher lvl 2 (butcher has sickle).  Having +4 to cast for LoTGM and Beasts in the same game can really give you some nice combo buffs to work with.

I've run a LoTGM SM lvl 4 along with a beasts lore butcher lvl 2 (butcher has sickle).  Having +4 to cast for LoTGM and Beasts in the same game can really give you some nice combo buffs to work with.

I tend to run my casters in the opposite setup to yours (Lv 4 Beasts & Lv 2 Maw + Gruts) and this has worked well for me. I'm tempted to get the fat lads out tonight and try it your way to see how different the results are, I like the idea of having most if not many of the Maw buffs with access to a few ass kickers from Beasts as well.

My line of thinking was with a Lv 2 Maw caster you can get +2 from Grut's then the extra +1 from Bloodgruel for effectively a level 4 Beasts SM and a Level 5 Maw butcher. However the lack of choice for the Butchers spells always seems to limit Grut's potential. Perhaps doing it the other way round is the way forward?

I use Gruts almost exclusively with Death. It allows me to (usually) get off or successfully cast (barring dispel attempts) most of the spells I have in my hand. I'm not always in range to do so - but when you are only needing 2 dice to get spells off, it gives you the freedom to save dice for my other casters once dispel dice have been drawn out.

My line of thinking was with a Lv 2 Maw caster you can get +2 from Grut's then the extra +1 from Bloodgruel for effectively a level 4 Beasts SM and a Level 5 Maw butcher. However the lack of choice for the Butchers spells always seems to limit Grut's potential. Perhaps doing it the other way round is the way forward?

The problem I've found with the lvl 2 maw caster is the chances of not getting the spells for combo buffs are just to big.

A lvl 4 maw should get either +1T or regen along with +1S when rolling on the Maw table most of the time, and then your lvl 2 can always swap one of his beasts spells for the signature spell which is still very useful. (+1S +1T)

Having a lvl 2 with maw running around with stubborn spell and spell 6 isn't very useful sadly. (I've not noticed the lack of stubborn in my games)

In a 2k+ game, I love playing a lvl 4 maw caster with gruts and fencers blade. With 8+ power dice (which happens often) he has a good chance at getting off 4 useful spells, recovering any lost wounds, and having 5 attacks that hit on 3's at either str 4 or 5.  With gruts, lvl 4, and maw lore, its like +7 to roll. Thats like two free power dice per cast. Dispell scrolls become useless. And I smile whenever my opponent has multiple lvl 2 casters. The +7 becomes brutal...

But to answer the OP question, no. I have been lucky enough to never roll 1s.

The fact that its optional is what makes it good.  You can choose not to use it if you have the game in hand.  In games where I ran a SM, I always took it with Heavens.  I got munched twice in about two dozen games, but in both cases I was so far out in front that it didn't matter and probably could have avoided it by just not gettting greedy.

Has any one put it on a fire belly, and put him in a unit of sniper/posion maneaters?

Has any one put it on a fire belly, and put him in a unit of sniper/posion maneaters?

Please god, don't ever do that.

Err... Well, maybe I should say "why would you ever consider doing that?" 

Has any one put it on a fire belly, and put him in a unit of sniper/posion maneaters?

I don't fancy hacking apart my own maneaters or ironguts.

If you put him in a unit of maneaters the sickle will cost you 174 points after 6 rounds...  that's a bit steep.

There is no real reason why I would do that. We decied to build list that has stuff no one would ever use. So I came up with that unit.

Just wanted to see if any one out there had use this before.

I've only had this happen to me once.  Of course, it was on turn one and I was facing a slann army.....
Needless to say, I didn't fair too well.

Haha was that against Matt?

No, Jim at the first battle for the beer.  The bright side is, I let the wookie win.

In fit of shameless self promotion, I decided to post pics displaying how much I love Grut's sickle - I have modeled my SM to be carrying it:





Yes, I have posted these pics before, but I can't help how much I love this model. And no, I still haven't painted it because I've been busy painting tyranids. 

@Dirtycrabcakes: That is indeed a VERY awesome model.  I think it's time for me to shamelessly steal your idea and make my own as well.

On an unrelated note: I still have to paint my nids, I was thinking of a kinda dark blue/light blue with a silver and bone trim on the blades and so on.  What colours are you going for with your bugs?

In honor of my beloved Baltimore Orioles making the playoffs for the first time since I was in High School:

Gargoyle



Harpy conversion



Genestealers (still a work in progress)

Thread officially derailed... SORRY!

Back to Gruts... yeah, I like it.

That DIY harpy looks really nice, and I like the kinda urban-hive planet camo look your genestealers have going.

Anyway, Back on topic:

Grut's is good.  1/36 chance of dying for it is more than worth the risk. 
Grut's sickle = Reward > Risk 

In fit of shameless self promotion, I decided to post pics displaying how much I love Grut's sickle - I have modeled my SM to be carrying it

Is that a halfling cookbook in his other hand? I miss having a halfling cookbook