Gremlin Swarm

File:Minion Logo.jpg File:Grymkin Logo.jpg

Template:FH2

Mischievous and malicious in the extreme, gremlins delight in rooting around in mechanikal constructs with the intent of causing as much damage as possible for their own amusement. These mysterious grymkin are attracted to the hiss and clank of warjacks on the battlefield and have been known to bring mechanized weaponry grinding to a halt at the most inopportune times.

Basic Info

• Minion - Works for Template:Circle Minion, Template:Legion Minion, Template:Skorne Minion, and Template:Trollbloods Minion
• Grymkin - The Gremlin Swarm is also in the Grymkin faction. It is not a Partisan, it simply is a Grymkin.

Abilities

• Template:Incorporeal
• Template:Stealth
• Template:Annoyance
• Template:Apparition
• Template:Man-Sized
• Template:Mischief
• Template:Sabotage

Weapons

• Template:Unarmed

Theme Forces

• Minion
  • Template:Will Work for Food

• Grymkin
  • Template:Si. Although it is a Minion solo, it is not a "Minion solo that works for Grymkin" so it can't go in this theme.
  • Template:Dark Menagerie Gremlin Swarms gain Serenity in this theme.

• Other Factions
  • Minion models can be hired by other Factions. Normally those Factions' themes will have a limit on how many models they can hire. Refer to #Other Theme Forces, below.

Thoughts on Gremlin Swarm

Gremlin Swarm in a nutshell

Working both as Minion and Grymkin solos, Gremlins have 3 defining traits

• Incorporeal
• Unarmed
• They mess up warjacks and battle engines.

Bereft of any offensive tools, they can still cause a lot of mischief through their abilities. Due to their special rules, they can be extremely annoying for your opponent - see Tips & Tricks for a detailed run-down.

Combos & Synergies

Minions:

• A very cute target for Quagmire from Carver - just make sure to stay incorporeal!

Grymkin

• There isn't a single warlock, who could (or rather, should) offer direct support to the Gremlins. However, in the Dark Menagerie theme you can bring four of them (even free, if you wish), and with the theme benefit of Serenity they can offer some decent fury management on their own.
• Grymkin, especially with loads of Cage Ragers in Dark Menagerie, tend to be very slow and thus bad at taking zones. The exception is the Gremlin Swarm.
• Gremlin Swarms are very good at preventing larger bases from being able to land charges, allowing a skilled player to 'funnel' their opponent's larger & harder hitting models onto one side of the board. This is a general property of Gremlin Swarms, but is particularly applicable to Grymkin and being able to protect your softer Death Knell, caster, and support solos.
• Competitive Note: As of August 2018, almost all top Dark Menagerie lists include the max four Gremlin Swarms. They are great zone denial solos and are perfect for triggering the Sacrifice arcana or The Dreamer's phantasms.

Legion

• Incorporeal and hands out corrosion thanks to the theme bonus. An aggravating combination.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Unarmed, thus, no charges or free strikes.
• Can't do anything offensive against targets who are not warjacks or battle engines
• Fragile (seriously, what did you expect?)

Tricks & Tips

• For the first couple of turns, try to find somewhere safe (ie behind a building) that is 16" away from the enemy flag and/or 12" away from enemy zone(s). That way you've always got a model ready to contest those flags/zones at the drop of a hat.

Similarly, you can "threaten" the enemy flag by hiding somewhere 12" away from it. If the enemy forgets to to leave a model within 4" of their flag (or you kill them all) then your Gremlins can swoop in and steal it.

• You can use it to screen your caster from enemy melee attacks, but only by occupying the space that the enemy model wants to charge into.

• Overall, the Gremlins are more effective against Hordes (and Convergence), as they lack easy access to Magical damage. Some Warmachine theme forces (like Legion of Steel) are also seriously low on magic weapons. Even if they have such weaponry, they usually have to mobilize resources way over the 3(0) pts value of these solos, making them excellent attrition pieces.
• Expecting fratricidal attacks from your Berserk troops? Run up a Gremlin Swarm into a suitable position to be in their melee range, and let them went their steam on the poor little fellas. Just watch out to stay incorporeal and not to give magical weapons to them.
• For movement shenanigans, keep in mind that the enemy must have enough movement to be able to completely pass through you - they cannot stop "within" the Gremlins' base.
  • It is a great tool to keep your key models in place despite from smaller pushes, like the ones from Bulldoze, Thunderbolt, Beat Back, Repulsor Field, slams from smaller based models, etc.
  • If your enemy would need a linear charge lane to reach an important model of yours, park the Gremlins in front of them, just a bit shorter away than the base size of the charger. Unless they have Chain Strike, their melee range will be insufficient to reach you.
  • The same goes with Drag/Pull - if there is not enough place between the Gremlins and the attacker to fit your base, you will stop right at the Gremlins' base - hopefully out of melee range.
  • They are especially annoying, if ran up in front of a colossal - usually, it does not have enough movement to bypass them.
• Even though they have no melee weapons, enemies can still engage them and receive the "target in melee" defense bonus.
• Battle engines are also valid targets for Mischief and Sabotage - perhaps even better than warjacks. Since Mischief happens at the beginning of the activation, your enemy must divert resources to remove the swarm, before the BE activates, lest they will cause trouble. Battle Engines also lack fury/focus to boost attack/damage rolls (though many have some inherent abilities, which have similar effects), so cumulative modifiers on their rolls can be pretty effective.
  • Don't forget, several casters (Denny3, Reznik2, Lylyth3, Xerxis2, and Old Witch2-3) are battle engines too, making them vulnerable for both Sabotage and Mischief. Apart of Denny, all of them are living models too, along with the Siege Animantarax and the Throne of Everblight, so they are affected by Annoyance too.

Other

Trivia

File:0-3.jpg

Gremlin Spring Break Party. Minicrate Exclusive.

• Released in Hordes: Devastation (2015)
• If you take their own words from the Grymkin book, the gremlin Swarm is a monster of a unit!
• Template:LES

Other Theme Forces

When Weird Wendell is killed, he spawns a Gremlin solo.