Morning legends,

Well that was a poor showing for Destruction at Adepticon, where there were no Destro at all in the Top 10 and only one brave warrior in the Top 20 (Stephen Matta’s Ironjawz at #19). We’ve had a balance patch since then and while the good news is that Destro overall made out like bandits, I would argue that the one army that needed the most help (Gloomspite) actually got the least assistance:

The Big Green Boner: Battlescroll April ’26, Destro Perspective

So, inspired by GW’s patchy and inconsistent support for Destruction armies, welcome to the first installment of a new ongoing series where we pick the diamonds out of the coal dust and identify which list archetypes are doing stubbornly well for any underperforming factions. They won’t always be Destro armies, but today we’re looking at Gloomspite Gits.

The Parameters

I took a look back to the start of 2026 for Gits lists that have gone 4-1 or better at 5-round Singles events. There weren’t a huge amount, but if you want to know what the pattern is without reading the whole article¹, the short version is “Hit stuff with Squigs”².

There’s been a balance patch since most of these lists hit the table but nothing has changed structurally for Gloomspite: most of these lists are about 20 points cheaper, so while QOL has improved, the archetype hasn’t.

Ready? Let’s go.

The Powerlist

Easily the most prominent result is Frederic Elustondo‘s scintillating 5-0 at The Gauntlet, a 103-player event held in the Netherlands by the mighty Threshold Tactics.

The Squigs hit stuff, the Troggs stand on circles and the Hoppers do their fly-by mortals. It’s been the way to win top-end games with Gits since the 3rd Ed book when 30x blocks of Hoppers were flavour of the month, until they got nerfed and everyone switched over to Squig Herd for Worlds (and then eventually to Boingrots after that).

This list has room for some fun, techy stuff too. Droggz has that trademark enhanced Neg 1 aura (and is a snip at his new level of 150 points):

While the Wolf Cav is great at stealing objectives by pissing on them, and adds a splash of Strike First:

These are all heavyweight rules on cheap units, and that +5 OC can make a real-world difference in stealing a circle from a Monster (or even a chaff unit where you kill a couple of them, but not the whole lot).

Rounding out the package is a Rabble Rowza who can pop up in the backfield and give your Squigs run + charge (since they are Beasts), and Sporesplattas who can lock more expensive units down for a turn and waste their time. This list really showcases how points for Gloomspite have reached the point where you can fit plenty of luxury tech alongside the Squigs + 6 Rockies core, and it’s got marginally cheaper since.

We’ve Got Zerg At Home

Next up we’ve got the Golden Age of Oheim, a 30-player event in Germany where Dominik Siebenburger grabbed a 4-1 and a Podium with [checks notes] loads of Squigs.

We know what we’re looking at here: Squigs run forward and kill stuff. Two things mark this list as noteworthy:

1. It’s living proof that you can do well without bothering to take 6 Rockguts, and just Zerg Rush cunts instead
2. Cobba took a Mangler Boss

Fair fucks to Dominik for running the Mangler. I mentioned in my last article that the newly-minted 150-point Mangler Boss has probably hit the point where you say “Fuck it, I’m in”. A sad state of affairs in many ways, like Gordrakk dropping to 340 points before finding his new level, and I could have told GW this would happen when they insulted our iconic combat monsters with mere Rend 1. But at 150 points I’m finally considering the Mangler again in my own lists, and I would suggest he’s worth another look for anyone who’d forgotten he existed.

Love and Rockets³

The only other Gloomspite player I’ve found who grabbed a 4-1 or better in 2026 was Jacob Friesenhan at this 16-player event in Canada, back in February.

The old Tank ‘n’ Spank: Jacob has been playing the most honest Warhammer imaginable, putting efficient Trogg tanks on objectives and launching equally efficient Boingrot rockets at the enemy. With Boingrots making an impact here we’ve now seen all genres of Squig represented on the top tables, and what I love about Boingrots (apart from being faster than Squig Herd) is that they bang out some damage in the charge phase which makes the army a bit harder to play against.

Bonus list: Teams event

I did say I would stick to singles events, but frankly there weren’t that many, so let’s take a look at Nick Stubbe’s list that performed well at a 40-player Teams event in New Zealand. I think it’s worth considering because ANZAC bias it’s got a couple of units that we haven’t seen elsewhere today.

It’s cool to see Trugg fronting up the Rockgut half – he still brings real aura to any list. The other notable inclusion is the Spider Riders who, despite being overcosted as GW deliberately attempts to drive Spiderfang out of the game, are still a bloody useful screen when strung out sideways. They’re fast and can kick out a handful of splash mortals, what more do you want?⁴

What beats them?

So that’s the only way Gloomspite have been doing well: Bulk Squigs (Mostly Herd), Rockguts Preferable. You’ll often see mass Trogg lists but they’ve been tried a lot and have a proven ceiling, which is not all that high. If I missed a result along the way, I probably just hate you, so how about you take that shit personally? But let me know in the comments if I did.

How do you tackle Squigs? Well they are wide open to Strike First. Squigs are insanely efficient in terms of damage per point, but don’t have much answer to getting whacked on the head on their own turn. In a similar vein, volume shooting will thin them out pretty rapidly on that 6+ save.

Their damage spikes when they get the charge off and have Crit Mortal (which applies to maximum one unit per turn), so if not, you might be able to tank the damage and hit back just as hard (especially if you have debuffs available). If they charge you with one unit that’s buffed to the moon, it can be well worth a countercharge into a second unit, and then you’ll trade pretty well on their turn.

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I quite enjoyed having a whinge this format, and it’s coming at tournament performance from a different angle than the other “What did well last weekend” content that’s out there, so I reckon it’s a format we’ll come back to. If any Patrons have any specific Factions they’d like to push to the front of the queue, then shout up and we’ll make it happen.

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

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1. Please read the whole article though. ↩︎
2. The long version isn’t that much different tbh. “Hit stuff with Squigs, and maybe stand around with Troggs”. ↩︎
3. Love and Rockets. ↩︎
4. A drop to 90 points, since you ask. ↩︎
5. ANZAC Content Mafia ✊ ↩︎