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My wife has decided to do a goblin army (based on they look cute and characterful). Was looking at good units for her to get that match her desired aesthetic.

Looking at fanatics, and something occurred to me. In all the Battle Reports I have watched, and indeed some of the games I have played, moving units to "just outside 3"" is commonplace. Now, fanatics can be placed at the start of ANY charge phase, up to 1" from the unit. This will stop a charge being declared if the enemy are just outside 3" as the fanatic is then probably within 3". Is this correct? I am seeing it as a useful disruption tactic I can tell her about as she is learning, but don't want to do it if my interpretation is wrong.

Also, they "can" charge, but don't have to, so they can pile in if needed, and as pile ins are towards the nearest model, enemy would have to pile in to the fanatic. Seems a great tactic. She could also have multiple "units" of them in a gobbo unit, to further this disruption?

Night Goblin player here, although I haven't had much game experience under my belt.

I wouldn't like to call whether or not this disrupts a charge, but theoretically it does and will just force a pile in move, stopping any charge bonuses in the process. It'll be interesting to hear what others have to say about this, although I can see it causing some silly arguments in games. So, going purely by the rules, the opponent can declare a charge, to which you respond by releasing your fanatics before the charge is made, forcing a pile in move instead.

Hopefully the Fanatics aren't killed off straight away, as they're way too valuable to be a simple disruption unit in this example.

It's one of the grey areas among the O&G war scrolls that I've found, and I'm sure there are similar spots within other armies that I'm yet to find.

Presumably "at the start" of charge phase comes before charges are declared. I would be interested for other views on this.

if it does disrupt the charge, and the more I read it the more I think this is the case, sacrificing a 1 W gobbo could be useful, as your unit can make pile ins, then hopefully retreat before they take serious damage (especially with some sneaky traps or whatever they are called). Could be a nice tactic for her to use with her army of cute/cool gobbos. Going to get the Forgeworld squig lobba thing to use as a rock lobba.

"At the start" does suggest that, yeah. At least there's the option of releasing them even if the unit hiding them is locked in combat, which might actually be of greater use. I see nothing stopping that, either.

I don't think sacrificing Fanatics is really the best of tactics though. They're so good at completely wiping out units when taken in big enough numbers. I take eight in one scroll with the plans to increase it up to 12. Crazy amounts of potential attacks and -2 to rend wounds.

Form night goblins into a circle.
Release fanatics into the center, without 3", but blocks from the enemy.
Enemy swings first and kills goblins. You create a gap, and then pile in with the fanatics. Free to swing.

If it's your turn 1st next round, the fanatics can swing again, before the opponent can attempt to strike them.
2 rounds of fanatics swinging should train wreck just about anything.

-Matt

Heheh ouch

 HawaiiMatt wrote:
Form night goblins into a circle.
Release fanatics into the center, without 3", but blocks from the enemy.
Enemy swings first and kills goblins. You create a gap, and then pile in with the fanatics. Free to swing.

If it's your turn 1st next round, the fanatics can swing again, before the opponent can attempt to strike them.
2 rounds of fanatics swinging should train wreck just about anything.

-Matt

This is pretty much it. Locking a unit up in CC and then bringing out the Fanatics to pile in and take the first swings in combat is one of the most destructive tactics I've come across yet.

Think about it this way: Release 10 Fanatics, and you roll a 4 for attacks. That's 40 attacks hitting on a 4+, so we're averaging 20, wounding on a 3+, there's 13/14 saves to take with -2 rend. Each causing D3 damage? You could be getting 20 wounds in there in a single round. FROM NIGHT GOBLINS!

It's possible for a single goblin fanatic in 1turn of combat to kill the glottkin. GET BURNED NURGLE