Goooooooood morning Kithguard! The rules are live — Warmachine Wednesday
It’s Warmachine Wednesday, and we’ve got loads for you to catch up on.
Kithguard have burst from their trapdoors straight into the app. Fast, brutal, and without warning, just the way Craghorn likes it. Get planning your platoon of jungle fighters ready to hit the table with fresh rules as of right now.
Meanwhile, Behemoth, Spirit of Imperial Khador, gets the spotlight with a new lore drop. Update your Warmachine app and dive into Heroes & Villains: Behemoth to see how this legend of the Motherland earned its name.
Over on Warmachine 3D, February’s drop is live with more piggies to fill out your battle line, some enchanting Dusk House Kallyss terrain, and an extreme alternative sculpt of Sgt Craghorn, complete with the tactical rock every great leader needs. And finally, something has finally woken from its slumber and is shambling towards pre-order.
Today’s TL;DR
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Kithguard rules drop – command starter and battlegroup rules are live in the Warmachine app
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Heroes & Villains: Behemoth – lore drop landing in the Warmachine app
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Warmachine 3D February release – Thornfall reinforcements, Dusk House Kallyss terrain, and Extreme Craghorn
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Crucible Guard out in force
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Thornfall Command Starter pre-order – Thornfall is on the way to the Steamforged store
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The Gorger awakens – pre-order incoming
Welcome to the jungle — Kithguard rules drop
The tunnels are open. The treeline’s whispering. And your opponent is about to learn a very painful lesson in trollkin hospitality.
Kithguard rules are now live in the Warmachine app, which means you can finally get your hands on the gritty details behind their signature brand of guerrilla warfare, ambush pressure, and trapdoor chaos.
Sgt Craghorn, the Kithguard’s king of the alpha strike
Built for ambush-led guerrilla warfare, Sgt Craghorn’s go to strategy is hit first, hit fast, and make sure the enemy’s too busy panicking to recover. Making the most of his signature ability that lets a unit ambush mid-turn, so you can spring the trap exactly when it hurts the most. Pair that with his damage-buff feat and a strong spell kit like Carnage and Boundless Charge, and you’ve got a commander who can turn good positioning into a knockout punch.
To get the most out of Sgt Craghorn, your timing and commitment need to be perfect. He’s at his best when you go all-in on the big hit rather than drip-feeding ambushers. Position discipline is key. One wrong move on the alpha strike, and Sgt Craghorn ends up too deep in enemy territory and surrounded once the smoke clears. And there will be no getting to the choppa for him then.
Synergy
Scrappers love his feat turn, mid-turn ambush, plus the damage buff is a heavy-wrecker combo.
Pvt. Rattle helps you set the trap, repositioning trapdoors so your ambush lands in the nastiest spot possible.
Klangor, the walking wall
Klangor is the Kithguard’s brick beast, a tough, stubborn lump of troll that’s hard to shift and even harder to ignore. With ARM 20 and Spiny Growth animus in his back pocket, he’s built to soak up punishment while the rest of your force gets into position. And if your opponent decides to leave him alone? He’ll make them regret it. When Klangor starts hurling explosives into the line, with an AoE 3, Reload 1 he’s turning tight formations into empty boots.
Klangor’s role is to hold ground, grind forward, and make the enemy spend more resources than they want trying to remove him. If he’s still standing a turn later than planned, you’re usually winning.
Synergy
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Wroughtmourn pairs perfectly with him. Hand of Destruction and Admonition crank up his output and add another layer of protection, ideal for leading the line.
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Craghorn loves having access to Spiny Growth. It can come in clutch for keeping him alive when he pushes up the table to pop his feat.
Scrappers, the tunnel troublemakers
Scrappers are the Kithguard’s versatile ambushers. They hit hard, they hit fast, and they love catching an enemy out of position. Their thrown explosives can knock targets down, and once something’s on the floor, the Scrappers get nasty; their melee comes with Trash, meaning extra damage against knocked-down models. Add Sneak Attack (+2 to hit and damage when they ambush), and you’ve got a unit that will butcher whatever they can get their mucky mits on. With tunnel ambush and more flexible placement than “normal” ambushers, they can show up in all the wrong places at exactly the wrong time.
The trade-off is that they’re not built to stand around afterwards. Their defensive stats aren’t ideal for a drawn-out fight they didn’t pick, and their damage spikes hardest on the ambush turn, so you want to plan the exit as well as the entry. Pick the right target, hit like a hurricane, then make sure the rest of your army’s ready to capitalise before the enemy can regain its footing.
Synergy
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Craghorn’s feat is the dream pairing. Mid-turn ambush tricks plus a big damage boost turn Scrappers from “dangerous” into “incident report”. Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the jungle.
Felleye, the treeline’s bad news
Felleye is the Kithguard’s ambushing sniper, the one who makes solos nervous and forces awkward movement just to keep them alive. He’s all about clean, brutal shots at the right moment, and his two Weapon Master shots can absolutely threaten key pieces if the angle’s there. He’s also got a nice bit of self-preservation in Admonition, letting him keep enemies from getting comfortably stuck into him, which is handy when you’ve just appeared in the “wrong” place behind their lines.
He doesn’t have the longest-range for a sniper, so you'd best know his escape route. But that just pushes you towards the Kithguard way of war: pick the spot, take the shot, then scurry off down a trapdoor, making the enemy waste time trying to pin you down while the rest of your force closes the net.
Synergy
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Mistborn Dire Troll’s Fog animus is a great partner piece; the concealment helps trigger Felleye’s Admonition tricks and keeps him slippery when the enemy tries to rush him down. And everyone loves a slippery troll, right?... right?
Pvt. Rattles, the tunnel engineer
Pvt. Rattles is the Kithguard’s trapdoor handler, the one quietly making the battlefield more unsafe, if that was even possible. He replaces and repositions trapdoor markers, which are essential to the Kithguard’s long-term game plan, shifting your threat, opening new angles, and keeping your opponent guessing where the next “surprise” is coming from. He can also Dig In, which helps him stay on the table when things get loud.
The catch is that this job can be dangerous for poor pvt rattles, but someone has got to do it. To push trapdoors further up the board, Rattles often has to step into harm’s way, so you’ll want to time his movements and keep him covered from enemy fire. Keep him alive, and he keeps the jungle moving under your enemy’s feet.
Wroughtmourn, the jungle hex-slinger
Wroughtmourn is the Kithguard’s spell-flinging shaman, the kind of commander who wins fights by turning the enemy’s plan inside out and upside down. She’s packing a large, powerful spell list, solid ARC 8, and can channel through trapdoors, sending hexes through the tunnel network to tag targets that thought they were safe. When the situation demands the use of her feat, her warband becomes the ghost in the trees, because in this jungle, the Kithguard aren’t the prey; they’re the predators (queue clicking noises), restricting the enemy's line of sight so the Kithguard forces can move up unseen and pick the fights on their terms.
She’s at her best when the trapdoors are in key locations, so if your markers get removed, it can get harder to land spells exactly where you want them. She also doesn’t enjoy spell immunity, though we are sure your opponent does, and best not to stand her in the open, trading punches, she won’t thank you for it. Think of her as a commander in a dugout or foxhole, orchestrating the battle, rather than the blunt instruments she commands in her battlegroup. Wroughtmourn leans on disruption and positioning “shenanigans” over raw personal damage, making those that underestimate her pay the price with a Dire Troll or three.
Synergy
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She’s excellent with a big Mistborn battlegroup. Hand of Destruction and Hunter’s Mark are huge for boosting their damage and threat.
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Shooty Jungle Trolls pair brilliantly with her kit, punching above their weight while her feat helps keep them alive long enough to do it again.
Jungle Trolls, the undergrowth operators
Jungle Trolls are a flexible light warbeast with a bit of everything, melee, ranged, and some genuinely annoying support tools, great hair too. Their standout flavour is how they mess with terrain, shaping the board to suit the Kithguard’s hit-and-run style. With a Momentum gun that can knock targets down at range, and Treewalker, they can reach DEF 15, and make their own forests to keep that protection online. In other words, they don’t just fight in the jungle; they bring the jungle with them.
They do have limits; their guns are short-ranged, and their raw output is lower than some other light Warbeasts. But they're here to control the space, set up knockdowns, and make the table awkward for your opponent, while your harder hitters line up the real damage.
Mistborn Dire Trolls, the heavy that does it all
Mistborn Dire Trolls are a versatile heavy with a loadout for whatever the jungle throws at you. They’re points-efficient with strong damage potential, offering both solid ranged options mounted on their back to handle big and small targets, plus brutal melee with two base POW 19 choices. They’ve also got a nasty reach, in a 3-inch melee threat with Drag, perfect for yanking something important out of position and turning it into a small red stain on the jungle floor.
They’re not quite as hard to put down as their Deepborn cousins, and you’ll need to choose between what edge to give your troll: durability, damage output, or points efficiency, rather than getting all three at once. But not to worry, as you can take up to 4 of these bad boys. They also tend to shine brightest with a bit of guidance from their warlock, but with the right support, they’re a reliable, flexible centrepiece that can hit, shoot, and control space all at once.
Heroes & Villains: Behemoth
“I will not stake my life on this machine Kommandant, for I have already wagered much, much more. Behemoth carries my family’s name on every slab of steel and on every rune plate. The reputation of each and every Salvoro walks to war with that warjack. I have no hesitation or doubt it will succeed beyond all expectations.” - Dahlrif Salvoro to Kommandant Irusk at the Behemoth’s presentation
Larger than a tank, more heavily-armored than a colossal, and carrying some of the most destructive weapons available to the Motherland, Behemoth represents the mechanikal embodiment of Khador’s iron will—a machine that is immense, fantastically powerful, and nearly indestructible.
A resurrected hero in Khador’s time of need, this peerless warjack is as much a symbol of the nation’s resolve in the face of adversity as it is a force of destruction to anyone who would stand against it.
Heroes & Villains: Behemoth hits the Warmachine app today, packed with tales of heroics and stories that’ll have you itching to fight for the motherland. If you love your Warmachine lore loud, proud, and forged in steel, this one’s for you.
Check out Behemoth, Spirit of Imperial Khador‘s story in the Warmachine app.
Fresh off the printer — Warmachine 3D February release
The February Warmachine 3D Tribe release is live on MyMiniFactory. And there’s a headline act for Kithguard fans: an extreme alternative sculpt of Sgt Craghorn, complete with tactical rock. Is it practical? Debatable. Is it mandatory? Apparently.
If you’re not in the Tribe yet, now’s a great time. For less than the price of a spray can a month, you get 50% off all files in the Tribe store, new models every month, and loyalty rewards every 3 months you stick around. Discover the February Warmachine 3D tribe releases here.
Science, but make it violent — Crucible Guard Core & Auxiliary pre-order
Mix your compounds, measure twice, and light the fuse anyway with the Crucible Guard Core Expansion, available for pre-order or get them now on Warmachine 3D. Then step up to the next stage of the experiment with the Crucible Guard Auxiliary Expansion that’s coming soon, because every good formula needs a few extra reagents.
Plan your experiments and find out how each expansion boils down.

No printer? No problem — Thornfall Command Starter pre-order
Those without a 3D printer, rejoice: Thornfall Alliance is heading to the Steamforged store. Get your trotters on the Thornfall Alliance Command Starter and join the Farrow when the pre-order opens later this month.
Have a 3D printer? You can start printing Thornfall Alliance right now via MyMiniFactory. Either way, the Farrow are coming, and they’re not arriving quietly.
Old Umbrey’s Gorger awakens - Pre-order imminent
It’s on its way, and it's hungry… Will you bind it to your cause?
MiniCrate – Oriax is here to claim your soul
Leading the cursebound, Oriax channels blasphemous soul magic in this striking new sculpt. Wearing a fearsome new mask, of the uncaring face of a man who abandoned mortal concerns long ago, he stands triumphant atop the discarded corpse of a fallen enemy.
If you want an alternative Oriax model commanding your Orgoth Sea Raiders Command Starter, make sure you’re subscribed to MiniCrate between January 28 and midnight on February 27. You’ll lock in this sculpt and receive a fresh, exclusive miniature every month.
Enslave Oriax, the Void Walker, to your will, if you can.
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