Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Destruction/Moonclan Grots

As of January 2019, these guys have been moved into Gloomspite Gitz. This page is for prior to then.

A Grinning moon can be seen on the horizon.

Why play Moonclan Grots

Pros

• You want ambush units that can hide in your Grot squads hopped up on shroom booze that can charge the enemy with a absolute massive ball and chain, at the start of any charge phase.
• Instead of riding on tiny wolves or spiders, you ride on fleshy, bouncy death meatballs with teeth.
• Your death meatballs go ballistic when fleeing and maul everything nearby indiscriminately with an excessive amount of mortal wounds, (except your own guys, of course.).
• You think that drunken Grots with giant metal balls flailing around wasn't hardcore enough, so you just chained even larger meatballs together to put salt on the enemy's wounds; and then eat them.
• With the right synergy, (and stacking your numbers), a pile of Grots can become a train of pain.

Cons

• Your baseline Grots have below-average to hit and wound rolls without that precious synergy.
• Most of your colossal units are only available from Forge World. Good luck with that.
• You'll have to deal with some pretty outdated models, (at least until the new release).
• If you're taking any allies, there's a chance your Squigs will just end up eating them while fleeing.

Warscrolls

Common keywords in these warscrolls are DESTRUCTION and MOONCLAN. Except for the Cave Squigs, they also have the GROT keyword.

Heroes

Grot Warboss: Can choose between a Moon-cutta and a Git Shield (rerolls every failed save), two Moon-cuttas (rerolls every 1 to hit), a Moon-slicer (less attacks, but D3 damage and Rend -1) or a Moon-prodder and a Giant Cave Squig shooting attacks and tons of more damage in melee, including 4 attacks dealing D3 wounds which become D6 if you roll a 6 to wound). Probably the best option (if you're willing to pay the extra money that is.) In every case, he has the ability to make every 6 rolled by your opponent against him to count as a 1, and he also has the command ability that doubles the damage dealt by a MOONCLAN unit within 20" when they get a 6 or more in the wound roll. Combine that with the basic Grots ability to get +1 or +2 to their wound rolls when having 20+ or 30+ guys, and you can make them very threatening.

• Something to consider: When used in a Great Moonclan formation and with the bellowing tyrant ability and battle brew artifact, a grot warboss with moon prodda and great cave squid becomes a stick of C4. Pop the abilities and artifact on himself, and his damage goes up to a possible 112 in a single phase due to double damage rolls and extra attacks from the formation. Doubling damage on a great cave squig when the same roll for its attacks pretty much doubles damage already is brutal, and due to battle brew, a 5+ to wound means D6x2 damage with each one that does so. CHOMP! However, the great moonclan battalion is not considered legal by many.

Grot Warboss on Great Cave Squig: Can choose between the Moon-cutta and the Moonclan Stabba: the latter has extra range but -1 to hit compared to the former. He can keep the shield in every case. If he rolls a double when charging, the Squig's attacks deal double damage. His command ability gives to every MOONCLAN unit within 20" +1 to their Move value and to their run rolls, except for Squig Hoppers who instead get to reroll move and run rolls.

Grot Shaman: Nothing special. Before casting a spell you can give him a Madcap Mushroom: on a 2+ he gets a +2 to his casting, otherwise he can't use magic in this turn. His exclusive spell deals D3 mortal wounds on a unit with at least a model within 18" and every unit within 6" from the model you targeted also suffers D3 mortal wounds, this time only after a 4+ roll.

Fungoid Cave Shaman Same characteristics as a Grot Shaman, his spell is slightly different but nothing significant. He gets a goblin version of disgustingly resilient and his command ability can only affect GROTS and ORRUKS, NOT SQUIGS which takes away its usefulness. For one turn he can trade his melee attacks for more magic but apart from that he's not much better than the Grot Shaman.

Troops

Grots: Can choose between Stabbas or Pokin' Spears along with the shields (which give a +1 to their save as long as the unit haves 10+ models), or just take bows and Slittas. In both cases part of the unit can get the Barbed Nets, which are not only 3 melee attacks each but also give -1 to hit rolls to enemy models within 2". The unit gets +1 to wound rolls as long as there are 20+ models, which becomes a 2+ if they reach the 30+ goal. Gong Basher gives the unit +2 to their runs, while the Standard Bearer can choose between the Grot Flag (+2 Bravery as long as there are no enemies within 3") or the Bad Moon Icon (+1 Save against Missile Weapons).

• Wanna make them brutal? Alright. Take at least 20 of them (or 40 and even more if you want to go nuts), give the first rank nets, the rest of them Pokin' Spears and shield, and put both the Bad Moon Icon and the Grot Flag in them. You now have a Battleline unit that, at 240 points for 40 guys, has the equivalent of a 4+ save both outside combat and inside it (at least against frontal charges), and attacks with three ranks (even if you choose not to ignore them, bases for grots are 20mm, and spears have 2" range). When you take losses, retire spear minis from the last ranks to avoid losing net grots. You can say that the net guys throw them, then go inside the unit to be protected by their shielded mates, exactly like the Romans and other peoples did in ancient times. Powerful and fluffy. If you give proper Warboss/Arcane Shield/Fanatics support to this unit, it can compete even against the more elite units. Just be wary of their still low Bravery. Yeah, you could just give all but one of them nets, but lets be real here, nobody would make such an effort, and nobody would want to play with him. FAQ now limits you to just 3 nets in 20 grots so no more claiming 19 grot netters as a few.

Grot Fanatics: The crazy dudes can begin the game hidden in any MOONCLAN GROT unit with at least 5 models, come out at the beginning of any charge phase, and istantly charge even in your opponent's turn. BTW, you lose a guy everytime you roll a double to determinate their movement.

Grot Squig Hoppers: The squigs get extra attacks if you roll a double when charging. That's it.

Grot Squig Herders: They can choose between Noisemakers and Squig Prodders: the former deal 2 attacks, but the latter haves a +2 on their wound rolls and extra range. People attacking them get -1 to hit rolls if there are Squigs within 5".

Cave Squigs: When one of this guys runs away in Battleshock phase, they deal a mortal wound on a 4+ to every unit within 6" that is not a MOONCLAN before going away. Squig Herders being nearby allows them to reroll charges and get +1 to hit rolls, remember that. These guys do d3 damage at -1 rend, making them hit surprisingly hard.

Mangler Squigs: The huge messy guys. 3D6" Move (it gets lower when it suffers wounds of course), tons of attacks, the Ball and Chains attacks get +1 to hit if you rolled a double to charge, and when they die every unit within 6" suffers D3 mortal wounds on a 4+. Mangler Squigs are another unit that benefit from taking the Great Moonclan formation. If bellowing tyrant is used on the mangler squig, that means each hit roll of 5 or 6 generates an extra attack, and if there are no fat grot units in combat, also pop the formation's warboss' command ability on him as well. Those few sixes to wound really works wonders, doubling damage on an already nasty attack (3 becoming 6), turning the mangler squigs into something like a woodchipper. If you are slightly lucky, the Manglers can eat Archaon in a single phase and keep on bouncing and grinning.

Colossal Squig (forge world): This thing moves 4d6", has a metric ton of attacks, and explodes when it dies. It looks absolutely ridiculous on paper, now the question is wether or not you're ready to pay for the forge world fee. The rule that makes it risk to eat friendlies looks much less frightening once you realize it's only within 3" and in the absence of enemies, which shouldn't happen much (or it means your deployment zone is so crowded losing a couple models isn't very important anyways). 6s to wound with its jaws cause D3 mortal wounds instead of it's normal damage. Sometimes it might be useful popping the warboss' command ability on it, which means the jaws do D3x2 mortal wounds for each 6+ to wound. A potential 48 mortal wounds. Nasty!

Squig Gobba (forge world): It's now 6 A hitting on 4, wounding on 3+ and does D3 damage, has 30" range, and still does not have rend, but you get +1 to hit on units of 10 and up. Does not require LoS. All in all a much better choice now.

Battalions

Great Moonclan: IMPORTANT NOTE Most people don't consider this battalion legal so don't bet that You can use it in tournaments. You take a grot warboss, a grot shaman, three units of grots, 1-3 units of fanatics, and a squig choice (mangler squigs, squig hoppers, or a unit of squig herders and a unit of cave squigs). All units have +1 bravery. In addition, for every hit score of 6 or more, that model immediately generates an extra attack. The grot warboss can re-roll failed hit rolls if you are either wearing a hood or you beat your opponent in a staring competition.

• This makes any grot unit almost cheesy. Extra hits with fanatics, mangler squigs, and the warboss are nasty, and don't underestimate the amount of sixes to hit you make with a mob of 40+ grots. Speaking of grot mobs, when your warboss uses bellowing tyrant and his command ability on the humble mob of grots, they become nasty. Nets hitting and wounding on 3s, spears hitting on 4s and wounding on 2s(!). Every hit roll of 5 or 6 generating an extra attack, and every wound roll of 4,5, or 6 doubles damage. Consider bringing 60 grots in a mob to make sure their backstabbing mob ability remains at maximum.

Allies

• Aleguzzler Gargants: It's a giant only take if you want a monster but don't want to sell a kidney to forge world.
• Gitmob Grots: The only real reason to take them is to add some artillery if you don't want a squig gobba.
• Greenskinz: You picked minivan grots for a cheap swarm basically not orukks but if you want some decent melee fighters take troggoths.
• Spiderfang Grots: An arachnarok spider is the only reason to take spiders and allies same case with the embezzled gargant
• Troggoths: Oh yes! You want to have a an elite melee fighting force similar to that of ogors, kroxigors and minotaurs? Well here you go. Troggoths add some real surprise melee strength to a minivan grot army.