Editing Grot (section)

== On the Tabletop ==

Gretchin are an... interesting unit. On paper, their stats are decidedly terrible. They're worse in almost every regard than just about anything else in the game. However, they do have a few things going for them: they are halfway decent shots, they're dirt fucking cheap, and ''everybody underestimates them''. The basic mob gives you 10-30 grots at 3 points per grot. For a cheap CP-generating battalion, take 3 grot mobs of 10 each and 2 HQ selections of your choice. Or, just take huge mobs of 30 each and use them to [[tarpit]] your enemy. Of course, Grots fall over to a stiff breeze, but the whole point is that they're there as a distraction/meatshield for your army. A [[Runtherd]], if taken, can be used to intimidate your grot mobs into performing more effectively since they tend to run away at the slightest hint of combat otherwise.

Grots are tiny models, and can easily find cover in terrain. A very typical tactic, popular from 5th Edition on and persisting to this day, is to use them to hold an objective in some ruins on your side of the board while the rest of your army moves up to introduce your foe to their wide array of choppy bits. If you're lucky, the tiny models will be so hard to see and so non-threatening that your opponent will forget about them.

However, a grot mob's main role is to perform as a melee screen/meat shield, quite literally so when combined with the Grot Shields stratagem. When used in this way they give your more important units a screen against direct fire. They also give [[Mek Gunz]] the advantage of their slightly higher shooting ability, actually being slightly better at shooting than normal humans are due to the ''Dakka Dakka Dakka!'' rule. Grots also have the ''Surprisingly Dangerous in Large Numbers'' rule, which grants a +1 bonus to '''all''' hit rolls (shooting or melee) if the mob currently has 20 or more grots in it.

Their pathetic [[Grot Blasta]]s are equivalent to a [[laspistol]], but with a little luck the horde of BB guns might take out one or two enemy models. There's nothing sweeter than killing a ''single'' assault Terminator, or even that one HQ with a single wound left with a basic Gretchin mob. Sure, they're all [[Rip and tear|going to die]] in the assault phase, but you've still [[Awesome|come out ahead]] in [[Just as planned|terms of points]]. Make sure to [[troll|point]] this out to your [[butthurt|opponent]] if it happens.

Gretchin are not for players who are shy about losing models or even whole units. If 30 grots die horribly because they held up that [[Bloodthirster]] for a couple of rounds, they've done their job. Then again, if that bothers you then the whole Ork codex is probably a bad choice for you anyway. Go play [[Imperial Knight]]s or something.

'''Update:''' As of pre-codex 9th edition, Grots have been nerfed with a crushing 66% point increase. This means that a 5-point Grot now costs as much as a 5-point Guardsman, which is just stupid given that the Grot is objectively worse in every way. It also means that using 5-point Grots to screen 8-point Boyz is now rather inefficient. In most cases you're probably better off just getting more Boyz unless you're using your Grots to screen a high-value mob such as [[Lootas]] or something.