Age of Sigmar: Why Gitmob Should Be its Own Faction

The season of thanks is upon us, and Games Workshop has previewed a massive new release for Age of Sigmar’s smallest overall Grand Alliance, Destruction.  Following up on the release of the Snarlfang Riders in 3.0, these new gits follow the sun, as opposed to the Bad Moon, with a radically different aesthetic to their grimy cohort within the Gloomspite Gitz.  This release is massive, including 5 new kits, with at least 6 different warscrolls, bringing the Gitmob keyword to 7 units (not counting the now-Legends Underworlds Warband), but between the wide-ranging release and new look for the faction, many players beg the question: Why are these Gloomspite Gitz, to begin with?  In this editorial, I want to discuss the choice to group these new kits with the rest of AoS’ goblins, and why it might be a mistake for the game at-large.

Via Warhammer YouTube

As a bit of background, the Gloomspite Gitz are made up, generally, of four core subthemes, being the Spiderfang, Troggoths, general Moonclan, and Squig-centric Moonclan.  All of these are different in size, scope, and crucially, kit age, but there are aesthetic signifiers which tie the lot together.  You’ll find a host of mushrooms, stalactites, and dank dwellings set up around the models, rife with insects and all manner of that which goes bump in the night.  The new gitmob, in contrast, borrow from steppe aesthetics and the old-school Orcs & Goblins range, where much of Gloomspite Gitz takes its cues from the Night Goblins which were a subtheme within that Warhammer Fantasy army; this is a role reversal hinged largely on nostalgia, and the return of the Doomdiver Catapult is indicative of that fact.

When we saw some of the earliest armies release for AoS, the release wave size associated with just these new Gitmob models (including a named hero) would have been perfectly reasonable.  In fact, this launch, including the older Snarlfang kit(s), is more new models than Sylvaneth got upon its inception in AoS.  Giving the game smaller factions easier to “complete” means that players starting a new army wouldn’t be shackled to the paralysis that being part of Destruction’s largest army does.

Via Reddit

But what’s the harm in increasing an army’s warscroll count by about a quarter?  Yes, they’re a very different aesthetic, and the lore doesn’t much make sense when imagining all these goblins side-by-side, but for gameplay a greater number of options is a strict upside, surely?

Gloomspite Gitz is already one of the larger armies in AoS, and comparing it to other factions like Idoneth Deepkin or Fyreslayers shows a clear preference for Gitz.  Put simply, Gitz feels “complete”, right now; the army is diverse, with ~4 distinct build paths, and meshing the subthemes together is perfectly viable.  Too many cooks spoils the stew, essentially, and there’s certainly a possibility these new Gitmob models create a sense of bloat which drove the separation of an army like Orruk Warclans into Kruleboyz & Ironjawz…at least, it seemed that way.

Via Warhammer Community

As a slight tangent, Orruk Warclans, another Destruction army, is releasing as a single book despite a promise from Games Workshop that they’d be supported separately, now that Bonesplitterz has gone to Legends.  This is a bit of a concern, given each of those factions are getting half the lore, art, and focus they’d otherwise get in 2 books, and the historically problematic soup of ‘Big Waagh’ is present in an Army of Renown.  The AoS design team has clear hesitation to separate out the clans, as they are here, between Gitmob & Gloomspite Gitz.

In 2.0 & 3.0, there would be no question as to whether the new Gitz would release as their own faction.  7-9 Warscrolls is plenty for a new faction just getting started, and as has been seen, an army like Flesh-Eater Courts got by on a mere ~4 boxes for the majority of its lifespan, now becoming perhaps the most popular faction for new players.  If you want to get into Gitmob, as I do, you’re incentivized to also buy into the Gloomspite bits you might otherwise skip.  Aesthetically, they’re distinct, but gameplay now points you towards a broader goblin soup.  Surely, they could have released as their own army, and had an Army of Renown to bind the two for players looking to play all goblinkind.

Via Warhammer Community

Instead, Age of Sigmar is rapidly losing one of its biggest historical strengths: Hyperspecific aesthetics leading to a thematic whole.  Armies like Nighthaunt emerged from five Fantasy kits, Flesh-Eater Courts from four, and now both are fully fleshed-out and fan-favorites.  The inventiveness of AoS to make much out of little has been stripped away over time, in favor of bloated, incohesive superfactions increasingly impossible to complete as a collection.  It used to be that you could buy 2-4 boxes of everything your army had, maybe 6 or so total kits, and have the entire army core at your fingertips, but in spite of culling the bloat in 4.0, by squatting whole armies and thirds of others, what remains has become a sludge of muddy aesthetics which would prior see separation.

Of course the Beasts of Chaos player, the advocate for Warcry cultists being their own army, would feel jaded about Gitmob not being its own force.  The mistakes associated with the missed opportunities I believed in, and backed with my time, passion, and money, continue to be made.

Via Reddit

Destruction as a Grand Alliance is many armies masquerading as four, in trenchcoats.  Sons of Behemat is 2 kits and a billion bitz, Orruk Warclans doesn’t even exist anymore and yet has a book split among its two former members, Ogors used to be two factions, now bound together because the majority of their kits are old, and Gloomspite Gitz has 5 distinct aesthetics wrestling for the spotlight.  Unlike 40k, where factions are allowed to pull from shared pools (but have unique units, in the case of things like Marines vs Space Wolves), the oversimplification of AoS’ “Play anything, but don’t soup” mantra is coming back to bite it.  Allies are gone, so anything that would have been legal as allies just has to be in the same book.  The wheel turns, and Gitmob is soon to be lost in the sea of moonlit goblins that preceded it.

Via Etsy

This is a contentious topic for the new AoS release, and I would love to hear your thoughts on it!  I want to be clear — I love the new Gitmob stuff, and it being connected to Gitz at-large is the only thing keeping me from jumping in.  How would you handle a release like this in the future, if you were GW?  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!