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I'm looking at my Zagstruk model, and I know he works well in low points games, but.... how high can he go and not get out-scaled?

Anyone here play him a fair bit?

As an HQ choice, he is unfortunately woefully insufficient. He brings none of the utility that Painboyz/Mekboyz do and doesn't even come with the WAAAGH! ability from Warbosses. So all you're left with is a slightly boosted jump infantry Nob with a good built-in Warlord Trait. Sadly, even this is negated from the fact that Warboss Grukk exists with the same Warlord Trait and has a lot more offense/defense for not that much more.

You're pretty much forced to use him in the WAAAGH! Ghazghkull supplement formation with his Vulcha Squad as with it you eliminate the issue of using up an HQ slot and use his deep-striking with some measure of accuracy. More importantly this formation unlocks multiple Nobz w/PK in one stormboy unit. Here it Zagstruk shines in being able to accept challenges from mooks like sergeants while also making it a bigger risk for non EW IC like Librarians to try and kill Zagstruk as his S8 AP2 HoW gets Shred from the formation, making it so that dreaded one is that much less likely to show up when you're rolling to wound.

So at most with the formation I think he can reach the highest point value of around 1500-1850. Anymore than that and the chance for threat overload with other units in your army goes down steeply as your opponent can reply with more units and big guns of his own. If he had kept his ability to charge from deep striking I think he would be viable even up to apocalypse games but alas GW has a real hard on for not assaulting from reserves.

The thing with Zaggy is that stormboyz NEED Waaagh! Otherwise, you're plain better off with bikers. And Zag doesn't have it. So, he's gona eath your HQ slot for no good reason.

His ability to get a s8 ap2 HOW hit looks good on paper but, to be honest, i'm running stormboyz for quite long and i can remember only one time out of hundreeds when my stormboyz got that HOW. It changes with his formation if you deepstrike closer or forego the 12' movement in favor of WAAAGH run. But even so, don't forget that HOW works only for models that end the initial charge in B2B. Even if you forego 12' movement, only your front rows are getting HoW at best.

If you drop somewhere in cover to mitigate casualties, you'll have to go 12' towards the enemy and will get no HOW. Waaaghing + running helps here, however, but it's more risky as you're prone to rolling low. If you drop too close, well...they're 9 ppm boyz without a painboss or even KFF. They'll drop like flies. I've tried it too.

Furthermore, when the enemy kills too much and reduces you to <10 models, you'll only have ld8 from Zag. As they come from Ghaz detachment, they get +2 to mob rule and it's bad news. So, you got to keep the numbers suffecient. Got to find the ballance to not go down in one turn and simultaniously to not be too numerous to actually have a place to land on the field.

I've run a 30-strong squad with 3 nobz. It was not enough. Maybe ~40-45 would be better. In most cases i'd recommend dropping somewhere behind cover and utilising 12' move + WAAAGH run + charge. Forget about that HoW. It's not too good even with shred. Oh, and pray to get that 3+ for reserves when needed. Cause if they come too early, they'd just get shot to bits. If they come too late, they'll get shot to bits as you're taken piecemeal.

This formation is only good for bringing 3 nobz in one squad. But to be honest, i find plain stormboyz doing better than Zaggy Vulcha boyz. They're cheaper, don't need to DS, don't get +2 for mob rule, thus, don't need to get too bloated and are easier to hide and controle the board. Yep, only one nob, but it's still better than what Zaggy brings considering all the restrictions.

Maybe there's something i don't see about them. Maybe you could use them as separate squads for better utility. Or you could find some ways of protecting them. Like dropping close to enemy's VSG. If they had access to invisibility or charge out of DS like they used to, they'd be freaking frightening.

Maybe you could perform something cunning, however. Biker painboss somewhere <14' away from the point you're planning to drop the squad. Drop them, join them with a painboss so they'd be more resilient to damage for this most important turn. Very terrain dependent. But super cunning!

Zaggy might have place in apoc. 90 boyz dropping somewhere on a large table will definitely attract some attention. Be careful with blasts. Apoc tends to have plenty of those.


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I'd love to hear stories of using Zaggy successfully. Cause i love stormboyz. Just haven't managed to find his uses more appealing than bringing regular stormboyz.

I'm bringing a 60-strong unit to an Apoc game this weekend. Team of 4 Orks, 5000pts each. I didn't go the full 90 because I am worried about how much room I'll have to drop them. As it is, they seem to DS in about a 9" diameter, filling almost one exact circle. Another 30 would add at least one more row. So with 5" radius, plus potential D6 scatter, I figure I'll drop Zaggy about 10" from somewhere juicy.

Anyway, I'll let you know how it turns out.