Gnoblars en masse

Hello fellow Tyrants!

I have been pondering some strange and crazy lists recently, in a bid to alleviate boredom and have some fun. The crazy lists thread, and some of the Ogre achievements, inspired me to start thinking about taking a large amount of Gnoblars; it also helps that mine have been shelved since 7th edition, and I want to give them some play time.

Has anyone used a large amount of Gnoblars in an army? I mean, multiple units of Trappers or several hordes of the little blighters, not just 40+ in a single unit.

I love Magic, so usually take a Slaughtermaster and 1 - 2 Butchers as well. I love the Lore of the Great Maw, as well as Wyssan's Wildform.

When making lists I've been thinking about how funny, and potentially deadly it would be to have several hordes of Gnoblars (50+ per unit) being under the bubble of Gut magic buffs, with the odd unit of S4 Gnoblars thanks to using Wyssan's Wildform. Seeing as Gnoblars are cheap enough to be steadfast against nearly any enemy for multiple turns, and all of the Maw buffs are able to 'bubble cast' onto multiple units, I thought this could make the core of a very interesting build.

Has anyone had experience of using a list like this? Does anyone like the sounds of S4 sharp stuff, being flung from 20+ guys, then standing and shooting with it as well?

It sounds funny enough that I'm willing to give it a try (using some Night Goblins as proxies for the time being, as I cannot spend that much money one a wacky theory just yet). It also sounds unexpected enough that you could have a lot of interesting matches, and catch a lot of people off guard with it.

I'm interested in getting people's experiences of taking lots of Gnoblars, what works well to support them, what different strategies you used, what you think you'd have to be careful of etc.

If we can get a couple of posts from people that've been here before, we could try and sticky this (Gnoblar Hordes) as an alternate OK playstyle, which would stop a lot of people feeling like we're only capable of Dual Ironblaster cookie-cutters. Would probably fit into Comped environments easily enough as well.

Get a lot of proxies and go for a 100 gnoblar horde... it is surprisingly cheap in bigger games and it will tarpit whatever until they die of boredom.

As you as you are within your general it works wonder and 10 wide will soak up a lot of enemy units. They simply take up so much space that you cannot get around them!

It is a gimmick and if you anyway have goblins lying around then go for it!

Will it be functional? Maybe. But I think your going to find that your gnoblars are going to be eaten in match ups like WoC and Empire. One unit of a few monster cave will tarpit your tarpit for less points likely.

I thought it'd be a fun gimmick, but I just don't have the resources to pour into it (I have like 120+ gnoblars, but only like 49 of them assembled  )

I actually thought that it'd be fun in a 3k Shooty list to run 15 gnoblar trapper 10packs. It'd be 750, the base core points needed, and you'd have 15 drops over the opponent lol... Then, as the game progresses, just run them around and throw sharp stuff as able, while your real gunline does the rest

...other'n that, idk. Run like 3 100+ hordes and see how the opponent feels when they get confused by how many models you have on the table. "Wait, you're running Ogres, but have how many models?" lol

I tried out a few 10-man Trapper units as redirectors. They did surprisingly well, apart from the speed issues, which leads me to wonder whether they'd be effective in an Ogre Gunline. Just keep shooting, and make sure the enemy has to struggle with a massive dangerous terrain test redirection. Nothing like making a Horde roll that many tests...

Curse of Anraheir + Gnoblar Trappers= profit! 

I want to chain a number of trapper units together in front of something frenzied (skullcrushers?), cast that spell, and then watch as they force overrun themselves into oblivion.  My desire is almost as strong not to paint gnoblars, though...

Painting gnoblars doesnt motivate anything! ; )

trapper+Curse of Anraheir will wound on 5+ - say you force a unit of 3 SC then on average the unit will get ONE wound - actually not that great. The potential lies in chaos warriors in bigger units. Or chariots, although they are only one model the failed test gives d6 wounds : )

Spamming multiple small units of gnoblars may ruin the game rather a lot for your opponent, mind you. But it can be done with great succes Im sure. Then I'd avoid the trappers for more bodies.

Curse of Anraheir + Gnoblar Trappers= profit! 

I want to chain a number of trapper units together in front of something frenzied (skullcrushers?), cast that spell, and then watch as they force overrun themselves into oblivion.  My desire is almost as strong not to paint gnoblars, though...

Didn't they FAQ that only one dangerous terrain test gets taken per turn? I think that's in the Ogre FAQ talking about the trappers rule... I could be wrong though, so don't mind me 

Curse of Anraheir + Gnoblar Trappers= profit! 

I want to chain a number of trapper units together in front of something frenzied (skullcrushers?), cast that spell, and then watch as they force overrun themselves into oblivion.  My desire is almost as strong not to paint gnoblars, though...

Didn't they FAQ that only one dangerous terrain test gets taken per turn? I think that's in the Ogre FAQ talking about the trappers rule... I could be wrong though, so don't mind me 

You may be thinking of this ruling?

Q:If an enemy unit successfully charges the front of multiple units of
Gnoblars with the Gnoblar Trappers upgrade, how many Dangerous
Terrain tests must models in the enemy unit take? (p48)
A: Every model in the unit must take onetest

I didn't find anything else referencing only taking 1 dangerous terrain test per turn...

Curse of Anraheir + Gnoblar Trappers= profit! 

I want to chain a number of trapper units together in front of something frenzied (skullcrushers?), cast that spell, and then watch as they force overrun themselves into oblivion.  My desire is almost as strong not to paint gnoblars, though...

Didn't they FAQ that only one dangerous terrain test gets taken per turn? I think that's in the Ogre FAQ talking about the trappers rule... I could be wrong though, so don't mind me 

You may be thinking of this ruling?

Q:If an enemy unit successfully charges the front of multiple units of
Gnoblars with the Gnoblar Trappers upgrade, how many Dangerous
Terrain tests must models in the enemy unit take? (p48)
A: Every model in the unit must take onetest

I didn't find anything else referencing only taking 1 dangerous terrain test per turn...

Yes! That's the one I was thinking of. And, now reading it, I realize that it doesn't apply to the situation at hand, and so hey! We can have multiple Dangerrain tests! Sounds good to me  lol

I run Gnobbies in 25 packs with full commands.  My current list has two such units in it, with no trappers.  They vastly over perform in every game I bring them.  I honestly think there is no wrong way to run these guys.

BUT as by the above math... they would rather run off the board before they would die from dangerous terrain tests! Or restrain from frenzy charging  - they are ld8 so it is not all as cool as it sound.

Also, to be the total party pooper - will 3 SC reliably deal the 10 needed wounds to overrun? of course fleeing might work our too.

Im not saying I wouldnt try it our one day against those WoC guys ; )

You never know - you might get that wondrous moment where the last surviving Gnoblar decides to hold his ground and give the middle finger to those poncy Khornate ponies.

Such moments are the stuff of legends. I've had something similar involving a Chariot Deathstar charge before now.

You never know - you might get that wondrous moment where the last surviving Gnoblar decides to hold his ground and give the middle finger to those poncy Khornate ponies.

Such moments are the stuff of legends. I've had something similar involving a Chariot Deathstar charge before now.

lol yes, I love that moment, when you roll the double-ones...

You can just picture the little guy(s), stopping, looking around, and in a brave moment of awesomeness, just saying, "F-Off, We Got This!" and performing a Stone-Cold Steve Austin gesture... right before being flatlined by who-knows-what lol...

Epic. Just, epic.

And don't forget, Gnoblars never cause panic, even in other Gnoblars.  So having the unit break, run through the second set of trappers (if they get away) won't disrupt your speed bumps.

I use 4 squads of 10 gnoblars with no upgrades in my current best ogre list - They way I see it is they have a large selection of great things going for them: They're cheap (2.5pts per model and unlike slaves or goblins you can have 10 in a unit), they are core (Good for filling out core ever so slightly), they get more wounds on the table than any other choice in the ogre book point for point, and best of all they have size matters+1 and never cause any panic in anyone for any reason.

I take 4 units of 10 and 3 sabres and it means i usually out-deploy my opponent, which means my leadbelchers can deploy in the optimum position to shoot their best targets, and my gnoblars slow my opponents down so that i can get a few rounds of shooting done before I have to commit my small units.

Getting the frenzied unit to charge the first group of gnoblars is the hard part, but since the skullcrushers are coming at me on a flank most of the time away from the BSB it can happen.  From there on out it's just a matter of lining up the subsequent gnoblars right; Juggernauts win combat one way or another, and then pursue or overrun into the next trappers with little say in the matter.

I'm also banking on Curse of Anraheir's nastiest side effect, that being ALL terrain becoming dangerous, including open terrain.  So, one set of tests just for starting to charge, one for hitting the gnoblars, plus additional ones for any other terrain features in between.

Granted, the likelihood of actually accomplishing anything with this tactic is slim to none, but the one time it works it'll be worth all the wasted effort in between.