Revision as of 23:23, 16 February 2019

Piggybacks Grymkin Unit Officer Command Attachment

"Squeal for us, it sounds so nice. ’Tis your reward for gluttony’s vice!"

Living testaments to the dangers of overindulgence, piggybacks serve as a cautionary tale to all who would surrender to the pleasures of the flesh. The hogs chuff gleefully over the tormented moaning of their withered mounts—tortured souls who must forevermore bear their crushing burdens in battle for the Wicked Harvest of the grymkin.

Placeholder for CA fluff

Basic Info

Leader & Grunts

Rules subject to change. This is an existing model/theme, but it is being updated. This model is part of the current CID cycle (What is CID?) and the information shown below does not represent its final rules. This is a existing model/theme, and the information here is the rules it had before the CID cycle. If you wish to document the CID changes before they're finalised, please do so under the Recent Changes heading only.

Piggybacks
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Medium SPD 5 STR 8 MAT 6 RAT N/A M.A. N/A DEF 11 ARM 13 CMD 7 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 5 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA 2 UNIT SIZE 3 / 5 +1CA COST 9 / 15 +5CA 3.3 each N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Abilities

• Tough
• Impervious Flesh - When this model suffers a damage roll, roll one fewer die.
• Shield Wall (Order) - Until the start of their next activation, each affected model gains +4 ARM while B2B with another affected model in its unit. When receiving this order a model can forfeit its Combat Action to gain +3” movement as part of its Normal Movement this turn. This bonus does not apply to damage originating in the model's back arc. Models in this unit can begin the game affected by Shield Wall.
• Snacking - When this model boxes a living model with a melee attack, it can choose to RFP the boxed model. When it does, this model can remove d3 damage points.

Weapons

• Pole Arm - 2" reach, POW 5, P+S 13 melee attack
  • Brutal Charge - This model gains +2 to charge attack damage rolls with this weapon.

Officer

Rules subject to change. This model is unreleased. This model is part of the current CID cycle (What is CID?) and the information shown below does not represent its final rules. This is a new model, and the information here is what was given on day 1 of the CID cycle

Abilities

• He has +1 MAT, +2 CMD, and +3 HP
• Officer
• Tough
• Defensive Formation [ Minifeat ] - This model can use Defensive Formation once per game at any time during its unit's activation. This activation, models not affected by the Shield Wall order in this unit currently in formation gain Reposition [5"]. Additionally, at the end of this activation any previous orders this unit was issued expire and this unit is affected by the Shield Wall order. (Reposition [5"] - At the end of an activation in which it did not run or fail a charge, a model with Reposition [5"] can advance up to 5", then its activation ends.)
• Granted: Retaliatory Strike - While this model is in formation, models in its unit gain Retaliatory Strike. (Retaliatory Strike - If this model is hit by a melee attack made by an enemy model during your opponent's turn, after that attack is resolved this model can immediately make one basic melee attack against that model. This model can make only one Retaliatory Strike per turn.)
• Impervious Flesh
• Tactics: Bulldoze - Models in this unit gain Bulldoze. (Bulldoze - When this model is B2B with an enemy model during its Normal Movement, it can push that model up to 2" directly away from it. A model can be pushed by Bulldoze only once per turn. Bulldoze has no effect when this model makes a trample power attack.)

Weapons

As above

Recent Changes

2019.01 Grymkin Wave 2

• Gained the officer
• Week 2 Piggyback & Piggyback Officer went to ARM 14 from 13

Thoughts on Piggybacks

Template:Recent Change

Piggybacks in a nutshell

Command Attachment

Piggybacks are a slow heavy infantry unit. They advance in shield wall and become impervious to weaker attacks, forcing the enemy to engage them with heavy weaponry. Their Impervious Flesh rule makes their deceptively low armor quite impressive - in shield wall unboosted pow 11s can't even do a single damage.

Thoughts on the CA

Template:Recent Release Oink oink here he comes! The Piggyback Officer adds a bunch of cool rules to Piggybacks to really amp up their defensive game play as well as giving them some disruptive options. Defensive Formation is extremely useful for advancing up the board while remaining in Shield Wall, or allows a unit of pigs to charge and then switch order to Shield Wall at the end of their activation. The Officer gives the unit Retaliatory Strike while he is alive, which helps to deter attacks from softer targets and massively increases the hitting power of pigs locked in melee. Lastly, their Bulldoze Tactic gives them a useful scenario presence and can be used to set up charge lanes for Grymkin's diversity of hard hitting melee 'beasts.

Why Should I Include Piggybacks in my Army?

Piggybacks are generally brought when you want an anchor in your list: a tough unit that plants its feet at the edge of a scenario zone and dares your opponent to go. They are unique among Grymkin units due to their remarkable durability, and pair extremely well with all of the other models available in Bump. When used well, Piggybacks can scramble your opponent's plans and create opportunities Grymkin otherwise wouldn't be able to exploit.

Are Piggybacks Competitive? As of June 2018, Piggybacks are never seen as a Competitive option in Grymkin list building. The problem lies in how anti-synergistic they are with the general Bump in the Night gameplan. This can be summed up with:

1. Piggybacks like the Death Knell, but the Death Knell is a poor option for Bump in the Night
2. Piggybacks aren't delivering enough output for their points, especially if you are pricing in their potential support
3. Piggybacks are so slow and lack Pathfinder in a scenario package that is live and only getting more live as SR2018 is approaching. This makes it very hard for them to actually do their job of anchoring.
4. They're hard to kill, but they're not actually that hard to kill by determined attacks from heavier opponents.
5. They simply are not on par with the standard of good to excellent medium base infantry in mk3.

As of February 2019, Piggybacks are looking like they will have something of a resurgence. The Officer gives them some much needed options while stuck in, as well as providing a powerful minifeat for the initial engagement. The upgrade to ARM 14 across the unit is extremely significant, as it now pushes the range of immunity provided by Impervious Flesh up to POW 12 under Shield Wall. These two changes alone would be enough for the Piggybacks to see play, but the arrival of additional support in the form of Malady Man & Grave Ghoul will no doubt put them back into their rightful place among the medium-base tanks of mk3.

Combos & Synergies

Piggybacks are a unit that does not work well in a vacuum, it relies heavily on combos and synergies with other parts of the faction. This is due to their reliance on defensive rules over raw stats, rules which magnify the power of support effects placed on the Piggybacks.

• The Death Knell is a key option that helps their ability to survive attacks. The +2 ARM is huge with Impervious Flesh, allowing them to shrug off POW 13 (14 with Wave 2) hits under Shield Wall.
  • Low pow shooting (pow 10/11) is very scary if the Piggybacks run to get up the board. The Death Knell helps to mitigate this threat. (note that this role can be largely fulfilled by the Officer once he is released)
  • Take a high POW boostable shot, such as POW 15 from a warjack. At ARM 17 a boosted POW 15 will kill a Piggyback in one shot (forcing a Tough roll). At ARM 19 however it is more likely to do 2-3 damage instead of the critical 5. This massively increases the amount of resources your opponent needs to deal with a unit of Piggybacks, and makes it far more risky for them to engage with their heavy 'beasts or 'jacks.
• Piggybacks are the most durable Grymkin unit, and on top of that are the most expensive at 3pts a model. This makes them usually the best Revive target in the faction. While those revived must sacrifice their combat action, they can gain Shield Wall if revived before the Piggyback unit activates. (additionally with the Officer they can still use Retaliatory Strike & Bulldoze the turn they are revived)
  • The Twilight Sisters can return two per turn. The Twilight Sisters can also heal injured Piggybacks, making them an extremely useful support piece before any Piggys have fallen.
  • Old Witch 3 Can return an additional d3 of them per turn through Hellhole.
• Piggybacks enjoy damage buffs, as they have low base output but are good at hanging in melee. (this is especially true if the Officer is still alive providing Retaliatory Strike)
  • The Heretic provides Fury and his trump, making him often considered the best Piggyback caster. The Heretic also benefits from the relationship, as he likes to sit behind friendly larger bases to avoid shooting as he moves up the table to engage the enemy with his powerful personal output.
  • The King of Nothing offers Scything Touch, which on a mobile warbeast can pair wonderfully with stuck in Piggys. However the King has to stay away from his own Piggys, as his minus ARM aura cripples their durability.
  • Old Witch 3 has Curse of Shadows, and can blind their targets. She also has access to revive and a powerful anti-shooting spell in the form of Windstorm. Besides the Heretic, Old Witch 3 is often discussed as the premier Piggy caster.
• Piggybacks like to have a counterpunch, as once they are stuck in melee their output declines substantially
  • Neigh Slayers in particular are very good at this. They tend to like the same support as Piggys (recursion, damage buffs, anti-shooting tech) and are especially good against the kind of targets to which Piggys are most vulnerable.
  • Dread Rots are a cheap option which compliments the Death Knell (as a source of corpses) as well as the Piggys themselves. Piggys are one of the few reliable ways to deliver the Glimmer Imp, which is often the best support piece to take with Dread Rots.
  • Warbeasts like Gorehounds, Skin & Moans, and the Clockatrice all take the same kind of buffs as Piggybacks and are effective at trading up into the kind of targets Piggys typically struggle against.
• Piggybacks are very slow, and pair well with faster models which can outflank the spaces which the Piggys occupy. Additionally, they themselves love SPD buffs
  • The Malady Man is going to be almost an auto-include with Piggybacks, thanks primarily to Desperate Pace increasing their ability to get up the board early and into positions where they can tie down the maximum number of enemies. The Monkey is also extremely good at providing cover for the Pigs, whose Impervious Flesh does not work if attacked in the back arc. He can increase their durability even further thanks to Monkey Bite, potentially forcing your opponent to boost both attack & damage rolls.
  • Gorehounds are great at getting past enemy formations which the Piggys have tied down to get at the squishy support in your opponent's backfield.
  • Murder Crows are almost the exact opposite of Piggybacks, all offence with no defence. With the additional distance provided by the Officer and the Malady Man, Murder Crows arriving from Ambush will finally be able to engage those enemies which the Pigs have tied down.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• They're extremely slow, only moving 5" a turn if kept under Shield Wall
  • Sometimes they'll need to make it to scenario as fast as possible to become the anchors they want to be, but running out of shield wall exposes them to incoming gunfire. This is often the best use for the Officer's minifeat, allowing the Piggys to move a full 10" but retain their Shield Wall.
  • Their melee threat range is only 10". This often isn't a huge deal, but makes them awful if stationed on the flanks as they will be unable to support other elements of your army
• They can't charge without making themselves much easier to kill.
• They have a very low output for their points. One Piggy is 3 points, which equates to nearly three Dread Rots or two Hollowmen, both of which are much better at actually damaging the enemy.
• Extremely weak to debuffs (especially ARM debuffs) due to their reliance on rules as opposed to raw stats. Slightly counter-intuitively, this does make them much more resilient to rules like Armor-Piercing which are better at cutting through raw stats.
• They are very vulnerable to powerful sprays or AOEs, due to needing to be B2B to maintain Shield Wall. This isn't necessarily an issue due to their resilience, but becomes especially problematic if those sprays/AOEs carry debuffs or knockdown effects.
• Piggybacks require a lot of support to perform well, often taking up additional free slots or points beyond just their base cost.

Tricks & Tips

• Don't forget they have Snacking
  • This means that recurred and wounded piggybacks get to heal
  • Its an always on remove from play, and RFP is very powerful as of 2018.
• Their formation can increase or decrease how easy they are to kill
  • Sometimes for example, an hourglass formation with 2 leading, 1 in the middle, and 2 in the rear can be very difficult for melee attackers to reach the rear piggybacks.
  • Sometimes standard shield wall triangles is best
• Bump has Rise as a theme benefit, so make sure you stand all your piggys up. It makes tough quite decent on them
  • Being knocked down by a tough check doesn't remove the bonus from shield wall, so it actually doesn't make them much easier to kill

Other

Trivia

• Base unit released 2017.06
• Beta rules for CA released 2019.01

Theme Forces

• Bump in the Night

Other Grymkin models

Grymkin Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup
Warlocks	The Child - The Dreamer - The Heretic - The King of Nothing - The Wanderer - Old Witch 3 Arcana Warlock Attachment: Baron Tonguelick
Warbeasts	Lesser: Crabbit	Light: Frightmare - Gorehound - Rattler
	Heavy: Cage Rager - Clockatrice - Skin & Moans	Gargantuan: Slaughterhouse
Units, Solos, & Battle Engines
Units	Dread Rots - Hollowmen - Mad Caps - Malady Man - Murder Crows - Neigh Slayers - Piggybacks - Twilight Sisters
Solos	Baron Tonguelick, Lord of Warts - Cask Imp - Defiled Archon - The Four Horseymans - Glimmer Imp - Grave Ghoul - Gremlin Swarm - Isiah, Dread Harvester - Lady Karianna Rose - Lord Longfellow - Trapperkin - Weird Wendell - Witchwood
Battle Engines	Death Knell
Theme Forces		Minions
Dark Menagerie - Bump in the Night		Refer to Category: Grymkin Minion
This index was last updated: 2021.08

Rules Clarifications

Note to self: I need to update this rules section after the rules are finalised - juckto.

Rules Clarification : Powerful Charge  and/or Brutal Charge     (Edit) If you declare a charge but move less than 3", then the attack doesn't count as a "Charge Attack" and you won't get the bonus.

Rules Clarification : Tough - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Impervious Flesh      (Edit) Impervious Flesh applies to everything, including stuff which "doesn't come from a model" like Continuous Fire.

Rules Clarification : Shield Wall      (Edit) You don't need to have the entire unit in B2B to get the bonus. Even just two models in B2B will give it to each other. Which way they're facing doesn't matter, either. You can still get Shield Wall while knocked down. Shield Wall works against all damage except damage originating in your back arc. If a damage roll doesn't have an origin point (such as Scather, Old Witch1's feat, continuous fire, etc) then by definition it can't originate in your back arc, and you'll get your bonus vs it. It won't work vs stuff that "leaps" off models in your back arc, such as Electro Leap. (Locked thread) If you start the game in Shield Wall, it will expire when you activate the unit. It doesn't let you run and be in Shield Wall on turn 1. Since models move in straight lines, it impossible to keep two models B2B while advancing. Thus you cannot benefit from Shield Wall while moving through acid clouds etc. Unless you have something that lets you move through models, like Tactician. Orders affect unit attachments, even if that attachment doesn't have the order on their card (such as a Soulless Escort benefiting from the Shield Wall order). (Infernal Ruling) You get your Shield Wall bonus vs continuous fire in the Maintenance Phase. Shield Wall doesn't expire until the unit activates. (Locked thread)

Rules Clarification : Snacking      (Edit) You can use Snacking to RFP your target even if you're at full health. (Locked thread) Snacking occurs at boxed, and thus: Doesn't prevent abilities that trigger at disabled (such as Tough, Self-Sacrifice, etc). Might prevent abilities that trigger at boxed, depending on who the active player is and whose model the ability triggered on. Refer the 'Triggers' section (pg 10 of the pdf) Does prevent abilties that trigger at destroyed (such as collecting soul tokens, etc) You can snack friendly models. You may choose where each individual point of healing goes. If you kill multiple models with a single attack (such as trampling over them) then you get to heal once for each model killed.

Rules Clarification : Vengeance and/or Righteous Vengeance and/or Retaliation and/or Swift Vengeance and/or Tantrum     (Edit) Vengeance moves do not have to be towards an enemy model. You can choose to not move, but still get the attack. One is not conditional on the other. In this case, you will not count as advancing and thus will not trigger stuff like Countercharge. (Infernal Ruling) Vengeance is not an activation. It does not prevent the model/unit from activating and acting normally later in the turn. Stationary and knocked down models may not perform Vengeance moves nor attacks. Units only Out of formation models cannot make Vengeance moves nor Vengeance attacks. However if the unit commander uses their movement to bring the Grunts back into formation, then they can move and attack. When resolving Vengeance, move all models in the unit before making any attacks. (Infernal Ruling) If you have more than one unit with Vengeance, move all of unit A then complete all of unit A's attacks, before starting to move unit B. If you manage to spawn new models during the Maintenance Phase (such as with Reconstruction or Blood-Bound) then those new models can also make Vengeance attacks. (Infernal Ruling) Due to the way it is worded Vengeance can be "inherited" by unit attachments that do not actually have the Vengeance ability themselves. For instance, a Soulless Escort attached to the Spears of Scyrah. If anyone is damaged, including the attachment, everyone in the unit gets to trigger Vengeance. But if everyone is killed except the attachment, then he doesn't get to trigger Vengeance because the rule is "no longer on the table". Granted [ Vengeance ] If the model granting Vengeance dies, the unit will not get any Vengeance attacks. It is "If you have Vengeance, and you were damaged last turn, you get a move+attack." It is not "If you get damaged, you get Vengeance next turn." If you lose Vengeance halfway through resolving Vengeance, then you stop resolving Vengeance immediately. (Infernal Ruling) Triggers Only enemy attacks trigger Vengeance. There are plenty of ways enemies can damage you without attacking you (such as Electro Leap) and these will not trigger Vengeance. If a CA has Granted: Vengeance then only models in formation have it. However, models that are damaged while out of formation can trigger Vengeance, they just will not benefit from it. (Locked thread)