Games Workshop dropped a pile of freebies on us players last week, which included the warscrolls and fighter cards for 13 returning warbands. These warbands have all been recently released in the previous edition of Underworlds, so if you’ve been keeping up with the game in the last year or so, there’s a chance you have some of these models kicking around. You’re in luck because combined with these new (free) rules, they’re fully ready to take into this new edition of the game.
I’m going to take a look at all of these new fighter cards and accompanying warscrolls, plus share my first take of a deck for at least one of the warbands in each of the grand alliances. These will be first draft decks since I haven’t had a chance to take all of them out for a spin yet, but can at least serve as a starting point. If you want to check out the other grand alliances in this release, you can find those articles here:
Chaos Warbands
Death Warbands
Destruction Warbands
Order Warbands
Order, like some of the other grand alliances, is a mixture of very recent releases as well as recent re-releases of much older warbands. We have weirdo humans, supercharged lightning humans, and moist elves with a squid. Let’s go!
These models were revealed and I remember how instantly divisive they were. It seems like people either loved them or hated them. As much as I am fond of Underworlds miniatures in general, I was much closer to the latter camp than the former – there’s something about the deranged cultist look that doesn’t quite do it for me here. I have seen a few takes on them that trim down some of the extra lightning rods and chains to give them more of a Mordheim Weirdo vibe and I thoroughly enjoy that look, so I know what I’ll wind up doing with mine when I eventually make it to them. Enough about the models though, let’s look at the warscroll for this Mastery warband!
Befitting a group of oddballs, this entire warband starts the game inspired. They won’t stay in that form long, though, because as soon as they make a successful attack, they will uninspire. They do have a method of re-inspiring fighters – simply have them be a conducting fighter.
A conducting fighter, if you are curious, is one which is used for the Holy Capacitors ability. This is a very specifically worded ability, but it functionally extends the reach of any of your fighters provided they can trace a route through hexes filled with other friendly fighters. It’s important to note that this is subtracting distance, not adding range. This could be relevant for any abilities that would boost melee attacks; they’ll still get the benefit even if they’re snaking out 3 or more hexes away.
Fulminating Hymn is a neat surge that triggers at the start of the combat phase. When you use it, you pick one of the three abilities listed within it and those apply to your entire warband for the full combat phase (as long as you have two or more fighters). Charged Aura prevents your fighters from being flanked, giving a very minor defensive boost. Reckless Abandon allows you to make charges but not give your fighters charge tokens as long as you ping them for 1 damage instead. This is an insane rule tempered by the fact that your warband is a little squishy and it’s hard to get two back-to-back inspired attacks off. Faithful Dynamos is the last, and it grants your fighters’ weapons stagger. I feel like Faithful Dynamos will be my default early on to use these nice inspired attacks and ensure followups can land; Reckless Abandon is a tool that I’m sure skilled players will exploit to great effect and I’ll mostly use to inadvertently kill my own fighters.
Crackling Burst is a once per game ability that simply lets you make a move during the power step. Straight to the point and incredibly useful. Any time you get to move outside of your normal turns, you’re gaining a chunk of action efficiency. It’s doubly important with this group where positioning your fighters can help extend your range and inspire them.
Heaven’s Charge is another ability you can use once per game. By uninspiring one of your fighters, you can deal 1 damage to an adjacent enemy fighter. Unlike many of the “deal 1 damage” effects out there, this one does not have the clause that it can’t be used on vulnerable fighters. Take note!
Finally, Coruscating Revival lets you heal a fighter that conducted for another fighter’s attack. This one might be tricky to take advantage with because most of your fighters are going to be threatened by getting one-shot, while the one that’s durable enough to take a few hits is also the only one with a long enough ranged attack to make convenient Holy Capacitors attacks. Again, this warband highly rewards positioning and planning ahead.
Everyone here is sporting a move speed of 3, which is what seems to be the “normal human” speed in the game. Nobody goes up to 2 save dice on defense – the only save upgrades at all are Yakob and Arcus who go from 1 dodge to 1 shield, meaning attackers are going to have pretty good odds of landing hits on these fighters. Health-wise, the two chumps just mentioned sit at 2 health, Galvic and Tazat are at 3, and Pater Filius himself (themself?) has a hefty 5.
Offensively, your inspired fighters hit pretty well. Pater Filius is a solid R1/H3/D2 or R3/H3/D1 profile – unfortunately, after firing off he’s going to uninspire down to 2 swords on both of those attacks which are substantially worse. Galvic sports the same melee profile as Pater Filius while inspired, but uninspiring isn’t as punishing since he drops down to 2 hammers – still a decent shot at landing a hit. Speaking of a R1/H2/D2 profile, that’s what Tazat has while inspired and drops to 1 damage after discharging. Yakob is probably the fighter I am most tempted to dangle up front as bait, because his inspired profile isn’t as good as the rest of the warband and his uninspired R1/S2/D1 is just sad. At least Arcus’s attacks have a range of 2 which will help with the Holy Capacitors shenanigans.
I am intrigued by this warband and can’t wait to see how people approach them. I think their complexity level is right at the top of what I can handle for a few games, but I’d probably blow a fuse if I were to try and pilot them during 4+ rounds of a clash. Hats off to anyone who does!
This warband will always hold a special place in my heart because Cephanyr’s reveal at NOVA 2023 is the entire reason I looked into this game. They’re such a cool model and I just wanted one. Well, now I have one and look where it got me.
Cyreni’s Razors returns as a Flex warband and retains much of their interesting mechanics and flavor while getting toned down in a few areas. There’s also a wee bit of ambiguity on one ability, but (as I’ve said a few times elsewhere) I’m hoping an FAQ or errata from Games Workshop will help clarify things.
This is yet another take on a tidal inspiration mechanic where your fighters flow in and out of inspiration over the course of the game. The first combat phase, you’ll pick one fighter to be inspired for your next 4 turns. In the second combat phase, you pick 2. In the third combat phase, you pick 3. This won’t stack up because at the start of each round, you have to reset and uninspire everyone. Choosing the correct fighter to inspire first will shape the rest of the game for you.
Hammertide, the bane of long-boards from first edition, returns. It’s a core ability in this edition and restrictions Cyreni from performing it if she has any charge tokens. As written, you “draw a straight line” in any direction from Cyreni to an enemy fighter. The enemy fighter takes a damage and is staggered. Unlike many other pings, this can finish off a vulnerable fighter. There’s been some discussion online about what exactly “draw a straight line” means. The closest definition in the rulebook talks about drawing line of sight between two fighters, and that doesn’t require you to go out in the 6 edge directions from a hex – any two hexes on the board can be “in a line” without being able to line up. Previously this used the now defunct scatter hex, so we’ll see how it gets ruled at Worlds and elsewhere. Can Cyreni just point at anything on the board and ping it (provided it isn’t hiding behind a blocked hex)? Or does she still have to line up her rail gun to move out in one of six directions from her hex?
Much less ambiguous are the remaining abilities on the card. Deadly Riposte keys off the two thralls, Alathyrr and Renglaith, and specifically when your opponent fails attacks into them. If this happens, you can have the attacked thrall gain cleave and ensnare as long as they’re returning the attack to the same enemy. In practice, I’ve noticed this is a little tricky to take advantage of. Often you’ll want to activate a different fighter, or your attacked thrall has already charged, so this ability goes to waste. Free accuracy is never a bad thing though, so it’ll be helpful to remember it exists while playing.
In a similar vein, Cephanyr can use Phantasmal Ink after an enemy fails an attack against them. When this happens, you can push Cephanyr a number of hexes equal to the battle round. This could help scooch him out of danger or into position to hug someone. Interestingly, the ability doesn’t say “up to a number of hexes…” so if you use this in battle round 2 or 3, you must push Cephanyr the full 2 or 3 hexes.
We’re closing out the warscroll with a real banger in Soul Harvest. Once per game, you can point at an inspired enemy fighter and tell your opponent to choose – does that fighter become uninspired, or do you get to draw 1/2/3 power cards depending on the battle round? I feel like it’s going to very rarely be the right call to let a Cyreni player draw that many cards, so I foresee this being mostly used to uninspire enemy fighters. Some warbands have obnoxious hoops to jump through to re-inspire that fighter, so you’ll gain good mileage out of this ability against them.
The Razors gained some health in the transition over to this new edition – every fighter has 4 health now. The save profiles aren’t great while uninspired, though. Cyreni has 1 block while the rest are on 1 dodge. Cephanyr manages to upgrade to 2 dodge while the two thralls bump up to 1 block once the tides choose them. The elves are all 4 move (with Cyreni inspiring to 5) while Cephanyr has really slowed down. 3 move, even with flying, is sluggish compared to previously; fortunately the radical squid gets a little faster at 4 movement when you flip the card.
Cyreni’s attack profile is the fairly standard leader profile of R1/H2/D2 or R2/H2/D1, both of which gain an extra attack dice when she’s inspired. Alathyrr also has the same uninspired profile but jumps up to a very respectable R2/H3/D2 with Brutal once inspired. Renglaith can’t quite match her, but R1/S3/D2 and R2/S3/D1 (both gaining one attack dice when inspired) isn’t terrible. Rounding out with Cephanyr, the only model with no reach, is a R1/S3/D2 attack that gains a dice and Grapple when inspired. Interestingly, Alathyrr is the only fighter in the warband worth 1 bounty while the rest of the fighters are at 2 despite Alathyrr sporting one of the strongest attack profiles.
I feel like of the four fighters, I’m going to want to inspire either Alathyrr for her attack profile or Cephanyr for the increased move speed and defensive profile in the first round. This certainly feels like a flexible warband that could go in many directions, but Cyreni feels like she’ll be doing a lot of the heavy lifting with Hammertide. The remainder of the warscroll is pretty lackluster and you’ll be using them primarily as a 4×4 stat ball. Not to knock this approach – it worked well in the past for other warbands, so now Cephanyr’s Razors can do it, too! This is my attempt at a fairly aggressive build with Cephanyr and the moist elves.
The Farstriders have been around for a while. Their big chonky Stormcast armor gives it away. They actually feel like a proto-Emberwatch in many ways when looking at their fighter cards, but their warscroll is fairly different. Let’s see how this Flex warband held up in the transition to second edition.
Their inspire condition returns almost word for word from how it was previously. You’re going to want to make multiple attacks with these guys during the course of a phase and you’ll want to use different weapon profiles to do so. This inherently raises the value of weapon upgrades or ploys that cause fighters to make attacks.
The first surge ability on their warscroll is a doozy, and not in a great way. Vanguard can be used after (a) an inspired (b) vulnerable friendly fighter (c) in enemy territory (d) uses a core ability. There are already so many conditions attached to this ability that I wonder how often it’ll trigger, but in case you get to that point you have two options. You can either uninspire that fighter and heal them (nice) bu then they can’t be healed or inspired for the rest of the battle round (why??) or you can pick an enemy fighter within 3 hexes and roll n attack dice where n is the round number. On any hammer or criticals, you deal a damage. That effect itself is quite nice, but good luck getting there.
Next up is Ranger Elite, a once per game surge that can be used after your action step. Push each fighter a number of hexes equal to the battle round; these pushes must end in enemy territory. Getting something between push 3 and push 9 (what an absurd number) is a tremendous assistance if you can make sure they land in enemy territory. This will naturally be easier if you already start there, so between their inspire condition, Vanguard, and Ranger Elite this warband is already heavily rewarded for invading.
If you’re ever not in enemy territory and really want to be, Forward the Vanguard! can help you there. Once per game you can do a move with a friendly fighter that’s neither adjacent to an enemy nor in enemy territory. It’s after your action step, so you can’t use it to immediately go into an attack with the fighter but it can help you set up for the following turns.
The final ability is Behind Enemy Lines, also a once per game surge that is used after your action step. You can give a damaged fighter in enemy territory a guard token. This isn’t going to do a ton for your fighters because they’re all on 1 block forever, but it’s free and can prevent drivebacks.
Farstrider and Co. seem to fit into the Stormcast template we’ve been exposed to. Each of them has 3 move, 5 health, and in this case 1 block. These values don’t change even after they inspire.
Offensively, Farstrider’s attacks barely change from uninspired to inspired – he starts with a R1/S2/D2 melee attack and a R3/H3/D1 ranged attack. Inspire changes that abysmal (and likely a typo) melee attack to 3 hammers, but that’s it. Eagle-Eye sports R1/H2/D2 with brutal for melee and R3/S3/D1 for ranged. Inspired, he gains an extra dice for melee and also sports grievous alongside brutal. Just remember you can only pick one of these when attacking, so make sure to declare which one you’re using before you roll. Finally, we have Swiftblade, the only Stormcast in this warband to bring a sword. And he must really like swords, because his uninspired profiles of R1/S3/D2 and R3/S3/D1 both jump up by one attack dice each with the melee profile picking up cleave as well. So you have Swiftblade being the accurate one, especially against shield save fighters; Eagle-Eye is the hardest hitting one; Farstrider has a bird!
My initial impression of these is that they’re Emberwatch but worse. I struggle to see any case in which you’d want to pick Farstriders when the Emberwatch can fill the same roles and have a stronger warscroll available to them. This could be my anti-order, anti-topknot bias speaking though!
Alright, let’s move on from three Flex Stormcast to… three Flex Stormcast! This time they are forsaking those suspiciously bolter looking hand crossbows for hammers. BIG hammers. So far these are the only Stormcast that have been released who possess zero ranged capabilities, so let’s see how they shape up.
The inspire condition on these three is highly unreliable – you’re just hoping to roll a critical on either an attack or save roll. Considering they’re all sitting at 1 block uninspired, you’re going to have a lot more luck doing it with attacks. As if you weren’t already valuing extra dice and rerolls highly, this gives even more reason to do so.
Emphasizing their flex nature, Bulwark Against the Dark gives these solid fighters a way to ignore drive back. However, it’s going to be tricky to take advantage of it. You’ll need to position yourself with pushes, or use it to take advantage of enemy fighters charging right into your reach – something they’re going to be hesitant to do given these melee profiles.
Ironsoul’s Condemnors have three once per game surge abilities. The first is Punishing Blow, which only affects Brodus and gives one attack with his weapon bonus attack dice equal to the battle round. There’s an inherent push-pull on wanting to hold this for the biggest effect vs using it to give Brodus a better chance at inspiring before he goes down.
Aetherically Charged Shield meanwhile affects the other two fighters. Being able to turn off weapon abilities initially felt like a niche trick, but I’ve seen it come up often enough in my few games of the new edition that I can tell it’s deceptively useful. Grievous floating around alone makes it a worthwhile trick to have.
Aetherically Charged Maul likewise involves Ironsoul and Tavian and allows them to make their hammers reach just a little bit further once per game. Going up to 2 range for a single attack in a game isn’t quite comparable to the other Stormcast with their crossbow pistols or throwing knives, but it’s better than nothing.
This should be familiar by now – we have three fighters, all with 5 wounds, 3 move, and 1 block. The two with shields inspire and get a little bit better at using them, moving up to 2 block each. That’s a genuinely solid defensive profile in this edition so they’re nothing to scoff at. It’s just going to take some luck to inspire in the first place.
Offensively, Ironsoul and Tavian share very similar profiles. They’re both R1/H3/D2 uninspired and keep the same profile when inspired, just adding runemarks. Ironsoul gets cleave, which is a solid accuracy boost against block fighters and Tavian gets stagger which serves double duty in allowing a reroll to fish for inspiration critical results. Brodus here thinks shields are for wimps and hefts his massive maul for a R1/H2/D2 attack with grievous while uninspired, and gains an additional attack dice when he inspires. These weapon profiles are all serviceable but I feel like the lack of range is going to hamper the warband compared to Emberwatch. They’re solid picks if you just want to Hulk Smash. I just don’t know if they can compare to the flexibility of other 3 model Stormcast warbands or the raw power of other bruiser warbands.
That’s it for the Order warbands from last week. Check out the coverage of the other grand alliances if you want to see what else was given free rules!
Chaos Warbands
Death Warbands
Destruction Warbands
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