This month is bringing a massive host of updates to Age of Sigmar as the setting transitions to Ghyran, the realm of life. Each army is getting two whole pages of additional rules including optional alternative warscrolls for you to use in your games and we are very excited about all of it! Before we get stuck in, a thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with these rules as an early release to review.
Morning Goons! Badusernametag here, with some thoughts on the Scourge of Gyhran updates for Kruleboyz. I’ve been playing with Kruleboyz for all of 4th edition AoS so far and they’re a tricky bunch. You have to use all your sneaky tricks to have a chance of victory, otherwise you’re often feeling like you punch like a wet paper bag and collapse to a stiff breeze. The battletome sadly offered a straight downgrade to a few of our best abilities. Let’s see if these updates can help to counter that.
Battle Formations
This update offers two new Battle Formations for you to choose from. One adds a one turn ability, and the other a new dirty trick.
My preferred Formation tends to be Kruleboyz Klaw as this can really help survivability vs ranged armies. This is pretty dependent on your local meta however and if you aren’t playing against much shooting/magic it does little. My other fave is Trophy Finger giving a much needed offensive buff to your monstrous units.
First is Swamphorde Bullies, (once per turn (army), any combat phase) which grants one Kruleboyz unit +1 attack on melee weapons as long the unit they’re in combat with is in combat with another Kruleboyz unit. The nerf of Sludgeraker Venom was a big blow to Kruleboyz melee and this could go some way to helping with that. +1 attack on a big blob of Gutrippaz will give you that many more Crit (Mortal) hits. It could also help units with big one hitters (Sludgeraker, Vulcha). Overall Kruleboyz melee isn’t great. So a buff helps, but others seem better.
Second is Badmouthing Baiterz, whose Krule Mockery provides a new Dirty Trick for your arsenal. In your shooting phase you can pick a target and then a friendly unit to be the Insult Hurla (assuming you make your dirty trick roll) the target then suffers 1d6 mortal wounds each time it uses a Move ability in the next turn that doesn’t end closer to the Insult Hurla. This is a cool idea and movement based shenanigans are both fun and thematic for the Kruleboyz. Sadly I think this is a little situational and 1d6 mortals is also pretty swingy. In my opinion the best use of this is offensively, punishing units that you know are going to be running away from you. However those units are likely to be ranged and in that case the army wide buff from the Kruleboyz Klaw is likely to be helping you more.
I think both of these are fun and thematic, but they are also both once a turn (army) and less useful than the army wide passive effects provided by others. I’d be really interested to see if they could be effective in the right build!
Monstrous Traits
This is a welcome return of the Monstrous Traits for Kruleboyz! Given that you can take a monstrous trait on top of your existing enhancements this is just a straight upgrade, offering one Monster in your army a buff. Great! What have we got?
First up is Mean ‘Un, which adds +1 to all hit rolls for the unit’s Companion weapons. This is great for my personal fave The Breaka Boss on Mirebrute Troggoth whose mount can get an unholy number of attacks through its Breaka-Harness. Combine this with the Meanest Beasts ability of the Trophy Finga and you can do some proper damage in combat!
Second is the more situational and probably sneakiest of the bunch, Sneaky ‘Un. This allows you to (once per battle, enemy hero phase) make a normal move, or retreat, suffering no damage. This might have be better in your hero phase but it has potential. If you have multiple units locked in the same combat you can escape with one, ready to strike again next turn. A Corpserippa Vulture could go far with this and its charge triggered Rampage will thank you for the charge next turn. Also if you’re out of charge range of the enemy, you’ll get to move again in your turn, which means a Vulcha can really get across the board. I’m looking forward to seeing a good player make use of this one.
The last, but certainly not least of the monstrous traits is Tough ‘Un, granting a passive -1 rend vs attacks that target this unit. This is just straight great at making all our monsters harder to take down. Given that they all only have a 4+ save and no wards (outside of traits and artifacts), this enhanced survivability is not to be sniffed at. Chuck this on a General with Egomaniak, surrounded by a horde of rippaz and you will be quite tough.
Overall I’m super pleased to see the return of mount traits. Fun, thematic and just straight useful. Of the three units that can actually use them, most will be taking Gobsprakk over the standard Corpserippa. So you’re looking at the Sludgeraker or or the Breakaboss. Personally I think a a buffed Breakaboss is where its at.
Warscroll Updates
Two warscrolls get a glow up and I think they ARE both improvements indeed.
First is unique Sludgeraker boss Swampboss Skumdrekk. Who gets a weapon profile re-jig and a complete overhaul of abilities. This costs you +30 points, bringing the warscroll to 250. Could be tricky for some lists.
His mount weapons have been combined into one here. Losing the unique bite attack in exchange for +1 damage and Crit (Mortal) on the main attack. This means your damage output is the same (max 18), but you have a chance of mortals and don’t have to worry about missing with the one ‘big’ attack. I quite love this. Also, this ties in to the new rampage ability; Thrashing Tail which activates in the combat phase and if you can roll equal to or less than the number of models in the target unit gives you crits on 5+! Given that you now also have 11 Crit (mortal) attacks on the warscroll this is a pretty nice buff that really improves Skumdrekk’s output into elite troops with a good save. It’s a big change to the standard Rampage, which specifically effects damaged enemy Monsters (situational, less useful) and changes this function to ‘Elite enemy hunter’.
The other ability change is to scrap the Hobgrot-buffing betting stuff for a passive way to mod Dirty Tricks rolls. The first time you fail a roll in a turn (not battle round) you gain a token, tokens can be spent to add +1 to a Dirty Trick roll. This is just way better and useful all the time, without the necessity to take Hobgrots! Oddly this does nothing for you in the Murkvast Menagerie army of renown, as in that army you don’t get dirty tricks. I don’t if many are using that Army of Renown, but seeing as you have to take Skumdrekk in that army, this is a funny choice.
The second warscroll update is the Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof. I’ve been a big fan of this model since it launched in the Dominion box set, but it’s always struggled to find a place in an army with no other cavalry or fast units. This update doesn’t affect the the points cost, its still 160. The change is fundamentally from a buff piece for friendly infantry (weird) to a teleporting hero assassin. This makes a weirdly fitting and out of place unit have a new purpose.
Profile is the same, other than you gain Anti Hero (+1 rend) on the Boss-Skewa only. This buff is very welcome in a faction with mainly -1 rend or none across the melee offerings!
The abilities are all changed here. Losing both infantry buffs in exchange for a teleport and a way to single out and (hopefully) murder infantry heroes. The first ability Prowling the Flanks lets you redeploy the unit from within 6” of battlefield edge to somewhere else within 6″ of an edge and outside of 9” of enemies. Given that Sneaky Sneakin’ is lockes to infantry units it’s nice to have this, but the board edge condition might make it more situational.
The next ability, Drag ‘em Out is once per combat phase and lets you pick an enemy Infantry Hero you’re engaged with. You then move 2d6. Then your oppponent moves the target to be within 1’ of this unit. This is pretty fun and thematic, hopefully with the buff to the Bosses weapon you can then shred that infantry hero without the pesky interference of their mates. Nice n sneaky!
I feel that both of these changes affect these units nicely and hopefully mean you’ll actually see them more in lists.
Final Thoughts
Some fun updates here, nothing really mind blowing, but some welcome buffs. I’m not sure the formations offer anything that challenges the core ones, but the monstrous traits are welcome, as our main characters are all on monsters. I think the big one is the changes to two underloved and underpowered warscrolls, which both get a glow up and a change of purpose, controlling movement and making those dirty tricks more reliable. Overall a nice little set of rules, all of which could get use.
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