All across the Mortal Realms of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, beneath cities and forests, dreadforts and mountain holds, all manner of gruesome gribblies linger in mushroom-infested darkness. The Gloomspite Gitz are all but forgotten, dismissed as myths by the surface-dwelling races, but they lurk in slimy sinkholes or deep-sunk dankholds, plotting malevolent mischief.
Cruel Moonclan grots with glinting fangs and sharp knives, giant-gobbed squigs ridden by heedless lunatics, gargantuan Arachnarok spiders, lumbering troggoths with short tempers and bottomless appetites, all these horrors and more make up the Gloomspite Gitz, and all dwell, unsuspected and undetected, in the clammy darkness.
When the Bad Moon Rises they surge to the surface world, overwhelming armies and cities alike in a riot of violent lunacy.
Gloomspite Gitz grots, spiders, troggoths, and squigs
Grots make up the bulk of most Gloomspite Gitz forces. Shootas and Stabbas are weak and cowardly but they’re also incredibly numerous. Hidden in their ranks are deadly and suicidal Loonsmasha Fanatics, mushroom-maddened grots whirling lethal balls and chains with devastating force.
Spiderfang Grots worship gargantuan arachnids and can harness spiders of ever more terrifying size to ride to war. Their Spider Riders are swift cavalry, able to scuttle up and over terrain, and their potent venoms cause mortal wounds on to-hit rolls of six.
Big, strong, stupid and stupidly tough, troggoths hit hard and can regenerate any wounds they have suffered.The mighty Dankhold Troggoths and Dankhold Trogbosses are colossal, ancient creatures that are even harder to kill than other troggoths, and their odiferous presence improves the bravery of nearby Gitz.
Squigs are fang-filled mouths on legs that bounce across the battlefield. All squigs move a random distance, so neither you nor your opponent can predict quite where they’ll end up. Some grots are brave, foolhardy or insane enough to ride squigs into battle like lethal space-hoppers.
The largest Mangler Squigs are chained together in pairs, careening across the battlefield like wrecking balls. Like most monsters, their profile degrades as they become injured, but uniquely it begins to improve again as they approach death, the squigs becoming even more unpredictable and vicious!
Gloomspite Gitz and the Bad Moon
The different clans of the Gloomspite Gitz worship a terrifying celestial body known as the Bad Moon. This revolting orb veers haphazardly through the heavens above the Mortal Realms, shedding its evil light and leering maniacally at the terrified mortals below.
The Bad Moon blocks out the sun, and its rays have a hideous transformative property, driving mortals and animals to madness and forcing vile mushrooms to sprout from everything they touch, be it wood, stone, or living flesh.
The Bad Moon even has an effect on tabletop games. Before the battle starts, you’ll elect a table corner from which the Bad Moon will approach the battlefield. Each turn the Moon may linger in its current position or move erratically onwards, through the centre of the battlefield. While the Bad Moon hovers over a table-quarter, it will shed its baleful light on all the models there, and when in the centre of the battlefield it will cover the entire board.
The Bad Moon invigorates your Gitz, making cowardly grots more likely to rally, troggoths thicker-skinned, spiders more venomous, bouncy squigs even bouncier, and inspiring your General with extra Command points and your Wizards with greater magical prowess.
Your enemies will fare much worse as the Bad Moon quashes their spells, and fast-sprouting fungi called Teeth of the Bad Moon burst forth on enemy models, causing d3 mortal wounds to a unit.
Loonshrine Gloomspite Gitz faction terrain piece
The Gloomspite Gitz build effigies to the Bad Moon wherever they make war, and you can represent this on the battlefield using the Bad Moon Loonshrine faction terrain piece. The rules for this kit are in the errata PDF for the Gloomspite Gitz battletome, which you can download from the Warhammer Community website.
The Loonshrine is a sacred icon to the Gloomspite Gitz and carries a sliver of the Bad Moon’s power. Gloomspite Gitz units wholly within 12” of the shrine ignore Battleshock and count as being bathed in the light of the Bad Moon.
The shrine is an entrance to the Gitz’ endless Moonclan Lairs beneath the earth. Up to 30 models can be garrisoned inside the Loonshrine, and once per turn you can try and summon reinforcements from under the earth. It’s possible to return destroyed units of Grot Stabbas or Shootas at half their starting strength, and depending on your general, you may be able to drive squigs, Spider Riders, or even troggoths up from the depths to join the fray.
Gloomspite Gitz battletome
The Gloomspite Gitz battletome was published in the middle of Age of Sigmar 2nd edition and is now more patched up with erratas and expansions than a Moonclan grot’s horrific undercrackers.
You can download the errata from Warhammer Community, giving you the updates needed to bring the army in line with AoS 3rd edition.
Broken Realms: Kragnos adds subfaction rules for forces which lean towards troggoths, squigs or spider-riders.
Glogg’s Megamob boosts the regeneration of troggoth units. Grimscuttle Tribes provides Spiderfang units that are resistant to spells, particularly adept at slaughtering Wizard and Priest models, and gain a powerful Command Trait that allows them to treat all Spiderfang models as though they are bathed in the light of the Bad Moon once per game. The Jaws of Mork can reroll the randomised movement of their squig mounts, or spend a command point to hurl liquor into the gullets of a pair of Mangler Squigs so they can fight on their top profile no matter how injured they are.
If you don’t fancy buying a Battletome that’s starting to sprout fungus from old age, all the contents are available to subscribers of the Age of Sigmar app.
(Squig pic provided by Mel B and her incredible Jaws of Mork army.)
