Monday, December 31, 2018

Age of Sigmar Preview: Gloomspite Gitz


Hey Game Fans, we’re going to take a few minutes out of your day to talk about the new Age of Sigmar release for the first week of the new year, the Gloomspite Gitz.  Fans of Warhammer Fantasy remember the grots as a funny collection of crazed goblins who are just as likely to injure themselves as their opponents.  The other detail most will remember about the grots is their relationship with Squigs. The bright red ball shaped eating machines have a long history with the Grots and the new release for Age of Sigmar brings this history forward with a host of new kits and ideas. 


Let’s take a look at the new releases and then do a brief rundown of the things that stick out for us. 

New Releases

Battletome

There are a lot of new releases for the Gloomspite Gitz, including a brand new Battletome.  The Battletome features a host of new lore about the Gitz, along with their major beliefs, the major groupings within the faction and gives you a host of new art, new rules and everything you would need to bring the Grots to the battlefield. 

Endless Spells

The Gloomspite Gitz get four new endless spells in a new kit.  Judging by the pictures (and you can go check out all of the pictures for everything on the GW community site, link will be at the bottom of this article), you get a literal manifestation of the Bad Moon, a spider tide, a super mushroom and the Arachnacauldron.  These look wonderfully characterful like all of the endless spells and fit right in with the aesthetic of the Gloomspite Gitz.

New Scenery

The Bad Moon Loonshrine is a very characterful piece of scenery that the Gloomspite Gitz can bring along to every battle.  Built in the shape of the Bad Moon itself, this terrain piece allows the Gloomspite Gitz to recycle some of their destroyed units as religious fervor keeps drawing more and more Grots to the battlefield.

New Dice

The GW trend to release new specialty dice with each faction release continues with an amazing twist.  The Gloomspite Gitz get their own squig colored dice.  I thought they looked like mimics from another fantasy game, but these are a fun addition to the tools a Grot player can bring to the table.

New Units

There are a host of new units and a few new boxes that replace older sculpts with new visions.  Let’s take a closer look at those now.

The Gobbapalooza

This is a group of five Grots who all have unusual powers for Grots.  This is probably some form of magical power, but the models are neat and a painter could have a lot of fun with this group of characters.  Well, I think they are characters, but we will have to wait until the Battletome itself releases.

The Loonboss

The cover model for the Battletome, the Loonboss is a fighter of a grot who can boost other units of grot stabbas to make them even more dangerous.  He’s a neat looking model and looks like he could cause some damage in a fight.

The Sneaky Snufflers

The Snufflesquigs hunt out the scent of Looncap mushrooms which are the harbingers of the Bad Moon’s arrival in a place.  The Snufflers roam out looking for these mushrooms and can use them to inspire bloody mayhem in their fellow Grots.  The snufflesquigs are neat looking critters we haven’t seen before as a miniature and the total kit looks like a lot of fun to paint.

Mangler Squig

The Mangler Squig gets a muchly needed plastic kit release with this Battletome.  The ferocious massive Mangler Squigs are a perpetually moving wrecking ball that careens into enemy units and crushes them beneath the massive weight of the two giant squigs.  The new plastic kit version also allows us to build a Mangler Squig being ridden by a lunatic grot hero of some kind. 

Rockgut Troggoths

Troggoths got a few new additions to their line this release.  The Rockgut Troggoths look like a three model kit of heavy hitting bruisers for the Gloomspite Gitz.  They share an aesthetic with their smaller brethren, which I like the similarities in the faces of the Rockgut and the smaller moonclan grots.  It ties the range together nicely. 

Dankhold Troggoth

The Dankhold Troggoth is a beast of a model.  Covered in tiny mushrooms and carrying a giant hammer, the Dankhold Troggoth is a leader choice you bring in your Gloomspite Gitz.  He is massive compared to the grots around him and makes an excellent centerpiece to the army.  We still don’t know what his rules look like, but I will be keeping my eyes open to see what that looks like in the near future.

Grot Fanatics

A new version of a classic kit, the Loonsmasha Fanatics are a five model set that you can build as tiny wrecking balls spinning their way across the table into your opponents carefully laid out plans.  They are a taken on the classic versions of these models but someone turned the volume up to 13 for good measure.  Even more interesting from a builder’s standpoint, this kit also gives you the option to build them as Sporesplatta Fanatics who help protect the other Grots on their way across the table. 

Squig Hoppers

Squig Hoppers are another classic unit that received a much-needed update. The new models are much more dynamic and capture the frenetic energy of the Squigs and the grots crazy enough to ride them into battle.  This kit features five models that can be built as either the classic Squig Hoppers or as a new unit the Boingrot Bounderz.

Squig Herd

The Squigs themselves got a needed update too.  With a small herd of 10 squigs and 2 grot handlers, the new kits feature the ability to customize your herd so that no two squigs are alike.  I’m not sure how well this will hold up with a larger herd of thirty or so Squigs.  However, at that point I think your opponent is going to be less concerned with how they look and more concerned with how many faces they are going to eat.

Skragrott the Loonking

The new big boss model of the Gloomspite Gitz, Skragrott is everything one expects from a Grot.  Powerful in the ways of magic, sneaky enough to be where he isn’t expected and clever enough to marshal the hordes of the Gloomspite Gitz.  Skragrott is an impressive looking model and looks like he would be a fantastic addition to the Grot range. 

Gameplay

Now we can’t say a lot about the Gloomspite Gitz are going to play on the tabletop yet, because the book isn’t out.  From what we have seen, we can make a few guesses about what this army looks like and what it can probably do. 

The Grots all worship the Bad Moon for different reasons, but it is a unifying element that allows you to bring the Moonclan Grots, the Spiderfang grots, the Troggoths and the Gargants together under a single banner.  This means two things.
 
First, you can probably build a coalition of these groups into a single force.  They will probably feature a few battlescroll detachments designed to do just that.  This does let you choose your force from the things you think are the best in each group and kit out your grot horde to deal with your opponent however you like. 

Secondly, I think this gives you the option to build your force out of one specific aspect of either the Moonclan, the Spiderfangs, and the Troggoths.  The addition of the Dankhold Troggoth gives me the impression you can field an all Troggoth army if you like.  I suspect that there will be battlescrolls for these types of forces as well.  The Spiderfangs are the only group that haven’t gotten a new release (yet) in this window, and the spider riders are looking a little long in the tooth at this point. 

From an actually how do they play on the table perspective, I have no idea yet.  I imagine they will be a chaotic bunch of loons flinging themselves at the enemy in a desperate craze to bring down the much larger opponents they face in Age of Sigmar.  I suspect giant hordes of Stabbas and shootas will be a major part of the Moonclan force, backed up by specialist heroes to buff them up.  The new terrain kit is supposed to give them the ability to recycle destroyed units of Stabbas and Shootas, so it encourages the general to fling them recklessly at things they have no business 
charging.   I can’t think of anything more Grot-like than that. 

Thanks for taking the time to read through this, Game Fans. Are you excited about the new releases?  Have you finally found the Destruction army you wanted to play?  Let us know.  Have fun as always. 

Game On, Game Fans. 

Oh, that pesky link : https://www.warhammer-

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