Warhammer Underworlds is one of the best games Games Workshop has released to date, but the accompanying warbands haven’t always fared as well in Age of Sigmar. This week we’re checking out the new free warscrolls for the Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep warbands, Da Kunnin’ Krew and Xandire’s Truthseekers!
The warscrolls can be downloaded from Warhammer Community here.
To see how these warbands tie in to their broader armies, check out our Orruk Warclans review and the Stormcast Eternals review. Our analysis on using other Underworlds warbands in AoS can be found here.
Xandire’s Truthseekers – Stormcast Eternals
I started my last review on using Stormcast Underworlds warbands in AoS with “While we haven’t seen a Thunderstrike warband announced just yet, given Games Workshop’s predilection for new Stormcast warbands and the recently previewed Kruelboyz seemingly tying in to this new release, I’m holding my breath for a new Thunderstrike warband.” Welp, if I had, I’d be dead right now. The Thunderstrike keyword is nowhere to be seen. Despite the warband being sculpted in the new style, this is very much a ‘Firstborn’ style warband in rules. This is intriguing; are we going to see more Stormcast that look like Thunderstrike, but just lack the keyword? Could get a tad confusing on the table, but we’ll see how that goes.
Honestly, this is a pretty beefy little warband. Only three models, but for that you’re getting 5 damage 1 attacks and 11 damage 2 attacks, including the bow. The bow in particular is worth calling out, with 3 attacks, 2+ to hit, 3+ to wound, rend -2 and 2 damage. That is a tasty profile, and 6s to hit cause 2 mortal wounds and the attack sequence ends. With 24” range and smaller boards, you’re going to be able to start really worrying some of the weaker heroes flying around. It’s eminently possible to take out a 5 wound caster in a single volley here. If someone takes a go at them, they’re likely to hold up decently well themselves. On a 3+ a charging unit suffers D3 mortal wounds, or 3 if it’s a monster, and each member of the warband has 5 wounds and a 3+ save. Both Steelheart’s Champions and the Farstriders were only 2 wounds per model, and Stormsire’s Cursebreakers were 3 wounds, with Stormsire at 5 wounds. With all 3 models having 5 wounds this is a significant jump up in resilience.
Xandire carries the Lantern Astrala, granting +1 to hit to an enemy unit within 9”. I can see this useful for a nasty bonus to harder hitting units like dragons and Draconith. Once again, the warband is locked to Hammers of Sigmar and their 6+ ward within 12” of an objective, and given your punch you’re going to be putting these right up to the middle objective as soon as possible, perhaps alongside a tasty unit of Vindictors.
So, once more we come to the rub of it: Steelheart’s Champions and the Farstriders are 90 points, and the Cursebreakers are 230. I praised the Champions for their flexibility for cost, and criticised the Cursebreakers for their high price, so how do the Truthseekers fare? Welp, let’s put it this way: for only 10 points less you can have a freaking dragon. 265 points is absolutely just not worth it in today’s competitive world.
Verdict
This is a good warscroll! It really is! It’s just… Yes, sure, you’re basically getting three Knight Questor for a fair discount, but we can’t look at this scroll in isolation, and if you have a spare 265 points you have a lot better places in this book to spend them on. Throwing down against your buddies however? Go for it. Little nuclear bomb you’ve got here.
Da Kunnin’ Krew – Orruk Warclans
We didn’t get a Thunderstrike warband, but we did get a Kruelboyz one. Once more their curse of being allergic to the letter ‘C’ shows itself.
While Xandire’s Truthseekers were a single unit of three models, here we have a single hero (Mannok da Kunnin’) and his four greenskin buddies. I’m going to immediately call out Gikkit and Shank for being 2 wound grots and thus infinitely more badass than any Stormcast could hope to be.
Mannok is… really interesting. He has poison attacks on a 5+ rather than a 6, so he can cap out at 12 morand is accompanied by a friend. The bird has 3d6” movement, which makes it a better friend than the Stormcast aetherwing, who is treated as a single model with Xandire. If you love something, let it go peck people’s eyes out, y’know? Mannok can palm off wounds to Da Kunnin’ Krew, but most interestingly on a 5+ you get an extra Dirty Trick. I’m not entirely sold on the unreliability of this rule, but when it works it’ll be real neat.
Da Kunnin’ Krew has about 13 attacks split over five profiles, which is again a sign that these are written by very different people, as were the battletomes. Your best profile here is 4 attacks 3+ to hit, 4+ to wound, rend -1, 1 damage, which isn’t… inspiring, but what’s neat here is that at the end of the combat phase (if you survive with 2 wounds and a 5+ save per model) you can pick an enemy model within 2” and roll a d6, adding +1 each if Torka and Shank are still alive. If you roll at least double that model’s wound characteristic, it is slain. This means you can snipe out that banner bearer in a daemon unit bringing them back, or (heaven forbid) a Hekatos in an Ossiarch unit allowing them to use command abilities. Best case scenario, you’ve just broken unit cohesion and wiped out a dozen dudes!
As for points… Well, on the one hand you’re only 170 points down for two units, one of which (Mannok) can hide at the back contesting an objective after fulfilling his purpose in life of a free Dirty Trick, but on the other hand… Actually, that’s a pretty decent cost. Sure, you could get 10 Savage Orruks, but the utility this unit offers is probably a bit more valuable, and a LOT more fun!
Verdict
Powerful? No. Interesting? Absolutely. The potential for an extra Dirty Trick and the chance to break unit coherency and snipe key models are nothing to sniff at, and all wrapped up in a relatively affordable bundle!
Final thoughts
Points aside, I’m a big fan of both these warscrolls. Xandire’s Truthseekers are a real punch, and Da Kunnin’ Krew have a couple of real nifty ideas to try out. Pick up Harrowdeep and get both one of the best games Games Workshop has written yet, and a couple of real nifty units to beef out your Dominion box! Once again, you’re unlikely to see these in hyper optimised lists, but they’re absolutely a great idea to try out against your friends, and really, isn’t ‘fun’ the real aim here?
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