Orruks are everywhere in the Mortal Realms, truculent hooligans who love nothing more than fighting, looting, and killing. But as you’d expect from such a fractious race, they don’t all get along.
The Kruleboyz are one of the more prominent orruk cultures, recently emerged into the Mortal Realms. These lean and lanky swamp-dwellers embody the cunning Morkish aspect of their great two-headed god, Gorkamorka, above his Gorkish brutality – though they’ve got veneration enough for both.
Kruleboyz warclans prefer to make their homes in foetid bogs, mist-shrouded marshes, and other sources of dense camouflage and foul fauna. Here, they can exercise their limitless scope for cruelty and cunning. Where an armoured Ironjawz orruk might cleave a human in two with one swing of his choppa, Kruleboyz prefer to pinion their foe with a poisonous spear in order to watch them suffer.
The Kruleboyz fancy themselves the smartest around, and they enjoy getting one over those who think themselves better than an orruk. There’s nothing better than bringing the high and mighty crashing down to earth with a mocking cackle.
Overview
Despite their more cautious attitude towards warfare, the Kruleboyz are orruks through and through. They’re slender compared to their hulking cousins in the Ironjawz, trading bulk for a longer reach. Hard finkin’ is something to be encouraged, and they will calmly calculate a plan of attack rather than hurtling headlong into a scrap. A Kruleboyz warparty creeps forward under cover of night and fog, hefting jagged weapons coated with venom harvested from bog-dwelling horrors, and gleefully lays traps and lures their foes into an ambush.
With this penchant for skulduggery, smarts, and sheer spite, the Kruleboyz stay on the literal cutting edge of unpleasant innovations. They proudly craft gurning skareshields to intimidate their foes, and the Deffspikerz of each warclan construct vicious war machines – like giant Beast-skewer Killbows – which can bring down the biggest monsters.
Each Kruleboyz warclan is divided into tribes, defined by their obsessions and contributions. Badstabbaz make up the warrior class of the warclan, from lowly yoofs to fearsome Murknobs, while Git-snatchaz are experts in vile corpse-picking, and Deffspikerz are swaggering sharpshooters. The swamps of the Mortal Realms are full of big beasties like the Great Gnashtoof and Sludgeraker, and the Beast-breaka tribes have learned to subjugate such monsters – bending them to their will and presenting them to their chieftains to ride into battle.
Only the most sly and malicious Kruleboyz rise through the ranks to become a Killaboss. They are consummate schemers and vicious warriors in equal measure, who carefully survey the battlefield from on high atop a Corpse-rippa Vulcha, or keep a furtive eye on their subordinates from ground level. Swampcalla Shamans channel the roiling energies of the Waaagh! to transform the battlefield into soul-sucking swamps.
The Kruleboyz work side-by-side – or boot-on-face – with grots, tolerating their craven weakness more easily than the brutish Ironjawz. Hobgrots are particularly mean-spirited minions who band together for protection within Kruleboyz warclans, and are smart enough to hustle deals with gargants, Gitmobs, and other “trade partners”. They strike frequent bargains with Hashut-worshipping duardin, guaranteeing a steady supply of cast-off weapons and explosives.
For a seeming gaggle of swamp-dwelling undesirables, the Kruleboyz are much more than a thorn in everyone’s side – if left unchecked, they’ll bring whole civilisations to ruin.
Battle Traits
The Kruleboyz have a sly disposition, and stoop to Dirty Tricks to get the upper hand in battle. There is a limit to the complexity of even the most kunnin’ plans, however, and their tricks become more difficult to pull off as more are attempted in each battle round.
Your rank-and-file INFANTRY can prepare Venom-Encrusted Weapons to improve their critical hit potential, while smaller mobs can do some Sneaky Sneakin’ in any Movement phase to get into position for a killing blow.
Kruleboyz might feint and leave a flank open to lure their opponents into a Lethal Surprise of careful traps and raised spear walls – or by clattering shields and hollering, they can create a Noisy Racket to disorient enemy combatants. If you want your plans to go off without a hitch, you’ll need to carefully judge which tricks you’ll use, and how many, and on who...
Battle Formations
These wily orruks have a wealth of taktikz at their disposal, and the Index includes four battle formations.The Kruleboyz Klaw makes great use of shamanic rituals to raise a Swamp Shroud that conceals any friendly units who lurk near terrain.
Other battle formations keep a supply of specially-fletched bolts ready for when ranged units need to pick off distant targets, focus on stealth and mobility to better ambush the enemy and steal their shiniest stuff, or go to battle with a menagerie of fearsome warbeasts.
Arcana and Incantations
Swampcalla Shamans have a great affinity with the noxious swamps of the Mortal Realms, and can use their magical power to destroy and debilitate.
They can summon a Choking Mist to burn the lungs of their enemies, subtracting 1 from the Attacks characteristic of an enemy unit wholly within 18” of the caster. Other spells create poisonous quagmires or gift their allies with the guile of Mork.
Unit Focus
Gobsprakk, the Mouth of Mork is infamous amongst the Swampcalla Shamans, a supremely cunning individual who once bested a Lord of Change in a battle of wits.
He is the self-appointed prophet of Mork, claiming that the god literally speaks into his ears. Whether this is a ruse or not matters little, as enemy spellcasters are overwhelmed with terrible Waaagh! energy when Gobsprakk declares that Mork Sez No!
The agonising wails of the Screamin’ Mandrakk carried by his pet grot Rinklefinga can power up his unbinding once per battle, all but guaranteeing pain to enemy magic weavers, while Gobsprakk’s own Strangle Hex can wring the life from the largest foes.
The mightiest Kruleboyz grow bigger and stronger through constant battle (and demanding the best cuts of meat), and few are as large or imposing as a Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof. These dog-riding dictators are as skilled in combat as they are in concocting elaborate schemes – or claiming they have one, at least.
So long as the ladz believe that every feint and misdirection is All Part of Da Plan, they’ll be willing pawns and cling to objectives with more effort. Should an enemy impinge on their carefully laid plots, the Killaboss can goad their allies into a frenzy with a cry of That’s Ours, Ya Gitz.
Like all orruks, the Kruleboyz respect the almighty destructive power of Kragnos, the God of Earthquakes. His return to the Mortal Realms saw them slink out of their swamps, and a Murknob with Belcha-banna can channel the Power of Kragnos to shroud allies from harm.
The gurning effigies carried by these Murknobs incorporate grotesque trophies, animated by Kruleboyz sorcery to belch clouds of rotting stench even in death. The Breath of the Mire-drakes inflicts mortal damage on any enemy foolish enough to stand upwind.
Gutrippaz make up the backbone of Kruleboyz forces. They’re barbaric warriors who love nothing more than to subject their prey to a long and agonising death via poison.
Even though their brute strength is usually enough to overcome most enemies, Gutrippaz incorporate the leering faces of their skareshields into terrifying Scare Taktikz, causing their enemies to falter in combat.
The Word from the Studio
Jimbo: “The Kruleboyz have had their Dirty Tricks mechanic rebuilt from the ground up to better represent all their sneaky strategising. Now, instead of choosing one effect at the start of the battle, you'll have a bag of tricks to employ every battle round.
“There's an element of trying your luck with this new version, as each Dirty Trick used in a battle round makes the next one attempted harder to pull off. Each of the tricks is quite potent, and even picking just one or two can help the Kruleboyz orchestrate a favourable engagement with even the toughest of opponents.”
Spearhead Spotlight
Even in smaller engagements, the Kruleboyz aren’t willing to fight fair, and the Swampskulka Gang embodies their commitment to sly battle tactics. A Killaboss in charge of such a force is a formidable opponent in every aspect of battle, and knows when best to unleash a Kruleboyz Waaagh! to finish off an overwhelmed opponent.
These groups bring a complement of ranged weapons, including the terrifying Beast-skewer Killbow, a war machine that fires gigantic venom-encrusted bolts, leaving even the heftiest enemy monsters thoroughly Skewered.
The overwhelming cruelty of the Kruleboyz is perhaps equalled only by the inhuman bloodthirst of the vampires who rule the Soulblight Gravelords, and who will be swooping into view for our next Faction Focus.
