Down Down to Goblin Town
Goblin City (& Grub) forms half of the starter box for Moonstone.
But how best can the goblins bring their tricks and dirty fighting to bear against their rivals? These models make for a perfect entry point to the goblin faction. Introducing a range of tricks and potential strategies you can expect from the faction as a whole, but not too much to be overwhelmed when starting.
Beaky Bobby
Beaky Bobby is the goblins primary and only dedicated healer. He brings the ubiquitous 'Healing' with 5 arcane and enough energy to cast it twice a turn. A reliable heal twice a turn will prove useful in any goblin troupe to keep models healthy after enemy melee attacks, arcane abilities or when the goblins injure themselves with any of their self-destructive abilities.
Speaking of self-destructive abilities, Beaky brings the unique to goblins 'Foul gases'. At the expense of suffering 2 magical damage, Bobby can also deal 2 magical damage to all other models within 2". In a way, Beaky Bobby makes the best use of 'Foul gases' as he has magic resistance and so will reduce the magic damage that he suffers to only 1. Unlike a lot of damage-dealing abilities in moonstone 'Foul gases' has a great trait in that it's perfectly reliable as it requires no cards to be drawn, it just requires energy to be spent. This makes it great at reliably finishing off wounded enemies or can be used to easily hit more evasive enemies like Faeries.
Beaky can also help your positioning, or hinder your opponents, with 'Stand back!'. In the opening turns, Beaky can jog behind friendly models which want to get up the board as fast as possible and slowly nudge them along with 'Stand back!'. Later in the game when Bobby is further up the board he can use 'Stand back!' to move enemies into awkward positions. This can include moving them out of cover, into awkward terrain, like forests and rivers and moving them off moonstones so other goblins can freely harvest them.
Doug the Flatulent
Doug represents something of an oddity within the goblin faction by bringing no abilities to support other models. Doug also brings, unusually for a goblin; above-average melee, no arcane, no evade, dmg reduction and a staggering 3" melee. The following would indicate that Doug is a combat model and should run and begin spending his energy on melee attacks. However, as usual with goblins, he has the potential to play in a less linear manner with the correct support.
As well as bringing excellent melee abilities to bear, Doug can also make use of 'Digger' and his 3" melee to simultaneously collect and lockdown the collection of moonstones. Whilst 'digger' is a risky venture, with support from a healer like Beaky, the worst effects from the catastrophes can be mitigated. With careful positioning from Doug, the pug knight can instead leverage these unfortunate catastrophes to cause damage to enemies as well as preventing them from collecting the moonstones by engaging them. Doug can then opportunistically follow up these catastrophes against badly wounded models with 'foul gases' to finish off any badly wounded enemies. Whilst overuse of 'foul gases' and multiple 'digger' catastrophes will wear Doug down, if a healer such as Bobby is around, this problem can be mitigated quite easily. Alternatively if facing some enemies with little health remaining Beaky can join in and use his own 'foul gases' to finish off any stragglers.
Doug's primary plan, however, will normally revolve around a melee focussed gameplan. Making a jog followed by using 'Charge' allows Doug to move 8" for the cost of 2 energy and then lets him make a powerful melee attack for another energy. This lets The flatulent get stuck into combat with great ease. Between melee 4, 3" melee range and 'Foul gases' Doug will be able to cause damage to a large variety of enemies in a large variety of ways. In the goblin faction Doug the Flatulent is able to fill the gap of a fast, tough, melee capable model. He is also able to transition in the late game into harvesting to collect deep leftover moonstones to finish the game.
Vicious Syd
Much like Doug, the Vicious Syd is a mostly combat focussed model. Unlike Doug the Flatulent, Vicious Syd has abilities to support other models in the troupe. The Syd is able to use 'Giant whisperer' to push a giant 1". This is able to target friendly or enemy giants and so has multiple uses. This can include uses, such as: pushing enemy Gotchguts away from nobles so he can't bodyguard them. Alternatively, friendly giants can be pushed into melee to distract a Vicious Syd target, or can be pushed to within 4" of Vicious Syd to activate 'Lard lover'.
When Vicious Syd is within 4" of a giant he'll draw a colossal 9 cards in melee, an astronomical amount for a goblin. On top of this, whenever he manages to cause damage with one of these attacks, he'll gain additional energy. With 'Vicious' this can very easily result in 6 melee attacks at 9 melee - not something many models can survive. Much like Doug, the Vicious Syd is a mobile fighter and is able to teleport next to enemies using abilities such as: 'Where'd you come from!?' and also by using the end step of his signature move. Unlike Doug, the Syd lacks a long melee range and will always be susceptible to counter attacks. The Vicious Syd is prepared for this however with his 'Plate mail' which will reduce all non-magic damage by -2. Against magic damage the Vicious Syd must rely on a flimsy 5 health, so he must choose his targets carefully.
Beyond this, the Vicious Syd offers little else. For what little he does though, he excels in his role very well.
Grub
Grub has a far simpler front card than the other 3 goblins present in the starter set, boasting only a single passive, active and arcane ability. This includes a simple melee damage modifier, turning it all to magical damage and a short, mediocre ranged attack with 'Bug spray'. Grub's active ability, however, is what makes the bug wizard unique.
'Wyrm hole' allows Grub to reach most places on the board with ease. With this mobility, Grub can achieve many great feats with a few caveats. One such use, which is especially powerful when starting with initiative, is to assassinate flimsy models which generally hide in the back. With initiative, Grub can often take the last activation of the first turn and the first activation of the second turn. With this, at the end of turn 1, he can 'Wyrm hole' next to an enemy healer or other squishy model and make 2 melee attack or use 'Bug spray'. Then with a +2 bonus to the initiative roll-off Grub is likely to win the roll-off, 81% likely to be precise. He can then activate first during turn 2, make 2 melee attacks or a 'Bug spray' again and then retreat to safety again. If timed very well, Grub can also finish off his target with his signature move which will restore his energy and allow him a few more attacks before he needs to retreat with 'Wyrm hole'.
As well as hit & run assassinations, Grub can also use 'Wyrm hole' to grab hard to reach moonstones. This requires more planning than using 'Wyrm hole' to assassinate enemies as this ability forces Grub to drop all the moonstones he's currently carrying. Therefore, when harvesting moonstones Grub should seek to avoid enemies and have a plan to escape without the use of 'Wyrm hole'.
