Warhammer TV Presenter Nick loves Warhammer Underworlds so much that he sees the world in hexes, spending his nights wide awake, imagining dastardly decks. With Knives of the Crone out for pre-order this week, we asked him his thoughts on how the blood-soaked devotees of Morai-Heg might play on the tabletop…
Nick: There’s a lot to be said for aggressive warbands in Warhammer Underworlds. The theory is simple: you position, you push, you teleport your model where the enemy isn’t expecting them, you bring out those Surge ploys for +2 attack dice and a runemark of your choice… and you put your fate into the hands of the Dice Gods. It doesn’t always work, but by Sigmar, when it does...
This is the tale of a warband so devoted to the viscera of murder and the spectacle of slaughter that they can manipulate these fickle gods of fate to ensure maximum carnage. They are the Knives of the Crone, fanatical believers in the prophetic goddess Morai-Heg.
They’re classed as a Mastery warband, but you could almost certainly think of them as a Strike warband too. In fact, I’m willing to say they are a true Mastery-Strike warband. But what makes them so good? And if they are classed as Mastery, aren’t they difficult to play? Let’s take a closer look and see what they are all about…
The fighter cards
The Knives of the Crone are four fighters strong, which leans towards the elite side, at least numbers-wise. They all share a Movement of 4 and dodge on defence, mirroring other fast, agile warbands. Interestingly, their Bounty is relatively equally split, with three fighters giving away two and the last giving away one. So there is no fighter you want to hold back with in case they die and give away loads of glory.* Most attacks hit on hammers, which makes them Thundrik-level reliable too.
Their leader, the seer Kaena Vix, has a good profile: a two-dodge defence, and a reliable two-hammer, two-damage attack which goes to three hammers when Inspired. Interestingly, she has no runemarks on her attack profile – and nor do any of the other fighters – but more on that later. Krieta, Wing of the Crone has a more wild attack profile with four swords and only one damage, but she gains the Flying Runemark , an extra defence dice and an extra damage when Inspired, so she’s the one you want to get inspired as soon as possible.
Tazari is another strong contender for early Inspiration as his defence increases to two dodge, his attack profiles merge into a single more reliable one, and he gains the Flying Runemark. Meanwhile, the arbalist Azphel is a standard archer until she Inspires, and then she becomes one of the most accurate archers in the game with three range and three hammers. She might not kill too many of the enemy but she’s perfect for plinking them off objectives.
The warscroll card
The warscroll card for this warband revolves around the Rituals of Prophecy, a glorious rules mechanic which will cause the ruination of your foes – if you can master it.
At the start of the first Action step of every Battle Round – and after any successful attack – roll four attack dice and gain an ability based on the symbols you roll. Foretold Slaughter is nice – who doesn’t like extra Critical Grievous? And Foretold Protection is good too -- your warband is not too well protected, so free re-rolls are splendid, especially once your fighters are inspired and have two dice.
Foretold Wisdom is the real winner of the bunch for me. It Inspires the fighter that caused the roll (assuming it’s after an attack) and you gain some crucial draw, manipulating your objective deck in a way no other warband can. This is the key to the warband – it allows you to build your deck knowing that you can take those risky cards you’d otherwise be nervous about.
Annihilation? In it goes. Strong Start? Yep. Denial? Why not? You might even find yourself building objective decks with 14 or 15 cards… You’ll be able to build your objective deck as you go through the game simply by making successful attacks and rolling two or more hammers or crits on four dice.**
Watch out for…
To really score big, you’ll need to be bursting into combat – but that will mean you risk leaving yourself vulnerable to attack. Watch out for the following:
Any form of Ensnare on any enemy fighter’s attacks. Kill that fighter fast.
Damage 4 attacks or Damage 3 attacks with Grievous.
Charging in too early. Don’t let your fighters be jumped on by multiple attacks from the enemy.
Pillage and Plunder: your enemies will get to treasure tokens and turn them into cover fast. Either get to the treasure tokens first, or kill them before they get there.
Rivals
The new Realmstone Raiders deck is great for this warband, but it has a high skill ceiling. Perhaps you want the purity of all-out destruction from the Blazing Assault deck, or the Reckless Fury deck with its ability to swap Charge tokens around between fighters to insure your Inspired fighters are doing all the work.
Nemesis
Nemesis is really where this warband comes into its own. I would look at pairing Blazing Assault with Realmstone Raiders, combining ultimate card-drawing power with raw aggression. The Raid ability on the plot card of the Realmstone Raiders lets you cycle your deck even faster and get to those crucial cards you need to land that attack.
This deck is chock-full of pushes, ruthless attack buffs and draw-tech to make sure your fighters are in the thick of the action all the time, with the right cards in your hand to deal maximum damage. Good luck!
Thanks Nick -- this warband really is at the cutting edge of aggressive play! (sigh) Pre-Order the Knives of the Crone this weekend, and don’t forget to pick up the Realmstone Raiders Rivals deck too!
* Zikkit, I’m looking at you…
** That’s a 68% chance of success.
