Age of Sigmar: Colors of Krule – The Subfactions of the Kruleboyz
Sneaky comes in several shades. Let’s take a look at the latest Orruks.
The new Orruk Warclans battletome hits shelves this Saturday, alongside the first wave of new releases for the sneakiest, most cunnin’ Greenskins around, the Kruleboyz, with even more on the way soon. The newest Orruks are bringing a brand new style of play to the warclans and are definitely the finkin’ Orruk’s army as they lack a lot of the bulk of the other clans but make up for it with tactics and dirty tricks.
In addition, they are split further by WHAT tricks they use into subfactions, allowing Kruleboyz generals to choose between the stealthy Grinnin’ Blades, the eagle-eyed Big Yellers, or the unsettling Skulbugz. Subfactions work a little differently in 3.0 (hopefully a sign of things to come), so let’s take a quick look at what the new subfactions allow you to do.
Grinnin’ Blades
Described in the battletome as “the epitome of Morkiness”, the Grinnin’ Blades put even the other tricky factions to shame with their underhanded tactics. Their shamans are experts at manipulating the cloying mists that rise from the swamps and using them to conceal their allies. For rules purposes, this translates to making all the Kruleboyz in your army invisible for the first battle round as long as they stay outside 12″ of any enemies. Combined with Redeploy and the right command traits, this can lead to a destructive second turn, especially if your opponent relies heavily on shooting or spellcasting.
Big Yellers
A faction focusing more on ranged combat, and the one with the most useful combat ability, in my opinion, the Big Yellers are the subfaction for you if you really like the look of the new Boltboyz since they make them Battleline choices. In addition, you get to add 3″ to the range of all your shooting attacks, and in the first battle round, every unit gets to re-roll one hit roll, possibly to fish for that nasty poisoned weapon mortal wound.
With a 27″ range you’ll likely get to shoot with all your units using the Aimed shot in the first round if you take the second turn, meaning you’ll be hitting on a 2+, and with the reroll basically guaranteeing all hits. The Killbow is especially scary in this faction and could essentially delete your opponent’s big monster hero in a single attack before the battle even begins in earnest. I will definitely be using this as my faction of choice for my Kruleboyz army.
Skulbugz
One of the least useful and most situational subfactions, the Skulbugz are nonetheless an interesting team and definitely have their usefulness. Enemy units picked to fight while within 3″ suffer -1 to hit on a 6+, or a 4+ if within 3″ of a Monster. While this is a potent defensive ability, it has a fairly low chance of actually working unless you have a big monster nearby, and the other subfacs are just more useful in general. Still, it’s a cool ability, and it provides some fun color and conversion potential.
Will you be using a subfaction with your Kruleboyz?
