How do i use grotesques and what good things make them a viable choice for CC

Never used them much. My main opponent is grey knights. Force weapons are a BIG problem due to instant death.

Spiney Norman wrote:

What does everyone think about taking a scissor hand over a venom blade on an aberration, at S5 he will get rerolls on poison 3+ and 7 3+ poison with rerolls to wound gives you about .5 wounds more per turn than the v.blade does. It seems to be about the only model in the codex where the scissor hand justifies its points cost.

Don't forget that poison weapons can wound better if you would normally wound better than the poisons number. So a S5 Grot vs T3 or S6 (Urien or furious charge) vs T4 would then make it wound thr same as the venim blade but with that extra attack.

I usually run a squad of grots with my archon for T5, and I always give the aberration a scissor-hand. Strength 6 + 6 attacks makes for lots of killy in 1 guy, and he's good for sitting on sarge while my archon murders the rest of the squad.

I use the grots for anti-vehicle in the backfield after I kill whatever units are back there. Multi-Charging works great for that. They still get furious charge, so strength 6 on normal grots and 7 on the aberration with the scissor hand makes for glancing on 3 or 4 in most cases.



I always take a liq. gun, but I don't always use it. The most important time to use it is when attacking Tau and you need to shear off the part closest to the rest of the army to avoid the multi-overwatch special rule.

Don't find the scissors worth wile considering they are three times the cost of a venom blade.

6 attacks (S5) with a venom blade against T4 on average does 2.91 wounds.

7 attacks (S5) with a venom blade against T4 on average does 3.11 wounds.

So 0.2 difference.

Paying 10pts more for a situational advantage, that requires you to fight T3 models, have FC and get the charge against T4 or have the urien upgrade against T4, is not very cost effective in my experience.

Mushkilla wrote:

Don't find the scissors worth wile considering they are three times the cost of a venom blade.

6 attacks (S5) with a venom blade against T4 on average does 2.91 wounds.

7 attacks (S5) with a venom blade against T4 on average does 3.11 wounds.

So 0.2 difference.

Paying 10pts more for a situational advantage, that requires you to fight T3 models, have FC and get the charge against T4 or have the urien upgrade against T4, is not very cost effective in my experience.

Like I said, I use my grots as anti-vehicle most games once they get into the line, so having that +1 str makes a pretty big difference in whether or not I glance/pen a vehicle or not. I would agree with you if he's only fighting normal MEQ and MC's.

Bibitybopitybacon wrote:

The acothyst gets an additional attack with the option of taking a venom blade giving him 6 2+ attacks on the charge (4 base+1 for charging and +1 for two cc weapons) plus he keeps your manditory IC from getting challenged. Always worth 15 points in my opinion.

this, though whether or not you want the venom blade is you're choice. Need someone to take a challenge so HQ with them doesn't bite the dust and the unit kills it self. I personaly perfer 3-4 (depending on pts level), a succubus with venom blade, in a raider. Nice, cheap hq to baby sit and can at least pump out high number of wounds. no ap, but its a numbers game. Haemonculus seems like a cool idea just cause of theme and extra pain token, but i don't think its necessary. If you're semi competitive thoguh with high points game i'd just upgrade right to urien. With a clone field he can trololol dudes in challenges, and the upgraded grotesques can be fun.

I usually run 4 grots with whatever HQ I'm using and just footslog across the battlefield killing anything that gets in my way.

It's effective at drawing massive amount of firepower away from my other units and still reaching their lines.

I don't know whether this is just because I play against a lot of necrons and they're completely scared of them.

One thing I've done, that I haven't seen mentioned is put the Baron with a large squad of grots. He confers stealth to them, as well as assault and defensive grenades since he already has the pgl. Not as nasty as a tooled up Archon though.

I've used 3 grots, abby +venomblade, and Urien or a hammy three times now.
First time, came in from reserve vs a DS heavy Deathwing list. Got fired at, failed leadership, and ran straight back off the board. Lesson learned: Don't bring Grots from reserve, unless you're running a WWP.
2nd time, tore the snot out of a few troop squads and managed to stick around until turn 6.
3rd time, forgot to charge 'cause I got overexcited about 2x10 wracks vs 10 marines. Shot mostly to pieces by the thunderfire cannon off an Achilles Land Raider next turn. Managed to clear out 3 termies with Urien & the LG grot that survived. Lesson learned: do a sweep of your army at the end of every phase, BEFORE starting the next phase.

I find if you're bringing Urien, it's worthwhile to stick him with Grots. And if you're bringing a haemy, it's again worthwhile to give him some half-decent kit; sometimes it makes all the difference.

If I'm bringing Urien with Grots, is it worth it to pay to upgrade the Grots to S6?

Yeah, they will be able to wreck most vehicles.

4 grots in a raider with aether sails with an archon with venom blade, PGL and shadowfield. Add combat drugs or haywire grenades to taste. Majority T5, offensive and defensive grenades for the whole unit and reasonably cheap. Very very dangerous unit for backfield units to handle.

Grots + the Baron... + Haemie is Death Incarnate.

Throw in a Farseer on Jetbike, Roll the 4++ + Fortune and They are unbeatable...

I agree with mush. I say this becuz this used to be my go to unit but in a tourney, lower points tourney, I feel they aren't worth the points. I haven't been in too many tourneys that feature dark eldar believe it or not. However, if I did they would be very hard to use. A lot of points even at 1200 or 1250 that may be useless against nids and dark eldar. Against ourselves I guess I would use them as ravager mercs. I love grots, in fact I think in this thread or another I was a huge advocate of them with Urien. Mostly becuz the upgrades he gives and the fact that in CC Urien has clone field stock. But at 35 points a model and MUST be accompied by a IC. It's just a big points sink. Also, thy dont stand a chance against eldar. With the new space marines codex, I see many problems bringing them. I'm worried that the boring and mundane venom spam is what we have left. We have a 5th edition codex right now and were slowly being backed into a corner. I would put the points in allies with eldar. I hate to say it but my favorite unit is becoming more and more enemy dependent. If someone has a good argument please re open my eyes to this amazing unit that is slowly deteriorating with codex updates.