Goblin Cutters Pre-Release Discussion Thread

[Sujoah]

[dok]

Wow... these guys are a very interesting addition to the metagame. They do a lot of the same things as the PKs, in that ranged commons have trouble with them thanks to their ability to lose their hitzones after the loss of a single (very cheap) figure.

This is almost definitionally a swarm army. We'll be seeing lots of Cutterx5 armies (by those who bought enough), with the other 200-300 points and four hexes taken up by heroes as needed. Honestly, I think these guys would be hard to use effectively with 2x, and maybe even 3x. Losing figures is just part of the deal with these guys - they actually have a power that triggers on dying, after all.

Playing these guys against the 4th Mass or stingers, I would probably only engage with two or three figures per order marker until I had my whole army moved up. That way, after I lost a single figure, I could scurry the other two out of engagement. If the stingers/4th move up to create more engagements, then I've drawn them off the height, so that's a win for me.

One interesting thing to note is that these guys don't play well with Raelin. Because scurry triggers on a death, Raelin actually keeps it from happening. Now, you'd generally rather keep a cutter alive than get scurry, but scurry makes deaths less of a problem. Given that you're going to need to spend OMs to keep Raelin alongside these guys, it starts to seem like your points are better spent elsewhere.

There are a couple obvious bad matchups for these guys:

• Glads&Blasts. Just ugly. You can't scurry away from cyberclaw, so you're dead meat against those Glads.
  
  
• The multiple ranged special attackers. From most to least nasty: Q9, DW8k, Q10, Braxas, Nilfheim, Wyrmlings, Kaemon. Q9 gets to pull out the 111111111 attack, and is dropping three cutters a turn. Ouch.
  
  To make matters worse, the multiple special attackers actually make rats very effective against these guys. Remember that the cutters don't have disengage - only scurry lets them leave engagement for free. Sure, the cutters can mob attack the rats, but that just means more scatter. Q9+ratsx3 is basically game over for the cutters unless something else in the army can open a hole in the screen.

Aaand... that's about it. Because they're so cheap, they actually do pretty well against the 10th, and scurry can mess with melee too. Against other common squad armies, their two powers sort of fit together - if you engage them all over the place to allow yourself full activations despite scurry, the cutters are going to be getting mob attacks constantly.

Here's a first idea for an army:

110 Airborne Elite
210 Braxas
200 Goblin Cutters x4
520, 22 hexes

The Zelrig+Iron Golem gambit actually works pretty nicely with these guys, too, at least against rats+special attackers.

100 Iron Golem
185 Zelrig
250 Goblin Cutters x5
535, 24 hexes

[jschild]

I like these rats much better

[gamjuven]

Pretty fun abilities. Thematically very cool. Scurry is a great ability and the only saving grace for these little guys. That -2 defense is pretty nice but it kinda limits the attacking options for them. It'll be interesting to see how these little guys do but without some serious firepower to bond with I doubt these will do too well. You're pretty much guaranteed to lose one every turn. And with current starting zones you won't be able to have as many as are probably needed. Still should be fun to play though.

[xraine69]

Another anti-range, the new rats and defense disabale. Not bad at all.

[Griffin]

Holy cow the theme of these guys is nailed. This was the one unit from this set that I thought I would hate, mainly due to the sculpts, but the theme of the Goblin Cutters being insignificant little twerps that run all over the place and find ways to bring you down by piling up on you and nicking away.... this theme is so spot on, it may be the best to date for all of Heroscape.

[wriggz]

A fine addition, another hero killer squad it would seem. Although with enough you could swarm a range based squad. It would be a tough battle but the Goblins have a chance.

[Tai-Pan]

Yuck! These guys sound annoying.

Does attacking figure mean only that figure, or that card? If the first 4th attacks and kills a goblin, can the second still shoot at another goblin?

I don't see how these guys are going to be way effective against the Iron Golem.

It's interesting to note that scurry only works against normal attacks, and after that, goblins only have no visible hit zones if they are unengaged.

[A_Train]

I was honestly a little underwhelmed at a first glance. I'm hoping that reading some of the chatter. I do think they fit thematically. But a 'new rat' wasn't what I was hoping for. I don't even like the old rats. Mob attack is cool though, thankfully it may be applied to Large and Huge units.

I just can't see myself picking up as many of these squads, as I did Phantom Knights or Greenscales.

[Ryougabot]

Like the rats, the question comes up.

Do you remove the destroyed figure, then move others, or do move, then remove? It makes a little difference if holding a glyph.

[Rich10]

I agree that these guys are going to be annoying, but probably not as annoying as deathreavers.

You will likely need a special attack to deal with the Goblin Cutters.

[gamjuven]

Q9 will annihilate these guys. Nevermind them able to subtract two from defense if they manage to get 3 next to him, their scurry only activates on normal attacks. They are absolutely crushed by anything with a special attack. Q10 same thing. Heck, the deathwalkers would destroy an entire army of them no sweat. These guys will need to kill anything with a special attack. I recommend drafting with them some heavy hitter that can take care of special attacks. The dragons will also munch on these guys