There was a time when Age of Sigmar was the hobby that consumed me, my absolute favorite game on the planet. That was AoS 3.0, Galletian Champions, 2023. So much has changed since then—I’ve gotten back into 40k, over 4,000 points of Beasts of Chaos have been functionally wiped from the map, and I thought I’d left the game behind in its 4th edition. That itch remained though, and in my sparse AoS coverage since Beasts were given their grisly sentence, one army featured in one article continued to nag at me: The Gitmob. Now that my army for 40k is functionally finished, barring a few touch-ups and the painting of some Servitors, my idle hands once again gravitated towards the game that brought me so much joy and pain. The year is 2025, and I’m starting a Gloomspite Gitz army.
Via Warhammer Facebook
As a bit of background, I actually don’t care all too much for the Gitz’ traditional aesthetic; the goofy, loping squigs and frothing-mad goblins aren’t really my cup of tea. I’m not one to play the ‘funny army’, and I’ve never once touched a greenskin (in fact, my green paint collection was a single bottle until now). That being said, what sets the army apart for me is the introduction of an entirely new subsect, of plastic that arrived this past February: The Gitmob. Gitmob pulls its aesthetics from the non-Night Goblin range of Orcs & Goblins that began in Warhammer Fantasy, largely made of wolf-riding or artillery-manning gobs that were less associated with The Bad Moon and mushrooms. This has translated into a Steppe-inspired army of fully Cavalry or War Machine gits that leans away from horde, and towards fast, elite play. In essence, this is the all-jetbike army of AoS, a more nimble alternative to the fully-mounted Beastclaw Raiders of the Ogors.
Via The Grand Alliance
For me, Gitmob are an absolutely gorgeous force, and one I wanted to do something with since its inception, but I hadn’t realized what at that point. Of course, conversions are my bread and butter, and one of the main ways I engage with the hobby, so building them like the box art was a non-starter. I even wrote a piece on why Gitmob ought to have been its own faction, which you can read here, where my main takeaway was that I adored the army but couldn’t get into it for fear of collecting an entire Gloomspite Gitz army. Well, here we are, and I’ve ordered Rockguts and Boingrot Bounderz to supplement the force.
That stems from, of course, my urge to get back into the game on the whole, but also the fact that I’ve come up with a compelling idea for my army’s aesthetic, borrowing pieces from a range I’ve now thoroughly pilfered, in Sylvaneth.
Via Warhammer Community
I am at this point extremely familiar with Sylvaneth as a range, despite never playing them. My fascination for their aesthetic has been long-documented, and they were instrumental in supplying the buggy bits that gave my Ash Waste Admech their core aesthetic. Given I had so many leftover non-insectoid pieces, many of them bodies, weapons, and jewelry, the idea popped into my head to use the spears from the various Revenant kits and treat my gitmob like they had just raided a Sylvaneth wargrove. My Troggoths could wield Kurnoth weapons, and wolves painted in spirit-like colors, as though to mimic the wild hunt. Yes, all of this was coming together, and the howl of Gitmob rang in my ears.
But actually getting started in AoS 4.0 is no easy thing, especially given how frontloaded a lot of the non-army costs can be. Unlike 40k, while AoS is a cheaper game on the whole, its army supplements are a tax that one cannot avoid. I’m talking about Faction Terrain and Endless Spells.
Via KC Holt
Due to the fact that I know I’ll have to get the Terrain and Spells at some point, I’ve actually not bought them first, which is something I recommend for most players. Things you know you need, especially which are often sold out on most websites, are costs that can be backloaded until you’re actually playing a game. These pieces are huge, and usually fairly easy and fun to paint, so can be a refresher after the rest of your army is underway!
Instead, I sought after podcasts, tournament recaps, and Discord to get a rough overview of what I’d need—while this applies mostly for me, as someone who’s competitively minded, picking something truly unplayable up as part of your start to a faction can indeed feel miserable. Weigh the viability with its cost, and suddenly you may be confronted with ways to start on a budget. Rockgut Troggoths can build 6 to a unit with some added parts, and Boingrot Bounderz come in 10s, but are played in 5s (reinforced to 10), meaning you get a ton of points for very little. Due to the fact the actual Gitmob component is about as expensive as Admech, we’re trawling secondhand sites and fantastic retailers like Flipside to get those, rather than paying Games Workshop prices.
Via Warhammer Community
Below is my first 2000pt list, which I aim to slowly build up towards throughout the course of the next few months. There’s takeaways here from all over my Warhammer experience, from keeping to lower drops than Gitz often do so we’re in control of Priority, to utilizing a core of the three best Warscrolls available to the faction at present, namely Rockgut Troggoths, Boingrot Bounderz, and Snarlpack Cavalry. From there, a little bit of seasonal spice is sprinkled in, by way of the Frazzlegit Shaman on War-Wheela. This admittedly-overpriced (in every respect) Wizard has a 6” aura that protects your Gitmob units from shooting, but not itself. With the new Obscuring rules for Terrain, if you line up the model 0.9” from the terrain feature length-wise, as it is an oval base, you stretch that functionally-Obscuring rule almost 11” across. This means we’re not liable to be shot at, pretty much at all, outside of our Troggoths (who can bear it) and Boingrots (which we treat as a trade piece). Couple all this with great regeneration by way of our Loonshrine, as well as tons of movement to skirt around our auras with both Snarlfang Riders and Redeploy, and you’ve got a right gittish stew going!
On the whole, I’m very excited to be jumping feet-first back into AoS. 4.0 has a lot of great design principles, and we’re deep enough into the new edition that I feel like many of its worst quirks have been ironed out. You’ll be seeing plenty of conversion work in future articles, as well as hopefully battle reports, so stay tuned!
Have you played Gloomspite Gitz in AoS 4.0? Have you gotten a chance to play against a Gitmob-centric list on the tabletop? Let me know your experiences with the faction, as I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
