Written by Benjamin Lolmaugh
The dukes and marquis of the Under-Dank. These regal and brave nobles lead their knights and squires into battle atop mighty steeds girded for battle. When you hear the thunderous bouncing and look to the horizon, what do you see leading the horde? THE LOONBOSS ON GIANT CAVE SQUIG!
OVERVIEW:
As of General's Handbook 2020, the Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig will run you 110 points. Games Workshop sells a few sculpts of the these little brave or crazy gobbos in Plastic, Finecast or Forgeworld. The newer plastic Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig goes for about $35 USD, while the resin Forgeworld one sells for about $58 USD. Both sculpts look great the one with the shield is a little dated but who cares.
THE WARSCROLL:
The Stat Wheel - The Move is random but you get to FLY. 2D6" but will most likely be 7+3" using the command ability Let's Get Bouncing! Frankly it's fun once you get used to the randomness of the whole army in general. So don't get discourged by it if you're new to Gloomspite and the grot/goblin shenanigans. Wounds of 6 is standard for a human sized mounted Hero. 4+ Save is average too. Bravery 6 is a little low but it doesn't really matter in Age of Sigmar for the majority of cases. So everything is looking good so far.
The Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig only has melee weapons and that makes sense. I imagine it would be hard to shoot a bow or a handgun while bouncing all over the place. When you pick this Loonboss, you need to pick if the rider has a Moon-cutta or Moonclan Stabba. One is a sword or sickle and the other is a spear or lance. At bare value the two are statistically the same. Once you start adding buffs to wound, like we regularly get from the Loonboss on Mangler Squigs' command ability Bite Da Moon! the math slightly moves in the favor of the Moon-Cutta but that disregards the Range benefit given to the Moonclan Stabba. All in all, it really doesn't matter much its only about 0.8 wounds inflicted on a 4+ Save model. The damage comes from the Giant Cave Squig, DUH! The squig fights with a Massive Fang-filled Gob. This attack profile is approximately what is on every other 100 point foot Hero in Age of Sigmar. 4 Attacks, hitting on 4+, wounding on 3+ with -1 Rend, dealing D3 Damage. That's about 1.8 damage for a grand total of almost 3 damage per combat round without buffs. With just Bite Da Moon!you're little guy is dealing about 3.4 wounds vs 4+ Save. Remember there is a definitive lack of +1 to Hit in the whole army, the only way to get it is from the Anvil of Apotheosis. Not too shabby for a gobbo that's used to living in filth and wearing dirty rags.
The Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig does have access to rerolls once per game with the Redcap Mushrooms ability. You get to reroll hit and wounds for the Loonboss's weapons only, not the mount. It feels good to remember to use but in the end it doesn't end up doing much damage. It's nice to think that the gobbo attached to the giant bouncing squig is getting high while fighting desperately for his little life. The real reason you take this guy in a squig heavy list is the Command Ability. The Loonboss' command ability is called Let's Get Bouncing! and in so many words it basically says that the SQUIG units wholly within range get +3" to their movement. This is great news for an army full of random movement. This works on all sorts of units, Squig Hoppers, Mangler Squigs including the Loonboss on Mangler Squigs, Squig Herds, Boingrot Bounderz, the Squig Gobbla and the beautiful yet dangerous Colossal Squig. This does NOT affect some units that have squigs in or on them such as the Fungoid Cave Shaman, Sneaky Snufflers, Zarbag's Gitz or Loonboss WITH Giant Cave Squig.
BATTALIONS:
Squigalanche (Super battalion) - 90 pts. 760 pts Minimum.
COMMAND TRAITS:
Most of the time, this beautiful bastard will not be your general but in those smaller games where you aren't taking a Loonboss on Mangler Squigs, he's not a bad choice.
Tough n Leathery - +2 Wounds. Not bad at all. Your Loonboss's Wounds goes to 8 which is good for the type of character that he is. He doesn't need to shy away from combat, but you still don't want to throw him in the middle of a clusterfuck like you would with a Mawkrusha or Loonboss on Mangler Squigs. Its a great choice if you find that you have enough Command Points or CP generation or your meta has a lot of character sniping abilities such as magic mortal wound spam or shooting from KO (Kharadron Overlords) or LRL (Lumineth Realm Lords) or Seraphon.
Deady Shouty - You can use your command ability for free once per battle round. You'll definitely be using the Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig's command ability to let your squigs within range to get +3" movement in the first and second turn. After that though, maybe on the 5th turn Bad Moon-willing for those late game objective captures. Certainly the best choice out of the bunch!
ARTIFACTS:
The Trogodytic Treasures are pretty useless for a Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig. Only one really seems useful but I take it every time... but not on this guy
The Clammy Cowl - This gives your little guy -1 to be Hit. It's great... on a Loonboss on Mangler Squigs. It will be useful for the Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig if you're playing with one or if you're playing a smaller game. Combined with Tough N Leathery, this makes a truly tanky Git!
PROS & CONS:
+ Cheap-ish
+ Fantastic models
+ Useful Command ability
- Random-ish Movement
- Easy to snipe
- Feels like a tax
- Only fits in Squigalanche Super battalion
WRAP UP:
This guy has A LOT of drawbacks... He is relatively fragile for a melee Hero, doesn't care an artifact well, and has random movement. BUT... BUT he has a lot of attacks, some with Rend and D3 Damage AND one of the best Command Abilities in the whole faction with Let's Get Bouncing!
GRADE: B
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