It feels like we’ve been entering a two-speed society in Age of Sigmar, where the rushed-out Battletomes dumped on Orruks and Grots have aged like a carton of milk left out in an Aqshy summer, while the newer books hit the shelves with filth dripping off the page. Jealous? You bet I am!
To illustrate the starting point for Destro armies heading into the latest update, the Woehammer stats show us Orruks and Ogors in the fat middle, Sons of Behemat hovering perilously above the trapdoor and Gloomspite Gits dead last. Nothing in our GA is overperforming, half the books are explicitly in trouble and I’d confidently suggest that all things being equal, this picture would significantly worsen as LRL, Tzeentch, Sylvaneth and DOK join Nurgle in new-book Shangri-La.
So in summary things were going bad and fair-set to get a whole lot worse; in that context, this Battlescroll had a lot riding on it. It would be unfair to expect this update to completely breach the gulf that is opening up between the Haves and Have-Nots, but I think it’s reasonable to hope for a step in the right direction for Team Green – and the good news is, that was delivered in spades. It was honestly better than I had hoped.
Ironjawz
Da Boyz are in a funny spot – perfectly competent competitively, but for myself (and a lot of other long-term players), bereft of any joie de vivre. They are mostly successful as the control army that nobody asked for instead of the high-speed, high rend force of nature we all fell in love with. The last update took away their high-octane Monster Mash build, so would we see the return of that?
Sadly not – but a whole sea of green is a pretty sweet outcome for an army that wasn’t actually doing badly. First thing to note is that the Megaboss comes down to 140 which lowers the Brutefist tax, so that always helps.
It’s good to see the Soggy Gruntas brought in line with the regular version at 170 points – they always looked like a side-grade to me. The big news though is the foot sloggers. Ardboyz are a hugely efficient unit at 160 points and -20 on Brutes feels very generous. Trimming the points on heart-and-soul units like this usually flows straight through to results and especially so when you’re taking off 20 points at a time.
This army’s lack of rules is a meme: other books get entire pages of dense text, Ironjawz get a 3″ move. But the foot Jawz feel so cheap now that you can flood the table with 3+ saves that can kick back a bit, and still afford to include some speed. 90 point Wrekkaz are a great little unit too.
I am the Lore
There weren’t many rules changes in this Battlescroll, but Ironjawz did get some solid QOL boosts in their spells and prayers. Specifically, these both last through to your next turn now, which let’s be honest they always should have done. There was no need for them to be so stingy, but that’s fixed now.
Overall Verdict: “A” for Armies of Renown are the real winners
You can build a good mixed-IJ force in the likes of a Brutefist or Ironjawz Brawl for sure. The all-Pigs control list hasn’t really changed, but Zoggy’s AOR and Big Waaagh both love the foot sloggers, and Ardboyz and Brutes are a steal at those points now. 3+ saves, Wards and rezzing units – there has to be something there.
Kruleboyz
AOS4 has been quite the rollercoaster for KB: the Faction Pack was great, so GW immediately went into blind panic that Kruleboyz might not be dead-last in the stats like they were for the whole of AOS3, and duly smashed them into the dirt. Since then KB have oscillated between huge waves of buffs and nerfs, finally stabilizing somewhere in the interesting-to-play-and-quite-good sweet spot. So it’s nice to see a wave of green to help keep them there as the new books crash into the meta.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a….
Is it even a Battlescroll if you don’t get a points drop on the Gnashtoof? I’m not sure the Soggy version needed one, but I’ll certainly take it, and run away grinning. It’s funny to see both Skumdrekk units drop 20: would you like to try a 3rd warscroll, gentlemen? Basic Skummy alongside the 70-point Hobgrots is becoming pretty compelling at these points though, so if you haven’t visited the maths behind that combo in a while, it might be time to give it a look. The Mirebrute is fun and good, likewise the Vulcha boss, so I reckon we’re cooking with gas here.
The really good news is that the Daring To Play Kruleboyz Tax has been abolished. Rejoice! All that crap slugged onto the core Enhancements, Formations and so on has been wheeled back, which is great to see. Honestly, fair play to the Devs for having the courage to reverse tack on that one.
Overall Verdict: “A” for Fucken’ Ay
I mean, that’s a lot of points drops for an army that was already good. A heavyweight update.
Gloomspite Gits
Objectively the weakest army in the entire game, what’s really damning is that the only builds to have any kind of success in 2026 are spammed Squigs. For such a broad Faction that’s a pretty poor outcome. The last Battlescroll was a predictable disaster, as they heavily nerfed a mid-ranking army, and who could possibly have predicted what would happen next?1
Anyway, here we are.
Plenty of green there and some of it is real-world impactful. The Doom Diver continues to do its hilarious hokey-cokey: after slipping down to 160 points, the last update nudged it back up to 170, and now we’re back to 160 again. Pick a lane, cunt.
Snufflers (in Moonclan lists) and Snarlfang Riders (in any list) are real assets that will help you win games. I still think Fellwaters are too expensive for their low quality of life (the warscroll could ideally use a tweak) but the Dankhold Troggoth is an affordable luxury at 140 points.
As for the heroes, Droggz is an absolute Rolls Royce of a unit and has immense appeal at 150. He’s fast, he can scrap a bit and his Regiment options are good, but it’s those elite warscroll abilities that make him hard to resist.
The other standout is the Loonboss on Mangler Squigs, free-falling to 150 points with no signs of stopping, thanks to its 5+ save and denuded of rend. It might be getting to the point that he’s so cheap that we just say fuck it, I’m in?
He can be used as a throwaway napalm grenade: chuck him in there with the Leering Gitshield, do some charge mortals, bounce back some Gitshield mortals, explode and do a few more mortals. That might be your best bet to get some damage and some fun out of him, because Gork knows that combat profile isn’t doing too much.
One pet peeve amongst the Gloomspite community is that they gave us abysmal Enhancements, so people naturally gravitated to the least-shit option, and then GW had the chutzpah to charge us 20 points for taking them. If there were 3 appealing options we wouldn’t have this issue, so the players were stuck paying for the Devs’ failures.
Would they fix that?
…No they would not. You’ll still always take Loontouched as your HT because the Fungoid is a piece of shit. I’d suggest Leering Gitshield for the Artefact in most cases, but they’re all a bit crap, so who cares really?
Warning: Spearhead Only
A few of us got a rush of blood to the…yeah, and got over-excited about some apparent buffs to Gitmob.
These are Spearhead only, so AOS players can sadly disregard them. It’s a shame, because they would have really put Gitmob back in the game. Pencil them in for next time?
Overall Verdict: “B” for Best You’re Gonna Get
Gloomspite are really in the position of needing a new Battletome. They’re the worst army in the game, loads of their rules are too mean-spirited and Grots can’t really drop any further without being physically unable to deploy on some maps.
So given that we’re stuck with this book, these updates are right at the top end of what we could reasonably expect. Cool units like the Doom Diver and Dankhold are cheap enough to sprinkle in alongside your preferred Squigs and objective holders, Droggz is bloody well-priced at 150 and in an army like this it adds up quicker than you might think.
With such a huge range to pick from, 40-ish points opens loads of options for upgrading a unit to something better, or downgrading something and fitting in a whole extra unit alongside them. It’s a shame the army had to go through the last 3 months of completely unnecessary (and predictable) suffering, but this was a great update, make no mistake about it.
Ogors
I reckon the fat lads are pretty well-positioned to compete in the emerging meta. They never really went away, but 5++ wards are everywhere right now2, and Ogors have some premium ward-stripping tech available.
Another wave of green, we’ll take it! It always was a bit crap that we live in a meta with loads of great Monster Mash lists, but BCR were not amongst them. So it’s nice to see plenty of green on the Monster Trucks, and I know one man who was popping the champagne corks overnight.
Similar to Brutes, -20 points on Ironguts feels really generous and will directly impact the army’s win rate. The Soggy Ironblaster is a pleasant surprise too: not sure that one needed to come down, and it feels like that was done for external balance (to keep Ogors competing) moreso than internal balance (it’s clearly miles better than the basic version at the same points). I’ll take it.
The Backdoor Bonus: Universal Manis
I’ve always had a bee in my bonnet that Ogors were punished by the points tacked on to Universal Manis. As a broad principle, I’m OK with making each army’s own Manifestations free to incentivize use of the thematic ones, but that isn’t much help when your army doesn’t have the option of taking its own (and is saddled with expensive one-cast Wizards).
So it does help Ogors that they can take say the Krondspine for free now, or pick up Primal for a mere 10 points. With a decent Wizard subfaction available too, Ogors potentially benefit from this more than most.
Overall Verdict: “A” for All we needed (in the interim)
The new book has to be getting close, but while we wait, I reckon this update puts the Dad Bods bang in contention. Their various ward-stripping tech is cash money in the current meta and I’d be happy to take them to a competitive event for sure.
Sons of Behemat
Does 10 points here and there really matter in an army where you can still take 4 Megas regardless? You bet it does!
What it means in the real world is that you can still take 4 Megas but you can now take more premium versions, or squeeze in a Baby alongside them. In my own list for example, I can either upgrade Slim Jim to a 3rd Gatebreaker, or twist and turn a bit to fit in a Baby alongside 4 of the cheaper Megas. Both good options to have.
The Soggy Kraken at 430 points is fun and cool – that lower price point helps squeeze in an extra Mancrusher in some configurations, so that’s another tick.
Points of Principle
Worth noting that the Mancrusher Mob is now cheaper than 3x solo Babies, as it should be. The main value Babies bring is sneaking objectives without over-committing, and 3x solo are inherently more fit for that purpose. GW fucked this up last time by dropping the Babies but forgetting about the Mob, so even though I personally never take a Mob anyway, it’s good to see that corrected as a point of principle.
On the flipside, GW apparently still forgot why they tacked an extra 10 points onto Kragnos in this army in the first place. The whole point was to make one specific build3 illegal by marooning it at 2010 points, and now with -20 points off Brodd that’s no longer the case, so what are we doing here?
Overall Verdict: “B” for Brodd’s Stomp Let’s Go
SOB, as one of the weaker Destro armies, also got one of the milder upgrades, but it’s still a good day to be a Mega. I’m a staunch believe that KBS is the best way to run this army and it got some good new options here, so I’ve got to be happy with that.
Overall Verdict on the Battlescroll: The Big Green Boner
This was an awesome update. A lot of the specific gripes, mistakes and missteps that I called out in the last update were reversed here, and then we got a whole lot of extra mayo on top.
Will it be enough to Layeth the Smacketh Downeth on the new books? Fucketh Knoweth, but it has to help.
Fair play to GW for taking proactive steps to help some armies that were already mid-ranking, rather than making them trudge through 3 months of getting annihilated by newer books with better rules. It’s actually a pretty brave move on their part, and I’ve certainly given them a hard time when I think they’ve done us dirty in the past, so let’s take a minute to salute a bloody good balance patch.
If you’ve got some time off over Easter – I hope you enjoy it – and if you are working right through, thank you for keeping the wheels turning. Catch you all on the other side.
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Plastic Craic 