Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Destruction/Gloomspite Gitz

Grand Alliance Destruction Gloomspite Gitz

I’m gonna go higher! I’m pissing on da Moon!

Lore Tactics General Tactics

The Bad Moon is rising and it's bringing an alliance of Moonclan Grots, Spiderfang Grots and Troggoths with it.

Why Play Gloomspite Gitz

Pros

• You get Moonclan Grots, Spiderclan Grots, Troggoths and even the old Giant under one roof!
• New Models for a load of old classics, like Squig Hoppers and Fanatics!
• The grots ate so many hallucinogenic mushrooms they think the moon wants them to kill everyone.
• Want a horde army? Sure! What about an elite army instead? We got that too. All cavalry? You bet! And you can go magic heavy too (or not). Seriously, the Gloomspite Gitz have one of the widest available unit pools in the game, beat out only by Cities of Sigmar, Stormcast Eternals, Seraphon, and Slaves to Darkness.
• Squig Hoppers and Mangler Squigs now count as flying models. Enjoy it - take them out on the aerial battleplans!
• You get a quasi-summoning mechanic. It even works on Troggoths, Squigs, and Spiders now, provisionally.
• Your synergies are off the charts. Half the book is designed to buff or enhance the other half. The Bad Moon buffs shit, your heroes buff shit, your wizards buff shit and debuff enemy shit, your baseline troopers like Sneaky Snufflerz and Sporesplatta Fanatics buff shit. It's easy to turn a mediocre unit into a... Well, a decent unit, maybe even a good unit.
• Multiple ways of getting extra command points. In fact, it's arguable that the Gloomspite Gitz have the single best Command Point generation in the game, able to pump out upwards of SIX command points a turn. Even better in 3rd edition, you all those fancy command abilities are now easier to throw about.
• Almost everything wants your Squigs to run and charge in the same turn. Enjoy the vicious red herd of teeth.
• Multiple ways to debuff the enemy's to-hit rolls. There's so many ways to hand out penalties to hit, you can protect your squishy goblins a little longer. Sadly we can't stack them the way we used to, but at least the enemy can't throw bonuses to hit as easily either.
• You want to play as David Bowie in Labyrinth.
• The Range of models is mostly plastic, the battleline options are simple and monochromatic for new painters. And there's a lot of great minis to learn on. If you're someone who enjoys hobby, crazy looking miniatures, and messing around with shading there's a lot that is available for you to use here. Washes and dry brushes go especially well for squigs, the loonshrine, and Troggoth.
• Praise the Bad Moon! We will finally be getting a battletome update!

Cons

• This should pretty much go without saying, but their leadership is dogshit. Other horde armies have ways of buffing their leadership (Skaven, Order stuff like Freeguild) or a naturally high base leadership (Death), but the Gloomspite Gitz have very, very little in that aspect, and where we do have it, it's expensive or has a more important job than just sticking around to keep leadership up. The only exception to this point are the spiderfang, that have a 6 base bravery with the totem and 8 bravery if close to a webspinner shaman if he is the general.
• While certainly effective, there are a lot of interconnecting rules and abilities that can be easily forgotten. You need to read and then reread your book.
• We have no faction-specific powers beside the moon and the Loonshrine. We're working purely off our old crappy warscrolls, with the moon adding a handful of nice but unreliable benefits if we manage to be wholly underneath it's current table quarter. Speaking of which...
• The Bad Moon provides our only faction-specific powers, but is kind of fiddly in how it gives them out. Read and reread the rules for the moon, and even if you know how it works, there's always the chance the moon just doesn't move how you want it to. Sometimes it'll fly to the center of the board and stay there for three turns, sometimes it'll fuck off by the start of turn 3, having only one turn of lunar goodness. And once it's gone, you're back to playing without any army buffs.
• You're gonna need those extra command points, as you're likely going to have to spam Inspiring Presence every turn to make up for your horrible bravery, or to activate your most powerful synergistic command abilities, like Bite Da Moon or Instinctive Leader.
• Keyword Bingo! It's not immediately clear which abilities are applicable to which units (eg Loonboss WITH giant cave squig is a GROT, whilst Loonboss ON giant cave squig is a SQUIG. And exactly which units have MOONCLAN?). Read carefully.
• Our to-hit rolls are generally bad. We'll usually hit on an acceptable 4 plus, but penalties to hit really hurt, and there's very few rerolls to hit, outside of the Troggboss's Instinctive Leader (Which is Troggoth specific). All Out Offense helps, but you're already paying a command point tax on Inspiring Presence, so you're going to feel the strain on command points if you want to hit on anything remotely decent.
• Our armor saves are pretty weak overall, and in general our defense is poor. It's easy to get little to no armor save and lose a bunch of models, and then lose a bunch more to our terrible leadership. We've also got nearly no protection from mortal wounds.
• We rely a lot on RNGesus.
• Some of the models are a little old. Good luck in getting the finecast Scuttleboss to hold together.
• At this point it's inevitable that we bring up that Gloomspite Gitz are outgunned and outmanned on basically everything. There isn't a single thing Gloomspite Gitz can do that another army can't do better, and cheaper. We're the weakest army in the game, losing out to Nighthaunt and Beasts of Chaos. Hopefully a new book fixes this but the current edition is against us in several ways.
  • With the introduction of Reinforcement Points, we can no longer bring endless hordes, and have to settle for one or two big units, and then a bunch of minimum size stuff. In 2nd edition we relied on everything getting reinforced at least once in order to have any real impact, and now we can't rely on that.
  • Capping penalties to hit hurts us bad. Whereas before we could give out -2s to hit like candy and really cut into the enemy's damage potential, now a -1 to hit is all we can do. With multiple sources of hit penalties we can negate bonuses, but instead of forcing 6's to hit, now the enemy has a better chance of killing us.
  • The new command abilities are awesome, but our over reliance on leadership protection limits our potential to use them. Why go from 5's to hit down to 4's, when we'll lose the battleshock phase hard anyway? You're GOING to be spending a point for Inspiring Presence every turn. It's the tax for playing GSG.
  • The current Commander's Handbook 2021 has a strong emphasis on monsters, and our monsters are meh and not spammable. Even worse, Troggoths aren't monsters. Even more devastating, the Roar monstrous action can be the instant death knell of most GSG units, because unless we're right next to the Loonshrine, the inability to use Inspiring Presence means a whole unit will disappear. While monstrous actions are nice on Mangler Squigs for instance, you really can't take advantage of it the same way an Ironjawz player can.
  • Our damage potential is frankly crap. Our ability to get past armor is piss-poor, and our mortal wound potential isn't much better. Our damage is mostly 1, and the few sources of damage 2 or 3 are often expensive and have godawful defense. Troggoths are the notable exception, but their bravery is just as terrible, and have mediocre armor saves. Squigs could potentially do good damage, but since they hit on 4's you're hosed if you roll poorly, and they need two command abilities to have any reliable damage output. The final nail in the coffin is that you can't drown your enemy in dice, our attacks are mediocre to poor and we don't get enough of 'em.
  • Having no shooting used to not be so bad, but nowadays we're not fast enough to challenge big chunks of the board, and our magic doesn't make up for it enough. Lots of armies can start reaching out and hurting the enemy on turn 1, but barring some crazy turn 1 charges we can't hurt the enemy without getting out of position.
  • The new coherency rules mean we can't swarm around like we used to, and our range is mediocre to poor on everything. The Stabbas and their spears are alright at efficiently attacking, but Stabbas aren't there to do damage, that's what Squigs, Troggs, and Spiders were for, and those are all let down by their big base sizes.
  • Don't let this wall of despair turn you away from Goblins, though. We're still fun as hell and every victory we achieve is stolen directly from the mouths of Gargants and Aelves. One day we'll get a new Battletome, and we'll hopefully get much better. Just temper your expectations, understand that this is a challenge faction right now, and maybe don't take your all-squig list to a tournament you were hoping to do well in.

Rulebooks

Faction rules and abilities: Battletome Gloomspite Gitz

Additional rules: White Dwarf 455 (Jaws of Mork), 457 (Glogg’s Megamob) & 459 (The Grimscuttle Tribes)

Forgeworld warscrolls: Monstrous Arcanum

Latest Matched play points: Gloomspite Gitz Errata

Core rules: here

Matched play rules, battleplans and expansions: General's Handbook 2022-23 Season 2, plus the battleplans from the Core Book.

Supplement all the above with any Errata and Designers' Commentary from the FAQs.

Allegiance Abilities

Your choice of abilities are dependent on your type of Leader they are being given too, with a bucketload of choices for each.

Battle Traits

• The Bad Moon Rises: At the beginning of the game, you choose one of the quarters of the board as the Bad Moon's starting point (if both players use Gloomspite Gitz, roll off to decide who places it). Starting from the second turn, it will start to move. To determinate whether it moves you roll a dice: on a 4+ it moves. Splitting the field in 4 equal sized quadrants, the Bad Moon moves in a straight line towards the opposite quarter of the field, stopping in the middle of the board and in the middle of the opposite quadrant. Once it moves from the last quarter, it's removed from the field and never comes back. So, its way more predictable now although it can last less than before. Your only way of controlling it is by having Skragrott as your general, letting you skip the dice roll and choosing whether it stays put or moves, and that's only once per battle.
• Light of the Bad Moon: Units under the Bad Moon's light (AKA: If it's in the middle of a quadrant, it covers only the units in that quadrant; If it's in the middle of the field, everyone.)
  • moonclan units (that's Stabbas, Squig Herds, Boingrot Bounders, Shootas... actually pretty much anything thats not a Troggoth or Spiderfang), when issued the Rally command when in the light of the bad moon return models on a 4+ instead of 6+.
  • spiderfang units's Spider Venom ability will activate on a 5+.
  • squig units (that's Loonboss on(but not with) giant cave, Loonboss on Mangler, Herds, Hoppers, Bounderz, Mangler, Colossal, Gobba) can run and charge in the same turn.
  • troggoth units (includes Mollog and the Hag it seems as well), add 1 to their save rolls when affected by the bad moon.
  • Note that there are no overlaps between Grot, Squig, Spiderfang and Troggoth units. However Moonclan keyword can effect multiple different types of units.

Command Traits

Your General, depending on its type, gets to choose one trait from the appropriate list.

Blessings Of The Bad Moon

Moonclan Only - Which is to say everything that isn't a Troggoth

1. Fight Another Day Loonboss Only: Each time this general attacks with its melee weapons, it can make a 2D6" move after all of its attacks have been resolved. If it does so, it must finish the move more than 3" from enemy units. (Put this on a Loonboss on Mangler Squigs and watch your opponent rage as you destroy his models while he’s unable to attack back.)
2. The Clammy Hand : If this general is within 12" of a Bad Moon Loonshrine at the end of your turn, you can use the Bad Moon Loonshrine's "Moonclan Lairs" scenery rule (AKA the one that resurrects Stabbas and Shootas) 2 times at the end of your turn. Congrats, you've just committed to the most defensive playstyle ever. Because the Loonshrine can only be placed fully in your territory and because you have to stay within 12' to even use your command ability. You have to have two whole grot units dead or you can try to "re-roll" the dice if you failed the first time. It isn't a bad command trait and if you combine it with the Skulkmob Horde it's very easy to return a big unit.
3. Loon-touched Moonclan Wizard Only: Get one more cast while under the Light of da Bad Moon, good yet uncomfortably situational
4. Supa-Nasty Venom Spiderfang Hero with mount Only: Double mortals with Spider Venoms ability.
5. Squig Whisperer Squig Hero with mount Only: Add +1 to hit and to wound for the mount's attacks, Mangler aquigs just became absolutely terryfying.

Fortuitous Trogboss Traits

Dankhold Troggoth Hero Only - Dankhold Troggboss (not Hag or Mollog)

1. Alpha Trogg: Add 2 wounds to this guy and make him a Monster, which means he can use Monstrous Rampages now, which is sweet for an already dangerous model.
2. Loonskin: General gets to choose one of the faction Endless Spells that isnt the Arachna-cauldron for free, he can also cast it himself during your hero phase. Hey its free points, Malevolent Moon is probably the big winner since it can synergize with every unit of the faction as well as being able to move to follow your units around.
3. Trogg Smash: Once per battle, after the general has fought, you can roll a die for every enemy unit within 3", dealing d3 mortals on a 2+. Its... very meh, especially when compared to the other two options this one just seems lacklustre.

Artefacts Of Power

One Hero (plus an additional hero for each battalion), gets to choose an artefact from the appropriate list.

Troglodytic Treasures

Loonboss only - Loonboss, Loonboss on/with Cave Squig, or Loonboss on Mangler Squig

1. Spiteful Prodder: Skarsnik’s old relic from Gork himself. Or was it Mork? Anyway, used in your shooting phases; pick a unit within 18" from the bearer and roll a number of dice equal to how many GROT units of 5+ models are wholly within 12" from that unit. It suffers D3 mortal wounds for every 5+ roll. A super weird shooting attack, that is only good if you have MSU grots... meaning you've got a lot Sneaky Snufflerz near them, or you've got 1-2 big units of Stabbas. Either way you're never going to get good odds on the mortals, and the payoff of d3 mortals is good but unlikely.
2. Backstabber's Blade: Pick one of the bearer's weapons. If you roll a 6 to hit with that weapon, the save roll against it always fails. This would be weirdly good if you had better damage, but the damage on your weapons is d3 at best and you don't get enough attacks with them to make it a guaranteed thing every turn. Situational and kind of weak, if you're fighting heavily-armored Varanguard you should be relying on your Mangler Squigs for damage first.
3. Loonstone Talisman: 5+ save against mortal wounds. Quite good, especially against armies with a lot of magic, or Skaven Warp-Lightning Cannons.
4. The Pipes of Doom: -1 Bravery to every enemy unit within 12" from the bearer. Very meh, the enemy can just spend a command point to autopass battleshock if it matters that much, and you don't have leadership bomb potential to make this better.
5. The Clammy Cowl: -1 to hit rolls towards the bearer. Stacks with other to-hit penalties. Make your enemy pull his hair out when your Loonboss With Giant Cave Squig absolutely styles upon his hero who's hitting on 4's at best.
6. Leerin Gitshield: If you roll a 6 to save, opponent takes a mortal wound. This means that even if rend makes you unable to succeed an armor save, you should still roll it in case of a six for a "free" mortal wound.

Foetid Fetishes

Madcap Shaman only

1. Spiteshroom Familiar: -1 to be hit by enemy models while they are within 3" of the bearer. Great! The problem is that even with a to-hit penalty they're still attacking a Madcap Shaman, who dies if the enemy thinks mean thoughts about them. Worth considering if you plan to keep your Shaman entrenched in Fellwater Troggoths or next to the nettas of a Grot mob.
2. Moonface Mommet: At the beginning of every combat phase, you pick a unit within 12" from the bearer, which gets -1 to save rolls. Really really good. This makes a Madcap Shaman an excellent support model for any fight. Thanks to the forgiving range on the attack (within 12", not fully within) this means no opponent wants to go NEAR this shammy unless they plan on killing him outright.
3. Staff of Sneaky Stealin': Bearer gets +1 to casting and unbinding for each enemy WIZARD or Artefact-bearing HERO within 12". Another weirdly good artefact, if the enemy has lots of close-range casters this little Shaman can easily be casting Vindictive Glare each turn at enemies to whittle them down. Just keep in mind that 12" is not a long distance, and you can very likely find yourself dead before the staff can even work.

Venomous Valuables

Spiderfang Hero only - Scuttleboss, Webspinner Shaman on Arachnarok Spider or Webspinner Shaman

1. Totem of the Spider God: For every friendly unit wholly within 12" of the bearer, the Spider Venom ability triggers on 5+ instead of 6. Hands-down brilliant, but keep in mind that it doesn't stack with the light of the Bad Moon. Great on Arachnarok Shamans on an outflank, where they're unlikely to be under the Moon's light for long.
2. Headdress of Many Eyes:: -1 to hit rolls against the bearer. Fucking disgusting when stacked with the spell that gives a 12" aura of to-hit penalties. Turn an Arachnarok into an unbeatable tank with this goofy bullshit.
3. The Black Fang: Upgrade 1 melee weapon of the bearer to deal D3 mortal wounds on a unmodified roll of 6 to hit. If the weapon already deals mortal wounds on a 6 roll, add those D3 mortal wounds to the weapon's. Combine this with the Monstrous Mount command trait from the Skuttleboss for a clean 3-5 damage spider venom. Or just put it on a Webspinner Arachnarok to get a sweet D3+D3 Mortal Wounds on 6s.
4. Nibbla's Itty Ring: Once per battle you can pick an enemy unit within 3" of the bearer and roll a dice. On a 2+ it suffers D3 mortal wounds, on a 6 it suffers D6 mortal wounds. This is fine, but there's other magic items to take first.
5. Earskuttle: Once per battle, you can pick an enemy WIZARD within 3" of the bearer and roll a dice. On a 2+ it suffers D3 mortal wounds and gets a permanent -1 to casting and unbinding for each mortal wound suffered. Eh, against huge, undying wizards this is great, like Nagash or an Abhorrent Ghoul King on TGheist, but usually if you have a wizard that close, you can just kill them.
6. Web-string Cloak: Ennemy units cannot retreat if they are within 3" of the bearer. How often are you fighting enemies that run away from a fight? As a tank item it's fine for holding targets in place, but the Headress of Many Eyes does that too and the enemy can't say "well, we can't flee, let's just kill them" and turn your hero into mincemeat.

Glinty Gubbins That Troggoths Found

Dankhold Troggoth Hero only - Dankhold Troggboss (not Hag or Mollog)

1. Shiny Wotnot: Roll a dice for each mortal wound from a spell. On a 6+, the mortal wound is allocated to the caster instead. If the source is an endless spell, negate the mortal wound and dispel the endless spell. Holy shit this one's bad. A 6+ feel no pain that only works against specifically enemy spells or endless spells is not great, even with the chance to reflect, because no one's going to be targeting a Dankhold Troggboss with magic in the first place, with the 4+ magic resistance they already have. Even if you fail your magic resistance check do you really think a 6+ shrug is going to be a worthwhile investment over say, the Moonface Mommet or Clammy Cowl?
2. Glowy Howzit: Saves from wounds or mortal wounds on a 4+ roll. If you roll a 1, you can't use it anymore for the rest of the battle. In theory, the strongest magic item around. Adding a 4+ feel no pain is always a huge deal to an already tanky model, but in practice you could roll a 1 on turn 2 and the magic item is gone forever. Still not a terrible item, but there's still more reliable artifacts you could get instead.
3. Pet Gribbly: If an enemy unit attacks the bearer before he was selected to attack, it will suffer D3 mortal wounds after dealing all its attacks. This one's interesting. It encourages you to attack last in order to deal free mortals, or dissuade enemies from attacking your expensive hero. Either way it's a nice tool, but don't overestimate your defensiveness and give up a beneficial first attack and possibly die in exchange for d3 mortals.

Spell Lore

Any Gloomspite Wizard Hero, depending on it's type, gets to choose one spell from the appropriate list.

Lore Of The Moonclan

Moonclan Wizard only - Skragrott, Madcap Shaman, Fungoid or Zarbag

1. Vindictive Glare: CV 5. Deal D3 mortal wounds to a unit within 12". Literally a slightly better Arcane Bolt with a shorter range. There are so many spells the GSG have access to, you'll probably never actually use this one, but occasionally it's nice to have one more spell to use before you fall back on "guess I'm out of useful spells to cast this turn, I suppose I'll cast Arcane bolt."
2. Itchy Nuisance: CV 6. Pick an enemy unit within 18". It's forced to fight after everyone else in the next Combat Phase. Great for combined charges against strong enemies, or when you're fighting multiple important battles.
3. The Great Green Spite: CV 7. Pick a GLOOMSPITE GITZ unit wholly within 18" and an enemy unit within 24". If the Gitz are less than 10, the enemy unit suffers a mortal wound; if they're 10-20, the enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds; if they're more than 20, the enemy unit suffers D6 mortal wounds. Surprisingly easy to set up, as the ranges on both halves are quite generous. Great long-range sniping if you have a big ass block of Stabbas nearby, and 6 mortal wounds is a very, very scary proposition.
4. The Hand of Gork: CV 7. Pick a GLOOMSPITE GITZ unit wholly within 24" and at least 3" away from any enemy unit and warp it away, at least 9" from any enemy unit. The unit can't move in the next movement phase. This is the meme spell for teleporting a unit across the battlefield to get a chump charge on an unsuspecting unit. That being said, it's only a meme if you let it be, and having access to it, even if you don't use it all game, forces your opponent to think carefully about positioning or risk a fat block of troops placed right on their objective or threatening their backline.
5. Squig Lure: CV 5. Pick D3 SQUIG units visible to the caster and within 18" from him. They can run and charge in the same turn. The designers love when Squigs can run and charge in the same turn, and here's yet another way to do just that! Essentially double the benefit of the Loonboss on cave Squig ability, but limited to max 3 units, plus it can be denied. Useful if you only have one or two squiggys or you want to stack with the Loonboss.
6. Call da Moon: CV 8. Pick an enemy unit visible to the caster and deal D3 mortal wounds to it. If the unit is under the Bad Moon you can reroll for the amount of mortal wounds. This spell looks really fucking weak on first sight, being only d3 mortals on a difficult 8 to cast, but Skragrott loves it because of the INFINITE range and the ability to reroll the damage under the moon which Skragrott can control better than anyone else, and has better casting than any other grot. Pretty weak on every other caster.

Lore Of The Spiderfangs

Spiderfang Wizard only - Webspinner Shaman on Arachnarok Spider or Webspinner Shaman

1. Deadly Webbings: CV 5. Pick a terrain within 24". Non-SPIDERFANG units will consider it Deadly and Sinister until the next Hero Phase. Easy to cast, but terrain's generally not going to be in the perfect location for you, and it affects your non-spiderfang models if you're bringing any.
2. Venomous Spiderlings: CV 6. Pick an enemy unit within 12" and roll a dice for every model in it. It suffers a mortal wound for each 6 rolled. Hordes don't like this spell, elites just laugh it off.
3. Scuttling Terrors: CV 7. Pick a SPIDERFANG unit within 24". That unit can run and either shoot or charge in the same turn. Zip Zoom!
4. Sneaky Distraction: CV 7. All the enemy units within 12" from the caster get -1 to hit rolls until the next Hero Phase. Make yourself the most annoying thing ever by combining the Mask of Many Eyes artefact with this spell to be the tankiest monster ever.
5. Curse of da Spider God: CV 7. Pick an enemy unit within 24". Until the next Hero Phase, that unit's hit, wound and save rolls of 1 or 2 will always fail. Very, very situational, but against Slaves to Darkness or armies that get a lot of 2+ to hit or wound this is alright.
6. Gift of da Spider God: CV 8. Pick a SPIDERFANG MONSTER within 12" and heal D6 wounds from it. Looks tough to get off and it would be, if a Spiderfang Shaman on Arachnarok didn't already have a +1 to cast baked into his abilities. Combine this with the Moon's benefit and you're casting it on 6s, which is pretty palatable.

Endless Spells

• Malevolent Moon: (40pts, CV 6, predatory). Moves 12", flies, deals mortal wounds to units it flew over and gives -1 to casting rolls to not-GLOOMSPITE GITZ WIZARDS within 9" (-2 to those within 3" from it). Eats wizards for breakfast. A great long-range wizard sniper, use it to bully enemy wizards into trying to dispel it or take huge penalties to cast, as well as deal a couple nasty little mortal wounds along with it.

• Mork's Mighty Mushroom: (90pts, CV 6). Every unit within 8" from it must roll a dice for every model THAT IS WITHIN 8" OF THIS SPELL and suffer a number of mortal wounds equal to the number of 5+ rolled. Fantastic way to deny a huge part of the board, especially as it can't be moved once placed. Unfortunately, since this works best against hordes, it also denies those parts of the board to you. Use with caution.

• Scuttletide: (30pts, CV 7, predatory). +1 to the casting rolls of this spell for SPIDERFANG WIZARDS. If any non-SPIDERFANG unit end within 6" from it after moving or charging or after the spell itself moves, it will suffer up to 6 mortal wounds on 5+ rolls. Slightly less suicidal form of area denial, and if your placement is right, you can triple-dip on mortal wound rolls. Great for a number of reasons: It's a wall, first and foremost, meaning that it's a great area denial tool. Second, there's no maximum range, meaning you can place it anywhere on the map as long as it's fully within 6" of terrain. And because of the wording on it's ability most enemies won't want to roll twelve to eighteen dice looking for 5-up mortal wounds. Lastly the high casting value is also a bit of a bonus, as it requires an 8 to dispel, which isn't an easy feat for most of the chump wizards the enemy will use to dispel your Endless Spells.

• Scrapskuttle's Arachnacauldron: (40pts, CV 5). It attaches to the caster, giving him +1 to cast and dispel rolls plus teaching him every Lore of the Moonclan spell, but at a price. At the beginning of every Hero phrase it deals D3 mortal wounds to a unit within 3" (including the caster itself of no one else is in the range). As this doesn't say friendly unit you can deal the D3 to enemies, use with combat wizards like the Hag or Arachnarok shaman for hilarity.
  • Take note that these Endless Spells aren't bound to what Allegiance you are using, just to the keywords of the caster, so you can use the Cauldron as a way to get access to the spell lore even when you're playing Destruction Allegiance or have the Gitz as allies. But it's might not be worth bothering - two effect gloomspite gitz only, one effects only squig units, two are slighty better arcane bolts, but the remaining one (Itchy Nuisance) is awesome. Plus you need a way of mitigating the cauldron's mortals: Skragrott looses most his usefulness outside Gloomspite; the Hag is a large investment (and too expensive to ally both her and the spell), and our other wizards too squishy unless you can be sure to always keep them next to something else.

Tribes

Jaws of Mork

A unique Squig-themed subfaction introduced in White Dwarf 455.

• Running Riot: Re-roll movement rolls for friendly Squig units. Oh yeah. The only reason your taking The Jaws (don't forget their replacement stampede battalion, though).
• CA - ‘Get Some Loonshine Down ‘Em!’: Drunk Mangler Squigs. Choose a friendly Mangler Squigs model and until the end of the phase, that model uses the top row on their damage table regardless of how many wounds they’ve suffered. For those who like to hold on to their mangler rather than going full suicidal to get those full stats at the bottom of the table.
• CT - Envoy of the Overbounder: Re-roll failed Battleshock while within 12" of the General. Reroll is optional - good for anyone wanting to deal out those Squig Herd mortals.
• Artefact - Syari Screamersquig: An albino Squig that startles enemy heroes. Choose an enemy hero within 3" at the start of the combat phase. Add +1 to hit rolls for melee attacks made by the artifact bearer that target that hero. Not as great as it first looks because it's for the bearer, not the mount, so not that useful for your manglers. However, it works great on the Trogboss and Hag. Given the complete lack of artefacts for the Hag, then this could be a nice excuse for running a Squig Hag army.
• Plus you get two battalions and an optional replacement rule for the Loonshrine warscroll (Squigs instead of Grots)
• There is nothing here restricting your choice of general, but it'll need to be a squig for the loonshrine rule, and Squig mounted for Squig battleline. So, realistically, we're talking the Mangler, or maybe the Loonboss On Giant Cave Squig if you can keep him alive.

Glogg’s Megamob

A Troggoth centric subfaction from White Dwarf 457.

• Monstrous Regeneration: Add +1 to friendly Troggoth Regeneration rolls.
• CA - Oblivious to Sorcery: While within 12" of a Dankhold Troggboss, your Rockgut and Fellwater Troggs can shrug off spells/endless spells on a 4+.
• CT - Shepherd of Idiotic Destruction: While your General is on the battlefield, receive a command point on a 4+.
• Artefact - Aetherquartz-Studded Hide: 5+ mortal wound shrug. Works on any gloomspite hero, so maybe one for the Hag. MUST be taken by the first Troggoth hero in the army to recieve an artifact.
• Plus you get one battalion and an optional replacement rule for the Loonshrine warscroll (Troggoths instead of Grots)
• There is nothing here restricting your choice of general, but it'll need to be a troggoth for the loonshrine rule, and dankhold for your trogg battleline. So, realistically, it's just a Dankhold Troggoth. If you're going to throw in some Grot or Squig Herd tar pits, then maybe the Hag.

The Grimscuttle Tribes

A spiderfang centric subfaction from White Dwarf 459.

• Abilities: Spiderfang units from this sub-faction will benefit from two abilities, both geared towards fighting magic-heavy armies. This is exceptionally good, as almost every army has access to wizards, with some among them being dependent on them. Really only Kharadron Overlords and Blades of Khorne won't really care about your abilities (as if any self-respecting Dawi would ordain the thought).
  • Deff Grotz of Shyish: Whenever a Spiderfang Grimscuttle unit is affected by a spell or endless spell, you can choose to ignore its effects on a 5+. Situational, but not bad.
  • Drawn to the Aetherglow: Skitterstrand units (read, the naked giant spiders only) can re-roll failed hit rolls against priests and wizards. This will let them fish for mortal wounds more effectively, and generally speaking help them absolutely devour unit they're gonna fight
• CA - Masters of Feigned Flight: At the start of the movement phase, chose a Grimscuttle Spiderfang unit wholly within 12" of the hero, and that unit can fall back and charge in the same turn.
  • The "wholly within" part is somewhat disappointing, but otherwise fine.
• CT - Prophet of da Spider God: If your general is a Webspinner Shaman, they *must* have this command trait. Don't worry though, it's super good. Once per battle in the combat phase, you can chose to make every single Grimscuttle Spiderfang unit to be counted as being beneath the Bad Moon for that phase. Woah...
  • Despite being the only command trait a Webspinner Shaman can take, this is downright dirty. If you had bad luck and the Moon flew away too early in the game, you'll still guarantee a fight's worth of mortal wounds popping off on 5s. Alternatively, if the Bad Moon hasn't caught up to your army, or you deepstriking arachnaroks need that extra support, you can activate this early, although that's not the best idea.
• Artefact - Shyishan Spider-sigils" Subtract 1 from the Braver characteristic of enemies within 6" of the wielder, while friendly Grimscuttle Spiderfang get +1 to bravery while wholly within 12".
  • In a beat-down brawl on the line of engagement, where your giant spiders are ripping apart enemies, this a handy-dandy little additive to make sure more enemies run away. Again, effected by the "wholly within" rule, and a large line of spider riders engaged in melee will rarely be within that 12".
  • On the other hand, giving this to a Shaman on an Arachnarok gives you a bubble of +3 Bravery for one or two Spider Rider units.
  • Special note, this artefact has a little stipulation as part of its rules: it MUST be the first one taken by a Grimscuttle Spiderfang Hero, meaning that you're forced to take a battalion if you want others. So if you want the Headdress of Many Eyes or the Totem of the Spider God, be prepared to pay a premium in points for them.
• Plus you get three battalions and an optional replacement rule for the Loonshrine warscroll (Spider Riders instead of Grots). Your general needs to be a Spiderfang in order for the Loonshrine rule change, and with the above, it'll 100% be the Webspinner Shaman on Arachnarok. Or, if you're saving on points, you'll take the shaman on foot instead.

Warscrolls

• All the units have exactly one of the following keywords: GROT, SQUIG, SPIDERFANG, TROGGOTH or GARGANT.
• Skragrott and all Loonbosses (including the SQUIG Loonbosses) have LOONBOSS}.
• All units with GROT or SQUIG also have MOONCLAN.
• Loonsmasha Fanatics and Sporesplatta Fanatics are the exception as they have MOONCLAN and none of the other above keywords. This prevents their abilities working on themselves.
• And every unit has GLOOMSPITE GITZ.

MOONCLAN GROT

Leaders

• Skragrott, The Loonking: (220pts) The Great Poobah of the green weirdos himself and named leader.
  • Goes around with a staff that can both shoot and hit in melee, and if he damages a model with multiple wounds by using it that model will suffer an additional mortal wound at the end of each Battle round.
  • Gets a +4 to ignore wounds (includes mortals), a +1 to cast and dispel rolls, and can cast/dispell 2 spells every turn.
  • If he is your General you get D3 extra command points on a 4+ roll at the beginning of each of your hero phases.
  • Also requiring him to be a general, his command ability can be used once per battle and manipulates the Bad Moon movement for a turn, by making it not move or even move twice in the same turn.
  • And then there is his spell (CV 8), that is basically an Arcane Bolt that targets single models instead of units... unless you rolled a 10+ to cast it, in which case it will also get the additional ability of destroying artefacts of power if the targeted model had one. That 10+ is essentially a 9+ due to the +1 to cast. Give him the Cauldron (he can shrug off those mortals on a 4+) and put him under the bad moon, you now only need a 7+ (a 58% chance)!
  • Keep in mind: Skragrott's only got 6 wounds, and no source of healing. For the legendary hero of the Grots he's about as tough as two Ogors. Keep him waaaaay back out of danger and he'll cream the competition, but if he gets caught out there's only so much a 4+ save can do.
  • You might be looking at this guy and be wondering, "this is the guy who leads the whole faction?" And it is true that he doesn't have the ability to make whole units vanish in the combat phase like Archaon, Gordrakk, or Alarielle, or be the ultimate wizard like eight-spells-fuck-you-Nagash. But that's not why you take Skragrott, you take him because he's an insane toolbox at a steal of a price. He can generate command points, cast spells, be a long-range artillery piece, and provide control over the notoriously wiggly Bad Moon. Keep him safe and he'll cast Skrapskuttle's Arachnacauldron, and then as many endless spells as you want, forever.

• Loonboss: (70pts) Regular dude boss from the front cover of the Battletome with big crescent moon headpiece.
  • Opponents get -1 to hit rolls against him. Keeps him alive a bit longer. Sorta.
  • His command ability allows a moonclan grot unit within 12" (24" if he is the General) to deal mortal wounds in melee if they roll an unmodified 6 to wound.
  • Cheapest hero in the faction, and one of the cheapest heroes, period. You get what you pay for, with 5 leadership and wounds, only a 5+ armor save, and only 3 good attacks, but he adds some punch to a Moonclan-based list and doesn't break the bank.
  • Generally best used along side hordes of Stabbas to help them dish out more damage, or babysitting the Shootas to help defend them in melee.

• Loonboss with Giant Cave Squig: (110pts) The good old Skarsnik model reborn as a Loonboss. Allows for Squig battleline.
  • Gains two wounds and a 6+ ward save, but has a 5+ save instead over the regular Loonboss.
  • His weapon has a better stat line than the other guy, and the Squig adds another bunch of attacks and the potential to instantly kill a model at the end of combat phase.
  • In contrast to his counterpart, this guy acts as a Gobbo Commissar, using threats of violence to inspire the grots in his command. You can sic the Giant Squig on a group of Grots to deal D3 mortal wounds, and they gain 3 to their bravery for each wound suffered.

• Madcap Shaman: (80pts) Regular small wizard.
  • Like the Fungoid, he can cast two spells in the same turn once per battle. However, casting the second spell, if the roll is a double (thats a 1 in 6 chance) he gets D3 mortals - and he's only got 4 to start with. Those mortals are dealt after the spell has gone off, so if he does die you still get the effect.
  • Exclusive spell (CV 5) protects an ally within 12" by giving -1 to hit rolls against him in Shooting Phase.
  • Four different models exist for this guy. There is the Madcap Shamans two pack, the Madcap Shaman that used to be sold as a Gitmob Grots Grot Shaman, and the shaman from the Forgeworld Night Goblin Command Set.
  • Look at that price again. 80 points is stupid, stupid cheap for a wizard, and a hero to boot. Keep him safe and you'll be getting all the lovely spells your heart desires. But you should probably spend 10 more points to get a Fungoid Cave-Shaman instead, unless you're really dead set on those magic items.

• Fungoid Cave-Shaman: (90pts) The Malign Portents model that turned was a portent of things to come. A bulky wizard.
  • A 4+ to ignore wounds and mortal wounds makes him less squishy that a regular wizard hero.
  • Standard wizard melee attack, but with an additional weapon in the form of the Spore Squig, makes him a little more aggressive than normal wizards.
  • Can cast two spells in the same turn once per battle
  • On a 4+ gets you an additional command point in each hero phase. Traditionally, CPs have been very useful in Grot based armies.
  • Exclusive spell (CV 7) is essentially Arcane Bolt, but it works against any unit within D6.
  • Not a Madcap Shaman, so cannot take any of the Gloomspite artefacts of power (you could still give him a realm specific artefact though).
  • Some short range attacks and additional save makes him seem like he should be up near the frontline dealing damage, but only has 4 wounds and you want to keep him alive for that 50% chance of a CP every turn. Maybe best having him supporting a large unit camping on a mid board objective, or keep him on the backline until you no longer need those extra CPs.
  • If you just want to maximise commands points per turn, consider two Fungoids over Skragrott. For 40 points less, you get 75% chance of at least 1CP and 25% chance of 2CP, compared to 50% chance of at least 1CP, 33% chance of at least 2CPs and 16.6% chance of 3CPs. Plus, if a Fungoid gets sniped, you still have the other still alive still giving 50% chance each turn. However, you do loose all the other goodies Skragrott brings.
  • A fun little toolbox of a wizard, the Fungoid is a cheap source of Command points, something the Gitz desperately crave, and is a surprisingly good spell caster. The only real weaknesses is his measly 4 wounds and that he can't take the Madcap Shaman's magical items.

• Zarbag: (160pts) Named Leader pulled in from Warhammer Underworlds. Kinda generic Shaman, but you bring along his Zarbag's Gitz for free.
  • Has a once-per battle that gives him a +2 to casting rolls if he rolls a 2+ before trying to cast a spell
  • Exclusive spell (CV 5) that forces an enemy unit to retreat (or suffer D6 mortal wounds if unable to do the retreat movement)
  • Is a Madcap Shaman... but also a named character, so cannot take an Artefact from the Foetid Fetishes.

Battleline

• Stabbas: (130/360pt, min 20, max 60) Unconditional Battleline.
  • Melee grots. Can take either stabbas or pokin' spears (latter has more range but -1 to hit).
  • Get +1 to wound as long as the unit has 15+ models (+2 when 30+) and +1 to save as long as there are 10+ models. Can take banners for extra buffs and can take netters to trip up enemy attackers. Very good tarpit when paired with the new bravery boosting abilities of the army.
  • Gong Basher: Only 1 every 20 models. +2 to run rolls for the unit.
  • Standard Bearer: Only 1 every 20 models. Can pick either the Moonclan Flag (+1 Bravery) or the Bad Moon Icon (+1 Save against missile weapons).
  • Netter: Only 3 every 20 models. 3 melee attacks plus -1 to enemy hit rolls in melee.
  • Stabbas are better for units of 20, spears for units of 60. Remember though that unit of 60 comes back as a unit of 30.
  • This is the Horde to end all Hordes. They may seem unimpressive for their base value (6.5 points per model) but when you consider that unless you're extremely unlucky you'll be getting the effect of the Loonshrine to resurrected half in pretty much every game, they're much more effecient (4.333 points per model now). This gets even better with the discount for max unit size (6 points per model without being resurrected, 4 points per model if resurrected)! Keep in mind that you only can roll to resurrect a unit once per turn (twice per turn, one turn if you have the Clammy Hand command trait) and that the more units of Stabbas and Shootas you have the more likely you are to flub your rolls and just not get the benefit of the Shrine or the efficiency of the hordes.
  • Of additional note is, there's nothing saying that the unit's leader can't also be one of the grots wielding a Net, giving you 3 attacks hitting on 3s instead of 4s.
  • Don’t forget to space out the nets enough that the unit gains the added durability provided from them! I’ve seen Daughter of Khaine struggle to damage hordes since the grot nets effected every enemy model in range
  • When given max buffs, this unit can have:
    • +2 to wound, from unit size bonuses
    • Rerolling 1s to wound, from the Spiker of the Gobbapalooza
    • Dealing a mortal wound on every 6 rolled to wound, in addition to damage, from the Loonbosses' Command Ability
    • Rerolling run and charge rolls, from the Scaremonger of the Gobbapalooza
    • Rerolling 1s to hit, from the All Out Offense Command Ability
    • +2 attacks, one from a unit of Sporesplatta Fanatics, one from a unit of Sneaky Snufflerz (More, if you have more Snufflerz units and don't mind taking 2d6 mortals per extra attack)
    • +1 to armor saves, +2 to armor saves against ranged attacks, from their Moon Shields
    • Immunity to Battleshock Tests, from the Boggleye of the Gobbapalooza
    • -1 to hit for enemy models attacks, from proper net positioning. Yeah, meanwhile the enemy models are 2" within the nets, the -1 to hit affects the shooting attacks or attacks that target other friends units.

• Shootas: (120pt, min 20, max 60) Unconditional Battleline.
  • Shooting Grots. They get +1 to wound in combat in a 15+ models unit, +2 to wound in combat in a 30+ unit. In shooting you get a +1 to hit in squads of 15 or more. They can also take netters. A little odd that most of their unit buffs are for combat even thought they are a shooting unit. Anyways with the right combos they can rain death from afar and make a pretty good tarpit like all grot hordes.
  • Has the same Gong Basher, Standard Bearer and Netter abilities as the Stabbas
  • These guys might look terrible, but they're definitely worth considering over Stabbas, in 40s. If you kit them out with all the same melee tech that the Stabbas get, they have a worse armor save and attacks than the Stabbas with knives. That being said, the ranged attacks are nothing to sneeze at, and with the Loonshrine's ability to ressurect maybe the defense penalties aren't as harsh as they seem. Certainly worth considering is the fact that with all your fat hordes running around, board space is going to start being an issue, and the ability to reach out and tag an enemy from 16" is nice when you're elbow deep in Stabbas and the opponent has you bottlenecked.

Other Units

• Zarbag's Gitz: A mixed bag of stuff that comes free alongside Zarbag. You get 3 Shootas, a Netter, a Squig Herder with 2 Squigs and a single Loonsmasha Fanatic hidden inside.

• Sneaky Snufflers: (70 pt, min 6, max 18) Mushroom-hunting Grots.
  • Instead of moving, They can search for mushrooms: you roll a dice and if the result is less than the number of models in the unit they find the mushrooms and give them to a moonclan unit within 12", so that each model in that unit gets an extra attack for each melee weapon, Note that the keyword specified is moonclan and not moonclan grot, meaning you can buff a whole shitload of units, including Cave Squig Herds, Boingrot Bounders (A free extra two attacks per model? Yes please!), and Squig Hoppers. They can even buff themselves.
  • if you have multiple Sneaky Snuffler units and want to give more mushrooms to the same unit, that unit gets 2D6 mortal wounds for each additional buff. Remember kids, shroom overdose is bad!
  • With the FAQ, unit size went from 5 max 15, to 6 max 18. That means the buff is guaranteed to go off with an undamaged minimum unit.
  • Snufflers are tied with Cave Squigs as the cheapest points-per-wound in the army, at 5.8 points per wound. Unlike with squigs you can't really spam them in endless hordes, but they make up for it by making excellent support units. Spend every turn sprinting them up the board, or maybe hit 'em with a Hand of Gork to teleport them near whatever they're buffing (they can't move in the movement phase, but that doesn't stop them from throwing shrooms!). If they ever get caught in melee, just have them buff themselves for an extra 2 attacks per model. They won't do much better than before, but they'll at least have a better chance of survival.
  • RAW since Sneaky snufflers have the moonclan grot and a unit size of 6-18 you can hide fanatics inside them. Useful if you want to protect them from being charged. Also useful since you'll probably be using hand of gork to reposition them anyway.

• Gobbapalooza: (180pts) 5 Unique non-Heros. Must all be taken together, but each acts as an individual unit.
  • Two are wizards whilst the other three have a skill known as a Gobbapalooza Know-Wotz, a peculiar moonclan grot buff that can be activated on a 3+ roll during Hero Phase.
  • 6+ save, but they get +2 on the first round and a +1 on the second round.
  • Shooting attacks against them have a -1 to hit as long as they stay within 3" from any moonclan unit with 3+ models.
  • Whilst two of the members have the wizard keyword, none of them have the hero keyword, so they don't count in the point limit for Leaders, cannot be your General, can't take command traits or artefacts and cannot take a spell from the moonclan lore. The Arachnacauldron could come in use here, but with only 3 or 4 wounds, don't expect your wizard to last long.
  • Individually very cheap (40pts). But the three Know-Wotz guys are only of use to moonclan. So for pure Squig/Trog/Spider lists consider them as two wizards for 100pts each plus free chaff. (Technically, the Spiker and Scaremonger can buff themselves/other Gobbapalooza, but it's not going to be of much use).
  • Shroomancer: The one on a mushroom
    • Wizard. Spell (CV5) picks an enemy unit within 8" and gives it -1 to hit and save rolls.
    • Probably the best of the Gobbapalooza's menagerie of fools. His spell, while short range, is absolutely crippling if it goes off. Enemies will go pale when you describe his magic, and will avoid him like the 40-point plague.
    • put him on a balewind vortex for increase in a moment the spell range and grin at your enemy after all his efforts for stay at more than 8 to him.
  • Boggleye: The one with big eyes and a smoking staff
    • Wizard. Spell (CV6) picks an allied unit within 12" and make it pass Battleshock tests automatically or pick an enemy unit within 12" and force it to attack after everyone else in Combat Phase.
    • The other wizard, and pretty good too. His spell isn't the insane unit-crippling debuff that the Shroomancer's is, but is way more versatile. Quite powerful and another target the enemy will be wary of.
  • Spiker: The one with many legs
    • His Know-Wotz allows a moonclan grot unit within 18" to reroll every 1 to wound.
    • His buff is quite good on basic grot Stabbaz, especially when they can easily have a 2+ to wound. Otherwise, a little lackluster.
  • Scaremonger: Masked guy atop a skull
    • His Know-Wotz allows a moonclan grot unit within 18" to reroll run and charge.
    • Has the best attack profile of the bunch with 4 attacks at rend -1, damage D3.
    • Of the three non-wizard chumps, the Scaremonger's probably the best, with an actual melee profile and a useful buff for movement for your big ass horde of grots, you'll be glad he's around.
  • Brewgit: Guy underneath a bubbling cauldron.
    • His Know-Wotz allows a moonclan grot hero within 18" to reroll every hit roll.
    • Really boring. A shame, considering his great model, but his buff is pretty insignificant. The only grot heroes who care are the Loonboss With Giant Cave Squig, or Skragrott (both of which can reroll their shooting and melee attacks). This is the guy you'll leave behind to sit on an objective, or have him run a suicide run along the board's edge, because otherwise you'll forget you got him.
    • The best use of this ability is on Skragrott’s 28” missile attack. (Remember, Skragrott is a Moonclan Grot Hero, and the ability doesn’t specify whether it’s the melee or missile weapon that is buffed). Combine this with the ability that enemy wounded by his missile attack will suffer one mortal wound every turn. The fact that you can reroll hits on this attack suddenly have new meaning. Divide the 6 attacks into three targets each turn, reroll misses, and watch your enemy bleed throughout the game.
  • Overall, an alright unit with the repeated point reductions, but still hard to make the cut for a list. Both wizards are great, and the buffs that the Scaremonger and Spiker give out are pretty good too, but the Brewgit is so fucking useless that he actually brings the whole unit down. Pure grot lists already struggle to find points to fill in between the hordes of grots and heroes, and a Gobbapalooza probably won't make the cut over two Fungoid Cave-Shamans instead. Not to mention, buying this essentially guarantees that you won't finish deployment first, as each model has to be deployed separately - unless you spend another bunch of points on the battalion.

MISCELLANEOUS MOONCLAN

Other Units

• Loonsmasha Fanatics: (140pt, min 5, max 15) Classic Fanatics. They hide inside any MOONCLAN GROT unit with 5+ models (so that's Stabbas, Shootas and oddly, Snufflers too) and can come out at the beginning of any charging phase, they always attack first in combat phase and if you roll a double when charging one of them dies and every unit within 1" from them suffers D3 mortal wounds.
  • Obviously, classic fanatics have classic fanatic playstyles. Laughably bad defense for a 28 point model (6 up save, one wound), but if a unit of 5-10 fanatics charges in and doesn't kill what they're aiming at, you've got cursed dice. These spinning idiots will pulverize just about anyone, but will die when the enemy coughs on them.

• Sporesplatta Fanatics: (120pt, min 5, max 15) New variant of Fanatics, which are not hidden in other units but get some additional abilities, such as blocking the enemy's line of sight (except for Monsters and flying stuff) and giving an extra attack to every MOONCLAN GROT unit within 12".
  • Note their buff lasts until the next hero phase. So even if your enemy shoots them off the board, your grots will still be buffed in that round's combat. Also remember that they don't have the GROT keyword and so don't benefit from their own attacks buff.

• Rippa's Snarlfangs: (70pt, min 3, max 3) Gitmob cavalry from Beastgrave gets shoehorned into the Gitz.
  • Worst wounds per cost unit in the book. They're going to die 25% quicker than a min sized unit of Hoppers.
  • Shooting is worthless. Just about better than nothing.
  • Like all Underworlds stuff, unique. So, if you really want to take them, it'll only be the one.
  • Still here? Ok, it gets better... a bit.
  • Move 12, that's guaranteed (no roll), and double distance pile in.
  • Per point, average melee damage is on a par with Boingrot Bounderz (better against save - and 6, worse against save 5 or less)
  • So, long distance glass cannon objective stealers or threat neutralisers, to take instead of Hoppers if you want more punch, reliable movement and don't care about them instantly dieing.
  • A bit more useful now in 3rd edition. They're your cheapest unit if you need to fill out a core battalion, and are ALOT cheaper than Squighoppers now that you have take Hoppers in units of 10. They're a super fragile objective stealers. Also useful for baiting out Unleash Hells from enemy ranged units.

MOONCLAN SQUIG

Leaders

• Loonboss on Mangler Squigs: (310pts) It's a hero that rides a pair of huge-ass Squigs chained together. You can't get any crazier.
  • Is kinda like standalone Mangler Squigs, except with 5 more attacks, a once-for battle ability to reroll failed hit and wound rolls (but only for the aforementioned attacks of the Loonboss, not the Squig ones) and a command ability that gives +1 to wound rolls to every friendly SQUIG units within 18".
  • The be-all, end-all for Squig lists. This is your General and likely your most important model. Besides hitting like the angry fist of Mork 'Imself, the Command Ability changes the Squig list from being fine in melee to being absolutely blendy. Pretty much everything with the Squig keyword is now wounding on 2+. and the radius is phenomenal, reaching just about a quarter of the battlefield in volume. The only downside of the Command Ability is that it only lasts one combat phase, meaning that to activate it in both Combat phases of a turn you'll need two Command points. Combine this model with the Command trait "Fight another Day" to create a ping-pong ball of death that charges into melee, beats the shit out of his target, and then hops away merrily and denies the enemy a chance to fight back. Try to find a magic item that either increases his Durability (The Clammy Cowl does this great), or makes him more reliable at killing (Bonuses to hit, or rerolls to hit. Bonuses to wound or rerolling wounds is pretty unlikely to help as you're already wounding on twos with the Command ability).
  • Just alright in non-squig lists. He's really expensive, and although he's quite strong his command ability isn't nearly as helpful when it's only affecting him, and you'll be getting a similar level of killiness from a regular Mangler Squig at that point. Certainly not a BAD choice as far as out-of-synergy picks goes, but if you're running mostly non-squigs, you'll probably be better served by an Arachnarok with or without Shaman, a Troggboss or just a Dankhold Troggoth, or maybe even just a Giant when it comes to big smashy idiots.

• Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig: (110pts) The guy who makes your Squigs go on faster.
  • The Loonboss on top can pick either a Loon-Cutta, or a Moonclan Stabba. The Cutta hits on 3's and wounds on 4's, and the Moonclan Stabba hits on 4's and wounds on 3's Pick your poison. However, the stabba has a range of 2, which makes it seem the correct option. Your final choice may depend on what -1 hit/wound modifiers you can get.
  • The Squig mount gets 4 attacks, hitting on 4's and wounding on 3's, with a -1 rend and d3 damage. Follows in a long trend of the pet squig being more dangerous than the goblin "controlling" it.
  • Can reroll every failed hit and wound roll with the Cutta (or Stabba) once per battle, from friendly hero phase to friendly hero phase.
  • Command ability gives SQUIGS within 12" +3 movement.
  • Super solid. For 110 points you get a nasty combo of good attacks, good defense, alright speed, and a command ability that helps get Squigs where they need to be on time. If you need someone to babysit your Boingrot Bounderz there's no one better for the job. Best used in conjunction with a Loonboss on Mangler Squigs as they complement and buff each other, but if you're trying to fit in your list's command on the cheap, very little beats the Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig and a Fungoid Cave-Shaman for just 200 points.

Battleline

• Squig Herds: (160pts, min 12, max 36) Battleline with Moonclan General (includes all Squig Mounted Generals).
  • Now the herders are part of the unit (at least one for every 5 Squigs), and they allow the unit to reroll run and charge. For each squig that fails its battle shock it will deal a mortal wound on an 4+ to the nearest other unit within 6", so beware.
  • Tied with the Sneaky Snufflers for the single best point-to-wound ratio in the book, at 5.8 points per wound. This makes Squigs technically the cheapest source of wounds you can get in-faction. A full unit of 24 is a grand total of 48 wounds, and only costs 280 points, quite cheap for that expenditure. Keep in mind their awful, awful leadership, but this can actually work in your favor, as killing big swathes of squigs means a nastier battleshock failure, meaning more potential mortals on a model that squigs wouldn't normally be able to harm. Drown Alarielle and Nagash and Celestant Prime in a wave of gibbering idiot ball-monsters! Laugh at the enemy commander's fury as your horde of Squigs costs hundreds of points cheaper than their big dumb hero, but still get heavily injured in the exchange! Big hordes of Squigs are also great for boxing other troops, as they hit hard enough to threaten many units while simultaneously being worthless enough that dying in groups isn't breaking the points-bank.

• Squig Hoppers: (180pts, min 10, max 30) Battleline with Squig Mounted General.
  • Regular boingy people. Deal a mortal wound on a 4+ when they move over a unit.
    • Suprisingly decent character assassins: try marching a full unit of these single-file over a model.
    • The bounce ability can be used in ways most players won't even consider. What exactly counts as a "Normal Move?" As it turns out, Normal Moves consist of Basic movement, running, and retreating. This means that you don't have to make a full 12-to-6 hop over a unit to deal the bounce mortals, all you need is to run them over the enemy models in the front then make a quick U-turn and land 3" away, great for those turns where you roll a 15-18 for movement/run but can't quite clear the whole unit, or if you want to charge under moonlight or simply chump block. Lastly, if you're stuck in a shitty combat you can't win, on your turn retreat over the enemy model(s), and get your bounce mortals that way as a final "fuck you" to something that would just kill the Hoppers in melee anyway.
  • The Lightest of Light Cavalry for the Gloomspite, Squig Hoppers are cheap enough that they're great screeners in small 5-man groups, or run as a fast and irritating tarpit in a big block of 20. Their attacks have two profiles: the absolutely shitty rider attack, and the excellent Squig attacks. Each rider come with one Rider attack that hits and wounds on 5+ and no rend, and two Squig bites of 4+ hit and 3+ wound, and -1 rend as a cherry on top. A save of 6+ means they won't survive long in melee against most anything that's actually good at combat, but their acceptable 3 attacks per model and 2 wounds apiece makes them able to stick around occasionally. However, their biggest weakness is their tremendously stinky Bravery of four. These are acceptable battleline after a handful of squigs and fill a good role of being harassing flankers, or compounding a charge with another unit, such as Boingrot Bounderz or an Arachnarok.

Other Units

• Boingrot Bounderz: (105pts, min 5, max 15) Squig Hoppers that sacrifice speed for defence and offense.
  • On a charge, deals a mortal wounds on the charge on a 4+, and gains +1 to wound with their spears.
  • 4 attacks of +4/+3 with rend! -1/1 By far the best unit per points cost in the whole faction.
  • These guys hit hard. With 4 attacks apiece, -1 rend on all four attacks, and a 50% chance of a mortal on the charge these models are going to thump in combat against most things, and with a few buffs they get truly crazy. Put a Loonboss on Manglers nearby and activate his command ability to give all 4 attacks a 2+ to wound on the charge, and will box effectively against many units even after the charge is over thanks to their stellar (for a Grot) defensive capabilities with 2 wounds and a 4+ save. Their biggest weakness (as with all Gloomspite, really) is their horrible leadership, a measly 5. Although these models are quite slow for cavalry with 2d6 move, this is mitigated by the sheer number of command abilities and spells that allow running and charging or simply a flat +3 inch move (thanks cave squig boss!). Although they won't wipe out a big block of Tzaangors or Ironguts or Putrid Blightkings on the charge, they'll certainly wipe out a chunk of it even in small numbers, and can box whatever survives for at least a turn or two, allowing you to maneuver troops into a stronger attack position. Try and keep some command points around just to help them survive the battleshock phase and they'll perform bouncy miracles.
• Squigapalooza: (240 pts) Warscrolls found in the March 2020 issue of White Dwarf. They aren't legal in matched games if the opponent don't have you permission... So, they aren't legal in tournaments. It's a weird 4-men unit consisting of a Madcap Shaman and two Gobbapalooza members riding Squigs, plus a pair of tiny Mangler Squigs with an ability command. There are no official models for them as they were all conversions made by a WD staff member, so feel free to do them as you like it.
  • Squigmancer: See Shroomancer, but with an additional wound, 2D6 movement and can fly because Squig.
  • Squigmonger: As above, but with the Scaremonger.
  • Squigcap Shaman: Again, but with a Madcap Shaman.
  • Squig Herder with Mini-Mangler: A weird one. Basically a Herder from Squig Herds with better stats (6 wounds, 5+ Save, Bravery 4, does 3 melee attacks hitting and wounding at 4+) coming with a Mangler made of regular sized Squigs which have fun-sized versions of their big bros' attacks with no random stats and fixed damage (balls and chains do 3 attacks each dealing 1 damage and gobs hit at 3+ and deal 2 damage per attack), the same identical Ker-splat! ability and only 1" range for the Watch out! ability. To top it all, this thing haves a command ability that is just the regular Go dat way! ability Squid Herds have as a 12" bubble ability (in case the other Herders are all dead, you know)

Behemoths

• Mangler Squigs: (240pts) Two huge Squigs chained together, finally with a new model. As usual they work kinda like a giant Fanatic, with random movement, +1 to hit with one of their melee weapons in the turn they charge and dishing out mortal wounds to anyone within 6" on a 4+ roll once they die.
  • Mangler Squigs are angry, 240-point missiles. If they can't kill what they charged outright, it'll likely get killed in response, so the best use is as a fast flanking unit to bully backline heroes, or to compound charges with other units, such as a big 60-strong horde of Stabbas, or with a companion group of 15-strong Squig Hoppers. The size of these models is weird, because their base size is small for a monster making them easy flankers especially with their flight, but their height means archers will nearly always be able to target them. Another weird aspect of them is their damage table, which decreases their stats as they approach half health, but increases back to full the closer they get from half health to death, meaning a 2 wound Mangler Squig is just as dangerous as a full health one. If you can wrangle survival at 1-2 health you'll be better off than you'd be if you tried to play safe once the squig hits half health.

• Colossal Squig (Forgeworld): (300pts) Big huge Squig with big huge damage output. Moves 4d6' and can chuck out a bunch of bite attacks that can influct mortal wounds in addition to its feet attacks. Causes units in melee to subtract 1 from their hit rolls against it and when it dies it explodes into a bunch of smaller squigs. So basically one giant wrecking ball of death that can move ridiculously fast or kinda slow. Just throw it into the enemy as soon as possible and you should be fine. Though keep it protected from shooting as while it has a lot wounds its save is a little low and bracketing will hurt its damage potential.

Artillery

• Squig Gobba (Forgeworld): (160pts) A good old forgeworld kit and also pretty much the closet thing this army gets to artillery without resorting to allies or the bad moon. While having reasonable melee output its abysmal movement stats mean that is not really practical and besides its shooting abilitiy is why you want to bring it anyway. with 30' range and 6 attacks that do d3 damage each it can put out a reasonable amount of damage. And it can also hit targets that are not line of sight. So those pesky heroes hiding behind a rock are not safe from you.
  • One of the only real ranged attacks available to the GSG, and a pretty good one. Useful for harassing heroes in the back of the enemy's army, especially ones that provide annoying command abilities or spells. The Gitz have such good magic that artillery might not be as interesting compared to flinging endless spells around, but reliable artillery is always a good consideration.

SPIDERFANG

All Arachnaroks and the Scuttleboss have these rules:

• Wall Crawler: During movement phase, the unit can pass through terrain like it was flying.
• Spider Venom: When you roll a 6 to hit with a spider mount's Fang attacks, don't make a wound roll and just inflict a mortal wound (D3 for Arachnarok Spiders).

Leaders

• Scuttleboss on Gigantic Spider: (100pts) The SPIDERFANG non-magic hero. Command ability allows a SPIDERFANG GROTS unit within 18" to reroll charge and hit rolls with their crooked spears.
  • Only unit that can take the Marks Of The Spider God's Favour Command Traits.
  • Combine the Monstrous Mount Command Trait and the Black Fang magic item to potentially deal six fucking mortal wounds per 6 to hit. Unlikely to happen, but your opponent will be scared shitless of your little 100 point hero.

• Webspinner Shaman: (80pts) SPIDERFANG wizard on foot. Gets a 5+ to ignore wounds and mortal wounds and an exclusive spell that allows a SPIDERFANG unit within 24" (D3 units if you rolled a 8+ to cast) to run and shoot in the same turn.
  • On one hand, he’s loads cheaper than most of the other Spiderfang models, but with the mounted version being much more versatile, it’s hard to justify using this footslogger. Maybe if you’re running a mixed list and want a cheap wizard/support hero for your Spider Riders consider him, but even then he’s arguably worse than the Scuttleboss.

• Webspinner Shaman on Arachnarok Spider: (280pts) Spider-Wizard on a giant spider. If he is your General all the SPIDERFANG units within 24" get +2 Bravery, also he gives every other SPIDERFANG WIZARD within 12" +1 to cast and dispel rolls. Exclusive spell picks a SPIDERFANG unit within 16" (D3 units if you rolled a 10+ to cast) and doubles the number of Spider Venom wounds they deal in that turn.
  • Consider putting into a non-spider list and give it the Headdress of Many Eyes and Curse of the Spider God spell. -1 to hit in a 12" bubble is pretty huge on a pie plate model like this, and a -2 to hit him specifically is infuriating for how little you're paying.

Battleline

• Spider Riders: (100/540pt, min 5, max 30) Battleline with Spiderfang General.
  • Your classic Spider God groupies. Now able to hold bows and spears at the same time!
  • These are your true Light Cavalry. In a non-spiderfang-only list, these are great for harassing a flank or bothering a hero, or maybe just charging up the board to get to the war machines. The biggest difference between the Squig Hopperz and the Spider Riderz is that the Spider Riderz have a ranged attack, potential for mortals, a better armor save, and more reliable movement, but the Squig Hopperz are going to be much faster on average, have real flight instead of the semi-flight spiders get, and two of the Squig attacks have Rend making them slightly more reliable for piercing light to medium armor.

• Arachnarok Spider with Spiderfang Warparty: (220pts) Battleline with Spiderfang General. Huge spider covered with people. Loses the ambush ability, but gets 10 shooting attacks and the ability to reroll run and charge rolls, plus dealing D3 mortal wounds on a 2+ roll after charging. Finally giving you a reason to take this over the one with Shaman.

Behemoths

• Skitterstrand Arachnarok: (200pts) Naked Huge Spider. With no Grot on his back, he is able to begin the game in reserve and pop out at the end of any of your movement phases before the fourth round.

• Arachnarok Spider with Flinger: (220pts) Huge spider covered with people and a catapult. 2 less shooty and spear attacks attacks and no reroll+impact damage, but the Flinger itself aims at a unit within 36", rolls a dice and on a 6+ (5+ on a 5+ models unit, 4+ on a 10+ models unit) deals D3 mortal wounds and forces the targeted unit to be the last to attack in the successive combat phase. Great at tripping up large blobs and while not reliable the one time you get this on a big monster might be worth the gamble.

TROGGOTH

Leaders

• Dankhold Troggboss: (250pts) Your Hero option for a Troll solo army.
  • Gets 4 good melee attacks plus a Crushing Grip (Pick 1 enemy model in range of the attack and roll a dice: if you get equal to or more than that model's wounds characteristic it is dead).
    • Always remember that with the Crushing Grip, you pick a model, not just a unit, so keep picking those champions and banner bearers.
  • An additional ability that allows you to roll a dice for every enemy unit within 3" and deal them a mortal wound if the roll is higher than the number of models in that unit, great for discouraging Heroes from attacking your Trogg.
  • Regenerates D3 wounds at the beginning of each turn if you roll a 4+
  • Ignores effects of spells (Endless ones too) on a 4+ roll. Does not differentiate between friend and foe, though, so don't waste buff spells on him. (The roll to ignore is optional so buff away!!)
  • Gives +1 Bravery to every GLOOMSPITE GITZ friendly unit within 18", including himself, not that it should ever matter.
  • His command ability Instinctive Leader allows TROGGOTHS wholly within 18" to reroll every 1 to hit in the Combat phase. With the change to command abilities, this one is a killer. It can stack with All Out attack, and sneaks around a lot of abilities that mess with commands since he is just issuing an order to himself, not the units it is affecting.

• • Does not benefit from Look Out Sir or Cover due to having more than 10 wounds, truly the worst timeline.

• Mollog: (170pts) Straight outta Shadespire, here comes a midget Troggboss with his crew.
  • Named Hero.
  • Comes with 3 minions that can take wounds for him and give him extra abilities as long as they're on field: The Bat Squig can deal a mortal wound to an enemy unit within 18" on a 5+ roll, the Spiteshroom can give -1 to hit rolls to enemies within 3" in melee on a 5+ roll and the Stalagsquig has a chance of surviving after taking a hit for Mollog (you guessed it, on a 5+ roll).
  • His attacks have particular properties: his shooting attack gives -1 to hit rolls to the targeted model (not unit, so be sure to think about at whom he throws the toad) after wounding it, while the melee attacks deals mortal wounds (on a 2+, his attack deals a mortal wound, and it deals D3 mortal wounds on a 4+).
  • Regeneration, spell immunity and Bravery boost are the same as regular Troggboss.
  • His damage output is way worse than that of the Troggboss (understandable, he's way cheaper) but his durability is almost the same as a 270 point model! He's one tanky boi.

• Troggoth Hag (Forgeworld): (380pts) Hero, Wizard, Monster, money and point sink.
  • These old flabby ladies are an incredible addition to your band of Trolls.
  • They have a massive amount of Wounds (16, up from 14 prior to the battletome), a good save and even stronger regen than your average Troggoth
  • While they are not so hot in melee comparatively, they barf five more times than Fellwater Troggoths and with a range of 10". The only downside compared to Fellwaters is that she hits on 3's while the smaller Troggs get to hit on 2's. Seeing as barfing is a high-Rend, high-damage attack, this makes the lady absolutely terrifying
  • Her spell is a reverse Mystic Shield that lowers enemy Saves even further and heaps on another To Hit penalty, and is now only 7 to cast.
  • The lady has a chance of dealing damage to you if you try to go around all the To Hit penalties and just shoot her ass with magic - on a roll of 4+ she deals D3 mortals.
  • She even heals D6 wounds every hero phase! But doesn't get a bonus to this when under the bad moon.
  • If you give her the Scrapskuttle's Arachnacauldron spell, then let it damage her for D3 wounds (which happens at the start of the hero phase), then immediately heal them back with the D6 heal (which can happen any time during the hero phase - so that's always after you've dealt the damage). Even better, if you are in melee with an enemy unit assign it to them for a free Arcane Bolt!
  • Not Dankhold so can't take the Trogg Command Traits or Artefacts. You're restricted to what you can take from the Realm Of Battle, which since the 2020 updates are fairly terrible.
    • With the update from Glogg's Megamob, the Hag gains access to the Aetherquartz-Studded Hide to help with her survivability. Also, don't forget she has the FELLWATER keyword, so (until an FAQ comes along and squats this) she can respawn in the Loonshrine, ignore spells on a 4+ with the CA. Plus she gets the +1 to regeneration.
    • Or you might want to consider giving her Syari Screamersquig in a Squig Hag list.

Battleline

• Rockgut Troggoths: (140pt, min 3, max 12) Battleline with Troggboss General.
  • The sturdy ones.
  • Comes with a 5+ save to negate wounds and mortal wounds if they fail their armour save.
  • Can throw rocks at stuff (pick a unit within 12" in shooting phase and deal it D3 mortal wounds on a roll that is equal or less to the number of models in it the Trogg unit). That's a guaranteed hit so long as you have six Troggoths in the unit. Also it doesn't count as a shooting attack, so throw it from out of combat, throw it at Heroes, after running or retreating, whatever.
  • Awesome rend and damage, with a -2 rend and 3 damage a SWING. That being said, they don't have much weight of fire with only two swings a trogg, so the attacks are best used against low model count and high armor targets.
  • Comparing against the Fellwaters, both have a similar ranger attack - Rockgut have twice the range, but it only really works against larger units; both can regenerate, but the Rockguts are less likely to get hurt in the first place. The Rockguts have fewer attacks but their attacks are more powerful than the Fellwater. Consider the Rockguts for use against stronger battleline, and Fellwater against weak hordes.
  • DAMN GW, guess you didn't sell enough of these guys. Dropped by 20pts in GHB2019/Errata. Minotaurs be jealous.
  • Due to their Throwin' Boulder ability, you want to bring at least 6 of these guys in a unit whenever you can. They have 2" range on their melee, which makes them better at fighting in larger units as well. You want to ensure their few, but highly damaging attacks hit, so always have a hero nearby to use All-out Attack or the Troggboss' Instinctive Leader (to give them re-rolls of 1's in the Combat phase). Also try to avoid units with penalties To Hit, as they will REALLY reduce your damage output.
  • Essentially, if you're considering a full or mostly Trogg army this unit is going to be your Battleline brick as they are well-suited for the role. In a traditional, mixed Gloomspite army they make for a great hammer unit, perfect for smashing the enemy's well-armored units.

• Fellwater Troggoths: (150pt, min 3, max 12) Battleline with Troggboss General.
  • The smelly ones.
  • Like the FW Hag, have a vomiting range attack, and it's a good one too with -2 rend and d3 damage. However it is very short ranged (6 inches) so you are probably better off shooting the attack in melee to finish whomever your fighting.
  • Melee is on par with a Kurnoth Hunter.
  • So smelly that opponents get -1 to hit in melee against you.
  • On a 4+ in the hero phase heals D3 wounds to help them linger.
  • Great for taking shitty hordes and making them useless, a great tarpit for tarpits. The penalty to hit makes most tarpit units lose a lot of damaging power, and the regen makes the Trogs likely to shrug off whatever damage the tarpit did do. Their melee attacks are just good enough to chop down a bunch of light guys as well, having a bunch of medium-damaging attacks with just enough rend to likely deactivate the 6+ save the horde had.
  • The Troggherd battalion is especially goods for this guys, see how many attacks they do with quality. Every 6 on the wounds rolls (unmodified) is a 3 damage attack. Not perfect for the low rend, but terrifying for hordes.
  • The -1 To Hit penalty and their high number of attacks with average Rend makes this unit perfect for a skirmisher role. Try to stick to the edges of the battlefield and fight units who don't have a lot of support. Your Terrible Stench will reduce the enemy's effectiveness while the 12 attacks from a minimum-sized unit can easily kill most small, unsupported units, small heroes and warmachines.

Other Units

• Dankhold Troggoth: (190pt, min 1, max 3) Slightly cheaper version of the new huge Troggoth.
  • Same as the Trogboss, but for 70 fewer points, you lose 2 wounds, 1 bravery, 1 attack on the club, the command ability to reroll 1s for Troggoths, and the unlocking of Troggoth battline.
    • As stated above, if you babysit this unit with a hero Battleshock becomes a non-issue as you can make them auto-pass. A nearby hero can also give them re-rolls of 1's in the Combat phase. Their base size isn't too big, so they don't have that much trouble fighting as a unit either (2" reach helps a lot with this). Also, a unit of 3 Dank Troggs makes for a terrifying Hand of Gork target - whether it's an alpha strike in the first battle round or a cheeky backfield teleport later in the game, no one wants to get charged by these guys. Use this to your advantage if you have a lot of spells. You can easily bait an unbind attempt by trying to teleport these guys.

GARGANT

Behemoths

• Aleguzzler Gargant: (160pts) Good ol' Giant is here. If you roll a double when he charges, he is too drunk to do it and forces the two players to confront dice rolls in order to choose where he will fall down and deal D3 mortal wounds. Same thing when he dies. And when he piles up, you pick the closest enemy model, roll a dice and instantly kill it if the result is the double of that model's wounds. Said that, the giant is a incredibly cheap monster who can deal a ton of damage, with many weapons and one of them have a -3 rend (yes, the headbutt of a giant hits as hard as Ghal Maraz).

Scenery

• Bad Moon Loonshrine: The main help for your little guys for zero points cost
  • Before armies are setup, place one of these in your section of the board at least 12inches from enemy territory and more than 1inch from other scenery.
  • Makes friendly GLOOMSPITE GITZ units within 12" pass Battleshock tests automatically. Whilst amazing, it will only ever have any effect on your own side of the board.
  • Allows you to attempt to resurrect a unit which has been entirely destroyed on a 4+ roll at the end of each of your turns (every unit can be resurrected only once).
    • With standard rules this is only for SHOOTAS or STABBAS
    • If your general is Squig, you can instead replace Squig herd, Squig Hoppers or Boingrot Bounders
    • If your general is Troggoth, you can instead replace Fellwater Troggoths or Rockgut troggoths.
    • If your general is spiderfang, you can instead replace Spider Riders.
  • With most recent errata a new ability was added. Gloomspite Gitz units count as being in the light of the Bad Moon while they are wholly within 12" of the terrain piece. Meaning you finally have some control on what units are under the moons light on any given turn.
  • Great LOS blocker for artillery (Squig Hopper).
  • Restrictions on the type of units you can bring back further reinforce single subfaction lists, rather than glorious soup.
  • GHB2019 matched play rules state you can no longer place faction scenery on top of an objective, which is a shame.
  • FAQ states that number of special models in units returned by the Loonshrine should be the number in the original unit halved (rounded up), even if this breaks what is listed on the warscroll. This essentially makes your returned units slightly more powerful than regular ones.
    • This works best for anyone recycling MSU Troggoths - that's a 66% resurrection.

Battalions

Due to how Battalions are now universal, expect see the whole lot of this on the trash bin outside of narrative games. Bonus rules, traits and doodads are going to be likely added to the faction rules as default.

MOONCLAN

Gobbapalooza (110 p) (min/max 290.pt) All 5 Gobbapalooza.

Each member of the Battalion gets +1 to casting and to activate their Gobbapalooza Know-Wotz ability when within 8" from at least one of the others. Slightly odd battalion as you have to take all Gobbapalooza together anyway. (Lets you deploy them as a 1 drop rather than as 5, not to mention the Artefact/CP for 110 more points)

• A minor note, you can use the Shroomancer and Boggleye to cast endless spells while standing next to each other for the +1 to cast, but this is probably still too expensive for what you're getting.

Skulkmob Horde (160 p) (min 910.pt; no max .pt) 3+ units of Stabbas or Shootas and 3 units of Loonsmasha/Sporesplatta Fanatics.

Once per battle, when using the Bad Moon Loonshrine ability to respawn a unit of Stabbas or Shootas from this battalion, you can respawn it with all the models instead of only half of them.

• Expensive. The effect you're getting is very good, but at minimum sizes Stabbas and to a lesser extent Shootas aren't very effective, so you're looking to probably bump up any Stabba units in here to at least 40, maybe 60, and that tacks on a lot of additional cost. At 2k points this can work, but the effect only brings back more gobbos and has no benefit to the fanatics. How often are 60 Stabbas going to die early enough that bringing back all 60 is a massive benefit?

Moonclan Skrap (Superbattalion) (120 p) (min 1170.pt; no max .pt) 1-3 LOONBOSSES, 0-1 MOONCLAN WIZARDS, 0-1 Gobbapalooza, 1-3 units of Sneaky Snufflers, 0-2 Squig Herds, 1+ Skulkmob Hordes and 0-3 Squig Rider Stampedes.

Every unit in the Battalion passes automatically Battleshock tests when under the Light of the Bad Moon.

• Just like the Skulkmob Horde, this is really expensive. At least you can fit your heroes and wizards under it, and likely all your squig support too, making this better for a one-and-done drop army. The effect is amazing, but you're still looking at upwards of 2500+ points for anything except minimum sizes.

MOONCLAN SQUIG

Squig Rider Stampede (140 p) (min 320.pt; max 1280.pt) 2-3 units of Squig Hoppers or Boingrot Bounderz and 0-1 Mangler Squigs.

Every unit in the Battalion can reroll the movement. Friendly reminder if you rely on this battalion bonus you could probably just use the Jaws of Mork subfaction and get it army wide for free.

• If you're running Squig Hopperz or Boingrot Bounderz in any serious capacity, this is great. Sadly only takes a regular Mangler Squig and not the Loonboss version. Makes your unreliable Cavalry faster for a pretty competitive cost.
• Remember that each Hopper box comes with 10 of the guys, meaning just from that you got the minimum requirements for this battalion.

Moon-Jumper Stampede (140 p) (min 320.pt; max 1280.pt) 2-3 units of Jaws of mork Squig Hoppers or Jaws of mork Boingrot Bounderz and 0-1 Jaws of mork Mangler Squigs.

Same requirement and cost as Squig Rider Stampede, but for Jaws Of Mork.

• Instead of rerolling movement (you already get this as an allegiance ability) you get +1 damage to your squig's jaw attacks on the charge. WOW.

Squigalanche (Superbattalion) (90 p) (min 760.pt; no max .pt) 1 Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig or Loonboss on Mangler Squigs, 0-3 Loonbosses on Giant Cave Squigs, 1+ Squig Rider Stampedes, 1-3 Mangler Squigs and 0-2 Squig Herds.

When under the Light of the Bad Moon, each model in the Battalion can attack units within 6" in combat phase and do a 6" pileup.

• If you want to one drop this, then you have to take Loonboss on Mangler Squig or the Loonboss with/on Giant Cave Squig as general in order to fulfil battleline.
• This is another strong battalion power, but is expensive, again. You're spending 230 points on just battalions, and due to the way the Squigalanche works, you can't have your Mangler Squigs Boss who's leading the 'Lanche also be in the Squig Rider Stampede. That being said, the ability to pile in 6" can make auto charges possible, which is great especially for Cave Squigs and Squig Hopperz as they have no bonuses to charge.

Moon-Biter Squigalanche (Superbattalion) (90 p) (min 760.pt; no max .pt) 1 Jaws of mork Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig or Jaws of mork Loonboss on Mangler Squigs, 0-3 Jaws of mork Loonbosses on Giant Cave Squigs, 1+ Moon-Jumper Stampedes, 1-3 Jaws of mork Mangler Squigs and 0-2 Jaws of mork Squig Herds.

Same requirement and cost as the standard Squigalanche, but for Jaws Of Mork.

• Instead of moving under the Bad Moon, one time usage after setup, D3 units can move 6". Kind of meh, but allows reliable turn 1 charges on boards with 18" no-man's-land. While the bonus is not as game-changing as the generic Squigalanch, it also does not require the light of the bad-moon to trigger.

SPIDERFANG

Arachnorok Spider Cluster (100 p) (min 600.pt; max 1440.pt) 2-4 Arachnarok Spiders with Spiderfang Warparty or Flinger and 0-1 Skitterstrand Arachnarok.

Each member of the Battalion can reroll every 1 to hit when within 6" from another of them.

• The Monster Mash battalion. A good battalion with a good benefit for good, cheap monsters. The only real downside is you can't fit Shaman-backed Arachnaroks in there, which makes it a little tough to squeeze all your battleline and heroes in a list with all this.

Skitterstrand Nest (110 p) (min 630.pt; max 890.pt) 2-3 Skitterstrand Arachnaroks.

+1 to charge rolls to each model for each of them that came on the battlefield in the current turn.

• Very good. Bring 3 Skitterstrands, have all of them deep strike, and get +3 to charge, making your opponent very sad. Only downside is that to run this you've got to buy, assemble, and paint two to three arachnaroks.
• (also their bases and models aren't that little, so find a way to put all three of them in vharge distance can be really difficult sometime. )

Spider Rider Skitterswarm (120 p) (min 420.pt; no max .pt) 0-1 Scuttleboss on Giant Spider and 3+ units of Spider Riders.

+2" movement to every Battalion member.

• Solid. What else is there to say? For the price of 6 Spider Riders you can turn all of your Spider Riders into extra fast zoomy boys.

Spiderfang Stalktribe (Superbattalion) (110 p) (min 1180.pt; no max .pt) 1 Webspinner Shaman (with or without the Arachnarok Spider), 0-2 Webspinner Shamans, 1-2 Arachnarok Spider Clusters, 1+ Spider Rider Skitterswarms and 0-1 Skitterstrand Nest.

Each model in the Battalion that is within 24" from the Battalion's Webspinner Shaman(s) can reroll every 1 to save.

• Great for a superbattalion, the effect is maximized with the giant base size of the Shaman on Arachnarok, making your whole army a little more survivable. Especially good if you have a second Arachnarok shaman or even another Spiderfang Shaman on foot. If you're running a 2k or 2.5k list of Spiderfang, this is definitely a great battalion to consider. All that being said, there's a lot of Arachnaroks in this battalion, and you'll probably start hitting the Behemoth cap, meaning that fitting Spiderfang Arachnaroks in your list can get tough.

There is no Grimscuttle version of this battalion.

Grimscuttle Spider Cluster (140 p) (min ?.pt; max ?.pt) 2-4 Grimscuttle Arachnaroks.

+30 on the Skitterstrand Nest and no restrictions on the type of Arachnaroks you're taking - you can include the Shaman Arachnarok and multiple basic Arachnaroks!

Instead of rerolling, you get +1 to melee hit rolls for units within the battalion.

• Now that is decent. While this won't affect your spider venom ability, unlike the regular Spider Cluster, it'll allow for more attacks in general to make it through.

Grimscuttle Nest (140 p) (min 630.pt; max 890.pt) 2-3 Grimscuttle Skitterstrand Arachnaroks.

+30 on the regular nest

Instead of the +1 to charge rolls, instead of making normal moves, they can teleport all the way across the battlefield and end up 9" away from any enemy units.

• Being able to "nothing personal, kid" is pretty cool, although with their inherent deepstriking, its kinda redundant. In comparison, the +1 to charge from the regular Skitterstrand Nest makes it difficult to take this, with a higher chance of the giant spiders making their charge, while a Skitterstrand from this battalion would always be charging from 9", if you chose to do their special move. Hard pass on this one.

Grimscuttle Skitterswarm (140 p) (min ?.pt; no max .pt) 0-1 Grimscuttle Scuttleboss on Giant Spider or Grimscuttle Webspinner Shaman and 3+ units of Grimscuttle Spider Riders.

+20 points on the standard Skitterswarm, plus you can use a Webspinner Shaman instead of the Scuttleboss.

Instead of better movement, Before the first battle round, but after you know whose going first, you can put into reserve D3 units from this battalion and bring them out at the end of your first movement phase, 6" from battlefield edge and 9" from enemies.

• You'll have to justify bringing this. The fact that you're not guaranteed all of the units in this battalion from outflanking makes it difficult to bring, but you get the benefit of saving at least one unit within it from being killed early on, if you go second. Defensively, its not bad, but if you're in the market for mobility, take the regular Skitterswarm.

TROGGOTH

Troggherd (170 p) (min 840.pt; max 6140.pt) A Dankhold Troggboss, 3-9 units of Dankhold/Fellwater/Rockgut Troggoths and 0-2 Aleguzzler Gargants.

Every time a model in the Battalion makes an unmodified 6 to wound roll, that attack deals one extra damage. The only Trogg battalion, and it seems a little pricey for what you get.

• Can't include Mollog or the Hag.
• No options to include a second hero to take that second artefact, which makes a true one drop Troggoth army expensive.
• Probably not worth it. Your heroes are already expensive and an extra artefact might be nice, but you might be better off spending the 180 points on two Fungoid Cave-Shamans and have not only more command points, but better magic support as well.
• If you are bringing this battalion, Fellwater Troggoths are the best for it because they have the highest number of attacks. Second place goes to Aleguzzler Gargants, although they are unreliable (3D6 attacks when healthy and decreasing, and they sometimes fall over when making charges). Big blocks of Rockgut Troggoths get some benefit, as do Dankholds and lastly the Troggboss gets a bit better too. If you're bringing a lot of Fellwaters, like Aleguzzler Gargants or you're looking to reduce your drops, the battalion can be worth it. In other cases you could spend 180 points on better things as stated above.

Stomping Megamob (160 p) (min 820.pt; max 6120.pt) A Glogg's Megamob Dankhold Troggboss, 3-9 units of Glogg's Megamob Dankhold/Fellwater/Rockgut Troggoths and 0-2 Glogg's Megamob Aleguzzler Gargants.

Same composition as the Troggherd, except slightly cheaper, and for Glogg's Megamob units.

• Units can retreat and still shoot/charge later in the turn. Amazing!

Tactics

General Tactics

The Gloomspite Gitz are a Synergy faction that relies heavily on buffs, spells, careful positioning, and picking your battles. The vast majority of your army is made up of no-neck chumps too stupid to hold a sword the right way (Squig Hopperz, Stabbaz, Shootaz, Sneaky Snufflerz), and you'll have to counteract that by using them to exhaust the impetus of the enemy while the slightly-competent mooks (Boingrot Bounderz, Troggoths, Spiderfang Riderz) come in and mop up the remainder of the fight. GSG (Gloomspite Gitz) has good hordes, but terrible leadership brings them down significantly. While Death factions can have huge numbers and a fantastic Leadership 10-14, you're likely going to be stuck at leadership 6-7, factoring in the group size bonus. When you're facing the sheer number of lost models that hordes inevitably have, Death can replace the models easily and won't have many run away from a bad leadership failure. You, on the other hand will likely lose half again what you lost in casualties to the battleshock phase unless you're willing to spend an oh-so-precious Command Point to auto-pass the check. This is slightly counteracted by how cheaply we can GET these hordes (130 points for 20 Stabbaz is a pretty great deal even compared to skeletons, and Cave Squigs are the cheapest pile of wounds per points invested in them in the army) and that all we need the tarpit to do is hold the enemy in place for a turn, maybe two, while we get into position to stab them in the back.

The first step to bein' a dead kunnin' Loonboss is looking over all your spells, command abilities, and special rules for pretty much everything you're planning on buying. Don't just get Sneaky Snufflerz because they look good, if you're making a whole army of Troggoths then the Snufflerz ability to buff can't be used on them, as it only affects MOONCLAN models. We recommend you start by picking a rough theme for your army, and building around that. Pick one or two units that you can't play without and decide to focus on making them good. Boingrot Bounderz are great, but to get the most out of them you can back them up with Sneaky Snufflerz, a Loonboss on Mangler Squigz, and/or a Fungoid Cave-Shaman with the Squig Lure spell. An Arachnarok with Spiderfang Shaman on top is a great leader, but his spells are most powerful alongside other Spiderfang models, such as Spider Riderz, a Spiderfang Boss on Giant Spider, or a second Arachnarok. Six Rockgut Troggoths are a hard-hitting unit that only get stronger with the support of a Dankhold Troggboss and a couple Madcap Shamans following them around, casting Arcane Shield on them and Itching Nuisance on their enemies. You don't necessarily have to go balls-deep on a theme by buying nothing but Spiderfang models, but keep in mind that Synergy is a HUGE thing for this army and as such you'll need to support each piece to see it fully reach its potential.

Figure out who your General is, because they'll likely help you figure out what you'll have for the rest of your army. A Loonboss with Giant Cave Squig is a good, cheap general alongside 40-60 basic Grot Stabbaz and Shootaz, but a Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig will likely be unable to help them the same way as his ability only affects SQUIGS. Once you've picked a general, it's pretty recommended to follow that up with a nice, cheap wizard (unless you picked Skragrott as your general, in which case, pick MORE wizards!). Wizards can cast spells obviously, but the Lore of the Gloomspite is great for helping smooth out the rough patches in your army, allowing Squigs to run and charge to get where they need to be, forcing a dangerous unit to fight last so you can charge it with multiple small units, or even teleport a dangerous unit into position to disrupt your enemy's gameplan right away. Secondly, Wizards can try and dispell which is extremely helpful against crippling curses or dangerous enhancement spells turning otherwise nonthreatening enemies into grot-cleaving powerhouses.

There's a couple basic themes you as an army builder can follow. Of course, you can mix and match to your heart's content, but the Gloomspite Gitz has very tribal synergies.

• MOONCLAN HORDES: The Basic Stabbaz, Shootaz, and Fanatics are a great build-around for the horde player. With huge numbers of models taking up vast areas of board space, the enemy will be hard-pressed to avoid your tarpits, and even less able to kill them all, especially with the free ressurection offered by the Loonshrine. Best lead with a basic Grot hero such as Skragrott himself, or a Loonboss on foot with or without a Cave Squig companion. Backed up by phenominally cheap heroes such as Madcap Shamans, Loonbosses, and a Gobbapalooza, you can actually make a big block of crummy basic Goblins quite dangerous.
  • MAGIC HEAVY: A subset of the basic Moonclan Grot army, this list brings tons of Endless Spells and cheap ass wizards to cast them. Bring the bare necessity of Battleline (Usually basic Stabbaz, but Cave Squigz can do it too) and then go absolutely insane with Fungoid Cave-Shamans, Madcap Shamans, Spiderfang Shamans, Gobbapalooza Boggleyes and Shroomancers, and lead this crew with Skragrott for maximum magic stupidity. At higher points levels you'll be casting more spells than Nagash will, and as soon as the Bad Moon flies over your wizards your magic will become truly oppressive.
• SPIDERFANG: The Spiderfang is a fifty-fifty split of cavalry and monsters, perfect for the player that likes mid-size armies with great mobility and mortal wound potential. Lead with a Spiderfang Shaman atop an Arachnarok aside a handful of Spider Riderz, with a Skitterstrand Arachnarok sitting in the wings to flank from any side. Keep a balance between monsters and troops - It's easy to get too many Arachnaroks and realize that your whole army is five slow monsters. Compound charge with Riderz and Arachnaroks for best results.
• TROGGOTHS: Wait, the Night Goblins can be run as super-elites? You bet they can. A Dankhold Troggboss with the Loonskin Command Ability is a genuinely amazing general, and if you back him up with 9-12 Rockgut and/or Fellwater Troggoths he'll be a truly scary threat. If you have points left over you can expand with a Dankhold Troggoth or two or even a Troggoth Hag if you decide to run Forge World. Your army of cockroaches will never die and you'll simply outlast most opponents. Just don't try and outrun them, you're too slow to keep up. And if you want magic but don’t feel like donating an organ to buy a Hag, a Fungoid and a Madcap Shaman will usually get the job done. Plus you’d have to be a zoggin’ idiot to turn down all those extra CP.
• SQUIGALANCHE: THE fastest army in the book, make no mistake. Sometimes you'll roll shitty and have movement 3 Squig Hopperz, but honestly that's all part of the fun. Almost everything flies, and it's phenomenally easy to run and charge, you're the Dark Eldar of Age of Sigmar. A Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig or Mangler Squigz is a good start, then back it up with a handful of Cave Squigs to contest objectives, before going all-out with Squig Hopperz, Boingrot Bounderz, and Mangler Squigz. The enemy will dissapear before they even get a a chance to attack back, and you're fast enough to threaten backline wizards and war machines by as early as turn 2. Just try and avoid situations where you have to make Leadership checks, your bravery is terrible.

Lastly, here's some basic work-around ideas that have a specific theme and playstyle. Very much memes, but the whole point of the game's to have fun, right?

Fanatic Bomb

Hand of Gork to teleport 60 Grots 9.1" away from the opponent. Release your 15 Fanatics 6.1" away. Be very cunnin' & sneaky to cast Chronomantic Cogs. Congratulations, your opponent now has to deal with a guaranteed charge of 15 Fanatics and a potentially a solid 60 Stabba charge.

Pie In The Face

From Warhammer Weekly. Go Grand Alliance Destruction. Take Spiderfang Stalktribe with three Skitterstrands (setup offboard) and a Scuttleboss. Take Gordrakk. Take a wizard and cogs. Then take whatever else to fill your points, trying to keep within Spiderfang Stalktribe. Take first turn due to low number of drops. Cast Cogs and set to +2 for the charge. Move Gordrakk forwards. Setup Arachnaroks 9inch from the enemy - this gives them a +3 for the charge. Activate Voice of Gork on them for a 3 dice charge (as well as +2 attacks). Ensure the Scuttleboss is nearby so you can reroll the charge. Now CHARGE for total of +5, three dice and a reroll on the Arachnaroks and a plain +2 on Gordrakk.

• Sadly you can't use Scuttling Terrors spell as the Skitterstrand are not on the board at that point.
• Named so because you have 4 units on 160mm pie dishes all alphastriking.
• More for the lols than optimal.

Smash them, eat them!(and trick them in a cunning way)

(this is a personal opinion) an [almost] only troggoth and monsters army. Take 9 rockgut troggoths for being your tarpit and monsters killers, 12 fellwater troggoths in two squad of 6 each for take down light hordes, a troggboss and 2 giants. All of this can be included in the troggherd battalion, getting the "plus-one-damage-at-a-six-to-wound" ability. At last, get a madcap and a fungoid shaman. The madcap unique artefact get a enemy unit within 12" with -1 at the save, while both of them can cast good spells from the lore. Is really easy now. Rockgut eliminated elites (20 sequitors? Eliminated in a turn) the fell water destroy hordes, giants and troggboss go where is necessary to hit even harder and goblins laugh maniacally shouting "JUST AS PLANNED!" while being bastards from behind the trolls.

Allied Armies

• Bonesplitterz: Anti-monster units, cavalry with constant movement. Also pairs aesthetically well with the Spiderfang Grots.

• Kruleboyz: The Marshcrawla Sloggoth is an absolutely amazing ally with a permanent +1 to hit on an extremely forgiving aura range for friendly units. Doubly nice for Troggoths, where the Sloggoth's aura combines fantastically with the Instinctive Leader command ability of the Troggboss for Troggoth's hitting on 2's, rerolling 1's. Actually makes the Troggoths sound pretty good.
  • Breakboss on Mirebrute Troggoth is also worth a look. It has the Troggoth keyword, so the Troggbosses Instinctive Leader ability works with it. Combine this with the Marshcrawla +1 to hit aura and Finest Hour and you'll be hitting on 2s rerolling 1s, wounding on 2s, -2 rend, 3 damage on 4 attacks up to 10 if you use the Breakabosses ability that lets you add attacks in exchange for mortal wounds to itself. This isnt even including the riders attacks, who also benefits from all the buffs.Though ultimately his 5 inch move may be to slow, when all the other Troggs have a 6 inch move.
  • Killaboss on Corpserippa Vulcha is another interesting choice. On paper, he helps solve 3 of the weaknesses that a pure Trogg list has. He's very mobile, with 14inch flying. He's a monster so he counts for 10 on objectives, objective play is something Troggs struggle with. He can give the same command ability twice a turn. Troggs don't have unit champions and they arent elite. They are entirely reliant on your heroes to issue commands to them. Killaboss on Vulture can help with that by issuing All Out Attack or Defense twice.

• Greenskinz: Has better archers, cavalry with constant movement. Sadly the Rogue Idol (which improves nearby grot's casting rolls and bravery by 1) is too expensive at 420 pts.

• Sons of Behemat: Thanks to their mercenary mechanic, you can recruit one of four named Mega-Gargants with unique abilities.
  • Bundo Whalebiter: A Kraken-eater mercenary. You can choose at the start of the Combat phase for him to fight at the end of the phase, in exchange for re-rolling failed hit rolls.
  • One-Eyed Grunnok: A Warstomper mercenary. Reroll jump attacks of 1, plus enemies within 6" get -1 to hit if the giant used his jump attacks earlier in the combat phase.
  • Big Drogg Fort-Kicka: A Gatebreaker mercenary. He has a breath attack that attacks one unit within 3" at the end of the combat phase; roll a dice for each model in the unit and deal 1MW on a 6+.
  • Brawlsmasha: A Bonegrinder mercenary from Forgeworld. Gives friendly Orruk wholly within 12" +1 Bravery. Outclassed by the other three in points and abilities. Basically useless here.

Note, Ironjawz can take Gloomspite Gitz allies; whilst Gutbusters can take Troggoths. So you might want to consider those armies allegiance if you want to mix with those factions.

Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Realm Of Battle Malign Sorcery Path to Glory Skirmish
Order	Cities of Sigmar Daughters of Khaine Fyreslayers Idoneth Deepkin Kharadron Overlords Lumineth Realm-Lords Seraphon Stormcast Eternals Sylvaneth
Chaos	Beasts Of Chaos Blades of Khorne Disciples of Tzeentch Hedonites of Slaanesh Maggotkin of Nurgle Skaven Slaves to Darkness
Death	Flesh-Eater Courts Nighthaunt Ossiarch Bonereapers Soulblight Gravelords
Destruction	Gloomspite Gitz Ogor Mawtribes Orruk Warclans Sons of Behemat
Others	Monstrous Arcanum Legends Old Rules