Grymkin

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The Grymkin are the denizens of the wilderness of Urcaen. (Caen being the mortal world where Warmachine and Hordes is set, and Urcaen being the afterlife world to which humans pass when they die.) This wildnerness is beyond the protection of the gods and is essentially hell for all intents and purposes.

Grymkin are not undead or demons, but have both souls and physical bodies. The Grkymkin are led by The Defiers, five mortals who rejected the god Menoth in person, and were banished to Urcaen as eternal punishment. There they suffered endless torment at the hands of nightmare creatures of their own worst imaginings. Over thousands of years, the Defiers learned to control these nightmares and became demigods themselves.

Centuries later they have been released into Caen by the Old Witch, who hopes to use them to slow the spread of the Infernals.

For more backstory, refer to Lore - Grymkin

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Limited Release Faction
 Grymkin are designed as a "Limited Release Faction". This means the Faction has a much smaller model selection than normal Factions, and get new models infrequently.

In compensation and to stay competitive, the synergies within the Faction are strong, list-building is flexible, and/or models have completely unique abilities. Some Limited Factions even have rules that affect the core rules of the game.

"Limited Release" does not mean "Limited Edition". You can still buy them today.

Zevanna Agha, The Fate Keeper

Grymkin for Beginners

The Child

Faction Aesthetic & Playstyle

Grymkin are inspired by the dark fairy tales of old, including Biblical tales of sin. Their warbeasts are the nightmares of the Defiers turned flesh & bone, the other Grymkin being corrupt or evil souls given form by the dark magic found in the wilds of Urcaen. Many of their troops thus draw direct comparisons to the troops of other factions, especially the Hollowmen (who are the souls of deserters, as seen on the current models which draw reference to Winter Guard & Trencher infantry) & Piggybacks (which features several pieces of Khadoran iconography). Grymkin fight with a wide range of weapons, many of which are crude improvisations such as the Dread Rots' farm equipment or the Neighslayers' hobby-horses. Many of their models directly parallel Biblical sins, such as the Piggybacks representing greed or the Hollowmen representing selfish fear.

Grymkin like to play up the table, in their opponent's face with very above average melee output and several powerful abilities which increase their staying power once engaged (such as the Death Knell's aura or the Sacrifice arcana). However Grymkin are extremely slow (the Cage Rager is SPD 4, and the Skin & Moans SPD 5) and must typically weather several turns of opposing shooting before they can sink their teeth into the enemy. This isn't to say that they lack for range options (Lord Longfellow & the Hollowmen provide comfortably average to above average output), but the real power of Grymkin comes online once they can charge. Grymkin rely on skirmishers to get themselves up the table, and their delivery is by far the hardest part of playing the faction.

The faction is described in the Announcement video.

Grymkin's primary unique mechanic is the Defiers' lack of feats (Zevanna Agha still has a traditional feat). Instead, these five warlocks use arcana cards. At the start of the game, the Grymkin player will select two arcana cards from a generic list, plus a card provided by their warlock (called their Trump arcana), for a total of three. Arcana generally trigger off enemy attacks and are always thrown down on the opponent's turn. They represent the wilds of Urcaen bleeding over into Caen, warping the world and providing a substantial battlefield-wide effect. Knowing what arcana to bring and when to use them is a key skill when playing Grymkin, as well as one of their most rewarding mechanics.

The Heretic

Starter Sets

Frightmare

Unfortunately, Grymkin does not have a battlebox. There was an "All In One" Army box that went on sale when the Faction was released in 2017, but it was a limited production and you're unlikely to find one these days.

Worthwhile early purchases

Cage Rager

The best warlock to start with is The Heretic. He has a solid spell list, and defensive rules which are good at preventing being assassinated. His trump arcana is powerful and easy to use, and behaves very similarly to the generic arcana. The Heretic generally prefers lots of troops, and is great as your first Bump in the Night warlock. The Child is a good second warlock, featuring a similar compliment of useful spells, good rules, and straightforward arcana. The Child also happens to be best in Dark Menagerie, and forms a fantastic pair with the Heretic.

The Wanderer or Zevanna Agha, the Fate Keeper are probably the next best warlocks to try out. The Wanderer lacks for a damage increasing spell, but has far more defensive tech thanks to Star-Crossed & his very unique trump arcana. Old Witch3 is an extremely powerful spell-slinger, who has a traditional feat and thus plays the most like other Hordes warlocks. It is the same model for Old Witch 2 as well as 3, so she's also a natural jumping on point for Khador players.

The Dreamer and the King of Nothing are the most complicated to use of the Grymkin Warlocks. The Dreamer can create Phantasms out of enemy models which are destroyed, which makes her adept at a potent control style of play that leverages the natural toughness of the Grymkin heavies. The King of Nothing has a very unique, and potentially suicidal, rule in Master of Ruin. He's capable of dealing an incredible amount of damage, but must put himself into remarkably awkward spots to do so.

Key models outside the Warlocks:

  • The Death Knell should absolutely be an early purchase. It's defensive aura is incredible, and it's ability to shuffle around corpses makes maximizing the awesome power of the Skin & Moans much easier.
  • The Gorehound is the go to light, and shows up in many lists. It's combination of speed & extended control range means its rare it won't do work.
  • A Cage Rager is highly recommended, both for it's defensive suite of abilities and it's hard hitting power as a heavy warbeast
  • The Skin & Moans is arguably Grymkin's signature model and it is definitely the key to why Dark Menagerie is such a strong theme
  • Crabbits show up in a multitude of Grymkin lists thanks to their diversity of defensive abilities
  • A pair of Clockatrices is one of the best battlegroup points-only battlegroups you can run, and they are miles above the best models with which to play with arcana
  • The Malady Man is a support unit which can be used in both themes to great effect, providing defensive pressure with the Monkey or by supporting troops with Desperate Pace.
  • Dread Rots are still a solid option, despite being outshone somewhat by the revamped infantry released in Grymkin Wave II. They can be run in both themes, and pair especially well with Def-fixing abilities such as the Clockatrice's spray or the Glimmer Imp's aura.
  • Grave Ghouls & Neigh Slayers are a big part of what makes Bump in the Night so powerful; it is rare to see Bump lists that don't max out these models.
  • Gremlin Swarms & Lady Karianna Rose are the models that make Dark Menagerie unique, and it just so happens they pair especially well with the Heretic & the Child.
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Line of Sight article : Brawlmachine List Building - Grymkin
In 2021.03 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, wrote an excellent article for how to start Grymkin. It is based on the newbie-friendly Brawlmachine format (25 point limit).
The article contains a different list for each Grymkin theme, and advice on how to expand those lists beyond 25 points.

Unique Core Rule: Arcana

Clockatrice
Main article: Arcana

Most Grymkin warlocks are Defiers that use three Arcana instead of one feat. Arcana are like mini-feats, but you use them during your opponent's turn when certain conditions are met - they're essentially trap cards. For example your opponent issues an order to their unit, and you immediately use your anti-order Arcana.

Before the game starts a Defier warlock chooses 3 Arcana to use for that game. One has to be their unique Trump Arcana and the other two are drawn from a pool of generic Arcana available to all the Defiers. You get to choose the Arcana after seeing your opponent's list, allowing the Grymkin player to optimize their strategy.

Each Arcana can only be used once per game, and only one arcana can be triggered per turn. Some Arcana use control range and some use command range (special mention to the King of Nothing who has CMD 1 so he finds those Arcana useless). Some Arcana have a different range for the trigger than for the effect.

Starting a Theme Force

Dread Rots

Theme Forces are integral to playing Hordes in Mk3. For most Factions this subdivides that Faction into 4-5 sub-Factions, making it harder for a new player to know which models to get first.

Grymkin has an advantage that it only has two theme forces, and there is quite a bit of overlap between the two. As such starting a Grymkin theme force is very simple.

Tactica

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Line of Sight article : How to go Bump - Deployment and Turn 1 strategy
Written in 2020.10 by Jaden Iwassa,

Grymkin Theme Forces

Neigh Slayers
Neigh Slayers Command Attachment

The warbeast theme Dark Menagerie strongly outshone the infantry theme Bump in the Night for a long time, between the Faction release (2017.06) and Grymkin Wave 2 (2019.03). However the Wave 2 releases provided a wide variety of new options for Bump in the Night, as well as opening up list building in both themes with a new heavy warbeast (the Clockatrice) and a powerful support unit (the Malady Man).

Bump in the Night

In terms of restrictions, Bump allows almost everything in the Faction. However the benefits are infantry-based. It has a strong emphasis on skirmishing.

The models allowed in Bump in the Night are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2021.11   (Edit)

Warlocks

Warbeasts

Battle Engines

Units

Solos

Minions

  • Up to one Minion solo
  • Up to one Minion unit


(★) because Weird Wendell is on the list of allowed models, he doesn't use up your "Up to one Minion solo" slot.

Dark Menagerie

Dark Menagerie is a warbeast-focused theme with an emphasis on bricking (forming a largely impenetrable bubble of warbeasts somewhere on the table) and scenario play. It provides free additional corpses at game start and as access to an extremely potent scenario piece, the Gremlin Swarms.

The models allowed in Dark Menagerie are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2021.11   (Edit)

Warlocks

Warbeasts

Battle Engines

Units

Solos

Minions

  • Up to one Minion solo
  • Up to one Minion unit


(★) because Weird Wendell is on the list of allowed models, he doesn't use up your "Up to one Minion solo" slot.

Grymkin Models

Mad Caps

Warlocks

Witchwood

Warbeasts

Glimmer Imp

Battle Engine

Grave Ghoul

Units

Solos

(^) The Gremlin Swarm is both a Minions model & Grymkin model

Minions that work for Grymkin

Last Updated: 2021.01

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