Hi all,
Today we are taking a look at everyone’s favorite shroomed-out maniacs: The Gloomspit Gitz (GG). Specifically we will be taking a look at their Path to Glory rules to see how they compare to past armies, and what unique twists they offer.
Army Special Rules:
The GG have a very complex set of rules that are similar to the 40k Ad Mech. Crusade rules. During each battle, you have the possibility of collecting a variety of Shrooms, both rare and common. Each hero can only do this once per battle. There are a total of 6 each, and they can be combined to create a brew. The rarer shrooms will make the brew more potent, but if you combine enough common ones you can get the same effect. As you add more ingredients your concoction score goes up but so does your volatility. Simple enough right? Wrong! After you finish your brew, you need to see if it succeeds by rolling a number of dice equal to the volatility score of the brew. If the result is less than or equal to the model that is brewing it’s renown score the brew is a success. If it is a success you gain an effect (resolved immediately) or a potion which are one-use items. If you fail you roll on a table and you can lose renown, be killed or even gain some renown.
The effects and potions are decent but I am not sure they are worth risking any characters you are attached to. The best effect does allow your heroes to make two heroic actions a turn in a battle. It’s an interesting mechanic and if you like chemistry I think you will enjoy the puzzle that it offers.
Quests:
You get a choice of four quests:
- Picking Season: Allows you to have 2 units pick Shrooms per turn but it can never be completed.
- Fungus Finders: You get tasked with finding a certain number of randomly determined Shrooms. Once completed you get a heft reward of Glory Points
- Da Loonking’s Tribute: Sets up the GG quest battle
- Raid da Stunties: If you defeat an enemy army with a Duradain general and you won a major victory, non-destroyed units get extra renown and you get extra glory points.
Custom Mission:
Finally, a wacky and fun faction battle. Basically you are racing your opponent to catch shards of the Bad Moon as they fall randomly on the table. The Bad Moon follows a random path so expect the armies to look like cats chasing a laser pointer. You are at the mercy of RNG here as it is possible that no shards may spawn. Winning the battle nets you a territory of your choice for free, alongside additional Renown and Glory Points.
Veteran Abilities:
The GG get six options that are locked to certain keywords for the abilities:
- Moonclan Only: 5+ ward save when affected by the Bad Moon
- Grot Only: Once per battle get +3 to your Gather Shrooms roll
- Grot Only Option B: If more than 9′ away from the enemy in your hero phase you get to make a normal move
- Troggoth Only: In the hero phase, auto heals all wounds once per battle
- Squig Only: After you roll a charge roll, change one dice to be a “6”
- Spiderfang Only: The unit becomes eligible to fight if it is within 8″ of an enemy unit and it can pile in an extra 5″ (this can be a very nasty gotcha moment for your opponent)
As you can see, these abilities are all amazing and make for some of the strongest we have seen so far. You will want to use as many of these abilities as you can!
Territories:
The GG get a nice variety of six different options:
- Fungus Field: Immediately get 2 rolls on the common fungus chart and once on the rare. The territory then disappears.
- Lurklair: Allows you to recuperate units for free
- Trogghole: Allows you to recuperate and recruit troggoths much more cheaply.
- Squig Paddock: Every time you recuperate a squig unit they gain additional renown.
- Scuttle Tunnels: After each battle you pick a Spiderfang unit that was not in the battle and send it exploring. You have a 50% chance to find a new territory or take an injury roll or increase its casualty rating.
- Buried Dankhold: After each battle you get to roll on the Rare Shrooms table!
As with the veteran abilities these are all really good options especially then Scuttle Tunnels and Dankhold.
Conclusion:
These might be some of the most interesting Path to Glory rules we have seen. The GG can freely ignore the narrative of any mission, and just focus on their own little farming and brewing empire. It’s interesting to see how these rules are designed such that the GG player doesn’t need to interact with the enemy much to gain something from a battle. GG players should be thrilled with these options as they are both very fluffy, very crazy, and very powerful.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
