Who are the Gloomspite Gitz?

Picture a screaming tide of blue-skinned grots, half-mad on mushrooms, riding, herding and occasionally being eaten by their own war-beasts — all lit by the sickly glow of a giant, grinning moon that decides on a whim to float across the battlefield. That's the Gloomspite Gitz: the moon-mad night goblins, bouncing squigs, giant spiders and lumbering troggoths of the Grand Alliance Destruction, united by the malign light of the Bad Moon. If you want a big, cheap, gloriously unpredictable horde with buckets of character, start with the Gloomspite Gitz collection.

The Core Fantasy

The Gitz are the gambler's army. Everything about them is a dice-roll dressed up as a battle plan — and when it comes off, it comes off spectacularly. The Bad Moon drifts across the field buffing whatever it looms over, Fanatics come whirling out of grot mobs like the world's angriest jack-in-the-box, squigs bounce off in directions nobody chose, and troggoths shrug off wounds while hitting like a runaway cart. It is chaotic, comedic and genuinely menacing, often in the same turn.

Expect:

• Numbers, glorious numbers: huge blocks of cheap grots that grin at casualties.
• Randomness as a feature: the Bad Moon, bouncing squigs and hidden Fanatics keep both players guessing.
• Big beaters on a budget: troggoths and Mangler Squigs that punch far above their price.
• Bags of personality: few armies in Age of Sigmar have this much comedic menace baked in.

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How They Play on the Tabletop

Gitz reward players who enjoy juggling probabilities and overwhelming an opponent with bodies. You screen the board with cheap grots, threaten with squigs and Fanatics, and let the troggoths or the Bad Moon do the heavy lifting. Played well, they can table an opponent under sheer weight of attacks; played greedily, they can also implode when the dice turn on you. That risk is the whole appeal.

What you'll love:

• Board presence: so many models you can hold objectives everywhere at once.
• The ambush factor: Loonsmasha Fanatics and hidden squigs punish anyone who charges in blind.
• Cheap to field, cheap to buy: one of the most budget-friendly ways into a big AoS army.

What can bite you:

• Bravery wobbles: grots are brave in a mob and cowardly out of one — lose the block and the panic snowballs.
• The dice giveth and taketh: the same randomness that wins games can lose them.
• Movement herding: squigs and big units take practice to steer where you actually want them.

The Bad Moon and the Gitz's Place in Destruction

What ties the whole ramshackle circus together is the Bad Moon — the Gloomspite itself. When it waxes over the battlefield, the grots turn from nervous to fearless and their magic surges. It is a mechanic no other faction has, and it defines the army: you are never just fighting the enemy, you are also reading the sky. That trickster, gambling identity sets the Gitz apart within Destruction's roster of brawlers.

If you like the idea of a cunning Destruction horde but fancy a different flavour of green, they sit neatly alongside their cousins. The straightforwardly brutal orruks of the Orruk Warclans are all about the charge, while the beefy, gut-plate gunlines of the Ogor Mawtribes trade bodies for sheer mass. The Gitz are the sneaky, spider-riding, squig-lobbing wildcard of the three.

Key Unit Roles (What You'll Commonly Need)

1) The Screens (Stabbas & Shootas): big blocks of grot battleline that hold objectives, soak charges and hide nasty surprises. Your bread, butter and sacrificial fodder.

2) The Hidden Threat (Loonsmasha Fanatics): tucked inside grot mobs, released to whirl into an unsuspecting enemy. The classic Gitz gotcha that makes opponents charge cautiously.

3) The Fast Punch (Squig Hoppers, Boingrot Bounderz, Spider Riders): your mobile hitting power — bouncing squig cavalry and venom-fanged spiders that spring across the table to grab objectives or dive on soft targets.

4) The Anvil (Rockgut & Fellwater Troggoths, Mangler Squigs): the heavy hitters that hold a flank and cave in whatever's in front of them, regenerating wounds as they go.

5) The Enablers (Loonboss, Skragrott, Fungoid Cave-Shaman, Webspinner): heroes and shamans who buff the horde, summon Fanatics, work the Bad Moon and keep the grots fearless.

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Getting Started the Smart Way

Step 1 — Pick your flavour.

• Moonclan (grots and squigs) for the classic horde, Spiderfang for a fast spider-riding force, or Troggherd for a small, hard-hitting monster army.
• You don't have to commit forever — the battletome lets you mix all three under the Bad Moon.

Step 2 — Build the core.

• Start with a couple of big grot blocks (Stabbas/Shootas) plus a Loonboss to lead them.
• Add a unit of squigs or Spider Riders for speed, and one troggoth kit as a centrepiece beater.

Step 3 — Learn to batch-paint.

• Grots paint fast: dark blue-black skin, then pop the details with moon-yellow and squig-red. Assembly-line them in tens.
• New to the brush? Our beginner painting guide covers the basics, and the Warhammer Colour paints range makes matching the studio scheme easy.

Step 4 — Expand with purpose.

• Once the core plays well, add threats: Mangler Squigs, more Fanatics, an Arachnarok Spider or a Colossal Squig centrepiece.
• Browse the whole Age of Sigmar range to plan your next boxes.

Common Beginner Mistakes (Avoid These)

• Running units too small: grots live and die by the mob. Small blocks panic and evaporate.
• Forgetting the Bad Moon: its position changes everything — plan your turn around where it's glowing.
• Wasting Fanatics: release them too early and you've thrown away your best ambush.
• Over-committing squigs: they bounce unpredictably — leave yourself a margin for a bad roll.
• Buying centrepieces first: a lone Arachnarok looks great but loses games. Build the horde, then the monsters.

Who the Gloomspite Gitz Are For

"Choose the Gitz if you love a big, cheap, characterful horde and you'd rather roll a fistful of dice and pray than play a tidy, predictable game. Give them a miss if wild swings of luck make you miserable, or if you want a small, elite collection you can paint in an afternoon."

Frequently Asked Questions

Are the Gloomspite Gitz good for beginners?

Yes — they're one of the cheapest ways into a big Age of Sigmar army, grots batch-paint quickly, and the horde playstyle is forgiving of losses. The one caveat is that they lean on randomness, so you'll want to enjoy a bit of dice-driven chaos.

What is the Bad Moon in Gloomspite Gitz?

The Bad Moon (the Gloomspite) is the army's signature mechanic: a giant grinning moon that drifts across the battlefield, buffing Gitz units it looms over and empowering their magic. Reading and reacting to its position is central to playing the army well.

Do I have to play grots, or can I run spiders or troggoths?

All three. The battletome covers Moonclan (grots and squigs), Spiderfang (grots on giant spiders) and Troggherd (troggoths), and you can field them separately or mix them together under the Bad Moon.

Are Gloomspite Gitz cheap to collect?

Very. Grot infantry come in large, low-cost boxes, so you get a big model count for your money, making the Gitz one of the most budget-friendly horde armies in Age of Sigmar.

Final thought: the Gloomspite Gitz won't give you a calm, controlled game — but they'll give you a table full of grinning misfits, the best gotcha moments in the game, and a horde you can afford. Trust the Bad Moon, and never, ever count your grots before the panic tests.

Further reading: Orruk Warclans: Army Analysis and the full Age of Sigmar Destruction collection.