Another preorder day has come for Warhammer Underworlds. There’s a bevy of releases available to preorder today and Goonhammer is going to cover all of them. Alongside the Spitewood Expansion Set, there were also four boxes of warbands from the previous edition that were re-released with updated rules. This article will take a look at the four Destruction warbands contained in the Gitz and Goliaths box. I’d like to extend thanks to Games Workshop for providing these materials early for Goonhammer to review.

Check out the rest of the Goonhammer coverage of the Spitewood Expansion Set and accompanying releases once you have had enough of all these abnormally tall and/or short fighters!

You can find all our content for this big preorder day below:

• Spitewood & Grand Alliance Box Overview
• Spitewood Unboxing
• Decks of Spitewood: Hunting Grounds and Deadly Synergy
• Warbands of Spitewood: Kurnoth’s Heralds and The Blood of the Bull
• Chaos Warbands: Reavers of Ruin
• Death Warbands: Morbid Minions
• Destruction Warbands: Gitz and Goliaths
• Order Warbands: Seekers in Shadow

Mollog’s Mob

The first of two returning warbands for Destruction, Mollog’s Mob’s previous version with the free digital rules had been enjoying a few nice showings at events without being overbearing. They’re back again as a Mastery warband with this release. Mollog, being one of the very early warbands of the game, has been through multiple iterations either as the rules changed around him or as his warband was re-released with updated rules. How does the OG Big Brawler warband stack up in their Spitewood form?

Warscroll for Mollog’s Mob

The inspire condition hasn’t technically changed – Mollog has to take damage, and once he has had enough the entire warband flips. He does have a substantial amount of health so if the opponent does try to take out your leader, you’ll at least be likely to get an activation or two out of him before he dies. That said, it’s fully dependent on your opponent whether your warband inspires at all.

Lurker is back, and fortunately the wording is of the improved variety. No more wondering over whether Stalagsquig can move if it gets Great Speed and no more people arguing that pushing Stalagsquig kills it. You just can’t put it into a feature token or starting hex, but otherwise the board is wide open. Interestingly, I think this means you can very happily plop Stalagsquig into a waystone hex and make it even tougher to shift by always getting a save re-roll and denying the space to your opponent.

Oh yeah, there’s also a little line at the end of Lurker that says the Stalagsquig is always counted as having a charge token. What?! That’s a massive change. Traditionally, you had to work around Stalagsquig and worry about your other fighters (particularly Mollog) charging, because you could never charge with Stalagsquig and thus reach the charged out state that enables you to activate fighters with charge tokens again in the same round. No longer do you have to pack cards like Headcase to give Stalagsquig a charge token, no longer do you have to try and bait your opponent into killing it, no longer are you tempted to Scream of Anger just to kill your rock dude so Mollog can take a second vital swing. This is probably the biggest change in how a warband plays with the fewest words.

The hits keep coming for Mollog with Troggoth Regeneration. He’s already a very difficult model to take down, but getting a guaranteed heal at the end of every round makes it even more painful. Sure, this might delay your inspire a little bit but who cares.

Unnatural Hazards grants Mollog’s squigs the same set of three “pick one” abilities from last time, but this time they’re all grouped under the same name. And, like last time, the correct call 90% of the time is going to be picking the option that makes enemies surrounded when they’re adjacent to a squig. This boosts the accuracy of the squigs through the roof, makes their saves much better than they appear against adjacent enemies, and still lets Mollog use them to boost his own accuracy of his threatening bonks. The stagger effect just isn’t as impactful as it needs to be, and the ping effect is only a 50/50 of doing anything. It could be a 100% chance of pinging and still have solid competition with the surrounded option.

Tag Along is how Mollog will leverage those surrounding squigs a lot of the time. A push of 2 can drag Spiteshroom or Batsquig along handily to provide the accuracy boost, or also just body block the enemy from being able to swarm Mollog. It also happens to play nicely with the Deadly Synergy deck, ensuring that Mollog can be united frequently.

Infestation is the only one-use ability on the warscroll but it’s a great one. Simply use it in any power step and raise a slain squig. The squig comes back with full health “in a starting hex” (note that it doesn’t say “friendly starting hex”) and conveniently comes with a charge token so Mollog isn’t disrupted in his Bonk Everything plan.

Fighters of Mollog’s Mob

Surprising no one familiar with Mollog, the bulk of the bounty for this warband is tied up in your leader. At 7 health and 1 shield, he can soak a bunch of hits – even more if you factor in his healing. Any defensive boosts that you apply to him tend to have an increased efficiency as well, just because he has more health and will stick around through more attacks. He’s only average in speed, so “just run away” is always a strategy that your opponent can employ so make sure you plan around that.

Mollog’s got a big hunk of mushroom studded rock that’s fairly accurate by itself and even moreso when his squigs are helping. He’s extra scary with his range 1 profile, able to dome a lot of fighters in a single hit even while uninspired. Picking up grievous on that profile once he flips is going to one-shot all but the most durable opponent. His range 2 profile is nothing to scoff at either because he can threaten a very large bubble of the board with it and brutal comes in handy, especially if the opponent is swarming Mollog in an attempt to drag him down.

Batsquig is the fastest fighter of the warband, plus it has fly. However, at a mere 3 health and 1 dodge, it isn’t going to soak hits remotely as well as Mollog. That said, if you pick the surround option for Unnatural Hazards, any fighters adjacent to Batsquig are attacking into a save dice that’s more reliable than a single shield is.

Offensively, Batsquig’s bite isn’t particularly damaging although it does at least go up to 2 damage when inspired. The accuracy is quite nice, however, when you’re rolling three dice and looking for anything but hammers (unless you are cursed with bad luck, that is). The accuracy that all the squigs sport is great for driving enemies back off of tokens or into range of Mollog.

Stalagsquig is one of the weirdest fighters in the game. It can’t move, even if you increase its movement above 0 somehow. Its lowish health is protected by a single shield save dice which is just enough to make the opponent question whether it’s even worthwhile to attack this fighter that can never move.

The rock’s attacks are slightly better than the rest of the squigs’ in the warband. Hitting on hammers increases the accuracy and it even picks up cleave when inspired. If an opponent happens to stand near Stalagsquig and all of your other fighters have already charged (since Stalagsquig is counted as always having a charge token), then he can do a phenomenal job of hitting something.

The weakest of the fighters in this warband, Spiteshroom’s average speed, mediocre health, and poor save means it will get squashed if the opponent wants to. The good news is that means the opponent didn’t apply three or more damage to Mollog, though.

Spiteshroom is not what you want to rely on for attacks. With a full surrounded state on its targets, it’s at least fairly accurate but it’s the worst profile of all the squigs.

Musings on Mollog’s Mob

If you’re playing Mollog’s Mob, it’s because you want to really flex the power of Mollog so you’ll want to find decks that can let you do that. Finding ways to push or reposition Mollog without hampering him with a charge token will ensure you can get as many swings off as possible. Those same tools often pull double duty in helping your squigs get around to set up surrounded states on Mollog’s targets.

Duellist is in a few decks now and is a potent effect to put onto any fighter with a solid range 2+ attack like Mollog. Ditto for Commanding Stride, with the added benefit that Mollog is tough enough to increase your chance of him still being around if you have to draw into your deck for the card. Teleport effects like Canny Sapper or Illusory Fighter can get around Mollog’s average speed and good ol’ Sidestep (and similar pushes) can provide extra positional assistance.

Defensive cards to keep Mollog around longer can frustrate opponents who are trying to take him out quick. Heals, increases or re-rolls for saves, and damage reduction can combine to keep him around long enough for the end-of-round healing to also kick in. It isn’t impossible for an enemy warband to deal 7 damage in a turn, but it’s much more difficult to deal 8 or 9 despite not being much further off.

All sorts of Nemesis pairings have done well with Mollog, including Andrew’s wild Reckless Fury/Realmstone Raiders pairing. Traditional aggro pairings with Blazing Assault are solid choices, and I could see the flexible CataWrack pairing enabling some fun plays.

Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers

Yet another Destruction warband featuring a big central model supported by little dorks, Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers return triumphantly waving their trap token around because now it actually does something. I was quite surprised with how much this warband resonated with me and am eager to hear if anyone else is as well.

Warscroll for Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers

A befitting a warband lead by such a big lad, the inspire is fully reliant on Hrothgorn. All he has to do is slay an enemy fighter with a melee attack. This won’t be free for sure, but Hrothgorn is at least capable of delivering the hurt with his melee profile.

Everwinter Ambush makes it so Thrafnir can share in the spotlight with Hrothgorn. The fact that you can deploy the cat in almost any hex in enemy territory gives you immense early game pressure if you are trying to go after a particular model, set up supports for an early round Hrothgorn attack, or distract the opponent for a round or two.

Ravenous Traps are basically the rest of the warband’s mechanics. This particular ability outlines when you place your first one (at the start of the first action step of the first battle round), where it goes (anywhere in friendly territory), and what it does (deals 2 damage to any fighter that enters the same hex as a trap). Dealing 2 damage is a lot, especially when it doesn’t require any rolling or necessarily take up your turn to do so. However, traps are indiscriminate and will happily munch your own fighters. I can already see me getting driven back into my own traps and feeling my soul leave my body.

What happens once your trap is triggered and is removed from the board? Are you left high and dry? No! There are always More Traps as long as any of your gnoblars are still around and kicking. There’s no limit on how many times you can use this ability as long as your traps keep trapping. It also doesn’t require an action which is great because you want to use as many of those on Hrothgorn as you can. There are some big downsides, however – a gnoblar has to be alive, and once we get to their stats we’ll see that is certainly no guarantee. The traps also have to be placed adjacent to a gnoblar, which means in order to get traps in the middle of a brawl, you’ll have to run these impressively terrible fighters into danger. And to top it all off, the dinky gnoblar will be standing right next to a trap with a stupid grin on their face as you pass the turn to your opponent.

Surprising Competence allows your gnoblars to shift a trap by running up to it. Again, not the smartest decision on the part of a gnoblar but what can you do. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see some kind of dice rolling requirement on this ability where if you roll a hammer then the trap explodes or something, but thankfully it’s just a flat out reliable ability. You’re not able to shift the trap by much, so make sure it’s in a good spot to begin with or you’ll be playing a particularly dangerous game of hot potato.

Fighters of Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers

The man ogre(?), the myth, the legend. Hrothgorn is surprisingly fast for being one of the few big brawler fighters in the game, but trades it off by “only” having 6 health. That’s quite a lot for any normal fighter, but less than the likes of Mollog or Blackpowder. He is, however, one of the only big boys who reaches 2 shields which goes a long way in protecting that health.

Offensively, Hrothgorn’s melee attack is of prime interest because it’s the gateway to inspiring the whole warband. At 2 hammers it’s fairly accurate, but you don’t want to bank on getting lucky with such an impactful attack so stack the odds in your favor with flanked/surrounded, extra attack dice, and/or re-rolls. Also, be certain that whatever you’re swinging at can die from his hit. A 3 health fighter can always crit out of death with a Stand Fast and then you’ll be sad.

One of the more interesting parts of Hrothgorn’s toolkit is his harpoon crossbow. It’s of middling accuracy, but having a range 3 attack is quite useful in general, and the fact that it has grapple is wonderful for nudging enemies into your trap. It picks up some additional accuracy once inspired which will be quite useful.

Thrafnir is Underworlds’ equivalent of the “teleports behind you nothing personal, kid” meme. Even discounting being able to set up nearly anywhere on the board, Thrafnir is highly mobile and can cover a lot of ground. A save of 2 dodge is alright but 3 health won’t last long.

I don’t love Thrafnir’s odds at landing an attack if you’re just starting out next to an enemy – 3 swords is risky, but being able to threaten the 2 damage off the bat can make your opponents shift their game plan. Thrafnir is your second best fighter in the warband, so don’t throw the good boy away without really good reason. Just because you can start in enemy territory doesn’t always mean it’s the right play.

Like Stalagsquig, I don’t see any reason why Thrafnir can’t start off in a waystone hex, which would both increase the accuracy of his attacks and the likelihood of surviving clap back.

And now we get to the gnoblars. Quiv is first up and I’ve always liked how they’re just using one of Hrothgorn’s crossbow bolts as an awkward melee weapon.

A piddling 2 health guarded by 1 dodge isn’t going to keep this model around if the enemy so much as looks at them sharply. If, by some miracle, they survive to inspire then at least picking up a second save dice will help as will the extra point of move to run away and/or get into position to place traps.

If you are ever making attacks that need to hit with Quiv, you’re in a bad spot. This is not accurate, nor is it painful. Try to avoid getting in that situation.

Defensively, Luggit and Thwak are the same as Quiv except they don’t even pick up the second dodge when inspired. I guess it is harder to dodge if someone is sitting on your shoulders and/or you’re behind held by the legs.

Rolling a single dice on attack is never something you want to be doing. Especially if the payoff is just a single damage. At least these idiots pick up stagger when inspired, although you still don’t want to rely on it landing.

If you thought the other gnoblars were bad, just take a look at this guy.

Musings on Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers

You could lean on the tried-and-true scoring capabilities of Pillage & Plunder quite nicely with Hrothgorn. Between finding uses for your gnoblar idiots, adding decent weapon upgrades to give them actual attacks, and the unique maneuverability of Canny Sapper for Hrothgorn, you’ve got a decent match.

Wrack & Ruin has the uniquely fun Barge which is fantastic if you want to push enemies into your traps. It’s also another way to give your gnoblars use and the rest of the deck has a nice assortment of scorable objectives and generally useful utility for your fighters.

The new Hunting Grounds could be an interesting match if you’re able to convince your opponent to enter your territory. By setting up traps in your half of the board, you don’t have to expose your gnoblars to quite as much direct danger. There’s even an enemy push ploy in that deck to make an enemy fighter run straight into a set trap!

Rippa’s Snarlfangs

This elite Strike warband was a fairly early release in the first edition of Underworlds and remained a strong competitive option throughout the entire life of the game. Rippa and his crew have returned, snapping jaws primed and ready for some savage bites.

Warscroll for Rippa’s Snarlfangs

The original version of Rippa’s Snarlfangs had a single inspire condition for the leader and a different one for Stabbit and Mean-Eye. This time around, there are still two ways to inspire but they now apply to any fighter – this extra flexibility is going to prove useful and will help ensure these wolf riders inspire quickly. The first method is one that you have full control over. Simply put two upgrades onto a fighter and they’ll inspire. I like how this adds some extra importance to 0-cost upgrades as a way to quickly shift your fighters to their improved stats. The other inspire method is going to hinge more on randomness and your luck because it requires making a successful attack with Snarlfang’s Jaws.

Snarlfang’s Jaws are helpfully described in the next section of the warscroll. Basically, all of your fighters have a unique runemark that are tied to this ability. If you make a successful attack while using that runemark, you can follow up with a second attack as described here. Unlike in the previous edition, you are restricted to attacking the same fighter that took the original hit, this attack cannot be modified, and you have to hit the initial attack to even be eligible to use Snarlfang’s Jaws. An extra limitation is that two of your fighters have attacks at greater than range 1, but if they aren’t adjacent to their target then they won’t be able to use the Jaws attack. The attack profile does change once the fighter is inspired, but going from 1 hammer to 2 swords isn’t much of an upgrade.

Pack Tactics is a fantastic push ability – being able to push three hexes if all of your fighters are alive is quite a lot. The downside of it having to be toward an enemy is negated if that’s what your plan is anyway. The ability is not optional once you use it, so all of your fighters will end up getting pushed. I don’t see many folks using Rippa’s to try and hold treasure tokens, but it could prove annoying if you are standing somewhere you want to be. Just don’t use it when standing on an Aqua Ghyranis token. Also note that this is during your power step, so your opponent has a turn to respond before you can activate again.

Smell Weakness is effectively adding brutal to your attacks while still allowing you to use your Snapping Jaws (or any other) weapon runemark. It also has the extra effect of working for attack rolls, so if you’re in a position where your fighters are getting ganged up on (completely boxed in by the Exiled Dead or being harassed by annoying squigs from Mollog’s Mob) this can make their attacks a little less accurate if you choose to forego using it for offense.

Duck and Dive guarantees the use of Stand Fast during one of your opponent’s attacks. Being able to have damage reduction and negating drive back on demand is great and messes with the opponent’s math pretty heavily. They have to decide whether they want to devote enough damage to overkill your fighter to prevent this effect from saving them, but if that’s the case you simply won’t use it and wait for another attack. This “you are treated as having rolled more crits” effect is definitely the designer flavor of the month because it shows up in a few places during this release, but I’m quite fond of it.

Fighters of Rippa’s Snarlfangs

The leader sets the trend for this warband in many ways. They’re a little above average in move speed to start with, then really pick up the gas and reach move 5 once inspired. Defensively, all the fighters start on 1 shield and inspire to 2 dodge – this is a tiny change to overall save successes against most attacks. Additionally, they’re all rocking 5 health which is above average for an individual fighter but spot on for a 3 fighter elite warband like the Snarlfangs.

Rippa is the only one of your fighters who is restricted to range 1 attacks. While this means he lacks flexibility, at least all of his successful attacks will be in range to trigger Snarlfang’s Jaws so his wolf can attempt to bite. The accuracy while uninspired is nothing to be excited about, but once he gains two upgrades (or gets lucky with a wolf bite) the accuracy jumps up substantially.

Rippa threatens being able to do 4 damage right out of the gate which is virtually unheard of. That puts him in the same category as the Wielder of the Blade or other prime melee focused fighters who also have support through effects like Twist the Knife. The vast majority of fighters in the game are vulnerable to being taken out in a single activation. However, it’s only going to happen relatively rarely. Rippa has to first land a 3 sword attack and then land the follow-up bite. It isn’t something the Rippa player can rely on, but it’s absolutely something the opposing player has to take into account and be prepared to have happen.

Stabbit rocks the exact same defensive profile as Rippa, except he’s only worth 2 bounty.

This fighter is armed with a spear to get a little more reach which is always useful, but the downside of not being able to utilize the wolf bite makes the trade off rather steep. Also, the “upgrade” in accuracy once inspired is hardly worth chasing after. Stabbit does have grapple as a runemark, but if you choose to use that you won’t be able to wolf bite. That at least gives Stabbit some extra utility to do when attacking from 2 hexes away.

Mean Eye rocks the same base stats as the others in this warband. My leaky brain likes it when all my fighters have the same stats so I don’t have to try and remember as much!

The final fighter in the warband also rocks the longest range attack, although it’s also the least accurate. Starting at 2 swords is extra terrible considering it’s a three fighter warband and Mean Eye has no other profile to choose from. No other elite warband is burdened with a fighter who can’t hit the broad side of a barn. At least he has ensnare to very minorly increase chances of landing successful attacks against some targets.

Musings on Rippa’s Snarlfangs

These goblins were an off-and-on force to be reckoned with in the previous edition of the game, but many of their strengths have been neutered here. Stabbit and Mean Eye are the ones hit hardest by wolf bites not being able to go after a different target from the initial goblin attack. The previous ability to leverage their increased range to tap enemy fighters further away while taking a pot-shot bite at an adjacent enemy was massive, but now in order to try and gamble on these additional wolf bites you have to put your ranged fighters up close. Additionally, now that the bite attacks can’t even be attempted unless the first attack is successful, their overall damage output is going to suffer.

You’re left with a 3 fighter aggro warband where one fighter is rarely going to hit anything unless you put a lot of effort into it. The damage output on all your fighters is very reliant on randomness – you have to land the initial attack, then land the follow-up bite attack. It lends the warband a strong casino feel where you’re relying on your dice even more than the average aggressive warband.

For decks, as mentioned earlier you have an extra incentive to take 0 cost upgrades to inspire your fighters (particularly Rippa) earlier. Rippa is also your biggest offensive threat, so having ways to shuffle him around the board to keep making attacks will come in handy, so the typical suite of pushes and placement effects will continue to be useful here. Any effects to increase accuracy are extra useful because landing the initial hit will unlock the follow-up bite opportunity, but keep in mind the bites themselves can’t be modified. This means many effects won’t be able to help their accuracy. Raging Slayers is a potential inclusion here for the re-rolls from the plot card; I believe these would still carry over to the Snarlfang’s Jaws attacks. You could go all in on making this an aggro warband and sort of treat your fighters as if they deal 4/3/3 damage respectively… if you can get lucky enough and/or weigh the odds in your favor enough.

A unique effect that the warband has is the ability to make more attacks than usual in a round, so (with a little cooperation from your dice) objectives like Keep Chopping from Blazing Assault and Lead by Example from Hunting Grounds will be trivial to complete quite often.

Zarbag’s Gitz

Normally, this is where I’d try to come up with some halfway amusing introduction to this warband to prep us for reviewing their rules, but I’m going to skip that to address the elephant in the room with this release. This warband was one of the 13 lucky ones who received free rules last year when this edition was released, and they were incredibly strong. Since their initial debut in Embergard, Zargbag’s Gitz have received multiple individual nerfs to their warband and even after those nerfs they were rightfully considered one of the strongest, if not the strongest option when someone wanted to win.

I was hoping the re-release to take these changes into account and provide us a more balanced option for this powerhouse. I was fearing that it would just be a reprint of their initial release, requiring an application of a nerf hammer to bring them back in line. Turns out the worst case scenario I dreamed up wasn’t going far enough. Not only does this iteration not include any of the adjustments to try and bring the Gitz in line with other options, but they have multiple new and very strong abilities added on top of their already busted baseline.

The existence of this warband in this state is actively bad for the game because they are basically the best at everything. Trying to make an aggro deck? Take the warband with five fighters starting on 2+ damage and five fighters with ranged attacks. Trying to make a feature token based deck? Take the warband with 9 fighters who have solid action economy with Slippery Gitz. Need something to counter an aggressive strategy? They have 21 total health (the largest in the game) and now explode when they die to inflict at least 7 guaranteed damage into enemy range 1 attackers.

It boggles my mind that (a) design saw the state that the previous version of this warband was in and decided that wasn’t enough, and (b) this went all the way through testing and got to the printers in this state. It’s impossible for anyone even halfway familiar with the game to see this warband and not think it is a problem. If nothing changes before the Warhammer World Championship in November, I would not be surprised to see this warband making up over half of the field.

Mistakes happen. I understand that everyone involved in this game is human and sometimes things might slip through. I am generally very positive about this game, but seeing something like this make it to print worries me a bit for the health of the game. Not even the Gorechosen of Dromm, which were taken by 37% of the competitors at the World Championships last year, were this egregious but they did receive some solid nerfs to bring them in line with the rest of the options in the game… eventually. I’m hopeful that the Gitz will also receive the multiple, substantial adjustments they need and that they come in a timely manner before they disrupt what is supposed to be the premier event for this game while also souring this entire release that’s otherwise pretty interesting.

Warscroll for Zarbag’s Gitz

The Gitz are back to inspiring quite quickly. Previously, it was tied to both glory gained and slain friendly fighters meaning if the warband was doing better, they wouldn’t inspire as quickly. Now it’s straightforward – simply gain glory (which is what any player in the game is trying to do anyway) and then your entire warband inspires at once.

Squig Herder is the mechanic that allows a nine fighter warband to function on boards with only seven starting hexes. This comes back unchanged from before, although it’s worth noting that all of the waystone hexes on the new board have starting hexes adjacent to them which means a squig can pop up in there for a little extra defensive power before activating.

Spinnin’ combines all of the separately individual rules for Snirk into one rule. He still can’t gain guard tokens (thankfully) and now the 1 damage dealt to anyone who enters a hex next to Snirk is no longer worded as a strange required surge ability – it’s simply an always-in-effect rule.

Volley on the three archers returns, but with a slight buff – now the additional attack is completely unrestricted in range or target instead of needing to be within a certain distance, so if any of your volley fighters makes a successful attack then another one can follow up regardless of where they are located on the board as long as they have anything to shoot at. Hardly the most problematic ability historically, but it getting any kind of buff was still surprising.

Slippery Gitz replaces the old Scurry. Scurry went through a few changes to get to a relatively balanced but still very strong point. Slippery Gitz walks it almost all the way back to the beginning in the blatantly overpowered state. The wording has changed but the effect is still the same barring two tweaks. The first is that your squigs are no longer eligible to be chosen for the free move when another fighter moves. It’s worth pointing out that they still most assuredly can be the first fighter to kick off a movement chain, however. The second difference is that this printing removed the limitation of only using the ability once per turn that had to be added in an update. There’s nothing stopping a Gitz player from scurrying multiple times in the same power step, getting absolutely stupid amounts of action efficiency in a game where one of the main mechanics is limiting each player to 12 actions. The most egregious part is that the original printing last year had this same issue and was addressed in an update because it was just far too much, but apparently the Spitewood printing was deemed to not need it for whatever reason.

Fungal Burst is a completely new ability for the Gitz and it’s baffling not only why it was added but why it’s in this particular state. There’s a 100% chance that all of your grots (so anything not a squig) will deal 1 damage to their adjacent attacker when slain. That’s seven damage guaranteed against any range 1 melee opponent without the Gitz player having to do anything. It’s really 8 if you factor in the fact that a range 1 warband has to get close to Snirk to hit him. That’s half of most warband’s total health values in damage without the Zarbag player having to do anything.

Compare this ability to The Velmorn Curse in Sons of Velmorn. That’s also a guaranteed damage dealt to an attacker when the model is slain, but only after the model has a raise token. The Sepulchral Guard have another similar ability in Bone Shrapnel, but that’s limited to once per game. There’s no reason for this to exist at all but if it had to be here, it should at least be restricted in how many times it can be used and/or only have it go off on a particular roll of an attack dice after the model is slain.

Gang Up is yet another completely new ability for the warband. Now, the warband with 9 fighters with superb movement efficiency who absolutely saturate the board, also can turn that board presence into increased accuracy on any of their surprisingly solid attacks. Expect the 3 damage Snirk attack, balanced by only having a 2 sword attack profile, to be rolling 4+ dice and doing a convincing Kro-Jax impression regularly. Even when used on one of the “average” fighters like a squig, Drizgit, or Zarbag, you’re getting a fist full of dice looking for hammers.

Make Some Noise! has precisely one redeeming quality – I’m pretending it’s a reference to the Game Changer spin-off show from Drop Out TV. It’s (say it with me) an entirely new, powerful ability added to the warscroll. Being able to push two of your most potent fighters – who aren’t even worth bounty anymore! – two hexes each gives them a substantially longer threat range than normal. To add insult to injury, unlike many similar push effects this one can be done in any power step, not just your own. This means it can be used to set up charges from the squigs without the opponent ever getting a chance to respond.

Fighters of Zarbag’s Gitz

Zarbag’s your leader, and he’s a top contender for best single bounty fighter. He’s in a three-way tie for having the most health in this warband at 3 which isn’t a lot, but he is on double dodge for defense which will help keep him around a bit longer than the rest of the warband.

This is one of the 2 damage profiles the warband has access to from the get-go. It’s not insanely accurate before inspiring, but given the raw number of bodies you have on the board along with the movement and push shenanigans from the warscroll, it’s hardly a stretch to assume you’ll at least have something flanking your target which rockets it up. Once inspired it’s just a flat out good attack. What’s bonkers to me is the ranged profile. It’s quite accurate to start with and jumps up to 4 hammers once inspired.

Snirk is a valuable damage dealing tool for the warband. He also starts on the same defense as Zarbag but shoots up to 3 dodge once inspired which will make him quite frustrating to deal with, especially for any warbands that have to close within 1 range to deal with him due to the Spinnin’ rule.

He has one of the least accurate attacks of the group, but it hits for 3 damage. Aside from the normal benefit from flanked/surrounded, you can also leverage Gang Up to get this beefy attack to land when you need it.

Snirk’s also quite potent at plopping down somewhere and being a zone denial piece. Not many fighters want to run past him and take a damage (or more, depending on their path!).

Drizgit’s the squig herder and the only model in this warband who is on a shield save dice. Otherwise, his defensive stats are the same as the first two models we’ve covered.

Offensively, Drizgit’s another 2 damage attacker with surprisingly decent accuracy for being 1/9 of a warband. Once inspired, he’s as accurate as most dedicated melee brawlers.

The two squigs are identical so they’re lumped together. While they have the same speed as the rest of the warband, they have an intuitively long reach at the start of the game. They have to be set up adjacent to Drizgit, so they can be pushed forward a bit – there are board orientations where they can even start in neutral or enemy territory. They also have fly, helping them get over the traffic jam that can happen when your board is filled with goblins. Finally, the warscroll push shoves each of them 2 hexes and can be done right before your activation to set up a squig missile and/or a Slippery Gitz set-up. As 0 bounty fighters, they’re also particularly annoying to jam into your opponent’s face because there’s no innate reward for dealing with them.

They share the same attack profile as Drizgit, rounding out the warband’s 2 damage fighters. As squigs and not grots, they won’t contribute to making Gang Up more accurate but they are still able to take advantage of it to boost their own accuracy if you so wish.

The first of the four fighters with range 3 weapons, we have Prog da Netter. He’s rocking the bog standard grot stats but also wields a fairly accurate range 3 net. It technically gets more accurate once he inspires, but only against dodge targets due to picking up ensnare.

The three archers of the group also share identical stats, so they’re also grouped together here. Defensively, nothing new here.

Offensively, they all share the volley runemark which means that if any one of them is able to land their (admittedly very inaccurate) bow shot, another one of the archers gets a chance to shoot as well. There’s no restriction on this follow up shot, so feel free to shoot the same target or whatever else your grot can see.

Musings on Zarbag’s Gitz

Fuck this warband. It’s a danger to the health of a wonderful game that’s already on the fringes because of its relatively small, but dedicated, player base. I would be willing to take anyone who has played even just ten games of Underworlds and ask them to evaluate the power of this warband. I’m confident the majority of gamers would be able to easily identify it as a problem, which makes me wonder why it was able to get all the way through design, play testing, and printing in this state. I struggle to see how it could have gotten to this point for any reason other than it being someone’s pet warband, but I’d also like to think that’s not the attitude of the people behind the game I’ve come to enjoy so deeply over the last few years.

It really sucks because “cheeky weird goblins and squigs” are an incredibly popular archetype of the setting. They also have the distinction of having nine fighters which could be a really cool stand-out feature. There’s a ton of design space within this warband and I’m just sad that it’s instead taking the role of “overpowered BS” instead of any unique niche it could have instead.

Zarbag’s Gitz could be a fun and balanced warband, but getting there from this starting point is going to require Games Workshop to be willing to do some emergency fast and brutal work. The fact that this release is so insanely close to the premier event at the World Championship of Warhammer and will be legal there is not a good look at all. I’m not particularly excited about seeing the Gitz mirror match over and over and over through those four days.

As for decks to pair with the warband? Whatever you want. It’s going to be hard to charge out nine fighters, so maybe don’t take Reckless Fury. Or do and just throw all your fighters into the garbage disposal of the enemy and still win through attrition.

If things were different and 2-3 of the warscroll abilities just flat out weren’t there and/or fighter stats were reduced? This warband has traditionally been great at spreading out and taking over all the tokens on the board, so Pillage & Plunder is still fantastic. If your models didn’t punch so hard above their weight class, you could leverage their swarm tactics and count on being united through Deadly Synergy to be able to gang up on enemy models. Having a metric ton of fighters who start tempered also makes Edge of the Knife an obvious choice.

Final Thoughts

That really ended on a low note. I am disappointed in how Zarbag’s Gitz have been released, but I am a lot more positive on the other three warbands. Mollog has a few tweaks that make him even scarier; I’d say I was slightly worried about his impact on the meta, but the bar for that is so high with Zarbag that it’s orbiting the planet. Hrothgorn appeals to me for reasons I can’t quite articulate. I had no interest in that warband before seeing this release, and now I can’t stop trying to think of ways to make it work. Rippa’s Snarlfangs feel like they’ve had their teeth pulled from the last times they’d been legal, but maybe there’s something there – they’re quite fast and hearty, and if you’re the kind of person who likes randomness you might appreciate them for that.

Four warbands down, but there are plenty left to go! If you’re still eager for more, dive into the rest of the Goonhammer coverage of the Spitewood releases!

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