Grombrindal

This angry motherfucker right here.

“I promised Grimnir there'd be a mighty tally, and I ain't one for breaking such an oath!”

-Grombrindal the White Dwarf

Grombrindal, a.k.a. "The White Dwarf", is a unique special character from Warhammer Fantasy Battle associated with the Dwarfs army. On a meta-level, he is the iconic character for which their gaming magazine White Dwarf is named. In-universe, he is a mysterious dwarven warrior with an impressively long, white beard who sometimes appears when Dwarfs are beset by a particularly great and terrible battle, hurling himself into the fray and assuring the eventual victory of dwarfkind.

Who 'The White Dwarf' is nobody knows, but a theory that many fans share and which Games Workshop heavily teases is that he is the spirit of Snorri Whitebeard, last High King of the Dwarfs before The War of the Beard.

In essence, before Malekith got his douchebag ass burned to a crisp by Asuryan, he and Snorri were best buds, so much so that when Snorri lay dying, Malekith was invited to see him on his deathbed. Snorri asked Malekith to agree to his dying oath that dwarfs and elves would always be friends, and Malekith agreed. As we all know, Malekith later broke that oath by manipulating the dwarfs and the elves into a hugely destructive war that ruined both races. The theory goes that this heinous betrayal of a sworn deathbed oath between two once-best friends was so mystically powerful it hauled Snorri's soul out of the dwarven afterlife, and ever since he has been determined to exact vengeance upon all enemies of dwarfkind. One must wonder how Malekith would explain this to his dwarf bud now that he got to be king of all the Elves evar, and thus isn't as much of a vindictive asshole.

Like the true badass he is, Grombrindal posses up with the two other baddest dwarfs on the planet, Gotrek Gurnisson and Josef Bugman to defend the dwarfs during The End Times

In a meta sense, he serves as a living example of the lost vision of Games Workshop as a company, as Grombrindal was invented back in the days when creativity was touted above marketing (and before they decided to focus on their cash cows). Rules weren't pointlessly overcomplicated for the sake of dosh, and armies didn't cost entire organs and limbs. In short, Games Workshop GOT SHIT DONE, and the dwarf was a strong figure. However, soon GeeDubs fell for the allure of the money and began exploiting all sorts of methods just to gather more, and in these days, the Dwarf just...vanished, and the magazine followed some time after. Some say this was the dwarf attempting to abandon ship as the world he knew got sold out for more money. With the 2014 reboot of the magazine, Grombrindal was found once more, but now he is just a hollow shell of his former glory, used only to answer tedious questions, practically all of them being about a universe in the far future, answered by the powers of the corporation. In a similar way, Geedubs tries almost too eagerly to appeal to everyone, but consistently missing the bigger goal by making things more costly, even if thing became more streamlined.

On the Tabletop

His last official posted stats appeared in White Dwarf #348, where he was described as being a Lord choice for a Dwarfs army.

Name	Points	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Grombrindal	500	3	7	4	4	5	4	4	4	10

Special Rules: Ancestral Grudge, Resolute, Relentless

• Grombrindal Has No Fear! - Grombrindal is Unbreakable. However, this cannot be conferred to any unit he is in, so if they break from a battle, he will always stand his ground and prevents the enemy unit from pursuing.
• Disguised - Grombrindal can begin play hidden in any unit of infantry aside from a War Machine crew. Note that if he is made the general and begins play disguised, the army cannot benefit from his Inspiring Presence. While he is not on the table, is is presumed to move along with his unit unless that unit either breaks or is slain, in which case he will reveal himself. In any other case, he can reveal himself in the Close Combat phase. When revealed, he must be moved to the frontmost rank, displacing any rank-and-file models.

Wargear

• Rune Helm of Zhufbar - Talisman. All fleeing Dwarf Units within 12" of the wearer will automatically rally.
• Armour of Glimril Scales - Magic Armour. Grants a 1+ Armour Save and a 4+ Ward Save.
• Rune Cloak of Valaya - Talisman. Grants Magic Resistance (3).
• Rune Axe of Grimnir - Magic Weapon. Attacks made with the Rune Axe of Grimnir are made at +2 Strength and can re-roll failed to-hit and to-wound rolls. Models wounded by the Rune Axe of Grimnir must re-roll successful Armour Saves.

The Models

As if to add insult to injury, for a time, Games Workshop tried releasing special novelty versions of Grombrindal's model. Each model had a limited run, with its mould being destroyed at the end of the year, and they charged exorbitant prices for them. It started with a free model for when he got released for issue #348, then a special anniversary-celebrating collector's edition depicting Grombrindal on a shield being toted by Gotrek Gurnisson and Josef Bugman (where do you think GW got the idea for it in the End Times, hmm?). Then came the wave of novelty versions, including a pirate version, an aviator, a vampire slayer, a movie director, and even a spacesuited Grombrindal.

In 2016, after 3 years from the last Grombrindal model, he came back in the Age of Sigmar... but no new model, it's just the plastic Dwarf Slayer Duardin Unforged painted in different colors and with different rules. Yay.

Making up for this in 2017 two kits were released: the first a diorama of the White Dwarf enjoying his 40th real world birthday wearing Power Armor and swigging from a flagon, surrounded by presents including a Bolter, while the Black Gobbo lurks from inside the cake. The second a Blood Bowl pack of him and the Black Gobbo which are useable in the game.

Gallery

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  The model with the special Shieldbearers.