You can’t touch this!

Introduction

The damage output of a frostlord on stonehorn combined with the tankiness of a troggoth hag and lots and lots of grots.

Hit your opponent where it hurts with the flying frostlord, while hold objectives with 120 grots, fanatics and a troggoth hag who refuses to die.

Allegience Ability

Destruction allegiance: Rampaging Destruction, roll a d6 for each hero. On a 6, a unit within 6” can move 6” (if no enemy within 12”), charge (if an enemy is within 12”) or pile in (if an enemy is within 3”). General gets +2 on the roll (so 4+)

Artefacts, Command Traits & Abilities

Thermal Rider Cloak – on Frostlord to give him +4 move and fly

Command Trait – Bellowing Tyrant (+1 to run and charge, pass leadership from general onto unit targeted).

Alternative Artefacts – ethereal amulet on frostlord, or the more controversial option (gryphfeather charm that synergises with the list)

Alternative Command trait – giving general +1 on the rampaging destruction roll.

Heroes

General: Fungoid Cave shaman has 3 functions:

1. 1 position close to the frostlord turn 1 to give him bellowing tyrant and the chance to move 6” in turn 1.
2. Command ability – allows 1 unit of grots wholly within 18” to run/retreat and charge. This is an incredibly useful CA that often wins 1 game a tournament. He needs to be the general to use the CA
3. Once a game he can cast 2 spells and reroll failed casting/unbinding. This is usually used if the moonclan shaman fails the mushroom and therefore cant cast geminids

Shaman Support: Moonclan Grot Shaman:

He has +2 to cast if he successfully eats a mushroom (on a 2+). He is the most reliable caster in the list and usually gets geminids off when he wants

Troggoth Hag: has several functions:

1. Tanky wizard who survives on objectives
2. Heals d6 wounds a turn
3. -1 to hit in combat
4. When she unbinds a spell on a 4+ does d3 wounds on an enemy hero (which can stop low wound spell casters from casting late game)
5. Spell has 12” range and makes enemy -1 to hit & save
6. She offers Rend -2 through her vomit attack (6 attacks 3/3 -2 d3)
7. Can tie up most units for a few turns, and has some swingy damage output

Frostlord on Stonehorn:

1. The combat punch in the list
2. Mortal wounds on the charge, fairly reliable damage output
3. Has decent armour save
4. Can get to where it wants, and take out the high damage causing units

Other Units

60 Moonclan grots – these are the main objective winners, they can often hold 2+ objectives, and combined with the netters, debuffs and fanatics are very difficult to remove.

40 Moonclan grots – these are the second most important objective winners, they can hold 2+ objectives (albeit harder than the 60), and combined with the netters, debuffs and fanatics are difficult to remove.

20 Moonclan grots – This unit is generally a chaff screen, but occasionally acts as a back objective holder.

2 units of 3 Fanatics – These usually go in the unit of 40/60 but occasionally go in the 20. Most of the time they are used as charge blockers to keep the grots alive for another turn, but they can be used aggressively due to the Rend 2.

Magic, Endless & Realm Spells

Geminids are the main spell that I cast as they are the most reliable debuff and placement is super important. I always think about where the stonehorn is going to be so that it doesn’t get hit by them in the next turn.

Moonclan Grot spell

This is a decent damage output spell, albeit I don’t usually cast it until turn 2-3 when he has put himself on objectives

Troggoth Hag Spell

This is a great debuff spell for turn 2-3. However it’s not reliable (requires a 7 with no native buffs to casting).

Realm spells:

Gyhran:

Mirrorpool (teleporting caster) is great. It overcomes the greatest weakness of the Troggoth Hag, her slow moevment.

Ghur:

Primal Hunter – Getting rerolls to charge & hit on the frostlord is a strong option

Chamon

Curse of Rust -1 to hit/saves. This is the same as the troggoth hag spell and synergises well with the rest of the debuffs in the list.

Ashqy

Incandescent Form -1 to hit on the caster is great on the hag (slightly more reliable than her spell)

Infernal blades – relatively limited use in this list as the grots don’t put out a lot of damage, but would only do it if they had damned or another way to buff their hit rolls.

Shyish

Night’s touch – (ignore rend/buffs to saves) is a great cast n the stonehorn

Soulshroud – a great thing to cast onto the stonehorn vs a Tz list

Unnatural Darkness – 1 to hit is a good option for the hag

Ethereal Guide – +1 to hit is another good option for the hag (particularly on the vomit)

Ulgu

Bridge of shadows is a good cast on either the hag or grots to reposition them

In-Game Guide

How to use it

The grots claim objectives to win scenarios while the hag (and grots) hold up the opponents army and the frostlord strikes at the biggest threat of the opponents army. Fanatics are usually used as a combat threat or charge blockers.

Deployment

Usually deployment is unit of 60 grots on one side, then the 40 and 20 on the other. Stonehorn will go fairly central to give max flexibility on where to move. Hag will go either left or right centre. Usually supporting the opposite units to the moonclan grot shaman.

Fungoid will go wherever his CA will provide the most benefit, usually with the unit of 60.

Armies you are good against

The army is generally an all rounder. It can comfortably score objectives and few armies have the damage output to take out grots before the game has went too far on objectives.

Does particularly well against armies with 4+ to hit since the debuffs to hit really hit prevent them from grinding through.

That said, its not an easy army to play, and requires an understanding of how to delay opponents combat threats while scoring early.

Armies you arent good against

DoK

they have enough blending to take out the troggoth hag/grots, and the list doesn’t have the tools to deal with the hags or cauldron

Nagash & hordes

Nagash outmagics the list, and the skellies win the grind over time against the grots. However the grots are much faster in movement so good positioning can help outscore early.

Tz with Gaunt summoner is a good hard counter to it, the gaunt controls the board space. While the close range mortal wound damage can comfortably kill the frostlord, hag and shamans.

Good and bad scenarios

Good scenarios –

Border war/battle for the pass: the scenario rewards tight play, and it’s unlikely that we will lose the home objective.  If the opponent opens up, then the fungoid CA can help steal the opponents objective for 4 points.

Total Conquest – the army can score 3 objectives early game and then step back and outgrind the opponent from turn 3.

Total Commitment – the list is designed that it can fairly comfortably work in 2 separate flanks.

The Better part of valour – the list is designed to hold at least 2 objectives well for a long time, while hitting weak spots in the opponent’s territory.

Shifting Objectives – swarming 1/3 of the board to score al the objectives plays into the strengths of the army.

Bad scenarios –

Starstrike/Gift from the heavens – the army lacks the teleporting mobility and flying flexibility that other armies have.

Knife to the heart – while the list will unlikely give up a  major. It struggles with doing enough damage for the minor.

Escalation – this can be a tough match up, spreading army across the board and the hag struggles to get far enough up the field to make a difference.

3 places of power/Places of Arcane power – The hag and stonehorn can capture objectives but the 2 shamans are weak on the 3rd objective which means if either big monsters die then the opponent can comfortably win the scenario. Also having to camp the stonehorn on the objective means he isn’t hitting the enemy where it hurts.

Secondary Objectives

Secret Mission – this is feasibly if there are teleporting spells, but difficult to achieve otherwise as it relies on the frostlord leaving the battlefield which means we lose 20% of the army and our heavy hitter. You could run a shaman on the flank and protect it with grots, but then you will be badly positioned for casting geminids etc…

Ancient Hierlooms – hard to keep the frostlord alive as you usually want to throw him into the frey. I’d only use this if im confident he can survive / kill things that could kill him.

Terrify – I don’t think terrify is a good objective to every target.

Invade – invade is very possibly to achieve, you can you keep your fanatics as a last minute way to achieve this.

Seize – this is a good objective for scenarios with 2-3 objectives, as the grots can comfortably capture objectives

Defend – this generally can be achieved, particularly in scenarios that fight for objectives in the middle. You can screen the middle of the board and the back of the board to prevent teleporting shenanigans, then use fanatics to stop flyers jumping over.

Slay – this is generally a feasible option given the frostlord can usually target and kill most heroes. Just be careful if the opponent screens it early or has silly ethereal amulet dragons.

Conserve – this should be achievable. It means keeping 3 units alive, the frostlord and 2 units of grots generally survive.

Attrition – this can be difficult to achieve, because it relies on damage output which the list generally lacks.

Linebreaker – not generally a fan of this, as I rarely target or kill all the battleline. Obviously if the opponent lacks many battleline wounds then it might be achievable. Usually at least one unit of grots survive.

Centre Ground – this is generally achieveable, particulary in escalation which tends to be controlled by a lot of grots.

Sacrifice – this can be tough to achieve as it relies on the FL dying to a hero or monster, given the ½ wounds are most effective vs high damage weapons, this is tough. Still feasible vs some doppelganger cloaks, where you run in, damage other units and then sacrifice to do a bunch of damage.