by Peter Atkinson

They say the best things come to wait.  Well we bought the army, we painted it up, and here we are just one entire edition later with a glass-hammer army that can belt out a ton of mortal wounds when the stars align, and a bunch of sneaky tricks to help you get there.  Kruleboyz can finally fight on their own terms, and in AOS4 it feels like the army it was always supposed to be.

The learning curve for Kruleboyz has always been stiff: that hasn’t changed. Your army will still evaporate if you stuff it up, and it’s very easy to stuff it up. What has changed is that you’ve got the tools to work with to warp the game around your will, and when you do pull it off, the explosive pay-off is there.

The really exciting thing about this Faction pack is that if you’re not stressed about top-end competitive play, it gives you realistic options to have a lot of fun spiking 6s with the army’s beautiful miniatures and monsters. I’ll be posting up two lists covering both competitive and casual angles at the end of this article, so let’s get into it.

Before we start: Where’s the damage coming from?

The big change that’s easily missed on a skim-read is how Crit (Mortal) works now.  The universal Crit (Mortal) ability is tied directly to the Damage characteristic of a given weapon:

So if there’s a way to increase your damage characteristic (which there is in this book), then any Crits you bang out will benefit – which is a long way of saying that if you buff a unit of Gutrippaz with the Venom Encrusted Weapons battle trait (more on this below), and then also apply the Croc’s Sludgeraker Venom ability, every 5+ will be 2 mortal wounds and your normal attacks will all be Damage 2 as well:

So that’s the combo, and I’ve already seen experienced players get this wrong in every way possible:

• You can bang out 2 mortals on every 5+.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking that when fully buffed, you need to hit the 6 for two mortals while every 5 is only one Mortal: that’s 3^rd Ed thinking.  If you combo up VEW with SV, you get the full two mortals on every natural 5 and 6.  That’s the raw power of this army now, and you’re gonna be swinging away feeling like you’ve got a nuclear bomb strapped to both fists.
• The extra damage does not just apply to Crits.  With Sludgeraker Venom, you get Damage 2 on all of your attacks – so while popping those Crit Mortals is clearly amazing, the idea that “Crits are all you’re fishing for” is, again, pure 3^rd Ed thinking.  2+ armour saves are extremely rare, all of your attacks matter, and every dice you can force through that armour save is high-impact.
• Both Venom buffs can only activate on your own turn.  So while you can fight first on your opponent’s turn (as we’re about to see), you won’t have the full wombo-combo online when you do.  Your output at Damage 1 can still be solid, but you can’t just assume you’ll annihilate anything you touch.  Conversely – if you’re playing against Kruleboyz, don’t allow your opponent to make a “mistake” in their own favour here.

There’s a further bit of nuance that the VEW Dirty Trick will last right through to your next turn, but the SV ability will not: so you might be cracking out mortals on a 5+ in your opponent’s turn if you’ve already activated it, but you won’t have the Damage 2. 

Apologies if I’m teaching you to suck eggs there, but I’ve seen a lot of experienced players stumble on all of the above points, so it does bear laying it all out. Anyway. That’s where the damage is coming from in your dream scenario, so let’s take a proper look at how we get there.

Battle Traits

You only get one, but it’s a banger. 

You can try three of the four on both players’ turns: VEW is on your turn only.  Each time you attempt one, the next attempt gets more tricky in an escalating game of push-your-luck.  They’re strung out across the phases and hugely impactful, so the whole thing is a constantly-changing conundrum.  Let’s go through them in Phase order.

Venom-Encrusted Weapons is an absolute staple, and a core component of the Crit (Mortal) mega-combo outlined above.  Whether you’re playing with or against Kruleboyz, you really need to focus in on that timing: Your Hero Phase. 

The implications here being:

• You need to remember to declare this in the hero phase.  It feels like a combat phase ability, but it’s not your opponent’s fault if you forgot to do it until Combat rolls around. There’s so much water under the bridge by that point that I feel like if you forgot to declare, you just need to wear that mistake and learn from it.
• You can’t do it in your opponent’s turn.  Easily missed or forgotten because all the other Tricks are “Any”.  So as outlined above, the fights-first combo with Noisy Racket (see below) may not be quite as devastating as you would think unless you’ve already got this online – because it will last through to your next turn.

An absolute staple of the army, and a key part of making Kruleboyz tick.

Noisy Racket.  We love Noisy Racket, because it gives some much-needed play in Activation Wars.  Can you imagine charging a unit of eye-wateringly expensive Brutes into some Gutrippaz, then they make you fight last and just bang mortals right through your premium 3+ save?  Simply devastating into the right targets. 

It’s important to understand how much double turn insurance is built in here.  Fighting first is double-turn insurance by its nature, and because it lasts right through until your next turn, VEW could already be online from the previous Battle Round.  So when your opponent takes the double, that resets the clock on your Dirty Tricks rolls, bringing them back down to a 2+ even though you already have one online – and when their combat phase rolls around at the top of the round, you’ll be poised on a nice, low Dirty Tricks roll to make them fight last.  The way it interacts with Noisy Racket means there’s a really strong case to invest in VEW whenever you’re going first in the battle round and staring down the barrel of a double turn against you, because you’ll often continue to get the benefit for “free” in terms of it not hurting your DT roll for Noisy Racket in the next round.

Lethal Surprise might not look sexy, but a couple of early menaces of the meta (Hexwraiths and Varanguard) benefit tremendously from extra Charge damage.  Is it enough to save you in those matchups?  Maybe not, although we do have a few other defensive tools we can stack up; and it might at least force The Karens to play their Fight Twice hand early and get it out of the way.

Sneaky Sneakin’ is just beautiful.  As my friend and colleague Calvin once wrote: Age of Sigmar is a movement game, with some killing happening in-between movement phases.  A free teleport on both players’ turns has near-limitless power and potential.

Just to give you a few ideas:

• Teleport some shooty boiz up the board to get an angle on a Hero.  And potentially within 12” sniping range, too
• Dump a cheap unit into a far corner to capture Terrain and score a BT
• Deny Battle Tactics with a dizzying array of dick moves, such as teleporting a unit they need to kill for a battle tactic (e.g. the last member of your General’s Regiment) way the hell over there

All of them are good, but this trick specifically is what we’re here for.  Unlimited potential.  And it’s there to surprise your opponent by design – don’t be coming at me with those puppy-dog eyes when you realise I’ve scuppered your plans.  It’s not a “Gotcha”, it’s a sneaky trick, and it’s what we do.

All in all, Dirty Tricks is just an absolute masterpiece.  You’ll need to read the game-state and decide whether or take the teleport or preserve the probability for Fights First, and then you’ve got the considerations around whose turn it is and whether or not you’re at the top of the Round – so many decision points and such an elegant piece of design. 

Battle Formations

Sad news for all those hardcore Skuttlebugz players with the iconic logo tattooed on their biceps: it’s gone.  Seriously though, have GW ever written a worse rule than that?  So useless they simply abandoned it in the rolling 3^rd Ed FAQs, and just fixed the salvageable subfactions instead.

Anyway. The good news is that we’ve now got three solid options from the four available.  I think you could experiment, mess around with listbuilding options and not get bored of Kruleboyz even if you mained this index for a very long time.

Kruleboyz Klaw is your anti-shooting choice.  3” however is way too miserly – you’ll easily fit your foot heroes in that slot, but they’d usually be Guarded Heroes anyway; shooting units will be fine, and troops like Gutrippaz will also plausibly fit.  But you’ll have to hit lucky and get a conventiently L-shaped terrain piece to will save your Croc from getting banged off by rats or Order wankers. 

Important to note that Sniper abilities on Jezzails and Longstrikes are both worded to ignore Guarded Hero specifically, so Swamp Shroud will protect your Swamp Shammies from those menaces.  For that reason alone, this subfaction does come under consideration.  I just wish this rule was written with the army’s base sizes in mind.  6” would be more practical but even 4” would let you hug terrain with larger-based heroes, without allowing you take the piss and string Gutrippaz right out across the board.  If it’s not stopping your Croc getting blasted off the board then it’s just not fit for purpose.  It just feels like this rule was written by somebody who’s never played a game with Kruleboyz and probably never will.

Middul Finga is of little interest.  Maybe you can play keepaway and dance around the edge of your threat range, leaving long charges?  It doesn’t help you get around Guarded Hero though, and if I was running a shooting list I’d probably be hiding Boltboyz around cover for an “I can shoot you, but you can’t shoot me” skew list in Kruleboyz Klaw. Ultimately I just do not think you will see this one much and I’m going to strike a line through it for now.

Light Finga is my favourite.  I’m going to go out to bat for this one, based mainly on my experience of playing Ironsunz in the last GHB.  There’s a strong current of opinion that this Formation is a trap: pounding that Dirty Tricks roll is draining a scarce resource and you’ll just end up shafting yourself.  So if you double teleport, you’ll quickly need to hit high rolls later in the Round, and maybe screw yourself out of an important Strikes Last later down the track.

That situation could certainly occur, but allow me to paint you a different picture.  Whenever people first started playing Ironsunz, in their head they were going to countercharge with 2x or 3x units every turn (thanks to the Megaboss multi-banging commands), and just swarm all over the place.  In practice, you used it to swing one crucial combat your way and completely flip the game around, maybe ramming some Brutes into a 1-wound unit to switch off their objective control too.

I see Light Finga in exactly the same vein.  You look at it, you think it means double-teleporting every turn, and after briefly getting excited you conclude that it zaps your Tricks rolls too hard and write it off as a trap.  But that’s not how I’d be using it at all.

How I see myself using it is sparingly, as a game-clinching move at a key moment – just like the Ironsunz countercharge.  Your opponent moves in and your army scatters to the four winds; you drop two units of Boltboyz into the backfield to grab objectives and deliver enough Dakka to knock over a key unit; and probably most importantly of all, you have a Plan B when you fail that first roll. 

That’s why the “diminishing returns” knock on this ability (that the second-most important teleport in a given turn is inherently less valuable than the first-most important) doesn’t really hold water – it’s actually one of the biggest powers of this subfaction that when you really, really need to get that one teleport off, and fail the roll, you have second bite at the cherry.  The power of this ability is that it’s there to reliably deliver that one clutch teleport, moreso than it is to spam them.

So the first time that you fail the 2+ attempt and hit the 3+ instead, you can come back here and thank me.  What I’m certainly not doing is using this ability to punt unit after unit of Gutrippaz up the board and praying for 9” charges. 

Lucky Last is Trophy Finga, which is a good all-rounder and finally gives the faction a workable Monster Mash subfaction.  Worth mentioning at this point that the Mirebrute has now been upgraded to Monster status, meaning that he benefits from this rule too.  Pretty sweet.

I’ve seen people discussing whether you can use this exploding 6s ability on the Companions, and also use Crit (Mortal) on the Orruks riding them?  It’s a discussion for another day and I don’t want to bog this article down too much, but that’s a yes from me dawg.

Artefacts

All three of these are of interest.

Eye-Biter Ash  is excellent defensive tech.  Thank Gork they resisted the temptation to make it a bloody 3+ or something.  Can layer it up with the Choking Mist spell to really cripple a key enemy unit, but I think it’s generally out-muscled by the broader application of the next one.

Mork’s Eye Pebble is a staple and the one you’ll take most often.  A 5++ ward is serious business, and it’s great that you can use it in either shooting or combat.  The default choice and deservedly so.

Swamp Staff isn’t a bad pick if you can only fit in one Wizard.  Generally best-placed on a Swamp Shammy because of his +1 to cast, and you’ll also get the extra Cast / Banishment by elevating the power level on an actual Wizard (and not just an Unbind).  I’d be trying really hard to squeeze in a second Shammy so you can afford to take Mork’s Eye Pebble, but if that’s not possible, strongly consider taking the Staff.

Heroic Traits

Again we’ve got a couple of good options, and again I’m leaning to the most defensive selection.

Egomaniak is crucial for keeping your Croc alive.  Worth noting that the cheapest wounds in the army are Gutrippaz and Monsta Killaz (there’s barely roundings between their points cost per wound), and not Hobgrots.  So the Orruk troops are your prime target for palming off damage.

Backstabba is fine, and can combo up with the Croc’s end of turn Rampage to unexpectedly pop an enemy unit and tilt the equation.  But realistically it’s the one you’ll see least.

Slippery Skumbag is both fun and useful. Bear in mind you use this ability before units start fighting, so you can just nope out of combat when you get charged.  Noting that you’ll need to end up 3”+ away from enemy units, this is exponentially better on units with a long move, and best of all on those with a long flying move.  So you’re not taking this on a 5” move Swampcalla – really, this is your Vulcha’s Trait and we’ll cover some of the cool stuff he can do when we tackle the Warscrolls shortly.  Not bad on a Croc either, but I do think he prefers Egomaniak.

Overall I’ve been taking Egomaniak most often in my own lists, because the Croc is mission-critical.  If you’ve already invested in the Pebble, Slippery Skumbag is a strong alternative, being cool and fun yet still competitive enough to be worth taking.

Spells

What are the two sweetest words in the English language? De-Buff!

We’ve got a whole bunch of defensive tech here to get into.

Da Black Pit is not terribly exciting.

Choking Mist however very much is.  Wholly 18” is a good range and note that it lasts all the way through to the end of your next turn.  We can layer up plenty of debuffs as you’ll see in the Combos section below and this spell is right at the heart of it.  CV 7 is a tricky old cast, but we do have a native +1 on the Shammy so it’s a decent shout for casting on your opponent’s turn, particularly if you can find a handy Place of Power – which is all the more feasible given this spell’s generous range. The star of the Lore.

Mork’s Kunnin’ is Mystic Shield but for Koolboyz.  Can layer it up with the Swampcalla’s Foul Elixirs to stack +2 to save on a unit (and offset rend), or protect multiple different units.  The army doesn’t have the great armour saves to really abuse this but it’s always most welcome.

This is an excellent Spell Lore, and a great argument for taking double Shammies – you’ll often be wanting to cast one or more, plus a Mani. The power of this Lore is also an argument for the Swamp Staff artefact if you don’t have two Wizards.

Preferred Manifestation Lores

We don’t have our own, so nobody can shit-talk you for taking the easy route and putting Morbid Conjuration in your list. “Morbid until nerf” is always a good starting point.

If you can only fit one Shammy, I’d maybe look at taking Krondspine instead. Having that burst of pace from the 3D6″ charge will help, and the dedicated Manifestation-hunter can open up spaces for your teleports that they can otherwise annoyingly zone out.

Make those two your shortlist and fuck the haters.

Listbuilding Considerations

Kruleboyz has always been an army that labours to smash chaff off the board.  With all those mortals you could light up elite-armour units like Stormcast (and now Ironjawz) for fun, but then you’d have to throw the absolute kitchen sink at 20 Clanrats or Grots.  It just wasn’t feasible to devote that many resources, and leave yourself that exposed, for what should be a fairly minor task.

There is, still, an element of that.  You’re going to need a certain volume of reliable damage from somewhere, and throwing 600 points of buffs and combat units into a screen ain’t it.  The way I see it, your options are:

• Endless Spells.  Since we’re probably taking Morbid, Suffocating Gravetide is a dedicated anti-horde piece, and blasting away a third of a reinforced unit will certainly help you on your way.  And then it’ll start smacking them with rend 1 damage 2 attacks and hitting on 2s because it’s comically broken fine.
• Our own combat units are actually a lot better than they used to be at fighting chaff.  Gutrippaz wounding on 3s (as Orruks should) and baseline rend 1 for the Monsta Killaz puts you back in the conversation.  An unbuffed unit at least has a chance of knocking down say 20 Clanrats to the point were you out-cap them, which is fair enough for what both units are.  If you want to reliably blast them off the table it’ll cost you a bit more, but it’s not the absolute drudgery it used to be.
• Feeling adventurous?  May I recommend One-Eyed Grunnock pour monsieur this evening?  His Club attacks are uncapped (20x damage 2 attacks into a reinforced unit of 40 models) and the -1 to hit is really handy.  He’s also a great anvil for a fragile army with little recursion, and priced to move at 440.  The main knock on him is that this is still a buffing army with a lot of its own expensive heroes that are near-essential.

When push comes to shove, your foot troops (Gutrippaz and Monsta Killaz) are efficient and powerful.  You need a Sludgeraker to make them sing, a Swamp Shaman or two to play the Edition and a unit of 6x Boltboyz to abuse Covering Fire for as long as GW are sticking to the idea that 1 CP is a reasonable cost. 

There’s a lot of highly desirable options to build out from there, but your “core essentials” starting point probably looks something like this:

Kruleboyz

Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (320)
– 20 x Gutrippaz (340)

Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (120)
– 7 x Kruleboyz Monsta-killaz (120)
– 6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (220)

[Lore of the Swamp]
[Morbid Conjuration]

1120/2000pts
2 drops

That’s actually quite a big commitment locked in, but every competitive Kruleboyz list I’m writing currently would start with that scaffolding and build out from there. There’s a few angles you can run with that last 880 points, plus Kragnos and Merc-Mega builds to explore, and if you’re not arsed about gunning for a podium then the swamp’s your oyster. As you’ll see with one of the lists I’ve written at the end.

Activation Wars

Your biggest play in this space is the Noisy Racket Trick.  If it’s going to be critical, you can save your rolls and get it popping on a 2+, which is about as good as you could reasonably ask for.

Note that Monsta Killaz also have a bit of play in this space:

There’s some obvious synergy here with Covering Fire, to pop in some damage on the charging unit and get them fighting last on a 2+, or even the Lethal Surprise Trick which can pop out a cheeky D3 damage to help you.  You can combo both of these abilities to get, say, Bela’Kunt and the Karens both fighting last – that’s not bad.

Warscroll Focus

This army is still waiting for its second wave, and Gnashtoof Riders leave a gaping hole in the range.  Let’s split these into a few sections and see what we’ve got to play with.

Monsters

Kragnos does Kragnos things.  Not a bad pick in an army that will be teleporting around the board – Sneaky Sneakin’ only works on Infantry models, so you can’t teleport Kraggy himself, but he’ll help some buffed Gutrippaz (for example) stick the 9” charge. You’ll also see some clear synergy with the Vulcha in a moment.  Old Donkey Dick will see a bit of play in this army.

Both Crocs are cool, but it’s the generic Sludgeraker that will be a staple.  They’ve lost their snatch (boo!) but can still bang a bit in their own right, as well as supporting your army.  Skumdrekk specifically boosts Hobgrots – you’d never take him unless you’re gunning for the mortal stack with Kountin’ Krew.  We’ve addressed this separately and in detail but the TLDR is that I think it’s a trap and I’m putting a line through him for now.

So how about that generic Sludgeraker?  Well now you’re talking!  This is a 1-2 unit by which I mean you’ll have one in literally every list you write, and sometimes two. The key to unlocking this unit and by extension the entire army is that Sludgeraker Venom ability:

Banging out 2 mortal damage on every crit is a game-changer, and when you combine it with the VEW trick, you’re looking at 2 mortal damage on every 5+ from a whole bucket of attacks.  He turns a unit of reinforced Gutrippaz into a relentless poison-slinging nightmare, and even a basic unit of Monsta Killaz becomes a force to be reckoned with. 

Having to roll two consecutive 2+s is less automatic than you think though, and that’s the best it’ll ever be, so prepare to be outraged when you do everything right and get randomly fucked by your dice.  This unit is nonetheless indispensable, and yet he’s not that hard to kill (14 wounds on a 4+ will melt), so build your lists around keeping him alive: either through tech (Enhancements), redundancy (taking a couple of them) – or both.

Gobsprakk, by contrast, is woeful at 380 points.  It would be easy to skip over this crashing disappointment but it bears emphasizing just dirty they’ve done poor Gobbalicious.  Remember all that guff in the launch phase about the dev team taking a close look at every model and writing appropriate rules?  Gobby famously has a Lord of Change’s severed hand as a trophy, and what part of this warscroll would ever result in him taking the scalp of a Lord of Change?  Fundamentally he’s just not fit for purpose: this is a Monster Wizard, who can’t fight worth a damn and is casting from scratch. 

Gobby’s USP is that he gets one unbind once per game with 3D6.  Whoop de friggin’ doop.  380 points for one good unbind?  In a world where Bela’Kunt costs 410?  I confidently predict that hipsters will (A) Tell me I’ve got it wrong and 380 points is fine, and (B) Never actually run him at 380 points themselves.

I’ve seen GW follow this path with armies I love so many times, and I’m sick of it.  Give them shit rules, drive them away from being seen on the table, and the pattern is set for more shit rules next time, because you’ve established the expectation that they’re a useless piece of crap.  Also known as the Fuck You Gordrakk Approach – that bloke started life as a 700-point God tier character, but edition after edition of shit rules-writing has run him into the ground.  Gobsprakk is a beautiful model that deserves better than this – far better. 

Maybe you could proxy him as a Killaboss on Vulcha instead?  He gets Stonehorn charge mortals and enhances the Redeploys on Gutrippaz (but only Gutrippaz):

That enhanced Redeploy is really cool and unlocks a couple of good little combos.  For example a Redeploy is a Run ability, but the Sloggoth allows you to run and charge, so you can really mess with Battle Tactics like Seize the Centre by Redeploying up close and sticking the countercharge.   It can also guarantee a long-ish Redeploy to screw a deep-striking unit out of claiming Take Their Land, or leave a deep-striking enemy unit needing a 13″ charge to hit your Boyz. 

It’s quite funny that this guy has the Stonehorn charge mortals via Vulcha Dive, and it’s kept its synergy with Kragnos adding a third dice too (note that Rampage is once per army though – there’s no full-on Vulcha Truck build).

A prime candidate for the Slippery Skumbag Trait, bringing enhanced mobility and battle tactic denial in an enticing package with those charge mortals. The Vulcha is a bit spenny and I’m struggling to fit him in my tightest lists currently, but he has loads of exciting applications.

The Sloggoth (aka Dobby) is our only Monster that’s not a hero, and that’s great for fitting him into Regiments.  He heals like all Troggs should, and the reason you take him is for Run and Charge.  Obvious synergies with Kragnos there, but even without him, it adds a bit of straightline speed and unpredictability to a fairly plodding army.  I’m struggling to find 190 points for that tech in competitive lists, but if he gets a points adjustment later down the line, Dobby looks set to be a very popular Kruleboyz unit after his extended secondment to Gloomspite.

Let’s round off the selection with the Breakaboss on Mirebrute Troggoth and end on a high note.  This fella has always been a fan-favourite, and the good news is that he’s kept his yank-the-chain ability to ramp up his output.  Baseline good, upside better: this is random done right.  A nice little boost is that he now heals every turn – so you cop D3 damage for yanking the chain, then heal it right back up.  And being a Monster now is not only fitting (as a matter of principle), it also means that the Trogg gets exploding 6s in the Trophy Finga subfaction.  Well worth his points and I’d happily pay the Regiment tax to slot one into most lists.

Monsters: How many are we taking?  

You’ll see Kragnos lists for sure, but it turns the whole thing into a Kragnos list.  The Sludgeraker is an absolute staple, with one (minimum) in every list.  We’d love two in fact, but if points don’t permit that, make sure you load up defensive tech on the one you do take because he’s indispensable to the army.  Don’t bother with Skumdrekk, that Hobgrot list is a trap.

Gobsprakk will never see any play because 380 points is well overs.  The Vulcha, Mirebrute and Sloggoth are all worth their points in different ways, and we’d love one of each, but that’s obviously not practical.  You’ll see all three in lists, but the Croc is the one that’ll be everywhere.

Foot Heroes

They all have their role, but we’re going to be bumping our heads up against the Regiments very quickly here, so some notorious Kruleboyz dust-gatherers will keep on gatherin’.  We’ll chuck the Gnashtoof Boss in this section too, as he’s out on his own as a middleweight mounted hero. 

Gnashy is a mobile tank (10 wounds on a 3+), who comes with a couple of interesting abilities – both of which play into your win condition.  It’s not the sexiest warscroll at 220 points, and I see him being sparingly used because he’s competing for Regimental slots, but he does actually do a bit to help you win games so if you’re building up from Starter Set models, you wouldn’t be crazy to put him in your list.  Really just crying out for a meaningful points drop.

His footslogging mate the Killaboss with Stab-Grot has the USP of slotting in underneath other heroes in their Regiments, which helps a lot in this army.  Yes, 130 points is a lot – probably too much for what he is, especially when you put him next to Monsta Killaz at 120.  I don’t want to get into a massive digression on a unit that won’t see heaps of play, but we’ll be going to go out to bat for him in a separate article, because he does have a specific way of helping you win games.

The TLDR is that you can’t buff every unit in every combat phase; his abilities add a similar amount of damage as one unit of unbuffed Monsta Killaz at a similar cost; and the upside is that he can lift the floor on your output when you fail your buffs (or simply don’t have access to them because it’s your opponent’s turn). I love Monsta Killaz as much as anyone, and I’d always take a couple of units before I even looked at this guy, but he comes into serious competition with the third or fourth unit of MKs in your list.

Murknob, oh Murknob.  Wherefore art thou, Murknob?  Ah there you are, sitting underneath a 3-year layer of dust in the world’s garages.  A fun little anecdote about this guy is that when people were splitting Dominion boxes on eBay, he came on the same sprue as the Boltboyz, and resellers didn’t bother clipping him off to sell him separately – they just left him on the sprue with the dakka boiz, because it wasn’t worth a few seconds of their time to remove him from the sprue to sell separately.  He’s genuinely seen the inside of more recycling bins than he has tabletops.

Will that change in AOS4?  Lol no.  Any Ward is always useful but any idea of putting him into a list is just killed stone dead by him costing you a Regiment.  He doesn’t do anywhere near enough to muscle out a Wizard, and GW have done him dirty by failing to make him one of those little heroes that slots in under the bigger ones.  Try again in the Battletome please. Moving on.

The Swampcalla by contrast is a little superstar.  BAM!  Here we go!  At 120 points this has to be some of the cheapest access to +1 casting in the whole game.  He also has a little Mystic Shield that comes along for free.  Both warscroll abilities have an element of jeopardy but the risk-reward equation stands up for sure:

Note that Foul Elixirs is a Per Army ability – presumably meant to prevent save-stacking, but it does unfortunately mean you also can’t protect two different units of 20 Gutrippaz for example.  I wouldn’t let that stop me taking two Shammies though.  You’ve got a great spell lore, you might need to do some Banishin’ and you want to maintain your access to Manis deep into the game.  They’d be worth their points even without Foul Elixirs, so I’d consider 1 or 2 in every army.

Foot Heroes: How many are we taking?  

At least one Swampcalla is an essential starting point for every list, and very often two.  The others are all 0-1 propositions: the fact that the Killaboss is a subhero for Regiments keeps him in play, one Murknob is a nice-to-have that gets squeezed out in practice and the Gnashtoof would be appealing if his points supported it.  You’re not out-and-out wrong to put one of any of the above in your list, but you’ll struggle to justify a lot of them when you start pruning – due to both points and Regiments.  Swamp Shammies are the only true staple in this section.

Troops

We’ve got three options here: Hobgrots, Gutrippaz and Monsta Killaz.  Well, two out of three ain’t bad.  Hobgrots I’m going to say we can pretty much draw a line through – they’re crap.  100 points is way too much for a unit that does nothing whatsoever, and I’m already on record as saying that the Skumdrekk build is a trap.

Hobgrots aren’t really fit for purpose as a small screen in 4^th Edition: 0.5” coherency has killed that for them, so until we get a light Cav version that you can string out sideways (riding Wombats or baby Sloggoths or something, idk) they’re an irrelevance.  I’d argue they don’t even help with Battle Tactics all that much, because 100 points isn’t particularly cheap for throwaway trash – I’d just try and find that tiny handful of extra points for a unit of Monsta Killaz or Boltboyz.  The only time you’ll ever see them is 2010 point lists where you just have to hold your nose and switch out a useful unit for some of these cretins.

Hooooo boy!  Can we take a moment to fap over those Monsta Killaz?  Too late!  This unit is solid gold.  They’re chucking marginally more dice about than Gutrippaz: 7 dudes with 3 dice = 22 attacks (including one for the Boss), whereas 10 Gutrippaz at 2 each makes 21 attacks (again including the Boss).  But the MKs have also got a better profile (Rend 1 vs Rend 0) so they’re a straight upgrade for output. 

They have the same Crit Mortal ability and take the same damage buffs.  Movement, Control and so on is identical.  In terms of special rules, Monsta Killaz get situational extra rend against…um…Monsters, and some excellent anti-Monster tech (to switch off Rampages and make them fight last).  Anyone telling you that Monsters aren’t relevant in 4^th Ed has spent too long looking at the sorry state of the Maw Krusha (Rend 1?  Are you serious bro?) and not enough time getting their heads kicked in by B’e’l’a’k’o’r (seriously, I was sick of that bastard an entire edition ago). 

Note that the anti-Rampage tech has kept its trademark high quality of life, with the 6” radius meaning that you can use it when this unit is not the target of that Rampage itself, and you don’t even have to be in combat.  It’s also another little bit of synergy with Noisy Racket where you can make multiple units fight last, or fail one roll and hit the other as a backup.  Situational, but powerful enough to be worth factoring in.

What the Killaz do lack is defensive tech, and as models drop out of the unit (which they will) you drop attack volume equally quickly.  Those 3 attacks per model cut both ways when your 5+ save goobers start dropping dead.  And that’s where the extra wound density of Gutrippaz comes into play.  The Gutties are 20 wounds for 170 points (8.5 ppw) compared to MKs at 14 wounds for 120 points (8.6 ppw).  So point for point, they’re virtually identical: you’re paying either 17 points per Orruk, or 17.1 points per Orruk, and that’s hardly going to move the needle.

So why am I banging on about wound density?  You can simply put more stuff into a Gutrippaz unit and create a proper tarpit.  You can reinforce the Gutrippaz but you cannot reinforce Monsta Killaz, which is as unusual as it is elegant – it really does give you a reason to take both.  This bigger block of 40 wounds also comes with its own defensive tech:

Now that’s not to be sniffed at.  You’re getting great mileage from any +1s to save you can apply on that 40-wound block, and the damage upside is also greater for a big block of Gutties, since you’ll be slamming the buffs onto (virtually) twice as many attacks. So it all scales up.  When you need to deliver that absolute hammerblow to your opposition, 20 Gutrippaz with all the buffs will make sure you blast a massive hole in your target so that anywhere between “virtually nothing” and “absolutely nothing” comes back at you.

Remember that you can’t teleport big blocks of troops around (Sneaky Sneakin’ is capped at a unit size of 10), so the pattern is clear: you want a blend of small and reinforced units, and that likely means a blend of reinforced Gutrippaz and MSU Monsta Killaz.  Both have an important role to play. 

Troops: How many are we taking?

What I’d really like in every list is 2x 20 Gutrippaz and 3x 7 Monsta Killaz.  That’s 340 points per block of Gutties and 120 per unit of MKs, putting the dream package at a steep 1040 points total. It’s a lot of boots on the ground, a bunch of wounds to give your army some backbone and a hell of a lot of output with the right buffs in place.  In practice you’ll probably only fit one unit of 20x Gutrippaz in most lists and start adding MSU Monsta Killaz from there.

Shooting Dakka

We’ve got two units here: the iconic Boltboyz, and the suddenly-very-interesting Beast-skewer Killbow.  Both are worth considering.

The Killbow is utterly terrifying to enemy Monsters, with two shots at a straight damage 6: be prepared for it being countershot very rapidly if it’s a threat to the likes of an Ionus.  All your shooty units can huddle around Terrain quite easily so this is why I consider Kruleboyz Klaw to be the true “Shooty Subfaction” ahead of Middul Finga.

Maw Krushas, Mangler Squigs and Stonehorns have all been nerfed out of relevance, but it’ll do a grand job of keeping plenty of other pricks like Ushoran out of your face.  Killbows are meta-dependent by design – at 160 points I do think the risk-reward equation stands up, and I’d love to take one in every army, but it’s also a price point where they sometimes get trimmed out of lists when you’re struggling to stay under 2000.

Boltboyz lost their mortal wound shooting, as expected – but make no mistake, they remain a key tool in your arsenal.  The attractive price point of 110 points makes a couple of small units reasonable battle tactic scorers, and a reinforced unit of 6 is a solid use of 1 CP for Covering Fire. 

What you’re going to be doing with these things is teleporting them around the board to get an angle on your preferred target.  Sneaky Sneakin’ is a great way to unexpectedly bring enemy foot heroes within 12” range (to get around Guarded Hero), both on your own turn and your opponent’s (via Covering Fire).  They are an absolute menace.

Shooty Units: How many are we taking?  

Ideally we’d love to take one unit of 6 Boltboyz (for efficient Covering Fire) plus one or two units of 3 (for harassment and battle tactics).  That’s worth 440 points of anybody’s money if you can make it fit.  We’d love one Killbow in there too if we can make room.

C-c-c-combo

Megastack combo

We’ve talked plenty about the mega-stack damage combo, so let’s lay out the numbers.

As a baseline, this is what you’re looking at for minimum-sized combat units, with and without Venom buffs:

But to illustrate what you’re really gunning for, here’s the full megastack on 20 Gutrippaz with VEW, Sludgeraker Venom plus a cheeky All Out Attack on top:

2 Crocs, 2 Furious

Skumdrekk and Hobrogts has been covered in a separate article.  It’s not bad, but what kills it for me is that this build absolutely depends on having a regular Sludgeraker in there too – without that, it’s just a whole lot of nothing.  So it’s not a direction I’m overly keen on myself.

If you do end up taking both Crocs however, there’s a minor synergy in their Rampages, whereby using the Sludgeraker’s first should apply a little bit more damage on your target, which Skummy can key off to throw more dice at his own:

Aggravate those wounds.  Aggravate ‘em!

Mork Sez No

Let’s see just how irritating we can be with layered Debuffs in this army.

Best case you’re looking at:

-1 attacks (source: Choking Mist Spell)

-1 to hit (source: Gutrippaz warscroll)

A further -1 to hit and wound  (source: Eye-Biter Ash artefact)

Fighting last (source: Noisy Racket Dirty Trick or Monsta Killaz ability)

And all of this into a Kruleboyz unit with +2 stacked armour saves (source: Mork’s Kunnin Spell and Foul Elixirs ability) and a 5++ Ward Save from the Murknob or Pebble too.  Good luck.

Slippery When Wet

…But first they’ve got to catch you.  You could definitely engineer a Maximum Velocity build, where you lean into all the avoidance tech:

• Light Finga for double teleport in your opponent’s turn
• Vulcha Boss x Gutrippaz Redeploy combo, for a minimum 4” Moonwalk to leave a longer charge
• Slippery Skumbag on that Vulcha, so when he gets charged he just nopes out of combat with that 12” flying move

You give up a lot to make it happen: 290 points isn’t cheap for a Vulcha, there’s a lot of 3+ rolls in there and taking that Heroic Trait will leave your Croc exposed without Egomaniak.  But when it works it’ll feel great.

Battle Tactics Focus

You’re not especially good at scoring them – absence of Cav in this army, and all that – but you can do a whole lot of denial.

Your Gutrippaz are often tough enough to Seize the Centre and not crumble (especially when they fight first), and you can also drop a cheap unit of Boltboyz or Monsta Killaz onto terrain for Take Their Land.  Your shooting units might also be able to pick out a soft unit in their General’s Regiment to Slay the Entourage.  From mid-game onwards you’ll be open to scoring the general tactics for fighting and taking objectives so although you don’t have two fast, cheap units to run up the edges and score Take the Flanks, I don’t think you’re so bad at BTs that it’s a deal-breaker.

Where it gets really exciting is denial.  We’ve touched on Dobby giving you run and charge, which also translates as Redeploy and Countercharge.  This will unlock the opportunity to move up and countercharge into an enemy unit that’s trying to score Seize the Centre, especially if you’ve got a Vulcha nearby to boost your Redeploy roll.

You can pull the rug on opponents who’re counting on Slay the Entourage by teleporting the relevant unit away from them on their turn – same goes for anything that relies on killing a specific unit, such as Marked for the Grave (Death) or Slay the Tyrants (Order).  And if they are expecting none of their units to die, they might be disappointed when you blast away with Covering Fire and then make them Strike Last in combat.

This army is just the king of the rug-pull.  As Mark Twain said: Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.

Technical Briefing

How impactful is Noisy Racket?

Bear in mind that VEW can only be used your own Hero Phase – but it does last until your next turn. So in your opponent’s turn you may have this Trick online already, or you may not. Sludgeraker Venom though is not available at all in your opponent’s turn, so when you make them strike last on their turn, you might be popping Crits on 5s, but you won’t be attacking with Damage 2.

I’ve talked about running Gutrippaz mostly in 20s and Monsta Killaz in MSU, so let’s take a look at the kind of damage you can expect from both:

You can buff this further with All Out Attack (or the Killaboss’s enhanced version) but that absence of Damage 2 does hurt. VEW still adds a meaningful boost even at Damage 1 though, so it’s well worth investing in.

Cascading Opportunities

There’s been a lot of talk – from myself included – about this army requiring both excellent decision-making and luck on the dice. You can do everything right and still fail a 3+ roll very easily, and there’s a lot of 3+ rolls in this army. Contrast this with Lumineth who barely suffer the inconvenience of rolling dice at all.

So what we can do to mitigate that is to build layered opportunities into our list and gameplan, to give ourselves multiple opportunities to get lucky:

• Maybe a crucial unit is going to get charged. You can teleport it out of the way, and if you fail that roll, with Light Finga you can try it again.
• Fail both (or want to preserve your DT rolls), and you can still Redeploy backwards. Yes every army has this, but your Gutrippaz can get a minimum 4″ from the Vulcha.
• Say you do still get charged, the combat phase rolls around and you try to make your opponent fight last with Noisy Racket. Now you’ve got a chance to smack them before they can hit you.
• Failed that Dirty Trick roll? Your hero with Slippery Skumbag can retreat away before they get to swing, or your Gutrippaz can put them on -1 to hit with their Scare Taktikz, both on 3+ rolls.
• Failed that one as well? OK now it’s time to pop that Mork’s Eye Pebble and put your castle on a 5++ Ward for the turn.

And that’s not even talking about debuffs like casting Choking Mist with a Magical Intervention. Yes, it’s a dicey army – but there are so many opportunities to disrupt before people start swinging arms that your opponent is the one who’s praying for miracles, not you. A skilled player – or just a shit one who’s read this article – can build layered opportunities into this army so it should be very, very rare that one bad Dirty Tricks roll blows the game for you.

The Competitive List: Da Frogg Likkaz

Light Finga

Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (320)
[General]
[Morks Eye Pebble]
– 20 x Gutrippaz (340)
– 6 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (220)

Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (120)
– 7 x Kruleboyz Monsta-killaz (120)
– 7 x Kruleboyz Monsta-killaz (120)
– 7 x Kruleboyz Monsta-killaz (120)

Swampcalla Shaman with Pot-grot (120)
– 3 x Man-skewer Boltboyz (110)

Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (290)
[Slippery Skumbag]
– 7 x Kruleboyz Monsta-killaz (120)

[Lore of the Swamp]
[Morbid Conjuration]

2000/2000pts
4 drops

A compelling blend of movement, tricks and blunt-force trauma. We’ve put a tough unit of 20 Rippaz in the General’s Regiment along with 6x Boltboyz: I don’t generally like offering a soft target for Slay the Entourage, but the +1 to hit and wound on shooting is just too tempting, and we can always dangle the bait then deny the tactic in a whole lot of slippery ways.

Twin Shammies makes Morbid Conjuration a worthwhile investment, and there’s inherent Redeploy synergy between the Vulcha and that big block of Gutrippaz. Yes there’s an eggs and baskets factor with just the one big block, but we’ve got a lot of ways of protecting that unit until it gets to swing. And even once they’re gone, there’s a Croc prowling around, plus a whole bunch of Monsta Killaz waiting to make your opponent fight last then go to town on them.

The shooting contingent and charge mortals from the Vulcha add some important out-of-phase damage and there are threats right through the army. You can get virtually tabled and your opponent still can’t think “OK, now I can relax”.

A word of caution: History shows that buying multiple kits of undercosted Warbands is fraught with danger. The Monsta Killaz are a beautiful kit but please don’t blame me if they get nerfed down the track! I’ll be converting mine from Bonesplitterz, because GW has already sold me an army of Orruks that specialize in hunting Monsters and I’m perfectly happy to keep using them.

Were-Boars in tribute to the classic Bonesplitterz spell

Strong in the battle tactic game and slip-sliding all over the board, this army presents an endlessly-evolving puzzle to solve for both players. This list will be my own starting point for Koolboyz after my GT with Ogors next weekend.

The Fun List: Needs Moar Troggs

Trophy Finga

Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (220)
[General]

Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (220)
[Morks Eye Pebble]

Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (220)
[Egomaniak]

Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (220)

Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (220)

Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (220)

Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (220)

Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (220)

Breaka-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth (220)

1980/2000pts
9 drops

I’m working here on the twin theory that:

• Once you’ve got one Auxilliary, you might as well have a hundred; and
• You can’t stop me

Every Orruk rider gets the Crit Mortals, every Troggoth gets the exploding Crit (2 Hits) and every Manifestation Lore can fuck right off because we don’t have a Wizard. Definitely not competitive, but also not so crap that your games won’t even be fun, I’ll run this one at a one-dayer if I can borrow a few Mirebrutes locally. Listbuiding in AOS4 is wide-open for this kind of fun list right now if you’re not stressed about shooting for a podium.

Conclusion

This faction pack is something of a masterpiece.  It’s intriguing, it’s thematic, it gives you the tools to do well and there are loads of builds to explore. 

It’s not all sunshine and lollipops – I’ve had my little rant about Gobsprakk, and “The Hobgrots Build” is a miss because you’re ultimately just pulling the same shit with worse mins.  Even so, there’s still a bunch to explore and your games will be demanding but rewarding.  Considering it’s not even a full Battletome, this is a towering achievement.

In terms of power level?  This army is an enigma and I’ve never been back and forwards so much on where to place it.  You have an arsenal of incredibly powerful tools that will make you feel like a genius and leave your opponent flat-footed – but it’s all trapped behind dice rolls.  You can put your opponent at -1 to hit when they have certain units near your Gutrippaz, or you can just be -1 to hit army wide all the time with Lumineth.  You can buy cheap Swampcalla casters with +1 to cast, or you can just take Teclis and automatically dump an entire Manifestation Lore on the table every turn.

So yes, you will occasionally do everything right, and still be left tearing out your hair when a crucial 3+ roll goes south and you’re left with a bunch of bad-armour-save dickheads standing around looking nervous.  And a lot of very good players won’t touch this army with a 10-foot pole for that reason, and some people who do end up playing it for the love will end up in a right royal mess.

So I suspect that the stats will show the performance of this army to be all over the place.  But ultimately I’ve come round to it, because you can layer in multiple self-insurances and opportunities to succeed. I’ll be playing this army myself, and I wouldn’t be pumping it up if I wasn’t willing to back it up on the table.

I won’t be posting up my normal “Is is cool?  Is it good?” matrix, because I don’t think it’s particularly helpful this time – I’ll be recording a narrative verdict. My prediction for what it’s worth is that this army will return an underwhelming win percentage, and yet still take out a few decent-sized events.

If you’re looking for guaranteed easy wins, I suggest you look elsewhere – but if you like the Koolboyz, and if you’re willing to put the hard yards in with the army, the rewards are there.  Honestly, this army is exactly what we needed it to be.

Further Reading

If you read on past the Patreon link below, there’s a digression on Middul Finga and Agincourt. You’re welcome to skip that if you’re not interested, hence tucking it right at the bottom.

Check back next week for that article making the case for the Killaboss that I already mentioned. I’ve also been working on a list collaboratively with Pete from Woehammer, and we’ll be publishing that soon too – the idea is that we’ll publish it on both blogs, then both play games with it and batrep them.

Patrons can keep an eye out for the additional Kruleboyz lists I’ll be posting over on that site, and of course we’ll keep bouncing ideas around together in the Discord. And finally for today, we’ve already covered the Skumdrekk build and why it does not spark joy:

Hobgrots Unlocked!  Is “The Skumdrekk Build” Good…or a Trap?

Have a good weekend, nerds – see you on the other side.

Cover Image by NC Dave. Thanks to friend of the blog Mpandelidis for picking up on a mistake with Redeploy in the original version, which has been fixed with an edit.

If you’d like to help us continue our work, we’d love to have your support. All Patreon Tiers include Discord access, exclusive articles and regular contests. Our Tiers are priced to be within everyone’s reach, so please click here to join us today!

Footnote: Middul Finga

The name for the shooty subfaction may well be a nod to the legend that the two-fingered salute, the UK’s traditional equivalent of flipping the bird, originated in the famous Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years’ War (English Longbows OP, please nerf). It’s generally considered to be debunked, so this would moreso be a reference to the urban myth itself – but still a cool little nod.

If you’re interested, you can read a little more on the myth and its debunking here, here and here.