Goblin Mischief

A Piercing Boar Sir Hogswash is a classic Commonwealth melee model with no frills attached. Of his four abilities on the front of his card, three are specifically to help him in combat. The other one is to help him against troupes with lots of arcane which he is often used to counter.  As well as these abilities, Hogswash also has some great melee stats, keywords, and signature move.  All of this combined leads to a melee stat 4 model with a 2" melee zone, some boosts for melee damage, and some damage reduction. The 'Hunting Spear' gives +1 piercing and slicing damage which means you'll always get +1 damage in melee as all melee cards have options for either slicing or piercing! More interestingly it also gives a further +1 damage against animals, making Hogswash an excellent choice if your opponent's troupe contains many animals. Similarly, 'Sun Shield' also plays very well against specific troupes notably cultists and faeries with their focusses on impact...

Ice Cream for All! Eric has made his choice and his future now belongs in the hands of Leshavit! As a previous Commonwealth knight in training Eric will be able to help his new friends with some excellent combat abilities. Hogswashes lessons in particular must have been useful giving Eric a Melee 4, Range 2" and some wonderful skill with a javelin and shield. Unlike Commonwealth though, none of these pieces of equipment are traditional and all have a Leshavult twist. The shield for example can only be used once per game, but being a Leshavult shield it reduces all the damage to nil! As for the javelin, it increases piercing damage by +2 as expected. Unlike a normal javelin though, it can convert any piercing damage dealt into the same amount of magical damage instead! Against certain types of armour, like many Commonwealth nobles 'Plate Armour', the ability to convert damage into magical can be extremely potent. It also doesn't specify that it can only convert melee da...

Hopping good fun The Jackalope is an odd 'Monster' character. It's got better evade and energy than trolls and giants, but lower health and damage output. In this respect, it's more of a 'Lightweight monster' rather than a proper full-sized monster. Because of this, the Jackalope is able to fill a Jack(alope) of all trades style role, adapting easily to the current situation in the game. As for melee, when dealing damage the Jackalope has an excellent +2 piercing damage for rising attacks and thrusts and a dangerous signature for anyone who gets too close. This signature is particularly good for low health models as it deals a minimum of 0 (+2 piercing) to any card in melee meaning there's no way to avoid damage! When the Jackalope is hit back it can rely on a healthy 10 wounds to stay alive as well as impact damage reduction. This is mostly situational in melee though as most models will choose to avoid dealing impact damage and go for slicing or piercing d...

Explosive Tendencies Since their initial release, the pirates haven't had their own dedicated healer in moonstone. This has left them having to rely on models like Beaky Bobby and Fraya to fill that role. Now with the Black Powder box, they have the 'Powder Monkey' who isn't exactly a dedicated healer, but a support model with some healing abilities. The healing ability in question is 'Swig o rum' which heals X+1 for 2 energy like 'Healing' normally would, but that's where the similarities end. It also has the effect of lowering arcane by -2, so this should definitely not be used on anyone who hasn't activated and is relying on an arcane ability. It also has a meager range of 2" and comes with the Powder Monkeys arcane of 4, so he will have to be very close to the action and won't succeed as often as traditional healers. 'Pirate mascot' by comparison will have neither of these problems being a passive ability and having a range o...

I like big bugs and I cannot lie When looking at a faeries stat card, three things are normally expected: 6 or less health, -2 evade and weakling/feeble. Vespa by comparison ignores all of these basic rules and brings some very unique stats and skills when compared to the rest of the faeries. In fact, her stats more closely resemble those found on a human stat card with the added benefit of some weird faerie abilities and the faerie trait itself! To continue her theme of not sticking to traditional faerie stats, Vespa has a relatively low melee stat, but a high melee range and damage thanks to 'Stinger'. As her melee stat is not as high as other faeries she will not always find the card she needs or crit. However, when she does successfully play a: rising attack, thrust or falling swing (thanks to her piercing falling swing signature) she will deal an exceptionally large amount of damage. This isn't the end of her melee abilities though as she has a couple of faerie tricks ...

Leshavult Unlike dominion and commonwealth, there is less of a focus on specific races in Leshavult. Most troupes within the faction tend to have more of a focus on synergies and combos. That being said there are still some loose "Sub factions" which Leshavult can be collected and played as. Firstly, the fauns and animals who zip around at impressive speeds, full of energy. In contrast to this, the spirits and cultists generally play a slower methodical game, relying on arcane deck manipulation and other esoteric abilities and combos.  Irrespective of the sub-faction in question, Leshavult models are generally very flimsy and have excellent energy manipulation. Animals & Fauns Difficulty: Medium Evasion and speed are the main tricks of the fauns and the animals. With more movement tricks than most, the fauns and animals can ensure they can be where they want as quickly as possible. This is also helped by their access to some energy manipulation. This comes in the form of ...

 I was on Mooncast again recently.  If you're struggling with dealing with Boris the bunny summoner then it's the podcast for you! https://danhumphrey318.podbean.com/e/mooncast-episode-32-how-to-beat-boris/ Animal troupe article mentioned in the podcast: https://goblin-mischief.blogspot.com/2020/01/boris-bunnies-and-beasts-animal-troupe.html

I've recently seen a lot of love for the new Leshavult model, Boris the Bunny Summoner. I've also been wanting to write about one of my favourite troupe compositions from my time playtesting the Leshavult. Luckily, both of these happily coincide with each other. So without further ado, let's crack on with the Leshavults furry friends.  Whispering to Wild Things The crux of the Leshavult animal list is the hypermobility one model can gain and the huge energy spikes one or two models can achieve as well. To this end, Gloom will likely make an appearance in every such list due to one very powerful active ability. With 'Whisper to the wild things' animal traited models can be catapulted up the board to wreak havoc on unsuspecting models. Alternatively, Jackalopes and Beast's can be pulled out of dangerous positions or retreated when they are carrying precious moonstones. In a pinch, it can also, of course, be used to move murder bunnies around. Whilst a...