We all know exactly what needs to be done, but we don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it
– Jean-Claude Juncker on the 2008 financial crisis
Well what have we got here! The Battlescroll hit overnight, sending filth chasers around the world into blind panic as they frantically retool their tournament lists, and Ironjawz players into a mild state of “Whoop de doop, 60 points gets me like one third of an extra unit”.
I actively play all five Destro factions both competitively and over a few beers – often at the same time – so let’s take a look at how this shook out from the perspective of Team Green.
The Starting Point
Our friends at Woehammer produce great stats, and the latest batch showed:
- Kruleboyz to be overperforming;
- Ogors and Sons of Behemat perched firmly in the mid-range;
- And Gloomspite and Ironjawz both performing like a sieve full of runny shit
So in a nutshell, this is what I’d be hoping to see….
The Overperformer : Kruleboyz. They’ve finally got a playstyle that works for them: Dirty Tricks that are worthy of the name, a plodding army with no cavalry and bad armour saves that’s supported by a blinding barrage of movement tricks and Strike First. The rules are great so if the army is going to be toned back, I’d hope to see it done through points hikes rather than rules changes in this instance.
The Fat Middle : Ogors and Sons of Behemat. Both are middle of the road for performance, both are in a holding pattern until they get their books. I wouldn’t ask for nor expect too much from this update – just marking time until the books drop, then we can go again.
The Race to the Bottom : Gloomspite and Ironjawz. The trouble both factions have is that their Battletomes are scarcely worthy of the name: rushed, lazy and half-arsed books that mostly regurgitated the contents of already-pretty-lame PDFs. Gloomspite in particular already have some extremely efficient units – on paper – but the trouble is these armies have limited army rules to work with. They both need a new book with some actual effort put in this time around, but failing that, they need Errata and rules more than GW’s preferred blunt instrument of whacking 10 points off here and there.
So let’s see how they did, and maybe point out a new trick or two along the way. There’s more to say about Kruleboyz and Gloomspite, so that’s what we’ll do, but we’ll rattle through the rest too.
Ready? Let’s go.
Kruleboyz
What they needed: Points increases
I will blow my own trumpet somewhat here and point out that I predicted that Kruleboyz were gonna do well under this GHB before a dice was ever rolled in anger. Everybody is wise after the event, but the beauty of sticking your neck out with things like this is that when you’re right, it’s there in black and white, time-stamped and dated. So I might have some idea what I’m talking about with this army.
I’ve also got an interest to declare here because KB are both the most competitive and the most interesting-to-play army in my collection, and I’d kinda like them to stay that way. So I can live with points hikes, but I really would prefer their rules and therefore playstyle to stay intact – 3rd Edition was an endless, rolling disaster for KB so they really do deserve a bit of relief.
And they were overperforming under this Handbook, no doubt about it. Let’s take another look at those Woehammer stats:
Leaving Khorne aside, because Gorechosen was never gonna last, you can see in the Woehammer stats above that they were 4th for win rate behind DOK, KO and Cities of Sigmar and a smidge ahead of Nighthaunt.
Anecdotally, I hadn’t really seen them winning many big events, and shoutout to Sean in the PC discord who put me onto this graph (from the same Woehammer stats) that really illustrates that in concrete terms:
Now I don’t know about you, but my idea of doing well at an event is going 4-1 or better – and that’s the general idea of this graph, to rank armies by 4+ wins. It’s pretty stark how Kruleboyz plummet down the rankings on those terms: they’re more “mid-table” than “menace”, and really just a consistent 3-2 machine. The reasons why are a whole other conversation, but I found it interesting nonetheless.
So am I saying they didn’t need a nerf? Of course not, they definitely needed one. You can’t balance the entire game around a handful of top tables competitive players, which is the only place Kruleboyz really fell short, but it does give us some context. I think it’s fair to say they were “4th-best with a minor asterisk”, rather than “4th-best at minimum, and probably even better than that really”. They’re a very good army that regularly falls short at the highest levels, but a very good army nonetheless.
What they got: Points increases, and how
What looks like benign 10s scattered throughout the army becomes a real problem once you move past the units to the tech: There’s a massive overhead baked into running any of the remotely competitive options in Kruleboyz.
The only truly competitive Battle Formation – the one that unlocked all the joy in this army – has had a raucous +30 points slapped on it. The faction terrain is +20 points, and they’ve really whacked you on enhancements too: 2 out of 3 HTs and 2 out of 3 Artefacts come with a tax now, so you can’t really avoid it. You’re just being charged about 80 points for the sin of turning up with a Kruleboyz army now, before you even take any units in your list.
My mate Maximus saw his list shoot up by 160 points, and Jack Davenport in the Kruleboyz Whatsapp saw his own list hit 2190 points in the app as soon as the update flushed through. All in all this is about as heavy-handed a points hike as you could possibly imagine for an army that wasn’t really winning anything.
So it’s all doom and gloom then? Well not quite. The army was very sharply pointed beforehand, and I did say I would rather wear points increases than rules nerfs. These are at the absolute upper limit of what the army could bear but after messing around with some list ideas overnight – you can still put together something very playable. So although I’d have loved them to be a little less vigorous, the important thing is that the army’s soul remains intact.
The Verdict: I can live with it.
Ogor Mawtribes
What they needed: Not much
Fat1 middle, book incoming. Holding pattern.
What they got: A dizzying barrage of up a bit, down a bit, sideways a bit
More changes than I expected, but to little effect.
That +10 on the Slaughtermaster feels a bit mean-spirited. The devs really seem to have it in for Gnoblars: it’s fuggin nuts that they cost more than Stabbas now. And I do love the Soggy Ironblaster, but that one can be filed under “Fair Enough”.
Otherwise it’s a few points off the BCR side that might help you squeeze in one of those cannons, but otherwise we wait with baited breath and rumbling stomachs to see how much of our collections are about to hit the inside of a recycling bin2 with the strongly-rumoured range refresh incoming.
The Verdict: Leave Slaughtermasters alone, FFS. Otherwise who cares, bring on the book.
Sons of Behemat
What they needed: Sweet Fuck All
Well I wouldn’t hate another Rampage in the Battle Traits, the selection feels pretty thin when you’re up against elite armies. But that’s not happening in an update like this.
What they got: Sweet Fuck All
Why does their Kraggy cost more than everyone else’s? The reason is that it kills one specific list: Kraggy, Brodd, Warstomper, Big Pigs ROR. That’s 2010 points now, by design.
GW does raise a good point with Mancrusher Mob too: they should cost less than 3x solos, because they’re inherently worse at their core job of “being stuff in places on the table” when they’re all bunched up. File the Soggy Kraken under “Tiny, But Welcome Surprises”: I don’t think he really needed the change, but there it is.
One thing to mention is that smarter people than me have confirmed that you don’t have to worry about that +10 points on the Artefacts if you’re bringing the second Artefact in Taker Tribe. Points are only a thing at Listbuilding, so after that you can add shit to your list for free (on the rare occasions you have a rule that allows it). This could make a difference if you’re 2K on the nose now.
The Verdict: Eh whatever. Give us a book, and make it a good un.
Gloomspite Gits
What they needed: A rewrite
There’s a reason why it’s not called Da Good Moon. This Battle Trait, across its whole lifespan from 2nd Ed onwards, has always lived somewhere in the space between “Lacklustre” and “Lacklustre, but hey it makes Troggs tough”, without ever really scaling the heights. Destiny Dice it ain’t.
What’s different now is that the rest of their tech is underwhelming too: the Spell Lore sorely lacks -1 to Hit or Strike Last, the wizards are all crap anyway3, and the Enhancements are mostly rubbish. To add insult to injury, GW has the chutzpah to charge you for taking the one least-shit option in each category because it’s apparently over-represented. Why the hell would anyone willingly take Backstabber’s Blade or Leering Gitshield? Of course they’re going to take the Clammy Cowl. GW only had to come up with three interesting options and they couldn’t even reach that low bar – and now you’re the one paying for their failures.
So you can compare units in other armies to units in Gloomspite, and ask why they’re so cheap, and there’s your answer: the Battletome doesn’t have any rules worth a damn and they’ve been pretty much just playing off their warscrolls.
What they got: Absurdly generous points drops and one massive FAQ boost
Yeah it must be said, there’s some absolute bargains in this army now. The “Race to the bottom” is a familiar concept: when the rules aren’t there, GW’s classic response is to just take an axe to their points and let you flood the board with bases. I think Gloomspite might have just won that race, because there’s some bloody sharply-pointed units in here, crap Battle Trait or not.
Squigs are a steal, the Moonclan Grot lists I keep going on about just keep getting better and more efficient, and hoooooo boy are those Chariots bent.
Let’s take a moment to fap over those Sunsteala Wheelas
See that? Any movement phase. This is fucking nuts! Careening Destruction is a bespoke Move ability that you can now use….on your opponent’s turn. If your mind isn’t already racing with possibilities, you’re playing the wrong army.
They’re already an efficient tarpit unit, now with added bullshit:
- On your opponent’s turn you’ll be zipping over to steal vacated objectives or deny BTs.
- Pin your opponent in place for a turn, then move away at the end of their movement phase and leave them stranded.
- Across a couple of turns you can reliably smash out a crazy number of Mortals: Run over the top of your opponent, charge back into them, fight them, Power Through, run over them again on their turn.
Mortals, Mortals, Mortals. And with their 4+ save they were already bloody tough: 10 points per wound is insane. One unit could slot right into any army and while I won’t be buying any4, I’ll be converting some up from my Bonesplitterz pigs to match my scratch-built Kraggy for sure.
Last thing to mention is that the ROR, which was already somewhat of a connoisseur’s choice, also benefits from the new Careening Destruction because it’s hard-coded right into the Warscroll.
The Verdict: Surely this army is competitive now?
Across the course of several updates now, GW has been chip-chipping away at the lack of meaningful army rules by layering movement on tech upon movement tech to the point where the army has an identity as “They’re the Movement Bullshit guys”5.
You’ve got Soggy Sporesplattas locking people down, Chariots turning armies into roadkill and Hero Phase Retreat rug-pulls. I already thought this army was way better than the stats suggested, and with these points drops plus one of the most cracked units in the whole game, we’re fresh out of excuses. Time to get the winning done.
Ironjawz
Last and by all means least.
What they needed: A new Battletome
All the same issues as Gloomspite listed above, but without the insane points-efficiency or range of battlefield roles. You’ve just got a bunch of low-rend combat units that plod around and hit on 4s. Who knew that would feel shit to play?6
The most effective way to play them seems to be MSU pigs cock-blocking people in combat with double Murderlust. Imagine my excitement.
The army’s tech is all locked behind incredibly expensive foot heroes and you struggle to crack a nut. Let me say this: if Maw Krushas are Rend 1, you’ve done fucked up. A bunch of -10 points off here and there isn’t gonna cut it.
What they got: A bunch of -10 points off here and there
For context, my friend’s list (which was a pretty balanced blend of Ironjawz units) came down 60 points, or roughly one third of the kicking Kruleboyz took. That’s hardly transformative, is it?
Certainly the most impactful change is -20 on those Brutes, and I’ve seen a lot of people sharing lists with blocks of 10 since that came through. Similarly I’m seeing some fun Maw Krusha spam lists doing the rounds. I’m not gonna yuck anyone’s yum and if you’re excited then Gorkspeed to you, I hope you have a blast. But I will say that I’m still way more energised to play my other armies than Da Boyz right now.
I still love my Ironjawz, they’re just not making my balls tingle.
The Verdict: Not enough, keep going.
Overall Verdict: I reckon I’m happy enough
Today was a good day, all in all. Kruleboyz came out of it kind of intact – even if the points are a little stiffer than I’d have liked, the playstyle is still fit for purpose and I’d happily take them to an event.
The big hit was Gloomspite. I’m going to agree with my dear friend Pat here – always a dangerous proposition – but if we as Gitz players still can’t make them work at these points, then that’s on us. Of course I’d rather see a full rework but that ain’t happening, and in the meantime we’ve got some really efficient Moonclan warscrolls to utilise, and those Gitmob Chariots are frikkin’ cracked.
If I was looking for a good result this weekend I’d make Kruleboyz or Gloomspite my shortlist, and I believe there’s plenty to work with in both cases. As it is? My next event is Bush Bash and I’ll be taking a really aggressive Mega Gargants combat list, tricked out with all the aggro tech. A true gentleman’s army.
Have good weekend, nerds – catch you on the other side.
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!
Plastic Craic 
3 thoughts on “Battlescroll Sep 25: Destro Perspective”