Friday 16 August 2013

Giants, no better than babys?

I love the smack talk that all war gamers seem to focus on when talking about monsters in their lists. "It will die straight away", "its got no saves/ too few wounds/ too random" or "its not worth its points compared to other monsters" are all things i have heard in regard to the oldest monster in warhammer, the giant.
"world, why do you no longer love me!"
I have not seen a giant on the other side of the field for over two years. I have run them once or twice, as i think they are a really hilarious addition that can cause utter bedlam in units it hits, if it doesn't roll a 1 (damn that yell and bawl).
Essentially the often pointed out faults of these behemoths are really racking up, those being...
  • Not tough enough to survive long into the battle
  • No form of saves (unless he's a painted orc giant)
  • Too easy to spot under true line of sight rules
  • Other monsters of roughly the same points are better
  • Takes too long to break an infantry block
  • Too random, and can hurt itself
However being the oldest monster i feel that they are the benchmark for other monsters. I often feel that the brainstorms for monsters in the GW studios go thus...
"We need a new monster for Dark Elves/ Wood Elves/ Brettonians/ Dwarves"
"How big?"
"Oh, ya know, giant sized"
"Why not make them the 4th army to be able to use them"
"NO, THEIR TERRIBLE NOW, give it giant stats but with wings and regen and armour and..."

Poor poor giants, losing the monster arms race. Being relagated to a fluffy little (well, not really) niche unit to be tromped out only when whole armies are being fielded.

What needs to happen to bring them back into a useful unit in the eyes of the general public. I have a solution which i doubt will make it broken, but will make it a feared opponent once more on the battlefield. and that is...

Titan: the thunder stomp of a monster with the titan special rule affects cavalry, chariots, monstrous infantry, monstrous beasts and monstrous cavalry, rather than just infantry, war beasts and swarms.

Ouch, i know, maybe a 20 point increase and slap that on him. Now you have to think twice before slagging him off. I dunno, what do you, the warhammer smack talkers, think?

2 comments:

  1. Largest of Monsters rule from Monstrous Arcana.

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  2. i knew i had seen it somewhere (only ever glanced at that book once at Natcon). still it would bring him back without breaking him in my opinion

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