This review was completed using a free review copy of Dawnbringers: The Long Hunt provided to us by Games Workshop

The Ogor Mawtribes stalk the forests of Ghyran, accompanied by the Gorgers. Cursed brethren who have an endless hunger they cannot hope to satiate, they hound the Dawnbringer Crusaders with their monstrous mawpits, hoping to finally feel just a hint of satisfaction.

These Ogors are represented with The Roving Maw, a new Army of Renown for you to play with Ogors.

The Roving Maw

The Roving Maw really doesn’t restrict you much at all, you can include any Gorger or Gutbuster model that is not Unique (As of this writing there is no Unique Gutbuster model, but was likely written as a futureproofing measure). So the aim here is very clear: If you prefer footslogging ogors over Beastclaw Raiders, this might be for you.

We already covered the new Gorgers and Mawpit last week so feel free to check out my impressions over there first. As a result this is going to feel a bit lighter than the other armies we’ve covered.

Battle Traits

Might Makes Right and Ravenous Brutes return intact, which is a good start. Two of the key traits that help the army “feel” right so it’s good to start with the extra models on the point and movement into combat.

Mawpits of Ghur seeks to augment the Mawpit further.  We were not terribly impressed with it initially, but that is solely in the context of the generic book rather than this Army of Renown. You can roll 2D6, adding one for each model killed with the Head Butcher ability, and another +1 if you have a butcher Garrisoned inside. Some of the bonuses are quite nice, including dealing D3 mortal wounds and shutting off command ability to anything not wholly within 3″ of terrain or flying. And it doesn’t affect your own dudes! Gobbling Bites is like a replacement for the Trampling Charge ability, and also shores up another noted weakness of the mawpit. The Mawpit doesn’t do damage if the enemy is in combat with you, but with this ability on a 2+ enemy units take D3+1 mortals if they’re in combat with an Ogor unit.

Enhancements

The Command Trait Prime Gutserver teaches you all the spells from the new lore. We’ll come back to that, because it’s got some real winners. The artefact Flask of Congealed Maw-Juices lets you bring the Mawpit back to life if it was destroyed. This thing is already notoriously hard to kill, so this will make it nigh on impossible.

Let’s talk about the spells, because this is a great lore. Retcher which is the least impressive. It improves the caster’s Rend by 2. Not awful as your Butchers fall into the category of “Wizard who can Box” but foot heroes generally arent worth sending into combat like that. Next up is Mawmeat, making a terrain feature within 18″ vulnerable to the Mawpit for the rest of the battle. This is actually pretty useful, especially if the terrain feature is on an objective. Your opponents will likely try and hide on the terrain feature. Dispel such notions. Finally, Offal Bringer forces an enemy to move 6″ toward the caster, and if they end within 6″ of the Mawpit you get to use the Head butcher ability on them. A forced move is almost always welcome because it’s guaranteed your opponent didn’t want to do that. If you can make them pick up a few models in the process? All the better.

Grand Strategy and Battle Tactics

The grand strategy, Still Not Satiated is completed if you do the Mawpit’s Head Butcher ability to kill 6 or more models. This can range from simple to impossible, depending on how elite your opponent is. If they have large amounts of hordes, you will coast through this by simply playing as normal. Hyper elite, all 3+ wound models? That’s a rough one. Good luck.

The Battle Tactics are nice and varied. That Was Just a Morsel again asks you to kill a model with the Head Butcher ability. There are plenty of ways to proc this ability that you’ll get a few shots to get it right. Slavering Ambush requires Gorgers drop in and get a successful charge in. 9″ Charges are rough, even with bonuses so give them all the help you can. Finally, We Eated Them All asks you to remove all models from an objective the enemy controls. Something you probably were doing anyway.

Conclusion

I…Like this Army of Renown for once. The Gutbuster archtype really struggles and this is a very interesting take on it. While you can take the Mawpot, this is build around the pit so much you might as well not. The gameplay style is going to feel very different, denying your opponent as much safe land as possible and basically engaging in “The Floor is Lava” but you don’t care about the lava.

If you like Ogor Mawtribes but with the Gutbusters got more love, this might be worth giving a shot.