Design Insights: Gloomspite Gitz

GW brings us some more info about the upcoming AoS Battletome for the Gloomspite Gitz, aka, Night Goblins.

I was a bit apprehensive about a Goblin army to be honest but they’re actually looking pretty awesome, and certainly have that trademark GW sense of humor about them, too. They look like a really fun army to play and play against.

This article was originally published on the Warhammer-community site.

The Gloomspite Gitz are coming – and with them, a range of miniatures that reinvent the classic Warhammer Goblins with distinctive Warhammer Age of Sigmar flair:

To learn more, we sat down with Ben Jefferson from the Design Studio, for insights on how the Gloomspite Gitz were made, the concepts and directions that informed their final look, and more interesting tidbits…

Ben: Like with the Nighthaunt, we wanted to expand some iconic models from a larger range into a fully-fledged faction of their own. The classic Night Goblin has always been one of Warhammer’s most evocative images, so it was the perfect place to start. John Blanche, Seb Perbet and Tom Harrison helped us with the early concepts and mockups, and we wanted to capture some of the whimsy and magic from early Warhammer art.

Like other Warhammer armies, the Gloomspite Gitz were designed to hint at a much wider culture. Grots are quite unlike anything else in the Mortal Realms and are unusual even by the standards of Destruction:

Ben: The Gloomspite Gitz are based on the classic Night Goblins. Their culture is feudal, Shamanic and obviously clan-based, and is almost entirely focused upon the harvesting, processing and eating of fungus for their extra-special qualities! They’re mind- and body-altering, performance enhancing, they help them commune with their deity, and they’re presumably nutritional too!

Of course, the Moonclan Grots still share their common existence and purpose with the myriad squigs and troggoths who also dwell in the caves.

Ben: When designing the Gloomspite Gitz, we had three main things tonally in mind for their culture:

• The culture of the Gloomspite Gitz is purely shamanistic – and so rather than having engineers, or generals, or more logical or mechanical characters, instead, they’ve got a huge variety of witch doctors and magic men.
• Their culture is based around fungus – as a food, as a currency, and even as a weapon.
• Their culture is also based around squigs. We wanted to respect the classic Cave Squig while inventing loads of new sentient fungus and cave-dwelling creatures.

Skragrott the Loonking sums up the new culture of the Gloomspite Gitz perfectly:

Ben: Skragrott is a king, but he’s also a Shaman. He’s not someone who rules through might, but through magic and cunning – that’s why he carries both a sceptre and a staff – he’s a mystical figure.

One of the most important things when designing a range is considering the craftsmanship of any given race. The Idoneth Deepkin, for example, wear naturalistic, almost organic-looking armour, while the Ironjawz wear heavy, scavenged gear. The same needed to be considered for the Gloomspite Gitz:

Ben: We wanted everything to feel handmade – the grots are unlikely to have much heavy industry. Their gear is designed to feel crafted and simple, with a lot of beaten metal textures. There’s no mass production here – every weapon or piece of armour is distinct. The only things that look “manufactured” are their various pouches and bottles, and the heavier balls and chains used by the Fanatics.

Grots aren’t just armed for war – they’ve also got a curious sense of style:

Ben: Higher-ranking grots have their own fashions. Some wear metallic jewellery on their noses and chins to make their face resemble the bad moon, while others have moon shapes hidden on their gear.

The miniatures team also wanted to take the opportunity to add even more character to the Mortal Realms’ hungriest denizens – squigs!

Ben: We wanted to add extra personality to squigs – we did this by giving them masks, accessories and armour plating. They’re not worshipped, but they are revered, like any other important beast of war.

On the other end, we wanted to show a whole variety of weird squigs that hint at more types than the ones you’d see on the battlefield, like the Stalagsquig, or Skragrott’s attendants.

When you get your hands on the new Gloomspite Gitz, you’ll notice that the sprues are packed with extras – this was an intentional design choice:

Ben: All the extra narrative bits on the frames really matter. They help to build the world, as well as underlining the comedic absurdity and psychedelic improbability of the Gloomspite Gitz. Keep an eye out for fungus, squigs, snotlings, cave nasties, detritus and much more!

Thanks, Ben! We’ve not even seen all the latest Gloomspite Gitz models yet, so stay tuned in the new year for more news, previews and models – and let us know what you’re looking forward to most on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Facebook page.