So. Farewell then
Bonesplitterz.
First as
Kunnin Rukk
Then Wurrgog.
And big stabbas
I guess.
0.3% meta representation
Sounds about right.
Table of Contents
Why We Are Here
Bonesplitterz are a funny old army. Almost nobody played them; chances are that you – the person reading this – have never seen them on the table. Basically half the playerbase were content creators, so we had this weird overrepresentation of chat about them online, and if they were ever remotely busted you would see and hear about it basically instantly.
Games Workshop are, quite logically, consigning them to Legends – after giving them a one year grace period of matched play legality. It’s a generous treatment for Legends, but I think it will leave me with quite a melancholy year. My personal circumstances (new baby thank you thank you) mean I probably won’t be able to give the send off I’d like at tournaments, hopefully I can live vicariously through someone else.
The rules section of the battletome begins with a brief explanation from GW as to how and why a product line comes to an end. I found it oddly touching. There’s confirmation that on 1st June 2025 the army will cease to be matched play legal, but they also commit to updating the battletome throughout the edition if required.
Battle Traits
I like this set of battle traits a lot, on the whole. They are flavourful and well thought through, with nice easy combinations to pull off and minimal bullshit.
Spring The Trap
+1 to wound for Bonesplitterz when they charge. Pretty much everything wounds on a 3+, so this pushes you to a 2+ on the charge. A straightforwardly good buff and your basic Bonesplitter has a bit more juice in combat than previous editions – this is one of a few ways where you should be able to get more out of your infantry and cavalry this time around.
Take Da Bait
A once per game deployment phase ability that lets you pick three units, they get +1 attack against enemy units that have charged, so long as your unit hasn’t also charged. A very weird conditional buff, not unwelcome but there was probably a more elegant way to handle this than having to keep track of three units over the course of a battle. I don’t think that this being some end of charge phase/start of combat phase ability you could plonk on any unit being charged would have been too much.
Bonesplitterz Waaagh!
Once per battle in your hero phase your wizards and priests get +1 to their power level and all of your units get a 5+ ward until the end of the turn. Bit of a double nerf here as you can no longer call this relatively to tank an enemy alpha-strike turn, one of the great joys of the army in 3rd, and the ward itself is weaker. That being said the +1 power level is good and Bonesplitterz can run a lot of wizards and priests to take advantage of it.
Monster Hunters
A major complaint directed at the previous incarnation of Bonesplitterz was all of the lore-appropriate anti-monster rules getting stripped out of the battletome, so it’s very welcome to see a nod to the background appearing here. Once per turn in any charge phase you can pick a unit in combat with a monster and give them +1 to wound and +1 to save. Bonesplitterz saves cap out at a 5+ by default so it’s not going to turn any unit into an unkillable tank, but it can be a surprising boost to durability in an army that is also wound dense.
The easy combo here is with Take Da Bait, and you can hand out +1 attack and +1 to wound to a unit being charged. With a few more buffs in the tome you can add onto this, it can make just casually charging Bonesplitterz with a monster a relatively scary proposition.
Battle Formations
Kunnin’ Rukk
Two words that are enough to make any first edition veteran break out into a cold sweat, the Kunnin’ Rukk is still for the Bonesplitterz shooting enthusiast, if that is a thing you want to do for some reason. Once per turn in your own shooting phase pick an enemy unit and your Arrowboys crit them on a 5+. Arrowboys hit on a 5+ and the crit is auto-wound, so without any other buffs this effectively means any hit goes straight through to the save. This puts the shooting to roughly equivalent to a 4s to hit 3s to wound statline. Whatever.
Snaga Rukk
Your cavalry get anti-charge (+1 rend) – oh look, more to combo with your battle traits. Boarboys with a 4/4+/2+/2/1 attack profile are pretty spicy.
Kop Rukk
Enemy units in combat with Bonesplitterz heroes can’t make ward rolls. There are a lot of wards kicking about this edition so this ability is powerful but for the most part your heroes don’t want to be in melee. Given you can squeeze Big Bosses into a Wurrgog regiment, there’s possibly space to explore spamming them a bit to make this work.
Brutal Rukk
A once per deployment phase ability, you can make a normal move with half of your non-hero infantry units. Not quite as useful for jumping on objectives pre-game as it used to be, it’s useful for starting to unpack your deployment but the limitations on target selection could also open up gaps you’d rather not have. It’s a nice ability, but I think I prefer Snaga or Kop most of the time.
Heroic Traits
‘Orrible Leer
Monsters can’t rampage when they’re in combat with the hero. More anti-monster tech! Very meta and list building dependent (again, there’s only one hero that wants to be in combat). That being said, this trait list is overall pretty weedy so this can be a sneaky pick.
Killa Instinkt
Crit (Mortal) for your melee attacks. They want you to take a Savage Big Boss! To be fair, Big Bosses have 6 damage 3 attacks, so this is a fine all-comers boost to them.
One Wiv’ Da Beast
Once per battle after you declare a spell ability you can just make it a 6 instead of rolling. All of the Bonesplitterz spells cast on a 6. This is still unbindable, and a very low number to beat for unbinding, which is a bit disappointing for a once per battle ability! If this was a way to power through a big manifestation that would be cool. As it is, the synergy here is to have a bunch of wizards, call a waaagh and then when your opponent runs out of unbinds you can guarantee a spell.
Artefacts of Power
Dokk Juice
When the bearer gets destroyed then on a 3+ no they didn’t. Clinging on with 1 wound can be good or bad depending entirely on the context of when the bearer gets destroyed. I am unexcited by this.
Glowin’ Tattooz
You know it you love it, 4+ ward for the bearer. Helps to stop a Wurrgog killing itself. To be fair, so does the Dokk Juice, but I think the generic 4+ ward is an all around better pick.
Monsta-Killa Chompa
You stopped reading when you saw the tattooz were still here didn’t you? Well get a load of this – Strike-first when in combat with a beast or monster. Open up your mind palace, picture a Savage Big Boss with Strike-first and a 7/4+/2+/3/3 attack profile who can’t be rampaged against. Is it good? I dunno, it requires your opponent to stumble into the trap. Is it funny? Yes, and that’s why you play this army. Why Bonesplitterz of all armies get this build a bear combat monster foot hero I do not know, but I’m pleased they do.
Spell Lore
- Glowy Green Frenzy (CV6, unlimited) – 12” range, +1 rend until the start of your next turn, including companion weapons. Rend is good, Bonesplitterz have lots of wizards to spread this around, it’s another buff that can be on in your opponent’s turn.
- Fists of Gork (CV6) – 18” nuke. You know the drill, roll a dice for every model in the target unit and do a mortal for each 5+.
- Gorkamorka’s War Cry (CV6) – 18” debuff for an enemy, they roll one less dice when making a charge roll. Anyone who has played AoS knows how huge it is going down to a 1 dice charge. The downside here is that the kinda tight range means the enemy you want to target will already be relatively close to your front lines, but when it’s good it’s good.
Prayer Lore
That’s right, we out here prayin’ again.
- Bashdokk Dance (CV3/7, unlimited) – 12” range, +1 to run and charge for the target. Hit the 7 and the target can run or retreat and still charge. Uncomplicatedly fine. I don’t think it’s worth spamming the priests to take advantage of the unlimited bit.
- Grimdokk Dance (CV4/9) – 12” range, heal (3) or bring back models with a combined Health characteristic of up to 3 (so 1 regular infantry, 1 of the boar boys and no big stabbas). On the 9+ it’s heal (6) or bring back 6 Health worth of models (3 infantry, 2 boars, 1 stabba).
- Weirdokk Dance (CV5/11) – enemy wizards and priests get -1 to cast/chant within 18” of the chanter. On the 11+(!) then enemy priests lose d6 ritual points and wizards can’t unbind.
Warscrolls
Wurrgog Prophet
RIP in peace murdering any model in the game whilst hooting like an animal. Wurrgogs are a two cast wizard with a piss spell that requires them to be in combat and does d3 mortal damage and messes with wizards.
But you’re here for the wurrgog mask aren’t you. Well it’s now a shooting attack. 10” range, d6/4+2+/1/d3. It’s OK, it’s still kinda swingy and funny but it’s just not the same and it’s really the one part of the tome where I feel a bit deflated. Let us have our fun for one final year, one last ride. You can elect to pump the attacks up to 12, in which case the Wurrgog also takes d3 mortals every time they roll a 1 to hit. A battery of these overclocking and letting rip can still do some nasty damage, to be fair.
Savage Big Boss
You may have gotten the vibe that I’m a fan of these. They’re not quite cheap enough to truly spam at 130, but you can at least pack them into Wurrgog regiments for a bit of drop efficiency. They’re incredibly squishy but you get a good number of damage 3 attacks and once they’ve fought you can pick another non-hero infantry until to fight after them, and when they do they get +1 attack. Remember that strikes-first ability from the artefacts?
Maniak Weirdnob
Wizard on a pig. Same price as a Wurrgog and one less cast, you take this because once per turn on a 3+ you can add +1 to wound onto a cavalry unit within combat range, including companion weapons. There are, let’s be clear, quite a few ways to get +1 to wound in this battletome. If it was +1 to hit I’d actually be a lot hotter on this unit but as it is, I think it struggles to find a place with the Wurrgog existing.
Wardokk
Your priest; if you want the prayers, you take the Wardokk. It’s the cheapest hero at 100, so pretty good value for the prayers you are getting. It also gets to syphon power out of enemy wizards, you can pick one within 24” and every time they cast a spell or unbind on a 3+ the Wardokk gets a ritual point. Actually a really nifty way to hit those big chanting values.
Savage Orruks
2 wounds, 5+ save and +10 control if it’s in combat with an enemy that charged. 140 is pretty cheap, these can reinforce and be incredibly annoying to remove from control of an objective. Worth saying here that I just really like the way they’ve taken the time to give each of these units a really different and interesting ability, despite them all just being builds out of two plastic kits.
Savage Boar Boys
I like these a lot as units to tank a charge, 3 wounds with a 5+ save and a point of rend by default let them make good use of that pile of abilities you have. With Frenzy and Snaga Rukk they’re rend 3! 140 points is, again, a unit begging to be reinforced and just hold the line. Furthering this role, they get to use Power Through even if they didn’t charge, and the target doesn’t have to have a lower Health characteristic.
Savage Big Stabbas
Not quite what they once were, but you can forgive the design team for being a bit scared of repeating a past mistake with these. You get two for 130 points, which is pretty grim defensive efficiency. They also wound on a 2+ by default so don’t make the most use of your battle traits, but they still want to be your counter-charge unit as they get +1 damage for doing so. On the charge these are actually extremely similar to the Big Boss, having two more wounds and crit (mortal) at the same cost; they’re still a better bet if you’re going to spam something to charge with. A reinforced unit feels really expensive for what you get.
Savage Orruk Morboys
A worse save than the spears but an extra attack baked in and if they charge, enemy units can’t use commands. I wouldn’t rely on these, but a unit coming in with your main offensive wave has merit. They’re also the most expensive unit, priced for the number of attacks they can pump out.
Savage Boarboy Maniaks
Inexplicably keeping the 5+ save of Boar Boys (I’m not complaining), Maniaks trade out a point of rend for an extra attack and trade out super powering through for a once per turn reaction to declaring a charge where they get +5 control. Nice to try and punch something off an objective, but also for a no risk objective grab. The ability triggers as a reaction to declaring a charge ability, moving as part of the charge is elective. Walk onto an objective, declare a charge, don’t move and get +5 control for showing willing.
Savage Orruk Arrowboys
15” range, 2 shots that hit on a 5 with crit auto wound. These things don’t do any damage and are barely even acceptable in their dedicated formation. 140 isn’t particularly cheap, so you’re paying for their Aim Fer Its Eyes ability, once per turn 4+ to give an enemy that you’ve shot at -1 attack, for companion weapons only. You get +1 to the roll vs beasts and cavalry and +2 vs monsters. That’s OK but not incredible, though it does work in any shooting phase to really stack up the hate vs enemies in their own turn. I could see myself taking maybe one unit of these, but for the same cost as a unit of boars or Savage Orruks I’m not feeling it.
Countdown to Armageddon
And that’s it, battletome over, that’s Bonesplitterz for 4th edition and we start the countdown on becoming a Legend and fading into the distance. GW’s blurb says they encourage players to keep Bonesplittin’ once the army stops being matched play legal. Maybe I’ll do that. That never seems to be the way it goes though, we’ve all seen these Legends armies disappear in the rear mirror.
Taking it for what it is, I kind of love these rules. They feel like the most considered, well rounded and fair set of rules Bonesplitterz have ever had. I love that each unit has a reason to exist, even if in the cold light of matched play there are winners and losers. There always are. I love that anti-monster rules are back, I’m happy to see priests return to the army, and I think the core design of baiting and trapping enemy charges is just cool.
Don’t go on eBay and buy a Bonesplitterz army. That’s stupid. If you’re one of the dozens of Bonesplitterz players out there, though, give it a go. You’ve got a year.
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