well the New Zealand blogs were, for
a few weeks their, wailing on the special characters of warhammer. I could not
see the reasoning myself, as their was only (in my humblest of opinions of
course) two characters who were breaking the current game, and one of those was
only their because no one wants to spend any points on flaming these days. One
Thursdays musings led me to decide to test various special characters to see
what was so wrong with them. So first to face off on the battlefield were the
new and diminutive characters of the Orc & Goblins book, Snagla Grobspit
and Gittila the Hunter.
Points Cost:
Gittila: At 110 points for a special character he is definitely in
the cheep and cheerful category. many state that the need to take a unit of
wolf riders offsets this low points cost but I see it as a moot point anyway,
you wouldn't run Gittila without a unit of wolf riders would you, that just
wouldn't make sense.Snagla: Coming in slightly higher at 115 points, Gittila seems to have the advantage here. Once more Snagla shares Gittila's need to bring a mob of spider riders with him. Again you wouldn't take one without the other, so there’s no point crying about added points from this.
Abilities
Gittila: Gittila's skill set is made for one thing and one thing
only, the death of 1000 cuts. Granting himself and his unit BS 4 and the quick
to fire rule is a strong opening for any character, but when seen in the
context that this is being added to a unit that already has the fast cavalry
rule and a movement of 9" makes Gittila's "Howlerz" an annoying
threat at least and a death sentence at best. As Ulda, Gittila's great wolf,
allows the unit to re-roll flee or pursue rolls the Howlerz are not too shabby
at mopping up other units leftovers as well.Snagla: Snagla's skill set is made for the polar opposite of Gittila. He is a combat trooper pure and simple. Granting his unit the ambush rule, this though it is a risky ability to use is a great mental game to play on your opponent and might force him to completely redesign their game to avoid a fast unit in their rear. Ambush is not the only bonus to his arsenal, as the unit itself (known as the death creepers) also gain devastating charge, cause fear on the charge and have the hatred (Empire) rule. The last is very circumstantial but as it does not state rider only then on the charge both rider and mount are gaining an extra attack. This makes them more than capable of taking on units other goblin riders would go nowhere near, especially as if played right you will be behind the enemy at this point in time.
weapons
Gittila:
well not as great here in my opinion. Gittila gets a magic piece of armour and
a special bow. Gittila's armour, the Gruntalope skin armour, grants him a 4+ armour
(bringing it up to a 3+for mounted) makes him a bit of a tank as goblins go. His
Bone Bow is a multiple shot 3 bow, so a longer range than most Goblins can get.
However multiple shots does bring his high BS back down a bit, so he didn’t hit
quite as often as his unit.
Snagla: Snagla
wins the weapon wars here quite frankly. With the Fangspike and sting of Snagla
he has a good chance of bringing down most monsters, and can cause headaches
for lightly armored characters. The Sting of Snagla is why I would primarily
cast him as a pure combat dude as it is a one shot thrown weapon (though he is
S4, so it hits slightly harder than most O&G shooting). With poisoned and D3
wounds it can cause some damage to multi wound creatures. The Fangspike is a
hand weapon with the poisoned and D3 wounds ability. Let’s face it; with 3 attacks
(4 on the charge) he can make problems for light armour multi wound creatures (like
ogres).
Impact on the game
Well to be honest I want
to give this to Snagla for a major reason. When it comes to the Orcs and
Goblins, it’s really a go big or go home situation, as they are clearly
designed to go into combat. In my experience darting round and shooting your
opponent won’t allow you to win big (unless you are a dedicated gun line army
like some I could mention). You have to be able to break the enemy in close
combat if you’re going to get the big points, and the disruption that Snagla can
cause combined with his strength in close combat makes him my pick of the
better of the two. I know many might disagree but this is my feelings on the
matter
So though he is the
more expensive (by 5 points undoubtedly) in my opinion Snagla is the better
Character overall, though with bad rolls he might not come grace your
battlefield at all. When he works he is a better combatant than Gittila and more
likely to turn a combat in your favor. Sure Ulda can turn a route into a
massacre but for sheer damage potential I would much prefer the king of the
gribbles to the wolf lord any day
