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So played first warhammer game recently against the bro (his too) and somehow despite my best efforts he managed to get my sphinx with the giant and destroyed it in one round. Just wondering if I could get clarification on whether we were doing it right:

So, as far as my memory will allow, he charged rolled for random attack got one that allows him to auto inflict D6 wounds (?) he rolled a 4 (I think) meaning I lost the combat and then crumbled due to combat resolution.

Im hoping we overlooked something here as it seems unbeleivable 0.o

Doesn't sound exactly right, but giant definitely could go through them in a round.

What kind of giant was it?

He probably rolled the "Thump with club" which forces you to take an initiative test or 2D6 automatic wounds.

Ah yes that was it, and being an animated stature I failed the test.

Just a standard giant from WoC

So this is plausible?

Yes, entirely possible

Giants are very good at killing other monsters. A giant will easily one shot a sphinx before it gets to attack.

If they had some sort of armor (O&G), they would r0k more.

Chariots are cheaper arrow magnets, even if they draw a little less fire. :O)

Which means they are poor arrow magnets.

Giants are good bullet magnets because they are a legitimate threat. If the giant makes it into combat, S*** is going to go down. Hence why nobody ever ignores a giant.

If you are playing a 2000 pt game, a giant represents 1/10th of your army points. Losing him is a fairly big deal. Chariots pose enough of a threat to draw fire (maybe not quite as much), but only cost 85 pts., and have 4+ save.

Don't get me wrong, I like Giants, but they are limited. I attempt to play them to where they draw less fire and get in to a little melee and bang heads.

 btr75 wrote:
If you are playing a 2000 pt game, a giant represents 1/10th of your army points. Losing him is a fairly big deal. Chariots pose enough of a threat to draw fire (maybe not quite as much), but only cost 85 pts., and have 4+ save.

Don't get me wrong, I like Giants, but they are limited. I attempt to play them to where they draw less fire and get in to a little melee and bang heads.

3+ armor.

And if you run them with MoK, 6 S5 attacks, and 4 S4 attacks, on top of the D6+1 S5 impact hits. Chariots hit plenty hard.
The problem with giants is that they aren't Skull Crushers.

-Matt

I was talking O&G Giants and Chariots. Not too familiar with the Chaos kind.

One thing that may help survivability for a O&G giant getting to the enemy is warpaint if you have a SO Shaman. Even though 6+ is nothing to write home about, it may deflect one or two shots that might topple him before reaching his target.

HawaiiMatt wrote:

The problem with giants is that they aren't Skull Crushers.

Only if you buy your Army Book piecemeal, twice.

Well I'm glad we were doing it correctly but, on the other hand, RIP kitty

To be fair, this is about the only thing a Giant is amazing at doing. Aside from this, the giant usually isn't worth his points.

well, I never see any giant in tournament...
...just saying.

Exactly. Giants are a relic of previous editions, re-printed in new books to stay consistent.

Giants are absurdly unreliable (they have random attacks and a random chance to, get this, fall down). They were created to be funny, and that's exactly what they are.

But they also have the potential to do things completely beyond them. If you kill a Dragon, Treeman, or Great Unclean One, there is no chance that those creature's ruined bulks will crush those below them. Yet when the big scary monster is essentially a half-naked drunk guy, watch out!

And "Thump With Club" is a stupid attack. 2d6 wounds? Really? I mean, I get that it's because he's big and strong and has a big heavy weapon. But what about a Bloodthirster, or a Sphinx, or once again, the Treeman, who is basically a Giant made of clubs? Nope. Only the regular-type extra big-human version is capable of that kind of damage.

Random attacks I can live with. But if they'd just do away with his tendency to fall down and maybe crush some guys, give him some Scaly Skin, clean up his attacks and drop his cost, I think we'd have a legitimate monster.
The Giant can still be a mostly comical monster, of course. But there's no reason you should have to pay extra for it.

This is actually a great point. Maybe why Giants have been stuck as they are for so long- designers seem reluctant to dramatically change anything because they'd rather keep him somewhat consistent across O&G, OK, Beastmen, WoC than try to update him properly.

They'd be fine if they were costed appropriatly. The same could be said of all monsters.

I think 175 points would be fair.

The same could be said for everything.

But I think the ideal option would be an update on everything; his price, his abilities, and Thump With Club. Silly.

T6 would help a lot.
T5 is kind of weenie. It makes him too easy to kill in melee.

-Matt

Eh, I guess. I feel like a giant guy should be less tough than a giant wooden guy. But it would help.

I'd really like to see some kind of save on every monster. A 5+ Scaly Skin would help protect him from a flurry of poisoned darts and the like.

The difference between Toughness, Scaly Skin, and Wounds is really blurry.

They can't make a monster that is so omnipresent very good. Even in 7th he was used a lot because of Terror and cuz cannons weren't as reliable. I'd hate to see every army packing a giant again.

As for what he can do, I believe a giant in WFHB is about as big as anything can get with a few exceptions (GD, dragons). They don't really display that because you're not going to lug around (and paint) a 5 foot figurine. They make it really clear it's a huge deal for a tyrant to beat a giant in combat. But comparing the plastic models it doesn't look like it. Just whack him in his knobby knees.

So I think of Giants as just impossibly large. You see some pictures here and there of giants vastly larger than pine trees. In the Beastmen book they have a mutant giant and he's just enormous. Looks maybe 25-30 feet tall.

And, you know, this is a world of magic. Giants are descended from Sky Titans who made cities in tops of mountains and had ironblasters to clean the wax out of the ears. Maybe it's some primordial power that makes them so wildly random.

I'd rather see every list with a giant than none with one.
But more than that, I'd like to see every book filled with viable options.

And randomness is fine. Giants are just inconsistent with other monsters, what with their Fallen template and Thump With Club. A toned-down version of the latter with a more forgiving version of the prior would fix things up for me.

Warpsolution wrote:
I'd rather see every list with a giant than none with one.
But more than that, I'd like to see every book filled with viable options.

And randomness is fine. Giants are just inconsistent with other monsters, what with their Fallen template and Thump With Club. A toned-down version of the latter with a more forgiving version of the prior would fix things up for me.

QFT across the board Warpy

Love me some giants, the mere chance of one shooting uber-monsters (+ the existence of t-stomp) always keeps me interested in Ol' Stompy. Nuking kitty here is cool, but I was a believer for life when I read about one instagibbing a bloodthirster

- Salvage

Warpsolution wrote:
If you kill a Dragon, Treeman, or Great Unclean One, there is no chance that those creature's ruined bulks will crush those below them. Yet when the big scary monster is essentially a half-naked drunk guy, watch out!

And "Thump With Club" is a stupid attack. 2d6 wounds? Really? I mean, I get that it's because he's big and strong and has a big heavy weapon. But what about a Bloodthirster, or a Sphinx, or once again, the Treeman, who is basically a Giant made of clubs? Nope. Only the regular-type extra big-human version is capable of that kind of damage.

Maybe it's because it's early in the morning, but this made me laugh way harder than it should have, especially the bolded part.