Soggy Bottoms
The Gribbleboggers and Bejiminy box sets are available to order now.
If you appreciate absolute chaos and it’s minions, like Doug, Shabaroon and some of the classic Goblins of old, you're going to adore this set of swampy savants! For the denizens of the Gribblebog, the Arcane deck is not something to draw and play from, it's something to be randomly flipped from and watch as chaos unfolds.
“My collection is catalogued using the Drippy Decimal system. You can find vertebrae under 641.3 (dainties and finger food).”
In summary: the swamp Goblins allow you to form a troupe whose strategy will be based around flipping cards from the top of the Arcane deck for everything.
The matriarch of madness that starts this off is Wenda Wetbones. With her 'Clutter Chaos' ability, she can help any friendly characters nearby when flipping Arcane cards, boosting their energy when they flip 'badly'. Wenda Wetbones herself has an active ability to flip a card and then boost a nearby model, plus a signature end step to potentially get some additional wounds in melee. As with the rest of these new goblins, it can have some incredible effects... but isn't very reliable.
“I would like to remind Princess that even Froglins require consent for kisses.”
Some players or plans may require a little more control however, and to this end Wenda has one Arcane ability to move Goblins, Trolls and Animals about, with the occasional boost to energy and wounds for Goblins and Animals.
Need a little more reliability though? How about turning more of your card flips into Catastrophes! (Well, it's sort of reliable from a certain point of view...) This is where Syril Swampfoot comes in! 'Goblin Mayhem' may seem an incredibly pointless and painful ability on the face of it. Why would you ever want to turn a nice flipped card into a Catastrophe?
Well, what if Shabaroon used 'Goblin Mischief' and flipped a useless blue card for Ribald? How about turning that into a Catastrophe, then forcing Ribald to suffer 2 wounds because he flipped a catastrophe, which gets him 2 extra energy from Wenda's 'Clutter Chaos'? Absolute mayhem and chaos, and now an additional cannon shot from Ribald, all for the cheap cost of 2 measly wounds.
It's a great trick for sure, but is that all Syril does? As you may quickly realise, these Goblins are suffering a lot of catastrophes and a lot of wounds. So how about 4 energy and 'Healing' to help alleviate that?
If the turn calls for harm instead of healing though, Syril can call upon more of his swampy magic with 'Sink into the Bog ', dealing some magical damage as well as sinking and closing the unfortunate target. Syril can also call forth more of his Gribblebog magic with two active abilities. 'Mud Magic' doubles down on more swamp Goblin craziness, flipping a card whenever he activates and splashing out an effect to nearby models, sometimes good, sometimes bad.
The other bit of magic he emanates is his own personal water feature. For some of the swamp Goblins’ Troll-ish allies, such as Bristlenose, this can be incredible. Simply stick near to Syril, make sure he's safe, and multiple Dominion models can enjoy the benefits of a very odd water feature.
“Being up this high means fewer snacks growing between my toes. Sad times.”
Clearly I'm hinting at Bristlenose and Barnakelle who will love the extra energy, but what if there were another way to grant even more help? Enter Stilts Kim, who can feed the pair with her 'Gribblebog Grub', granting Animals and Trolls, such as Bristlenose and Barnakelle, the chance for additional movement, energy and healing. She could of course flip a catastrophe too, inflicting 2 wounds on the Trolls, after flipping a Catastrophe card from the Arcane deck... so that's also 2 energy with Wenda Wetbones!
That's not Stilt Kim’s only trick though; she's also devilishly fast, flipping an Arcane card every time she activates and moving that far immediately. The obvious bonus is moving further for free every turn, but it also allows her to break up her movements and do things such as shift out of melee zones before jogging. This can make her very difficult to pin down, especially in combination with signature and other stilt-related passive abilities, so she can make an excellent stone carrier... so long as someone helps the stilt-bound goblin with harvesting a bit.
Taming a Jaw-Sprung Branch Hopper is a once in a lifetime experience. The mortician can provide additional lifetimes if needed.
While that's all for the Gribbleboggers box, it’s not all of the swamp Goblins. As the keen-eyed may have noticed, most stuff that affects Trolls also affects Animals. While this helpful for Syril, wouldn't it be great if there was a more melee-focused Animal with card flips too?
Enter Bejiminy, who comes with a large Animal-sized bucket of wounds, +2 Piercing / Impact melee damage, and the ability to move even further with, of course, a flip of an Arcane card.
Unlike other Animals though, this one has some incredibly underhanded and Goblin-y tricks to cause a nuisance for your opponent. Where most animals have armour to reduce incoming damage, Bejiminy provides an irritating noise, preventing enemies from ending their jog and engaging him. If they want to do that, they'll have to find another way to get closer to him, or jog slightly outside of their own engagement range, and step in to finally engage him, costing them an entire melee attack! This can be used even more aggressively, jogging Bejiminy into places where your enemies really want to go and punishing any of them with large engagement ranges. Take that Loubard and Stu!
The most unique feature of Gribblebog goblins is their aroma, somehow the foetid mix of rotten wood, dead fish, fungal spores and tepid swamp water combines to give inhabitants a strong smell of freshly baked pizza. Wenda in particular has a strong pepperoni smell, whereas Syril leans towards pineapple and ham. No-one has yet got close enough to Bejiminy (and retained their face) to discover if the same phenomenon applies to Jaw-Sprung Branch Hoppers. – Professor Percival Boffinsworth Esq.
