Fantastic Monsters and How to Field Them

Throughout Moonstone, giant and troll models have always been present.

Starting with just Gotchgut the giant and Boulder the troll the game has now expanded to four such giants and three trolls. With this in mind there is now a myriad of options should you wish to add some more muscle to your troupe. More excitingly is the option of troupes based around these monsters is now a real possibility.

Giants

Gotchgut

The original giant, Gotchgut has some very straightforward but powerful abilities. Like most monsters Gotchgut has an increased melee damage output, armour to reduce incoming damage and a slew of wounds. These last two qualities are especially useful for Gotchgut as they work well in tangent with his main ability, 'Bodyguard'. Exclusive to only giants so far, 'Bodyguard' allows Gotchgut to absorb damage that any noble nearby takes. For Commonwealth, this can be great for models such as Kaufman and Young Jack, whilst in Dominion, The Beast and Diana can benefit greatly from this additional protection.

Brunhilde 

The other giant who has 'Bodyguard' is Brunhilde. Unlike Gotchgut however, Brunhilde doesn't have any armour so any damage she takes from 'Bodyguard' won't be reduced. She is also limited to only Commonwealth troupes, so no protecting the Beast or Diana! She can take large reaction steps towards endangered nobles, but overall Brunhilde is not as good a bodyguard as Gotchgut. This is not the reason Brunhilde is usually taken however, 'Epic Ballads of Giant Heroes!' is the reason you take her. For just 1 energy, Brunhilde can give all other giants near her an additional energy. This can form a perfect basis for a list centred around giants!

Loubard

One such giant who can benefit greatly from this is Loubard. As well as being the first Leshavult monster covered here, Loubard also has the honour of having arguably the best damage output in the game. This is due mostly in part to 'Righteous Fury'. For the cost of 3 energy, Loubard recovers the 3 energy spent to activate the ability and also gains an additional point of melee, arcane and damage on melee attacks. Unfortunately, Loubard only starts with 2 energy. Therefore Loubard will be the character requiring support rather than lending support like the previous two giants. In addition to this, Loubard may also struggle to hit opponents in melee due to his 'Predictable combatant'. Getting within 1" of opponents as well as utilising his signature will be key to dealing the most damage!

Dim & Dimmer

In comparison to the other three giants, Dim & Dimmer is a bit odd. He doesn't have the raw damage output of Loubard, he doesn't have any support abilities to help out friendly models like Gotchgut or Brunhilde and he only has a pitiful base energy of 1. What he does have is a few esoteric abilities which give him an advantage in specific edge cases. For example, his energy manipulation. Whilst he only starts with 1 energy, Dim & Dimmer usually gains additional energy on activating. This is a great defence against enemies who would otherwise shut down giants by sapping their energy. It also has a great corner case use with the Mortician, as after being reanimated Dim & Dimmer can activate, gain energy and still have a meaningful activation! Another brilliant use is against dominion as a lot of goblins and faeries can be removed from play with his signature, which will prevent the Mortician from reanimating them.

Trolls

Boulder

Boulder is the first troll character in moonstone. Similar to Gotchgut, Boulder features stats which are very characteristic of trolls which is to say high wounds, additional melee damage and some damage reduction. Whilst this is very reminiscent of Giant stats thus far, trolls differ in that they all have an arcane stat. Whilst most giants lack this, all trolls have an arcane stat. In Boulders case, this can be used to help harvest moonstones from range. Boulders other unique ability is 'Calcify' which saps the energy of models, friendly or enemy, standing near him at the start of the turn. These abilities in tandem can be great for helping other models harvest moonstones then throwing Boulder in to slow down pursuing opponents!

Bristlenose

If Boulder is somewhat comparable to Gotchgut then Bristlenose would be comparable to Loubard. Where Boulder encompasses the average troll, Bristlenose is more streamlined towards causing massive damage. In contrast to Boulder, they take an additional point of damage from impact attacks but deal an additional +3 slicing damage compared to Boulders +2 Impact. Bristlenose also forgoes some control abilities in favour of more damage for when they can't get into combat with the reasonably damaging 'Vomit'. Finally, they generate more energy if starting in water features. This makes Bristlenose a great model to draft in games when you start near water or if there is water near the centre of the board.

Ribald

Irrespective of faction or if the model is a giant or troll, a theme so far is that monsters rely solely on melee. Even Bristlenose with their 'Vomit' ranged attack can hardly be referred to as a ranged model. Ribald, however, ends this trend with a bang! With 'Fire cannon', Ribald can one-shot most models in the game with a colossal max damage of 8! This does unfortunately come at the cost of 'slow' and worse survivability and melee than the average monster. The final unique thing about Ribald is his Goblin Trait in addition to his Troll trait. With the goblin trait, he has access to a huge host of abilities that target goblins. This can lead to Ribald having more energy, manoeuvrability and damage than any other monster. The trade off is without support he is quite underwhelming, but if a list is built around him he can cause untold destruction!

Other

Jackalope

Despite not being a giant or a troll, the Jackalope is still a very fearsome character. The best way to view this unique animal is as a 'Lightweight monster'. It takes more damage, has fewer wounds and only deals additional damage on piercing attacks. In return, the Jackalope sports a better evade, more energy and better mobility with 'Hippity' and 'Hop'. It's final claim to fame amongst the monsters is 'Burrowing claws' which makes the Jackalope a great harvester. All of this leads to a very flexible and well rounded monster which can apply pressure to a large swathe of the board.

Lists

Commonwealth 

A list revolving around monsters in Commonwealth is quite easy to build. With Brunhilde's 'Epic Ballads of Giant Heroes!' you can throw together all the giants to form the basis of a great giant group! With Brunhilde, Gotchgut, Dim & Dimmer and Loubard the next focus will likely be on energy efficiency for these giants. A fantastic addition is therefore Kaufman. Firstly, as a noble, he can take great advantage of the two bodyguards which will make him close to unkillable. He can also, more importantly, move the giants around with 'Shower of Gold' so they may save their energy for making melee attacks instead of moving. For a sixth character, anything that also provides energy efficiency and maybe some healing would be ideal. Here Brother Daniel can shine with his area of effect repositions, heals and his ability to grant some energy to an ally at the start of the turn. In general, this troupe will stay pretty close together to maximise their aura abilities and will try to engage the enemy as quickly as possible where the energised giants can melee through most other troupes in the game with ease!

Dominion

For Dominion, there isn't a model like Brunhilde who provides a more obvious starting point for a monster list. What Dominion does have access to though is a model who can bring slain monsters back to life, the Mortician. On top of this, Dim & Dimmer can work fantastically with the Mortician and in turn, the Vicious Midget can then work well with Dim & Dimmer. Whilst 'Giant whisperer' and 'Lard lover' aren't as impactful as Brunhilde's giant support, they are still worth utilising. With this in mind, Gotchgut can also be thrown in to help ensure Vicious Midget will always have a giant around for 'Lard lover' and to give another target for his whispering. For the final few slots, more monster muscle like Bristlenose can be useful and nobles such as the Beast can make great use of Gotchgut. Other options can also include some of Dominions premier healers like Fraya to help keep monsters around for longer and any other character who can bring energy and movement efficiency. Compared to the Commonwealth monster list, the Dominion list doesn't need to keep as close together and can keep monsters around for longer and even bring them back from death! However, a lack of energy efficiency means they won't be able to attack as much, so they must make the most of every energy spent. 

Leshavult 

Unfortunately for Leshavult, the number of monsters available at the moment is very low. Despite this, the Leshavult can definitely bring an interesting monster list revolving around the Jackalope and Loubard due to their lack of reliance on traits. In particular, the witches can do all mentioned so far including giving additional energy, increasing movement and healing. By utilising Danica's catastrophes and 'Pupeteer' either of these monsters can gain obscenely large amounts of energy or actions and can lead to crazy activations. Similar to Commonwealth, this can be nicely rounded off with Brother Daniel. As well as accomplishing all he can achieve in Commonwealth, Daniel can also help offset Danica's damage and energy pulse with his own heal pulse. Overall then, the Leshavult really excels at taking one monster and buffing it to unprecedented levels before unleashing it on a rampage!