Gitz You Some - Zarbag's Gitz Review

Thank you to Games Workshop for sending us an advance copy of Rivals of the Mirrored City for review!

In this blog, we give our standard Rivals Review of the new Zarbag's Gitz, released as part of the Rivals of the Mirrored City box.

Podcast: https://podcast.battle-mallet.com/e/episode-62-gitz-you-some-zarbags-gitz-review/

Zarbag's Gitz

A nine (9?!) fighter warband, Zarbag's Gitz does the horde like no one else. Their Scurry reaction plus the new Give 'Em a Volley Ladz action gives them some of the best action economies in the game. 

Zarbag

Zarbag is a standard 3 wound leader with a decent attack action and a spell attack action. He starts on a respectable 2 dodge and only gets better when he inspires (when you have 3 or more glory points). The inspire mechanic is the same for 5 of the other fighters. Importantly, he has the Scurry reaction on his card:

Use this after another friendly Grot's Move action that began in a hex adjacent to this fighter. If this fighter has one or fewer Move tokens and no Charge tokens, this fighter makes a Move action.
 

Drizgit, Bonekrakka, & Gobbaluk

Drizgit is a squig herder, with his loyal squigs, Bonekrakka and Gobbaluck. Each of them is a potent combatant who get shockingly accurate when inspired. Bonekrakka and Gobbaluk inspire if Drizgit is out of action. Drizgit does have a unique action that lets him Move himself and the two squigs, which can be used to re-position, even pushing Drizgit forward while pulling the squigs back to play defense later!

Prog, Redkap, Stikkit, & Dibz

These four Grots are the chaff of the warband, all having 2 wounds each. Prog has a more accurate attack, and grants Ensnare when he supports an attack. The 3 Shootas all have Give 'Em a Volley Ladz:

Each friendly Shoota within 3 hexes of this fighter can make one Grot Bow Attack action.

Snirk Sourtongue

Snirk may be one of the most unique (if not the most unique) fighters in all of Underworlds. Uninspired, he's a standard low-accuracy, high damage fighter. But if his attack fails, he Inspires and starts spinning around his ball & chain, gaining the Wreck action (see below). With Wreck, Snirk can bypass defense characteristics and damage reduction completely, dealing 3 unblockable damage to any fighter if the Scatter roll goes your way.

Scatter 4 from this fighter’s hex and push this fighter 3 hexes along the chain. If you would push this fighter into an occupied hex, deal 1 damage to the other fighter, then push the other fighter 1 hex further from this fighter. Then resolve this fighter’s push. If the other fighter cannot be pushed, and/or if this fighter cannot be pushed into a hex along the chain, deal 1 damage to this fighter and this action ends.

Key Objectives

  1. Gitz Everywhere: Generally, this will have you holding 2 Objectives to Score 2 Glory, but it could amount to 3, 4, or even 5 glory if things really go your way! It's crucial to have early because it affords you the best opportunity to have fighters on Objectives.
  2. Mad Scurry: If you need 5 fighters with Move or Charge tokens, you need this early. Another 2 Glory. This is absolutely the Objective you mulligan for if you don't have it. Everything else is scoreable later, but this one gets much more difficult (if not impossible) later.
  3. Overwhelming Gitz:Again, an Objective that's much easier to score while you have most of your fighters alive.

Key Gambits 

  1. Gruesome Grimace: Good for keeping a Grot alive on an objective, or keeping Snirk alive if he actually succeeds on his attack action.
  2. Little Waagh: +1 Dice on any attack action, regardless of range, is always nice.
  3. Sneaky Step: It wouldn't be a Battle Mallet deck review without a Push card recommendation.

Key Upgrades

  1. Leashed Spite: Extra Glory, is going to be important for this warband, given how much Glory they can give up.
  2. Sharp Stikka: A nice Attack action upgrade that has the potential to do a spikey bit of damage, especially if paired with Little Waagh!
  3. Squinty Glarin': Being able to commit extra Scurry reactions is very powerful.

Play Style

This warband has a strong Hold Objective playstyle, with some aggro flavor. The biggest thing will be keeping as many fighters alive as possible.

Boards

You want open deployment options, with as many sets of adjacent hexes as possible.

Playing Against This

Simply focus down fighters and stand on ojbectives.

Nemesis Pairings

We like Malevolent Masks and Paths of Prophecy to double down on the hold Objective component.

New Player Rating

Bronze. Managing 9 fighters with mutliple opportunities to Move each activatio is a lot to handle. Plus, the warband is going to give up glory as fighters die.