We once again find ourselves on the familiarly tumultuous ground of a new edition of Age of Sigmar. With that, comes a flurry of updated battletomes jam-packed up with updated rules, new units and another round of “wait, let me double-check that” with each opponent, as the old amorphously blends in with the new. The poster children of the Gloomspite Gitz this time round might make it seem as though the faction has had some form of major revamp and, whilst there are some notably big changes here, try not to be distracted by the emblazoned sun-faced motifs around every corner - the everdank is still very much with us.

We were kindly provided a copy of the Gloomspite Gitz Battletome from Games Workshop for review purposes and having had plenty of time to scour through this book, the changes are fairly vast. We’ll go over some of the big-ticket items in this review but don’t expect to see every minutiae of detailed change - especially regarding points costs as these aren’t available at the time of writing. We’ll kick off with the largest changes first so you can get to grips with the latest iteration of the spite-ridden, conniving loons of Age of Sigmar.

Hungry Like The Wolf

The most blatant change is inescapable in the new poster-children emblazoned across the battletome and the upcoming army set - the Gitmob. Snarlfang Wolves have returned in force after a spate of absence and are plastered all over the faction, including the battletome (both standard and collectors edition), the new Spearhead and the aforementioned Gitmob Army Set. I’m sure that the old-school goblin fans amongst us are likely very happy to see the return of the cavalry to the faction and the setting of Age of Sigmar.

However, I will confess that this almost comes across as a rebrand of the faction. The oversaturation of the wolf-riding goblins, in my eyes, takes the spotlight off the charm of the wider faction as a whole. To not see the hooded Moonclan, the lumbering Troggoths and not even a single Squig in any way feels like a misstep to me as the Gloomspite Gitz have a major selling point in their diversity. I’ll be clear here and state that the battletome doesn’t seem to have lost anything between the interim index and this release. Despite the stars of the show being the Gitmob, everything else is still here for the ride, if just skulking in the shadows for now - how appropriate.

But let’s hone in on the new canine cavalry and their accompanying units, as I’m sure these will in themselves have a lot of appeal for old and new players. Within the army, the Snarlfang/Gitmob flavour comes in the form of 9 units, from the named character Droggz da Sunchompa to the Doom Diver Catapult. These sun-obsessed wolf-riders and high-fliers are distinct amongst the other subfactions of the Gitz in their dustier, sun-motif-addled chariots and wargear, allowing them to carve their identity into the wider faction effortlessly. The aforementioned spectrum of available units in the Gloomspite Gitz helps to have these new inclusions slot into the battletome in a way that feels cohesive as a wider whole. Once again, and whilst I understand the motives to push new products, it feels erroneous to have these guys shoved to the forefront of the faction's identity in a way that seems so ham-fisted that it could be perceived more ork-like than goblin.

The new kits themselves are daubed with details and intricacies that would make them a joy to paint, especially leaning on more speed painting techniques such as Contrast paints. My only gripe with the updated range is the inclusion of the old Rippa’s Snarlfangs as part of the Gitmob Spearhead. It feels like an odd stopgap when there are plenty of brand new kits that would have worked perfectly well in the Spearhead force. Perhaps we’ll see some of the older, more bespoke Underworlds Warbands added into upcoming battletomes this way? As for now, none of the Underworlds warbands are present in the battletome in any form. My three goblin warbands will have to live on solely in Underworlds for the foreseeable.

Unfortunately for me, I loathe and despise painting cavalry as attested in my previous attempts to paint some Kavalos Deathriders of the Ossiarch Bonereapers. Nevertheless, there is a handy painting guide within the battletome to make it easier for the less enthused about painting to get these models done to a battle-ready standard. I’m still very happy to see these guides in place as it does break down swift and easy routes to get things tabletop-ready with notable speed. Will it be enough to get me painting lots of these ferocious mounts? We’ll see…

Mob Rule(s)

Pawing at the rules for the Gitmob, it’s all fairly common-sense stuff. The brilliantly named “Git and Run” battle formation allows Gitmob units to effectively retreat from combat with no penalty, dealing Mortal Wounds to their engaged enemy as they go. The updated rules for Light of the Bad Moon (which we’ll get into shortly) allow Gitmob units to shoot and charge, even if they’d retreated from combat. Unsurprisingly, the main emphasis we’re seeing with Gitmobs is their mobility with most of their units moving 12” by standard. Proving reliably speedier than most other Gloomspite Gitz units, the Gitmob units will give players the chance to really mix up the playstyle of the faction and I’m sure there will be plenty of fun and bizarre synergies that the more competitively-minded will be able to cook-up.

The Doom Diver Catapult is the outlier for the most part of the new units, and I’m thrilled to see it returned to us. Whilst the range of Doom Diver attacks is only 24 inches and hits on 4+, the “Shoddy Wing-Like Gizmos” rule allows you to re-roll hit rolls, but each re-roll will worsen the AP (starting at 3) by one. This gives wonderfully goblin-appropriate swinginess to this old fan-favourite and I’m sure will have players sweating to re-roll those hit dice - the flat 3-damage attack is enough to make those re-rolls obnoxiously tempting.

However, Droggz da Sunchompa is far less of a laughing matter. The named leader of the Gitmob has a particularly troubling ability named “Time Ta Scarper” where on a dice roll of a 4+ you can select a friendly unit wholly within 9” of him to move 2D6” when declared as the target of a fight ability. This isn’t even restricted to nearby Gitmob units - it’s ANY friendly Gloomspite units. Plainly, I could not imagine something more vexing to an opponent than having a combat-targeted unit just move away once declared - if it wasn’t for the necessary 4+ for this to work, I would call this grotesque.

Moon-faced Mania

Let’s move swiftly on from the Gitmob and onto the rest of the all-stars of this roster of raving rapscallions. After all, we’ve got lots of Moonclan, Troggoth and Squig considerations, but we’ll only be touching on some of these elements here as a full breakdown of this battletome would form a tome in itself. Let’s begin with the bigger picture of everyone’s favourite sneering celestial body - the Bad Moon.

In the previous edition of the Gloomspite Gitz rules, the moon manifested at the start of the game on one corner of the battlefield and worked its way over the board as the game progressed, bestowing bonuses to friendly Gloomspite Gitz units caught in its light. This has seen a total rework now, both in how the moon works and the buffs that it grants. Akin to the old Maggotkin Cycle of Corruption, there’s now a symbolic wheel that turns as the game progresses, granting different buffs to different types of units. I’ll break this down below:

The Moon has four different faces/states: Grinnin’, Scowlin’, Sulkin’ and Cacklin’. Each of these states grants a bonus to different types of Gloomspite units. For instance, if the Bad Moon is Cacklin’ or Grinnin’ then it grants the Frothing Zealots bonus, giving all friendly non-Squig Moonclan units +5 to their control score. The fact that each bonus can be active upon two different states of the Bad Moon provides a cyclical balance here that players will need to manage, depending on which face they choose to start the game with. The face then progresses in order at the start of the next battle round.

This is a huge change from the previous version of the Bad Moon and will take some getting used to. However, I’d wager that there’ll be a given order that most players start with - probably Sulkin’, allowing Squigs to not have their movement rolled for and become a flat 4”. This way you have the Squigs bound forward as shock troops, before the Gitmob and Moonclan buffs come in over the following couple of turns via the Cacklin’ and Grinnin’ faces, ending on the Troggoths being buffed once they finally get stuck into combat via the Grinnin’ and Scowlin’ faces. Manipulation of this rule was also a consideration previously and can be now - with Skragrott the Loonking able to freeze the moon in its current position once per game. This would be very handy if you’d built your army around a certain type of unit and want to get your bang-for-buck from the moon’s bonus.

A Maleficent Mixing Pot

Continuing to delve into the other major contenders of the Gloomspite Gitz battletome, battle formations are available for each type of unit and are all suitably flavoursome.

Gloomspite Horde - At the end of each turn you select 3 friendly non-Squig Moonclan or Spiderfang units in combat. These can then pile-in and each unit can inflict mortal damage on an enemy unit in combat via a 2+ on a D3.
Gitmob Pack - As stated above, allows Gitmob units to move out of combat, dealing mortal damage to enemies as they go.
Squigalanche - Each time a friendly Squig unit charges add 1 to the attacks characteristics of their various fang-filled gobs.
Troggherd - Each time a friendly Troggoth unit uses a fight ability, Heal this unit (D3) once resolved.

All are simple enough and feel a fine fit for their eligible units, but none feel inspiring or intuitive. They’re fine, if a little predictable. If at all, the Gloomspite Horde paints a harrowing scenario of swathes of clamoring Grots clawing and stabbing in droves to bring their enemies down. But then, I’ve always had a soft spot for goblins.

The Bad Moon Loonshrine is also back and performs the same job as ever - reviving a dead unit at the end of your turn at half model count (rounding up). With the changes to the Light of the Bad Moon, the bonus it offered previously is now nowhere to be seen.

In terms of further warscrolls that have existed between the faction pack and the new battletome, there isn’t actually a great deal of change. There are numerous updates where relevant to account for the new Light of the Bad Moon rules, but otherwise most warscrolls are largely unchanged. With this, I’m very interested to see the points values. Unfortunately, as stated at the start of this written piece, these haven’t been made available to me so I cannot comment on them currently. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see…

Summon the Hordes

In summary, the update to the Gloomspite Gitz via their new battletome is universally positive. They’ve received an onslaught of new units to make one of the most visually varied armies in Age of Sigmar even more broad and they’ve kept the army feeling fresh whilst still looking good. The spell lores and heroic traits are all very at-home in this book and whilst I would have been happy to see a few more things as being more “out of the box” as far as the army goes, I shan’t complain that one of my all-time-favourite factions has been treated very fairly, if safely in their continued development.

One thing that does stick out to me is that the Spiderfang, whilst still present, are moving further and further “to the back of the book” with each new version. I fear it’s only a matter of time before they’re scuttled away for good. I’d have sooner seen this range get a refresh rather than the addition of Gitmobs, personally. Nevertheless, maybe there’s hope for the old wall-crawlers yet…

Again, don’t be fooled by the overabundance of the Gitmob on and throughout the battletome and everything else for the Gloompsite Gitz, you just need to pull the curtain back a little bit to see that most things are right where you left them - for better or worse, depending on the updated points when they drop.

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Written by Kenny at The Unrelenting Brush.